Two Aussies, one Nobel Prize and a wild self-experiment

Rewind to 4 December 2005 to 10 December 2005

🧪 Two Aussies, one Nobel and a beaker of bacteria

On a snowy Stockholm night, Dr Robin Warren and Professor Barry Marshall rewrite medical history — and humiliate decades of gastro dogma — by winning the Nobel Prize for proving stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, not stress or spicy food. Marshall seals the legend by drinking Helicobacter pylori like it’s a schooner at the pub, getting sick, then curing himself with antibiotics. It’s the most chaotic, iconic, unbelievably Australian science story ever told.

💻 Digg goes full Web 2.0 chaos

Before Reddit ruled the internet, Digg was the king of user-driven news and this week it launches Digg Spy 2.0, a real-time firehose of votes, comments and story submissions. Web nerds lose their minds, websites crash from sudden traffic spikes and everyone gets hooked on watching the crowd in action. It’s early Web 2.0 energy at its finest: fast, messy, addictive and very “tech bros in cargo shorts discovering the future.”

🍬 The Laffy Taffy ringtone reign begins

D4L unleashes “Laffy Taffy,” the snap-music anthem powered more by ringtones than radio. Teens pay $3.49 for 14 seconds of sugary chaos, Billboard starts counting digital downloads and suddenly the song is climbing the charts like an acrobat. Minimal beats, finger snaps and a hook comparing women to stretchy candy = peak 2005. It becomes one of the best-selling ringtones of the decade and a pre-TikTok blueprint for dance-driven hits.

🏆 50 Cent and Green Day dominate the Billboard Music Awards

Live from Las Vegas, LL Cool J hosts a night where 50 Cent collects six awards (and accepts over the phone like the king of 2005 he is) while Green Day match him with six wins of their own. Kanye declares himself the greatest, no one is surprised and the MGM Grand becomes a time capsule of mid-2000s swagger, eyeliner and ringtone-rich pop culture.

🎡 Wheel of Fortune spins again… briefly

Channel 7 revives Wheel of Fortune with Larry Emdur bringing dad-at-a-BBQ charisma and Laura Csortan adding glam energy and actual interaction (a revolution for the format). Viewers love them but the ratings don’t. By 2006 the wheel stops spinning and reality TV officially eats Australia’s early-evening game shows for lunch.

🔪 Hollywood gets stalked in the new Alex Cross thriller

James Patterson’s latest Alex Cross novel sends the FBI’s favourite detective into a Hollywood murder spree, complete with chilling emails from a killer named Mary Smith. Critics? Brutal. Readers? Also brutal. It’s the kind of mid-2000s airport thriller designed to be read on a long flight then instantly forgotten at the hotel.

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.

Chapters

• 0:00 intro
• 0:21 show opener
• 6:40 news
• 14:15 technology and innovation
• 19:54 music
• 31:58 movies and tv
• 42:01 books we didn't read
• 47:20 hatches, matches and dispatches
• 53:21 show closer

Transcript

Transcript is generated automatically.

The year is 2005. Anakin turns to the dark side. YouTube debuts and we couch jump for Mariah, McDreamy and a girl with a dragon tattoo. T-minus 20. Rewind 20 years with Joe and Mel. 

Week 04 December 2005. T-minus 20. 

Hey, what do you think this is a talk show? It's an icebreaker. Don't judge me yet. 

This is bananas. My question is, who approved that? Do you see where this is going? Not really. 

Welcome to T-minus 20, the podcast where we jump back into our time machine, slam it into reverse and revisit exactly what was happening this week 20 years ago. Think news, music, movies, tech, celebrity chaos and all the deeply unhinged cultural moments you forgot that you remembered. Or you forgot you remembered. Do you know what I mean? What do I mean? I'm not entirely sure what I mean, but that's usually what happens. I'm a bit addled. It's nostalgia with some sass and a little bit of confusion and sometimes a ringtone that you definitely paid $3.49 for with your host Joe and Mel. Hello, Mel. 

Three forty-nine. That's a cheap ringtone. 

It's a cheap ringtone. 

I've dropped a lot more than that for ringtones. 

Yeah, it's not polyphonic. It's not polyphonic. So, and that's what separated the classes in the day, whether you had the polyphonic ringtone or whatever the other one was. I don't know. Mono? Semiphonic. Monophonic? Yeah, something like that. Can't quite remember. Rice. 

4th to the 10th of December, 2005. 

It's not very scientific to experiment on yourself. I thought I would have no symptoms, but I was vomiting. 

Yeah, he sure was. This was an Australian that won the Nobel Prize and he experimented it on himself to do so. I mean, what an extraordinary story. I can't wait to crack into that one a little bit later on. 

Everybody loved Dig. The Dig button that websites craved for back then allowed users to dig content from their site and then let the rest of the community discovered. 

Big tech news this time 20 years ago, Dig Spy 2.0. When the internet started voting for things, voting them up and voting them down and having feelings about stuff. 

It was just never going to end well, was it? Wow, that's inspiring stuff there. Shaking that Laffy Taffy. What's that? That's ringtone. 

Snap music. 

Snap music. 

Yes, snap music that was made even snappier care of ringtone culture actually. 

I don't know. Right, well that's going to be fun. That will be a combination of the music segment and old man yells at cloud. Thanks to yours truly. 

We are going to go a little bit old man yells at clouds. We're talking about the website Dig a little bit later on. And Dig is really a bit of a template for what Reddit is today. 

Yeah. 

Because it is, it's when we first started to see news being influenced in terms of what we were seeing based on what other people thought was newsworthy. 

Yeah, do you dig it or should we bury it? 

Can we dig it? 

Yeah. 

Yes, we can. 

Yeah. 

And people started having feelings about the news. And we started seeing this 24 hour news cycle as well. It wasn't a matter of waiting to see what happened the next day. You had this immediacy. 

Which could be very graphic at times as well. And so people were kind of shocked because the news, I think, well, this is just the beginning of it. And I think I don't know that it's for the best, if I'm being honest with you. Because The concept of voting things up or down means that the most popular stories are the ones that get seen. And the news should not be a popularity thing. It should be what is worth reporting on and what people should know about, not what they like. there's a lot of stuff in the news that I don't like, but I'm kind of glad I know about it. You know what I mean? 

