Latest / Ridiculous History / What is Karaoke? Part Two: Going Global; Careful What You Sing

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What is Karaoke? Part Two: Going Global; Careful What You Sing · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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Speaker 1: for tuning in. There's our handsome devil of a super producer,
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Speaker 1: mister Max Williams.
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Speaker 2: Look at that man? Who's that man?
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Speaker 1: If you're wondering, I am still technically alive here on Thursday. Okay,
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Speaker 1: all right, all right, so we're gonna get We're gonna
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Speaker 1: get this done before Max does pass from this place. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: he's a perishable quantity. You are Noel Brown, I am
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Speaker 1: Ben Bowling, and we are in media arrests would be
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Speaker 1: the fancy way to say it. Well, we're halfway through
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Speaker 1: an exploration of something that I think means a lot
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Speaker 1: to a lot of people.
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Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it should because it is such a fun
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Speaker 3: thing to do, to sing badly or goodly if that's
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Speaker 3: a word, with your close personal friends, or with strangers,
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Speaker 3: whatever floats your boat. And we're going to get into
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Speaker 3: all of those options in this second part of the
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Speaker 3: carry ok episode.
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Speaker 1: In Oi does get paid for in part of my pronunciation,
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Speaker 1: he does get paid for bringing this tape along, and
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Speaker 1: he gets paid the same as you would if you
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Speaker 1: were a touring percussionist. And this is where they get
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Speaker 1: the term carry okay translates from cara, which means empty
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Speaker 1: plus okay, which means orchestra. So empty orchestra.
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Speaker 3: Oh, it's so fascinating because it almost sounds like a
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Speaker 3: diss in a way, but it.
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Speaker 2: Just kind of means, like, you know, orchestra without people.
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Speaker 3: And this is really more a term used for the
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Speaker 3: concept of like singing along with these types of backing
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Speaker 3: accompaniment tracks. I don't know that they were necessarily referring
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Speaker 3: to it certainly wasn't branded as such, but the Juke
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Speaker 3: eight was the Juke eight. It wasn't the carryoke machine
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Speaker 3: or carryoke, So I believe the term was really more
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Speaker 3: referring to kind of the culture surrounding it. But just
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Speaker 3: to add a little bit of detail around the juke
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Speaker 3: ate what made it different from the Sparko Box.
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Speaker 2: It did involve that eight track player.
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Speaker 3: He actually pulled it for the prototype from a car stereo,
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Speaker 3: combined it with a microphone and amplifier, just like the
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Speaker 3: Sparko Box, but like I was talking about at the top,
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Speaker 3: added a reverb box, which in those days would have
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Speaker 3: been like a spring with a kind of contact microphone
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Speaker 3: attached to either end, So when the sound of the
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Speaker 3: microphone goes into that box with the spring, the spring
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Speaker 3: reverberates and the echo sound is then passed back into
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Speaker 3: the mixer, so you hear it as kind of like
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Speaker 3: an echo, super super interesting. You'll see it in like
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Speaker 3: guitar amplifiers and things of the time. But this also
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Speaker 3: the juke eight had a coin slot. This was a
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Speaker 3: coin operated machine, and the eight track tapes that were
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Speaker 3: used would have been loaded with like a lot of
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Speaker 3: the most requested songs of between nineteen sixty nine and
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Speaker 3: nineteen seventy and on. But what really created the phenomenon
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Speaker 3: that would go on to be karaoke was again that
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Speaker 3: democratization of being able to express oneself musically, no matter
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Speaker 3: whether you're a good singer or not, and for all
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Speaker 3: intents and purposes, for that one shining moment or evening
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Speaker 3: to become a superstar, to kind of become a lead
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Speaker 3: singer of a band, being able to sort of stand
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Speaker 3: in for your favorite artist.
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Speaker 1: Here's what I love about karaoke as a phenomenon and
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Speaker 1: as indeed a cultural event. The number one fear, as
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Speaker 1: I said earlier, for a lot of people is public speaking,
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Speaker 1: and oftentimes most people feel that they are not heard
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Speaker 1: right and they feel like everybody else is continually focused
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Speaker 1: on themselves, which is unfortunately often true when I show
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Speaker 1: up to these places. I'm there in a public event,
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Speaker 1: like in a Western version, because I like clapping, I
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Speaker 1: like supporting people. I'm also very good at clapping.
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Speaker 2: So this is.
