Sneaky Dragon Episode 640

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Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Sneaky Dragon – the podcast by, for and about knobs!

This week: getting ahead; falling behind; smiling phases; Carrey on; free to fall; acronyms of comedy; TV miracle; Canuck tailcoat jumpers; Canadian who’s who are they; bald egos; Boss, baby; history bites; the Halifax confection; disco tech; feel good knob; tinted love; clit art; disputed attributions; a portrait of a lunatic as a young man; the usual spinach; a century of jokes; that’s Sahl, folks; the Warren report; Close call; babbling about Brooks; Burnett questions; Woody, won’t he; political humourless; off on the joke; joke’s on glue; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; a couple of dummies; remembering longboxes; dark lady of song; Chubby defender; gushed away; do the worm; soda jerks; and, finally, some time, some channel.

Question of the Week: What is a thing you recently learned?
Sub-question of the Week: Who is your favourite puppet?

Thanks for listening.

If you’d like to read more about The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy, you can follow this link

Neil Young gets defensive (go to 59:40):

Oscar Peterson sings the glory of coffee creamer:

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Friends help friends:

Jimmy Fallon gets bossy:

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9 thoughts on “Sneaky Dragon Episode 640”

  2. Edward Draganski

    Knobs and tints man, I almost wet myself. I checked Photoshop, no tint…just hue, saturation and lightness. You’re drunk Adobe, go home and play with your knob.

    My Dad went to the Playboy Club once when we lived in Chicago, I was very young and I don’t remember this. Dad’s story goes: A few co-workers invited Dad to the club after work one evening. Dad was an engineer for Hawthorne which was in the south side of Chicago. The Playboy Club was on the way home if you went through the city to catch the Northwestern train that took you to the Northwest suburbs where we lived. Dad lost track of time when he realized he had about 15 minutes to catch the Northwestern train, failure to do so meant he’d have to call Mom to drive all the way down town to get him. It also meant having to wake me up as well. So Dad flagged a cab down and offered him all his money if he could get him to the train before the last one left the station. Luckily, Dad ran and caught the train just as it was in motion and pulling out of the Northwestern Station. I sure hope Dad had a good time.

    Speaking of Photoshop, I recently learned (and am still learning) how to use neural filters in Photoshop. These filters aren’t A.I., but they work in a way that give the user more control with touch up tools, colorization and transfer of color and style. Instead of giving prompts and leaving everything to an algorithm, like A.I., these filters can give you adjustments to work with and allow you to tweak the image yourself. The filters take a little work to pin down and find the right pressure to handle them but once you do, it’s well worth it. The colorization of black and white has finally been solved! I’ll post something I colorized using the neural filters to the Sneaky Dragon Facebook page under this weeks episode post.

    I grew up with the Muppets and Sesame Street and I have huge place in my heart for Jim Henson’s brilliant contribution to the world of entertainment…BUT my favorite puppet hands down, (bad pun) goes to the one and only Yoda. Lord, I remember seeing a photo of the 900 year-old Jedi Master in a storybook right before “The Empire Strikes Back” and thinking, “How in the hell is this going to work?” I know they shrouded Yoda in secrecy before “Empire”, but this photo was in one of the kid’s storybooks and even though it was Yoda, I didn’t realize it at the time and wasn’t 100% sure that was him. When I saw him for the first time in “Empire”, I was mesmerized beyond belief. Going back to the theater repeatedly that summer can be attributed to seeing Yoda over and over again as he became my favorite character. I’m still transfixed as I watch “Empire” to this day and gave in to Yoda being a real character long ago, I truly bought the magic.

    Have a great weekend everyone and best to all the Sneakers both domestic and abroad!
    And remember to check those tints and knobs!! OXOXOX

    Reply
  3. Louise

    Something I learned recently is that “Triscuits” are commonly-thought to be so-named because they have just three ingredients: wheat, oil and salt. But looking into it further, I learned the name is more likely a combination of “electricity” and “biscuit” because an ad from the early 1900s boasted they were the only food item “baked with electricity.”