Yeah, whereas this is about what others deem important, but also the speed at which things were moving and you blink and you miss it too. 

Yes, but that also equals competition as well, because then it's like you got to be first. And we've seen this, like this is ground zero almost for a lot of that stuff, because this is what it evolves into over the years. Like at the moment, like in 2005, it's all pretty cool. It's all new and it's interesting. 

And being able to comment on something is so, was so novel at that stage. It's just like, and it's not me writing a strongly worded letter to the network that gets to them a month later and they don't care, they just throw it in the bin. 

No, it's been made really easy. 

Everybody knows how I feel. 

It's great. I don't have to ring a 0055 number to do it. It's not going to cost me $0.50 a minute. 

Or a stamp. 

Exactly. Like this is new and interesting and exciting. And I'm sorry, but it does get a bit older and yells a cloud because it all goes s*** after this. 

It does, because now we see it's not just what others are liking or commenting on. It's the algorithms basically serving up what they think we want to see. 

I'm so sick of that word. 

Not what we want to see. 

Algorithm. 

Or what we need to know. 

But nobody knows what it is. Nobody knows what it prefers or what it likes. It's much like a man trying to please a woman, really. We're all just victims of the algorithm. This is not off to a great start. If this is where I'm at when we're at the beginning of the show, God help us by the time we get to the end. Hatches, matches, dispatches, clue, a little segment that we do at the end. But we'll give you a clue now. Just A teaser for it. It's the birth, deaths of marriages. And this week, another match. Another match. 

That's nice, isn't it? 

Exactly. A celebrity who said this? 

My wife is an addict. And by addict, I mean like a crack addict. 

Wow. That's not funny, is it? I mean, who is that? Who is that saying those terrible things about their wife? We'll find out at the end. 

10th of December, 2005. A big moment for Australia. 

Australia. Such a great story for Australia. 

Two Australians. walk onto the Nobel stage and rewrite the story of modern medicine. 

Do they what? Oh, this is such a good story. 

Dr. Robin Warren, a quiet, quite meticulous pathologist from Perth, and Professor Barry Marshall, a fiery young clinician. Together, they proved something the medical world refused to believe. 

Yes. 

They proved that stomach ulcers are actually caused by bacteria, not stress, not spicy food, not type A personalities. 

Of course, because like, don't worry so much, you'll give yourself an ulcer. And that's not true. And in 2005, we find out that's not true. And all of a sudden, you can't walk around and say to people, Don't worry so much, you'll give yourself, it might have been a bit before 2005 because this is when they win the award, but do you know what I mean? 

Yes, it all started in the late 70s, actually. 

If you have too many of those bloody Rogan Josh Currys, you'll give yourself an ulcer. 

Warren kept spotting strange spiral-shaped bacteria in biopsies from patients' stomachs. Everyone else ignores it, except for Marshall, who looks at the findings and is like, mate, What if this is the whole thing? They propose the idea to the medical establishment. The establishment's no. 

They're like, no, that's bullsh*t. Absolutely not. My God. No. Absolutely. That's got nothing to do with anything. Those little spiral bacterias. 

No. 

It's a figment of your imagination. They gaslit them back out the door. They're like, get out of here. 

They spend the 80s and 90s fighting the establishment. Doctors don't believe them. Journals roll their eyes. The whole gastro community, just, no, go away. 

Yep. 

Sit down. You're wrong. 

Exactly. Go home, Australian scientists. You're drunk. 

So Marshall decides to prove his point. 

He's like, I'll give you drunk. 

Yes. 

Barry. Barry's like, yeah, I'll show them. And this is such a mad scientist thing to do. This is like, and the thing is, like, they've been doing research now for nearly 20 years. It's wearing them down a little bit. they've been going up against him this whole time. He's like, if you've got to get something done, you do it yourself. And so he drinks a beaker of Helicobacter pylori. And then he gets sick. His stomach inflames. He has early onset stomach ulcer symptoms, nausea. And then he takes some antibiotics and he's cured. It's a miracle. Exactly. And it becomes this big, I told you so, and it's nothing, it's so good for an Australian to be like that. It's like, it's like a King G commercial. You know, it's just like, mate, I run this place. I don't want accidents. Don't back chat me. I know boats. You know, and he's, so he's just, yeah, it's just the biggest I told you so moment. And it's just great for an Australian to be delivering and I told you so moment to the medical fraternity. 

Before this revelation, before the drinking of the bacteriae, millions of people suffered from ulcers and treatment basically went like years of antacids. 

Some tums, have some tums. 

Bit of my lanta. 

Quickies, take the quickies. 

I don't mind the quickies. I like the flavour of it. 

When I was a kid, I was a little bit jealous of parents being able to have the quickies because they're having like. 

Rice days. I like the chewy ones. I like chewy quickies. 

I wish they do like maybe a bity one. Fruit tingle flavoured quickies or like a. 

Yes, that'd be good for us. 

Lifesavers thirst flavoured quickies. 

Yeah, but no, Yes, years of antacids. My dad had one. It was like a white milky one. 

Mylanta. 

No, it wasn't Mylanta. It was called something else. Galascorn. No, it wasn't one. It was a prescription one. 

It was like a whole bunch of products. Oh, really? 

It was like a heavy duty one. 

Wow. 

Yeah. I can't remember what it was called. It had a funny name. 

That'd be a prescription medication to get addicted to, would it? Yes. 

Not just the antacids, also there was high-risk surgeries, diets were a thing. You can't eat this, you can't eat that. 

Spicy food, that's right. 

Lots of pain. 

Marshall and Warren go, no, it's bacteria. Just have some antibiotics. 

Yeah, you'll be right, mate. No probs. 

Yeah, call me and take two of them and call me in the morning. 

It saved thousands of lives, and it stopped a lot of surgeries needing to happen, but I think Big Pharma was a bit ******. 

