This week in the news residents the Sydney suburb of Redfern clashed with police over the death of Aboriginal teenager TJ Hickey. TJ was allegedly clipped by a police car while being pursued on his bicycle. He hit the gutter and fell. His injuries were fatal and the local Indigenous community erupted with grief and outrage. We look at the incident and the media coverage from the time, and wonder if anything has really changed since that fateful day.
We celebrate the knighthood of renowned Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal, survivor of Janowska, Krakow, Plazow, Gross Rosen, Chemnitz, Buchenwald and Mauthhausen. His story is extraordinary and his legacy of bringing Nazis to justice long after the war is extremely far reaching.
In tech news, the Netsky computer worm has us all being woken up at ungodly hours by our PCs and Google announces that it is expanding its index to over 6 billion items (these days it’s somewhere over 400 billion!).
In music we were exposed to around 34 instances of profanity when Eamon unleashed his single “F**k It (I don’t want you back)” on the world. Radio stations had no idea what to do with him.
At the movies Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore went on “50 First Dates” while the Farrelly Brothers turned Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear into conjoined twins with the film “Stuck On You”. Plus over on Australian television the Hot House was giving away the biggest ever prize in the history of Aussie TV.
What more could you ask for? Download us and have a listen!
Hang with us on socials to chat more noughties nostalgia - Facebook (@tminus20) or Instagram (tminus20podcast). You can also contact us there if you want to be a part of the show.
This week in the news residents the Sydney suburb of Redfern clashed with police over the death of Aboriginal teenager TJ Hickey. TJ was allegedly clipped by a police car while being pursued on his bicycle. He hit the gutter and fell. His injuries were fatal and the local Indigenous community erupted with grief and outrage. We look at the incident and the media coverage from the time, and wonder if anything has really changed since that fateful day.
We celebrate the knighthood of renowned Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal, survivor of Janowska, Krakow, Plazow, Gross Rosen, Chemnitz, Buchenwald and Mauthhausen. His story is extraordinary and his legacy of bringing Nazis to justice long after the war is extremely far reaching.
In tech news, the Netsky computer worm has us all being woken up at ungodly hours by our PCs and Google announces that it is expanding its index to over 6 billion items (these days it’s somewhere over 400 billion!).
In music we were exposed to around 34 instances of profanity when Eamon unleashed his single “F**k It (I don’t want you back)” on the world. Radio stations had no idea what to do with him.
At the movies Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore went on “50 First Dates” while the Farrelly Brothers turned Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear into conjoined twins with the film “Stuck On You”. Plus over on Australian television the Hot House was giving away the biggest ever prize in the history of Aussie TV.
What more could you ask for? Download us and have a listen!
Hang with us on socials to chat more noughties nostalgia - Facebook (@tminus20) or Instagram (tminus20podcast). You can also contact us there if you want to be a part of the show.
Transcript is generated automatically
The year is 2004. Your polyphonic ringtone habit is sending you broke. George W Bush is sworn in for a second term, and in spite of everything going on, the most controversial thing is a wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl. T -, 20 rewind 20 years with Joe and Mel.
Week, oh, 15 February 2004.
20 the rest is history.
You know what? I'm very forgetful. Hello.
There, stop trying to make fetch happen. Goodbye.
We're waiting for.
This is harder than I thought. It would be. My fellow Americans.
Let's roll.
Welcome to the podcast. A very steamy podcast today because it's quite humid in this year's studio of ours. It's t -, 20, the podcast where we rewind to this week in history, 20 years ago with your host Joe and Mel. Hello, Mel.
We're both sleeveless.
Yes, it's ridiculously steamy and humid, and we decided it's so steamy and humid. We're not gonna film.
We've gone sleeveless. Pauline in the podcast, yes.
No, nobody needs to see that, which means that as my as my good friend Murph would say, count.
Nobody needs to say that. No, it's not attractive.
That's not true. That's not happening. We do have a we are closed, just not respectably. Ohh, it doesn't even matter anyway. Lots of stuff to talk about this week.
All cars heading to Redburn. Everybody must.
The Aboriginal community blames police for the death of 17 year old Thomas Hickey.
Very serious. This week, 20 years ago with the Redfern riots happening in Australia, which made international headlines around the world. That's why they called international headlines. Joe, you idiot, that was a big news story.
If I move from here and go over there and sit with my Democrat friends, which will make them real nervous, does Google track my movement?
It's not understanding Google and there's a bit of stuff with Google in the news that will hopefully be able to understand a little bit better than Congress this week.
What I said, it's only now the presence might.
Ohh love it.
I had forgotten that song and now stuck in my head.
Forget the M&M distracts, forget Ja Rule V $0.50. This is what started 2004's biggest music rivalry. So much drama and lots of swears.
Because there was that song. And then there was another song, which was basically that song firing back at the person that wrote that song.
There was a lot of. There was a lot of songs, there was a lot of drama and I'd forgotten that until this week and I'm very happy to relive it.
What? What I'm. Curious about is whether or not that song would stand up by today's standards. If you know what?
I mean. Mm-hmm. Well, I don't think to be getting much airplay on the holiday sea channels. Not that's a significant editing.
No, no. Yes, AC meaning what is that? Adult contemporary. Yes, there's not a swear. It's not like. It's not like the hot FU channels or anything. That's a hot AC channels.
I had forgotten about it and it's it's very exciting to revisit that drama, something that I'm not excited about revisiting. Congratulations, our wardrobes are now officially vintage. We have vintage. We are, they're worth a lot of coin, our wardrobes.
Really. Yeah.
Do you know I have some crusty old concert T-shirts that are worth hundreds of dollars that I think are in the rag box? I don't even know if they're even wearable anymore.
Well, I kind of hit about 2004, 2005 and that just became my ongoing style. I don't think I've really changed what I ohh the pants come up a little bit higher now than what they did back then, but I'm pretty much kept the same style and apparently the standard is 2 decades for vintage.
But yes.
Two decades equals vintage. That right? So if a shirt is old enough to drive a car, go to war, or order a beer, it's officially vintage.
Mel, I have been dressing the same way since I was about 16 years old. My fashions.
Well, you're double vintage. Yeah. Get this AT shirt of the 2002 Spiderman movie, officially vintage. 250 bucks.
Yeah. Yeah, I believe that 250 bucks is kind of the going price for like the bottom tier band T-shirt from back in the day. Doesn't matter if it's a reprint or whatever, you get a concert. There's some concert shirts that are going from from 500 bucks.
He's tour in 2002. Kanye, I think, had an early 2000s. Two of those T-shirts $500.
Bucks. See, that's amazing.
And a 2002 Rolling Stones T-shirt, 300.
Is that right? I've got a Rolling Stones voodoo lounge to a T-shirt. I've got two of them. Wow, that I barely wore, so they're still as new. They might smell a bit musty. I need to see if I can dig them out and sell them if I may. Ohh, you know what? I reckon I might have got.
That would be weird thousand. Sorry.
Of them like, not even thinking.
There is a box. Of your shirts in the shed.
Yeah, I'll have to go and have a look, because if I've still got it, I should Chuck it up on eBay because it means nothing to me. It probably means something to somebody else. It wasn't very good. Concert, that one.
Anyway, but it also seems that as soon as the Kardashian or a Bieber, or one of those it's girls wears one of those band T-shirts as well, then. The price skyrockets even more, so I think one of them was wearing cargo pants. The other day.
Yes, yes, yes.
Low rise cargo pants. Nobody can get their hands on them.
I saw one of them.
Welcome to my wardrobe. Come on in.
Mel, I saw one of them in a cannibal corpse T shirt. A really gory Cannibal corpse station I was like, that's amazing. And everyone was like, oh, that's, you know, all the all the purists are like, oh, how dare they? And I'm like, any publicity is good publicity. Just go with it. Yeah. It's like when you see people wearing Ramones T-shirts like kids wearing Ramones T-shirts and you get these old wowsers that are in their 40s, like they go name all the members of the Ramones. Or name one song of the Roman.
Name one song that's like the rule, isn't it? Yeah.
No, it's not name one. It's usually like name 4.
Yeah, you can't just go with the most popular.
You know? Yeah. And it's like, I don't care. Any publicity is good. It's just it's it's actually validating. To know that somewhere at some stage I don't know if my finger was on the pulse, it was probably somewhere else like up my **** or something. Like scratching it. But. I'm on the cusp of some kind of fashion movement.
