transcript
show notes
- Visit the new Stan Store @ stan.store/blacklisted
- Subscribe to our extended interviews on Spotify here.
Aaron Karo wrote a Black List script about a toy that turned into a bomb scare.
This week's guest is comedian, author, and screenwriter Aaron Karo, whose spec Tickle Me Elmo landed on the 2024 Black List.
On paper, it's the story of how a $28 vibrating plush toy nearly tanked a toy company's supply chain, and turned suburban parents into brawlers. Off paper, it's personal — Karo's father was a Tyco executive who carried the first Tickle Me Elmo prototype through airport security, where its internal mechanism read as an explosive on the X-ray and he had to disarm it — by tickling it — in front of armed guards.
Aaron and I get into how you build a movie around a toy instead of a person, the rise of the corporate biopic and what it took to get a spec this specific onto "the list."
Guest: Aaron Karo on Instagram, X and TikTok
Host: Chris Hill on Instagram and BlueSky
Visit storyandplot.com/blacklisted for a 10% discount on Tom Vaughan's fantastic screenwriting courses.
Useful links:
Elf Unwrapped: Behind The Scenes of a Modern Christmas Classic - HarperCollins