Hola, Sneakers. Welcome to Episode 447 – the countdown continues! Only three more shows until Episode 450!!!
But anyway, this week Ian and David are all: thanking God; feeling confident; making reviews; realizing it isn’t Saturday; feeling complacent; wiping out; cold to the bone; meeting Terry Austin; bidding farewell to Joe Sinnott; figuring out the Fantastic Four; hobo sea kings; talking about synthezoids; engaging in complicated nerdery; avoiding the parking lot; outing the GI Bill; just buying a house; chewing bad gum; liking it stale; learning school rules; tying their shoes; shooing swipers; talking about their first time; watching imaginary octopus; budgeting at school; making a good recovery; about Jane Wiedlin; Disney + and its so-so movies; doing a psychiatrist bit; marvelling at Florida people; enjoying quarantine theatre; discovering Dr. Pepper’s hometown; dramatically retelling; doing a MacDonald’s slogans rundown; and, finally, shambling psychics.
Thanks for listening.
Task of the Week: Come up with a good slogan for Sneaky Dragon!
Sub-question: What’s something you’re looking forward to doing when the plague has ended?
Sub-sub-question: What do you usually wear when you listen to the show?
And don’t forget!!!
Don’t miss out on your chance to WIN WIN WIN
That’s right! Our 450th episode is fast approaching and we will be hosting our traditional Listeners’ Questions Episode! Every question gives you a chance in our GRAND PRIZE DRAW. The more questions you ask, the better your chances to win! So get to asking!
Send your list of questions by email to sneakyd@sneakydragon.com. If you’d like, record your questions, send us an audio file, and we’ll play it during the show. Fun, right???
Here is Barry Manilow singing a medley of his jingles. (And people have called him gauche!)
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The best thing to do with cherries is to give them to me.
Sneaky Dragon slogans:
“Get on the wagon with Sneaky Dragon”
“Get drag-in or get drag-out”
“Let’s get sneaky”
“Just one more thing”
“1-2-3 hot dogs”
Next year we’ll have you over for an old timey cherry pickin’! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCaM6IqZYjY
My proposal for the Sneaky Dragon motto/jingle, sung to the tune of the Itchy and Scratchy theme song:
They sneak!
They drag!
They sneak!
They drag!
Sneak sneak sneak!
Drag drag drag!
The Sneaky Dragon show!
A league is indeed a unit of length, and the title “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” refers to how they travel around the world while underwater. It’s not about how deep underwater they go, since (as Wikipedia tells me) the deepest they ever get in the book is 4 leagues, and going down 20,000 leagues would entail going straight through the center of the Earth, then coming out again the other side and flying off into outer space.
It’s funny you should mention Ulysses and War and Peace as examples of long books. Thanks to all this COVID time, I finally got around to reading Ulysses a few weeks ago. It wasn’t as enjoyable as Doctor Thorne, but I still liked it a lot more than I expected. I also found one of those Great Courses classes on the book, which helped me get a lot more out of it than I otherwise would have. Then I was going to try War and Peace, but it turns out War and Peace is roughly twice as long as Ulysses, so I’ll probably save it for the next pandemic.
In Harry Potter terms, Ulysses is roughly the same length as Order of the Phoenix, making War and Peace about half as long as all seven Harry Potter books put together. I guess the flipside of that is that anyone who has read all the Harry Potter books can probably set aside enough time for War and Peace. Oh well, maybe later.
So, it’s slogans you’re wanting?
Sneaky Dragon…
…please don’t Google it
…it’s kind of interesting
…fair enough
…come for the deck, stay for the chickens
…didn’t we ask you NOT to Google it?
