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The Most DISTURBING Kids Show EVER Made_ “JOY JUNCTION” · The conspiracy

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Speaker 1: And when I got over there, I noticed that some
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Speaker 1: of the kids for kind of giggling and laughing enough,
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Speaker 1: and I wondered when they were doing that? Well, why
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Speaker 1: were they doing it? Well? They said, Mardy, come over
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Speaker 1: here and take a look at our pitchers. So I
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Speaker 1: walked on over there and I took a look. And
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Speaker 1: do you know what it was? Or what was it?
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Speaker 1: Marty ron? They were looking at some dirty.
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Speaker 2: Too.
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Speaker 1: Well, Marty, what did you do? Well? I said, look, guys,
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Speaker 1: I like you a lot and I want to play
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Speaker 1: with you, but I can't look at those pittures. I
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Speaker 1: just can't do it. Or what did they say, Marty?
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Speaker 1: They said, oh, Marty, come on, your appearents are in
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Speaker 1: the house.
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Speaker 2: No one will see.
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Speaker 1: What did you say? I said, that may be true,
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Speaker 1: but I know someone who will see, and that's God.
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Speaker 1: That's right, Marty. You know that kind of reminds me
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Speaker 1: of a verse t I'm thinking of in the Bible,
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Speaker 1: and it says that you should run away from anything
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Speaker 1: that will give you evil thoughts, and as your companions,
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Speaker 1: you should have friends who have purely green thoughts and
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Speaker 1: will only give you a good idea. You know, I'm
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Speaker 1: glad you weren't wish you washing. I'm glad you remained
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Speaker 1: firm in your belief that looking at those kind of
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Speaker 1: things wrong.
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Speaker 3: Before we begin today, I want you to think of
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Speaker 3: a beloved television show from your own childhood. The show
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Speaker 3: you raced home to watch after school or eagerly searched
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Speaker 3: for on a Saturday morning. Whether it was SpongeBob or
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Speaker 3: Scooby Doo, we all have a show that kept us
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Speaker 3: company as we grew up. The show made us laugh,
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Speaker 3: comforted us, and maybe even taught us an important lesson
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Speaker 3: about friendship or sharing. For me, there were a number
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Speaker 3: of shows that I enjoyed as a kid, from Arthur
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Speaker 3: to Cyberchase, The Sweet Life of Zach and Cody, and
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Speaker 3: when I was really young, shows like The Bear in
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Speaker 3: the Big Blue House. Because the things that we love
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Speaker 3: is kids tend to stay with us forever. Oops, I
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Speaker 3: forgot to add Goosebumps. That was one of my favorite shows.
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Speaker 3: We may even hope to share that same show with
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Speaker 3: our own children. But imagine that one day that special
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Speaker 3: show disappears without explanation, It's no longer aired on television.
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Speaker 3: Imagine there was no trace of that show online or
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Speaker 3: any way to rent it as if the show never
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Speaker 3: existed and everyone's acting like it never happened after twenty
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Speaker 3: years of delighting fans weekly. Imagine that your favorite childhood
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Speaker 3: show was just gone. Well, today we're going to cover
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Speaker 3: the dramatic and disturbing story of Joy Junction, a once
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Speaker 3: loved show that, after decades of popularity, is now nothing
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Speaker 3: more than the beginning of a horror story. This case
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Speaker 3: is so unbelievably upsetting it sounds like an Internet creepypasta
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Speaker 3: come to life. But let me assure you, as horrific
2:30
Speaker 3: as this story is, it's all true and I'm going
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Speaker 3: to break it down for you today on this episode
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Speaker 3: of The Conspiracy Files. As a warning, all parties are
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Speaker 3: considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
2:42
Speaker 3: I don't want to go anywhere. I'm not planning on
2:44
Speaker 3: doing anything to myself. If you want to see the
2:46
Speaker 3: resources that we used to write this story, please check
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Speaker 3: the resources document that I post in the description of
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Speaker 3: this show every single week. And everybody please thank Amelia
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Speaker 3: GP for helping to bring this story to life with
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Speaker 3: her incredible research skills and storytelling without the writers and
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Speaker 3: researchers that are working behind the scenes on this show,
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Speaker 3: we wouldn't have a show in the first place. But
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Speaker 3: without further ado, let's get into this. So before we
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Speaker 3: actually start todays sew, I want to mention I'm wearing
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Speaker 3: glasses and I look a little weird because Courtney and
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Speaker 3: my wife and I just adopted a rescue puppy and
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Speaker 3: the other night she actually scratched me on my eye.
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Speaker 3: So I've got like an eye infection going on or
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Speaker 3: something horrific. So if my eye starts watering or something
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Speaker 3: during the taping of this program, please I know what's
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Speaker 3: going on. And I have antibiotic drops actually right here
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Speaker 3: that I've been taking. But yeah, it's just unavoidable at
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Speaker 3: this point. But anyways, Joy Junction, this is a story
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Speaker 3: I've wanted to tell for a long time. This is
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Speaker 3: an incredibly disturbing and frightening story. It's honestly its own
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Speaker 3: little parable of right and wrong of morality. Yeah, without
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Speaker 3: further ado, let's just get into this. But please you
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Speaker 3: prepared for this because this is a This is an
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Speaker 3: incredibly dark one part one a joyful western town. Back
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Speaker 3: in the nineteen seventies, there wasn't that much on television
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Speaker 3: especially when it came to kids programming. There weren't any
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Speaker 3: stations like Cartoon Network or Disney Channel, and kids had
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Speaker 3: to take what little programming they could get. And if
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Speaker 3: you were in the Tampa area of Florida in nineteen
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Speaker 3: seventy nine, that children's show that you regularly tuned into
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Speaker 3: might just have been Joy Junction.
