Full Transcript for Barnyard Odors

00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:07.680 I may have told We're now in the glop section 79 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:09.000 where I say, I think I may have told this 80 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:11.879 story before, but I will now tell the story again. 81 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:17.160 Stipulated stipulated, Yes, all stories may have been told before that. 82 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.160 I had a friend who was a publicist for CBS 83 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:24.399 and Fade Down Away did a sitcom on CBS in 84 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:25.920 like nineteen ninety. 85 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:27.680 Four, something like this is my story, but go ahead. 86 00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:31.480 No, no, this is my story about my friend whose 87 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:34.920 initials were BA, who was a publicist at CBS, who 88 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:38.519 took who was taking Fade down Away to the as 89 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:43.240 it was called the Critics Press Tour at the Universe. 90 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:46.160 This one was at the Universal City Hotel, the Universal 91 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:49.959 the show at Universal City, and I was present for 92 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:56.199 it and my friend, who I will leave not unnamed 93 00:04:56.240 --> 00:04:59.480 because it's her story. It's thirty one years later, but 94 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:04.240 she doesn't the taurus of having exposed. Faye dun Away said, 95 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:05.720 before I do my panel, I have to go to 96 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:10.000 the bathroom. Can you show me the bathroom? My friend 97 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.000 takes her into the bathroom, Faye Dunaway is wearing a 98 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:18.680 tube dress, very skinny, you know, and like cleaning dress. 99 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:24.279 And she she calls to my friend, she's excuse me. 100 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:26.560 My friend is out waiting for her, you know, like 101 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:30.879 outside the stall, and she says, I'm having some trouble 102 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:37.079 adjusting everything. I need your help. And basically my friend 103 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:44.439 had to wipe fade done away and shortly thereafter left 104 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:47.519 the profession. Well that works public relations. 105 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:50.879 Although to be honest, that was not the least dignified 106 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:51.519 thing he did. 107 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:53.759 She public relations, she did. 108 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:54.800 At least it was a she. 109 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:01.079 It was the top twenty humiliating omens, but not not 110 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:03.519 number one I did. I already tell you, Mike fate 111 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:07.279 Don it's just we're to lose all. 112 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:09.040 Of our listeners this early. 113 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:11.959 I will tell you that she The show she was in, 114 00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:13.639 I think it was the CBS was with Bob Urick, 115 00:06:13.680 -->

00:06:16.600 the actor Robert Urick, and she played his literary agent, 116 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:19.680 and he played a famous novelist who had moved to 117 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:22.920 I don't know, rural somewhere and she moved with him 118 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:27.240 and kind of a green acres thing, and and it 119 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:30.079 was a comedy. You have our comedy, which so somebody 120 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:34.879 had some kind of weird brain aneurysm in CBS who said, 121 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:37.040 I know Fate down Away for this sitcom, So they 122 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:39.279 put her in a sitcom. Of course, they test focus 123 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:41.279 group everything, and they focused group the first half of 124 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:43.439 the season, and the show's not doing very well. Everybody 125 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:46.600 loves Urick. Nobody loves her. Everybody hates her. They hate her, 126 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:50.160 they hate her. Dials down on Faye down Away, dials down, 127 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:54.360 way down. Everything they tried, they couldn't get her dials up. 128 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:57.160 And this show knew they needed to do something, because 129 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:00.160 you know CBS, especially reallies entirely on audience reads arch 130 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:03.839 to make the decision. So they decided to do an 131 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.560 entire episode that they knew was going to be focus 132 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:09.959 grouped in which fate Alick has to take care of 133 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:11.120 a box of puppies. 134 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:14.120 The theory being that puppy. 135 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:17.360 Everyone has puppies, so like she will bask in the 136 00:07:17.399 --> 00:07:20.279 glow of the dials up warm feeling of a box 137 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:22.839 of puppies. And so they took it and they focus 138 00:07:22.839 --> 00:07:26.040 grouped it, and it turns out that everybody hated the 139 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:26.759 puppies too. 140 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:29.519 Like she was so toxic. 141 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:34.519 She was so toxic that she made puppies unlikable, and 142 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:37.040 I think that. 143 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:39.240 That's pretty that's uh, you know, that is an accomplishment. 144 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:39.879 Put it that way. 145 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.000 Got to give her, gotta give her credit. I mean, 146 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:44.120 the thing about her was that she was willing to 147 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:48.160 play difficult, unpleasant and unsympathetic women at a time when 148 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:51.560 that was something that a lot of actresses would not do. Right, 149 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:55.560 she was Evelent Mulray in Chinatown, famously unpleasant. Of course, 150 00:07:55.639 --> 00:08:02.120 her oscar was for playing a like a gorgon the 151 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:08.680 Network that Diana Christensen in in Network. Uh, and you 152 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:11.480 know Bonnie and Bonnie and Clyde, and she that was her. 153 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:15.920 And of course then Joan Crawford like she played unsympathetic 154 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:20.079 people and uh, and obviously that was typecasting. 155 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:20.360 Yeah. 156 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:22.160 The first thing about her is she never had to 157 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:23.879 ask the director, what's my motivation? 158 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:30.920 Anyway, She stayed in character the whole time. In fact, 159 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:32.600 she's still I have. 160 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:35.480 To say, I'm very puzzled by the fact that Starwalt 161 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:40.720 was somehow allergic or unable to appreciate her beauty, because 162 00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:42.879 she was certainly astonishing. 163 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:43.720 Do you think. 164 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:45.840 That's a thing though, I mean, I mean, just to 165 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:50.840 broaden the conversation to include our listeners to the twenty 166 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:51.639 first century. 167 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:55.200 Sidney sweety yeah, can we just we can. 168 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:02.360 Okay? Can I can I finish? Do we think that. 169 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:08.200 Levels of attractiveness or the way we define attractiveness has 170 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:12.039 radically shifted in the past twenty thirty years? And I 171 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:16.279 think it has in only one sense, in that fitness 172 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:18.919 is I mean, everyone is sort of much more fit 173 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:20.519 than they ever were. I mean, if you watch old 174 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:24.480 movies where Kerry Grant takes off his shirt, you're like, yee, dude, 175 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:25.759 lay off the bread. 176 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:29.440 Johnny Weismuller did not have a six pack app as 177 00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:31.879 toz No, No, he looked like a seal. Yeah, I 178 00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:33.960 mean he had some six packs. But that's the difference. 179 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:37.879 Yeah, And so, I mean so I guess that is 180 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:39.360 part of the part of what. 181 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.240 I don't know. Things change, right, I mean they there 182 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:45.879 was a thing. Was it Napoleon? I can't forget. 183 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:49.639 Maybe it's Louis the sixteenth who was returning home. I 184 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:53.879 think it was Napoleon returning home after some war or 185 00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:55.960 campaign and he wrote to his either. 186 00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:57.679 Was Josephine or Louis? Was Maria? 187 00:09:57.720 --> 00:09:59.519 Tent out of something like He's wrote I will be 188 00:09:59.559 --> 00:10:02.279 home and weeks don't bathe? 189 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:09.720 Well, those are those are

those are those are changing standards. 190 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:12.080 That is that is for that is, that. 191 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:14.519 Is for dur bathe. 192 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:18.279 So was it just who was Josephine the one who 193 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:23.399 had no teeth? And well, Napoleon had a lover for 194 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:26.720 whom historians have been trying to figure out in in 195 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:30.799 his letters about how much he loved and it was 196 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:33.879 like some expression the zigzags or something like that. 197 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:36.120 Okay, I got it, I got it up. 198 00:10:36.200 --> 00:10:41.320 I'm looking in my explain Andrew Roberts's biography. It does 199 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:44.360 explain how everything that Andrew has written except that book 200 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:47.440 and uh, and how. 201 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:50.480 That it does explain how long ago that was that 202 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:55.039 a person felt it was necessary to specify to somebody 203 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:59.399 in France to not bathe like that's those are eons ago. 204 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.120 My god, you know the world is tilted on different 205 00:11:02.120 --> 00:11:02.600 access now. 206 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:05.480 It's like someone writing from Newcastle bring cold. 207 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:11.759 I mean, I mean, isn't that whatever? Is that what 208 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:16.440 everybody says about? How? And I think this is true 209 00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:20.879 of seventy years ago, let alone one hundred and fifty 210 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:22.679 years ago. That you know, if you went in the 211 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:25.559 time machine, you went back in time. The thing that 212 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:30.240 would get you the worst was the smell that we 213 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:34.919 we don't even understand how much cleaner the air is, 214 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:40.440 how much how how how much people take care of 215 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:43.639 their personal hygiene so that and you know how air 216 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:47.279 conditioning and stuff like that has kept people from living 217 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:51.000 in a state of complete, particularly in summers, obviously in 218 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:55.559 complete like sweat, body odor, dampness, right. 219 00:11:55.720 --> 00:11:57.879 Though, I mean, I know, but I still feel like 220 00:11:57.919 --> 00:11:59.720 this is probably the least pleasant conversation ever. 221 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:01.720 But it feels like it should we should have. 222 00:12:02.039 --> 00:12:10.039 Let's get back to washing starlet's assess. 223 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:12.919 An odor for a minute, like and I can we 224 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:13.720 stop you it? 225 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:14.000 No. 226 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:17.639 It is also a personal anecdote that there are, of course, 227 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:20.720 you know, people who taste wine. There's a wine tasting category. 228 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:22.559 You say, when you taste a certain burguend to yourselfing, 229 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:25.240 you say, has barnyard odors, And you swirl it and 230 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:27.879 you try, and sometimes that's something that you want. Barnyard 231 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:32.720 odors means the the manure manure of a of an herbivore, right, 232 00:12:32.759 --> 00:12:36.200 which is different from the manure of a carnivore. But 233 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:39.159 manure and the smell of feces is kind of like 234 00:12:39.240 --> 00:12:42.159 it's unpleasant, but you know, you know what, I don't know, 235 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:43.840 it's like, okay, right, it's okay. 236 00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:44.480 Sewage. 237 00:12:44.519 --> 00:12:46.799 You kind of maybe smell it, you know, smell it 238 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:50.000 walking down the street in New York City. I was 239 00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:54.399 gone for about a month from my home and and 240 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:57.039 it was in Europe, and during that time I was 241 00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:57.559 in Africa. 242 00:12:57.600 --> 00:12:58.799 And then during that time. 243 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:02.120 There was some worms here and the power went out 244 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:03.879 and then the power, I guess, came back on at 245 00:13:03.879 --> 00:13:06.679 some point, and the power search was so great that 246 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:09.080 it knocked out my internet. But it also for some 247 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:13.879 reason fried the refrigerator. So the power came back on, 248 00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:18.039 the refrigerator did not come back on. So that must 249 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:21.480 have happened, you know, several weeks before I arrived home 250 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:24.960 at late at night on a late flight to enter 251 00:13:25.080 --> 00:13:29.679 my home, which smelled like a Charnel house. It smelled 252 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:33.679 unbelievably terrible, the worst smell ever worked. I mean, the 253 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:36.080 smell of human feces, the smell of animal fece. 254 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:36.960 Eh, you know, whatever. 255 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:39.120 It's not great, but whatever, but I would have that 256 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:42.919 would have been an improvement to the smell of rotting food, 257 00:13:43.159 --> 00:13:47.159 rotting meat, which permeated the entire house for two weeks, 258 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:50.799 and it was so I guess, I guess what I'd 259 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:51.399 like to say. 260 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:53.080 You do? What did you do? How did you get 261 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:53.799 it out of the house? 262 00:13:53.879 --> 00:13:55.720 I I empty. 263 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:57.639 I threw everything out of from the refrigerator right and 264 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:00.279 put it in the little back garbage ship. So

that 265 00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:04.559 stuff for five days until they can be collected. Anyway, 266 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:07.279 that's not my job. And then I I kind of 267 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:11.000 wiped it down with these chloroxy lyesyl bleech wipes and 268 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:13.159 put all the trays in the boxes and everything in 269 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:16.240 the dishwasher for seventeen times. And then I went and 270 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:20.320 bought four cans of coffee and I put it on 271 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:23.320 four plates and left the door of the refrigerator open 272 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:25.440 and put a fan pointing to the door. And by 273 00:14:25.799 --> 00:14:29.120 day nine, and I really mean day nine, you couldn't 274 00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:29.879 really smell it. 275 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:33.399 So wow, Because what about the rest of the house. 276 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:35.639 Did you like candles? I mean, what did you what did. 277 00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:37.200 You I like candles of course all the time, as 278 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:39.799 you know, well, I know, because you're you're in seminary, 279 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:40.919 Yeah exactly. 280 00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:43.600 Well, the first of all, there's prayer and then there's of. 281 00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:45.639 Course devotional Yeah, yes. 282 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:48.879 So because I don't know when I'll ever have an 283 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:52.000 opportunity on this podcast or any other. When you were 284 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.399 talking about smelling this, it reminded me. I've been reading 285 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:57.759 what God hath wrought this book about America from eighteen 286 00:14:57.799 --> 00:15:01.919 fifteen to eighteen forty two, so to speak, eighteen fifty 287 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:04.559 and there's this great passage that really stuck out with me, 288 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:07.600 and I opened it up on my kindle. I'll read quickly. 289 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:11.679 Life in America in eighteen fifteen was dirty, smelly, laborious, 290 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:15.240 and uncomfortable. People spent most of their waking hours working 291 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:18.360 with scant opportunity for the development of individual talents and 292 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:23.440 interest unrelated to farming. Cobbler made shoes, being expensive and uncomfortable, 293 00:15:23.879 --> 00:15:26.720 country people of ordinary means went barefoot much of the time. 294 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.759 White people of both sexes were heavy fabrics, covering their 295 00:15:29.799 --> 00:15:32.399 bodies even in the human heat of summer, for they 296 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:36.120 believe correctly sunshine bad for their skin. People usually owned 297 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.159 only a few changes of clothes and stank of sweat. 298 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:42.399 Only the most fastidious bathed as often as once a week. 299 00:15:42.799 -->

