Underunderstood

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Channel • 2 Shows

Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated weekly
Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated weekly

15/03/2022

Mystery Sounds + Some Personal News

We were honored to be guests on Twenty Thousand Hertz’s annual Mystery Sound competition, where the four of us competed to name a variety of obscure sounds. We’re sharing that episode now. Plus, some personal news! Twenty Thousand Hertz tells the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. Listen in your favorite podcast app. Support Underunderstood and listen to over 60 episodes of our bonus podcast by joining our Patreon! For updates on how to join us for the world’s largest trivia contest, keep an eye on our Twitter and Instagram.

15/03/2022

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43 min
23/11/2021

Lou Pearlman Tried to Send a Boy Band to Space

These pop singers thought they were going to be the first band in space. What happened? Support the show and listen to over 50 episodes of our bonus podcast by joining our Patreon! Show notes: 02:50 – NASA on mission to planet pop (New Scientist) 04:57 – Put Your Arms Around Me (Natural/YouTube) 06:32 – I Love the USA (Weezer/YouTube) 11:45 – Steve Kipner 15:35 – Claire's press release 19:48 – Journalism about Lou Pearlman from The New Yorker, Tyler Gray, and Lance Bass Productions 25:29 – Veit Renn 35:27 – Danny O'Donoghue (Wikipedia) 40:25 – Columbia Disaster: What happened and what NASA learned 47:25 – Jon Fuller's website / Spotify / Apple Music

23/11/2021

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48 min
21/12/2021

2-for-1: Pursuit and Pizza

An end of the year two-part episode! First, where do Trivial Pursuit questions come from? And then, why is it so hard to find a Pizza Hut Classic? Show notes: Trivial Pusuit 02:53 – The Ultimate List of Every Trivial Pursuit Version Ever Created (Trivia Bliss) 04:28 – My life as a Trivial Pursuit question writer (Darryn King) 12:45 – Fred Worth's appeal after losing a copyright case against Trivial Pursuit (Justia) 16:43 – Not-so-trivial errors (BoardGameGeek) Pizza Hut Classic 24:40 – Used to Be a Pizza Hut 25:29 – Warren Pizza Hut reopens as Pizza Hut Classic (WFMJ) 26:48 – Pizza Hut Classic - Warren, Ohio (Valley Spotlight on YouTube) 28:13 – Warren Pizza Hut Classic (@rolandopujol on Instagram) 30:11 – Eureka Springs, AR location (Ramblin' Backroads on YouTube) 32:46 – Craig Robinson Pizza Hut Commercial (Instagram) 33:56 – The Retrologist The current list of known Pizza Hut Classic locations: Warren, OH Kilmarnock, VA Bryson City, NC Tunkhannock, PA Sayre, PA Spring Lake Park, MN Wadena, MN Park Rapids, MN Eureka Springs, AR Dahlonega, GA Clayton, GA Lavonia, GA Carrizo Springs, TX Fairfield, TX Unconfirmed: Bloomfield, IA Weatherford, TX

21/12/2021

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48 min
03/06/2021

Who Is John, the Psychic Santa from The Circle?

The Circle is back for Season 2, and there's a mysterious catfish named John. Who is this "full time psychic, part time Santa"? This is an episode of Overunderstood, our Patrons-only feed. To get a new episode every week (even between Underunderstood seasons!), visit patreon.com/underunderstood. We're working on season 5 of Underunderstood! Stay tuned to our Twitter and Instagram for updates on when we'll be back. Show notes: The Circle on Netflix Season 2 Trailer (YouTube) Pimeyes Kris Kringles are forking over cash to take ‘Santa’ classes (New York Post) Dave Saunders (@santadept25)

03/06/2021

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30 min
09/11/2021

California License Plate 2SAM564

Why has the same California license plate been showing up in movies and TV shows for two decades? Support the show and listen to over 50 episodes of our bonus podcast by joining our Patreon! Show notes: 01:39 – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Villains" episode 02:16 – The Xandermobile 02:54 – A113 summary 03:43 – Screengrab of the plate in "A Star Is Born" 04:11 – Screengrab from "Matchstick Men" 04:52 – Screengrab from "Ray Donovan" 04:59 – "Furious 7" scene with 2SAM564 06:21 – Flim 26:19 – ISS Props 27:40 – Vehicle registration plates of California 29:27 – California DMV Sample License Plate Order Form (PDF) 33:52 – 2GAT123.com's License Plates 35:34 – Studio Graphics

