Some Nutso Fan Theories

And a lot of these is either like, oh they were really dead or you know, or they didn't exist to begin with, right, and so we've heard from people for years. I think that Jerry's made up. I love it, Yes, because they're right. We're we're not saying no, actually, Jerry totally real. Anyway, I'm looking at it right now. So I was going through the internet looking for think pieces essays on why people come up with fan theories or what about fan theories make them, you know, make shows better.

I couldn't find anything. No, I think the answer is obvious. I think that's why I couldn't find anything. Too. People just have time on their hands. That's not what I was gonna say. I was gonna say that it takes something that's already pretty enjoyable and adds entirely new dimensions in depth to it. It takes something familiar and you can go back and rewatch it through different lens now and you have time on your hands. Right, It's definitely

not something that super busy people do, you know. No, And then I also was like, maybe I should just calm down. We don't have to explain everything. We can just have fun sharing fan theories. That's what we're gonna do. It's like a summer break one. Yeah, this feels like one of those. I'm we're both drunk, sure, pretty drunk. I'm just kidding kids out there, we're just joking. Should we just get right into these? Yes? Some of these are gonna be shorter, others are going to be a

little longer, and we're just gonna kind of jump around. Right. Should we start with the Granddaddy or end with the Granddaddy? Uh? Well, it's the Granddaddy to you Uma by the wall? No? Do you like that one though? Yeah? And I thought maybe if I said it, Yeah, I think we'll start with say, by the Bell. I don't know why. I thought if I said it, really only I would know what you were saying. Um, we'll start with say by the bell, we'll finish with one that I know you're

talking about. Okay, cool, that's very um click baity, I know, but so one you won't believe the last one. One of the things that um is really hard to do when it comes up when you when it comes to fan theories, we should say, I guess we should define. A fan theory is basically, it's where somebody who likes the show says, hey, you know this show that you think means this or is about all this, It's actually this is what's going on almost all the time. It's

just somebody's idea. But the part of the backbone of a fan theory is that it has to hold up and just about every circumstance. Yeah, and I'll get one out of the way quickly. Is a bad example, because to me, a bad fan theory is uh murder. She wrote she was really a serial killer because you know, you never found out what happened to her husband and all these people are dying around her. I like that one, yeah, but it's just too easy. It's not like to me.

A good fan theory is one you can say, and this happened, and look at this, and what about this? About this? So I know what you mean, and yes you a fan theory doesn't have to do there else it's just some schmo saying something somewhere. But murder, she wrote, has a couple of things to back that up besides the husband. And the husband I think is whatever. But but the point that I've seen here there Number one is Jessica Fletcher is a murder author of murder mystery authoress,

and she murders go follow her everywhere she goes. Right, think about the last time you stumbled upon a murder, Well, that's just called TV. Okay, So that's one thing hold on. And then secondly, even when she travels, she stumbles upon new murders. But more to the point, in her little town of Cabot Cove, a population, a significant number of the say two hundred seventy four episodes of murder she wrote,

took place there. If even two hundred of those murders happened in a town of it would be the murder capital of the world percentage wise per capita. So I see what you're saying by the fact that she's a writer. It's not like she's a detective. Like you can't say it. Boy, the eight team we're always getting in these crazy adventures like they were hired to each Yeah, they were seeking it out. She just happens to be sucked into it.

She just happens to be there. Right. I've never seen that at TV show either, so that probably something to do with it. What never seen murder? She wrote, shock because I was a thirteen year old boy, not a year old person. It's even better now, really, Yeah, you're rewatching it? Oh yeah, it's on Netflix and I think prime. Oh yeah, man, it's good. Check it out. And I'm not saying like, oh, murder, she wrote good on my hipster.

I've been watching Murder, she wrote for years and years now, Pal, yeah, you know have a beard. No, but but hold on, I think I want to extend this for a second. You raised a very good point, and I feel like I defended murder. She wrote with that same point that a fan theory has to have meat on its bones. It can't be an offhanded thing. It's proved what you just said. Prove why Jessica Fletcher is a serial killer.

Well that's that. They there's a couple of them. It's a little thin, granted, but there's something to back it up, which makes it a decent fan theory. Not the best, but a decent one. The other thing is it's really difficult to pinpoint the origin of fan theories. Oh yeah, like who did this first? Yeah, who came up with this idea? Well, I've got one for you. So we're going to talk about the saved by the Bell fan theory.

