0:17

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hi,

0:19

this is Griffin McElroy. And this

0:22

is wonderful. This is a podcast

0:24

where we talk about things we like

0:26

that's good, that we're into. What does

0:28

that mean? I always assumed that

0:30

you knew. I don't. It's just

0:33

a bunch of words that

0:35

sound like the description

0:37

of a podcast when

0:39

you say them together in

0:41

a certain intonation. You know,

0:44

we could say arts, culture.

0:46

We could say that. We

0:49

could just say that instead

0:51

of what is essentially a

0:54

grammatically... syntactically incorrect

0:56

thing. I thought this was like your

0:58

modern era kind of like your little

1:00

macaroni spina. I know and I get

1:02

I don't know why I'm taking

1:04

this moment to be sort of

1:06

self-aware but it doesn't mean anything

1:08

and there's a lot of that kind of

1:10

stuff in all in all of our shows. I've

1:12

just like stuff we say that like shouldn't

1:15

the world's best friends pick the

1:17

world's best games. What's that mean

1:19

dog? I mean this that's how most

1:21

slogans go right? I don't think so.

1:23

I think most slogans have

1:26

a sense to them. What

1:28

does the happy taste good?

1:30

Happy taste good. It does

1:32

have big happy taste good

1:34

energy. Anyway, now that I've

1:37

sent myself into a bit

1:39

of an existential panty, I

1:41

would love to start off

1:44

this program by asking you

1:46

if you have any small wonders.

1:48

Okay. Who's been kind of...

1:51

It's it has not

1:53

gang it hasn't been

1:55

the most wonderful

1:57

Month, let's say I'm Pretty

1:59

sure our kids are wrestling the

2:02

flu for about the third

2:04

time in maybe six weeks. Yeah,

2:06

unless it's COVID. I did the

2:09

thing that probably people all

2:11

over the world have done,

2:13

which is like, what's the difference

2:15

between COVID and flu? And

2:17

when you get down to it,

2:19

not a lot. Yeah. So it's

2:22

one of them, probably. But

2:24

let's see, a good thing. I

2:26

mean, obviously. We are dealing with

2:29

this sting of last night's

2:31

defeat at the hand of the

2:33

Winnipeg Jets, but before that, the

2:36

St. Louis Blues beat their

2:38

all-time franchise record of 12 wins

2:40

in a row. When they won

2:42

the Stanley Cup in that

2:44

glorious 2019 season, they managed to

2:47

rack up 11 wins. That was

2:49

the franchise record then, and

2:51

then just out of fucking nowhere,

2:54

this season, which has been middling

2:56

at best. They went on

2:58

absolutely fucking ham on it turned

3:00

it on man brought a bunch

3:03

of young kids up and

3:05

they all just like snuggerooed

3:07

is one of them divorcee is

3:09

back divorcee snuggerooed a lot

3:11

of fun names on those yeah

3:14

I'm excited about that I'm so

3:16

excited about that I'm so excited about

3:18

that I'm so excited about that I

3:20

think Both of our children fortunately have

3:23

the same kind of school calendar and

3:25

so they are both on break so

3:27

we will be on break. Yes. Which

3:30

is exciting. I mean we'll probably have

3:32

an episode out because we do record

3:34

those in advance. True. But yeah I'm

3:37

very much looking forward to. to the

3:39

break and spending time with my family.

3:41

I can't imagine a world in which

3:43

I do not kind of build my

3:46

life around a school calendar. Yeah. Because

3:48

I feel like that has been true

3:50

for me, like I don't know, 35

3:53

years. And I can't imagine when our

3:55

children are of an age where they

3:57

are not in school, not still thinking

4:00

about my year in that term. I'm

4:02

going to say... I thought yours was

4:04

the 12 wins. Oh, yeah, I guess

4:06

it could be. I mean, you can

4:09

say another thing if you want. No,

4:11

that is, that's a good point I

4:13

shouldn't do. I was going to talk

4:16

about this blue prince game that I've

4:18

been absolutely obsessed with, but it is

4:20

going to be Besties this Friday. So

4:23

like, people can hear it, people can

4:25

hear it then. Yeah, what a teaser.

