090 - Young Einstein

Episode 90: Young Einstein

G'day and Happy New Year! We're kicking off 2026 with Young Einstein, the 1988 Australian fever dream where Albert Einstein is reimagined as a Tasmanian apple farmer who invents the formula for putting bubbles in beer (E=mc²), discovers rock and roll by watching kids play hopscotch, steals Newton's laws, and invents surfing for good measure. This aggressively Australian film was a childhood staple for one of us, and we're diving back into the slapstick madness brought to you by a man who legally changed his name from Greg Pead to Yahoo Serious.

Peak Dumpster Moments:

• Preston Preston, the mustachioed villain who steals Einstein's formula and screams "There's a bushman in my carriage!" at the train conductor
• Marie Curie infiltrating the asylum to rescue Albert by wearing a "very convincing hat and beard" and pretending to be his father - straight into the men's showers
• The kitten pie scene that traumatized an entire generation of children (don't worry, Albert saves them from the oven just in time)
• The lunatic asylum featuring zombie-like inmates shuffling in circles, a very masculine nurse, and mystery green slop for dinner - "This is how I thought all asylums really were as a kid"
• Darwin presenting at the Academy of Science with his beagle, while Sigmund Freud's date is literally his mother
• One of the Wright Brothers is inexplicably Black

The Yahoo Serious Rabbit Hole: We dig into the wild story behind the man himself - from art school expulsion to DIY filmmaking to a spectacularly failed lawsuit against a certain search engine. His GeoCities-era website still exists and it is a journey. We also settle the debate: is Yahoo Serious the Australian Carrot Top or the Australian Pauly Shore? (Spoiler: yes.)

Credits Deep Dive: We combed through the end credits and found some absolute gems hiding in there. Let's just say the crew included some very specific "specialists" and one very distinguished beagle.

The Verdict: Zero dumpsters. Yes, really. This is pure nostalgia fuel - goofy, slapsticky, and packed with random animals (cockatoos, wallabies, bearded dragons, koalas, kittens in pies). It's no Citizen Kane, but honestly, have you tried sitting through Citizen Kane? Rosebud is a sled. There, we saved you two hours. Go watch Young Einstein instead.

Coming Up Next: My Life with the Walter Boys - a Netflix series that will have you tearing your hair out at the decisions these characters make. It is very much a dumpster piece. Prepare yourselves.

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