And people are just like nervous with anticipation about that one. Now, as far back as I can tell, it looks like a person. A writer on the website Cracked Cracks website, a writer named um Man I lost their name Logan Trent, in two thousand twelve wrote a post called Saved by the Bell a conspiracy theory. Um so he originated this one. As far as I can tell, he gives zero credit to anybody else. And the way that the post has written, it really comes across like he is laying out his

argument himself. So it's possible. And if if, if you had this idea prior to two thousand twelve, and you're not Logan Trent let us know. But I'm bestowing Logan Trent with the origin of the Saved by the Bell fan theory, which is one of the best. Yeah, and um big shout out to Cract and Mental Flaws and our own article and who else was me? TV had a good one? Yeah? Um, Paste magazine had one. Uh. There's there's a lot of good fan theory uh articles

out there all right. So at long last Saved by the Bell and I like this one, and I don't. I don't remember watching this show at all. What but I I know these characters and the gist. So I had to have watched it at some point. You didn't watch Saved by the Bell. No, it wouldn't. That would in my wheelhouse, I guess not. Older teenage boy slash college Um, well they had Saved the Bell of college years. They's just for you. Uh. But I do know these characters,

so it had to have absorbed into me somehow. Um. So here's the deal. Pre Saved by the Bell. This I did not know. Um. There was a TV show was it called Good Morning Miss Bliss? Yes? And it was unbearably bad. He saw that too. So the idea of this show is there's this boy named Zack. This is an Indiana, not just Zack, Zack Morris, Yeah, the Zach played by Mark Paul Gosler, right, Um, this was an Indiana, of course, not California. And he was troublemaker.

And there was a teacher named Miss Bliss who was super smart and always thwarted him. She was what's the name of the lady who was in the original Parent Trap played the two twins, Hayley Mills. Yeah it was her. Oh okay. Apparently like then, when you signed a contract with Disney as a child, they own you for a life. Um. He has a couple of friends named Mikey and Nicky. Uh,

they're always putting him in his place. Uh. He has a brother, his parents are divorced, and by all accounts, Zack Morris and good morning, Miss Bliss is a bit of a schlub who is always sort of getting his come up it's from other people. Yeah, kind of a loser. Yeah, basically the opposite of Zack Morris and Saved by the Bell. Did the ever say Zach attack? I think so. I think there's a T shirt even that said that. So flash forward and how many years later was this couple.

So good morning, Miss Bliss goes off the air. I get the feeling it wasn't very popular, or they wouldn't have rebooted it as Saved by the Bell. They would have just you know, kept it going exactly. Uh to say, by the Bell comes along and now Zack is at Bayside in California. He's Mr. Everything. He's as this article points out, he's the most popular kid, ins cool, and excels in everything, sports, music, casual, racism, whatever. That's that's

the logan transporting. Uh. He's the alpha and his circle friends Mikey and Nikki are gone. Yeah, they're just gone. No explanation, right, and there's no explanation for any of this, like how he got to California. But it's it's the same character, right, it's the exact same character, but there are some huge, huge changes, Like at his core he

is a different person. Actually not necessarily at his core, but as far as how he's treated and viewed by his peers and everyone else, he's the differences night and day. He's not a duet anymore. He's not a loser. He's he's a total winner. Has logan trend points out, like um, if he were to miss a quiz, rather than fail, he would convince the teacher to hold a bake off, and then he would win the bake off by cheating. Like That's that was how like he went through life.

And also very notably his parents were no longer divorced, they were married, and he didn't have a brother. He was an only child and was beloved by all right, Yeah he had Uh. I think Slater was went from his rival to his um sort of his pal, but his you know, his second Yeah, his wingman, Screech was around in both, but I think he was sort of screeching both, right, didn't changed much, Yeah, it Screech has always been screeched alright, So what's the big reveal? What's

the fan theory? So the fan theory is that Saved by the Bell is the daydream fantasy of Zack Morris who's actually living in back in Indiana at John F. Kennedy Junior High and that the whole it's great man, and that the whole um, the whole premise of this this fan theory is revealed through the theme song, right, right, So in the theme song, the theme song talk it's about like how harried Zack is Well, it's all first person, right, but you assume that it's talking about Zack, because the

whole show is it revolves around Zack. He's the narrator um, and he's having like a lot of trouble, like getting ready and he gets out to the bus just in time to see it fly by, and the teacher's gonna pop a test and he knows he's in a mess and dog ate all his homework, And if you actually

watch the show, nothing ever gets Zach. He's untouchable. So in the theme song it says, it's all right because I'm saved by the bell, right, yes, which this fan theory suggests that once once he settles in, either settles into class and starts day dreaming or gets home at night and starts dreaming, he can go off to bay Side, where he's the biggest winner around. That is the bell, right.

