FH Mini 47 - The Netflix RomCom Cinematic Universe, with Scott Meslow

[0:00] Okay, I'm going to nail it.

[0:02] Hey, this is the Flophouse Mini, a mini episode of the popular hit podcast, The Flophouse.

[0:11] Now, normally on The Flophouse, we review a bad movie that we have recently watched,

[0:15] but tonight we're doing a mini where we're going to do whatever we want.

[0:19] And for tonight, I am your host, Stuart Wellington, and joining me are my other hosts, Dad McCoy.

[0:25] I'm Elliot Kalin.

[0:27] And we have a special guest tonight.

[0:28] That's right.

[0:29] We are joined by Scott Meslow.

[0:32] He is an author.

[0:34] He is my friend.

[0:35] He has a hot new book coming out titled, From Hollywood with Love, The Rise and Fall and

[0:41] Rise Again of the Romantic Comedy.

[0:44] And it's coming out soon.

[0:45] Hooray.

[0:46] Scott, thanks for joining us.

[0:47] Yeah, of course.

[0:48] You created Meslow's Hierarchy of Needs, actually.

[0:49] Dan, I'm so mad you got to a Meslow's Hierarchy of Needs joke before I did.

[0:54] I had that in my chamber the whole intro.

[0:57] Oh, sorry.

[0:58] That's the first time I've ever gotten that.

[0:59] Unbelievable.

[1:00] It's crazy, right?

[1:01] Now, the only thing I can do is make a joke about Mesrow, the character from the Nexus

[1:05] comic books, which is not going to be as interesting for anybody.

[1:08] Now, that is the first time I've ever gotten that.

[1:10] OK.

[1:11] OK.

[1:12] So, actually, today's episode is going to be Elliot explaining who Mesrow is while we

[1:16] check our phones the whole time.

[1:19] No, Scott, so thanks for joining us.

[1:23] What are we going to be talking about today?

[1:24] Oh, I have such an exciting topic for us.

[1:28] We are going to dive into the Netflix Christmas rom-com cinematic universe.

[1:33] What's the most underappreciated cinematic universe of all?

[1:37] The NFRCCU.

[1:38] I feel like like Hallmark movies and Netflix rom-coms are probably covered exhaustively

[1:44] on a number of other great podcasts.

[1:47] But I think tonight we're going to add our own little spin on it.

[1:50] We're going to finally crack it.

[1:52] Now, for the listeners at home, you can see Stuart's puckish eyebrow bounce when he said

[1:57] we'd put an Irish spin on it.

[1:59] By the way, Stu, you, Stu lately has been calling his shots right before introducing

[2:06] the podcast.

[2:07] Whenever it's his turn, like Babe Ruth, you know, pointing to the stands, he's he's like,

[2:11] I'm going to nail it.

[2:12] And I got to give it to him.

[2:13] You kind of nailed it this time, Stuart.

[2:16] Yeah.

[2:17] Oh, man.

[2:19] That is the kind of support that I never got from my dad.

[2:23] So thank you, Dad.

[2:25] Oh, you're unnailing it.

[2:28] Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[2:30] Put it back in.

[2:31] Put it back in.

[2:32] No, no.

[2:33] OK, so let's talk about this, Netflix.

[2:34] So I think I've seen a couple, but what movies make up the Netflix Christmas cinematic rom-com

[2:40] universe?

[2:41] Well, how many hours do we have?

[2:42] I think the important base here is we are on the Christmas.

[2:45] It's a mini episode, so we only have two to three hours.

[2:48] OK, I'll bring it down a little bit.

[2:51] I was planning on four.

[2:53] We have the Christmas Prince Trilogy and the Princess Witch Trilogy, and everything

[2:57] sort of revolves around these two very important universes that periodically collide.

[3:02] OK, so there's there's magic involved.

[3:05] Oh, yeah.

[3:06] There is a character who is clearly implied to be Santa Claus, although they've never

[3:09] confirmed it.

[3:10] Are they worried about getting sued by the owners of the Santa copyright?

[3:14] Like this is a like a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen type type thing where they can only

[3:17] hint at it?

[3:18] The movie has had that locked down for a few decades.

