Chatty Cathy

Who doesn't love a good creepy talking doll? Our horror films and TV shows are, of course, full with them, from Talkie Tina in the Twilight Zone episode Living Doll back in '63, uh, Chucky in 1988's Child's Play, to more recent high-tech terrors such as Megan and its sequel.

Even the old Twilight Zone episode that was based on an actual Mattel talking doll, Chatty Cathy, which debuted in 1959.

But all of this has a creepy and much earlier predecessor in the form of Thomas Edison's singing phonograph doll.

Yes, long before Teddy Ruxpin or any of the AI horrors that we have today, uh, back in 1889, American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison produced a toy that certainly looked like your standard issue doll, like not quite a baby doll, but like a young girl doll.

Yeah, I get it right out the window.

Last time I went, I got Chatty Cathy, who doesn't understand every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Yeah.

All she got stuck is, is right in the, in the middle.

Claire off of eBay for $15, and she was advertised as a haunted doll, right? So I'm like-

She's like a Chatty Cathy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm gonna get it.

Is she a Chatty Cathy? 'Cause she kinda looks like-

I'm not sure what she is.

Jabber Jaws is the best.

I, yeah, I, I would call her Chatty Cathy, and then Brittany called her Jabber Jaws, and I was like, "That is spot on."

Jabber Jaws.

[laughs]

Man, they had this doll back in the day, like, in, back in the '50s and '60s.

Her name was Chatty Cathy.

And you would pull a string-

[laughs]

Everything from talking toys.

You know, Chatty Cathy was a pool toy that spoke.

That was the voice of June Foray.

She spoke and recorded that voice.

I'm going to read the quote.

It's like going on a date with a Chatty Cathy doll.

I expect you to have a little string on your chest that I can pull out and have to snap back.

Except I wouldn't pull it out and snap it back.

who is John Candy, and the listener said, we should have read or included Del Griffith's response because she said she remembers his speech, his little response, and she uses it as inspiration when she's not feeling like she's enough.

And so I looked it up, and you know what? Not only is she right, but I think there's an important message in this.

So here's what Del Griffith said in response to the Chatty Cathy speech I read a minute ago.

You want to hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better.

Tremendous.

No, now you take him out? Oh, he wants to be Chatty Cathy.

There could be someone two football fields away.

He wants to bark at him.

Here's the quote.

It's like going on a date with a Chatty Cathy doll.

I expect you to have a little string on your chest that I pull out and have to snap back.

Except I wouldn't pull it out and snap it back.

Have a point.

It makes it so much more interesting for the listener.

Aye, aye, aye, Chatty Cathy.

I'm sure