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Speaker 1: This is a gift, yes with both hands. So that's
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Speaker 1: like you know, two different people at this point. But
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Speaker 1: this hits again, as I said earlier, a universal appeal.
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Speaker 1: It helps people learn about themselves, and I would say
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Speaker 1: it helps people support each other. Now, sing alongs in
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Speaker 1: some version, as the research Earli or established, have existed
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Speaker 1: across civilizations. They were a way of encoding history for
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Speaker 1: quite some time. But now we're in the era of capitalism. Right,
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Speaker 1: people have to make money. They have a profit motive,
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Speaker 1: and this maybe max if we could get a bit
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Speaker 1: of a sad music, not a wompwomp, but just like
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Speaker 1: a bittersweet thing. H perfect and know we Unfortunately, like Nigishi,
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Speaker 1: made almost no money from his innovation, but larger companies
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Speaker 1: were listening.
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Speaker 2: The streets were watching.
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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the streets were a buzz all at Twitter.
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Speaker 2: He only owned a single patent for.
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Speaker 3: A time relating to karaoke, which would have been these
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Speaker 3: like binders, kind of these plastic covered song books, which,
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Speaker 3: based on our discussions Ben and Max of patents, that's
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Speaker 3: not particularly novel or unique, Like I'm kind of intrigued
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Speaker 3: as to how one could patent a bound plastic book
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Speaker 3: of songs.
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Speaker 1: It was a different time.
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Speaker 2: I guess it was a different time.
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Speaker 3: The funniest thing though, is I don't know that there
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Speaker 3: was a patent for this, but he did make some
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Speaker 3: money from kind of I guess a pesticide that he created.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, he became an ad guy. He became an ass
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Speaker 1: scene on TV kind of dude, like, hey, you know
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Speaker 1: me from earlier. I love two things, you know, singing
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Speaker 1: with other people's music and killing vermin And that's that's
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Speaker 1: what he was marketing. Like the way they framed it was,
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Speaker 1: I have created the carry okay box, and I'm super
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Speaker 1: mad at roaches and rats because they mess with the wires. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: the the vermin or the natural enemy of the carryok
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Speaker 1: And then he gets to he gets to this increasingly
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Speaker 1: this is weird because it's more modern culture thing. But
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Speaker 1: he gets to this increasingly halcyon position of niche celebrity.
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Speaker 1: A television channel based out of Singapore finds him and
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Speaker 1: platforms him in nineteen ninety six, which has just past
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Speaker 1: the cutoff of Ridiculous History, and he is now now
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Speaker 1: he's on this TV channel. And guys, if you haven't
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Speaker 1: seen if you haven't seen TV in Singapore, you must
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Speaker 1: go to YouTube. I'm sure you can find it somewhere.
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Speaker 1: This channel was all Krarryok. It was all people doing karaoke,
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Speaker 1: often in costume as Western icons of old.
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Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And I love that you mentioned Ben,
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Speaker 3: that he was sort of rediscovered. I guess in nineteen
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Speaker 3: ninety six, well after karaoke had been fully established as
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Speaker 3: a phenomenon, you know, a cultural kind of thing. And
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Speaker 3: in this piece for Time Asia, the writer interviews in
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Speaker 3: Oa and he gives this delightful quote of his legacy.
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Speaker 3: I guess we're pretending to karaoke. He says, I am
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Speaker 3: its natural parent, but having given birth to Carryok, I
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Speaker 3: abandoned it.
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Speaker 1: And here in the Ridiculous History cinematic universe picture a
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Speaker 1: zoom out, a nice fade, we settle upon the escape
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Speaker 1: of Japan, not Tokyo, you know, not Osaka, not necessarily Kyoto,
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Speaker 1: just a smaller town where you have folks getting together
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Speaker 1: for little parties. On the weekend, someone gets married, there's
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Speaker 1: another social event, and what do they do when they
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Speaker 1: all hang out? They try to enjoy something together. And
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Speaker 1: that is where Carrie Okay finds its first modern audience,
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Speaker 1: because you know, people again, public speaking being a very
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Speaker 1: real fear for a lot of folks. You've got like imagine,
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Speaker 1: you know, you're the you're the father of the bride,
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Speaker 1: you're the father of the groom or whatever. And one
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Speaker 1: time when your kid, who is now an adult, one
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Speaker 1: time when that kid was six years old, you did
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Speaker 1: an absolutely bonkers version of the bird is the word.