So the fact that these lyrics, by the time I grab my books and I give myself a look, I'm at the corner just in time to see the bus, and then eventually writing low in my chair, so she, uh, she won't know I'm there, meaning the teacher. This all is Zack in Indiana it describes a different person. Doesn't make any sense that these lyrics if you had not known that that was a show that existed and all you knew was saved by the bill, these lyrics don't make any sense. But they do if it is all

a fantasy in his imagination. Sadly, it also makes sense if you think that the producers hired the composer before they were really aware of what the show is going to be like, and that's what the composer came up with. Lyrics wise, Yeah, that's not nearly as fun. Well, the other thing I like about fan theories is that there almost not real it's just fans having fun. But I like the idea to imagine like some subversive writer that's like, oh,

well here's what we'll do. This is all elaborate fantasy of this Zack guy. I've got one other thing that the I think the Cracked article points out if not

someone else came up with it later. They pointed out that Zach has the power to stop time and and address the camera like he breaks the fourth wall fairly regularly, and um, he can just stop time and move around within this frozen time, which also, I mean that's a weird thing for somebody to be able to do if they're not in the middle of their own day dream or night dream. I love it, man, that's a good one. Um.

And you know, uh, things like Mikey and Nikki disappeared. Um. At one point, Kelly is in love with him and then she just is gone with no explanation. Yeah he he people kind of pop in and out sometimes with no explanation at all. I think Kelly dumped him and then like all of a sudden, she's gone. And she was like one of the characters throughout the entire save by the bell Um, and then she's just gone once

she dumps Zach. He's he's Terry. He's really bad at school, but he got a fifteen o two in the s A t Like all this stuff is like dream dream stuff. Right. Well, that's another point that Logan Trent makes is that a fifteen o two is literally impossible, Like you can't score a fifteen two. Yeah, so it's all it's even more evidence that all this is made up and by apparently not so smart kid man. So that's saved by the bell Man. You want to take a break and then

get get back to it. I think so I could do this all day. All right, all right, we'll go through a couple of quicker ones here. The Fresh Prince is dead. Yeah, I kind of really don't need to say anything else, do you. Well? In the uh the TV's theme song where he talks about getting in a fight and that's the whole reason he's sent to Bill

bell Air. Yeah, the Fresh Prince of bel Air. It's a TV show from and the rap that Will Smith, the real life Will Smith actually plays a character named Will Smith, and he talks about getting in a fight and getting sent off to bell Air to get out, you know, to get him away from the rough neighborhood and what Philly West, Philadelphia born and raised and um, so the theory is that he was actually killed during this fight, and um everything else is you know, his

h journey in the afterlife. Yeah. The cab that picks him up to take him in bell Air, the rare cab is supposedly God or some sort of um ethereal figure that's taking him to the after life, which is bel Air. His parents are like basically non existent, but they show up a couple of times. Uh. This is explained away by the fan theory as his parents visiting their son's grave. It's pretty awesome. And then um boys, the men apparently showed up at one point, but they

were like a heavenly choir. Oh, I don't remember that episode. So that put all that together. Fresh Prince is dead? That's right? What do you wanna do next? Should we do? Do? Uh? That? The two of them from Gilligan's Island? Yeah? The drug ones super lame? Yeah, I thought so too. There's this one theory that the and this was. You're right, it's just dumb that that Mr Howell on Gilligan's Island paid Gilligan and the Skipper to take him out to see to do a drug deal, which is why he has

a trunkload of catch, trunk full of cash. Ginger's got a drug habit, Maryann's a federal agent. This just sounds like, you know, like, uh, someone smokes some weed and came up with like like someone said, hey, what's your first idea of what Gilligan's Island could have been other than what it was? And they were drug thing? Man, I

think you nailed it. But there's a better fan theory for Gilligan's Island that Gilligan's island is hell, that this, like The Fresh Prince of bel Air, takes place in the afterlife, but not in heaven, in Hell, or at least in purgatory, That the Minnows shipwreck um caused everyone on board to drown, and that in Hell, each one of the characters represents one of the seven deadly sins Ginger's lust, Marianna's envy, Professor's pride, thirst in Hell, of

course it's greed. Uh, Mrs Howell, I've seen a sloth and gluttony seen that too. I've also seen Skipper as either gluttony or wrath. Wrath makes a lot more sense. And then Gilligan is sloth or is Satan himself? Yeah. And one of the giveaways for Gilligan being Satan, well, there's two of them. One is that he's always wearing a red shirt. Oh well, so obviously Satan because Satan

horror red rugby shirt. Uh. And then uh, he's always although it seems like it's always accidental, he's always thwarting their plans, Like every time they get something something going to get off of the island, Gilligan is the one who somehow screws it. Up and they're stuck there again. So he's keeping them in hell and this one actually has legs. Yeah, apparently. Sherwood Schwartz, the creator Gilligan's Island Uh,

in a book, confirmed that they did. It was his idea that they did stand for the Seven Deadly Sins? Is that right? Yeah, So there you go one of the rare fan theories that actually was true. I wonder whoever whoever thought of that was like, no, yeah, I was right. Well that makes me wonder if somehow it got out or something maybe or he was retroactively just being like, yeah, yeah, that's what I meant. Schwartz. Here's a quick spot from Star Trek one that I kind

of liked. We'll do both of the Star Trek ones about that. Um and UM on record is not having watched Star Trek Yeah, I mean me neither. But in Star Trek six, the Undiscovered Country, the Undiscovered Country. Sorry, people are so mad at me right now. Trek he's uh. And an ancestor of mine maintained that when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. And that was Spock in that movie. And the source of that was Sherlock Holmes himself from the Sign of

Four from a book. And so the idea here is that Spock is related Sherlock Holmes. It's a little weird aw about that, but I could see it. I mean they're both pretty rational. Well, Sherlock Holmes, he loved his speedballs. I don't think Spot was ever into those. No, he was more involved. You know, Sherlock Holmes love speedballs, though, don't you. I did not. Doesn't surprise me. It surprised me at first. So there's another um Star Trek one.

