第249期:万圣节特辑-妈耶,邻居怪蜀黍半夜举着电锯追小孩儿
日期:2021-10-28 11:30

(单词翻译:单击)

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Hello everyone and welcome back to America Under the Microscope, advanced episode. Hi, Lulu.

Hi James.

So we're going to continue talking about Halloween.

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Yes.

So let's start off and talk about... well media, TV and movies, especially TV. Because in America if you watch TV in the month of October, you'll be noticing like Halloween themed everything.

It's like a Halloween Special in all of the sitcoms, all of the comedy especially.

Yeah, so like dramas will do a Halloween episode like, here's the common things like a medical drama, they have like oh no, this patient looks like he's been bit by a vampire.

When it turns out to be something really mundane, like the ER during Halloween.

So you get people dressed up as witches to coming with problems.

Modern Family which was very popular few years back.


Modern family Claire, one of the moms, she always said about her favorite holiday is Halloween and they always go to great lengths to decorate their house. It has a lot of money spent on that house.

That's true reflection of real life because there are people in America who are just like her.

They will go all out on Halloween. They will put up decorations in the yard, they'll put up lights so pretend to be a...like a scarecrow on the porch and jump out to children to scare them.

Just for the fun of it?

Just for the fun, I had a neighbor when I was a kid living in Texas, we had a guy that used to run around with a chainsaw to scare the children.

I think that's just some weirdos.

He took the chain off so it was completely like it just making the sound. But he put on the mask like Jason from Friday the 13th, and he go “der...rr” and chase the kids.

That sounds like the neighborhood weirdo honestly.

This was back in the 80s so that's kind of aging me a little bit.

But it's one of those things, isn't? It is people like to participate it's fun. The TV shows and all these media platforms they like to milk that because it's a very colorful theme.

It's great way in mandatory fun.

I'm sure a lot of our listeners have that question, where do they get those stuff?

Walmart, Halloween has really become a very commercialized holiday, and they show these things on TV and that ends up being for sale in the shops and people buy them.

So if you went into a Walmart in America, anytime in October or any department store or, anything like that, Halloween Halloween...Halloween costumes, Halloween candy, Halloween decoration, Halloween music, Halloween colors which are orange and black and red.

It's just a big commercial opportunity. They will create and make all of these frivolous things that people would just buy for fun.

And it begins the holiday onslaught of America, because you got October 31st Halloween, few weeks later you have Thanksgiving, month after that you have Christmas, and then you have New Year's Day.

So in America, it's like October will be Halloween, Halloween, Halloween; switch, thanksgiving, thanksgiving, thanksgiving; switch, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. I like, you know some people can kind of burned out by that.

Yes, but others probably like a bit of fun, especially as it's getting colder.

Or you do what I did and wait till the November 1st to buy your Halloween candy at 80% discount.

It sounds like such a cheapskate.


But I always remember one of my favorite Halloween specials’ episodes are probably still on the Simpsons, remember we talked about the Simpsons, the Treehouse of Horror.

Those were great.

That's a classic now.

Especially the older ones from many years ago.

They do a lot of parodies.

Yeah, that's all of these, making like classic Horror Tropes, classic Horror Films and Simpson filing in them.

Yeah one thing I've noticed like in China for example, around our ghost festival in summer we do have a lot of horror films that would be aired around that time, is it the same in America like around Halloween?

Halloween, like some of the movie channels on TV will have classic horror movie marathons; or people will have movie parties like to watch horror movies at home, so the party will be based on things like that.

It was really common in middle school and high school for kids too, I was like Oh, this is what we're supposed to get really scary. Let's watch it during Halloween and things like that.

Yeah, that's really common.

I don't know. But do you think this popularity is still going on or is it like slightly dropping?

It's dropping. There are several reasons. The biggest reason probably right now is Covid, but can't really control that one. But it's been kind of on a decline for a while, because when I was a kid, Trick or Treating is something you did at night.

But now that's a lot less common, a lot more Trick or Treating is now done during daylight.

Is it because just the safety reasons?

People are worried about safety, you know stranger danger, things like that.

Especially everyone's wearing costume and masks and especially like your neighborhood has a weirdo running around with chainsaw.

I did these things to show I was a good character, I was stronger.

If I were a parent, I don't know if I would like the idea of my kids being chased around by a neighborhood weirdo.

When I was a kid, people were going Trick or Treating and parents were drinking beer while their kids were trick or treating so…

Yeah, it's like in China people also say it was a much simpler time, they always say like...

I don't think it was a simpler time, I just think people a bit knew less.

Without the internet, so they are not easily scared um. I guess so.

One of the reasons why you know this thing of going to daylight and safety has to do with some urban legends or myth related to Halloween.


So like in America there are some people that are seriously afraid of the candy that the kids are receiving.

Because you don't know what's inside.

They think it could be poisoned which has never actually happened before. There's no evidences.

Why would they put poison in the candy?That's just…

Urban myth, things people get spread online or even before, word of mouth.

So now what people do is like you only accept candy that has been wrapped and from a major company, don't eat it unless you check it to make sure it has never been tampered with, and all kinds of stuff like that.

I understand parents’ safety concerns, but they sure suck the fun out of it.

And now because of Covid, imagine the place to go Trick or Treating is like OK, give us the candy, so we can sanitize them first, wipe them down with Cloth wipes before you eat them.

I was like, honestly, Halloween shouldn't be that bad because you're wearing masks anyway.

That is one holiday that’s built-in mask setting.

Yeah, but another one is like Razor Blades in candy.

That one I've heard.

People's like, they hide razors blades, that will kill children. I like. who's doing this?

I guess it's because they watched too many bad horror films.

Yeah, that's part of it. I mean there has been…it’s using the past like there was a scandal in America a couple of years ago where medicine was poisoned and people did die because of the medicine was tampered with but not the candy itself.

Yeah, but that has nothing to do with Halloween though.

Yeah, that has nothing to do with Halloween and it might also have something to do with in the past, there have been serial killers that have targeted children with candy in the past, but not on Halloween. This is completely separate, but it still enters into the public psyche.

I see, OK, I mean you sure know how to bring a fun topic too.

So if you ever needed anyone to grind a happy topic to a halt, just call me I'll be great.

Let me just drag it back to more like the happy zone. Let's talk about the costume that we actually were before. I'm hugely into the dressing up as well. I'm sure you've been to Halloween parties.

Sure I haven't actually done that much dressing up as adult. I've been a mad doctor before. Last year I dressed up as an online teacher. So business on top, slippers, pajama pants on bottom as most teachers were teaching last year.

Good, good.

And as a kid, I dressed up as Super Mario, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters. I can't even remember … I have done a soldier once before as a kid too. I've done so many different costumes. How about you?

I do the usual, I've dressed up as a cat. I've dressed up as Japanese school girl like the whole Sailor Moon thing. I have dressed up as a witch. I like the witch thing, also Santa.

For Halloween?

Yeah. Why not?

Fair enough.

So that sort of thing and I always have this… once I even bought a whole wig, but it didn't fit, but one thing I do like is making Halloween treats.

Yeah, you do make pretty good Halloween treats.

Especially like the Witches Finger, I even made a brain cake, I'm gonna share that picture in a keyword section below. But anyhow, if you were to dress up, who would you want to be? What character or if you are going with a friend or a boyfriend girlfriend or husband and wife, what kind of couple’s costume would you want to be in? Leave us a comment in the comments section.

Be creative with your costumes.

Exactly.

Thank you, James for coming to the show.

Thank you for having me. Bye everyone.

Bye.

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