Ep #383 - The Munsters, with Kevin Maher

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss The Munsters,

[0:03] a silly movie perfect for non-stop nut November.

[0:08] What?

[0:10] Hold on. Is that a thing?

[0:13] Yeah, you watch a bunch of nutty movies.

[0:15] Oh, okay.

[0:16] Look, you promised a hot one and you delivered.

[0:30] Hey, everyone, and welcome to The Flop House.

[0:43] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:44] Hey, I'm Stuart Wellington.

[0:46] Hey, I'm Ellie Kaelin.

[0:47] We've got a very special guest today for No Nonsense November.

[0:51] That's right. No nonsense, everybody.

[0:53] We're just doing what we're supposed to do, minimum of nonsense,

[0:56] and joining us to help us with that is, uh-oh,

[0:59] Mr. Nonsense himself.

[1:01] No, just kidding.

[1:01] It's Kevin Marr, one of the friends of the show

[1:04] and one of the great, great, great pop culture presenters of New York City.

[1:09] There's not exactly a succinct way of describing what Kevin does,

[1:13] but he's the absolute best at doing it.

[1:15] There's a show called Kevin Geeks Out that he has done for a long time

[1:18] that if you like the presentations we do at our live shows,

[1:23] the PowerPoints about silly things,

[1:27] you would like this show,

[1:28] and you would actually probably learn something unlike at our show.

[1:31] Yeah.

[1:32] Yeah, when I lived in New York, I was a longtime attendee of these shows,

[1:38] and I was always inspired by them.

[1:39] I always thought they were fantastic,

[1:41] and you can get a taste of them actually online.

[1:43] There's some of them up.

[1:45] I'm a big fan of Kevin's Dealing with the Trauma of Vietnam

[1:48] Through 80s Detective Show presentation,

[1:52] but he's here to promote his new book, Santa Doesn't Need Your Help.

[1:56] Oh, he's holding up a copy.

[1:58] He's holding it there for the viewers at home who don't exist.

[2:02] And he's holding up a painting of New York.

[2:04] That's funny.

[2:05] He's doing all these physical things and not talking at all,

[2:10] which is a weird choice.

[2:11] I'm waiting for it to be done.

[2:13] Okay.

[2:14] No, please interrupt me.

[2:15] You can't.

[2:16] It was a lot.

[2:17] No.

[2:18] I wait for this kind of positive feedback and finally get it.

[2:19] I'm not going to interrupt.

[2:20] He will not afford you.

[2:22] I'm staying.

[2:23] I'm sharing the shelf with the maniac of New York,

[2:27] with the maniac of North Pole.

[2:30] I just want to say this.

[2:31] Bookstores, you should stock both of these books.

[2:33] Santa Doesn't Need Your Help and Maniac of New York.

[2:34] Don't put them on the same shelf.

[2:35] They really shouldn't go on the same shelf.

[2:38] One is kind of a seasonal humor, all ages book.

[2:43] Yeah, all ages.

[2:44] And the other is a non-seasonal horror satire

[2:47] that is not for all ages unless your kids are totally twisted.

[2:51] What are you, Cormac McCarthy or something?

[2:53] Yeah.

[2:54] Baby Cormac?

[2:55] Yeah.

[2:56] He's a messed up little dude.

[2:57] Maybe you're buying presents for Cormac McCarthy age seven.

[3:00] He'll like Maniac of New York.

[3:03] But Kevin, thank you so much for joining us today.

[3:05] My pleasure.

[3:06] I'm glad I could have an excuse to watch The Munsters a second time.

[3:11] Oh, God.

[3:12] Wow.

[3:13] Oh, God.

[3:14] Lucky boy.

[3:15] Before we get into it, I do want to ask.

[3:18] Why did you watch The Munsters the first time?

[3:20] Well, we'll get at that question.

[3:21] We've got monsters.

[3:22] But I wanted to ask all of you what your history with The Munsters is, if anything.

[3:26] Cool.

[3:27] That's a good question.

[3:28] I was going to ask the same question.

[3:29] That's a good question.

[3:30] I mean, I'm happy to go first.

[3:31] Yeah, sure.

[3:32] I'm always happy to go first.

[3:33] As a kid, I never really liked The Munsters.

[3:36] I was in my mind for some reason there had to be a rivalry between The Addams Family show

[3:40] and The Munsters show.

[3:41] I would watch both of them and Nick at night because I was not old enough to watch them

[3:45] when they originally aired.

[3:46] But I'd watch them on Nick at night and I found The Addams Family show so much funnier.

[3:50] And I was also a little insulted at the idea that The Munsters monsters, the universal

[3:53] monsters, were being treated so cavalierly.

[3:55] Now, I'm not quite as much of an extremist about that.

[3:58] As a kid, I was like, they're supposed to be scary.

[4:00] They're not silly.

[4:01] They should be scary.

[4:03] Yeah.

[4:04] Stuart?

[4:05] Yeah.

[4:06] I mean, as a kid, I think I feel like I caught reruns on Nick at night and I loved it.

[4:10] Like, I love The Munsters.

[4:12] Not for any particular, like, anything about the characters.

[4:15] I think I just loved seeing monsters doing stuff.

[4:19] I feel like, I probably talked about this on air before, but I remember as a kid, I

[4:22] read this series of books, what, I cannot remember the name, but it was a series of

[4:26] books of, like, little kid monsters that are, like, going to school and shit.

[4:30] And I loved it.

[4:31] Like, gimme that stuff.

[4:32] And The Munsters, unlike The Addams Family, actually look like universal monsters.

[4:36] That's true.

[4:37] I loved it.

[4:38] I think one of the reasons I liked The Addams Family was they seemed a little creepier to

[4:40] me because they were not a thing that I could easily pigeonhole.

[4:43] It was like, I couldn't quite put a finger on why Gomez and Morticia Wednesday seemed

[4:47] weird or creepy.

[4:49] But with The Munsters, it was like, yeah, it's a Frankenstein.

[4:51] But wait a minute, a Frankenstein plus a Dracula equals a Wolfman?

[4:54] What kind of genetics is this?

[4:56] Calling Dr. Mendel, what's going on here?

[4:59] I'll afford Kevin the honor of going last, but I just, I never really watch...

[5:04] The honor of getting to speak last.

[5:07] What he said.

[5:08] Yeah.

[5:11] Yeah, when I was growing up, The Munsters was in syndication a lot.

[5:16] I would happen upon it.

[5:18] I would always think like, oh, I'm going to like this because it's got monsters in it.

[5:22] And I did like Fred Gwynn.

[5:25] You know, he's great.

[5:27] Yes.

[5:28] But yeah, my cousin Vinny's Fred Gwynn.

[5:30] Yeah.

[5:31] But I, in general, even as a child, I was like, hmm, a bunch of monsters in suburbia.

[5:37] This seems like a pretty thin premise.

[5:39] Like, how are you going to extend this?

[5:42] Because it was all just like, oh, a clash, like a clash between these two things.

[5:45] Fish out of water.

[5:47] And it wasn't really for me.

[5:49] I want it to be funnier.

[5:51] But Kevin, what do you say?

[5:53] I love the idea of little kid Dan watching going, hmm, I don't think it has legs.

[5:56] Yeah.

[5:57] Kevin, what about you?

[5:59] Same thing.

[6:00] Latchkey kid, grew up watching a ton of TV.

[6:02] Could not watch The Munsters, no doubt.

[6:05] Could not tell you a plot or a detail from The Munsters for the life of me.

[6:11] Yeah.

[6:13] But it just didn't make an impression beyond its premise.

[6:16] So I don't have any particular fondness for it.

[6:21] And I, today, I lump it in with stuff like Speed Racer, where I get that there are boomers

[6:29] and people who have a affinity and a nostalgia for it.

[6:32] And it just, it means nothing to me.

[6:34] But I'm aware of it.

[6:36] It means nothing.

[6:38] Yeah, it's what, there's this, I feel like there's a memory sync.

[6:41] There are certain things I remember so well from when I was a kid that I watched.

[6:44] And there are other things that have just disappeared.

[6:46] It's like, I know I watched a ton of He-Man when I was a kid.

[6:49] And I remember none of the plots.

[6:51] I barely remember the characters.

[6:53] I remember watching my parents get in this huge fight this one time.

[6:55] Yeah, that kind of, I mean, that kind of stuff I remember very well.

[6:58] It just burned into my brain more than The Munsters for some reason.

[7:00] Do I remember exactly what I was looking at when I was 10 years old and on a vacation in California

[7:05] with my family and I realized my parents would get divorced someday based on their behavior?

[7:08] Yes, I remember that very clearly.

[7:10] And that had a bigger impact than The Munsters, a movie about monsters living in suburbia.

[7:15] Somehow that had a bigger impact than the TV show The Munsters.

[7:17] Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

[7:19] But The Munsters.

[7:20] Because I assumed, oh, The Mustards?

[7:22] The Mustards?

[7:24] I said it right.

[7:26] It sounded like you said, I just know you love mustard.

[7:28] And so I thought you were talking about The Mustards, the show about a family of condiments that live in suburbia.

[7:31] And I think it's weird that the regular people are not on hot dogs.

[7:35] The dad.

[7:37] No, this has legs.

[7:38] The dad is golden mustard.

[7:40] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[7:42] And then they've got crazy cousin spicy mustard.

[7:44] The mustard mustard.

[7:46] That's what they call their cast list.

[7:48] Yeah, yeah.

[7:50] French Cousin Dijon mustard.

[7:52] Anyway, no, I like Rob Zombie.

[7:54] More mustard jokes, Dan.

[7:56] Tell us more mustards, you know.

[7:58] Unlike us, Rob Zombie clearly loved The Munsters, was nutty about The Munsters, which is odd, though,

[8:05] because this movie that he made about The Munsters only introduces the premise of The Munsters about half an hour before it's over.

[8:13] It's a movie.

[8:15] So Rob Zombie, this was a real passion project.

[8:17] He's been trying to do this for years.

[8:19] He's been trying to make a Munsters movie.

[8:21] The closest I can compare it to is Terry Gilliam's desire to make a Don Quixote movie and being thwarted at every step of the way.

[8:28] With a similar success at the end of the road.

[8:31] I still have not seen that Don Quixote movie and it's so crazy to me that for years I was hoping for it to release.

[8:39] And I watched a documentary about how it would never get made.

[8:42] And then when the movie finally got made and was available for free on Tubi, I think, I was like, I'll get around to it.

[8:47] Who cares?

[8:49] By that time, our fondness for Terry Gilliam had tanked, I think.

[8:53] Yeah, it dissipated somewhat.

[8:55] But it was like, this is more fun as a movie that would never get made.

[8:57] But he wanted to do this for years.

[8:59] And it is strange that it's essentially a prequel for the Munsters.

[9:03] Which is a weird...

[9:05] Like a franchise set up.

[9:07] Yes, to spin off, I guess, a new show or a new series of movies.

[9:10] But it feels like a premise that doesn't really need much of an explainer.

[9:15] I will say that while this whole movie is fairly leaden in its pacing,

[9:21] I find the last part where they're actual fish out of water the least interesting of it.

[9:28] So maybe Rob Zombie was right about his own, like the version of the Munsters that he was going to make.

[9:32] That's possible.

[9:34] I mean, there's a real kind of cartoony kind of Pee Wee's Playhouse visual flair to it.

[9:39] I mean, the bad side of that is it's a movie that is shot as if it was a Fox live action Saturday morning show from the 90s.

[9:45] Like it looks, you know, it's a lot of bright neon colors and it's overlit and things like that.

[9:49] But it has a look to it.

[9:51] And then they get to the suburbs and suddenly, yeah, it's kind of dull and it doesn't look that great.

[9:56] And for some reason, they decide to take Cassandra Peterson and split it up.

[10:00] either her with witch makeup for almost all of her scenes, which is bonkers.

[10:04] Why would you do that?

[10:06] But let's let's I mean, we've laid enough groundwork.

[10:09] Let's get into this movie, which is did you feel like we need to explain

[10:13] the premise of the monsters for any any Gen Z kids that are listening?

[10:16] It's a bunch of monsters.

[10:17] They live in like a normal like suburb.

[10:22] Oh, that's a TV show.

[10:24] They began in Transylvania.

[10:26] No, I the premise of the monsters.

[10:28] I thought that was what Ellie was talking about.

[10:30] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[10:31] That's what you know.

[10:31] Let's just get to the side.

[10:32] I mean, there was a there was a normal cousin or something in that.

[10:36] That's not in this film.

[10:37] She's beautiful.

[10:38] I don't like the use of the word normal.

[10:40] But yeah, there was a there was a non monster.

[10:41] And that's sure.

[10:42] OK, anyway, I believe they called her on the original series.

[10:45] I believe they called her the white sheep of the family

[10:49] because that was the kind of jokes the original sitcom would use all the time.

[10:53] Like, yeah, familiar cliche.

[10:54] We flipped it because we're monsters.

[10:57] Yes, I feel like that's the way the corpse crumbles.

[11:00] You know, it's like it was, I think with I think maybe that was part

[11:03] of the difference with Adam's family.

[11:04] There was a little bit of that, but there was also like just this.

[11:07] They were they're super enthusiasm for everything about the world

[11:10] that that Gomez Morticia had and like Wednesday had her own bit.

[11:14] And they and, you know, Esther is a horrible nightmare of a man,

[11:18] just like a cackling, you know, bizarre creature and the monsters.

[11:21] It would be it'd be like, hmm.

[11:23] Like, are you doing OK in spelling class?

[11:27] Oh, geez, we don't cast any spells in it.

[11:30] Well, I'll talk to the teacher about it.

[11:32] Like, that's the kind of joke you do anyway.

[11:33] Anyway, so the movie begins at during an indeterminate time period.

[11:39] We're in Transylvania at the beginning of the movie.

[11:41] I thought, OK, we're in the past,

[11:44] but because of like the lanterns they were using.

[11:47] But and then later on, it seems like we're in maybe the 50s

[11:51] with the monster or 60s when the monsters were set due to the like the TV sets

[11:55] they're using.

[11:56] But then at one point,

[11:58] Herman Munster does a Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry impression

[12:03] that really spun me out in terms of like, we're supposed to be.

[12:08] I think this.

[12:09] So let's so we're going to put together what I call a fatal flaw list.

[12:11] And the first fatal flaw, Munster's movie.

[12:14] Where in history do you take place?

[12:16] This is a major issue that has to be dealt with, Dan.

[12:19] I think they just live in kind of like cartoon time.

[12:21] Yeah, they live in Transylvania.

[12:24] But it is disorienting that like, yeah, that he is

[12:27] that the scientist is like using lanterns on a on a horse and carriage.

[12:31] Yes. And then suddenly there and then suddenly Herman Munster is a rock

[12:34] and roll star.

[12:34] It's like, what is this list of me?

[12:36] What's going on around here?

[12:38] What is this? Greaser's Palace?

[12:39] Come on. I mean, I need to know what time this is.

[12:42] But we see a couple of grave robbers.

[12:45] It's a real real Dr.

[12:48] Frankenstein and his assistant situation.

[12:53] And later on, I took me a surprising amount of time

[12:56] to recognize that the assistant is played by

[13:00] Jorge Garcia from Lost Hurley.

[13:03] Yeah. Who's pretty funny.

[13:06] And I kind of hate.

[13:07] He's got one of the better performances right off the bat.

[13:10] I'm going to say that I think that the performances are not the problem

[13:13] with this movie. I think.

[13:14] No, no, everyone. No, everyone's doing fine.

[13:16] And they're they're delivering them at the tone that they need to

[13:19] for the material and things like that.

