Transcript for MuggleCast Episode #300, Wamp Wamp
Show Intro
[Show music plays]
Andrew Sims: This is MuggleCast, your Harry Potter and Fantastic Beast podcast covering everything about J.K. Rowling’s magical world. Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 300! Da-da-da!
Micah Tannenbaum: Live to tape?
Andrew: Micah, Eric, and I are here this week as always, and we’re joined by several of our friends who have podcasted with us over the years, who did MuggleCast with us over the years. We have Laura. Hi, Laura.
Laura Tee: Hello.
Andrew: The original MuggleCast lady.
Laura: That’s right.
Andrew: That’s you. That’s your title. First Lady.
Eric Scull: Oh yeah, Laura, Andrew just gave your crown, by the way, to Selina on the last episode. He called her the new voice of reason.
Laura: What? No, no, no.
Eric: The new voice of reason.
Laura: She has to earn her own title, okay? That’s mine.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: I believe that was Micah, actually.
Eric: Oh, it might have been Micah. To be fair, though, she said things about Cursed Child that we were all afraid to say, so she gets some kind of crown, even if it’s not that one. But it’s nice to have you back.
Laura: She can have the honesty crown. That can be hers.
Andrew: Also here, the Second Lady of MuggleCast, Matt. Welcome back, Matt. It’s been a while.
Matt Britton: Hi, Guys! Oh my God, it’s great. You guys haven’t changed, except for your faces.
Andrew: [laughs] And Elysa is here. Hello, Elysa.
Elysa: Hey, what’s up?
Andrew: And finally, Mikey B.
Mikey B.: Hey, everybody!
Andrew: Who wanted to be introduced last.
Matt: Can you say it? Old time’s sake, please, Mikey?
Mikey B.: And I’m Mikey B.!
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: I don’t know if that’s maybe it. Never mind.
Eric: Mikey B.!
Mikey B.: I got a B. at the end of the name because it’s a long last name.
Andrew: How about, “Give it up for Molly Weasley”?
Mikey B.: [laughs] That’s an old one.
Andrew: From the MuggleCast tour.
Mikey B.: I know, because Molly Weasley. Seriously. “Stay away from my daughter.”
Andrew: Every show in the Deathly Hallows MuggleCast tour 2007, Mikey would go, “Give it up for Molly Weasley!” [applauds]
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey B.: You have to understand, Molly Weasley has been this loving mother the entire time, and then in Deathly Hallows you see her yell at Bellatrix Lestrange, “Stay away from my daughter, you bitch!” Like, come on! Molly Weasley. Give it up for Molly Weasley, everyone.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: See, there’s the energy you’re expecting.
Andrew: I think I saw a Buzzfeed article a couple weeks ago; it was a Cursed Child reaction piece, and the writer was like, “Give it up for…” and they were talking about one of the characters. I was like, “I wonder if that’s a reference to Mikey’s ‘Give it up for Molly Weasley.'” [laughs] I wonder if that person used to listen to MuggleCast, because that seemed too coincidental.
Mikey B.: I did say that a lot, didn’t I?
Andrew: You did. It was iconic.
Mikey B.: There you go.
Andrew: So it’s great to have everybody here to celebrate our 300th episode. We’ve been doing this show for 11 years now, and here we are in early September, a new term at Hogwarts. It’s just so beautiful. It’s just so poetic.
Matt: Why are we on this?
Micah: Because we couldn’t get J.K. Rowling.
Matt: That’s right.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: We’re 11, we got our Hogwarts letter, and now we’re off to school.
Andrew: I have tried to tweet at J.K. Rowling yesterday and this morning asking her to come on. I know she has Skype. She’s tech savvy.
Matt: Are you guys good now?
Andrew: No reply yet, though.
Laura: Yeah, but doesn’t she hate you, Andrew?
[Micah laughs]
Mikey B.: I know. You’re too Wormtail-y for her.
Andrew: Well, see, before I tweeted her, I deleted mentions of Hypable in the MuggleCast Twitter account, so if she looked, I didn’t want her to see Hypable mentioned.
Elysa: But she knows who you are, I think.
Andrew: Well, I like to think so. I’m a very prominent figure in the fandom.
Micah: Yeah, doesn’t she respond to your tweets?
Andrew: No, she doesn’t respond to my tweets either.
Micah: No, no, didn’t she? I thought didn’t you get one framed?
Andrew: [laughs] Yes, right. There was that one moment.
Eric: You made her giggle.
Andrew: I sucked up to her. No, I made her blush.
Eric: Oh, blush. Oh, right. Giggle would have been better.
Andrew: I sucked up to her. I lied to her; I told her I watched Casual Vacancy, but I didn’t. I was just trying to suck up.
Matt: Well, I’m sure she knew that. I mean, she knows the 12 people who did.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: So today it’s going to be just a loose, fun show. We’re going to talk about a couple recent news stories. We’re going to play a game. I want to hear from… so of course, Mikey, Laura, Matt, and Elysa, they’re not really on MuggleCast anymore.
Matt: We’re not at all on MuggleCast anymore.
Mikey B.: That’s true.
Eric: Why is that?
Andrew: But still podcasting regularly… well, we just don’t like you guys anymore.
Eric: Oh.
Mikey B.: That’s kind of what the answer is, yeah.
Andrew: But still podcasting regularly. Laura, Matt, Elysa, and I do Millennial podcast: weekly news, political, embarrassing subjects…
Elysa and Laura: Yeah.
Elysa: Mostly that.
Laura: Generally NSFW topics and conversations.
Andrew: Yes. And Mikey does Resistance Radio, a Star Wars podcast for Hypable, weekly.
Mikey B.: Yes, I do. Because I like Star Wars and Harry Potter, so it kind of fits.
Andrew: So did you guys take the Ilvermorny House test on Pottermore?
Matt and Mikey B.: Yeah.
Laura: I did.
Mikey B.: Day it came out.
Elysa: I’m a Wampus.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Oh, I’m so sorry. I am too.
Matt: Womp-womp.
[Andrew laughs]
Elysa: As though I was a Hufflepuff and then I was a Wampus, and the fandom just has it out for me.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Wait, the Wampus are the warriors. The Wampus are great.
Elysa: I mean, in theory, yeah. But I mean, with a name like that, it sounds a little…
Eric: I wouldn’t be culturally insensitive; I think it’s an awesome name. But that’s cool.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Andrew: It’s the Hufflepuff of the…
Elysa: I know. That’s my point.
Andrew: Yeah. How about the rest of you?
Mikey B.: I’m Horned Serpent.
Eric: Oooh.
Andrew: That’s the cool one.
Laura: That one is cool.
Matt: I’m Horned Serpent as well. Mikey, we’re in the same House!
Mikey B.: Yay! Awesome! Wi-five, over the Wi-fi.
Micah: Hey, Matt, you got a new name you can use now.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I’m Thunderbird.
Eric: Laura, you and me. Thunderbird, baby.
Laura: Yep, it’s the right House.
Eric: That’s cool. That is the right House.
Andrew: That’s also a cool name.
Micah: I’m Thunderbird as well.
Eric: Nice.
Andrew: We’re going to talk about those Houses a little later, by the way…
Mikey B.: Hold on, Andrew, before we go any further, can we say I think Wampus is actually kind of a cool House? Because if you remember on the TV show Community, you had the guy who did “Pop-Pop”? You can go, like, “Wamp-Wamp!” That’s a cool House tag. Wamp-Wamp!
[Everyone laughs]
Elysa: I’ll be sure to do that.
Mikey B.: But you guys don’t understand; I’m doing the hand gestures. My hands are moving over my head, going, “Wamp-Wamp!” That would be kind of cool.
Andrew: Every time you walk in the common room?
Mikey B.: Exactly!
Andrew: “Wamp-Wamp, y’all!”
Mikey B.: That’d be kind of cool, right? Horned Serpent, I’m a little disappointed, because I’m like, “I got horns, and I’m a snake.”
Eric: “Horn-Serp!” [laughs]
Andrew: I’m horned up for Horned Serpent. “Hey, everybody, are y’all horned? Yeah!”
Eric: Get horned. Hashtag #GetHorned.
Andrew: That’s what they say when they walk into the common room.
Matt: That’s what I always say.
Andrew: [laughs] And did any of you read Cursed Child? I shudder to hear what the Millennial hosts are going to say to this, but…
Laura: You know I didn’t read it, Andrew.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Yeah, no.
Andrew: You really should, though. You really should.
Mikey B.: It’s worth a read.
Matt: I’ll watch it. I’ll watch the play. I will not read it.
Laura: You know, honestly, I’ve seen enough excerpts from it that I think I’ve seen enough.
Micah: I was going to say, you probably read them about ten years ago when you ran fanfiction, right?
Laura: Yeah, exactly.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: She’s lived it.
Laura: And full disclaimer, I’m not trying to crap all over anybody who liked it. If you liked it, that’s awesome. You do you, but I’m going to do me and not read this. Sorry.
Andrew: I just don’t know how you could walk into Barnes & Noble, and it’s right there tempting you.
Mikey B.: You still walk into Barnes & Noble?
Laura: [laughs] There are a lot of other things in there that tempt me.
Elysa: [laughs] Laura goes to the back room. She goes to the secret room that you can’t see from the entrance.
