Heavyweight Short: Yasser

Stevie Lane. Hello, So now you have a story I 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:08.600 do to tell to share with the nation. Yes, does 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.520 your grandmother what's your grandmother's name again, Philip, Ruth? 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:13.000 Ruth close? 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:16.640 Has she listened to your stories in the past? 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:17.680 She has? 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:19.160 Has she listened to my stories? 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:21.480 No? Not as much, not at all. 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:23.560 Should we call her up on the telephone to tell 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.920 her that you have a story? 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:28.600 Who's this? 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.080 Hi, Grandma, it's Stevie. Oh. 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.080 Oh, it just said New York. I almost wasn't going. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:35.680 To take it. 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:39.760 Okay, fun, how to do it? 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.960 I was just calling because I wanted to tell you 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.800 that I'm hosting today's episode of Heavyweight. 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.040 Oh and of course, you know what, I'll hear you 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:55.480 better because I just came back from the audeologist. She 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.520 fixs my hearing aids so I can hear a little better. 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.040 And no, everybody who listens, you know, so I we're 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:01.840 hearing age. 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.600 Oh, Grandma, I think that most ninety five year olds 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:05.720 have hearing aids. 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:07.959 And right now you're told everyone I'm old. 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:08.319 I am. 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.400 I was going to say I'm only eighty nine, but okay, 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:12.760 I've got to say ninety five. 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:13.840 I'm sorry. 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.400 No, I was only teasing you, and I don't care. 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.720 I don't know me so well, but they don't know 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.240 I don't look my age. You'd have to tell them that. 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.120 Oh yeah, So for everyone listening, she does not look 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:26.760 her age. 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:27.400 Good. 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:40.200 I'm Stevie Lane and this is heavyweight, Today's heavyweight short. 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:43.280 Yeah, sir, I'm ready to hear it. 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:59.840 Now you may right after the break. Hello, Hi is 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:04.240 this Yasir? Yes, this is he. Yaser is twenty eight. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.760 He lives in Saudi Arabia and he's a dentist. I 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:09.919 love going to the dentist. 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.560 Actually, oh nice, I see you floss. 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.360 Every day and I have a water floss. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:17.959 Wow, A plus do it. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.239 I could talk about my oral hygiene all day. Cavities, 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:28.000 zero gum recession. If anything, my gums are advancing. But 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.760 we're not here to talk about my superior dental health. 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.080 We're here to talk about Yaser and a cartoon he 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.880 first encountered when he was a kid. Yaser hasn't seen 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:51.160 it in twenty years because it's completely vanished. Yasser grew 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.960 up in a small Saudi town. He loved cartoons. This 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.600 was back before streaming, so his mom would go to 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.320 the video store to buy VHS tapes for him, and 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.480 one day, when Yaser was about eight years old, she 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.200 came home with a cartoon that changed his life. 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:12.760 The show is called Little Eliphonteau. It's about a family 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.000 of elephants living in suburbia. 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:17.919 The elephant family was called the boom Mills. 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.640 The father works in a company and he's always worried 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:23.120 about his bonus. 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.200 Oh, when is my boss going to give me my bonus? 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.160 And the show was dubbed in Arabic. Yasser always assumed 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:30.520 it was originally American. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.240 You know the fact that they're living in suburbia, that's 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:40.520 very American. The father's financial woes also American. Brown nosing 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.640 with the boss and trying to make him like him, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.560 that seems to me very American as well. 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.400 I take offense at yas theer's assumption that all Americans 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:55.080 are career obsessed sick offense, But I just laughed politely. 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.320 After all, I have an interview to finish, and I 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.680 want to make my talented and intelligent boss, Jonathan Stuart 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:12.000 Goldstein proud. Maybe this year I'll finally get that bonus. 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.520 The show quickly became a classic in Yasser's home, He 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.159 and his brother would watch it every morning before school 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.360 with a breakfast sandwich and a big cup of Nest Cafe. 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.760 The star of the show was the baby elephant, Filo, 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:29.120 who was. 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.800 Very young and still in diapers and has a teddy 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:34.240 bear named Hong. 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.039 Filo and Hong would go on imaginary adventures together. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:44.240 Fodo was so magical to me whenever we would go 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.320 on camping trips or desert outings. 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.520 Every time we would go, I would try to discover something, 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:57.159 a secret door, a treasure like Fido. 