Mr Roboto by Styx

"Mr. Roboto" is a song written by Dennis DeYoung of the band Styx, and was featured on the band’s 11th album, Kilroy Was Here, which also became a rock opera. The song hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1983 and reached #1 in Canada.

The band’s ambitious song and concept album dug into themes like censorship and the dehumanization of the working class. The band also thumbed their noses at anti-rock activists’ attempts to prohibit backmasking, which some thought contained hidden messages. 

If you’ve ever wondered who Mr. Roboto was, or Kilroy for that matter, then this episode is for you!

Chapters

• 0:00 Chit Chat & Recommendations
• 22:56 Introducing the Song
• 50:42 The Verdict
• 58:24 The Mixtape
• 1:05:59 Rate, review, subscribe!

Transcript

Mr Roboto 
===

[00:00:00] Margaret: that 

[00:00:21] Elizabeth: if you're just 

joining us, Margaret and I are discussing how weird other people 

are at, because they make other 

decisions than the ones that we would make.

What is up

[00:00:35] Margaret: in other news? Lots of people suck. 

My God, This just in! And I was saying. Why can't they be like, we are Anne. Margaret asked me if that was a song I'm just catching you up people. And I'm only, I don't know what musical it's from, but it's why can't they be like, we were perfect in every way. What's the matter with kids 

to day.

Why don't I know what I don't know because 

[00:01:02] Elizabeth: you're my musical person. 

[00:01:03] Margaret: Bye. Bye. Birdie? I don't even know 

[00:01:06] Elizabeth: if you said it. I only know to the 

[00:01:08] Margaret: line, . 

Let's consult.

Google. .

It's, Bye Bye Birdie. 

[00:01:13] Elizabeth: So you were right. 

[00:01:14] Margaret: What's the matter with kids today. 

[00:01:16] Elizabeth: So I believe I saw a high school production of bye bye birdie. When I was in high school. Does that ring a bell to you? 

[00:01:23] Margaret: Yes, because all the public high schools performed that we couldn't afford it. So we did shit. Like we couldn't afford Thornton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth

[00:01:35] Elizabeth: you 

mean we couldn't afford the intellectual 

rights to it? 

[00:01:37] Margaret: Correct. Yeah. We couldn't afford the licensing. I remember sister Eileen telling like, 

I was like, why can't we do cats or something? And she was like, I can't afford that those rights cost a million dollars or whatever. 

Did you say 

cats like in a fake British accent because you're a theater kid?

I did, and she didn't, she didn't look down on me at all for that, because she was also a theater kid and totally, you probably learned the pronunciation from her. She's like the Queens pronounces it cats. And so that's how we will say it. And that was it. Yes. Yes. I'm sure you'll appreciate it.

There are dogs, and there are cats. uh, West Geauga high school did bye bye birdie while we were in high school. So 

[00:02:22] Elizabeth: I think that there was the star of it was the person who legend had. It was the illegitimate child of a member of the rock band, three dog night. 

[00:02:34] Margaret: What? 

[00:02:34] Elizabeth: Does any of this ring a bell? 

[00:02:36] Margaret: No! Wait: one of the members of three dog night.

[00:02:41] Elizabeth: Was rumored to have fathered...

[00:02:43] Margaret: ...a child who went to west Geauga high school? 

[00:02:47] Elizabeth: That was the rumor 

[00:02:48] Margaret: in Geauga County, Ohio? 

[00:02:50] Elizabeth: In Geauga County Ohio 

Three Dog Night toured 

[00:02:53] Margaret: okay. I suppose that makes sense. Some sense. And like the geogra county fair in the seventies or what? 

[00:03:02] Elizabeth: I don't know if it was at a fair or a festival 

The Agora ballroom or something like that.

I don't know where three dog night was playing in, let's say 1971, but that would have been, that was the rumor. I don't know if it was ever confirmed or denied. Wow. 

I never heard that. Rumor. That's 

juicy. It's so juicy. And I danced with him. I want to say his first name was Justin or something. Cause you dated or you hung out with some people.

I don't really remember who was friends with who and who dated, who, or anything like that. But I do remember. At some formal dance. He was somebody date and everybody was dancing with everybody. And I danced with him and I was like, am I dancing with three dog night? Mama told me not to come.

Wait, was this one of their dances or one of ours? 

God, I w I think it was one of ours because I only think that I don't think I went to any west G dances and my memory and. Probably the prom after I moved away. And you went with my ex-boyfriend, who had gone to that public high school and it was a big group situation.

So he wanted to race, he wanted to bring somebody of yours, but it being a Catholic school, everybody had to date. Yes. 

Yes. Yes. Except I don't think that guy who had been your boyfriend was friends with this guy. That's the only thing that I'm, they had a whole different, like aesthetic like a whole different scene.

But yeah, so I it's just too distant of memory. I'm afraid. 

[00:04:47] Margaret: What 

was Justin's aesthetic 

[00:04:50] Elizabeth: lay? First of all, he was the star of bye bye birdie. So he was like theater kid and he had like a floppy lock of hair in his eyes and he was as gay as you could be and still be. Like very straight.

[00:05:09] Margaret: Okay. Oh, kids back in the day when yeah, theater. Yeah. Cause he was like theater dude, but, and so he was but he was into ladies for 100% sure. But he was like very much theater kid also. 

Yeah. Artsy. He sounds like my type. I'm sad to not have bet him. I can't 

[00:05:34] Elizabeth: believe you can't remember this.

Yeah. He was real tall and thin. He looked like oh God, I think you even could say he looked maybe like river Phoenix a little bit. I know who you're talking about now. He was saying the flag Corps there. Okay. Yeah. I know exactly who you mean. I have not thought of this person in a couple of decades.

[00:05:54] Margaret: Me either until you said, bye bye birdie. Yes. I know who he is. Yeah. 

[00:05:59] Elizabeth: And I never heard him sing like I always want wished that 

[00:06:03] Margaret: she had gone to see him. And bye bye birdie. Oh, 

[00:06:06] Elizabeth: except I did hear him. Did I see him in bye bye birdie. There. I feel like that was like a gap in my little ideas for whether or not he was the child of a member of three dog night was.

Discerning if he had musical ability, but of course has appearance. And bye bye birdie confirmed that he had musical 

ability. 

[00:06:25] Margaret (2): Yep.

[00:06:26] Elizabeth: You reminded me, someone on Twitter recently posted a little scene. That was from the very first episode of Doogie Howser MD. Did you 

[00:06:34] Margaret: watch that? 

Yes, I did. 

[00:06:36] Elizabeth: Okay. 

I don't think I did. .

Or if I saw it, it was by accident, so Doogie Howser is a teenager, correct? 

I E 

a child below the age of consent. 

