- Gosh darn, flim flarm, ding dang, gobbledyguk,
we gotta go back to PT-Bergy, H-E-double-hockey-sticks.
You know, Pennsylvania.
(majestic fanfare musical sting)
- Hello, I'm Doug Jones,
and today we're gonna talk about Lawnchair Larry.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
Our story begins in 1962.
A 13-year-old boy named Larry Walters
walks into an Army-Navy surplus store,
and amongst the Swiss Army knives
and the heavy duty flashlights,
he sees right before him a weather balloon.
Suddenly inspiration hits him like a bolt of lightning.
He says, oh my God,
if I had enough of these balloons, I could fly.
He graduates from high school
and enlists in the US Air Force,
but due to his poor eyesight, he's rejected
and this devastates him, but he says, you know what?
I'm not gonna let this stop me.
Fast forward to 1982.
Larry is now a 33-year-old truck driver,
and he still hasn't been able
to get this idea of flying out of his head.
Larry's driving his truck.
He hears an airplane.
He looks up and he's like, son of a bitch,
That's gonna be me someday.
Out of my way, asshole. (mimics horn honking)
(Derek laughing)
Let it out.
(Derek laughing)
So he brings his girlfriend, Carol,
into the very same Army-Navy surplus store
he went to as a kid, and he says,
I'm gonna buy a bunch of these balloons,
I'm gonna tie them to a lawn chair,
and then I'm gonna fly.
She says, you can't do that,
that's way too danger. (burps)
Excuse me.
That's way too dangerous.
He says, no, no, no, no, no, I know what I'm doing.
And Carol says, wow, okay, I'm in.
Takes out her credit card,
and spends over $4,000 on weather balloons,
a lawn chair, helium tanks, CB radio set, a BB pellet gun.
So, Larry lays out the plan, and he says,
okay, I'm gonna take off from your backyard in San Pedro.
I'm gonna fly over the San Gabriel Mountains.
When I reach an altitude of approximately 7,000 feet,
I'm gonna use the BB pistol to shoot out the balloons.
And then I'll gradually begin
my safe descent into the Mojave Desert.
Now, here's the important part.
Right before I take off,
you're gonna notify the FAA
so that I don't get hit by a plane.
I really don't wanna get hit by a plane.
I spilled on my nuts.
(Derek snorts)
So, July second, 1982, Larry establishes his ground crew,
which consists of his girlfriend, Carol, and his buddy, Ron.
He's like, hey, what's up?
I'm Ron.
They take 42 weather balloons and fill them with helium,
tie it to a aluminum lawn chair,
tie that to two dozen jugs water for ballast.
Larry christens his contraption Inspiration I.
And he's like, okay, it's go time, let's rock and roll.
They cut the first tether, suddenly Carol's like,
whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait a minute, Larry.
This is a big mistake.
Larry turns to Carol and says, baby,
I'm sorry, but a man can't just sit around.
(Derek laughing)
Right then and there, a gust of wind comes along
and the second tether snaps in half,
and Larry shoots off into the sky
at a thousand feet per minute.
Larry, uh, Carol freaks out.
Larry is up in the sky, and he's like,
oh my God, my greatest wish has come true.
Ron turns to Carol and says, my God, Carol,
we forgot to notify the FAA.
Oh my God, I'm so drunk. (Derek laughs)
So, Larry gets on his CB radio,
and he's like, (mics static) okay, I'm at 500 feet.
I am now entering federal airspace.
(mimics static) I am at 1,450 feet,
higher than the Sears Tower.
(mimics static) I am now at 6,500 feet,
I'm above the clouds.
At that very moment,
two commercial airline pilot (burps) flying by.
He's like, see the game last night?
That Fernando Valenzuela has one hell of an arm. (laughs)
That son of a bitch.
And then Larry's like, (Derek laughing)
(mimics stic) now I'm at 8,000 feet.