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.560 Yes, or love the show because like Philo, he was 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.440 a kid with a big imagination, the kind of kid 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.360 it would pretend that inanimate objects were alive. He tells 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.359 me about one time when he was driving down a 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:12.560 bumpy road with a friend. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.240 I was kind of imagining the car, kind of going, oh, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:18.120 what are you doing to me? 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:22.559 Oh, calm down, slow bloo. But in Yaser's small town, 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:24.800 he didn't feel like there was a lot of support 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.520 for kids like him, kids who looked drawing and making 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:28.240 up stories. 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:34.599 And I longed for a place to bring my creativity 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:35.039 to light. 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.200 Pursuing a creative field didn't feel like an option for Ya, Sir, 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:41.880 And when he got older, he chose a career that 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:47.440 was practical and prestigious dentistry. Now a decade later, Yasser 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.080 admits that he doesn't love it. He's always been this 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:54.000 really imaginative person, but in his daily routine, he's not 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.000 that excited by what he does. He spends his days 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.320 looking at rows of teeth and checking gums. There's no 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:02.160 sense of wonder like there was when he was a 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.560 kid living in his imaginary world. He's nostalgic for that 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.400 feeling and sees the cartoon as a sort of portal. 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.760 He knows that watching Philo would bring him right back 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:19.000 to his childhood. The only problem is Filo is gone. 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.880 I tried to find it everywhere. No one ever recognizes it. 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.440 No one knows this show aside from our family. It's 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.000 so insane. It almost feels like a like a dream 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:33.240 we had as a family. 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.640 It's as though Little Philo has been wiped from existence. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:47.520 Yaser has poured over media archives, has tried googling Elephant 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.840 cartoon in every language he can think of. Once, he 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.000 even heard an actor's voice on TV and recognized him 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:55.719 as one of the characters from the show. 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.640 So I looked up the guy on Facebook, and then 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:00.800 I find Hi. 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.640 I tell him about this show. He does not recognize it. 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:06.880 In a last ditch effort, Yaser made a drawing of 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.040 the characters from memory, the dad and his bowtie, invest 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.240 the mom in her green, ruffled house dress. He bought 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.920 ads based on Instagram and posted the drawing to see 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.720 if anyone could identify it. Nothing. 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.920 I keep thinking there must be like some like cartoon 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:28.680 lunatic guy living in a basement that would like instantly 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:29.720 pick it up. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:31.640 But I just don't know. 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.280 I mean lunatic basically cartoon guides. 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.400 So you want to break it down with the maestro? 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:40.520 Is that what this is about? 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:47.360 From Gimblet Media, he's Jonathan Goldstein, post of Most Heavyweight Episodes. 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.760 I tell him about my conversation with Yaser and his 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.040 beloved TV show about a family of elephants. 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:54.800 Can I stop you and ask a question? 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:55.280 Please? 0:07:55.600 --> 0:08:00.000 This family of elephants is one of them wearing a crown. 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.480 I know what you're thinking. You're thinking Babar. I'm thinking Babar. 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.760 I think it's Babar. What's Who's b bar? B Bar 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.960 is the elephant with a crown? But Yaser sent me 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.400 the drawing he made and it looks nothing like Babar 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:17.040 or bab Bar. 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.160 Oh, now you're calling him babar. Huh. 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.360 I'm just trying to I'm just trying to be agreeable, 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:22.880 you know. 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:24.560 Can can you hear this? 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:28.560 You're ready? Oh? I think you're right? I mean you 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:30.640 were right. I knew I was right. 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:31.280 I just didn't. 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.960 Let's see one more, one more, hang on, here it comes. 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:35.800 Oh did you hear that? 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.520 Okay, so you're gonna take the set what sounds like 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.840 a barely literate child and use that. 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.960 Who would know better? Who would know better than a 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:46.439 ba bar? 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:53.120 Okay? So let's just say we're both right. Well, Jonathan 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.320 says he isn't the basement dweller. I seek he does know, 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:57.920 just the guy. 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.680 He has a very quick mind, very quick on his toes, 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.520 fleet of foot and fleet of mouth. It's like everything 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:06.839 that he says sounds like it could be scored to 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.360 flight of the bumblebee? Does that make sense? 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:10.080 Not really? 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:12.680 You'll you'll see what I'm talking about. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.720 Hi, Stev, how are you? This is Howard? And Jonathan 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:21.800 was right. Talking to Howard feels like clinging to an 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.000 electric fence. Like here's what he says when I send 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:26.040 him asters drawing. 