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Speaker 4: Bear God and keep his commandments. Hmm, I didn't know
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Speaker 4: God wanted us to be afraid of him.
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Speaker 5: Jo Jo, It's Sheriff Don, Professor Clotte Hopper, Happion, Darcy Wilson,
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Speaker 5: Ron and Marty Whittler.
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Speaker 6: Dan, Sarah Edens, and Deputy Less come in join us
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Speaker 6: for a half hour of fun and games at Joy Junction.
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Speaker 4: Now here's Sheriff Don.
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Speaker 2: Hello everybody, and were welcome.
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Speaker 1: To Joy Junction. My goodness, it's just a.
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Speaker 4: Beautiful day here.
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Speaker 3: Airing each week on the Christian Television Network, the Joy
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Speaker 3: Junction was a low budget but well loved kids show
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Speaker 3: that taught lessons to children about the Bible, lessons about morality,
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Speaker 3: lessons about living your best life, lessens about loving your
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Speaker 3: neighbor and being kind to all. Every thirty minute episode
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Speaker 3: of Joy Junction featured a live audience of children interacting
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Speaker 3: with the characters who lived in the western themed town
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Speaker 3: while they all played games and heard stories. It was
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Speaker 3: wholesome and charming and clearly a labor of love from
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Speaker 3: the cast and crew that brought that show to life. Now,
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Speaker 3: there isn't very much information about Joy Junction available today,
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Speaker 3: so we don't know exactly when it first aired or
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Speaker 3: exactly how the show came to be, but that's a
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Speaker 3: part of what makes the story so incredibly interesting. Today,
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Speaker 3: Joy Junction is considered to be lost media, meaning that
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Speaker 3: it's a series of videos or media that was once
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Speaker 3: available that you can no longer find anywhere, not in person,
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Speaker 3: not on the internet. It's just gone. You can't rent
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Speaker 3: Joy Junction online, you can't find DVD copies of it.
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Speaker 3: It's like the show just vanished into thin air. You
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Speaker 3: won't be able to get any information about the show,
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Speaker 3: either from the companies that once produced it or even
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Speaker 3: the cast who worked on the show. You see, if
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Speaker 3: you want to see any of the few surviving episodes
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Speaker 3: or clips, you have to heavily depend on home recordings
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Speaker 3: that viewers took and uploaded online. The only known copies
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Speaker 3: of the show that remain with all official versions presumed
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Speaker 3: to have been destroyed. Some even say that the production
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Speaker 3: company went so far as to burn the original copies
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Speaker 3: of the show. So what the hell happened? What drove
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Speaker 3: the innocuous joy Junction to be driven off the air
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Speaker 3: and resigned to the deep dark bowels of the Internet,
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Speaker 3: where rumors fly and darkness multiplies. Well, the story begins
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Speaker 3: with the characters of the show itself. For viewers, the
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Speaker 3: characters that lived in joy Junction were what made it
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Speaker 3: fun and gave it its charm. The host Sheriff Don
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Speaker 3: was played by the show's creator Don McAllister and was
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Speaker 3: one of the most popular characters.
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Speaker 6: And welcome to this fun littletown of joy Junction.
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Speaker 2: Welcome to joy junctioning home, and welcome to joy Junction Home,
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Speaker 2: and welcome to joy Junction.
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Speaker 6: Hey, we have a neat gang here today, and it's
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Speaker 6: a beautiful day.
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Speaker 2: And I know you're going to enjoy our contest, so
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Speaker 2: stay right with it. In fact, let's cheer them onside.
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Speaker 2: Du oh, good night, shut right away.
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Speaker 3: Sheriff Dn kept the show moving from segment to segment
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Speaker 3: and guided the episode through that week's lesson. There was
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Speaker 3: also a goofy professor who was lovable but not too bright.
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Speaker 1: I just did it something last night. Well, we'll solve
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Speaker 1: this whole problem with juncle Bo. I mean about his voice.
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Speaker 1: His voice. He'll help him. I'm gonna go get it.
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Speaker 1: I'll bring it back in just a moment.
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Speaker 2: I'm anxious to see it.
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Speaker 1: All right.
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Speaker 2: This is what you went home to get called correct
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Speaker 2: the key.
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Speaker 1: Correct the key right.
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Speaker 2: You'll have to.
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Speaker 6: You're singing to ye, and it tells you what key
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Speaker 6: you're singing it.
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Speaker 1: And then we make a few adjustments and he's singing
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Speaker 1: into it again, and it's put you in the right key.
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Speaker 1: They can sound a whole lot.
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Speaker 2: You gotta be killed.
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Speaker 3: And Whittler Dan, a farmer who told stories.
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Speaker 1: We were just.
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Speaker 6: Thinking how Jesus loves us. You know, it's such a
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Speaker 6: neat thing. But you know, he doesn't just love us
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Speaker 6: when we do everything right, although that's important when we're
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Speaker 6: obedient and don't sin. But the Bible tells us that
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Speaker 6: he loves us even when we're disobedient. Romans fot eighty says,
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Speaker 6: even while we were yet in sin, Christ died for
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Speaker 6: us on the cross.
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Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, And you know you remember Paul, he
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Speaker 1: hated the Christians. He had some of them in prisoned,
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Speaker 1: he had some of them killed. He was real bad
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Speaker 1: before he was safe. But Jesus still loved him anyway.