I love this one that Andy Griffith is the pre apocalyptic world that leads into Star Trek, and this one is pretty awesome. So it's based on a Star Trek episode Chuck Mirie m I R I like Sirie, but with an M and um. In this episode, the Star Trek crew beams down to Earth and it's very obvious it's Mayberry, but it's like a poke post apocalyptic Mayberry. It's people entirely by kids. And the reason why it's people entirely by kids because some disease has broken out

where um, you die at the onset of puberty. Yeah, and it's uh, well it is Mayberry because it is Mayberry. It's literally the same back lot that they shot both shows at and they just outfitted Mayberry to be posted apocalyptic right down to like Floyd's barbershop. Yeah, but I think they just scratched out Floyd. They scratched out the f and it just said Lloyd. Oh did it? I don't know. I think it's said Floyd's did it really? Yeah? Oh it's that on the nose. Huh. I think so, oh,

this one's great. This is a great fan seal it for you. Then well there's another part two that um the kid who played Barney Fife's cousin Virgil. Uh, he actually appears in this Star Trek episode. What. Yeah, so it's full circle. Gene Roddenberry was like, I'm gonna come up with a fan theory. No one knows what those are yet, but I'm going to lay it down for him decades now the internet comes around. I don't know what that is, but it's going to be something. I'm

Gene Roddenberry. You know, the the beginning of Andy Griffith when they're you know, walking down to the lake and he skipped the stones on the lake. It's like right in the Hollywood Hills, Is that right? Yeah? My brother drove me up there one time and it's like this look familiar. Uh, And he started whistling the theme song and I was like no, wow. He said yeah, and he's like the bat caves like over there. Oh yeah yeah, and it's sort of you know, killed my dreams. The

same with mash too. That's like the Hollywood Hills, well, like the mountains behind Malibu. Um, when you fly into l A, you can and you're looking for you like, oh, I totally see that. That what we're talking about is the helicopter in the opening UM montage for mash. Um was like, it's supposedly flying through Korea, but it's actually Yes, it's California where they're shooting, which is way cheaper to shoot. Yeah, we shot. I mean I shot a TV commercial over there,

and I think we talked about this before. There's you know, one of the jeeps is still out there. I don't know, I don't remember that rusted out and overgrown with weeds and um, but yeah, it's like an old army jeep. There're a couple of little remnants. Jamie Farr is still out there, like, hey, how you doing. Thanks for visiting. You need anyone today? Can I get a lift back? You need background? I'll be I'm cheap. That's terrible. Is he still around? I'm supposed to know this. He's like

my hometown's favorite son. Oh was he really from there? From Toledo? Yeah? Is that why they did wrote that into the show. Yeah, and he's always talking about Tony Pacos, which is a real place. Oh yeah, I knew all that, but I didn't know if it was. You know, Jamie far is definitely from Toledo. Okay, Well they never let you forget it. Yeah, he's eighty two. Hey, Jamie Far, God's pizza. Um? What else we got? So? Um? This

one is one of my favorites. This good one. Gar Field, Oh yeah, is dying alone in an abandoned house and everything that you've seen in all except I believe six of the Garfield Strips, all of them that have been going on since nine is the hallucination of a dying, starving cat in an abandoned house. Yeah. I was way into Garfield. Garfield was great, but the books Garfield and Bloom County were my two biggies. I was never into

bloom County. Man I loved it. Um, I did love Garfield, though, I mean it was a little bloom County is a little more advanced, I think, and it's humor, um, which I still got. But Garfield was like kind of perfect for a ten year old Chuck. It was perfect. So what you're talking about is, in October of n Jim Davis, the creative, Garfield said, you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put out six strips in a row that are not funny. No, they're actually kind of unsightling. Yeah,

very bleak. And if you go and look at these strips you can find him online obviously. Um, it's Garfield alone in an abandoned house, and it's really heavy. Yes, Garfield wakes up in the first strip and no one's around, and he's starting to get a little panicked, and then it just kind of continues on and and his panic continues to build over the course of the six strips. Um and finally in the last one, I believe, Uh, he wakes up and John and Odie are there and