4:27

Are we cross promoting now? I don't

4:30

know man it's my favorite game I've

4:32

played in forever. Is this the puzzle

4:34

one? It's the one that's like seventh

4:36

guest mist kind of exploring a big

4:39

mansion that's randomized. I know you said

4:41

that Justin's playing at Russ and Chris

4:43

enjoying it too. It's funnily enough A

4:46

lot of it has to do with

4:48

color. It's a game and Russ is

4:50

color blind and I believe the developer

4:53

is like working actively on like how

4:55

to remedy that but it gets I

4:57

have to obviously accessibility is paramount but

4:59

it does get a little complicated when

5:02

there's things like How do you make

5:04

that more accessible when? It is kind

5:06

of a hint that maybe you're supposed

5:09

to connect the dots. How do you,

5:11

yeah. Anyway, blueprints, it's my favorite mystery

5:13

game I've maybe ever played. And you

5:16

should play it too if you are

5:18

listening to this and you like that

5:20

kind of stuff. My big wonder is

5:22

automatic car washes. And as you can

5:25

imagine. Have you done it lately? It's

5:27

been a long time. It has been

5:29

a long time. I was realizing. So

5:32

what kind of a spring this on

5:34

is. We love to cherry blossoms. We

5:36

love these pink beauties. Yeah, lovely. Lovely

5:39

tourism. Yeah. Congestion, both of the traffic

5:41

and bronchial varieties. We love it. Yeah.

5:43

What we don't love is when Spring

5:45

Springs and then all of that pollen,

5:48

which we love objectively. I guess so.

5:50

necessary for the survival of our ecosystem

5:52

like great I don't maybe we've overblown

5:55

the whole like be a colony collapse

5:57

situation because it does seem like pollen

5:59

is not having a particularly difficult time

6:02

getting around here. When we lived in

6:04

Austin, Texas, the cedar was devastating. Yes.

6:06

We were living in a constant state.

6:08

In fall, if I felt like fall,

6:11

it would just fuck us up. Honestly,

6:13

because it never got super cold either.

6:15

So like everything was constant and we

6:18

moved to DC and we hit just

6:20

the... Blumiest, bloom season. It's so vibrant

6:22

and virile and so bloomy right now.

6:25

So there is just a sheen, a

6:27

neon chartreuse sheen across every car in

6:29

the land. We did get a bit

6:31

of rain yesterday, which does help out

6:34

a little bit, but I've been thinking

6:36

about, you know, damn, I gotta get

6:38

this bad boy through an automatic car

6:41

wash, which is harder to do because

6:43

living in a city like D. Like

6:45

they aren't. attached to gas stations like

6:48

like it's just a thing you have

6:50

to go to specific to do. You

6:52

could probably pretty easily drive to West

6:54

or not West Virginia but Virginia or

6:57

Maryland. Well yeah of course I mean

6:59

yeah but that is space is it's

7:01

the wide west out there you know.

7:04

It is the wide west. The wide

7:06

west you know. I for me car

7:08

washes. are one a thrilling luxury because

7:11

I grew up like me and Justin

7:13

and Travis would be hauled off by

7:15

dad to go to like the hands.

7:17

the manual hands car wash where you

7:20

used your manual hands. Would you guys

7:22

hell have to do it? Yeah, and

7:24

so it would be, it was cute

7:27

I guess, like you have to use

7:29

the sprayer. I really appreciate that as

7:31

an activity. Yeah. This sense of like

7:34

I'm going to do something with my

7:36

children that will be useful and a

7:38

thing that keeps them busy. And it

7:40

was like, is fun to blast the

7:43

car with a big power. It's fun

7:45

to sop up the car with a

7:47

sort of big brush that is constantly

7:50

kind of gooshing out foam. That makes

7:52

a great noise. We love that. Drying

7:54

the car off sucks shit. It sucks

7:57

shit every time. Why do you have

7:59

to do it? Is it really get

8:01

that streaky? I think the idea is

8:03

that the car gets dirtier if it's...

8:06

If it's just kind of wet, I

8:08

don't know. I have never dried off

8:10

a car in my life. Vacuuming was

8:13

also like not great, but that was

8:15

sort of necessary to do because we're

8:17

a bunch of boys and it's dirty

8:20

all the time. So like I didn't

8:22

experience an automatic car wash until I

8:24

paid for one myself as a driver,

8:26

probably in my 20s. Is that true?