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Speaker 3: And then there was Ron and Marty. If there's anything
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Speaker 3: people who watched Joy Junction as kids remember all these
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Speaker 3: years later, it's these two. Ronald Williams, a professional ventriloquist,
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Speaker 3: played Ron, as well as Marty the puppet who accompanied
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Speaker 3: him each week. The pair often stuck out in people's
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Speaker 3: minds because, just to put it plainly, they were incredibly creepy.
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Speaker 3: Marty the puppet in particular, gave people the spooks.
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Speaker 1: He almrighty, as I was thinking of, Just as we
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Speaker 1: use the telephone to talk to our friends, is hosto
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Speaker 1: a fact that many times the Lord wants to talk
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Speaker 1: to us. He doesn't have a telephone though, Oh no, no, no,
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Speaker 1: he doesn't have a telephone, but he does call us
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Speaker 1: up in other ways. Really hell, well, he can talk
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Speaker 1: to us through his word, the Bible, that's right, God's word.
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Speaker 1: And how else, well he can speak to us through
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Speaker 1: our heart or through our minds. You know, you know
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Speaker 1: what's he trying to tell us? Jean, I bet he's
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Speaker 1: trying to tell us a lot of good stuff. Well,
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Speaker 1: of course, Marty, and that's why we need to listen
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Speaker 1: to what the Lord has to say. He'll probably be
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Speaker 1: telling us about how we should live our life, or
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Speaker 1: if we're not a Christian, Marty, he'll certainly be telling
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Speaker 1: us about how we should confess our sin and ask
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Speaker 1: for forgiveness. We should certainly try to listen to the Lord,
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Speaker 1: just like we do our friends.
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Speaker 3: Don't We Like many ventriloquist dolls, especially vintage ones. He
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Speaker 3: had an off putting face and strange mannerisms. His large
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Speaker 3: eyes and long lashes, paired with the voice Ron provided
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Speaker 3: for him, made a great example of everything people don't
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Speaker 3: like about puppets.
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Speaker 1: I wish I was that Thraie. Well, I guess you do, Marty.
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Speaker 1: But I don't think you have to worry about crocodiles
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Speaker 1: and beasties in your neighborhood. No, but there's other things. Really,
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Speaker 1: what do you mean, Marty? Well, last night, for instance,
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Speaker 1: I couldn't get the sleep. I was so scared, I stated,
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Speaker 1: awake old last night with the light on. Well, Marty,
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Speaker 1: what were you so fearful of? Last night? I was
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Speaker 1: afraid that he was going to come into my room.
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Speaker 1: He he who Oh, I heard on the news last
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Speaker 1: night that there's a cat burglar in our area of
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Speaker 1: town and he's then going into people's houses and stealing stuff,
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Speaker 1: and I was afraid that he was going to come
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Speaker 1: into my room. Oh well, Marty, that's a bad kind
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Speaker 1: of fear, and unfortunately, uh, you know, those kind of
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Speaker 1: things do go on in our world today. But God
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Speaker 1: does it want us to be fearful in living fear
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Speaker 1: like that? Well, I know that, Ryn, But what am
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Speaker 1: I supposed to do? Well they mentioned it just a
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Speaker 1: moment ago in the Bible, Pumper, Marty, just think about
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Speaker 1: it for a minute and try to figure out what
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Speaker 1: you should do when that scared feeling comes over you.
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Speaker 1: I guess I should tray and ask God to help me. Well,
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Speaker 1: that's exactly right, Marty. You know, if we look around,
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Speaker 1: there's really a lot of things the devil will find
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Speaker 1: for us to be fearful of. Murder, fires, accidents, cat burglars,
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Speaker 1: and all kinds of things like that. Yeah, especially if
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Speaker 1: you watch the news. God doesn't want these kind of
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Speaker 1: things to hover over us like a dark cloud.
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Speaker 5: He wants us to.
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Speaker 1: Turn our fears over to him and he'll take care
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Speaker 1: of us. So what you're saying is is that when
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Speaker 1: I get fearful and scared, I should just tray and
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Speaker 1: ask God to take it Alane. That's exactly right, Marty.
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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, that's what Peter five seven
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Speaker 1: tells us to do. Just turn our fears and our
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Speaker 1: tears over to the Lord because he's in control and
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Speaker 1: he's going to take care of us. Well, I guess
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Speaker 1: that's a good idea. I guess sometimes we're fearful of
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Speaker 1: something that's not even going to happen. That's exactly right, Marty.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes weren't fearful and stuff that's not even going to
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Speaker 1: happen anyway. Let's just remember that God is in control,
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Speaker 1: turn our fears over to him, and he will take
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Speaker 1: care of us. A then, Druther ran, I'm going to
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Speaker 1: remember that for sure from now on.
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Speaker 3: And full disclosure here. I don't know if I've ever
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Speaker 3: told this story online, but my biggest fear in life
13:41
Speaker 3: when I was younger used to be ventriloquis dummies. They
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Speaker 3: scared the absolute out of me. Basically, when I was young,
13:48
Speaker 3: I watched the episode of Goosebumps Night of the Living
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Speaker 3: Dummy three, specifically the third one, and that scared me
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Speaker 3: so badly that I started having nightmares that one of
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Speaker 3: my Goosebumps novels was going to fall off the shelf
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Speaker 3: in my bedroom. Slappy the dummy was gonna pop out
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Speaker 3: with an axe, and he was gonna stab me or
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Speaker 3: slice me to death in my bed late at night.