The Big Pharma community, especially the people that the ant acid community just went, Oh, man, we need to see. They're like, Look at this guy. We need to pivot. They've stalled it. These guys have been going since the 70s, and we've kept them quiet for a while, and we've pushed him too far. He's drunk himself, and he's cured it, and now he's told the world, We They're done. They're, I know. So he's the doctor who drank bacteria. The global science media are like, this is the final nail in the coffin for any urban myths about stomach ulcers. And the medical institutions have had to go, oh, yeah, I guess. Yeah, we told them to rack off years ago. After all that, sorry, our bad. And the Nobel judges are like, these guys are definitely going to win because look at how courageous and stubborn and crazy they are. Refusal to accept bad science, but we'll do bad experiments. And as a consequence, Barry even says it's a bad idea. He said that in the Grab that we played at the start, but he also said this, which is hilarious. 

A lot of people in the field thought it was a good experiment and went ahead and did it themselves. not all as successful as myself because I did have an infection only for two weeks. But I know a colleague from New Zealand, he had it for three years. He could not get rid of the bacteria. 

Three years. Barry, what have you started? 

All these copycat scientists who are like finally getting to indulge their Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hype Mad scientist fantasy where they can drink, they can drink the serum and become the monster and then cure themselves. They get the antidote and cure themselves of the monster. 

You'd be ****** *** with Barry. 

Like something out of a classic novel. Oh my goodness. 

So 20 years on, the breakthrough still stands as one of the most important medical discoveries of the 20th century. 

Yep. 

And ulcer related deaths plummet worldwide, which is fabulous. It's fabulous, but it's also one of those Australian legacies. 

Which is that legend status. He gets legend status because he's like, oh, I've got no one to experiment on. It's going to, and the reason why he had to do it himself is because otherwise they've got to wait, they've got to do it, they've got to go and get volunteers, they've got to screen people that he's like, and he's just going, oh, f*** it. I'm going to do it myself. 

Exactly. Great for Australian tourism. Let's go over there where that guy drank the bacteria. Let's go over to Australia. Those guys are crazy. Put us on the map along with the Wi-Fi and the black box and the ear implant. 

The cochlear implant. Yes. And the bloke who drank the bacteria and cured it with antibiotics. I just love that story. I dug it. or I digged it. I didn't want to bury it. Sorry, we're in the tech segment. We're talking about Digg, the user-powered news site that was launched in 2004. 

I still can see the font, the Digg font. 

It rolls out Spy 2.0. What was that? 

So that was a new feature. So Digg is the website. It's a social news website. And it was quite groundbreaking during the time. So it launched a year earlier in 2004. And you'll remember the logo. It was very, very much like pixel shaped for the word dig. 

And so Spy 2.0 is when you can do the voting. This is where voting would democracy comes to dig. 

Yeah, you could already dig up or down, but this kind of brought, it made it more immediate and then it started ranking things and it automated a lot of stuff behind the scene. 

Yes. 

So back when Dig started, there wasn't a way to vote on content or have a say or have an opinion or have feelings. But Digg introduces this concept of voting things up and down. 

Right. 

And Digg was a news and content sharing site where users could put together their collections and not rely on the media editors' choices. Other users could vote for the content they liked the most, and the most voted posts would make it to the front page, getting the most attention and the most traffic. Like, you can now upvote or download posts on Reddit. On Digg, you could only Digg. or bury them. It was an exciting novelty for customers because they had a say in what content could be relevant and popular for the first time. And it was also fantastic for content creators and publishers as it drove significant traffic to their websites. So everybody loved Digg. The dig button that websites craved for back then allowed users to dig content from their site and then let the rest of the community discover. It was the precursor of the share buttons you see now all over the web with links to all kinds of social media platforms. 

Oh, I get it. 

Yes. 

That was much better. We were just fumbling around there. 

I'm so glad. 

Thank you, YouTuber, whoever. I can't remember who he was, but he sounded like AI, but I don't think he. 

No, it was a real dude. It was very helpful. 

Yes. 

Very helpful. So the more digs the story got, the higher up it climbed, and then it would eventually hit the front page. And if you hit, you're always aiming for the front page. And often when certain sites hit the front page, the actual website would crash because it became so popular. 

Because then everyone would want to read it. 

If you were the one that got dug, then your website would crash. It was good. for the business. 

Good for the business. So all the traffic. Thanks to Dig and we're popular, but now no one can see anything. 

Doesn't matter, because we got Digged. Basically, Reddit before Reddit took over. So Reddit is launched at this time, but Reddit doesn't have any of those features. It later sort of took on some of these ideas and concepts from Dig. And the idea was, and it really started that movement around community-driven, Minimal editorial content, so it was content from the community, real-time voting, and it had that real San Fran startup energy as well in terms of how it all came about. 

Like this is fledgling citizen journalism. 

And Spy 2.0 is this thing or this plugin on the site that gave a real-time feed of activity. So users could see what was happening in real time on the site. through this Spy 2.0. It's an enhanced version and basically gives this live feed of news. So this is where you start to see that 24-hour news cycle. 

Yeah, and then the stories are trending up and down, so like they go up. 

And so you can see what everybody else is interested in as well. 

It all starts rotating. It's like a big carousel. 

Exactly, not just what the media are feeding you on the 6:00 news, basically. 

That was, I mean, that's So groundbreaking for 2005. That's never happened. 

Yeah, it was watching the crowd in action on the web. 

Yeah. 

And it emphasized how it wasn't just a list of stories, it was a living community and the momentum of things like the voting and the comments. was something that you could track in real time. 

Yeah, and I think like that kind of comes from a good place, like an honorable place, because it's that user-driven, the community is pushing for what they want to... read or see, and it's got that interaction, minimal gatekeeping, like the community is deciding that's how things are moving. It's not somebody feeding content to them and saying, this is what you can have. It's this is what we want and this is how we're going to get it. 

This is what others like you are interested in. Yeah, absolutely. But it also started to induce a bit of stress as well, because people just could not keep up with the rate at which these stories were moving. moving through and getting voted up and down and being replaced and it just got a little bit too frantic. 

But still blink and you miss it. I mean, I still feel like that when I look at news feeds now. It's like, where was that thing that I saw? 