8:29

Yeah, no, I definitely I definitely have

8:31

no core memories of going through one

8:33

of these powerful tunnels. Very strong memories

8:36

of like sitting in the back seat

8:38

going through a car wash. Well, I

8:40

mean, if you want to talk about

8:43

the class struggles and the like divide

8:45

between your extraordinary, your extraordinary, wealthy teacher

8:47

parents and my two dollars to spare

8:49

my radio disc jockey and church secretary

8:52

parents, the real upper crust upstairs down

8:54

the stairs shit. No, I just didn't

8:56

use it. So like, it's always exciting

8:59

for me whenever I go through a

9:01

car wash. And so in, when we

9:03

lived in Austin, it would be like,

9:06

I would pump gas and then it

9:08

would hit me after I finish with

9:10

that. Do you want to fucking car

9:12

wash? And it's hard to say no

9:15

to that. And it's like, yeah, I'll

9:17

go through a little magic call. The

9:19

automated message that comes up. You're like,

9:22

oh, I can't disappoint this message. Well,

9:24

not that. It's not, you know, the

9:26

end of American Psycho where I have

9:29

to obey this machine's commands. It's just

9:31

like, yeah, I, the car wash has

9:33

come to me effectively. But I'm not

9:36

going to hop in my car and

9:38

drive to Maryland just to clean my

9:40

car. That's that's wild. No way. Anyway,

9:42

that's my current relationship with car washes

9:45

is, you know, I don't do them

9:47

that ever. I don't. to them that

9:49

ever. I have thought, I mean part

9:52

of me feels like our boys would

9:54

be a little bit freaked out. I

9:56

know a lot of kids really like

9:59

that experience. I feel like we would

10:01

have to spend a lot of time

10:03

kind of setting expectations. Like it's going

10:05

to feel like the car is moving

10:08

a lot. Yeah. It's going to be

10:10

loud and you're going to maybe worry

10:12

the windows are going to break in.

10:15

And that's normal. That is normal. I

10:17

looked up before I started researching, like

10:19

automatic car wash tragedies. Tragedies. Just to

10:22

make sure that like automatic car washes

10:24

hadn't been canceled while I wasn't like

10:26

paying attention. And they are as far

10:28

as I can tell extraordinarily safe. You

10:31

don't get a lot of reports of

10:33

you know the jet's getting too powerful

10:35

or like the wax melting a person's

10:38

skin or something like that. Did you

10:40

type in like automatic car wash? problematic

10:42

question mark? No, I'm I typed in

10:45

automatic car wash fatalities and there would

10:47

there was none that came up. So

10:49

that's exciting. That's great. Great for automatic

10:51

car washes. I don't know how you

10:54

don't accidentally kill someone at some point

10:56

on that car washes. There's a lot

10:58

of moving parts in there. So The

11:01

first steps that humans had towards having

11:03

an automated car wash experience. Was that

11:05

a spot in Hollywood? Couldn't find the

11:08

name of it, but it was in

11:10

Hollywood, opened in 1940, and it was

11:12

just a big conveyor belt going through

11:14

a tunnel, and you would pull your

11:17

car up on the conveyor belt, and

11:19

then it would go through the tunnel,

11:21

but people were doing all the washing.

11:24

So that must have been a kind

11:26

of wild experience of getting on this

11:28

conveyor belt, and then just getting a

11:31

sort of like slow motion. kind of

11:33

hands-on car wash from the employees of

11:35

the thing. Yeah, just people running forward

11:37

and then running back and... Yeah, or

11:40

maybe it was just people holding out

11:42

a brush in front of them and

11:44

as the conveyor belt went forward it

11:47

would do the brushing for them. And

11:49

then at the end to blow it

11:51

off it was just everyone just going

11:54

through. Yeah, that was really great fully

11:56

that we just did into these microphones.

11:58

In 1946, an invention named Thomas Simpson...

12:00

added like a powerful overhead sprinkler and

12:03

dryer to the to the conveyor belt

12:05

system but that still nobody had

12:07

cracked the whole scrubbing thing until

12:10

three brothers came up with the

12:12

format that we know today

12:14

as the fully automated touch-free

12:16

car wash their names for

12:18

Dean Archie and Eldon Anderson

12:20

E-L-D-O-N. I don't know I've

12:22

ever seen that name before but

12:24

I'm obsessed with it. Eldon Anderson

12:26

from Seattle, Washington, Washington. In 1951,

12:28

Eldon Anderson and his wife Virginia

12:30

opened up the five-minute car wash,

12:32

which pulled a car along a

12:34

tunnel, which was kind of like

12:36

a known thing at that point,

12:38

but it did it with a

12:40

pulley that you would hook onto

12:42

the bumper, and then it would

12:44

blast it with water and soap

12:46

from a series of sprinklers, and

12:48

then it would get in there

12:50

with a series of like spinning

12:53

mechanical brushes. And a 50 horsepower

12:55

dryer, I don't know how to convert

12:57

that. I don't know what kind of

12:59

unit of measurement horsepower is when it

13:01

comes to a hot air dryer, but

13:03

it sounds like it should do the

13:05

job. Eldon Anderson was a steam shovel

13:07

operator and foreman during the Great Depression

13:09

and had all of this like engineering

13:11

know-how and the patents on all of

13:13

this stuff. Dean from what I could

13:15

tell, sort of the business brother, sort

13:17

of the business guy, but Archie was

13:19

the marketing one and he came up

13:21

with a name for what would become...