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Speaker 3: I also had a dream at one point that a
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Speaker 3: ventriloquist dummy locked my family up in the basement of
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Speaker 3: our home and killed all of us one by one
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Speaker 3: with an axe. Keep in mind, I was like eight
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Speaker 3: years old at this time, and it actually got so
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Speaker 3: bad that my parents had to take me to a therapist,
14:21
Speaker 3: where the therapist had to basically coach me out of
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Speaker 3: being afraid of Ventriloquist dummies. I vividly remember him saying, actually,
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Speaker 3: the likelihood of a Ventriloquist dummy coming to life and
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Speaker 3: killing your family is about as likely as a team
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Speaker 3: of professional bowlers flying over your head in a private jet,
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Speaker 3: one of the doors opening up, and a bowling ball
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Speaker 3: rolling out of the jet and hitting you in the head.
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Speaker 3: And even though that sounds really unlikely, it's hilarious because
14:45
Speaker 3: I remember being a kid and thinking and I don't know,
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Speaker 3: there's still a chance that that could really happen in
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Speaker 3: real life. That didn't help me at all. I mean, obviously,
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Speaker 3: I eventually grew up out of that fear, and now
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Speaker 3: Ventriloquist dummies are some of my favorite things. I have
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Speaker 3: a couple of my own. I love ventril Quist dummy horror.
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Speaker 3: Whether it's goosebumps or dead silence, anything to do with
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Speaker 3: Ventriloquist dummies, I love it. But that fear started for
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Speaker 3: me when I was a kid. So I understand why
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Speaker 3: people were afraid of joy Junction, because, yeah, this dummy
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Speaker 3: was creepy as hell, and if I saw that when
15:14
Speaker 3: I was a kid, I'd definitely be having nightmares that
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Speaker 3: this little guy was going to pop out of my
15:18
Speaker 3: closet with an axe. And it should be noted that
15:20
Speaker 3: if anyone on the show seemed like they might have
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Speaker 3: been up to something weird, it was definitely Ron and
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Speaker 3: his little partner Marty. After all, how many scary stories
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Speaker 3: begin with an evil puppet. I can count quite a
15:32
Speaker 3: few on one hand, just going back to my childhood trauma.
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Speaker 3: But as creepy as Marty could be, he and Ron
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Speaker 3: were still regular characters on the show that audiences enjoy.
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Speaker 3: Aside from the fact that sometimes puppets get a bad rap,
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Speaker 3: there was nothing about the ventriloquist or his sidekick that
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Speaker 3: garnered any suspicion from the cast or crew of Joy
15:49
Speaker 3: Junction Today, all surviving episodes and clips of the show
15:52
Speaker 3: that you can see involve Ron and Marty. Like the
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Speaker 3: other characters, the duo talk to the kids about lessons
15:58
Speaker 3: from the Bible.
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Speaker 1: Here's some fun, file Sacks.
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Speaker 4: Do you know that the oldest person in the Bible
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Speaker 4: was Methusa. He lived to be nine hundred and sixty
16:07
Speaker 4: nine years old.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that's old, fun file Sacks. Sheriff Don Marty was
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Speaker 1: telling me a little earlier about some kind of problem
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Speaker 1: he was having at school, and I want to I
16:19
Speaker 1: wanted to find out what was going on. What seems
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Speaker 1: to be happening at school? Marty? Is it? Is it
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Speaker 1: a big problem? Yes, a very serious one too. Well,
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Speaker 1: exactly what's going on, Marty? Well, it's seems like I'm
16:32
Speaker 1: hearing a lot of swear words. All the kids are
16:35
Speaker 1: using slow words these days, and I'm afraid one of
16:38
Speaker 1: them's gonna slip out of none mouth one of these days.
16:42
Speaker 1: Oh well, Marty, can't you just avoid those kids that
16:44
Speaker 1: are using the bad words? No way, It's air free
16:48
Speaker 1: player in the gym, in class, even even at recess
16:53
Speaker 1: and lunch. Everywhere I go, I keep hearing kids using
16:57
Speaker 1: bad words, and I just don't know I have to
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Speaker 1: do about it. Ron. Well, Marty, you know, it seems
17:04
Speaker 1: like we do hear a lot of bad language today.
17:05
Speaker 1: I know what you're talking about. It seems like even
17:07
Speaker 1: when I go into restaurants and places like that, I
17:10
Speaker 1: hear people talking like that. It just seems like people
17:13
Speaker 1: don't care how they use the Lord's name. Well, what
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Speaker 1: am I gonna do?
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Speaker 5: Ron?
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Speaker 1: Well, there's a couple of ideas that come to my mind, Marty.
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Speaker 1: First of all, why don't you try immediately praying and
17:25
Speaker 1: asking the Lord to take those bad words and thoughts
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Speaker 1: out of your mind? Saying that's a good idea. And then, Marty,
17:32
Speaker 1: why don't you try thinking about some scripture like what Well,
17:37
Speaker 1: one that comes to my mind right away is Philippians
17:39
Speaker 1: four eight, which says, whatsoever things are true, honest, just
17:45
Speaker 1: pure lovely think upon these things. Oh, let's see what
17:51
Speaker 1: you're saying, Ron, You're saying, I can love the Lord
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Speaker 1: with my mind by thinking on good, clean tear in
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Speaker 1: the filling my head full of scriptures. That's exactly right, Marty.
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Speaker 1: Unfortunately there are people around who use bad language, but Marty,
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Speaker 1: we can feel our minds full of good thoughts and scriptures.
