Record Runner
Here's a quick video about the Record Runner, that little VW van that drives around a record, both playing and destroying it at the same time. However I know some people will be more interested to see that video features an increasingly rare appearance from the comedy outro puppets. If you just want to see the outro on it's own - here's a link to the video https://youtu.be/NvNPMlATA9g
I also updated the merchandise with a new design of mug. https://teespring.com/stores/techmoan-merch
I'd recommend watching it before going on to read the rest of this post that explains where the idea for it came from.
------Outro Spoilers Below-------
First I should mention that all the interactions you see with the smart speaker were real - this is how it actually responded at the time, it wasn't dubbed in later.
The idea for this video came as I was watching Episode 1 of Series 2 'Hap and Leonard' on Amazon Prime. I asked my phone to Shazam a song being played near the beginning that I couldn't remember the name of. It was 'Let the Bass Go' by The D.O.C. I then tried to get my HomePod to play this because I thought it would be a good way to test the bass reproduction.
However despite repeated requests I couldn't get it to play the track I wanted. It kept wanting to play AC/DC. I tried spelling it, shouting it, talking slower, quicker, sarcastically and in various accents, however the only way I could get it to play was when as a last resort I just asked for the track name without the artist. However when I tried this again later, it had never heard of the track again.
This experience demonstrating the worst of the modern age, felt exactly like the kind of thing that the puppets should demonstrate.
After this video - they will be back whenever another suitable situation arises.
Comments (39)
When I am sitting at a red light while the other light is green (and no cars coming towards that green light) makes me think “How ‘bout we perfect smart traffic lights before smart cars?”
Very good point - that seems like an easy win in comparison.
“I suppose it’s great if you really enjoy being underwhelmed by things.” If anyone ever asks, this’ll be my new go-to response when describing Siri. Very accurate (and funny) description.
How about two record runners started at opposite ends of the record... That'd be something to hear... Flippin' eck.
I asked Alexa and she couldn't find "Let the face go, by the DSC"
Very happy to see the puppets back. That sketch got a good laugh out of me!
Great video as usual. The Muppets sequence made my day! As an Apple fanboy, I got a good laugh out of this one. Very well put together!
Thanks for the video, sir. Love these novelty silly things :D. Looging forward to the next one
Flippin 'eck!
Love the outro! I get that some people are like, "WTF is this in a tech review?" But, seriously... Love Them! Never stop "Letting the Bass Go." I hope I never see "The Grand Finale" of the outros ;-)
Anyone who has any home assistant of any sort feels your pain :)
Muppets sketch was fantastic!
longest way to say siri isn't worth a hill of beans X''D
As always... loved the muppets. Hilarious!
I loved the Muppets clip and reminds me of my sister's first experience with Alexa when she got an Echo for Christmas. I often end up in a giggle-fit trying to get Google to understand place names, particularly a small village called Teilin (pronounced tee-lin) near us. I asked Google three times in a row what the weather is in Teilin. The first response was the weather for Cleveland, the second time for Cheadle and the third time for Stockholm! In fact, Stockholm is most common response and it certainly is not pronounced anything like Teilin.
Great video as always! Very clever puppets sketch, hits the nail on the head! One band we CANNOT get Alexa to understand us requesting is ‘The The’. My wife likes them, and I think that by mishearing, Alexa is diplomatically exercising some editorial discretion.....
Yay! It's the unfunny, childish and idiotic puppets! The perfect end to the day.
A classic!
Nice work!
Great video, laughed out loud at the muppets. "I've not got an accent" Ha!
The muppets are love! <3
Ah, Mat: You're the only bloke I know who'd use a stack of CD Video disks to support a piece of equipment!
I'm afraid of those things because I talk to myself a lot and have poor impulse control.
As always.... loved the muppets!
We now have a Google Home and an Amazon Echo in the living room, a Google Home Mini and an Echo Dot in the office, the same duo in the bedroom, and an Echo Show in the kitchen. We have added these as they proved their value and we wold not be without them. None are perfect, but where one fails another shines so together, they are incredibly useful. They are linked to lights, our Ring doorbell and more. With Amazon Music Unlimited, we never play a CD these days and we gave all our vinyl to charity. However, a friend with a Scottish accent, can never get them to do anything! :)
I've got two Dots, two normal Echos and a Show. The Homepod is really just for music for the Mrs as we have an Apple music subscription she uses a lot. I'm forever befuddled by the tin foil hat brigade that try and claim that the Echo is listening in and sending private conversations to the government, while they are happy to walk around whilst carrying a GPS tracking device complete with microphones and camera and posting all their personal information to Facebook.
Could you possibly do a video about how your muppets came about, who made them, did they have a previous life prior to the YouTube channel, etc?
I asked the same question before, Matt has written about it on his website: <a href="http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2009/2/26/the-muppet-whatnot-workshop-experience.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2009/2/26/the-muppet-whatnot-workshop-experience.html</a>
I've missed the muppets, great to see them back.
Great video as always. Any plans to review the Homepod and its rivals or have they already been done to death by other YouTubers?
I’d say they were done to death. I much prefer to do videos about things that most people are unfamiliar with and few people have covered already.
Proper job Mat - all hail the muppets. p.s. why anyone would buy the record
Technology is miles away from where most people imagine it is, and yet we're more than happy to trust driverless cars with peoples lives, at the same time a bank of supercomputers programmed by some of the worlds best paid employees struggle to match a pre-known phrase from a voice input. p.s The red colour VW Record Runner is now a fair bit dearer at Juno, but the blue one is still £64.99 at the time of writing!
I feel that the abilities of driverless are being vastly overstated. Driving down a straight highway in California is one thing. Negotiating a housing estate where all the road markings have got worn away and there's parked cars everywhere is another thing. Then try it in the snow. Then ask everyone who currently has a 15 year old car that is worth less than scrap value to spend as much as the price of their house on a new self driving electric car. I'll be long dead before any of this stuff comes to pass, as will all these people getting giddy about it.
I enjoy having a conversation with my Google Home, but most of the time I don't think she understands me.
No HomePod or Alexa or Google Home for my house!
The "I don't have an accent" was funny. I get challenged by my Manchester accent all the time, even though I've lived on the South coast (UK) for over 20'years 🤣
That outtro made me laugh. brilliant. Keep up the great work.
You should switch on YouTube's automatic subtitles. I do that sometimes, because I'm not a native speaker, and it helps me learn new words. But this is hilarious. Magic speaker becomes Cheek speaker; Accent becomes Axle. (still, when you think of it, automatic subtitling is kind of magic and impressive). The video itself is also very enjoyable: "luckily I don't have an accent" 😂