r/BeAmazed • u/holyfruits • Sep 03 '26
Skill / Talent Rob Paulsen can still recite every country from "Yakko's World AKA Nations of the World" from Animaniacs
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u/Leadinmyass Sep 03 '26
33 years later, I still sit through the entirety anytime this plays.
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u/NUMBerONEisFIRST Sep 04 '26
I'm 40 and saaaaaaame.
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u/codysattva Sep 04 '26
50+. Same. :)
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u/ratchet7 Sep 04 '26
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Sep 04 '26
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u/jarious Sep 04 '26
We're still the same children just with sagging boobs and hanging balls
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u/MinnesotaHermit Sep 04 '26
“Oh, gravity, thou art a heartless bitch”
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Sep 04 '26
We're Animaniacs
Dot is cute and Yakko yaks
Wacko packs away the snacks
While Bill Clinton plays the sax
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u/sir_zechs Sep 04 '26
We're Animaniacs!
With Pinky and the Brain who want to rule the universe,
Goodfeathers flock together, Slappy whacks them with her purse,
Buttons chases Mindy, while Rita sings a verse,
The writers flipped, we have no script,
Why bother to rehearse?
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u/pinklavalamp Sep 04 '26
Look, at least the senior center is going to be lit.
(45F here)
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Sep 04 '26
Only place you'll have a reliable D&D group
Also we need dice for D&D so ya know...gambling. although I assume that already happens, they got decks of cards. Bingo is gambling anyway if you think about it
And the music is gonna be good, we grew up after the only way to hear a new band was a new show, a radio station, or randomly buying their album. And they do live shows for old people, someone can come in and just rock some covers of like Sabbath or Lana del Ray
Doesn't seem like it would be a bad place to stay if you end up having the money and are just hanging out with other old fucks. Depends how good the food is I guess and how free you are to come and go
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u/BeBearAwareOK Sep 04 '26
The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind.
Unless you're in New Jersey, where what's blowing in the wind smells funny.
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u/schmunkey Sep 04 '26
49 and I can’t remember a better cartoon. The wit of the show was waaaaaaay smarter than its audience could comprehend and even as a young man I knew the humor would reveal even more as I aged.
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u/Brodman1986 Sep 04 '26
Also exactly 40, and same. My user name checks the fuck out.
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u/NUMBerONEisFIRST Sep 04 '26
Hello my fellow elder millenial!
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u/Brodman1986 Sep 04 '26
Wtf, im just now building a meme gif library. How are you linking that? I need to find the URL of the gifs ive been saving to my phone? Some sub reddits let me post em. This one isnt it seems. Oh and whaaaatttsss uuuuuuup... you know, from that super bowl ad.
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u/Brodman1986 Sep 04 '26
Oh, and im told we are considered geriatric millennials.
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u/calilac Sep 04 '26
Kinda partial to ę̷̻̳͈̜̃̄̌̂͊̔͐̋̍̏̽̍̎͘͠ļ̵̪̱̜͇̹̣͎̯̭̙̤̫̣̙́̚͘d̷̳͍̍̈́͆͌̀́̕̕r̵̫̒̒̐̈́̄̂̉̌̏̓̔̕͝ȋ̸̥̩̳̳͈̯͎͍̝̖̏͆̇̿̃̓̈́̂̎͜͠t̶̡̨̟͉̹̘̞̫̝̜̖̮̟͕̏͊̿́̋̎̀̎͂̇́c̴̢̝͕̼̉̅̈́͑̌̈́̀̄͛̔͜͝͠͝h̷͍̓̃́̇̃̐͊̿͗͗̾̕͝ millennial
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u/NUMBerONEisFIRST Sep 04 '26
If the subreddit allows gifs, there will be a Gif icon in the text box. Or if you click your emoji button on your phone's keyboard there should be a gifs tab.
Sorry I'm the worst person to explain things, I hope it helps.
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u/Smelly_God Sep 04 '26
The 90's ended almost 27 years ago... omg
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u/Pun_In_Ten_Did Sep 04 '26
The Lord of the Rings first movie released 3 months after 9/11 attack... 😲
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u/JustAcheesepizza Sep 04 '26
Haha! At 39 years old I am always entertained with this. My crazy smart nephew going into HS knows this song too somehow wtf
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u/sonicparadigm Sep 04 '26
I’m 19 and learned this song when I was 10, I can still sing this as easily as most people can sing the ABCs. Yesterday I was at a bar trivia thing and one of the rounds was to name all the countries with the word “Land” in the name. So I just sang the song to myself and that actually helped me
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u/Line-Trash Sep 04 '26
Same here! And I have the biggest smile on my face. Dancing around like a grown moron, but I feel like a kid again for 2 minutes.
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u/mildlyornery Sep 04 '26
Also noticing the occasional country that doesn't exist anymore. Like Czechoslovakia.