I have to say that if you guys should ever do a comics podcast I’ll be the first to listen. We’ve discussed it before and being the same age we experienced the same comics at the same time. I vividly remember the “Fantastic Four Resigns” #191 cover and I was equally fond of Joe Sinnott’s legacy of work. Loved hearing you discuss Fantastic Four since they were my first Marvel obsession. Being a fan, how do you see Marvel Studios bringing the FF to the screen going forward? I enjoyed the Fox versions by Tim Story because I was able to take my son to them when he was young and I thought the four were good together. The Josh Trank mess in 2015 was another story, Fox was my client at the time and we had to almost feign an optimistic approval in front of the client. We all knew it was a disaster. I’m almost wishing you’d do an episode of Fanspainers for it just so I can hear you rip it to shreds. If I was in charge of the Fantastic Four films now, I think I’d have them take place in the 60’s or 70’s. Marvel has a unique way of filling up their past generations with stories, like Captain Marvel in the 90’s and Cap in the 40’s, etc. Put the FF back in time and give them their own space and use the same kind of dialogue Lee & Kirby gave them. Then when it’s time to have them cross over with the current lineup, use time travel to bring them together. Make Doom European! And make him interestingly evil but not just a bad guy in a suit. The fucking guy almost writes himself, just do him like Lee and Kirby did. What do you guys think?
And you’ve mentioned Steve Rude a few times lately and you’re right, that guy is something to behold. I once watch him draw and ink an illustration for my buddy of a huge Doctor Doom looming over the Fantastic Four…and he drew most of it upside down so we could see it right side up on the table before us. Have you ever noticed that Rude’s art is so kinetic and full of motion he doesn’t need to crowd his panels with big sound effects like “WHOOSH!” and “KA-BLAM!”, his art just does it for you. Amazing creative genius.
A slogan?! Being an Art Director, I’ve been slapped for trying to write copy before..I was literally slapped. But I still love to write it. How about:
“Sneaky Dragon, Sneaking Weekly since 2011”
I like Nina’s “Get on the Wagon” one above, that’s good.
Copywriting doesn’t fall into my arena that often but it was easier when I was at Dr Pepper. When we partnered with Sony for the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man film, I was all over that shit. Once I got the studio art I Photoshopped Spidey with a Dr Pepper can pack under his arm swinging through New York. The headline said, “With Great Thirst Comes Great Responsibility.” I took it to the Dr Pepper brand department and the woman in charge slapped my hands and told me to “STOP IT! We’ve already got an outside agency working on all this Spider-Man shit and we’re just ready for it to go away! And don’t let anyone else see this because if Sony sees him even touching the product, they’ll lose their minds!” So that was that, they wouldn’t let me near the first Spider-Man film.
Another great slogan bonanza for Dr Pepper was an internal campaign for the headquarters. We had moved North of Dallas to Plano, Texas and since we were new to the area, they wanted a campaign to remind employees to go only places that served our brands. The slogan was “BYOB, Buy Your Own Beverage”…kind of a brand loyalty message. So me and an older Art Director who was kind of like my mentor at the time decided to take all these famous works of art and make them into posters for each brand. (We had about 38 at the time) Visuals like Magritte’s “Son of Man” with a bottle of Dr Pepper in front of his face instead of an apple or Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy” with a Deja Blue Water were designed. It was so damned fun and we must have done about 25 or 30 of these. So here I come with another great headline that I was forbidden to use. I wanted to do DaVinci’s “Last Supper” with Jesus and all the Apostles drinking our brands, except Judas who had a Pepsi. The headline was, “Buy Your Own Beverage, Because It May Be Your Last.” That didn’t go over too well. The last fight I had with that project was to use the “Dogs Playing Poker” painting with Slush Puppies all over the poker table. Dr Pepper had just bought Slush Puppie so it was the last one we did and it made sense because they were sold all over Plano. I was then told by my fellow mentor Art Director that the “Dogs Playing Poker” wasn’t a real work of art, so I yielded to his decision…which I still give him shit about. He’s one of my closest friends now, so I let him have that one. I think he did something using a 17th Century Flemish artist that said “Who Let the Dogs Out” showing a bunch of dogs running through a crowded town. Ugh, I still like my idea better.
I’m looking forward to the next Dallas ComicCon once the quarantine is lifted, but it’s anyone’s guess when that’ll be. Texans don’t know how to abide by the shelter in place guidelines and we keep having to start over down here. Texas is full of stubborn rednecks who don’t like what to be told.