(heavy breathing) Oxygen becomes scarce at 8,500 feet.
He's like, when I was a teenager, I experienced Beatlemania,
but this is more like Fernandomania, am I right?
And then Larry's like, holy shit, oh my God.
I'm at 16,000 feet.
I'm three miles above sea level.
I thought I would stop at 7,000,
and now I am at two, double, two over double.
Oh God, dear God, oh, what have I done?
The pilot looks over, well, I'll be a son of a bitch.
(Derek laughs)
We got a guy on a lawn chair holding a gun.
Carol freaks out, she's like, Larry, you're too high.
You're gonna get in trouble.
But she's like, how's the view?
And he was like, it's nice, it's real good,
but you're right, it's time to come back down now.
He takes the BB pistol.
He shoots out, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew,
seven of the 42 weather balloons.
And then he sets the gun on his lap
and it falls into the sky, and it's gone,
and he's like, oh, my gun, whoa, no, oh no,
what am I gonna do now?
Well, as it turns out,
35 weather balloons is the perfect amount of balloons
to make a safe and gradual descent into the land.
Inspiration I lands onto the power cords in Long Beach,
and knocking out the power in the entire neighborhood.
Carol runs up to him,
and Carol says, oh my God, thank God you're okay.
Gives him a big-ass hug and is like,
please tell me you're never gonna do that again.
He makes the evening news.
He never gets charged with anything.
The very next week,
Larry gets a special invitation to be a guest
on the "Late Night with David Letterman."
- [Derek] Wow.
- [Doug] Letterman says, wow, how does it feel to accomplish
something that you've always wanted to do?
And Larry says, I've achieved inner peace,
and I'm the happiest person alive today.
♪ Taking me out of the space I was in ♪
♪ Making my wishes come true ♪
♪ Believe it or not, I'm walking on air ♪
♪ I never thought I could feel so free-ee-ee ♪
♪ Flying away on balloons in a chair ♪
♪ Who could it be ♪
♪ Believe it or not, it's Larry ♪
- And that's now officially a parody, which is royalty-free,
so you can use this.
- To Larry Walters.
- Larry Walters. (glasses clink)
- Hi, my name is Laura,
my name is Laura Steinel, (lamp clinking)
and today, we're talking about Gordon Cooper.
The year is 1963, Gordon Cooper,
he's this military test pilot from Oklahoma.
NASA had just begun, and so, he was one
of seven astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury.
Also really chill, he was like,
please, call me Gordo, don't call me Gordon.
I'm not that official.
Right?
And so all these space missions go off without a hitch.
And NASA is like, we've done really well, congrats, NASA.
And they're patting themselves on the back,
and Gordo's like, guys, I totally get it,
like, that's really cool, like, pats on the back.
But if you want to send a man to the moon,
you should maybe see if someone could be in space for,
I don't know, 24 hours.
And NASA's like, ugh, yeah, I guess, Gus,
yeah, sure, Gus. - Gordo.
- Oh (bleep), sorry, I'm an idiot.
- [Derek] It's okay, you're fine.
- So Gordo goes on the launch pad.
And NASA be like, hey, just like really quick,
like, don't touch anything.
NASA would completely control everything.
It was so bad that the astronauts felt like spam in a can,
is what they referred to themselves as.
So anyway, well, he launches into space,
and he's like three, two, one, blastoff.
(Laura mimicking rocket exploding)
Are you shooting that?
Okay, good.
He gets up into space and everything's cool.
He's like, I'm orbiting the (bleep) Earth.
Oh, I'm sorry, or-
- [Derek] No can swear.
- No, my mom, I try, I'm not.
I'm gonna try not to swear.
So he's in space.
He sends back the first TV images of a human back to Earth.
He has a little powdered roast beef dinner.
He's just having a ball.
So he takes a nap, the first guy to ever sleep in space.
He wakes up and he's like, it's good to be Gordo.
And then he's like, oh (bleep), no, it's not because.
