comedy4cast: Home Is Where The Hut Is(032726)

0:00Protein is now at Starbucks and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein, cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks. It's time for Friday Follies, right here on the Mutual Audio Network. The following audio drama is rated PG for parental guidance. How many forecast network? Let's doggie that for now. We interrupt our normal episodes for the following month of special episodes. It's time, once again, for the dog days of podcasting. A call for podcasters to try to put out a podcast every day in August. For more information and to hear all the shows, go to dogdaysofpodcasting.com.

1:01Here at the Comedy Forecast Studios, we always take this month to provide you with some interesting yet totally useless odd news. And this year, to celebrate 20 years of comedy forecast, an event we're calling the Platinum Anniversary of Comedy Forecast or Pack for short, will end each dog day episode with part of a classic comedy forecast episode. So, let's get started with Odd News Pack. It's the first pizza Friday of dog days. And here is our first pizza related story. This time, we're traveling all the way to London, Kentucky, and the home of the Hubbard family. Ooh, does this family have a special secret pizza recipe? Well, first of all, if I told you, it wouldn't be a secret now, would it? But, well, no, they don't. But, what they do have is a garage.

2:01And in that space, they have created a retro pizza hut restaurant, complete with booth seating, arcade games, and authentic lighting and signage. This all began back in 2022. Stephanie and Chris Hubbard had purchased a few teenage mutant ninja turtle arcade machines to set up in the garage. Obviously, that got them thinking about pizza. But, more specifically, past trips to pizza hut. They began reminiscing about how much fun they had had as kids, playing their arcade games at the hut. In fact, the whole experience of going out to a restaurant brought on waves of nostalgia. Stephanie explained, in not this voice. As cliche as this sounds, it was a time that was so much more simple. We didn't have everything at our fingertips. Eating at a sit-down restaurant was a rare occurrence. So when you put that together with the video games, a jukebox, and the pizza hut lighting, you were living the dream. All the fields right there.

3:03In fact, Chris began to wonder, again, not in this voice. What if we made this area look like a pizza hut? Stephanie was instantly all in on the idea. Fast forward to today. I said fast forward to today. 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025. To date, the Hubbard have spent around $3,000 on the pop-up Pizza Hut project. And, as the project rolled along, it began to inspire friends and family to lend a hand. Soon, the Hubbard were receiving authentic Pizza Hut items as gifts for birthdays and Christmas, although some jewelry or power tools might have been nice too. Stephanie says even her mother did scouting around and found signature Pizza Hut red cups at a goodwill store in Dayton. In fact, the Hubbard have so much restaurant ephemera, it fills an entire display case in the space. Items like glass mugs, salt and pepper shakers, even a complete JC penny Pizza Hut party set.

4:06Yes, that was a thing. The furthest they have driven for a piece was five hours to Illinois. That was to pick up a pizza delivery car topper that Chris made into a light fixture for above the arcade machines. And if you think the Hubbard are alone in their Pizza Hut pursuits, apparently authentic hut items go quickly when they do become available. Some of the biggest lucky finds in the Hubbard Hut include an actual booth and two tables, as well as an authentic, please wait to be seated at sign. There's no indication if the Hubbard's kids, Weston and Cassidy, have to wait to be seated. Weston does have vague memories of going to Pizza Hut, while Cassidy says she's warming to the idea of having a pizza parlor in their garage. The Hubbard also share the pizza fun with their friends. In fact, for Stephanie's 40th birthday, they hosted a prom right there in their own private Pizza Hut. Pretty cool. And now, let's celebrate 20 years of comedy forecast with this classic clip.

5:09This clip is from Episode 20, released on August 27th, 2005. In the sketch, my wife and son played cleverly enough by my wife, Bonnie and our son, Nathan, have convinced me that it's time to ditch the Commodore 64 and get a new computer. Of course, my logical next question is, what type of computer will we get to replace it? Here's a cool computer that's on sale. Interesting, but it says that all the accessories are separate. That's where they get you, you know, the accessories. We've thought of that. We've gone over the list of items that we'd need. Go on. I'm listening. First, we'd need a mouse. We're thinking USB. Hey, hey, hey. I won't have that kind of talking to my house. Huh? Those are initials USB. Now, I see where he gets it. Maybe we'd better skip to the next item. We'll talk about this later.

6:09We need a new monitor, LCD. Well, that's better. I see your practicing your Spanish, LCD. That means the CD, right? Right, Dad. Ritch, Corinthian leather. Moving on, we'd want to get a new printer, but we can't decide between inkjet and laser. Oh, laser. Let's do laser. Then we can have it like in those movies, where they use the laser beam spread out over the room for security. Neat. I like it. But, Dad, you can never mind to be happy he made a decision. Don't forget about the extra memory. That's pretty funny. Huh? Forget about the memory. Look, this sounds like it's getting pretty expensive. Anything else? We'd want a connection to the internet and maybe a wireless setup. Wi-Fi. I give up Wi-Fi. No, Dad. Wi-Fi, you know? Like wireless G? I don't know anything about those rappers on MH1's son.

7:10You know, this is all very confusing. I guess I'm just going to have to trust you too to pick out the new computer setup. I just have one simple request. What? Can we get one of those music players too? But nothing too expensive. This should be easy. Don't count on it. What about an iPod shuffle? Oh, you kids with your crazy dance names. Is that what you do when you're listening to wireless G? Huh? But seriously, what about the music player? Let me try. What about Rio? You have to go that far to get one. How about I-River? Oh, well, that's how you could get there. That might work. But what does it have to do with a music player? Creative Zen. When did we switch to philosophy? No, Dad. Tan-Roo. Vegan? That about wraps it up for today's odd news pack. But first, a shout out to the Comedy Forecast Patreon Patrons, including our producer-level patron, Paul Barry, from the A Window to the Magic Podcast, at windowtothemagic.com.

8:10You too can support Comedy Forecast and get episodes before everyone else for as little as $2 a month. Just search for Comedy Forecast, all one word with the number four, on patreon.com. In this episode, the part of Bonnie was played by Bonnie Candardine, and the part of Nathan was played by Nathan Allvord, additional voices as well as story and music by me, Clinton Allvord, copyright 2025, all rights reserved. Talk to you again next time. But for now, that's it. We're Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun. Bye-bye. It's tax season. And at Life Lock, we know you're tired of numbers. But here's a big one you need to hear. Billions. That's the amount of money and refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud. Now here's another big number, 100 million. That's how many data points life lock monitors every second.

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