00:15:44.639 Since water had to be carried from a spring or 300 00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:47.399 well and heated in a kettle, people gave them spells 301 00:15:47.639 --> 00:15:51.840 gave themselves sponge bathses using the washed up Some bathed 302 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:54.960 once a year in the spring, but as late as 303 00:15:55.039 --> 00:15:58.960 eighteen thirty two, a New England country doctor complained that 304 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:02.720 four out of five of his patients did not bathe 305 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:05.399 from one year to the next. 306 00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:10.440 That's well, there's that story about the cowboys, right, the 307 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:16.039 cowboys would come into town for their annual bath. Right 308 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:18.279 that you would go into Fort Worth or you know, 309 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:21.720 a town in tech after a cattle drive and you 310 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:25.679 would have your annual bath, and you would your annual bath. 311 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:29.720 So yeah, so that's the thing about this is the 312 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:35.000 interesting phenomenon because we don't we don't know how good 313 00:16:35.879 --> 00:16:40.799 we have it in this respect that we don't have 314 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:42.120 to deal with this question. 315 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:45.360 Yeah, but if it always smells bad. 316 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.519 Yeah, then it doesn't smell bad anymore or whatever. 317 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:48.720 Yeah. 318 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:50.840 Yeah, yeah, Like you know, it's like it's like if 319 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:53.960 everything is like it's sort of like politics and culture. Right, 320 00:16:53.960 --> 00:16:56.000 if everything is terrible and weird, you just have to 321 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:58.279 have a hard time remembering what's terrible and weird. 322 00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:01.639 That's it, everybody, Thanks for thanks for listening, Thanks for listening. 323 00:17:01.639 --> 00:17:08.240 Okay, so we are we are being we have been 324 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:12.799 requested by our producer, Scott Emergot to discuss the cancelation 325 00:17:12.920 --> 00:17:18.079 of of Stephen Colbert. Right, So here's what I have 326 00:17:18.119 --> 00:17:23.680 to say about that. Yay. I don't really have much 327 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:27.519 else to say except yeay. I hate him. I've hated 328 00:17:27.559 --> 00:17:30.440 him for years. He's not funny. I don't need to 329 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:32.480 be preached. You know, if I want to listen to 330 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:36.240 a televangelist, I will listen. I don't want to listen 331 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:38.640 to any televangelists, but I certainly don't need to listen 332 00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:40.640 to a liberal televangelist at the eleven. 333 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:41.119 Thirty at night. 334 00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:45.640 And I'm very happy that he had been retired, hasn't 335 00:17:45.759 -->

00:17:52.880 been retired. He's getting ten months two wind down, so 336 00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:55.240 muzzle talk to him. It's all I have to say 337 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:56.839 is yay. Is there anything else say but yeay? 338 00:17:57.319 --> 00:17:58.160 I would just say I did. 339 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:00.960 The only thing I would want to be persnickety about 340 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:03.160 because I had this argument with a good friend of mine, 341 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:05.960 is that Stephen Colbert was not fired and he was 342 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:10.359 not canceled. His show was canceled. The category was canceled, 343 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:14.359 so it doesn't make any money. It was really invented 344 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:16.039 out of whole cloth, just to find a place for 345 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:21.559 David Letterman. It's a very very very very competitive category 346 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:24.960 in which the profit overall profit's gone way down, So 347 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.319 the pie is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking, and there 348 00:18:27.319 --> 00:18:29.960 are more people slicing it and slicing it. It made 349 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:31.880 no financial sense to have that show on. 350 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:32.440 It isn't. 351 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:34.680 I mean all the people screaming yelling about how oh 352 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:36.400 my god, you know, he's been censored because he was 353 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:37.720 too liberal anti Trump. 354 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:39.799 The show has been canceled. 355 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:41.920 If they really wanted to koutout at Trump, they would 356 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:45.519 have hired somebody who was a political They didn't they 357 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:48.359 because it doesn't make any money, and so it's just 358 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:49.079 important for. 359 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:52.400 It was losing, losing, And there was a point at 360 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:55.400 which Johnny Carson made was it forty percent of the 361 00:18:55.440 --> 00:18:57.680 annual profit of NBC came. 362 00:18:57.640 --> 00:18:59.079 Oh yeah, Carson was amazing. 363 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:03.640 Nobody means forty percent of the profit of a nationwide network. 364 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:05.480 And he got paid a lot of the three and 365 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:07.480 he got paid I think the equivalent of two hundred 366 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:10.720 million dollars a year or something like that when you 367 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:14.000 took in everything cuts. He got of avertisements and he 368 00:19:14.039 --> 00:19:17.440 worked three days a week and stuff like that like 369 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.480 he did. And by the way, that's an interesting aspect 370 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:24.319 of this which is a little discussed, is these guys 371 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:28.519 now I think Jimmy Kimmel and ABC takes the summer off. 372 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:31.519 But for years the idea was and Leno I think 373 00:19:31.559 --> 00:19:33.720 started this when he came on and was like he 374 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:36.640 and he and Letterman were locked in more. You know, 375 00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:39.400 Carson had guest host, Carson took ten weeks off, Carson 376 00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:41.680 only did three days a week, blah blah blah. And 377 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:43.759 as a result of that, he was able to stay 378 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:47.519 on the air for thirty five years or something like that. 379 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:50.920 And these guys will not get off the stage like 380 00:19:51.079 --> 00:19:53.240 they want. If they have an hour, they're there for 381 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:56.240 an hour. They're there two hundred times a year, an 382 00:19:56.279 --> 00:20:01.440 hour every night, and it's like, I wonder they seem 383 00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:04.880 to burn out or not before or get old, or 384 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:07.200 it's like all old and nobody wants to watch it, 385 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:12.880 like it's too much. It's like having a podcast every day. 386 00:20:13.319 --> 00:20:15.279 It's just too much, just too much. 387 00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:16.799 The audience has fatigue. 388 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:18.440 The audience has fatigue. 389 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:20.599 You end up just sounding like it's a machine. 390 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:24.400 You can just those podcasts where people are on every 391 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:27.160 single day they just say the same things over and 392 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:28.279 over and over and over. 393 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:31.119 It's just too much, too much. 394 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:35.920 So uh, I'm so many ways I could go with this, 395 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:40.039 but keep it, keep it on Colbert for a moment. Yeah. 396 00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:43.480 I mean, like all the analysis has been said, it 397 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:49.079 was a broadcast show in a narrow cast media environment. YadA, YadA, YadA. 398 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:52.079 All that stuff is true. He's doing fan service and 399 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:56.759 he just had he just had Robert Reisch on his 400 00:20:57.200 --> 00:20:59.599 show because that's what you know, that's what the young'ins 401 00:20:59.599 --> 00:20:59.920 really want. 402 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:02.640 Well, he needed someone to pick up that thing that 403 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:06.119 was between the desk and the wall. You know, no 404 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:07.559 one else to it. 405 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:12.880 But I do think that there's one part of which 406 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:17.079 is probably worth just sort of glancing over here, one 407 00:21:17.079 --> 00:21:19.559 part of the conservative criticism that I think is wrong 408 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.799 that got a lot of currency out there. You know, 409 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:26.599 we've talked about a million

times that old you know, 410 00:21:26.920 --> 00:21:30.720 Roger All's genius was to discover this niche half the 411 00:21:30.759 --> 00:21:36.640 country argument right and the the whole. And there were 412 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:40.599 a lot of Conservatis saying doing this whole like Colbert 413 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:43.519 was only speaking to his fan base, and that's an 414 00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:45.480 MSNBC fan base, and he was sharing it with two 415 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:48.519 other networks. And I think that's all true. And then 416 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:51.119 they would saying, look, look at the ratings that Gutfield gets. 417 00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:53.000 The shows that like, you don't have to be a 418 00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:56.759 left winger, YadA YadA dah. Also true. What they kind 419 00:21:56.759 --> 00:22:00.359 of miss is that Gutfield's ratings, which are good for 420 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:02.599 a which are great for a cable show and better 421 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:05.839 than a lot of these broadcast networks, it's still just 422 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:09.400 another niche. It is not you know, he's not getting 423 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:12.759 Carson numbers or anything like that. And he's just as 424 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:16.480 partisan on the right as Colbart is on the left. 425 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:20.160 The thing is like his show costs a tenth as much. 426 00:22:20.759 --> 00:22:21.799 And I do think there are a lot of people 427 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:25.880 who elided over this point that that gut Faeld doesn't 428 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:31.720 prove you can do mainstream stuff. It proves that you, 429 00:22:31.960 --> 00:22:34.200 if you get your cost structure right, you can do 430 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:35.839 niche stuff successfully. 431 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:38.119 Well, yeah, I mean I think that's true. I mean 432 00:22:39.400 --> 00:22:41.079 I don't know whether I you know, I have written 433 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:45.599 about this. Once the audience gets split into twelve pieces 434 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:49.440 and eleven of them are all one partisan side, then 435 00:22:49.519 --> 00:22:51.319 the guy who is the only one is going to 436 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:56.519 clean up. Yeah, but if Leno and or Carson were 437 00:22:56.599 --> 00:23:01.359 still in a chair, there will be no Greg Guttfeldt. 438 00:23:01.400 --> 00:23:06.599 I mean we only the conservatives or sort of right 439 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:12.039 leaning types don't want to be hectored about politics by 440 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:14.640 the left. They don't mind it from the right, especially 441 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:16.799 they sort of rabbit. I mean, once you start saying, 442 00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:19.440 all I want is a million people, but you can 443 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:24.079 always get a million crazies who or rabid diehards who 444 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:26.240 will watch you and laugh at every joke you make. 445 00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:29.240 But the other problem with all these shows is that 446 00:23:29.799 --> 00:23:33.119 even a successful TV show, people who say to them, 447 00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:36.599 who say to people, I love Colbert, I love Colbert, 448 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:39.319 and then you ask them, Okay, how many times a 449 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:40.079 week you watch it? 450 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:43.480 Nurse, I love Colbert? How do I work this remote? 451 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:44.000 Yeah? 452 00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:44.440 Right? 453 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:47.400 What they What you find is they either don't watch it, 454 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:49.680 they watch the clips on TikTok or Instagram, or they 455 00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:52.039 watch it once a week and now they think they 456 00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:53.400 watch it every day, but they don't. 457 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:54.039 Nobody does. 458 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:57.839 So once you start splitting the audience like that, then 459 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:00.200 the guy that has the most reliable slice this is 460 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:01.240 the guy who does the best. 461 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:04.200 And this is the other part of where the bias 462 00:24:04.359 --> 00:24:07.240 argument does work. Because I agree with you that if 463 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.359 you can dominate a niche, then you are a niche. 464 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:16.440 You're niche programming, but can be very successful. But ordinarily 465 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:20.359 in a world in which like this podcast, totally like 466 00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:24.000 this podcast. Ordinarily in a world like that, Guttfeld comes on, 467 00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:26.400 he sort of figures out how to get two or 468 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:28.279 three million people or whatever it is. He gets it, 469 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:32.880 and then somebody would chase, like somebody would say, Okay, 470 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:36.400 he's figured out a formula, let's do a show like his. 471 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:42.200 But they don't. You see, they don't the other CNN 472 00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:48.880 and MSNBC don't Chase, and CBSNBC and ANBC don't chase. 473 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.079 Just like Angels Studios comes out, they make Sound of Freedom. 474 00:24:54.119 --> 00:24:57.240 Sound of Freedom makes two hundred and fifty million dollars domestic, 475 00:24:57.960 --> 00:25:00.279 and everybody says, oh, you know, in Hollywood, all they 476 00:25:00.279 --> 00:25:02.799 care about is profit. If you can show that you 477 00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:05.279 can make money, you can make a profit, they'll make 478 00:25:05.440 --> 00:25:09.200 the move. That's they're not idiologically driven. They want money 479 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:11.720 and that's all they want. And all this, where are 480 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:14.359 the other Sounds of Freedom? It's been through by the way. 481 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:18.319 Sound of