09/11/2021

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38 min
06/04/2021

The Most Popular Snoopy Quote in Japan

Adrianne tries to understand the associations around the cartoon beagle in Japan. If you like the show, support us on Patreon and get access to our bonus show, Overunderstood. Show notes: 01:49 – Hello, Habits: A Minimalist’s Guide to a Better Life (Fumio Sasaki) 04:35 – Peanuts – October 4, 1991 10:28 – Mia Sato 11:40 – ‘PEANUTS’ Celebrates 70 Years With Limited Heinz Ketchup Bottles 11:58 – Instagram account tracking Snoopy collabs 11:58 – Snoopy Japan blog 13:30 – The Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities Of 2020 (Forbes) 13:43 – Merchandising Snoopy: The case of licensing Peanuts in Japan (Stephen J. Lind) 17:28 – Beyond Cuteness: An Emerging Field of the Psychology of “Kawaii” by Professor Hiroshi Nittono – YouTube 18:40 – Shuntarō Tanikawa (Wikipedia) 19:23 – MetLife press release (2014) 19:47 – DeepL Translate 21:20 – Essay by Masuhiko Hirobuchi (2009) 23:22 – Alisa Freedman 32:37 – Minimal & Ism

06/04/2021

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34 min
26/10/2021

Chief Laugh Officer

Laffy Taffy created a dream joke writing job. But is it real? Support the show and listen to over 50 episodes of our bonus podcast by joining our Patreon! Show notes: 00:56 - Laffy Taffy - Wikipedia 01:50 - PDF of Laffy Taffy jokes - mrclegg.com 02:40 - Depressing Laffy Taffy joke - Reddit 03:53 - com4tablynumb1's post - Reddit 04:50 - com4tablynumb1's photo - Imgur 05:46 - Laffy Taffy Is Having a Joke Contest - Thrillist 07:50 - Nick Cannon's annoucement video - Facebook 08:27 - Laffy Taffy Selects Its First-Ever Chief Laugh Officer - Business Wire 13:58 - Mitch Hedberg's notebooks - YouTube 20:40 - Richard Bowen at the Laugh Factory - YouTube 27:14 - Richard and his trophy - Business Wire 27:26 - Richard Bowen and Nick Cannon - Shutterstock 31:35 - Contact Us - Ferrara Candy

26/10/2021

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39 min
12/04/2022

I Want My MTV Dial Position Sticker

John goes on a quest to find a sticker that may or may not have existed. Support Underunderstood and get our bonus podcast by joining our Patreon! Show notes: 04:00 – Mark Goodman and the dial position sticker (YouTube) 07:12 – MTV Your Favorite Music Promo (YouTube) 07:56 – Worthpoint 14:12 – Our theme song and other music is available to stream 22:45 – Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! commercial voiced by Jan Gabriel (YouTube) 26:54 – A detailed discussion about this setup and MTV specifically (Radio Discussions)

12/04/2022

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41 min
23/03/2021

Side Quests: Tampons, iCarly, and Fruit Snacks

A few “side quests” from our inbox: tampons in the freezer, a missing iCarly cover, and some long lost fruit snacks. If you like the show, support us on Patreon and get access to our bonus show, Overunderstood. Tampons in the freezer 01:33 – Thread on ShittyGifRecipes 07:50 – Janelle Flom 09:02 – Wig (about :49 seconds in) 09:25 – Credit cards?! (About :54 seconds in) 11:30 – TikTok divided over video of woman’s revenge on fellow plane passenger (Yahoo) The missing Miranda Cosgrove cover 14:48 – 'iCarly' and 'Drake & Josh' were actually both on Nickelodeon, not the Disney channel. 15:16 – r/MirandaCosgrove 15:50 – Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls 15:58 – CORRECTION: It actually peaked at No. 1 16:14 – Miranda’s wikipedia page 17:04 – List of iCarly episode titles, from “iPilot” to “iBust a Thief” 18:20 – See: lyrics controversy section of the wikipedia page 19:00 – Beautiful Girls on WhoSampled 19:40 – A better explanation of rights and cover songs, because Regina is definitely not a lawyer 20:05 – Back of the jewel case 21:00 – Beautiful Girls (Nickelodeon Mix) 22:50 – CORRECTION: The band’s name is SugarPop, not SuperPop. 24:20 – Beautiful Girls (Reply) - JoJo 25:50 – JoJo, Miranda Cosgrove, and Selena Gomez at the Teen Choice Awards in 2008 Mystery fruit snacks 28:24 – Betty Crocker Scooby Doo fruit snacks 32:20 – Surf’s Up Tutti-Fruit Fruit Snacks package 32:27 – Rollerblade Fruit Snacks package 36:18 – Rollerblade Fruit Snacks pouch