[00:06:49] Margaret: Yes. 

[00:06:50] Elizabeth: And in the first episode, he is seduced by a woman above the age of consent who works at the hospital. And. They 

are like making out 

[00:07:03] Margaret: his place of employment. 

[00:07:04] Elizabeth: Because his place is wonderful. He's a doctor and he's just in a high school age, but he's like super smart. And yes, but they're 

getting hot and heavy and she pulls his pants down. Oh no. 

And 

then the lights come on and all these people are watching and they yell, surprise, happy 

[00:07:24] Margaret: birthday. Oh no. And he's like turning 16 or something.

[00:07:29] Elizabeth: Oh no. And that's the first episode. Oh, no. So kids, if you've ever heard of Neil Patrick Harris, this was his starring role. This is what made him famous. And he was just a kid. He was like 13 when he was in this show. That's horrible. It's so horrifying. 

But it was like, obviously being played to be like charming and funny and show like he's one of the 

[00:07:56] Margaret: Ang at the hospital.

I don't world fish. Yes. Kind of sexual problems. Will he run into it was shocking. 

[00:08:06] Elizabeth: And I love Neil Patrick Harris. I love is a lemony Snicket 

[00:08:14] Margaret: appearance. 

[00:08:14] Elizabeth: Anyway, he's gone on. Luckily he doesn't. He seems to be doing all right for himself, 

[00:08:19] Margaret: but happily married kids has a whole wing of his house.

That's for magic or something. Yeah, totally. But that Doogie Howser, if he was a real 

[00:08:28] Elizabeth: person might not have fared so well under such traumatic 

[00:08:32] Margaret: circumstances. That's awful. It's shocking. So that was on Twitter. You saw that on Twitter. Yeah. Someone posted the clip.

[00:08:39] Elizabeth: I think it was 

to demonstrate like the differences between then and now, which is our point of our 

[00:08:44] Margaret: little podcast here. Yeah. I'm proud of the way that we've all evolved as humans. I feel like there's some hope for us. Like we still have a ways to go, but if we can become awakened to some of these problems that we've all been.

No big deal raping kids. Yeah. Like that, for example, where I just read about people. I just read a little thing on, Courtney Stoddard, who, I dunno if you remember this name, but That they should prefer the pronoun. They got married when they were 16 to an actor named David, somebody or other.

And he was like in his fifties and they were 16 and blonde buxom knockout, blonde w all the male fantasy of what the perfect woman might be. When was this? This is starting to bring about, was that like it was 10 years ago that they, yeah, that just recently they did an interview with, I don't know what your news outlet and they were calling out Chrissy Tiegen for, doing some online, some cyber bullying Courtney and the husband had a short-lived reality show about their, I, this 

[00:10:10] Elizabeth: is ringing a bell. Yes. I think I was an avid reader of celebrity gossip when this was happening.

So I 

[00:10:17] Margaret: remember this, and this is back in the day when like Perez Hilton was in some of those blogs, not some blogs where de rigeur and actually Perez Hilton is one of the few people who has apologized kind of shitting all over this relationship. And anyway, what Courtney started was saying was like, I was definitely being abused and I wasn't.

Okay. And instead of trying to help me, everybody just crapped all over me. 

[00:10:47] Elizabeth: I think it started in Courtney started. 

[00:10:49] Margaret: Did I say Stoddard? Yeah. Yeah. Stotten thank you anyway. It is interesting that we all have a different lens on this kind of stuff. That's also the point of free Brittany and all the Brittany Spears stuff.

[00:11:02] Elizabeth: Yes. That everyone was just like ogling while she shaved her head. And her whole family drama played out, but she was in great need of help. 

[00:11:14] Margaret: have you seen the Hulu documentary by Solei moon Frye called kid 90? No, it's very interesting. She does a nice job with this.

It's essentially a documentary about her life and growing up in young Hollywood and the eighties, and

[00:11:31] Elizabeth: this is punky Brewster, right?

[00:11:33] Margaret: Yeah. Punky Brewster and into the nineties. And she knows so many people who passed away. And like it certainly was a childhood that was fraught and she had her own troubles, but luckily had a very loving mother and a very loving, supportive brother and a dad who was in her life, but perhaps not as much as she would've liked.

Anyway, so she was famously among her friends, a Virgin until late ish in her. Maybe she was like 20, 19 or 20, that's late-ish for some people. This woman saved everything.

She videotaped everything. She saved every cassette tape of a voicemail than anyone left her. She has tons of footage and she suggests in the course of this, that she lost her virginity to Charlie sheen. And she does not name him, but she plays some of the voicemails that she, that he left her and she sort of recasts.

The narrative as a, I told myself what he was telling me, which was that it was consensual, but as I look back on it and read my journals, I can see that it was definitely not. And and she said it perhaps, it's just the age that I am now, or there's this idea of that it's where we are now as a society that we're able to understand these things and look back with clearer lenses and realize that these things were problems.

It's a very interesting documentary to watch from her point of view. 

[00:13:11] Elizabeth: Yeah. I you had me at Soleil Moon Frye. so I'll probably 

watch it. And she's so darling and sweet. And so obviously beloved by her friends and even I'll still to this day. Yeah. What seems like it. And she grew up with a lot of people who are a big deal today still.

So Leonardo DiCaprio he helped produce the documentary. And then also Brian Austin Green, who was on who played David on 9 0 2 1. Oh. And like these kids, they went to high school together because they were kid actors in Hollywood in the late eighties and early nineties.

And so it's really interesting to see their friendships and the people that they hung out with and what they did for fun. And in some ways it's very much like our childhood and in some ways really different. Because I was not finding myself alone in rooms with Charlie sheen pink. Yeah, no kidding.

Wasn't he rumored also to be the potential molester of Corey Haim. Yeah, actually we talked about that in like our very first episode, but I think I'd include it. Yeah, that was Corey Feldman's big documentary. He named names and that was who Corey ham had alleged had had molested him on the set of Lucas.

[00:14:34] Margaret: Anyway, I none of this is it's all allegations at this point, but it does make you wonder with this troubled as Charlie sheen has been the life. Who hurt him. What happened to him to create this kind of an individual by all accounts, his parents seem pretty nice beloved Martin sheen as this he's Jed Bartlett and and his 

[00:15:01] Elizabeth: brothers doesn't seem to have the same issues either.

[00:15:04] Margaret: But I suppose growing up in Hollywood who knows what kind of predators are around and sure. Anyway all this took a dark turn from, bye bye birdie. Yeah. And I want to 

[00:15:15] Elizabeth: hear what song, but you reminded me of what, just because that's a theme of our conversations as documentaries that we've seen, I think and I wondered if you had seen the Q 

[00:15:25] Margaret: HBO documentary yet?