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u/bmorris0042 Sep 04 '26
Even better: I still have an Animaniacs CD with this and other songs on it. I listen to it every once in awhile when I need to get in a happy mood.
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u/Known_Protection9272 Sep 04 '26
Me too, in my fourties’ and it restarted twice, and I keep having to finish it!
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u/EnvironmentalAngle Sep 04 '26
I have a lastfm account with over 300,000 scrobbles over 20 years and the Animaniacs are my number 8 artist overall.
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u/andymilder Sep 04 '26
Rob has always been a great guy. I was lucky enough to play Steven Spielberg on the reboot and the guy’s never lost a step. Funny, talented, and NICE
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u/wonko_abnormal Sep 04 '26
52 and i think its a sign of you as a human being if you dont need to watch the whole thing , its like seeing there is something new from weird al and not immediately watching it (PS there is something new and its magnificent) ....and i dont know how i missed it but just incase anyone else did , there was an animaniacs 3 season reboot , still perfection :) i hope they do more ad infinitum
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u/Z3r0Du5k Sep 04 '26
Pure nostalgic beauty
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u/merryjoanna Sep 04 '26
I have a coworker that answers someone everyday that we're taking over the world. I loved Pinky and the Brain.
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u/Green_L3af Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
His name is Robert Paulsen.
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u/77entropy Sep 03 '26
His name is Robert Paulsen.
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u/sicknutley Sep 04 '26
His name is Rob Paulsen
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u/-byb- Sep 04 '26
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u/jarednards Sep 04 '26
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u/BrotherofGenji Sep 04 '26
FUCK!
THE MEATLOAF!
WE WANT IT NOW!
THE MEATLOAF!
did not expect to see that gif here lmfao
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u/Gunkwei Sep 04 '26
His name is Robert Paulson.
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u/AeonSophia514 Sep 04 '26
His name is Robert Paulson
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u/Educational-Log6855 Sep 04 '26
I thought in death a member of project mayhem had a name….his name will be Robert Paulson.
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u/77entropy Sep 04 '26
I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to talk about that.
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u/hoggineer Sep 04 '26
There's only rules for not talking about the club. No rules against talking about the project as far as I'm aware. But, this space monkey has been out of it for a while.
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u/umamimamii Sep 04 '26
Man! I thought there was some connection between them and was disappointed after learning it wasn’t. Would have been interesting if so
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u/StattPadford Sep 03 '26
Holy shit that's so impressive. I was smiling from ear to ear the whole time
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u/LakersAreForever Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
You can tell he really loved his craft. I’m glad I got to grow up with the animaniacs.
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u/ExiledCanuck Sep 04 '26
Same, such a great show, and the country skit was always one of my faves!
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u/Kenny523 Sep 04 '26
Omg it didn’t click in my head until your comment, I knew that voice was a deep memory I recognized.
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u/goatpunchtheater Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
Dude now that you hear it, you'll start seeing him everywhere in kids cartoons from the 80s until recently. He's Sooo many voices from cartoons. Google him. The other most memorable off the top of my head is Raphael in the original TMNT cartoon.
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u/zehamberglar Sep 04 '26
You would probably like this video.
He's such a treasure. Both because of his own performance and how he just cracks up every time Seth talks.
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u/ThisIsTheShway Sep 04 '26
Robert just dying after Seth says his first line is just comedy gold.
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u/Thick_Yogurtcloset_7 Sep 03 '26
This is a great song written, and yakko singing it brought me back to my childhood when I first heard it
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u/One-Growth-9785 Sep 03 '26
And here's the original video, which has Yakko showing each country, on the map. What a great resource for young kids. Whole world in a short two minute song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1508wboZXk
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u/Six_of_1 Sep 03 '26
It's not just countries, it's also territories and sometimes just cities.
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u/Mango_steam Sep 03 '26
I mean it's gotta rhyme.
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u/1029394756abc Sep 04 '26
Needed San Juan to rhyme with Guam.
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u/Six_of_1 Sep 04 '26
Guam shouldn't have been there in the first place because it's not a country.
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u/Exotic_Talk_2068 Sep 04 '26
Or Crete or just Russia... But it was '90 lot of new countries since then
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u/systemhost Sep 04 '26
And somehow Ukraine gets no love at all... :'(
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u/Fakjbf Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
There are roughly 50 countries that it missed. The USSR had dissolved just a couple years prior and all of the former Soviet countries were grouped together as “Russia”. Lots of other countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina were similarly new and didn’t make the cut. It also uses “Caribbean” even though there’s almost a dozen sovereign nations that skips over, and it entirely omits most Pacific nations. Most of the other countries missed are pretty small but there are a few significant ones missing such as South Africa. There’s also a ton of not countries included such as Scotland and England (but no Wales or Northern Ireland). You can find the whole list in the trivia section on the wiki page.)