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Speaker 1: And now it's now you have to do it in
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Speaker 1: front of your old and your new family. So there's
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Speaker 1: this accessibility, there's a I would say, there is a
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Speaker 1: unifying affection involved, and so there is with this in mind,
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Speaker 1: there is no surprise that Annoy's idea or multiple people's
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Speaker 1: ideas spread throughout Japan and then across the world because
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Speaker 1: it's a fun thing. Like imagine, you know, in the
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Speaker 1: days before social media and streaming video and God saved
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Speaker 1: me for saying it. Before podcast people would hang out
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Speaker 1: and try to figure out fun stuff to do with
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Speaker 1: each other, like playing cards and carry okay, fulfills that need.
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Speaker 3: Oh man, Ben, you brought Matt Frederick and I am
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Speaker 3: att our co host on that stuff that I want
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Speaker 3: you to know back from your travels, some of the original,
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Speaker 3: like I guess, replicas of the original product that Nintendo created,
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Speaker 3: which was playing cards. It's just interesting, you know, at
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Speaker 3: one point the idea of like playing cards or a
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Speaker 3: game like that is a spiritual successor to technology or
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Speaker 3: is I guess technology.
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Speaker 2: For all intents and purposes?
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Speaker 3: I mean to me, the predecessor to carry okay and
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Speaker 3: this craze would be the old days of singing along
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Speaker 3: with the radio, gathered around the family den, you know,
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Speaker 3: or a fixture in every home you know, in the past,
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Speaker 3: like in the you know, seventeen eighteen hundreds and before
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Speaker 3: even was a piano, and most everybody would have been
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Speaker 3: expected to learn how to play the piano. And there
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Speaker 3: were all of these songbooks that were marketed specifically for
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Speaker 3: having sing alongs at home. But I don't know, Bend,
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Speaker 3: do you see what I mean when I'm talking about
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Speaker 3: that kind of the very short leap from Nintendo making
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Speaker 3: card games to making technology based games video games.
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Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, because again they have the infrastructure, and that
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Speaker 1: that's what Nagishi and Anue are pursuing right There also is,
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Speaker 1: to an even earlier point, the idea of singing in
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Speaker 1: terms of a motive expression and communication. We have to
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Speaker 1: remember that for many cultures, in ancient ancient days, way
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Speaker 1: before ridiculous history, for many cultures, singing was a way
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Speaker 1: to encode oral history. So you are moving somehow beyond time.
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Speaker 1: It's like when you read a good book, there is
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Speaker 1: a dead person communicating with you directly. It's the author.
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Speaker 1: It's nuts that no one thinks about that, But I
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Speaker 1: would say it's also nuts that Annoe did not receive
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Speaker 1: his right recompense for his invention. But he did, and
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Speaker 1: you found this He did in two two thousand and
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Speaker 1: four get a a kind of award.
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Speaker 2: Kind of yeah.
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Speaker 3: I think we've talked about this on the show before,
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Speaker 3: and certainly I think my first time I remember hearing
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Speaker 3: about it was on Stuff to Blow your Mind, a
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Speaker 3: podcast that you work with closely, Ben. The Ignobel Prize Award,
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Speaker 3: which I guess Ignoble it's sort of a spin on
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Speaker 3: the Nobel Prize, a parody of that very important prize
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Speaker 3: given to you know, great thinkers and peacemakers and when
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Speaker 3: what have you influential people. But this is usually given
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Speaker 3: to people who invented something like that's considered really.
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Speaker 2: Stupid, which I think is unfair in this context.
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Speaker 3: But it what did recognize him to quote the ceremony
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Speaker 3: for his contributions to making quote people first laugh and
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Speaker 3: then think.
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Speaker 1: And to be clear, the Ignoble Awards, they started in
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, and we would call them satire. There
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Speaker 1: are Sracle Award, you know, they're they're kind of a
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Speaker 1: pinch on the cheek an at a boy at the
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Speaker 1: the fancy pants over from the Nobel crew. Also, the
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Speaker 1: Nobel Prize is entirely made because a guy felt guilty
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Speaker 1: about inventing dynamite. Forget the Ignoble Prize. Of what I
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Speaker 1: would say, and I love that you included the quote
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Speaker 1: there about laughing and then thinking, Uh, all good satire
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Speaker 1: comes from a place of deep affection, you know. So
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Speaker 1: the so just to be clear, the Ignoble folks aren't
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Speaker 1: really pooping on this guy. They're they're having fun. It's
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Speaker 1: like if uh, you know what it's like when John
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Speaker 1: Stewart on The Daily Show used to shout out Arby's
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Speaker 1: in the most hilarious, really mean, satirical way. It was
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Speaker 1: one of the best things that happened to Arby's, you know.
