249 - VeggieTales

An amazing song in the middle thrrr.

the Grapes of Wrath continue to sin against Junior just as we continue to sin against God after asking forgiveness, that’s the point of that bit.

I've listened to this episode at least three times now and I've gosh darned cried every time. Excellent work fellas.

This brought me back to AWANA sleepovers at the church. Is there somewhere to go to unpack AWANA?

I, like AJ, am a former dirty papist who had never heard of focus on the family (also I have a question bear with me). After subbing to hear more of Joe Kassabians sexy voice, then paying more to hear the secret next episode, I discovered this hell and have subject myself to your discourse on it. I broke my streak to listen to this episode because Veggie Tales is king. Did you guys ever play the veggie tales game where you’re either in the whale or destroying (?) Nineveh? Also bring back Joe again and when the whole weird angel story’s in the middle (love it) are done publish it as a single episode.

I’m beyond excited for this! As an elder GenZ, VeggieTales was my Adventures in Odyssey lol. I remember it being fun, but have been scared to revisit it due to all the religious trauma I have. Super cool to hear that the creator is a good guy!

I nearly dropped my tools at work when you mentioned Hitops (Hightops?), my family had that tape and watched SO MANY TIMES. Also grew up on Kid's Praise! And Agapeland/Candle: the Music Machine, Antshillvania. Nathaniel the Grublet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candle_%28band%29?wprov=sfla1 Oof, these are all bringing back memories. There was also a terrible musical adventure from the 90s featuring a living boom box and a lot of painful attempts at being hip and urban and 'inner city'. Can't remember who made that but I think it was the same folks as Colby. The terrifying 90s musical tape that

This was such a good episode. The way you compared and contrasted VeggieTales with Odessey really resonated - relistening to AIO comes with a mixed bag of emotions at this stage of my life, but I have nothing but fond memories of VeggieTales. I lost my mom unexpectedly in 2008. I often times have trouble accessing my emotions (thanks religious trauma!). I hadn't heard the song "Think of Me" in 20 or 30 years, but when it played during the episode, it brought up so many emotions and made me think of my mom - a testament to the songwriting and vocal performance. Also, as others mentioned, the interstitial this week was a goddamn delight

I cant believe "oh no what we gonna do" is from the first episode, just knocking it out of the park first try

I'd never seen veggie tales, but one of the animators from the show, Keith Lango, who also worked on 321 penguins, (and tf2 just to change it up) has a brilliant series of animation tutorials that he has put up on youtube, some of the oldest ones are from 2009 but they still hold up!

I somehow read some veggietales books as a child (raised in an Extremely atheist household) and I legitimately did not know they were Christian (just no context for the Bible stories and I think I might have skipped over the explicit stuff) and I can tell you it was a trip to realize as I grew older that there was Christian stuff in veggietales. And it was even more of a trip to realize that it wasn't a Berenstain Bears situation and it had started as Christian.

So, canonically, Arthur Morgan could have killed John Whittaker's great-uncle? I like to believe that.

I recently learned about Mike Narowki's recent project: The Dead Sea Squirrels. Really interesting seeing the different paths these two guys took

Lawrence Welk episode when? Bobby and Cissy are calling you home.

“I didn’t know that puppet ministry was a real thing” SOMEONE doesn’t know the origin story of Tammy Faye Baker…

"table to play Scrabble on / throw him out of Babylon" is an all timer lyric

It was a strange feeling being bombarded by songs I hadn't heard in 25 years while I was running this morning, but had to comment and say the interstitial was particularly delightful this week.

Can't believe how charming and catchy those songs are. Remembered the grapes of wrath one verbatim before you played a second of it

Got one shotted by this one. I have no idea how I know all of those words still with very little prompting.

I fucking LOVED the Hanna-Barbera Bible cartoons & I think I wore out my Daniel tape.

Veggie Tales is such a cherished part of my childhood. It was one of the only things I could watch because my parents thought Disney was run by the devil. I mean they were right though, and veggie tales was really such a great series too.