13:23

a chain of car washes across

13:25

Seattle Washington, which was

13:27

elephant car wash. Elephant

13:29

because of the anatomical

13:31

qualities of an elephant, they have a

13:34

hose. They have a hose that they

13:36

spray water and a trunk. Rachel.

13:38

It's like an it's like an

13:40

innocent good like good thing. It's

13:43

the picture is like a big

13:45

pink elephant spraying himself with a

13:47

with a with his trunk. But

13:49

there's no like It's not for

13:52

anything else in there. And

13:54

the elephant car wash was

13:56

an enormous success, mostly because

13:58

of how not. novel the

14:00

hands-free automated car wash invention

14:02

was, but also because of

14:05

the elephant car wash's bright

14:07

pink sign. It was a

14:09

huge pink elephant gleefully spraying

14:11

itself with water from its

14:13

trunk. It was trimmed with

14:15

bright neon and set on

14:17

this rotating pole and it

14:19

was a landmark in Seattle.

14:21

There's like... It is a

14:23

place that people would go

14:25

to take pictures with the

14:27

big pink elephant sign from

14:29

elephant car wash. It was

14:31

like a big known quantity.

14:33

And so I think there's

14:35

something like 16 locations of

14:37

the elephant car wash still

14:39

open in Seattle, but their

14:41

flagship location with the big

14:43

sign shut down in 2020.

14:45

And luckily the sign was

14:47

preserved and donated to the

14:49

Museum of History and Industry

14:51

in Seattle. So I guess

14:53

you can still go see

14:55

the big pink elephant if

14:57

you live in Seattle, but

14:59

that is that was the

15:01

first automated carwash slash kind

15:03

of like I don't know

15:05

industrial cultural icon In the

15:07

Pacific Northwest invented by three

15:09

brothers, and you know I

15:11

love that which is well

15:13

because that's a place where

15:15

it rains all the time

15:17

you would think Yeah, they

15:19

wouldn't need so much they

15:21

would have like a real

15:24

dusty car, you know, and

15:26

maybe it's dirty rain. Oh,

15:28

yeah I haven't spent enough

15:30

time, I've spent a lot

15:32

of time in Seattle, but

15:34

not enough to know how

15:36

dirty the rain is. But

15:38

you know, it comes up

15:40

from the Puget Sound, it

15:42

probably has like clam gunk

15:44

and shit and like said

15:46

sediment, like mixed in with

15:48

it. Disgusting. There's not a

15:50

ton of fun facts about

15:52

automatic carwashes. I did learn

15:54

a new word, which is

15:56

mitter. MITT-T-T-E-R, Mitter, or Mitter

15:58

Curtain, which is the name

16:00

of the big thing with

16:02

all the big heavy cloth

16:04

ribbons that whip against your

16:06

car to clean it. That's

16:08

called a Mitter Curtain. So

16:10

now you all also know

16:12

that. So I think I've

16:14

checked all the boxes for

16:16

what goes into a wonderful

16:18

segment. We got some history,

16:20

some personal connections to the

16:22

thing. and now you learn

16:24

something. I feel like fucking

16:26

hang green right now. Case

16:28

closed. And that's, it does

16:30

solves another one of life's

16:32

great riddles. I love automatic

16:34

car washes. It is a

16:36

simple, fairly inexpensive luxury that

16:38

makes you feel like you're

16:40

living in the future every

16:43

time you do it even

16:45

though it was invented 74

16:47

years ago. And that's my

16:49

segment. And I'm sticking to

16:51

it. Can I steal you

16:53

away? Yes. Doing chat grooming.

16:55

Okay, thank you. Great. Oh,

16:57

things you could do while

16:59

listening. Yeah. I love that

17:01

the read, I'm like, why

17:03

do you listen to this

17:05

show? And Lunar's like, dishes.

