Should They Watch It?
Ep. 11: Oh Yuck!
Laura and Kara discuss and review the tween hit, Oh Yuck!. First, the ladies discuss how their kids use their parenting tools against them. And then they dive deep into all things...Yucky! Finally, they tell their grossest stories, including the time Kara was certain her new husband was going to run for the hills! **Skip ahead to 18:23 to get straight to the review.**
Should They Watch It?
Kara - No
Laura - Yes
Pros
It teaches children about the things that people normally find disgusting.
Messages of working with nature, rather than against it, to solve problems with our bodies.
Lots of historical information about how society across the globe viewed and treated illness, ailments, and all things yucky.
Potential Issues
The female character isn’t as dynamic as the male characters, where she is set up to be more of a reactor. There are also misogynistic jokes about her throughout the show.
Lots of grossness. The ick factor is very high, so you will not enjoy this show if you are easily grossed-out. It’s also very exaggerated grossness that might be too overwhelming/overstimulating for younger kids.
There’s a monster in one episode: a Fatberg, that could be scary for younger children.
Laura and Kara discuss and review the tween hit, Oh Yuck!. First, the ladies discuss how their kids use their parenting tools against them. And then they dive deep into all things...Yucky! Finally, they tell their grossest stories, including the time Kara was certain her new husband was going to run for the hills! **Skip ahead to 18:23 to get straight to the review.**
Should They Watch It?
Kara - No
Laura - Yes
Pros
It teaches children about the things that people normally find disgusting.
Messages of working with nature, rather than against it, to solve problems with our bodies.
Lots of historical information about how society across the globe viewed and treated illness, ailments, and all things yucky.
Potential Issues
The female character isn’t as dynamic as the male characters, where she is set up to be more of a reactor. There are also misogynistic jokes about her throughout the show.
Lots of grossness. The ick factor is very high, so you will not enjoy this show if you are easily grossed-out. It’s also very exaggerated grossness that might be too overwhelming/overstimulating for younger kids.
There’s a monster in one episode: a Fatberg, that could be scary for younger children.
The views and opinions expressed by the should they watch it podcast are those of two moms who happen to be a registered play therapist and a voice actor for cartoons. So while they may feel their opinions come from a knowledgeable place, they are still in fact, just opinions. Should they watch it? a podcast that takes the task of reviewing your kid's favorite shows off your to do list.
Both:(singing theme to Oh Yuck!)
Laura Orr:That's probably the hardest one that we've gotten so far (referring to the song).
Kara Edwards:Welcome to our podcast. Should they watch it? I'm Kara Edward.
Laura Orr:I'm Laura Orr.
Kara Edwards:And today we're gonna be talking about a show called.
Both:Oh Yuck!
Laura Orr:I feel like we need like sound effects. Like a(makes a splash sound)
Kara Edwards:A big "toot"
Laura Orr:Yeah, a big fart. Exactly.
Kara Edwards:I feel like we should warn everybody that when we do the review today that there's going to be a lot of discussion about toots and burps and pimples and really gross stuff, because that is definitely the show.
Laura Orr:That is the show that we are reviewing this week. Definitely can turn some stomachs, if you're sensitive to it.
Kara Edwards:Alright, but before we jump into that, how are you?
Laura Orr:I'm good. It's been a week.
Kara Edwards:It's been a week. There's been a lot going on this week.
Laura Orr:Yeah, there's a lot going on. And fortunately, my oldest is bringing some light into the week or alleviating some stress with her behavior.
Kara Edwards:Okay, do tell.
Laura Orr:So Daphne - and I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this- is using some of my own communication styles and parenting skills against me. It's actually, in my opinion, fun to experience. I don't know, it might be annoying to some parents. But for me, I kind of love it.
Kara Edwards:So is this where, something that you tell her and then she she literally just uses it right back on you?
Laura Orr:Yes. So let me let me give you an example. She is turning around and using It's me, but not right away. So one example was, so I'm, I am an"if, then" kind of parent So, if you choose to bring your shoes in from the rain and dirty up the house, then you choose to have to clean up that big mess. If you choose to yell, then you choose to not have dessert, you know, things like that. So she's starting to do that with me. What's funny about it, is that she's kind of bad at it. I haven't told her the secret. And the secret is, if you do these kinds of this kind of "if, then" parenting, you have to follow up on a consequence. So if you're hitting your friends, we're gonna leave the playground, right? So if your kid keeps hitting their friend then you have to leave. You have to be able to follow through with the consequence that you have -
Kara Edwards:-of your actions. Actions have consequences. Oh, okay.
Laura Orr:Exactly. And so I have to back it up. So I can't And I'm like, "you're a liar" No hugs? You liar. So say we're gonna leave the playground and then she hits her friend and we don't leave the playground. She doesn't realize that her consequence is something she can't follow through with. So for example,(ask daphne) "if you don't let me watch more TV, I'm never hugging you again". that's been really fun hearing her consequences.
Kara Edwards:That's hilarious.
Laura Orr:Yeah, (as daphne) "if you don't let me have more candy. I'm never kissing you again", or "I'm never gonna snuggle with you". A lot of affectionate stuff. It's kind of fun to see what she picks up on. It's also fun to just see how her little child brain uses it within the context of what she understands.
Kara Edwards:So she's taking your style of discipline and of parenting, and she's like, "this is how I see you".
Laura Orr:Yes! And this is how I communicate my needs...by giving consequence. I wonder if she's using it against her friends now too. Like (as daphne) "if you don't share that crayon with me, then I'm never gonna talk to you again".
Kara Edwards:Oh, God, that's really funny.