everything's back to normally so happy. But leading up to that point in strip like three four five, it's it's getting a little freaky and um again, like you said, there's nothing funny about it's not It wasn't intended to be funny. It was intended to scare. And the idea is is that what we're seeing in these six strips are the actual reality of Garfield and that everything else. He finally manages to go back to his basically dying fee her dream that featured John and Odi. Yeah, but

well they disappear though in that strip too at the end. Yeah, Like they appear and then like he goes to give him food and then they like disappear and he's alone again at the end of that sixth trip. Yeah, okay, so he's hallucinated them and then is alone and abandoned. So that's why. Okay, Right, So then that backs up that whole idea that, yeah, that they're just a hallucination, because they're demonstrated as an hallucination in that sixth series trip. Yeah,

and he's six strip series. That was his intent was very much to do something sad and different, and I think he heard quite a bit from the fans like what is going on? And then apparently he kind of laughed at the idea when someone said, hey, uh, you realize what people think that this is all a big hallucination, like every other strip you've drawn as a hallucination of this dying cat. And he laughed about it, but like what what else? What were people supposed to think? That?

He just got really heavy and and yourd for six strips. And I think the other thing that was so off putting about it too, is it resolves or there there is no resolution? I think on that that seventh day, the Sunday one just picks up like everything is totally normal,

and it never which makes it even more unsettling. And then Chuck, there's a there's a clear I don't know if it was a reference to it or coincidence or whatever, but there's this UM animated movie called Allegro Non Tropo and there's a segment in it, um what's the name of the segment Valves triast about a cat that turns out to be a ghost cat. Have you seen it? It's very good haunting, but it's sort of parallels to

Scarfield story very much. Whether or not was purposeful, we don't know that part right or did Jim Davis like discount that too. I've never heard whether or not he discounts that. Yeah, but that's definitely go check out the Garfields strips to just look up like Garfield dead or dying or whatever and it'll bring him up. But um, also just I'm sure it's on YouTube. Just look up valves v A L S E treats t R I S t E and uh, it will, it'll get to you.

It's very sad. Uh And you should plug your favorite thing, uh ever, which is Garfield without Garfield. Oh yeah, that's great. Yeah, which in that case it was John who was just crazy and hallucinating, right, Yeah, you could make a pretty good case that John was out of his mind when you take Garfield out of any given strip and it's just John like, yeah, shouting out loud, like he's just like like putting his head down on the counter. Good stuff. Yeah,

I forgot about that. You want to take a break. Yeah, we'll take a break and go through another couple of quickies and then the big Daddy. M all right, did you see this Breaking Bad one? Yeah? Um, this one has spoilers for Breaking Bad and a little bit of The Walking Dead, So if you haven't seen that, tune out. But there is a theory that's actually I think kind of cool because I love both shows Breaking Bad and Walking Dead. That the blue meth from Breaking Bad is

what caused the the zombie outbreak in the Walking Dead. Yeah, and that's bad. Yeah, but I mean it seems like they're totally unconnected until you start digging in there. That's right when you look at season one, the character of Glenn Hey shout out to Stephen Young, he's a listen of stuff you should know. Yeah, what up? Dog? Hopefully

still is not anymore. Uh. He drives a red Dodge Challenger in that first season UM, which looks kind of like Walter White's car that he eventually ends up with, and then in Breaking Bad, when Walter White returns that Dodge, he takes it back and the manager's uh the dealership's general manager is named Glenn Ohhen the best one is it comes in season two if you ask me, Yeah, I agree, you take it buddy. Uh? Because why you

didn't watch either one of these shows? No? No, I did. Okay, I saw all Breaking Bad and I've seen I can't remember how far it seemed pretty far into um Walking Dead. I'm behind him Walking Dead by like one season. I need to go back catch up. Yeah, Anyway, season two, Darryl played by Norman Rita's is um trying to take the fever down on tea dog another character. Right, why's it funny? Uh So his brother Merle, he is um.

He is like this bag of drugs basically, so he looks through the bag, see faces, there's anything that can help bring the fever down, and there is that blue crystal meth from Breaking Bad in his bag. So that's in a good little hint ye. And then before the Zombie Apocalypse, Merle, his brother h was actually a drug dealer and he described in one episode his supplier was quote a jankie, little white guy who threatened him with a handgun and said I'm gonna kill you, b word,

And that very much sounds like uh Jesse Pinkman. Yeah. The only way he could have gotten it across more is if he'd mentioned fat stacks or something, right, that would have been like super on the nose. Though, So that's that's a pretty fun theory. It is obviously meth equals death everybody, that's right, especially Blue. Well, the one thing I didn't get was like, what are like all those people on meth? But then I thought, no, maybe just a certain amount and then they infected other people

with their zombie juice. Uh okay, I got one. All right, this is this is an old one, but I think it's a good one. The flint Stones and the Jetsons take place at the exact same time. It's a good one that the flint Stones are not prehistoric. They're actually set in a post apocalyptic future. And it's say that doesn't make any sense, does it? The author, I think this came from mental floss, points out why would some cave people create record players with whatever they had on hand?

