Sunday, October 13, 2024

Flopcast 649: Mad in the Fall

As our Halloween festivities continue, we take a quick look at the horror movies parodied in Mad Magazine in the 1980s. Including: The Shining, Poltergeist, Psycho II, a couple of Alien movies, and Gremlins (with Alfred E. Neuman as Gizmo on the cover). Speaking of Mad and Alfred, we just visited the Norman Rockwell Museum for an amazing exhibit called "What, Me Worry? The Art & Humor of Mad Magazine." And it closes in two weeks, so GO RIGHT NOW. Also: It's World Singing Day. And we are not the world.

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Flopcast 648: Your Job Is To Freak Everybody Out

It's Halloween season, which means it's Monster Cereal season! And while we rarely eat the stuff anymore, we do welcome the return of Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry, and the new girl, zombie DJ Carmella Creeper. (Sorry, Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy fans. Those weirdos aren't around this year.) The big news is that the monsters have pets now! Meet the Frightful Friends: Benny the Bat, Igor the Spider, Scratch the Snake, and Meow Berry. (What, no chicken?! Send your letters of complaint to General Mills...) Several Flopcast listeners have even provided photos of this year's cereal boxes, saving us a trip to the grocery store, where we'd just blow all our podcasting profits on Doritos. Also: Happy Birthday to Scott Bakula! He's probably out there Quantum-leaping and Enterprise-splaining right now.

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Flopcast 647: The Super Dictionary - Dust the Tiger

With Dragon Con finally out of the way, we can have some real fun! Let's read the dictionary! Specifically we're diving back into The Super Dictionary, a bizarre 1978 book for kids that mixed learning and DC Comics superheroes, and left everyone thoroughly confused. After perusing a few more entries, we have some questions, such as: Is Batgirl a pirate? (Or a mechanic, or a bikini model?) Is Supergirl terrified of mice? And why are Batman and Robin climbing a giant baby? We're equally confused by the villains, as we see Joker planning a dinner party and Catwoman, yes, dusting the tiger. (Not a euphemism.) So join us for a super-weird vocabulary lesson. We promise you will learn nothing.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Flopcast 646: Dragon Con Review Part 3 - Screaming Bikini Chicken Ladies

Let's wrap up our look back at Dragon Con 2024, before we have to creep back to Atlanta for Dragon Con 2025! The final two days of our favorite nerdfest included: Sci-Fi Court! (The Mayor defended Beastmaster, and Kevin defended Wonder Woman. But not the Wonder Woman you're thinking of.) A couple of rounds of Roll-A-Panel, in which a giant d20 determined which movies were discussed! (Don't worry, we did not miss Sheena: Queen of the Jungle.) Celebrity Q&A panels with Giancarlo Esposito, Ming Na Wen, Manny Jacinto, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Mike Colter! Script readings of Three's Company and Out of This World, featuring kazoos, a surprise message from space, and a million Helens Roper! The new Dragon Tales book! Retro arcade games! Barbies! Teeth! And yes, screaming bikini chicken ladies. It was magnificent. See you next year, weirdos.

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Flopcast 645: Dragon Con Review Part 2 - Broil the Scientists

The Mayor of Chickentown joins Kevin and Kornflake as our look back at Dragon Con 2024 continues! This time we're covering Friday and Saturday, when the convention was so crowded that we could not have squished one more nerd into Atlanta. Our coverage includes: The Geek Girls Run! The ESO Network's Freaks and Geeks 25th Anniversary panel! More panels on punk rock sci-fi, Office Space, Aquaman, cicadas, and apes! Monty Python's John Cleese! Flute-playing astronaut Cady Coleman! A super-weird (as usual) round of Sci-Fi Explosion! And perhaps a naughty Star Trek puppet show too! It was all quite exhausting, and yikes, we still had two days to go. Stock up on mead and cheese (that's our Dragon Con health plan) and enjoy...