It's like you're looking at an Instagram post and then you touch something and then it all resets right and you're like, and you can never find it again. 

Yes. 

That's the worst. 

Yes, and that's kind of, I hate that. Well, that was happening in 2005. 

I'm stressed. I'm stressed for them. 

You know what it is? It's like the charts, but wait, quicker. Like imagine. 

it's like when I'm trying to get the charts off billboard. 

That's how it feels. 

I've got to click it, got to click it quickly to see it pop up and then it's gone. 

I told you, I'll give you a website. Sorry, it's been a week and I haven't done that. But it's like, imagine if that was how the charts were. Like if you're seeing your stock go up and down. 

Well, that's what it would be like with streaming now, wouldn't it? It'd be changing. 

Yeah. 

Imagine. 

I feel like it's like, when they do the political debates and the... 

Oh, the worm. 

Yeah, the worm happens. Imagine if you're like watching the worm while you're talking and you're like, and I really don't like that because I actually love it. It's fair, you know, like you start changing the way you speak and stuff and maybe that would change. I don't know where I'm going with that. Like something to do with music. Anyway, that's where we are now. We're in a different segment altogether. So how about over to you, Mel? 

Yes, shut up. Maybe tonight, Kate DiRugio is the new number one here in Australia. 

And maybe tonight, maybe I'll fall. Maybe he'll crash through my walls. Maybe at last, love will come back and take me deep into it all. 

Or is it Kate Deruge? Did I just call it? Is it Deruge? I said Derugeo. The idol winner, Kate, who spoke about this. She's #1. Well done, Kate. 

You know the other thing I was just thinking with that, I know I'm still kind of on Dig a little bit. Can you move on? Because it's like dinner conversations and stuff. I'm like, how long do you reckon it would be before on Dig, before a story started trending about poop? 

I thought you were going to say, why can't we introduce the dig button to family dinner? 

No. 

So if someone's talking about a topic, you could vote it up or down. Yeah, and then move on to the next topic if it was boring. 

That wouldn't work with your family because everyone just all talks at once. 

That's true. 

Yes. It's true. Yes. That's all right. I'm going to still stick with you, which is the number one in the UK, by the way. Nobody gonna love me better. 

I must stick with you forever. Nobody gonna take me higher. I must stick with you. know how to appreciate me? 

Yeah, you know how to appreciate me. 

And they've got that all written as one word. Stick with you. 

Stick with you, PCD, Pussycat Dolls, that is. That's an acronym for Pussycat Dolls. 

And we were able to get the top five from the US. 

Yeah, But I'll definitely give you the website, but here it is. 

Sole survivor, yeah Third body know the game don't stop Trying to make it to the top for your skin, now Shake that laughing, tap it Shake that laughing, tap it Shake that laughing, tap it Girl, shake that laughing, tap it Love my lady, love My hump, my hump, my hump My homestay got you She's got me spinning I ain't saying she a gold digger But she ain't messing with no broken, broke Oh, it's gone. Oh, I just want. 

To pull one out. Every time I do it makes me. Go on. 

No more laughing. 

No more nickel back in the top five. That'd be probably sitting around six. 

So survivor #5. Yes. You can have some Laffy Taffy instead. 

Number 4, new entry. I mean. 

My humps #3. We'll get back to Laffy Taffy in a sec. Gold digger #2 and Chris Brown still #1. Running it. Run it. 

Yes. 

Can you spin that Laffy Taffy wheel? 

Yeah, I just played. 

Let's hear it again. 

Lovey. 

Dovey by D4L. the noise for it. 

Oh God. 

It sounds like, it sounds like a bad beatboxer has been recreated by the Commodore 64. So a beatboxer going poo poo choo and then like a Commodore 64's done it in Commodore 64 music. 

Like 8 bit. 

Yeah, an 8 bit version of bad beatboxing, don't you think? 

Yeah, it's. It's just bad. It's all bad. I don't even know how that's a thing. Is that that's that snap music because it's got the people snapping their fingers? 

It's got snap finger snaps instead of drums. Yes. D4L, which is short for Down for Life. Atlanta hip hop group formed in the early 2000s. And yes, best known for snap music, minimalist finger, snap heavy subgenre that ruled the mid 2000s. There was a lot of Snapping your fingers? Didn't little John do a song about snappy fingers? 

I'm just like, maybe, but I'm just like, How does, how does, how does that look at this photograph? every time I do it makes me laugh, and this, is like, What is this? Yeah, it's like Frogger. It's rubbish. 

Yes, crossing the road. Frogger. It does sound like a game, doesn't it? 

It's terrible. 

It's very popular, and it's popular on the TikTok today, and paved the way for artists like Soldier Boy. 

That's why we're not going to make it. 

Young Jock. 

You know, on the other side of the fence, over in Australia, we've got blokes drinking viruses, and then drinking bacteria, not viruses, just bacteria, and then defeating it with antibiotics. And what are you guys doing? You're... 

The interesting thing about this song, not just the snapping in the Commodore 64. 

Sorry, I just snapped then. You did. Apologies. 

Take a breath. 

Yes. 

This was one of the early mega hits that was actually powered by ring tone sales. This song was massive in America. I don't think it was that big over here. I actually don't think I've ever heard it. 

I think I've got a call coming through. 

Yes. That's the ringtone version. 

That'll do. 

This was the first song that reached number one that was heavily powered by digital downloads and ringtones. Because Billboard at this point 20 years ago has just introduced or just started counting digital downloads and ringtone downloads towards. 

Chart songs, yes. 

So adding the downloads to the CD sales, that's become part of the myths at this stage. 

And because this song is in there with Airplay, radio play, everything, it all feeds into the one. 

Because this song, because all the teenagers jumped online. spent their $3.49 or whatever it was. 

Shake that Laffy Taffy. 

On that song that was really popular as a ringtone and it pushed it up to #1 because of it because of the ringtone downloads. Isn't that crazy? 

I just feel like you could somehow figure out how to play that with your keypad on your phone anyway. 

I could play that on the recorder actually. 

You should play it on the actual phone. keypad on the numeric keypad. 

