The Flopcast

The Mayor of Chickentown joins Kevin and Kornflake to discuss the upcoming holiday movie season -- we're looking for anything with hobbits, thunder gods, or time-traveling turkeys. (But mostly time-traveling turkeys.) Also: We reveal the existence of a secret (and possibly evil) Button Society, we start a crazy new rumor about Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, and we learn which celebrity...

Kevin and Kornflake get ready for Marooned Without a Compass Day (we'll need a volleyball, a hidden immunity idol, and Mary Ann); Kornflake gets silly on The Pod of Destiny, stares at the clouds in Vermont, and prepares for Early Doornail Thanksgiving; the Pudding Pages teach us about scary 90s fashion (was there any other kind?); and we end with some "Chickens in the News" from a Moscow airport,...

It's Halloween in Chickentown once again, and we're celebrating with a "monster cereals" taste test! That's right, we're sampling Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, as well as (available for the first time in decades!) Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy. Is this stuff delicious, or disgusting, or (ideally) both? Let's find out together. Along the way we'll enjoy some classic monster cereal comm...

Kevin and Kornflake wrap up their School House Rock 40th anniversary celebration with some help from you, the Flopcast listeners! Our Top 4 1/2 List of America Rock cartoons is based on YOUR votes! How appropriately democratic. And you can probably guess which beloved School House Rock character is sitting on both Capitol Hill AND the top of our list. Also: Kornflake sees Weird Al, just in time fo...

Kevin and Kornflake are in Manchester, New Hampshire for the Granite State Comicon! Come along as we encounter Perhapanauts artist Craig Rousseau, Tiny Titans artist Art Baltazar, the Boston Ninja Turtle, Amy the Mermaid, classic arcade games from Funspot, Ghost Kitties and Action Cats, Snorks, a Snowpocalypse, and yes, our very favorite Mr. T cosplayer. And hang on, because this one gets weird, i...

More School House Rock 40th anniversary fun this week, as Kevin knocks out a Top 4 1/2 List of Science Rock cartoons! (Get ready for a shock, but we're huge fans of Interplanet Janet around here.) As a bonus, this leads to yet another bizarre tale from junior high school in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. (We'll never run out of these stories. It was a weird, weird place.) Also: Kornflake and Scott Baio...

Kornflake learns that no revenge is sweeter than a birthday cake in the face; Vodka Day is this week, which means we'd better keep an eye on our friend Vodka (we, uh, know a girl named Vodka); George Takei boldly chicken-dances where no chicken has danced before; and we end with a round of "What's in the Bag," compliments of Luke and Sara, who mailed us a mysterious (and yes, chicken-themed) packa...

Our celebration of the 40th anniversary of School House Rock continues, as the Mayor of Chickentown presents a Top 4 1/2 List of Multiplication Rock! Featuring weird zoo animals, twelve-toed aliens, a hero named Zero, and even more 1970s educational silliness. This is why we're all total math geniuses today. Also: The boozy truth about Johnny Appleseed; video evidence of Kornflake's latest zorbing...

Kevin is back from Atlanta with a full report on DragonCon, featuring 50,000 nerds and/or geeks, the Bionic Man and Woman, High Feather cosplayers, booze-serving robots, Canadian teen pop star Robin Sparkles, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Shatner, a steampunk owl catcher, Hulk cologne, and yes, Charles Nelson Reilly. Kind of a strange weekend, in retrospect. We also get in some music talk, and rec...

Kevin and Kornflake kick off the fall season by returning not to school, but to School House Rock! We're celebrating the 40th anniversary of these classic cartoons, starting with a Top 4 1/2 List of Grammar Rock. Of course that means a train ride through Conjunction Junction, a very crowded bus ride with Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla... and we might even unpack an adjective or two. Join us! Also: Defy...

Worry not, true believers -- before Kevin sneaked off to DragonCon, we recorded this quick little episode of miscellaneous silliness, just for you. This week: Shocking the world, Kevin returns to Woonsocket, Rhode Island for an actual high school reunion; Kornflake is covered in mosquito bites, talking like the kids of Degrassi, and dreaming of zorbing again; we discuss the mysterious connection b...

It's our second annual DragonCon preview show, as we prepare for the upcoming mega-gathering of the geeks in downtown Atlanta. Enjoy some hints and tips about how to survive the craziest four days on the nerd calendar. We also discuss some of the guests (Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner!), concerts (Paul and Storm!), and events (Rebecca Watson's Quiz-O-Tron 2000!) we're looking forward to, and run th...

Kornflake reports on this year's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, a weekend of music, mud, Moxy Fruvous, and tie-dyed unmentionables. Meanwhile Kevin attends Boston Comic Con, serves as a lifeline in a zombie-themed round of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and brings back an exclusive Flopcast interview with Amy the Steampunk Mermaid! (And stick around at the end of the show to hear the guy we totally f...