Laura: That’s right.
Andrew: [laughs] Excuse me?
Eric: Like that movie Click where he’s at Bed Bath and Beyond and you can actually go beyond? There’s a door labelled “Beyond,” and behind it there’s cooler stuff?
Andrew: Oh, yeah. [laughs] You guys… I don’t know. It is nice to see a new Harry Potter story printed on the page.
Message from Jamie
Andrew: But you know who’s missing this week? Jamie. Well, and other people. We tried to invite as many people as possible. Jamie, of course, was one of the people we invited; he couldn’t make it because he was traveling this weekend, but he did record a message for us.
Eric: Aw.
Andrew: So here now is Jamie in his own words.
[Audio clip plays]
Jamie Lawrence: Hello, everyone. This is very weird. What a number to be joining you again on, 300. I really can’t quite believe we’re at 300, considering I can still remember when we were at number 1, and Andrew, Kevin, and I were all much, much younger, and doing this newfangled podcast thing. And who would think 300 episodes later, we’d still be doing it? So yeah, hope everyone’s okay. What’s been going on over the past however long it’s been since I came on the last one? Which I think was… you know what? I don’t know. 280? 270? Something like that.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: I remember telling a joke that completely bombed, so that was good. That didn’t go down very well at all. I have not seen the Cursed Child yet, but I’m planning on doing it. In fact, my last Harry Potter experience was going through London for some work meeting – I don’t know, I don’t remember what it was – and going past Nine and Three Quarters, and it was ridiculously busy, and I went in the shop and had a look at a few of the things there, and a couple of things took my fancy. I think there was a really nice Triwizard Cup, which was 200 quid or something like that, so I didn’t get it, obviously, but it was nice. And also, I’ll be following the Ilvermorny stuff, which is very, very exciting. I just wonder if we’re going to get another seven books at some point.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: You know, J.K. Rowling’s lifestyle getting a bit expensive; what’s another seven books? Make a bit more money, maybe? Maybe? No, probably not, actually. I think she’s doing fine. Anyway, it’s all very exciting. So I hope everyone’s well, and maybe see you again soon. All right, take care. Bye.
[Audio clip ends]
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Lovely. So there’s Jamie.
Matt: Oh, I miss him.
Laura: Yeah, it’s good to know he’s still alive. I haven’t spoken to him in years.
Andrew: Yeah, I know. Me neither. So when we emailed him, trying to see if he could join us, and then he… [laughs] He was like, “Hey, by the way, are you guys planning on coming over to see Cursed Child?”
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Whoops, Andrew.
Andrew: I didn’t reply, because I know he’s going to be so pissed. [laughs]
Laura: Wait, you didn’t even try to see him while you were there?
Andrew: No, I didn’t. No.
Laura: What the…? I was about to say a bad word. This is a children’s show. What is wrong with you?
Andrew: [laughs] Because I was there with Hypable people; I was staying with friends. I just… he doesn’t live in London.
Matt: You don’t consider him a friend?
Andrew: No, I…
Matt: Andrew.
Andrew: I’m not friends with him regularly anymore. [laughs] I still love him, but…
Laura: “I’m not friends with him regularly.” [laughs] Semi-annually.
Andrew: You know what I mean. We don’t stay in touch anymore.
Mikey B.: He’s busy. He’s pretty busy.
Eric: He is really busy. If it makes you feel any better, Andrew, I reached out to him when I was visiting last April for that MuggleNet convention, and I did not get a reply back.
Andrew: Ohh…
Eric: So maybe that’s a little… I had a nightmare for weeks after that – it was recurring – where I just found out that he didn’t like me anymore.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You had a nightmare about this? [laughs]
Eric: But yeah, I had a nightmare I actually met Jamie in London, and he was like, “Yeah, so I didn’t reply, because I didn’t like you.” [laughs] It was terrible. But no, it was really great hearing his voice and his message, and it’s nice to know wherever we are, we will always have Potter. We will always have… like he said, he picked up the Triwizard Cup, and it’s ridiculously expensive…
Andrew: And so he put it back down. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, so he put it back down. We can all relate to that. If we see something Potter-ish out of the corner of our eye or something, I have a feeling that the bond we share… we’ll always do something. We’ll always wander over and pick it up and reminisce, won’t we?
Andrew: Exactly, exactly.
Game: Original Series or Cursed Child?
Andrew: So let’s play a little game. Since we have a big group here and we’ve got some mixed opinions on the Cursed Child, I thought we could try to play this game we did on Hypable. Who said it: Harry Potter characters in the original series, or the Cursed Child? So I know Laura is comparing it to fanfiction. If you actually believe that, let’s see how you do on this quiz, Laura.
Laura: Okay.
Andrew: “I like a quiet life. You know me.” Is this from Cursed Child or the Harry Potter novels?
Laura: “I like a quiet life”? That’s so vague.
Matt: I know. Are you going to tell us who the character is?
Mikey B.: No, that’s what you have to guess.
Andrew: Nope.
Laura: [sighs] That’s just so incredibly vague. And it’s not a terrible line…
Mikey B.: I’m saying Cursed Child.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: … so I mean, it could potentially be the original books, but I’m going to say Cursed Child. I’m going to guess.
Elysa: Yeah, I think it’s Cursed Child, too.
Matt: 100%.
Andrew: Well, you’re both wrong as hell. It was actually Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Laura: Well, I haven’t read the books in a while, so there you go.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Okay, Andrew, these are seven books, including a new play…
Andrew: Okay, here’s a good one.
Matt: No, you’ve got to tell us who it is, so we have to decide.
Andrew: “We cannot protect the young from harm. Pain must and will come.” This was…
Elysa: Cursed Child.
Laura: [laughs] It’s for sure Cursed Child.
Mikey B.: Isn’t that Dumbledore’s portrait in Cursed Child?
Andrew: Yes, that’s exactly right. I like that line.
Mikey B.: See? I read it.
Elysa: Wait, Dumbledore says that?
Matt: Wait, he’s still alive?
Andrew and Mikey B.: His portrait.
Laura: Yeah, because Dumbledore is in Cursed Child. [laughs]
Eric: Spoiler alert, yeah, Dumbledore’s portrait is in Cursed Child.
Mikey B.: Yes.
Andrew: How about…
Eric: It’s actually not the worst part of Cursed Child.
Mikey B.: No, it’s pretty good.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: How about, “You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.”
Laura: Oh, that’s Cursed Child.
Matt: Cursed Child.
Andrew: No, that’s Dumbledore in Order of the Phoenix.
Eric: I knew it. I knew it.
Laura: Oh. Okay, well, Order of the Phoenix had some moments.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: It was the longest book.
Mikey B.: Wasn’t that at the end of Order of the Phoenix when he didn’t want to tell Harry the truth?
Laura: Yeah, that was when Harry was destroying his office, right? Yep.
Matt: His godfather just died.
Laura: See, I know stuff.
Andrew: How about this one? “I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking.”
Elysa: Christian Grey.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Wow. Elysa wins.
Mikey B.: Is that Cursed Child?
Matt: That would be… I want to say it’s McGonagall, but… I will say Harry Potter.
Eric: Micah, what do you think?
Micah: Cursed Child.
Andrew: It was McGonagall, in Order of the Phoenix.
Matt: Yeah! I have no idea why I knew that.
Andrew: Because you’re cheating right now.
Matt: I just hear Maggie Smith. [imitating Maggie Smith] “I do not generally…”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: That was pretty good.
Laura: Wow.
Andrew: How about this one? So was it Cursed Child, the Harry Potter novels, or Laura Tee? “It’s been a while, boys, in my bathroom… in my girl’s bathroom.”
Laura: Oh, that was me. 100%.
Eric: That’s Laura, yeah. Definitely Laura.
Micah: Cursed Child.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Or Moaning Myrtle from Cursed Child.
Micah and Mikey B.: Moaning Myrtle?
Matt: No, I think it’s Laura.
Andrew: That was Moaning Myrtle in Cursed Child.
Matt: Oh, man.
Andrew: Moaning Laura. [laughs]
Laura: Well, Andrew, way to tell people what you really think of me.
Andrew: [laughs] And finally, how about this one? “People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.”
Elysa and Matt: The original series.
Laura: Yeah, that’s original.
Andrew: Yep, and it was said by Hermione in Half-Blood Prince.
Eric: Aww.
Elysa: Of course it was.
Eric: Such a good book.
Andrew: It’s kind of hard to tell. I think we were discussing this on the last episode; I wonder if J.K. Rowling wrote all of Dumbledore’s stuff, because I feel like she would have to, because she does… there are a bunch of Dumbledore moments in the Cursed Child that are sweet moments between Harry and Dumbledore.
Eric: Those quotes were all, I thought, particularly well sourced. There were none that screamed Cursed Child to me, so that was pretty good.
The expanding Wizarding World
Andrew: So with the Cursed Child, we have the play now. Now we have Fantastic Beasts coming. I thought now would be a good time to talk about, with this being a milestone episode for MuggleCast… and God knows, maybe we’ll be doing another 300 more of these… [laughs]
Eric: That’d be awesome.
Andrew: … in what ways would we like to see the wizarding world expand next? Or do we want to see it expand?