Yeah, probably like 443, yes, 443. 

Yes, and then you'd turn it upside down and you'd spell boobless. God, I just... 

Became one of the best-selling ringtones of the 2000s and a number one song. 

Yeah, sure did. What were we doing? 

Laffy Taffy. 

Oh, spoiler alert. That means it's going to be sitting there for a while. 

Yes. 

While Nickelback's sitting back at #6 looking at their photographs. Unbelievable. 

We had an awards show as well. 

Oh, great. 

On the 6th of December, the 16th Billboard Music Awards. 

Billboard Awards. 

This is... MGM Grand, that's a bit flash. 

It is a bit flash. And let me tell you, when you talk about star-studded lineups... 

Live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, it's the 2005 Billboard Music Awards. Hosted by LL Cool J and starring 50 Cent, Jessica Alba, Pamela Anderson, Naveen Andrews. Stars of the Fox series Bones, David Boreanis and Emily Deschanel, Blue Man Crew, Beau Vice, Chris Proud, Ryan Cabrera, Mariah Carey, Chingy, DJAM, Carmen Electra, Hoke and Brooke Hogan from House, Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer. 

Ryan Cabrera was there. 

Yes, that goes on and on for a good couple of minutes. And I feel like the announcer is just basically reading the names of every single person in the building. 

In the world. 

It's just, Hulk, Brooke, Hogan, he's just doing everybody. Ryan Cabrera, you know. 

And then he had to say the ones from Bones, they had difficult names. 

Oh, David Borriance, yes. 

Borinares or something. I thought it was Zoe Deschanel. 

Zoe Deschanel. 

Very difficult when you've got. 

It is, but that's why he gets paid the big bucks. 

I hope he did. 

Yeah. 

But he lied. He said 50 cents. And 50 cent wasn't there. 

Wasn't he? 

Won, he won, I think, 6 awards and was nominated for 15. 

In his defence, he said starring. He didn't actually say they were there. So, you know. I just assumed that he was reading the guest list, but based on him saying starring. 

Well, he actually accepted his award over the phone. 

50 couldn't be here the 90s and you're promoting his new movie, but we're going to call him up. Hold up. We're going to call him up. Tell him the good news. 

Hello. 

Hey, yo, 50, what's up? This is LL, baby. I'm at the 2005 Billboard Music Awards. I'm calling to tell you, just won the Billboard Ringtone Award, five other awards, including Artist of the Year, baby. 

Wow. 

Kanye also won. I don't know what he won, but he was being very honest as usual. 

Kanye just wins at being Kanye, I think. I mean, he, you know, he's like the Muhammad Ali of hip-hop. 

My greatest achievement still is... 

I still think I'm the greatest. That's probably not, that's probably not very fair to Muhammad Ali though. He's, I think Muhammad Ali is a far more inspirational character than Kanye, who's just a little bit loose, just a bit of a loose unit. 

He started this speech by saying he'd become more humble and then he ends with that. 

And then he says I'm still the greatest. I mean, good for him. But yeah, I feel like he just got out like he'd do well in professional wrestling, Kanye. He can cut a promo. He can really cut a promo, can't he? 

Off the top of his head too. He doesn't even need a script. 

He just goes for it. He creates these moments like the Taylor Swift moment. I mean, iconic, you know, regardless of what you think of Kanye. 

He's Hurricane Katrina performance. 

Yeah, and ad-libbed. And then the heel turn where he started to side with Hitler. That was a bit weird, but you know, it's at the wall, seeing what sticks. That's what I mean. Professional wrestling. He'd be great. Yes, he would. Over to entertainment and at the box office, Harry Potter has arrived on Australian shores. So Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is just burning up box offices everywhere in the US and Australia. And What was that other one? The other movie in Australia that we were watching. The Grimm one. The Brothers Grimm. Yes. 

Not anymore. 

Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. Yes, they're not they're not #1 here anymore. Everyone's going to see Harry Potter. So nothing else really happening there. But here. 

Today's champion can win a sophisticated bathroom package. This luxury Mount Fuller ski holiday. Or the all new better built, better backed Mitsubishi Colts. From Novel. Welcome to Montrose, right around Australia. It's time for your favourite game. Now, please welcome Larry and Laura. 

Larry, Larry is resurfaced. 

Two weeks later. Yes, Larry just said goodbye, just signed off Price is Right. 

And he's reserviced on Channel 7. He's gone from Channel 9 to Channel 7. Yes. And then who was the other one? Laura. 

Laura Sortana. 

So was this was co-host. Oh, no, she was just the letter turner. She was our new Adriana. Or Vanna White, if you're in the States. She was Vanna White, who was the famous wheel turner over there. Yes, not the wheel turner, the letter turner. 

I like that you could win a sophisticated bathroom package. 

A sophisticated bathroom package and a Mitsubishi car. 

I enjoy looking back at Wheel of Fortune cars that they gave away. 

The Colt. 

Remember they gave away the Holden Nova for a while. I've got to get a hold of Nova. What else did they give away? 

A Daewoo. They've given away. 

Daewoo Lanos. 

Yes, it's a very complete package as far as automobiles go. The Daewoo Lanos. I mean, what did you ask for? Well, you could ask for a Mitsubishi Colt, I guess, which is also a fine piece of Australian. 

Very, very compact. 

Japanese cars, compact cars, very compact car, the Colts, very good looking. You still see them getting around nowadays, the Colts. Yes, I think you can buy them at car dealerships. A used one will probably set you back about $40. Yeah, good cars. 

This is one of the later, or one of the last incarnations of Wheel of Fortune before it was ultimately cancelled in 2006. 

Which was a disgrace, really. I don't mean, why cancel Wheel of Fortune? It's a great show. Back when game shows took a little bit of intelligence. 

So Larry's popped over from Price is Right, and everyone... He loves Larry. High energy cheeky dad. 

Do you think Larry, I mean Larry's the come on down kind of guy. Do you think he's suited to the wheel? Or do you think he's, I mean, he's got the skills to pay the bills, doesn't he? You can throw any game show at Larry. 

