was successfully added to your cart.

All Posts By

Mark Woodruff

Wizard of Oz Scarecrow formula not so good

By | funny stuff | One Comment

Honorary degree in Thinkology apparently lacks oomph

Remember when the Wizard of Oz gives the Scarecrow an honorary Ph.D. in “Thinkology” for his math formula? First of all, I’m pretty sure the degree was awarded from one of those Thinkology party schools, and it’s worth noting that there are a lot of waiters and baristas that have this same degree. Armed with his new honorary degree, the Scarecrow, suddenly flush with intellect, stands erect and begins to robotically recite the Pythagorean Theorem, proclaiming, “The sum of the square root of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the third side.”

Swing and a miss, Scarecrow

As I kid, I remember thinking, “Wow, he’s not dumb at all!” Um, well, it turns out that Scarecrow actually was pretty stupid, because he totally hosed the theorem. Apparently, there are two errors. The Pythagorean Theorem applies to right triangles, not isosceles triangles (duh). Also the theorem is that the squares of two legs equals the square of the hypotenuse (scoff, snicker … stupid Scarecrow). To be correct, he should have stood erect* and stated, “The sum of the squares of the two legs of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.”

Oz also seems to be lacking a brain

The Great and Powerful Oz apparently snoozed through math class, because he doesn’t catch the mistakes either. For years, nobody really paid attention to it. But I discovered that there are a lot of mathy type of people investing significant time and energy complaining on the Intertoobes about how the Scarecrow messed up this formula. They are genuinely aghast at the egregious error. They also are not dating girls.

How about some highly toxic makeup!

It does make you wonder why somebody couldn’t have gotten the theorem right in the movie script. It’s been around since the days of, well, Pythagorean, and it certainly was readily available in any of the math textbooks lying around the movie set. Perhaps the movie people were too busy almost killing Buddy Ebsen (the original actor chosen to play Tin Man) by slathering his entire body with an aluminum dust that caused his lungs to fail? Thanks to that dumbass move by Makeup, that dude missed out on the role of a lifetime, and almost died to boot.

Where did the Tin Man go?

Funny story: While Ebsen was in the hospital, they replaced him with Jack Haley, and nobody on the cast had any idea that Ebsen was sick. They assumed he was fired. Hollywood in 1939 kind of sounds like the meat-packing industry in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. At least Ebsen secured his place in Hollywood lore by playing good ol’ Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies, and then the hard-nosed, chiseled TV detective, Barnaby Jones. Ahem.

* Sorry. That’s twice that I wrote “erect.”

P.S. Was anybody else miffed that Dorothy actually purred to the Scarecrow, “I think I’m going to miss you most of all!” What the hell? Seriously? The Lion and the Tin Man were standing … right … there. (Disclaimer: Yes, I know that Family Guy already did this Scarecrow joke, but I actually wrote it more than 20 years ago … in my head.)

Promo video for Reba McEntire

Promo video for Reba McEntire and her charity

By | video | No Comments

We manage the website for Reba McEntire’s charity, Reba’s Ranch House. Recently, Reba’s people called us and said they were going to have her in the studio to record some video, and asked if we had any ideas. We did! We wrote the script and then edited this video, which allows Reba to speak directly to her fans about the charity, its purpose, and how it helps folks who are help to care for loved ones in the hospital.

Audio book finally here for Weeper

By | audio book, voice over | No Comments

Audiobook for Weeper is released

It’s finally here! The audio book I narrated for author Greg Morgan is finally available. The novel is called Weeper, and it is set in the late 1800s in the Appalachian region, so I got to do lots of fun voices and accents. I’ll also promise you that Morgan has written an extremely compelling novel about a wide series of characters involved in the “death industry” (grave diggers, early embalmers, and of course the weepers, who were mourners paid to weep for the deceased). See links for the audio book below.

Links
Greg Morgan’s Website
Amazon Weeper page
Barnes & Noble page
Google Books page
Goodreads page
Amazon author page
Netgalley author page

Interview with the author

Watch the Woody Creative interview with Weeper author Greg Morgan of Los Angeles.

Beautiful Video for Turner Boatworks

By | video | No Comments

We spent two days off the coast of Palacios, Texas, to art direct and produce this beautiful video for our client, Turner Boatworks, which makes high-end, customized fishing boats for very happy and discerning fishermen. This was two long, hot days on the water, but it was a lot of fun. And we learned a lot about what makes these boats special. John Turner, the designer, spent most of his career running a redfish farm on the Gulf Coast. He also has been a professional fishing guide for several decades. After Johen sold the redfish farm, he decided that nobody made a fishing boat exactly as he wanted it, so he started designing his own, and ended up turning it into a business. Woody Creative also designed the Turner Boatworks website.

New ad for Austin Beer Guide

By | print design | No Comments

Growler USA, the popular brew pub in Central Austin, near the UT campus, offers 100 freakin’ beers on tap. They are beer experts … beer nerds, really. No, they don’t make beer, but they know stuff about beer and they are all about educating patrons about beer, helping them find what they like, learning about the process of making beer, etc. They asked us to help design an ad for the Austin Beer Guide. We said, “OK.” Looking at this again, we find ourselves thirsty for … beer.