Elysa: [laughs] No.
Matt: Like, physically? Like in the theme parks or in literature?
Andrew: Theme parks, maybe a television series, another movie spinoff series… Elysa, you don’t want to see it expand at all?
Elysa: I would love to see the theme park expand. We can just turn that into its own sovereign state, for all I care. That would be great. But I don’t want to see the story expand anymore, no. It’s a great thing; we have a great thing, and I want it to stay a great thing. I don’t want to run the risk of it being ruined, even accidentally, by some plot hole or character assassination or whatever. If there’s a TV series that comes out, I’m not watching it, just on principle.
Mikey B.: Wow.
Elysa: But that said, again, if they keep expanding the theme park, I’ll be there every summer.
Andrew: [laughs] Well, what about…? Okay, do you mean TV series specifically retelling the Harry Potter story, or just something else entirely? Because I’ve been thinking maybe they could do a Marauders TV series. That would be really cool.
Mikey B.: Or a founders TV series, or a whole lot more.
Matt: A founders miniseries, yeah. I always thought it would be really cool to have kind of like a Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, but at St. Mungo’s Hospital.
[Andrew and Mikey B. laugh]
Andrew: That’d be kind of cool, yeah. Like everything that happens to them, to the patients.
Matt: Yeah, like weird diseases, and the people in the hospital falling in love with their patients or each other, and stupid Grey’s Anatomy drama and stuff.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: I think that would be fun.
Mikey B.: There has to be one big thing that happens every season that’s just absolutely horrendous.
Matt: Oh, yeah.
Mikey B.: Like a wand explodes and Avada Kedavra comes out and kills half the ward or something.
Eric: Or somebody actually loses a buttock from putting…
Mikey B.: [laughs] From Splinching.
Eric: That would be awesome.
Matt: Or there’s a werewolf that’s loose in the hospital or something.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Mikey B.: Is that Code Moon?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Oh, gosh. Yeah, one of our listeners wrote in, was like, “I would like to see eight seasons of an HBO series for Harry Potter.” I was thinking, “Okay, not HBO.” That’s a little, I don’t know, graphic or something.
Matt: Graphic?
Andrew: It doesn’t have to be graphic.
Eric: It can be done well, I think, on… maybe not ABC, come on.
Matt: No. No network.
Laura: I think Netflix should do it.
Andrew: Netflix, yes.
Eric: Yeah, Netflix or…
Mikey B.: What about even an animated series? Kind of like… I’m going to compare this to Star Wars here because Star Wars has the Lucasfilm Story Group to do all these additional content beyond just movies. What if J.K. Rowling set up a Harry Potter story group to do all this additional output, from comics to…
Eric: This is why I have to watch Rebels. I have to watch it and Clone Wars…
Mikey B.: Yeah, it’s amazing.
Eric: … because apparently it’s… the way people talk about it, the way you talk about it, Mikey, on your podcast, too…
Mikey B.: It’s amazing!
Eric: … good storytelling through the lens of animation. If it were taken seriously, I think Harry Potter could be done well, animation-wise.
Mikey B.: No, I think it would be done great.
Eric: I mean, you wouldn’t have to worry about actors aging, so there’s that.
Mikey B.: And then all the magic effects and everything would be done with the animation. I’ll tell you this: Again, comparing it to Star Wars real quick, the first seasons of all those animated stories are really aimed at kids until they find their footing, but then they go so deep into the mythos of what the story is, and I feel like the same thing can happen. I would love to see a founders story, just wild magic at the time, because that’s when the founders decided to build Hogwarts, start to train people formally on magic. So it’d be really fun to see an animation or something like that. But the problem is, like Star Wars, you can’t just have anyone throw their hat in that. And of course, there’s rights and royalties and stuff like that. But if there’s one group that kind of manages to make sure everything is cohesive, that would be huge, because then you could say, “Okay, this is the new canon for Harry Potter.” And it would just expand it, not just in TV shows, but we have Fantastic Beasts coming out, and that’s a trilogy. Other movies that are going to be spinoffs on it… and then also, just comics. I love reading comic books; it’s a different way to absorb different type of media, and it would be fun to see Harry Potter comics, because it’d be short, a thing you could pick up.
Andrew: Yeah, I think J.K. Rowling will keep a tighter lid on it compared to what’s happened with Star Wars, though I do agree; it does seem like it’s kind of heading that way, because as of right now… well, I guess the play wasn’t written by her.
Mikey B.: I’ll argue one bit of that, because remember, George Lucas didn’t start doing this until Star Wars was 20 years old, because he did the original trilogy and he stopped. Nothing happened. There was a handful of books, and then they introduced a few books with some great things, and then they did more movies, and then it just totally exploded when he decided to sell the rights to Disney. Of course, Disney is masters of media. So I don’t know if J.K. Rowling would ever sell her rights to Harry Potter when she’s ready to retire and she’s done with it, but who knows? Maybe she will. She has Warner Bros. making all these great movies, and Warner Bros. has Warner Bros. Animation, and there’s just a bunch of opportunities. I would love to see something like that and just expand that and just expand the story and lore.
Matt: I think HBO would do a great job doing a Game of Thrones-style founders miniseries. Like, five or six episodes. That’s it.
Mikey B.: Per season?
Micah: Kind of like The Night Of?
Matt: Yeah, a limited series, like The Night Of or John Adams or Olive Kitteridge.
Eric: Right, okay, I’m putting this here right now: Mark Addy for Godric Gryffindor, immediately, right? Everybody else? Mark Addy?
Andrew: [laughs] Who is that?
Eric: He played King Robert on Game of Thrones.
Micah: Are you saying Gryffindor is a drunk?
Matt: I think Richard Madden should be Gryffindor. He was Rob Stark in Game of Thrones and the Prince in Cinderella.
Eric: Okay, who for Rowena then? Let’s just cast the founders. You know what? Those actors they got for the theme park, though, were awesome, I think, that are in the portraits when you go through the Forbidden Journey ride?
Matt: Yeah, but they’ve got to have some sex appeal.
Eric: Eh, well… wait, why?
Micah: Or just sex.
Matt: Because it’s not… I mean, it’s Hollywood, man.
Andrew: But we actually had a Hypable reader write an opinion piece that we published today about the expanding wizarding world, and she brought up a good point, that the expansion of the wizarding world through Rowling’s extra material is not a question of if, but when and how. “If Rowling wants to have control of how her extra material is presented in her lifetime, then that should be respected. The extra materials are hard work, the product of two decades of imagination labor.” The point being, well, it’s better that she’s expanding it rather than somebody else, because God forbid, the day she passes away, what happens to the series? Who’s in control of it then? And I think we would rather J.K. Rowling be the one who’s in control of it now, instead of refusing to do anything than whoever could potentially have the rights to it after, because she wouldn’t be directly involved.
Eric: I would trust Heyman with it, but I would almost prefer that J.K. Rowling sort of be the last voice on Harry, you know? His world would end when… and I don’t even like thinking about this; I’m not comfortable thinking about it.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: But yeah, I think J.K. Rowling should be the only person. I was actually just… when you were talking I was thinking of I was just at Comic-Con over the weekend and there was a Back to the Future panel, and there was a video with Bob Gale who cowrote Back to the Future, and he was saying how if he and Bob Zemeckis… as long as they are alive, they will make sure that there is not a sequel to Back to the Future or a reboot. So they’ve gone the other way on it; they’re preventing studios that would pay, and television series and books and things that would happen from being designed, because they feel that the initial work speaks for itself and should not be extended or rebooted or adapted to. And I think I remember reading that Robin Williams said something similar with Disney; they can’t use his Genie character even after his death for another 20 years. He somehow made it where they can’t touch it. And so that would be interesting, I think. I don’t want to see… unless… maybe that’s what J.K. Rowling’s daughter Jessica has been up to, learning to write, and maybe she would take it on, much like Christopher Tolkien.
Andrew: [laughs] She’s being groomed to be the next J.K. Rowling, the heir to the throne.
Eric: Yeah, a family… a bloodline thing would be the only thing I would be, I think, relatively okay with happening.
Andrew: Well, and I’m just thinking of a situation that turned out bad was Harper Lee’s…
Micah: Cursed Child.
Andrew: … Harper Lee, when her sister died – who was her manager, essentially – shortly after that, Harper Lee’s lawyer got that prequel/sequel published. Laura, you read it, right? Go Set a Watchman?
Laura: I read the first two chapters and decided not to finish. Finding out that Atticus Finch was in the Klan was too much for me.
Eric: Oh no. Oh, God, no.
Micah: I actually just read the first two chapters of that book.
Laura: It was not good.
Andrew: So that’s what can happen when a creator loses control of her property. Remember… I mean, Harper Lee never published anything after To Kill a Mockingbird, and then this gets published right after her sister dies, who was protecting her, and it probably wasn’t for the best. It was a big deal. It was a huge deal that this book was being published.
Micah: I think, though… I mean, we can’t go into it with the expectation that everything that J.K. Rowling does is going to be a huge success, right?
Matt: No.