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:28.840 They actually look like elephant seals. Holy shit, they have 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:30.280 known known that they are elfan seals. They would have 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:33.160 they would have flippers. They're They're definitely most evil animals 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.120 on the planet. I think male elephant seals. They smother 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.920 their babies to death. What Dolphins are also not the nicest. 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:40.600 I love dolphins so much, but they're really mean. They're 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:41.280 mean to sharks. 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.280 Howard is a cartoonist himself and has an extensive knowledge 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.160 of all things animation. I tell him all about the 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.120 boom Mill family and some of the other characters, like 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:53.720 the janitor elephant with a cigarette butt hanging out of 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:54.160 her mouth. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.520 That changes a lot. Then it's most likely not an 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.280 American or Canadian kid series because they would never put 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.080 a cigarette in the mouth, especially if it was like 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:05.800 late nineties, early two thousands. 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:07.440 Oh that's a good point. 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.600 I'm going to find this Philo Elefanto little Elephants. 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.760 I'm obsessed with this now. I expect to hang up 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:15.520 and get a call from Howard in a few days 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.480 with the answer. Instead, he launches into his investigation right 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:24.600 then and there with a dizzying speed. He turns to Wikipedia. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.560 And if Philiu camp Plasio, Chico Bombon, Edward and Friends, Elephant, 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.240 Edward and Friends. That's who that is clearmation Now see 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.640 Jungle Cubs, Kirian Lou knowing Asanski Wikiyaku jungle junction, as 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.720 of tay Lulu's islands. Well, I'm searching. We can have 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.400 all kinds of discussions without other things. It's spaghetti here, 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.080 Philu are you talking about Tarzan? You're not talking about 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.520 tet now, I'm sorry, Yo, Nakima Ton Tour, Tonturs elephant 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:53.880 mean the Tarzan san any adventures remember that ton Tour 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:58.560 Elephant Magic adventures A mumpy now he's sound right. My big, 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.600 my big big friend. Nelly the elephant arguing the cock 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.200 coroaches meet Poco yo. What's is poco yo? The one's 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.000 called Nelfie Nelly, No, sorry, Nelly. The resk in mompfy 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:08.280 tesc and moumfy Oh. 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:09.440 I found it. 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.760 I found it. What are you saying? He's holding a 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:14.280 teddy bear. This has got to be him. It's all 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:14.800 in Arabic. 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.640 Is a little baby elephant and he's holding a teddy bear. 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.040 A teddy bear my heart sores and the teddy bear 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:25.280 is like a panda and sinks in Yasser's drawing, the 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.480 teddy bear is not a panda. It turns out all 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.000 Howard has found is a book called The Elephant Learns 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:34.480 to Share about an angry elephant who keeps everything for himself. 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.880 It was never adapted into a TV show, which is 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:42.439 probably why the Elephant is so angry. After Howard's failure, 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.120 I lose faith in guy's and basements everywhere. I need 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:50.840 a professional, one who dwells above ground. So I call Ramins, 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.320 a heat editor in chief of Animation Magazine, and send 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:58.080 him Yaser's drawing. He'll post it to the magazine's Facebook page, 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:03.240 which has hundreds of thousands of follows. A few days later, 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:08.640 I get an email Stevie exclamation Point. We found it, 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:15.840 exclamation Point. At the bottom of the email, there's a 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:20.800 YouTube link to an animated show about a family of elephants. 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.719 Many of the details match up with what Yaser had 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.560 told me about Filo, right down to the little kid 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:31.240 elephant with a teddy bear, and it's an Arabic flo 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:36.800 Filo Helentie Hula. I don't speak Arabic, but I feel 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.320 like I can hear them saying Filo. Surely this must 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.040 be it. I am like ninety percent sure this is 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:48.680 not it. This naysayer is my producer, Mona. She speaks Arabic, 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:50.520 so I ask her to take a look at the clip, 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:52.840 and she says. There are a number of differences between 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:56.280 this show and what Yaser described. For one, the baby 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.160 elephant isn't named Filo. That's just a way of saying 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.240 elephant in air. And like this show is extremely boring. 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:07.200 I would say that's like my strongest reason that I 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.800 don't think this is it. Yaser described a magical show 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.680 where Philo went on fantastical adventures. The episode of this 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.240 show that Mona watched was about watering a neighbor's plants. 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:21.840 Hat in hand, I returned to the Maestro to see 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:23.360 if he has any ideas. 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.200 Is it not possible or even likely that he is 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.520 Key and his family have conflated a couple different cartoons 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:31.080 into one. 