[13:20] You know, like this is everyone's kind of doing kind of kind of

[13:23] borscht belty type delivery and stuff, which is, I guess, the way you got to go.

[13:27] I would describe it as elevated. Yeah.

[13:29] But but I think even even even with that in mind,

[13:32] you'd call this elevated horror.

[13:35] Age 24 is the monster.

[13:39] I think even with the elevated performances,

[13:41] there's a lot of freedom being granted to people

[13:44] who are not being measured against a 1960s sitcom cast that like,

[13:48] you know what grandpa talks like and sounds like you have an expectation

[13:52] for Lily, for Herman.

[13:54] When you introduce new characters,

[13:55] they're free to interpret the character however they want.

[13:58] Yeah. Yeah.

[13:59] And yeah, with with varying degrees of success.

[14:03] Since we have.

[14:04] I mean, I like I like I like the guy who's performing

[14:07] as as the mad scientist doctor, too.

[14:10] Recently seen in Barbarian as a guy with some kind of crazy idea.

[14:14] Oh, that's right.

[14:14] I forgot he's also from a great. Wow. Yeah.

[14:16] But I'm a big fan of any villain character who's like that kind of Captain Hook type.

[14:21] Well, oh, over here.

[14:23] I'm a big fan of melodramatic, slightly effeminate villains.

[14:27] I like that. I find them to be the most or there's a scene

[14:30] where Jorge Garcia is trying to commiserate with Herman Munster.

[14:34] And he's he's like trying to he's bad talking Lily Munster

[14:39] or, you know, Lily.

[14:40] And he gets some new information.

[14:43] He's like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[14:45] It was such a perfect take.

[14:47] I was like, I haven't seen this in real life ever.

[14:51] Yeah, this is the most cartoony thing I've ever seen.

[14:53] Yeah, yeah.

[14:54] I think I remember the moment you're talking about.

[14:56] It is fun.

[14:57] Anyway, so these grave robbers are trying to break into a coffin

[15:02] and a what I've described in my notes as a fancy zombie.

[15:07] Here's the noise.

[15:08] And this was a confusing way to open the movie.

[15:11] They make a big deal out of this zombie character

[15:14] who's not really a character in the movie.

[15:16] Yeah, he turns to the camera.

[15:17] We get the title The Munsters.

[15:19] In case you're confused.

[15:20] You thought you'd clicked on.

[15:22] I don't know.

[15:22] Some other squid wiggles wild on Netflix or whatever.

[15:26] You thought this was love at first.

[15:27] I love it. Love is blind. Yeah.

[15:30] And then you saw the zombie went, oh, I hope love is blind.

[15:33] And the zombie comes into the crypt, starts talking to them.

[15:36] They seem really unconcerned by the fact that the zombie is chatting with them.

[15:41] They just kill him right off and take a picture with the corpse

[15:45] and then cart the body of the famous zombie.

[15:47] Yeah, he's a famous zombie.

[15:48] He is. He's the piano playing zombie, right?

[15:51] They want his. Yeah, he's a famous piano.

[15:53] And so they take his hands

[15:56] because they're making like a serpent or something.

[15:58] Yeah, yeah. Something cut to the castle.

[16:01] The idea the idea that the talent the talent exists in the body part

[16:04] and not in the brain, much as in the Peter Lorre film, Mad Love,

[16:07] in which the hands of a murderous knife thrower give you murderous knife.

[16:12] Or like in the Jeff Fahey movie, Body Parts, where he gets a serial killer's arm.

[16:17] That's really talented.

[16:18] The serial killer. Yes, exactly.

[16:19] And I have to assume in the movie, Edward Penis Hands, I've never actually seen it,

[16:22] but I have to assume something along the same lines.

[16:26] Anyway, we cut to the castle.

[16:27] We meet our first main cast member of the monsters, Grandpa Monster,

[16:32] who rises up from his coffin, does a dramatic.

[16:35] Whose last name is not Munster, right?

[16:38] Yeah, it's Herman Munster.

[16:39] But when his daughter marries Herman, I guess for simplicity's sake,

[16:44] he takes a train as well.

[16:47] Yeah, old vampire custom. Yeah, yeah.

[16:50] He does one of those spooky, like rising up out of the coffin, Dracula

[16:57] things, does a little pose and throws us back out.

[17:00] So we're introduced then to his assistant, Igor, played by Sylvester McCoy,

[17:05] one of the many doctors from Doctor Who.

[17:07] Stewart knows him as Radegast from.

[17:10] I do know him as Radegast.

[17:13] Thank you, Dan.

[17:14] And Dan, is he related to you?

[17:15] No, not that I know of.

[17:16] I mean, I haven't done the legwork to find that out.

[17:20] Twenty three and me. Yeah.

[17:22] But he cracks us back.

[17:23] And Grandpa is very interested in his daughter Lily's love life.

[17:27] She's lonely.

[17:28] So she sets him up with Orlok, who looks like Orlok from Nosferatu.

[17:34] A good I mean, all of that, as Elliot says,

[17:38] it's a little overlit, maybe for what it is, a little flat.

[17:40] But like the production design is really pretty.

[17:43] Like, that's the reason to watch this movie.

[17:45] Like everything looks like an old horror movie

[17:50] where part of the charm is like it looks a little cardboardy.

[17:54] And there's a bunch of beautiful like colored lights thrown up on everything.

[17:59] It's good.

[17:59] I also I remind myself physical.

[18:01] It's all physical sets.

[18:02] And while watching this, I remind myself, this is essentially probably for children.

[18:06] Like it's it's not really because the content is not for children,

[18:09] but like a monster's movie should be a thing you can watch with children.

[18:12] So it shouldn't be too dark and too scary.

[18:14] So it's OK for it to be like.

[18:15] So it's wrong for me.

[18:16] It's wrong for me to come to a monster's movie and be like, it's not genuinely scary.

[18:20] Like it's not it's not nightmare.

[18:21] It's not nightmare fuel.

[18:22] You know? Yeah.

[18:23] It feels like an old, you know, 1930s monster movie

[18:26] put through the filter of a 1990s made for cable Canadian kids show.

[18:31] Yeah. Yeah.

[18:33] At production value.

[18:35] I think that was the original pitch.

[18:36] Yeah. And they all that.

[18:40] And and Lily is played by Sherry Moon Zombie, Rob Zombie's wife.

[18:44] And again, Rob Zombie has proofs of the world.

[18:46] He is a number one wife guy and that she is fucking great in this.

[18:51] Like she is good in most of the things he has put her in.

[18:54] But she is I think she is genuinely like very charming and cute.

[18:58] And she pitches it at the exact like you might not agree

[19:01] with the choice to picture at that level, but she nails it.

[19:04] She does what she's supposed to do perfectly.

[19:07] I mean, I think if if she was given funny jokes to say, yes, it would be.

[19:10] She'd knock him out of the park. Yeah.

[19:11] I think the issue the issue is it's not her delivery.

[19:14] Her delivery is great.

[19:14] The issue with me, the movie is just that it's like, as you'll find out,

[19:17] as you as you listen to more of Dan's summary, is that it's kind of less a movie.

[19:21] And it's almost like we did that biopic, that non Celine Dion biopic,

[19:25] where it was just like not a story so much as just dramatizing

[19:28] every moment in Celine Dion's life.

[19:30] And this is kind of like that, but for the monsters.

[19:33] So it's like it's like a weird thing where you're like,

[19:35] we got to be true to the story.

[19:37] We can't just make up a fictional tale.

[19:39] But these are not real people like they're not.

[19:40] You might as well come with the plot.

[19:42] There is no thrust.

[19:43] There's no narrative thrust.

[19:44] Afterwards, Audrey asked me, what was the conflict in that film?

[19:46] I'm like, I don't know.

[19:48] None. There was none.

[19:50] There's a bunch of monsters hanging out.

[19:52] I mean, Dan, you you texted us while you were watching, I guess

[19:55] you texted a comment that somebody maybe you're going to save this till later.

[19:58] A comment you had read online.

[20:00] someone described it as like a porn monsters parody without the sex scenes

[20:03] and that is what it feels like like it feels like you're watching the USA up

[20:07] all night version of the XXX not the monsters porn parody yeah exactly and but

[20:14] anyway they they have a they have a date or lock and lily at the boneyard cafe in

[20:21] egyptian themed cafe and or lock is is not a great date he you know he makes

[20:28] bad he's a dancer he's really yeah he's a great dancer he's got I mean he's on

[20:32] the cutting edge of euro well that comes in a second ahead of it I'm sorry he's

[20:36] eating gross he's he's showing pictures rats which for some reason she's put off

[20:41] by even though she just said that she likes rats I don't know well I think she

[20:45] was just saying that to be polite I think he's a boar is the point yeah the

[20:50] disconnect is not the rats it's the guy going on and on and not asking a lot of

[20:53] questions and we cannot end the subtext of course is that as we all know

[20:58] vampires are built on anti-semitic tropes Lily's family is obviously much

[21:03] more of a kind of assimilated German Jewish vampire family whereas or lock is

[21:08] more of a right off the boat Eastern European Jewish vampire family so

[21:12] there's a lot of subjects here in terms of the way different waves of Jewish

[21:15] immigration again as seen through anti-semitic tropes of Jews being

[21:18] vampires interacted with each other in the United States in the early parts of

[21:23] the 20th century so there's a lot going on here I have to tip my hat to Rob

[21:25] zombie for doing this research the ways that happened and later on when they run

[21:31] into Cassandra Peterson who's dressed up like a traditional comic witch that was

[21:34] also a anti-semitic trope yes yes but she kind of welcomes them to the new

[21:40] world America so I think it continues along that thing exactly so I guess what

[21:43] we're saying is that Rob zombie has created a real exploration of the

[21:47] anti-semitic tropes of humor of a horror sorry it has my troops of horror there

[21:51] no anti-semitic tropes in humor just invented there's the anti-semitic tropes

[21:54] of horror through this through this sitcom it's very subversive and so Rob

[21:59] zombie I have to take the top of my head off to you because that's the kind of

[22:02] thing you would do in a horror movie speaking of racist tropes we're now

[22:05] introduced to Lester cousin Lester the the werewolf character who is the one

[22:12] this is this character of the movie who is like I would not say a dissolute

[22:20] gambler I would say it's not wildly over-the-top but it does play into a

[22:25] bunch of negative over the top yeah yeah yeah he's the black sheep of the family

[22:32] he's the gambler he's like yeah it's it's it's not great um and he's doing

[22:38] like a Frankenstein zombie walk toward a Romani fortune-teller named Zoya who

[22:44] is drawing him in because he owes her money for for some I know she's loaned

[22:50] him she's like a loan shark in this world I guess she's a loan shark she

[22:54] threatens to chop off his head and he he calls I guess his dad I guess he's

[23:01] actually his grandpa's monster son it's I don't know whatever yeah yeah he's

[23:05] grandpa monster son he's Lily's brother yeah he calls grandpa and grandpa's you

[23:10] know sitting around watching Abbott Costello meet one of the universal

[23:14] monsters on TV I think it's dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thank you

[23:18] see this is this is why we have you want this is the thing you can speak to but

[23:24] he wants to sell grant grandpa on the idea of selling the castle to Zoya and

[23:29] make it into a casino grandpa you know hangs up almost immediately meanwhile

[23:35] back at the date or lock now here's where the dancing comes in Stu that we

[23:39] were talking about he takes around the corner he's like close your eyes like

[23:43] don't look and it's like okay what's gonna go on and he stands under some

[23:49] neon which is apparently a big ass above the door to his house that says if this

[23:54] tombs are rocking don't come a knocking and he does a little dance to some

[23:59] techno music and you got to imagine that's an expensive neon sign to get

[24:03] that's a lot of letters a lot of letters yeah maybe he took a class at

[24:06] like the learning annex to do neon oh really glass blowing and neon yeah

[24:11] ignition hey you can do it my one of my business partners is doing it right now

[24:15] but this this is not his erotic dance does not have the effects that he wants

[24:21] she leaves date over back at the castle don't worry what we'll see him later

[24:28] yeah yeah in case you were worried that was the end of count or locks appearance

[24:32] in this don't worry he gets to show up a bunch more times for no real yeah back

[24:37] at the castle they're watching TV there's a news flash that breaks in

[24:40] saying that comedian Shecky von Rathbone was killed by an angry audience which

[24:47] comes from the heels that his brother Shelly van Rathbone also died Shelly was

[24:53] a super genius unlike Shecky they're both interred at the same place but only

[24:58] the newscaster says only an idiot would confuse them so of course we cut to an

[25:03] idiot we cut to the grave robbers and the assistant goes in to get the smart

[25:11] one but of course comes out with the dumb one classic Frankenstein bit

[25:17] magic Frankenstein brain switch you got to do it yeah because otherwise what

[25:22] where's the plot you don't have one and this is what sets the entire plot in

[25:26] motion this clockwork mechanism that we all the Munsters 2022 while also

[25:31] answering the question for anybody who's ever watched the Munsters sitcom how did

[25:35] Herman get to be that way yeah we got to know finally yeah finally finally we get

[25:40] it there's a number I mean I think it didn't really dawn on me how this was

[25:45] how over-the-top some of the explainers were until it explained how they got

[25:47] their pet later on in the movie we'll get to that where I was like still

[25:50] didn't need it didn't still kind of like the origin for this it was I mean it

[25:56] wasn't at the level of last name I don't have one I'm traveling alone so

[26:00] low that's your last name now which again is it just again it's the movie

[26:05] solo looking at the Jewish experience so many immigrants who came to the United

[26:09] States last names changed Ellis Island not always by the people working at Ellis

[26:13] Island but by the immigrants themselves in order to have names that the people

[26:17] at Ellis Island understand so you know I guess what I'm saying is guys subtext oh

[26:22] well Lily sits in a room give it give me a movie give me a movie I'll tell you

[26:26] the subtext and how it talks about the Jewish experience America I don't know

[26:29] I'm looking at gremlins across the room so that's racist that you would even

[26:33] bring that up as a possibility I just literally what's in front of me I don't

[26:37] know just give me another one then give me another one give me another one

[26:39] too damn it I don't get even worse even worse that's about that's about control

[26:44] the media even more all right then give me another one I'm just looking at my

[26:49] room again incredibly much cheese that's a great one thank you Stewart

[26:54] anyway again outsiders misunderstood all that kind of stuff yeah this game was

[27:00] rigged Lily sitting in a room much much I mean I know this is much he's too but

[27:05] if you get enough of my fellow Jewish people together we will turn into a ball

[27:08] that can roll over somebody and leave just yeah yeah yeah do you mean that is

[27:18] also critters or do you mean it is critters to the new literally it's both

[27:22] it's critters to number two the movie but also it is also critters it is

[27:26] critters to to yeah it's critters to to seven where Jack a Harry lives in a

[27:32] brownstone with a bunch of credit with a bunch of crites thank you critters to to

[27:37] meets the hooded fang anyway Lily well critters 22 was Joseph Heller's

[27:42] groundbreaking novel about about military bureaucracy and how they remember

[27:47] the character of critter critter critter critter who was given the rank

[27:49] of critter because his name was critter critter critter yes I'm trying to tell

[27:52] you about the monsters oh sorry sorry we got a lot of plot to yeah there's Lily's

[27:59] I love that I watched the movie twice and now I get it recounted yeah Lily's

[28:10] lonely she's sitting in a room combing her hair thinking about how much she

[28:14] wants love will it come to her well meanwhile the grave robbers the

[28:20] scientists are making a putting to have put together the creature they're ready