You are fashion.
Emphasis on the movement. Let's movement on to the Hatch match and dispatch clue. The segment that we do at the end of the show hatches, matches and dispatches all about births, deaths and marriages. You know the best thing about not having the cameras on then is I I had some popcorn earlier on. I had a little bit of particle on my bottom lip and I just saw it fly across the room. You didn't catch it, so we. Won't be able. To even see that on a replay, which is wonderful.
Didn't happen.
It didn't happen at all out anyway, so a celebrity having a birthday this time that said this.
Oh, my God. Hold on.
Pull up in the monster automobile gangster. Yeah, I mean the colour of Willy Wonka can be the king, but watch the Queen conquer First things first. I'll eat your brain, and then we'll start rushing goat cheese. What to do? Mine. Sophie. Sophie hill. That's your monster shoe. Young Money is a roster and a monster crew.
That was a long one. That was not Nicki Minaj, not Nicki Minaj. Somebody else that was doing a cover of Nicki Minaj.
Hmm, not. Maggie, no.
Spontaneously, that is, having a birthday that turns 20. It was a birth, actually a birth.
A birth? Yes. I don't think we've actually said what week we're looking at yet 15 to 21 Feb 2000.
Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. And it's it. Look, it's all very serious this week. Now, in the news on the 15th of Feb, of course, we had the Redfern riots, which I can remember at the time making. Global news and.
Footage is still so clear in my memory.
One of my friends lived on every street. If they were there at the time, but if they weren't, they were living there around this time. So I I had a little bit more of an interest than probably a lot of other people who weren't as close to it, but it was just a terrible, terrible. Turn of events.
It started on the morning of Saturday, 14 February, 17 year old Aboriginal boy Thomas TJ Hickey was riding his bike through Waterloo while a police vehicle was patrolling the nearby. Area he ended up crashing his bike and won't go into details, but suffered really devastating injuries and sadly passed away with his family by his side the next day on the 15th of February.
Yeah. At the time the cause of the accident that led to his death was actually contested and led to a A NSW judicial hearing. So I think that the the line was that he was pursued by police. His and that's how he'd come off the bike in the pursuit. A large proportion of the inquest centred on whether the police were chasing him or following him. And according to the police, they said that he died from horrific injuries he sustained when his bike collided with a gutter, however, witnesses. Said that they saw TJ. Being flung from his bike after he was clipped by a police car.
Umm. Then on the evening of Sunday 15 February, local residents gathered at Everley St the street you mentioned earlier in the afternoon. I I I guess it's a. Bit of a memorial. His mother also lived in the area. They were comforting her as as part of. That and then things started to escalate because the police showed up at this gathering and tensions basically boiled over.
Yeah, yeah. And look, the police were obligated to show up there. There was people that were publicly intoxicated there it, I mean that these people are mourning this community is grieving and some of them are are very angry and they're probably not handling it in the best possible way. I don't think anybody at any stage was hand including the police. Handling this in the best possible way.
All cars heading to Redmond, everybody must have a vest.
The Aboriginal community blames police for the death of 17 year old Thomas Hickey. The rioters say there's been an injustice.
If I actually lead my people and these kids towards death to die for what they believe in, I will do it.
In between police advances and retreats, the rioters turned their attention to the Redfern railway station, prising the window bars apart with broken street signs. They torched the station. The men and women in blue could do little. There were already 40 police officers down.
One officer was knocked out by a brick that was thrown through the air and a number of others have got. Broken limbs. Legs.
Officers tried to drag the injured to safety under a shower of missiles. The rioters, using bins as Shields, as the police tried to use fire hoses as water cannons went back up, arrived. Police numbers reached about 200. They had a 2 to one advantage, but the police limited the arrests to just four.
Ain't coming.
To avoid further bloodshed. Most of the youths called it a night, torching a car on the way home. Police have spent years trying to patch up strained relations in Redfern. It had been working until now. Sean fewings.
Yes, it didn't go particularly well for the police initially. They were vastly outnumbered and they just didn't. They didn't have the gear to deal with the crowd at all.
When you think. Back to the footage I I vividly remember there were police that were in riot gear with the shield. And they'd formed a line, and you saw them moving forward, but there wasn't many of them. And then all of a sudden, they sort of surged back because they were there was there were rocks, there were bottles. I think they're even Molotov cocktails being thrown. And so they go, yeah, they'd retreat back and then they'd move forward and retreat.
Yeah, because they syphon the petrol out of the cars on the street to make Molotov, yeah.
Back I remember saying really bins. Yeah, in the middle of the road. And I think within the wheelie bins were bricks and. Blocks and the rioters were defending themselves from the police with the wheelie bins as well hiding hiding behind it. Yeah. And then you did see Redfern station, the windows were being smashed. It was set on fire. And then when that police backup arrived, I think that's when they started using the fire.
Yeah, they said on fire. Yeah, yeah.
Those is to try and push the push the crowd back and disperse them a.
Bit, yeah, the the media at the time and you would have heard it from the news. Report as well. Very much, I think and and this is purely a personal observation. UM and I find it interesting in the context of Black Lives Matter these days as well. And I'm not gonna say where my bias kind of sits either way, but I would say that the media bias was very much in favour of the police at the time.
Yeah. Yep. Yeah, they're headlines at the time. Police say heroin to blame for Block Riot's fiery Aboriginal rampage, Redfern Arups setting the stage for a violent showdown. Run exclusive images of a bag snatched. Tell the story of why police were on high alert. Don't let this be a teenager's legacy, and TJ was used as an excuse for riot. That is, that was across the the popular newspapers, the popular mastheads at the time. And and the footage and the reporting was was was very much from the perspective of of police. But I mean as you.
Well, they talk about, they talk about how many police were injured. They say 40 or 50 police were in. Right. They don't talk about how many rioters were injured at all. There's no conversation in the narrative about how many people were injured, retaliating or rioting. Right? I won't say retaliating. No rioting. They weren't retaliating. It's it's hard. Unless you were there. Like, it's very hard unless you're there. But I'm the only four people.
It's hard. Yeah, exactly.
You were arrested. And and and and they say that the police did that to avoid any further conflict. But surely if they had the manpower there they would and there were people that were.
Which I find interesting.
A danger to the community and themselves, they would have removed them. That's just policy. That's that's what they're supposed to do.
Yeah. And there was talk, I think the headlines spoke about 40 or 50 police being injured, but that was then later revised to a much lower number in, in the days that followed. It wasn't well according to reports, it wasn't as high as.
That yeah, it it it. It's it's always a delicate topic too, and I think the media, like I said, I do think the media bias in the initial stages were very much moving towards the police. But what's interesting is there's a community and indigenous radio station called the Wire. They spoke to to Michael Anderson, who's a Gemara, tribesman and a a UCLA. Builder and activist, he was actually one of the. The guys who set up the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra in 1972, he's got lots and lots of cred in that community and nationally as well. He's a he's a big deal and this is what he had to say about it.
The fact is, when you push people so far, you know people will fight back, you can go on for so long, being abusive and being destructive. To a people. But you know, in the end, the people will will come back.
And they were angry. They were very angry.
And I think that's what you didn't see in the mainstream reporting was. Was what had been going on for some time in the lead up to that and where perhaps policy in society may have not been enough for the people of that area? And and more broadly, I there was not a lot of discussion. About some of those. Those broader issues and broader challenges, it was all just about the right and restoring. Restoring calm basically was, was the reporting. It was like this escalated, but now everything's OK and and it didn't really sort of look at well, what had been building over time because there has been riots. Prior to that in in Redfern, in that area that, that that wasn't the first time that that had happened. Happened and what were some of the things that were going on that that may have contributed to this, this build up and escalation over time?
And I think it's it's kind of an imitation of things like Rodney King and and George Floyd to an extent the the difference being, I guess that there's no, there was no evidence as to what happened. It was all hearsay. There was eyewitness accounts saying that he was clipped by the police car, but then the police were saying no, he he fell off his bike and.
Hmm hmm.
Hit the gutter you know, but there were obviously.
Hmm hmm.
There has to have been some kind of fire because there was smoke there and he must have been pursued in some way, but we'll never know because there was no evidence. These days you've got things like body cams, the cars have got. Maybe there is some footage circulating somewhere. Maybe there is a police car that had a camera on it, but we'll never know. We'll never know.