Freedom was made for Fox five years before 482 00:25:18.359 --> 00:25:20.720 it was released and they put it on a shelf. 483 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:25.279 So there is that weird aspect of this, which is 484 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:31.079 that underserved audience that Fox has made billions and billions 485 00:25:31.079 --> 00:25:33.400 of dollars on. It has made billions of billions dollars 486 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:38.279 on for two decades or twenty five years, because it's 487 00:25:38.359 --> 00:25:42.680 still so toxic to everybody else in the news and 488 00:25:42.839 --> 00:25:47.279 entertainment business to even touch the Fox audience that they 489 00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:50.880 have been, they have left it unmolested and totally in 490 00:25:50.920 --> 00:25:56.839 the hands of Rupert and Lachlan and whoever else and 491 00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:58.599 whoever it is that they put on the air. And 492 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:02.319 that's what's interesting as a market as a bizarre market failure. 493 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:05.200 I have slightly different take on that. So, like part 494 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:07.319 of our argument when we were launching the Dispatch was 495 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:10.000 this market gap argument that like, there's this eight hundred 496 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:12.839 pound gorilla of Fox, and then there's a lot of 497 00:26:12.839 --> 00:26:15.839 the mainstream media and there's this stuff. You know, the 498 00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:17.880 economist is sort of in this space. But there are 499 00:26:17.880 --> 00:26:20.359 not a lot of things in the that white gap 500 00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:24.519 that value reporting that are right of center but aren't 501 00:26:24.559 --> 00:26:29.480 like Foxy. And the funny thing is there are a 502 00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:32.960 bunch of places that have tried it. Oh, an started 503 00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:40.240 trying to make that kind of argument, right, And the 504 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:43.599 problem is is that the sticky eyeballs for cable news 505 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:49.839 want want red meat, want the raw stuff. And so 506 00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:53.200 O N decided it was going to go crazier than 507 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:56.880 Fox as the model. So did Newsmax right, and that 508 00:26:57.079 --> 00:27:00.799 the model became Fox has gone to stream to tell 509 00:27:00.839 --> 00:27:03.200 you that the election really was stolen, at least in 510 00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:06.559 its news reporting, and so they went even nuttier. And 511 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:09.079 that freaked the crap out of Fox because the one 512 00:27:09.079 --> 00:27:13.319 thing they couldn't their brains couldn't handle was being first 513 00:27:13.319 --> 00:27:15.759 of all, losing in the ratings than any fifteen minute increment. 514 00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:18.559 But secondly, you know, I had to go to school 515 00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:20.440 on this because I got I got subpoena and for 516 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:24.599 the dominion lawsuit stuff, and they had to go They 517 00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:27.519 couldn't freak. They completely freaked out and change their internal 518 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:31.400 policies in response to Martha McCallum losing for one hour 519 00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:35.160 during the recount crap not recount, the stolen election stuff, 520 00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:39.400 and all of these plans, the pivot back to the 521 00:27:39.480 --> 00:27:42.799 center and be more serious went out the window because 522 00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:46.720 they can just they know everyone's cutting chords. They know 523 00:27:46.799 --> 00:27:48.720 that their viewers are gonna be the last ones to 524 00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.839 cut chords. And it's a giant ATM machine, so you 525 00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:55.119 might as well keep pandering for as long as it's 526 00:27:55.160 --> 00:27:58.880 throwing off cash. And they had to crush Newsmax and 527 00:27:58.920 --> 00:28:02.279 Oan for biting into that business model. 528 00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:04.200 And yeah, I mean the interesting thing about all that 529 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:07.039 is how much these things develop and how often what 530 00:28:07.160 --> 00:28:11.319 they say they want to do then meets market realities 531 00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:14.599 and they have to change. So I mean, Newsmax went 532 00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:18.920 on TV, became a network, and the business plan of 533 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:23.680 Newsmax was old people lifestyle stuff. It was not supposed 534 00:28:23.720 --> 00:28:25.440 to be. They didn't want politics. They just want an 535 00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:29.559 old people lifestyle. They wanted vitamins and wellness and culture 536 00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:31.519 of stuff. They wanted all that. And I remember that 537 00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:34.319 because the guy who runs and told me this. And 538 00:28:34.359 --> 00:28:36.480 then you get there and you start, you know, you 539 00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:38.960 start looking and it gets hard and you got to 540 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:40.880 make the money. And then there's this, you know, there's 541 00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:44.400 this machine where you can make some money and you 542 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:45.960 and you keep saying to yourself, well, we own you 543 00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:47.200 do this for a little bit, and then we're going 544 00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:49.440 to pivot back to the stuff that isn't toxic and 545 00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:51.559 isn't gonna bring us all down or cost us a 546 00:28:51.559 --> 00:28:56.880 lot of money eventually. That doesn't work, right. I Mean, 547 00:28:57.799 --> 00:29:00.200 the only thing I think you could maybe say as 548 00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:03.759 successful has been the rebranding, which was never done publicly 549 00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:05.920 or never announcement. You could see it on the programming 550 00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:08.160 of

Fox Nation, which was supposed to be Fox Nation, 551 00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:10.680 supposed to be the looney bit, right, so everybody who's 552 00:29:10.759 --> 00:29:14.640 too crazy for the for TV, who might get a sued, 553 00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:17.160 We're gonna put on the streaming service and it's gonna 554 00:29:17.160 --> 00:29:17.920 be bananas. 555 00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:20.480 It's going to be diamond and Silk and Dan Bongino 556 00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:21.240 and all sorts of thing. 557 00:29:21.319 --> 00:29:25.720 Deputy sorry, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino. 558 00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:27.559 Like all that. 559 00:29:28.279 --> 00:29:31.000 And they discovered that that and they were committing directly 560 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:33.279 with newsbacks, and they decided that was probably not a 561 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:35.480 valuable thing to do. It was just too stinky to 562 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:37.440 the brand. So then they pivoted and now they have 563 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:39.960 like you know, they have fancy program they good program 564 00:29:39.960 --> 00:29:41.680 in Fox Nation. It's really I mean, I've worked for it, 565 00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:43.680 I've done shows for I'm hoping you do another one. 566 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:46.880 And they're great. I mean, they're it's a really great network. 567 00:29:46.920 --> 00:29:48.119 They have really really good. 568 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:50.720 Shows, and then Martin Scorsese won and they have you know, 569 00:29:50.759 --> 00:29:51.960 they had the one I did, and they have a 570 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:56.799 bunch of things, and they are they they understand who 571 00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:02.079 their audience is, but they're not trying to they're not 572 00:30:02.119 --> 00:30:05.119 trying to pander to its politics. Just to as sort 573 00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:08.400 of kind of cultural stance. You really do have to 574 00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:10.559 be able to read the tea leaves to watch Fox Nation, and. 575 00:30:10.519 --> 00:30:14.319 The basic Fox station is basically the twenty four hour 576 00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:18.440 documentary version of a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl 577 00:30:19.079 --> 00:30:22.799 or a Chevrolet commercial during the super Bowl. It's light focus. 578 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:28.279 America is great, and it's a country of individualists who. 579 00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:33.039 It's nineteen fifties A and E. Nineteen fifty Yeah, on that. 580 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:36.519 That is a good market position. Again, not only does 581 00:30:36.519 --> 00:30:41.880 it not only is it serving an underserved audience. And 582 00:30:42.079 --> 00:30:46.440 it's a subscription service, so they'll know if it doesn't work, 583 00:30:46.480 --> 00:30:48.839 and they'll just close it down or they'll sell it, 584 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:53.519 or they'll do something else. But again, you're talking about 585 00:30:53.559 --> 00:30:57.000 a kind of

view or vision or projection of the 586 00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:01.480 country that you just don't get elsewhere, and that is 587 00:31:01.640 --> 00:31:09.279 part of how you open a market up. There is 588 00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:13.039 this thing going on, and Jonah, you and I should 589 00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:18.200 you and I should discourse on this Superman movie opened, right, 590 00:31:18.200 --> 00:31:21.559 it's the first Superman movie since Man of. 591 00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:25.119 Steel, since the last one, for sure, No. 592 00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:27.559 But I mean there was one with called Man of Steel. 593 00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:31.000 Then Superman was in various movies with Batman the Justice. 594 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:32.799 But Man of Steel, which was in two thousand and 595 00:31:32.920 --> 00:31:40.880 nine and was the humorless brooding Superman fighting the other 596 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:46.759 Kryptonians after you know, came in after a previous one. 597 00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:49.200 And then there was Christopher Reeve. So here we have 598 00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:51.920 this new Superman and it's doing really well at the 599 00:31:52.039 --> 00:31:57.400 domestic box office, and it's apparently not doing particularly well overseas. 600 00:31:57.480 --> 00:32:02.279 The Chinese market is now basic. China's decided it does 601 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:06.799 not want to open its cinemas to American movies. It 602 00:32:06.839 --> 00:32:08.680 is now making a lot of movies on its own. 603 00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:12.279 The most popular movie of twenty twenty five is a 604 00:32:12.359 --> 00:32:16.039 Chinese animated movie called Neja two, which has made two 605 00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:20.160 point two billion dollars, almost not of it here. I 606 00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:22.680 think it's made eighteen million dollars here, and you know, 607 00:32:22.680 --> 00:32:26.200 two billion dollars in China and then money abroad. So 608 00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:28.880 Superman's made about three hundred and fifty million dollars here. 609 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:31.400 It's not making money abroad. And there is this line 610 00:32:31.400 --> 00:32:34.440 that is now being peddled that the reason that Superman 611 00:32:34.599 --> 00:32:39.079 is not popular outside the United States is because the 612 00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:44.359 world now hates America because of Donald Trump, and they 613 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:48.920 don't want Superman is an American hero and not a 614 00:32:48.960 --> 00:32:53.000 world hero, and they don't like him, and yeah, bah blah, 615 00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:59.640 bah blah, and the thin I don't maybe it's true. 616 00:33:00.039 --> 00:33:03.839 I don't know. Maybe people don't want to see the 617 00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:08.000 most famous the character that originated comic books and made 618 00:33:08.039 --> 00:33:13.279 comic books popular and is the oldest character in comics 619 00:33:13.279 --> 00:33:16.039