17:07

Fantastic. Manolo. Number one is

17:09

that it will inspire you.

17:11

You're going to be like,

17:13

oh, I could do that.

17:15

That's all we have time

17:17

for, but you'll just have

17:19

to find Dr Game Show

17:21

on maximum fun to find

17:23

out for yourself. Say

17:26

you like video games. And who

17:28

doesn't? I mean, some people probably

17:30

don't. Okay, but a lot of

17:32

people do. So, say you're one

17:34

of those people, and you feel

17:37

like you don't really have anyone

17:39

to talk to about the games

17:41

that you like. Well, you should

17:43

get some better friends, but you

17:45

could also listen to triple click.

17:47

A weekly podcast about video games

17:50

hosted by me, Kirk Hamilton. Me,

17:52

Maddie Myers. And me, Jason Shire.

17:54

We talk about new releases, old

17:56

classics, industry news, and whatever, really.

17:58

We'll show you new things to

18:00

love about games and maybe even

18:02

help you find new... to talk

18:05

to you about them. Triple quick.

18:07

It's kind of like we're your

18:09

friends. Find us at maximum fun.org

18:11

or wherever you get your podcasts.

18:13

Okay. Yes. My wonderful topic this

18:15

week is a thematic line experience.

18:18

a thematic line experience. I'm talking

18:20

about specifically when you are waiting

18:22

for a ride at a theme

18:24

park. There has to be a

18:26

name for this that is more

18:28

that has a little bit more

18:30

Disney magic on it, right? I

18:33

mean, I've I saw some like

18:35

kind of different terms, but it

18:37

doesn't seem like there's some kind

18:39

of industry standard. I feel like

18:41

at Disney, it is akin to

18:43

like pre-show or like, you know,

18:46

while you are in the queue,

18:48

you are also like, that's just

18:50

as much a part of the

18:52

ride as the thing itself. This

18:54

is this is something, I mean,

18:56

you can see it at Universal.

18:58

Most, I think theme parks that

19:01

are owned by some kind of

19:03

like film television company. Right. try

19:05

to build in some kind of

19:07

drama into the ride experience because

19:09

usually they're celebrating like a particular

19:11

property that has like a lot

19:14

of lure attached to it. Right.

19:16

I mean they're also trying to

19:18

hide the fact that you're in

19:20

a line. Oh 100% no and

19:22

that's that's like the real I

19:24

have a real appreciation for it.

19:27

Sure. It feels kind of like

19:29

how we've talked about oh you

19:31

know like a an experience, like

19:33

a shoot, like a meow wolf,

19:35

what is that called? Immersive art,

19:37

immersive art, yeah. Yeah, there's this

19:39

kind of like immersive art quality

19:42

to it where they're like really

19:44

kind of trying to get you

19:46

into the space and yes, it

19:48

is distracting you from having to

19:50

wait. But I appreciate the effort,

19:52

I guess. Yes, for sure. I

19:55

mean, that's not a thing at

19:57

like every park, like waiting in

19:59

line for a ride at King's

20:01

Island is just kind of being

20:03

hot. outside. with like six flags.

20:05

Yeah. No, I mean, this is

20:07

definitely like a higher end investment,

20:10

but I love it. Yeah. So

20:12

there's some terminology that I learned

20:14

while I was researching it. One

20:16

of the things is the switchback

20:18

cue, which is the concept of

20:20

snaking. Right. I know that from

20:23

Rollercoaster Tycoon. Yeah, you'll see that

20:25

too at like a fast food

20:27

restaurant. Sure. This idea of like

20:29

seeing a super long line stretch

20:31

out in front of you is

20:33

one thing, but like having to

20:35

snake around, like keeps you from

20:38

ever seeing the full line. So

20:40

you don't really kind of know

20:42

what, like keeps you from ever

20:44

seeing the full line. So you

20:46

don't really kind of know what

20:48

you're getting into and you don't

20:51

feel as like daunted. those cartoons

20:53

and we were as well is

20:55

you start to mark time by

20:57

like okay I see that hairpin

20:59

turn it's the next one in

21:01

front of me how long it's

21:03

again take me to get to

21:06

that one and the answer's like

21:08

45 fucking minutes it's right there

21:10

yeah and you get kind of

21:12

irrationally upset with people who are

21:14

just kind of standing there not

21:16

moving yeah even though they could

21:19

really only move four feet right

21:21

yeah Also, like, within this, like,

21:23

switchback cue design is just the

21:25

idea of, like, people watching? Yeah.

