Rot Topic - The Bizarre History of McDonaldland
3/13/20261 hr 7 min
Welcome to Rot Topic, the show where we delve deep into the dumpsters of our mind and share our fascinating findings with the world! This week, Head Rotsearcher Emily Axford takes us on a tour of the french-fried fantasy realm known as "McDonaldland." WARNING: Spoilers for "The Founder" (2016) ABOUND.
Images and videos referenced in the episode are linked below!
- First-Ever Appearance of Ronald McDonald
- Original McDonaldland Commercial
- Evil Grimace Commercial
- Grimace Bounce & Bend
- Grimace's Beautiful Lips
- Mac Tonight Commercial
CREDITS
Sound Mixing and Editing by Trevor Lyon
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsEmily Axford· Guest0:00
[electronic sound] This is a HeadGum podcast.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:04
[rock music] Welcome to Rot Topic.
Brian Murphy· Host0:09
Whoa.
Jake Hurwitz· Host0:10
[laughs] Ew.
Emily Axford· Guest0:11
Yuck.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:11
Ew.
Brian Murphy· Host0:11
We're trying out- [laughs] Gross ... something new. [laughs] Uh, be on the lookout for, uh, Gangs of New Oga later on, our new campaign coming out on March 26th.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:21
Yes.
Brian Murphy· Host0:21
Uh, next week we'll be doing Dungeon Court. Uh, but we thought in the meantime, we'd try something fun.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:26
Right.
Brian Murphy· Host0:26
We've got a lot of dumb stuff that we talk about, particularly over at the Mixed Bag and Short Rest- [laughs] Uh-huh ... uh, over on the Patreon. If you- There's a lot of like, nostalgia fever dreams.
Jake Hurwitz· Host0:35
Yeah.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:36
[laughs] Yeah.
Jake Hurwitz· Host0:37
[laughs] If you know anything about us, we like to work way too hard on something very dumb.
Brian Murphy· Host0:41
[laughs] Yeah. So, uh, we've decided to do a little bit of a deep dive into McDonald's land.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:45
Mm-hmm.
Emily Axford· Guest0:45
I- Since we've talked about that...
Brian Murphy· Host0:46
The Hamburglar has leaked into the main series.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:49
Yes.
Jake Hurwitz· Host0:49
Welcome, Hamburglar. Welcome.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:50
This is really related to main series.
Brian Murphy· Host0:51
Yeah.
Emily Axford· Guest0:52
Yeah.
Brian Murphy· Host0:52
'Cause we've talked about VHS's at McDonald's.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:55
Yes. We have.
Brian Murphy· Host0:55
We've talked about- The Nugget friends. Yes, the Nugget friends.
Caldwell Tanner· Host0:59
Mm-hmm.
Emily Axford· Guest0:59
Lot of childhood memories of McDonald's and the characters of it, and then it finally Nyak disguising himself- As the Hamburglar ... I think was kind of like the slow launch [laughs] of the fact- Yeah ... that we talk about McDonald's characters a lot.
Brian Murphy· Host1:12
A watershed moment.
Caldwell Tanner· Host1:13
Yeah.
Brian Murphy· Host1:14
Yeah.
Caldwell Tanner· Host1:14
A, I would say a, a McDonald's Sunday shed moment.
Emily Axford· Guest1:16
Yeah.
Brian Murphy· Host1:17
[laughs] Yeah. And Mc- McDonald's land has become a huge part of the NAD Pod Nightmare verse.
Emily Axford· Guest1:21
[laughs] Right.
Caldwell Tanner· Host1:21
It certainly has.
Brian Murphy· Host1:22
Yeah. And so, uh, we're gonna try this out, maybe every once in a while- Mm-hmm ... uh, do some Rot Topic- Yeah ... where we come up with, uh, something dumb