[3:20] So recently covered on our on the main feed of our podcast now.

[3:26] I haven't seen any of the Christmas Prince movies or what is it?

[3:30] The Christmas Witch.

[3:31] What's it called?

[3:32] The Princess Witch.

[3:33] You were so close.

[3:34] The Princess of the Princess Witch.

[3:36] I kept saying Princess Witch and I'm like, that's awesome.

[3:40] I also said, and I thought that sounded great.

[3:43] Yeah.

[3:44] Christmas Wish and Princess Witch have a lot of what is it?

[3:49] You know, when they've got like a similar consonant sound in the middle, I forget all

[3:52] my English vocabulary.

[3:55] These are all great pitches.

[3:56] I'm sure Netflix is listening.

[3:57] OK, so now I have I have a question.

[4:00] So what separates what makes the Netflix Christmas rom-com universe different than the Hallmark

[4:05] rom-com Christmas universe?

[4:07] Well, it starts with how incredibly interconnected they are.

[4:10] And unless I've missed something in the dozens of rom-com movies on Hallmark that my wife

[4:14] and I watched this year, I have never seen the level of crossover.

[4:18] I do see a lot of the same actors, but I don't think they're playing the same characters.

[4:22] No.

[4:23] And that's that's the trick.

[4:24] Netflix really hit on hit on the solution here.

[4:26] And we do need to start at the beginning.

[4:28] So let me give you a brief summary of A Christmas Prince, which I'm going to level with you

[4:33] guys, probably the most boring of these movies.

[4:36] OK.

[4:37] But if you I mean, to be honest, the title of Christmas Prince does not make me it's

[4:41] not like I hear that and I'm like excitement.

[4:43] Yeah.

[4:44] That's not a name that launches a thousand ships.

[4:47] I got to see this.

[4:48] And I have to admit, I've been excited by the titles M and Z, so which are only one

[4:53] letter each.

[4:54] So to have a Christmas Prince, it's not be interesting.

[4:57] It says there's so many options about what that movie could be about.

[5:00] Anything starting with an M or a Z in each respective case.

[5:04] You don't know.

[5:05] That's part of the mystery.

[5:06] Prince Lang's M is, of course, about monkeys.

[5:07] And Kostogravis' movie Z is, of course, about zebras.

[5:11] Part of the animal kingdom cinematic universe.

[5:14] We can always pivot to that.

[5:16] But OK, Christmas Prince.

[5:17] What's this movie about?

[5:18] Who's this Christmas Prince?

[5:19] Why is everyone talking about him?

[5:20] For starters, the title is very accurate.

[5:23] But I would say this movie is more like like if you were making a really good sandwich

[5:26] and you you need to start with the bread, just this boring, crusty, but solid base that

[5:31] everything else that gets crazy can build on all of your meats and cheeses.

[5:34] They're coming later.

[5:35] So this is a movie about the country of Aldovia.

[5:38] You may or may not have heard of it.

[5:40] I'm guessing that the situation in which you may have heard of it is if you've seen this

[5:46] movie or the sequels, you can start it with the second one, I don't know you.

[5:51] But they this is a country that it's vaguely Western European.

[5:55] It's main export seems to be Christmas.

[5:57] They're big on jelly meat.

[5:59] Did Ultron kill everybody in this place?

[6:03] That's for part four.

[6:04] It's all coming, I'm sure.

[6:05] Don't worry.

[6:06] I mean, the Avengers bear a lot of the responsibility for that as well.

[6:09] I mean, that's like saying the Democrats are responsible for voting rights, not passing.

[6:13] And so it wouldn't have happened without Ultron.

[6:15] You know, don't don't blame the Ultron and the MCU, not in the comics.

[6:20] Thank you.

[6:21] Well, I mean, it's still an Avenger that did it in the comics, but the just a different

[6:24] one who has yet to appear in the MCU because he is, you know, problematic.

[6:30] Who?

[6:31] Hercules?

[6:32] A little.

[6:33] No, I guess Hank Wonderman.

[6:34] Right.

[6:35] That's who.

[6:36] That's who.

[6:37] That's who Michael Douglas plays.

[6:38] Right.

[6:39] Yeah.

[6:40] He plays him.

