-This is a true story. One of our writers, Karen,
is 24 years old. To give you an idea of how young that is,
when I graduated college, the president was Bill Clinton.
When Karen graduated college,
the president was Donald Trump. [ Laughter ]
As a result, she has a much different frame of reference
than a lot of us. So we thought we'd find out
exactly what Karen knows about the past
in a segment called "What Does Karen Know?"
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Hi! -Hi!
Welcome back, Karen. -Thank you.
-I so -- I so look forward to this.
Here's how it works. I'm gonna show you a photo of something,
and you're gonna try to tell us what this is.
And I should add, you have not seen these.
-I've never seen these before -Okay, great. Alright.
So, here we go. Are you ready for your first one?
-Yeah. -Okay, who is this?
-Whoa, big strong man.
-Yeah. -The white Bruce Lee.
-Well, that's close --
That's pretty close.
-Walker Texas? No?
-No. Different guy. Little bit younger
than Chuck Norris. -Chuck Norris?
-It's not Chuck Norris. -Oh, no. Okay.
-This man is from Belgium.
-Oh. That didn't help me.
-No. [ Laughter ]
He was in "Kickboxer," "Sudden Death."
His name is Jean-Claude Van Damme.
-Oh. -Does that mean anything to you?
-Yes! -Okay, great.
-I see that name on Twitter a lot.
-Oh, wow. -I just assumed
that was that person's real name.
[ Laughter ] -Well, it is his real name.
-Wait. No, but I'm sure it's not him that --
You know what I mean? Is he online right now?
-I don't know. I mean, he could have a --
I mean, he's a black belt.
I assume he could figure out how Twitter works.
-Wait, is he still alive? -He is still alive, yeah.
-[ Laughing ] Oh.
I just assumed -- [ Laughter and applause ]
-I mean, I think he'll drop dead when he watches this is.
-[ Laughing ] Oh, no.
-So, he's a strong guy from Brussels.
What do you think his nickname was?
-Um, Jean-Claude.
[ Laughter ]
-Yep.
[ Laughter ]
Hey, what are these?
-Okay, wait. I know what this is.
It's a bracelet? And they're straight,
and then you slap it on, and it spins.
-Yeah. They're called --
Put it all together. You said both words that their called.
-Slap bracelet. -There you go. You nailed it.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Did you ever have one?
-Yes. I think I got them
when I went to the doctor and if I got a shot,
and I did a good job, they would give me one.
-Gotcha. -Yeah.
-And if you did a bad job, just the slap.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Okay.
-Oh. A pencil sharpener.
[ Laughter ]
-Did you -- Have you ever -- [ Cheers and applause ]
Be honest. -Thank you. Thank you.
-Have you -- Did you ever have to use one?
-Yes, I did. But I didn't like it 'cause --
So, we had them at the same time as we had electric ones.
-Yeah. That's very unfair. -Yeah.
I would only have to use the ones that were in the wall --
In the wall? On the wall? -Yeah.
-If the lines for the electric one was too long.
But then the shavings would always fall in my hands,
and that was gross.
-So there was a line for the pencil sharpener?
-Yeah.
-Were people just writing so much at your school
they were constantly dulling their pencils?
-Yeah. I think it's more like if you got bored, you were like,
"I guess I have to do this."
-Okay, gotcha. Well, if you were bored,
and you wanted to kill time, this was where it was at.
That took like a full 45 minutes to sharpen a pencil.
[ Laughter ]
Um, alright. Here we go.
-Okay.
Um, chicken wings.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. Those are chicken wings.
But believe it or not, I was asking you about the man.
-Oh. [ Laughter ]
-This was the best photo we could get of chicken wings.
-Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
I have no idea.
He's so cute. -I think -- Is it Frank Purdue?
Is that -- Yeah, it was Frank Perdue,
and he had Perdue chicken.
Have you ever heard of Perdue chickens?
-No. -Yeah, they're a very popular
chicken to this day. -Oh.
-And they -- And believe it or not, he was in the commercials.
He would -- Somebody looked at that and goes,
"Yeah, we should get him on TV."
-Yeah. No, he's adorable.
-He's adorable. And he would tell you --
He just would let you know he stood by his chicken,
and America said okay.
[ Laughter ]
It was a pretty cool time.
-Did you have the chicken?
-Yeah, we ate Perdue chicken a lot.
Yeah, my parents would never buy chicken
unless they saw the man who owned the company.
-Very smart. [ Laughter ]
-That was a rule in the house. -Yeah.
-I think beforehand, though, nobody knew --
Like, you just bought chicken,
and then he was on TV, and you were like --
-Right. Yeah, before, you had to kill you own chickens.
