AV Geeks Holiday Special

[Music] me [Music] um [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] so thank um so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] cheers [Laughter] [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] so so hello everybody welcome um i apologize right off the bat for the uh all the clicking um i was using some new software to try to reroute uh the audio so that you wouldn't hear the clicking and paid 100 for it and it didn't work so you're hearing some clicking um welcome everybody i'm skip alzheimer and this is the av geeks holiday special and it's special because uh not only are we going to be showing some holiday films from this time of year but we also are joined by um our museum staff uh at the north carolina museum of natural sciences where traditionally i would be on a friday night i would be there with them showing a movie a feature film and i would so show a short film uh beforehand uh and then we've been doing this kind of virtually and watching um things on disney plus and amazon prime and watching them together and having kind of a watch party but they were like hey do you want to show a bunch of your old christmas and holiday films and i was like sure so um everybody's dressed up that's great um say something somebody oh wait i'm not hearing you guys now are we i'm unmuted okay hi carrie hi miranda hello hello um so uh yeah we've been doing screenings together for two years three years how long time flies when you're having fun yeah exactly it does and i think it's been i think it's been longer than that um it's been i think it's been like four years yeah it seems like a decade actually since january um but uh so one of the things i wanted to have you guys talk about real quick is upcoming things at the museum that people can participate in uh virtually because we have an audience of people from all around the world yeah you want me to go yeah all right so we have um our big thing we're working on is astronomy days um astronomy days we typically have over a weekend in person at the museum but of course we can't do that so we are spreading it out over a full seven days so we will have seven days of astronomical programming uh from january 25th through january 31st so all kinds of really fun things we're working with nasa and our local astronomy club and all kinds of scientists and researchers from all over the country will be talking about their research and in different programs in astronomy and so for more information you can go to our website which is naturalsciences.org and then you can get to astronomy days by clicking virtual events and then it's on the list there nice uh so uh one of the things the challenges you guys issued to me um was to show a holiday film that maybe had animals in it um as a way to i'm sorry i'm playing with all these different gotcha this is insane it's like a star wipe um anyways uh you challenged me to to to show a holiday film that had animals in it and this next film is the first one that came to mind and uh it's a little warped which is why it kind of rolls when we watch it but it is one of the most insane uh santa claus films that i have in my collection uh and we'll see why and we'll learn more about animals the specific animals in this film uh after we come back and i yeah i think miranda hugo and i wish you had found one about snakes in santa claus but we'll do our best yeah i don't think those exist you're gonna have to either find it or make it for next year it's it's gonna be um yeah it's gonna be primates all right um so here we go uh this is the santa claus story and i have to change things here while we're talking so please excuse me it's really i like that i like that it's dynamic skip yeah [Music] [Music] oh i don't believe it oh my god [Music] uh hello virginia hello jackie i don't know our name because he said we're stuck that's how he is [Music] come on jackie [Music] yes i'm really santa claus and i want you to believe in me for children who don't believe in santa claus miss the joy of christmas [Music] tell you a story certainly i'll tell you about the monkeys christmas a story you'll always remember uh monkeys don't have a santa claus indeed they do monkeys you know are very much like human beings in many ways and sometimes they do the very same things that we do for instance in the spring they like to get out in the open and there is a place called monkey mountain where there's always sunshine and monkey shining there are good monkeys and bad monkeys but here is charlie a good little monkey who likes pretzels and although monkeys don't like to go into the water charlie is willing to swim for once selfish monkeys want to get charlie's pretzel the easy way and no matter how he tries he can't get away from those bad monkeys who steal his dainty morsel when it comes to bananas all monkeys make pics of themselves even charlie's in there getting his hair gobbling up skins and all you've seen people like that who don't want to give anybody else a chance oh well it's all in fun well eating too fast and too much lands this fellow right into the doctor's office serves him right open wide now my my what a funny face sometimes monkeys catch cold so like good little monkeys they take a hot foot bath before going to bed if sick monkeys do what they're told they get well quickly that's good for all of us to know isn't it now let's see what else do i know about those little fellas oh yeah monkeys celebrate other holidays too on halloween they duck for apples but after all sucking for apples is the hard way it's easier to pick them out and on halloween night they dress up in funny costumes and wear masks just as you do [Music] but you were going to tell us about the monkey christmas and about the monkey santa claus we found a green telescope well let's see when christmas draws there even the bad monkeys try to be good and they even get all prettied up for the christmas holidays the girl monkeys put on their nicest dresses and hats and try to look their best the boy monkeys see that their hair is cut their fingernails are trimmed and polished well well well that soap must taste pretty good he wants more monkeys usually live in trees or on monkey mountains but these monkeys have heard all about santa claus and how he comes