Laura Orr:It's been really fun. I just love the child part of it.
Kara Edwards:I love when I see Michael saying things the way I would say them. Then, you have to like look at yourself and be like, "oh, man. Do I really talk like that?
Laura Orr:Like, you're inflection?
Kara Edwards:He'll do imitations of me all the time. The other day, we were getting ready to go to bed, and I'm like"you have school the next day, you need to be in bed." And he starts doing this thing where he'll be like, "Oh, gah! Come on, mom! Come on! Ah, God!" And I didn't know where he got that until one day I said it, and I was like, "are you? Were you making fun of...did you get that for me?" And he's like, "yeah, it's funny. You do it all the time". But I think with Michael, I think the thing that surprised me most than the past couple of weeks, he's such this old grumpy man. I haven't figured it out
yet. This is a great example:The last time I picked him up from school, we get in the car. He's super sweet. Says goodbye to his teacher. We walk around the corner, and he looks at me and he's like, "Oh, come on. That place is so boring." And I'm like, "Oh, snap. Really?" Let's get in the car. Tell me about it. And everything, he's so cranky. He's like, "they made us write our names like 200 times. And then we had to go over to the carpet like 21 times. And then they don't even let us build anything, because they just want us to do art all the time". And it's like he's this little cranky old man.
Laura Orr:He doesn't complain or voice his displeasure at school?
Kara Edwards:Apparently not. Apparently, he's super shy and super quiet at school. And the second I pick him up, he gets in the car and goes off.
Laura Orr:He just unloads.
Kara Edwards:Yeah, I took video, I'll show you a video. One day I took a video because I was like, "somebody's got to see what this kid is going off on". He's this cranky old man that's had his nine billionth day at work. He hates his boss.
Laura Orr:Oh, boy. I have bad news for Michael because he's just starting this journey.
Kara Edwards:Poor guy. Like we're already bitter and over at six.
Laura Orr:He's got at least 12 years, if he decides to stop there. Do you think it's just an adjustment? Or do you think he's gonna hate it forever?
Kara Edwards:Here's what I'll say. I don't know if it's an adjustment, or if this is something he would hate forever. But as his mom, he has my word, that I will find a way to make him love learning. Because he did love learning and he's always loved learning. So maybe it turns out that this is not the right environment for him. He learns differently. So maybe there's a different type of school that works better. Maybe homeschool works better for him. I think it's a process. But it's I feel like it's too early at this point to call it either way. I think we have a little bit more time to-
Laura Orr:-you do
Kara Edwards:He's got to come out of his shell. When he comes out of his shell, and everybody can see what like remarkably cool kid he is, then, if it still isn't working, then we can start looking into that.
Laura Orr:Right now he's gone full turtle.
Kara Edwards:Yeah. And then I get the full brunt of it when I pick him up. But then I listen to him, and just like with Daphne, I'm like, do I complain like that? I think it might be me.
Laura Orr:I mean, kids do a really good job of having us look at our own behaviors and habits.
Kara Edwards:I know I love my job so much that... I mean, he wouldn't hear me. I mean, there might be something every once in a while when I'm like, "Oh, this director was really hard on me". Maybe he's heard something like that, but not very often because I really like my job. He has heard me complain about other people's behaviors. I get very annoyed by other people's behavior sometimes.
Laura Orr:Well, I I think it's great that he is telling you how he feels about school.
Kara Edwards:I like that he talks to me. Let me say I would be so much more worried if he were getting in the car every day, and I was like, "how was it?" (as michael) "fine" "Are you making friends?" "no"
Laura Orr:That's what mine does, Kara.
Kara Edwards:No! I am gonna show you this video later. You're gonna be like, seriously? Mine goes off. Daphne doesn't say anything.
Laura Orr:Girl. No. You know how I got her to tell me about school yesterday?
Kara Edwards:How?
Laura Orr:Bribed her.
Both:(laughs)
Kara Edwards:With what?
Laura Orr:"You want dessert? You got to talk to me first. Tell me about your day." And then she bargained with me: (as Daphne) "How many things do I have to say?" "Three" And then she would tell me one thing. And then she'd go, "Okay, that's one. I got two more?" "Yeah, you got two more." "Okay."
Kara Edwards:Her attitude is everything. I don't know how you deal with it, but I love Daphne's attitude. Every time I've been around her. That girl is gonna rule this world. Daphne has had sass since minute one. She came out like, "Hey, I'm here. Here's what's up."
Laura Orr:She's got a big presence. And she is going to learn how to use her powers. And I just hope they're for good.
Kara Edwards:I feel like they are. She's gonna is gonna change the world.
Laura Orr:I hope so. I think she will
Kara Edwards:All that sass.
Laura Orr:She's either gonna do that or she's gonna burn it down.
Both:(laughter)
Laura Orr:No, she's got a good heart. I am thinking that because she's already practicing how to tell me off, she's gonna get good at it. One day, she's gonna give me a consequence, and I'm gonna be like, "wow, whoa, okay, then"
Kara Edwards:You're gonna start mindng once and for all
Laura Orr:I know, the tables will turn real fast. She did this other thing the other day. Where, again, it's this thing where she is practicing her social skills. The other day, she really walked away thinking she told me off. It was the cutest telling me all thing that she ever did. She didn't want to put her shoes away. So I told her, "you got to put your shoes away". (as Daphne) "Oh, you always make me do this kind of stuff". I'm like, "Girl, just put your shoes away. And then you can relax". (As Daphne)"Well, where do you expect me to put them? The shoe basket?" And just walked away? And the answer is yes. That's where they go. That's where they belong. That's exactly where they belong. But I think because her tone was so condescending, she was like "I told her"
Kara Edwards:And then she did it?
