we gotta go back to PT-Bergy, H-E-double-hockey-sticks.

You know, Pennsylvania.

(majestic fanfare musical sting)

- Hello, I'm Doug Jones,

and today we're gonna talk about Lawnchair Larry.

- Cheers. - Cheers.

Our story begins in 1962.

A 13-year-old boy named Larry Walters

walks into an Army-Navy surplus store,

and amongst the Swiss Army knives

and the heavy duty flashlights,

he sees right before him a weather balloon.

Suddenly inspiration hits him like a bolt of lightning.

He says, oh my God,

if I had enough of these balloons, I could fly.

He graduates from high school

and enlists in the US Air Force,

but due to his poor eyesight, he's rejected

and this devastates him, but he says, you know what?

I'm not gonna let this stop me.

Fast forward to 1982.

Larry is now a 33-year-old truck driver,

and he still hasn't been able

to get this idea of flying out of his head.

Larry's driving his truck.

He hears an airplane.

He looks up and he's like, son of a bitch,

That's gonna be me someday.

Out of my way, asshole. (mimics horn honking)

(Derek laughing)

Let it out.

(Derek laughing)

So he brings his girlfriend, Carol,

into the very same Army-Navy surplus store

he went to as a kid, and he says,

I'm gonna buy a bunch of these balloons,

I'm gonna tie them to a lawn chair,

and then I'm gonna fly.

She says, you can't do that,

that's way too danger. (burps)

Excuse me.

That's way too dangerous.

He says, no, no, no, no, no, I know what I'm doing.

And Carol says, wow, okay, I'm in.

Takes out her credit card,

and spends over $4,000 on weather balloons,

a lawn chair, helium tanks, CB radio set, a BB pellet gun.

So, Larry lays out the plan, and he says,

okay, I'm gonna take off from your backyard in San Pedro.

I'm gonna fly over the San Gabriel Mountains.

When I reach an altitude of approximately 7,000 feet,

I'm gonna use the BB pistol to shoot out the balloons.

And then I'll gradually begin

my safe descent into the Mojave Desert.

Now, here's the important part.

Right before I take off,

you're gonna notify the FAA

so that I don't get hit by a plane.

I really don't wanna get hit by a plane.

I spilled on my nuts.

(Derek snorts)

So, July second, 1982, Larry establishes his ground crew,

which consists of his girlfriend, Carol, and his buddy, Ron.

He's like, hey, what's up?

I'm Ron.

They take 42 weather balloons and fill them with helium,

tie it to a aluminum lawn chair,

tie that to two dozen jugs water for ballast.

Larry christens his contraption Inspiration I.

And he's like, okay, it's go time, let's rock and roll.

They cut the first tether, suddenly Carol's like,

whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait a minute, Larry.

This is a big mistake.

Larry turns to Carol and says, baby,

I'm sorry, but a man can't just sit around.

(Derek laughing)

Right then and there, a gust of wind comes along

and the second tether snaps in half,

and Larry shoots off into the sky

at a thousand feet per minute.

Larry, uh, Carol freaks out.

Larry is up in the sky, and he's like,

oh my God, my greatest wish has come true.

Ron turns to Carol and says, my God, Carol,

we forgot to notify the FAA.

Oh my God, I'm so drunk. (Derek laughs)

So, Larry gets on his CB radio,

and he's like, (mics static) okay, I'm at 500 feet.

I am now entering federal airspace.

(mimics static) I am at 1,450 feet,

higher than the Sears Tower.

(mimics static) I am now at 6,500 feet,

I'm above the clouds.

At that very moment,

two commercial airline pilot (burps) flying by.

He's like, see the game last night?

That Fernando Valenzuela has one hell of an arm. (laughs)

That son of a bitch.

And then Larry's like, (Derek laughing)

(mimics stic) now I'm at 8,000 feet.

(heavy breathing) Oxygen becomes scarce at 8,500 feet.

He's like, when I was a teenager, I experienced Beatlemania,

but this is more like Fernandomania, am I right?

And then Larry's like, holy shit, oh my God.

I'm at 16,000 feet.

I'm three miles above sea level.

I thought I would stop at 7,000,

and now I am at two, double, two over double.

Oh God, dear God, oh, what have I done?

The pilot looks over, well, I'll be a son of a bitch.

(Derek laughs)

We got a guy on a lawn chair holding a gun.

Carol freaks out, she's like, Larry, you're too high.

You're gonna get in trouble.

But she's like, how's the view?

And he was like, it's nice, it's real good,

but you're right, it's time to come back down now.

He takes the BB pistol.

He shoots out, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew,

seven of the 42 weather balloons.

And then he sets the gun on his lap

and it falls into the sky, and it's gone,

and he's like, oh, my gun, whoa, no, oh no,

what am I gonna do now?

Well, as it turns out,

35 weather balloons is the perfect amount of balloons

to make a safe and gradual descent into the land.