Micah: I think there’s going to be a certain level of success just because she wrote Harry Potter, and that name is going to carry a certain value with it, right? But I mean, even something along the lines of the Cursed Child, you see such a differing reaction between fans of the series. There are those who really enjoy it, and there are those who really don’t enjoy it, and I know we’ve talked about a lot on the show. And for me, though, I kind of go back with what Elysa was talking about in terms of the Wizarding World theme park. I think that’s – for me, anyway – what I would like to see continue to expand. I think there’s a lot of opportunity there, and I think you’re not taking it out of the context of the original story. And I think when we were told that we have to accept Cursed Child as being canon by the writer, knowing that even though she blessed the whole thing, she didn’t write it. I think that that’s difficult, and I’m interested kind of everybody else’s reaction to saying, “Okay, well, this is actually what happened 19 years later,” given the fact that she didn’t really pen the whole thing.
Eric: Right, because it opened the door.
Laura: Yeah, I mean, my feeling on it is that it’s hers, she can do whatever she wants with it, but I don’t have to consume it. So I don’t really care if she wants to expand on Harry Potter, as long as it’s good. If it’s good, I’m totally down with it. Cursed Child, in my opinion, not good, so I’m not going to read it in its entirety.
Andrew: See, I think it’s unfair to judge it, though, before you read it or see it.
Matt: I mean, that’s entirely true, but…
Laura: Dude, there’s a line in there where… what is it, that Scorpius is talking about his inner geekness is trembling? Nah.
Andrew: A-quivering.
Laura: A-quivering, excuse me.
Eric: It’s quivering, Laura. Get it right.
Laura: That’s totally something that a 13-year-old boy would say.
Andrew: We actually spoke about this on the last episode; that is in Scorpius’s character. It’s just who he is to say quirky stuff like that.
Matt: Good for him.
Eric: Yeah. There was a canon discussion in July at Leviosa, which was the Harry Potter conference in Vegas, and MuggleNet held it. But the bottom line… we were getting into discussions about canon, and it really came down to what Laura was just saying too. We have our own… we can draw our own lines individually, and it might come down to something as simple as what we don’t like isn’t canon, but it’s kind of our call, in a weird way.
Mikey B.: It’s your own headcanon, if you will.
Eric: Yeah, of sorts.
Matt: I think my biggest concern about all of this is that a lot is happening all at the same time, and I think they should at least spread it out a little bit. I think the fandom of Harry Potter is not really going to go anywhere.
Mikey B.: I think, if anything, they just need to make sure everything is cohesive. If it’s all going to be considered canon and it’s all blessed by J.K. Rowling, which is fine… because I read Cursed Child. It was the first book I actually didn’t buy hardback; I just got the ebook for my Kindle, so I was kind of like, “Okay, I’ll read it, but I’m not going to go out and get a midnight copy in a hardback and everything.” But as long as there’s cohesion between all of them… I enjoyed Cursed Child, and the fact that it was purely a continuation of the story. Did I think it was good? Eh, it was okay. Kind of like Laura said, it read very much like fanfiction, but in the end, it was a continuation of a story that I loved growing up, and I was happy to see it. I probably… I want to see the play. If the play ever comes here, or if I ever go to London, I would gladly see it, just because I’ve heard nothing but great things about the play from Eric. As soon as you came back and we were at Indy PopCon, Eric said nothing but great things about the performance. Story, he’s like, “I don’t want to spoil it for you,” but he said nothing but great things about the performance.
Eric: I was very guarded in what I… wasn’t it…? Donya had actually seen it. I hadn’t seen it.
Andrew: Yeah, I was going to say, what is Eric talking about? [laughs]
Mikey B.: Maybe it was Donya. I don’t know. Someone… people were telling me about it; I was like, “Just don’t tell me about the story.” But yeah, in the end it was… I’m excited for… I think there needs to be more… I guess I feel like there needs to be someone who can tie it all together, kind of like Matt was saying. It feels like there’s too much. It’s almost too disjointed.
Matt: That’s what it is. It’s not too much.
Mikey B.: What’s weird is what we’re talking about now I saw in the Star Wars fandom. Again, I’m not going to go too much into it, but before the new films came out, there was all these books and things, and they were kind of tied together, but they weren’t. And when he sold it to Disney, that’s when Kathleen Kennedy and Pablo Hidalgo and all the people from the story group said, “No, we’re going to make sure everything is cohesive now.” So they threw away… everything had been written; there was literally hundreds of books that have been written as “Star Wars,” but they weren’t all tied together. Some of them missed a couple things.
Matt: Right.
Mikey B.: Now the story group makes sure every single thing that is put out there ties together and it all makes sense, and I feel like that’s something Harry Potter is missing, because I don’t think we can say J.K. Rowling can do that herself. There’s a whole group of people that do that and manage it and make sure timelines are right, story arcs for this one is not going to affect that they’re working on the next film or something like that, so everything has to just tie together now, which is just, I think, great in that universe, because it’s something that Marvel can’t even do. If you look at Marvel’s television versus film where everything is all “connected,” in quotes, the movies are connected, but the television has been kind of poo-pooed, because they’re two different heads that manage the television department for Marvel and the film department, whereas with Lucasfilm and Disney, the way they’re doing it is one that manages from comics to books to movies to TV shows. Literally everything is connected, and it’s just amazing to be able to be around it. I will say I am almost a little overwhelmed with Star Wars stuff now, because I can’t go to Target and see 50 different Star Wars T-shirts and things that are available now, because I grew up loving it and it just wasn’t there. I’m like, “I can’t afford all this stuff now.”
Eric: For the most part, it’s still Jo. It’s still just Jo that’s putting this stuff out. Granted, the movies are kind of tangential to that, because they’re adaptations of her work, but I mean, the new Fantastic Beasts was screenplayed by her; they’re screenwritten by her, so there’s that. But for the most part, it hasn’t expanded to where there’s so many cooks in the kitchen now, I think. I think it’s still sort of in that nice, protective, really easy…
Mikey B.: Well, think of Cursed Child. It’s blessed by her but not written by her.
Eric: Cursed Child is still… yeah, but that’s one example. You can’t name 15 more, like you could with Star Wars.
Mikey B.: Like the theme parks, they have their own stories for all the different things, and those weren’t written by her at all.
Eric: The rides. Yeah, you’re right.
Mikey B.: I was just at the Universal Studios one in Hollywood, and I remember walking through with my mom, and she’s like, “Is any of this like the movies or the books? I don’t remember any of it.” And yes, there’s the outside stuff, but all the stories they tell you from the wand ceremony, it’s completely made up, written by someone else, and it is a little disjointed.
Matt: I also think… I mean, us as fans, I think we’re kind of splitting hairs because…
Micah: Us? No.
Matt: … we are very connected and – yeah, I know, right? – very interested in… because this is our fandom; this is the fandom that we grew up being a part of. So of course we’re going to be interested in everything that comes out within this universe, but to just the general public, they’re not going to see it as being too much, because I mean, let’s be frank; not a lot of people are going to be going to go see Cursed Child, and they probably won’t even read the newest screenplay, and if they do, it won’t go past more than just finishing the story. And so I think… I’m kind of arguing against myself here because of what I just said earlier.
Micah: I just wanted to go back to something that Mikey said about having one central place that this is all going through, and I feel like they’re trying to do that a little bit with Pottermore. Ever since they relaunched it, I feel like there’s a lot of things that are sort of going through that one place. I mean, they’ve turned into more of a news site, like breaking news on Fantastic Beasts. I don’t really know if they’ve done a lot with Cursed Child, but I feel like there’s been some information that’s been put out there. And then of course with Ilvermorny and these new ebooks that are coming out, I feel like they are trying to streamline things all through one place. I don’t know if Pottermore is the best choice for that, just given that we’ve talked a lot about it on this show, but I do feel like they are at least trying to have everything go through one particular spot.
Mikey B.: It’s interesting that you mentioned that, because Pottermore is not just a website. If you go on Amazon and search the new books that are coming out, they’re being sold and published through Pottermore, at least the digital versions. So it’s definitely… I’m sure… I wouldn’t be surprised if Pottermore is going to be the name of the Harry Potter story group in the future. Because you know she’s not going to just stop with these seven books. I thought this back when the last book came out; I would be amazed if this world has been created, and people don’t ask her constantly to let us explore more, and I think that’s what’s going to happen, I agree, with Pottermore.
Elysa: I have to say, this is all I want in terms of the expanding universe: My feeling is I love having something like an encyclopedia, something that is just giving us background information on what’s already happened story-wise. That stuff I love. I’ll consume that all day, because that’s not changing canon or expanding upon canon; it’s just elaborating on what already exists. But my problem, I think, with expanding the story and writing new stories, even if it is about the Marauders or whatever else, is that – and part of this analogy is not my own; I read it somewhere – but it’s almost as though the story, the Harry Potter story, isn’t a whole toy anymore. Instead, it’s just a Lego piece that’s meant to snap into a bigger picture. And so long as everything is just a Lego brick, it’s not complete. Nothing is ever complete. And a story, by its very nature, is supposed to tell us something, even if it’s just something superficial, like, “Oh, this character is an asshole,” or “This character is a great person.” Even if all it is is telling us something about a character, or if it’s something bigger and it’s telling us about a moral qualm, or it’s teaching us a lesson, whatever it is, stories at their heart tell us something, and so long as we’re always waiting for the next piece, we don’t know what it’s telling us, because we always have to wait for the conclusion. We’re always wondering, “Oh, how is the next piece going to change what it’s telling us?” And so I guess I just worry that by expanding on canon so much, we’re not getting a complete story so much as we are just waiting for the next piece of it.