[6:41] Yeah.

[6:42] Although what's really weird is when they do flashbacks where he's like a young Michael

[6:44] Douglas.

[6:45] But his face doesn't look like young Michael Douglas's face.

[6:47] They like because he had, you know, he had plastic surgery to remove his jowls.

[6:51] So in the in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, young Michael Douglas doesn't have jowls.

[6:56] And I'm like, what the fuck?

[6:57] That was part of his charm.

[6:58] Yeah.

[6:59] That's why they used to call him Michael Jowles.

[7:01] But now they call him Michael Jowles.

[7:04] Well, he's drifted from a romantic comedy.

[7:07] I want to say I want to know that this that this Christmas Prince, because for me, there's

[7:11] just one Christmas Prince.

[7:12] His name is the Nutcracker and he kills a rat that has like 10 heads.

[7:16] So is that the one in the movie?

[7:17] I mean, you'll be happy to hear that that is clearly playing year round in Aldovia,

[7:21] the Christmas country.

[7:22] OK, great.

[7:23] But our main character is not the Christmas Prince.

[7:26] It is Amber Moore, intrepid young journalist for Beat Now magazine.

[7:29] And she has been sent to Aldovia from the mean streets of New York City.

[7:37] And when it done promptly, people later.

[7:40] No, thank you.

[7:41] People who want beats and they don't want to wait for them.

[7:44] Yeah.

[7:45] Yeah.

[7:46] Clearly, you guys don't subscribe.

[7:47] It's great.

[7:48] You're going to love it.

[7:49] A lot of borscht recipes and stuff.

[7:54] So she's been sent to cover the succession crisis in Aldovia.

[7:58] She decides she's going to embed as a is the nanny working for the prince's younger sister.

[8:04] This guy is sort of a like a theoretically he's supposed to be like a Prince Harry type,

[8:08] like kind of a cool bad boy prince.

[8:10] But the movie doesn't actually want to make him unlikable or mean so.

[8:14] So he doesn't dress up like a Nazi at costume parties.

[8:16] No.

[8:17] Delete a scene, I think it's implied.

[8:20] Save for the bloops.

[8:23] He does wear a really gross fake beard to try to fool the press, hounding him in there.

[8:28] So this this journalist very unethically embeds as the tutor in the castle.

[8:33] Would you believe that they fall in love while she's reporting on it like the film?

[8:38] My tutor?

[8:39] I would say, yes, I believe that.

[8:41] Well, yeah, private private lessons.

[8:44] Exactly.

[8:45] Let me tell you, it is hot gossip in Aldovia.

[8:49] So it's a real bummer in the particular movie when the when it turns out that the prince

[8:55] has figured it all out, he casts her off from the kingdom.

[8:59] She goes back and writes a very kind of sad but beautiful story about how she's fallen

[9:05] in love with this prince and how he's secretly a great guy and no one understands him.

[9:09] You'll be shocked to hear her editors do not want to run this story.

[9:12] They consider it a puff piece.

[9:13] Rightly so.

[9:14] There's no news value there.

[9:17] There are multiple ethical problems here.

[9:19] I think I think the unsung heroes of this particular movie are the editors of Beat Now

[9:21] magazine.

[9:22] I mean, keep in mind, the New York Post ran an editorial today saying that dry January

[9:27] is selfish of people by Stuart Wellington.

[9:33] By the way, I can't let's bar.

[9:37] Yeah, I can't necessarily say it's right, but I'm not saying it's wrong.

[9:44] So the important part to to wrap up the most boring of all of these movies is that the

[9:48] prince reads the story on her blog.

[9:50] He thinks it's great.

[9:51] He comes and proposes to her in New York.

[9:52] They go off to be king and queen of Aldovia.

[9:55] So he killed his father.

[9:56] Yes, he he's technically the prince, I think, at this point.

[10:00] Don't worry, they write him out quickly.

[10:01] We need to keep rising up the ranks here.

[10:03] Okay, great.

[10:04] One year later, we have The Princess Witch.

[10:07] Now, this movie is mostly a Vanessa Hudgens delivery system.

[10:12] Okay, this one I've seen.

[10:15] Yep, in the first one, we get two Vanessa Hudgens.