down the chimney they can't have a chimney unless they have a house so there's nothing else to do but build a house no children that's not mortar something tells me that it's whipped cream or he wouldn't be taking such a big portion [Music] and then the great bang and down the chimney comes from monkey santa claus and what a time is in store for those good little monkeys toys galore and a home filled with [Music] surprises so you see children monkeys are very much like you in many ways except one what way is that they know they're monkeys but you don't i know i'm not a monkey but you are really santa claus aren't you virginians i'm going to answer your question by telling you what to say to any of your little friends who lose the wonderful spirit of christmas they do not believe except they see they think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible to their little mind all minds virginia whether they be mens or children are little yes virginia there is a santa claus he exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exists and you know that they abound and gives your highest beauty and joy believe in santa claus you might as well not be leaving fairies nobody sees santa claus but that is no sign that there is no santa claus the most real things in the world are those that neither men nor children can see did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn of course now that's no proof that they are not there nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in this world you can tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man or even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever only faith fancy poetry love romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond is it all real oh virginia in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding no santa claus he lives and he lives forever a thousand years from now virginia made ten to ten thousand years from now he will continue to make that the heart of childhood [Music] so that was definitely shown in schools um uh as you could tell at the end where it said buffalo board of education um it's a mess it's it's uh i mean the film itself physically was not in good shape but uh this was made by a company that would kind of take footage from different places and cobble together these compilation films and so i guess they were like well we got this monkey footage and we have footage of monkeys dressed in costume and then they took the uh yes virginia there is a santa claus editorial from the paper and just read it verbatim so it's kind of a mess but um can you add a little bit science fact to what we saw hopefully um everyone knows that most a lot of the monkeys that they showed are not actually monkeys they are apes chimpanzees um for the the house builder and yeah somebody did uh mention in the facebook comments i saw that uh they hope peta is not watching because yeah i wouldn't say that a lot of those monkeys were in the best shape and uh being treated the way that we um know they should be treated now but um yeah we actually you know we are not experts in primates but um we did a lot of fun research on primates and we think those are macaques um a species of old world monkeys which are um the second most widely distributed primate in the world besides humans of course which is pretty cool and you know we've seen scenes of you know macaques kind of in a lot of um these tourist destinations where people are kind of going around and feeding them and getting things stolen by them and things like that but uh yeah it's an interesting film and i i definitely felt that it was like we have all this footage of these chimpanzees and these these monkeys how can we use it and let's do it in a really obscure way that really i don't know what the message of the film was i was trying to find that so um yeah yeah so the the message of course is we need to make a christmas film that kids will like and so that's the message and it's you know it's interesting and i'm sure you guys run across this is the the blur people who say monkeys are apes and apes or monkeys they make that assumption but um you know what are the differences we'll make as educational as possible so it's not um universal but most monkeys do have tails um the easiest way to tell an ape from a monkey is that there are very few apes so we have humans gibbons um chimpanzees bonobos orangutans and gorillas and then um that's it pretty easy ape-wise um and and you know really interesting thing is there is a difference between old world monkeys and um new world monkeys my favorite fact of that i found out between apes and monkeys was that apes um have an appendix and monkeys did not have an appendix ask me why it's but fun fact see if you can find out why why do we have an appendix does anyone know why humans have an appendix you know yeah don't they say it's because it's to like repopulate our gut bacteria because it's so important because that's why it gets infected right because it has bacteria in it i think that that's a theory why we why why appendixes aren't actually like vestigial right so the monkeys are just on their own to repopulate their guts yeah they just eat more dirt i don't know um but yeah so yeah so these are old world monkeys um and so in some you know in when i was reading about my cats there are some species of macaques that don't have tails and in fact they actually have ape in their name but they are not apes they are monkeys um and so old world monkeys in new world monkeys differ in several ways so monkeys of course like all primates originated in africa just like humans of course and so they um and so they new world monkeys so so old world africa asia europe new world is north and south america so new world monkeys um they diverged about 40 million years ago and they got to south america somehow um it may have been a raft it may have you know any other you know ways to cross that ocean and and so as far as evolutionarily speaking new world monkeys are a lot more similar to each other than the species are more similar to each other than old world monkeys um it's a lot more diverse with old world because of course as much smaller stock came from new world monkeys but numeral monkeys tend to be um mostly arboreal so they live in trees um so