Eric: I like that. That’s very interesting to me.
Andrew: All was not well, after all.
Eric: [laughs] I mean, do you think there will be a subset of Harry Potter fans who are excited for it the way that we were excited before all seven books were done and out? Like J.K. Rowling said early on…
Micah: No, because I don’t think you can ever replicate that. I’m just… that’s my honest opinion, is I don’t think you could replicate the way that everything played itself out.
Andrew: Right. I agree.
Micah: I mean, the fact that all of us are sitting here talking today is because of this series, right?
Eric: But I mean, it would be silly or naive to assume they won’t retry it, right? So I have a feeling…
Micah: What do you mean by retry?
Eric: Well, just like there are certain Harry Potter fans out there, a bunch of them who liked Cursed Child, there will be people out there who support and are excited by these furthering partial stories that we’re getting, as Elysa was saying, that are leading up to a new conclusion if that…
Andrew: I’m excited by them. And I think we’re in a bit of a bubble here; I think the vast majority of people are excited about all these expansions. I don’t think we’re reflective of most people, which is kind of funny because we’re also a Harry Potter podcast.
Mikey B.: I’m super excited for the new films.
Andrew: I am too!
Mikey B.: I’m waiting for a midnight showing of it. I’m super excited. After seeing Eric dressed up in his Gryffindor robes at Indy PopCon, I got my robes out. I’m ready to be dressed up at the new movie.
Andrew: Me too. I’m going to go to a midnight thing for sure. And Micah and I are going to the…
Micah: In New York.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re going to the screening with J.K. Rowling in November in New York. I got my tickets right here. Micah and I are going to have a hot date in New York City, baby.
Micah: That’s right.
Andrew: [laughs] We’re going to hold hands in the theater, right, Micah?
Micah: Let’s not go that far.
Andrew: [laughs] I’m going to yell to J.K. Rowling, “I am Wormtail-y!”
Eric: Oh, God.
Micah: You’ll get thrown out.
Mikey B.: I think you need a T-shirt that says, “I’m Wormtail-y.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: And then Micah, you need a shirt that says, “I’m with Wormtail-y” with an arrow.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Hashtag #ImWithWormtaily.
Ilvermorny House logo scandal
Andrew: So we’ve got to talk… speaking of Wormtail-y, we have to talk about a little scandal that happened over on Pottermore.com this week. I understand I am in the running for a Pulitzer Prize on this story, by the way, y’all.
Eric: For investigative journalism, yeah.
Andrew: Yes, exactly. So in July, these… so back up a little further. So Ilvermorny was introduced on Pottermore, the four Houses that we discussed earlier, and of course, they all have their own logos, like the crests, essentially, like Gryffindor, the Hogwarts House crests as well. So the four Houses had these logos published on Pottermore, and then a couple weeks later, this Reddit thread started noting that one of the Ilvermorny House logos appeared to have been plagiarized from somewhere else on the Internet. And then this Reddit thread grew because as people started looking at this, they realized that the other three Houses had been plagiarized as well; at least that’s what Reddit was saying. They essentially accused Pottermore of plagiarism because they found examples. In one case, the Wampus design – Elysa’s House – the cat logo appeared to have been stolen from a website that was clearly made in the ’90s. [laughs] It’s a magical rat website…
Elysa: [laughs] What?
Eric: It’s real. It’s real.
Andrew: … and someone drew this cat in Microsoft Paint for their next tattoo. [laughs] It’s this person who was a fan of cats and rats. It’s so bizarre.
Micah: Can we see the actual tattoo? Is that in the article?
Andrew: Yes, so you’ll see a side by side comparison of the two.
Eric: Yeah, you guys have to check this out. I did not buy this. I was reading the Hypable article; I was like, “What is Andrew on?”
Andrew: [laughs] “There goes Andrew, hating on Pottermore again.”
Eric: And then I saw the first image, right? Sometimes you can be a little Wormtail-y, hey. But no, I saw the first side by side image, and I was like, “Not only is there something to this, there is everything to this.” It is completely…
Mikey B.: It is pretty…
Andrew: So when Reddit first was… somebody told me about this Reddit thread, and I was… this was in mid-July, and at that point, I was so exhausted. As I was telling people on Hypable, “I’m just out of complaining-about-Pottermore juice. I can’t write about this, even if it’s true.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: “I don’t care. Whatever.” But then last week, it turns out that Pottermore quietly updated their Ilvermorny logo so they look nothing like the original logos. [laughs] I’m like, “Okay, there is something going on here.” And as you can see now, if you look at the side by side comparisons of the original Ilvermorny logos versus the new ones, you’ll see that they don’t look like the plagiarized ones at all. Anyway, Pottermore gave Hypable a statement. They didn’t deny that there is plagiarism going on, but they said, “Warner Bros., which commissioned the original artwork, has provided Pottermore with new designs. We’re delighted to have the opportunity to share these crests with our global audience.” So then BuzzFeed picked up our story, and they got a comment from Warner Bros. themselves, and this confirms what we suspected; there actually was plagiarism going on. Warner Bros. said in a statement that they did commission the design. “While we are assured there was no intention to use elements from pre-existing designs, as a copyright creator and company that respects the creations of others, Warner Bros. decided to change the Ilvermorny design so as to avoid any misunderstanding.” [laughs] So looks like Warner Bros. and Pottermore did catch wind of this Reddit thread before anybody was reporting on it, and that’s that. But funny, huh? Pottermore just can’t catch a break.
Mikey B.: I like the new logos better anyway.
Eric: Well, they’re just more detailed.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. But it’s like…
Micah: They used it as a little too much inspiration, what they found originally, I think. It’s really, really close.
Matt: [laughs] Just not change a thing.
Mikey B.: Well, Horned Serpent looks like…
Andrew: And I assume whoever… exactly the same, except for, like, the end of the tail. [laughs] It’s ridiculous. They are definitely traced. They’re the exact same body shapes, I guess you would say.
Micah: How does somebody find that out, though? I mean, I know Reddit is… you can find anything you want there, right?
Mikey B.: There’s reverse image searches and stuff like that.
Andrew: Yeah, I think that’s how.
Mikey B.: Even Pinterest does something like this, too. You can actually choose something and find things similar to it based on what part of the image you’re looking at.
Andrew: Yeah. And you know what I’m thinking? So when I was looking at this magical rat website I went to…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: … I’m wondering, did the person who was paid for this just go on Google and search “magical cat designs” and find this? Because what are the chances of the person who found this, who stole a design…
Micah: Still having a job?
Andrew: Well, still has a job, but what are the chances that, of all places to steal a design from, it’s a website with the word “magical” in it? [laughs] For something Harry Potter-related. It just… it’s all too weird.
Micah: Maybe they were up against the deadline and just really needed to find something real quick.
Andrew: Yeah, I guess so.
Mikey B.: Well, make sure you sign their magical rat guest book, too, from Bravenet.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: I’m actually writing on it right… oh no, it just goes to “Open an account with Bravenet.”
Micah: Do it. Sign it MuggleCast.
Eric: “Hey there, heard Pottermore plagiarized you. Sorry about that. Nice site here.”
Andrew: “J.K. Rowling wuz here.”
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: No, J.K. Rowling didn’t plagiarize it.
NSFW aspects of Harry Potter
Andrew: So to wrap up the show today, I thought we’d do something a little unordinary for MuggleCast. We’ve been doing this for 11 years now. We’ve all grown up with the show. One of the nicest things we hear, I think, from listeners these days, no matter what podcast, is that they’ve all been listening to us for a while, and we all started as kids, and we’re all adults now.
Matt: Speak for yourself.
Andrew: [laughs] So I thought for the 300th episode, we’re all adults. Let’s have some fun. Speaking of Reddit, actually, there’s this viral… I would call it viral. I don’t know if things go viral on Reddit, exactly. But there’s this big Reddit thread…
Matt: Things are hot. Things are hot right now.
Andrew: Hot on Reddit. This is a thread that was started yesterday titled, “What are some crazy/not-safe-for-work things that definitely happened in the Harry Potter universe, but J.K. Rowling couldn’t write because they were kids’ books?” So I wanted to read some of these, because they’re so funny. [laughs] And we came up with some of our own; I know Laura and Matt did. But just warning, it’s going to get a little not safe for work here. So kids, listen in ten years. Listen to this part of the show in another ten years. [laughs] Eric wanted me to warn you all that.
Eric: Thank you so much. [laughs]
Micah: We can put a disclaimer on the show.
Eric: Oh, gosh.
Andrew: So one of the top replies… or was top yesterday. Where’d it go? The Aberforth one.
Eric: Oh, yeah, Aberforth.
Andrew: Oh yeah, Micah, I was thinking of you when I read this one. So here’s one from Shamwow22.
“J.K. Rowling did write about a character who practiced ‘inappropriate charms’ on a goat. At a Q&A session, an 8-year-old child asked her what this meant, and she told them, ‘I think that he was trying to make a goat that was easy to keep clean,’ and that it was going to be her only answer to the child.”