[10:17] One of them is Stacey, who goes from Chicago

[10:20] to a different Western European country called Belgravia.

[10:23] Their chief export is also Christmas.

[10:26] And she's there for a baking competition

[10:30] and bumps into Lady Margaret Delacorte,

[10:32] who's the Duchess of a neighboring kingdom

[10:33] called Montanaro.

[10:35] Okay.

[10:36] Also Western European, also Christmas.

[10:37] Okay, now I'm starting to get into it,

[10:39] because I like all the names of magical places.

[10:41] This is, these are, they're all members of OKEC,

[10:46] the Organization of Christmas Exporting Countries.

[10:49] The politics are incredibly complicated.

[10:51] I mean, I need to see a detailed explanation

[10:53] of the various heraldries of the different noble families.

[10:58] Do I have a wiki for you?

[11:02] Now, are these countries, are they modern-day nations,

[11:06] or are they like Latveria, Dr. Doom's country,

[11:08] even though it's the 21st century,

[11:10] they're still all peasants?

[11:11] Or the Savage Land, where there's dinosaurs running around?

[11:14] Well, they all seem to be

[11:15] relatively modern constitutional monarchies,

[11:17] except for one scene in The Princess Witch,

[11:19] where she can send someone to a dungeon unilaterally,

[11:21] and we never hear from that character again.

[11:23] Oh, no.

[11:25] If I would recall it correctly,

[11:28] they all, the towns in this place look kind of like

[11:32] what you would find in a snow globe.

[11:34] Yeah, okay.

[11:35] That's kind of where they are historically.

[11:37] So New York, Chinese Statue of Liberty,

[11:38] you got it, little Santa on a tree, sure.

[11:41] Or what you would find if you were shooting in Romania

[11:43] in the cheapest castle you could find, hypothetically.

[11:47] So this is a movie about a princess witch,

[11:49] The Princess's Switch.

[11:52] Okay.

[11:53] Now I understand the premise of The Prince and the Pauper,

[11:56] where a prince and a poor person switch,

[11:58] and they get different lives.

[11:59] If two princesses switch, how much actually changes?

[12:03] Stacey isn't a princess yet.

[12:05] Oh, okay, okay.

[12:07] I hate to spoil the future installments of this franchise.

[12:11] But it's in her five-year plan to get to princess level.

[12:12] But that's a little bit of a teaser.

[12:14] Yeah, she's merely a Chicago baker.

[12:17] Yeah.

[12:19] Dan, you've seen this one.

[12:19] You want to take it away?

[12:22] Well, I guess not.

[12:23] I like that.

[12:24] Whenever the princess-

[12:25] No, you got this.

[12:26] Dan, Dan, Dan.

[12:27] You're renowned for your great memory for movie plots.

[12:29] I don't know, like, you know,

[12:30] there's a bunch of Prince and the Pauper shenanigans,

[12:33] and they both fall in love with people

[12:35] on the other side of things, you know?

[12:38] This is a great summary.

[12:40] You haven't forgotten the most important detail

[12:43] of this film.

[12:44] And the reason that we're talking about

[12:45] the Netflix Christmas rom-com cinematic universe.

[12:47] Because at one point,

[12:49] Lady Margaret sits down to watch a film on Netflix.

[12:51] And what film do you think that is?

[12:53] Wait, she pulls up Netflix in the middle of the movie?

[12:56] Uh-huh.

[12:57] That's crazy.

[12:58] That's like-

[12:59] And it's the one-

[12:59] The other day, I was talking to somebody about how,

[13:03] like, have you guys ever,

[13:05] have you guys in a dream,

[13:06] have you ever looked at your phone?

[13:09] Have you ever looked at your phone in a dream?

[13:11] I had not up to the point of this conversation.

[13:14] And then, the next day,

[13:15] I had a dream where I was looking at my phone

[13:17] the whole time.

[13:20] I think I've said many times on this podcast,

[13:23] or once or twice, who knows,

[13:24] that my stress dreams tend to be me trying

[13:26] to do something very simple,

[13:28] and just being thwarted over and over again,

[13:31] and not being able to do it.

