Summary
The episode officially begins with a beautifully catchy theme song and Malcolm, the young listener, asking his question: “What if Mr. Eric turned into a zombie and my cat, Dr. Murphy PhD, had to tell the story?” Mr. Eric immediately expresses concern about letting someone else narrate his show, and, as a result, he said he procrastinated on this question for a long time. This leads him to get sucked into his phone as a means of escape, which Dr. Jack Murphy PhD diagnoses as “ghostcatsination,” in which he would grow to be more and more like a zombie unless he, Jojo the cat, and Fred the dog snap him out of it. Using the power of another “What if” question, they travel to Mr. Eric’s past sources of inspiration, but he is so entranced it is impossible to get him out until the beach sweeps his phone into the ocean. He relaxes and finally feels ready to make the episode, but now it’s finished!
Analysis
This is the first episode I listened to, despite it being the newest one, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The world is imaginative, the humor is sharp, the characters are appealing to children, and the theme song is stellar.
Well, I’ve helped many famous cats. Of course, I can’t tell you their identities due to doctor-patient confidentiality… but I’ll tell you their first names. Of course, there’s Garfield, Nala, Simba…
DR. JACK MURPHY PhD (ERIC O’KEEFEE)
Vocals
The voices were surprisingly distinct despite having one actor, but I still had difficulty identifying many characters. I did not know anyone’s names or appearances/species until they were said out loud, and that proved to be an obstacle for total enjoyment. This confusion was at its peak when multiple characters were introduced at once, such as Zack, Zizi, and Mamma Jamma. I did not know what species they were, their names, nor how many of them there were until Jojo the end. Even then, I never found out how Fred knew them. This seems to be just an issue for me as a new listener, but an issue nonetheless.
Additionally I found the voice of Jojo to be extremely distracting, as it was almost a copy-and-paste impression of JFK from MTV’s adult cartoon Clone High. I found this hilariously coincidental at first until it was mentioned that Jojo is a nickname for his true name: JFKat. Even though I did enjoy the reference, this complicated the image of Jojo for me; I kept picturing him as Clone High’s JFK instead of a cat.
Narrative podcasts are extremely difficult, as they require creators to create a perfect image in listeners’ heads without being too on-the-nose about the descriptions. This is especially difficult in this podcast, as humans are not the only creatures speaking. However, it can be done well, and some visuals were. The best character description I found was for Fred the dog. Dr. Jack Murphy asked him what kind of dog he was, to which he replied “If you must know, I am a pug mixed with some other kind of dog with a longer snout. That’s why my tongue is too long for my mouth.” This is natural yet very vivid, and I was able to picture him perfectly throughout the podcast because of it.
Story Structure
I found the story to be remarkably relevant to the times, the lives of children, and the imagination, and its structure serves this story well. I thought the twist of procrastination being the zombie state as opposed to a traditional zombie story was incredibly creative and relatable. That said, I do believe they could get to this revelation sooner in the story. In the sixteen-minute episode, this is revealed at minute seven, which is nearly halfway through. This seems to me more like an act one break, meaning the story could benefit from shortening the beginning to reveal this at minute four or five. That will also keep the story moving, as the beginning lost my interest and muddled the direction of the episode.
I love the idea of returning to your roots to overcome writer’s block, and it gives listeners great strategies to use as well. Even though Mr. Eric seems to learn so much, our main characters don’t seem to learn anything. When Fred’s plan doesn’t work, he would just try another one without thinking through why the first one did not work. There seems to be a beautiful opportunity to have them journey on a similar quest of frustration as Mr. Eric in which they are so worried that they cannot save him that they begin to panic. They need a break, that fixes it, and that is what inspires them to calm him down as well. That would create a nice parallel that would propel all the new characters to a better state of mind.
Lastly, a big reason why Jojo and Fred wanted to snap Mr. Eric out of it was because if they didn’t, they would no longer get cuddles or walks. That seems to be a fitting reward for helping him out. Now that the episode is complete, Mr. Eric can take breaks by going on a walk with Fred or cuddling Jojo. This would also be a good strategy for listeners to use, as many may not have beach access, but they do have pet access.
Overall, I want to listen to it because it is about writing for children, which is exactly what I want to do. Even better, these stories are somewhat written by children, too, so I can see what stories they want to hear. Listening to creative children’s content with a critical ear would help me in my own writing and analysis. I decided to listen to and review Episode 237, Episode 234, and Episode 224.
Art and Photo Credit: What If World official website