Which was Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth.
Micah: Right. I remember that that question was actually asked at Radio City.
Andrew: Do you think Aberforth was into bestiality?
Micah: I mean, define inappropriate.
Andrew: Having sex with goats.
Elysa: Sex with animals, I think, is a pretty clear definition, Micah.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: I know, I’m joking. No, I think that… see, what’s interesting to me is how this even has a place in the Potter series. [laughs] What…? How…?
Andrew: You don’t think weird stuff was going on in the Harry Potter series?
Micah: No, I’m not saying that…
Elysa: You’re laughing a little too much, Micah. [laughs] You seem very tickled by this.
Andrew: I’m laughing at Micah trying to defend it.
Micah: I’m not. There’s no defense.
Eric: There’s a defense.
Matt: Well, I love how it’s always connected. This one part, Micah, of the entire series is what you are known for. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, you’ve always been into Aberforth and the goat.
Matt: You are remembered mainly for this, and I think it’s great.
Micah: Well, thank you. Matt.
Andrew: You should write some Aberforth/goat fanfiction.
Matt: And we’ve assigned you as the expert on this subject.
Micah: On this particular… well, you know, I’ve actually gotten… when we used to have the P.O. Box – and Laura probably knows this as well – is that I used to actually get goats, right? I mean, literally, people would send in goats to the P.O. Box, and I think we actually gave one to a friend of ours, right, who has kids? It was a stuffed goat or something like that. So there is…
Laura: Yeah. Actual goats, too, Micah. I thought you were referring to the live goats that we received.
Micah: [laughs] The live goats.
Eric: I was going to adopt all of them, except that one. Micah kept that one, right?
Laura: That’s correct.
Micah: Well, no, it’s been 11 years, so unfortunately, Freddie is no longer around.
Laura: [laughs] He had a rough life.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: You had a goat and you didn’t name it Billy?
Micah: No, no, that’s too mainstream. But yeah, it just… to me, yeah, there’s plenty of weird shit that we could talk about in the Potter series that’s not safe for work, but I just found it… I remember sitting in Radio City when J.K. Rowling was trying to explain this to probably a 9- or a 10-year-old kid…
Eric: Yeah, she asked them how old they were. This is on the Reddit thread, too, right? First she asked, “How old are you?” And then she gave the age appropriate response to the child, right?
Laura: Yep, I remember when this happened. Yeah, it was clearly meant to be dirty. There’s just no getting around that.
Eric: But I also think that… I like that there’s these weird sort of blind spots because of a children’s book. The entire premise of these things… I think it makes the stories ultimately more believable. There’s some weird people out there in this world, and why shouldn’t there be that represented in…? And it’s never in the mainstream, but the Aberforth goat thing, I think it has a place in the Harry Potter books because it represents the wizarding world.
Andrew: So is this line about Aberforth? Guys, stop trying to be professional. Let’s get into the nitty gritty here. Come on.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Micah: Okay, let’s go.
Andrew: So what is he trying to say here? Or what is this? What was this quote about keeping the goat clean? So Aberforth could have sex with it, and…?
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: No, no, no.
Mikey B.: She responded that he was trying to keep the goat clean as a age appropriate answer to the 8-year-old who asked the question of, “What were the inappropriate charms that he used on the goat?”
Andrew: Ahh.
Eric: And also, goats are really dirty. If you could have a self-scrubbing dish rack, like in the Weasley home, you can probably have something that cleans your animals if you’re on a farm or have livestock in your barn or stable.
Andrew: But this answer also makes sense for adults, because if he wants to have sex with the goat, does he want to bang a dirty goat? I don’t think that would make sense.
[Micah laughs]
Mikey B.: You’ve got to remember, the whole Harry Potter series is written from Harry’s point of view of what he sees and everything. So Harry’s age at that time, he wasn’t thinking about that.
Laura: [laughs] Or was he?
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: I’m trying to keep it clean here. I’m trying to keep it clean here.
Andrew: No, stop.
[Laura laughs]
Mikey B.: So someone posted, “I imagine selling one’s… type of memories… to be experienced in a Pensieve.” Can you imagine all the types of memories, the good, the bad, the inappropriate ones – again, I’m hedging this line here; you can put whatever you want in there – but selling them in an underground market?
Andrew: So what could that…? So you could watch somebody have sex?
Elysa: I mean, for example, Andrew, if I am really – just as an example; not saying this is real life or anything – but if I really was turned on by guys on guys…
[Andrew laughs]
Elysa: … and if I wanted to be able to see that for myself, then I would maybe offer you money for your memories. Just maybe. Maybe. How much are they? How much would you charge me, out of curiosity?
Andrew: [laughs] 50 Galleons.
Elysa: Okay. Do I get all of your memories with that? Or just one?
Andrew: Yeah, I’ll give you everything.
Elysa: You’ll give me everything?
Eric: Oh, God.
[Elysa laughs]
Andrew: And I’ll throw in my Albus/Scorpius fantasies as well. [laughs]
Elysa: Okay.
Laura: That brings some really interesting questions about consent in too.
Eric: Privacy.
Mikey B.: Yeah, because someone’s private memories. But in the wizarding world, you can actually watch them and see them and experience them.
Matt: Well, yeah, it’s not just that, but it’s also memories that can include other people.
Andrew: I would pay 100 Galleons for Voldemort’s memory of having sex with Bellatrix.
Laura: I would not. That just…
Andrew: I want to know how that works.
Eric: I would outbid you. I would pay 200 Galleons to see that.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: But he can’t provide the memories anymore because he’s dead.
Mikey B.: So the person who posted about this, selling someone’s memories through a Pensieve, they asked, “What if Snape accidentally gave Harry the wrong Lily memory?” How would that affect Harry?
Andrew: Oooh. [laughs] When is one of these porn sites on the Internet going to do a Voldemort/Bellatrix parody porn?
Eric: I think just as soon as they can finish…
Micah: Just as soon as somebody hears you say that when we release this episode.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Elysa, will you shoot a Voldemort/Bellatrix parody porn with me?
Elysa: Absolutely.
Andrew: Not that I’m saying you look like Bellatrix, but I just think you’d be down.
Elysa: No, I figured I would be Voldemort.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You do have his nose.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: Shots fired.
Eric: This is one… all right, who put the Bertha Jerkins thing in here?
Laura: That was me.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Okay, because I want to actually… I want to talk about this, because this was something again, at Leviosa a couple months ago, somebody brought this up just in passing about how this was sort of a real thing that was in the series. When you think about this, things along this topic…
Andrew: Let’s introduce it first.
Eric: Okay, okay.
Andrew: Go ahead, Laura.
Laura: Sure. So there’s this quote in the beginning of Goblet of Fire – I think it’s in the first chapter – where Voldemort basically tells Pettigrew that he killed Bertha Jorkins because he had to. And he says, by the way, “Wizards who are supposed to be dead would do well not to run into Ministry of Magic witches at wayside inns…” They totally boned! They totally boned, and that’s how he got her to go into the forest so that Voldemort could kill her. End of story. That’s it.
Andrew: [laughs] What?!
Laura: They totally did.
Micah: Wayside inns.
Eric: Wait, you think Pettigrew and…? That was just because they were at an inn, and then he… were old chums?
Laura: Totally. I feel like the way Voldemort trails off there, he’s like, “They don’t do to run into witches at little inns in the countryside.” I feel like they boned.
Eric: So this wasn’t exactly what I was thinking it was, but if you think about it, what somebody said to me was that it was actually some sort of fetus possession on the part of Voldemort, and that’s why he has that baby form at the beginning of Goblet of Fire: that Bertha Jorkins essentially had a baby that was possessed, and that that was Voldemort latching on to young life, and basically that was why he’s in the form he is. That it’s too dark to have put in Goblet of Fire, but at the beginning of Goblet of Fire, he’s this baby form that needs nursing and milking and stuff, and the theory was that Bertha Jerkins was horrifically abused.
Andrew: Oh. Well, that turned dark.
Laura: Yeah, but first she and Peter Pettigrew totally boned…
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: … and then the rest of that stuff happened.
Eric: Okay, all right.
Matt: So she died a happy woman.
Mikey B.: Wait, are you saying…? Is Voldemort Peter’s son that has been possessed?
Eric: Well, that was a temporary body, right? Because they did the other spell at the end, the potion and the other stuff to restore his adult male body.
Laura: Yeah, you know the whole “bone of the father” thing?
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Mikey B.: Yeah. No, I get that, but at one point was Voldemort actually Peter Pettigrew’s son, then?
Eric: No idea.
Andrew: Here’s one from NoShameAmy: “Those magical photos would be their equivalent of porn videos. I imagine there’s a network for sharing those.” [laughs] Definitely.
Matt: Yeah, that is a thing now in the Muggle world. They’re called GIFs. [pronounces it with a hard G] I don’t call them GIFs [pronounces it with a soft G], but they’re GIFs. [pronounces it with a hard G]
Andrew: And there’s a lot you could do with Fred and George. Oh, also this one: Scabbers/Peter Pettigrew seeing what Ron was up to. I think I was thinking about this one when I was a kid as well. [laughs]
Eric: Oh, yeah. If it’s anything like the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban in the movie, when Harry is fidgeting with himself under the covers…
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: God, I hate that movie.
