Episode 8

full
Published on:

10th Oct 2025

BONUS Episode: Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos

Cool Girl Glo sits down with her family to chat about Chuck Norris' five-epsiode syndicated cartoon: Chuck Norris Karate Commandos

Transcript
Speaker:

mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Hello and welcome to Cool Girls.

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Don't look at Explosions.

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Today I have two very

special guests with me.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

I am Ben.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

I am Henry.

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Yes.

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Today I am joined by our very cool

family for an episode of, what are

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We Calling This Henry Curly Fun Hour.

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Curly Fun Hour or what I like to

call Cool Family Watches cartoons.

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So you might notice that Beth

and Laura are not here this week.

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They are both.

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Awesome academic women doing

their midterms and doctoral

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thesis projects and whatnot.

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So the Curly family decided we were

going to watch a very special show today,

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Yeah.

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So, Henry.

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First off, how old are you?

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A Henry.

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You just had a birthday.

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I'm seven years old and

very new 7-year-old.

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That's right.

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And what grade are you in?

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Second.

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That's right.

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Oh, what did we watch?

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Henry?

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Today we watched Chuck Norris, her,

um, Chuck Norris Karate Commandos.

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That's right.

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We watched one of five syndicated

cartoons starring Chuck Norris.

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This is the first episode.

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Chuck Norris, karate

Commando's Deadly Dolphins.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Yes.

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So 10 years before he became known

to us as Walker Texas Ranger, he was

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the leader of the Karate Commandos.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Now this leads me to ask Babe,

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maybe you know more of this.

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Um, was Chuck Norris, uh, like

a name before Walker, or was

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this literally his first thing?

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

Oh, he absolutely was.

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Walker was actually kind of a

second phase for Chuck Norris.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Oh, okay.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Yeah.

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So he was a martial arts

movie star for the eighties.

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Um, he was in there, uh, so he wasn't at

the , arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester

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Stallone level, but he was absolutely in

there at the Jean Claude Van Dam, second

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tier of, eighties action movie stars.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115: Okay.

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, the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: I

was looking this up, this movie, if

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you know Chuck Norris's filmography.

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The cartoon was after he had

already made the first two

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mission missing in action films.

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Uh, he was making Delta Force this year.

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He was, in the seventies, also doing

martial arts movies and stuff most, but he

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started taking off as a leading man in the

eighties doing, you know, B tier stuff.

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But, uh.

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You know, the guy leading,

leading his own, Hey, this

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is the second rung of movies.

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And then after that had kind of

faded out, that was when he was like,

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okay, I guess I'll go back to tv.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115: Okay

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, the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

how familiar are you with these,

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uh, eighties branded, uh, cartoons?

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Like, do you have any that stick

in your memory as a nineties kid?

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Well, I mean, this definitely gave

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me Captain Planet vibes, especially

with his crew of people around him.

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And then I know, like, I wanna say

like, you know, the Thundercats and

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you know, the Johnny, what is it?

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Uh.

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Johnny Adventure.

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What was it,

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Quest.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Johnny Quest?

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Sorry.

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Yeah.

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Off brand is Johnny Adventure.

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Right.

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Um, it felt like that kind of a cartoon.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

So that it was, the other fun

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thing is this is the eighties.

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This, this show was cheap.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Oh, absolutely.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

Uh, I've got a comment about that

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a little bit later, but, like Mr.

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T had a cartoon.

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The Harlem Globe Trotters had a cartoon.

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, So this was very much a anybody at a

certain level of name recognition who's

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willing to spend a weekend filming

vignettes in a gym, wearing your karate.

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Gee, you can have a cartoon.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

That's awesome.

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Hey, let's get, let's get

Henry on here a little bit.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Yeah.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

So, Henry, um.

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I'm gonna say who the, who,

Chuck Norris and his squad are.

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And then you're gonna name the bad guys.

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Okay, so wait for a second.

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So he, Chuck Norris has a squad.

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Okay.

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He has, um, a, uh, female tech guru

named Pepper, a teenage protege

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named Reed, a male samurai, I

don't know, sidekick named chemo a.

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Wonder kin, um, too much

and Tave the sumo wrestler,

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but I think the coolest

ones are the bad guys.

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Do you remember the names of the bad guys?

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Henry?

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Um, they are super ninja,

the Glo and Angel Fish.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

That's right.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

That's right.

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And do we start off the episode

with a cartoon or how does

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the episode actually start?

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It's.

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It starts off, um, remember there's

a karate man at the beginning.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Do you know his name?

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No, that's Chuck Norris.

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Chuck Norris.

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Yep.

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And he's wearing his karate, gee.