Beep, beep!
Oh (bleep), I have no stabilization unit.
Everyone on mission control is freaking out.
They're like, oh God, this doesn't look good.
And Gus Grissom was like, bro, I love you.
I'm gonna tell your wife you're a hero.
Gordo's like, no, stop it,
I'm gonna take control over the spaceship.
Gus is like, you're about to do something none,
that no one has ever done before.
And Gordo's like, yeah, no, I know,
so just shut the (bleep) up, Gus, I've got control.
And he starts to take over manual control.
But at that moment, he loses radio signal with Gus Grissom.
And so, he gets a radio signal over to his friend,
John Glenn, who's on the recovery boat over in Japan.
And he's like, John Glenn, hey, it's me, Gordo.
I have absolutely no power in my spacecraft.
And I just wanna get back home
because I'm a really chill guy, it's me, Gordo.
And he's like, okay, here's what we're gonna do.
And so, together, they go through this checklist.
Put this thing up, like, press this button.
There's all these things he needs to do.
But then Gordo's like, oh, (bleep), beep!
And his carbon dioxide meter's going off.
And it's like, beep, beep, you're (bleep)ed!
And he's like, oh my God, you're right,
I'm totally (bleep)ing (bleep)ed.
But no, but he's chiller than that.
No, hold on, he's way calmer than that.
John Glenn, look, my carbon dioxide meter's going off,
and it's like a hundred degrees in my cabin,
which means he's (bleep) dying.
But he's not being a Debbie Downer about it.
And he's like, I need to get to Earth,
but like, manual reentry had never been done before.
So if he enters the Earth's atmosphere too steep,
he's gonna blow up.
So he says, okay, there's the Big Dipper,
there's the Little Dipper, Gemini.
He draws an axis on the window,
and uses the constellations as his constant.
And he says, this is going to be my angle
at which I can enter Earth's atmosphere,
which I think is pretty incredible.
So John Glenn is like, okay, 10, nine, eight, seven, six.
Gordo's like, let's just like, do it, I'm ready.
So he fires, uh, eh, eh.
What does this mean? (laughs)
(Derek chuckling)
What's it called when there's fire coming out of stuff?
When it's like a fire, aw! (laughs)
He fires the rockets. (Laura mimics exploding)
He had a five-dollar wristwatch,
and that's what he used to figure out
how long to fire his rockets. (Laura mimics exploding)
Gordo is like, I'm entering the Earth's atmosphere!
(bleep)ing bravo to me!
- [Derek] Wait, oh.
(lamp clinking)
(Derek laughs)
- And he splashes down,
and he has the most accurate splashdown
ever in NASA history.
And so, he's so chill.
He's like, hey guys, I made it, I'm not surprised,
it's me, Gordo.
Big whoop.
Gordo changed the game.
- Great.
- He had a five-dollar wristwatch!
- Hello, this is Solomon Georgio.
And today, we're gonna be talking about Mr. Fred Rogers.
- Mm!
Won't you be my neighbor?
- Won't you be my neighbor?
- [Derek] I would be your neighbor.
- Aw. (laughs)
So, it starts in 1951, Fred McFeely Rogers.
He watches children's TV for the first time.
And for the most part, it's just slapstick,
guys throwing pies on each other's faces,
someone who's being pranked,
and whatever nonsense is happening.
And he's like, well, this is just garbage, hot garbage,
what are we watching?
And he was like, I wanna do this,
but I wanna do it for the kids.
And he actually got a job at NBC,
but they're like we gotta do commercials for cigarettes,
alcohol, alcohol, man, and cigarettes.
- Yeah. - All that fun stuff.
- [Derek] Let's make the kids like this.
- And he just got fed up and was like,
that's not good enough for me.
I gotta (bleep)ing go back to PT-Burg,
(bleep)-off Pennsylvania, and see how I can, what I can do.
- [Derek] I can't believe Mr. Rogers would swear.
