Star Wars (1977)

#022526

Short Stuff: MacGuffins "George Lucas apparently R2D2 was a MacGuffin in Star Wars he said I think the audience should care" — Chuck George Lucas cited R2D2 as a MacGuffin example and discussed how the audience's emotional investment differs from Hitchcock's approach.

Feb 25, 2026 #121225

SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: What Makes a Must-Have Christmas Toy? "Star Wars, very famously offered their early bird certificate package." — Josh Discussed as a popular toy and marketing phenomenon where empty boxes were sold before figures were available.

Dec 12, 2025 #092325

Tdhtdhtdhtdhtdh: Sound Effects! "Ben Burt came along for Star Wars. And he'd seen just tons of Westerns as a kid." — Josh Josh discusses how Ben Burtt used the Wilhelm scream in Star Wars and revolutionized sound design for the franchise.

Sep 23, 2025 #090925

The Man with the Golden Arm "these are not the red blood cells that you seek. It's not the factor that you're interested in, beat it in the words of Obi-1" — Chuck Chuck uses an Obi-Wan Kenobi quote from Star Wars as an analogy to explain how anti-D antibodies protect fetal red blood cells from the mother's immune system.

Sep 9, 2025 #061925

Who are the Zizians? "Sometimes she calls herself a Sith, as in, you know, Star Wars." — Josh Josh explains that Ziz referred to herself as a Sith Lord and adopted Sith as her religion.

Jun 19, 2025 #010225

How Saturn Works "The Death Star, that's a, it's like a space fortress in the Star Wars movies." — Chuck Mimas is nicknamed the Death Star because its appearance resembles the space station from Star Wars.

Jan 2, 2025 #110224

Selects: The Strange Story of Sea Monkeys "That treatment that George Lucas wrote about Wookiees and Chewbacca's planet that got turned into the Star Wars Christmas special" — Josh Josh compared Harold von Braunhut's fantastical Sea Monkeys booklet to George Lucas's Wookiee backstory used in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Nov 2, 2024 #051424

NYC Trash: A study in persistence "it's essentially like that trash compactor in Star Wars, the first one" — Josh

May 14, 2024 #032824

The Pulitzer Prize: A major award! "it might not have been quite so pronounced, his brand of yellow journalism, had he not had a rival who was actually in perfect Star Warsian fashion was actually his protege" — Josh

Mar 28, 2024 #031224

Leave Brutalism Alone! "that would be a sand crawler that the jawas rode around in in Star wars" — Chuck

Mar 12, 2024 #100723

Selects: How Motion Sickness Works "It's not like the Star Wars world, or Star Trek, or all these things." — Chuck Chuck mentions Star Wars as an example of a movie with lasting cultural impact, contrasting it with Avatar.

Oct 7, 2023 #090223

Selects: Body Odor: You Stink "Movies like Star Wars, of course. Pirates of the Caribbean and Highlander are examples of show fencing." Mentioned in listener mail as an example of unrealistic fencing choreography in films.

Sep 2, 2023 #062823

Short Stuff: Fahrenheit or Celsius "we'll be covering topics like David Lynch, fanfiction, Golden Girls, and Star Wars" Mentioned as a topic to be covered in the second season of the Like a Virgin podcast.

Jun 28, 2023 #062223

How Afrofuturism Works "the original trilogy had one black character, of course, Lando" — Chuck Discussing lack of Black representation in major sci-fi franchises

Jun 22, 2023 #062023

Large Language Models and You "In our second season, we'll be covering topics like David Lynch, fanfiction, Golden Girls, and Star Wars" Star Wars is mentioned as one of the topics to be covered in the second season of the 'Like a Virgin' podcast.

Jun 20, 2023 #040623

Playing Cards? You Got That Right! "The one thing I forgot that I had in addition to all those Star Wars cards." — Chuck Chuck mentions having a significant collection of Star Wars trading cards.

Apr 6, 2023 #032523

Selects: Is The Uncanny Valley Real? "c three po is a common one that's mentioned because c three po is built to look like a human" — Josh C-3PO is used as an example of a robot character that looks somewhat human but not realistically enough to fall into the uncanny valley.