if you think of something like a spider monkey or a howler monkey they're up in the treetops in the canopy of the rainforest and then you think of something like an old world monkey like a baboon which you know i think spend most of their time on the ground um also the most the the feature that is most distinctive between old world and new world monkeys is the nose so new world monkeys tend to have flatter noses with you know more separated nostrils and old world monkeys tend to have i think more human like noses like us that stick out a little bit and have um you know nostrils that are underneath so it's an interesting distinction nice all right now back to the ill-informed christmas stuff [Laughter] and if people have questions about um monkeys uh yeah put them in the comments and um if they don't know it they'll look it up how about that um this next film we're gonna take something first so first of all boys and girls forget reindeers polar bears penguins all the animals related with christmas because now they're monkeys you know and but something that shows on the film and it's kind of true is the behavior of monkeys and apes i mean primates in in general they are sometimes very similar to to humans so for example uh the bonobos they they shake their head in order to say no to their kids um when they're playing with food another thing that is uh really cool about about this kind of behavior that is very similar to um to human is um some of well it was seen in by the zookeepers from the british zoo shoe some of their mandrels they put their hands over their face over their eyes to gesture to another monkeys do not disturb me which is something that is really cool and of course um when you tickle them they laugh and their life is very similar to humans love so that's something that is uh really cool and something that calls me out is like i don't know about you guys but sometimes in christmas that you feel sad and um after like a romantic breakup or a tough day at work or you feel sad you normally eat junk food you know just to feel better and some monkeys do the same thing so there are studies that they show that um when a monkey feels sad or or or something like that uh to this stress for themselves they eat food that is richer in sugar and fat than normal which is something cool so that's not our fault it's not our fault it is the genetic burden that we bear all right it's not my fault it's in my genes nice all right thank you hugo um and thank you guys uh so this next film has probably no science in it whatsoever uh it involves a talking snowman whose name is not frosty and i would say it's probably the end the naming is the antithesis of frosty uh this is spunky the snowman so here we go enjoy every year when the first snow falls the kids on our block build the snowman this year we made him especially big and strong and evident you see we needed a tree not an ordinary park tree but a christmas tree and we figured there was only one way we could get one a letter to santa to be delivered by spunky our snowman [Music] and that called for a big send-off as everyone knows by day snowmen are well only snowman but at night it's different and the first thing that spunky did after he sneezed that is was to look at the envelope which he couldn't read i know it's up north somewhere he said and off he started with jeff leading the way it was along about midnight when spunky came to the edge of the woods just about the scariest time of night even for foxes where are you going ask the owl to find santa and bring back a present for the kids on the block you see it's to be given to the bearer of this letter [Music] oh yes it's very valuable that's why i'm taking it to him special delivery special delivery to santa spunky and jeff went on their way never dreaming that the fox and the owl had plans of their own why don't we get the letter and keep the present for ourselves spunky was surprised to see the owl again come back but then they all dropped the letter and everybody scrambled to get it no you don't write but with one long leap the fox had jeff was about to overtake the fox but they all still had the bucket that will take care of you he said but jeff was soon after them again as for spunky he never stopped running even to pick up his hat and by now the owl of the fox was far ahead but they were stopped by a wolf where are you two taking that letter santa hand it over i'll take it by the time jeff caught up with them they were added to speak and claw and the letter was just lying there jeff had a very good plan [Music] but just when he got to the letter they saw him and now all three were after him spunky was still running when jeff brought him the letter but now he wasn't going to let anyone get it away from him again till then jeff had no idea how fast funky really could run he couldn't even see him anymore but when spunky told him what had happened the bear said he would take them to santa himself and so they started out together not realizing they were being [Music] the followed knew all the shortcuts but poor spunky he hadn't looked where he was going and he came down in nine different places not counting the ladder to saturn [Music] and while spunky's friends were putting it back together again the three kept nearer and nearer [Music] you're just as good as you again said the bear but it was too late the fox had the letter and was heading straight for santa spooky could never get there in time now [Applause] [Music] a special delivery while santa was reading the letter spunky arrived you see santa this letter is really from the kids on our block it was stolen by those three over there said jet as they started to sneak away santa puffed up his cheeks and blew them back into the woods when spunky turned around there was his christmas tree the most beautiful in the land [Music] santa let's funkier thread one of his personal reindeers to deliver the tree and that's how it was that when the sun arose the following day spunky jeff and the christmas tree were all there waiting for us in the park [Music] that night we have the biggest celebration and our guest of honor was spunky of a snowman [Applause] well um youtube just kicked us off um yeah for copyright stuff so that's really annoying um i'm gonna try to restart it