[28:23] to bring Herman to life and the assistant is like what like when he's

[28:31] asked what we should call him he's like oh I know a guy who's named Herman who

[28:35] was a great guy we should name him Herman and then for the last name cuz

[28:38] eating a sandwich he says Munster done got it uh-huh which was funny because

[28:44] make fun of this joke all you want Dan basically made the same joke in our

[28:49] group chat movie I didn't think like people did well you put it in a group

[28:57] chat which is like the movies of the future yeah exactly I mean our group

[29:00] chats I am spending part of the time deliberately trying to irritate and

[29:07] succeeding you're a master yeah well we don't know the artists intent in Rob

[29:12] zombie I think he could be creating jokes the along you know the Dan McCoy

[29:17] method of trying to irritate and provoke like an Andy Kaufman kind of well they

[29:24] they zap Herman with electricity for a very long time it takes a while uh and I

[29:32] mean they are bringing someone back from the dead it's not easy but for a movie I

[29:35] don't need a bunch of cuts of like electricity you're saying it should have

[29:39] you should have had like a clock wipe and it should have said like three hours

[29:41] yeah and it was that and just one more joke and they're gonna use a clock wipe

[29:45] in this movie yeah slime wipes all the time uh he's not moving but he his heart

[29:52] is making a clanking noise which I thought was a weird choice because

[29:55] they're like oh it didn't work I'm like well but there's a heartbeat so why do

[30:00] Even do that anyway, but he finally wakes up. There's pink lightning

[30:05] Cartoon lightning bolts in the back. There's a lot of these like transitions like Stewart said there's hearts behind

[30:12] Lily and Herman when they see each other stuff like that

[30:17] Yeah, they're really calling attention to the artifice of the film yeah back at grandpa's

[30:23] watching good morning, Transylvania with Ezra Mosher and

[30:30] And we should point out that the broadcasters we see on TV are played by the principal cast yes

[30:36] Yes, that's that Sherry moon zombie is the newscaster who first reports on the death of the genius and then also

[30:44] Daniel Roebuck who plays grandpa is doing his second of three roles in the film as the good morning

[30:52] Transylvania Daniel Roebuck Roebuck has like 250

[30:56] Credits on IMDb, but I mostly remember him for playing Jay Leno in the late shift the

[31:03] TV film about

[31:05] Leno and Letterman's play great in that yeah

[31:09] Anyway, so dr. Henry Wolfgang, which is the name of the scientists?

[31:14] I've missed it up until this point, but now I have it

[31:18] So Alex just cut that clip and put that yeah, I can insert that every time dance and I designed it's less

[31:24] I'm I'm less claiming

[31:26] That's a fault of mine and more that this is I think the first time the movie makes a point of identifying him

[31:34] He's only one way to find out Kevin

[31:40] Guys look I swear it's last time anything else you need me to look up tell me now

[31:44] I'm not gonna watch it. I think that's it. I think that's it

[31:48] There's a thing that we need you to look up

[31:51] Well, he's on Good Morning, Transylvania, I guess to promote is his Frankenstein's monster

[31:57] Promote being a genius. Yeah, it's not a product

[32:00] But I get on we all miss those days when someone would go on The Tonight Show just to talk to Johnny

[32:04] Just about something fun. They were doing and that's me promoting a movie or something

[32:08] Yeah, like you're just trying to like bring an animal on stage

[32:11] Yeah, yeah a live animal that is terrified of being on stage under the lights, but they bring them out

[32:16] Anyway, and wrap them around Johnny

[32:19] Cool

[32:21] Lily sees Herman on TV and it's love at first sight and I thought there was a pretty funny bit where they have

[32:27] Herman sit down to the piano because he expects that he'd play the piano and Herman just smashed. I laughed at that

[32:32] Yeah, that was good. That was a good joke, right?

[32:35] And after the show the scientists they really paid off the entire scene with a fancy zombie

[32:43] The scientist is disappointed obviously about what happened

[32:47] Because

[32:48] You know this is um, I forgot Herman also tells a bunch of corny jokes because he was a yeah and or spell jokes

[32:54] Yeah, this is I should mention this. This is one of those times when this should be a movie you can watch with kids

[32:59] I don't know Kevin. Maybe watch it with your kids, but they refused I invited them and they're all right. No, thanks

[33:05] But this is but when the scientist comes out to brag about his monster

[33:08] He'd they have to bleep his swearing

[33:10] but you still know what he's saying and he's like

[33:12] Talking about how they can kiss his ass and they can eat shit and it was like this seems like a weird moment for this

[33:17] Monsters movie. Yeah, like it seems like it like to to the tone is off. Yeah

[33:23] Minions come out and bare their ass and like shit all over people and pull out their fucking dicks and squirt cum

[33:30] Usually in the Minions movies

[33:38] I could find you some clips of minions doing that if I looked around not in the official

[33:44] Unauthorized yeah. Yeah. Yeah Dan belongs to a number of right-wing Facebook groups that

[33:50] repurpose them for

[33:51] For memes I like the idea

[33:53] Dan is also swimming in the kind of the kind of tumblr meme verse where everything he looks at is like

[33:58] Dr. Phil as an Eminem getting married to Shrek and a minion jizzing on stuff and yeah

[34:04] At this point that what he thinks of that as mainstream culture. It's so seeing the monsters. He's like, what is this thing?

[34:16] I don't know. I was gonna say something about after minion stuff. You won't eat a banana

[34:22] No

[34:24] Just that the it's it's a little out of character for Elliot pointed out that the doctor is one of those

[34:30] well somewhat effeminate Vincent Price

[34:33] evil villain professors who then

[34:37] During his broadcasting moment is record using coarse vulgar language seemed a little bit out of character for a character

[34:44] We barely know. Yes, if they've established very little about him, but what they have established clashes with this

[34:49] Well, maybe maybe the whole the whole thing is he's all about public perception and maybe the whole like a feet

[34:57] Like evil scientist thing is all an act like that

[34:59] He's actually not the high like the cultured man of science that he wants people to think he is

[35:04] He's actually like a guttered piece of gutter born trash, you know much like much like how a lot of Hollywood's first generation had to

[35:12] You know had to come from came from very humble backgrounds very incredibly working-class or poverty-stricken

[35:17] Stock and had to remake themselves as kind of moguls of this new dream factory

[35:22] You're right

[35:22] once again Stuart you put your your finger on how the Munsters

[35:26] Courtesy of Rob Zombie is such an exploration of the way that the way that Jewish Americans have had to navigate the the cross currents

[35:33] Of American history and culture. So yeah, I have to give it I guess to two dreidels up. I guess that's

[35:40] I feel like Stuart you might know what is Rob Zombie's actual last name? I don't know

[35:46] Although I

[35:48] Cool dude, he knows a lot about Rob Zombie

[35:53] Maker I'm not mad at right now. He's a his name Owen Robert Cummings. So mmm, it all goes back to minion jizz

[36:01] Okay

[36:04] Return to the Munsters. I don't know whether there's a time jump here or what because it seems all of a sudden that

[36:11] Herman has become a rock star like an established. Yeah star cuz it really goes down out on the town to

[36:19] zombie a go-go

[36:21] We're it's a pretty small club. Yeah, I don't know if he's that if he's as huge a star as he thinks like, you know

[36:26] There's no indication of any time having lapsed and now he's

[36:30] headlining this club

[36:32] But he's playing. Yeah, it all goes back to like

[36:35] Like like learning the the space between the panels, you know, like how much time passes between that stuff

[36:41] Let's got my cloud would really be able to explain this time jump. Dan sounds like someone's got to go back to his understanding

[36:45] Come on, I think that the filmmaker Rob Zombie has not really made it clear that there's a time

[36:51] It's a poor. It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools Dan. He's the craftsman. I'm the viewer

[36:56] I

[36:58] Think it's not his podcast

[37:00] The you know, those transitional wipes could be signifying

[37:06] The passage of time or it could just be ooh, look, it's an axe. Look it's about to get you

[37:11] No, it's not like it's kind of like how on on that show bad sisters

[37:15] They use a different transition to represent when they shift before JP dies or after JP died

[37:20] I guess a very clear transition unlike these

[37:24] So this is more like the scene transitions on home improvement when they got increasingly Baroque and and strange and they'd have animated elements in

[37:31] Them where you were like, is that part of is that something that just happened or it like is there really a snake on?

[37:36] The set or is that just an animated transition? Oh, okay. It's just an animated transition

[37:40] Is Tim Taylor the one going? Oh in real time, or is that?

[37:46] Of the video graphic, but do they have a caveman off-camera just doing that into a microphone

[37:52] But Dan you're right, it's it's it's disorienting this it's a disorienting movie in the movie kind of since there's no real plot

[37:57] It kind of picks up things. Yeah, put some down again. So and it was shot at off-kilter angles

[38:02] So it leaves you feeling yeah, almost like you're a wash in a sea of strangeness

[38:08] Regardless of the passage of time. This is my favorite sequence in the movie when it's Herman Munster and the punk rods

[38:14] Doing comedy music performance to a very small audience

[38:18] But we know they have pressed a vinyl and we are under the impression that this has reached

[38:23] Some kind of an audience to the point that Lily shows up as a potential groupie. Yeah

[38:30] And you know, it's a small audience, but you know, every one of those monsters went out and started a novelty group. Yeah

[38:36] I've been trying to get to

[38:38] For quite some time a small key town a small detail that delighted me

[38:42] Which is when Lily enters on be a go-go. The bouncer is an old clunky 50s style robot

[38:50] Later goes on to officiate their yeah, I

[38:53] Wanted to ask if that if we're supposed to believe that is the same clunky 1950s robot. I did. It's certainly the same cost

[38:59] Yeah, it's definitely. Yeah. Yeah, I mean maybe there are mass-produced robots

[39:04] So it could be different robots, but the same design very possible

[39:07] Also downtown

[39:09] Transylvania has a lot of neon signs and Audrey pointed out that this would be in a normal type of this movie like a good

[39:15] Opportunity for like puns or jokes on the sides, but they just say like massage parlor or whatever. They don't do anything with it

[39:22] Yeah, um, but anyway, uh, yeah, that's what this movie needs more of

[39:29] Zoya owns this club for some reason we don't not really important. It's just a way to have her also in the scene and

[39:37] Plot more with Lester the Wolfman who's tells him she he has two weeks to get the castle

[39:43] backstage Herman and

[39:46] I'm just gonna call him Hurley

[39:48] From law. Yeah are in shiny like rockstar clothes, which is part of why I was like, okay

[39:55] I guess this is later because they've already hit the point in success where they made a big yeah

[40:00] Peacocking, they've gotten their shiny clothes like although I one of the things I kind of like about this is it does feel like a

[40:06] Commitment to the bit that an old sitcom might make where they're like, we're gonna be rock stars

[40:13] Next scene already have all their rock star clothes. Yeah, there I am and

[40:18] Hurley's already like pushing Herman's career. And yeah, all I know and again

[40:23] We didn't we established earlier in the podcast that we don't remember any storylines the monsters show

[40:27] This could very well be playing off of an episode of the monsters where he becomes a rock star

[40:31] She came out in the early 60s. And the costume is absolutely from Munster go home where he races

[40:39] Race car and wears some of that get up with the goggles

[40:43] Jacket and to research for the show. I watched two episodes of monsters last night

[40:47] I was like if I'm gonna watch it, I'm finally gonna watch the episode with the standels

[40:51] 60s

[40:53] Garage bands who rather than stay at a hotel the standels decide we need to stay at a mansion like that spooky mansion in town

[41:01] but there is a

[41:03] Rock-and-roll band episode of the monsters that does not involve Herman being in the band

[41:07] But after the band performs they invite Herman up to recite some beat poetry

[41:13] Which is the closest we get I think in the original series or at least in the first season of Herman becoming a front man

[41:20] For a rock group

[41:21] I love that

[41:22] I love that the show exists during that time period when there was not really much of an understanding of beatniks and rockers being different

[41:29] It was just like it was all under one umbrella weird youth culture

[41:32] I guess I guess they do spoken word poetry and also they play those electric guitars

[41:36] And now bags gonna be able to draw both of them as caricatures

[41:40] It's there's something very Bob Hope pretending to be a beetle

[41:44] Well, curiously that standels play a cover of I want to hold your hand

[41:49] So it even extends even further but Dan would you please get us back to the story?

[41:55] Thank you recap. Well, what happens now? Is that Lester points Lily back to Herman?

[42:02] and

[42:03] He also reacts to her with a bunch of cartoon hearts love at first sight

[42:08] She invites a very it's a very cutesy

[42:10] Yeah of them each trying to flirting with each other and he's trying to play it cool and he'll close the door and then you'll hear

[42:17] I'm off behind the door like saying Oh goody. Oh, geez

[42:20] Oh gosh, and I gotta say we haven't mentioned this. So the actor who plays Herman Munster is it's like

[42:27] Jeff Daniel Phillips or something up. I don't I don't have it in front of me. But like again, Daniel Phillips, you got it, right?

[42:35] Casting points for this episode. Yeah, I'm amazing. So he not only does he look a lot like Fred Gwynn

[42:42] But his like he pitches his performance at the right way he does

[42:48] He has a big performance. His face is super

[42:51] Emotive. I think he does a great job. I think he looks great with his giant suit

[42:55] uh, he captures some of like the Fred Gwynn vibe without doing a direct impression and

[43:01] Yeah, I think he does a terrific job. I think that our three primaries are all very good in the movie

[43:08] Yeah, but

[43:10] Yeah, and and the little scene where he keeps ducking back out of sight to to freak out while the camera stays out with

[43:16] Sherry moon zombie who can hear everything is

[43:20] One of the parts in the movie where the it comes closest to working there. There's there's some stuff in here super cute

[43:26] Yeah, that's that's sweet and fun. But um

[43:28] so

[43:30] She invites him over for dinner

[43:33] We get a little bit where they're each worried about like, you know, he's worried. He has to be like a cool

[43:38] Entertainment rock star guy and she's worried that she's not gonna be cool enough for him

[43:43] Like that's the sort of thing that in another movie would like set up something. It doesn't

[43:48] Know

[43:50] Relieved I hate that kind of thing

[43:52] But well and also Lily's dad clearly doesn't like him and that sets up I think two other scenes and then that's yeah

[43:58] Like at a certain point there that any sort of rivalry between the two of them is dropped. Also. Yes, there's also

[44:04] During when Herman goes over for dinner. He's outside after

[44:08] After having butted heads with we keep calling him grandpa. He's not a grandpa yet. He's the count

[44:14] We're gonna keep calling him grandpa Herman, but

[44:21] Just you just for stalled us getting a bunch of Pinocchios in the in Washington Post, I really appreciate that

[44:27] but Herman says to her I

[44:30] swear, I'm going to devote my life to winning over grandpa and

[44:35] That you know, that's a lot of attention is given to this moment and it's in the next scene. It's completely

[44:41] Yeah, we give up on that quest. Yeah, like you say it doesn't there's no payoff to that and also you're right

[44:47] He's not called he shouldn't be called

[44:50] Like and they I know that and the character he's known as grandpa in the show

[44:54] Al Lewis who played him legally ahead tried to have his name on the ballot for the mayor of New York as grandpa

[45:00] Al Lewis, that's what he would call himself

[45:03] No, it's funny when everyone knows the character's grandpa, but he's not that yet. I mean, I don't I I I

[45:10] Hate to potentially dogpile on a bad character

[45:13] But there's a chance that his son Lester might have an illegitimate child and that's why they call him grandpa

[45:18] I mean or a legitimate child

[45:24] In the movie they call the count. Oh, I thought you said that Herman called him grandpa. No, I was misspeaking

[45:30] Power you think you know what guys I think I think I need to watch the movie again, okay

[45:39] Fire it up on your phone throw this up title on pause. I will come back in an hour and 49 minutes. Mm-hmm and

[45:46] We'll drop it and we're back. Yeah. Yeah, they never call him. They never call

[45:51] Then I then I own apology to everyone in behind the making of the monsters 2022. I was misled

[45:57] I'm sorry

[45:58] And I hope we can put this behind us and we can continue to have our original relationship

[46:02] You as a subject of mockery for me on a podcast

[46:05] Well after I tolerated watching you

[46:08] When I could have been diving into this trove of just films that I just found online that I'm very excited

[46:13] I guess since LA it's apologizing

[46:15] I should pull up that that article about what to do when your podcast co-host gets canceled

[46:21] Of all the things I was gonna get canceled for it wasn't

[46:25] Some paragraph D

[46:27] It wasn't any of the Jewish jokes earlier, but it was me getting mad at the guy

[46:31] But I think it all all evidence to the contrary. We were only halfway through the monster

[46:36] Wow

[46:39] But but here's where the plot really kicks in yeah, well as mentioned grandpa's unimpressed by Herman

[46:46] There's a lot of cartoon umpah background music underlining everything

[46:51] and

[46:53] there's a romantic stroll between Herman and Lily which leads directly to them singing I got you babe a montage of

[47:01] Falling in love with stuff and they and then they're dressed as Sonny and Cher eventually

[47:05] Yeah, Lily gets a tattoo of Herman's face

[47:07] They have a drink with two straws rats and bats

[47:11] He gets a tattoo and cries which was very funny

[47:14] He got her name tattooed and then she got like a super like hyper realistic portrait of him and she's fine

[47:20] And were you guys also like me?