Mar 25, 2023 #052522

Short Stuff: Do people move in predictable directions? "I think that was what he's saying in the Star Wars when he's saying the words to Star Wars." — Josh Josh jokingly references Bill Murray in Star Wars, though the reference appears to be unclear or joking.

May 25, 2022 #010122

Selects: Horoscopes: Written in the Stars? "Just listen to action figures. And was thrilled to hear you talk about Star Wars action figures." Listener references a previous SYSK episode about Star Wars action figures and shares facts about Kenner toy labeling errors.

Jan 1, 2022 #121821

Selects: Star Wars Holiday Spectacular "star wars has become a huge, huge hit, seemingly out of nowhere" — Chuck Discussing the massive success and cultural impact of the original Star Wars film that preceded the holiday special.

Dec 18, 2021 #052221

Selects: How Hot Wheels Work "It's the same with Star Wars. Like, sometimes the mistake ones are the ones that are super valuable because there was some recall." — Josh Using Star Wars collectible toys as an analogy for how rare or recalled versions of collectibles become valuable.

May 22, 2021 #032521

Space Junk, Ahoy! "I'm simplifying things, of course, for Star Wars fans, and they go get in the space pod" — Josh Referenced humorously when discussing astronauts using escape capsules during collision warnings.

Mar 25, 2021 #122620

SYSK Selects: Sugar: It Powers the Earth "Star Wars just came out" — Josh Josh mentioned Star Wars in reference to the year 1977 when discussing US-Russia tensions.

Dec 26, 2020 #103120

SYSK Selects: How Ghosts Work "Midichlorians. What is that? This is the Star Wars. That was how they explained the force." — Chuck Used as an analogy for how energy might constitute ghosts, referencing how Star Wars explained the Force through midichlorians.

Oct 31, 2020 #062320

How Ultrasound Works "Like in Star Wars? You would think kind of like Star Wars, but no, not at all." — Chuck Chuck compares ultrasound tractor beam technology to the concept of tractor beams in Star Wars.

Jun 23, 2020 #031420

SYSK Selects: How Monopoly Works "I have, personally, my version as a Star Wars monopoly, which is pretty fun." — Josh Referenced as a licensed Monopoly board game version Josh owns.

Mar 14, 2020 #113019

SYSK Selects: Fractals - Whoa "the part in the doc about the Star Wars, when the guy was making the lava splashing" — Chuck Mentioned as an example of fractal application in creating realistic lava effects through iterative feedback loops.

Nov 30, 2019 #112119

What Makes a Must-Have Christmas Toy? "Star Wars very famously offered their early bird certificate package" — Josh Josh discusses Star Wars' innovative early bird certificate marketing strategy as an example of a must-have toy phenomenon.

Nov 21, 2019 #100519

SYSK Selects: How Pez Works "Everything from Looney Tunes to Star Wars to Hello Kitty, which was the other stroke of genius." — Chuck Chuck mentions Star Wars as one of the iconic brands that Pez partnered with for dispenser designs.

Oct 5, 2019 #081719

SYSK Selects: Are We in a Cyberwar? "like, right, like from Star Wars." — Chuck Chuck uses Star Wars as a reference when explaining what a red team is in cyber warfare.

Aug 17, 2019 #073019

Will Deepfakes Ruin the World? "Nicholas Cage's Yoda is patently objectively hilarious." — Josh Referenced a deepfake meme of Nicolas Cage as Yoda from Star Wars.

Jul 30, 2019 #071819

Sand Dunes: They Are What You Think They Are "I believe they had even done some Star Wars reshoots in this area of California." — Josh Josh mentions Star Wars reshoots being filmed in a California desert location that stood in for Tunisia.

Jul 18, 2019 #050119

Short Stuff: The Number 23 "Princess Leah, Josh, and the very first Star Wars film is held in detention block AA-23." — Chuck Chuck references a detail about Princess Leia in the original Star Wars film.

