The Flopcast

While every other podcast is busy reviewing Batman v Superman, we know what the people really want. They want Kornflake's brutally honest review of the new Full House sequel series, Fuller House. (We've been preparing for this moment for years, by staring at the same photo of Dave Coulier every day.) Kornflake also recommends Zootopia, which offers more political intrigue than any cartoon since Ca...

A sleepy Mayor of Chickentown joins Kevin and Kornflake for a round of "What's in the Bag?" featuring Batman and lobsters (our two favorite things); in perhaps our all-time stupidest National Whatever Day, we learn about Chinese gooseberries, and how Kornflake really feels about produce managers; Kevin wanders around Vermont and experiences the bizarre tradition of "sugar on snow" (it's weirder th...

Get ready to party, kids -- it's National Button Week. (Which one of your Flopcast co-hosts had New Kids on the Block buttons, and which had Men at Work and Air Supply buttons? The world may never know...) Then during our Pudding Pages segment, Siri is horribly offended when we ask a simple question about Roseanne. (The robots are getting angry, people. The revolution has begun.) We also have some...

Thanks to the highly lucrative world of podcasting, Kevin and Kornflake are pretty much their own bosses these days. But before they got filthy rich giggling about chickens every week, they too had to answer to a bunch of crazy hotheaded bosses. So in this week's Top 4 1/2 List, we're counting down our favorite bosses from our favorite TV shows and cartoons! Thanks to Hanna Barbera, we know all ab...

Oops! Kevin, Kornflake, and the Mayor of Chickentown are trapped in a walk-in freezer! (Kornflake didn't know the door locked automatically!) But while waiting to be rescued by a wacky neighbor, they recall favorite moments from past Flopcast episodes through a series of annoying old clips. Okay, not really. For our 200th show, we're just relaxing in the studio as usual, because alas, this isn't q...

This week we're talking with novelist (The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs), storyteller (The Moth), and podcaster (Boy vs. Girl) Matthew Dicks! Matthew and Kevin grew up in the same tiny town, rode the same stupid school bus, and were the only non-girl flute players in the school band. We recall a time when kids (and crazy unleashed dogs) ran free, and we'd ride our bikes down to Main Street...

Because we tend to get everything wrong, we have some corrections from a previous Flopcast, mostly involving astronauts and Monkees; a recent benefit show by Dar Williams and Catie Curtis turned wonderfully Schoolhouse Rock-ish; the Fitchburg Art Museum has an amazing new exhibit by our friends from Triiibe (but alas, no plastic lawn flamingos); we visit the Comedy Studio in Harvard Square for a b...

Kevin and Kornflake celebrate 75 years of the King of Atlantis, the guy in the scaly orange shirt (perhaps not the fanciest of superhero costumes), Aquaman! Yes, Aquaman has been talking to the fish since 1941, he's a founding member of the Justice League of America, and he's your favorite Super Friend. So let's show some respect. We also look at Aquaman's whole crazy Aqua-family: his flipper-foot...

Kevin and Kornflake check out the new MarsCon Dementia Track fundraiser album, and you should too. (Warning: Contains goofy songs by The Sponge Awareness Foundation, and lobster songs by Kornflake!) Also: Astronaut Cady Coleman has a space flute, we have mixed feelings about a new ninth planet that isn't Pluto, Kornflake has big plans to play Connect Four and Hungry Hungry Hippos at TotalCon, the...

Kevin and Kornflake are full of excuses this week, because somebody decided "excuses" should be the subject of this week's Top 4 1/2 List. (We won't name any names, except for the name "Kornflake.") Some of our favorite excuses come from Steve Martin, Marcia Brady, the Blues Brothers, the Kids in the Hall, and of course, Juan Epstein. And these days, with the right excuse, you can even bring a tur...

After a three year absence, Kevin and Kornflake went creeping back to Arisia! (A science fiction convention on the Boston waterfront in mid-January... this is how we eliminate the weaker nerds from the pack.) Kornflake was there on Saturday, and enjoyed a game of Munchkin, a Princess Bride shadowcast show with the Teseracte Players, a workshop about shiny things, and a large angry chicken. Kevin d...

We have a quick show for you this week, because we're sleepy, and Kornflake keeps spilling the coffee. In our "Chickens in the News" segment: It has been suggested that in order to sustain the human population, we should shrink everyone down to the size of chickens. (We can't decide if this is a good idea or a GREAT idea. Either way, it's another step toward a world ruled by chickens.) Then in our...

It's time for a Flopcast-style look back at those we lost in 2015. The Mayor of Chickentown joins Kevin and Kornflake as we recall some of our favorite recently-departed actors, musicians, writers, artists... and maybe even the guy who invented plastic pink flamingos. Including: Stars from The Dukes of Hazzard, Happy Days, The Partridge Family, Eight Is Enough, The Beverly Hillbillies, and yes, Ar...