I think he's happy now because the contestants aren't allowed to touch him anymore. I think he's like, thank God. 

A huge wheel between him and the contestants. 

They can't reach me and jump on me and hang off me and kiss me because that was just gross. 

That's right. I don't have to watch. 

That's how you catch a stomach. 

I don't have to watch that stupid mountaineer going up that hill yodeling the entire time. 

He stressed me out, but I liked the yodeling. 

You know, I don't have to watch people putt, golf balls. All they got to do is spin the wheel and... guess letters. I mean, spinning the wheel, pretty dangerous manoeuvre as well, though, if we're being honest. 

Put your shoulder out. It was heavy. 

It was heavy. 

There was many people that commented on how heavy it was. 

And they have to bend right over. 

Yeah, you don't want to wear a low cut top. 

No. Well, they almost kind of topple onto the wheel. I wonder if that's ever happened. I'd possibly see that. That'd be great. Somebody falls onto the wheel and gets spun off the side of the side. 

Laura's Laura's the. Laura's the letter spinner. She was. was Miss Universe Australia in the 90s and also hosted the Great Outdoors? 

Yeah. 

And I think they had a lot more banter, Larry and Laura. People enjoyed that. People thought that was fun. 

Well, Larry's always a bit cheeky. Larry knows how to be a bit cheeky, but not true. 

But he gets away with it. The nanos are just like, oh, Larry. 

He's not like John Burgess. He'd probably try and offer them a moustache ride afterwards or something. Do you know what I mean? 

I don't say that. 

I just did. That's the vibes that I get. He did say, he said a few inappropriate things. He's probably a very nice man. He's probably a very nice guy who was just doing his bit in the business. But I have to admit, when I used to see him on Wheel of Fortune and Catchphrase and some of those shows, he came across as a little bit of a lech. That's all I'm saying. Just to me, that's just my opinion. I'm not saying he is. I'm not even alleging anything to that effect. I'm just saying to me, he came across as a bit of a alleged, whereas Larry could be a bit cheeky, but he was kind of cute and just nice. 

They were hoping over at Channel 7 that this was going to revive the ratings. But it didn't. It actually didn't because we were starting to see people losing interest in the game show, which is very sad. I love a game show in the afternoon. But people were favoring reality TV and it was being scheduled against stronger programming and people were wanting the news because remember they were sort of running around the same time and they started doing an earlier time. 

First and five and all of that stuff. Five o'clock news. 

You know, people are digging over on the internet. It's like you want to get your news a bit earlier so you can keep up with what all the diggers are doing over on the dig site. 

Have that strategy work for them. Not very well. But yes, so they just kind of killed off the game shows. 

Just sad because they had such great prizes. 

Well, they just, I like these ones where they take a little bit of skill. I like being able to play at home. 

Sophisticated bathroom. 

I don't want to watch people guess, oh, guessing prices, I guess you can kind of play that at home as well. But not like these days where they put a bloody coin on a shelf. It's like those stupid machines that just does. What's that show called? 

Tipping Point? 

Tipping Point? 

It's like the five-cent machine at the Carney's, yeah. Why? 

Tipping point would that show happen within about the first four seconds when I found out what the concept was? That's a ridiculous presence. 

What about the celebrity tipping point? Celebrities come and watch the coins fall down. 

How much must your star be on the decline for you to go on a show where you've got to put tokens in a slot and see if they can topple other tokens at the bottom on a moving shelf. 

But did you get the booby prize that Jan won? 

Oh yeah, Jan, last episode. Was it the first episode of Wheel of Fortune? 

Look, I'm not sure, but I really like going back to the prizes that you got in the early 2000s. 

Sure. She didn't win the cult, did she? No, she didn't win anything. Tell me about today on Wheel of Fortune. 

How will you remember this for years to come? A lot, I think. 

A lot? Yes. And then I'll forget it quickly. 

Oh dear. How long have you been waiting to come and see us on the show? You've been watching the show for years. Since the show first started, yes? No! Don't make me feel like that. 1812. 1812. I remember. And Dixie was here. I remember. Dixie was here. 

I'm sorry it didn't work out a little better for you. 

Thanks for coming in. David, everything you had with your left arm. Dix, you've got something special for the guys, please. Fabulous and Jan, you'll love this. Dance to the beat of your favorite rock and roll to the MP3 player, featuring a built-in FM rodeo, voice recording, 120 megabytes of memory. 

It comes complete with a convenient armband, boom, boom, boom, from X feet. 

An MP3 player with an armband. 

With an armband. Boom, boom, boom from XP. Look, you've really got to acknowledge John Deeks. 

John Deeks, Deeksie. 

The voiceover guy. Did all of those... 

Listen to me. 

Stumbling around, but also did all of those reads live in the studio. That is not an easy thing to do. 

Had to announce the sophisticated bathroom. 

Yes, you can't be stumbling around when you're talking about sophisticated bathrooms. swallowing your words or anything like that. You probably need to be on your, bring your A-game. 

But I'll enunciate correctly or the sponsors get annoyed. I used to get in trouble sometimes. 

There was a slight slip up there, I have to say. He said rodeo. He said AM FM rodeo. 

Rodeo instead of radio. 

But he very quickly, it was a very good trick. It was, and I think only true pros would have been able to spot that. 

I used to get in trouble from sponsors because they didn't like the inflection that I had on their tagline. I had to redo some live crosses. 

I don't think you could do the tagline. I can't say it. 

I can't say it because I think they still exist. And I got in trouble because the tagline was meant to sound like a question and they felt my inflection didn't sound enough like a question. 

Oh, really? 

Yes. So I took it upon myself to read that tagline every single day, but make the question a different word in the sentence. And I had a lot of fun. 

Oh, wow. Just a little bit petty as well. 

Very petty, but did I enjoy it? Yes. 

Well, that's the most. That's the important thing. Can you give me, without giving the, can you make up a tagline and just give me an example of what you mean with the question thing? 

Let's think of something. 

What's like, was it like, thanks to Bob and Jane's marine, what's floating your boat? 

Something like that. 

So what did you do? So I was like, we're out here thanks to Bob and Jane's Marine. 