except for Batman. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. 620 00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:19.079 So uh, there's a great irony in this, right, because 621 00:33:20.200 --> 00:33:23.079 I was guilty of it too. Hollywood kept trying to 622 00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:30.559 make Superman a globalist, right, a citizen of the world, 623 00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:36.960 diogenies and tights, right, and and concerned, you know, they 624 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:39.200 cut out and the American Way from some of them 625 00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:41.480 and all that kind of stuff, and and it was 626 00:33:41.519 --> 00:33:45.920 one of those sort of minor pop culture culture war truveralls. 627 00:33:46.519 --> 00:33:53.480 And so it's kind of funny that now the if 628 00:33:53.480 --> 00:33:55.880 it's true that the headwind for Superman is because he's 629 00:33:55.880 --> 00:34:00.960 an American, that that we're getting that when America during 630 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:03.720 America first stuff. I look, I don't know, I'm torn. 631 00:34:03.799 --> 00:34:06.799 I suspect that some of it is a superhero fatigue, right, 632 00:34:06.839 --> 00:34:09.000 I mean, we were talking about that twenty minutes ago 633 00:34:09.079 --> 00:34:12.039 before this movie, so obviously that's got to be a thing. 634 00:34:12.039 --> 00:34:17.360 A lot of Marvel movies, you know, petered out because 635 00:34:17.360 --> 00:34:20.840 people were just like enough already. Disney doesn't do as 636 00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:24.039 well as Marvel movies, though, do for good reason, because 637 00:34:24.079 --> 00:34:30.760 it's worth worst content. And so I don't know. I mean, 638 00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:33.760 I think it's entirely possible. I remember one of the 639 00:34:33.800 --> 00:34:35.440 I think the first piece I ever wrote for National 640 00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:39.679 Review was about how the guys who had made Independence 641 00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:43.559 Day their follow on movie was Godzilla, the Matthew Broderick 642 00:34:43.599 --> 00:34:49.239 Godzilla and independancegue I got all this blowback because it 643 00:34:49.280 --> 00:34:52.320 was too American and that America was leading in the 644 00:34:52.360 --> 00:34:54.320 world and all this kind of stuff. And so the 645 00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:59.599 Godzilla movie, the American Army were all hapless losers and 646 00:34:59.679 --> 00:35:05.599 idiot It's the American political leadership was all losers. The 647 00:35:05.599 --> 00:35:07.960 only real badasses who knew what they were doing were 648 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:14.199 the French, and I think that there's some gaming like that, 649 00:35:14.320 --> 00:35:16.000 you know, for these kinds of things. I just didn't 650 00:35:16.679 --> 00:35:18.039 the only thing I and this is the only thing 651 00:35:18.039 --> 00:35:19.920 where I actually disagree with you, and I'm loath to 652 00:35:20.039 --> 00:35:23.760 bring in Israel. So I was I think it was 653 00:35:23.800 --> 00:35:26.320 more anti Israel than you're you've given it credit for. 654 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:29.559 And I want to be really clear, I think that 655 00:35:29.599 --> 00:35:31.920 the one of the few things that all of John's 656 00:35:31.960 --> 00:35:36.639 detractors and his super fans will agree on is that 657 00:35:36.760 --> 00:35:41.599 John has very sensitive antennae for insults to the State 658 00:35:41.639 --> 00:35:44.960 of Israel and the Jews. And so when you told 659 00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:49.199 me that it's all stupid, I was like, well, John 660 00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:50.519 says that it's got to be true. And then I 661 00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:53.199 watched it with my daughter, and my daughter like immediately 662 00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:58.440 that they're talking about Israel and and I kind of 663 00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:00.599 waved her off and said, we'll talk about it afterwards. 664 00:36:00.679 --> 00:36:05.639 And then, you know, I understand why people had that interpretation. 665 00:36:05.800 --> 00:36:07.880 Morea we should explain for people who haven't seen the 666 00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:12.760 movie that Superman involves himself in a cross border war 667 00:36:13.519 --> 00:36:17.719 between a country that is clearly run by a Vladimir 668 00:36:17.719 --> 00:36:24.559 Putin substitute and a defenseless country on his border. Uh, 669 00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:27.599 and everything is being manipulated by Lex Luthor in some 670 00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:31.000 fashion and I can't even remember what, and that the 671 00:36:31.119 --> 00:36:34.840 cross border of the people that he is attacking look 672 00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:40.079 vaguely Middle Eastern and as though they literally just come 673 00:36:40.159 --> 00:36:43.400 out of Lawrence of Arabia or something. They're sort of 674 00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:48.119 like in desert clothing there there. I don't know. They 675 00:36:48.360 --> 00:36:53.400 they have vests, woolen vests, and they have sticks. 676 00:36:53.360 --> 00:36:58.639 And standing around in. 677 00:36:58.679 --> 00:37:03.000 A musical note whenever they appear, and it goes. 678 00:37:03.400 --> 00:37:07.760 No, no, no, it's just that they're staying there facing this. 679 00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:12.000 They're facing this, you know, like first World army, and 680 00:37:12.039 --> 00:37:17.599 then they're a bunch of ragtag rebels. And people have 681 00:37:17.719 --> 00:37:20.960 read this as though this is clearly meant to read 682 00:37:21.119 --> 00:37:27.719 like the Palestinians in Gaza. But I didn't read it 683 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:31.079 that way for this reason, which is that the antagonist 684 00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:36.320 is Putin and the movie was written and started filming 685 00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:43.400 in twenty twenty three, and remember October seven didn't start 686 00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:49.440 happening until October of twenty twenty three, and so I 687 00:37:49.480 --> 00:37:51.880

thought it was clear that it was supposed to be 688 00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:55.800 some kind of Ukraine thing, except that the Ukrainians look 689 00:37:55.880 --> 00:38:00.599 more like Afghanis than they did like Ukrainians. I don't 690 00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:03.840 dispute that if you watch it in twenty twenty five, 691 00:38:04.039 --> 00:38:07.239 after the last two years, when you look at the 692 00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:10.639 at these people that Superman is trying to protect from 693 00:38:11.119 --> 00:38:16.000 from the evil Putin guy, that that they you, that's 694 00:38:16.039 --> 00:38:18.360 how you would read it. I just don't think that 695 00:38:18.360 --> 00:38:21.440 that was what was intended. But what do I know? 696 00:38:21.679 --> 00:38:26.519 Okay, So two data points three data points. One, we 697 00:38:26.559 --> 00:38:29.960 should stipulate that the movie is pretty stupid. I mean, 698 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:33.000 it's fun, but we shouldn't take it too seriously. But 699 00:38:33.079 --> 00:38:35.800 this is a serious interpretation that people are having, right. 700 00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:40.480 So second, the I agree that it's supposed to have 701 00:38:40.559 --> 00:38:42.960 some overtones of the Russia thing too. It's like an amalgam, 702 00:38:43.079 --> 00:38:48.760 but the leader of the evil country kind of talks 703 00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:51.440 more like an Ariel Sharon and looks more like in 704 00:38:51.480 --> 00:38:53.679 Israeli with the with the weird Harry doesn't look like 705 00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:57.199 Vladimir Putin. And he gives this little speech at one 706 00:38:57.239 --> 00:39:02.159 point where he says, America and Zavonia, whatever the name 707 00:39:02.159 --> 00:39:05.079 of the country is, we had a rock solid alliance 708 00:39:05.159 --> 00:39:08.880 until Superman got in the way. Going back decades, we've 709 00:39:08.920 --> 00:39:12.440 never had a Rocksoud alliance with Vladimir Putin right, and 710 00:39:12.519 --> 00:39:17.119 so it was. And also just the unbelievably I mean 711 00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:26.480 you called them the innocent victims whatever rebels. I mean, 712 00:39:26.599 --> 00:39:28.960 they were like literally like holding I don't know, mops 713 00:39:28.960 --> 00:39:33.519 and sticks and stuff, and so it just it seemed 714 00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:39.159 like a hamhanded way to it. If it was trying 715 00:39:39.159 --> 00:39:43.159 to play off of Ukraine, it kind of failed miserably, 716 00:39:43.239 --> 00:39:46.960 I thought, and lent aid and comfort to people who 717 00:39:47.039 --> 00:39:49.239 wanted to say it was about Israel. 718 00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:50.000 I agree. 719 00:39:50.480 --> 00:39:55.320 The country the countries in the bad country is called Bravia. 720 00:39:56.480 --> 00:39:58.679 And the country that they invade with the people with 721 00:39:58.760 --> 00:40:03.119 the sticks who were Superman protect who super Instrra, it's 722 00:40:03.199

--> 00:40:09.559 called Jarhanpour. So we're Braven. President's name is a vasil Gurkhos. 723 00:40:10.360 --> 00:40:16.840 So I don't know, Jarhanpour sounds south like it's South Asia. Anyway, 724 00:40:16.880 --> 00:40:21.400 I'm not defending it it is. I enjoyed it. I 725 00:40:21.519 --> 00:40:26.199 enjoyed much of the movie. I wish that it hadn't 726 00:40:26.960 --> 00:40:31.960 gone into this weird place where he's in the anti 727 00:40:32.039 --> 00:40:36.679 matter river that's leading to the black hole and stuff 728 00:40:36.719 --> 00:40:39.639 like that. What was good about it was what is 729 00:40:39.719 --> 00:40:43.039 always good about Superman movies, which is the conflict between 730 00:40:43.800 --> 00:40:47.159 Superman and Lex Luthor, which is always good, and the 731 00:40:47.199 --> 00:40:51.119 relationship between Superman and Lois Lane, which is always good. 732 00:40:51.360 --> 00:40:56.199 And the how he saves people from efforts to trash 733 00:40:56.280 --> 00:41:01.320 them and say he saves them and invent ways and 734 00:41:01.400 --> 00:41:05.400 that's really good. And some of the other superheroes are 735 00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:06.679 funnier than I expected. 736 00:41:06.880 --> 00:41:12.360 Yeah, I otherwise it's I had to have Tevy Troy, 737 00:41:12.360 --> 00:41:15.760 our friend Tevy Troy explained to me why is Green 738 00:41:15.840 --> 00:41:18.960 Lantern such an unbelievable dickhead? And he explained it to me, 739 00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:20.880 it's a new character, blah blah, but it's a thing 740 00:41:20.880 --> 00:41:23.719 in the comics. The one complaint I have, and it's 741 00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:27.800 true of his Suicide Squad movies too, James Gunn Yeah, 742 00:41:27.800 --> 00:41:28.880 the James Gunner director. 743 00:41:28.960 --> 00:41:30.320 Yeah, it's like. 744 00:41:30.800 --> 00:41:34.360 They want these things to be so visually distinct from Marvel. 745 00:41:35.719 --> 00:41:39.719 That but Marvel took all of the good set colors 746 00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:42.800 and paint colors and costume colors, the whole all the 747 00:41:42.840 --> 00:41:46.960 good palette. And so that's a lot of like Japanese 748 00:41:47.039 --> 00:41:53.000 lunchbox pink and weird color profiles that I just I 749 00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:56.000 think there's a reason why Marvel doesn't use those colors 750 00:41:56.000 --> 00:41:57.000 because it's kind of stupid. 751 00:41:57.199 --> 00:41:59.159 So the whole thing kind of look. I got to 752 00:41:59.199 --> 00:42:02.199 move on, and Rob is looking like he wants to. 753 00:42:02.679 --> 00:42:05.639 No. I'm actually sort of interesting because when you mentioned 754 00:42:05.679 --> 00:42:08.239 I mean, this is not minutes ago. But I made 755 00:42:08.239 --> 00:42:11.599 a little note because when you mentioned the antimatter thing 756 00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:14.559 and then the black hole, I thought what was interesting 757 00:42:14.639 --> 00:42:18.440 was their comment that the components of traditional science fiction. 758 00:42:20.440 --> 00:42:23.039 No, but I do have to ask Jonah, because Jonah 759 00:42:23.199 --> 00:42:25.880 is a comic book person and there is this big 760 00:42:25.880 --> 00:42:28.480 comic book movie that came out Fantastic four. 761 00:42:28.519 --> 00:42:31.039 First steps were moving on, but I guess we're not. 762 00:42:31.159 --> 00:42:33.360 No, I just want to do two minutes on this 763 00:42:33.440 --> 00:42:39.119 and then move on. So as I understand it, Fantastic four, 764 00:42:39.159 --> 00:42:41.719 which debut I think at the beginning of the sixties. 765 00:42:43.960 --> 00:42:46.960 This is now like the seventeenth effort to reboot the 766 00:42:47.079 --> 00:42:52.599 Fantastic Four. And it looks really good. And because it 767 00:42:52.639 --> 00:42:56.079 looks like The Incredibles, it's like a live action version. 768 00:42:56.159 --> 00:42:57.800 It's like their way of making them. 769 00:42:58.039 --> 00:43:00.199 A giant first weekend, giant first weekend. 770 00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:02.960 And then and then it collapsed. But it looks like Incredibles, 771 00:43:03.760 --> 00:43:11.920 and I think the Fantastic four is unbelievably stupid as 772 00:43:11.960 --> 00:43:14.760 a I don't understand why. I mean, I didn't read 773 00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:20.119 that's so, there's stretchy arms, there's his Mariland. Now this 774 00:43:20.199 --> 00:43:22.519 is the other thing is his wife looks like supposed 775 00:43:22.559 --> 00:43:26.000 to look like Marilyn Monroe, but can make herself invisible. 776 00:43:26.039 --> 00:43:28.800 Why Marilyn Monroe want to make herself invisible is not clear. 777 00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:32.280 My brother can light himself on fire and fly, and 778 00:43:32.320 --> 00:43:35.079 then this good looking guy ends up looking like a 779 00:43:35.159 --> 00:43:38.440 giant rock monster, and I guess they all have are 780 00:43:38.480 --> 00:43:42.840 tortured by their various powers and abilities, except in this 781 00:43:43.039 --> 00:43:47.440 version of it, the rock monster guy has no problems 782 00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:51.000 being a rock monster. He doesn't think he's ugly, he's 783 00:43:51.039 --> 00:43:54.679 not complaining about being ugly. The one who slights himself 784 00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:57.440 on fire is perfectly happy to light himself on fire. 785 00:43:58.199 --> 00:44:04.079 She's fine, everybody's fine, there's no conflict, and the powers 786 00:44:04.119 --> 00:44:10.719 are dumb. They're just dumb, Like I so am I wrong? 787 00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:13.400 Like this? Was this a great comic book and it 788 00:44:13.559 --> 00:44:17.280 really like crystallized what was great about comics, and the 789 00:44:17.320 --> 00:44:20.559 movies just haven't been able to match the magic of it. 790 00:44:20.800 --> 00:44:23.159 Or yeah, I think that's it. I mean, I honestly do. 791 00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:25.800 I