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Speaker 3: Marty would often tell Ron of something he was struggling with,
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Speaker 3: and Ron would give him advice. In one clip, Marty
18:18
Speaker 3: and Ron discussed not giving in to dark thoughts and
18:21
Speaker 3: maintaining self control against things they know are wrong. In another,
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Speaker 3: Marty says he felt pressured by other people to look
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Speaker 3: at dirty pictures. Ron reminds him how important it is
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Speaker 3: to refrain from those things, even when others say that
18:34
Speaker 3: that's okay. The things Ron and Marty talked about may
18:37
Speaker 3: have been a little cheesy, but I guess they were
18:39
Speaker 3: good lessons for kids. I mean, talking about dirty pictures
18:43
Speaker 3: and giving into temptations seems a little weird for a
18:46
Speaker 3: Christian children's show, but decades later, the irony of those
18:50
Speaker 3: exact conversations Ron and Marty had with those kids would
18:53
Speaker 3: become haunting in the extreme.
18:56
Speaker 1: Well, Marty, how did your fishing trip with Runkle Filigo
18:59
Speaker 1: this past week? In? Oh? Pretty good? I got kind
19:02
Speaker 1: of laught though. We don't tell me you fell in
19:04
Speaker 1: the lake. Oh no, nothing like that. Well, exactly what happened. Well,
19:09
Speaker 1: we got up there real early that morning, you know,
19:11
Speaker 1: and we started unlugging the tickup truck. Was looking forward
19:15
Speaker 1: to going fishing. I got together all on a date
19:17
Speaker 1: and tack on. I headed down Portia Lake and Uncle
19:20
Speaker 1: Philip said, Marty, where are you going? We gotta put
19:25
Speaker 1: up for ten Oh, you got to put up the tent.
19:28
Speaker 1: He wrong?
19:28
Speaker 6: What's going on here?
19:29
Speaker 1: And what's wrong with Marty? Oh, Marty's just fine. You
19:32
Speaker 1: just didn't get much sleep last night. He kept waking
19:35
Speaker 1: up asking me if it was here, Yes, right here.
19:38
Speaker 3: So far everything I've told you about Joy Junction seems innocent, right.
19:42
Speaker 3: After all, it was just a dinky public broadcast show
19:45
Speaker 3: that gained popularity in the eighties in a small part
19:48
Speaker 3: of Florida. Eventually, though, Joy Junction even managed to get
19:51
Speaker 3: itself syndicated and go nitionwide after starting as a local
19:54
Speaker 3: show in the Tampa area. In fact, the show did
19:57
Speaker 3: so well that it would go on to produce new
19:59
Speaker 3: episode codes and air each week until its sudden departure
20:03
Speaker 3: and disappearance in two thousand and four, but by then
20:06
Speaker 3: Joy Junction had been on for twenty five years. That's
20:09
Speaker 3: an impressive run for a kid's show about the Bible.
20:12
Speaker 3: But despite its popularity and seeming legacy, Joy Junction ended
20:16
Speaker 3: its decades of entertainment with no fanfare. No warning was given,
20:19
Speaker 3: no announcement shared the news, and no cast members gave
20:22
Speaker 3: their tiary goodbyes. One week, the show just stopped airing.
20:26
Speaker 3: Another twenty years after its end, Joy Junction has been
20:29
Speaker 3: largely forgotten. But if there's anything or anyone that people
20:32
Speaker 3: know about Joy Junction, it's that puppet Marty and his
20:35
Speaker 3: companion Ron. And for reasons you'll soon understand, I'd understand
20:39
Speaker 3: if they wish they didn't know about Ron and Marty
20:42
Speaker 3: at all. Part two Nightmares. Here's where our story takes
20:46
Speaker 3: a dark turn. Sometime in the early two thousands, an
20:49
Speaker 3: unnamed man was arrested for possessing and distributing which I'm
20:54
Speaker 3: going to refer to as CP throughout the rest of
20:57
Speaker 3: this video. His hard drive was filled with disturb urbing images,
21:00
Speaker 3: and police could tell it would be almost impossible to
21:03
Speaker 3: identify any of the victims, but they did find one
21:06
Speaker 3: small piece of evidence. It was a piece of evidence
21:09
Speaker 3: that would lead them down a rabbit hole they weren't
21:11
Speaker 3: prepared to uncover. In the background of one of the
21:14
Speaker 3: images was a water bottle with the name of a
21:16
Speaker 3: swim and scuba school in Kansas City on it. Police
21:19
Speaker 3: headed to the school, hoping to find the victim who
21:21
Speaker 3: had been forced into the images as well as his
21:24
Speaker 3: Their search quickly led them to the man responsible, Michael Arnett.
21:28
Speaker 3: Arnett was arrested and police found even more CP, some
21:31
Speaker 3: of which he made himself on his computer. We won't
21:34
Speaker 3: go into the details of the images here, but I
21:36
Speaker 3: can say that, according to reports, those images that were
21:39
Speaker 3: found on his devices were some of the most vile
21:41
Speaker 3: pieces of CP according to local police who have ever
21:44
Speaker 3: been discovered in their jurisdiction. But the police also found
21:48
Speaker 3: something else. Arnett spent a lot of time chatting with
21:51
Speaker 3: another predator online, a user who went by the name
21:54
Speaker 3: Arnold Brown. Except Arnold Brown wasn't his real name at all.
21:59
Speaker 3: His real name was Ronald Williams, and he had spent
22:02
Speaker 3: the last twenty five years working on a show for children,
22:05
Speaker 3: speaking with his best friend, a puppet named Marty. Now
22:09
Speaker 3: YouTuber Nick Crowley who covered the joy Junction case, paints
22:12
Speaker 3: a simple but sinister canvas of Williams, stating quote Ron's
22:16
Speaker 3: life was centered on three things ventriloquism, Christianity, and children.
