From the Fans: Anatomy of a Feeny Impression

Guys, we went out to our listeners with a bigger ass than we've ever done before.

This was big.

This came out of the idea that you couldn't figure out what mister Feenie's accent was.

I have since though it's Norwegian.

Clearly. Yeah, I'm willing to hear it. I don't hope truth.

But yes, A lot of people emailed and said that they had a lot of thoughts about your impressions, and so we went out to them and requested that they send us their takes on mister Feenie's accent.

Yeah, normally we just asked for their opinion on something. This we asked them to put in significantly more work.

Yeah, we gotta perform, Yes, a lot of voice memos. But I thought it would be fun to sort of set the bar low. Thank you great to have you guys try it first. So I wrote you a script. You did a little bit of rehearsal, a little bit of practice as to think it would.

Sound, did we not.

I couldn't.

I can't get I can't do it either.

I heard I heard Danielle just saying man, man man. I just heard her saying it over and over and so yes, so I wrote you guys each a little thing. You will start it off, and then we will get into some of the voice memos. But who who's willing to throw themselves into the volcano first?

Who wants to go first?

I don't.

I'll get mine out of the way then, just because so for I should. I want to preface this by saying, one of the nightmares of any voiceover actor is being sick and having to record. And I am sick, so I'm excuse me. Well no, I'm just gonna I'm gonna use it. And so mister Feenie.

Is a cult, okay, as a cult as he's talking. So here we go.

I'm gonna get into it, mister Matthews. Mister Matthews, personally, I believe that a man, no matter where he comes from, chooses his own path. And you have chosen to smoke cigarettes in between scenes and watch mash reruns all day. So drop a pin, young man, and watch out from may Azalea's man.

I I know I'm trying to get the cad and that was that.

The thing is, I was watching phoene clips all morning and Bill has a very specific cadence to and it's almost like broken up fragments of the line.

That's exactly what I was gonna say.

And I think part of it, frankly, is just his natural pattern of speech. And I think part of it is sometimes Bill trying to remember his lines.

So I think he does. I think he would do that often because he was always so good with his lines.

I think he kind of takes that actor pause occasionally in between things, and so, uh, yeah, you got to get the cadence down as well.

So I apologize for the voice.

It's not it wouldn't have sounded like that, and I'm gonna do a better one when I'm healthy.

There you go.

That was pretty good. I'm pretty impressed.

Writer.

Yeah, it's it's easier if I if I think about the rhythm, the way that the Bill Daniels would pause, let his words land. It's all about the r s and the a's. They can't be too short nor too long. It's erudite, educated, it's upper class, but never English.

Well, listen, I wrote you a script.

You're you're you're using words. I'm trying.

I sent you a script just before we went on.

Miss miss mister Hunter.

No.

See, I can't even do it. How does he start Hunter Hunter Hunter a h U and mister Hunter. If you let people's perceptions of you dictate your behavior, you will never grow as a person. Person, you will never grow as a person.

Per Nope, can't do it.

A little bit irish it is, you will never grow as a person. And if you keep losing that leather jacket and forgetting that this show is a romp, you'll be eating salad for one. Have some dignity, man, it's so hard.

It can't. It's like if I if I keep going over and over, I might find it, you know. But it's it's it's tough. It's a tough it's a tough accent.

We do have a listener who has an opinion on writers impression of mister Feenie. Let's listen to that.

This is Andy.

Hey, what's that pod? Mets World? My name is Andy. I'm a huge fan. Love the show, listen to every episode. But I realized I cannot do a Feenie impression, but I can do a writer impression.

What matters is our plan.

No one cared who I was till I put on the Mars, of course.

But just kidding.

Awesome show, love it, keep it going can't wait to hear more episodes.

I definitely slipped in.

Threeper losing it's I expect you to talk, mister Matthews. No, I expect you to die. I can't wait to hear Danielle because I think it's gonna be spot on.

No, Honestly, here's the biggest problem.

I don't know that. Isn't it good? I didn't. I didn't. I didn't listen to him at all. I didn't do it. I didn't do the prep that I was supposed to do.

I want to, and then you know, I just didn't. So I don't have his voice in my head. Now I have your will, your impression in my head, and I have writer's impression in my head. So I'm gonna just I'm gonna close my eye. I have to close my eyes but also read at the same time. So I don't know exactly how that's gonna work.

But Ms Lawrence, to me, a real hero is someone who does the right thing when the right thing isn't the easy thing to do, like parking a car in your garage and fistooning yourself in costume jewelry.

Isn't that right? Queen of Samsung like so British, very yeah, it's the it's the only thing I've got.

All of us are dropping or actually Will did so much, but both Danielle and I drop into this lower.