[13:32] And in a recent dream,

[13:33] it was like I had to text something to someone

[13:37] for an important reason,

[13:38] and I could not get my fingers

[13:40] to put the right words into the texting.

[13:42] Oh, well, mine was like,

[13:44] I couldn't pull up my vaccine information

[13:46] to show somebody.

[13:48] Topical dream, topical nightmare.

[13:51] So, the queen pulls up Netflix,

[13:53] and I assume you're about to say

[13:54] is going to watch that movie

[13:55] where Charlize Theron

[13:56] is like a thousand-year-old assassin?

[13:58] Yeah, nailed it.

[13:59] You're so close.

[14:00] Yeah, the old guard?

[14:01] She's watching.

[14:02] Yeah, mouse guard, yeah.

[14:03] A Christmas-

[14:04] Mouse guard?

[14:06] My struggle?

[14:07] Yeah, I get it.

[14:08] A Christmas mouse.

[14:09] Yeah, it's a very loose adaptation

[14:11] of my struggle.

[14:12] Yeah.

[14:16] So, she pulls up,

[14:17] is she watching Christmas Prince on TV?

[14:19] She is watching a Christmas Prince on TV.

[14:21] And is it like motivator,

[14:23] or is it just like an Easter egg?

[14:25] It's an Easter egg,

[14:26] but an Easter egg that makes so much less sense.

[14:28] Or a Christmas egg.

[14:30] An Easter egg in a Christmas movie?

[14:31] That's what I was gonna say.

[14:32] Easter egg, yeah.

[14:34] Yeah, all the holidays are covered here.

[14:36] Okay, so Christmas,

[14:38] how does the princess switch end?

[14:41] What's the ending of the first one?

[14:41] The princess switch ends with the princesses

[14:42] each ending up with the other guy that the one knew.

[14:46] They, so Stacey, our Chicago baker,

[14:49] becomes a princess marrying the prince

[14:51] who is betrothed to the Lady Margaret

[14:54] who marries the other baker.

[14:56] So, it's like the holiday,

[14:57] but with princesses?

[14:59] Yeah.

[15:00] Okay, makes perfect sense.

[15:00] But it's the simplest plot in the world,

[15:02] and I could not have made that sound more complicated.

[15:03] Okay.

[15:04] They both end up with the other guy.

[15:05] I swear it all-

[15:06] I mean, to be fair, Dan didn't help.

[15:08] No, no, no, that's true.

[15:09] Okay, what's the next link in this chain?

[15:11] Okay, so now we've established a universe

[15:14] where The Christmas Prince is a movie

[15:16] that exists in the princess switch's reality.

[15:19] We have established a premise that, spoiler alert,

[15:21] will soon be broken by later movies

[15:23] in this incredibly convoluted cinematic universe.

[15:25] Okay.

[15:26] Because now we're headed to The Night Before Christmas.

[15:29] This is a weird one.

[15:30] Okay, okay.

[15:31] Not The Nightmare Before Christmas,

[15:32] my younger son's now second favorite movie,

[15:34] used to be his favorite movie.

[15:36] Oh, what's first?

[15:36] And not A Visit from St. Nicholas,

[15:38] the poem by Clement Moore.

[15:39] No.

[15:40] And not Silent Night, Deadly Night.

[15:43] And not Silent Night, Deadly Night 2.

[15:46] So for the record, my younger son's favorite movie

[15:48] is now Inside Out, of all things.

[15:50] Oh, okay.

[15:50] I thought you were gonna say The Inside Man.

[15:52] I'm like, that's a dope movie, kid.

[15:54] It is a great movie.

[15:55] Yeah, he's like, Spike Lee really captures

[15:57] the feeling of post-9-11 New York,

[15:59] and yet it's still suspenseful.

[16:01] Not since the taking of Pelham 1-2-3

[16:03] has the movie really captured the flavor of the city.

[16:05] And I'm like, yeah, I know, I know.

[16:07] My friend Ashley's in that movie.

[16:12] So, okay, this one's called, what was it again?

[16:14] The Nightmare Before Christmas.

[16:15] It's A Night Before Christmas,

[16:15] and you did ask the right question,

[16:16] because that is night with a K,

[16:18] because this is a time-traveling rom-com.

