Talkin' Toons with Rob Paulsen
is a podcast where veteran voice actor and singer, Rob Paulsen, talks about cartoons. For about an hour (give or take 30 minutes), Paulsen will speak about his experiences as a voice actor throughout the years and field questions and other comments from fans and those interested in becoming a voice actor themselves. Often times, Paulsen will also have a guest to join the show including creators and writers for cartoons, impressionists, musicians, comedians, voice directors and other actors and voice actors.
Talkin' Toons joined the Tech Jives Network and on February 27, became a videocast on Ustream. During this time, Rob and his guest(s) are accompanied by Abi Collins who serves as the show's moderator and her husband James Cluster oversaw show production. From June 2013 until 2015, the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club, where all the previous Live Specials took place served as the main setting for the podcast.
From June 23, 2017 to March 15, 2019 a web version of Talkin Toons aired as part of the Nerdist’s Project Alpha.
Talkin' Toons provides examples of the following tropes:
- Beware the Nice Ones: In the podcast with Jim Cummings, PJ threatens patricide. Yes, that PJ. Both Jim and Pete remain perfectly calm.
- Blatant Lies: Carl insists that he is the star of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius most times he appears.
- Catchphrase: There are several of them.
- The most prominent is the one Rob closes the show with, "Laughter is the best medicine and the cool thing is, you can't OD and the refills are free."
- "I'm getting paid to do what got me in trouble in the 7th grade." This one isn't just Rob's catchphrase, but is said by multiple guests.
- "Amway, they don't just make soap anymore."
- "That's way above my paygrade."
- "This is great/fantastic!!"
- "Shut Up!"
- (after a guest tells a great story) "What a great story!"
- (after something frustrating or negative said about voice acting or Hollywood) "What? And give up show business?".
- The title of his upcoming book: "Dude, your childhood is a middle-aged white guy!".
- Referring in conversations to deceased celebrities as "taking a dirt nap".
- Family Business: The entertainment industry for Rob and his son Ash, who works for ShiftyLook and several of the guests and their family.
- Pat Musick and Mae Whitman, obviously, especially as both have played love interests to the ninja turtle he voices at the time.
- Steve Blum and one of his sons is starting to also becoming a voice actor.
- Grey Delisle and her son, Tex Hammond work together on The Loud House
- Good Feels Good: Doing voices for sick kids in the hospital, namely Jim Cummings doing Winnie The Pooh over the phone. Both he and Rob'll say doing so gives them perspective and takes the edge off when their own kids did something bad and even talking about it is palpable in their voices before they shift gears and talk about doing drugs or cage-dancing.
- Guest Host: Carl Wheezer, Pinky and Yakko have each "filled in" for Rob once.
- Implausible Deniability: PJ and Carl trying and failing to claim they don't sound like each other in the Jason Marsden and Carl Guest Host episodes respectively.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Rob and almost all of his guests count as this. None of them are afraid to flex their acting muscles, using several of their characters in the middle of a podcast.
- Mathematician's Answer: One fan wrote in to ask Yakko Warner which of his siblings, Wakko or Dot, was harder to deal with. Rob's response: "Yes".
- Once an Episode: Expect, in many cases, the subject of Rob's work with/friendship to Jonathan Harris to be brought up. Paulsen will usually follow it up with a story about the time Harris complained about being asked to play a talking milk carton.
- Running Gag: Often times the guests as one of their characters will stand in for The Brain, asking Pinky "Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?" To which Pinky responds with a non-sequitur such as "Well, I think so, (character Pinky's talking to), but if they called them Sad Meals, kids wouldn't buy them."
- When a story Rob's telling involves too many famous people, he'll say that he really needs to stop name dropping; "Bobby DeNiro told me that".
- Self-Deprecation: Rob often calls himself Shecky of Arimathea, official entertainer at The Last Supper.
- Shout-Out: Fans often ask Rob and the guests to do a voice or line from a show they did.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Rob himself is a mild case, but also Pamela Adlon, Charlie Adler, Mae Whitman, April Winchell, John DiMaggio/ Brad Garrett, and Creator/Chris Hardwick.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Every voice actor has a Christopher Walken impression. Many of them have also made the statement that they're getting paid for what got them in trouble in the 7th grade.
- The Talk Show with Host Name: Show's title.