No, I haven't. Oh yeah. I haven't even ever heard of it. Yeah. Gosh. What, go 

[00:15:32] Elizabeth: ahead and watch it. It 

reveals who Q is which I kind of already knew. Cause it's not like it's some kind of secret. But it also gives the whole 

[00:15:42] Margaret: history. And it's just like the owner moderator of what ended up 

[00:15:47] Elizabeth: being called eight Coon.

I believe like it went through variations to Chan four Chan eight Chan, and then ultimately I believe eight Kuhn and it gives, so somehow this journalist had access to these dudes. It's a man and his son has adult son. And for some reason, this journalist had access to them over the course of a few years.

I don't know what the journalist is, ostensibly. It was covering from the beginning because it was, I believe they were filming before Q even emerged actually. But God you know, 

like it's such an interesting phenomenon and I think maybe in some later episode, and I think in past episodes, we will maybe talk about various kind of moral panics in the eighties because the Q Anon conspiracy definitely has a lot in common with some of those past moral panics, but.

Also, I felt like it was such a demonstration of not the kind of plotted conspiracy that people like to think exists, including of course, Q and on people themselves. but also people who are like against Q1 on think it's somebody like deliberately managing things, but really it's just this like loser with a sex addiction problem who has this unprecedented media power and access to like many eyeballs that are susceptible to not even half-truths but lies. And he gets off on his own power and it doesn't even matter like what the content is to him. It's not like he's invested in some like particular set of politics or anything like that. He just gets off on toying with people. And it's just so 

[00:17:43] Margaret: you know, like dropping crap out there to see what people will believe.

Yeah. 

[00:17:48] Elizabeth: It's just such a like evidence of like human. Garbage like the garbage that humanity is capable of. And it's not garbage because it's like intended or direct or any, it's just garbage. Cause it's just like rolling downhill to the like base lowest basis, common denominator of human nature. And that you don't even have to five episodes or something. Does Q stand for something. They go into some of that and I can't remember.

Okay. I can't remember how it ended up getting its name but they go into the whole not only media history of all the different boards and like how this is like physically and technologically possible. And try for anything it's really gross, but it's worth seeing it's very well done.

[00:18:39] Margaret: So if you want to feel gross launch this documentary and it's what it's called, what 

[00:18:46] Elizabeth: I want to say, it's called cue into the storm it's on HBO and I think there's like five episodes or something. 

[00:18:54] Margaret: Does "Q" stand for something? 

[00:18:56] Elizabeth: Uh, 

they go into some of that and I can't remember.

I can't remember 

how, 

how it ended up getting its name, 

but, 

but they go into the whole, 

like, 

not only media history of all the different boards and like how this is like physically and technologically possible. And 

like 

what was behind all that, but also like cultural issues, like Gamergate and like tea party stuff, like all this, 

you know, they, 

they have a long lens for 

like 

[00:19:22] Margaret: what gave it all momentum.

Yeah. . 

, well, you know, 

One thing I bet they would be talking about in that group is this new story about Elon Musk's company putting a chip into a monkey's brain. Have you seen that? I don't 

[00:19:40] Elizabeth: think so, but this has, this is different than his math equation, baby. 

[00:19:45] Margaret: Yeah. It's okay.

An actual company. He started. And they took actually I shouldn't, I don't know. I know there are like purists out there who would say it wasn't a monkey. It was an ape. I don't remember what kind of primate it was tail versus 

[00:20:00] Elizabeth: not tail. 

[00:20:01] Margaret: Oh, I never heard that easy Rebecca before. You'll 

[00:20:06] Elizabeth: never make a monkey out of me.

That's the Dr. Zayas planet of the apes musical from the Simpsons.

[00:20:15] Margaret: That's the big closing number that right there is the influence of Dana Gould. I can just I think I had him, I think I had a tail, so I think it was a monkey. But they implanted a chip into this monkey's brain and then taught him how to play pong a video game. And then they figured out how to decode the signals happening in its brain to make the monkey be able to play pong just with its mind.

They took the joystick away and then the monkeys, like watching the ball, going back and forth. And it's like thinking about the paddle going up to meet the ball. And then whenever he does it right, they deliver a little like, banana smoothie through a metal banana. And so that's how it gets rewarded.

The idea was like, someday we'll be able to put these chips into the brains of paraplegic so that they will be able to Live better lives or whatever. But I tell ya, if you go and find this video kind of terrifying. And I will also say that I've been a little bit into Russell brand lately.

I follow him on some social media. Do you know who Russell brand is? Do I, yeah we'll just pin that for a second. Okay. I've watched him deliver a video and in reaction to watching this video and his, he had a very good point, which is, but do we know that it's all for good? Are you, did you go down this path of figuring all of this out with ed, tremendous investment with the intent of helping people?

Or is it something a little bit more I'm serving and it is, it's fascinating to watch, but also deeply chilling. I'd be hard pressed to find a person who wasn't somehow chilled by watching it. What you're 

[00:22:15] Elizabeth: watching is the. Playing 

[00:22:17] Margaret: this video game with his 

[00:22:18] Elizabeth: mind 

[00:22:21] Margaret: and then deliver getting any feeding his banana smoothie and known as smooth as Russell brand said through, through this stainless steel straw, because you don't want to use a real plastic straw and hurt a turtle or whatever.

So you're definitely looking out for the earth by using a metal straw with your brain manipulation, this monkey. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, some amount of time after I watched this video. I heard the song, Mr. Roboto by sticks. Oh yeah. 

[00:22:58] Elizabeth: Oh, are we going to talk 

[00:22:59] Margaret: about that today? And there's the segue for today's song.

Let's listen a little bit to part of the song.





[00:23:28] Margaret: I don't know when the last time you heard the song was, if you obviously you probably, you just listened to it now, but had you heard it in awhile? 

. Do you have any memories of when it came out in 1983? No. I 

[00:23:44] Elizabeth: have two anecdotes related to the song, but both are from contemporary times.

[00:23:51] Margaret: Oh, got it. I remember being so into the song in 1983. Whoa. What 

[00:23:57] Elizabeth: are you into robots or Japan or what 

[00:24:00] Margaret: Styx? 

All of the above. 

[00:24:02] Elizabeth: Yeah. All of the songs did Styx have, can you just, 

[00:24:05] Margaret: oh my God, let me just rattle some off. Yeah. Okay. Babe, which is one of my top 10 favorite songs. And let's see, don't let it end and Renegade and oh God, this is like an episode of Billy on the street "Name five songs by Styx!"

Is that enough for you or do I need to. I The Best of Times? The headlines read these are the worst of times. Oh yeah. I remember that. Yep. 

But the other ones, I don't have an association. I think I would need you to sing from beginning to end each and every one of 

them. No, you wouldn't. I don't think any of them leaving.