22:20
Speaker 3: Though no formal charges had ever been brought against Ron
22:23
Speaker 3: Williams up until the discovery of his chats with our Net,
22:26
Speaker 3: this wasn't the first time anyone had ever thought there
22:29
Speaker 3: might be something strange about him. About a decade earlier,
22:32
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety eight, Ron had been pulled over late
22:35
Speaker 3: one night. When the police officer approached Ron's vehicle and
22:38
Speaker 3: shined his flashlight around the interior, he noticed something disturbing
22:42
Speaker 3: stuff between the car seats, children's underwear. Understandably, the officer
22:46
Speaker 3: had some questions for Ron, but a few minutes later
22:49
Speaker 3: Ron pulled away without being arrested or brought into the
22:52
Speaker 3: station for further inquiry. He'd told the officer that while
22:55
Speaker 3: it might seem strange, there was an innocent explanation. He
22:58
Speaker 3: was a ventriloquist and he was the kids underwear to
23:01
Speaker 3: clothe his dolls. The story worked, and Ron Williams drove
23:04
Speaker 3: away scott free that night. So Ron's main job in
23:07
Speaker 3: main gig in life was being on the show Joy Junction,
23:10
Speaker 3: but he also owned his own puppet company called Puppets Plus.
23:13
Speaker 3: Ron hired himself out to places like birthday parties and
23:17
Speaker 3: malls to give shows to kids with his dolls. When
23:20
Speaker 3: Ron wasn't at work, he was at home finding another
23:22
Speaker 3: way to get as close to children as possible. In
23:25
Speaker 3: the nineteen nineties, Ron was living near a popular playground
23:28
Speaker 3: in the town he called home, and he caught flak
23:31
Speaker 3: from locals for his strange relationship with the kids that
23:34
Speaker 3: frequented that playground. Each week, Ron would have children come
23:37
Speaker 3: over to his house for free pizza. Afterwards, he would
23:40
Speaker 3: load them in his van and take them to his church,
23:43
Speaker 3: where he said he would perform ventriloquy for them. No
23:46
Speaker 3: kids ever came forward to accuse Ron of doing anything
23:49
Speaker 3: to them during this time, but still something wasn't quite
23:52
Speaker 3: right with that equation. Ron insisted that the children keep
23:55
Speaker 3: the meetings quiet and secret, and some would sneak out
23:58
Speaker 3: of their own homes to join Ron on without their
24:00
Speaker 3: parents' knowledge. Rumors circulated that Ron went so far as
24:04
Speaker 3: to hide the children's bikes so that adults passing by
24:07
Speaker 3: wouldn't know that they were there. With him, so that's bizarre.
24:09
Speaker 3: Ron's encouraging these kids to come over. He's feeding them
24:12
Speaker 3: free pizza. Of course it's pizza. He's inviting them to
24:16
Speaker 3: places where he's the only adult. He's encouraging kids to
24:18
Speaker 3: sneak out of their houses to lie to their parents.
24:21
Speaker 3: He's hiding their bikes so no one knows that he's
24:23
Speaker 3: spending time with kids. And it's also been alleged that
24:26
Speaker 3: while searching for the bikes, neighbors found used hidden underneath
24:30
Speaker 3: Ron's house. In his journals, Ron wrote about becoming obsessed
24:34
Speaker 3: with a young boy he'd met while working as a puppeteer.
24:37
Speaker 3: He quote repeatedly drove past the Dunedin Middle School at
24:40
Speaker 3: four pm, hoping to see the child end quote. Ron
24:43
Speaker 3: also wrote that he'd had similar feelings towards another boy,
24:46
Speaker 3: but that he quote got mad at him for losing
24:49
Speaker 3: interest in the puppets end quote. Whatever unsavory things were
24:52
Speaker 3: happening between Ron and neighborhood children in the nineties, no
24:55
Speaker 3: formal accusations were ever made, but we can't deny that
24:59
Speaker 3: that behavior is incredibly concerning and should have been a
25:02
Speaker 3: massive red flag. This guy was trying to separate children
25:05
Speaker 3: from their parents, and he was luring them in with,
25:08
Speaker 3: you know, opportunities to come get free pizza, have a
25:11
Speaker 3: Ventriloquist show, hang out with the adults. But by the
25:14
Speaker 3: twenty tens, all that was changing. That's when the online
25:17
Speaker 3: conversations between Ron and Arnette were discovered. The chat history
25:21
Speaker 3: between the two confirms the suspicions about Ron's predilections. He
25:25
Speaker 3: was one hundred percent a predator and he had spent
25:28
Speaker 3: the last twenty five years working surrounded by children and
25:32
Speaker 3: inviting them over to his house for parties. But the
25:35
Speaker 3: chats showed another thing. Both Arnette and Williams were not
25:38
Speaker 3: only obsessed, but they were obsessed with the idea of
25:44
Speaker 3: and eating them too. The pair routinely spoke to each
25:47
Speaker 3: other in shocking graphic detail about how they wanted to
25:52
Speaker 3: in order to later cook and eat them. They shared
25:54
Speaker 3: ideas about where they would make the and Ron had
25:58
Speaker 3: even begun to include a Spa Pacific child from his
26:01
Speaker 3: church in his fantasies, a child that he wrote he
26:04
Speaker 3: was planning to kidnap and obviously most likely later now
26:09
Speaker 3: Michael Arnette claimed to have already child and had sent
26:13
Speaker 3: an image of a two year old girl stuck inside
26:16
Speaker 3: of an oven, but the girl in that image was
26:18
Speaker 3: later found to be alive and unharmed. Still, though it's unexplained,
26:22
Speaker 3: did Michael actually a child in the past. I wouldn't
26:26
Speaker 3: put it past these people. This whole thing that the
26:29
Speaker 3: chat logs revealed was a level of evil and despicableness.
