ENGL 1102 Storyboard

1. Storyboard
Mass Hysteria: Real vs. Perceived Threats
Vivian Truong, Carson Fregosi, Joseph Azevedo, Seth Carpenter, Taylor Watkins

2. 1. Mountain Dew Intro
● Opening skit
● Carson: Host opens can. (We will record can
opening on mic.)
● Vivian: “You know Mountain Dew makes your
penis smaller?”
● Carson: “It does…?”
● *short silence*
● Intro Music fades in
Aesthetic: Settling down to start the podcast in studio. Not
officially started. (mic bump)
Length: 0.5 min.
Music: light, thought-provoking, engaging
Mission Statement: Advise on how to perceive what is a
real threat and was is a fake threat. Take two historical
threats and apply it to daily life.

3. 2. We are the hosts and this is our topic
● Intro Music Ends, fades out to dialogue
● “Hello, I am “Vivian”, and “I’m Carson.”
and this week on “podcast title” we will
be discussing “blah.”
● Specific topic: Mass Hysteria and how
Real vs. Perceived threats and and
impact us in our everyday lives
Aesthetic: familiar, introductory, conversational
but also professional
Length: 0.5 min.

4. 3. Penis panic (1967) and callback to Mountain Dew
● Explain what penis panic is: Penis panic or Koro is a
delusion disorder in which someone believes their
penis is shrinking.
● First major epidemic of Penis Panic in Singapore:
reading from Robert Bartholomew’s “Penis Panic’s”
● More recent example of Penis Panic: Mountain Dew
causing male genitalia to reduce in size
● Reading from online forums about Mountain Dew
penis shrinkage.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dont-overdew-it/
Aesthetic: less formal, but informative. Like a friend
telling another friend what they read on reddit.
Length: 1-1.5 min.

5. 4. Discussion Mass hysteria
Definition of Mass Hysteria: Mass hysteria occurs
when the illusion of threat spreads and infects
people throughout a society whether the threat is
real or not.
● Indirect comparison to the contagion narrative
(frame the way we talk about it spreading to
parallel biological contagion)
Aesthetic: analytical, like two friends trying to
come to an agreement on a topic
Length: 1 min.

6. 5. Framing argument & categorizing language
● Questioning of real vs. perceived
● Define real vs. perceived
○ Underreaction vs Overreaction
● Specifically, what place ‘penis panic’ has in the
dichotomy
Real threats
- Significant, tangible impact
on our everyday lives
- Usually slow-
changing/latent
Perceived threats
- Insignificant/little ‘real’ impact,
usually over-sensationalized
- Usually are seemingly
immediate
dichotomy
Aesthetic: informative, scholarly (i.e. cite
sources),
Length: 1-1.5 min.
Music: light and contemplative, in the
background

7. 6. 9/11 discussion (before and after)
Before 9/11:
Underreaction to threat
of the Taliban. “When
you become complicit
bad things happen”
https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/reaction-to-9-11
www.kqed.org/lowdown/14066/13-years-later-four-major-lasting-impacts-of-911
“The world’s fight”
After 9/11:
Overreacted
through hate
crimes, “war on
terror”, TSA
regulations.
Aesthetic: Reflective, informative, historical, light yet
ominous background music
Length: 1-1.5 min

8. 7. Relate 9/11 to penis panic
● Draw parallels between penis panic and 9/11
● Talk about how both lead to the spread of a sort of
hysteria that couldn’t be ignored.
● Make the audience wonder whether our reaction to
9/11 was one of a real threat or one of a perceived
threat.
Aesthetic: Summarizing, contemplative,
transitioning
Length: 1-2 min

9. 8. Distinguishing between real and perceived threats
in our lives.
Length: 1 min
Host #1. School anxiety stress from others. How
others stresses become our stresses. Second Hand
Stress. Overreaction.
https://hbr.org/2015/09/make-yourself-immune-to-
secondhand-stress

10. 9. Distinguishing between real and perceived in our lives
Underreaction in our daily lives. Things that are far away.
● Spending Habits/Investing/Retirement Savings
● Procrastination on Tests or Projects
● Underreaction
● Prudential TV Commercial,
● Carson: Roth IRA, Anecdote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV7c9LHdE8Y
(host 2)

11. 10. Advice and Conclusion
“Listen to instincts not others”
This podcast is meant to show that important historical
events are shaped by people’s reaction to them and
illustrate the need to improve on one's daily recognition
skills of real and perceived threats.
Aesthetic: Friendly advice, Here is our opinion, “we are
not experts”, just two friends having a discussion.
Time: 1 min