WEBVTT

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It's a long poem.

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I'll give you guys a choice.

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You can choose between
"Sonic Personality," which

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is the famous moonwalk night.

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Michael is so mad at
his father that night

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that he does the famous
moonwalk at the Motown 25

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to [INAUDIBLE] he wears his
mother's jacket on stage to get

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back at his dad So
if you go to YouTube

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and you watch the video, he's
wearing a black sequined jacket

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that's short, and he
wants to take-- he says,

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I'm taking candy
up there with me.

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That's how he talked--
taking candy up there.

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So you can choose
"Sonic Personality"

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or you can choose "Wacko Jacko."

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Now "Wacko Jacko" begins
with a Naomi Campbell quote,

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because they work together
in one of those videos.

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Naomi Campbell says, "He's
a very sweet, down-to-earth

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person, a lot like me."

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[LAUGHTER] Choose [INAUDIBLE]

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Sounds like the Sonics won it.

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At one point-- at some
point in this poem,

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I'm to say the word "klawnoom,"
and klawnoom is just

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moonwalk spelled backwards.

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And I couldn't write moonwalk.

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I ate too much to dance for you.

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I thought I would do it.

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[LAUGHTER]

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"Billie Jean" is-- the
nickname for "Billie Jean"

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while they were in the studio
was "Sonic Personality."

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They didn't have a title for it.

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So Quincy Jones and Michael,
they were calling it that,

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"Sonic Personality."

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And they were calling that
because the beginning of it

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was just so distinct.

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And Michael called this--

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[TAPPING],, that, when
he's waiting standing,

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he called that--

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don't ask me.

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This is all stuff I ask people.

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He called that the jelly.

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He would always say in the
studio, give me the jelly.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And another thing he did in the
studio while making Thriller--

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he had them build a phone
booth, a wooden box,

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and he put a little hole in the
box, so you couldn't see him

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perform.

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So he performed the songs and
like a little telephone box--

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like a telephone booth.

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And he could be free.

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No one could see him, and he'd
have a hole in the microphone,

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and he would just be
in there losing it.

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So when you hear those
songs, he's in a box.

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What else do you need to know?

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His brothers teased him
and called him "Big Nose,"

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and Quincy Jones
called him "Smelly."

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And that was his nickname,
[INAUDIBLE] Michael.

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Because Michael was so ashamed
of the size of his nose

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still at this point that every
time he talked to Quincy,

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he did like-- he
covered his nose,

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and Quincy would always
say, what's wrong, Smelly?

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What's wrong Smelly?

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So that's just some of
what you need to know.

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That's all.

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The bass player on
"Billie Jean" is

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Louis Johnson, who played for
a band called Brothers Johnson.

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And his nickname was
"Thunder Thumbs."

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OK, that's all.

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I know I shouldn't
tell you that stuff,

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but then it's pop culture stuff.

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"Sonic Personality."

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"Alone in the magic.

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Thunder Thumbs to
heart, mummified heart.

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Heart to hand, glittering hand.

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Hand to crotch, accused crotch.

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More kick and stuff.

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Pose, fedora on.

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Drama-pelvis.

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Kick and leave leg up to tap it.

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Arm-jujitsu, turn.

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Kick and leave leg up to tap it.

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Quick cat in a cat
stance, vogue-crisp.

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Fedora-off, pose.

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Stare at it a grand
second, tossed fabulous.

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Clap.

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Open triangle, big masculine
hands around the defendant.

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Click.

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Pretend to comb.

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Click, click.

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Switch sides to comb.

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Flow.

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Pocket imaginary comb.

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Mic grab, smack.

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Mic grab, choke.

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Smelly's mad at it."

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At the performance
of Motown 24, they

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didn't tell Michael they
weren't turning the mic on.

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The mic was off, and he got so--

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the great thing
about "Billie Jean,"

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it's Michael's angry song.

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Up to that point, he was a nice
Michael Jackson, that person

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He didn't do bad stuff.

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And he just lost it after this
whole incident, not the mic

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but some woman
keeps telling him.

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But-- so he's pissed
in that performance.

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You need to know that.

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Yes.

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"Mic grab choke
Smelly's mad at it

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for not being on Smelly's
trying to hide the size of it

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with his hands, but Big
Nose ain't having it.

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Smelly counters with a new
look, a Jheri curl, rhinestones,

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and surgery, plastic.

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First a favor the old
songs, 'I love those songs.

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Those were magic moments
with all of my brothers,

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including Jermaine.'"

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He actually says this on stage,
because he performed with them

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first.

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He's like, including Jermaine.

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"Run from or rush through the
medley of family just one more.

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'Those were good songs.

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I like those songs a lot,
but I especially like--

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[RHYTHMIC THUMPING]

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Alone in the jelly.

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Lyricon denial to
reverb, defiant reverb.

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Reverb to hiccup,
womanized hiccup."

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Remember, Michael the womanized
hiccup a big thing in music.

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"Hiccup to crotch, angry crotch.

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A gnawing bass.

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[VOCALIZING RHYTHMIC BASS], hee!

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[VOCALIZING RHYTHMIC BASS],,
Woo!"

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[LAUGHTER]

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Sorry.

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I mean, you know, the tradition
of Marcel Marceau and Fred

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Astaire, all those people
were in Michael that night.

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I mean, you know--

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"Mime a throw, look
both ways, spin.

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Pull pulled-up pants up,
show-off socks, sock-tease."

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Fred Astaire told
Michael Jackson

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that if you wear white socks
and you show off your ankles,

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you pull your pants up,
they'll look like your feet

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are moving faster.

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He told him that.

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"Pull pulled-up pants up,
show-off socks, sock-tease.

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Again, again-a-look,
again-both-ways, famous pause.

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Show the microphone.

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Ready to glide
backwards, klawnoom!"

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[LAUGHTER]

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I don't know.
"--drag ball to heel.

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Gravity's avi replaced by feet.

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Three seconds of air,
lunar spin, toe-stop.

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A real photograph, a real
letter and a real gun,

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not a visual trick like
wearing white socks

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to highlight your feet, but real
mental illness like baby hair,

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frozen in a webbed slide on the
sides of a grown man's face.

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Baby oil, not
grease, is the word.

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Mixing a nervous
breakdown 91 times

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can't hide your real
snake, not Muscles, the one

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that eats more
than interviewers."

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Michael had a snake
named Muscles.

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"Yet, such loyalty
deserves extra royalties.

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Astaire, an admirer.

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Dates with Brooke,
dates with Tatum.

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Liza, a weird friend.

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Liz, a weirder white mother.

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[LAUGHTER]

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A public appearance
and an intimate photo

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with a Black woman other
than Diana Ross might help.

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The moment you do, in a video,
you turn into your middle name.

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You get Joseph's eyes."

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Michael is Michael
Joseph Jackson.

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(SINGING) "Be
careful what you do.

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Jump-kick with a twist.

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The shaky hand gestures no.

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Right leg possessed, fist in the
glove, fist, twist, open fist.

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A fury that sparkles.

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A fury that stands
the mic, grabs.

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A mercy weakening, body
lowers, body rises.

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Spin-a-versary to
the edge, insistence.

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Ankle action, four forward
motions in search of reverse.

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Lastly, a bow, point
down, point up, but first,

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stomp the ground.

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Alone in Katherine's jacket.

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Door-to-door to paradise,
the kingdom's paradise.

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Paradise to truth,
awake the truth.

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Truth the witness,
Jehovah's Witness.

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Applause, a Paris burning."

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I think I'll stop right there.

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Thank you guys very much.

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[APPLAUSE]

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