Laura Orr:Oh, yeah, she did it. And then we went about our day, but it was the most darling thing. I don't know. I'm charmed by her when she's defiant. Because it's in a very innocent, sweet, cute, Daphne way.
Kara Edwards:I know. It's she's super charming.
Laura Orr:Visit me in 10 years.
Kara Edwards:I was gonna say, there's gonna be some years coming up that I'm going to be fascinated to watch.
Laura Orr:I'll probably be a lot more exasperated 10 years. I think we both will. Oh, my gosh,
Kara Edwards:One of the biggest things that we've been talking about -some of the parents and I at school- that there is a difference between boys and girls, usually. Girls tend to make friends better. And boys tend to be like, you know, especially at this age. A lot of it has just been like, "well, that's just boy. They just don't know how to how to handle it". He's also a boy who's very clear about what he likes and doesn't like. His little brain just works slightly different. He's been that way since the minute he was born. The first time we all hung out with all the kids and I was like you "You're just a little different aren't you, man?" But in like the most remarkable way. I love how he works. It's gonna be really fascinating. I don't think he's going to be quite as easy as as I would have expected having a boy. I think he's going to come with big challenges of thoughts and emotions and goals and things that he wants to do.
Laura Orr:I could definitely see him throwing you off.
Kara Edwards:He already does, and he's six.
Laura Orr:I think all teenagers do that. You don't really know what you're gonna get when it comes to how they're going to develop during puberty.
Kara Edwards:Totally.
Laura Orr:But I could see Michael just being totally different.
Kara Edwards:I'd be I'd be interested hearing from our listeners whose kids are teenagers now. What has surprised you? What did you expect when they were five, six years old? And what now has been the thing that you're like,"man, I thought you are going to be..."
Laura Orr:You turned a corner?
Kara Edwards:I always joke that I don't see Michael being big into team sports and stuff like that. But he's also the kid that's probably going to break in and reprogram the entire school's computer system. I gave him a fire tablet and he reprogrammed it at five. But he may surprise me and be...who knows?
Laura Orr:I think the world is becoming a lot more welcoming of the technical genius type of brain.
Kara Edwards:I mean, I'm okay with a technical genius. It's a little complicated right now cuz I've had to learn an awful lot about Pokemon and Bakagone and beyblades. Honestly, a lot of it is fun. Some of it I'll never understand.
Laura Orr:I have walked into the house, and he's playing video games. And it is really tempting to not want to sit down next to himand just grab a controller.
Kara Edwards:He's fun to play with. He gets really into it, and then he'll hand you the remote and be like, "I'm panicking. Do it. Do it for me."
Laura Orr:I would gladly. Maybe I should come over and play with him.
Kara Edwards:Yeah, he and Zack.
Laura Orr:I love his brain. I think he's gonna turn into a teenager and do things that you have no reference to pull from from your own childhood. Do you know what I mean?
Kara Edwards:Totally. When I was a kid, we rode bikes in the street.
Laura Orr:Well, your animals are alive.
Kara Edwards:(laughs) I did have an unusual childhood.
Laura Orr:I think your childhood has yet to be-
Kara Edwards:-we have not fully explored.
Laura Orr:We've scratched the surface of-
Kara Edwards:-growing up in a farm with a taxidermist father in West Texas.
Laura Orr:I think we should have storytime one time on the podcast where you just bring a story to us. Settle down, everybody.
Kara Edwards:We can do this.
Laura Orr:I think we should.
Kara Edwards:Okay We're diving right into
Both:Oh, Yuck.
Kara Edwards:Every time the pimple pops on the very opening scene, Michael would go "Yeah!" Okay, so we're gonna start off with Laura. Should they watch it?
Laura Orr:I am going to give it a very selfish Yes.
Kara Edwards:We have so much to discuss.
Laura Orr:Kara. Should they watch it?
Kara Edwards:I am surprising myself with my No.
Laura Orr:(gasps) Is this your first No?
Kara Edwards:No, It's not my first No. I went into it with Yes. I actually found this show because Michael found it first. Which is often the case because my little computer genius can find everything. So, he turns it on, and he's watching it, and I watched a little bit with him, and I'm like, "yeah, this seems perfectly fine." It was Episode Four, I believe, that our world changed.
Laura Orr:Oh, yeah?
Kara Edwards:This was before you and I had discussed reviewing the show. I wanted to review the show cuz I want an excuse to sit down and watch the entire thing. Episode four hit, and we'll talk more about it at length later, but something on there scared him to pieces. So bad
Laura Orr:He got scared
Kara Edwards:I'm not even talking a little scared. I'm talking we're like a month and a half into this fear. This is now the Boogey Man in our home.
Laura Orr:What's the Boogey Man(on the show)?
Kara Edwards:Let's tell everybody what the show is? Laura, go ahead.
Laura Orr:The show Oh, Yuck is inspired by the book, Oh,
Yuck:The Encyclopedia of everything nasty by Joy Masoff. IMDb's description of it is"it's a fast paced, fact laden laugh out loud narrative comedy series for 11 to 13 year-old-kids. That mixes live action with animation to explore the science behind all things ooey gooey, slimy and mucky. Each episode focuses on one gross topic". I have not seen this very often that the IMDb description provides the age range for it.
Kara Edwards:I know, and I love that they did that. It's my fault that as a parent, I did not check that before my six year old dove into it, because I do agree. We did go back and watch the rest of season one that we have on Netflix. We did go back and watch the other episodes. And he loved them. He had a blast with them. So the one was scary, and I understand why. But I do agree with little bit older kids.