26:33
Speaker 3: It's truly hard to comprehend. I'm going to share with
26:35
Speaker 3: you now a few of the chats between the two
26:37
Speaker 3: men here that were uncovered, but be warned they are
26:41
Speaker 3: incredibly shocking.
26:42
Speaker 2: Ron.
26:43
Speaker 3: I think he might be small enough to take down easily.
26:45
Speaker 3: You should come down and help. You could enjoy him too,
26:48
Speaker 3: Arnette loved to, of course, but I think a first
26:51
Speaker 3: one should be enjoyed alone, especially with all you've done
26:53
Speaker 3: watching him. Ron then asked for advice on how a
26:57
Speaker 3: child Ron. Would you just knock him out? Arnett? That
27:01
Speaker 3: would be the best way for a boy his age
27:03
Speaker 3: and size, Yes, Ron, with something your fist or what, Arnett,
27:08
Speaker 3: A good whack to the back of the head, preferably
27:10
Speaker 3: with something like a blackjack. Ron, then just throw him
27:14
Speaker 3: over your shoulder and carry him off. Arnett continued at
27:17
Speaker 3: a later date, Any luck with your boy Ron, No,
27:20
Speaker 3: I still want to eat him, though he was looking
27:23
Speaker 3: good in his last pick that I got. And here
27:25
Speaker 3: are a few more of the disturbing messages. Ron summer
27:29
Speaker 3: is heating up. Should be good pickings. It's so hot,
27:32
Speaker 3: the kids are almost naked out there. Arnett trailer parks
27:35
Speaker 3: in low income housing are great breeding grounds for even
27:37
Speaker 3: small ones who aren't as well watched. Now, after seeing
27:41
Speaker 3: those chats, there are so many chats. We could spend
27:44
Speaker 3: the whole episode reading some of that stuff, but it's
27:46
Speaker 3: so graphic and so disturbing, I don't know if we
27:49
Speaker 3: necessarily really want to go there. After seeing those chats,
27:52
Speaker 3: the police raided Ron's house and they found hundreds of
27:56
Speaker 3: CP images, and some of those pictures were of let's say,
27:59
Speaker 3: the most disturbing variety you see. Even when it comes
28:02
Speaker 3: to CP, every single CP image in video is horrific
28:07
Speaker 3: and unbelievably disgusting and disturbing. But there are still some
28:11
Speaker 3: images that objectively are the worst of the worst. These
28:15
Speaker 3: include images depicting children being corpses. It's hard to imagine
28:24
Speaker 3: stuff like that even exists, but some of the pictures
28:26
Speaker 3: that were found in Ron's home showed children being physically
28:32
Speaker 3: than harmed, or even appearing to be. The police also
28:36
Speaker 3: found missing person flyers for a child in Ron's area,
28:39
Speaker 3: and images of a boy from his church who had
28:42
Speaker 3: passed away from a tumor. Ron had documented the boy's
28:45
Speaker 3: physical decline in the photos, clearly taking a demented satisfaction
28:50
Speaker 3: in seeing that small child whither away and eventually die
28:54
Speaker 3: and frighteningly. Officials also discovered journals from Ron dating as
28:58
Speaker 3: far back as nineteen seventy nine, in which he obsessed
29:02
Speaker 3: over and children. That meant that the desire wasn't new. Ron,
29:07
Speaker 3: as it turned out, had wanted to children the entire
29:11
Speaker 3: time that he was on Joy Junction, sitting just inches
29:15
Speaker 3: from innocent children during the taping of each and every show,
29:18
Speaker 3: talking to them with his puppet best friend. In my
29:21
Speaker 3: time here at this agency, I've never seen anything this gruesome,
29:25
Speaker 3: said Russ Feinstein, a spokesman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
29:29
Speaker 3: Digging further into Ron's web history, the police found Ron
29:32
Speaker 3: was also a confirmed necrophiliac and a routine user of
29:36
Speaker 3: the website cutdeadguys dot net, a website that shockingly is
29:41
Speaker 3: still active. His bio there on that website stated quote,
29:45
Speaker 3: I love them young and dead. I enjoy them fresh,
29:48
Speaker 3: but liked to see them displayed in their casket two
29:52
Speaker 3: end quote. Now, Ron was arrested in July of twenty twelve,
29:56
Speaker 3: and he quickly admitted to everything, and he was eventually
29:59
Speaker 3: sentenced to twe years in prison at the age of
30:01
Speaker 3: seventy seven. Perverted is not a strong enough word, mister Brown,
30:05
Speaker 3: to describe what you've been engaged in, said US District
30:08
Speaker 3: Judge James D. Whittemore, who ruled over the case. Depraved
30:12
Speaker 3: isn't strong enough. All the adjectives seem inadequate end quot.
30:16
Speaker 1: Now.
30:16
Speaker 3: Thankfully the law should prevent Ron from getting close to
30:20
Speaker 3: children if he ever is to get out of prison.