- Oh, I'm pretty sure he was like, gosh darn,
flim flarm, ding dang, goobledyguck,
we gotta go back to PT-Burgy, H-E-double-hockey-sticks,
you know, Pennsylvania.
They get back to Pittsburgh,
and he starts working with WQED.
He gets an opportunity to have his own show.
And he's like, oh, that sounds wonderful.
Do you have any money?
And then they're like, (laughs) no.
So, figure that out.
And he was like, oh, great,
we gotta do something with this tight, tight budget.
Maybe we should just do puppets, puppets are tight.
Everybody loves puppets.
Then he's like, all right, we're going to call this
"Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."
We got the puppets, we got the Land of Make-Believe,
we got Mr. McFeely, the weird postman
I named after my middle name.
And we're gonna make kids feel special.
And he does that.
And they started broadcasting
on the public broadcasting station.
And guess what he deals with again?
- What?
- Financial problems - Shit.
- He can't hide from them, they're everywhere.
All right, I need to do a fundraiser.
I guess I'll do a fundraiser in Boston.
That's a good place for fundraisers to happen.
And surprisingly, out of nowhere,
10,000 people just show up.
- 10,000?
- 10,000 people, and that piqued the interest
of our president at the time, Mr. Lyndon B. Johnson.
- [Derek] Ooh, honestly, dope as hell.
- Hey, I wanna set up
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
You get to have $20 million.
So, Lyndon B. Johnson's like, peace.
And then Richard Nixon showed up, and he was like,
oh, the Vietnam War is happening.
I'm gonna cut the funding.
But before Nixon could take all that money away,
they had to have a Senate committee hearing
led by Rhode Island Senator John Pastore.
This is the one Mr. Rogers slides in,
like the part of me is like,
let's imagine Mr. Rogers just Moonwalking
into the committee hearing.
(Derek and Solomon laughing)
Mr. Rogers was like, this is what we do.
We look at kids and go, hey, you are legit a person,
and you have an importance in this world.
Also, your imagination is a brilliant thing
that you have going on in your head.
And we should develop it in this great, insane way.
He spoke the words of the song that he wrote
about what to do when you're mad.
He's like, well, what do you do when you're mad?
Do you wanna punch a wall?
You wanna rip your mama's hair out?
Do you wanna kick your kid sister in the face?
Well, and how about you just sing
this precious little song instead?
And John looked at him and was like,
(sighs) I am a rough, hard armadillo of a human man,
but you gave me goosebumps.
You gave me spine chills.
They were like, we get it, what you do is wonderful.
You deserve this $20 million,
we were dumb for even bringing you here, Mr. Rogers.
That day, PBS was legit saved,
they weren't losing any funding.
They were like, you are legit
the greatest thing ever happen to television.
You're doing such a great job
'cause you're the best, and you're the best, and never stop.
If it wasn't for Mr. Rogers that day,
there would've been no "Sesame Street,"
there would've been no "Lamb Chop's Play-Along,"
there would have been no "Reading Rainbow."
It just, the list goes on and on and on and on and on.
He left behind several decades of some
of the best children's television programming ever
in the history of not only television, but the whole world.
- Humanity. - Humanity.
- To PBS! - To PBS!
- And Mr. Rogers. (glasses clink)
- And the good of humanity. - Amen.
(balloon farting)
(boy shrieks) (crew laughs)
- Hello. I'm Mike Still,
and today, we're gonna talk about Ernest Thompson Seton,
the founder of the Boy Scouts of America.
Cheers.
Ernest Thompson Seton was born to a really mean dad.
His life at home was awful.
So he ran out into the woods,
and it was a place that he could truly explore.
And he said, I am a human that exists among birds,
among beavers, among badgers, among animals.
He got to fantasize about being an Indian,
and he drew the most beautiful pictures of birds.
So in 1893, he meets his girlfriend's father, Fitz Randolph.