Andrew: Or you just think about what your own animal in your own home sees sometimes.
Micah: Judging you for… never mind.
Laura: That poor thing. I’m so sorry, baby.
Andrew: My pet goat. [laughs] So sorry, Brooklyn.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Laura: No, but seriously, if you had seen the things that Scabbers had seen – mind you, he passed from Percy’s hands into Ron’s hands – you would also be a dark… person. I was about to say something else. You would have a very dark outlook on life.
Andrew: You know Percy got up to some weird shit. He was so lonely and stiff. I bet Percy was gay. Did Percy marry somebody?
Matt: No, I think… no, Percy is one of those really intellectual types that I don’t think really sees chemical urges…
Andrew: Love?
Matt: Or not even love….
Andrew: He’s asexual?
Eric: Pleasure in that way.
Matt: Yeah, like puberty and his drive. I don’t think he had… he didn’t think it was clever. He just kind of passed over it.
Andrew: According to the Harry Potter Wiki, he married a woman named Audrey and had two daughters: Molly, named after Grandma Molly, and Lucy. So there we go.
Eric: Aww.
Matt: No one ever saw them, though.
Micah: Do you think Scabbers ever caught Molly and Arthur doing anything?
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey B.: Give it up for Molly Weasley, everybody! Give it up for Molly Weasley!
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey B.: What about Polyjuice potion? There is a lady in a Knockturn Alley that sold toenails.
Eric: Ahh.
Mikey B.: Knockturn Alley is that kind of shady side where they’re really selling stuff to…
Eric: Yeah, Polyjuice is a big one in the Harry Potter series.
Andrew: If you’re curious about what somebody looks like naked, I guess you could do that and look in a mirror.
Laura: Agree.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I was also going to say, speaking of something that is 100% legal in the wizarding world, love potions are completely date rape drugs.
Elysa: Yeah, I agree.
Andrew: Hmm. But… okay, so if you asked J.K. Rowling about that, what would she say?
Matt: She would agree.
Laura: She would say that’s how Voldemort was conceived, because that’s what his mother did.
Andrew: That’s true.
Laura: Got too real.
Eric: And then also, one of the big things on the Reddit thread that I was seeing all the time was Room of Requirement. Jury’s out on how well known it is, but you have a room that could be anything you want it to be, so a place to discreetly wander off to – with mistletoe or whatever your pleasure is – would be there for you.
Micah: So you’re saying if Aberforth walked past this room and the door opened, it would just be an unending field of goats.
Andrew: [laughs] Clean goats. Clean goats.
Eric: I think he has one of those already.
Micah: Yeah, clean goats.
Eric: Well, live things are a violation of Gamp’s law, so you couldn’t do that, but you could have pillows and stuff. Nice, soft, comfy pillows.
Mikey B.: And then bring your own goat on there.
Eric: Yeah, bring your own goat.
Andrew: There have to be some limits for the Room of Requirement, otherwise any kid could get what he wanted in there, like a bunch of women or a bunch of guys.
Eric: No, it’s no live things.
Mikey B.: It’s a Room of Requirement; it would provide something when something was a need, like Dumbledore’s bathroom, versus what someone wants. Remember, Draco tried to get in once, and he kept walking back and forth and couldn’t do it? Because he wanted to get in, but he didn’t need to get into the Room of Requirement.
Andrew: Do you think brooms were ever used as sex toys?
Matt: Andrew.
[Mikey B. laughs]
Eric: No. Next question.
Elysa: In the wizarding world, or in ours?
Andrew: Wasn’t there – and I’m dead serious – wasn’t there a vibrating broom in the real world?
Eric and Matt: Yeah.
Eric: This was early on.
Andrew: [laughs] But it was an official Harry Potter toy.
Eric: This was very poorly conceived.
Mikey B.: Yeah, and they got rid of it.
Andrew: Yeah, I think so. I’m googling it right now. Ah, I want one so bad. There’s a YouTube video of one.
Matt: Well, it’s better than the Twilight one you put in the freezer.
Mikey B.: Yeah, I found it right here: “Vibrating Harry Potter Broomstick has parents in uproar.”
Andrew: [laughs] What were they thinking?
Mikey B.: I remember that.
Andrew: I want one. Any MuggleCast listeners have one of those, please? Can I borrow it for a week? [laughs] I want to try it.
Eric: Guys, never ask for it back.
Matt: Burn it.
Laura: Yeah, this from the guy who put a lightsaber up his butt.
Andrew: Oh, wait. Wait, everybody. There are some on eBay. There’s one that ends today. $99, zero bids.
Eric: I don’t want a secondhand vibrating broomstick. I’m not going to buy that.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: I don’t care. On principle.
Andrew: There’s one listed here. “Buy it now for $100.” [laughs] The title of it: “Controversial 2001 Harry Potter Quidditch broom.” [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, there you go. I bet that’s an eBay search; people just search controversial things. What’s the quality? Like new? Yeah, don’t buy it.
Andrew: [laughs] Lightly used. A little sticky.
Eric: I will say, though, it’s kind of a bit surreal talking with you all right now, right? We’ve grown up, it’s been 11 years since we started doing this, and the topics and things that we thought about and talked about all of this time about Harry Potter… it’s just… it’s the series that keeps on giving, the way that we can form these discussions and have this with each other. It’s really quite special.
Andrew: I put in a $50 offer for this vibrating broomstick.
Eric: Go you. You do you.
Andrew: I need to celebrate MuggleCast 300 in a big way. [laughs]
Eric: No, I’m just feeling some good feels about… as irked out as I am about this discussion that we’re having currently, it’s been a really special 11 years.
Andrew: Eric, you’re a kind soul.
Matt: You’re too kind for this world.
Andrew: This is why we can’t have you on Millennial. You’re too nice. [laughs]
Eric: If anybody told us that we’d be doing this podcast thing for 11 years… “You guys still podcast, right?”
Andrew: Eric, you’re trying to take the subject off of a vibrating broomstick, and I don’t appreciate it.
Eric: I’m trying to get away from this topic. Did we say everything we wanted to say about the sex stuff in Harry Potter that was overlooked?
Andrew: No.
[Andrew and Mikey B. laugh]
Andrew: Yeah, that’s enough. Oh, wait, somebody found a review of… who pasted this review in here?
Mikey B.: Oh, that was me. Actually, the link I posted has 50 different reviews.
Eric: Oh no.
Andrew: Of the vibrating broomstick?
Eric: Oh, come on.
Andrew: Here’s one from Amazon.
“My 12-year-old daughter is a big Harry Potter fan, and loved the part with the Nimbus 2000, so I decided to buy her this toy. I was afraid she would think it was too babyish, but she LOVES this toy. Even my daughter’s friends enjoy playing with this fun toy. I was surprised at how long they can just sit in her room and play with this magic broomstick! A great buy for any Harry Potter fan!”
[Andrew and Mikey B. laugh]
Andrew: Well, Mom, there’s a reason why they enjoy sitting on it.
Mikey B.: All right, now, hold on. Hold on. Let me give you the opposite one. So here’s another one: “Keep the batteries out!” Amazon reviewer:
“A toy enthusiast from New Jersey, this toy was number one on my daughter’s Christmas list, so what the heck? Although it has no educational value, I figured it would be good for imaginative play. It wasn’t until she opened her gift and started playing with it that I realized that the toy may offer a more than sensualized experience. The broomstick has some cute sound effects and VIBRATES when they put it between their legs to fly. Come on, what were the creators of this toy thinking? She keeps playing with the Nimbus 2000, but with the batteries removed.”
Andrew: [laughs] Oh, man.
Mikey B.: So there’s a whole slew of reviews from Amazon. I remember when this happened.
Andrew: Yeah, me too. I wish my parents bought it for me.
[Mikey B. laughs]
Outro
Andrew: Thank you, everybody, so much for joining us. It was great having all of you on, but we’re never going to have you on again.
Eric: Did we get any questions from listeners?
Andrew: No, they’re all disgusted with us.
Laura: Yeah, you guys officially don’t have any patron supporters anymore.
Andrew: Yep, we’re down to zero.
[Laura laughs]
Elysa: Mission accomplished.
Andrew: Although, Micah, one of them is asking for you to read my Cursed Child fanfiction, “Never Sever Us.” When is that happening?
Laura: Ooh, yeah.
Eric: Nice title.
Micah: Yeah, where’d you get that title?
Andrew: Micah, don’t change the subject. When is that happening?
Matt: You just have to read it.
Micah: I have to read it.
Andrew: Actually, Laura, Elysa, Matt, and I read it over on the Millennial Patreon, and boy, was that a wild ride.
Micah: Why don’t you release that on the MuggleCast Patreon?
Eric: Please don’t.
Laura: It was a Millennial exclusive, so you’ll have to go over there to hear it.
Andrew: Eric would never let me release it on this one.
Elysa: No, but Micah should come read it on Millennial.
Andrew: Yeah, Micah, what do you say to that?
Laura: Yes.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Micah: Live to tape?
Elysa: I really just want to hear Micah say the word “insert.”
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Insert.
Andrew: “I was inside Scorpius.”
[Laura laughs]
Eric: 300 episodes of MuggleCast, everybody.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey B.: That’s impressive, Eric. 300 episodes. Wow.