No one, I'm not gonna sound anything like Phoenie like this, I mean yeah, well yeah.

Because he's he's told us how he came up with the accent and how he was a kid from Brooklyn and it was he didn't like his Brooklyn accent and somehow landed on that, we landed on Winchester.

He was an.

Understood a play where they were doing Boston accents, and so he it's it's.

Not a Boston accent.

It's like, no, it's it drifts a little out over the Atlantic, just just a bit.

You know.

What's interesting is it's it's if you watch John Adams. Strangely enough, if you watch the HBO miniseries John Adams, lots of accents like this in John Adams because it's like right as we're it's not quite the Americanized version of Boston yet, even highbrow Boston. And it's not English because we've separated from the call from so it's like right in the middle. It's it's it's absolutely its own dialect, which is it's really a difficult one to capture.

Is there anyone else who does it?

It?

Literally, anyone else in the world who sounds like that, Yes, Winchester, and he really does.

And and then when what's funny is other characters on Mash then try to emulate him as as a joke, and the only one who can even come close to doing it is Alan. All the all the other ones sound British, so even the actors in Mash can't get this accent down.

It is such a very specific type of because it is it's not you're the a's are soft but long.

You're you're ending every You're you're hitting the consonants of every last word you're saying, you know, festooned. He's always he's always ending every word very man. It's like you're always finishing every word hard, but the word itself is soft.

It's it's a weird lin It's very strange, definitely difficult.

D let's find out. Uh, let's start with Vanessa. Here's our first true impression.

I do want to let it be known that I've been walking around my house parked cod in the garden all freaking day.

Okay, I don't have much time.

I'm gonna really try.

Mister Matthews, mister hunt Park your cod my garden.

Man, mad mad man.

Again, that's the thing is, it's so easy to get caricatury with it, which poes.

It is so much easier though, to actually try to just get down one line that he says instead of instead of using words he didn't say. But like, yeah, like if we could just listen to one loop of him saying the same sentence over and over again, we may get close to just say that that one sentence. We could mimic that, but like actually taking it and then putting other words in it, I don't know how.

To do it.

It is well once you I mean, that's the thing is, once you have an accent down, you should be able to say just about.

Anything into it. Yeah, getting this accent down is really difficult.

Would you say, like other actors like Christopher walking like it's kind of similar.

To but no, because walking is just you know, it is what it is and you just kind of do it rhythm. Yeah, it's the cadence of the thing.

But again, even walking, like I just finished walking there and it ended.

John Travolta from Greece.

So it's because I think you're doing everyone does then impression of someone doing an impression of walking.

Exactly, and they do.

You know, I walked around with this up my five years, you know, like that kind of it's so yeah, you always do somebody doing walking right.

Well, here's Jessica. I actually tagged this as a good impression. So let's see what I.

Thought, Matthews. Let me break it to you.

Impressions of old characters like myself are pooled. People look at you and think, hey, there's a guy who probably thinks yoga is a top of soup. But here's the kicker. Underneath all that questionable fashion and general confusion. You do, mister Matthews, have a heart of gold. It's just buried under a mountain of I don't know what I'm doing with my life, mister Peenie. And honestly, if arak can survive middle school, I think you can survive a little judgment, isn't It's.

The rhythm of that one is really good.

And it just made me realize we shouldn't we made a huge mistake, and that we shouldn't have been watching Boy Meets World clips to get this down. We should have been watching night Rider because it's.

Just his voice. Yeah, it's there's it's just a voiceover.

Well, it's also I'm realizing there's a difference between absorbing the accent and making it your own with your own voice, and doing an impression of Bill Daniel's voice. Those are kind of two different things, and like they're both hard, but you know, I yeah.

It's you want to learn the accent. That's what you want.

You want to learn the accent because when you learn the accent, then you can say anything. It's it's instead of just doing a Bill Daniel again. Daniel's right. If we just keep listening to one line over and over again, we can mimic it. We can mimic it, but that's not the same.

Now here's Ashley. She modernized mister Feenie in the classroom.

Gutenberg invented the printing press in fourteen fifty, making print available to the mass. What do you mean you can't hand me turn on your camera, mister Hunter, I still can't see you. Zoomed attention, mister Matthews.

Zoom attention. But that's that's British. She went straight up to British. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's such a difficult line.

It's the ending of words with R that are really hard because he actually does end with an American R, but he gets there through a British like right fowl sound.

It's so, here is Christopher.

There is no greater aspiration than to have love in our lives. Mister Matthews. Romeo knew it and died for it. Others know it and prepare salads, and those that don't know it will sit in detention for the rest of their lives.

That's pretty cool, pretty good.

