And now for an animal joke.
What side of an ostrich has the most feathers?
I repeat, what side of an ostrich has the most feathers?
The answer is.
Going to be revealed at the end of the episode.
But first, get your ears ready Because it's
the Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.
The Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.
You want to be sad? No!
Do you want to be glad? No.
Wait. Yes.
Well, it’s the Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth.
Hello and welcome
to the Happiest Animal Show on Planet Earth, the podcast
that asks the very important question: What animal is making you happy today?
I'm Laura and I'm Rob, and we are a sister brother
pair of zoologists, filmmakers and songwriters.
We are here to explore the wonderful world of wildlife
and discover why animals make us happy.
On today's episode, you will hear a song about slots
that is guaranteed to put you in a good mood, and we'll chat
with comedian Katie Nguyen, who has a lot to say about an animal that can dance.
Here we go.
What animal is making you happy today?
I want to know.
Rob and I gave ourselves the theme of big birds.
Rob, what big bird is making you happy today?
This bird is pretty big.
It's almost as tall as I am.
Okay.
And it's an animal that if I want to go see it,
I need to travel to Australia or, say, Papua New Guinea.
You probably know it.
I do know what it is.
And it has a blue head.
Do you know what it is?
Is it a cassowary?
It is a cassowary.
Cassowary.
Cassowaries.
Look to me like a living dinosaur.
They're a flightless bird with, with kind of an ostrich like body, a long neck,
but they have a blue neck and head, and they can have this red wattle
hanging off of their throat and a big crest on top of their head.
And they have these big feet and they can run fast.
I think it's just it looks like no other bird out there.
And it reminds me of what a dinosaur should look like.
So I know birds are dinosaurs.
Birds are modern day dinosaurs.
But this is like the most dinosaur of all of them.
It's, it's the one that just looks so prehistoric to me.
And it doesn't look like it should exist.
And that's why it makes me happy.
Yeah a cassowary.
Of all the birds, this is the most Muppet like bird.
It looks like a muppet to me.
Yeah, it looks like surely that there's a puppeteer inside controlling this thing.
Do you know what color its eggs are?
I don't, but I'm going to guess.
Blue.
You're not far off.
Cassowary eggs are green.
Ooh, pretty.
Yeah. Are they big? Like ostrich eggs?
Yeah.
Speaking of ostriches, I just want to let everyone know out there
that Rob used to work at the Omaha Zoo.
And there was an ostrich that would dance for Rob every single time he walked by.
Is that right? Yeah. There. Ha ha ha ha.
So I thought it was because I was wearing my zookeeper uniform,
and I would show up to work wearing my my uniform, and it would. This
male ostrich would see me, and they would immediately start doing this dance.
Flipping its wings back and forth.
It would drop down on its legs and start
throwing its neck wildly back and forth as it did this, this flamboyant dance.
And I thought, well, sure, surely it does this for the other zookeepers.
And I started asking around and nope.
Sounds like I was the one.
And I even showed up on my day off, and I was wearing regular
street clothes and it immediately dropped and did.
It stands for me.
So I, I guess I feel special,
you should feel special.
I would say it's an honor.
You know what?
I am a proud sister.
That the ostrich chose you. Thank you.
Okay, I chose a cassowary.
We'll find out what Laura chooses right after this.
It's time for everybody's favorite game show. Ray.
That sound.
What is making this sound?
Is it a
a cassowary, b an ostrich,
or c your uncle,
after eating your aunt's famous hot sauce?
The answer is hey, a cassowary.
It's hard to believe a bird is making Nat sound.
Let me check with the judges.
Yep, they've confirmed it.
It is a giant bird with a blue head.
Thanks for playing everybody's favorite game show, Ray.
That sound.
And we're back.
Laura, what big bird is making you happy today?
This is a bird that I actually saw this week.
Okay.
Flying over my car.
I was so excited to see it.
And I was driving on the highway when I saw it.
It's a carnivore.
It can fly 50 miles an hour.
It's got talons.
Four toed, yellow feet.
It's big.
It has the biggest
nest of any bird in North America.
Whoa! Yeah.
One more clue.
Its head is white and body is brown.
If it's an adult.
Is it the national symbol
of the United States of America?
Yes. It's a bald eagle.
Oh, there you go.
Why is a bald eagle making you happy today?
