Wendy returns from vacation to join Mike in a discussion about subliminal messages in television, movies, and music.

• Actor Matt Frewer played Max Headroom in a sci-fi show called “Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future” (which happened to be one of Mike’s favorites!). In the story, people were exposed to “blipverts”, advertising delivered in quick bursts, and which eventually ended up killing people.
• An urban legend that theater owners used subliminal advertising for the snack bar by flashing images of soft drinks and popcorn throughout the movies.
• The part of the movie “Fight Club” where a ch aracter splices images of pornography into the film at a movie theater.
• For the 2000 election, George Bush ran campaign ads wherein the word BEAUROCRATS was flashed across the screen with the RATS part of the word in emphasis.
• Miller Lite had an ad campaign with “this message was brought to you by Dick”. The phrase was autographed by Dick, and the word actually looked like “Drink” when closely examined.
• In an episode of The Simpsons, Bart joins a boy band that uses subliminal messages to recruit kids for the Navy.
• Actor/comedian Kevin Nealon played “Subliminal Message Man”, a character in a Saturday Night Live skit who slipped subliminal messages into every day conversations.
• The UK parliament banned the use of subliminal messaging in advertisements.
• Ozzy Osborne’s song “Suicide Solution”, about alcohol, allegedly contained the phrase, “Why try? Get the gun and shoot!”. When he was sued by the parents of a teen who committed suicide, he claimed the audio was “Get the flaps out”.
• The song, “Better By You, Better Than Me” recorded by Judas Priest, contained subliminal message “Do it!” and also resulted in a law suit. However, the judge found that subliminal messages are not speech that’s covered by the First Amendment. This is now precedent.
• “Love Bites” by Def Leppard has a robot voice at the end that some believe says “Jesus of Nazareth, go to hell”.
• The Beatles also used the back masking technique in many songs, including “I buried Paul” at the end of Strawberry Fields.
• EXAMPLE AUDIO: Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time” contains a backwards “sleep with me, I’m not too young”.
• EXAMPLE AUDIO – Decide for yourself: Queen’s song “Another One Bites the Dust” contains several backwards “Decide to smoke marijuana”
• EXAMPLE AUDIO – Decide for yourself: Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” contains a backwards “Here’s to my sweet satan”

Welcome to see you on the other Mike, where the world

of the mysterious collides with the world of entertainment.

A discussion of art, music, movies, spirituality, no

weird, and self discovery. And now,

your hosts, musicians and entertainers who have their

own weakness for the weird, Mike and Wendy from the

band Sunspot. Hey, Wendy.

Hey, Mike. Weren't you just on vacation? Welcome

welcome back to cold Wisconsin. Thank you.

It's cold here. I was in California and it was warm there. That

was Mike. It was beautiful. It was really difficult

coming back here. What part of California were you in? San Francisco Bay Area.

Oh, that sounds nice. Yeah. And I saw the Capitol in Sacramento for the

first time. Alright. With Jerry Brown there? I don't know if he was there or

not. I didn't actually go inside the Capitol, but I saw the Capitol structure.

Okay. And it was very pretty. There were orange trees surrounding it and

Oh, that's flowers and yeah. It was it was quite nice. Jerry Brown

used to date Linda Ronstadt back in the seventies. Really? Yeah. They called him

governor Moonbeam. Gosh. He ran for he was one of the contenders

for the Democratic, the Democratic

nomination for president in 1992. I had no idea. That's

right. No. So people thought that he was, you know, he was a little

bit on the far outside. That's why I liked him back in

1992. Well, I like the state that he,

represents. It's beautiful. Beautiful and nice

and warm. I mean, it's December. It's cold here. Yeah.

I mean, the only thing is you gotta like people because whenever you drive, you're

driving around a lot of people. This is true. This is true. Yeah. But anyway,

I'm happy to be back. Thanks for, thanks to you and your sister

for for the nice Krampus discussion. Well, we're always happy to

talk about demons and devils and stuff like that in my family. It was such

a festive discussion. It was it was wonderful to hear you and Allison, and you

guys did a great job. And I learned some things from that.

Mostly just to not be naughty. Yes. Don't be naughty or you might be

dragged to hell by the Christmas demon. Like, that's that's a

bit worse than coal in your stocking. Yeah. That's I mean, that's coal up your

stocking. Oh. Hey. Hey o. Okay.

So what are we gonna talk about today, Mike? Well, today, I was thinking we

could talk about, subliminal messages. Nice. You're making subliminal

messages. Subliminal messages. I think I heard

something. I don't I don't I don't know what you heard

by some CDs. So subliminal messages and recordings.