We're kicking off the new year with one more convention report from the old year! Northeast Comic Con featured the stars of A Christmas Story; a round of Press Your Luck (No Whammies!) with Big Bucks Entertainment; legendary comic book artist George Pérez; TV Guidance Counselor with Ken Reid, Claudia Wells, John Wesley Shipp, and Andrew WK; and the 50th anniversary of Lost in Space. Speaking of wh...

It's our final Flopcast of 2015! Almost time to flop over and relax! We celebrate with the return of Kornflake's regular National Whatever Day segment, in which we learn why paper snowflakes can be disgusting. (You're welcome!) Then Kevin reports on last month's Super Megafest convention, featuring Nichelle Nichols, Peter Tork and Bobby Hart, the Dukes of Hazzard, and the Miser Brothers. (Apparent...

Happy Holidays from The Flopcast, where we hide our toys inside rubber chickens, so the Burgermeister won't find them. This week Ed joins us again, to talk about yet another pre-Sponge Awareness Foundation project: his goofy 1989 college band, Wet Paint! We look back on this short-lived band's eclectic lineup, their repertoire of dance/pop cover songs (awful), their one original song (even worse),...

This week we're joined by a special surprise guest (it was certainly a surprise to Kornflake): Ed, of The Sponge Awareness Foundation! (That's Kevin's old comedy band, which you probably knew already, because we're super-famous.) And we're talking about 1988, which was the year Ed put together his high school rock band, Vortex. (Yikes, those guys covered a lot of Bon Jovi.) Ed takes us through the...

Kevin and Kornflake's ill-conceived trip back through the 80s brings us to 1987! It was the year Debbie Gibson taught us to shake our love -- a practice which is illegal in most states these days. Kornflake reminds us of the 1987 debut of the San Francisco-based sitcom Full House, as well as the time that city's famed Golden Gate Bridge nearly collapsed under the weight of a million hippies. (Hist...

This week our excruciating ten-part look at the 80s brings us to 1986! 'Twas the year we danced on the ceiling, had fun tonight, and were rocked by Amadeus (which explains the headache we've had for the last thirty years). Kornflake tells us about the 1986 reopening of the Statue of Liberty, which had spent much of the 80s surrounded by scaffolding, while construction workers added giant shoulder...

We're halfway through our court-ordered ten-episode celebration of the 80s, which means it's time to talk about 1985. Kornflake has a song by Passion Pit (not from 1985, but still thematically appropriate... well played, Kornflake). Meanwhile Kevin selects the classic Pat Benatar-meets-Supergirl film The Legend of Billie Jean, because fair's fair. Then we move on to some holiday talk -- Kevin's Ha...

For our 1984-themed episode, Kevin and Kornflake each have a weird TV memory to share. Kornflake recalls DTV, which was Disney Channel's take on MTV-style music videos. (But where was Billy Ocean? A certain cartoon rodent owes us an apology.) Meanwhile Kevin is still obsessed with The Master, a short-lived TV series about a ninja, his dopey apprentice, and their pet hamster. It was ridiculous and...

This week we're creeping back to 1983, the year Top 40 radio was totally conquered by goofy new wave. We were blinded with science, rocked down to Electric Avenue, safety danced if we wanted to, and watched 99 red balloons go by. In fact, Kevin's pick for our 1983 discussion is Nena, the young German lady who taught us about those red balloons (or luftballons, if you prefer). Meanwhile, Kornflake...

Kevin and Kornflake celebrate the year 1982 by discussing a couple of lost Saturday morning cartoons ("Meatballs and Spaghetti" and "Pandamonium") and an early computer virus ("Elk Cloner"). Scientists are trying to determine which of these 1982 creations has done the most damage over the years. Then we review the recently announced nominees for induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next yea...

With our neighboring red planet in the news lately (we can't wait to try that delicious new Martian water), Kevin and Kornflake are counting down their Top 4 1/2 favorite Martians (and miscellaneous Mars-type stuff). We cover Martian cartoon characters, music, movies, candy bars, and lots more. (You know, Matt Damon isn't the first Martian from Boston. It's time for you to meet Robolar.) Also: Thi...

This week our usual National Whatever Day segment is replaced by a weird tribute to 1980! (Next week we'll tackle 1981. And because we're so obsessed with the 80s, we'll keep this going for ten weeks, or until we're shut down by the government.) 1980 was the year of Pink Lady and Jeff (a variety show so bizarre that it could only come from those far out space nuts, Sid and Marty Krofft) and the ye...