[47:23] Waiting for the moment when their version of I got you babe would turn into like a monster

[47:27] Parody of I got you babe and not just like a song punk rock

[47:31] Beatnik. Yes, but it's just the song. Yeah, just a straightforward song, right?

[47:35] I kept waiting for them to be like they say our bats can't pay the rent before you know it the blood

[47:42] But they don't at this point. I had given up on

[47:46] The monsters jokes trying to be funny

[47:49] Like fulfilling their premise of doing monster versions. Yeah

[47:53] But speaking of how grandpa's dislike of Herman goes nowhere

[47:58] He's like future grandpa. Yeah again. We're just gonna call him grandpa. We don't need I don't know

[48:06] Everyone knows

[48:08] He should be called the count last name unknown

[48:11] Yeah, we don't know what we do know is lesson because they say his last name at the wedding ceremony. Oh, they do

[48:16] That's right. What was it? Can you watch the movie?

[48:19] if everybody could just pause for an hour and

[48:23] 49 okay, I will be back

[48:26] this information

[48:30] So

[48:31] Guys I'm back. I don't know why I didn't skip ahead

[48:36] Through Netflix and just go right ahead

[48:38] I watched the entire movie again, and unfortunately, I went to the bathroom during the wedding scene. So I don't find out

[48:45] I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure they do say her. Yeah, they say

[48:49] Okay, so cuz on Wikipedia his the original characters just called count Sam Dracula, which I think it's funny this first name Sam

[48:55] Well, there's a lot of back and forth

[48:57] I'm not gonna do it in direct actual movie order because it's easier to just

[49:03] thematically lump some things because as we pointed out grandpa's

[49:07] Dislike of Herman doesn't really go much of anywhere because he's like, oh we got to get rid of them. I'm gonna

[49:13] Come up with this husband spell

[49:15] I'm gonna conjure a perfect husband for Lily instead and he does a spell wrong and he gets like he gets this dancing cowboy

[49:22] Man and then that's just

[49:26] Like it's really one scene

[49:30] It's a throw it's a throwaway scene, that's a real because the movie is so

[49:34] So all over the place. You don't know if this is like, okay. Is this a character that's coming back?

[49:38] Is this setting up? Yeah. Oh, no, it's not just you know

[49:41] I when when I was looking at monsters episodes last night there

[49:44] I did I didn't end up watching this one, but there's an episode where

[49:48] Grandpa in the sitcom his name's grandpa. Thank make takes a frog

[49:52] To create a suitor for cousin Marilyn because they feel like she's so hideous

[50:00] Plain and hideous. She's never gonna find a man. So they create grandpa

[50:04] Casts a spell to create a suitor for her

[50:06] so I wonder

[50:07] If that is if that sequence in the movie that goes nowhere

[50:11] Is a little is a little something for the fans a little fan service. Yeah, you know a little easter egg

[50:16] Yeah, or they would they were called uh, they called a beaster egg

[50:22] Because it's creepy monsters

[50:23] Yeah, yeah

[50:24] the uh and the and the

[50:26] The misapprehension in that scene the reason he ends up with a monkey man is because he thinks he has tarzan's hair

[50:30] But he actually has cheetah's hair cheetah

[50:32] Of course being the chimp from tarzan and I guarantee you if i'd watch that with my kids

[50:35] They would have no idea what that joke means. They wouldn't understand the reference

[50:38] They would think he's talking about a cheetah the animal

[50:40] I i'm gonna stop you right there most times when there's jokes and references in a movie kids don't care

[50:45] If it's if the line is delivered like a joke, they will think it's funny

[50:51] I did understand the reference and I was like

[50:54] Okay

[50:56] That was my reaction. So

[50:58] You didn't have to go to the emergency room because you're a side

[51:02] They had to put my stuffing back in and sew me up

[51:04] You're not in you're not in behavioral therapy to get yourself from slapping to slapping your knees all the time

[51:09] Because the joke is so funny. Yeah

[51:11] um

[51:12] so

[51:12] Meanwhile, the doctor has returned from leper island where he was on vacation apparently and I was like did I miss the setup for this?

[51:19] I don't know, but he's got leprosy now that doesn't really figure into anything

[51:24] Um

[51:26] Uh, meanwhile, uh herman and lily have gotten engaged on a on a beach. Uh,

[51:31] Which causes grandpa to faint, uh, we've cut directly to a coffin

[51:35] But of course because it's you know a vampire he he didn't die out of

[51:39] Out of shock. He's just going to the wedding. It's a wedding coffin

[51:43] um

[51:44] Lester shows up to the wedding introduces himself to herman makes sense. He's the brother of the bride. Why not invite him?

[51:50] Hey, I pointed lily your way, which is really like he really literally just said oh, he's she's down

[51:57] He's down the hall. So he didn't really do much in their love connection. But this is enough for herman to sign

[52:02] uh a contract

[52:04] And he uses some other manipulative techniques. I mean herman is also not the brightest ball. Yes

[52:10] Uh, well meaning very sweet not the smartest here's i'm not what a fucking body on this guy, right?

[52:16] Oh, yeah, it's shaped like an exclamation point. Yeah, sure. I i'm not a i'm not a property rights lawyer

[52:22] Yeah, uh, but it seems like if a if an old man for the purposes of ease, let's call him. Grandpa

[52:27] Yeah owns a castle and his daughter marries a man and they're not even really married yet because they haven't had the ceremony. Yeah

[52:36] that if he signs the contract

[52:38] it does not

[52:39] transfer ownership of the castle like that the the castle

[52:43] General family property that robs any member of the family can say the monsters is not does not reflect

[52:48] Uh real estate law as it exists in in real life certainly american real estate

[52:53] That's you know, that's you're right. This is happening in transylvania between monsters

[52:57] It's possible the laws are different, uh, and that you can marry into a family that's giving you I guess equal say over what happens

[53:03] to the property of the parents of that family, but

[53:07] Yeah, i'm just saying the monsters. It's interesting that put it in the goofs

[53:10] It's interesting that herman's signature

[53:13] Holds more weight than lester who's actually blood relative. That's a good point

[53:17] I don't know why why lester would maybe maybe there's a scene that was cut where the count gives herman power of attorney

[53:23] like for some reason

[53:25] uh, yeah, just

[53:27] Yeah, let's okay. Let's go on. I don't want to hold you. Yeah. Sorry dan

[53:30] I know we're not here to have fun. We're here to get to the plot of the monsters as efficiency as

[53:34] Granular

[53:36] Look I was the one who

[53:38] Recording the monsters minute that people listen for the people listen for the bits, but again

[53:45] we're

[53:46] But again, there's an un there's an unserved audience out there that just wants that has a test on the monsters movie tomorrow

[53:51] It does not have time to watch it some minutes into this podcast and that we're still got a lot of ways to go

[53:57] That's all

[53:59] We can skip huge chunks and it won't hurt. Yeah

[54:02] I bet dan you could skip their entire honeymoon in paris

[54:05] And I don't think anyone would be like wait, but what happens where they find the monster that is where they find spot their pet

[54:10] Yeah, sure. Yeah, well, we gotta point out the third daniel roebuck character

[54:15] I'm, just asking for a cafe just a little bit of air to get through it. I'm not saying don't have fun guys

[54:23] saying

[54:24] Let's be judicious with it. Um, you're right. It's the monsters not the funsters. Let's take this seriously podcast under educational

[54:32] All right, I just want to um

[54:35] Place a special request to the editor that when dan says we need a little bit of air that you play a loud fart sound

[54:41] Effect. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, perfect. I thought you were you're gonna

[54:45] You play then a little bit of mood safari

[54:51] And then alex, could you look through the entire archives for anytime dan says, ah, I needed to do that

[54:57] And then put it in after the fart sound effect. That'd be great. Okay

[55:01] um

[55:02] so anyway, uh

[55:04] The two of them get married with the I have in my notes with the robot question mark bouncer as the officiant

[55:11] uh, the doctor's happy

[55:13] that he's married off his his

[55:16] Built son saying he's grandpa's problem now, which I don't herman seems like a sweetheart. I don't know why everyone's I thought that was

[55:22] I thought that was kind of funny

[55:23] But this and the ceremony goes off with the only hitch being that the robot briefly burst into flames

[55:28] Right

[55:29] and they see lester while they're driving away and lily's like I hope you didn't get in a business scheme with him

[55:33] I'd hate to think i'd married a blockhead and

[55:36] herman's looking

[55:38] and uh, so we cut to

[55:40] zoia and lester zoia celebrates her, you know grift working out and there's a montagne we find out the

[55:47] We find out the reason is because she is grandpa's or the man who will someday be known as grandpa

[55:54] Grandpa

[55:56] Yes

[55:57] That she is his ex-wife and that she uh is vindictive and this was all a scheme to get

[56:04] but also if she's just actually it seems like

[56:06] Again, she has more of a legal claim to part of the castle than than herman herman. Yeah, his daughter's fiance. Yeah

[56:13] anyway, uh, they have a uh

[56:16] They have their honeymoon in paris. There's a montage

[56:18] They walk into a cafe where everyone's terrified of them and when the mime has a heart attack

[56:22] He and dies he mimes having his heart pulled out but right before he falls dead and I thought that was pretty funny

[56:30] Uh, they explore the catacombs where herman wrestles a rubber sort of gargle dragon and that's their pet now

[56:37] And in the show you would just in the old show you just see his tail. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah

[56:41] I I I was like still good liked it all

[56:44] Yeah, I mean having not really watched the show i'm like why is this in the movie? What is this? Why is this here? Yeah

[56:50] um

[56:52] but anyway

[56:52] I guess you could say the monsters movie doesn't really stand alone on its own as as a piece of storytelling

[56:58] You kind of need a little bit of a grounding in the in the television show and the important thing this paris scene is it?

[57:03] Establishes that normal people find the monsters hideous possibly terrifying to the point of dying. Yes

[57:09] Uh, and the monsters find regular, uh, non-transylvanians to be

[57:15] Horrified to look at as well. Yes, that's they they apparently they've never this is the first time the movie leaves transylvania

[57:21] And yeah, and uh, yeah, we learned that it's a real clash of cultures between monsters and let's just call them

[57:28] Nonsters. Yeah, they're not monsters. They're not now and we'll refer to non monsters as nonsters as monsters. Yeah

[57:35] Also in our daily life. Yes, ideally. Yeah. Yeah, that's the only way it'll it'll stick. Yeah

[57:40] uh grandpa learns

[57:42] That he's losing the castle. He goes to paris to

[57:46] Tell them the news to get mad at herman they decide to lawyer a hotel room is huge. They've got an amazing hotel. Yeah. Yeah, it's great

[57:53] Uh the lawyer who is in jail in german for some reason says that they're screwed

[57:59] Uh, meanwhile herman is watching a tv show

[58:03] uh called zombo

[58:06] and uh

[58:07] It's just like a monster running around. It's like zombo zombo zombo. I'm not really sure what the show is

[58:13] He's like watching adult swim

[58:15] I at first I at first I assumed it was kind of like a zacherley kind of like goularty type takeoff

[58:20] but then i'm not sure because he's not i'm pretty i'm pretty sure that's something it's a nod to a

[58:25] a single episode of the original series

[58:28] Probably it's so funny. I love that even even that stuff diehard monster fans are like what what the hell is up with that guy?

[58:34] Like that was for you

[58:36] Yeah, that was for you monsters fans. My god

[58:40] It's like it was in one episode get out of the house every now and then yeah

[58:43] it's one of these it just shows how

[58:45] important frame of reference is and like I should own up to it's like if this was a simpsons movie or a news radio movie

[58:51] and they did a

[58:53] Joke about one single episode i'd be like, ha ha

[58:56] That's brilliant. I remember it. It's just that I don't know the monsters did not penetrate my consciousness the same way

[59:02] So rob zombie do what you're gonna do

[59:03] My wife is watching the gilded age with me and they make a reference to up and coming architects

[59:08] Stanford white and she's like, oh my god, that's so funny up and coming

[59:12] And i'm like, uh, what

[59:16] Who shot who now

[59:18] but uh

[59:19] herman c zombo

[59:21] Now if the monsters movie had a joke about upcoming architect stanford white dan would be like what time is this taking place?

[59:27] They have tvs but stanford white is still a young man

[59:31] Uh zombo has a line about where he claims to be the most handsome man in hollywood

[59:35] Which is like clearly a joke in the context of the show

[59:38] But herman's like hey guys at seven at best. I'm i'm at 10. We should go to hollywood

[59:43] It's pretty funny california. And finally we have the premise of the monsters

[59:48] And this is like the movie and how far is this into the movie?

[59:52] An hour and 50 minutes long. I would say that this happens about 30 minutes from the end and a normal film I think would have

[59:59] flipped

[1:00:00] the proportions of things, like all of the stuff up until now would have taken 30 minutes

[1:00:04] and then the rest of the movie, again, Rob Zombie's interests, I do find the stuff before

[1:00:12] they actually are fish out of water funnier and more interesting and more colorful than

[1:00:17] the rest of the movie, but it's a weird...

[1:00:19] And I'm sure he was, I think you're probably right that he was probably more interested

[1:00:22] in that stuff too.

[1:00:23] Like, oh, we can live in this weird Transylvania where there's all sorts of crazy characters

[1:00:26] and gross masks and creepy buildings with neon lights, and he's putting off as long

[1:00:31] as possible when they have to actually get to Mockingbird Land and it's just houses.

[1:00:36] And I think also a typical movie of the Monsters would have started with Herman's voiceover

[1:00:40] saying, forget everything you thought you knew about Herman Monster.

[1:00:46] Done.

[1:00:47] Easy.

[1:00:48] They'd show up at the house, they'd show up at the house and he'd go, er, seems like a

[1:00:51] place we wouldn't really live.