May 1, 2019 #022119

How Galaxies Work "Because a Parsec is a unit of distance that is 3.26 light years. And you remember in Star Wars, the famous line from Han Solo, remember?" — Josh Using the famous 'Kessel Run in 12 Parsecs' quote to explain units of astronomical distance.

Feb 21, 2019 #070718

SYSK Selects: Did Reagan's Star Wars program win the Cold War? "How about a nice game of chess? Exactly. That's why we're still here." Referenced in the context of the Star Wars movie's famous chess game scene related to mutual assured destruction.

Jul 7, 2018 #122317

SYSK Selects: The Star Wars Holiday Special of 1978 "Star Wars has become a huge, huge hit seemingly out of nowhere" — Josh Discussing the success that led to the Holiday Special being created.

Dec 23, 2017 #110317

Movie Crush: Tig Notaro on Mask "Tig: I went and saw Grease and Star Wars, which are kind of my two big movies" Tig recalls early movies she saw in theaters as a child growing up.

Nov 3, 2017 #081717

What's the deal with accents? "Even in that first Star Wars movie, Carrie Fisher sort of vacillated between English accent and regular American." — Josh Josh discusses Carrie Fisher's accent inconsistency in the original Star Wars film.

Aug 17, 2017 #051817

How the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis Work "it's like when in the original Star Wars, A New Hope, when Luke fires at the end toward the Death Star and it gets sucked in that little hole" — Josh Josh uses the Death Star's polar opening as an analogy for how the polar cusp funnels particles toward Earth's poles.

May 18, 2017 #041117

How Supreme Court Nominations Work "I'm sure there's something in Star Wars that resembles this, you know? Oh. The Jedi Council." — Josh Josh compares the Supreme Court to the Jedi Council from Star Wars as an example of a panel of wise decision-makers.

Apr 11, 2017 #122216

The Stuff You Should Know 2016 Christmas Extravaganza in 3-D! "the Star Wars crew has a Cogunner collection" — Josh Mentioned while discussing Spanish Christmas tradition figurines that now include pop culture characters.

Dec 22, 2016 #120816

Is computer addiction a thing? "Clone Wars, wasn't that episode one" — Chuck Chuck mentioned it when discussing a video game that got him addicted to gaming.

Dec 8, 2016 #120616

Horoscopes: Written in the Stars? "Just listen to action figures and was thrilled to hear you talk about Star Wars action figures" Referenced in listener mail about Star Wars action figure mislabeling by Kenner toys

Dec 6, 2016 #060716

How Motion Sickness Works "It's not like the Star Wars world, or Star Trek, or all these things." — Josh Josh compares Avatar's lasting cultural impact to Star Wars as an example of a movie with enduring relevance.

Jun 7, 2016 #050516

How LSD Works "Star Wars is itself an entire story premised on nostalgia. Things were better before the empire." — Chuck John Hodgman analyzes Star Wars as a story fundamentally built on nostalgic themes.

May 5, 2016 #041416

How Big Bang Theory Works, with Neil deGrasse Tyson "I thought you were going, I thought you meant the Star Wars universe. The dark side, the, oh wait." — Chuck Chuck initially misunderstands Josh's reference to 'the dark side' as relating to Star Wars rather than physics forces.

Apr 14, 2016 #011916

Sir Isaac Newton: Greatest Scientist of All Time? "We talked about hateful aid and Star Wars." — Josh Josh referenced Star Wars as part of recent pop culture viewing.

Jan 19, 2016 #121715

The Star Wars Holiday Special of 1978 "So what has happened is Star Wars has become a huge, huge hit seemingly out of nowhere" — Josh Josh explains how Star Wars became a massive success that led to the holiday special.

Dec 17, 2015 #070915

How Brickfilm Works "I made about probably 12 seconds of one with Star Wars figures in my 20s." — Chuck Chuck mentions attempting to make a stop motion film with Star Wars action figures.

Jul 9, 2015 #050515

How Therapeutic Hypothermia Works "like Han Solo in carbonite" — Josh Josh compared suspended animation research to Han Solo being frozen in carbonite from Star Wars when discussing freezing people for medical purposes.