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Speaker 2: And now sure great free marketing. Yeah, they have the meats,
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Speaker 2: they do have the meats.
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Speaker 3: I guess one connection that I would make could be
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Speaker 3: sort of like what the Razzies are to the Oscars.
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Speaker 2: The Ignoble Prize is to the Nobel Prize.
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Speaker 3: But also the Razzies, while sometimes more mean spirit than others,
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Speaker 3: also does come from a bit of a place of affection,
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Speaker 3: I would argue. So there's actually another name we haven't mentioned,
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Speaker 3: this guy named Kisoboru Takiji, who was the director of
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Speaker 3: a company in Japan that was one of the first
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Speaker 3: big distributors of jukeboxes. Also, again, in an example historically
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Speaker 3: prevalent example of parallel thinking, combined his jukeboxes with a microphone,
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Speaker 3: eight track and what's called a magnetophone, which I think
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Speaker 3: is just a type of speaker. But since we're talking
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Speaker 3: about technology, you know, there was of course going to
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Speaker 3: be evolution in the technology of karaoke. That further democratized
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Speaker 3: it in terms of like who had access to this stuff.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and a magnetophone does not have the E at
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Speaker 1: the end. It's M A G N E t OPHO
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Speaker 1: N no E at the end. It's the first real
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Speaker 1: tape recorder.
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Speaker 2: Okay, got it? So not a speaker. The speaker was
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Speaker 2: its own thing.
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Speaker 3: So instead of using eight track, it was using kind
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Speaker 3: of like magnetic tape. That makes sense, And that was early,
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Speaker 3: So that is already an evolution of the technology of karaoke,
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Speaker 3: going from these sort of more rudimentary eight tracks to
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Speaker 3: something a little bit more adaptable.
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Speaker 2: I mean, a tracks is magnetic tape too. But we
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Speaker 2: really started to.
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Speaker 3: See from the nineteen seventies on with the success of
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Speaker 3: the kind of original juke eight machines. Between nineteen seventy
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Speaker 3: six and seventy seven, we started to see big companies
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Speaker 3: that you've probably heard of, record labels, even companies like
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Speaker 3: Tashiba and labels like Columbia and Polydor starting to mass
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Speaker 3: produce karaoke stuff. And then in the eighties further democratized
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Speaker 3: it with the advent of video cassettes and VCRs and
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Speaker 3: then CDs of course from Sony and other Japanese company.
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Speaker 3: You started to see people being able to do their
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Speaker 3: own karaoke setups at home and not having to go
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Speaker 3: to bars.
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Speaker 1: It democratizes, it democratizes access to the technology for the public.
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Speaker 1: But it, I would say, does not democratize access to
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Speaker 1: opportunity for the inventors, because the big boys stepped in
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Speaker 1: and they did the right thing. When you know, when
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Speaker 1: Pioneer and Sony and Toshiba and Colombia and you know,
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Speaker 1: all the hits, when those guys stepped in, they provided
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Speaker 1: something I've been talking about since the beginning of this series,
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Speaker 1: the infrastructure which always bedeviled these inventors. We also see,
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Speaker 1: who pointed out earlier knowl with this the emergence of
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Speaker 1: themed hangout spots like not not just a cafe that
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Speaker 1: might occasionally have karaoke, not a not a grocery store
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Speaker 1: where someone is moved by the spirit and needs you
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Speaker 1: to hear their interpretation of, you know, nightmare before Christmas.
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Speaker 1: But we see we see venues specifically created for the
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Speaker 1: purpose of engaging in karaoke.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and that really is I think the what we
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Speaker 3: see here in the States in terms of like karaoke
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Speaker 3: bars are largely modeling after the style and aesthetic and
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Speaker 3: sort of function of the ones that were originally created
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Speaker 3: in Asia, which are much more these private room things.