Laura Orr:I think so too. And we can talk about that for sure. Because I think that is the sweet spot 11 to 13. I think it's a really good age for this show. And aside from that, there's also a subplot where we watch these villains, the O'Cleans. they send a girl, Pristine, to work for the main character whose name is Septico. He's the the scientist who owns the lab basically. That's not in the IMDb description. The setting is in a lab, owned by a scientist named Septico and he is running a bunch of experiments that involve nasty stuff.
Kara Edwards:Farts and burps
Laura Orr:Pimples and spiders. So in the meantime, there are these villains, the O'Cleans and they send a girl to work for him and steal his experiments so that they can turn around and use his experiments to make a profit for themselves.
Kara Edwards:The little subplot is fun. When we get to what's problematic, I want to discuss something that really bothered me about the subplot. I had a couple of things that really bothered me.
Laura Orr:Will get to that for sure. There's one season, 26 episodes, but only 13 of them are available right now in the US. And that's through Netflix.
Kara Edwards:I saw online that it's also on Prime video. But then when I went to try to get it on Prime video, it's not there.
Laura Orr:And you know, what's so disappointing. It's the other 13 episodes. So the 13 episodes you can watch on Netflix-
Kara Edwards:-are actually season two. Or maybe they mix them up because when I was trying to look... or maybe it's like you said it's just 13, maybe 26 episodes in one season.
Laura Orr:Well, that would make a good point. Maybe it is 13 episodes a season and Netflix has one, Amazon Prime has another, but you can't see the one on Amazon Prime. You can't watch it from the US. I think you can watch it if you live in Australia, probably, because that's where this is set in. Each one's 22 minutes long. I think you can also watch it through VUDU, the available episodes.
Kara Edwards:Whatever season it starts on, it does start correctly where we're introduced to Pristine. Septico is wanting to hire a mechanical engineer to come in and help with his experiments. She comes in right off the bat, they establish "You don't look like a mechanical engineer" cause she's a girl. We're gonna get to that later. And then she immediately is like, "haha, I'll show you" and she shows everybody that she can do the stuff and that she's a genius, mechanical engineering genius. What I found interesting throughout all 13 episodes, she didn't do a whole lot. She kind of just follows them around and her job is to basically be the reactor, which as a female actor is my number one biggest pet peeve. When I see shows or movies that have female characters, and their whole job is to be like, "Oh, that's gross!" And I wanted her to do more. It reminded me so much of the movie Galaxy Quest, where were the female characters is like, "I have one job!" and her job is to repeat the computer."I'm just here and you're gonna do my job". That was Pristine. Pristine was just there to be like, "I'm here to let the male lead be zany".
Laura Orr:She definitely that person that reacts and she dilutes the grossness.
Kara Edwards:She's a fun character. And she does a great job in this role. All of her fun facial expressions. The facial expressions are really fun from all the actors. And what they do is, there's a lot that's live action. They have Muppet type characters. The things around his lab are all very interactive. There's a nose on the wall that talks, and there's a bodyless, man, it's just a head that talks. The pile of laundry is alive and talks and they're kind of like puppet characters. And then when they want to go into a lesson, which I did actually time it. We were halfway through our first episode when we actually did learn something. And that was, why do our noses have snot? How do we fight viruses? And they kind of go into these cartoon segments? That's where the lessons are. Like, "Here we'll go. We're gonna go back in history and learn something about this gross thing."
Laura Orr:Then they return back to the lab. I really liked the lab setting. It reminded me of a Pee Wee's Playhouse meets Beakman's World. I was giving getting very heavy like vibes from that. Even the closing music, because the opening music's different from the closing music. The closing music was giving me Tim Burton-type... Beetlejuice...Edward Scissorhands (sings)I was getting a very heavy nostalgia for the weirdness of the early 90s TV shows/movies. I was getting heavy feelings about that. So I think that was the selfishness part for me when I said, Yes. I was really enjoying that nostalgia. Without them directly nodding. And some of the reviews I read, people kind of were mentioning that too. So there was some intentional. This kind of show belongs in the 90s. The problems that I think I had also were some of the dated components to it. And so Pristine as a character definitely embodies some of that.
Kara Edwards:And I was surprised because it came out in 2017 in Australia. It's not like this was made in the 90s when this would be appropriate. So I was like, maybe things are culturally still a little different. I don't know. I've been to Australia, but not long enough to be able to tell you anything. That bothered me a whole lot with her character. I wanted her to just be a little more, do a little more. She was being used by all the men in her life because the O'Clean sent her down there to steal the inventions from Septico. And yet he was like, "smell my fart .Be my be my sidekick." She had to prove herself to be part of the gang. There was a point where she farted or something. And they were like, "Haha, you're now officially part of our gang". I felt like nobody learned from her. She had to learn how to fit in with them.
Laura Orr:They didn't really pick up any of her habits did they?
Kara Edwards:I've never thought of myself as a feminist. But I started watching this and this little feminist inside me started coming out. That's not right.
Laura Orr:So if you could adopt Pristine and enrich her character, what are some things you would do?
Kara Edwards:I would probably tell her that she needs to go and start her own company because she's the mechanical genius. And instead of letting the O'Clean and Septico use all of her incredible skills and talent that she has both naturally and learned. She should go start her own company and start her own inventions and leave those boys by the wayside. That's what I'd tell her if she was my daughter. And also quit letting those boys fart and burp on you. The farts were getting to me, man.
Laura Orr:there was a lot of intrusive bodily function scenes where people were just being intruded upon.