It's kind of Steve bloom doing uh, doing a cartoon voice a little bit different.

Yeah, it's a little yeah.

I also tagged this one is a good impression. This is Daniel.

Let's see, mister Matthews come here. I already have my hamlet. He may bump into the scenery, he may talk like a hay seed. Oh I know tomorrow, he may show up in KABOOKI makeup. Nevertheless, he is my hamlet. I do, however, have an opening for a spear carrier.

That's not bad.

For a speak car The carrier also the the timbers right too, So it's he was right on that was a good one.

That's a good one so far.

That's the winner so far, even it could be Daniel. This is Carolina.

Eric parked his car my garden.

How you doing.

My name is Carolina. I've been a fan of the Pod for the past few months now and I love what you do and I love the pod and just I hope you're having a great day. And that was my Phoenie impression. Thank you for listening that.

I don't know that it was.

Or when she was saying car in the garden it was it was closer.

Yeah, okay, here's Brendan. Hello.

Pod means world. This is George Foeney. No, I'm not British. I'm from Boston. Man. I need some advice. I'm trying to retire and move to Jackson Hole, but I can't sell my house. The neighbor's kid parked his carn my garden. I just want to move away and enjoy my twilight years in peace and quiet with a good book, because that's the way. Uhha uh huh.

I like it.

Does he actually ever say park the car a week?

Because now I know that's the one that can start parked his car in my garden?

I've listened to so many impressions I can't I can't remember what the real lines are, right, Yeah, okay, here is Eric, mister Matthews, good to see you, Kettle in the hand.

I'm building the fence just a little bit higher now. I figured you, of all people, would want to help build up the Great Wall of FENI otherwise you may feel subjected to more academic propaganda thrown over your side of the fence, as if it were a home of scholastic warfare, as I've heard you refer to it. Besides, with the fence a little bit higher, I'm able to protect the mango tree from mister Matthews on hand that.

Man, go man.

I think Daniel still got it. Though Daniel was right on.

It'd be hard to beat. But here is Madison.

What Pod meets World. I think mister Feenie would be really disappointed in me because I waited till last minute to record this and send it in. So this is my best impression of mister Feenie lecturing Corey and Seawn for procrastinating. Mister Matthews, mister Hunt, if you spend your whole life waiting till the last minute to complete something you'll never live up to your true potential. Thanks for listening to my impression.

Watch out will there's a new voice actor in town.

Let you guys.

Can I tell you that a lot of people when they got to that, they like it does help them a lot. It's that like it's the one we just listened to.

It's like you know what I'm talking about?

Yes, so yeah, and again that's it.

That's it tactic that voice actors use all the time. Uh you know so, I remember when we were doing Kim Possible, Johnny Demagio would always just have to say one word. He'd just say the name of the bad guy goes she go, and he'd be right into characters. But you'd have to do that every time and then

Well, here's Brad.

Mister Matthews, we had an agreement. I have festooned myself in costume jewelry, I have swilled your faux tea, and now I must insist that you hold up your end of the bargain. For the love of God, Man send me my wet the T shirtel Daniel.

I have to have a Phoenie off between That's okay, all right, so far we got Brad and Daniel in the running.

Okay, a couple left. Here's Ryan.

Good morning, mister Matthews. I just wanted to let you know a little history about myself. First of all, I was born in nineteen twenty seven, coming out of a worldwide pandemic. And I was born in the back of a car, in the back of a cheers bar. And that's all you need to know for right now.

Tootles, that was really good.

That was really good. I don't think it's better than Daniel or Brad.

Is high, yes, but them is good.

Yes, right.

Ryan felt like it was Phoene doing a news report in this one totally.

It's a.

Is that what it sounds like?

Like?

What in nineteen thirty Yeah, that's Cowieyeah, invade Poland. Mister Mathews, mister Hunter. Now, if that's the way it's supposed to be, then maybe by the thirties. If you do it like that, then maybe that comes.

But then take that and throw it down.

Now if you slow it down, mister math and you might land somewhere.

Mister you, if you do not know what's going, maybe that's how you do it the night again, because if you do it fast, it is the nineteenth and look at it.

Oh my women with a job, what will happen next? So if you do it like that, maybe okay, alright, all right, you're ways to back and.

Do it yea behavior And here is Carolyn.

I have to buy some beer at Walmart, so I must park the car so then I get home and can stoop boon.

It's too hard for me to decide if that sounds like it, because those are things Phoenie would never say.

So I wrote a note. I wrote, this is either Foene or Forest Gun.

Well, you know you know who It sounds exactly like.

It sounds exactly like the the uh Warden from Cool.

Hand Luke, Oh, yes, yes, yeah, yeah.