Oh yeah. I remember that. My weight. How about gum? Yeah 

[00:24:53] Elizabeth: I mean, 

[00:24:54] Margaret: oh, sticks. Sticks. Okay. Yes. You know, The band named after the river in Hell. 

[00:25:03] Elizabeth: Now I'm with you. And Mr. Roboto, which is one of their biggest hits. That song, which went to number three in America, number one in Canada in 1983 was on their 11th album.

Wow. I'm like, okay. I would have never guessed that they had that many albums. That's where I entered the picture. I think with Styx was Mr. Roboto like little, did you know 

that they were, oh had they had hits before that? 

Yeah. Yeah. They were a big like prog rock band in that, in the seventies and stuff like that.

Yes. Very much in the same camp as your Yes kind of bands and fun fact, because we always have to have some connection with me and a famous person. Yeah. My. My sister's, mother-in-law went to high school with Dennis DeYoung,, who is the lead singer of Styx and that is Mr. Robot. 

Super fun. It is very fun.

Can I tell you my fun fact? 

[00:26:08] Margaret: My, yeah. Tell me your Mr. Roboto song. The, I 

[00:26:13] Elizabeth: guess I said contemporary times, but it's more like the nineties. I lived in Chicago for a very short period of time and I waited tables at a couple of different places. And that's 

[00:26:23] Margaret: that 

[00:26:23] Elizabeth: experience constitutes like the most celebrity all of my celebrity experience.

Cause I saw a lot of them during that time period. And at one restaurant, Dennis DeYoung, what I want to say, he was a regular I fresh, I remember the one time he was in, but I think he came like pretty regularly and he was a good tipper. And what can you say to Dennis D. Young when he does something nice for you?

[00:26:49] Margaret: Thank you. And what language would you say that you would say

You would say Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto! Did you say that to him?,

[00:26:57] Elizabeth: No but I think we dared each other 

to, I don't know if like my friends did you know, or 

like go up and be like, danka schoen! You know, like 

say thank you. And like every other 

language, 

[00:27:10] Margaret: I would have tipped you if you had said Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto to Dennis Deyoung 

[00:27:14] Elizabeth: The consensus was that maybe he didn't want to hear it. 

[00:27:17] Margaret: Why not? Do you think he hears it a lot?

I know I'm sure it's like one of those things that you see a famous person, you want to shout out the like catchphrase or whatever, but you're probably like, I know you probably hear this a lot, but I just have to say it. And they're like, yeah. Yeah. It's like your big, yes. I just heard it 13 times walking here.

[00:27:39] Elizabeth: Exactly. 

[00:27:40] Margaret: That's the price of fame, Dennis. So get over yourself. 

[00:27:43] Elizabeth: We never tested it and 

maybe he, as in my memory and maybe he would have been happy 

to indulge, but I think we just couldn't get up the guts. And yet I will tell you this, he got kicked out of the band sticks. So maybe he is Snickety fellow.

And maybe we would have heard his feelings by 

[00:28:01] Margaret: saying it maybe. Yeah. Oh, you're so thoughtful. Domo RA became. Of popular catchphrase when this song came out, apparently it wasn't before apparently no one in America knew how to say thank you very much in Japanese, but as we've talked about before the eighties, there was this USA versus Japan kind of thing happening, because of larger socio-political things going on.

And automobile manufacturing probably had a lot to do with it. But if you listen to this song it is the weirdest. You're like, what the heck is this about? Other than I definitely take that you are not liking the fact that everything's being taken over by robots, picking up on that loud and clear.

That's definitely coming through. And so that's what made me think of. The primate with the brain chip, but would it make more sense to you this song? If I told you it was from a rock opera, 

[00:29:08] Elizabeth: This is really just like the one night in Bangkok 

was like a musical, 

[00:29:13] Margaret: which I did not know when I picked this.

Wow. But apparently that's what I'm drawn to theater Maven. Yeah. So that's why it's so weird. 

Why did you like it so much when you were a kid? Where did you have a fluff? First of all, did you pick it? Because we are in the midst of Asian-American Pacific Islander history awareness 

month and heritage month.

I did not pick it for that reason. I picked it for this whole banana smoothie through the metal straw tie-in but also because, and this theme of the robots are taking over and how far will it go until it's? We are the idea of planet of the apes until humanity is lost and something else takes over.

And 

were you into that as a 10 year old girl in suburban Cleveland, 

Ohio? I'll tell you what I liked about it. I liked the mystery. And it's the mystery. I don't even know what this song is about of who Mr. Roboto is. Got it. Number at the end of the song, big reveal. Which is I'm Kilroy! 

Oh yeah. Kill. 

And you're waiting and waiting. It's like the song is saying, you're wondering who I am. Yes. I've got a secret and it's a building and building and you're like, who are you? What's the answer to the secret? Reveal it to me. Yeah. And then at the end, it's I'm Kilroy. And you're like, oh, who's Kilroy

Who's Kilroy?

Wait. 

[00:30:56] Elizabeth: Yes. Okay. Okay. And so that, it's your puzzle seeking ten-year-old mind. That was very compelling. I could see that. Yes, but you're also making me remember that the word Kilroy featuring in a lot of graffiti well, of 

that era, 

[00:31:13] Margaret: Elizabeth. Yes. 

[00:31:15] Elizabeth: W T F 

[00:31:16] Margaret: well, I will tell you, because I have found the answers to your questions that you had.

Yeah. But the song is on, based on this rock opera and the rock opera was called Kilroy was here. Huh. And the song is performed by Kilroy, which is Dennis Deyoung plays in him the show show and he's. I will tell you who Kilroy really is. And the graffiti thing in a minute. Let me tell you the plot. Yeah, he's a rock and roll performer.

Who's placed in a futuristic prison for rock and roll misfits by the anti rock and roll group. that was called the majority for musical morality. 

Whoa. 

Yes. And the guy who ran the MMM was played by the guitarist from sticks, James Young.

and at the very end, when Tommy Shaw, who's the guitarist for Styx. meets Kilroy at the end, Kilroy on masks and yells I'm Kilroy So that's like the reveal in the sh in the rock opera. Yeah. But when you take a song out of a musical and make it a single, it like makes notes totally.

Like 

you found with one night in Bangkok completely. You're like, how is this about, I feel like I'm missing something. The answer is you are missing something a lot, 

a lot. You have to, and that's how they get ya. It's 

like, 

heroin marketing. So now you have to go see the whole show, even though the show is a rock opera by Styx 

right. Um, 

so 

because of the show is a rock opera by Styx. 

Sure. 

So w so Kilroy is. And now actually, I shouldn't say that I'm going to tell you the answer because I don't really know why Dennis Deyoung picked Kilroy, 

The name, you mean?