Buy songs about albums. No. But the whole thing so

subliminal messages. And and for the people that don't know what subliminal messages

are, it's the idea that

you can give people messages that,

you don't have to be persuasive and you don't have to be convincing.

You just have to do it at a level that's not reached by their

consciousness. Oh, okay. So this would be maybe

subaudible. So, and the

theory is that if you say something like buy

sunspot albums and you say it real quick or you say it

at a at a real quiet level that only their subconscious can

hear that you're influencing people because you're bypassing

their frontal cortex, the prefrontal cord. You're bypassing the part of the

brain that deals with rationality, that deals with

logic, that deals with having to convince. You bypass that and go

straight to the further reaches of the brain

where That's terrifying. They can be more easily,

convinced. Sure. It's more easily pliable because that's part that

doesn't need sense. It just needs a mission. That's

frightening, Mike. Yeah. Well, that's that's the whole idea behind subliminal message

that you can say something Mike buy some spot albums and you say it so

quick. You know, one of my favorite,

Mike. Catch the wave.

And it played On TV show. Yeah. Played by Matt Fruhrer. And Matt Fruhrer is

I mean, really, he's in so many great sci fi

things. I mean, Matt Frewer has been in everything.

Star Trek, Chronicles of the Paranormal with

Woah. Dan Aykroyd. He was the trash can man in the

Stephen King version of the stand. There only is the Stephen King

version. The TV version of the stand. Okay. The TV version of the

stand, he's the trash can. So, Matt Frewer

oh, he's also in Taken Oh. Which is a Steven

Spielberg miniseries about abductions. It's like a 10 hour miniseries

that was on sci fi in, the early 2000. That sounds fun. And it's it

it's what gave us the actress Dakota Fanning. And she

is. Well, Dakota Fanning, she's just Mike the

greatest child actress of the past 10 years. Okay. So that Taken was

was she in? She was in War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. Oh, okay.

And that was, like, that was a big she was in a a couple more

things that I can't remember right now. But I haven't seen Mike. Taken was like

her introduction, and she was so awesome in that. That we were like, holy crap.

This is a real child actor. She was a real star there. Got it. Okay.

And anyway, Matt Pfeuer has been a sci fi champion for

decades, and he's the guy that played Max Headroom. So

Max Headroom Max Headroom was not a computer generated

creation. I mean, he was a guy in makeup with special

effects. Well, right. But I mean, he This is the eighties. We couldn't do

the computer generated guy. He also was in,

The Lawnmower Man 2. Uh-huh. Which

virtual reality okay. It's it's a horrible movie. Right. Okay. The Lawnmower Man 1

is a semi horrible movie. The Lawnmower Man 2 is honest to

goodness, horrible movie. Okay. So Max

Headroom. But wait a minute. How does this relate to subliminal

messaging again? Okay. So the first the first episode of Max Headroom,

the American version. I've never seen the British version, but it was Television series. The

television series. Not him just because Max Headroom also was like an interviewer.

They had him interview people. God, that would be so annoying.

In addition to being a Mike pitch man, and we'll talk about Coke in a

second, Coca Cola. And,

in the entertainment world, you already always have to differentiate.

But as far as as Max Headroom goes so he had a sci fi show

called 20 Minutes Into the Future. And the first

episode has these things called blipverts.

It just sounds disgusting. It does. Blipverts are advertised That's

rude, Mike. Blipverts are advertising that goes by like, a

100 times as fast. Like Oh Mike god. So

blipverts, you receive all the you receive all the messaging of the

advertising subliminally because It's coming through

so quickly that you can't you like, you can't perceive it in your normal conscious

mind cannot process it. And people were exploding.

The idea was they were receiving the it it was too much on

them. And Blipfertz was killing were were killing people.

Woah. And so that was the original episode

of the US version of Max Headroom. Okay. So the

episode topic was that that blipverts were being delivered to

people and they were exploding. It wasn't like the actual episode had blipverts.

No. I mean, this was ABC network in the 19 eighties. They didn't have blip

forts. Hey, you know? But the the idea How did

anybody know? The idea was that

the guy was trying to stop these ad

advertisements from going through. He discovered that and they were trying to cover up that

these advertisements were killing people because they were very effective,

because they were they were bypassing the rational part of

the brain I see. Straight to the sub like

the subconscious subliminal messaging. Great. So that's one of the first

things I think about. When I think of subliminal messaging, I think of the

first episode of Max Head of birds. And watching it when I was 10 years

old or 11 years old or whatever. And just thinking

how awesome it was. I I used to I mean, that was my favorite. That

was one of my favorite shows. And so I was really disappointed when it only

lasted, like, 6 episodes. Anything good never lasts. Of

course. You know, anything Mike, anything really clever or whatever,

it's gone. But,

subliminal messages and saying we get back to Coke. Or Coca

Cola. Coca Cola. Yeah. The idea was that,

I mean, the big urban legend about subliminal

messaging is that in the 19 fifties,

theater owners would have subliminal messages

done in their movies. They put, like, a picture of a Coca

Cola. Oh, man. Picture of popcorn. They just put

these images in there. They don't need to do that though because the smell of

popcorn alone is is enough to make anyone wanna I agree, but the the smell

of popcorn still has to go through your rational mind. We are Mike, well, can

I really afford the $9 for a bucket of popcorn that it cut?