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u/kdknowsimjames Sep 04 '26
What do you mean by Scotland, England and Wales being "not countries?"
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u/Six_of_1 Sep 04 '26
In normal global meaning, a country is an independent sovereign state, which they are not. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all parts of the UK. Look at the UN next time it meets, there's no seats for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, because they all come under the UK.
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u/Cheezeball25 Sep 04 '26
Honestly it's funny now having to explain which ones are out of date now after 30 years of geopolitics
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u/BostonSucksatHockey Sep 04 '26
Yugoslavia and Transylvania whew
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u/xSTSxZerglingOne Sep 04 '26
AFAIK in my 40 years on this Earth, Transylvania has never been a country. Only a territory in Romania.
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u/OpticLemon Sep 04 '26
Czechoslovakia was out of date when Animaniacs was airing
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u/bryter_layter_76 Sep 03 '26
It took me quite a few countries to figure out oh, these are all clustered together. Then I watched this video and it made sense. Otherwise he would be jumping all over the fucking map.
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u/Mtatk Sep 03 '26
Thank you for that stranger, this made my old ass a kid again!
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u/Diddly_eyed_Dipshite Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
Is it all countries though? I didn't hear England, Wales, N. Ireland, which I thought might have been an earlier quick UK but he did say Scotland so? Also definitely some island states in the Pacific left out?
Edit: ok England is said after Denmark but not Wales and N.I. also he says Yugoslavia twice..
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u/Bobblefighterman Sep 04 '26
It's not even close. Even the revised version is not even close. It's supposed to be a catchy song to encourage interest in geography, not an actual song with all the countries in the world.
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u/heff17 Sep 04 '26
It's call the Nations of the World, not All the Nations of the World, after all/
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u/Smelly_God Sep 04 '26
https://youtu.be/5pOFKmk7ytU?t=54
He mentions scotland.
This is animaniacs, I'm not sure if you watched them before or listened to the song but I don't think any of us kids were fact checking Yakko as the animaniacs routinely messed up things.
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u/_thro_awa_ Sep 04 '26
It's not all countries, in fact more than one are cities or 'territories' e.g. Abu Dhabi and Guam. Some artistic liberties to be taken for the rhymes.
But nothing's stopping anyone from making a more up-to-date and /or accurate version.
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u/Dandyman_9 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
Someone did! Stumbled across it on YouTube a few months ago. https://youtu.be/uSmAuF2145A
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u/FFVO Sep 03 '26
The man is a voice acting legend. He's been in SO many things over the years!
I grew up hearing his voice more than most of my family lol
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u/Clubbythaseal Sep 04 '26
I still love when he sang a duet with himself on a Batman movie.
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u/tetsuo9000 Sep 04 '26
He has a terrific podcast series as well (especially the stuff from before Nerdist took over) where he chills with and interviews other voice actors
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u/TWeedtheJetRodriguez Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
If the Animaniacs can recognize Palestine then so can the rest of the world.
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Sep 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Permtacular Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
I'm 60 and Animaniacs has always been my favorite cartoon that came out since I've been an adult.
Thanks to u/linechef for the award! On my cake day no less!
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u/coxie0520 Sep 04 '26
Happy cake day!
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u/Enough-Gap-8906 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
Loved this cartoon! I can still hear the soundtrack just by watching this gif 😄
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u/OstentatiousSock Sep 03 '26
I have twin cousins and one will do the bum bum bum bum as the other does the countries.
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u/Weird-Salamander-349 Sep 04 '26
For a split second I was like, “Oh my god, I’M their cousins!!” Then I realized I am not a set of twins and the bum bum bum bum is me smacking my lap. So hello, not-cousin, fancy seeing you here!
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u/rockerscott Sep 04 '26
Always loved how he says Bostwaaaana
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u/CounselorGowron Sep 04 '26
I’ve never been able to say it any other way and just realized this is why.
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u/barelylethal10 Sep 03 '26
Her mic was way too loud for this shit. I'm all for her singing along but damn woman, spotlight where spotlight is due
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u/tilt-a-whirly-gig Sep 04 '26
I thought nobody else was gonna say it.
It was almost cool at the start when I thought she knew the words, but when she got to the parts she forgot she should've sat back and allowed the star to shine.106
u/AssaultimateSC2 Sep 04 '26
It kinda ruined it for me.
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u/Due-Definition-653 Sep 04 '26
She Yoko Ono'd this John Lennon/Chuck Berry duet moment.
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u/GeorgiaOKeefinItReal Sep 04 '26
Yep... loved allison haislip in attack of the show... but for God's sake, let the man cook
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u/larrycsonka Sep 04 '26
100 she was making dolphin noises over what could have been such a good moment
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u/TarnishedWizeFinger Sep 04 '26
I don't really share the sentiment but I'm blown away you didn't say Yakko Ono'd
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u/RaiUchiha Sep 04 '26
Same I really enjoyed him doing it but she should have just stayed quiet
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u/Into-the-stream Sep 04 '26
Some people can’t stand to let other people have the spotlight. They make terrible interviewers.