Yes, yes.
It's all speculation, it's all hearsay. It's all rumour. And if you add to it by saying, well, yeah, you know, they must have filmed it and then buried the footage. All you're doing is speculating and making something up and then fueling that. The the fact of the matter is, is that you had a community that were very angry, that rallied against the place and it there was a lot of them.
You had a young person die, yeah.
Like that's that's a.
That's a terrible outcome. Do you think the coverage, you know, Fast forward to today, 20 years later, do you think the coverage would be different if something like that happened now?
I think it depends on the media outlet these days. I think if you cause that was 10 news as well and and if you look so that Sean feelings from 10 news was doing that story and that narrative was still very much in support. For the police, 10 channel 10 these days, of course, is home of the project, which is very left leaning. It's extremely left leaning and and then if so, if it was on there, I think that they probably would have tried to hold the police to account more. But I think if you'd gone over to Sky News, I think Sky News would have been more. On the side of the. Police, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, I I do think that we probably would be having more of a broader discussion around. What is happening in in the area like you look at things like the Australia Day discussions for example and actually acknowledging what has happened in our past and I know like when I went to school, for example, what we learned about Aboriginal Australia was. There's dreamtime. There's some some traditions and it wasn't much deeper than that.
Yeah, there's a big rainbow snake and a frog that drank, drank all the water. Yeah, yeah.
We didn't. There wasn't much discussion about what actually occurred.
No, not at all.
And it wasn't until years later that. I did some reading myself and was like, hang on a minute. We never learned this. In school, and I think that's.
Yeah. Stolen generation. Like all of that stuff. The the segregation, all of those things, yeah.
Absolutely, absolutely. And and and I think now that's changing like I know our son is being taught about things like sorry day and why why that occurred and and what has happened in the past. So I I I feel like. We probably would be looking a bit more at, well, what's going on and and what what led to this and.
I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you look at communities like Darwin and Alice Springs at the moment, which are just in complete chaos and turmoil. And unless you're there, you kind of don't know what's going on. And my my opinions on those places are only through, you know, doing a lot of research and listening to a lot of different sources and then getting completely confused and going well, what's really happening there? Yeah. But I mean, I don't think we're. Any closer to a resolution, and I think what happens with a lot of these things is the conversation become. Defensive on both sides. I mean, you look at the referendum that like I I that completely got bogged down in this. Yes. No. If you say yes, you're supporting a government like it. It became an excuse to I guess rally against the government and show some dissatisfaction with the government and and the whole.
Yeah, yeah.
Concept of it I think was completely lost on both sides, you know, and there were even indigenous people that were like wanting to vote no in the end because they just they wanted to have more of a seat at the table at the start. It's it's a mess. It and and I don't think it ever gets resolved because we move on to the next thing and then it comes back into the fold and people start shouting from either side and then something else happens and it goes away for a little while and then it comes back and rears its head again. And it's just it's. Problematic. I mean it's it's tricky too.
Because when you look at the way in which society is governed today and trying to enforce that layer. On a culture and a community and a people that have been around for far longer and have their own systems already established, it's problematic in that way. But what's what's the outcome? What's the solution? I I it's not. It's not simple. It's not straightforward. If you want to read. I read a book once called why Warriors? Lie down and die, and it talked about some of those challenges within things like the health system within things like housing and how. Things need to be considered through a different lens because solutions that that we look at in other areas, you. Can't just apply that.
The problem I find with all of this is logic and reason and sensible discussions cannot happen as long as everybody for want of a better word, gets a fair go, because if you. If you want to listen to logic and reason and and sensible discussions and and compassionate people. Talk about this. You know there's gonna be some idiot in the room on either side, both sides. That is gonna start shouting and creating a ruckus and and doing something that will divert attention away from what the actual issue is. It happened over in the states with Black Lives Matter, you know. A lot. I mean, you look at like the football and and Colin Kaepernick was taking a knee because he wanted to make a statement against police brutality and that that argument got completely diluted by people like Donald Trump, who was like, that's unpatriotic and so. So no, it's the most patriotic thing that he could do. There were people over in the states that. Like you know, I have fought for this country so that he had the right to do that and I respect that he's doing that, even if I don't agree with it, there's the sensible conversation. But that doesn't sell newspapers. That doesn't get people to watch. The the news that doesn't make people watch TV, and it's just the bias is I don't think anything. I don't think anything in the last 20 years.
Yeah, it comes back to the reporting. Too, doesn't it?
Has actually changed. I don't think anything's changed at all, and it's that's really sad. I I think that there are people. These days that have learned from it and have a better understanding and a greater awareness of it. But I think broadly like from a societal point of view, from a media point of view, from an education point of view, it's still the same. Nothing's changed like and even this like in 2005. So the next year. UTS the The Students Association at the UNI of Sydney GO and donate a plaque with TJ's portrait to. The people of Redfern, Local Police, NSW Department of Housing refused to allow that plaque to be placed on the wall below the fence where the kid died, unless the words police pursuit were changed to tragic accident which the family of TJ Pluck doesn't go up. We refuse to accept that because we think and it's, he said, she said. And there's no evidence that it was a police pursuit. The police say tragic accident as a consequence that. Gesture, which is obviously. I mean it's a bit of a work gesture for the UNI, whatever, but they obviously support it cause the units just. Down the road.
Yeah, yeah.
That that plug doesn't go up. And so there's all this debate over all these issues and nothing has changed. I I think, and Redfern even these days is probably a lot more gentrified. If anything, they've pushed a lot of that.
It is, yeah, yeah.
But where do they go? You know? And like again, like, look at Alice Springs. Look at Darwin. Look at these places. Look at remote communities like you can't tell me that anything's gotten any better in 20 years. Anyway, let's move over to the 19th of February. This I I want to talk about Nazi hunters. Nazi hunters. Like, imagine that.
Is a Nazi hunter was. That the show that we watched.
There was there a.
Wasn't that was the show called? Nah. Was that what it's called?
If it wasn't called Nazi hunters, it had Al Pacino in it. It was.
I think it was called the hunters or something like that. It sounds yes.
It was cold hunters. Yes, yes, yes. And they hunted Nazis.
It sounds very superhero sounds like there's some Lycra. Some math.
It does. And and that fiction was actually based on fact. It was based on facts. So in in 2004, on the 19th of February, Simon Wiesenthal is awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition. Of a lifetime of service to humanity and Simon Wiesenthal, A Wiesenthal was a Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter and writer. But the Nazi hunter is the thing that I want to focus on, cause that is just astounding. So he survived the concentration camps, he survived Janowska concentration camp. From 41 to 44, Krakow from 44 onwards, the gross Rosen concentration camp, a death March to Chemnitz, book and Wild. And the mouth house and concentration camp in 1945, he he went through all these different concentration camps, came out the other side. A lot of people didn't.
Ohh my gosh.
After the war, he dedicated his life to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazi war criminals so that they could be brought to trial. This is fascinating.
During the Cold War. They emigrated to United States, to United States, Canada and Australia. There was these three countries during the Cold War. Open the doors for refugees for people they claim they are anti communist refugees from the eastern countries. And now, after so many years, they commit crimes. We had witnesses. They send us through Jewish organisations and give the knowledge, giving the knowledge to the government, but nothing happened. People must know who are their neighbours. And for them, this is also a punishment when somebody is living in a place 35 years, nobody knows about his past and now. I know this is not a sentence, but this is a part of a sentence.
People must know who are their neighbours. I couldn't agree with you more.
So true.
Yeah, there's ain't Ramsey Street, you know. Especially what it's it is just fascinating. And so he was a big campaigner of, actually, because these people did. They disappeared. There's lots of great books like and some of them are based on conspiracy theories. There's one up on the shelf behind me, actually. Called Operation Paper Clip, which is amazing. Which is. Which is written by this lady called Annie Jacobson, which is all about the secret intelligent programme that brought the Nazi scientists to America. So, like, that's a conspiracy that Americans knowingly brought these Nazi scientists over there to work on things which was fascinating unto itself. Now that that's probably a little bit wild and scrupulous compared to. What? What? What wasn't Dole was doing, but he was able to identify these people and then make it known that these people were Nazis and bring them to justice. Or at the very. At least make the Community aware that the dude next door who came over from wherever actually didn't come from there. He was a member of the Nazi Party.
Imagine going through everything that he went through and then dedicating your life to that. That's pretty amazing.