[16:21] Oh.

[16:22] So wait, it's a night in B.C. period?

[16:26] Yes.

[16:27] Before Christmas?

[16:28] Who arrives before Christmas.

[16:31] And we're not talking about an imperial knight,

[16:33] a Titan Walker from the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

[16:37] Oh, no, we are.

[16:38] This is also Warhammer.

[16:39] You knew that, right?

[16:40] I mean, but that's long after Christmas.

[16:41] That's far in the future, isn't it?

[16:43] I mean, 40,000 years in the future.

[16:46] I mean, they celebrated very differently by that point,

[16:49] but the general idea had staying power.

[16:51] Are there any, Stuart,

[16:52] are there any Warhammer Christmas stories?

[16:54] I'm sure there are.

[16:56] I mean, I feel like as long as they somehow lead

[17:00] to people buying more Warhammer,

[17:02] it's part of the narrative.

[17:05] Fair, yeah, fair point, fair point.

[17:07] So, okay, he's a knight.

[17:08] Is he going from the past to the present?

[17:10] Yeah.

[17:10] Like a Cate and Leopold?

[17:11] 14th century, he comes to modern day Ohio

[17:14] to romance a woman named Brooke

[17:15] who is played by Vanessa Hutchins.

[17:18] Okay.

[17:19] But not the same,

[17:21] this is not one of the characters in the last movie.

[17:22] Neither of our previous Vanessa Hutchins,

[17:24] but given how many doppelgangers of her are running around,

[17:26] it may be some gifted connection of something.

[17:29] So there's some kind of orphan black type scenario

[17:31] going on in the NFRCCU.

[17:33] I think it's kind of like a Being John Malkovich thing

[17:35] where just the more we add,

[17:37] everyone's going to have her face

[17:38] by like 12 of these movies.

[17:39] Yeah, Apex Twin.

[17:42] So he goes to Ohio because he wants what,

[17:44] like spaghetti with chili on top?

[17:48] Oh, my favorite.

[17:49] Yeah, put some cinnamon in there, give it to David.

[17:52] Give it to David, he would love it.

[17:55] Is there any real reason why he goes to Ohio

[17:58] or that's just part of the time hijinks?

[18:01] I'm going to be honest,

[18:02] I don't remember this one very well

[18:03] because it's very boring.

[18:04] Okay, yeah, yeah.

[18:06] So the movie with a time traveling knight

[18:07] is the boring one.

[18:09] Yeah, there aren't enough antics yet.

[18:11] We haven't gotten to the Ocean's Eleven one yet.

[18:13] Okay, all right, yeah, then let's hurry,

[18:15] then let's hurry, because I've seen Time Traveling Knight,

[18:17] The Visitors, Jean Reno, let's go, something else.

[18:19] The real important detail here

[18:21] is that he mentioned at some point,

[18:23] or her sister mentioned that their grandparents

[18:25] went to Eldovia, the country from A Christmas Prince.

[18:28] So following the transitive property,

[18:31] if I'm following this correctly,

[18:32] that means both of these movies are a movie

[18:35] within the Princess Witch universe.

[18:37] Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[18:40] And yet, that brings us to The Princess Witch 2,

[18:43] Switched Again.

[18:45] Okay, so just back in the original position.

[18:48] That's what I did before.

[18:49] Yeah, yeah, that's a spin of 360.

[18:52] That's where it starts.

[18:53] But then they add.

[18:54] How can a woman who came from Chicago

[18:55] and is now a princess deal with being in Chicago?

[18:59] Well, again.

[19:00] Again.

[19:01] They stay in Martinara in Belgravia,

[19:03] but they do, in fact, add a third Vanessa Hudgens,

[19:05] or a fourth if you count the one

[19:07] from A Night Before Christmas.

[19:08] Oh, okay, so it's just shifting one place now.

[19:10] Now we have Fiona, a blonde Vanessa Hudgens,

[19:13] who's kind of like an evil socialite.

[19:14] She's great, you'd love her.

[19:15] I love this.

[19:18] So there's all kinds of shenanigans there,

[19:19] but the really important part of this

[19:21] is that when it comes to the end

[19:23] and Lady Margaret is finally gonna be crowned

[19:25] Queen of Montenaro, there's a big coronation ceremony.