Right. It's like Mike about that? I it I mean, buttery.

That's good. That steak butter flavor, whatever it is, it it's so

delicious. It's so disgusting. So bad for you. Yes.

No. It's delicious. Right. It goes straight to your heart. Like, the individual

kernels of the popcorn go right to your heart, and they stuff it.

Clog the heart. It didn't exactly. But

that was the initial thing was the subliminal messages in the 19

fifties that theaters were doing that. And that's kind of the

first time So how long did it take people to, like, actually

realize that these things were happening? That they weren't just like, oh, I feel like

popcorn now. Well, it was a guy that did research in the 19 fifties. Okay.

Okay. And so, I mean, people people thought of this

research as, very

reliable for a long time, and then they stopped. And then we'll talk about at

the end, we talk about the science behind subliminal messaging a little bit.

We'll get back into it. But that was the place. Like, the drink Coca Cola.

Drink Coca Cola. You know, Mike, that would just a picture of a Coke. Yeah.

You know, something would just get you. Yeah. That's that's I'm thirsty and I don't

know why. Did you ever see you've seen Fight Club. Right? Yes.

Okay. So that's,

Brad Pitt's character. Like, he when he was working at the

movie theater Uh-huh. He would splice images of pornography Oh. Into

films. Right. Okay. And then they would do that in the movie, and they did

at the very end of the movie. And so if you haven't seen Fight Club

Oops. Get with get with the program. But there's old now. Yeah. It

is. It's 15. Oh, okay. No. I'm sorry. It's not 15

years old. Maybe not 15 years old. Yeah. 15 Mike, 1999.

I remember seeing it at the, West Town Theatre.

Yeah. Alright. I am Jack's getting old.

Okay. Enough fight club jokes. Let's talk about more subliminal messaging So

examples in popular culture. Yeah. Because there's there's so that's the

movie side of it. Yeah. I mean, that was the that was, like, the

original thing. So when you think of subliminal messaging in the modern

era, and we I I tend to think I think a lot of people tend

to think of the 19 fifties, 19 sixties Yeah. As the modern era. Okay. Because

a lot of the people who had lived in the 19 fifties 19 sixties, they're

still alive. Right. You know? Like you right. You can the

World War 2 generation is passing on. Like, it just Right.

If you're old enough to have served in World War 2 Mhmm. Then you are

in your nineties. You're elderly at this point. Right. No. You know, it's just you're

so old that it's Right. So,

you know, people like my parents, grew up in the

19 forties, were teenagers in the 19 like, my dad

was 18 in 1955, like Richie Cunningham. Like, my dad

is the age that Ron Howard character from Happy Days

That's a good that's a good would would be today. Okay.

And so I consider that the beginning

of the modern era, the 19 fifties, a post war, but not, you

know, after the Korean war. Sure. Kinda thing.

And so but a little more recent examples.

Let's go back. Do you remember there there was a there was a presidential election

in the year 2000? Don't know if you remember too much about it. And I

remember there's people I didn't sleep for, like, 3 days. Right. There

was a whole thing of, like, who's the president? What's gonna happen? Like, election

like, it was like a full month after election day or maybe it wasn't

that much. It was Mike No. It was long. The full time before the Supreme

Court made their whole thing. Right. They even called the Supreme Court,

case Bush versus Gore. They didn't even bother to say, like, you know, the

Democratic versus the Republicans. They said Bush versus Gore. Well,

he ran a campaign ad. George Bush ran a campaign ad in 2000

where they said the word bureaucrats,

and it did like a a focus. Like everything else was out of

focus except the word rest. Nice. You know?

And and people were saying is that was an example

of subliminal messaging because you were seeing

rats. So if however you felt about the

government or people that worked in the government, things like that, bureau

craps, you know, that kinda thing. And that's really what

subliminal messages are all about. It's about a little kinda focus

Yeah. That might change Influence your thoughts.

You know, around the same time, a little maybe a little bit after,

and this isn't even the outline. I just remembered this. Okay. You remember

so Miller Lite, we've drank in our share. Right?