Kara Edwards:Also their bathroom really bothered me, which I understand. They had an entire episode about poop. The bathroom had these old-fashioned saloons, swinging doors. I'm like, "if he's in there doing his business, then everybody's got to sit and watch. If she needs to do her business, everybody's got to sit and watch.
Laura Orr:Do you find yourself a little bit like Pristine?
Kara Edwards:Maybe so. Maybe I'm identifying to- (laughs) I do live in a small house with a lot of children and a husband.
Laura Orr:You're like, she deserves a closed door! The bathroom is for privacy! Why aren't they giving her privacy?? And why won't somebody clean the laundry?
Both:(laughs)
Kara Edwards:They just sit there. It's so old, it's talking. Why can't any of those boys do anything to help her?
Laura Orr:Maybe she is there to represent the parent in all of us.
Kara Edwards:Maybe that's why she has her own tiny little area that's like her office that she goes into and it's pristine and clean. And I just realized because we're sitting in my shed.
Laura Orr:How sad is that feeling though that the world is not for her and so she has to-
Kara Edwards:Yeah, she doesn't fit in with the O'Cleans and she doesn't totally fit in with him. And the whole weird thing about all of it is apparently they're all related. They're cousins, I guess
Laura Orr:yeah. Septico and Pristine are cousins.
Kara Edwards:Did you get any weird tension from Septico to pristine? That also bothered me a lot where I was like, I feel like he's hitting on her all the time, and they don't really address that she's his cousin.
Laura Orr:Well, he doesn't know
Kara Edwards:he doesn't know
Laura Orr:Which allows for that weird tension. I just don't even want that to be part of the story. I like that they're cousins because then it removes any of that weird dynamic. Septico should know.
Kara Edwards:Septico should know.
Laura Orr:Why won't she tell him?
Kara Edwards:I don't understand. She's also super clean. She's wearing her white lab coat.
Laura Orr:She kind of looks like too, Kara.
Kara Edwards:Does she? Maybe this is why I'm bothered.
Both:(laugh)
Laura Orr:She's given a raw deal.
Kara Edwards:She is given such a raw deal.
Laura Orr:She does put herself there. The reason she's there is so that she can own the O'Clean company.
Kara Edwards:Yes. She has goals but I don't get the sense that she's headed in that direction. Maybe that's the missing 13 episodes and maybe I would change my mind completely about all of this.
Laura Orr:Would it be hilarious if there's amazing character development in the next 13?
Kara Edwards:all of a sudden she comes to life and takes what's hers and stops messing with these ridiculous boys that don't respect her.
Laura Orr:Septico takes a shower. Everyone respects her boundaries.
Kara Edwards:Now this is a show I'm in for.
Laura Orr:What we do with her storyline? You're right, there is a manic pixie dream girl vibe to her (without the romantic interest unless you want to think maybe Septico has a crush on her).
Kara Edwards:The tension made me feel weird. I have a little boy. I feel like I'm in for the poop and toots, and snot and all of it. We were three fourths through the first episode when I actually physically gagged for the first time. I grew up on a farm, I can handle some poop. I am not worried about these things. It was so gross. There was flinging snot. The nose on the wall kept sneezing, and the amount of snot that kept being flung...I physically gagged.
Laura Orr:They do not hold back, which is why I think it's hilarious that IMDb says "11 to 13" because they're like, if you're 30 and watching this and you're grossed out by it, we told you 11 to 13".
Kara Edwards:When think about like what a tiny window that is?
Laura Orr:It's a tiny window. 11 to 13. Usually you would think 12+. No, if you're older than 13, you're not gonna like That is a good age for them. It is such a visual this. show. The yuck is very, very prominent. It's not just a
Kara Edwards:You're not gonna like it. little pimple, it's a huge, oversized pimple. The yucky things are super exaggerated, and so for the younger crowds, I Yeah, that makes sense. So that's what happened to us in think it would be too overwhelming for them. For example, my daughter is a dreamer. I didn't let her watch this with me because I had a feeling, and i still stand by that, that if she watched this, that overwhelming quality of the show would definitely give her nightmares.I think that in whatever way your child realizes or processes things that are episode four is Michael saw the episode, and in this episode overwhelming, I think it would happen to a child that's younger there is a fatberg. if you watch this show. Which is a real thing. Yeah. They have a plumber that comes, in he's cleaning up the stopped-up toilet. This thing starts coming up through the pipes and starts to come out of the toilet. And this super misogynistic, chauvinistic, horrible, plummer of a human. This character they have on the show that keeps referring to Pristine as "little darlin and little girl" and all this stuff. "Hey, little lady". I hated him
Laura Orr:Even when he turned into a spider?
Kara Edwards:Even when he turned into as spider. Even when he got eaten.
Laura Orr:Can I just say that a fatberg- for those listening- is a rock-like mass of waste matter in a sewer system formed by the combination of flushed non biodegradable solids such as wet wipes, and fat, oil, and grease.
Kara Edwards:Everything in the show is based on reality. So the fatburg which my son heard as fat blob.
Laura Orr:They did personify the fatberg. It's a monster.
Kara Edwards:Yes. So it's so comes up out of the toilet. It's really big. This plumber character (and everybody else) he started saying "it's back. This is the worst ever. Our lives are over. It's gonna eat us". And everybody's super super scared of this thing. And it's huge. It's like floor to ceiling. And it is made out of fat and baby wipes that the O'Cleans had flushed down the toilet. So Michael see this, gets so upset, turns off the TV, absolutely loses his mind. Is in there screaming crying. Goes and hides. That night, he goes to bed and has his first fatburg nightmare. The second night, would not get into bed because he was so scared of having another. So I had to come up with a an essential oil solution.