mean like, there were all sorts of comics that 792 00:44:25.960 --> 00:44:28.920 just for years didn't lend themselves to making movies about them, 793 00:44:28.920 --> 00:44:30.760 and then CGI kind of caught up and all that 794 00:44:30.800 --> 00:44:33.880 kind of stuff. And the problem is is that I 795 00:44:33.960 --> 00:44:36.440 just think the Fantastic Four, which was a great comic 796 00:44:36.599 --> 00:44:40.679 in its day, doesn't lend itself to it. So it 797 00:44:40.719 --> 00:44:44.079 was kind of smart for them to do the homage 798 00:44:44.119 --> 00:44:46.400 to the Incredibles, which was an homage to the Fantastic 799 00:44:46.400 --> 00:44:48.400 for in the first place, kind of thing. I haven't 800 00:44:48.400 --> 00:44:51.440 seen it yet, but Cliff Asnes, who's even more are 801 00:44:51.480 --> 00:44:54.440 Friendclys Avenues and the subject of the commentary roast this year, 802 00:44:56.000 --> 00:44:57.599 it was even more of a comic book nerd than 803 00:44:57.639 --> 00:44:59.320 I am, and he really liked it. 804 00:45:00.280 --> 00:45:02.599 Okay, that's all I got for it. It is great 805 00:45:02.599 --> 00:45:05.199 looking great. Now here's something else, a movie that I 806 00:45:05.199 --> 00:45:07.320 think I've seen that you guys probably have not seen, 807 00:45:07.960 --> 00:45:11.159 that I strongly want to urge people to see, though 808 00:45:11.199 --> 00:45:13.840 it'll probably be streaming in about a week because it 809 00:45:13.880 --> 00:45:18.800 really didn't make any money and so the window will close. 810 00:45:18.920 --> 00:45:22.119 But it's this film Eddington, made by the director or 811 00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:23.880 right director Ari Astor. 812 00:45:24.119 --> 00:45:25.719 Which mister Fantastic in it. 813 00:45:25.760 --> 00:45:29.519 With pedropuscal in it right, which is about a town 814 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:33.039 that goes insane in the early days of COVID in 815 00:45:33.119 --> 00:45:36.960 New Mexico, and it is a movie about America losing 816 00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:42.280 its mind over COVID, and it is brilliant, and it 817 00:45:42.360 --> 00:45:50.280 is brilliant because it accepts it. It provides a framework 818 00:45:50.400 --> 00:45:55.559 in which all arguments about COVID are taken seriously, and 819 00:45:55.639 --> 00:45:59.199 all arguments about what happens in America during COVID from 820 00:45:59.280 --> 00:46:02.320 the left. You need to wear You're gonna make other 821 00:46:02.360 --> 00:46:05.719 people sick. And you can't just walk around doing whatever 822 00:46:05.760 --> 00:46:08.360 you want, because we live in a society in which 823 00:46:08.360 --> 00:46:10.400 we need to be able to think about each other. 824 00:46:11.159 --> 00:46:15.079 Or I have asthma. I can't wear a mask. Leave 825 00:46:15.119 --> 00:46:18.079 me alone. I'm six staying six feet away from you. 826 00:46:18.159 --> 00:46:24.480 Stop yelling at me, Let me be. And the conflicts 827 00:46:24.519 --> 00:46:28.239 that arise that get more and deep and more and 828 00:46:28.280 --> 00:46:33.440 more and more crazy, until in the most amazing twist 829 00:46:33.480 --> 00:46:38.559 of all, Antifa actually shows up. There's a George Wood 830 00:46:38.599 --> 00:46:41.639 protest in this empty little town in New Mexico and 831 00:46:41.719 --> 00:46:45.519 Antifa shows up, and it is a sort of portrait 832 00:46:45.599 --> 00:46:50.519 of America gone insane in twenty twenty, and it is remarkable. 833 00:46:50.639 --> 00:46:52.920 I mean, I wouldn't say that it's the most pleasant. 834 00:46:52.920 --> 00:46:54.119 It's very nerve jangling. 835 00:46:54.400 --> 00:46:55.840 Yeah, that's why I'm reluctant to see. 836 00:46:55.920 --> 00:46:59.960 But it is great, and like, there's so few movies 837 00:47:00.199 --> 00:47:05.000 that are any good anymore, like The Naked Gun. I 838 00:47:05.079 --> 00:47:08.679 went to see the reboot of The Naked Gun. It's 839 00:47:08.760 --> 00:47:11.920 like I laughed seven or eight times, but it's so 840 00:47:12.239 --> 00:47:18.440 wand you know, and it's like you remember how explosively 841 00:47:18.559 --> 00:47:21.000 funny those movies were, and then you make a wan 842 00:47:22.440 --> 00:47:26.599 new version of it, and you know it's got to 843 00:47:26.639 --> 00:47:30.400 be better, not worse, Like it's got to actually improve 844 00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:34.400 on the original, not be a kind of pale reflection. 845 00:47:35.400 --> 00:47:38.039 So I haven't they a wild comedy and then make 846 00:47:38.079 --> 00:47:40.719 a less wild version of a wild comedy and then 847 00:47:40.760 --> 00:47:41.840 think that's supposed to be open. 848 00:47:41.840 --> 00:47:43.239 So I haven't seen it, but I have a theory 849 00:47:43.239 --> 00:47:45.639 about why a lot of those kinds of movies stopped 850 00:47:45.719 --> 00:47:47.719 being made. And be curious what you guys think. So 851 00:47:49.079 --> 00:47:52.800 I thought the Police Squad Show TV show was fantastic. 852 00:47:53.480 --> 00:47:56.440 It only thought lasted like what six six episodes? Six episodes? 853 00:47:56.519 --> 00:47:56.760 Right? 854 00:47:58.639 --> 00:48:03.239 And I think that part of the problem is sort 855 00:48:03.280 --> 00:48:05.960 of like that movie Top Secret, and there's the airplane movies. 856 00:48:06.119 --> 00:48:06.440 Right. 857 00:48:07.639 --> 00:48:12.159 You need a mass audience that has grown up on 858 00:48:12.599 --> 00:48:17.679 certain plot conventions and certain sort of structures that you 859 00:48:17.840 --> 00:48:20.519 feel like, oh, I know what's gonna happen, because this 860 00:48:20.679 --> 00:48:24.239 is the formula for every episode of Dragnet and Streets 861 00:48:24.280 --> 00:48:27.719 of San Francisco and everything blah blah blah, And so 862 00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:30.360 you have it's a double edged sword problem. On the 863 00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:33.880 one hand, the people

who do know all of that stuff, 864 00:48:34.960 --> 00:48:37.079 they've heard the joke already, right, so like you can't 865 00:48:37.199 --> 00:48:40.039 keep playing on those things once you've punctured all of them. 866 00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:42.760 And then on the other hand, younger people they don't 867 00:48:42.800 --> 00:48:46.679 know them, right, they haven't seen enough episodes of Banichick 868 00:48:46.760 --> 00:48:48.199 and Matt Bock or whatever. 869 00:48:48.239 --> 00:48:50.599 Sort of soundchick good. 870 00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:55.599 Yeah, yeah, I mean I think that's probably true. I mean, 871 00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:58.760 I guess the Police Squad didn't really work so well 872 00:48:58.800 --> 00:49:01.760 on TV. I think because there was no place for it, right, 873 00:49:01.800 --> 00:49:04.480 I mean, TV, especially then was really about making sure 874 00:49:04.880 --> 00:49:07.800 there's a programming flow, and you know, there was there's 875 00:49:07.840 --> 00:49:10.519 such a tone shift between Naked Gun, which was I mean, 876 00:49:10.559 --> 00:49:15.679 between Police, Police Squad and everything else around it that 877 00:49:15.760 --> 00:49:17.760 I think it was hard for it to have a 878 00:49:17.760 --> 00:49:19.840 home even though it was incredibly funny. 879 00:49:19.920 --> 00:49:21.159 And and interesting. 880 00:49:21.480 --> 00:49:25.079 It lives very very I mean must live prominently on 881 00:49:25.119 --> 00:49:30.199 TikTok because I see clips of it constantly. And then 882 00:49:30.239 --> 00:49:32.159 of course then the Naked Gun movies sort of like 883 00:49:32.239 --> 00:49:34.519 took over that sort of event kind of thing where 884 00:49:34.519 --> 00:49:36.760 you go and you'd sit there and they'd be making 885 00:49:36.840 --> 00:49:38.559 jokes you didn't know you you know, the Queen of 886 00:49:38.599 --> 00:49:41.320 England would be thrown naked into the. 887 00:49:41.280 --> 00:49:43.440 You know, pig trough or something like that. 888 00:49:43.559 --> 00:49:44.320 Yeah, it's great. 889 00:49:45.679 --> 00:49:46.679 So I don't know about this one. 890 00:49:46.719 --> 00:49:49.440 I mean, this one feels to me like what I 891 00:49:49.440 --> 00:49:51.079 don't want to have happened is for it to not 892 00:49:51.159 --> 00:49:53.320 work and then people to say, oh, this stuff doesn't work, 893 00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:57.519 because it does work, because big loud, noisy, you know, 894 00:49:58.960 --> 00:50:00.719 dumb comedies work. 895 00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:02.679 What's wrong with is it's not big loud and noisy. 896 00:50:02.719 --> 00:50:06.400 That's yeah, Actually I just have to get the execution right. 897 00:50:06.440 --> 00:50:09.800 Yeah, but the category, I mean, people in show business 898 00:50:09.840 --> 00:50:13.039 now are just removing things from the categories because they 899 00:50:13.320 --> 00:50:15.480 did a bad version of it and because they are 900 00:50:15.519 -->