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u/teatime217 Sep 04 '26
Yeah I understood the vicarious enthusiasm wanting to sing along, but when it became clear she couldn't keep up it got really cringy fast.
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u/GitEmSteveDave Sep 04 '26
Agreed. She could have muted her mic for the final edit and this would get tons of views to hear old Yakko sing the song again.
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u/Smart_Freedom_8155 Sep 04 '26
THANK you, yes. Like lady we get it, you're excited.
But you don't actually know all the lyrics, and the legend is there trying to sing it for the rest of us.
Quiet down, thanks.
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u/MercRussians Sep 04 '26
Clapping hands award because I was looking for someone who had the nerve to say it.
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u/QueerPetrichor Sep 04 '26
I bet it was so hard for him to keep on track with her jumping in and out
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u/ivylass Sep 03 '26
Thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, I know the preamble to the Constitution. I'm sure there's a reason our brain can remember things set to melody.
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u/BrotherofGenji Sep 04 '26
...Thanks to Schoolhouse Rock? That's a much cooler way to learn it than I did.
I learned that in Social Studies class, lol. One weekly assignment was to memorize the preamble because we were going to be quizzed on each line of it. We actually read small pocket-sized book handouts of the Constitution and the preamble was the thing we read a lot for the assignment.
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u/Millwalkey88 Sep 04 '26
He and my dad were friends/next door neighbors in Lavonia, Michigan from the mid 50s to early 60s. They met again at Wizard World in Milwaukee several years ago, and it i was overjoyed to witness it and took several pictures and video. And I got some autographs with Rob to which he did free of charge.
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u/Jnroxoz Sep 03 '26
That so awesome and such an amazing job,well done with your memory skills
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u/SportsCommercials Sep 03 '26
I have the voice actor for Yakko on my podcast singing/reciting probably the most famous thing his character is known for, I'd better try to sing along even though I don't know the words as well as he does.
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u/MrsNaypeer Sep 04 '26
Except Rob FUCKING LOVED IT. He was very excited to hear her join in. He fucking loves his job and his fans. He's literally so humble a d kind.
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u/TondalayaSwartzkopf Sep 03 '26
This was always, and I guess still is, my favorite thing from that show. It was such a great show! I'm glad I got to experience it.
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u/Isthisovryet Sep 04 '26
So uhhh Palestine is in there huh? 🤔
Cause it’s like … a country?
Does that mean it . . .
Has the right to exist?
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u/Cthulhu_Dreams_ Sep 04 '26
I'm glad Rickety cricket is getting his life back together.
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u/KoldHardSmash Sep 04 '26
Memory unlocked - I definitely called upon this during one of my high school geography test.
Animaniacs is a legendary cartoon series!
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u/Mortwight Sep 04 '26
best i can do is the last courus of "happy happy joy joy" in one breath
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u/Stinkymansausage Sep 04 '26
I’m sad that my kids don’t get to grow up with animaniacs. Reruns just won’t hit the same.
https://giphy.com/gifs/rOTJP7dnmtvlm
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u/Big_Combination8401 Sep 04 '26
Am I the only one bothered by her interrupting him and trying tk sing over him and not singing the entire song?
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u/Capable-Commercial96 Sep 04 '26
I gotta be honest, I kinda wanted to just hear just him sing it. Maybe if she knew the whole song, but she kept cutting out and waiting for him to fill in the gaps.
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u/djpiperson Sep 04 '26
I don't want to sound like a duck but she needs to shut up
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u/tanz420 Sep 04 '26
This is incredible!! I only wish the girl would just let him do his thing tho
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u/Emperor_Gourmet Sep 04 '26
Why do people not shut the fuck up when you ask a legend to preform a thing they are known for. Especially when you cant even do half of it.
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u/Tedium_incarnate_ Sep 03 '26
I once learned this; perhaps it’s what inspired me to make a “footballers of the world” version (UK).
Was made in 2013, mind, but I was very briefly somewhat viral. Yes, I do need a life.
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u/TinyDogGuy Sep 04 '26
Did anyone else own the Animaniacs CD? I played it nonstop…another favorite was ‘Lake Titicaca!’
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u/WhipItWhippet Sep 04 '26
Had a chance to hang out with him and it’s incredible to see him do it live.
Just humble and enthusiastic, wouldn’t let us buy him dinner and kicked it at the restaurant with us his entire vacation.
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u/Averagebaddad Sep 04 '26
He's smiling now. But I bet that's been a curse for 30 years.
hears a country name "fuck. Well it's gonna be there till I sing the whole song now"
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