23/03/2021

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39 min
09/03/2021

A Conspiracy Theory About Area Codes

Adrianne tries to deconstruct how a big city got a seemingly low-prestige area code. If you like the show, support us on Patreon and get access to our bonus show, Overunderstood. Show notes: 02:41 – LincMad.com 04:00 - Adrianne says here that Idaho got area code 702. This is not correct!! Idaho got 208. We regret the error. 04:43 – The rotary dial demonstrated in an AT&T video from around the time area codes were added 07:41 – AT&T, or Atlantic Telephone and Telegraph, was a monopoly provider of telephone service until it was broken up in 1983 as part of an antitrust settlement with the U.S. government. That’s really all you need to know, although a good book about this is The Master Switch 06:52 – A table of the original area code assignments 18:13 – Mark J Cuccia on the 50th anniversary of the North American Numbering Plan 18:34 – Mark J Cuccia mentions the Boston “anomaly” 19:03 – Nation-wide Toll Dialing (Bell Laboratories Record, October 1945) 19:19 – Billy worked on a video about the AT&T archive at The Verge 27:07 – 201, 609 And Now, Oh My, 908 (The New York Times, 1991) 32:40 – An example of Telephone Topics, the in-house magazine for New England Telephone 32:45 – It was actually “Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts”

09/03/2021

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42 min

09/12/2021 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Department of Fun

"The internet's oldest mystery" brings us to a part of Wikipedia we'd never seen before.

09/12/2021

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41 min
05/08/2022 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

The Internet vs. The Price Is Right

Billy revisits an infamous game show moment in our brand new segment, Unresolved Inconsistencies.

05/08/2022

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1h 5m
27/05/2022 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

MTV Fibs

Billy looks into the authenticity of "MTV Cribs."

27/05/2022

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40 min
10/03/2022 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Report Now, Score Later

There might be a new factor in your credit score.

10/03/2022

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34 min
10/02/2022 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Australian Target

A listener sent us a TikTok about an imposter big box store.

10/02/2022

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32 min
19/05/2022 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

What's the Scam: Toe Fungus Ads

Adrianne found some suspicious ads about toe fungus. What's the deal?

19/05/2022

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37 min
08/07/2021 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Surfing and Copyright

Billy has questions about Mark Zuckerberg's music choices on Instagram.

08/07/2021

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37 min
23/07/2022 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Shake and Sniff

Adrianne investigates a bold claim about handshaking on Wikipedia.

23/07/2022

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38 min
24/06/2021 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Mangos and Bronze Rhino

Adrianne shares some mango research and John presents a mystery about an Irish Rhino statue.

24/06/2021

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36 min
24/09/2022 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Keep Digging (Missing Media Mailbag Update)

Apparently Regina knows a lot about mulch. Plus, another edition of Personal News That's Not Ours to Share. (Yes, really.)

24/09/2022

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47 min

The internet doesn't have all the answers. But that doesn't mean we can't find them.

Website

Underunderstood

Support the podcast, get the weekly bonus show

Top Shows

Mystery Sounds + Some Personal News

Lou Pearlman Tried to Send a Boy Band to Space

2-for-1: Pursuit and Pizza

Who Is John, the Psychic Santa from The Circle?

California License Plate 2SAM564

The Most Popular Snoopy Quote in Japan

Chief Laugh Officer

I Want My MTV Dial Position Sticker

Side Quests: Tampons, iCarly, and Fruit Snacks

A Conspiracy Theory About Area Codes

Department of Fun

The Internet vs. The Price Is Right

MTV Fibs

Report Now, Score Later

Australian Target

What's the Scam: Toe Fungus Ads

Surfing and Copyright

Shake and Sniff

Mangos and Bronze Rhino

Keep Digging (Missing Media Mailbag Update)

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Underunderstood

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