[1:00:52] You're probably wondering how we got there.

[1:00:54] Yeah.

[1:00:55] I'm wondering a little bit, but I mean, I can't stress enough.

[1:00:59] I can't stress enough how happy I am that this movie is not like a dark, serious take

[1:01:04] on the fucking Monsters.

[1:01:05] Yeah.

[1:01:06] Well, that was 1313 Mockingbird Lane on NBC a couple of years ago with Eddie Izzard and

[1:01:11] Brian Fuller.

[1:01:12] That was a Brian Fuller show, right?

[1:01:15] He was behind it.

[1:01:16] I forgot they did do a dark take on the Monsters, which I mean, as much as I, as it's one of

[1:01:20] those things where this is me being a hypocrite again, when I was a kid, I was like, I don't

[1:01:23] want my Monsters silly.

[1:01:24] I want them scary.

[1:01:25] When they announced that, I was like, well, if you're going to do the Monsters, why make

[1:01:27] them scary?

[1:01:28] Like, then they're just the original characters.

[1:01:30] Yeah.

[1:01:31] If they're going to be the Monsters, do them silly at least.

[1:01:34] So like, I feel like you do have to give Rob Zombie credit for being like, what are the

[1:01:37] Monsters?

[1:01:38] The Monsters are goofy.

[1:01:40] So that's what I'm going to do.

[1:01:41] I'm going to make a silly thing as opposed to time to take time to take this thing for

[1:01:44] kids and make it totally scarifying and gross, you know?

[1:01:48] Yeah.

[1:01:49] Where they, I don't know, say fuck up on it.

[1:01:52] Yeah.

[1:01:53] But it's the same, what he did was they took old episodes of the Monsters and all they

[1:01:57] did was they dubbed it swear words.

[1:02:00] Okay, let's get back to the, they call a real estate woman played by Elvira herself, Cassandra

[1:02:07] Peterson to facilitate their move.

[1:02:10] She says, pardon me, she's got a house for them.

[1:02:13] Uh, they're, they get on the plane this late in the movie.

[1:02:16] We do not need to see them on the plane to America.

[1:02:19] We can just go to America, but we have a whole bit where they're bumped up to first class

[1:02:23] because the, the, the flight attendant was so scared of them and then like jumps off

[1:02:28] the plane and parachutes out, uh, because of it.

[1:02:32] And Herman gets wasted on Shirley Temples.

[1:02:34] Yeah.

[1:02:35] Air Transylvania presumably caters to Transylvanians and this is a village that is filled with

[1:02:43] goblins and witches and monsters.

[1:02:46] So you would think Air Transylvania would not be surprised when somebody who looked

[1:02:53] like Herman, his wife and his father-in-law get on the plane.

[1:02:57] Yeah.

[1:02:58] Yes.

[1:02:59] That even, even the flight attendants might be monsters themselves that you would think,

[1:03:02] but no, apparently, apparently Air Transylvania only deals with, I guess, tech workers who

[1:03:08] have moved to Transylvania because they can work from anywhere and the rents are low.

[1:03:12] And so it shuttles them back and forth between Transylvania and San Francisco and they're

[1:03:15] not used to the locals, you know, mainly cargo and freight, but they, they just recently

[1:03:19] started doing a passenger service.

[1:03:20] You know, that's the best exclamation.

[1:03:22] This is their first passenger flight.

[1:03:25] And I, I didn't mention the plot point that, uh, Cassandra Peterson is like, Hey, uh, apologies,

[1:03:31] you know, you're arriving on Halloween.

[1:03:32] I'm going to look a little weird when you show up.

[1:03:35] And you know, this is all to just delay the moment at which the monsters see that normal

[1:03:40] humans are surrounding them and not Transylvanian style, uh, monsters, but you know, they go

[1:03:46] to the real estate office.

[1:03:47] She's dressed as a witch.

[1:03:48] Uh, there's an animated montage of them driving to Mockingbird Heights, uh, where kids are

[1:03:53] out trick-or-treating and this, and this was, this seems to, it was like, wait, is, was

[1:03:58] this meant to be like the opening credit sequence at one point?

[1:04:02] Like Dan's version of the movie where there's not that much time in Transylvania and the

[1:04:06] rest of it is them getting to know their neighborhood.

[1:04:08] Like there's otherwise, it's very strange for the movie just to turn to animation for

[1:04:12] them driving around Hollywood.

[1:04:13] And I wonder if it was like a solution to the budget, not allowing them to drive around

[1:04:18] actual Hollywood in costume, or if it was like, because it feels like suddenly the type

[1:04:22] of credit sequence is about to start and we're like 20 minutes from the end.

[1:04:25] I think it's also the, I mean, I think it's like super stylized or like, I think that's

[1:04:31] the point.

[1:04:32] It does fit in with that kind of like Googie throwing some fucking like surf rock in the

[1:04:36] background.

[1:04:38] This is around the time too, where I started wondering again, what is it about kind of

[1:04:41] like goth and rockabilly stuff that seems to dovetail so much in people's minds?

[1:04:48] Like that, if it's like, I love, I love gross old things and I love monsters and I love

[1:04:54] Satan.

[1:04:55] But you know what else I love is early rock and roll, very early rock and roll.

[1:04:58] Yeah.

[1:04:59] Like it's, I think it's the center of that Venn diagram, sideburns.

[1:05:02] Yeah.

[1:05:03] What did they have in the 19th century and in the 1950s?

[1:05:08] You're right.

[1:05:09] Yeah.

[1:05:10] Oh, that makes a lot of sense.

[1:05:11] Yeah.

[1:05:12] I mean, I get what you're saying that, you know, like 20 minutes before the end to like

[1:05:15] introduce a new element is a little weird, but Rob Zombie, like in the trivia for this,

[1:05:20] like said like, Oh, I saw the characters.

[1:05:23] I thought, you know, I wanted to place them in this cartoon world.

[1:05:25] Like that's why everything looks so stylized in a particular way.

[1:05:28] That makes sense.

[1:05:29] It could also be like, when they asked Orson Welles for Susan Cain, why that parrot screeches

[1:05:34] right before the last scenes.

[1:05:35] And he's like, it's a long movie.

[1:05:36] Wake up the audience.

[1:05:37] They're starting to fall asleep.

[1:05:38] Like this could be a little bit of that.

[1:05:40] Like give the audience a little shot in the arm because you've been watching monsters bumbling

[1:05:44] around without a plot for over an hour now.

[1:05:47] But so they go there.

[1:05:49] Even if you're on your second or third viewing, you're falling asleep.

[1:05:55] And it still takes you by surprise.

[1:05:58] They, you know, the Cassandra Peterson wants to sell them, you know, a normal house.

[1:06:03] But there's a broken down house like the Munster's home from like, it looks like this home from

[1:06:07] the series.

[1:06:08] Like literally.

[1:06:09] Yeah, it's literally.

[1:06:10] They're like, we want that one.

[1:06:13] And they're like, don't try and, you know, finagle us into buying this shitty house up

[1:06:17] here.

[1:06:18] And she's sold.

[1:06:19] No, take the house and then cut to them inside the house a little despondent because they're

[1:06:25] now broke, presumably from buying this broken down house, even though they're happy.

[1:06:29] A broke down palace, if you will.

[1:06:31] Right before.

[1:06:32] So.

[1:06:33] But Herman's like.

[1:06:34] But it feels like a loaded moment when they're sitting on the couch and Grandpa says, the

[1:06:38] count says, now what?

[1:06:41] Yeah.

[1:06:42] And I feel like that's where they're at in the screenplay.

[1:06:44] Like what do we do now?

[1:06:46] This is this.

[1:06:47] This is the voice of the screenwriter speaking through his character.

[1:06:50] Luckily, it's a race to the end from this point, like a series of solutions present

[1:06:56] themselves because they hear screaming from outside.

[1:07:00] They discover there's a Halloween rave taking place.

[1:07:04] What looks like in their front yard, they party with their neighbors for a while and

[1:07:08] they're in like a cul-de-sac.

[1:07:09] Yeah.

[1:07:10] The Munsters win the costume contest, but not the movie cul-de-sac.

[1:07:14] Is that a movie?

[1:07:15] It is.

[1:07:16] It's a Roman Polanski movie, but that's not this.

[1:07:18] Yeah.

[1:07:19] Weird.

[1:07:21] I don't want to be on this podcast.

[1:07:22] Also right now.

[1:07:23] Why would one bring that up?

[1:07:24] So close to the ending.

[1:07:25] The Munsters.

[1:07:26] Yeah, that's a good point.

[1:07:27] Win the costume.

[1:07:28] I think it has something to do with the schizophrenic free association that my brain just goes into

[1:07:33] and I can't really control.

[1:07:34] Oh, that's too bad.

[1:07:35] Have you?

[1:07:36] I mean, you could talk to a professional about that, maybe.

[1:07:38] I probably should.

[1:07:39] But that might hurt the podcast.

[1:07:40] Why would I want to lean on the professional about that sort of thing?

[1:07:43] Don't kill the goldfish, Stuart.

[1:07:44] Again, free association.

[1:07:45] I don't know why.

[1:07:46] Call me again.

[1:07:48] I don't know why I'm free associating particularly to movies directed by pedophiles, but still.

[1:07:53] Why?

[1:07:54] The Munsters win the costume contest.

[1:07:55] They get a giant novelty check for $1,500, which would be big money whenever this movie

[1:08:00] is taking place.

[1:08:04] And is that before or after the singing morticians offer them a job?

[1:08:08] Well, while they're on stage, Grandpa's like, my idiot son-in-law needs a job.

[1:08:13] And then the singing morticians from the local funeral parlor offer him work right

[1:08:17] away.

[1:08:18] So, I guess that problem's fixed.

[1:08:21] Next morning breakfast, Herman's going to go to work.

[1:08:23] He goes out the door.

[1:08:24] He's horrified by how pretty and normal everything looks and how friendly all the neighbors are.

[1:08:31] They're all hideous monsters in this cul-de-sac.

[1:08:35] And Grandpa and Lily are also shocked, but Lily scolds them for judging these horrific

[1:08:41] monsters for their clean-cut appearance.

[1:08:45] And then Wolfman ex machina, Lester, shows up at their door.

[1:08:52] Everyone's mad at him, but he says, look, I made a killing in Vegas for the money I

[1:08:55] got from the castle.

[1:08:56] I'm here to give you your cut.

[1:08:58] Give us Herman a check to cut it in.

[1:09:00] We don't know how much money it is, but like, they're all, we're rich.

[1:09:03] It must be a lot because suddenly they say they're rich.

[1:09:06] They laugh for more than $1,500.

[1:09:07] A really long time as a shaky slow-mo cam circles them.

[1:09:13] I kind of wish they'd say, why is this check so small?

[1:09:16] The Americans had given us a check last night that was enormous.

[1:09:20] We assumed that is the standard issue of American currency banknotes.

[1:09:26] And this, the amount of money here is much more on that one, so proportionally it should

[1:09:29] be an enormous check.

[1:09:31] And with all their problems solved, we cut to black and white.

[1:09:34] We finally get the Munsters theme as the three main characters, uh, you know, take

[1:09:39] a curtain call exiting the house and we get some animated credits and that's it.

[1:09:44] That's the Munsters.

[1:09:45] That's Rob Zombie's The Munsters.

[1:09:46] I love the idea that Rob Zombie's like, the movie has to take them right up to the very

[1:09:51] moment that the pilot for the Munsters starts.

[1:09:54] Uh huh.

[1:09:55] Yeah.

[1:09:56] Yeah.

[1:09:57] It's the Rogue One of movies.

[1:09:58] The Rogue One of movies.

[1:10:00] Wait, but Rogue One is a movie, so wait, did I say something wrong?

[1:10:07] No, I'm probably right.

[1:10:10] No, it's the children who are wrong.

[1:10:13] Dan, great job summarizing. That was a tough one because there's no little plot at all.

[1:10:19] Yeah, we should probably go right into those final judgments.

[1:10:23] Let's do final judgments, whether this is a good, bad movie, a bad, bad movie, or a movie kind of like.

[1:10:27] I'm going to kick it off by saying I think this is a bad, bad movie.

[1:10:32] The major problem with it is that Rob Zombie, while a talented filmmaker in some ways, appears to have no feeling for comedy.

[1:10:41] The pacing is leaden. The jokes in the screenplay that he co-wrote are bad even by Munster movie standards.

[1:10:50] But it's a bad, bad movie that I'd almost kind of recommend if you have an interest in this kind of thing.

[1:10:57] Checking a certain amount of it out, maybe like 45 minutes, get a taste of it.

[1:11:04] Dan, I don't want to interrupt. I just want to flag one thing.

[1:11:09] The four other co-writers that are listed on the film are the people who developed and created the characters, I think.

[1:11:18] So Rob Zombie was the sole hand in this screenplay.

[1:11:22] So let's not let Rob Zombie off easy as though a co-writer was ruining his script.

[1:11:28] As if Rob had all these great ideas, but then somebody else was just like, I'll just sneak in and change the jokes later.

[1:11:33] Bruce Vallance smothered his genius.

[1:11:37] That was not what I was imagining.

[1:11:39] I was imagining that Rob Zombie maybe brought in someone who knew how to write a screenplay to help him along.

[1:11:45] I mean there's probably an uncredited comedy writer who has a lot to account for here.

[1:11:50] I wish – all I can think of now is that they probably had a punch-up room for this script at some point.

[1:11:56] I would have loved to have been in that Munster's punch-up room.

[1:11:59] Hollywood, if you're doing punch-up on some dumb thing, why not invite me and Dan and Stu?

[1:12:04] Kevin, you can come too. Why not? Let's invite us in.

[1:12:06] We can come up with some silly jokes for your reboot of – I don't know.

[1:12:12] What's it old TV? Thunderbirds or something?

[1:12:14] Caveman.

[1:12:15] You're Captain Caveman 2022.

[1:12:18] I imagine being in this writer's room and them saying, Kevin, for the last time, we cannot say Munsterbated.

[1:12:24] This is a kid's movie.

[1:12:30] How about Munsterbation? Is that any better?

[1:12:32] Munsterbation, not an active verb.

[1:12:35] To close it off and pass the ball, I would just say, yeah, it's an endurance test of a movie.

[1:12:41] I wouldn't recommend actually watching it, but it has a certain charm.

[1:12:46] I will say that.

[1:12:48] Yeah, I agree that it's not a movie I liked.

[1:12:52] I feel like I tolerated it more than I enjoyed it, and I would also call it a bad movie.

[1:12:57] But at the same time, it feels fairly harmless.

[1:13:00] I feel like we had a lot of fun with the Munsters today.

[1:13:02] But it's – if you're going to watch – if someone's going to make a – put their heart and soul into making a Munsters prequel reboot, then they're already operating under a pretty heavy burden right from the beginning.

[1:13:14] And I can't – it's not – I don't find it particularly funny, but everyone's trying their hardest, and there are parts that look really nice.

[1:13:22] And I just imagine what could have happened.

[1:13:25] It could have been a much worse or more misbegotten movie as opposed to a movie.

[1:13:30] This is kind of like looking for a reason to be and can't quite find it.

[1:13:34] Guys, this is officially a movie I kind of liked.

[1:13:39] What?

[1:13:40] I think all the performances are pitched at the right level.

[1:13:44] Sure, the jokes aren't very good, but again, the jokes on the fucking Munsters show weren't good.

[1:13:50] He's being more accurate and faithful to the style of the original.

[1:13:54] And it looks interesting.

[1:13:56] It's clearly made with love.

[1:13:59] I mean granted, yeah, there's no plot really.