Well, like, I mean, yeah, but no. But like, I mean, why you wouldn't you would want to bring these people to justice. He actually thought that he'd lost his wife, but they were reunited. Ohh.
Yeah, that's true.
Really. Yeah. Which is, which is another fascinating story unto itself. The just the fact that he survived and then did this is astounding.
He did so much. He also Co founded the Jewish Historical Documentation Centre in Austria and that's where they gathered additional information for the trials for future war crime trials. They also helped refugees search for lost relatives, and he opened a second. Centre in Vienna in 1961 and continued his work trying to locate the missing Nazi war criminals. He played a small role in locating Adolf Eichmann, who was captured in 19. And he also prepared a dossier on France stangle. I think it was who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1971.
Eichmann is is a big one now he's not Adolf Hitler, obviously. But Eichmann was a a member or an officer of the Schutzstaffel, which is the SS. And he was one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. So he was.
Ohh really?
So that was a massive get for those guys he depot. Entered millions of Jews in the Nazi ghettos and extermination camps. He was responsible for sending lots and lots of people to the gas chamber, so it was very vindicating, I think, for them to capture him and and wise and Thall played a part in that. Henceforth, the honorary knighthood for a lifetime of service. The humanity. So it has been quite heavy going thus far, Redfern riots, Nazi hunters.
Yes, hasn't it?
Let's move on to the technology.
We're we're we're. Doubling down on tech as going yes. Really, we'll start with the 16th of February 2004. The net ski computer worm starts appearing. It was not just one worm, it was apparently a family of computer worms. Mummy worm, daddy worm baby worms.
Ohh, a cluster. Maybe a cluster? What would you call a? What's a collective noun for worms? A clutch?
Gaggle from work. The the worms affected Microsoft Windows operating systems. Surprise, surprise, all of these worms have been doing that so far. It was sent out as an email, very similar to some of the others that we've spoken about enticing recipients to open an attachment. Once opened, it would scan the computer for all the email addresses, and then. Email itself. To all said addresses.
So the the big thing for Netsky was the the major symptom of the worm was not scratching your bum, not scooting on the carpet. None of those sort of things. You didn't have to shine a flashlight and wait for its little head to appear and pull it out or anything like that. That's revolting.
Not scooting on the carpets. OK, good.
It it it created this weird beeping sound on specific dates, usually in the really early hours of the morning, so your computer would be well, you can exactly. So your computer would be like it's hilarious. Your computer would be lying dormant and all of a sudden this is an actual recording.
Isn't that just called an alarm?
You would hear this. Now, OK that'll do.
That's just a standard morning for me. Snooze and on it comes again 10 minutes.
Later that should be. That's almost as irritating as our technology opener. Maybe we should replace it now if you're a little bit paranoid. Well, well, I mean, you've got good reason to be because you've got the Netsky worm now or the Netsky Netsky. I don't know. I'm getting into my natsuki, your Netsky worm. Yeah, and imagine if your computer started doing that.
And it's like when Siri starts playing a song in the middle of the night for no reason. Same thing. It would have.
That's that is that has happened on occasion and that is quite terrifying.
It has and then she doesn't admit to it, cause I asked her what the last thing she played is, and then she recalls the previous song, not the one from the. Middle of the night so she can also lie.
I mean, and if I've. If I've gone to sleep drunk and she started playing the gambler, at least don't wake up and start singing along.
You know, she's now become your therapist.
That's it.
Train bound for nowhere.
To back to Netsky, so it did make that horrible noise, but the code was also quite interesting and I love how they bear things in the code. Remember the last one we talked about, it said something like.
Sorry, yes. Right.
Sorry, I'm just doing my job.
Yeah, which insinuated that. What worm was that? That was the my doom one wasn't my Doom virus. Yeah.
The mydoom. Yes. Well, Netsky wasn't a fan of mydoom. They actually insulted the authors of Mydoom and the bagel worm families, and in some cases, the Netsky worm removed those worms from computers. So it's doing a virus scan, and it's like, no, we'll take.
Ohh that's kind.
Those ones away.
I'm the only worm for you, yeah. Don't worry about all those other worms. You ain't had nothing till you've had this one. Ohh so I haven't cool.
18 year old Stephen Jackson of Germany confessed to writing the worm and other worms such as Sasser.
Really. So he owned up. Well, at least he owned.
Multiple words. Hmm. Good on this, then.
Up to. It well, maybe he thought he was doing everyone a service by removing the other worms and just replacing it with one. Worm to rule them all.
And everyone woke up on time.
It's the Lord of the worms. Wonderful. Well, look. On the 17th of February, it gets a little bit less. Various where Google, Google makes a big announcement saying it's gonna expand the breadth of its Web Index to more than 6 billion items. At this stage, Google was very much becoming the dominant search engine, if not the dominant search engine already. And look at where they are now. Of course, this made it really quick to get to.
Oh, press release.
Heaps of information online. Everyone was primarily using Google or or heading towards it at this.
Stage of the six billion items 4.28 billion were web pages. There was 880 million images. Probably most of those Janet's ******. 845,000,000 Usenet messages and a growing collection of book related information pages. Ohh book.
Yes, of course. Is that would would would that. Have had something to do with capture. You know how they were, like getting the Internet to learn how to read books.
Maybe they were translating and scanning in. The books. Yeah, could be.
Yes, maybe purely speculation didn't do the research on that bit, just thought I'd.
Throw it in there. The press release referred to web surfers. I like that. That's so early. 2000 web surfers worldwide could access search using either Google Web search, Google Image search, Google. Whoops. Or Google prints.
Yes. Now, today they keep the size of its index a secret. You would not know, but I could guarantee it's all consuming be massive, but in the recent testimony in the USA where the government took on Google in an antitrust trial, the US attorneys revealed that Google maintained a Web Index of about 400. Billion documents as opposed to 6 billion. So that's that's done pretty well, but the problem. Is Congress, I mean, Congress let as part of this antitrust trial, I think it was in 2018. They got one of the heads of Google to go in front Congress and Congress and the Congress men and women that were asking the questions. I don't think they Internet.
If I move from here and go over there and sit with my Democrat friends, which will make them real nervous, does Google track my movement? Does Google through this phone know that I have moved here and moved over to the?
Left not by default. There may be a Google service which you've opted in to use and.
If so, Google knows that I am moving over there. It's it's not a trick question. You know, you make $100 million a year. You ought to be able. To answer that question. Does Google know through this phone that I am moving over there and sit next to Mr. Johnson? It's yes or no?
I won't be able to answer without looking at.
You can't say yes or no.
Without knowing more details.
Yes, or.
No, I genuinely don't know. Without knowing what services.
I'm shocked you don't know.
If you Google. The word idiot. Under images, a picture of Donald Trump comes up. I just did that. How would that happen? How does surge work so that that would occur?
For anytime you type in a keyword we have crawled, we've gone out and crawled and stored billion copies of billions of web pages in our index, and we take the keyword. And match it against web pages and rank them based on over 200 signals. Things like relevance, freshness, popularity, how other people are using it, and and based on that you know at any given time we try to rank and find the. Best results for that query and and that's how we make sure the process is working and we iterate.
So it's not some little man sitting behind the curtain figuring out what? We're going to show the user it's basically a compilation of what users are generating and trying to sort through that information.
We don't, you know, manually intervene on any. Particular search yourself.
I have a 7 year old granddaughter who picked up her phone before the election and. She's playing a little game kind of game. A kid would play and up on there pops a picture of her grandfather, and I'm not gonna say into their record what the kind of language was used around that picture of her grandfather. But I'd ask you, how does that show up on a 7 year old? IPhone who's playing a kids?
Game Congressman iPhone is made by a different company and so you know, I mean.
It might have been an Android, I was just it was a hand me down of some kind.
It's just unreal.
They're not web surfers, clearly.
They they they do welcome to the Internet. Do you even Internet? It's like.
My gosh mate, I don't care about your movements. Can you just keep that information to yourself? We Google does not want to track your movements. Trust us, especially. Wow. I do like I do like.
Especially if you're in Congress, cause we've got to probably know where you go. I got you gotta. I gotta acknowledge now, this was the YouTube channel that I found that on.
Yeah, I do like. That Google's become the modern day. I looked up idiot in the dictionary in your. Photo was there. That's good.