[19:28] And who would show up there

[19:30] but the Christmas prince and Amber,

[19:34] thereby breaking the rules previously established

[19:38] in this cinematic universe.

[19:39] So somebody like kid videoed them

[19:40] out of the Netflix and the TV?

[19:43] Yeah, yeah, John Ritter stay tuned them

[19:45] into the movie, yeah.

[19:47] Here's my fix for that.

[19:50] Here's my, get my no prize ready, guys.

[19:52] Here's my explanation.

[19:53] This is how this episode of Cinema sins.

[19:56] Yeah, much like how in the Marvel comics.

[20:00] There are Marvel comics that exist in that universe, and there are comic books being written about the real superheroes, but they're fictional adventures.

[20:08] The Christmas Prince that she watches is a movie that exists in that universe loosely based on the true story of the Christmas Prince who fell in love with a commoner.

[20:18] That's my explanation.

[20:19] I like that.

[20:20] I was just about to argue with you and then I remembered this is a universe full of doppelgangers.

[20:24] So they found actors that look just like the real Christmas Prince and the real Emperor.

[20:28] It does all make sense.

[20:29] Okay.

[20:30] You're filling in bottles for me in real time.

[20:32] The makeup that people can do now – I mean we all saw Jared Leto in House of Gucci.

[20:35] He was a power lover.

[20:37] He was no longer Jared Leto.

[20:38] He jumped right out of that Mario Brothers video game onto the screen.

[20:43] Guys, guys, I saw a play recently.

[20:48] I mean safely or as safely as possible, but I saw a play recently.

[20:52] Good save, dude.

[20:53] I was about to roast your fucking ass.

[20:55] Yeah, you weren't just running up on stage and licking all the performers?

[20:58] Yeah, but the star was Samantha Mathis and I was trying to explain to Audrey who she was.

[21:05] I started with Your Usual Suspects.

[21:07] Not the movie The Usual Suspects.

[21:08] Yeah, she's not in The Usual Suspects.

[21:09] But I was like, pop up the volume.

[21:13] She's like, nope, nope.

[21:14] Then I was like, because of the Super Mario Brothers doing the Super Mario Live show.

[21:18] She was like, oh yeah, Samantha Mathis.

[21:21] If only when you went to a play they gave you like a little book that told you what the people in the play were in.

[21:27] Something maybe was written on like the mouth of a duck?

[21:31] No, that wouldn't make sense.

[21:34] Maybe written on like a check you got at the end of a meal.

[21:37] Maybe a Clinton, not Hillary though.

[21:41] No, no, no.

[21:42] What are the other ones?

[21:43] I get the bit without really getting it.

[21:49] What if it was written on something that hadn't become a law yet?

[21:53] It was still being voted on by Congress.

[21:56] Yeah, and then maybe they would sing a song about it on Saturday mornings.

[21:58] Something when you don't have enough time for a William, but definitely not a Will.

[22:03] It's like a play that's on like a mister that would get crushed in the Claymation short on Saturday Night Live in like the early 1980s.

[22:11] Yeah.

[22:18] I'm John Moe.

[22:19] My show, Depression Mode, is all about mental health.

[22:22] And this week I talk with Amanda Knox.

[22:24] She spent four years in an Italian prison for a murder she didn't commit.

[22:28] That's a lot of trauma.

[22:30] And she's okay talking about it.

[22:32] If I touch on something that you'd rather not get into, just say so.

[22:37] We'll cut the whole exchange out.

[22:38] But it also seems like you're pretty open about a lot of things.

[22:42] Yeah, yeah.

[22:43] I am having trouble imagining anything that you could talk to me about.

[22:46] I know.

[22:47] What are we going to throw Amanda Knox with?

[22:50] Depression Mode with John Moe.

[22:52] Only on Maximum Fun.

[22:57] For over a decade, MaxFunCon has been an incredible weekend of learning, connecting, and laughing with folks in the MaxFun community.

[23:03] And, if all goes according to plan, the last regularly scheduled MaxFunCon will take place in Lake Arrowhead from June 3rd to June 5th, 2022.