[1:14:02] There's no arc.

[1:14:03] There's no real conflict.

[1:14:05] It's like a weird hang of a movie.

[1:14:09] And yeah, of course it doesn't all work.

[1:14:12] Am I saying it's the best movie ever?

[1:14:14] No, but this is a movie I kind of liked.

[1:14:16] I wasn't mad at it.

[1:14:17] Yeah.

[1:14:19] I like that the quote on the DVD box now is going to be dot, dot, dot, the best movie ever, dot, dot, dot.

[1:14:23] Snow Wellington, The Flophouse.

[1:14:25] And you know what?

[1:14:26] Hey, as long as I'm on the box, I don't care.

[1:14:30] Kevin, what about you?

[1:14:31] How do you?

[1:14:32] You asked at the top of the show, we're finally going to pay off the question, why did Kevin watch The Munsters in the first place?

[1:14:39] Much like with the final chapter in the Halloween series, I saw so much split debate about whether The Munsters was the worst movie ever made or actually really fun.

[1:14:51] I had to know for myself.

[1:14:53] I had to find out for myself.

[1:14:54] I watched The Munsters.

[1:14:55] I wanted to meet this movie on its own terms.

[1:14:58] I didn't want the nation to be divided because we're so divided as a nation in so many ways.

[1:15:02] I want to try to bring us together by understanding The Munsters.

[1:15:05] I feel like I want to meet the movie on its own terms, and I don't know what those terms are.

[1:15:09] I don't feel like Rob Zombie has given us instruction about how to engage with this or what this is.

[1:15:15] I like, Stuart, there are parts of it that I actually laughed out loud at, and I enjoyed the piano joke we mentioned.

[1:15:22] We ruined because we really didn't give it a proper setup, but it has its moments.

[1:15:26] It's kind of fun and harmless.

[1:15:28] No, no, no, no, no.

[1:15:30] I'm not pointing fingers, but I do admire Rob Zombie as a wife guy who keeps coming up with these films.

[1:15:39] A few years ago, if you ever have the opportunity to go to Blob Fest in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, it's the movie theater that The Blob attacks in the 1958 film The Blob.

[1:15:50] They show The Blob, I think, the first or second weekend every July.

[1:15:55] They have a big three-day festival with lots of rockabilly music, Elliot, because they know that that speaks to all generations.

[1:16:04] Bring your poodle skirt.

[1:16:06] When I was there one summer, they had just announced that Rob Zombie was going to remake The Blob, and everyone at Blob Fest was pissed.

[1:16:16] Everyone at Blob Fest was worried that Rob Zombie was going to ruin The Blob, and then that movie never happened, for better or worse.

[1:16:23] But the citizens of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, are much relieved it never happened.

[1:16:29] Instead, he made The Monsters, and I think this might have been a better landing ground for what he could have done next after remaking those Halloween movies.

[1:16:42] I kind of almost liked it.

[1:16:45] I can see why people do like it.

[1:16:47] I can also see why people can't stand it and turned it off after a few minutes.

[1:16:51] Yeah.

[1:16:52] I know that if I didn't have to watch it for the podcast, I probably never would have watched it, or if I had started watching it, I probably would have not finished it.

[1:17:00] But Rob Zombie is such a curious character as a film director because I feel like there's a – like I want him to develop in the way that he could develop, and he's not doing it.

[1:17:13] But I know that – I don't know if he's still doing it.

[1:17:15] He was going to do that movie based on the book Raised Eyebrows about the last years or so of Groucho Marx's life.

[1:17:23] After watching this movie, I'm like I'm not sure if Rob Zombie is – I never knew if he was going to be a good fit for that, but I'm like I'm not sure if this movie makes me less or more interested in what he would turn that into.

[1:17:34] Well, you had said, Elliot, on the Being the Ricardos episode that Aaron Sorkin is a guy who's fascinated with the machinations of comedy with no understanding of comedy.

[1:17:44] Yeah.

[1:17:45] I think there's a similar thing that Rob Zombie – when it comes to like capital C comedy, we're making a comedy.

[1:17:50] It's off the mark, but I think the funniest thing Rob Zombie ever did is in – is it in The Devil's Rejects where they bring in the movie expert to talk to the sheriff, and he's played by a character.

[1:18:03] I think that's the one I remember.

[1:18:05] I've got so much I can tell you about the films of Groucho, and it's this hilarious scene of the police being pissed off at this movie nerd in the 1970s.

[1:18:15] It's so funny.

[1:18:17] It's great.

[1:18:19] Basically, I wish Rob Zombie had made an entire film of Marty Walker, the film critic from The Devil's Rejects.

[1:18:27] Yeah.

[1:18:28] You never know.

[1:18:29] You never know.

[1:18:30] Maybe for the Captain Spauldingverse, maybe that'll be – because clearly he's a guy who likes – is interested in comedy and likes comedy.

[1:18:37] But yeah, I think – I don't know if he's got the – funny comes naturally to him.

[1:18:42] Probably needs a partner or a co-writer.

[1:18:44] Yeah, again, Rob, I know you're listening to this.

[1:18:47] You're probably a huge flop fan.

[1:18:48] Just at least bring me into the punch-up room.

[1:18:50] Just come on up.

[1:18:51] Bring your fucking Dragula around, and Elliot will hop in, and you guys can go fucking make a movie.

[1:18:55] I know I said all that stuff about rockabilly music.

[1:18:57] I like it fine.

[1:18:58] It's just not – I just – I always find it curious that that's the music that people who want to be transgressive are drawn to because it's kind of like a grandpa's version of rock and roll.

[1:19:07] But that's fine.

[1:19:08] That's okay.

[1:19:14] I'm sure you've noticed how giant corporations are controlling more and more about what we consume, whether it's our food, our news, or even the shows we enjoy.

[1:19:24] The Greatest Generation is a show that stands up to big Star Trek and says no.

[1:19:29] We can laugh about costumes that fit too tightly in the groin area.

[1:19:33] We can make a Star Trek podcast that's basically only about that.

[1:19:37] The Greatest Generation, the show for free and independent thinkers about Star Trek.

[1:19:42] And the groins of different costumes.

[1:19:44] Reviewing every episode in order.

[1:19:47] So subscribe to The Greatest Generation on MaximumFun.org.

[1:19:51] You'll be doing your part in telling the Star Trek industrial complex that they can't control your mind.

[1:19:57] Hi, it's Kevin from MaximumFun.org.

[1:20:00] Thank you.

[1:20:01] This year for Giving Tuesday, we're inviting you to a super fun tarot event.

[1:20:05] It's got some of your favorite max fun hosts and it's for a great cause.

[1:20:09] Join Depreche Mode's John Moe, Carrie Poppe of Ono, Ross, and Carrie, Stuart Wellington

[1:20:14] from the Flophouse, Tom Lum from Let's Learn Everything, and Ellen Weatherford of Just

[1:20:19] the Zoo of Us.

[1:20:20] Your suggested $10 donation supports National CASA, GAL, and their work advocating for kids

[1:20:26] in foster care.

[1:20:27] That's this Giving Tuesday, November 29th at 5 p.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Eastern.

[1:20:32] Check out MaximumFun.org slash events for more information and tickets to the Tarot

[1:20:37] Show with John Moe.

[1:20:39] Hey, you know what?

[1:20:42] This podcast has sponsors.

[1:20:44] Don't try and claim that we don't.

[1:20:47] In addition to the support of fine listeners who have joined the Maximum Fun Network, this

[1:20:53] episode is-

[1:20:54] Who we are thankful for every day.

[1:20:55] We're very thankful for.

[1:20:56] Thank you.

[1:20:57] Thank you very much for your support.

[1:20:58] Particularly because all three of us, our day jobs are, let's say, you know, constantly

[1:21:05] under threat because we chose unstable careers.

[1:21:10] I mean, Stuart seemed like the most stable until the pandemic happened, so.

[1:21:16] Yeah.

[1:21:17] Let's say our careers are erratic.

[1:21:18] Yeah.

[1:21:19] Very erratic.

[1:21:20] Mm-hmm.

[1:21:21] But we're also sponsored in part by Lumi Labs.

[1:21:25] Erotic?

[1:21:26] I mean, that's kind of the joke I was going for, but erratic.

[1:21:30] But if you are erratically erotic, then please see a sex therapist and a real one, not one

[1:21:35] of the ones that gets you involved in a web of deceit and betrayal.

[1:21:37] Yeah.

[1:21:38] If it looks like James Spader or smells like James Spader, probably a James Spader.

[1:21:43] We've entered the ad proper now.

[1:21:44] I just want to-

[1:21:45] You may have heard of microdosing.

[1:21:48] If you want to enjoy a colorful movie like Rob Zombie's The Munsters, maybe you want

[1:21:56] to look into microdose gummies, a sponsor of our show.

[1:21:59] Microdose gummies deliver perfect entry-level doses of THC that help you feel just the right

[1:22:03] amount of good.

[1:22:05] Yeah.

[1:22:06] Look, it's no secret I've used these gummies.

[1:22:09] I enjoy these gummies.

[1:22:10] I feel like, I don't know, I'm an irascible person.

[1:22:16] Sometimes they're helpful for smoothing out those moods.

[1:22:19] If that sounds like something interesting to you, maybe have some microdose gummies

[1:22:25] from LumiLabs.

[1:22:26] They're available nationwide, not naked-wide.

[1:22:29] I mean, you could be naked while you have them, who knows?

[1:22:32] I mean, you order them online, right?

[1:22:34] You could be naked while you order them, while you use them, use responsibly and be naked

[1:22:38] responsibly.

[1:22:39] You could be naked.

[1:22:40] You could be naked and wide, naked wide.

[1:22:42] There's all sorts of things you could do naked.

[1:22:44] Just do it in the comfort of your own home.

[1:22:46] Once you leave the house, that's when you get into some thorny legal areas.

[1:22:50] We're still in the ad proper.

[1:22:51] Yeah, yeah.

[1:22:52] Yeah, Dan, what was it you were saying to me and Stuart, implying that you need us to

[1:22:55] keep things on track?

[1:22:56] Microdose is available nationwide.

[1:22:57] To learn more about microdosing THC, go to microdose.com and use code FLOP to get free

[1:23:03] shipping and 30% off your first order.

[1:23:06] Links can be found in the show description, but again, that's microdose.com, code FLOP.

[1:23:12] Guys, is there anything you want to plug while we're in this zone?

[1:23:16] Kevin, we'll plug your book again at the end, but if you want to say anything about it now,

[1:23:21] feel free.

[1:23:24] I was going to try to compare it or link it to the monsters in some way as something that's

[1:23:29] for kids of all ages, but no, I'm not going to, I don't want it associated with Rob Zombie's

[1:23:34] Monsters in any way.

[1:23:36] It is, I'm going to give a little spoiler for the FLOP house fans right here.

[1:23:41] Okay, wow.

[1:23:42] You heard it here first, folks.

[1:23:43] It's still by the book.

[1:23:44] It's still by the book.

[1:23:46] You definitely, definitely want to get the book.

[1:23:47] You know what?

[1:23:48] I'll take a screenshot of the Zoom, so we'll actually, this visual stuff is not wasted.

[1:23:53] You can see how messy my room is.

[1:23:55] To the best of my knowledge, this is the first children's picture book with an appearance

[1:24:01] by gay icon, the Babadook.

[1:24:04] The Babadook shows up.

[1:24:06] Yeah, the pride monster himself.

[1:24:08] When we submitted the book to the publishers, Joe Dater and I, the illustrator, just assumed

[1:24:13] at some point we're going to get an email about how you can't put the Babadook into

[1:24:18] a children's picture book, and that email never came, and Joe had a substitute drawing

[1:24:23] ready to go of Santa Claus with Scooby-Doo instead, and we never got notified, so let's

[1:24:29] hear it for parody law.

[1:24:30] Let's do the same.

[1:24:31] Yay.

[1:24:32] Hopefully, FLOP house super fan Jennifer Kent isn't listening to this episode.

[1:24:38] Yeah, I hope not, but I hope everyone else is listening to it.

[1:24:43] Suddenly the fear dawned into Kevin's eyes.

[1:24:45] Don't worry.

[1:24:46] Jennifer Kent doesn't know who we are.

[1:24:47] That was one of those moments where Stuart is trying to actualize his fantasies.

[1:24:52] That's what my therapist is having me work out, is saying what I want out loud.

[1:24:56] You got to tell the universe.

[1:24:57] The universe doesn't know how to give it to you.

[1:24:59] Yeah.

[1:25:00] Well, so that book, how can our audience find it?

[1:25:02] How can they get it?

[1:25:03] Wherever books are sold, which is probably online.

[1:25:06] What's the title again?

[1:25:07] Where you buy your books, right?

[1:25:08] The book, thank you, is Santa Doesn't Need Your Help by Kevin Marr, illustrated by Joe

[1:25:13] Dater.

[1:25:14] It's Santa Doesn't Need Your Help, and it was originally conceived as a short film shown

[1:25:18] at a Kevin Geeks Out show last December, framed in the style of a Reading Rainbow video with

[1:25:24] this rudimentary animation that was our justification for low-rent animation, and then Joe, the

[1:25:30] illustrator, is like, I'm going to show this to my agent, and he's going to see if we can

[1:25:34] sell this book.

[1:25:35] It was going to be an adult humor book, which it is, it absolutely is, or grown-up book,

[1:25:40] not adult in a Fritz the Cat kind of way.

[1:25:43] It is a funny, satirical take on the holidays for grown-ups, but kids will like it, too.

[1:25:49] So if you need a gift for a child, a niece, a nephew, a son, a daughter, whoever, pick

[1:25:56] up Santa Doesn't Need Your Help.

[1:25:58] It hits all four quadrants, just like The Munsters 2022, directed by Rob Zemp.

[1:26:03] You know, I probably should have watched The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas, because

[1:26:09] that's The Munsters' Christmas movie from the 90s.

[1:26:11] Yeah, why don't we pause the podcast, Kevin, why don't you go watch that, and come on back.

[1:26:16] All right, I'm back.

[1:26:18] Anne Magnusson was great as Lily Munster.

[1:26:21] I don't know about the rest of the cast.

[1:26:22] Curiously, this film does say that The Munsters' Eddie lived in Transylvania before moving

[1:26:29] to Los Angeles.

[1:26:30] So apparently Rob Zemp is playing a little fast and loose with the continuity as established

[1:26:34] in the 1990s reboot, The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas.

[1:26:37] I have to assume that there's a big divide in The Munsters' fandom over what's canon

[1:26:43] and what's not canon, you know.

[1:26:44] Definitely.

[1:26:45] Do you guys have anything, or shall I move on to letters?

[1:26:49] I'd love to promote two things that I love to promote always.

[1:26:53] Do you have kids?

[1:26:54] Well, after you're done buying them, Santa Doesn't Need Your Help, why don't you subscribe

[1:26:58] to the Who Was podcast, presented by iHeartRadio, but it's available on all podcast apps.

[1:27:03] It's a podcast I co-host, and it is a quiz show for kids about historical figures.

[1:27:08] It's very silly, and I think your kids will probably like it, and hey, maybe they'll even

[1:27:12] learn something.

[1:27:13] Not for kids.

[1:27:14] Don't show them this.

[1:27:15] Maniac of New York is coming back.

[1:27:16] That's right.

[1:27:17] December 7th, the first issue of Maniac of New York, volume three, don't call it a comeback.

[1:27:22] The title is, yep, Kevin's holding up Maniac of New York, volume one, thank you.

[1:27:25] For the listeners.