Oh, yes. Right. Yeah. We've drank oceans of Miller Lite in that thing.

Grew up in Milwaukee. You didn't have a choice. And not when we were kids.

You know what I mean. Anyway, so Miller Lite, they had that

remember that the guy Dick? It was Mike

this this ad was created by Dick. Mike, they had a whole

campaign. So middle of the night had a whole special ad campaign based around

the fact that there was a regular guy named Dick. Who? An

old Dick. Yeah. Good old Dick would try to get you to drink Mila Lite.

So he was the guy creating the ads. Okay. So it wasn't some Madison

Marketing executive. Wasn't some Madison Avenue marketing executive

guy who drinks $3 vodka. It was Dick

who drinks Millette. Okay. Okay. So So

what was Dick doing to us? At the end of every commercial was Mike

1 or 2 seconds of this message was brought to you by Dick, and

Dick was signed. Okay.

Well, somebody stopped that part of it and looked at the

actual signature. Yeah. And Dick's

signature looked like drink.

So it was signed. So Dick looked like it said

drink. Interesting. And that was another I

mean, for a visual type of thing where you look at it and then your

mind goes, oh, drink. Maybe they just told me to

drink and they maybe I should drink Miller Lite. I I need to go to

the bathroom a lot. I feel bloated.

Right. So that,

was just I I just thought of that example and I forgot about that. Was

that that that whole dick thing Interesting. To drink.

Now, there's also a

a Simpsons episode where they talk about subliminal messaging, and

Bart joins a boy band. Oh, man. Yeah. Okay. So boy

so if you guys don't know what a boy band is, if you're

young, think of One Direction. If you're old, think

of the monkeys. Oh, wow. If you're not

quite that Bad in between? If you're not quite that old, think of new kids

on the block. Okay. And then if you're not quite

that that old, think of Backstreet Boys. In Sink or

Backstreet Boys. Sure. So and this is obviously

around Wendy boy bands came back into vogue, which was,

the early 2000, late nineties with Backstreet Boys and NSYNC and o

Town and whatever else they had. 98 I forgot about

98 Degrees. Oh, yeah. I couldn't even name a 98 Degree

song. Don't forget all for 1. No.

Forget about them. Yeah. How could I have their poster on my wall?

Okay. But the thing is that Bart

was trying to, get people to join the Navy. So the

the boy band in the Simpsons was using subliminal messages Oh, it's

funny. To get people to join the navy. And that's that's

another example of pop culture. And then probably

what I think is when was very literal is

Kevin Kneeland, who,

I guess, if you are not familiar with late eighties Saturday

Night Live, which I'm very sorry if you're not familiar with late eighties Saturday Night

Live because I still think that's the second best one behind the original.

Kevin Kneeland, tall, dark haired guy. He was on the show

Weeds. He also is one half of Hans and

Franz. Right. So Hans and Franz You all. Is right.

And they're back in the, State Farm ads. That's right. Aaron Rodgers, like

Dana Carvey and Kevin Eamonn. Is that actually Dana Carvey in those ads?

Oh, yeah. That's Dana Carvey. I didn't think it was him. It did not look

like him to me. Really? I still think Dana Carvey and Dana Carvey's, like, 60.

He looks good. Yeah. Well, he was in that one, sitcom. What was

it? Oh, shoot. I can't think of it now.

Okay. Well well, we'll think of it. But anyway, in that ad,

it did not look like him. I thought it was I thought they hired somebody

who just sort of looked like Dana Carvey for the Hans and Franz thing. No.

I'm sure it's gotta be Dana Carvey. Really? I think he owns the intellectual property.

I think he can I don't think he can have anyone else before?

No. It's got to be me, Hans de France. I'll pump you up. I'll pump

you up, you girly man. Alright. Well Mister salty pretzel. It's pretty

amazing that that that is continuing. It's perpetuated with Aaron Rodgers. Like Wendy

years later, we're still talking about Hans and Franz with Aaron Rodgers

And, so Kevin Nealon was one half of Hans and Franz. One

half. He also used to do he did weekend update after Dennis Miller

and before Norm Macdonald or before yeah. Because then it was Norm

Macdonald and Conquen. Anyway And then Miller. But

right. Dennis Miller, Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Ben Normi though. Yeah. So and

I loved Kevin Nealon when he did it, but Kevin Nealon used to have a

character called subliminal. That's right. And so subliminal would like talk to a woman in

the elevator. He'd be Mike, hey, how you doing? Boy, it's nice to

meet you. Have sex with me. Yeah. And he would just say those little things

Mike I'm a really good looking guy. And it was just little

subliminal man would give little subliminal messages between

regular things and would say I'm so fast.