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Speaker 3: It's not just a bar like the local where they
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Speaker 3: do karaoke on Wednesday nights on a stage that they
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Speaker 3: use for other stuff, you know, or they'll have DJs
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Speaker 3: and stuff. This is a specialized venue or restaurant slash
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Speaker 3: bar that has private rooms that often have things like
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Speaker 3: soundproofing and individual systems with wireless microphones. Now, not to mention,
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Speaker 3: and we haven't even talked about this, but in Asian
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Speaker 3: karaoke again again which is largely translated over to the
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Speaker 3: way things are done here, amazing background videos often in
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Speaker 3: these songs, where it'll be like it looks like a
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Speaker 3: pharmaceutical ad. Sometimes it'll be just like a happy couple
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Speaker 3: frolicking through a Wizard of Oz level poppy field kind
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Speaker 3: of with like psychedelic things happening in the sun. Might
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Speaker 3: be like a baby like in the Teletubbies or whatever.
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Speaker 3: So that's another aspect of the culture of karaokes, all
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Speaker 3: of these crazy cool background videos that are filmed, you know,
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Speaker 3: to have something visual to look at.
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Speaker 2: Behind the flashing lyrics.
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Speaker 3: I guess we didn't really even mention that because originally
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Speaker 3: there was no visual component to these machines. Tech just
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Speaker 3: wasn't there. So what became the true democratizer of carryok
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Speaker 3: was having that sink sound video component like the bouncing ball.
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Speaker 1: Yes, nice book in there. We also see what we
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Speaker 1: call a trend in the zeitgeist because people want to
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Speaker 1: hang out and do fun stuff together. People want to
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Speaker 1: feel that they have overcome a fear of public performance
20:27
Speaker 1: or speaking and get some agilation. That's a very human
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Speaker 1: thing to do. It becomes mainstreamed, especially in the US
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Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties, when we see things like carry
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Speaker 1: okay fund centers, and then when you go to mass media,
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Speaker 1: you see a show that I'm gonna be honest, fellow
20:49
Speaker 1: ridiculous historians. I absolutely loved the first season of Glee.
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Speaker 1: I liked how they would just burst into song.
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Speaker 2: I most I thought it was a delightful show.
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Speaker 3: So yeah, but the things like that that infiltrated the
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Speaker 3: zeit Guy's kind of made singing cool again in a way,
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Speaker 3: and not that you know, outside of like being a
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Speaker 3: pop star, because let's be honest, I mean karaoke has
21:16
Speaker 3: not always had the greatest rap in terms of like
21:19
Speaker 3: it's it's kind of been poo pooed a little bit
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Speaker 3: in the past in terms of being sort of like
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Speaker 3: dorky or something, you know, or like some kind of
21:27
Speaker 3: lame activity that only like untalented people participate in. But
21:31
Speaker 3: because of things like Glee TV musical shows, it kind
21:36
Speaker 3: of became cool again in a way, So I think
21:39
Speaker 3: there's a lot to be said for that. Companies and
21:42
Speaker 3: platforms on the internet as well spring up a lot
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Speaker 3: of the places here in Atlanta that do karaoke.
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Speaker 2: They just do it off of YouTube.
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Speaker 3: If you google any song karaoke version, you can find
21:54
Speaker 3: it and you can totally do that at home. And
21:56
Speaker 3: if you have a setup where you just have like
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Speaker 3: a little microphone and a speaker and a projector or
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Speaker 3: a tea, you can run your own karaoke right from
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Speaker 3: your living room. Karaoke bars also evolved into these kind
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Speaker 3: of cultural institutions where we started to see competitions emerged.
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Speaker 3: There is a company called Karaoke World Championship that is
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Speaker 3: the biggest and most prestigious. This is from their website
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Speaker 3: directly Global Talent Competition and singing event that brings together
22:30
Speaker 3: singers from all over the world and as an opportunity
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Speaker 3: for aspiring singers to show their amazing talents to the
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Speaker 3: world and to give the crowd an unforgettable experience.
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Speaker 1: Unforgettable can also mean a lot of things.
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Speaker 2: Sure can't.
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Speaker 1: It's like saying appreciate, but you know what I love
22:47
Speaker 1: And I may be on my own here. I am
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Speaker 1: so proud of people when they cross that rubicon, right,
22:57
Speaker 1: when they bridge that gap and overcome their fear and
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Speaker 1: have a good time singing right. Perfect is the enemy,
23:06
Speaker 1: the nemesis of good, right or workful, and so I
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Speaker 1: love you know honestly, fellow ridiculous historians. The one thing that.