Yes.

Kilroy is like a famous, 

well, 

this is interesting. It's a meme. So I know my kids love to argue with me and tell me that memes came about with the internet, but actually they've been around for a long Yeah, because it's a cultural shorthand, right? So it, this mean became popular in world war II. As graffiti and nobody really knows where it comes from.

Oh, with a little nose. Yes. This was a predecessor 

to the parent's music resource council. 

yeah, 

yeah, exactly.

And it's all swimming around there in the early eighties. And the Roboto was a model of a robot that does menial jobs in prison. And so Kilroy escapes by overpowering. A robot prison guard and like the shut, the old, like I'm in a knockout, the guy, the guard, and then put his outfit on and escape, like in the wizard of Oz.

Yes, exactly. 

But 

it's a, it's a graffiti tag with a little cartoon and it says Kilroy was here underneath it. And it's a little guy's face and he sort of hanging over a wall in his fingers and his nose are hanging over the wall. And usually it's got like a couple pieces of a little bit. So I remember this and it says that it says.

And it says Kilroy was here, but you 

wouldn't. No one 

knows the origins of that. No, they don't really know. people have done investigations to figure out like why. Yeah. I'm from, 

there was no like military leader or it could be traced back to some stuff in world war one.

And there was a similar version in the UK that was called Chad. And maybe that came from like a British cartoonist, but then Kilroy was in the U S Kilroy was American GIS overseas who had to write it on barracks or places that they were in. Anyway, so who knows why they called it that, but that Kilroy is here is like a very famous cartoon that people, or graffiti that people will often like tag.

Whatever, wherever graffiti goes. Yeah. And so that, so the idea is the Dennis de young, that was like the source for that name for him. Yeah, 

I guess he just wanted to think some, yeah, some name, some generic name. but when you dig into what the musical or what the song is about, so it's definitely about the dehumanization of workers.

Cause he even says on the side, it's in the lyrics machines to save our lives machines to dehumanize. And so it's this, like middle-class commentary, like they're making our lives easier, but they're also taking over our jobs. Yeah. And there's even the line in the song that says with parts made in Japan and my brain.

My brain is IBM. So no, this is like the Dawn of personal computers and the factories were all being made more efficient by the use of robots and certainly in automobile manufacturing, but also there's a lot in here about censorship.

So then speaking of tipper gore and the, what was it called? The parents, PMRC 

parents music resource council, 

I believe. Thank you. Thank you. So there's also some commentary that the album is really about censorship because of this whole idea of backmasking, have you ever heard of backmasking.

No, we both know what it is, but I don't think we, I never heard that term before. It's that idea where you take a vinyl record and you run it backwards to here. So 

[00:37:07] Elizabeth: just where all the like, rock and roll uh, what are they rumors or conspiracy, like 

say just speaking of Jews. Yeah. If you play some of these rock and roll albums backwards, they have secret messages.

[00:37:22] Margaret: And so, there was that thing that they said, if you take the Beatles album Abbey Road and you play it backwards, it says Paul is dead. And there was also, they said that about Pink Floyd and ELO and Queen and Styx. And so there was this fundamentalist Christian group and like other anti rock, activists who actually right before this album was written.

Influenced the Arkansas state Senate to pass a bill requiring that records with backward masking, be labeled by the manufacturer. 

[00:37:59] Elizabeth: Yeah. And were any, did any actually do it? 

[00:38:02] Margaret: I will tell you that the fifth song on the album Kilroy was here, that features Mr. Roboto 

. is called heavy metal poisoning and was written by Tommy Shaw. And it begins with an intentionally back masked, but it's really so nerdy it's in. Anyway, I don't know Latin.. "annuit cœptis, novus ordo seclorum", which is Latin for "He has favored our undertakings, a new order of the ages" that sounds familiar it's because they're the two mottos on the great seal of the U S on the reverse of the United States.

$1 bill that was like, a zinger, I would say 

total zinger. And then they stuck a label on the album that said "By order of the majority for musical morality, this album contains secret backward messages." 

[00:38:59] Elizabeth: But that the majority for musical morality was from the opera 

[00:39:03] Margaret: was from the opera, the made up.

[00:39:06] Elizabeth: But there was a real 

law and 

[00:39:07] Margaret: real life. Yes. So it was. Yeah, total middle finger. It, because they had been cited in the legislation by this, the Arkansas saw state Senate, and actually ELO also had an album in 1983 called Secret Messages and they also mention it there. So you might, and then the whole plot is just.

Like a fascist future, like a fascist and theocratic government. And they outlaw rock music. So it's just Styx getting one over on everybody else in the most theatrical, ridiculous rock and roll kind of way. 

[00:39:48] Elizabeth: Yeah. I mean, I use, I usually hate this phrase, but I have to say they were asking for it that Arkansas state legislature.

They did this album as an, as a response to that. That's what I mean, like they were asking to be made fun of are consistently in a 

way. Oh yes. I see what you're saying. You know what I mean? 

For sure. For sure. 

Gosh, they they haven't been so great lately. They're that good old Arkansas state legislature.

[00:40:12] Margaret: I don't know what you're talking about. They have a flawless record

[00:40:14] Elizabeth: WTF. 

[00:40:16] Margaret: Oh. But wait, isn't that? The state that had the Senator who was the sister of the director of Madonna's material, girl album, wasn't she a Senator from Arkansas? Oh my gosh. That 

sounds really familiar. It's been a while since we did that, 

I can't remember what her name was, but her sister was a Senator and I think she was from Arkansas.

There is some good people down there. Then 

[00:40:39] Elizabeth: Clinton and Hillary Clinton the most morally corrupt oh, 

[00:40:43] Margaret: I thought you were going to say upright. Sure, 

sure. Yeah. Anyway, it's ridiculous really when, and if you watch the video, which I encourage you to do it's pretty silly.

And I love going to the eighties and looking for signs of what they thought the future was going to look like. Um, Sure. One fun fact that I will tell you is that the video or the film really? Because 

they would, they would play this film in their concerts as well. Uh, T you know how sometimes big concerts we'll have a little video that plays at the beginning to keep your interest while people are coming in.

I guess for the time for 1983, it had some production quality, but the the, they, all the robots have these kind of like daft punk sort of helmets on. And the helmets were made by Stan Winston who was like a big time Hollywood. Makeup artist and costume designer. He like he did Terminator 2 and Avatar.

So he's pretty well known and the choreography. And I love this because it's a tie to a theme in this podcast. The choreography for the robots was done by Kenny Ortega, who did the Allentown video for Billy Joel. Well, So dirty dancing and the high school musical movies, which is how I know him. Yeah.