So I think when a lot of people think of subliminal messages, the first person

they think of is meeting Kevin Neal in an elevator and him saying, like

Take off your clothes. And, that no. That was always good.

Well, you know, we should we can also go back to,

how about the UK has UK. The

UK has made a law prohibiting subliminal messaging

and advertising. Is a great idea. So

they Right. Because the Don't don't make a law. I'm sorry, but the notion of

ads being able to just

sneak things at you. Like Mike think that's if you think they work. Like

if you think that your subconscious is so suggestible,

But you can't help that. No. That's true. That

you you couldn't help it. But if you think your subconscious is so success, you

know, suggestible that you can give Mike a $100, then,

you know, whatever. Buy me a car.

So the UK has made a law prohibiting subliminal messaging and advertising.

Cool. But this is also the country that banned Gloomy

Sunday Oh, I remember that. For 50, 60 years 60

years. What episode was that, Mike? That was the saddest

song in the world episode. I think it was Mike 9 or

something. And, that's where we talked about Gloomy Sunday which was

a, you know, a Hungarian suicide song. Yeah.

So they banned they banned that song. And they banned subliminal messages.

The the parliament I love to ban. I think the UK parliament needs something better

to do. Yeah. Like, you should probably be,

I don't know, taking care of your poor people, governor.

Gulpner. Rather than worrying about if the advertisers are gonna do

subliminal messaging. But speaking

of Brits Episode 6 by the way. Episode 6 is a gloomy Sunday. Speaking

of Brits. Yes. Righto. Right.

A couple of the most famous subliminal messaging

cases in the United States are the result of British people.

For example, Judas Priest.

What? Right. Judas Priest and Ozzy

Osbourne. Alright. Remember how people used to think of Ozzy?

Right I mean, when Ozzy Osbourne was on The Osbournes

when the Osbournes were on and he was a complete and total mess. You know.

What? He just see Ozzy Mike trying to beat the alcohol. Oh, that's actually really

sad. And he's like trying to quit smoking. He's like, Sharon,

Sharon wears my cigarettes. Why won't you let me have a puff?

And he's freaking out about it. Just want a puff. And he's like, I'm the

prince of darkness. It's like Ozzy

wasn't really the prince of darkness obviously, but he got that reputation.

And so, he had a song

called Suicide Solution. Okay.

And, Suicide Solution, he

said, was based on now we talked about Bon Scott in the

previous episode with Susan Messino. Right. So Bon Scott was friends with

Ozzy. ACDC hit it, you know, same time when

Black Sabbath was very successful. Mhmm. And Bon Scott,

I mean, was drank a lot. Like, drank so much that he barfed on it.

I mean, he choked in his own vomit and died. You know?

And tragic tragic way. So sad. But so Ozzy wrote

a song about alcohol and he called Suicide Solution.

Okay. Solution, like liquid. Oh,

okay. Not like a solution to a problem. Right. Solution, like

liquid. Okay. And so, you know, the first line of the song is

wine is fine but liquor's quicker. And

he gets in, and there's a part of the song

which is it sounds like you can barely hear the talking

of it. Mhmm. And it sounds like, why

try get the gun and shoot?

Well, somebody killed themselves

in 1985. Awful. And the parents sued Ozzy in

1986. Mhmm. Right. It's a horrible thing,

but, you know So sad. Well, think about the people that were attracted to

heavy metal in the 19 eighties, and 19 seventies. You're attracted to

this underground culture. You're attracted to outsider culture,

and those are the kind of people who feel lonely, isolated,

And obviously, the parents are distraught. What a horrible thing. They

sue Ozzy Osbourne saying that he said, why try get the gun and

shoot? Which to me I don't know if necessarily I mean, I guess if it's

in a song called Suicide Solution Right. Get the gun and shoot means shoot yourself.

It could push someone over the edge if they're very volatile. You

know, and I don't I don't know if I believe him.

Ozzy said that the the phrase actually was get the

flaps out. What? Get the flaps out.

The flaps? English slang for a vajayjay.

The vajayjay. The vagina. English slang for a vagina. So get the flaps out.

Honestly. And I don't even know That's poor.

And so That's not poetry. You know, I think that's really

weak sauce. And I think it's really weak sauce because I think they were just

using it because it can't you could hear get the flaps out instead of get

the gun out. Right. You can always argue like, oh, it's he's

saying this, he's saying this. No one actually knows what he's saying. Well He might

not even know what he's saying. Right. Because he right. Because he was snorting

ants at the time. Like, Ozzy was heavily in the cocaine, heavily in the

alcohol. Like, he was he was all the way on the other side at the

time. But the thing is get the flaps

out in a song about your friend committing suicide.