Yeah, yeah, that was good. That was a good thing. You know what I like in that conversation with, like, the the guy from Google is just like, it's like when they, when Zuckerberg stood in front of Congress as well and they just didn't know how Facebook worked either.
Ohh yes.
That was a.
Good time. You know, when your parents ring you and the first thing that comes out of their mouth in the phone conversation is I have a technical question and it's like me, here we go.
I saw a funny thing the other day and it said that life is so unfair. Not only do we have to help our parents with printing things, we also have to help our children.
Use the printer well. Ohh well. Well, it's it's funny you should mention that because I have been on the on the game console with our son. Yeah, and I've looked over.
Oh, what have you done?
That and seeing the expression on his face at how frustrated he gets at how slow I am at navigating to things that I'm like. What have I become exactly? Yeah.
It's happened. It's he's gonna have to help you. He's gonna have to trouble. She's gonna call. You're gonna have to call him.
So like I've got a technical question. He's like, mate, here we go. OK, look, Speaking of past it, at least at least 2004 music as ohh no. We'll pass it by then. Really. We'll still kind. Of hip to it, but it's starting to fade.
Don't know that I have two. T-shirts of all of these. Artists alright.
No. Well, I certainly don't actually hang on. You do.
No, no. Alright. Well, let's let's find out over in the US. What T-shirts you don't have.
Y'all don't wanna hear me. You just wanna dance. Eat your daddy. Yeah, yeah.
Definitely don't have any T-shirts from any of the artists from. The Billboard top five for this week.
Well, if you had that usher one, what's that one worth again, like, 305 hundred dollars? 500 bucks.
100 bucks. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I I might have won that. Ironically, I used to have an ironic Britney Spears T shirt.
It's a shame. Ohh, someone stole it, didn't they?
I wore it to a gig and I lent it to a friend and then he came back and he swapped it with one of the singers from one of the band. And then it was forever gone.
You can have my. Oops, I did it again. One, it's too small for me.
It's too small for you. Yes, well, how? What am I going to do with it? Make a wristband.
I don't know.
Out of it.
It's nice. It's like that. Remember those? I think they're called ringer T-shirts. So, like, you'd have one colour in the middle and then the show the the sleeves are a different colour. And it was. Yeah, but I think Bonds brought out like I think it was called. They were called Ringer Tees and it was grey. And it had the oops, I did it again in little droplets coming off it. And it was.
Rag ones.
The nice purple. Ohh nice purple sleeve. It's in the cupboard.
I don't know. I don't want your T-shirt with your droplets all over it. That's too small. No, thank you anyway. Top five. Billboard top five.
We should see what that's worth, that's. Probably worth something. You don't want my droplets. OK, that's shame. Let's recap. #5. Hey. Yeah. Out. Car. So slowly moving out of the top five, me, myself and I be on, say, #4. The way you move. Number three. Yeah, #2 and slow jams in the number one spot. Indeed. #1 here in Australia. Still nosy.
Good on your nosie. What about me? What about Mollie?
May yes. What about you, noisy? Love you UUK. Number one. We've got a new one this week.
This is a bit of a crime against music, I have to say. Like, really?
Do you have this T shirt?
Was that that? That was a Beatles song.
Yes, yes, that's that's obviously a cover by Sam and Mark. Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes. OK, they released that early 2004 after coming third and second in the second series of pop idols. So obviously a consolation.
Yes, with a little help from my friends. Do they remember Ringos saying it? Yes.
Look, I'll get over not winning Pop Idol series 2 with a little help from.
So I did a.
My friends.
So did the collab. Yeah.
They did a collab number #2 and. Three made that and it went to #1. So thanks and everyone else.
Yeah, the The thing is, is they didn't. Well, they didn't write the song. They didn't write the song. And I think at this stage.
No, they didn't win and they did a lazy cover and they got a. UK #1 so good on them.
And I'm pretty sure that The Beatles back catalogue at this stage had been sold to Michael Jackson, so he probably. Got all the money?
For it. Ohh yeah. Wow, what a great collab. Let's move over to album releases. OK, we have one album that we'd like to talk about because it just set the wheels in motion for a very turbulent 2000. And four, as far as.
Did you?
Disc tracks go, yes, yes.
It was, it was quite it was an abusive song and I looked at the film clip of this and the film clip is the dude just in the in the girls face just giving it to her.
It's very, very, very angry.
And I just like, I don't think that would stand up these days.
We're talking about the album. I don't want you back, which is the debut album by American. Iron basing.
Is he Iron Bay or I guess starved, right?
Yellow cranky guy Amon start with an EEA amon, not Emon Amon featuring.
I'm on. I'm on it.
This classy trap.
Do you? I don't want you back what I said.
The F word has really come to the fore in music. I remember back in the day, in the in the early 90s, late 80s, if you if you had a song with an F bomb. I mean, remember, we used to listen to all those rap albums and comedy albums because the words were so naughty. And now it's just like mainstream.
Yeah, well, yeah, all the yeah, all the all the rap albums had it. And then I remember anielle and she brought out that love show. And I I and then I got the CD single and I played track 2, which was the real verse.
Love song? Yes. And then she did that at the Arias, she said. The swear at the end.
And I was shocked.
I feel like because they.
But but pleasantly surprised as well at the. Same time. So this is. Good Sanji, ohh like it?
Yeah, it's edgy. It's got a bit. Edge to it, it's. In the IT was it the pink.
But it was used sparingly. It was used sparingly and it was done in a really nice, sultry kind of way. You're not as angry as Amon.
It was. Aimon. Yeah, he's he's. He sounds like an incel.
I think he needs some meditations, maybe a meditation app, maybe chamomile tea.
It really does. It's, you know, I you know what? Just some ************, mate. Just go. Seriously. Amon, just go and have an angry. And you'll be fine afterwards. But but I think that the it's back in the day, back in the day, before this day in 2004, that we're talking about back in the day in the late 80s, early 90s. It was used almost to get the parental advisory sticker on your album, because remember all of that? Hoo ha. And it was like ohh we need to put these stickers on there and everyone was like, what, an injustice. But every kid was like, I'm not even. There's no way I'm getting an album if it doesn't have that sticker on it. And now it's just, I mean, you know.
That's the one I'm going to buy. Yeah, yeah.
The horse has bolted. The horse is bolted. Aimon should go and have an angry weak. And instead he's gone and just blurted this out on his recording studio. And and the rest of the world now has to endure it.
Yes, well, he's dead. He used to tour with his dad, and his dad was a member of the popular doo-wop group called the Elations. Do you remember the elation?
Oh, you must be so proud. No, I don't. I don't remember the elations.
Sounds a little bit familiar. And so he thought, hmm. Nick, that's that's a career path that I would. Like to take. And sort of shopped around a bit. Got the attention of a record label when he was 15. Hmm. And then called on the industry pros to help him create his own genre of music that he likes to call Ho whop not do whop Ho whop, which he describes as a mix of. Hip hop do whop and hose.
Right. Hmm. And then he wonders why? I mean, I don't understand. I don't understand why he's so angry in this song, if he's like. Including hoes in his genre and then the hoes do what hoes do and all of a sudden he's all angry saying well, it doesn't mean anything any and I didn't wanna buy you any presents and all of that stuff because I don't want you back. But it's like you were inviting them in.
You started it? Yes. Like $0.50 says, no business like home business.
Yes, hoes are like vampires. If you invite them into your home, it renders you powerless, yes.
Yes, exactly. At the end of 2003. He's still he's still. Relatively unknown at this point.
One sucks blood the other anyway.
He releases the track that you just heard there, and let's think about this. There's a bit of a problem. It's not something that we can play on the radio with all the F it had. It had an ungodly amount it well, but this is the problem because it had so many F's you weren't left with much song.
Well, they took the F's out.
It won a Guinness World Record for the most expletives in a #1. Song 33, If you.
Is that right?
Hunting. So it's not really radio friendly.
How many? How many does Amon give? 33 to be precise, yes.
So he's initially shopping it around and he says no one got it. He said they were like, this is cool and all, but it will never get played. Amon, I don't think that it was a matter of them not getting it. I was. I think it's a matter.
Right.
Of them wanting to keep their jobs.
Oh, come on. It's how whop all the cool kids are doing.
And then, uh, New York radio station called the I think it was the star in Buck Wild show. They're obviously like, super edgy and don't follow the rules and prank call their programme director and they decide to play it and it goes ********.