Laura Orr:What? Yeah, like a monster spray?
Kara Edwards:Yep, specifically for fatbergs. We used rose hip oil, a little lavender and a little frankensense.
Laura Orr:For those who need this for when they're children watch this.
Kara Edwards:If your children accidentally stumble into a show. We put it in with some water and we mixed it up. He made me spray-as he put it, specifically- every hole in our house.
Laura Orr:How long did that take?
Kara Edwards:It took a minute. We had to spray every drain, every toilet, he made me spray his entire bedroom. And then, by sheer coincidence, I sprayed him because he said "you need to spray me". And about five minutes later, he had to poop. And he said to me, "this is because I ate corn dogs for dinner, which are full of fat. I thought you were just making all of this up to try to make me feel better. And now that I see how my own body is reacting to the fat blob spray, you're not kidding"
Laura Orr:He was just going along with it?
Kara Edwards:He knew I was lying.
Laura Orr:Wait. So he believes in fatbergs still, and he's like, "okay, mom's doing this. So I'm just gonna go along with it even though I they're totally still real."
Kara Edwards:"Totally know that they're real, and what she's doing right now is trying to just make me go to bed". He's a super smart kid. Totally knew. But when\it made the fat go through him, he knew his mom could take care of business. We got it done. So I had to spray that stuff every night for two weeks before he finally stopped having nightmares about the fatberg.
Laura Orr:He had nightmares for two weeks?
Kara Edwards:Yes, I was having to spray it constantly. In fact, when he saw that this was the show that you and I were going to be reviewing and I told him"I'm gonna have to watch this", he went into hysterics and was like "No, you cannot". But he was scared for me to watch it. He's like "mom, it will it will change your life. It is so scary. You can not watch this fat blob". So that's why we watched the other episodes together. He's too young. Everything became toots and burps and he thought it was so funny. And it's just kind of inappropriate and gross humor.
Laura Orr:It's overwhelming. I like that you guys sat down and watched the rest of it so he could have a resolution.
Kara Edwards:Yeah, it's like, it's not it's not that scary. And we made it all the way through. There's a birthday episode at the end with Pristine and I'll save the big spoiler.
Laura Orr:(laughs)
Kara Edwards:My bitterness is so real. We know you didn't like it. Do you think parents will like it? I found it entertaining. And there's a lot of shows reviewed that I if I'm being really honest, I have a hard time focusing on and it wasn't content that I enjoyed. But (Oh Yuck!) absolutely kept my attention.
Laura Orr:I think if you have a weak stomach, this is not the show for you. There's only one episode that I saw that wasn't all that gross. And it was that parasitic zombie episode. Do you remember that one?
Kara Edwards:Yes, I do.
Laura Orr:That was actually one of my favorites, but didn't know that the legend of zombies came from Haiti.
Kara Edwards:Ah, okay.
Laura Orr:So one thing I really appreciate about this show was the information, the history. One thing that they also do is they talk about disease, and they will talk about what past cultures or civilizations did to treat these diseases. And those things are wild. That was really fun to learn. And then telling the origin of certain things. Like I said, that zombies came from a story in Haiti, and that reaches the entire globe, which I think it's cool to learn the origin of that.
Kara Edwards:There's a lot of history in it that's really interesting. There's a lot where you have moments like "Is that real"? And I looked a couple of them up and they are real.
Laura Orr:We're going to talk about some of them. We have to. There are people out there who like watching people's pimples get popped on YouTube.
Kara Edwards:Oh, that's such a thing.
Laura Orr:If you stay up at night watching those weird videos of people getting stuff dug out of them or popped out of them or whatever, this is definitely the show for you. When I was, sthinking of the history of the way people would try to solve problems vs how we do now. The common cold and all that stuff, like what they would do. And it made me start to wonder, would I have survived in a different time? Am I perfect where I'm at right now? Because maybe if I had been born 200 years ago, I probably would be dead already. That made me wonder about that.
Kara Edwards:These are deep therapist thoughts?
Laura Orr:I had a lot of deep thoughts. Do you think you would have survived if you'd live in a different time? And if not, how would you have died?
Kara Edwards:I feel like my answer is no, even though I'd like to think of myself as really strong. I'm going to say no, and I'm gonna say probably burned at some stake somewhere.
Both:(laugh)
Laura Orr:You would have died a political death.
Kara Edwards:Like I would have been one of those like, falsely accused witches or something.
Laura Orr:Like a Salem witch?
Kara Edwards:Yeah, cuz I would have been putting essential oils into a bottle to get rid of fat blobs for my kid. And they would have been like, "treasonous".
Laura Orr:Every time she's sprays this on me, I poop!
Kara Edwards:I want to hear yours.
Laura Orr:So my only one I could think of was I had ear infections as a kid. I don't know if there was a solution for that back then. I think my parents would have gotten mad at me and left me on the road somewhere.
Kara Edwards:We do learn about penicillin in Oh, Yuck!
Laura Orr:So I don't know how they treated people who had bad ear infections, or if they survived or what?
Kara Edwards:They just put them out to the ocean and floated them off.
Laura Orr:My husband had pneumonia when he was two, and so I was thinking about that a lot about how he would have probably died. It's just interesting to think about that when that came up for me when we were watching this.
Kara Edwards:Fascinating thought.
Laura Orr:It's interesting, right? I love how you turn it into a "no, i would be murdered".
Both:(both laugh)
Kara Edwards:That's okay. It feels right.
Laura Orr:Joan of Arc over here. Joan of Arc, the witch. Oh my gosh. So okay, well, kids like it?
