Dec. 20, 2025

The Grinchiest Grinch at the Christmas Parade

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five uplifting Christmas stories, including: McDonald's pulling a generative AI ad after negative feedback; The Guardian testing if AI can recommend thoughtful gifts; Santa's scheduled HAM radio event at the University of Scranton; Operation Christmas Drop delivering essentials to remote islands. Parents are warned to keep kids away from story number five.

5 Good News Stories is a daily podcast with five positive, uplifting news stories to brighten your day. New episodes every day. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network

John also hosts Daily Comedy News

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WEBVTT

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Caalaroka Shark Media. Hi there, I'm shutting back with five

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good news Christmas stories. Now, parents, Sanna sent me a

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message that will be story number five. He wants to

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surprise the children, so your children should not hear story

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number five. You're paying attention. I'll remind you again when

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we get a little closer. McDonald's pulled one of their

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Christmas ads after the Internet decided was terrible. It was

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a spot made with Generative AI. It went live on

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McDonald's Netherlands YouTube channel on December sixth. Within hours, viewers

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were calling it creepy, poorly edited, and one said it

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was the most awful ad I've seen this year. By

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December ninth, McDonald's quietly removed the video and told BBC

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News the whole thing was an important learning as they

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figure out how to use AI without horrifying people now.

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The ad had shown a series of holiday mishaps under

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the tagline the most terrible time of the Year, implying

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the Christmas is better spent with McDonald's, which might have

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worked if the characters in the ad didn't look like

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they were assembled from leftover dreams of malfunctioning robots. One

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coment wrote, no actors, no camera team. Welcome to the

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future of filmmaking, and it sucks. The Guardian was wondering,

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can AI actually pick gifts that feel thoughtful, personal, and

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even remotely human well after the McDonald's disaster. Be careful

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here to find out. They asked chat gpt to present

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ideas for a middle aged man who enjoys running and photography. Wait,

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I'm a middle aged man who enjoys running. I mean,

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I like photography, but I wouldn't call myself a photography buff,

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but I do run. Okay, ideas for a middle aged

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man who enjoys running and photography. The suggestions were a

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canon lens from Argos for about one hundred and fifty bucks,

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a tennis racket sensor for about seventy five bucks, and

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recycled camera bag for under thirty five bucks, which the

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bot insisted was the ideal present. None of that good

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for a runner, there, chat gpt it also suggested ideas

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like tennis coaching, whiskey tasting or live mute. None of

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that's running. Gift. Ideas for a woman who likes beauty

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and fitness were somewhat generic as well. They picked a

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moisturizer set and a candle. So then they tried google Gemini.

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For a man who likes chess video games reading a techno,

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it suggested a chess strategy book, a Bandcamp gift card,

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and a hot sauce tasting kit. I wouldn't mind a

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hot sauce tasting kid. Santa very very busy this weekend.

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I mean he's got to finish up and check his

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list one more time. He's also going to jump on

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the radio. At the University of Scranton's amateur radio station

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W three us R, they're hosting CQ Santa, an open

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call in which Santa will invite Ham radio operators from

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around the world to join him. Parents and children are

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welcome to the fifth floor of the Loyalist Science Center

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today from seven thirty to nine pm. The offices and

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the radios will be staffed by W three USR volunteers.

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Santa will be responding to your Ham radio broadcast in

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real time. That's fun. At Anderson Air Force Base in Guam,

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airman from the US and Canada, we're working on Operation

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Christmas Drop, the Defense Department's longest running humanitarian mission. The

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airmen prepared hundreds of brightly decorated supply bundles two hundred

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and seventy, which included drawings of Christmas trees, Santa sleighs elves,

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basically anything festive enough to soften the blow of a

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heavy box landing in your village from the sky. Inside

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the heavy boxes landing in your village, or essentials like food, water,

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medical supplies, fishing gear, clothing, and even toys. This mission

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is now in its seventy fourth year. It started back

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in nineteen fifty two and a B twenty nine crew

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flying near Guam spotted islanders waving from below. They decided

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to drop supplies as a goodwill gesture. All these years later,

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it now supports fifty six thousand people across fifty nine islands.

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The first bundle went into a C one to THREEJ

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super Hercules from Yakota Air Base. Pilots say the moment

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the planes approach their destinations is unforgettable. Families waving, jumping

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and celebrating as the bundles float down. Spokesperson said, Beyond

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the food, tools, fishing gears, supplies and gifts deliver something

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far more valuable, the spirit of compassion that defines the

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Christmas season. Okay, parents. Don't forget. If you're listening with children,

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stop now, Okay, don't get mad at me. Santa's got

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a secret message. Stop okay, final warning parents. This message

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is for parents only. It's from Santa. Santa does not

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want the children to hear this message, so please stop

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the podcast if you're listening with your kids everybody else.

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A Santa Claus parade in Ontario got an unexpected twist

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when one resident decided to go full grinch. Kids are

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gone right. One house put up a bunch of signs

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in the window declaring Santa is fake, which of course

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he's not. Other untrus include your parents are Sana, Santa

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isn't real, and your family buys your presence. All fake

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news complaints poured in through phone calls, online messages, and

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in person reports to officers working the parade. Police spoke

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with the homeowner and the signs were eventually removed. The

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police said it's not illegal to be a grinch, but

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it's nicer for everyone to try to embrace the season

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during big community events. You know, sometimes you don't have

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have to go out of your way to be a jerk.

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Those are five good news stories for today. I'll see

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tomorrow