The funniest thing about that is if you watch the choreography, it's just the re the people dressed as robots are just doing the robot. And you're like, how much did they pay him? I had to tell them to do that,

Because it's not so inspired, alright? Unless I'm looking at the beginning of that dance, maybe he made it up. lately I 

[00:42:29] Elizabeth: feel like we cover a lot of songs. Who's videos or the songs themselves are like fear of like homogenization and fear of like automation and stuff. Wasn't the she bop wasn't that like part of the. Video was, it was all this like robots having sex, but until you like learn to masturbate.

[00:42:52] Margaret: So there 

[00:42:53] Elizabeth: was like, people like marching into a meat grinder or something. 

[00:42:57] Margaret: Just dead-eyed and in single file which is so funny because we have become anything but homogenous. I had occasion recently to read an undergraduate student paper about the famous commercial for apple computers from 

1984, the big brother commercial.

[00:43:16] Elizabeth: Yeah. And that is just so telling that commercial well, because that also like events as this fear of automation and cause it's like encouraging people to like break free and be creative, which is what, how apple products are still advertised. Sure. 

And. because you're right. Like we're anything but homogenous, there's so many like niche upon niche.

And everyone's dug into their little heidey-hole somewhere. and that's thanks to apple products in a 

[00:43:48] Margaret: way. So like where you may be listening to this very podcast. Exactly. So for enabling our creativity, 

[00:43:57] Elizabeth: yeah. They apple really developed and encouraged this idea of like individualism and creativity.

But you have to use apple products to do it. So it's like 

[00:44:06] Margaret: weirdly that's ironic. 

[00:44:10] Elizabeth: Yeah, exactly. But I remember as a teenager, I in my little rebellious heart feeling like God, everything's the same where everyone watches the same TV shows and goes shops at the same stores and eats at the same restaurants you know, 

and how, what a big problem that seemed to me at the time.

But now it seems like a bigger problem that nobody. Reads the same newspaper and has the similar experiences and how interesting that is because everyone's like lamenting, right? No, like public place where people are interacting 

[00:44:47] Margaret: anymore. But 

[00:44:48] Elizabeth: everyone was lamenting like too public of a place. Cause everything was getting too same.

Same. So I don't know, man. Can't what you know, 

can't win for 

[00:44:57] Margaret: losing. You sure. Got your dream though. Didn't you? We went from five channels to totally there's not even an people would say like now we got a hundred. No, it's endless. Look at you tube. I work with millennials who don't even watch TV at all.

They only watch YouTube. And you don't mean YouTube TV obviously, 

right? I just mean 

[00:45:21] Elizabeth: YouTube. So like private Lee made 

[00:45:26] Margaret: things that like user generated content put up, not studio generated content like makeup 

[00:45:33] Elizabeth: tutorials or food eating or whatever. 

[00:45:36] Margaret: Yes. Muck bang and make up, 

[00:45:40] Elizabeth: what do they watch on it?

[00:45:42] Margaret: Because there's that stuff you know, 

style rails, decorating tutorials, 

um, probably muck bang, which for those of you who are listening is like an offshoot of ASM are, but with Slurpee food eating sounds sure I don't care for it myself, but some people get like little shivers from it. They have like 

a nervous system reaction and they really love watching people like their fingers that are coated in butter after eating lots of crab legs.

Yeah, that's the kind of stuff they watch. You can find anything,

[00:46:18] Elizabeth: anything. Yeah. You 

[00:46:20] Margaret: can find it. The internet is vast. Yeah. So we are not homogenous. I'll tell you what I 

[00:46:28] Elizabeth: like to watch scripted shows, starring people who are about 50 years old.

[00:46:38] Margaret: So like Cagney and Lacey, or 

[00:46:41] Elizabeth: no more like, um, Ozark or where I'm talking about 

[00:46:47] Margaret: contemporary shows. It's 

[00:46:49] Elizabeth: Creek. Yeah. People I recognized from my youth. What was that show? Oh yeah. I think it was called divorce. That started Thomas Hayden church and Sarah Jessica Parker. You watched that? I did. I watched some of it.

I can't remember if I finished it or not, but I was like my sad, pathetic little gen X brain was like, this is life with Thomas Hayden church and Sarah Jessica Parker on my television screen. That is the natural state of 

[00:47:20] Margaret: existence and that they have grown with you. Yes. 

[00:47:24] Elizabeth: Because like my whole life they've been on my television screen in some way or another in different phases.

[00:47:29] Margaret: And yes. 

[00:47:32] Elizabeth: So exactly from Jason Bateman, from little house on the Prairie, through arrest over 

[00:47:38] Margaret: spoons and 

[00:47:39] Elizabeth: then arrested totally through Ozark. Yes. That is like the, my natural state of existence. It also is a little like, um, when my son was like interested in punk music for, or just different kinds of music that were playing different, like Ramones and sex pistols and different kinds of 

kinds of music. That, I guess you would consider punk like through the decades. And then we played Nirvana and I was like, see, now this is music. This is new. What music with a capital M sounds like. and I don't even, I was never even like a huge Nirvana fan to be. I mean, 

I always 

like, kind of 

was in the way that everyone was 

[00:48:21] Margaret: of my kite pick right now, Pearl jam or Nirvana, which side do land?

Is this like a Beatles versus rolling stones test? Yeah, I 

[00:48:32] Elizabeth: would have to say Nirvana but I also think that maybe I under appreciated Pearl jam. Like it's not, cause I'm not 

[00:48:39] Margaret: anti Pearl jam. Okay. All right. But I, yeah. Did your offspring appreciate them to an extent that please do. 

[00:48:52] Elizabeth: His Nirvana experience is via weird.

Al Yankovic smell smells like Nirvana. Yeah. Which as we've covered, one of the best video award and was nominated the same year, it smells like teen 

[00:49:07] Margaret: spirit because he liked the punk rock cheerleaders. 

[00:49:10] Elizabeth: My son. Yeah. No it's because he likes weird Al Yankovic and Everett, and 100% of things that weird Al Yankovic 

[00:49:17] Margaret: does

speaks highly of him. But my point 

[00:49:22] Elizabeth: is only there's a certain point where TV or music or whatever, hits you. And then you're like that's permanently installed is what I think music or TV is or whatever. Yup. Anyway, and the Mo the millennials, I don't know. I guess they'll all have a 

different thing for that.

[00:49:39] Margaret: Yeah. And, oh man, who cares what they think anymore, because now we care about gender. There's our kids got it. Skinny genes are out. They are cheugy and you don't want to wear them. I just learned about and I am not wearing you have chinos. 

Not only are they chinos, but they're like the balloon shape.

If I could stand up and back up, it would look like they were going out. And then in 

speaking event, so where are you? That's cheugy because that's 

[00:50:09] Elizabeth: trying too hard right now 

[00:50:11] Margaret: though. Isn't it? I don't know. But have you had them for 20 years then? It's not cheugy no it's vintage or whatever. 