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Flopcast 644: Dragon Con Review Part 1 - Do Not Drink It

Here we go with the first of three (yikes, hopefully no more than three) Dragon Con review episodes! This week Kevin and Kornflake go over everything that happened Wednesday and Thursday, as our giant Atlanta nerd festival was just getting started. Including: A meeting of the geeks at Logan Airport in Boston! The Dragon Con debut of our pal Blasted Bill! Our third annual meeting with the Muscovy ducks of Piedmont Park! The Dragon Con Newbie Walking Tour! A disgusting beverage! The Council of Kevins! The Sci-Fi Music Video Book Club! The 120 Minutes dance party! And lots more shenanigans and silliness with the greatest collection of nerds and weirdos ever assembled. And this is only the beginning...

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Flopcast 643: So Many Robots Out There

It's Dragon Con weekend, but we didn't forget about a weird Flopcast summer tradition: our annual robot-themed Top 4 ½ List! And we have a special guest to deliver the list: our old pal (and original Sponge Awareness Foundation member) Jim, finally making his Flopcast debut! Jim has a list of surprise robots from movies and TV; that is, robots that we didn't know were robots until the big reveal. Call them androids, call them simuloids, call them replicants, Cylons, fembots, whatever you like. But they're robots in disguise, and they're out there. By the way, the Chickaphant, an alien chicken/elephant hybrid, is also out there somewhere. Please don't leave the house.

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Flopcast 642: Dragon Con Preview Part 2 - Where the Cheese Is

Dragon Con is just days away, which means tens of thousands of nerds shall soon descend upon the unsuspecting city of Atlanta. (Actually, Atlanta knows we're coming. They're jacking up the price of giant rum drinks at this very moment...) Kevin and the Mayor of Chickentown will be busy with panels, presentations, and various bizarre Dragon Con events, so this week we're sharing our schedule with you. Including: Panels on Aquaman, Batman, What If...?, and Freaks and Geeks! The Sci-Fi Music Video Book Club! The return of Sci-Fi Court! A couple of Roll-A-Panels! A not-at-all-silly script reading of a Three's Company episode! The Geek Girls Run! Apes! (So many apes...) And lots more weird stuff, of course. Find us there! We'll have shiny badge ribbons for you. And we'll file our full Dragon Con report here in a couple of weeks, assuming we're not trampled by an inflatable T-rex mob.

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Flopcast 641: Dragon Con Preview Part 1 - Duck Time

Dragon Con, our favorite gigantic nerdfest of the year, is just a couple of weeks away, and we're already exhausted. Today we're looking at Dragon Con's guest list of TV and movie stars, writers, artists, musicians, scientists, podcasters, puppeteers, and miscellaneous weirdos. Including: A trio of Lord of the Rings hobbits, a Monty Python guy, a Robot Chicken guy, a bunch of Fraggles, a bunch of Star Trek actors (including a certain bearded Commander whose birthday we're celebrating), a flute-playing astronaut, Canadian teen pop star Robin Sparkles, and more. We're also thrilled to announce the release of Dragon Tales, a collection of stories and essays all about Dragon Con. (There's even a contribution from Kevin, and believe it or not, it's completely ridiculous.) This is a super-fun book, and all the proceeds go to charity, so we hope you'll pop over to Amazon and order a copy right now. Next week: The dragon talk continues, and it just keeps getting weirder.

Sunday, August 11, 2024

Flopcast 640: Ironic Summer Songs of the 90s

Kornflake returns to wrap up the summer song project we started last week! This time we're covering the 1990s, and selecting the songs we most associate with each summer. So we'll probably cover some Mariah, some Paula, and perhaps a Barenaked Lady or two. Along the way, our 90s memories include Kornflake on the radio requesting a Seal song, and Kevin in a church basement insisting that life is not a highway. Kids, it was a weird decade full of weird summers. We're entering the Smash Mouth era. Cover yourselves.

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Flopcast 639: Cruel Summer Songs of the 80s

As the Hit Parade podcast recently taught us, each year Billboard declares an official "Song of the Summer" based on chart performance. We're taking a more subjective approach, and choosing which songs we most associate with each summer of the 1980s. Of course you'll find some Go-Go's and some Kenny Loggins on our list (come on, it's us), but perhaps we'll surprise you with a choice or two. And which songs would you pick? What reminds you of the summer of 1984, as you biked through the heat to the arcade in search of Donkey Kong Junior? (Is it Huey Lewis? It's probably Huey Lewis.) Let us know! And prepare for next week, when we'll take on the summer songs of the 1990s. It'll be intense.