May 5, 2015 #070314

How Monopoly Works "I have personally, my version is a Star Wars Monopoly" — Chuck Chuck mentioned owning a Star Wars-themed version of Monopoly as an example of licensed game variants.

Jul 3, 2014 #061214

Sugar: It Powers the Earth "It's about 1977 again. Well, they're kicking us out of the space station. I know. Star Wars just came out." — Josh Josh was making a comparison about current tense relations with Russia to the year 1977 when Star Wars was released.

Jun 12, 2014 #041714

How Burlesque Works "I saw one by the Devil's Playground Troop. They do a Star Wars Burlesque" — Josh Josh describes a neo-burlesque troupe that performs Star Wars-themed shows

Apr 17, 2014 #082013

How Ejection Seats Work "I'm a Star Wars guy." — Josh Josh explains his preference for Star Wars over Star Trek in the ongoing fan debate between the franchises.

Aug 20, 2013 #062013

How Ghosts Work "midichlorians. What is that? This is the Star Wars. Oh, okay. That was how they explained the force." — Josh Josh mentioned midichlorians from Star Wars when discussing theories about what ghosts might be made of.

Jun 20, 2013 #111312

How close are we to holographic environments? "Remember in Star Wars, which I am a fan of, when R2D2 spit out the little holographic image" — Chuck Chuck was using the holographic projection of Princess Leia as an example to explain holographic technology.

Nov 13, 2012 #092512

Q: Are we in the midst of cyberwar? A: Yes "Right, like from Star Wars." — Josh Josh makes a comparison when explaining the concept of 'red teams' in cybersecurity.

Sep 25, 2012 #081612

Did Reagan's Star Wars program win the Cold War? "this is coming up the heels of the Star Wars movies themselves" — Josh Josh mentions the Star Wars films when discussing how Reagan's defense program got its nickname and public perception.

Aug 16, 2012 #073112

How the Musketeers Worked "was not responsible for the design or the conception of Vader's mask" A listener email corrected the hosts about who designed Darth Vader's mask, crediting concept artist Ralph McQuarrie rather than George Lucas.

Jul 31, 2012 #060712

Fractals: Whoa "Like the part in the doc about the Star Wars, when the guy was making the lava splashing" — Chuck Discussed as an example of using fractals to create realistic CGI effects for lava scenes.

Jun 7, 2012 #041112

Body Odor: You Stink "Movies like Star Wars, of course. Pirates of the Caribbean and Highlander" A listener mentions Star Wars as an example of show fencing in films during listener mail.

Apr 11, 2012 #102511

How Anti-matter Spacecraft Will Work "Also that your Star Wars came out. No coincidence" — Josh Josh jokingly suggests there's no coincidence that evidence of anti-matter was discovered in 1977, the same year Star Wars was released.

Oct 25, 2011 #072111

How Karma Works "This sort of reminded me of the midi-chlorians, how they explain the force" — Josh Josh compares Jainism's view of karma as atomic particles to how midi-chlorians explain the Force in Star Wars.

Jul 21, 2011 #062811

How Asteroid Mining Could Work "The odds are very slim if you listen to a robot named C-3PO." — Chuck Chuck referenced C-3PO's famous line about the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field when discussing the actual odds of navigating through asteroid belts.

Jun 28, 2011 #061710

How Samurai Work "George Lucas absolutely modeled the Darth Vader look and helmet after the samurai cabuto." — Chuck Chuck explains how Darth Vader's helmet design was inspired by samurai armor.

Jun 17, 2010 #031110

What exactly is Fascism? "speaking of Boba Fett, in honor of his anticlimactic afterthought of a death scene in Jedi" — Chuck Chuck reads listener mail criticizing them for not mentioning Boba Fett in their bounty hunter episode.

Mar 11, 2010 #082709

How Muppets Work "He also puppeted and voiced Yoda in all the Star Wars" — Chuck Mentioned when discussing Frank Oz's other famous puppet work beyond the Muppets.

Aug 27, 2009