00:50:17.519 now risk averse because of all the things have been 901 00:50:17.519 --> 00:50:20.639 going on, and that is gonna you're gonna get it's 902 00:50:20.679 --> 00:50:23.280 gonna get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, like well, okay, 903 00:50:23.320 --> 00:50:26.599 well pretty soon you're not gonna know. The only way 904 00:50:26.599 --> 00:50:28.960 you're gonna know you can make a movie is if 905 00:50:29.199 --> 00:50:31.280 if you're willing to spend five hundred million dollars on it. 906 00:50:31.559 --> 00:50:35.119 And that is the beauty of the naked gun movies. 907 00:50:35.119 --> 00:50:37.400 The beauty of those kinds of comedies is then you 908 00:50:37.400 --> 00:50:39.159 don't have to spend five hundred million dollars on it, 909 00:50:39.320 --> 00:50:40.679 and you can put it on in the summer when 910 00:50:40.679 --> 00:50:42.159 people kind of want to go to the movie theater 911 00:50:42.239 --> 00:50:45.880 and watch a stupid movie. And I just to me, 912 00:50:45.920 --> 00:50:51.320 it's baffling why that product that product line is is disappearing, 913 00:50:51.440 --> 00:50:53.719 Because if McDonald suddenly said, you know, we're not going 914 00:50:53.760 --> 00:50:55.360 to be so much about the burgers. 915 00:50:55.280 --> 00:50:58.559 Okay, So I uh, two things about that, one of 916 00:50:58.599 --> 00:51:04.320 which is for some reason, COVID killed the comedy twenty 917 00:51:04.360 --> 00:51:09.400 eighteen and twenty nineteen. David Poland, the sort of a 918 00:51:09.519 --> 00:51:13.280 film analyst guy, pointed out that they made there were 919 00:51:13.280 --> 00:51:17.119 twenty five studio comedies in twenty eighteen and twenty seven 920 00:51:17.199 --> 00:51:21.079 studio comedies in twenty nineteen and this year there are three. 921 00:51:21.920 --> 00:51:25.360 And what happened was COVID? How why COVID killed off 922 00:51:25.400 --> 00:51:27.840 the studio. There's all sorts of things, you know, George 923 00:51:27.880 --> 00:51:30.679 Floyd did it? Yea, you know me too did it? 924 00:51:30.760 --> 00:51:32.519 And all that. And they were still making them. They 925 00:51:32.519 --> 00:51:35.400 were still making them and they weren't very good. Was 926 00:51:35.440 --> 00:51:38.599 part of the problem. And then you really, comedy doesn't 927 00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:41.440 the big noisy comedy is something you want to see 928 00:51:41.440 --> 00:51:42.599 in a theater the way you want to see a 929 00:51:42.599 --> 00:51:45.519 horror movie in a theater, because it's a communal experience. 930 00:51:45.559 --> 00:51:47.679 You want to hear other people laughing. That's part of 931 00:51:47.719 --> 00:51:50.519 the pleasure of it. And for some reason it died. 932 00:51:50.559 --> 00:51:53.559 We don't and your our friend Roy Price has many 933 00:51:53.639 --> 00:51:57.119 theories about this, and yes, can this category come back, 934 00:51:57.159 --> 00:52:00.519 It can absolutely come back. This is not one of them, 935 00:52:00.559 --> 00:52:05.719 but I do think that some of it. So there's 936 00:52:05.800 --> 00:52:08.800 the show The Boys, which both Jonah and I really like, 937 00:52:09.599 --> 00:52:14.840 and The Boys is the Naked Gun of the Superhero movie, 938 00:52:14.880 --> 00:52:18.119 by which I mean it is a show and it's 939 00:52:18.159 --> 00:52:22.159 gone four seasons and all that, which is about what 940 00:52:22.440 --> 00:52:29.960 if Marvel, what if you made a satirical version of 941 00:52:30.280 --> 00:52:33.960 a world with Marvel superheroes in it a very dark 942 00:52:34.559 --> 00:52:41.199 but they were all psychopaths and did disgusting things. And 943 00:52:42.480 --> 00:52:46.519 this is where the satire part. It's not family friendly, 944 00:52:47.280 --> 00:52:51.119 but it is totally comic and it is totally satirical, 945 00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:55.960 and it does everything that the that the Zuker Abraham 946 00:52:56.039 --> 00:52:59.679 Zucker guys did with those movies with this one format. 947 00:52:59.679 --> 00:53:02.599 And there's so there were so many Superiero movies over 948 00:53:02.679 --> 00:53:05.159 so long a period of time that you could introduce 949 00:53:05.239 --> 00:53:10.360 all of these related characters that everybody who want as 950 00:53:10.400 --> 00:53:12.920 you would say, as Jonah, you would say, like, this 951 00:53:13.079 --> 00:53:17.480 is the convention and everybody who is alive now knows 952 00:53:17.639 --> 00:53:21.480 which is the conventions of the superheroes, and The Boys 953 00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:26.159 takes it and twists it into these crazy pretzels. 954 00:53:26.599 --> 00:53:28.400 Yes, but I just want to be really clear for 955 00:53:28.519 --> 00:53:29.840 our audience. First of all, I think it's a very 956 00:53:29.840 --> 00:53:33.079 good point. But second when really clear for our audience, 957 00:53:33.159 --> 00:53:36.679 given what we suspect are the demographics of our audience. 958 00:53:38.800 --> 00:53:43.960 If you thought the fade gunaway tushy wiping scene was 959 00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:46.960 offensive at the beginning of this podcast, yeah, do not 960 00:53:47.159 --> 00:53:52.280 watch The Boys. That is Mary Poppins compared to The 961 00:53:52.280 --> 00:53:52.679 Boys or. 962 00:53:52.719 --> 00:53:56.880 That or that show whatever. The gen X Boys spin off. 963 00:53:56.800 --> 00:54:00.280 Is yeah, yeah, just anything Boys related right from the 964 00:54:00.360 --> 00:54:01.199 universe of the Boys. 965 00:54:01.360 --> 00:54:05.320 But it is effectively that it is sort of like, 966 00:54:05.639 --> 00:54:09.599 if Howard Stern, who is now apparently retiring, got his 967 00:54:09.679 --> 00:54:12.880 hands on a TV network and unlimited resources to make 968 00:54:13.159 --> 00:54:18.679 a nehilistic version of a superhero franchise, you would get 969 00:54:18.840 --> 00:54:23.840 you would get The Boys. It's very

depressing, by the way, 970 00:54:23.880 --> 00:54:26.880 because there's there are these trailers for movies of the 971 00:54:26.920 --> 00:54:29.119 sort that we're talking about here, or sort of like 972 00:54:29.559 --> 00:54:33.199 eighties type movies that people used to love that came 973 00:54:33.239 --> 00:54:35.119 out in the last couple of weeks, for movies that 974 00:54:35.119 --> 00:54:38.280 are opening later in the year. James L. Brooks has 975 00:54:38.320 --> 00:54:41.960 a movie out about a young a young female politician. 976 00:54:42.559 --> 00:54:45.360 He's not three years old. It has the worst trailer 977 00:54:45.440 --> 00:54:49.480 I've ever called Ellen mackay, I've never seen a worst trailer. 978 00:54:50.480 --> 00:54:53.480 He's obviously being reward. It's like a bonus for him 979 00:54:53.519 --> 00:54:56.079 to get to make this. Fox is making it because 980 00:54:56.599 --> 00:54:59.199 how much money has he made for Fox by having 981 00:54:59.280 --> 00:55:04.119 created the Simps bill and billion dollars I mean. 982 00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:06.480 So yeah, like yeah, I mean who knows. 983 00:55:06.280 --> 00:55:09.119 Who can even calculate. 984 00:55:08.760 --> 00:55:11.159 But also who knows who knows the motivation here? 985 00:55:11.400 --> 00:55:12.639 Yeah, but it's hard. 986 00:55:12.880 --> 00:55:15.079 But there are a bunch of these sorts of like 987 00:55:15.679 --> 00:55:19.840 people are trying to make slice of life dramas of 988 00:55:19.880 --> 00:55:22.519 the sort that dominated the box office in the nineteen eightys, 989 00:55:22.559 --> 00:55:24.639 where movies like that could make two hundred million dollars, 990 00:55:24.679 --> 00:55:27.079 you know, like Out of Africa or ray Man or 991 00:55:28.239 --> 00:55:33.000 you know, Tender Mercies or Kramer Versus Kramer, like things 992 00:55:33.039 --> 00:55:36.440 that you know, you made Kramer Versus Cremer today, which 993 00:55:36.519 --> 00:55:40.039 was The Moat, which was the most successful movie of 994 00:55:40.119 --> 00:55:43.199 nineteen seventy nine, the biggest box office movie in nineteen 995 00:55:43.239 --> 00:55:46.360 seventy nine, and you made it today, you would have 996 00:55:46.440 --> 00:55:48.360 to make it for five million dollars. It would go 997 00:55:48.440 --> 00:55:50.280 to sun Dance and then it would go to Hulu, 998 00:55:50.320 --> 00:55:51.239 and that way it would. 999 00:55:51.079 --> 00:55:51.639 Never get made. 1000 00:55:52.119 --> 00:55:55.199 Because a wonderful moment in Cramer Versus Kramer, which is 1001 00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:58.159 one of my favorite moments, where after dust after Meryl 1002 00:55:58.159 --> 00:56:00.880 Streep leaves Dustin Hoffman in the morning, or you know, 1003 00:56:01.079 --> 00:56:04.880 in the first reel, and he's and he's at his 1004 00:56:05.119 --> 00:56:07.719 job and is obviously he's performing. You know, they're they're 1005 00:56:07.719 --> 00:56:10.280 worried that

he's going to get that he's gonna be 1006 00:56:10.320 --> 00:56:12.760 distracted from his job as an advertising executive. And he's 1007 00:56:12.800 --> 00:56:15.320 talking to his boss about what happened and he says this. 1008 00:56:15.400 --> 00:56:17.079 He goes, I don't know what happened. I mean, she's 1009 00:56:17.159 --> 00:56:19.280 a home and there's this we have. 1010 00:56:19.239 --> 00:56:20.159 A neighbor upstairs. 1011 00:56:20.159 --> 00:56:22.239 He's a single goal and you know, they got together 1012 00:56:22.320 --> 00:56:25.840 and it was the Women's Lib d and he makes 1013 00:56:25.880 --> 00:56:29.440 the little you know, talking YadA yada's gesture, the little 1014 00:56:31.400 --> 00:56:33.760 it's so great, and he and his boss are like, 1015 00:56:33.800 --> 00:56:36.559 it's like bad men. They're like, well, he'll be back. 1016 00:56:37.679 --> 00:56:40.559 She just wants some attention. But I just I just 1017 00:56:41.159 --> 00:56:46.800 I can't imagine, man. I can easily imagine that script 1018 00:56:46.800 --> 00:56:49.400 in nineteen going through development in nineteen seventy seven, seventy eight, 1019 00:56:49.400 --> 00:56:54.039 where they are probably zero development women in the movie business, 1020 00:56:54.800 --> 00:56:58.000 but now when they are entirely they're all women. 1021 00:56:58.760 --> 00:57:00.559 There would be like, yeah, you can't and he can't, 1022 00:57:01.400 --> 00:57:06.920 he can't, No, he can't. So the Women's lib And. 1023 00:57:08.960 --> 00:57:10.679 It's been in my head for forty fifty years on 1024 00:57:10.960 --> 00:57:14.719 I just remember that so well, Women's Lib. 1025 00:57:21.079 --> 00:57:25.199 So they made a few years ago marriage story with 1026 00:57:25.280 --> 00:57:30.559 Scarlett Johansson and Am Driver, which I could not get 1027 00:57:30.559 --> 00:57:32.360 through it. I don't want to hear people all it 1028 00:57:32.480 --> 00:57:34.320 is just screaming about how you're like your mother, No, 1029 00:57:34.400 --> 00:57:36.679 you're like your mother, all that kind of stuff. But 1030 00:57:37.800 --> 00:57:41.199 there was I just don't find that relaxing. Like No, 1031 00:57:43.920 --> 00:57:45.840 but there was a story I think it was in 1032 00:57:45.840 --> 00:57:49.599 the Wall Street Journal recently that trust me. The payoff 1033 00:57:49.719 --> 00:57:55.320 is here. In order to keep wolves from going after livestock, 1034 00:57:56.119 --> 00:57:59.800 they have drones following them and they blare loud like 1035 00:58:00.519 --> 00:58:03.159 and human yelling and other noises to scare way the wolves. 1036 00:58:03.639 --> 00:58:08.679 And they've decided to instead use argument scenes from marriage story, 1037 00:58:09.440 --> 00:58:12.480 bluring it out from the throne the wolves. 1038 00:58:12.559 --> 00:58:15.079 Yeah, but that's why it's such a brilliant scene. I'm 1039 00:58:15.079 --> 00:58:17.760 sorry this fight with Adam between Adam Driver and Scarlett 1040 00:58:17.800 --> 00:58:20.960 Johansson in which they basically you know which he says, 1041 00:58:21.000 --> 00:58:23.480 and I can't believe because we have this child. I 1042 00:58:23.519 --> 00:58:25.280 can't believe I have to deal with you for the 1043 00:58:25.320 --> 00:58:28.679 rest of my life. We're getting divorced. I hate you, 1044 00:58:28.960 --> 00:58:30.760 I want you to die, and I'm gonna have to 1045 00:58:30.800 --> 00:58:33.119 deal with you anyway for the rest of my life. 1046 00:58:33.119 --> 00:58:35.079 It is a good way to drive away the wolves. 1047 00:58:35.480 --> 00:58:38.519 I will agree. I do think it's a brilliant movie. 1048 00:58:38.599 --> 00:58:44.760 But but what can I tell you anyway? I really 1049 00:58:44.840 --> 00:58:47.840 so I recommended Eddington. I think people really should see 1050 00:58:47.920 --> 00:58:51.159 Eddington again. Not not a calming if that's what you're 1051 00:58:51.199 --> 00:58:51.639 looking for. 1052 00:58:51.719 --> 00:58:52.000 It's not. 1053 00:58:52.960 --> 00:58:57.239 It's not be calming. But I think Rob just give 1054 00:58:57.320 --> 00:59:00.639 us two minutes to just complain about one thing. Joe 1055 00:59:00.639 --> 00:59:03.599 and I complaining together. A show we were really enjoying, 1056 00:59:05.280 --> 00:59:08.199 which was the latest Star Trek show called Brave New Worlds, 1057 00:59:08.199 --> 00:59:10.519 which is the prequel to the original. 1058 00:59:10.079 --> 00:59:11.679 Star Trek Strange Worlds. 1059 00:59:11.719 --> 00:59:16.719 Strange Worlds, which is the captain of the Enterprise right 1060 00:59:16.760 --> 00:59:22.360 before Kirk, and he appears in the pilot. His name 1061 00:59:22.400 --> 00:59:25.480 is Christopher Pike. He gets What was really interesting about 1062 00:59:25.480 --> 00:59:28.599 this show when they debuted it is that everybody knows 1063 00:59:28.639 --> 00:59:31.159 who watches Star Trek that Christopher Pike ends up in 1064 00:59:31.239 --> 00:59:37.559 this horribly mangled condition, because that's and that rescuing him 1065 00:59:37.679 --> 00:59:40.000 is what they try to do in the pilot from 1066 00:59:40.119 --> 00:59:44.719 his condition, and so you make him the hero of 1067 00:59:44.760 --> 00:59:47.719 the show, and you know he's going to end up 1068 00:59:49.000 --> 00:59:51.519 in this you know, like Darth Vader, almost like it 1069 00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:55.400 with a body that's a wreck and a machine, and 1070 00:59:55.760 --> 00:59:58.119 they set it up, I think, quite brilliantly, which is 1071 00:59:58.159 --> 01:00:01.840 that he ends up going through some temper anomaly where 1072 01:00:02.079 --> 01:00:05.840 he learns of his fate. The show begins with him 1073 01:00:05.960 --> 01:00:09.840 knowing that he has five years to live and then 1074 01:00:10.079 --> 01:00:15.000 he's going to be turned into this His body is 1075 01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.760 going to be destroyed, and