21:27

Like, instead of seeing the person,

21:29

like, in front of you, you

21:32

know, you're seeing, like, a lot

21:34

of people, 20 people, yeah, and

21:36

you're just kind of staring at

21:38

all of them, you know? And

21:40

then there's the kind of thematic

21:42

element. So this started at Disney

21:44

in the 60s. And one of

21:47

the first examples is the Haunted

21:49

Mansion Ride, which was in 1969.

21:51

Wow. So I guess I haven't

21:53

thought of all that stuff as

21:55

being kind of like prototypical pre-show

21:57

entertainment, the like stretching room and.

22:00

like the spooky graveyard stuff outside.

22:02

Uh-huh. Gotta love the haunted mansion.

22:04

I know. So there are apparently

22:06

four principles of creating an ideal

22:08

cue. One is- Is this like

22:10

Disney, like, you know, philosophical stuff,

22:12

or is this like- I don't

22:14

think so. I mean, I don't

22:16

know if it started with Disney.

22:18

I know that Disney subscribes to

22:20

this. I know they're not the

22:22

only ones who do this thing,

22:24

but it definitely would not surprise

22:26

me to learn that there was

22:28

like some sort of handbook that

22:30

you receive your first day as

22:32

a cast member. So a fair

22:34

weight, which is like a first

22:37

come, first serve rule, a comfortable

22:39

weight, so you have like bathrooms

22:41

available to you, an understood weight.

22:43

which is why like waiting makes

22:45

sense for like the ride that

22:47

you're about to get on you

22:49

know yeah the weight is unreasonable

22:51

for something that's not really I

22:53

thought that was more like you

22:55

know how long it's going to

22:57

take you to get through the

22:59

line no the next one is

23:01

a known wait okay that's what

23:03

you're talking about with estimated wait

23:05

times Okay, that all makes sense.

23:07

Yeah, I will say about wait

23:09

times, one thing you mentioned. So

23:11

one thing that Disney does do

23:13

is they give you like a

23:15

sense of the wait time, and

23:17

it will always be. posted as

23:19

longer than it actually is. Oh,

23:21

really? Which they call a Machiavellian

23:23

twist, which makes you feel as

23:25

if you've won back minutes. Okay.

23:27

So you get up to frozen

23:29

ever after, and it says 80

23:31

minute wait. You're like, fuck. And

23:33

then you wait for an hour,

23:35

and you're like, hoohoo, baby. Where's

23:37

zoom in? Um, fuck you, Olaf.

23:39

That's 20 minutes of my life.

23:41

I got back. Frozen is a

23:43

particularly rough one because unlike pirates

23:45

or you know like one of

23:47

those rides where they have a

23:49

lot of real estate. Frozen is

23:51

tiny. Frozen is tiny. You are

23:53

not. You walk in there and

23:55

it's like not even as big

23:57

as a restaurant and you are

23:59

snaking and snaking. It's like you're

24:01

at Comic-Con. like you're on the

24:03

show for in a crush. Yeah,

24:05

for sure. Yeah. The other kind

24:07

of speaking to the immersive experience.

24:09

So this. article I read from

24:11

Popular Science talked to Richard Larson

24:13

who is a queuing expert at

24:15

MIT. Okay I love that. And

24:17

he talked about the dual task

24:20

paradigm which is when you are

24:22

waiting your wait time feels less

24:24

important when your brain is surrounded

24:26

by exciting things. So like you're

24:28

kind of distracted basically like your

24:30

brain is working on kind of

24:32

the environment you're in more than

24:34

like how much you hate being

24:36

in the line. Is there a

24:38

wonder an inverse ratio of like,

24:40

you know, there's like never a

24:42

line for the Little Mermaid Ride

24:44

at Magic Kingdom? because it's been

24:46

around for, I guess, a while.

24:48

But I have to imagine if

24:50

you catch Scuttles' little comedy, his

24:52

type five that he does, if

24:54

you catch it 20 fucking times,

24:56

it's probably then it has a

24:58

negative sort of overall effect. True,

25:00

or like Mr. Potato Head and

25:02

the Toy Story, Mania, right? Yeah,

25:04

man, yeah. He's doing his bits.

25:06

We need a long loop on

25:08

Mr. Potato Head. We cannot keep

25:10

cycling through his material. The other

25:12

thing I found out is the

25:14

Savannah College of Art and Design

25:16

has a themed entertainment design program.