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And he tells us the moral of the story

that we're going to watch and how

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it made him remember the time that.

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He helped Dr.

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Sanford against the, uh, evil Dr.

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Claw.

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Well, not Dr.

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Claw, Dr.

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Claws from, uh, inspector Gadget.

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It is Claw but isn't Dr.

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Claw from, uh, inspector Gadget?

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

Inspector

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

The claw?

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Yeah, the claw.

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The claw.

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Super Ninja and Angel Fish.

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Angel Fish.

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That's right.

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We start off in the dojo and then we

go off and we start on a dock with Dr.

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Sanford.

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And Chuck Norris is hanging

out with his squad, right?

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Henry?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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On a boat.

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Yeah.

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And a little bit in the water.

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And what kind of animals

are they hanging out with?

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Fish and dolphins.

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They're hanging out with dolphins and I

think they attempt for like two seconds

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to make this educational by showing us a

little bit Yeah, like talking about how

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dolphins breathe or something like that.

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But who comes to steal Dr.

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Sanford?

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Um, some, the, um, the, the bad

guys send some ninjas to, to.

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Kidnapped the doctor.

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That's right, Henry.

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The commandos come and try to steal Dr.

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Sanford and we get this really cool

scene where Chuck Norris and the Karate

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Commandos, uh, take a speedboat and

they take it up onto the beach and

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start doing like donuts in the sand

with it as they're fighting off karate

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commandos, which is pretty cool.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

And this scene culminates with,

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uh, Chuck Norris on a being raised

into the sky fighting two ninjas.

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Uh, and then he uses one of their, uh.

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Nunchuck hybrid things.

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It's a, it's nunchucks, but

with a ninja star stuck on an

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end, which, uh, is interesting.

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And then he uses that to slide down

the cable and take out the other ninja

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that is, uh, crane operator certified.

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Uh.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Right.

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Um, and then we learn about, uh,

angel Fish, who is the lady villain.

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Um, and she is, uh, she has kidnapped Dr.

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Sanford and put him in a brain scanner

to find out where the underwater,

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what, what did they call it?

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The C lab is, what kind of experiments

do you think they do at C Lab, Henry?

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Sea, they, they do sea experiments.

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That's right.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: C

experiment you'd like to do, Henry?

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Um, um, go in the depths of the, of

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the bottom of the sea and, and try

and see if there's any dinosaurs in

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there because there was a Prius story,

reptiles that were in the water.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: That's

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

right.

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Will, will you name a few of the

prehistoric creatures that swam?

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Um, um,

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I don't remember any of them.

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What about Moza?

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Mosasaurus, that's a good one.

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And how about icky Asosa?

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I the Asosa?

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That's right.

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And those are both of

the ones that I know.

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Okay.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

And then there's like

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and mega.

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And of

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115: Um,

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Raddon.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

oh yeah.

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A magical Leo Raddon.

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Um, so of course to catch, um, the

bad guys, they, chuck and his crew

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swim, and I think it's actually

just Chuck and Tve at this point.

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They swim to a tanker.

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And of course Chuck Norris is shirtless

but wearing his leather boots to swim.

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Yep.

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And they climb up the tanker with

some magnet mittens and booties

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that they happen to have with

them, and they get onto the tanker

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and Chuck is taking out bad guys.

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But Tve, do you remember where Tve goes?

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The Sumo wrestler.

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Well, he goes in the ship,

but he goes into the kitchen.

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Kitchen, yep.

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And, and he realizes there

is some yummy food in there.

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Yep.

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So he comes out with a plate of fried

chicken and sees Chuck the boss.

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Yep.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Yep.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

There's lots of karate moves.

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Can you describe some of the karate moves?

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Henry?

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Um, I saw a kick.

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And, and one of them was, was him

use, the clothes list person just.

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Using two plates to smash,

uh, the, the cooker's head.

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Yeah.

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That was Tave, the sumo wrestler.

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Yeah.

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He took two plates, right?

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Yeah.

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He took two plates and then smashed them.

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That was a pretty good move.

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Yeah.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

they rescued Dr.

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Sanford, but because they were able to

use a CAT scan to read his mind, they

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already are on their way to C Lab.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115: Yes.

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And they, at Seed Lab, they turn

one of the devices into a weapon.

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Do you remember what

they turn into a weapon?

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Henry?

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Um, some something to, to create

waves that, that can destroy cities.

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Yeah, they call it the Wave Reactor.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Mm-hmm.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

do you remember who shows up?

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Um, super Ninja.

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Yeah, super Ninja shows up

and then we have Claw in, I

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don't know, on the computer?