[00:50:18] Elizabeth: I bought them because they were in fashion.

All right. Cheugy 

[00:50:24] Margaret: hashtag girl boss.

The verdict on your pants is that they're cute.

That's my opinion.

do you have a verdict on this song? 



[00:50:44] Margaret: God, 

[00:50:51] Elizabeth: first of all, hashtag stop Asian 

[00:50:53] Margaret: hate. Yes. That's one verdict. How about the little yeah. We've yeah, that's 

[00:51:01] Elizabeth: a theme that we've noticed in the eighties that I would not have thought about until we started talking about 80 songs. 

[00:51:08] Margaret: You know what I mean? Yeah. There's a lot happening in this song.

[00:51:11] Elizabeth: People had big problems with Japan in the eighties and they 

[00:51:14] Margaret: came out in a lot of ways. 

It's shirted.

[00:51:18] Elizabeth: I'm going to stay. I'm going to say it doesn't hold up, but not for political reasons you know, 

not for the same reasons that other songs don't hold up. Sure. I don't think people care anymore about automation. And wrote some people do in Buffalo, people still care about robots taking jobs. Yeah. But it just doesn't, I feel like it doesn't have 

[00:51:40] Margaret: legs.

I'm with you on that? I think that from 1983 till now, my look, I really love Dennis Young because he sings with a big virbrato and I like that in a singer. He's very theatrical, but this song is cheesy as hell. Yeah. And what I once found so mysterious and exciting of finding out who Kilroy was is not that interesting as it turns out.

Or as I read a Merck times review of it from 1983, 

And it says, this is such a burn. "Mr. Roboto offers glib paradoxes about technology and a hackneyed techno pop style that borrows science fiction sound effects from the Alan Parsons project." Oh my God. Oh my God. If you're accusing someone of the knocking off of ripping off Alan Parsons project.

Yeah, that's good. That's wheel in the sky. Keeps turning. No. Oh, wait. Don't tell me, don't tell me. 

[00:52:55] Elizabeth: Eye in the sky. I am.

[00:53:01] Margaret: that one? Yeah. So yeah. Fun fact. That's my number one. Favorite song. No kidding. Yeah. I love that song. I love it. I never tire up. It's a good song. It's also very 

[00:53:16] Elizabeth: Margaret. I will say it's very 

[00:53:18] Margaret: Margaret. Because it's so melodic and it's like a sleeper hit. You like always hear it and everyone knows it, but then when you really listen to it, you're like, that's a good song.

Yeah. You know? Well,

[00:53:35] Elizabeth: I wouldn't say it's like you as a person 

[00:53:37] Margaret: because I don't think you're like, oh, no. I think you're likable right off the bat. But I think in that you know, you like substance you're and you're into substance, not flash. And I think that song has done. 

Yeah, it really does.

Thank you for recognizing it's genius. Yeah. But I don't know that it's good to be compared to a rip off version of it. Anyway, I hear you cheesy song. It's cheesy. Although I admire I have to say I admire Dennis de Young's cheek in making it, yeah. Look, anybody who has the creative ambition to write a rock opera, my hat is off to you.

I like rock operas if you're going to pick something that's tied to technology, which by its very nature advances every day, every moment. Yeah, of course. It's going to be considered dated . Absolutely. I think they were trying to say something about.

Something larger, about blue collar workers and censorship and all of these like very lofty themes that now when you look back at like, you know, everybody describes Bruce Springsteen as being very earnest. that's his calling card is to sing earnestly about the same kind of themes.

That age is better because you don't wrap it all in this layer of technology. That's a right off instantaneously going to be dated. Yeah. 

[00:55:08] Elizabeth: Can I just, I have to just throw in this little thing I've read about, which is called the end of history phenomenon, where people like, just are pretty sure that however they are like now is how is like their ultimate self.

It has emerged and now they're going to be like this for the rest of their lives. Oh. and they tested it. And I wish I could re I re remember reading an article about some study about this, that, where they used people talking about like their favorite music or bands or something, and like how much they have, I can't 

[00:55:45] Margaret: remember how the test went they were trying to see how people perceived themselves as changing over time and in their moment. And so they devise some series of questions that had to do with like how much they would pay for an album or a concert ticket or something like that in different decades of their lives.

[00:56:01] Elizabeth: And 100% of the people. It came out, said that they had changed a lot in the last 10 years and would not be changing anymore. And they said it, whether they 

[00:56:14] Margaret: were 25 or 75, like all 

[00:56:18] Elizabeth: ages, all decades of age said that remarked on how much they had changed. 

[00:56:24] Margaret: And so I love that so much because humans, when they're not being so terrible are so hilarious and ridiculous that everyone's so sure.

And yet we're so predictable. Totally, And I just love the dentisty young was like this is the word on technology 

and rock and roll. And this is a work 

[00:56:48] Elizabeth: of art that shall pronounce on it 

[00:56:50] Margaret: forever more you know, 

and 

like, 

and get much cutting edge then 1983 Kenya and time. 

[00:56:57] Elizabeth: I stopped, done and dusted like 

[00:57:00] Margaret: statement made so, I mean, Th that's sad for him that he took that gamble and lost in a way.

[00:57:08] Elizabeth: And Bruce Springsteen gambled on wearing blue jeans and driving your car fast you know, 

and that seems 

[00:57:15] Margaret: to have 

[00:57:16] Elizabeth: lasted a little longer. Anyway, I just love that. And this is such a good 

[00:57:20] Margaret: example of that. Oh, people are never 

[00:57:22] Elizabeth: not going to want to hear about robots.

[00:57:27] Margaret: That's true because yeah, totally figured them out yet. Like there hell no rise of the machines has not come to pass exactly yet that we know of. I mean we could all be living in a matrix right now and I suppose maybe then the jokes on me for being so predictably human. But but it is and just the visuals of the whole thing are so clunky, chunky, right?

So eighties. Yeah, robot style that it just, oh God, come on. It's embarrassing. To that end. It's like when Paul McCartney wrote, when I'm 64 and people would ask him, what do you think? Will you perform this when you're 64? And he's oh God, no. Totally, no.

Because to your point, they all think this is it. This is where it stops. Totally. Oh, we're so dumb. So do you have some songs you would put on a mix tape with it? 

Yeah. So, you know, I think I'd put on Alan Parsons project to see if there's any crossover there.

and I think I'd have to put on the song from One of the last episodes we did, which was one night in Bangkok, because it's ripped from a, I think I would use the theme of rock operas. Oh, nice. You know, 

some Tommy or, yeah. Good ones. Yeah. How about you? Well, I was trying to think of other songs that like talked about row saying about robots or invoked robots in some way.