It's making me happy because I feel like it's an epic wild
bird that I can see even on my drive home in the Pacific Northwest anyway.
And it's huge.
How high?
You said it flew over your car. How high? Above your car.
Like. Well, I mean, describe it.
I was thinking like it flew.
It flew, like, right in front of your windshield.
It did not. I saw it up in the sky.
There are a lot of bald eagles out there, but it does feel really special
when you get to see one. Yeah.
So I guess the nests can be 4 to 6ft wide.
They can get over eight feet wide.
They can weigh over a ton, about as much as a small car.
That's a big nest.
That is a big nest you get when you see one.
You know, it's a bald eagle nest because it's so huge.
Anyway, so I pick an eagle
because it makes me feel good when I can shout bald eagle.
So we had a cassowary and a bald eagle,
and now it's time for a song about sloths.
This podcast is about happy things, and I was thinking about
if you're having a bad day, what would be a good animal to think about?
And I decided it would be slots because it just seems like
they're always having a good day just hanging from trees.
Nothing's bothering them, you know, live in carefree life.
So I wrote this song about them. Enjoy.
Living that sloth life
life, oooh, hanging in the trees.
Living that sloth life,.
ooh, nothing bothers me when I’m livin that sloth life,
so carefree, livin that sloth life, livin
that sloth life.
Whenever it rains, it
rolls right off my back.
And while you're running around I take 15 hour naps.
I have terrible eyesight.
It's really hard to see.
But I’m happy eating leaves and being me.
While I'm living that sloth life, oooh,
hanging in the trees.
Living that sloth life,.
ooh, nothing bothers
me when I’m livin that sloth life, so carefree,
livin that sloth life, livin
that sloth life.
It takes one month to digest an entire leaf.
I only eat poop and pee one time a week.
I give birth while hang in the air.
So if you're having a bad day, say I don't care.
Cause I’m living that sloth life
life, oooh, hanging in the trees.
Living that sloth life,.
ooh, nothing bothers
me when I’m livin that sloth life,
so carefree, livin
that sloth life,
livin that sloth life.
Before we get on with the
show, here's a quick message for the grown ups.
And we're back.
It's that time in the show for the happiest fan of all.
We're a fan like you.
Gives us clues to an animal that is making them happy.
Today's submission is from 11 year old Wyatt from Boca Raton, Florida.
Clue number one.
This animal is teeny tiny.
Clue number two.
This animal is fast.
Clue number three.
This animal has bright colors.
Clue number four.
This animal is a pollinator.
And the answer is a hummingbird.
Hummingbirds make Wyatt happy because they are very energetic.
Thanks for your submission, Wyatt.
To all you listeners out there, what animal is making you happy today?
Grown ups.
If you or your family would like to submit a happiest animal.
Visit our website at Happiest Animal Show. Com.
Laura.
Who do we have in the studio with us today?
Today's guest is Katie Nguyen who is a comedian and educator
and the host of PBS
Kids Mega Wow which we made and we love.
And Katie is awesome.
Thank you.
Thank you for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me.
Excited for little reunion.
All right.
Katie, what animal is making you happy today?
The animal that's making me happy is very small.
Ooh, I like small animals.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right, so let's let's get into it.
Does it have feathers?
No, it does not. A flat feathers. No feathers.
Does it have fur?
I mean, I would call it fur, but I don't know if technically it's called
okay. Great sort of hair like that. Yeah.
Because that tells me which direction to go.
I. Have you ever seen this animal in person.
Oh yeah. Many times we've all seen this animal.
Oh really.
So small.
And it has something like fur
and it's something that I have seen many times.
Okay.
Do you see it in trees.
Flowering trees.
Okay. Oh cool. Does it have six legs.
Yes. Okay. We know it's an insect.
Does it fly?
It does. Oh.
All right I'm going to go with a bee.
Yes, it is a bee.
These.
So why do bees make you happy?
I there's a lot of things about bees I like.
I like that they're very family oriented.
Yeah.
They live together and they're like
when the Queen is in distress or when she leaves the nest.
I've seen a lot of videos recently about like the Queen getting relocated
and then just be just like swarming to find her.
I like the, the family oriented.
They're really smart.
Do they have language, Milena?
Bees that have animals that have languages?
Yeah, I know they communicate with dancing.