Yeah. It doesn't really seem like it it fits for that particular Get the flaps

out. There's no flaps to get out. Somebody just killed themselves. Keep the flaps

in. Right. So it was it was litigation and they were trying

to I I think that's why I think. Defend him and You know, I don't

think Ozzy was trying to get people to kill themselves, but I think he was

Mike desperate for He was looking he was looking to make the song more

shocking or things like that and then maybe they just did the subliminal

thing to be funny or crazy or edgy.

That's so horrible though because think about how you'd feel after you heard

that. Sure. Well, what did he do for the next 10 years? He just drank

himself to death. Yes. You know? So Ozzy obviously,

but that get the flaps out, Suicide Solution went to court.

Judas Priest was the second one with the court. Judas Priest. I love

the priest. I used to sing in a priest tribute band. That's right. You you

played a mean Rob Halford, I must say. Thank you very much. You know, and

I really wish I would've asked Rob Halford. I interviewed Rob Halford a couple years

ago and I wish I'm asked him about this but I was He wanted to

talk about his new album. Sure. Right. He was like at a he was

at like a Indian Casino in Arizona at the time and

Mike I was calling him between playing draw poker or whatever. Yeah.

Well, and you're I mean, you're interviewing him for a magazine too.

So it's about his It was a personal thing. Yeah. Right.

And, but they had a song called Better by You Better Than

Mike. And I think that, you know, I think that there's their

case is a little better than Aussies because they just said do it.

Do it. That could be open to interpretation, and it wasn't a

song that was written by Judas Priest. You know?

They were sued the same year that Ozzy was, 1986, which has seemed

like it was okay to take heavy metal bands to court. This is right before

congress had the the Parents Music Research Council Mhmm. Which is why

we ended up with explicit lyrics. Oh, okay. Right. I remember

when that all happened. Yeah. So this is a thing Wendy were really worried about

music. Right. Gangster rap hadn't

even started yet. Oh my goodness. And,

so the whole idea was another kid killed themselves and they said

that in the Judas Priest song, it said, do it.

And it it absolutely sounds like they're saying do it. Oh, wow. Mike, they

are saying do it. But they're not even talking about suicide. They become sex or

Yeah. Or whatever. Or anything to it could

imply any number of things. So I mean none nobody from

Judas Priest went to jail. It just was a big Mike it was basically a

big heavy metal press conference, you know, kind of thing. But I think the

most interesting part of that is the judge declared subliminal

messages, and this is a precedent now, subliminal messages are not

speech that's covered by the first amendment. Interesting.

So you could be doing something. You could say something Mike fire in a

crowded room subliminally,

and it's not covered it's not protected speech. Wow. If you are not speaking

to a person rationally, if you are trying to speak directly to their subconscious, It

is not protected speech. Alright. So that is something to keep in mind for the

next episode. Good to know. Well, no. We

should hear a couple of more famous Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because there's a couple

different ways that people say that you hear subliminal messages. Yes.

Number 1 is is the quiet ones. So that's

beneath a louder thing. Get the flaps out. Or if you

listen to the end of, there's that Def Leppard song,

Oh, I don't wanna touch you too Love Bites. The Wendy of love Such

a good song. Yes. The end of Love Bites. Oh, right. It has that weird,

like, robot voice. Yeah. And it and this is what they said. It's

people said that Def Leppard goes, Jesus of Nazareth, go

to hell. What? That's what they said. I'll listen to that later. But listen to

Love Bites and see if you don't hear that at the very end of the

song. That's bizarre. Now I have no idea why Death Leppard who had

no, like, they weren't evil at all. They were just the guys. They were

the the only evil they were was that they would make love to you and

would not call you again. Like, that was the worst thing about Def Lab. The

only evil thing was that they used up too much Aqua Net. They're

not numb up for anyone else. Right. And they used all the condoms in your

tongue. Well, if you you watch that behind the music, those

guys, obviously owe child support all around the

world. Wow. And but the thing is, like, I have no idea

why deaf deaf leopard would say Jesus of Nazareth go to hell. But listen to

the end of that song and if you when people are looking for

subliminal messages, see if you don't hear it. Alright. And you can

hear that on the radio on any classic rock station any day. Oh, yeah. They

play it all the time. It's one of the the biggies. Off of Hysteria. The

big rock ballad. Love Bites. Love Mike.

It's so good, though. I love that song. It's a great song. No. That Hysteria

album is brilliant. I mean, this way and that, it's brilliant.