[1:27:26] For the listeners to hear the sound of a book being held up to a microphone.

[1:27:32] Maniac of New York, don't call it a comeback, number one, coming out the first ...

[1:27:36] He's flipping it.

[1:27:37] He's flipping those pages.

[1:27:38] He's doing some ASMR here.

[1:27:39] Yeah.

[1:27:40] Anyway, it's coming out December 7th.

[1:27:44] Please pick up a copy for the latest installment in the Maniac of New York saga.

[1:27:49] Yeah, I got a quick plug.

[1:27:50] Hey, you like podcasts.

[1:27:52] Why don't you check out a podcast, The Flaw Pass Podcast, a podcast where we talk about

[1:27:56] bad movies and make jokes.

[1:27:59] Wait a minute.

[1:28:00] I think I got this confused.

[1:28:01] I thought we were doing a peach pit after dark.

[1:28:04] Okay, or a peach pit after dark.

[1:28:06] Okay, my mistake.

[1:28:07] Don't listen to The Flaw Pass.

[1:28:08] Wait, hold on.

[1:28:09] I mean, dude, don't do that.

[1:28:11] Let's move on to letters.

[1:28:13] Don't do what Johnny Don't does.

[1:28:16] We've got a special mailbag.

[1:28:18] It's all about Aline, the last movie we watched.

[1:28:23] Some francophone listeners wrote in about our questions.

[1:28:28] This one's from ... So francophone allows you to call anyone named Frank, right?

[1:28:33] This one's from Kristen Lastname Withheld, who lives in Montreal.

[1:28:38] And Kristen writes, hello floppers, I was delighted to see you covering that complete

[1:28:43] mess of a film, Aline, and I'm happy to provide at least some of the missing context as a

[1:28:48] resident of Quebec.

[1:28:50] In terms of relevance, it's difficult to overstate how beloved Celine Dion is in Quebec.

[1:28:57] Princess Diana, before she died, is actually not a bad comparison.

[1:29:01] She is less beloved than the rest of Canada, but certainly considered an important and

[1:29:05] respected figure.

[1:29:07] You could make her an ambassador to somewhere, and it would be a bit funny, but not very.

[1:29:14] As this movie ... Okay, unless she was the ambassador to the Vatican, which apparently

[1:29:20] is hilarious when French-Canadian people say it.

[1:29:23] We didn't pick up the joke.

[1:29:24] As this movie was actually made in France and not Quebec, it thus trades on a lot of

[1:29:28] stereotypes about French-Canadians.

[1:29:31] They speak with a silly accent.

[1:29:33] They have too many babies.

[1:29:34] They are controlled by the church.

[1:29:36] They are tacky.

[1:29:37] Remember the bit where Aline and her sister are cooing over an Ann Geddes calendar?

[1:29:42] That's in there to say, look at these ignorant hicks.

[1:29:45] Nevertheless, this movie was a big hit here and did well in theaters.

[1:29:50] As a woman in her 40s living in Montreal, Google is convinced that I am a Celine Dion

[1:29:54] superfan and will not stop recommending stories to me about how mad the Dions are.

[1:30:00] are about this film.

[1:30:01] One article quoted Dion as saying

[1:30:05] it made them look like a bunch of boujons,

[1:30:07] grunters, or hicks, which is not wrong.

[1:30:10] I think Valerie Lemercier stoked up the controversy

[1:30:13] to get more publicity for her movie

[1:30:16] since I also saw a bunch of stories

[1:30:18] where she was speculating about Celine's health

[1:30:20] and whether her family is controlling her

[1:30:22] and stuff like that.

[1:30:25] I have a friend who-

[1:30:26] And how did Celine Dion's brother, Dion Sanders,

[1:30:28] feel about it?

[1:30:30] Yeah, that's a good question.

[1:30:31] Well, it's outside the scope of this email.

[1:30:34] Again, you can't ask an email a question

[1:30:38] and have it answer you back, but we can-

[1:30:39] Email, email, I have a follow-up question, email.

[1:30:42] Doesn't work like that.

[1:30:43] It's not gonna work.

[1:30:44] I have a friend who refers to Celine Dion's marriage

[1:30:46] as a hashtag Me Too story with a happy ending.

[1:30:48] You're not sure what it's like in France,

[1:30:50] but romances between men in their 50s

[1:30:52] and women in their late teens, early 20s

[1:30:54] are generally considered creepy

[1:30:56] and inappropriate here as well.

[1:30:58] Can't chalk this one up to cultural differences.

[1:31:01] What if the women in their late teens, early 20s

[1:31:03] are being played by a woman in their 50s?

[1:31:05] So the age difference is almost unidentifiable.

[1:31:08] Yeah, that's a good point.

[1:31:09] Seems like it goes almost the other way at points.

[1:31:13] If you have any more questions about Celine Dion

[1:31:15] and her place in Quebecois culture, please ask.

[1:31:18] I'll be happy to act as your official

[1:31:21] Celine Dion correspondent.

[1:31:23] Courgez les bons.

[1:31:24] Okay, you got the job, Kristen.

[1:31:27] Well, Kristen may have the job,

[1:31:29] but we also have something from Roxanne last name withheld.

[1:31:31] Oh, I spoke too soon.

[1:31:33] You mean we have a letter from Roxanne?

[1:31:36] That's a reference to a song.

[1:31:39] You don't have to wear that dress.

[1:31:40] That's a reference to a Steve Martin movie.

[1:31:45] That's a reference to Zeus and Roxanne,

[1:31:46] the story of a dolphin and a dog who have sex.

[1:31:49] Steve Martin was in there?

[1:31:50] Yeah, he played Zeus, I think.

[1:31:52] Wow, that's the dog.

[1:31:54] I think so.

[1:31:56] Dan?

[1:31:57] I know that Andre is a seal.

[1:31:59] Not Tom Tiny Lester as Zeus.

[1:32:03] Thanks for clarifying.

[1:32:06] Because he was the enemy of Rip, played by Hulk Hogan.

[1:32:09] Yeah, yeah, I remember in the Mad Magazine parody

[1:32:13] of that movie, he was called Zeus

[1:32:14] because they said he smelled like an animal.

[1:32:16] I don't remember anything about any plot

[1:32:18] of any episode of the Munsters.

[1:32:20] I briefly was like, oh, I need to reset

[1:32:23] that this is from Roxanne last name withheld.

[1:32:25] Then I remembered that the whole digression

[1:32:26] was about Roxanne, so.

[1:32:28] Yeah, it was about how she's saying Roxanne.

[1:32:30] Hi, as a longtime Lister from Quebec

[1:32:33] and a diehard Celine fan, we all have to be at birth,

[1:32:36] I was so excited to see you were doing Aline.

[1:32:39] I think the funniest thing for us about the movie

[1:32:40] is that it's obviously a French person's

[1:32:43] from France perspective on Quebec culture.

[1:32:46] The Vatican bit is probably in there

[1:32:47] because they tend to make fun of how we speak

[1:32:49] and they thought it was funny.

[1:32:50] Hence why the movie was successful in France,

[1:32:52] but not so much in Quebec.

[1:32:54] I perceived it as an obvious dig at our accent

[1:32:56] like that was the joke.

[1:32:58] Composite names are popular here

[1:33:00] like Jean-Philippe, Marc Olivier, et cetera.

[1:33:04] But the sibling's name really made me cackle out loud

[1:33:06] while watching this on the plane.

[1:33:08] I've never heard of anyone named Jean Bobin or Guy Claude.

[1:33:13] Also the town where the family is from

[1:33:14] seems to look more like a colonial Nouvelle France

[1:33:18] instead of Quebec in the 20th century.

[1:33:20] And finally, Aline is clearly played by someone from France.

[1:33:24] Her QC accent goes downhill real fast.

[1:33:28] Anyway, all this is to say

[1:33:30] this is not representative of French-Canadian culture.

[1:33:33] If they had shown the sex scene,

[1:33:34] I'm assuming they would have had Aline and Guy Claude

[1:33:37] playing wooden spoons on each other's bodies.

[1:33:40] Roxanne, last name withheld,

[1:33:41] I assume that's a reference that I also don't get.

[1:33:45] In what, like Manana the Spring or something?

[1:33:48] I mean, my guess, yeah, if they had,

[1:33:50] I'm surprised now there wasn't a scene

[1:33:51] where they were kind of like

[1:33:52] flirtatiously eating poutine together.

[1:33:55] No, it is interesting to see

[1:33:56] how much of this movie is apparently just France

[1:34:00] being like, look at these colonial pics.

[1:34:04] Yeah.

[1:34:05] I love also that that went completely over our heads.

[1:34:08] And it's something, as Americans,

[1:34:10] I feel like we always need to be reminded

[1:34:11] that other countries can have relationships with each other

[1:34:13] that America is not a part of.

[1:34:15] And whenever it's like Sweden and Swaziland

[1:34:19] are having a diplomatic row,

[1:34:20] and I'm like, why would they even know each other?

[1:34:22] I don't understand.

[1:34:23] It's easy to forget the rest of the world.

[1:34:25] Are they friends?

[1:34:26] Yeah, exactly.

[1:34:29] So, but I'm loving having my eyes opened

[1:34:32] to all these nuances.

[1:34:33] Yeah.

[1:34:34] What else you got for us, Dan?

[1:34:35] That's it.

[1:34:37] Oh, wow.

[1:34:38] All right, so the journey of exploration is over.

[1:34:41] Yeah, our culture of change has ended.

[1:34:43] So unlike a normal Campbell quest

[1:34:47] where it would be kind of like the first gatekeeper

[1:34:49] and the second gatekeeper

[1:34:50] and the meeting with the goddess

[1:34:51] and then eventually return home,

[1:34:52] this was just kind of step outside and check the weather

[1:34:54] and then go back inside again.

[1:34:55] Yeah, great.

[1:34:56] Yeah, that's the hero's journey we were on.

[1:34:57] Well, that's all I have the energy for.

[1:34:59] That's the hero's sort of stroll around the block.

[1:35:03] The hero's amble.

[1:35:05] Okay, well, let's move on to the final Flophouse segment.

[1:35:10] You've all grown to know and love recommendations,

[1:35:12] movies that might be a better use of your time

[1:35:16] than the Munsters.

[1:35:19] I'm gonna recommend, I saw Eegah.

[1:35:24] It's an Indian movie by the director of RRR.

[1:35:28] Eegah is the-

[1:35:29] So not Eegah, the 60s movie about a caveman

[1:35:32] starring Richard Gere.

[1:35:33] It is E-E-G-A, there's no H at the end of this.

[1:35:37] It is the Telugu word for fly

[1:35:40] because this is a comedy action romance movie

[1:35:45] about a man who is killed by his romantic rival

[1:35:51] and then comes back as a fly to take revenge

[1:35:57] and to continue wooing his former lost love as a fly.

[1:36:02] And oh boy, what a fun movie.

[1:36:06] Like, I did not get to see RRR in theaters.

[1:36:10] I still haven't seen it in general

[1:36:12] because I keep hoping that I can make it

[1:36:15] to one of the screenings that still pops up

[1:36:18] here in New York from time to time.

[1:36:19] But if you ever want a movie about a love story

[1:36:25] with a fly, a fly that, by the way,

[1:36:27] also, I saw someone online make a very smart point

[1:36:32] that if this was an American movie,

[1:36:34] they're like, okay, the guy comes back as a fly,

[1:36:35] we have to hear the fly's thoughts.

[1:36:38] No, we don't hear the fly's thoughts.

[1:36:39] The fly's a fly.

[1:36:40] The fly, it lives between realistic CGI fly

[1:36:45] and cartoon fly, but it does what a fly does,

[1:36:51] except for a fly who is also a human

[1:36:53] who understands human things

[1:36:55] and there's a fly training montage.

[1:36:57] That's how I sold it to Audrey when I came home.

[1:36:59] I said three words, fly training montage.

[1:37:01] It's a lot of fun.

[1:37:03] Yeah, you're just gonna enjoy it.

[1:37:06] Go ahead and see it.

[1:37:07] See you guys.

[1:37:09] That's my recommendation.

[1:37:10] That sounds great.

[1:37:11] I'm gonna recommend a movie I watched

[1:37:13] on the plane out to LA.

[1:37:15] That's right, I'm recording on the road, folks,

[1:37:18] sitting next to my pal, Elliot Kalin,

[1:37:19] here in sunny Los Angeles.

[1:37:23] Yesterday, I went to Universal Studios,

[1:37:25] went on the studio tour,

[1:37:27] and there was a really great little section on Nope.

[1:37:29] It was awesome, but that's not what I'm here to recommend.

[1:37:32] I'm here to recommend other stuff, specifically a movie,

[1:37:34] a movie called The Square, directed by Ruben Ostlund,

[1:37:37] who's currently got a movie in theaters right now

[1:37:39] called Triangle of Sadness.

[1:37:42] The Square is kind of a, well, it's long,

[1:37:46] and it's kind of a skewering of the fine art world

[1:37:50] and also kind of like well-intentioned charity

[1:37:56] on the behalf of shallow, rich people.

[1:38:00] It follows a museum curator played by Clay Spang

[1:38:05] or Clay Spong, who was in The Northmen,

[1:38:09] and also recently, Bad Sisters,

[1:38:11] playing one of the biggest pieces of shit

[1:38:14] I've ever seen on television.

[1:38:17] He's like so terrible, like within the,

[1:38:20] it's no spoiler that this character dies,

[1:38:22] but within like two minutes of the first episode,

[1:38:25] you're like, this motherfucker needs to go.

[1:38:28] And he's so terrible.

[1:38:28] And as you said to me when you were talking about it,

[1:38:30] that's before he starts doing some really wild shit.

[1:38:34] Yes, he calls his wife Mammy once,

[1:38:37] and I'm like, I would chop his fucking head off.

[1:38:39] But so he plays the lead in this,

[1:38:44] and he is also like a piece of shit in this,

[1:38:48] but there's a little more depth, I guess.

[1:38:50] He's less of a comic villain, and it's great.

[1:38:54] And even though it's kind of a bludgeon at times,

[1:38:58] I feel like it gives you enough stuff to think about,

[1:39:03] but without exactly giving you a clear answer.

[1:39:05] And it also has a very crazy scene

[1:39:08] where a character is a fine arts performer

[1:39:12] is doing like a performance art piece

[1:39:15] where he is imitating a chimpanzee,

[1:39:19] and it goes disastrously wrong.

[1:39:22] It's intense, quite a movie.

[1:39:23] So The Square, check it out.

[1:39:25] I'm gonna recommend a movie too, how about that?

[1:39:27] I'm also recommending movies.

[1:39:29] I'll jump on this bandwagon.

[1:39:30] I'm gonna recommend a movie from 1951.

[1:39:32] This was directed by Anthony Mann,

[1:39:34] and it's a movie called The Tall Target.

[1:39:35] Now you know me, I love history.

[1:39:37] I love Abraham Lincoln.

[1:39:38] I also love 50s crime thrillers.

[1:39:40] What if they could all be put together into one movie?

[1:39:43] That's right, this is finally it.

[1:39:44] This is the suspense thriller

[1:39:46] in which Dick Powell is a New York policeman

[1:39:48] who knows that there is a plot to assassinate

[1:39:51] President-elect Abraham Lincoln on the train to Washington.

[1:39:54] And he's gotta find out who's behind it and stop them

[1:39:59] before they can.