Kara Edwards:I mean, yeah, it's it's burps and farts. If they're younger, skip the scarier episodes.Maybe the one about spiders, maybe the one about the fat blobs. There's stuff in there that Michael was cracking up about. Older kids, if they're old enough to handle a pile of baby wipes coming out of a toilet they'll be fine.
Laura Orr:It's hard sometimes to put my brain inside of an 11 to 13 year old. So when I watch it, I'm like, ugh, then I'm like, okay, if I'm 11, I'm loving it.
Kara Edwards:This is awesome and hilarious.
Laura Orr:What will they learn? I do think there is a noble intent here. I think they really do want the viewers to turn towards these naturally occurring phenomenon rather than turn away from it, which is what our inclination is to do, because these things are gross. I think they push this idea that nature nurtures us and to become repulsed by it and to fight it Fungus can be good, and here's why. They talked about ultimately works against us, which is why the O'Cleans are perfect villains for the show. They make a point to let us know that when O'Cleans get sick, they get very sick, because everything has to be bleached. The O'Cleans are very intent on despising the gross side of nature, while also acknowledging that they need it, as much as they hate to admit it. Which is why they have Pristine invading his lab. They also will say that, salt and water is the future of medicin: gargling salt water. It's a very basic concept of returning to nature. beneficial fungus. And without fungus, the lab shuts down. The lab runs on fungus. We run on at grossness. Our bodies are gross. You know what I mean? And so I appreciated that. I learned the craziest stuff. One of my favorite things that I had no idea about, was patient zero from bird flu.
Kara Edwards:Oh, that was fascinating.
Laura Orr:The origin of that. Birds were getting colds. I don't know if they always had colds, but there was a cold or flu being passed around from bird to bird and a chicken fighter sucked the snot out of his chickens to help them fight better. And that is how it was transferred to humans. Blew my mind.
Kara Edwards:There was a lot of fun facts like that.
Laura Orr:Goats spider? Can we talk about that? I didn't know that scientists mixed the genes of goats and spiders so that they can extract webs out of goat milk that are bulletproof. You can make clothing out of spider webs that is bulletproof. I read these articles because I went down a deep dark hole. But the thing that really bothered me was that these articles were all written 10 years ago. So, I need an update. Nobody's wearing bulletproof...I don't see police officers with spider clothes on or anything so I need to know what happened. And I'm wondering if this is a bad sign. Did something happen?
Kara Edwards:Maybe it didn't work.
Laura Orr:Did the goat get spidery and start attacking people? Did we have a goat- spider hybrid? You know what I mean? Did something go bad in the lab?
Kara Edwards:Wow. I feel like hanging out with you late at night is a trip. (laughs)
Laura Orr:Put this show in front of me. My God. I'm scaring Kara. You know what I mean? Ten years ago!
Kara Edwards:You really took this and ran with it.
Laura Orr:Nothing has happened since then. Where are our web clothes? Did they have to shut it down? And why? To be determined. Now you might know why I like this show.
Kara Edwards:I'm starting to understand
Laura Orr:Okay, what's problematic? we've we've definitely talked about the fact that it's frigging gross.
Kara Edwards:It's super gross. I didn't like the misogynistic humor. That's just me. I wanted Pristina just do more. Be more.
Laura Orr:They definitely didn't take a lot of time developing that character. They could have done better for sure.
Kara Edwards:And then some of the scary stuff. I mean, honestlywhen I watched the fat blob episode. I was like, Okay, I get it. I get why this scared him so bad because they really overplayed the...the thing ate people. He ate the plumber which was fine because I hated the plumber.
Laura Orr:The plumbers problematic.
Kara Edwards:The plumber I found to be problematic. I get that that's the character. I get that he's being funny with the whole like, "hey there little lady"
Laura Orr:and the only way his character works is if Pristine
Kara Edwards:Just like "stop calling me that" is there.
Laura Orr:And being disgusted by him. That character only works if somebody is pointing out that he sucks, right? And Septico is not going to do it.
Kara Edwards:What's the point?
Laura Orr:Another thing is the robot has a problematic name in my opinion.
Kara Edwards:Derpy?
Laura Orr:I think that word is offensive.
Kara Edwards:Is it? Okay. This is my own naivite right now.
Laura Orr:I think it is either there or it's on its way. I don't think that's gonna age very well.
Kara Edwards:Good to know. I didn't really love that character either. That was another one that I could have done without. He was annoying. I found like he would just come in and not really contribute very much. The fact that the lab was alive was fun. But that character, I didn't love them.
Laura Orr:Maybe you've already answered this question, but what was like the grossest thing that you saw on the show?
Kara Edwards:For me, hands down, was the snot?
Laura Orr:Episode 1
Kara Edwards:That was the one that I physically gagged. I was sitting in a hotel room outside of Austin, Texas for work watching this because I knew we were going to be reviewing it. And I physically started gagging and almost couldn't recover through the episode. I don't know why either. I knew it was fake. I knew this was Nickelodeon slime. This wasn't real snot. Something in it just got me. I think that was my thing. What about you?
Laura Orr:Um, I was not really happy seeing Septico eating his own dandruff. Or eating somebody else's dandruff? I don't even think it was his own.
Kara Edwards:No, it wasn't. It was some that Derpy had found and put on his head. And then he started eating it.
Laura Orr:That was bad. They do an episode on yucky foods from around the world. That one was so hard to watch. They eat deep fried spiders, soup made from bird saliva.
Kara Edwards:The bird saliva got me.
Laura Orr:Gelatinized moose nose. I think it's the nostalgic element to it and the fascinating information that they had.