Of course it was.
Because you're hearing swears on the radio, it's so naughty. It's taboos.
Oh my gosh. In a breakfast radio show, you've gone against the programme directors wishes you're going to be suspended. How could you do it? And then it. This global hit it, it skyrockets to number one in 14 countries, including here in Australia we loved.
Yes, we did.
Aimon and he's 33 FFS and quickly became the go to track for scorned lovers round the globe. He even releases an Italian version.
He does. I quite like that really.
I'm sorry, but I did not spend 6 months learning Italian. Reading through Sempre Avante with Missus Vaughn. To hear Solo Conte, no, it's pangulo. The F word is fungo.
Can you say that or the podcast? Do I? Have to bleep that.
I don't think we've got any listeners in in Italy, no, we don't. So that's OK.
In Italy? No, no. Alright, maybe the box will pick it up.
I didn't. I did not hear what?
Ask a question to Google about that.
I did not hear any from Gulus and I chucked it into Google Translate because I thought you know sometimes there's different versions of swears and I thought, well, maybe, maybe because amode being so passionate, there's like a top tier F word in Italy.
No, you didn't hear any fungal look. I I grew I grew up with Italian kids and I and and they we used to learn the swears. Yeah. And that was the only. Well, exactly. Like I didn't hear any Italian swears in that song.
Yes, that's what you remember. Well what? Did you do? Yes. Same one. That's the only that's the only airfare was movies. So I checked into Google Translate there with no swears at all in the whole song, so he re RECO. But because.
You should put that question to Congress. How come there were no swears in the amons version of Solo con, whatever it is.
Yes. How come amon like you're so edgy and you're shopping it around and nobody gets it. And then you record a whole clean version. Like we didn't get. A clean version of clean. Just had half the song missing on our airwaves. You make a clean version for the Italians.
So. So not only that. The fungal word is not there. There is no swears in the Italian version.
There's no swear at all. It's very tame. I can't remember what it meant, but it was boring and I I stopped paying attention. I can't remember cause it. Was so boring, isn't that extra? And the Italians. Loved it, cause I I don't think that.
Probably because there was no squares in it.
I don't think that he was allowed to release. It over there with those kinds of swears which you know shows.
I prefer this and I like to sit down and have a lasagna and a bit of Chianti and listen to.
How closely we are you like?
It sounds it. Sounds less angry, doesn't it? Well, but I.
Yeah, I would.
Like to hear from Kulu in a song.
I don't say he sounds like an incel. He just sounds like really, like slighted. And like I said before, I think he just needs to have an angry and he'll.
Be fine, but that's not where our story ends. So it's getting airplay. It's played in.
Oh goodness mate.
Half the songs missing, but we didn't know that we were about to witness one of the greatest hop rivalries of all time. I think we've been shook ever since. I don't think anybody has recovered from this. Yeah, this time 20 years ago, New York radio station Z100 receives an anonymous.
Remember this?
CD single. I used to get worried when we got the anonymous CD singles at the radio station. I must admit cause you never knew what was gonna.
Yeah, cause could have been another white powder incident.
You never knew what was gonna be on those CD things.
Yeah, well, semen. It's always seeming.
There was also some interesting songs that were pressed on to see these singles I record, but anyway they received this anonymous CD single in the mail and probably written in Sharpie is the letters FU R&B.
Yes, yes.
Ferb, Ferb, otherwise known as.
Well, guess what?
If you right back.
You right back, the phone started lighting up, a woman named Frankie and people claiming to be both her aunt and her cousins also phoned in and they said that she recorded the track and is indeed. Damon's ex girlfriends.
Is that that can't be true. Is she really? He's like the Frankie thing I get. Cause it was Frankie who released the single. I I feel like it's the. I'm Spartacus thing. Like everyone starts ringing about I'm her auntie. I know her. I went to school with her.
Yes, I know who it is. Well, no, it was it was. So she sent because she only sent. It to 1 radio station.
Was she a musician as well before this? Or is she?
She was starting work on a debut album and then Aimon releases his angry 33 AFS at the end of O3. Right. And she's like, Oh my gosh, this is ruined. My foray into the music industry. I'm recording my debut solo album. And this has basically discussed our whole relationship in a song. It's gone to #1. It's in Italian. They're playing it all over the radio. Ah, this is not good for my brands. So she then.
So much better than a diss tracks. This is like, yeah, I love this. Come along.
She then. Changes tact and it's like well, I'll just take your song and I'll create my own diss track about you. And she said it was to defend herself. And there's always two sides to every story.
I mean, this is good for both parties. This is good for both parties. Both parties are gonna do well because regardless of which version you hear, you're gonna wanna hear the other side of.
I think that was. In the lyrics too.
The story and we loved it.
Here in Australia, we were. Like are you team Amon? Are you team Frankie? Whose sex was wack? Where? Did the presence go like?
Yeah, well, I mean.
Who cheated what? What caused all of this? What happened here? We need the story.
And I mean, it's never going to be amicable, but imagine if they'd have done it as a split single release. 5050 right down the middle. Yeah, exactly.
Aside, beside at the time, Amon said there's no truth to the claim, and he said I don't know who that girl is.
You've never seen it before in my. Life. Yeah, yeah.
Never met her, never met her. That song's. Back there it is mad wack to quote Aimon didn't use an F he. Was saving his F. Very slow.
Right. Three sums. Yes, of course.
And she then turns around and says, well, that's just what you'd expect. His response basically strengthens my position because, you know, he knows that I'm telling the truth about him, and he just doesn't want. Everyone to know it. Yeah. Yeah. So which side? What was said?
Which side were you on? Were you on Amon or Frankie side?
Look, I thought I was team Frankie. I thought it was really poetic when she was talking about F all the nights I moaned real loud effort. I faked it. Aren't you proud? Oops, your sex was wack. I was like, yeah, you know, team Frankie. Good on you go. Go. Girlfriends. Yeah. And you know, cuz he's put this out here and he's he's basically making all this money off your story. So I'm. I'm glad that you've owned it. And I'm glad that you've told your site, but then I find a Dutch version by a guy. Called Simon the Dutch.
That's very that's.
Version is called vachula here it.
Back, back. What is it?
Is vachula OK?
45.
That, that, that.
Version sounds more dirty than all the other versions combined. Are there any swears in that?
Ohh no hashtag Dutch life right? So.
That sounds dirty and racist.
Say the word. For compartment in Dutch is the F word. Yes the word facite as in left side, right side in Dutch is the C word. So imagine I used to shop with my grandmother who mixed her Dutch with English and she was talking about.
It's the same word. Yes, I know this because of your family.
Getting something from the compartment on her left side so you can imagine how that conversation went and how it sounded to everybody around us.
So trans.
So it's like. Take it from the and put it in the.
Yes, right. Yeah. Take it from the compartment and put it. On the side, yes, exactly. So translate it. I chucked this one into Google Translate. Would you like to know what they're actually saying?
I I just want can I hear it? One more time. OK, what is that?
Compartment for the milk over there with the cheese compartment for the sugar, which you will find next to it. Compartment for the sweets compartment for the cookie soft drinks section around the corner.
Describing his fridge.
I think he worked in a supermarket.
He was talking about the storehouse. Helpful. Amusing. Yeah. Swearing without swearing. It's just so much more. Classier than Amon. So look, I am team Simon.
Ohh really?
Servants. Amen.
Absolutely. It's no ho whoop. What is it? It's show whop. Ohh shut up.
But time to squash the dream back to Amon and frenzy. So we scored.
OK. Yeah, so quietly I didn't say what team I'm on angry. Just go and have an egg. I'm at neither side. I'm neutral. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, what time you on? I think. OK, fantastic. We know what you're up to. After the show time to squash the drink.
God dammit.
Not yet. Oh, sorry. Time to squash the drape. So there was so much of my 2004 was spent just wondering what was going on between these two. And would there be some follow up tracks as well? We're waiting.
There's no cameras in here.
Imon comes out years later and says that he wasn't involved with Ferb and that he never met Frankie. So he stands by that claim and that she's definitely not his girlfriend or his ex. Girlfriend, he then goes on to say the only way I was associated with that song was when I was asked for licencing permission by her representatives, which makes me a writer on her song by copyright law for money. So she's gone. Oh, it'd be great to do a retraction to his song. I don't actually know him.
So you got.