No one in prehistoric times knew what a record player was, but if you were living in the post apocalyptic times, you would want to be able to listen to records because they had already been invented, so you would figure out how to make a bird put its beak on a record and use that instead. Why do they celebrate Christmas in prehistoric times? Good question? Why DoD? Why does the music and the flint Stones any popular music is always like fifties, like English British invasion type of I

forgot about that. Twitch twitch um. Why do they have a banking system? Yeah, yeah, that's fairly complex. It is why are these animals talking, Well, that's just weird. Yeah, I don't know if you can like place that at the feet of George Jetson. The The thing about the Jetsons though, is supposedly they are living up in uh it's not cloud City's orbit City, um, which is supposedly built in the clouds above a small line, which is

where the flint Stones live below the small line. And allegedly the thing that divides them really more than anything is income. Yeah, that the Jetsons are wealthy and part of the ones that can survive and live up in the clean air. The flint Stones are part that have to scrape by with whatever they can find back here

on Earth. Well, and that George and Fred mirror one another, and that Fred labors at this uh, I mean, I don't even know what you call that, like a a Corey yeah with Mr Slate um, whereas George works at spacely rockets and assess in this article works for a total of about nine hours a week. And then robots and computers handle everything else. That's supposedly how our life is supposed to be right now, but we're not doing it right really. Yeah, And now robots are just stealing

everyone's job. But we don't have anything to show for it except for joblessness, but the bad kind. Right. Um. There was a movie called The Jetson's Meet the flint Stones, and in that very movie, George Jetson visits the past and has a little kind of a throwaway comment when he sees green grass and he says that it's something he remembers from ancient history. Right, so that one kind of undermines the whole idea. Oh, I don't know. Well, if he's saying that he from ancient history, oh I

see that part. Yeah, like there was an apocalypse and there was no grass. But if he visits the past, I don't know. This is falling apart where we talk about it. It It undermines that one. I'm really great Kazoo? What was up with that guy? Yeah? Well this is where stuff you should know is evolved. To remember the Great Kazoo? What was up with that guy? The whole Christmas thing is weird to me that the flint Stones would celebrate Christmas when they were clearly supposedly before the

birth of Christ as being in prehistoric times. And no, it doesn't make any sense. There's a lot of stuff. The flint Stones didn't make sense about um, how about the Scooby Doo and I thought this was pretty great, uh, and not Scooby Doo. See, this is the difference between a good fan theory and a bad one. Bad one. Scooby and Shaggy are always stoned because look, they're bumbling, and they're always hungry for Scooby Snacks, for Scooby snacks.

Bad fan theory, good fan theory. Scooby Doo takes place after the world economy has shattered, right, that's great. Yeah, and there's a lot to it, right. Yeah. So the idea is that these guys are driving around and if you really look at the places that they visit, everything's abandoned and run down, always like abandoned amusement park, abandoned ski resort, abandoned everything. Um. And not only are these places abandoned there, they're populated by people who are squatting

basically in these abandoned places. They live in the abandoned place, and um, the bad guys are and they have no means to support themselves other than by carrying out these weird, veiled crimes that they try to dress up as something other world they which suggests that their geniuses so very very smart people living in squalor and are jobless. Yeah,

was this cracked? Yeah? So it says that, uh, out of the twenty seven villains in the original UM Scooby Doo, Where Are You Run, twenty three of the twenty seven are motivated by monetary gain via theft, smuggling, or land speculation. Uh. And like you said, if these people are geniuses, why are they you know, like I'm gonna squat in this abandoned mansion so I can gain ownership of it. It's all very strange. Yeah. And they point out that the talents that these people have are UM indicate a very

wide variety of UM specific schooling. Right. Yeah, two were PhD s. Two or three were PhD s. Two are lawyers, one had an ability to produce forged paintings, one could repair boats, one was a magician, the stuntman. So these are highly skilled, highly specialized UM professions that these people are trained in or capable of doing. But yet they're out of work and they're pulling off these very elaborate

schemes rather than just having a job in their profession. Yeah, and even Scooby doo, Like when they go into a nice vacation spot, it's it's run down and abandoned. It's like Soviet level vacation spot. Yeah, pretty much. So I thought this was a great one. At the very least they had some reason to not just have it be like normal society that they were living in and like they would you know, like when you go back and

look at them that they were weird. Yeah, weird settings for shows really sparsely populated because it's anime, there's no reason to do that. Yeah, I could see if you're like, wait, not much of a budget, so we got to go shoot at this abandoned musement park. But they like if they or at a restaurant, they're almost invariably the only people there. Have you ever noticed that? It's like a really empty series. It's cool. It makes it a little more haunting. I like it. Are you ready for the

