Line #34 Podcast/WeDidntStartTheFire


1	->''The podcast that explores postwar history and the reasons why the world is the way it is today, all done through the lyrics of the number one smash hit by the legend that is Music/BillyJoel.''
2	-->'''Katie, introducing the second episode'''
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4	''We Didn't Start the Fire'' is a modern history [[{{Podcast}} podcast]] produced by Crowd Network that ran for 123 weekly episodes between January 2021 and June 2023. Presented by American broadcaster Katie Puckrik and British sportswriter Tom Fordyce (one of the other guys from ''Podcast/ThatPeterCrouchPodcast''), its premise is that it takes an episode to explain each of the people, places, events and other things mentioned in Music/BillyJoel's 1989 hit "We Didn't Start the Fire" (hence the name). In order.
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6	!!Tropes:
7	* TheAce: Plenty — Joe [=DiMaggio=], Rocky Marciano, Music/{{Liberace}}, etc.
8	* AlliterativeName: Discussed during the Creator/MarilynMonroe episode, given that the lady originally known as Norma Jeane Mortenson used her mother's maiden name (Monroe) as a stage name and wanted to combine that with her actual first names, but was persuaded to go with Marilyn due to this trope.
9	* ArgentinaIsNaziLand: Discussed in the [[UsefulNotes/JuanDomingoPeron Juan Perón]] episode, as Perón was the Argentine leader who allowed several prominent Nazis to take refuge there in the late 1940s.
10	* AuthorAppeal: Often discussed, as Katie and Tom spend a part of each episode speculating on what led Billy to include each subject in the song.
11	* BaseballEpisode: Several, given that the song has quite a few references to baseball (Joe [=DiMaggio=], "Brooklyn's got a winning team", etc). Despite being American, Katie is unimpressed with the emphasis on "sportsball", whereas Tom — a sports journalist by profession — rather likes these references even though he, being British, knew little of the sport while growing up.
12	-->'''Tom''': Billy likes his baseball.
13	* BerserkButton: Katie ''really'' hates UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Who crops up more often than you might think, even before they get to Roy Cohn.
14	* TheBusCameBack: Since he was mentioned twice in the song, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon gets two episodes, in addition to which, there's a separate episode for the Watergate scandal.
15	* TheCameo: They take a break from the list for the fortieth episode because ''Billy Joel himself'' agrees to appear on the pod.
16	* CelebrityCrush: Katie definitely has a thing about Creator/JamesDean.
17	* ConnectedAllAlong: Everything, in some way or another, is linked. For example, Creator/MarilynMonroe was briefly married to Joe [=DiMaggio=], good friends with Creator/MarlonBrando and supposedly had a fling with [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy JFK]] -- that's four people mentioned in the song right there!
18	-->'''Tom''': There's so many connections, Katie. The weird thing about this podcast is that we think these things are only linked by Billy Joel's imagination, and then you see these little tendrils and things like that.
19	* CoolCar: The Studebaker Avanti. Billy later revealed that he included Studebaker in the song purely because of this trope.
20	* CoverVersion: The theme tune is a kazoo version of the song the podcast is named after, performed by Katie and Tom. Who sing parts of the song at the start of each episode, alternating with each subject.
21	* {{Crossover}}: Occasionally discussed in relation to the cover of ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' and the Music/{{Madonna}} song "Vogue", as some of the subjects covered by "We Didn't Start the Fire" also appear in one or the other of these. Creator/MarilynMonroe and Creator/MarlonBrando are the only people to be in all three.
22	* FirstNameBasis: Many of the (human) subjects, and Billy Joel himself, get referred to by their first names.
23	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Unavoidable, given how some of the subjects in the song tie in with each other. In the first episode, for example, Tom remarks that Presidency of UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman (the subject of the first episode), "pretty much tees up the rest of what is to come in Billy's song", and several topics for future episodes are indeed referred to if not directly mentioned.
24	-->'''Tom''': All these different places that we're going to go, Katie, in the next hundred-and-twenty episodes, Harry is taking our hand and leading us some of the way there.
25	* GodwinsLaw: Alluded to in the Juan Perón episode when Tom attempts to compare the Perón government allowing various Nazis ([[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele Josef Mengele]], etc) to live in Argentina after the war with the USA doing likewise with [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip Operation Paperclip]], which he admits ends up degenerating into a game of "Nazi Top Trumps".
26	* InsistentTerminology: In the UsefulNotes/SouthKorea episode, Katie and Tom learn that to Koreans, there is no "[[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea North]]" or "South" when describing the place -- it's just Korea.
27	* JumpCut: Discussed more than once, as the song (and therefore the podcast) jumps from subject to subject.
28	-->'''Katie''': There's no rhyme or reason, it's almost like it's a crazy dream that doesn't make any sense. These images come floating in and floating out again, and before you know it, you kind of have an understanding of the history of the entire universe!
29	* KnightOfCerebus: Roy Cohn, so very much.
30	-->'''Tom''': Mass-murderers aside, he might well be the biggest bastard in the song.
31	* MeaningfulName: Discussed in relation to some subjects. At the end of the first episode, Tom concludes that the understated and unassuming Harry Truman was indeed "a true man", while Katie remarks that Creator/DorisDay's "sunny smile and sunny name" had "a little bit of darkness underneath".