-Right, absolutely. Well, there were two ways.
There was the electric way to kill the chickens.
-Right. [ Laughter ]
-Or you put them in the wall.
-That line is so long.
-The electric line you get through, but for the handheld --
-Okay.
Well, Aerial Ariel.
-Yeah. You've done it again with --
[ Laughter ]
-So, this was an ad for --
-It was not. -Okay.
[ Laughter ] -This was a way
for children to learn words?
-No. -A book? No.
-These were collectible cards...
-Oh. ...called Garbage Pail Kids.
-Okay. -Do you know
what Cabbage Patch Dolls are?
-Yes, I do! -Okay, so this was --
They were very cute and lovely. -Yes, I had one.
-And then -- You did? -Yes.
-Was it, like, handed down from a previous generation?
Was it like your grandmother's Cabbage Patch Doll?
-I almost feel like my mom found one
and gave it to me. -That's great.
Oh, well, then that's very close to what these are,
which was from the garbage.
-Right. Cool, cool.
-Much like your mother's gift to you.
But, no. So they were --
These were, like, a fun take on Cabbage Patch Kids.
And people like me, you would buy packs of them,
and they were all grotesque and disgusting.
-Wait, so, did you have this instead of baseball cards?
-You would buy them in the same place at stores
that baseball cards were. Yeah. -Okay, cool.
And it was a way just to let people know
that as a 9-year-old, you might be a little troubled. You know?
You might have -- "I'm not your normal 9-year-old.
I got a little edge." You know?
-Yeah. No, totally.
-"I'm not your Cabbage Patch dude.
I got some -- I'm [bleep] trouble."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-So, that's -- 'Cause I don't know if you noticed
what the balloon is here.
-It's snot. -Yeah.
-Yeah. Is that how she's flying? -Yeah.
-Was that a thing, like they were all gross?
-Yeah, they were all gross. -Okay, yeah.
-Are you interested?
'Cause I have a collection that I'm trying to move.
[ Laughter ]
-I politely decline.
-You're gonna be the coolest person in the writer's room
when you show up. Alright.
Alright, that was mine. Do you got some for me?
-Yes. I have a couple for you.
And to confirm, you've never seen these?
-Never seen these. -Okay, I'm really excited
about this one. Okay. -You're excited.
You helped pick these, yes? -I did! I picked both of them.
They're really special to me. -Okay, great.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I think that's -- Is that an aardvark?
-Yes. -Okay, is it "Arthur"
the aardvark? -Yes.
-Okay, I don't know anything about it other than that.
-Wow, okay. We could be here for hours.
-Okay, great. Let's not be?
-This Arthur's little sister D.W.
-Okay. -Her full name is Dora Winifred.
-Okay, gotcha. -Mm-hmm.
-And what was the appeal of "Arthur?"
-Oh, my gosh. It was just like real life.
They had characters who, you know, were three-dimensional
and funny and smart.
And one of them had divorced parents.
-Oh, wow.
-Yeah, one of them, like, got very sick.
One of them had, like, the little puppet that talks,
but not you. -Okay, that's great.
All those things are so sad, and you're happy about them.
-No. It's a very happy show. -Okay, great.
-They go to the library. -Was it on Nickelodeon?
-No. It was on PBS Kids.
-Oh, PBS Kids. Alright, so that's a high bar.
There you go. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Okay, here's the next one.
-Okay. Oh, my God.
-You might have to know, like, what this is from.
This isn't the full context,
if that makes sense. -Okay.
That's Timothee Chalamet if he was raised by lizards?
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. Honestly, sure.
-I have no idea what this is.
-So, it's part of a book series. Is that helpful?
-Uh, no. -Okay.
It's called "Animorphs."
-Okay. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah, and every single "Animorph" cover --
There were lots and lots of them --
was a person turning into an animal.
-Okay.
-And, so, it was, like, a fantasy series.
-Okay. Gotcha. -Obviously, yeah,
about people who could become animals
and then come back to being humans and stuff.
-Gotcha. But, now, as a child, you didn't look at this,
and you weren't, like, impressed with that, right?
-No, I was actually too scared to read them.
So, I've actually never read one before.
-So, wait. You only -- From the cover,
that was too much for you? -Yeah.
I got scared really --I just watched "Arthur" all the time.
-Yeah. Was "Arthur," like, as scary as you could handle?
-Honestly, yes. [ Laughter ]
-Thank you so much for this education.
I really appreciate it. [ Cheers and applause ]
This has been "What Does Karen Know?"
[ Cheers and applause ]