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Speaker 4: I would caution you on is please, please, please please
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Speaker 4: please be very careful and mindful if you think about
23:28
Speaker 4: performing hip hop as as Carrie.
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Speaker 1: Okay, just be very careful which words were not saying not.
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Speaker 1: I'm not here to clip creative wings. I believe in you,
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Speaker 1: you specifically you, I got your back, I got your
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Speaker 1: six Just think through it, you know what I mean,
23:48
Speaker 1: Because not a good look.
23:50
Speaker 3: Especially when people are videoing you and then you're kind
23:53
Speaker 3: of Karen saying the N word and Kendrick Lamar video
23:56
Speaker 3: surfaces on the internet.
23:58
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't think. I didn't even think about
24:01
Speaker 1: that part until you brought it up. I'm thinking more
24:03
Speaker 1: about the the tricky cagence, well, the fact that it's
24:08
Speaker 1: lyrics first. But I see what you're saying.
24:11
Speaker 2: There, tread lightly in that respect.
24:13
Speaker 3: But man, you know, of course, the early days of
24:17
Speaker 3: karaoke were much more japan centric and Asia centric, but
24:22
Speaker 3: it did of course spread globally, and now we've got
24:24
Speaker 3: things like this global competition and apps and all of
24:28
Speaker 3: the stuff that you can use to do all this
24:30
Speaker 3: stuff right from your living room. Today, karaoke is a
24:34
Speaker 3: ten billion dollar industry, with still just a pretty small percentage,
24:39
Speaker 3: about ten percent of that coming from the United States,
24:43
Speaker 3: and modern karaoke has seen a big old resurgence again
24:47
Speaker 3: thanks to some of the kind of singing shows and
24:50
Speaker 3: apps and all that further democratization through technology and really
24:53
Speaker 3: has evolved into a genuine global phenomenon. There are, though
24:58
Speaker 3: challenges a little bit about this off air, Ben, I've
25:02
Speaker 3: always thought, why isn't there a karaoke reality show, a
25:08
Speaker 3: karaoke competition TV show? And I guess you could argue
25:12
Speaker 3: that's kind of what American idol is. But it's really
25:14
Speaker 3: it sort of is because I guess the you know,
25:17
Speaker 3: early tryouts are you.
25:19
Speaker 2: Know, usually a little more entertaining in a kind of
25:22
Speaker 2: bad way. Uh.
25:23
Speaker 3: But there are copyright issues to contend with. It's very
25:27
Speaker 3: expensive to clear all this music. And if I'm not mistaken,
25:32
Speaker 3: you do have to technically have a license agreement with
25:36
Speaker 3: the major publishers.
25:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, to broadcast it, that's the that's the bedeviling thing.
25:42
Speaker 3: Well, even to play it in your bar though, like
25:45
Speaker 3: like venue owners, there is a separate agreement that has
25:48
Speaker 3: to be filed in order to even play popular music
25:53
Speaker 3: in a bar.
25:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, karaoke is serious business. Before we close, I want
25:57
Speaker 1: to I want to mention on one crazy story. This
26:02
Speaker 1: is a warning for anybody going to the Philippines. Be
26:06
Speaker 1: careful with your Sinatra because people will murder you if
26:11
Speaker 1: you sing Frank Sinatra wrong.
26:13
Speaker 2: Philippines because they just love him so much.
26:16
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's difficult to figure out. I'd like
26:20
Speaker 1: to for anybody wants to learn more. I'd like to
26:22
Speaker 1: shout out our pal Henri Ichimura, who wrote a great
26:27
Speaker 1: article on this for Esquire. How Frank Sinatra's song my
26:31
Speaker 1: Way triggered Filipino carry okay killings. What we see is
26:37
Speaker 1: that my way. Of course, everybody knows my way. Max
26:41
Speaker 1: is always humming my way, right, I.
26:43
Speaker 2: Did it my way that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:47
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do it now, So you don't have
26:49
Speaker 1: the rights on air. But but I can bang with
26:52
Speaker 1: that one. So the problem is that people in the
26:56
Speaker 1: Philippines got I think, un fairly profiled. Like look, the
27:03
Speaker 1: Philippines loves carryok. Everybody kind of loves carryok. But uh,
27:09
Speaker 1: they got profiled as folks who were very sensitive about
27:13
Speaker 1: Sinatra because in two thousand and seven, the security guard
27:18
Speaker 1: at a carryoke bar shot a guy for singing my
27:23
Speaker 1: Way off key.
