-One of our writers, Karen, she is 25 years old.
As a result, she has a much different frame of reference
than I do, so I thought I'd find out
how much Karen knows about the past
in a segment called "What Does Karen Know?"
♪♪
-Hi, Karen. How are you? -I'm good. How are you?
-Good. I miss seeing you in person,
but it's lovely to see you virtually this way.
-It's so nice to see you too! -How has been --
How has the pandemic been for a 25-year-old?
-Um, I mean for me particularly as someone who doesn't go out
much to begin with, you know, just a little bit more sadness.
[ Laughter ] -Alright.
Are you ready for another trip down my memory lane
to see if it triggers a memory in you?
-Yes, I'm excited.
I've done some studying. -Okay, great.
You've studied the '80s and the '90s and whatnot?
-Oh. I think I went back too far.
Never mind, that's -- -[ Laughs ]
How dare you, Karen?
How dare you?
Alright. Here's our first item.
Does this mean anything to you, Karen?
-Um, no.
It almost -- My initial thought was like a pogo stick,
but that's definitely not true.
-Nah, not a pogo stick.
-Is it like a water gun of some kind?
-It's not a water gun.
Karen, it's a Bop It.
Does that mean anything to you? -Oh, yes, I do.
I have heard of Bop Its.
-What have you heard about the old Bop It?
-The toy itself tells you to bop it and then you bop it.
-Yeah. And it was a hit.
-That's all I know.
-What you just described was popular.
Of course it's not just Bop It.
You know you also, I think, yank it, pull it, twist it,
twist it, flip it, and then it gets faster and faster.
And right as you think you finally
outsmarted the Bop It... -Uh-huh.
-Game over.
Anyway, it didn't have a very long shelf life,
but it was a big part of our lives for probably
like three or four months.
Do you know this gentleman?
-Um, no. A boxer?
-Mm-hmm. Do you think he's a real boxer or a fictional boxer?
-I think he's fictional. -Gotcha.
-Mm-hmm. And I think --
-Have you ever seen any of the "Rocky" films?
-Oh! No!
But I know about Rocky. [ Laughs ]
-Well, that's very unimpressive.
-He gets -- He gets knocked down and then he gets back up.
-Yeah. They wrote that song about him.
-"Tubthumping" by --
-Yeah, "Tubthumping" was the "Rocky" theme song.
He would walk out and they'd play "Tubthumping."
By the way, I can't believe you
[bleep] pulled "Tubthumping."
[ Laughter ]
I would have thought 0% chance.
Do you know who sang "Tubthumping"?
-Yes. Oh, my God, I do.
I know this because it was an answer at, like,
a bar trivia thing I went to a few months ago.
-Mm-hmm.
-Chumbawamba! -Well, there you go.
Here we are trying to -- That was Ivan Drago.
Ivan Drago.
And he was a Russian.
And what do you think happened in the fight when they fought?
-Wait, is this not Rocky? -No, he fought Rocky.
-Oh, gotcha.
-Wait, you thought that was Rocky?
-Yeah, sorry. [ Laughter ]
-Again, I just can't -- Your brain both
has room for Chumbawamba and not Sylvester Stallone.
-Oh, Sylvester Stallone, okay.
-Never -- We're going to move on to the next one.
No chance. Do you know who this is?
-Oh, no.
-It looks like Ivan Drago going to a party.
[ Laughter ]
Probably shouldn't have put those two next to each other.
Does Max Headroom mean anything to you?
-No, yeah, sorry. -That's Max Headroom.
He was basically presented to us as sort of an A.I.-type fella.
He had a show, a very brief show but then more importantly became
a sort of television pitchman for New Coke.
-Like, the drink? -Yeah.
-Oh. Fun. -Did you hear about New Coke?
Did you hear about this?
-Is it -- By now is it just what we call Coke?
-There was New Coke. -Okay.
-Then they went back to Coke Classic, right?
-Yes, that's where we are now.
-We had Coke Classic. -Yeah.
-But we just call it Coke. -Right.
-Alright.
[ Laughter ]
Do you know who this is?
-Oh, no. I'm sorry.
But she looks so nice.
-You think she looks nice? Okay.
[ Laughter ]
Based on her look, what would you guess she did for a living?
-Probably owned lots of property?
-Okay, I think technically
there was some property issues with what she was doing.
-Okay.
Was she like some sort of host, presenter-type person?