But hey, can you give him a call and ask him if I can have his music and give him some money? So they created this whole drama. They don't. They don't know each other well, he's just.
Both of them.
Gone. Come and join me in my world of Ho whoop your hoe and I'll take that sweet cash for you. Stealing my song. Isn't that? It's like when we found out tattoo weren't lesbians. Same kind of thing. I'm very disappointed. But look, we still have Simon and Vachula.
Ohh that is so disappointing. Do you know what that is? Do you know? What that? Feels like what? Like one second after the angry. It's just that regret. Over to the box office for this week commencing the 15th of Ohh. Happy Valentine's Day for yesterday.
As well. Ohh, thank you. Should have taken me to the compartment for the milk. Well, over there with the cheese.
I would love to maybe see what you're doing after the show. I'll have an angry first. Last longer anyway. What the 51st dates? That's something you should do before you go on a first date. Actually, if if you don't wanna go out with.
Ohh gosh yes, good idea.
A loaded weapon anyway. Ohh goodness me, we're gonna lose our PG rating for this this film this Adam Sandler movie 51st dates number one at the US box office this week. Playboy Yvette Henry sets his heart on Romancing Lucy but she has short term. Memory loss.
Why didn't you tell me you were a?
Secret agent. I'm afraid that's not an option, Lisa. I know I changed your name for your protection.
Doctor Henry Ross's best relationships were with his patients and he wasn't looking to settle down. But one day the unthinkable happened.
Blinded by the light.
Are you staring at me or her because you're starting to freak me out?
And Lucy? Henry Roth. Nice to meet you.
Only problem is.
Whoa, naturally.
What is going on?
About a year ago, Lucy was in a terrible car accident. She lost her short term memory.
She won't remember him tomorrow.
You and I are actually seeing each other.
Don't worry, you're not going to suffer any short term memory loss, but was your head shaped like an egg before she hit you?
Yeah, Adam Sandler movie, that one, Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore? Dan Ackroyd, you would have heard there. That other voice just at the end.
Improve Barrymore as well.
Romcom Lucy has short term memory loss, so she can't remember anything that happened the day before, so every morning he has to go through the whole process again and obviously she wakes up with him. It's like who the hell are you? And then freaks out because it's true and then you know, that's how he.
Ohh like Groundhog Day. I always loved them together in movies and I wished that they got married. In my life.
Sandler and Barrymore.
There was something.
About them together, I really like. I really enjoyed it.
You know. Adam Sandler movies I think he either love him or hate him and I I went through a time where I hated them. But I'm turning.
I loved him. 90s, so, you know, Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison.
Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, I I just the thing with Adam Sandler.
Although him by this point, but I loved wedding singer.
He's well, yeah. I mean, he's a great dramatic actor, for starters, if you haven't seen uncut jams. You need to see that movie. It's incredible. But I think the reason why Adam Sandler seems to endure throughout his entire crew is because he's actually a really nice guy, like he's really good to the people that work with him. And he his friendships are very solid. He he stays friends with all of these people anyway. That's that's an aside. The actual movie itself.
Not so great. 45% critics, 65% audience. One of the critics said every day drew orders, waffles for breakfast, and constructs a high rise out of them, which is not only socially inappropriate but also a violation of local zoning laws.
Yes, well, OK great. But. That's right. But like again 45 from the critics, 65 from the audience, I feel like the audience are much.
They want Drew and Sandler together forever.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Exactly. So it ain't bad. This movie was #1 in the Australian box office.
You guys are stuck together.
Robin Walt have nothing.
In common, I'm not going another step until you apologise to.
Me. Hey, don't you walk away from me. Yeah, you better run.
Bob was an athlete. Wald lives large.
Yes, she's working her way through Med school. You gotta admire that.
But when Walt hits the big dial.
3 Joe.
I just found my leading man.
They'll have to learn.
What am I?
Gonna do you could be my my stunt double. Just.
Siamese twins ain't the easiest sell I've ever had.
We're not Siamese or American.
From the Farrelly brothers, the directors of their something about Mary.
Ohh, nice. Paul. Walter.
Divided they fall. United they stand. Academy Award winner Matt Damon.
Can you move a little? Can you type on your back?
Please work with me, Academy Award nominee Greg Kinnear.
Let's never do anything that makes us look like total idiots.
An Academy Award winners share.
She's been dating this very famous actor for like 3 years.
Go to sleep. You got a geography test tomorrow.
Stuck on you?
I'm not here yellow.
So this film again not. Particularly loved by I think I'm also loved by critics in the audience, actually, but I and it's Farrelly brothers, right? Mm-hmm. So it's like something about Mary Dumb and Dumber, shallow Hal. Whole, they're kind of gross out. Inappropriate. They did the ring outs.
And it's kind of uncomfortable. As well, isn't it though?
The same guys that did the ringer as well. You know where Johnny Knoxville? Yeah. So they're not afraid to sort of go for that taboo kind of politically incorrect thing and make it heartwarming and endearing. And I actually think they kind of succeeded with this film against all odds. Cause when when you look at the concept of, like, ohh man, how they gonna get.
I didn't mind. I didn't mind that one.
Away with this? So Matt Damon and and Greg Kinnear play conjoined twigs Bob and Walter, and they're trying to live this normal life in this small country town. They run like a little burger out. It and and in in in his spare time like I think it's it's Bob is sort of low key but waltz has aspirations to be an actor and in in at the local theory stars in a one man show. So you can imagine how. Awkward. That is right. So and and and so. The problem with that is, is Bob has stage fright, so Bob's trying to stay in the background as much as possible anyway, the the one man shows his success, so he goes, he sets his tide on Hollywood and he's like, let's go to Hollywood. So they have to go to Hollywood. So they they they go to Hollywood and share is involved in all of that sort of stuff. And the reason why that they haven't been separated is because they share a liver and waltz like it's too risky for them to be separated. So they're gonna stay together. So Walt struggles with the whole Hollywood thing. His agent doesn't help him. He tries to get him a job in pornographic movies.
Ohh gosh.
You can imagine how that's that gross out. Awkward. Farrelly brothers kind of thing. And then he ends up on a prime time TV show. And all of these things happen. And then Bob has a romantic relationship during this time with someone, but he needs to. Keep Walt a a. Secret. So when he goes to date, this person waltz is with Bob, but they're using this like. He's a giant teddy bear and he's holding a giant teddy bear the entire time. Or he's like, yeah, and it's eventually she discovers the two of them. In bed. And she thinks that they're in a relationship, and so it'll and it's just one thing, leads to another classic Siamese twins out of water. Sorry, Cojoined twins out of water fill. Anyway, it was #1 it. It wasn't bad. I remember it. And I remember enjoying it. But it's like, remember we watched. There's something about. Mary recently.
And it didn't, it didn't it?
No, it was kind of irritating, wasn't it? Yeah.
Didn't. Kind of. Yeah, it's like, ohh. He got his coat and his zipper and you know, yeah. And then there's.
Yeah. Yeah. I think as I'm older, I can't handle that sort of stuff either. Like I, I tend to get more. More grossed out with injuries and that gross out humour. I just can't deal with it.
I think that society for the better has probably changed the way that it it views disability and that the Farrelly brothers tend to use disability a lot in them. Having said that, I still really enjoy the ringer, so I don't know man. I I I remember enjoying it when it came out. Anyway that was #1 in Australia.
This makes me. Feel a bit.
This time 20.
Years ago, also happening here in Australia this week, 20 years ago, we had a premiere of a brand new reality television show. Airing on Network 10 called the Hothouse.
Imagine living mortgage free in your own.
$1,000,000 homes.
The couple will live this.
I'm sorry, that is absolutely terrible audio promo, but the only version I think.
Ohh, someone recorded it off their TV. They were filming their TV.
Ohh, I was hanging outside my neighbours kitchen. No, I I you cannot. I cannot find any other evidence except for some version of it. And there's a couple of versions of it on YouTube where people have filmed their own television, and it's really annoying. But the hothouse was that show, and it was hosted by Remember Erica Heynatz.
Didn't she end up going on one of the singing? Shows and she was a really good singer it. Takes two. Did she? She did. I'm sure it was her. And she's a really good.
Name sounds like that computer virus.
Hey nuts, it featured couples working together to build a dream home on Bribie Island, and they competed against each other to avoid being eliminated every week.