that's where it starts. And 1076 01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:22.760 he therefore is making all these decisions and choices and 1077 01:00:22.800 --> 01:00:26.400 things with this haunting knowledge in him. And it was 1078 01:00:26.400 --> 01:00:28.599 a really great premise for a show. It was fun, 1079 01:00:28.639 --> 01:00:31.280 it was interesting, they had interesting villains and all of that. 1080 01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:35.480 And then this third season starts and it is a 1081 01:00:35.519 --> 01:00:42.000 catastrophe because it's just become this camp, ridiculous fan service 1082 01:00:42.719 --> 01:00:45.599 and it's cringingly bad. And I've never seen a show 1083 01:00:45.639 --> 01:00:50.280 take a worse turn in sort of like going from 1084 01:00:50.320 --> 01:00:53.920 being respectable and interesting and tough to being a total embarrassment. 1085 01:00:56.519 --> 01:01:01.519 I am Rob is going to hang up his microphone, 1086 01:01:01.599 --> 01:01:04.119 get in a car, drive to DC, and smash my 1087 01:01:04.159 --> 01:01:07.360 guitar against the Delta house wall. But I have to 1088 01:01:07.440 --> 01:01:09.800 point out at this point that the pilot of the 1089 01:01:09.840 --> 01:01:12.480 original Star Trek was not that one. 1090 01:01:12.599 --> 01:01:16.800 I know the pilot was actually Pike the original Star 1091 01:01:16.840 --> 01:01:18.719 Trek used scenes from it. 1092 01:01:19.159 --> 01:01:20.719 Yes, yes, right right yes. 1093 01:01:20.760 --> 01:01:24.199 And also I'll look, you have no idea the people 1094 01:01:24.239 --> 01:01:26.679 I would hear from if I let that, okay, And 1095 01:01:26.679 --> 01:01:27.920 and and Spock was kind. 1096 01:01:27.800 --> 01:01:29.960 Of I knew that too, And I knew that too, Okay, 1097 01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:31.039 but ok other. 1098 01:01:30.880 --> 01:01:34.679 Than that, I grew with pot one hundred percent. It 1099 01:01:34.719 --> 01:01:37.559 is like, it doesn't mean you can't have fun, but 1100 01:01:37.719 --> 01:01:39.599 like and I said this on toy today and people 1101 01:01:39.639 --> 01:01:41.119 were giving me all this hard time, and I stand 1102 01:01:41.119 --> 01:01:47.280 by it one hundred percent. The worst sin, particularly in 1103 01:01:47.360 --> 01:01:53.199 science fiction, that you can commit is not taking yourself seriously. 1104 01:01:53.800 --> 01:01:56.159 Because if you don't take yourself seriously, why in the 1105 01:01:56.199 --> 01:02:00.239 world should the audience. And it is so much of 1106 01:02:00.400 --> 01:02:05.840 can't be winking, nodding, just silliness this time around, and 1107 01:02:07.559 --> 01:02:10.480 it's just dumb. It's just contrary. Like if if you're 1108 01:02:10.519 --> 01:02:12.400 I was the show runner and these are the scripts 1109 01:02:12.400 --> 01:02:14.199 that were coming in, I would have just said, all 1110 01:02:14.239 --> 01:02:16.119 of you get out of here. The reason why our 1111 01:02:16.119 --> 01:02:20.280 audience

likes the show is because it's actually going back 1112 01:02:20.320 --> 01:02:23.400 to the original self seriousness of the original Star Trek 1113 01:02:23.519 --> 01:02:29.280 and and then a complete blown opportunity, so maybe it'll 1114 01:02:29.280 --> 01:02:30.280 pick up in the second half. 1115 01:02:30.280 --> 01:02:32.280 But let me ask you a question. Have you did 1116 01:02:32.320 --> 01:02:37.320 you ever work with Carol Kane? She ever appear on 1117 01:02:37.360 --> 01:02:39.000 anything of yours? 1118 01:02:39.039 --> 01:02:45.079 I did not work with her, but I am not directly, 1119 01:02:45.119 --> 01:02:47.719 but I was helped out on something she was in. 1120 01:02:48.119 --> 01:02:52.280 Okay, I'm asking this because Carol Caine is on Brave 1121 01:02:52.280 --> 01:02:56.280 New Worlds. She is the best character in newly introduced 1122 01:02:56.320 --> 01:03:00.679 character on Brave New world She plays a person who 1123 01:03:00.719 --> 01:03:03.360 is from a civilize where they live hundreds and hundreds 1124 01:03:03.360 --> 01:03:04.039 and hundreds of years. 1125 01:03:04.119 --> 01:03:06.440 Too much backstory to explain it all, but yes, but. 1126 01:03:08.079 --> 01:03:14.360 Harold Caine has been in show business for fifty five 1127 01:03:14.519 --> 01:03:21.880 years something like that. She was in five Easy Pieces, 1128 01:03:22.000 --> 01:03:24.679 or she was in some carnal knowledge, like when she 1129 01:03:24.840 --> 01:03:28.880 was eighteen she got nominated for an oscar in a 1130 01:03:29.000 --> 01:03:31.199 movie in which she spoke only in Yiddish when she 1131 01:03:31.360 --> 01:03:34.719 was like twenty two. Here we are in twenty twenty five. 1132 01:03:36.400 --> 01:03:41.800 Fifty years later, she has this role on Star Trek 1133 01:03:42.920 --> 01:03:49.440 a Stranger Worlds, and she is fantastic. And there is 1134 01:03:49.480 --> 01:03:52.480 this wonderful quality to certain things in show business where 1135 01:03:52.920 --> 01:03:56.719 these people if they if they survive and they live long, 1136 01:03:56.800 --> 01:04:00.159 and they keep themselves in good shape, and they don't know, 1137 01:04:00.360 --> 01:04:02.679 like lose their brains to drugs and all of that. 1138 01:04:03.320 --> 01:04:07.039 When they when they emerge in their seventies or however 1139 01:04:07.440 --> 01:04:15.400 seventies eighties, into things they can do just incredible. World Like, 1140 01:04:15.480 --> 01:04:19.760 it's an incredible thing to have half a century of 1141 01:04:19.800 --> 01:04:23.960 experience to draw on, to know exactly how to build 1142 01:04:23.960 --> 01:04:27.480 a character, to make yourself memorable, to read a line, 1143 01:04:27.760 --> 01:04:34.880 to have a presence, isn't that? I mean so that 1144 01:04:35.239 --> 01:04:39.000 I was just struck by that thinking about a career 1145 01:04:39.760 --> 01:04:42.400 like hers, because it's just kind of like just gone 1146 01:04:42.400 -->

01:04:45.639 along every decade. She's on one or two shows, She's 1147 01:04:45.679 --> 01:04:46.760 in one or two movies. 1148 01:04:46.920 --> 01:04:50.079 You know, she was lack of Gravis's wife on taxi. 1149 01:04:50.559 --> 01:04:53.400 Yeah, she's a big Jim Brooks and the Jim Brooks Rep. 1150 01:04:53.519 --> 01:04:55.079 She's always she always shows up. 1151 01:04:55.239 --> 01:05:00.079 Yeah, unusual, just a also like one of these the 1152 01:05:00.119 --> 01:05:06.639 seventies characters who just is an unlikely, unlikely recurring character. 1153 01:05:07.960 --> 01:05:10.400 I've never you know, not not mind. 1154 01:05:10.199 --> 01:05:12.440 She doesn't do it for you, but I mean again, 1155 01:05:12.519 --> 01:05:14.960 in your stupid voice, I don't like Okay, you don't 1156 01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:16.519 like the voice, but she by the way, does really 1157 01:05:16.599 --> 01:05:18.800 funny things with the voice because she has an accent 1158 01:05:18.880 --> 01:05:22.920 in this that she's invented, you know, since obviously she's 1159 01:05:22.920 --> 01:05:25.239 from a planet, so you can speak in whatever accent 1160 01:05:25.280 --> 01:05:29.159 you want to. But I just there are these people 1161 01:05:29.159 --> 01:05:31.960 and they pop Sometimes they pop up literally out of nowhere, 1162 01:05:32.039 --> 01:05:37.320 like this actress June Squibb, who whose most notable credit 1163 01:05:37.400 --> 01:05:41.920 before she appeared out of Nowhere and About Schmidt in 1164 01:05:42.039 --> 01:05:45.320 like you know, twenty years ago, was that she was 1165 01:05:45.360 --> 01:05:48.079 in Broadway on Gypsy as one of the strippers in 1166 01:05:48.119 --> 01:05:51.719 the original production, and then went away for forty years 1167 01:05:51.719 --> 01:05:56.159 and then showed up as an old lady in About Schmidt, 1168 01:05:56.159 --> 01:05:58.480 and then in this movie Nebraska. And she was just 1169 01:05:58.559 --> 01:06:01.679 the star of this movie called Thelma in which she 1170 01:06:01.800 --> 01:06:06.519 played and this hilarious, brilliant movie in which she played 1171 01:06:06.519 --> 01:06:09.440 this ninety year old woman. And now she is starring 1172 01:06:09.519 --> 01:06:13.559 in Scarlet Johanson's directorial debut at the age of ninety six. 1173 01:06:14.559 --> 01:06:15.880 We call that growing into your look. 1174 01:06:18.880 --> 01:06:21.360 Okay, so, Rob, you have been very much. Is there 1175 01:06:21.400 --> 01:06:22.639 anything you want to talk about before? 1176 01:06:22.639 --> 01:06:24.679 You've been a good sport, Rob, I have very good 1177 01:06:24.679 --> 01:06:29.239 sport sport if you if you want to talk about 1178 01:06:29.440 --> 01:06:35.480 you know, uh some odors twelfth century monastery and it's 1179 01:06:36.239 --> 01:06:37.960 you know chance can no, No. 1180 01:06:37.920 --> 01:06:39.840 I mean I I that's what I went and traveled 1181 01:06:39.840 --> 01:06:42.079 and saw a bunch