Eric: Isn’t that amazing, Mikey?
Mikey B.: That is amazing. I’m blown away.
Eric: We’ve found things to talk about. I remember saying on Episode 3, which is the first MuggleCast I was ever on, that Harry Potter would live forever. And I wasn’t the first person to say it, wasn’t the smartest person to say it, or most insightful person to say it, but it’s true. It’s been true. It’s been true these 11 years.
Andrew: Vibrating broomstick. Goat.
Eric: [laughs] This podcast has meant a lot to me, and we continue to get… on this 300th episode, I wanted to thank the people that we got birthday cards from at the new MuggleCast P.O. Box. A few people wrote in. Sonia, Amanda, we had Mark from the Philippines, and Erica as well, who sent a birthday card that says simply, “You’re 11!” And she wrote a nice note as well. But big special Episode 300. Thank you to those people, to all of our 700 patrons. I really thought we should all take time out of our recording today to name all 700 of our patrons. We each read 100.
Andrew: Aberforth Dumbledore, thank you so much for supporting us.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Micah, thank you for talking him into it.
Eric: Seriously, we have amazing things coming with the patrons. Oh, have the shirts arrived yet, Andrew?
Andrew: No, the shirts arrive tomorrow, and I’m dreading it because there’s 14 boxes of them.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: I’m going to run out of room in my apartment.
Eric: But I mean, we have really exciting things that are left to come on this podcast, and I just want to thank everybody who listened to us, who still listens to us. One of those people who wrote in – I think it was Erica – said she started listening within the first year, and the person before her said since the beginning. And you know what it was? Erica read transcripts first, because she didn’t have a working iPhone, or iPod. There wasn’t iPhone back then.
Andrew: Oh.
Micah: Wow.
Eric: So she started with the transcripts and then caught up with us the next year.
Andrew: How about a vibrating wand?
Mikey B.: [laughs] Wow. Do you guys remember when you guys got pulled from iTunes?
Andrew: Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was scandalous. We got temporarily pulled from iTunes because it was this weird copyright issue or something going on, but then we appeared again, so it was okay.
Micah: But doesn’t WB… don’t they endorse creativity? Isn’t that what they say?
Andrew: [laughs] Right, yeah. No, it’s been awesome. I don’t necessarily love celebrating milestones, because it’s just… this show will always continue to happen, even though when we thought it wasn’t, when we thought we ended MuggleCast, but then Harry Potter, obviously, came back in a big way. And I think it’s very clear now that it’s going to be around, like Star Wars is, forever, with new stuff coming out, just because Warner Bros… I won’t say J.K. Rowling, but Warner Bros. loves money…
[Mikey B. laughs]
Andrew: … and they will have to continue doing this. We know Fantastic Beasts was WB’s idea. J.K. Rowling says, “I’m only doing it because WB came to me with this idea.” So yeah, it’s so cool to hit this milestone, but at the same time, I’m just ready to continue doing more episodes. But yeah, 300 is a pretty crazy number.
Matt: So is this the last episode?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: No, no.
Matt: Oh.
Andrew: Was I making it sound like that?
Mikey B.: This is the first episode of a new generation of MuggleCast.
Micah: Well, after our last segment, it may be the last episode.
Andrew: iTunes is kicking us out of the iTunes store, yeah. [laughs] No more. We have to put a “Not safe for…” Actually, this conversation was quite tame, I have to say.
Micah: No, it was. It was. Eric reined it in.
Eric: I want to bring up Mark Oshiro from Mark Reads. I think it was a couple years… it was at Ascendio in Florida in 2012. He did a sort of variety wizard review sort of thing, and he had a segment that was specifically phrases taken out of context from Harry Potter that sounded so much dirtier than they were. Like for instance, from Book 5, “Ron ejaculated loudly.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Which is him angry at Umbridge or something. All that stuff pulled aside, and I thought it was fun. So there’s definitely a funny way of looking at it in a different perspective.
Andrew: Maybe Ron had a vibrating broomstick.
Eric: I don’t think he did.
Andrew: Did Aberforth insert himself in the goat, or did the goat insert into Aberforth?
Eric: Why are we still talking about this?
Mikey B.: Why are we still talking about the goat?
Andrew: Because I’m wondering.
Eric: And I was going to say, let’s do plugs, but I don’t want to know what you guys are going to make of it.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt and Micah: Wow.
Matt: How childish of you, Eric.
Elysa: I actually have a story about plugs for a later date.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Arthur Weasley loves plugs. That’s the Harry Potter tie-in.
Andrew: Is this the Lumos story?
Elysa: No, it’s my own. We’ll talk about it on Millennial.
Laura: [laughs] It’s a whole new plug story.
Andrew: I will say, though, I don’t think we’ve ever said this on MuggleCast: At Lumos, the Harry Potter conference in 2006, which was the first time I think I met Laura and Elysa, they left me a certain type of plug in my bed, and I was baffled by who would do such a thing. I was only 17. I was like, [in a high voice] “Who put this in my bed? I can’t believe this!”
Matt: Were you Mickey Mouse at the time?
Laura: I still have the voicemail. [laughs]
Andrew: Do you? Oh, man, I need to hear that voicemail. [laughs]
Laura: Oh, it’s funny.
Micah: Do it, Matt.
Matt: [imitating Mickey Mouse] “Oh…!”
Elysa and Laura: No!
[Matt and Micah laugh]
Elysa: God.
Andrew: Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us for this wonderful milestone episode. Eric is going into therapy after this, as well as some of our listeners.
Eric: I’m so traumatized.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Elysa: This just got interesting. Now I want to keep going.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Save it for your other show.
Mikey B.: Oh, hold on, I’m still going through the Reddit thread.
Eric: Oh, God.
Mikey B.: Apparently countless reams of teenage boys – and possibly girls – could have been sent to the medical wing each year for misguided use of Engorgio.
Andrew: Was that in the book?
Mikey B.: [laughs] No, that’s from the thread.
Andrew: Oh, Engorgio was definitely used on body parts. Laura, Matt, Elysa, and I can be found over on Millennial every week. MillennialShow.com is our website, and from there you can sign up. You can subscribe on iTunes, or just listen to the episodes right there. And we also have a Patreon.
Laura: On Spotify too.
Andrew: Yes, on Spotify. Right. Great point. And then Mikey, you’re doing Resistance Radio over on Hypable podcasts.
Mikey B.: Yeah, I am doing Resistance Radio. You can find it on iTunes, Google Play, pretty much everywhere there’s podcasts now. Or at ResistanceRadio.net.
Andrew: We didn’t want to add… we try not to add too many shows to Hypable, but you’ve got to do a Star Wars one. How could you not do a Star Wars one?
Matt: That’s very true.
Mikey B.: I know, right?
Andrew: Just like Harry Potter, Star Wars is going to be around forever. So any final words, clean or dirty, before we wrap up today?
Micah: We need to find out what the goat’s name was.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey B.: Its name was Billy. We all agreed on this.
Micah: No.
Andrew: What would you name it, Micah?
Micah: Severus.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: No, I don’t know. Have to think on that for the next episode.
Andrew: I like Severus. Aberus could be their ship name. Seberforth.
Micah: It’d be weird if he named it Albus. Then we’re going into a whole new territory.
Andrew: [laughs] Thank you, everybody, for listening. Thank you for listening over the years; we really appreciate it. We wouldn’t be here without everyone. Again, thank you to all of the people who have been on the show over the years, still on, still joining us over the years. Laura, Elysa, Matt, Mikey, we still will drag you back onto the show. And of course, thank you to Kevin, Ben, Jamie…
Laura: Who?
Andrew: Who else? Who else over the years? I’m trying to think. I mean, we’ve had lots of guest hosts on from time to time.
Micah: That’s true.
Eric: You know what? How about this, guys? Let’s do a Spy on Spartz. I’m going to call Emerson right now.
Andrew: No, no, that’s okay.
Micah: No, don’t.
Laura: Oh, God. Please, no, no.
Eric: No?
Andrew: No.
Laura: I’ll pass.
Eric: Okay.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Geez.
Micah: Who else? Aris Janetakos?
Andrew: Aris Janetakos! I miss that guy.
Matt: We had Jim Dale.
Laura: Oh, that’s right. We mentioned Dale.
Andrew: Mary Grand-Pré.
Micah: In Dallas.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: You know who still has to be on? J.K. Rowling, damn it.
Micah: Matt and I, we interviewed a drunk Patrick Doyle.
Matt: That was amazing. Well, he’s Scottish; I wouldn’t expect anything less.
Andrew: David Heyman, Selina… so many people. So many people.
Micah: David Yates.
Andrew: David Yates, the teddy bear. All right, the show’s going off the rails. I think we have to end the show forever after this one. [laughs]
Micah: Let’s get the goat on. Can we get the goat on next episode?
Andrew: Yeah. You can do the goat voice.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Micah, you’re so weird.
Micah: You started it.
Andrew: All right, we’ll see everybody next time for Episode 301, if the show’s still here.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Goodbye, everybody.
Matt: Bye, guys.
Eric: Goodbye, everybody.
Micah: Bye.
Mikey B.: Bye, everyone.
Laura: Bye!