That's right. And it was the biggest prize money or or valued prize that had ever been given away on Australian television, cause it was like.
Because you ended up getting the house.
Was $2,000,000 which is they net like you think about back at the in the day. Back then, Big Brother, I think the booty for that was 250,000, you know? Well, the American version of that was like 1,000,000 like. That was the big thing. So for them to get $2,000,000, you could imagine the sales reps at the TV stations busting their absolute backsides trying to get sponsors.
Jordan. Yeah, something like that, yes.
To reach. Coop, the Contra that would have been $2,000,000.
And as if this is after the block, the blocks already happened. Has it at this stage. And we're still in the early days of this kind of renovation. He stuff, though, and Simon and Jules, I remember we had a wasn't there a couple from Canberra cause I remember.
Think so? Yeah.
Attending a viewing. Body at. The Morson club, where they'd hide out, they hide out a room and I had my mini disc player.
Was that them, Simon? And we had to go and watch the hot house. I was there with you.
And yes, and we had to. I had to hold the microphone up and get all the crowd ambient offs to then play on breakfast the next day. Yes, my audio wasn't great. Well.
He was freaking awful. It was dreadful. It was a horrible experience.
It was a. Mini disc recorder. It wasn't the best quality.
Well, it's like, well, I didn't think we finished there until like 11:00 PM and we had to be at work at like 4:00 AM. So which means we.
Then we had to get it. But it was very, very exciting with Simon and Jules from Canberra with.
Had to get up at 3:00.
Some of the. Someone was from Canberra and we were at the Mawson Club in the function room. Not just any room, they hired out the function room and. I think we got nice food from memory.
That's one of those. Where are they now and. It's like who gives up?
Because yes, I don't think anyone did because the series wasn't renewed for a second season. But you know, Simon and Jules living it up in their house on Bribie Island Worth 2 mil. That'd be worth like probably about 20 mil by now.
No. Well they. So where are you now? Yeah, definitely. And the reason why I I don't think it was renewed is because all of those TV sales reps just would have had their ***** hanging out trying to sell. Sponsorship for the next one and that's that gets even harder when it moves from a concept which you can actually just like, you can sell the sizzle. You know so much and then people eat the steak.
We're not doing this again. You took it out.
Which is the first season of the show, and they're like. Yeah, it's a bit bit chewy, yeah. It's the hatches, matches and dispatcher segment. One more thing to unpack for this week's episode.
Ohh, a worm to unpack. In fact they have a birth.
A womb to unpack. Wow, that was graphic. Let's just do this. So straight to the clue here. We go.
Oh, my God. Hold on.
Pull up in the monster automobile gangster that came from Willy Wonka can be the king, but watch the Queen come First things first, I'll. Eat your brain. Another monster do find Sufi Sufi heel. That's a monster shoe. Young Money is a roster and a monster proof.
Yeah. Now if you said Nicki Minaj, you would be incorrect. But if you said Millie Bobby Brown. You'd be on the money. You'd get the cookies.
She yes, she was born on the 19th of February 2004, and I always wondered this, but I was too lazy to look it up and I was correct. She was named after American R&B singer Bobby Brown.
You know who? Why that is not true.
Back to the book book Brown. It's her parents prerogative. And they did.
Oh wow.
She has never trained professionally as an actor, never gone to acting school, never taken a class. She just decided when she was eight that she wanted to be on screen. Her parents were like, yeah, sure, why not? And they moved to Orlando. To pursue it. Florida. Yes. Well, she was born in, yes, born in Spain.
Of all places. She is a very gifted actor too. I quite like Millie. Well, and if you stranger things have you seen stranger things? Her role as seven in Stranger Things Fantastic. She's amazing. She is. She's the highlight of that show. Some of the other things I think Godzilla, King of monsters she was in and she just screamed a lot, which is not her fault. That's what she was told to do by the director. But I do think that she is very talented individual. She was in NCIS. She's in Modern Family, Grey's Anatomy before all of these things. And then, of course, the stranger things. Shot her off into the stratosphere.
It was in her audition for the role that she actually came up, you know, that stare that she does in stranger things.
Ohh yeah, that makes a Nosebleed, yeah.
Yes, she came up with that as part of her audition. She thought of that and apparently nailed the part. 11 years old at the time when she auditioned for that. So that's the duffer brothers. Right, stranger things. And they there's really interesting interview with them about her. And they were saying that.
Yeah, yeah.
They haven't been able to give her something that she's unable to do. They throw her incredible curveballs and she just nails it every time. Like a singer who can hit any note. And yeah, her range is just absolutely incredible.
So in 2018, she was in the time 100 list of the world's most influential people and was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. And she, at the time was the youngest person to ever be selected for that position.
I will speak out for the millions of children and young people whose voices have been silenced for far too long. I will shine a light on the issues that vulnerable children and young people have suffered around the world, including representing them at places where they haven't yet had a seat at the table, and most of all, I will make sure children and young people know their rights and I will do everything I can to empower them. To be the change they want to see in the world, our message to world leaders is to hear our voices, even though we are young, we are still powerful and we have voices and we want to shine a light on issues that are not spoken about. Fortunately, I have a platform where I can help people and children to get a better education no matter what circumstances they are in. One of the reasons I'm so excited to work with UNICEF is because they are so. Driven to find a better way for education for children and that's so important to me also. So I'm really excited to work them on children's education. That's one of my most exciting things. And and I think it's it's such a it's such an honour and and such a privilege to try and help people's education. And help them study, I think it's it's so important to me.
I I think that's wonderful. I think that's really wonderful to hear. And that was back in 2018, I think.
She is 14 when she's speaking there.
Yeah, the the thing. And so I almost have faith for humanity, right?
What an incredible person. Yeah, 14 years old, I. Wouldn't have been able to speak like that.
But she's also. She's also in the Hollywood meat grinder now, like she's in TV and stuff and said 20th birthday. So what's going on? What do you think she's doing? I hopefully, hopefully she's learned from the trailblazers that have gone before her, the Lindsey Lowens and the Britney Spears and the Paris Hiltons of the world. And she's having quite a relaxing quiet evening.
For her family.
You don't see her out carrying on like a Yahoo or anything. I don't think I've seen her.
She's dated a lot of guys that have been significantly older than hers.
She who's she with now? I read it today. I can't remember. Did you know? I didn't know this. She is deaf in one ear. She was born with partial loss of hearing and then that eventually kind of faded away and she became completely deaf in one. Yeah, and can't fully hear herself perform.
That would be difficult. Do you know who she's with now? Actually, yeah. Jon Bon Jovi's son. Jake. Ohh. Jake Bon Jovi. Ohh. Wow. Hmm. Yeah. And you know what? I think they're actually engaged.
Yes, I saw something saying that she was engaged, but I didn't. I didn't click that. That was bon. Jovi's. Yeah. So that's amazing, 2023 and.
He's like similar. I approve. I approve of this relationship.
I'd love to be, yeah. Jon Bon Jovis's daughter in law. That'd be good.
Yeah, it would be great, except as long. Except for the fact that if you've been to and seen any footage of any Jon Bon Jovi. Concerts recently. You know, if you're at a family gathering or a party and he's had too many chardonnays, he pulls out the acoustic guitar and goes to break.
Hmm hmm.
Into Wonderwall you gotta clear the room. You're out.
Well, she could rap. She could do that. Nicki Minaj rap, it'd be fine.
She could do the. I like it. I like it. Speaking of rap, let's wrap this up. We are done for this week. It's been a roll.
Ohh please.
Coaster Nazi hunters riots. Millie Bobby Brown.
Fake. I'm on this track. What?
Angry. Angry. I mean, it's all happening. That would be a good mobile game, wouldn't it? Angry. Sorry, I do apologise on behalf of myself and and Mel, I apologise to you as well. Thank you for putting up with me in particular this week. You can find us on the socials where you can direct any of your complaints too if you like. And if you do like us, you can tell your friends and share the podcast with them. And then hopefully we'll get more listeners, which would be great because that's what keeps us going.
Ohh dear.
Yes, good. Thank you.
Just not your Italian friends for this. Particular episode because we did say. A swear in Italian.
Ohh yes, I'll believe it well I believe.
Don't wanna get banned there? No, no.
OK. Bye. See you. Thanks for taking the time to rewind. Join us next time for another week. That was 20 years ago. In the meantime, come and reminisce on the socials search for T -. 20 Podcast on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.