After These Messages: Clyde the Safety Frog with Kris Herndon

Kris Herndon, artist and writer, is back again this week to talk about Clyde the Safety Frog, which she was originally convinced actually had something do with Death Zones. Turns out, no! Clyde is an unrelated frog puppet safety show…Kris originally also said a lot about how innocent the frog was, and how he didn't deserve bad things happening to him. He was, Kris said, just trying to survive. We… maybe have some different opinions after seeing this spectacular series of poor choices:Clyde goes hitchhiking.Kris grew up in Atlanta during the time of the child murders (warning: these are rather gruesome), so she definitely remembers being taught never to get into a stranger's car. Clyde has a gun accident.Clyde manages to injure himself while getting on and off the bus. Clyde learns bus safety.In this one Clyde "plays catch" at a bud stop, which is to say: he throws a rock at his' friend's head. Then his friend invites him to play tag in the street. Good work being safe, kids! This somehow led us to discussing drugs and peer pressure, and Julia referred to this classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles PSA ("I'm not a chicken. You're a turkey!"). Clyde decides to ignore all the safety rules.Clyde takes random pills.Look, Clyde is a hot mess, okay. And is his dad a real doctor? We have a lot of questions. We also speculated about what a Clyde safe sex video would entail, and about whether frogs even have sex. Well, friends, here's an article all about that… Kris also recommends, and feels bad about spoiling "Goodbye My Brother" by John Cheever. So, you know, sorry if you were expecting things from the 1950s to remain unspoiled in the year 2020.We're also pretty sure that in a pandemic safety video, Clyde would be a super spreader who knows he should wear a mask but forgets to and/or doesn't wear it properly. Thanks a lot Clyde.Not even Kris still feels like Clyde is merely an innocent frog after all that. We all feel way more bad for Mihi Kwan. If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at [email protected]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe