Car Talk: A Tappet Bro’s Tribute

by | Oct 2, 2012 | Uncategorized

Cars by ilikerender on Flickr.

Cars by ilikerender on Flickr.

Giving them something to talk about since 1769.

I was too young to drive when I first heard the infectious laugh of Tom and Ray Magliozzi (better known as Click and Clack the Tappet brothers) over Cleveland’s NPR airways on Saturday mornings. But I enjoyed their self-deprecating humor, and their laughs that sounded oddly like socket wrenches, right from the start. Both were signs of a life both humble and simple.1 Behind all of that, though, was something more, a shared passion for cars and for their many, many fans.

But even though they’ll be missed by many, thirty five years is a long time to do anything.2

I’ve been a Jesuit for nearly ten years now, and, like Click and Clack, I now get to share with my Jesuit brothers a passion and love (albeit for Jesus rather than cars) that it gives me great joy to share with others.

I recently described my proclivity for spoofing various shows, songs and movies. While listening to the radio in one of our Jesuit community cars one Saturday morning, I realized that these guys were begging to be spoofed (honestly I couldn’t believe that SNL hadn’t sent out the Lonely Island patrol to parody their radio show). It took me just two easy steps…

  1. Make the show relevant: Car Talk becomes God talk.
  2. Find a Jesuit willing to be the “J” to my “S”, which meant teaming up with fellow Clevelander Adam DeLeon, SJ (yea, the SJ after our names stands for the Society of Jesus). Adam’s fanaticism for Cleveland sports puts the SNL Superfans to shame, and meant that we had to incorporate some Cleveland sports jokes.

Putting all this together gets us a parody of Car Talk filled with Cleveland sports references and, if I may say so, some pretty solid spiritual advice.

So sit back and listen to two guys decked out in Browns and Cavs gear (and surrounded by beer cans and destroyed LeBron James bobbleheads) taking imaginary phone calls.

Welcome to God Talk.

Special thanks to:

Our theme music composer and singer, Nate “not Samuel” Clemons
Our lead guitar and percussionist, Kevin “the gem” Ruby
Our associate producer, Jay “the captain” Hooks

— — —

  1. Humble and simple despite the fact that both are MIT grads, one of whom, Ray, also has a doctorate from Boston U ↩
  2. Twenty-five years on NPR; read their retirement announcement here. ↩

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