Okay. Like for example, what? I couldn't come up with that many. I feel like this is not about robots, but I feel like safety dance 

in some way is like a little bit robotic. I don't know why. I think that it's AA F yeah. 

[00:59:27] Elizabeth: And the electronic. Yes, 

[00:59:31] Margaret: totally. Yes. And then also I thought some DEVO songs, maybe, 

I don't know, good call actually.

That's a really good call. Safety dance came out in 1982. So it was just around the same time as this. That would be like 

[00:59:45] Elizabeth: the era, I guess. 

Yeah. I feel like this is the only song that it does not make sense to pair with. She works hard for her money. I don't see any possible connection. Except that they're like spiritual opposites, they are.

[01:00:05] Margaret: Although have you ever seen the movie by Steven Spielberg called a. I think 

[01:00:11] Elizabeth: I saw it in 

[01:00:12] Margaret: official was actually, so Jude law plays a pleasure robot, a gigolo robot, and yeah. And so maybe in the future Donna summer. Oh, I robot sex work. Yeah. Yeah. That's the, if that's your read on that song now it's about a working woman.

Why couldn't a robot? Yeah. Yeah, I you're right. It's it has nothing to do with it. Yeah. 

[01:00:41] Elizabeth: I might include, so one of the reasons that Q Anon documentary is we're seeing is their use of white rabbit in the last episode, the song. Oh you know, 

feed your head, et cetera. Yes. I feel like that could be a potential 

[01:00:57] Margaret: addition to this it's kind of 

playlist like this song, like there's 

like, 

it's got some sort of a secret message that it's trying to tell you, but you weren't sure what it is until they yell it at you at the end and say yes.

Which she saying, feed your head at the end. 

[01:01:15] Elizabeth: I have one more suggestion, which is. Jefferson Starship. Cause I just had Jefferson airplane. What did they have besides we built the city, they had 

[01:01:27] Margaret: another song. They had the theme from mannequin, mannequins 

[01:01:33] Elizabeth: being close to robots 

[01:01:35] Margaret: in a certain kind of well, 

Matt mannequin is a lyric and Mr.

Roboto,

I w almost though what? And I'm not just saying this as a way out, but I almost want to say we built this city. It's nothing's gonna stop us now. Oh yeah, no, just star ship at that point. But Jefferson Starship was like Jane and but the Marconi played the Mamba, listen to the radio. I feel like that's about like technology and this like dumb 

ass way to we built this city. Yeah. Which as you may recall, was voted the dumbest song by that blend, that famous blender magazine list.

Oh yeah. It's the number one terrible song, but I'm not averse to it. It's got its terms so we can put it on the mixtape. So there's a real, mish-mash this. Do you have any closing thoughts about this one? 

[01:02:32] Elizabeth: I would just say. We just finished watching, lost in space. Once again, I have a great school age son, and this is appropriate to my life. And there are some robots in that 

that are your friends, and there are some robots in it that are enemies.

And I would just say, be careful out there people 

[01:02:54] Margaret: can, you never know who is 

[01:02:56] Elizabeth: who or which is which you can't tell. Sometimes you can't tell 

[01:02:58] Margaret: the difference. That's right. You gotta look in the back of the head to see if there's a little plug there. Sage advice, Elizabeth, thank you. 

[01:03:06] Elizabeth: Oh yeah, that was that was the theme of Battlestar Galactica.

Wasn't it like being able to tell the difference between the robots and the 

[01:03:13] Margaret: people? It was, I don't remember. All I remember from that is that there was a R2D2 rip off in it named Twinkie who I know that was 

[01:03:23] Elizabeth: the original. I'm talking about the reboot with Edward James almost. And which was quite good.

It was in the early two thousands. It was very good. And. 

[01:03:33] Margaret: Yes. Yes. Extremely good. Edward, James almost was amazing in it and you'd wreck, I can't, the names are not coming to mind, but you'd recognize some of the people in it, but it I cried 

[01:03:47] Elizabeth: in some episodes. Like it was very moving and very well done.

And it's 

[01:03:51] Margaret: a TV show, 

[01:03:52] Elizabeth: TV show. Yup. And there was, because it wasn't around like immediately post nine 11. And it, so it had to do with who's on your side, like who's the who's with you and who's against you and like tests for people like who. And I think it was some kind of like robot that was feared or something.

Then they looked just like us, but they might not be us. And there was like themes of like racial profile. Like it was very, 

it was very of its time, but also I would believe it if it. Lives up to it. I 

[01:04:23] Margaret: recommend it. Okay. I will check it out. And when you say you are watching lost in space, do you mean the remake movie with Matt LeBlanc?

No. A 

[01:04:32] Elizabeth: re reboot television 

[01:04:34] Margaret: show. Oh, I'm unaware of this. Oh yes. 

[01:04:37] Elizabeth: With the woman, who's not Carrie Coons who was also on Deadwood. But Carrie Coons was who was on the leftovers, 

[01:04:46] Margaret: the greatest television show of all time. And now I'm not going to think because I always have to, there's three people that look like Carrie Coons and they're all really good actors in their own.

Molly Parker. Okay. And Parker, Posey Parker 

[01:05:02] Elizabeth: Posey is in the new lesson space and she is 

[01:05:06] Margaret: very well cast. Oh, okay. I'm going to have to check this out. Where can I find. Well, uh, 

Netflix. Okay. I'm going to, it's not ever suggested to me. The Netflix algorithm is failing me, but you've come through. Thank you.

Yeah, if 

[01:05:23] Elizabeth: you're interested in lost in space, I'm not, I wouldn't naturally be if it wasn't for my son, but it is worth it to see 

[01:05:29] Margaret: Parker Posey. Okay. Good recommendation. Love her and everything she does unless she's done anything terrible. In which case I can't condone that. I don't know about her at all.

I'm going back to the old Doogie Howser syndrome. well, This was fun. Nice talking to you again. So fun little off our game, but I'm looking forward to get back in the swing of it here. Absolutely. Okay. Love you. Bye. Okay, bye.

[01:05:58] Elizabeth: 

Well, 

we did it burned another song and we hope you enjoyed it and danced around the fire. If you want to suggest a song or join our conversation, find us on Instagram. We're at sick burns pod on Twitter 

[01:06:15] Margaret: at, 

[01:06:15] Elizabeth: at sick eighties or on Facebook as sick burns. And we'd love to get an email from you. Send it to us@burningtheeightiesatgmail.com.

And if you haven't yet. Yet gotten the message that we're desperate to interact with you, but in a totally cool and standoffish way, maybe this will do it. We also have a website and you should definitely use it. Visit sick burns pod.com to leave a comment or a voicemail ciao for now.