Comet Hale–Bopp
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Search complete. 50 mentions across 33 episodes found for "Comet Hale–Bopp".
Nov 3, 2026
Steve TrainorHOST
11.
Steve TrainorHOST
Often lighting up headlines in early 1997, who or what was Hale-Bopp?
speaker_1UNKNOWN
Excuse me? Hale-Bopp?
Steve TrainorHOST
Yeah.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
Hale-Bopp.
Steve TrainorHOST
Yeah.
Steve TrainorHOST
Often lighting up headlines in early 1997, who or what was Hale-Bopp?
speaker_1UNKNOWN
A rock group?
Michael ScrogginsHOST
You know, I think one of the things that
Daniel SoulelesHOST
may have put me off of celestial observances, do you remember the Hale-Bopp comet? Yeah.
Daniel SoulelesHOST
I mean that thing was crazy.
Daniel SoulelesHOST
You could see it with the naked eye.
Alex McColganHOST
It is often hard to see comets with your naked eye on Earth, but every so often a comet will outgas enough material that it is visible.
Alex McColganHOST
In the northern hemisphere, the last one I saw was Hale-Bopp in 1997 when I was just a kid.
Alex McColganHOST
What an amazing sight it was.
Alex McColganHOST
You guys in the southern hemisphere have been a bit luckier with comets.
Diane SawyerSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
At this moment, a giant comet is blazing past Earth.
Diane SawyerSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
This is a real photo of that huge comet called Hale-Bopp.
Dick JoslinSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Brightest comet to come along in hundreds of years.
Diane SawyerSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
And conspiracy radio shows keep insisting there's a UFO right behind it.
KaceyHOST
And in 1997, 39 people died in the Heaven's Gate cult in California, Santa Fe.
KaceyHOST
When members engaged in a ritual mass suicide by ingesting phenobarbital and vodka with plastic bags over their heads believing it would allow them to board an extraterrestrial spacecraft trailing the Hale-Bopp comet.
KaceyHOST
That doesn't sound a million miles away from starving to death to meet Jesus.
KaceyHOST
So even though these cults may have different belief systems and take on different shapes, the blueprint remains the same and the coercive control at the foundation of all of these systems is identical from one group to the next.
Will ReitzHOST
While they didn't name a day in advance, they did teach that the end was coming.
Will ReitzHOST
And Marshal Applewhite figured out what day was coming when news came of the coming of the Hale-Bopp Comet.
Will ReitzHOST
So Applewhite convinced his followers that an alien spacecraft was trailing behind and hiding behind the comet to evacuate their souls.
Will ReitzHOST
So on March 26, 1997, they committed mass suicide.
Will ReitzHOST
And they believed they were joining the spaceship behind Hale-Bopp Comet.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
That's a heck of a picture right there.
Will ReitzHOST
He was a heck of a crazy dude.
JonathanHOST
So your boy Shane Hurd, assistant state director of the Arizona chapter of the MUFON network, told Phoenix New Times in 2022 that the sighting occurred on a clear moonless night, which aided visibility.
JonathanHOST
Many people were already watching the skies because comet Haley Bopp was highly visible to the naked eye at the time because of its brightness.
JonathanHOST
um check this out your boy kurt russell makes uh yeah yeah dude and we're gonna get to kurt russell's story here in a little bit it's actually pretty funny um
BluffADVERTISER
Yo, it's Bluff here.
NickPANELIST
Does that do guys spray pee everywhere? They might have started that
PussPANELIST
cult knowing that the comet Hale-Bopp wasn't coming around for another 20-some years because that's just how long it takes.
Mike TylerHOST
God, I don't want to sing Oom-Bopp, man.
Mike TylerHOST
Stop it.
Mike TylerHOST
Hale-Bopp, Bop-Bop.
Mike TylerHOST
Oh, no. It's there, man.
Mike TylerHOST
I had to get it out, man.
PussPANELIST
I
Mike TylerHOST
A lot of Norman Lear stuff you get on the WeTV or the digital alternative to your network stations in town.
Mike TylerHOST
Yeah, we still can't find Hale-Bopp.
Todd BrandtHOST
Come on.
Todd BrandtHOST
No.
Mike TylerHOST
Everybody wants to bang the producer.
Mike TylerHOST
Can you blame
Todd BrandtHOST
him? Nobody remembers Hale-Bopp, so we'll have to write that in the spring.
Todd BrandtHOST
Okay, get on that.
Mike TylerHOST
It kind of comes back to them a little bit.
Mike TylerHOST
So if I hear Oom Bop, the song to Hail Bop that we wrote and sang or whatever, I'll know it existed, but I don't think it did.
NickPANELIST
If it doesn't, you might have to write one more parody song.
Mike TylerHOST
Yeah, for 30 years later, Jim would love that.
NickPANELIST
Yeah, it does.
NickPANELIST
What do they eat? Benzos? Not Benzos.
Mike TylerHOST
And then sing Hail Bop.
Mike TylerHOST
Let's just get AI to write it for us.
23 more episodes mention Comet Hale–Bopp.
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