25:18

Fuck yes, that's amazing. Which is

25:20

a graduate level program that prepares

25:22

students for crafting attractions and lands

25:24

at theme parks. One of the

25:26

courses focuses on the art of

25:28

creating cues. That's a may, I

25:30

God, sometimes I wish I could

25:32

just go to one class out

25:34

of school for a thing and

25:36

not. have to pay you know

25:38

$45,000 in order to do so

25:40

because I bet that's so fast.

25:42

I know just like audit that

25:44

class just like I bet there's

25:46

a book I could read huh?

25:48

Probably I will say like my

25:50

internet research it was difficult to

25:52

find like a sort but there

25:54

have been a lot of like

25:56

academic papers written about this. Well

25:58

it's such a common like a

26:00

relatable thing right if you've been

26:03

to a theme park you know

26:05

exactly what this experience is like

26:07

and yet there's probably only 20

26:09

people on the planet who are

26:11

actually tasked with like generating that.

26:13

Yeah so I I looked at

26:15

this rancor list of like Best.

26:17

The best being parked line tricks

26:19

or line examples. And one of

26:21

the ones that came up, which

26:23

we experienced not long ago, was

26:25

the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, where

26:27

you walk through the offices of

26:29

the Daily Bugle? Yeah, fucking rules.

26:31

I remember thinking, like, what kid

26:33

is, like, a hype about a

26:35

newsroom? I mean, when you have,

26:37

like, I think it's like you

26:39

get like shadows of Spider-Man like

26:41

swinging around like I guess I

26:43

remember some of that stuff. I

26:45

guess so. I mean I enjoyed

26:47

it personally but I did have

26:49

the thought of like you know

26:51

Universal's got like all of these

26:53

crazy like immersive experiences now and

26:55

then you walk into the Spider-Man

26:57

and you're like whoa. The Spider-Man

26:59

ride slaps ass I'll go to

27:01

bat for that one all day.

27:03

That's a good ride. It is

27:05

a good ride. I'm just saying

27:07

the line is not. It's not

27:09

the most exciting. I mean for

27:11

me, probably and obviously partially resency

27:13

bias and also because it's so

27:15

new, the tech is like insane.

27:17

all of the pre Guardians of

27:19

the Galaxy stuff. Yes, I was

27:21

thinking of that one too. And

27:23

also Star Power, you get like

27:25

the actual actors from the thing,

27:27

doing new stuff. They make you

27:29

feel like you're on like a

27:31

spaceship, like it's a very, I

27:33

don't know. The avatar flight of

27:35

passage stuff is also very, very

27:37

cool, because that's like a multi-stage

27:39

process where you go through like

27:41

decontamination and scanning. Talk about real

27:43

estate too, man, that line situation

27:45

is enormous. And of course, all

27:48

the like new Star Wars Star

27:50

Wars stuff too, stuff too. Of

27:52

course, sure. Yeah, another one on

27:54

here that I almost forgot to

27:56

mention is the Dumbo ride has

27:58

that play area. Big up. Although

28:00

it was closed, I believe, last

28:02

time. I don't know what makes

28:04

it closed, but it is like, like

28:06

basically like an indoor. It's a huge

28:08

indoor playground. Yeah. And they. give you

28:11

like a little pager or something so

28:13

you know or they call out when

28:15

your ride is right. But the line

28:17

for dumbo is never particularly long. No.

28:20

And really the playground being indoors

28:22

makes it one of the most

28:24

attractive spots in the whole of

28:26

the Magic Kingdom for me. I know.

28:28

Yeah, our kids are not particularly interested

28:31

in the dumbo ride, but that

28:33

little playground area is pretty

28:35

great. Yeah. So those are just some

28:37

of the examples. I don't know. I

28:39

always like... It gets me excited,

28:41

man. I mean, it's, it is,

28:44

uh, man, I try not to

28:46

go full Disney, Dad, Sicko mode,

28:48

because I realize it probably turns

28:50

off quite a large portion of

28:53

our audience who does not care

28:55

for that shit at all. And

28:57

I get that. For me, what

29:00

we are discussing is kind of

29:02

part and parcel what I enjoy

29:05

about. Disney, especially but also other

29:07

other theme parks I've been to

29:09

also, which is like feeling the

29:11

invisible hand of a person who

29:13

has designed an experience with

29:16

like the utmost thoughtfulness. Yeah,

29:18

I mean, it's similar to an escape

29:20

room, right? Yes, exactly. Like you

29:22

are in an environment that is

29:24

created around this like story and

29:26

you are getting to kind

29:28

of experience it and get

29:31

kind of excited about like...