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Yeah, like

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: On

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

a fake on tv.

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A fake, like a fake UN

or something like that.

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Like, like Angel Fish calls

him on the TV or something.

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And what does he demand from them?

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To destroy the city with their new weapon.

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Right.

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But in order to not destroy the land,

they ha they have to destroy it.

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They have to give them $1 billion.

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If I had $1 million, I'd buy you.

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That's, that's a song that I knew.

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That's a song that I knew.

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Don't sue us bare naked ladies.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: so now

they need to get their Karate Commandos

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in C Lab, which is now impenetrable.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115: Yep.

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But how do they get in?

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Do you remember?

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They, they used a pipe.

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Well, but they, what do

they use to help swim there?

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They, they used dolphins.

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That's right.

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Because we learned about dolphins.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

Chuck Norris Karate Commando's, deadly

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Dolphins, and you thought the Dolphins

were on the bad guy team, you were wrong.

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They're on the Good Guy team.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115: Yep.

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Good guy.

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Dolphins, right?

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Yeah, they, yeah.

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The peop the people on

the bad guy team just

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: I.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

thought they were just fishes swimming

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around and then, and then pow, they,

they just knocked, they just helped.

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They just helped.

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Um, Chuck.

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Yep.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: right.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

and we find out that the big

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wave is now heading to Japan.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

They're gonna destroy Tokyo.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

But who comes and saves the day,

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Chuck and the, and the dolphins.

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Yep.

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And they help save the day.

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Chuck, uh, gets some sort of power

wire and shorts out the system and.

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Uh, everybody celebrates and then

I knew that they saved the day.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

There was also one bit here where the

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rest of Chuck team, Chuck's team, so

Chuck is on his own with uh, TABE and

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Pepper Reed Chemo and too much get

captured and, in a bri prison cell.

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And they do the, the old trope of annoy

the guard and then disappear out of,

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uh, the view of the little window.

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And then, oh no, we're

secretly up on the ceiling.

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But the animation was so cheap that when

chemo appeared behind, uh, in the window

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of the door, he had his sword on his back.

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And so it was, it was like uh, it was

really cheap in animation or vulture

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was just like, yeah, we're gonna arrest

you and keep you in this prison cell

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and probably kill you later, but gonna

take your sword like we're not animals.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

I didn't even notice that.

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Did you notice that Henry?

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Um, I noticed the bit that they

were on the roof though, but not the

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Yeah.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

sword bit.

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Mm-hmm.

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I think I noticed it, but

I don't know for sure.

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Okay.

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And at the very end, after they celebrate,

what funny thing happens to angel fish?

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That, um, that the dolphins just

flinger up into the air at each other

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and they go, th long, th long, long.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

Yeah, they treat her like a

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beach ball at a sea world.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115: Yeah.

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And um, what did you

think about this episode?

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I think it was very great.

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We thought about this guys and we

were thinking, okay, Ben and I could

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make fun of this episode, but this

kind of stuff wasn't made for us.

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Right.

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Yeah, no, it was made for seven

year olds like Henry, right?

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Yeah.

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It was made for me.

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So Henry, there's four more episodes.

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Do you wanna watch more episodes?

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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And why?

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Why was it great?

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I think it, it was great because,

well, there was action and stuff.

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I loved the action.

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Mm-hmm.

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And what do you think of Chuck Norris?

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I think it's pretty good.

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Okay.

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Is his karate skills pretty good?

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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And I don't know, should we have

a, um, a, a curly, a curly crew

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rating system, like five out of

five stars, but something different?

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Yeah.

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Like what?

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How about, how about golden rings?

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Like Sonic?

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Yeah, like, like sonic's, golden rings.

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Like these,

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038:

give this Henry?

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

1, 2, 3.

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He golden rings out of three.

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Three outta three golden rings.

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You heard it right here, folks.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: right.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115:

Alright.

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Do you wanna say goodbye to everybody?

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How many rings do, do,

do you give it, dad?

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You know what?

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I'm not gonna give it any rings 'cause I

think only Henry's opinion counts here.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: I am

also not going to give it any rings.

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mommy-and-henry_1_10-08-2025_182115: Okay.

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All right.

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This has been cool.

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Family watches, cartoons.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And we're gonna see you next time.

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Bye.

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the-dadatron_1_10-08-2025_182038: Bye.

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About the Podcast

Cool Girls Don't Look at Explosions
Have you ever been curious about what men watched in the 80's and 90's, but didn't want to sit through it? Have we got a show for you! Join Beth, Glo, and Laura as they skip through dude centric TV while laughing, mocking, and maybe finding the secret feminism.