Inspiration I lands onto the power cords in Long Beach,

and knocking out the power in the entire neighborhood.

Carol runs up to him,

and Carol says, oh my God, thank God you're okay.

Gives him a big-ass hug and is like,

please tell me you're never gonna do that again.

He makes the evening news.

He never gets charged with anything.

The very next week,

Larry gets a special invitation to be a guest

on the "Late Night with David Letterman."

- [Derek] Wow.

- [Doug] Letterman says, wow, how does it feel to accomplish

something that you've always wanted to do?

And Larry says, I've achieved inner peace,

and I'm the happiest person alive today.

♪ Taking me out of the space I was in ♪

♪ Making my wishes come true ♪

♪ Believe it or not, I'm walking on air ♪

♪ I never thought I could feel so free-ee-ee ♪

♪ Flying away on balloons in a chair ♪

♪ Who could it be ♪

♪ Believe it or not, it's Larry ♪

- And that's now officially a parody, which is royalty-free,

so you can use this.

- To Larry Walters.

- Larry Walters. (glasses clink)

- Hi, my name is Laura,

my name is Laura Steinel, (lamp clinking)

and today, we're talking about Gordon Cooper.

The year is 1963, Gordon Cooper,

he's this military test pilot from Oklahoma.

NASA had just begun, and so, he was one

of seven astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury.

Also really chill, he was like,

please, call me Gordo, don't call me Gordon.

I'm not that official.

Right?

And so all these space missions go off without a hitch.

And NASA is like, we've done really well, congrats, NASA.

And they're patting themselves on the back,

and Gordo's like, guys, I totally get it,

like, that's really cool, like, pats on the back.

But if you want to send a man to the moon,

you should maybe see if someone could be in space for,

I don't know, 24 hours.

And NASA's like, ugh, yeah, I guess, Gus,

yeah, sure, Gus. - Gordo.

- Oh (bleep), sorry, I'm an idiot.

- [Derek] It's okay, you're fine.

- So Gordo goes on the launch pad.

And NASA be like, hey, just like really quick,

like, don't touch anything.

NASA would completely control everything.

It was so bad that the astronauts felt like spam in a can,

is what they referred to themselves as.

So anyway, well, he launches into space,

and he's like three, two, one, blastoff.

(Laura mimicking rocket exploding)

Are you shooting that?

Okay, good.

He gets up into space and everything's cool.

He's like, I'm orbiting the (bleep) Earth.

Oh, I'm sorry, or-

- [Derek] No can swear.

- No, my mom, I try, I'm not.

I'm gonna try not to swear.

So he's in space.

He sends back the first TV images of a human back to Earth.

He has a little powdered roast beef dinner.

He's just having a ball.

So he takes a nap, the first guy to ever sleep in space.

He wakes up and he's like, it's good to be Gordo.

And then he's like, oh (bleep), no, it's not because.

Beep, beep!

Oh (bleep), I have no stabilization unit.

Everyone on mission control is freaking out.

They're like, oh God, this doesn't look good.

And Gus Grissom was like, bro, I love you.

I'm gonna tell your wife you're a hero.

Gordo's like, no, stop it,

I'm gonna take control over the spaceship.

Gus is like, you're about to do something none,

that no one has ever done before.

And Gordo's like, yeah, no, I know,

so just shut the (bleep) up, Gus, I've got control.

And he starts to take over manual control.

But at that moment, he loses radio signal with Gus Grissom.

And so, he gets a radio signal over to his friend,

John Glenn, who's on the recovery boat over in Japan.

And he's like, John Glenn, hey, it's me, Gordo.

I have absolutely no power in my spacecraft.

And I just wanna get back home

because I'm a really chill guy, it's me, Gordo.

And he's like, okay, here's what we're gonna do.

And so, together, they go through this checklist.

Put this thing up, like, press this button.

There's all these things he needs to do.

But then Gordo's like, oh, (bleep), beep!

And his carbon dioxide meter's going off.

And it's like, beep, beep, you're (bleep)ed!

And he's like, oh my God, you're right,

I'm totally (bleep)ing (bleep)ed.

But no, but he's chiller than that.

No, hold on, he's way calmer than that.

John Glenn, look, my carbon dioxide meter's going off,

and it's like a hundred degrees in my cabin,

which means he's (bleep) dying.

But he's not being a Debbie Downer about it.

And he's like, I need to get to Earth,

but like, manual reentry had never been done before.

So if he enters the Earth's atmosphere too steep,

he's gonna blow up.

So he says, okay, there's the Big Dipper,

there's the Little Dipper, Gemini.

He draws an axis on the window,

and uses the constellations as his constant.

And he says, this is going to be my angle

at which I can enter Earth's atmosphere,

which I think is pretty incredible.

So John Glenn is like, okay, 10, nine, eight, seven, six.

Gordo's like, let's just like, do it, I'm ready.

So he fires, uh, eh, eh.

What does this mean? (laughs)