of those. I would like to 1182 01:06:42.119 --> 01:06:45.280 say that I will have watched a TV show that 1183 01:06:45.320 --> 01:06:50.199 I enjoyed. I enjoyed the TV show The Day. 1184 01:06:50.039 --> 01:06:50.639 Of a Jackal. 1185 01:06:51.559 --> 01:06:52.760 It wasn't bad that he redmain. 1186 01:06:53.480 --> 01:06:56.920 Yes, I enjoyed that. I enjoyed the the the adventure. 1187 01:06:57.199 --> 01:07:01.679 I enjoyed the thrilling episodes. I enjoyed the hang hanging episodes. 1188 01:07:01.719 --> 01:07:02.639 I enjoyed the. 1189 01:07:04.760 --> 01:07:08.840 I enjoyed the way that they they echoed and rhymed 1190 01:07:08.880 --> 01:07:10.639 a little bit with the original movie. 1191 01:07:10.719 --> 01:07:11.320 I am. 1192 01:07:12.920 --> 01:07:18.400 I enjoyed the project, and yet I am not. The 1193 01:07:18.639 --> 01:07:20.840 problem is that this is something that I enjoyed, and 1194 01:07:20.880 --> 01:07:22.559 at no point am I thinking to myself, I can't 1195 01:07:22.559 --> 01:07:24.320 wait till the next next one, if they're even going 1196 01:07:24.400 --> 01:07:26.880 to do a next one comes out, I just don't care. 1197 01:07:27.079 --> 01:07:29.320 And I think I in that respect, I am like 1198 01:07:30.039 --> 01:07:31.920 I am the canary in the coal mine, which is 1199 01:07:32.000 --> 01:07:35.599 I mean not even at this point advanced bad news, 1200 01:07:35.639 --> 01:07:36.280 but I think it is. 1201 01:07:36.360 --> 01:07:38.320 I am a classic. 1202 01:07:39.760 --> 01:07:44.039 Consumer now weirdly of show business product which is that 1203 01:07:44.119 --> 01:07:46.480 I just if it's good, if. 1204 01:07:46.360 --> 01:07:47.480 It's in front of me, I'll watch it. 1205 01:07:47.559 --> 01:07:50.000 If I'm jet lagged and I need to like do something, 1206 01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:51.719 and I'll remember I wanted to watch this one. I'll 1207 01:07:51.880 --> 01:07:53.320 get hooked on it and watch it, and I just 1208 01:07:53.360 --> 01:07:54.920 have absolutely zero loyalty to it. 1209 01:07:55.920 --> 01:07:56.480 And that is. 1210 01:07:58.800 --> 01:08:01.320 That's why I show business isn't such big, big, big, 1211 01:08:01.360 --> 01:08:02.280 big big trouble. 1212 01:08:03.159 --> 01:08:03.440 All right. 1213 01:08:03.480 --> 01:08:07.960 So I have a show recommendation. Good uh, My wife 1214 01:08:08.000 --> 01:08:14.320 and I we like British crime stuff, and someone recommended 1215 01:08:15.960 --> 01:08:20.159 Line of Duty. And one of the things that has 1216 01:08:20.199 --> 01:08:22.359 going for it is there are many episodes, so you 1217 01:08:22.399 --> 01:08:26.800 can like if you like it. There's some runway, and 1218 01:08:26.840 --> 01:08:30.439 earlier were talking about like defying conventions. This is one 1219 01:08:30.479 --> 01:08:34.079 of these shows where like I'm often stunned or at 1220 01:08:34.159 --> 01:08:37.479 least surprised by the twists and turns, not all of 1221 01:08:37.520 --> 01:08:42.199 them entirely plausible. But it's a show about an anti 1222 01:08:42.239 --> 01:08:45.000 corruption unit basically the I D you know what is it? 1223 01:08:45.039 --> 01:08:50.319 Internal Affairs of England, and it's it's sort of you know, 1224 01:08:50.319 --> 01:08:52.239 I was gonna say about The Jackal One of the 1225 01:08:52.279 --> 01:08:55.159 things I like that show too, and I like that genre. 1226 01:08:55.960 --> 01:09:00.880 But the way they sort of take fast and loose 1227 01:09:00.960 --> 01:09:06.760 with just like Europe being a place where police from 1228 01:09:06.800 --> 01:09:10.439 one country do stuff in another country. You know, like 1229 01:09:10.479 --> 01:09:13.880 there's a lot of like jurisdictional stuff they just sort 1230 01:09:13.880 --> 01:09:16.319 of gloss over. There's some of that in this is 1231 01:09:16.359 --> 01:09:19.199 like they don't quite tell ever say it's in London, 1232 01:09:19.239 --> 01:09:23.640 but it's obviously in London. But anyway, it's a good show, 1233 01:09:24.279 --> 01:09:30.359 holds your interest and takes in some surprizing places and 1234 01:09:30.359 --> 01:09:33.319 it's like six seasons. You have to be able to 1235 01:09:34.199 --> 01:09:38.680 answer three questions from a sphinx, pluck a pebble from 1236 01:09:38.680 --> 01:09:41.600 a shaman's palm, and several other things to figure out 1237 01:09:41.600 --> 01:09:44.560 how to watch it on streaming platforms because it's scattered 1238 01:09:44.600 --> 01:09:47.840 across like seven different platforms. But it's good. 1239 01:09:49.399 --> 01:09:53.680 You can sometimes tell the story of the shows like this, 1240 01:09:54.520 --> 01:09:57.399 usually when they're international productions like Jackler. A lot of 1241 01:09:57.439 --> 01:10:04.319 these where crucial story sequences take place in countries that 1242 01:10:04.920 --> 01:10:10.000 coincidentally have really really good tax rebate deals for studios. 1243 01:10:10.039 --> 01:10:12.399 So in Jackal, so much of it takes place in 1244 01:10:12.479 --> 01:10:15.399 Hungary for zero reason. So much of it takes place 1245 01:10:15.399 --> 01:10:18.000 in Budapest for no Some of the stuff that's supposed 1246 01:10:18.039 --> 01:10:20.439 to take place in Spain, clearly took place in Budapest 1247 01:10:20.760 --> 01:10:25.600 because Hungary's got these great deals. You know, that's just 1248 01:10:25.640 --> 01:10:28.079 my own like I enjoy I enjoy looking at that. 1249 01:10:28.279 --> 01:10:29.039 I enjoy seeing that. 1250 01:10:29.119 --> 01:10:32.520 That's why how in countless movies, Washington, DC looks remarkably 1251 01:10:32.560 --> 01:10:33.159 like Toronto. 1252 01:10:33.640 --> 01:10:37.279 Yeah, yeah, exactly. I will make one recommendation. Then we 1253 01:10:37.359 --> 01:10:40.760 got to go. And it's odd because it's a show 1254 01:10:40.880 --> 01:10:43.399 I watched the first two seasons of it and didn't like, 1255 01:10:43.439

--> 01:10:46.119 but I watched it because it was like wallpaper and 1256 01:10:46.159 --> 01:10:51.000 that's the Gilded Age on HBO. And here's why I'm 1257 01:10:51.000 --> 01:10:54.720 recommending so the third season out of nowhere. It's like 1258 01:10:55.319 --> 01:10:58.159 Julian Fellows who created it and wrote it, like took 1259 01:10:58.159 --> 01:11:01.720 his weedies and like the eights and weedies or had 1260 01:11:02.039 --> 01:11:04.800 had had had inspiration that he didn't have in the 1261 01:11:04.840 --> 01:11:06.399 creation of it and the running of it in the 1262 01:11:06.399 --> 01:11:09.960 first two seasons. Because it is really good now and 1263 01:11:10.119 --> 01:11:13.479 I don't quite know whether you could if you could 1264 01:11:13.560 --> 01:11:16.359 just go to Wikipedia and read the plot summary of 1265 01:11:16.399 --> 01:11:19.000 the first two seasons and then just start. 1266 01:11:19.600 --> 01:11:21.319 With the stuff happens right in it. 1267 01:11:21.399 --> 01:11:24.680 Now, things happen there because I saw a. 1268 01:11:24.720 --> 01:11:27.720 Clip I saw a clip of it on TikTok years ago, 1269 01:11:27.800 --> 01:11:30.800 I mean last year, at some point in the past 1270 01:11:30.880 --> 01:11:34.840 few months, where all the people are begging what's his 1271 01:11:34.920 --> 01:11:38.560 name to not destroy them, and one actually gets down 1272 01:11:38.560 --> 01:11:39.840 on his knees and says, I'm begging you. 1273 01:11:39.880 --> 01:11:42.239 I'm begging you. And I thought, oh, that's interesting. 1274 01:11:42.239 --> 01:11:44.079 I want to see that, and then trying to find 1275 01:11:44.079 --> 01:11:45.920 that episode and then try to buy that episode so 1276 01:11:45.960 --> 01:11:48.279 I could watch that episode, and then buying the wrong 1277 01:11:48.319 --> 01:11:50.279 one and watching that one, and then realizing it's the 1278 01:11:50.319 --> 01:11:53.840 next episode and watching that one. Nothing happens in these episodes. 1279 01:11:54.960 --> 01:11:59.159 Nothing is so insanely boring. It was insanely like very 1280 01:11:59.239 --> 01:12:01.800 much like doubt nab that either. Things like the stakes 1281 01:12:01.800 --> 01:12:04.199 are so bizarre. It's like, oh my god, you use 1282 01:12:04.279 --> 01:12:05.319 the run stable spoon. 1283 01:12:05.520 --> 01:12:11.920 Yes, oh my god. This season is about the Gilded Age. 1284 01:12:12.279 --> 01:12:17.800 It's about a an investment gone wrong, a railroad problem 1285 01:12:18.000 --> 01:12:23.359 and the invention of a new device, a family in crisis, 1286 01:12:23.960 --> 01:12:30.439 divorces causing scandals, a book a real book Ward McAllister's 1287 01:12:30.720 --> 01:12:35.920 books side creating a huge scandal, and so things really happen. 1288 01:12:36.279 --> 01:12:40.119 The acting is sensationally good. The set, the set and 1289 01:12:40.159 --> 01:12:41.880 it got good, and that's all I'm saying. 1290 01:12:42.039 --> 01:12:44.000 But isn't there like I mean, I'm sure it's good, right, 1291 01:12:44.439 --> 01:12:46.960 I'm gonna I'm planning to watch it actually, but isn't 1292 01:12:46.960 --> 01:12:47.239 there like. 1293 01:12:47.279 --> 01:12:48.359 A little too much of this? 1294 01:12:49.720 --> 01:12:49.880 Oh? 1295 01:12:49.960 --> 01:12:55.600 The suffrage movement is very important, and it's more are 1296 01:12:55.640 --> 01:12:57.960 in America or fraud? 1297 01:12:58.079 --> 01:13:01.800 It is? It is more. It is more interesting than 1298 01:13:01.840 --> 01:13:06.000 you expect in almost every respect on those matters. 1299 01:13:06.560 --> 01:13:08.520 Okay, that's what that's. 1300 01:13:08.319 --> 01:13:11.079 What's so surprising about this third season. That's all I'm 1301 01:13:11.079 --> 01:13:16.199 going to say. Hey, we got through a show. Rob 1302 01:13:17.039 --> 01:13:19.319 did not yell at us for talking about too much 1303 01:13:19.359 --> 01:13:19.920 science fiction. 1304 01:13:20.119 --> 01:13:22.600 Thank you Rob for the button really helps. 1305 01:13:22.800 --> 01:13:25.720 Okay, that's good. And uh and and also you you know, 1306 01:13:25.800 --> 01:13:27.479 playing Candy Crush and. 1307 01:13:27.479 --> 01:13:28.680 Stuff like that. 1308 01:13:29.399 --> 01:13:33.720 Does anyone still play Candy Crush? I don't even know someone. Okay, 1309 01:13:34.600 --> 01:13:36.800 So we'll we'll, we'll, we'll do another one of these 1310 01:13:36.800 --> 01:13:38.880 because you people seem to like it. I don't know why. 1311 01:13:38.920 --> 01:13:41.479 But you know, as I say, it's not like I 1312 01:13:41.680 --> 01:13:45.239 I I don't podcast enough. So that's my problem. So 1313 01:13:45.439 --> 01:13:48.239 you know, I need I need an extra you know, 1314 01:13:48.399 --> 01:13:50.880 at least an extra hour a month to because no 1315 01:13:50.920 --> 01:13:54.680 one's listening to me, that's for sure. All these people 1316 01:13:54.720 --> 01:13:57.359 podcasting every day, it's crazy. 1317 01:13:58.279 --> 01:14:00.720 What was that was that it No one's taking the bait. 1318 01:14:00.840 --> 01:14:04.560 John sa