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.920 Is it? I look at Yaser's drawing again, and this 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.400 time I noticed that the elephants don't even really look 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.800 like elephants. Their trunks are scrunched and wrinkled, much more 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.160 like snouts. They look a bit like alf drawn in 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:49.280 the style of Maurice Sendak, and over the next few months, 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:52.600 my luck in finding Philo doesn't improve. I reach out 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.520 to the Museum of the Moving Image, the UCLA Film Archive, 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.360 the Pale Media Center. I speak to a professor of 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:02.000 animation at Saudi Arabian University. I do a reverse image 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.440 search on Yaser's drawing. I even wait on hold for 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.720 three hours on a live Colin radio show Who's prompt 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.400 that week? As Luckwood have it is for movies and 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.160 TV shows that people can't quite remember the names of, 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.280 but everyone just says the same thing. 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.280 The only elephants family I can think of is Bar. 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.360 The elephant was very famous. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.400 Maybe I'm just confusing it with people are saying bomb 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:29.160 al bab Bar. It's pretty close. 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.520 Somebody said bi Bar, So. 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.320 There was something was elephants. 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:38.680 Are you thinking of Bibar? 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:41.600 Yes, yes, yes, I'm thinking of Okay. 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:50.080 It's not ba Bar, And I gotta tell you, like, yes, sir. 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.560 At this point, I'm like starting to doubt your memory 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:54.120 a little bit. 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.320 I'm starting to doubt my own memory, are you sometimes? 0:14:59.400 --> 0:14:59.640 Yeah? 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.920 Did I actually imagine this show? Or is it a 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.000 real thing that existed at one point? 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:16.200 An answer to that question after the break. Hi, yes, sir, Hello, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:18.520 can I play you something? 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:19.640 Okay? 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:32.720 Okay ha ha, Oh my god, No way, that's the intro. 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:33.800 You recognize it? 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:36.680 Oh, that's it. 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:50.920 You found it. We found it, and here's how we 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:55.240 found it. As a last resort, I posted Yaser's drawing 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.560 from the Heavyweight Twitter account and asked for help. A 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.320 man named Simon in Germany responded, I found your show, 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.680 he said. I wasn't hopeful. How many times had I 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.120 already heard those very same words from Howard, from Amen, 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:15.040 from anyone and everyone who's ever seen Babar. But Simon 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.920 sent a YouTube link to a German cartoon called Auto's 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:22.160 Autifantin and the characters looked exactly like the ones in 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.800 Yasser's drawing. And as it turns out, Simon didn't even 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.520 have to be one of those lunatic basement cartoon guys, 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.320 because in Germany the autifants are famous. They're on lunchboxes 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.560 and in video games. There's a whole museum dedicated to them. 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.440 Simon told me anyone on the street would have recognized 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:46.680 Yasser's drawing. Then, in my own Wikipedia frenzy, I learned 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.440 that the characters were created by a famous German comedian 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:53.360 named Otto Vodkas. He's sort of like a German Robin Williams. 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:55.960 If you ever moved to watch the movie ice Age 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.560 in German. He's the voice of Sid the sloth. 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:03.680 Hello, this is so. 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.200 I called Auto at his home in Fort Lauderdale to 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.040 find out more about the Odifants, and it was easy 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.320 to imagine how he made a famous cartoon character, because 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:14.440 he's basically a cartoon character himself. 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.120 I have a studio up in the first floor here 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.080 with a little diving board. From there, I can jump 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.760 in my pool. No, yes, I love it. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.240 If talking to Howard was like clinging to an electric fence, 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.560 talking to Auto was like trying to catch a super 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.200 bouncy ball in a room full of trampolines. Like when 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.480 I tried to ask him about Yaser's favorite episode, That's 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:43.960 my favorite, and then without warning, he suddenly became the Grinch. 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:46.719 I'm going to steal Christmas. 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:48.879 Before whiping out a guitar. 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:58.040 I wonder, like under one ring Star, I wonder if 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.800 you know it's funny, like you say dog when you 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:01.159 said that. 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:12.480 Only when I finally was able to squeeze in a 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.600 question about the otifans. Otto told me he's been drawing 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.800 them ever since he was a child. It all started 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.760 one day in school when Otto was doodling at his desk. 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:23.800 He tried to draw a self portrait. 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:29.360 It was so I changed the eyes a little bit, 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:31.879 extended the nose, a little bit of the legs, A 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:32.480 little elephant. 