[1:40:00] uh, changed the course of history, although he doesn't know how history is supposed to

[1:40:03] happen. It's 1861, he doesn't know. Uh, it's a, it's a real fun movie, uh, it moves real

[1:40:09] fast, uh, and it's got fight scenes on trains, and I love those. Uh, and it's a movie that

[1:40:16] manages to be about history without feeling kind of stuffy, and without feeling, um, like,

[1:40:23] too respectful of the time. Throughout On the Train, ordinary people are constantly

[1:40:27] disagreeing about Lincoln, and whether there's going to be war, and if there is, whether

[1:40:31] it's good or not, and it felt very relevant right now. Leading, you know, watching it

[1:40:36] in the, in the months leading up to this most recent election, it was like, people, it felt

[1:40:40] like being in a place where you can't quite say your political opinion out loud because

[1:40:44] someone's going to argue with you, and you don't know whose side everybody is on, and

[1:40:48] because that's what it was like, and that's kind of what it feels like nowadays, and...

[1:40:50] And kind of how it felt like when I came into this podcast, where we were talking about

[1:40:53] the monsters. I hope this is, I hope you still, you felt this was a safe space to talk

[1:40:58] about your liking of the monsters. Yeah, because you guys are pretty understanding when I have

[1:41:02] an opinion you don't agree with. I mean, not usually, but, uh, the, but I really enjoyed

[1:41:08] The Tall Target, and there is one moment in it that I would really like someone to sample,

[1:41:13] where, uh, they stop in Baltimore, and, uh, this lady, she, there's a kid selling newspapers,

[1:41:17] and this lady goes, is it war? And the kid goes, no, man, it's Baltimore. And the, and

[1:41:22] the way that he says it, because it is so funny, and I want some Baltimore-based hip-hop

[1:41:26] group to sample that at the beginning of something. I think it's a, it's just a great back and

[1:41:30] forth. Uh, but Tall Target is just a fun movie in a way that historical movies sometimes

[1:41:36] aren't, and yet feels kind of relevant at the same time, and there's fight scenes on

[1:41:41] trains. I don't know why you're not watching it right now. Wait, yes, I know, because Kevin's

[1:41:45] going to recommend a movie. You know, October, you watch a lot of scary movies, right? I,

[1:41:49] I didn't, I fell behind. Constantly. So, I, I made up for it by watching one incredible

[1:41:57] movie, which had just somehow escaped my radar from 1981, from the director of the later Planet

[1:42:04] of the Apes films, J. Lee Thompson, 1981's Happy Birthday to Me, you know, the one with the shish

[1:42:10] kebab on the cover. It's great, it's well-made, it's like an American giallo, uh, but not too

[1:42:17] much, it's not trying too hard to be that, and it was just like a very well-made, suspenseful,

[1:42:22] uh, mystery horror slasher film with not one, but two cast members of the movie Meatballs

[1:42:30] showing up. I always love, I always love seeing the campers from Camp North Star show up in other

[1:42:36] Canadian movies. This one had not one, but two. So, highly recommended, a lot of fun. If, if like

[1:42:42] me, you kind of dismissed it, uh, it's, it's worth your time. Based on the box cover. Yeah.

[1:42:47] Based on the box cover. I also, also, I watched that recently as well, and I just, I had a great

[1:42:53] time, and it, like, with that kind of giallo, or giallo, like, influenced movie. Giello, there's

[1:43:00] always room for it. I, I, the wilder the explanation for everything, the happier I am, and it is. Oh,

[1:43:07] it gets totally bonkers at the end. Um, and, you know, this is a bad movie podcast. I belong to a

[1:43:12] bad movie group, where we watch a movie on, on Monday nights occasionally. Uh, I don't know if

[1:43:17] you guys have ever seen it, but last week, we watched a film called Georgia Rule, which I'm

[1:43:21] gonna walk you guys through. I'm kidding. This is just a joke, just a joke. Okay. Yeah, but I watched,

[1:43:28] I watched the movie, and then I, I watched the movie, and then I went back and heard the episode.

[1:43:33] I, I heard the episode. Oh my god, guys. That was,

[1:43:38] yeah. Um, it's a, it's, it's a movie. I feel like there's a, there, I feel like there,

[1:43:42] there's an oral history done by, um, what's her name, that Russian author who won the Nobel Prize

[1:43:46] for Literature. She does oral histories, an oral history of people who went to see Georgia Rule,

[1:43:49] thinking it was going to be a life comedy, and not being prepared for what it was actually about.

[1:43:54] Yeah. Um, hey, before we, uh, do our normal sign-off stuff, and, uh, plug, uh, Kevin's book,

[1:44:02] One More Time, there's a announcement I would like to make of a flop house contest, contest,

[1:44:07] contest, contest. Our producer... Dan, don't fall down that, oh no, don't fall that, that, that

[1:44:12] tunnel, or that pit. Luckily, my, uh, microphone fell down with me, so I can continue talking to

[1:44:17] you. Oh, good. Um, our producer, Al Smith, a wonderful producer, does music under the name

[1:44:24] HowlDotty, and has his own podcast called HowlDotty's Fast Track, where the premise is that

[1:44:30] he and his guests will write lyrics to a song in half an hour, then Alex writes music for that song,

[1:44:35] and kicks it back to the guests through the vocal tracks, and the three of us were on the show

[1:44:40] recently. We did a song called Sexy Xenomorph, which was about Stuart having an illicit encounter

[1:44:47] with the titular sexy xenomorph, and I gotta say, we're pretty proud of how it turned out. It's

[1:44:53] actually a really good song, so we're gonna do another flop house contest for listeners, uh,

[1:44:59] to make a music video for Sexy Xenomorph. Uh, Alex is gonna drop the song in somewhere at the

[1:45:05] end of this episode, and there will also be a link in the show notes, so people can just download the

[1:45:10] track on its own. Uh, so if you want to enter the contest, what you do is you make a music video

[1:45:17] for the song, you can do whatever you want, live action, animation, puppets, uh, use old footage and

[1:45:23] re-edit it, whatever. If you want to go into the studio archives, get the xenomorph costume,

[1:45:30] put it on, dance around in it, we can't stop you. We wouldn't want to. Uh, once you've done your

[1:45:36] video, upload it as a public video on YouTube, with the words, uh, Sexy Xenomorph somewhere in

[1:45:42] the title, and somewhere in the video, or just... Dan, your search is gonna bring up a lot of

[1:45:47] interest. No, no, no, no. It's not for the search, it's just identification, but, uh, have Sexy Xenomorph

[1:45:54] somewhere in the title, and somewhere in the video, or video description, whichever. Just credit the

[1:46:00] music to HowlDotty's Fast Track and the Flop House Podcast. Then once it's uploaded, email a link to

[1:46:07] us at FlopHousePodcast at gmail.com, with the subject line, Sexy Xenomorph Podcast.

[1:46:16] Uh, I just, it just occurred to me how funny that is. Uh, Sexy Xenomorph Contest. Um, so yes, Flop

[1:46:25] House Podcast. So Sexy Xenomorph Contest, in the subject line, Sexy Xenomorph Contest. At gmail.com, with the subject line, Sexy Xenomorph Context, Contest, sorry.

[1:46:33] Context. What's the context? Context is the contest. So the context is that, yeah, there's a contest about a song,

[1:46:39] where I have an illicit relationship with a, uh, that explains a lot. And, uh, because this is a little more complex,

[1:46:45] you know, you have to make an actual video, we're gonna be accepting entries up to the stroke of

[1:46:49] midnight on New Year's Eve. Uh, so as long as you get it in in 2020, we will take a look once we have...

[1:46:57] I mean 2022. 2022, sorry. Oh, God. Uh, once we have all the entries... Everyone, don't worry,

[1:47:03] you did not miss the deadline by two years. Once we have all the entries, we'll, we'll pick our

[1:47:09] favorite one somewhere between five and ten, depending on how many entries we get, and then

[1:47:13] we'll set up a page of, like, those semi-finalists on our website, where you, the listener, can vote

[1:47:19] on the ultimate winner. And, uh, you know, like, that we'll figure out a little later, but we'll

[1:47:24] probably keep that voting open through January. The winner will get a Flophouse prize pack and

[1:47:30] get to pick a movie for us to cover. So, uh, don't worry if you've missed some of the rules. I'll put

[1:47:36] this in the show notes and on the website, and you can also rewind the... This is a podcast. It's on

[1:47:42] your, uh, phone or whatever. You can go back and listen to it again. That's the other option. Yeah,

[1:47:47] don't worry. These memories aren't gonna disappear like tears in the rain. You can, you can go back

[1:47:52] and relive them again. So, that's the sexy xenomorph. Attack ships will be on fire. Yeah,

[1:47:56] attack ships will be on fire. Yeah, sea beams off the shoulder of whatever. Yeah, that's, yeah. Uh,

[1:48:01] but, um, that's it. Uh, we want to thank Kevin Marr for being our guest. We want to plug, uh,

[1:48:07] Santa doesn't need your help. This is such a treat. Thanks so much, Kevin. Oh, this is great. Thank

[1:48:11] you. Thank you for watching the Munsters movie 10 or 11 times for us. We really appreciate that.

[1:48:17] And Dan, Dan, what a great job. Thank you. Let's do a round of applause. Yeah, let's hear it for

[1:48:23] the boy. Yeah, give me a thank you. Oh, I think the boys heard it enough. Okay. I just want to

[1:48:28] ask, did we, I don't want to spoil too much of your book, but I don't know whether you even set

[1:48:32] up the premise of like... Spoiled. Yeah, I'm happy to, yeah, walk people through it. The idea is,

[1:48:37] uh, it's, it's two nights. It's, it's the night before Christmas Eve. A K-pop band comes to the

[1:48:44] North Pole to say this year they will take over for Santa and save Christmas. And Santa Claus

[1:48:50] is realizing year after year, someone from pop culture shows up to save Christmas and he has

[1:48:56] not gone out in over 20 years. Yeah. So he decides he is tired of being talked down to like people

[1:49:02] can't, uh, think he can't do his job. He's going to go out and do it himself. As it turns out,

[1:49:06] Santa has gotten a little old and a little out of practice and has a very difficult Christmas Eve

[1:49:12] night. Yeah. So it is a struggle. It is, uh, hilarious and it's got a lot of good pop culture

[1:49:18] stuff. If you, uh, if you enjoy Rankin Bass Christmas specials or just any of the old

[1:49:23] Christmas specials, I think you'll enjoy some of the humor in here. Beautifully, beautifully

[1:49:27] illustrated by Joe Dater, who's a New Yorker cartoonist. He has a great sense of composition,

[1:49:31] how to like tell a story in a single frame. So every, every page, uh, has some great stuff going

[1:49:38] on and it's all, it's all written in rhyme. So you'll enjoy getting to read it out loud.

[1:49:43] If that's your thing. Great. Um, yeah, yes, that's it. I have a copy. It's great. It's great. Well,

[1:49:50] that's it. I'd like to thank our network maximum fun. Go to maximumfund.org.

[1:49:55] Check out the other great podcasts on the network. If you like our show, uh,

[1:50:00] give us a rating on iTunes, write a review.

[1:50:02] It does help the way that they have everything set up.

[1:50:05] If you don't like it, maybe, you know,

[1:50:07] just, you know, give it to your natural impulse

[1:50:09] to be lazy and not do anything about that.

[1:50:11] And thank you to all.

[1:50:13] Yeah, why does everyone always need

[1:50:15] an opinion on everything, you know?

[1:50:16] If you don't like the podcast,

[1:50:17] just kind of, just remove it from your mind.

[1:50:19] But if you do like it, maybe hire someone

[1:50:22] to sky write about it over a major metropolitan city.

[1:50:25] Hire us a publicist, maybe do that.

[1:50:26] Yeah, if you could pay for the publicist,

[1:50:29] that'd be great, thank you.

[1:50:31] Eccentric millionaire with money to burn,

[1:50:33] why not help us out?

[1:50:34] But anyway.

[1:50:35] Or a rational millionaire with money to burn.

[1:50:38] We'll accept it from any kind of millionaire.

[1:50:40] Thank you again.

[1:50:41] Not billionaires, though.

[1:50:42] No, no, billionaires, you can go stuff yourself.

[1:50:44] To Alex Smith, our producer of the HowlDotty Fast Track,

[1:50:50] thank you for making us sound good.

[1:50:51] And for The Flop House, I've been Dan McCoy.

[1:50:55] Hey, I've been Stuart Wellington.

[1:50:58] This is Elliot Kalin, the real monster,

[1:51:00] and joining us has been.

[1:51:02] Kevin Maher.

[1:51:03] Bye.

[1:51:04] Bye.

[1:51:05] Bye.

[1:51:06] Bye.

[1:51:08] It was a crisp autumn night.

[1:51:16] And I'm walking down the street,

[1:51:23] and I see a light form that I'd like to meet.

[1:51:26] Rising up in front of me, I beheld an eerie glow.

[1:51:31] But it was just a neon sign above the bar where I'd like to go.

[1:51:35] Stewart doesn't know what he's about to find,

[1:51:38] a slimy beast with a dirty mind.

[1:51:40] A body with a body from beyond the stars,

[1:51:42] from a distant planet called Super Mars.

[1:51:45] Super sexy, super sexy Mars.

[1:51:49] Super, super sexy, super sexy Mars.

[1:51:53] I scroll in the door with my collar popped,

[1:51:58] order up a drink and some liver chopped.

[1:52:02] Out the corner of my eye, something glistened and gleamed.

[1:52:07] It was the techno-organic creature of my dreams.

[1:52:12] An instant spark from across the place

[1:52:14] when he saw the little face inside the bigger face.

[1:52:16] She had a drink he had to taste,

[1:52:19] but she had a third face inside the little face.

[1:52:29] She was a xenomorph.

[1:52:33] Super sexy xenomorph,

[1:52:35] sex xenomorph, sex xenomorph.

[1:52:39] xenomorph, xenomorph.

[1:52:44] sex xenomorph, sex xenomorph.

[1:52:48] I'm shaking like a leaf,

[1:52:50] but I gotta stay cool.

[1:52:53] And I don't wanna get burnt by her acidic drool.

[1:52:57] I touch her skeletal knee

[1:53:00] and say,

[1:53:01] hello.

[1:53:02] Gesture to the door and say,

[1:53:05] let's go.

[1:53:07] They slipped up a bet he was the luckiest of men.

[1:53:09] Little did he know he'd never see him again.

[1:53:11] She stole his heart and ripped him in two.

[1:53:13] Played an egg in his tummy.

[1:53:14] Don't let this happen to you.

[1:53:16] Don't let this happen to you.

[1:53:17] She was a xenomorph,

[1:53:19] xenomorph,

[1:53:21] super sexy xenomorph,

[1:53:22] sex xenomorph,

[1:53:24] so dangerously

[1:53:25] super sexy xenomorph.

[1:53:27] Xenomorph, xenomorph.

[1:53:32] sex xenomorph.

[1:53:33] So dangerously

[1:53:40] She's a xenomorph.

[1:53:44] Xenomorph.

[1:53:48] She's a xenomorph.

[1:53:54] Oh, oh yeah, no.

[1:53:56] No, no, no, no.

[1:53:57] It's, it's cool.

[1:53:58] No, no one else is around.

[1:53:59] It's just me and you.

[1:54:02] No.

[1:54:03] Lights out.

[1:54:04] I want to see you.

[1:54:05] Oh ho!

[1:54:06] Oh!

[1:54:07] There is a second face.

[1:54:09] Oh, for me?

[1:54:11] Huh?

[1:54:55] It was worth it.

[1:54:59] Maximumfun.org

[1:55:01] Comedy and culture.

[1:55:03] Artist owned. Audience supported.

Ep #383 - The Munsters, with Kevin Maher

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