-Yeah, she had a television show.
Her and her husband were presenters.
-Okay. -And what do you think
they were talking about?
When you see a lady like that,
what do you think she's telling you to do?
-To get your life in order. -Yes.
There was some of that.
And if you were to follow one person
to get your life in order... -Oh, Jesus!
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-My grandma will be so happy.
-Yeah, that was Tammy Faye Bakker, and she was married
to a hot piece of garbage who's closer to the devil than Jesus.
I think that's safe to say, right?
-Sure. -Yeah.
And, yeah, they were -- they had a television show.
Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker.
And Jim's still around, and she is sadly --
rest in peace, Tammy Faye Bakker.
I think she got the raw end of the deal.
That's where I land on that one.
Here's our next one.
Who's this?
-Ooh, just a cool guy.
-He is a cool guy.
Cool is actually half of his name.
-Is it Mr. Cool?
-No. -Oh.
-But you're never going to get it, so don't just keep guessing.
-Cool Red. I'm going to keep guessing.
-Please, Karen, I'm telling you you're not going to get it.
[ Laughter ] -Cool Dude.
-Please, Karen, this is going to go on forever.
-Cool Bug. [ Laughter ]
-He was a pitchman as well, also for soda.
What soda was this gentleman -- His name is Cool Spot.
-Mountain Dew. -No.
But you're thinking of the right color can,
but it's not Mountain Dew.
-Sprite? -Again, same color,
but amazingly you're going to guess the right one last.
-Wait, what? There's Mountain Dew, there's Sprite.
There's another one that's green and yellow?
Or green and red, sorry. -1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...
[ Laughter ]
-8, 8. [ Laughter ]
Wait, what did you just say?
-I said, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...
-7-Up! -There we go.
[ Laughter ]
He was the 7-Up Cool Spot.
And that was probably my early teens,
and that's the kind of gentleman
I needed to tell me what to be drinking.
-Nice. -Again, it was him or that --
or Max Headroom.
I didn't have a lot of choices. -Right. Cool Dude.
-Well, once again I feel like we've accomplished not a ton,
but I think we've enjoyed our time together.
-Yeah, this has been really fun. Oh, but there's more.
-Oh, right. -Yes.
-This is the part I always forget about.
Now you, a person of a different generation,
is going to see if I know anything about your --
the things in your life. -Yes.
These are things that were important to me growing up.
-Okay, let's take a look. -And just to be clear,
you've never seen these pictures before.
-Alright.
-Do you know who she is?
-That looks like a young Tammy Faye Bakker.
[ Laughter ]
On her way to school. -Oh, my gosh.
-That's a children's book.
Is it a children's book character?
-Mm-hmm.
-God, we're reading some kids books now because of the boys,
but I don't think we've read this one.
Is she a crime solver?
-Oh, actually kind of in one of the books.
So, this is Kit Kittredge.
-Kit Kittredge. Okay. -Mm-hmm.
She's an American Girl doll.
-Oh, she's an American Girl doll.
-Yeah, yeah. Well, this is the book
before the doll, but she's great.
She lived during the Great Depression,
and she was really into writing and stuff.
-I'm glad she can be so upbeat while the country starved.
[ Laughter ] -It's something --
-Glad things are going okay for Kit.
-[ Laughs ]
-Probably not a crossover with "The Grapes of Wrath."
-[ Laughs ] I feel like -- -Alright.
Let's take a look at one more.
Oh, those are -- these are, like, talking vegetables, right?
-Yeah! It's "VeggieTales."
-Is it some sort of pun off vegetables or something?
-Yeah.
-The Veget-- the Vegetepeoples?
-No, but keep going.
-The Vegete-- the Vegete-- the Vegetebros?
[ Laughter ]
Vegete-- I don't know.
-It's called "VeggieTales."
-"VeggieTales."
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-It's great because they tell you a lot of Bible stories.
-Do they really? -Mm-hmm.
-So they're the real Tammy Faye Bakker in all this.
-Yeah, they're very effective.
-They're effective? -Yeah.
-Well, I guess in the end that was probably the reason
we didn't go to church that much in our family is
no vegetables told us the upside.
[ Laughter ]
Karen, once again, I feel like
we're even closer than we were before
because we've shared
our different generational attractions.
Thank you so much for the time. -Bye! Thank you!
-This has been "What Does Karen Know?"
♪♪