Episode 66 means we're talking about V66, Boston's own MTV-style music video channel back in the mid-80s. (V66 wasn't around for long, but some of us never got over it.) Also: Kornflake joins the Snuggie Cult; we celebrate Thrift Shop Day and Siblingfest; and in our Chickens in the News segment, we look at some mysterious new statues in Annapolis, Maryland. Remember, kids -- it's August. You NEED...

Because we're just so dangerously obsessed with the 1980s, this week's Top 4 1/2 List features cover versions of 80s songs! (Needless to say, Cyndi Lauper is well represented.) Also: Gummy lobsters (a delicious choking hazard), Kornflake's Barenaked Ladies & Ben Folds Five concert report (we're starting a rumor that she parked her car onstage during the show), and National X-Files Day (which we ju...

Pathetically, Kevin and Kornflake enter a state of panic when a power outage leaves Chickentown Studios in total darkness, right in the middle of the show! No lights, no air conditioning (we were already panicking about the heat wave), and, most horrifyingly... no more iced coffee. We're doomed! Also: Kornflake visits a mysterious lobster-themed town called Otis, the Chicken Limo cruises the mean...

In the summertime, when the weather is high, we've got robots, we've got robots on our minds. Yes, it's our second annual robot-themed Top 4 1/2 List! This time we're counting down our favorite live action robots from movies and TV. MST3K robot puppets, Star Wars droids, Star Trek androids, scary Fembots, perhaps even a Pimpbot... and we haven't even mentioned the really weird ones. Show a little...

We're back with a full report from CONvergence, the Bloomington, Minnesota convention that's even crazier than MarsCon! Pour youself a Buzzed Aldrin (the signature drink of the Skepchick party room) and enjoy, as Kevin, the Mayor of Chickentown, the great Luke Ski, and Sara Trice review all the silliness of CONvergence, just for you. (Unfortunately, aside from our Saturday Morning Cartoon and Doct...

We've said this before, but yikes, this is a bizarre episode, even by Flopcast standards. Let's see... in this week's Pudding Pages segment, Kevin and Kornflake learn all about weird 1970s lipstick. Really. Then our Chickens in the News segment takes us to the thriving metropolis of Chicken, Alaska (and if you like bluegrass festivals, chicken suits, and being in the middle of nowhere, this is you...

Kornflake returns from Chicago with a full report on LukeSkiCon, which featured comedy music performances, a field trip to the Galloping Ghost Arcade, a Top 4 1/2 List recorded especially for The Flopcast, and more demented water aerobics. Also: I Forgot Day is this week (or maybe it was last week, whatever); we learn of the existence of lobster coffee; and we look forward to CONvergence, where we...

Time to sneak snacks into the cinema, as the Mayor of Chickentown joins Kevin and Kornflake to discuss the new geek-friendly summer movies. (Star Trek! Iron Man! And for no good reason, Back to School and Fantasy Island!) We also celebrate National Chocolate Pudding Day with an ill-conceived arts and crafts project, this week's "Chickens in the News" is a lesson in how to annoy your annoying neigh...

Kevin and Kornflake attend a Jim's Big Ego concert (which magically turns into a Chickens in the News singalong); our "What's in the Bag?" segment is once again very, very lobster-themed; this week's Pudding Pages segment is all about record players (and those Peter Pan book-and-record sets, which sort of ruled); and just in time for World Sauntering Day, Kornflake attempts a karaoke performance o...

Happy 75th Birthday to Superman! Kevin and Kornflake celebrate with a Flopcast-style tribute to the Man of Steel, focusing on important stuff like goofy Super Friends cartoons, 1970s Mego dolls (sorry, action figures), comic book ads for glow-in-the-dark Kryptonite, and Beppo the Super Monkey (proud member of the Legion of Super Pets). Enjoy some classic (and some long forgotten) TV commercials an...

Kevin and Kornflake attempt to celebrate National Running Day without actually moving; at the Southcoast Toy and Comic Show, we find the Karate Kid-themed puzzle book of our dreams; we highly recommend having a monkey in a Hawaiian shirt at your next wedding; and by request, we present a Top 4 1/2 List of arcade video games. Everyone thought we were wasting our time back in the 80s, pumping quarte...

Kevin and Kornflake celebrate Sunscreen Day with our usual advice to slather on plenty of the stuff, or better yet, don't leave the house at all; Kornflake's recent illness just gave her more time to do what she does best -- search the Internet for silly British game shows and web comics; while we're puzzled by all the wrestlers in her videos, Cyndi Lauper continues to completely rule; a new Kicks...