And he's like, we got all these problems out in New Mexico,
we got these wolves, they're killing us, all of our cattle.
They're getting out there, they're eating the cattle.
We just need someone to like help us out,
we just need someone.
And Ernest is like, I'll do it.
No problem.
He spent a ton of time in the wild.
He's very used to this.
So, Ernest gets out to New Mexico.
And he like, I hear there's all these wolves to kill.
The cowboys are like, no, no, no, man, there's one.
His name is Lobo.
The King of Corrumpa, pa, pa.
The King of Corrumpa.
Seton's like, let's do this.
And he's just, and he works through the woods,
he's tracking the animal.
He looks, he picks up a leaf.
Oh, Lobo, you've been here.
And Lobo's like, yes, you know I have.
You know I have.
Well, I'm on my way to get you.
All he wants to do is kill this wolf.
Whoosh!
With some sort of bow and arrow,
a rifle, (smacks lips) (blows)
(smacks lips) pew pew.
(Derek laughs)
Just showing how you kill a wolf.
And he can't do it.
He's a total smart (bleep)ing wolf.
So he's hunting Lobo for four months.
All of a sudden, he's like looking out on the prairie,
and he's like, why am I seeing this wolf during the day?
And it turns out Lobo was hanging out
with the hottest wolf that's ever existed,
and she's super (bleep)ing hot, real hot.
So, (laughs) Lobo and Blanca were hanging out,
and they were the super coolest pumas to ever hang out.
They were super chill.
Ernest realizes the only thing that could kill Lobo
was the most dangerous weapon of all, love.
Ernest and his boys go after Blanca,
they go after her, and they capture Blanca.
They know that she is the way to get Lobo.
And they pull her back and they kill her.
Just totally done, it's done, they got her, they got her!
They got her.
And Seton's like, now we can get Lobo.
And he takes her corpse back to his camp,
and he hears at night, this sad, this sad howl.
(Mike howling)
(Mike laughs)
And Lobo came closer than he ever did before.
And (Mike mimicking clicking), he was caught by four traps.
And Seton came out, and was like, got him, we got him.
But then he looked in this animal's eyes,
and he realized this was someone that was heartbroken,
this was someone that was completely heartbroken.
So Seton said, I'm not gonna kill him.
I'm not, he carried him back, he gave him meat,
and then he died.
But this (bleep)ed him up.
He couldn't believe that he had like killed this animal.
Yeah, he was just like, what the (bleep) did I do here?
Like, I (bleep)ing killed this beautiful animal,
that somehow it was okay to like kill things.
Why, why, why?
Like, in capital letters.
So he put out a book,
it was called "Wild Animals I Have Known."
He gives the animals in his book personalities and thoughts,
and most people can't (bleep)ing deal with that.
It blows their (bleep)ing minds.
So after years,
years later, in 1902, he's writing books,
and he's drawing pictures of birds.
And then all of a sudden, he hears all this noise,
and he looks out, what is going on out here?
Tons of boys start vandalizing his house.
He just runs after these boys,
and they're like, sorry, man, we come from troubled homes,
we had abusive dads.
And Ernest is like, whoa, what the (bleep)?
You're just like me.
He says, all right, and he got all these boys together,
and hang out on Easter.
And they're like, what is this guy's deal?
We have no idea what he's going to do.
And he's like, you thought I was gonna reprimand you.
Guess what?
We're learning about woods,
we're learning about survival,
we're learning about trees,
we're learning about all of the things
that humans need to know to prosper.
And he called his hangout the Woodcraft Indians.
It eventually grew into the Boy Scouts of America.
(Mike howls)
All right, so here we have, we're gonna do a slipknot.
- Slipknot. - Pretty easy.
So, all we wanna do is go over,
oh, it's already pretty bad.
So we go over this, right?
And we over that.
Oh, so we go over each knot.
- Knot.
And it's right now just a rope.
(orchestral fanfare music)