- Nixon knows his (beep).

And he says, "There's nothing I can do about it.

Nobody's gonna trust me at this point.

I gotta step down.

Hand me some cookies." (orchestral music)

(Bob laughs)

Hello, I'm Bob Odenkirk.

And today we're gonna talk about Disco Demolition.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- [Derek] Thanks, Bob.

You okay? - My first (beep) sip.

(upbeat disco music)

Well, I guess our story really begins in 1977

with the massive success of (beep) disco,

which is a terrible form of music.

(Derek laughing)

Anyway, 1977, "Saturday Night Fever,"

very popular movie, blah-blah-blah, everyone loved it.

at WDAI in Chicago, were disco DAI,

all disco, all day and all night.

(disco music)

Okay, so Steve Dahl is a DJ,

24 years old at the WLUP, WLUP 97.9,

and it's rock and roll station.

Steve Dahl says, "(beep) you,

I'm not gonna play disco music."

And Steve is having a good time

and he's blowing up disco records.

So on the radio he go, "Oh, we got a disco,

Look and Kiss made a disco record I'm gonna blow it up."

And he'd play it and then scratch the, (scratches)

the needle on the record,

and then press a carte tape,

and explosion sound and then laugh,

and then do other dump (beep)

- [Derek] Like my favorite Imus.

(laughs) What?

- Not like Imus. - Okay.

- Very much like Stern, I mean truly,

but actually, before Stern.

So, it's 1979, Jeff Schwartz is the promotions kid,

and he goes to...

"Sorry."

He goes to Mike Veeck at the white Sox.

He goes, "Let's do a disco demolition

at White Sox Comiskey Park for your Teen Night."

Mike Veeck is like, "Great, I love Steve Dahl."

And they hire a guy to put the explosives in.

"We need you to blow up records"

"How many records?"

"Uh, well, I don't know, 2000."

"Okay. Hold on a second.

Slow down.

I need some goddamn real explosives here."

"All right. Well, whatever you need. You're the pro."

"I, hell yes I am.

Just got back from the Nam about five years ago.

Anyhow, (throat clears) I will put

your explosives together for you."

(upbeat disco music)

So, Steve's on the radio for weeks going,

"I got disco demolition coming up,

come to Comiskey Park,

and bring a disco album.

They'll take your album, they'll put it in the bin.

You'll pay 0.98 cents for a ticket,

And then in between games,

I'm gonna blow up all those albums.

We're gonna destroy disco." (laughs)

So, the night of the event comes,

(ambient instrumental music) July 12th, 1979,

Steve's like watching.

"Holy (beep), kids are showing up,

like showing up in droves,

showin' up, showin' up,

15,000, 20,000, 30,000,

(beep) A."

The first game is nuts.

Kids in the stands have records,

they're throwing them.

Record albums come flying out of the stands,

cutting into the grass.

Perry Caray's kind of liking it, you can tell,

"Hey, all right, everybody calm down."

And Jimmy Piersall's taking it way too seriously.

"These kids...

Look at this, this is a disgrace."

Anyhow,

game ends, first game ends, Sox lose, that's not helpful.

And Steve, they drive out to like center field,

this craig has been set up.

So, he gets on a mic, and he goes,

(disco music) "Party!

Yeah!

Okay, disco sucks."

"Disco sucks," and they start chanting, "Disco sucks."

There's big banners, "Disco Sucks,"

and it's kind of intense.

So, Steve's like, "All right, I'm gonna blow 'em up."

He puts way too much,

real explosives. (laughs)

(upbeat disco music) Perfect storm.

So, Steve pushes the thing, then boom!

Big explosion, (beep) flying everywhere in center field.

You can't play another whole game in that,

that alone is the end, that's the end.

Only that isn't the end.

So, then these seven kids climb over the wall,

more kids, more kids, (beep) getting on hinged.

There's too many kids on the field.

"Holy shit, I'm on the (beep) Comiskey parked up field

where babe Ruth hit home run."

They're running around the faces,

"Look at me, I'm gonna slide."

Kids are pitching,

"I'm a pitcher, woo woo!"

Meanwhile, crazy Vietnam vet on his motorcycle

going like, "(laughs) I did it.

I really did it."

And Harry Carey is up in the booth going,

"Hey, it's good vibe, everybody.

Let's sing a song together.

♪ Jerry real up to the ♪

You know this, sing along!

Okay, that's song,

get off the field now, how about it?"

And the kids are like.

"Well, no, not that."

They call the Chicago Police.

They sent riot police, full riot gear.

The cops come.

"There I'll teach you to be a teenager,

a whack in the head."

And arrested 39 people for vandalism and (beep).

They call the game, The White Sox are forced to forfeit.

(beep) and hey. (Derek laughing)

They say it killed disco.

It did not kill disco, what it did,

potentially, that was actually meaningful.

This event was like massive tweet,

sent out by a generation of kids,

and they pressed a button and said.

"We don't like disco that much. Okay?"

(laughs) That's essentially what the event was.

And if it killed disco, it just send a message that said,

maybe everybody doesn't love this (beep) 24/7.

(smooth instrumental music)

I would like to do some disco lyrics right now.

- [Derek] Okay, go ahead.

(beat boxing)

♪ Babe, oh yeah ♪

♪ Tonight's the night ♪

(Bob beat boxing)

♪ Tonight's the night ♪

♪ Night ♪

♪ Tonight's the night, all right ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

All right, I get it. (Derek laughing)

Duly noted. Thank you. (Derek hysterically laughing)

Just (beep), just the worst.

- Hello, I'm Doug Jones.

Today we're gonna talk about W.C. Minor.

The most important man behind the most important book

in the English language.

That's not what you wanted?

- No, but I love it. - Okay.

In 1863, W.C. Minor graduated from Yale Medical School

as a surgeon and he joined the US Army.

He had blood in his hands,

and he was trying to put

people's brains back into their heads, and he was like,

"Oh, my God, this is (beep) up,

this is messing up my head."

They diagnosed him with delusional paranoia.

"I gotta get outta here.

I'm gonna move to London."