32	* MethodActing: Discussed, especially in relation to Creator/MarlonBrando and Creator/JamesDean.
33	* ProductPlacement: Numerous plugs for other podcasts abound.
34	* ReallyGetsAround: Combined with LatinLover in the case of Arturo Toscanini.
35	* RecurringCharacter: Some of the {{special guest}}s appear more than once.
36	** Josh Hollands, a lecturer in U.S. history at University College London, is in the UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy episode and returns for the Rosenbergs one.
37	** History professor Margaret [=MacMillan=] is the expert called in for the H-bomb and "[[UsefulNotes/ElizabethII England's got a new queen]]".
38	** Boxing journalist Steve Bunce is the one to discuss Sugar Ray and Marciano.
39	** The first one to make [[RuleOfThree three]] appearances is Cara Rodway, an expert on US cultural history who discusses ''Theatre/SouthPacific'', ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'' and, err, [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate Dacron]].
40	* RhymesOnADime: Katie and Tom theorise that Billy included ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'' in the song because he wanted something to rhyme with ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye''. Billy later states that he included Roy Cohn because he wanted something to rhyme with Dacron.
41	* ShoutOut: A fair chunk of the episode on Malenkov involves talking about ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin''. In a similar vein, the Juan Perón episode has a lengthy digression about ''Music/{{Evita}}'', including Katie's anecdote about how she met Music/{{Madonna}} at a party after the film's London premiere.
42	* SpecialGuest: One per episode, usually -- and very much justified, given the diverse specialist subject knowledge required to examine each subject that was mentioned in the song. The first episode, which was about UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman, featured American political journalist Eleanor Clift. The second, about Creator/DorisDay, featured Tamar Jeffers-[=McDonald=], Professor in Film History at the University of Brighton.
43	* SmallReferencePools: Tom reveals that he first heard of Creator/DorisDay (the subject of the second episode) due to her being mentioned by name in a Music/{{WHAM}} song ("Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" [[note]] "You take the grey skies out of my way, You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day" [[/note]]). He later reveals that he first heard of Johnnie Ray (the subject of the fourth episode) due to him being mentioned by name in a Music/DexysMidnightRunners song ("Come on Eileen" [[note]] "Poor old Johnnie Ray, Sounded sad upon the radio, Broke a million hearts in mono" [[/note]]). And (later still) that he first heard of Joe [=DiMaggio=] (the subject of the seventh episode) due to him being mentioned by name in a Music/SimonAndGarfunkel song ("Mrs. Robinson" [[note]] "Where have you gone, Joe [=DiMaggio=]? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Woo woo woo" [[/note]]).
44	-->'''Katie''': Oh, come ''on'', Fordyce!
45	* TongueTwister: "Dien Bien Phu falls". Also, Polyethylene terephthalate — which, thankfully, is known commercially in the US as Dacron.
46	* TransparentCloset: Discussed, especially in the episode on Music/{{Liberace}}, and to a lesser extent in the one on Roy Cohn.
47	* UnderdogsNeverLose: Discussed when they get to "Brooklyn's got a winning team", given that the Brooklyn Dodgers, the baseball team Billy supported as a kid, were in fact quite successful — they made it to the World Series five times in the fourteen years before they actually won it. They just suffered in comparison to their (much) more successful neighbours, the New York Yankees — who beat them in all five of those World Series before the Dodgers finally beat them in 1955.
48	* UndignifiedDeath: Elvis, most definitely.
49	* UrbanLegends: Occasionally discussed.
50	** In the Juan Perón episode, Katie brings up some stories about what happened to [[UsefulNotes/EvaPeron Eva Perón's]] body after her death; the reaction of the expert (a university lecturer who is not just a specialist in Argentinian political history, but actually from Argentina) suggests that those stories are an example of this.
51	** In the Music/ElvisPresley episodes [[note]] although only mentioned once in the song, it was felt that he warranted a double episode [[/note]], expert guest Sally Hoedel takes down several of these that relate to Elvis. She takes some time to explain that stories of his drug dependency originated in his taking prescription medication for long-term health issues, in addition to which she explains the story behind the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool%27s_Gold_Loaf Fool's Gold Loaf]]; the log kept by his personal pilot indicates that, contrary to popular belief, he did not fly to Denver just so he could eat this rather calorific sandwich.
52	* VindicatedByHistory: In-universe; discussed in the first episode with regards to Harry Truman, who was unpopular when he was president but has since undergone this.
53	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In-universe; the Doris Day episode includes a discussion of this in relation to ''Film/TheGraduate'' and ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'', both of which could have starred Doris Day. It gets ''really'' dark when Tamar Jeffers-[=McDonald=] (that episode's SpecialGuest) reveals a RealLife example of this to a clearly surprised Katie and Tom -- Doris Day's son, music producer Terry Melcher, was reckoned to have been the intended victim of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and his followers (Manson having auditioned for Melcher, who rejected him), and had actually lived in the house on Cielo Drive prior to Creator/RomanPolanski and Creator/SharonTate [[note]] whether or not Manson knew that he'd moved out when he sent his followers to kill the occupants has been a matter of conjecture ever since [[/note]].

Context Podcast / WeDidntStartTheFire