last one? All right? I think we've waited well long enough. This one is based on the television hospital procedural drama Saying Elsewhere, right, which, uh, Saying Elsewhere? If you watched it, or even if you didn't, and you just are a fan of like famous endings of TV series Saying Elsewhere was very famous for its ending in that UM also famous for having a bunch of like big stars earlier

in their careers. Yeah, Howie Mandel, Denzel, uh At Begley, Yeah, begs a lot of other people, UM, but it very famously ended with UM. At the very end, the uh showed a shot at the hospital with the snow falling UM and then you pull back and you realize that that was actually a snow globe held by a boy, right, and it's kind of mind blowing. He's like, oh my god, because again this is like if you watched Eer or anything Scrubs, what any normal show about hospital life? And

it's about hospital life. That's what st Elsewhere was about. You know, it was weird and quirky, but it was it was about a hospital. So the idea of drama that the last scene of I think six seasons, yes, six years, a hundred and thirty seven episodes about life at a hospital and the characters that inhabited and worked at this hospital, the hospitals in a snow globe. This is totally out of left field, right, make it even weirder in Walks, who had up to this point been

the director of surgery. I think, um, Donald Westfall, he's the medical director of st Elsewhere. He walks in. He's clearly not a doctor. He's dressed, he's not dressed like one construction guy. Yeah, the way he's talking, he's super like blue collar. All of a sudden, and he walks into the room where the boy holding the snow globe, whose name we will find out is Tommy Westfall. Um, he is Donald Westfall's son in the series Stand Elsewhere. Yeah, he had been on the show, but he was never

like a big character, and he he had autism. And uh. In walks Donald Westfall, who's now a construction worker, and says he's talking to his own father. He's like, I don't get it, Pops. He just sits around and looks at that snow globe all day. I wonder what he's thinking in his head, which suggests pretty strongly. Yet everything about Saying Elsewhere all hundred and thirty seven episodes took place in the mind of Tommy Westfall, this boy with

autism who's sitting there staring at his snow globe. Yeah, I mean, in fact, it's it's really it was even more on the nose than that, he actually says, I don't understand this autism thing, Bob. He's my son. I talked to him. I don't even know if he can hear me. He sits there all day long in his own world, staring at that toy. What's he thinking about?

Like they didn't need to say all that. They should have just to me, showed that and showed him coming in as a construction guy and maybe just looked longingly at the sun. But he's kind of like, you get it. Everyone, So America is sitting there like what. At the time, this is what nineteen eighty eight, I think when it went off, the was just like what just happened? That's

really weird. But then in two thousand two it started to get even weirder, right because there's a TV writer named Dwayne McDuffie, and he wrote a post called six Degrees of Staining Elsewhere, and he points out, wait, everybody, if all of stane elsewhere, it took place just in Tommy west Fall's mind, And then that means that there's a significant amount of NBC shows that also are just in Tommy west Fall's mind. It's come to be called

the Tommy west Fall hypothesis or the Tommy Westfall universe multiverse. Okay, and uh, it just spreads and spreads and spreads. And there's a really good this paste article called Tommy's World. The TV legacy of St. Elsewhere's Tommy Westfall Universe is pretty pretty much the definitive outside post on it, and um, it lays out a pretty good thread of how shows are connected, and since they're connected, that means that they're all taking place in the mind of this boy with autism,

Tommy Westfall. Right, and it goes a little something like this, Uh the Doctor some of the doctors from St. Elsewhere went to Cheers one time, Okay, so that means Cheers is in Tommy Westfall's mind. Uh. Frazier was a spinoff of Cheers. Check. That means Frasier isn't real. Yeah, you're getting this. We don't need to say that after each one, do we. I think it really drives the point home. If the John Larroquette show, um, which was actually pretty good.

John Larkett is great and that show was very underrated, but the lead character played by John Larriaicette was John Hemingway. Um, he called in one time on Frasier's talk show on Fraser he was one of the Collins as that character. So now John Lara Catt's universe is in Tommy west Fall's mind. That's right. So on the John larric Uette show itself, they mentioned Yo Yo Dine as a company um a tech company, and in Star Trek, Yo Yo

Dine uh made technology used by the Enterprise crew. Yo Yo Dine right right, Yo You're dying, So that means Star Trek is in Tommy west Fall's mind. That's right.

Yo Yo Dine was also appears again in Angel the TV Josh Wheeden's Angel um it was part of the I think he was a client of the law firm Wolfman Hart Angel okay, and then wolf him in Heart um was was representation to another tech company called Whalon Utani, which made tech on the TV show Firefly, things are getting deep now, right, so now Firefly is in Tommy

west Fall's mind as well. Uh. Then Whitland Utahni ship was in a spaceship graveyard on the series in Britain, Red Dwarf Right and then Bring It Home and then the Tartists is in the hangar bay of the ship. Red Dwarf on the show. So that means that Firefly, Red Dwarf, and then dr who are all in the mind of Tommy Westfall because all of them are connected back to sing Elsewhere. And and as the author of this paced article points out, this is a normal thread.