Who's in the Motley or not Motley Crue Guns and Roses song? What we've got here is a failure to communicate sounds just like that one similar.

Here is Aaron who took a completely different turn on it. Hey, Pod meets World.

This is Aaron calling from Vancouver, British Columbia.

This is my dramatic.

Reading of mister Feeney doing the Little Mermaid.

Some friend you turned out to be Sebastian.

Much some friend. That is great, you turned out to.

Be the leaders we have just too left. Here is Emily.

But god, I have had this Congress for ten years. King George, Parliament have gold colleyed and dentle these colonies, and still this Congress refuses to grant any of my proposals on independence, even so much as the courtesy of open debate. Good god, what the hell are they waiting for?

Yeah?

It was such a good movie, Adams.

Yeah, all right, our last one, This is our last attempt to beat our two leaders right now.

But this is Marissa.

Hello, upon meets World. My name is Marissa, and this is my impression of mister Feenie.

How funny would it be if it's perfect?

Bill Daniels, It's like, oh man.

You know, back in my day, we didn't have social media or iPhones. We would have broidery, dial phones and a little something called nature. Go outside and explore it.

Touch grass. I want to go home and stoop.

So do we listen to the.

Yeah, Daniel and Brad, Daniel and Brad yep, Brad.

First, mister Matthews, we had an agreement. I have festooned myself in costume jewelry. I have swilled your faux tea, and now I must insist that you hold up your end of the bargain. For the love of God, man send me my wet the T shirt.

Okay, very good, good, it's very good.

Here is Daniel.

Mister Matthews, come here. I already have my hamlet. He may bump into the scenery. He may talk like a hay seed, for I know tomorrow he may show up in KABOOKI makeup. Nevertheless, he is my hamlet. I do, however, have an opening for spear carrier.

Both of those are so good, amazing. Listen to Brad say bargain one more time.

Mister Matthews, we had an agreement. I have festooned myself in costume jewelry. I have swilled your faux tea, and now I must insist that you hold up your end of the bargain.

It's likely good, perfect, it's really good.

All right, one more time I want to hear the other one one more time to yeah, we go, mister Matthews, come here.

I already have my hamlet. He may bump into the scenery. He may talk like a hay seed. Oh I know tomorrow, he may show up in KABOOKI makeup. Nevertheless, he is my hamlet. I do, however, have an opening for a spear carrier.

Ash is the best? No, you see, I think it's the first one. I think it's Brad and you'll to.

Break the tie.

Oh my gosh, this is really too tough. Can we send them both a T shirt? Because they're both great? Here here's what I would say.

The second one sounds a little more posh British, almost like if Feenie were c three po as opposed to the first one, which to me sounded like Bill's accent.

You know what I'll say, you know what I think? What what the difference is? I think the second one, who's which is Daniel?

Right?

Yeah?

I think Daniel is a slightly better actor than Brad. So what we're what what we're that we love about Daniels is that it really does sound like he even holds for laughs. So the cadence is really good and there's like an a real actor element to it. And but I think Brad's accent is a little better, but it's not delivered as well as Daniels.

So what's the question. Are we looking for Fenie impression?

Okay, if it's best Feenie impression, I don't know.

I'm gonna stick with.

My original, and I think I think Riders stick it with his too. So Danielle, you're going to have to break the tie because I think I think Brad with some of those words, I think they're spot.

On, especially the start.

Can you play just the opening, just the mister Matthews one more time for for Brad, mister Matthews, Now play it, Now play it again for daniel.

Mister Matthews, come here.

It's tough, But I think the cadence of Brad's mister Matthews, I think is like I see Bill doing that.

Yeah, it's so tough.

It is tough.

They're both great. They're both great, way better than I can do.

I refuse to select only one. They both win, and I would like to send them both a T shirt. We don't have what the T shirt, but.

Will send just something.

I don't have a vote. I would have picked Daniel. Okay, I don't have a vote.

Though, Is that the same one?

Wait?

Wait, who.

Picked Daniel?

My not my not my game though. Yeah, guys, I want to thank everyone who's sent in. Man, this was a big ask from everybody and we got hundreds. Again, if you are either Brad or Daniel, just use your old email and reply again so I see it. Send you a T shirt and we appreciate it so much and hopefully we'll get another voice memo show coming.

Yes, thank you so much everyone. You guys blew us away as per us. Thank you all for joining us for this episode of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us your emails podmeets World Show at gmail dot com and we've.

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We love you all, pod dismissed.

Pod Meets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by Daniel Fischel, Wilfordell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, tarasudbacksh Maddie Moore.

Engineer, and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen.

Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram at Podmets World Show or email us at Podmets Worldshow at gmail dot com