That particular song I just find pretty amazing. Sure. It was one of my

favorites too when I was a kid. So we should talk a little

bit. I mean, number 1, the Beatles used backward messages.

Oh, my gosh. Yes. There's there's subliminal messages buried

Paul. And there's backward messages. Right. Okay. So they're they're different

things, the subliminal versus the backwards. And, you know, I don't know about the

research on actually being able to process backmasking.

Because that that seems like a lot for a brain to be able to I

mean, don't don't get me wrong. I don't underestimate the power. The brain is a

miracle. It's a miracle. I mean, obviously, our brains are

amazing. Yes. They are. My brain, especially.

But to be able to take something that you hear backwards and,

like, even subliminally

translate it into something that makes sense. It's it's ridiculous. Right? Like Yeah. It

seems a bit much. I mean But let's okay. So Okay. I keep an open

mind. In The Beatles Revolution number 9, the idea was that because the whole the

whole Paul is dead thing. Mhmm. Right. And, you know, if this

was the days before the Internet, the days before TMZ, like, you would like, now

you see Paul McCartney going to the bathroom at some club. You know? Back in

the day, you would not get that kind of information. Legendary

credit. For papers. Right. You waited for something in the mail. You could be

a member of a fan club and you get something in the mail. That's true.

I would not wait for the mail today. On Facebook, you see a

30 Email. On Twitter in Twitter, you see a minute later. Right. You

know? So we should

listen to this one though, Britney Spears. Oh, yeah. And this is her

first big hit. Hit me baby one more time.

Yeah. Let's take a listen to it backwards And then backwards.

And then let's see what you think. Okay. Here we go.

So did you hear what she said? Oh, yeah.

Remember in that video, she was dressed like a school girl the whole thing? Mike,

the whole Oh, yeah. She had the, like, cool dance. Yeah. The group.

And our friend Dave used to carry around a picture of Britney Spears

in his wallet and tell everybody that was his girlfriend. That was before she was

popular. He's like, let's check out my girlfriend. Wendy all be like, oh my god.

Where is she? He's like, oh, she's not here tonight. Totes adorbs. It was totes

adorbs. Alright. So She was pretty hot back then, but I'm Mike,

you know, I don't know if that would make me wanna buy the album.

Well, if you play that song forward and you hear her sing, with you, I

lose my Mike, give me a sign. I hear that. Give

me a sign. Alright. But

if you play it reversed, apparently, and you

can be the judge. We just played it so you could Wendy.

Or yeah. Rewind. But it reversed. It

supposedly sounds like sleep with me. I'm not too young.

Oh, that's just so nice. You hear that. You totally hear that. It's a Yeah.

It really does sound like that. Think it has an effect on people, like, all

of a sudden being Mike jail bait's cool. No. I don't think so.

But I do think That's pretty weird. I think that that song

came of an age in the digital world where people could play things backwards and

forwards easily, and then you just heard it. So I don't know why they

would do that except they would oh, the people in Hollywood are

sick. Yeah. Like there you there's your answer.

How about another one, Mike? Okay. This this is the one, like, when I was

in 6th grade, people would be like, yeah. My mom won't let me listen to

Queen. And I'm Mike, Queen seemed like the

most inoffensive band. I mean, I know,

there's plenty of crazy stories about Queen, but they seem like the most inoffensive

band in the world. Right. And and especially with their songs. I mean, the

topics of their songs. Yeah. You're my best friend. Like, service level

experience. Like, you're my best friend Wendy like that, you know, a My Little

Pony song. We are the champions, my friend.

Indeed. So, but another

one bites the dust. Take a listen to it forward. Take a listen this is

the most famous one. Take a listen to it backward. Okay. Here we go.

Bites the dust. Ow. Another one bites the dust.

Another one bites the dust.

Yeah. You can hear it. I hear it. Mike, but do you

really think they were that calculated to try to say decide

to smoke marijuana? And why? I mean,

why would you take the effort to put that new song? Is

it I I just I can't think of anything that I I would want that

badly to No. And and, you know, Queen's one of the few

bands where every one of their members has been a

writer. Maybe it's the only band. Every one of their Mike has every one of

their members has been a writer on on a top hit That's That's amazing. Or

like a number one hit. So That's incredible. Yeah. I mean that's it literally is

incredible. And so but the thing that Roger

Taylor, when he wrote that bass riff and then he went you know, they did

this song, like, he's like, it's gonna be another one bites the dust, and then

backwards, it's gonna be decided to smoke marijuana because that's what we're

trying to do is we're trying to make people in America smoke the marijuana.