It's spread to something like more than four hundred t V shows being implicated as being in the imagination of Tommy Westfall. Yeah. I think the last count I saw was four and nineteen shows. Um, which you know, if they just get one more than all of a sudden, it's a weed theory, right you know, Uh, pretty great. Tell him about John Munch though, he's like the all star character from Tommy Westfall universe. All right. That was Belzer's character on Homicide Life on the Street and that

was apparently a spinoff from st Elsewhere. It was related to it somehow, Yeah, I think so officially related. But then Munch was on a bunch of different shows. Yeah, like his character, not just the guy who played him, but he got he just popped up in different shows all over the place, not even necessarily just on NBC. Oh yeah, he was on X Files and that was Fox,

wasn't it. Uh, Law and order, he was on the wire, uh, and he was on thirty Rock, so much Munch is just sitting there since he was already connected to St. Elsewhere. Any show he pops up Bond, he's obviously in the same universe as St. Elsewhere, which again is in Tommy west Fall's mind. So most of the television in the United States come, you know, it doesn't exist except in the mind of a boy with autism who likes this

snow globe back in. I wonder how much of that was I mean, not pre planned, but zero from what I understand. Well, they clearly meant to show though that St. Elsewhere was a figment of his imagination, but I don't think they even stopped and thought, oh that, you know, wow. Well, and then most of that stuff came after St. Elsewhere too, So I wonder then if someone kind of ran with it, like if there's this inside Cabal and Hollywood and the w g A where people are trying to like, I'm

sure try these things together. So it's like putting a Wilhelm screaming yeah, which we did incorrectly. We tried, tried Jerry, well, yeah, that was that was just that was in s Y S k jam Uh you got anything else? No, sir, Well, if you want to know more about TV fan theories, you can go find him on the internet. Send one in though, if you have one that we didn't talk about. Yeah, a good one though we defined what a fan theory is. Okay,

so a good one. Yeah, and nothing from lost Yeah, yeah, I just don't bother if you already said all that stuff. So since I said I already said all that stuff, it's time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this hidden Whiskey. Remember our live show in Vancouver we talked about the Canadian Club had a very special promo in the eighties where they hit cases of whiskey all over the world like a big scavenger hunt, and not all of that whiskey was found. Remember that? Yeah? I remember. So this guy,

Chris ort Loft, writes in about that. He said one of them was hidden in Lake Flats in New York year before the nineteen eighty Olympics and supposedly was never found and a few years ago, more than three decades later, my mother picked up the trail when she discovered that it was possibly still out there. I love it. This guy's mom was like what fre you whiskey? I think she was just like it sounds like an adventure, you know, just kidding? Uh where you know? Maybe she wanted the

free whiskey too. Um. A fan of cryptic crossword puzzles, word games, and snowshoeing, the allure was too much for her to pass up. Well, there you have it, plus you really liked whiskey. She tracked down a man in Connecticut who had previously searched for it, spoke with customer service at Canadian Club even and with a couple of other leads. She spent months turning over the clues, checking current and historical maps, and hiking through the woods and

fields around Lake Placid. I love this guy's mom. Yeah. Um. I sat down with her a few times with my thinking cap on in hopes of unraveling the mystery, as did many of her friends and relatives. We have lots of research and speculation amassed as a result, and I was like kind of nervous reading this. I was like, she found it, she didn't find it. Um. Sadly, after all the effort and intrigue, we still have no idea where it is. Maybe some kids took it years ago.

Could be completely buried by leaves and twigs by now, or maybe it's still waiting to be found and someone else can correct the case, so to speak. Blame it on leaves and twigs. Uh, if you were any listeners, want a chance of some by now vintage Canadian whiskey though for the very least, and Enriching walked through the Christine Northern New York Wilderness. The clues as originally printed in the cc AD or as follows, and then he gave them to me, so you can just look that

up on the internet. They're out there. It's really love yourself. Well, I mean I can't read them all. It's get out your decoder pins. Happy hunting, and do share one with me if you find it. That is from Chris or Law. Thanks or Laft. Will you appreciate that you have the last name of a person who's only called by their last name. And Mrs ort Law for at the very least your mom. I don't know if that's her name,

Madame Madam Mortlaw like that. It's a great explorer and adventure that's how she shelf forever be known in Yeah, well thanks Laf and Madam ort Laff. If you want to get in touch with us to tell us something cool that your mom's done. We want to hear that

kind of thing just in time for Mother's Day too. Uh. You can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast or Josh M Clark can join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know or slash Charles W. Chuck Bryant can send us an email to stuff Podcasts at how stuff works dot com has always joined us our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com