VHS tapes of Hollywood movies were so expensive at the time (if available at all) because the MPAA was extremely opposed to home video. Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA, testified to Congress with a straight face: "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

Damnit all I was not expecting to cry quite like that but thanks AJ for that benediction. All the love to you three and this show

I had only ever heard the term “Rose of Sharon” used in Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX. Glad that my biggest takeaway from this episode is learning the origin of a name from Gundam.

Veggie Tales is such a weird part of my childhood. It went mass market about a year before I was born so I watched it a lot as a kid. I was raised Catholic, but somehow my brain totally left out the fact that it was Christian media. I wonder if its because it wasn't as "obey your parents or perish" as a lot of its counterparts, so it just didn't stick?

Let’s goooo it’s time to listen to what I can only assume is “Song of the Cebu” from Silly Songs with Larry on repeat for two hours and four minutes.

My neighbor came over to my house to play Oblivion because his parents thought it was satanic. Hail lord Dagon

I can't wait to hear you guys talk about the Jonah and the Whale movie!

Chewing on the bars of my enclosure waiting for y’all to mention that Phil Vischer is cracked because he’s a monty python guy

That last story hit me like a truck.

Re: the interstitial, there is something so delicious about comedy that's such a deep cut it requires a specific childhood experience, specific outside knowledge, and also the internal lore of a multi-year podcast series to understand. Glorious as always

I MET PSALTY IN PERSON AS A KID I had repressed it. Fuck you (🫶🏼)

this must be what a sleeper agent feels after accidentally encountering their activation phrase in amber on a soundboard

SAG-AFTRA?!

Damn, another end that made me choked up. The earnest sincerity of y’all is heartening

VeggieTales is like the good timeline Adventures in Odyssey. It's actually funny and entertaining, it's not condescending or cruel to kids, and it can be enjoyed without needing to be Christian yourself. I watched VeggieTales all the time when I was a kid. The show, the movie, even the VeggieRock album, and I never felt myself being indoctrinated into Christianity. It was just good fun.

Well AJ, I can honestly I haven't teared up at a closing thought on one of these episodes in a while and that one really got me.

Immediately thought of that Moral Orel episode. So glad you guys brought it up.

Why is “sometimes I hear what I want to hear” so goddamn funny?

My cousins watched Shutter Island at Phil Vischer's house when they were kids

Oh my god Cool Voltaire is one of the peas because they’re French

I grew up participating in a puppet ministry, and I tell you hwat, it sucked so fucking hard. Veggie Tales was amazing, though.

7:44 I feel like Josh listened to the KJB episode on The Blues Brothers before recording this. To that I say, Jesus Christ, Abby.

Let's fucking gooooooooo

A good title for the Psalty episode would be Death to Psalty (if for some reason you haven't seen death to smoochie check it out)

AJ must relearn what a puppet ministry is every 100 episodes

Im paying my therapist to listen to this with me

One of my earliest memories is sitting in a tiny apartment in Stillwater, watching Veggietales to distract us while my mom gave my sister and I haircuts. I remember nothing else from living in Oklahoma lmao. Our family collected the tapes (and dvds) up until they got bought out and we realized they sucked now. But that was my only exposure to most “outside” media back then, just secondhand jokes my parents would have to explain. My childhood sucked but veggietales really was an oasis. A Snoodle’s Tale still makes me sob, btw. Plop me down in front of the last five minutes and I’ll be inconsolable. If only I’d examined why it affected me so much back then lol. Hashtag undiagnosed autism 🤘

Im glad Brian rediscovered his soundboard

I didn’t know this show was religious as a kid. Idk if it’s because my family were going to church, but were fairly secular, or maybe it’s because I wasn’t doing any of the Sunday school readings. It wasn’t until I watched it again at like 13 that I realized that all the stories were Bible stories. I still loved the show, though, I just thought Mary, Joseph, Noah, etc, were all just made up people or when they did a Bible story I did know, I didn’t get that was different from other shows

In the words of Larry from Little Joe: "Well finally!"

I cant remember what its called, im pretty sure its just cheesy potatoes. But the way he described them is accurate, that dish is essentially hot cheesy potato salad (with cornflakes on top)

Most 250th episode subject to happen on the 249th episode