Like, they care if anybody smokes marijuana. You know? Like, Mike the How does it

even yeah. I don't know. So for so yes. Played backwards,

another one bites the dust. And it's It decides to smoke marijuana. Who

knew? I had no idea actually. And I love that song. Yeah. That's a

classic. Okay. The last one, Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven.

And this is Dude, no stairway. Can't you read the sign? Hey,

it's my podcast and I'm okay with stairway. Let's play

it out.

Okay. It'll be the exact opposite of the intention of the song

if they really wanted people to hear Mike sweet

Satan. Yes. You can hear that

backwards. Well, that's kinda cool actually. If you're, you know, from

the the standpoint of it's a piece of art going forward,

you're looking at Stairway to Heaven going backwards. What are you looking at? Right. You're

going down the hill. Right. So I mean It's a highway to hell. That I

kind of appreciate actually. Sure. It's kinda cool. A little little Easter egg in there.

It is. It's just I, you know, the like these things just

happen. Words are words. We have Wendy letters. We only have so many Yeah. You

know, phonetics and and that's just

the way it goes. But that's, you know, some that's I think this is the

most famous of them. So do we think these things really

work? I mean, my opinion is that they don't. Yeah. I

mean, especially the nature of the messages. I mean, they're not Mike telling

people Mike, go kill your parents or anything like that, you know. It's just kind

of little it's kind of fun stuff Mike it's Do

it. Do it. Get the flaps out.

That's hilarious. Yeah. Get the flaps out. So,

okay. The first studies that came about in the 19 fifties,

the drink Mike message at the movie theater. Yeah. Like Did it work? The

well, the initial scientist who came out and said, you know, that it

worked, he came out and he retracted the findings saying that the study was

faulty. What? But we do have, I mean, just

recently in in this past decade. So,

Princeton University's Joel Cooper

was had some television future viewers watching a program of the Simpsons

and put in subliminal messages related to thirst.

He found that the people actually got thirstier. That's interesting. He

published a paper in 2002 in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology,

and here's the quote. Our findings, along with a

growing body of research in social cognition, suggest that there might

be some truth to the suggestion that our motivational states are

affected and might even be caused by

preconsciously perceived stimuli. Woah.

Which means that his study His study works. His

study show that subliminal messages work. So while while I would say that's a silly

thing, the science actually says

different that we can be influenced by things that we

cannot perceive. Which is why it's good when the government actually says,

like, you you can't do that. I mean, on radio broadcast and

stuff. Sure. Because imagine you got your radio on and then it's

Mike. Right. It said things like, right, give

Mike a $100. Right. Or just like, I don't know. What

would it Subscribe to this podcast. Right. Review us on iTunes.

Yeah. I mean, I think it would be more like, pay

your taxes. I don't know. But no, that's what the government would say. I was

thinking about things like us saying things like No. Mike review us on iTunes. Right.

Which people should do anyway. Yeah. That's a great We really need you guys to

come on iTunes. If you guys are on iTunes and you're downloading it from

there, please leave a review. Pretty, pretty, pretty, please. I'll see you on the other

side. This is important because it helps spread the message to other people. It gets

more downloads. We're getting more downloads every week, and we wanna thank you for spreading

that message back. You guys are awesome. We're having a good time. We're getting really

good feedback, but leave a review on iTunes. Go

on. Just click 5 stars. Say that Mike and Wendy are the sexiest

mofos you've ever seen or not seen or listened

to. Mike and Wendy are sexy mofos. No. No. But seriously, if you guys

if you have I mean, it really it takes Mike 30 seconds maybe. You go

on there, because we don't even have enough reviews right now for people

to see an average review. Right. So we're so if it would

just mean a lot to us to have, It just

it just adds a lot. It adds a lot of things. It's important for the

promotion the podcast. Yeah. So And we're developing new things every day and new

members and and new people are listening, and getting even more

people is gonna make this more fun. We're gonna have great more Like the more

listeners we get, the cooler guests will join. Join the community. And the more

people will listen to sunspot songs, which is, you know, if you guys are sun

No. If you guys are Sunspot listeners That's right. You're helping us out too. We

heart you. So anyway, that's just a little bit, on subliminal

messages. And, well, we'll be back. Yes, we

will. And in the meantime, let's listen to some music. Okay. That sounds great,

Mike. And show notes can be found at othersidepodcast.com/14.

That's number 1414. And

please feel free to contact us. If you have any questions or ideas for future

shows at othersidepodcast.com/contact.

Today's song is a Sunspot original instrumental. We snuck in

a few subliminal messages in there for you. See if you can pick them

out. This one's called the long hammer.

Hard and hard every day.

Call your parents once a week.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. You can find us

online at othersidepodcast.com. Until next

Mike. See you on the other side.