27:25
Speaker 2: Uh.
27:25
Speaker 1: He told him to stop singing. The guy didn't stop singing,
27:29
Speaker 1: and then the security guard shot him. And this is
27:33
Speaker 1: just one of multiple, uh, multiple instances of Sinatra associated
27:42
Speaker 1: carryok murders.
27:43
Speaker 3: I had no idea, Ben, that's pretty wild. I will
27:46
Speaker 3: definitely keep that, keep that in mind.
27:50
Speaker 2: Just go with you, go with your earlier.
27:52
Speaker 1: They don't for meat loaf, that will They'll be amazing. Yeah,
27:57
Speaker 1: they'll think you're just freestyling that one.
27:59
Speaker 3: You know, you know, what it would be like, though, honestly,
28:01
Speaker 3: it's sort of like when you eat the like fugu fish,
28:03
Speaker 3: you're really rolling the dice there as to whether or
28:05
Speaker 3: not you're gonna get poisoned. This would be like, you
28:08
Speaker 3: know what, maybe I'm good enough to sing my way
28:10
Speaker 3: in the pips in.
28:12
Speaker 2: The challenge, just give it a go.
28:13
Speaker 1: Also fugu, I'll say it.
28:16
Speaker 2: It's food. It's not that great. It's like numb you
28:19
Speaker 2: up a little bit, is it really?
28:20
Speaker 3: Is it largely exaggerated the idea that it will kill
28:23
Speaker 3: you dead if you eat the wrong piece it.
28:26
Speaker 1: The fish itself can kill people. It is dangerous. But
28:32
Speaker 1: now in twenty twenty four, if a chef is making
28:35
Speaker 1: it for you, it's fine. Yeah, you're just you're paying
28:39
Speaker 1: a lot for you know, the flex for sure caveat gig.
28:43
Speaker 1: But speaking of flexes, no, this is one thing. We've
28:47
Speaker 1: been working on this one for a while and this
28:49
Speaker 1: is one thing that really stood out to me. I
28:51
Speaker 1: can't remember whether or not I texted you on the
28:54
Speaker 1: day of, but while we were all kind of cooking
29:00
Speaker 1: in the lab on the idea of Carrie OK, our
29:03
Speaker 1: buddy Nagishi, the dude who just wanted to prove to
29:08
Speaker 1: his colleague that he could sing. He passed away and
29:14
Speaker 1: he was one hundred years old.
29:16
Speaker 2: Dude, what a boss.
29:18
Speaker 3: Didn't Jimmy Carter just turn one hundred and he's like
29:20
Speaker 3: the first president to live to one hundred.
29:23
Speaker 1: As of October of this year, you know, knock on wood,
29:29
Speaker 1: et cetera, James Carter will be one hundred years old.
29:36
Speaker 1: We can only hope that happens. I'll tell you one
29:38
Speaker 1: of my favorite quotes about this guy, and Max can agree.
29:42
Speaker 1: As a presidential history nerd, Jimmy Carter was maybe not
29:50
Speaker 1: the best president, we always say, but he was one
29:53
Speaker 1: of the best men to ever be president.
29:55
Speaker 3: Great guy, great philanthropy, habitat for humanity.
29:59
Speaker 1: Still guy.
29:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry, we're not talking about Jimmy Carter.
30:01
Speaker 3: We're talking about Shaigaichi Nigishi, who was that original electronics
30:07
Speaker 3: factory entrepreneur who, to your point, Ben, decided to create
30:11
Speaker 3: a device to make it okay for people to sing badly,
30:14
Speaker 3: to make it Carrie Okay.
30:19
Speaker 2: Hey, Carrie like Gary a tune? Okay, I love it both.
30:23
Speaker 1: We're bringing it all back together.
30:26
Speaker 3: Nigishi did die of natural causes on January twenty sixth
30:29
Speaker 3: of this year twenty twenty four. We've been thinking about
30:32
Speaker 3: this one for a hot minute, and today Japan alone
30:36
Speaker 3: has more than eight thousand different karaoke facilities and thousands
30:41
Speaker 3: of bars, snack bars, you know, pubs, restaurants that provide
30:46
Speaker 3: customers with the opportunity to live out Nigishi's dream.