I usually wear my usual shorts, T-Shirt and “SNEAKERS” when I listen to Sneaky Dragon since I’m either walking or working around the house on Sundays…when your episodes drop. Okay, one more: Sneaky Dragon: “We Love to Hear You Listen”
‘Nuff said.
Some of the slogans already submitted are hilarious! Here’s my shot:
“Sneaky Dragon: Making sense out of nonsense”
I think you guys are particularly good at stringing together random topics and pulling meaning from them.
As for after quarantine, besides just getting to see my friends, I can’t wait to go to a concert. I was going to go to a concert in May (obviously postponed), and when I finally get to go, I’ll be very grateful to be in a room with so many strangers, all enjoying music together. Also, the general excitement of the crowd will probably be heightened by this “drought” of human contact. I imagine I’ll be waiting a long time though, since I think concerts are dead last on list for reopening.
Slogan: “Sneaky Dragon…betcha can’t sneak just one. “
Jingle: check your email in-box
Looking forward to: choir, ballet and poker nights
What I wear when listening to the podcast: often a men’s cotton button-down shirt from a thrift shop. They’re good as nightshirts and work shirts as they usually have a roomier cut and stronger stitching than a woman’s shirt.
My first taste of a slush drink was a Dairy Queen Mr. Misty. It’s now called by the less alliterative but gender-free name of Misty Slush. As a kid, I didn’t think they were a good deal. It seemed to me you were paying a lot for flavoured frozen water. When Slurpees became self-serve, to improve their slurp-ability, I used to fill the cup about 2/3 full with Slurpee, then top it up with pop. That was probably against the rules, but no one ever called me on it. My favourite big chain slush drink now is Tim Hortons Frozen Lemonade. So refreshing!
Hello Dave and Ian –
My Sneaky Slogan suggestion – ” You’re not wrong.”
A couple weeks ago, I listened to the Podcast/Show in my hospital gown while recovering from a Cancer removing Robotic Prostatectomy.
I used Dave’s suggestion from an earlier episode to turn the gown’s opening to the front to tie it off, and then put my arms through when I turned it around to the back. Good tip.
I was thinking the IV morphine might interfere with your banter, but it actually made it even more enjoyable to listen.
I had several episodes loaded onto my MP3 player and while listening to you’ze guys, it was like having a friend who never shut up in the room with me. It made up for the fact that I could have no other visitors at all, due to the Covid 19 restrictions. My drifting in and out of consciousness was no barrier to following along.
Thank you. It actually did help me very much to get through a difficult time.
After two weeks, the catheter is now out. I continue to listen when practicing my Kegal pelvic floor exercises to help regain continence. While I am wearing adult diapers for now, don’t make me laugh too much – because I tend to leak.
Before all this, I listened to the Show while enjoying my hobby – making Cigar Box Guitars in my garage workshop.
At that time, I usually wore at least some sawdust – or, as we CBG builders call it – man glitter.
There are so many good slogans and jingles above…and I’ve got nothing!
BUT I will tell you that I am looking forward to going to the real movie theater again when re-opened safely. Grandson and I were enjoying the movies regularly together for a couple of years. I do miss that.
Last evening we went over to Winston-Salem NC (an hour away) with my visiting son and his wife for a drive-in showing of the original 1984 “Ghostbusters”. It was great. Parking spots all marked out and we could order tickets online, a snack bar, friendly masked faces showing how to drive the lanes, taking tickets, etc. The movie was shown against the wide white side of the actual movie theater! And that parking lot was full @ $20 per carload! The sound played through a local FM radio station. We had the windows down, a little warm but comfortable and it just felt like a happy summer thing to do! Will do it again!
And usually these days I am gardening or weed eating while listening to my favorite podcast (Yes, I mean Sneaky Dragon!) so I’m wearing a regular old scroungy tank top and shorts!
Hope you are having a good week!
“Please don’t squeeze the Sneaky.”