They'll do like a bee, little wiggle, a dance to let
everyone know where to go or where the pollen is.
Yeah. It's fascinating.
And they're, you know, they know they know who the Queen is
because she's communicating through smell.
Right. It's a ceremony.
And have you seen the videos of the people who I think they use like a pheromone?
They'll, like, put it on themselves, and then they'll get covered in bees.
Know what they're doing?
Treat her like the queen and treat that person like the queen is.
Really?
So you could put a smell on yourself and make bees think you're a queen bee.
Wow. Will they try to feed you?
Really try to
I so you
would be the way to do it, You just open your mouth. Let.
Let the bees do all the work.
Is the future. Yeah.
You hungry? Yeah.
You wanna go somewhere? No. I miss the bees.
Oh, I saw this thing, too. Where?
When they choose a new high,
they actually do it, like, somewhat democratically.
They'll like,
scouts will go out and they'll come back with a dance, a kind of shows where it is.
And then, depending on how many other bees join
in on that dance, they will actually, like choose the best spot.
So you go, if you're a bee, you go out.
You find a place you think would be good for a new hive.
You come back, you dance for everyone and you get enough to dance with you.
Your spot can be chosen.
Which, yeah, they choose Democratic.
It's the vote.
Yeah, I really wish our voting system
in America had that had a dance element.
Yeah.
You go into your booth and then you have to dance to choose who you want to lead.
Your government.
Yeah, yeah.
No, the electoral College starts dancing.
We had a professor at Michigan State University who's studied bees.
His name's Fred Dyer, and I think I remember
the dance is called a waggle dance.
So, the bees do this special dance to tell other bees
where to find something like where the best flowers are
and how far to go and what direction to go.
And that way they can bring back pollen
for the larvae and, nectar for making honey.
Do you have a dance move.
That's your signature move, Katy.
Like, if you had to do a bee waggle dance, I kind of have, okay?
And I like the the two finger point.
Okay.
Katy is your pointer.
Fingers out and she's alternating her left and right,
hands forward, doing a little pointing dance.
So that's Katy has got a pointing waggle dance.
Yeah, I'm telling people where the snack table is.
Yeah.
And Rob what would your waggle dance
be like if you were trying to tell others where food is in the kitchen?
I'd probably just form a conga line.
Boom chicka boom chicka boom.
Oreos are on the top shelf.
Boom chicka boom boom, chicka chicka boom chicka boom.
There are some Oreos on the bottom shelf.
Boom chicka boom chicka boom, boom chicka boom.
I also keep Oreos in this drawer.
Boom chicka boom chicka boom chicka boom boom.
And for those of you listening, I hope you're thinking about what
your bee waggle dance would be like.
And Katy, thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks.
It's been a delight having you.
I think, you know, like, I think sometimes people have a hard time
finding insects cute because like in media, they're associated
with, like, creepy crawlies and, like, the darkness and, you know,
and I feel like people are able to find bees cute.
Maybe because of the the fur, whatever that is.
But it's like a, it's a nice bridge for some folks to, like, get into insects.
I think now it's the time we've all been waiting for
to find out the answer to our animal joke of the day.
What side of an ostrich has the most feathers?
Do you have a guess?
The answer is.
The outside,
of course.
Thanks so much for listening.
And before we go, remember, we live on a beautiful planet.
So go out and find what makes you happy today.
Hey, Grown-Ups, we know you're busy, but if you like
our show, we'd love for you to tell your friends and family about it.
It is the best way for our podcast to grow and Grown-Ups.
You can also follow us on our social media accounts at Happiest Animal Show,
or check out other fun things on our website
like how to submit an animal or how to get merch.
Visit Happiestanimalshow.com.
The Happiest Animal Show is created by Laura Sams, Robert
Sams, and Dave Cain produced by Sisbro Studios, hosted
and directed by Laura Sams and Robert Sams, and written by Laura Sams.
Robert Sams with story editor Dave Cain.
And with only a little help from our cat walking across the keyboard.
Now let's talk music.
Original music is written and performed by zero time
Grammy Award winning songwriters Laura Sams and Robert Sams,
except for the end credits music which was written by Laura and Rob’s
Grandma Max, and the joke answer suspense music was written by David Schultz.
The theme song was written and performed
by Laura and Rob and mixed by Jason Wells of Audio Wells.
Thanks for listening. You are the best.