Kara Edwards:There was some good stuff to learn in there.
Laura Orr:There really was a lot of interesting facts in there that I had no idea about. And so I really did appreciate that.The show's not meant for me. 11 to 13. They're not trying to make this for me.
Kara Edwards:For me, I didn't like it. And then I know it really scared Michael.
Laura Orr:So the ick factor. It's only for 11 to 13 year olds.
Kara Edwards:I'm going to be very interested in what our listeners think about this one and if you have 11 to 13 year olds, did they love it? You asking what the grossest thing we saw on the show, I think you'd mentioned talking about this. And now I super want to. What is the grossest thing you have, like, witnessed or been a part of?
Laura Orr:Oh, that's a good question. Do you have one?
Kara Edwards:I do.
Laura Orr:You go first.
Kara Edwards:I thought of this actually, while we were talking. This is the grossest thing that I have ever experienced. I did this to my poor new husband.
Laura Orr:Oh, this was recently!
Kara Edwards:Yes, we were dating. It was right before we got married. It was when the pandemic had begun and we had a serious fly problem in the backyard. So, I went and bought all of those fly traps. They were the ones that are bags that have fly juice in them. I don't know what it is. For how long are they in there? It's something that smells bad that attracts
Laura Orr:Fly juice? flies. I hung them up all the way around the backyard. And we Probably a couple weeks. We get over to the carport. And I'm were going out to pick them up and I was being the anti-Pristine in that I was like, "I can do it. I'm fine". I like, "No, no, no, I got it". And I'm up on the stool. He's was still in single mom headmode. I'm taking all these flytraps down, and he's holding the bag so that we can put them in this bag. These are disgusting. Each one is full of maybe 5-600 dead flies that have been congealing or whatever they do when they die? l standing just below me, holding the bag, waiting for me. I'm undoing this twisty tie. And I have this thought of "I need to move. If this thing were to just fall, that would be terrible" So I need to move slightly. I move slightly, and when I did, the rest of the twisty tie comes undone. A bag of 1000s of rotten flies in fly juice, comes sailing down, hits the driveway. Splashes up, Zach. Up onto me, but really soaks him. I'm talking, it exploded. A key part of the story I forgot to mention was that while we were out doing all of this, we found a squirrel that the cat had helped move on to his next life.(laughs)
Kara Edwards:In this bag of multiples flies is also a dead squirrel. At this point, I learned that my husband can scream like, as they would say, like a girl, sorry. Just high-pitched like you wouldn't believe. He throws the bag. He's gagging because it is the worst smell I've ever smelled. I've never smelled anything that bad. I ended up having to buy so much baking soda in the biggest bulk boxes you've ever seen in your life to spread all over the cars and driveway and everything. My studio. Everything had to be covered. We both had to shower twice. All of our clothes were basically just in the trash. It was the worst smell and the grossest thing I have ever experienced. It's a miracle we got married.
Laura Orr:I feel like you just described an episode of Oh Yuck.
Kara Edwards:Now we've found out why I'm a no is because I'm just triggered.
Laura Orr:So it's triggering memories. It traumatized your child. How can you recover? The first episode is snot and you gag right away. And you relate to Pristine and felt like she being stomped on. I see all your reasons. The fly gel. I just don't even know. I don't even know.
Kara Edwards:It was so bad. I can still smell, even when I tell the story. It all comes back visceral.
Laura Orr:You have an olfactory memory.
Kara Edwards:Trauma for days.
Laura Orr:For me, there are several that I just don't want to tell, because they involve children or dogs putting certain things into their mouth.
Kara Edwards:No can do
Laura Orr:I feel like that's kind of gaggy. So I'll go with when I had chickenpox. I was five. and this is get really revealing a lot about me. I am somebody who likes to YouTube people's pimples getting popped. Another reason why I probably love this show. Anyways, I had an infected chicken pock on my foot. I just could not stop playing with it.
Kara Edwards:Oh, Laura.
Laura Orr:It grew to be very big and it had a crater in it that would gather up all the things in...puss. I had to say the P word. I'm sorry.
Kara Edwards:Yeah, it's fine.
Laura Orr:It would accumulate puss, and then I would extract the puss all the time. It was really fun for me.
Kara Edwards:Do you have a scar?
Laura Orr:Oh, yeah. Right here. Let me see. See a little pink dot? I would just play with it all the time and it got real liquidy is all I'm saying.
Kara Edwards:That's really disgusting.
Laura Orr:Yeah, it was me and my special chicken pock. We had a really good time for a couple weeks and then it was over and I still think about it to this day. Is that gross enough?
Kara Edwards:It's super gross. I think between fly gel and puss crater, I think we're good.
Laura Orr:I think it's good that we stayed away from gaggy kinds of things.
Kara Edwards:cuz I'm sure nobody's disgusted at all.
Laura Orr:No we're not. By the way I shower every day for anyone who thinks I'm gross.
Kara Edwards:Didn't you walk in here and say I haven't showered?
Both:(laugh)
Laura Orr:You're right! I haven't showered today.
Kara Edwards:Lies
Laura Orr:I'm such a liar. But to be fair, my kids sick.
Kara Edwards:You get a pass.
Laura Orr:Only one of us can shower today: me or her. I chose her. We gotta go.
Kara Edwards:We gotta go.
Laura Orr:I gotta go take a shower.
Kara Edwards:All right. Follow us on all the things. Review our things.
Laura Orr:Thank you guys for listening. I hope you're still listening. I'm so sorry. Hopefully, we didn't make anyone vomit.
Kara Edwards:If this is your last episode with us, thank you for having been here.
Both:(laugh)