What's floating your boat? 

And they're like, that doesn't? 

Sound enough like a question? 

Because you just went, what's floating your boat? 

Yes, so they're like, what's floating your boat? What's floating your boat? What's floating your boat? 

What's floating your boat? 

What's floating your boat? What's floating your boat? So just, I just put different emphasis on different words. 

Emphasis on the other. 

Yes, but as long as it still sounded like I had a question mark at the end, I was okay and get in trouble. 

Yeah. my word. Like literally, literally my word. 

Lots of words. 

Somebody else's words. 

James Patterson's words. 

I didn't even read it. 

James Patterson. 

Especially after the George RR Martin one last week, which I never even got to, wanted to, but yes. This is a James Patterson one. What's James? 

Mary, Mary. 

What genre? 

Mary, Mary. This is part of the Alex Cross series. What's Alex? She's like a detective investigator or I don't know, something mysterious. 

Yeah, righty-o. This sounds good. FBI agent Alex Cross is on vacation with his family in Disneyland. Oh, it's not very Disney. When he gets a call from the director. 

Oh, Alex is a he. I thought Alex was a she. 

Yes, Alex Cross is a he. A well-known actress was shot outside her home in Beverly Hills. Shortly afterward, an editor for the Los Angeles Times receives an email describing the murder in vivid detail. Alex quickly learns that this is not an isolated incident. The killer, known as Mary Smith, has done this before and plans to kill again. Right from the beginning, this case is like nothing Alex has ever been confronted with before. Is the plan of an obsessed fan or a spurned actor? Or is this? If you drop the this, it's like the question mark on the thing. It's like... 

Is this? 

Is this the... 

Say it like a question or I want a refund. 

Or is it part of something much more frightening? Now members of Hollywood's A-list... fear that they're next on Mary Smith's list. And the case grows by blockbuster proportions as the LAPD and FBI scramble to find a pattern before Mary can send one more chilling update. Update, update, update. There you go. 

Do you time to that? Well, I did. That was good. 

Maybe not, like, because by the time I edited, I might have to cut a few bits out. No, I'll just keep it all, I'll keep it all raw, so you can just see the process, the process. 

And he's crafts, behind the scenes. 

Just keep it going. Yes, exactly. That's I'm just letting you into the tent. 

Yeah, that's nice. 

You're part of it. You're part of the show. You're not somebody that's just watching from the wings, you know, waiting to see what we do. You're in there. with us. Beautiful. Yeah. 

Beautiful. 

Let's go to reviews. 

Luna Jordan, one star. I am not even going to attempt to write proper reviews for every book I've read of this series. Hell no. I'm copying and pasting this review to all of them. like I've been doing for a lot of books. This sounds like Lois. This opening message is getting copied and pasted too. 

Why? What are you doing, Luna Jordan Monster? 

Firstly, a lot of these books were rated three stars, I think, by Luna. And it was only because my dad read the series and assumingly liked it. So I was all, yeah, me too, to have something in common with him. I never actually fully read them, just a few chapters before skimming through. 

Oh my goodness. 

But here's my true thoughts. The writing is terrible, in my opinion, and I didn't particularly care about the characters I managed to meet before quitting. 

I, you know what? I don't think that review holds any weight at all. 

Luna's not only copied and pasted, she's lied to her father. 

She's a terrible person. 

She's lied to her father. Well, she wanted, and look, in her defence, she wanted to have something in common with her dad. So maybe she pretended to have something in common. Maybe that's a good lie. Maybe her father has since passed and now she feels she can be honest. I don't know. 

Wow, she's come out from under the shadow of the baby. Right, okay. That's weird. 

That was a lot. That was a lot for one review. 

And I don't necessarily think her writing was very good either when it's all like, so I was all like, yeah, me too. I mean, what? are you talking about? Linda Jordan, one star. I mean, just let Robert Patterson, oh no, it's James Patterson. Robert Patterson's the dude from-. 

It's not a Twilight guy. 

Twilight, I'll start the music again. what else have we got? Stephanie Sodano, one star. Started to listen to book on tape. Didn't like it, so stopped. Now that is a review I can get behind. 

Straight to the point. 

It is what it is, man. Like it just is what it is. 

We're all clear. Mary Algren, one star. Promised I'd read one. Now I have. 

Oh, well, good. 

I feel like Mary and Stephanie would be friends. 

I don't know. Stephanie. 

Stephanie Sadano. 

Oh, the who's Stephanie? 

Started to listen on tape, didn't like it, stopped, promised I'd read one, now I have. They just both seem very straight and to the point, straight shooters. 

I think both of them would absolutely hate Luna Jordan one star. 

Oh, yes. 

Because especially Mary, like Luna Jordan is a liar, whereas Mary Algren is someone who makes a promise and sticks to it. 

Now I have, and I've told you all. I've been transparent about everything. 

I feel like it's almost there. Hatch, match, dispatch. Time to dispatch us in a sec. We just got to do this little thing first. It was a match. It's a celebrity who said this. 

My wife is an addict. And by addict, I mean like a crack addict. 

He's clearly joking. 

Yes. 

Clearly joking. Joking. I'll give you the context in a sec. But if you said Matt Damon, you would be correct. Now he got married in a very low key, un-Hollywood type ceremony. with his wife at the time, Lucia, at the time, she's still his wife, Luciana Barroso. And look, for full context for those comments previously, it was on Graham Norton, and they were talking, I think they were talking about the show Downton Abbey. Did you watch Downton before? 

No, my wife is an addict, and by addict I mean like a crack addict. And it's like a problem. We were supposed to start the show together, And I came to bed one night and she said, I've just watched six of them. And she was like, I'll tell you. I'll tell you what happened. Because she wanted to see the seventh and she didn't want to go back to the first. And so she's done the whole thing and I'm on my own. So I will watch Downton Abbey because I love you, but I'm going to have to find time somehow to do that. 

So I love them. Both of them. I love him. I love the whole wedding. I love the way they met. I think it's a winning formula. And I think more people in Hollywood should probably pay attention to it because it seems to have worked out okay for these guys. 