    About the Oscars: while Oppenheimer was certainly a worthy Best Picture, it wasn’t my favourite of the 10 nominated movies. I haven’t seen Maestro or Zone of Interest yet, but my personal top three are:

    1) Barbie
    2) The Holdovers / American Fiction
    3) Anatomy of a Fall

    Okay, I cheated there a bit. But if you were voting, what would’ve been your top three (or four)? Also, do you agree with me that “I’m Just Ken” was a better Best Song than “What Was I Made For?” It was a great character-defining comedy song which led to a great show-stopping musical number. There is a good video on Rolling Stone’s YouTube channel where Mark Ronson talks about coming up with the song and how Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen ended up playing guitar on it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzwdvD67WcY

    Reply
    1. Edward Draganski

      For the first time in years, I was closer than usual to seeing most of the films nominated for the major categories. I regret not seeing “Godzilla Minus One” even though I tried, it wasn’t in a very wide release around me but I’ll catch up to it soon when it’s streaming. I just watched “Poor Things” only days before the Oscars and I was captivated by it’s uniqueness, I’ve never seen or enjoyed a film like that before…I was almost sure I was going to be put off by it but I really enjoyed it. Especially Mark Ruffalo. It was kind of like a combo of “Being There” and “Bride of Frankenstein” during an acid trip so I was happy to see it awarded. I wasn’t at all taken with “Barbie” but I get why others are, Gosling does deserve the MVP for Oscar night itself, he was magnificent. From a nerd perspective, my favorite moment was the DeVito and Schwarzenegger’s throw down with Keaton aka Batman, that’s pretty much what I watch the Oscars. I also liked the entourage of five previous winning actors and actresses brought onstage to award the nominees, way to go Hollywood, more Sam Rockwell and Robert Downy Jr. please.

      And if you have time, please explain the end of “American Fiction”.

      Reply
  4. Peter Ayres

    Howdy, Sneakeriños –

    Three things I recently learned:
    1. Syrup:
    It turns out that the centre of the beautiful logo on tins of Lyles Golden Syrup is not just a lion, but a dead lion covered in bees. This is a biblical reference about Sampson noticing bees making a hive in a lion’s carcass. “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”, the motto reads. There are rumblings that the logo is changing this year to suit the milennial distaste for pictures of rotting flesh on baking ingredients.

    2. The Kinks’ “Autumn Almanac” was written backwards:
    Ray Davies wrote the ‘This is my street, and I’m never gonna leave it’ bit first: he then played the ‘and I’m always gonna staaay’ bit backwards to get both lyrics and melody for ‘It’s my Autumn Almanac’. Mind blowing but verifiably true if you play your copy backwards!

    3.The Boy is now 4 and a half years old, and I’m delighted to report he’s just the right age to start enjoying Asterix. We’ve been working our way through the books, and I’m loving the challenge of coming up with consistent voices for each of the characters: this is made easy by the strength of characterisation. Coming back to Asterix after a decent break I really appreciate the quality of the acting – something the animated cartoons could never quite pull off, whether in drawing or voice casting.
    The new CG ‘Mansions of the Gods’ is quite something though! The designs work beautifully in 3D – as should be no surprise given the solidity of Uderzo’s draftsmanship. And Greg Davies as an exasperated Centurion is a perfect vocal performance. Oh yes, the thing I learned: just a minute- i need a pee break.

    [intermission music]

    Reply
    1. Peter Ayres

      [instrumental break ends]

      So: Last week we were reading ‘Asterix and the Black Gold’, Uderzo’s second solo effort. Getafix sends the boys off on a quest for ‘rock oil’ -“Or as the romans call it – ‘petra oleum’”.
      Petrol! I had no idea.

      Quick thing on the Oscars: I was shocked at how little coverage was given to Michael Glazer’s bold statement on Israel/Palestine. Whatever one’s views, this was far and away the bravest, most radical moment of the evening.

      Reply

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