30:22
Speaker 3: But thankfully Ron will never again see the outside of
30:26
Speaker 3: prison walls or get close to another kid. That's because
30:29
Speaker 3: Ron Williams, Ventriloquist and Certified died in twenty twenty one
30:35
Speaker 3: in custody. But despite the shocking nature of his story,
30:38
Speaker 3: Ron Williams was only ever arrested for the possession of CP.
30:42
Speaker 3: He was never formally charged with on a child, and
30:45
Speaker 3: no victim has ever come forward claiming that they had
30:48
Speaker 3: been by Ron. But that said We can never know
30:51
Speaker 3: for sure what crimes he committed against children during his
30:54
Speaker 3: time at Joy Junction. It seems naive to think that,
30:57
Speaker 3: in all those years of his depraved thoughts and having
31:00
Speaker 3: easy access to kids, that Ron never crossed the line
31:03
Speaker 3: from fantasy to crime. But until a victim comes forward
31:06
Speaker 3: to share their story, the truth of what Ron Williams
31:09
Speaker 3: did died with him. And that's an interesting thing you
31:11
Speaker 3: might be wondering. This seems like a pretty closed case,
31:14
Speaker 3: right Why is this on the Conspiracy Files? Well, for one,
31:18
Speaker 3: Ron Williams is one of the most depraved and disturbing
31:21
Speaker 3: predators we've ever discussed here on this channel, and through
31:25
Speaker 3: that depravity, Ron Williams ruined the legacy of an otherwise
31:29
Speaker 3: well loved children's show. Now the only place you'll find
31:31
Speaker 3: Joy Junction mentioned is in the annals of Internet History.
31:35
Speaker 3: Ron shows like this one. It's well earned reputation as
31:38
Speaker 3: a wholesome kids program has been completely wiped away and
31:41
Speaker 3: replaced with something far more sinister. Instead of looking back
31:44
Speaker 3: on Joy Junction as what it really was, we have
31:47
Speaker 3: to see it now as the curtain that was hiding
31:49
Speaker 3: pure evil. Watching clips of the show were forced to
31:52
Speaker 3: wonder did Ron Williams ever harm any of these children?
31:56
Speaker 3: What dark thoughts was he having while doing his puppet work.
31:59
Speaker 3: We also have to wonder what other predators exist in
32:02
Speaker 3: plain sight right now, using their positions working with children
32:05
Speaker 3: to their own sick advantage. We have to wonder and
32:08
Speaker 3: hope that we're wrong. So at the end of the day,
32:10
Speaker 3: Ron was masquerading as a you know, kid friendly entertainer,
32:14
Speaker 3: a staunch Christian, a man with real moral fortitude and morals,
32:18
Speaker 3: as the good guy that likes to entertain children. But
32:21
Speaker 3: in reality he was one of the sickest people that
32:23
Speaker 3: I've ever read about. If you really want to look
32:25
Speaker 3: into those chat logs, I don't suggest it because it's
32:28
Speaker 3: incredibly disturbing, but you can. They're available online and it
32:32
Speaker 3: just really makes you wonder. How many victims of this
32:34
Speaker 3: guy could you know, allegedly exist out there in the world.
32:38
Speaker 3: How many victims did he have in real life off
32:41
Speaker 3: of the computer screen. The guy that he was chatting
32:43
Speaker 3: with had claimed to in the past have actually, you know,
32:47
Speaker 3: a young child and consume them. So did Ron ever
32:51
Speaker 3: get the chance to do such a thing before he
32:54
Speaker 3: was caught? How many missing persons cases could be solved
32:57
Speaker 3: by looking into Ron even further. And what's secrets did
33:00
Speaker 3: he take to his grave with him? Those are questions
33:02
Speaker 3: that I still have because when you see somebody like
33:05
Speaker 3: this and a criminal like this, and they write obsessively
33:08
Speaker 3: about these thoughts and the desire to commit a certain crime,
33:11
Speaker 3: typically they commit that crime at some point. And this guy,
33:15
Speaker 3: you know, had been writing about this for decades and
33:18
Speaker 3: he was never caught. And he worked around children that
33:21
Speaker 3: entire time, even trying to hide evidence that children were
33:24
Speaker 3: over at his house, trying to get kids to sneak
33:26
Speaker 3: out and hang out with him. So he was pretty
33:28
Speaker 3: smart with what he was doing in regards to not
33:31
Speaker 3: getting caught. But thank god he's dead. And uh yeah,
33:35
Speaker 3: I would just love to see some of those old
33:37
Speaker 3: episodes of Joy Junction. I've always been obsessed with the
33:41
Speaker 3: concept of lost media and exactly what that means and
33:44
Speaker 3: what that entails. And you know, these shows that were
33:47
Speaker 3: produced at one point and then suddenly vanished into thin air,
33:49
Speaker 3: almost as if they never existed. It's just incredibly bizarre
33:53
Speaker 3: that this show is a piece of lost media with
33:56
Speaker 3: that horrific backstory attached to it. Anyways, y'all, I know
33:59
Speaker 3: that this was a bit of a shorter episode, but
34:02
Speaker 3: truly thank you for tuning in this week. I will
34:04
Speaker 3: be back next week with another episode of The Conspiracy Files.
34:08
Speaker 3: We have so many stories to share in so many
34:10
Speaker 3: rabbit holes to go down. But until next time, thank
34:14
Speaker 3: you so much for listening. Make sure to leave me
34:16
Speaker 3: a comment and like the video. It helps boost the engagement.
34:19
Speaker 3: Be sure to leave me a review. If you're listening
34:22
Speaker 3: to the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, keep that
34:25
Speaker 3: tinfoil hat on. Always stay suspicious, and I'll see you
34:28
Speaker 3: guys next week.