She was a bartender when they met. He was filming Stuck on You in Miami. She was working behind the bar. He had to hide from fans, so he ducked behind the counter of the bar where she was working and they hit it off instantly. 

Yes, she already had a daughter. Matt later adopted the daughter as well. And it was just a really nice love story. And instead of doing the big grandiose paparazzi fest of a thing, they just went down to Manhattan City Hall and went and saw the judge, you know? 

Just immediate family. 

Civil ceremony. Yeah. Ben Affleck wasn't there. His mate wasn't there. I would have thought he would have been best man, but he had filming commitments. None of his A-list friends there. He avoided the whole thing, said to the press that he just wanted something private. And I think that's lovely. Yeah. I think it's lovely. 

And she was pregnant with their child, three months pregnant when they got married as well. 

Oh, it's a shotgun wedding. 

So, Isabella in 2006, and they are still together. And one of the cornerstones he said of their relationship is that they have a two-week rule that Matt doesn't go more than two weeks without seeing her. 

Oh, well, that's good with his work and all of that stuff. It is lovely. I mean, and you know, he's good mates with Chris Hemsworth. 

Oh, your dad's neighbour. 

Yes. And you know, my dad lives up in the same neighbourhood as Chris Hemsworth. 

They're like best mates, aren't they? 

Not quite next to me. 

Besties. There's your mate. 

My dad would tell you that. 

That's what they say. 

Yeah, see, Matt, there's your mate. 

When Chris is down the street, people go to your dad, there's your mate. 

She's only human. I mean, it's Chris Hemsworth. I mean, yes, exactly. You know, but anyway, so there's a up there, so Hemsworth has a house in Byron Bay, Lenox Head, Lenox Head's where my dad lives, which is about 20 minutes away from Byron Bay, and there's lots of beautiful beaches around there. Well, yes, that's fine. And the Damons were holidaying up there. I think they must have been filming like, I don't know, Avengers, I don't know, something. Was Matt Damon in Avengers? No, he wasn't in Avengers. That'd be funny if he was. I don't know. Oh, he was in Loki. He was in one of the Thor movies actually. 

I thought they were just hanging out very briefly in a cameo. 

Anyway, they're going to the beach, and because they're not familiar with the Australian marine life or any of that sort of stuff, and I think. 

When they had the Lennox Head Beach. 

They were. This is the story that my dad tells. 

Was your dad at the beach as well? 

Hemsworth was there. Well, he must have been, because somebody would have said. He saw this. 

He saw this son told. 

There's your mate. And your dad's going, oh yeah, there he is. I don't know if he was there or not, but obviously he went around the town. Lennox is a pretty small town, and it went around the town. And so Damon's there with his kids at the beach, and the Hemsworth are there, and the heavy thing at the beach, and I think one of these kids trot on a blue bottle. and they sting. 

Well, that's just... Every kid has to touch a blue bottle at some point. 

That's what you do. This is where I think it might have ran around the town because it might have got a bit blown out of proportion. But the story goes that they didn't really know what to do and the surf life drivers are there and whatnot and they called the paramedics and everything and the rest. 

Paramedics for a blue bottle. 

A rescue helicopter and whatnot. But I think that's where it gets a little bit out of control. 

Was that a... I heard they went to the chemist and asked for some help at the chemist. That's what I heard. 

Well, exactly. I'm not entirely sure. You know, I mean, if it was like anything like, you know, we were talking last episode. 

Someone would have just offered to **** on it. 

That's the thing. That's what I was going to say. Like, you know, you could use AI these days. Like we're talking about how familiar my mate with ChatGPT is, he's my drinking buddy. You would have just **** on it, mate. It'll be all right. Exactly. Yeah. Anyway, that's the story. But Matt Damon and his wife still together, marital bliss, got a few kids and all that stuff. 

With some blue bottle stings, they survived. 

Some of them, it's like occasionally there are maybe real kind of people in Hollywood and he just might be one of them. 

I think he is, yeah. 

You know, I mean, I don't know, like there's, you know, the conspiracy theories about Hollywood. It's like, next thing you know, they're all lizards. You know, they're just going to peel their skin off and start eating mice, like in that show V. It's very strange. And on that note, I think it's definitely time we go. Time to go, yes. I've probably overstayed my welcome with that comment. Anyway, we do appreciate you though, and we'll do more stuff next week. I think we've got like maybe one more episode. 

I think one more and then we'll look at the best of the year and then we'll take it. We do really need some programming. We need to work out our new intro, actually. I need to start looking at what happened in 2006 so that you can put together a new intro. We need to get Daniel to do our new voiceover. 

It's a new year and she's already making. 

So much work to do. Might rebrand. Maybe I should, maybe we should change our corporate colours. 

Well, that sounds cool. 

What do you think? No, I like the yellow. I like the cassette. We're sticking with the cassette. 

I like yellow because it's a coward's colour. 

Okay, we'll keep the cassette as well after I edited the tape after that guy complained after Michael. Well, Michael was correct that it wasn't anatomically correct for a tape that had been pulled out of the tube. So he was right. He had a fair point. But it took a lot of editing. 

Yes, it did. 

A lot of editing. 

We definitely have to do another episode because we need to talk about the Cronulla riots because that happens. 

I can't believe that's, I feel like I say that all the time, but I cannot believe that one is 20 years old. 

I know. So we'll definitely have to look at that, which I think is coming up next week. Exactly. So we'll look at that and some other things. Come and find us on the socials though. In the meantime, if you want to come and have a chat or have a look at some stuff that we stick up there, you know, we might slow down a little bit. I haven't done many videos for a while. 

That thing that we were talking about with Marilyn Manson, where that lady in Russia and the guy. 

Oh, the rumour thing. 

Norway had heard about it. So that was interesting. And I shared a Christmas tree of Brittany's. 

Yeah, there you go. 

Caitlin liked that because you know how she likes Christmas. It's her favourite time of year. She hearted that. 

It is. It is the most wonderful time of the year. I just stop making lists. You're not Santa Claus. Don't check them. Don't do anything. Just go to the socials. Find us there. We'll see you next week. Love you. Bye. 

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-Minus 20 Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.