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:36.800 They call it fund Ottiphant, a mash up word of 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:42.919 Auto an elephant. Auto based the boom Mill family on 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:46.760 his own. The character Filo, who in Germany is named 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.480 Baby Bruno, was meant to be Otto himself. 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.960 I had my little teddy bear. You know this crystal 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.560 hug because it was made in Hong Kong. That's why 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:56.280 I called him Honk. 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.159 Growing up in post war Germany, Otto's family didn't have 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.720 a lot of money for paint and paper, so he'd 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:06.440 make drawings on the backs of wallpaper scraps. I showed 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.440 Otto the drawing Yaser made of his audifence, and Otto 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.440 was delighted. He asked me to record a message. 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.120 Yes, Sah, when you were here in America, in Fort Lauderdale, 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.280 you gott to visit me. I have a diving board. 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.200 We can talk about Baby Bruno and we can draw, 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.600 and I saw your drawing at a really excellent I'm 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:29.880 looking forward to meeting you. Holda nity. I can bark 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:36.199 that I'd do anything for you. Okay, oh my god. 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:38.440 Wow. 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:41.879 Back on the phone with Yaser, we debrief about the 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.040 creator of his favorite TV show. He and Otto were 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:49.960 similar kids, always drawing, always imagining. They both identified with Philo, 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.120 and yet Otto's life went one way towards a career 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:58.160 in the arts, while Yasers one another. That's the thing. 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:02.000 Yasers particularly fixated on how Auto stayed true to his 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.840 childhood passion followed his dream of being an artist. 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:08.240 It's all inspiring. 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.560 I wonder when he made that decision and how did 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:15.280 it affect his. 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:19.880 Life, Like did he have to break up with someone, 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.560 did he have like trouble in his household? 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:28.720 Was it a good decision or did he regret it? 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:30.919 It feels like these are questions he answer is asking 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.159 himself rather than Auto. Maybe questions he's been asking himself 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.000 for a long time, questions he's still asking. 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.800 I think that no matter how older you get, no 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.600 matter what position in life you're in, there's always the 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:48.480 question of who. 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.520 Am I and what purpose do I fulfill? 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:56.680 I just always kind of like, never really feel sure 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.560 of what I'm doing, and in my work sometimes I'm like, 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:03.239 what do I want out of this? 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:05.080 What purpose? 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:09.560 I think that we're always in search of our truest self. 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:17.640 And it turns out there's a reason Yasir is reflecting 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.480 so much on his life because Yaser tells me he 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.320 and his wife just found out that they're having a baby. 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:26.840 Oh yes, sir, I'm so happy for you. 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:28.399 Thank you. 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.040 Yeser might still have questions about his truest self, but 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:35.720 when it comes to his future child's there's one thing 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.120 he knows for sure. Yaser wants something different for his 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.000 kid than what he had. He says that if his 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:44.880 kid enjoys making art as much as he did, He's 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.000 going to encourage that in any way he can. 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.920 Or even if they're not artistic and just kind of 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:53.000 are crazy about. 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.480 Math and robotics or whatever. 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:58.760 I'll try my best to support that. 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.040 A few weeks after we talk, Yasser receives a package 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.720 from Germany. It's full of Audi fund and swag, sent 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.360 by Auto to his number one fan in Saudi Arabia. 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.000 There's a hat, a T shirt, a toe bag, and 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.720 a little stuffed animal otifhant Yasser says he's going to 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:41.439 give it to his baby, his own little Felo. This 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.920 Heavyweight short was produced by Mohemi mcgouger and me Stevie Lane, 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:48.960 along with Phoebe Flanagan. Our executive producer is Jonathan Goldstein. 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.120 Our senior producer is Khalila Holt. Special thanks to doctor 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.000 Mohammed Gazala, Pia Gadkari, Bobby Lord, and Tom Sharpling over 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:59.560 at the Best Show editorial guidance from Emily Condon. Bobby 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.600 Lord makes the episode with original music by Christine Fellows, 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:06.160 John K. Sampson, Blue Dot Sessions and Bobby Lord. Additional 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.639 music credits can be found on our website gimlipmedia dot 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.480 com slash Heavyweight. Our theme song is by The Weaker 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:15.800 Theands courtesy of Epitaph Records. Heavyweight is a Spotify original podcast. 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:19.840 Follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight, Instagram at Heavyweight Podcast, 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:22.919 or email us at Heavyweight at gimlipmedia dot com. You 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:25.359 can also follow our show on Spotify and tap the 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:29.160 bell to receive notifications when new episodes drop and speaking 0:23:29.160 --> 0:23:31.520 of new episodes, will be back with a brand new 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:32.679 one next week