30:51
Speaker 1: Of talking trash dear co workers and say it just
30:55
Speaker 1: let me get a percussion track on the back here.
30:59
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I mean, it takes all kinds.
31:02
Speaker 1: I love it.
31:02
Speaker 2: I love it.
31:03
Speaker 1: Also if you've never been to there are different, you
31:08
Speaker 1: know genres of carryok establishments and venues. A lot of
31:13
Speaker 1: them here in the West are going to be you know,
31:17
Speaker 1: some other business that has a carryoka night, so there's
31:20
Speaker 1: a big public atmosphere.
31:23
Speaker 4: Uh.
31:23
Speaker 1: There are dedicated uh carryok centered venues where you go
31:29
Speaker 1: and you rent a room by the hour, and the
31:32
Speaker 1: cool ones give you snacks the longer you stay. That's
31:36
Speaker 1: just a little a little pro tip there, and the
31:39
Speaker 1: uh the other ones. You know, you'll have live bands
31:42
Speaker 1: that have a repertoire of songs.
31:44
Speaker 2: There's one here in Atlanta called Mettlesome.
31:46
Speaker 1: Mill Monday right right, And those things are also amazing uh,
31:52
Speaker 1: we hope that you check it out there. This this
31:57
Speaker 1: reminds me so I rewatched Breaking and one of my
32:01
Speaker 1: favorite things about Breaking Bad is a chemist named Gail.
32:05
Speaker 1: This is not a spoiler, al Betteker he had absolutely,
32:09
Speaker 1: absolutely is awesome at Carryok has got all these songs.
32:14
Speaker 1: It's a it's a bright point in a dark time,
32:18
Speaker 1: and maybe that's what draws people to Carryok. Oh, well
32:22
Speaker 1: said Bet. And the way the way it's depicted in
32:24
Speaker 1: Breaking Bad. If I'm not mistaken, it.
32:26
Speaker 3: Does have some of those wacky video backgrounds, and I
32:29
Speaker 3: think he's doing that song Earth be Low the sort
32:36
Speaker 3: of answer to Major Tom, ground control to Major Tom.
32:40
Speaker 2: Such a fun song.
32:41
Speaker 3: But man Ben, speaking of a fun song, I guess
32:44
Speaker 3: this this has been a fun ridiculous history song.
32:48
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm grasping a straws here. Help me out,
32:51
Speaker 2: all right?
32:52
Speaker 1: Well, thanks as always to our super producer mister Max Williams. Thinks,
32:57
Speaker 1: of course, to Alex Williams who compose this slap and bop.
33:01
Speaker 1: Might be nice to write a song with this as
33:04
Speaker 1: a backing track. What would our lyrics be?
33:08
Speaker 2: Let us know.
33:08
Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook at Ridiculous historians. I
33:12
Speaker 1: don't know if it's a good idea to say that,
33:13
Speaker 1: but you know, let's see what people come up with.
33:15
Speaker 3: Crowdstores did maybe you know, please give us your creations
33:19
Speaker 3: and just one last little tiny thing before you go.
33:21
Speaker 3: Is one positive aspect of AI and all of this
33:25
Speaker 3: is it is much easier now more than ever, to
33:29
Speaker 3: remove vocals from a recording using apps that are out
33:33
Speaker 3: there that use machine learning, and it's pretty wild. It
33:37
Speaker 3: used to be completely impossible and now it is something
33:41
Speaker 3: that you can do. So you can kind of take
33:42
Speaker 3: any of your favorite songs and make a karaoke version
33:45
Speaker 3: out of it. You just just google whatever the top
33:48
Speaker 3: apps are that do that. I think the good ones
33:50
Speaker 3: cost maybe a couple bucks, but they're wildly effective.
33:53
Speaker 1: And thanks of course to Rachel Big Spinach Lands, the
33:57
Speaker 1: world expert on underwater explosion. Thanks to our pal aj
34:01
Speaker 1: Bahamas Jacobs. Thanks to Actually I gotta I gotta reach
34:07
Speaker 1: out to him about this. Thanks to our pal Jonathan
34:09
Speaker 1: Strickland aka the quizter. Who o God, I have seen
34:15
Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen the man murder some karaoke.
34:18
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he's a great singer, big musical theater guy,
34:21
Speaker 3: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
34:31
Speaker 3: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
34:34
Speaker 3: to your favorite shows.