29:33

being totally surprised by what you've

29:35

been there. When you look for the

29:37

like intention behind everything and recognize

29:39

it as like also another small

29:41

attempt to like entertain or delight

29:43

you, regardless of how well it

29:46

accomplishes that, I fucking love seeing

29:48

that stuff. I love seeing that

29:50

stuff. I also just get very

29:52

stressed when we have to wait

29:54

anywhere with children. Yes, of course.

29:56

Because our kids are pretty good.

29:58

Like they hang for a... surprisingly

30:01

long time. But I just always start

30:03

to get nervous of like, we have

30:05

waited in this line for 30 minutes.

30:08

If our kids lose their minds now,

30:10

like we will have waited this long

30:12

for nothing. So the like outside entertainment

30:14

is very appreciated and it makes it

30:17

a little easier. Yeah. Hey. Got some

30:19

stuff from our listeners, you want to

30:21

hear it? Okay. Max says, my small

30:24

wonder is finding an abandoned snack in

30:26

a vending machine, just got some free

30:28

peanut M&M's, fuck yeah. Oh, that is

30:31

good. I don't know that it's ever

30:33

happened for me. Oh, really? I've gotten

30:35

a freebie, like, you get a thing,

30:38

and then, like, to fall out of

30:40

here. No way. That fell too far.

30:42

Those imminins are going to be crumbly.

30:44

I'm gone. Skyler says, my small wonder

30:47

is the Art Museum Cafe. I love

30:49

the sensory experience of partaking in these

30:51

fancy rest areas of sorts and treating

30:54

myself to a little espresso and often

30:56

sometimes a warm cookie in the afternoon

30:58

to get some more peb in my

31:01

step after exploring galleries for hours beforehand,

31:03

the espresso pit stop is also the

31:05

perfect time to reflect on what I've

31:08

seen that day by going through the

31:10

notes I've taken on the artwork. I

31:12

do like that. I do like that.

31:15

They had one of those when I

31:17

went to Chicago recently to visit friends.

31:19

I went to the Art Institute and

31:21

they have a little coffee shop in

31:24

there now. Bistro. I do like that.

31:26

I just like a coffee shop. Period.

31:28

Period. Yeah. I mean, you gotta have

31:31

your, I gotta have my beans. Your

31:33

Java. Don't even talk to him before.

31:35

Don't talk to me until I've had

31:38

hot beans. Hey, thanks for listening. Thanks

31:40

to Bowin and Augustus for the use

31:42

for our theme song, Money Won't Pay,

31:45

and final link to that in the

31:47

episode description. And thank you to Maximum

31:49

Fun for having us on the network.

31:51

Huge thanks to everyone who supported us

31:54

in the Max Fun Drive. You all...

31:56

We probably already thanked him. Maybe time

31:58

has, time has like collapsed in on

32:01

me, like a demolished building. I mean,

32:03

thanks. Thank you. I appreciate you and

32:05

the life you allow us to live

32:08

in the career you've allowed us to

32:10

have because of your support and thank

32:12

you. Got some live shows coming up.

32:15

We just announced a few more in

32:17

like some of them are in Michigan.

32:19

I don't know. I'm pretty tired and

32:21

we're recording this quite late. So coming

32:24

in pretty hot, bringing in the plane

32:26

for a spicy landing here. Yeah, go

32:28

to macroymerch.com. Check out all the merch

32:31

we got. Bit.elby slash macroy tours. If

32:33

you want to come see a Taz

32:35

or a bim-bam live, got some shows

32:38

coming up later this year and thanks

32:40

again for listening to our program. Join

32:42

us again next time for Wonderful because

32:45

shouldn't the world's best friends make the

32:47

world's best games? What? No. Shouldn't the

32:49

world's best lovers. Yeah. And I gotta

32:52

be careful because I can't say this

32:54

one on there. Do you know what

32:56

I mean? Well, are you worried you're

32:58

going to get mixed up? Maybe, baby.

33:01

Shouldn't the world's best lovers? Pick the

33:03

world's best stuff? I mean, that doesn't

33:05

drip off the tongue. What if it's

33:08

just shouldn't the world's best lovers, question

33:10

mark? I mean, that's the kind of

33:12

nonsensical heat that I think people expect

33:15

from us. Maximum

33:49

Fun, a work-or-old network

33:52

of artist-owned shows, supported

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directly by you.