[23:11] We have a very limited number of tickets remaining.

[23:13] To make them available to the maximum number of people, we'll be opening our waitlist for tickets on January 23rd at 5 p.m. Pacific.

[23:19] That'll be your chance to be first in line to purchase tickets.

[23:22] And we'll go down the waitlist until we're at capacity.

[23:24] More details at MaxFunCon.com.

[23:27] And mark your calendars for Sunday, January 23rd at 5 p.m. Pacific.

[23:32] Hello, everyone.

[23:34] Along with listeners like you who give money to Maximum Fun to support the shows that you love, this podcast is also sponsored by Storyblocks.

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[24:38] I used Storyblocks recently to – Elliot, when we were out there for his 40th birthday, played this song for us that he said was his night-driving music, and I was taken by it.

[24:52] And I thought, yeah, this sounds like sort of the beginning to an old sort of exploitation Japanese movie from the 70s.

[25:04] It was this Japanese woman singer Yoshiko Sai who was great, and I was like, this is really sparking something in me.

[25:12] For fun, on my own time, the only time I have access to, for fun, I just used Storyblocks to assemble a music video for that song that was kind of like the credits to an old movie.

[25:30] And, you know, I realize I sound like a nerd, but I also am a nerd who has fun, his own kind of fun, and you can too with Storyblocks.

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[25:45] Anyway, you can explore their library and subscribe today at storyblocks.com slash flop.

[25:51] That's storyblocks.com slash flop.

[25:56] Back to the show.

[25:57] Okay, cool. So what's the next movie in this series?

[26:00] We're really on this freight train now because now we're at the Princess Switch 3, Romancing the Star.

[26:06] Oh, wow. So it's a subtitle that is a playoff of the title of another movie.

[26:10] Yep. A subtitle that barely makes sense within the context of the movie because there's a papal star that is stolen, and this is the one that turns into the Ocean's Eleven heist movie.

[26:20] Okay. What's a papal star?

[26:22] Okay, now I'm in.

[26:23] It's a star from the Pope.

[26:24] Oh, okay.

[26:25] Like a star from the sky, like you can buy it off the Internet and that's named after you?

[26:30] Yeah, I've got another question.

[26:31] Yeah, the Pope's like, is that a one for you?

[26:33] I'm like, thanks, Jared Leto.

[26:35] Holy Father, can I have a star? Oh, yeah. Is that a one? Oh, thank you.

[26:42] How do I prove to anyone that I own that star now?

[26:46] What's his name? I don't know. They're AR-12.

[26:49] They've all got a baby like that, right?

[26:51] Oh, it's a star. Forget about it.

[26:52] What's the matter for you?

[26:54] The current Pope, of course, I think is from Argentina. He does not have an Italian accent. He's of Italian descent, but I don't think he talks like that.

[27:02] The comedy character of the Pope, of course, is always Italian.

[27:07] It's like when you do a semester abroad in England and all of a sudden you have this cool accent that everybody loves.

[27:12] We're probably thinking of the previous Pope's accent, who was German, of course, or perhaps the Pope before that who was Polish.

[27:18] So there's a papal star.

[27:25] Is there a putting a team together sequence where they have to get people from all over the Netflix universe?

[27:32] It's clearly what they're building towards.

[27:35] And we do, in fact, meet Count Simon, a character from the Christmas Prince movies who I haven't mentioned because he is so boring.

[27:40] But he does briefly join the team at a party while they're drinking candy cane martinis.

[27:46] Candy cane martinis?

[27:47] Candy cane martinis.

[27:48] Stuart, how would you make that?

[27:50] Well, I would, I don't know, pour some vodka in a glass and then put a candy cane in it and charge $20.

[27:59] Sounds good.

[28:01] I apologize. If anyone heard the sounds in the background there, there was an iPad that was turned on over here.

[28:06] And lately my iPad has started listening to us and announcing things.

[28:09] And so Siri thought that I was asking for candy cane martinis and was announcing the results.

[28:15] Yeah.

[28:17] It's like when Homer goes into the Quickie Mart and asks for Skittle Brow or something.

[28:22] Yeah.

[28:23] I want Siri to respond to being like a martini.

[28:27] Is it a martini just because it is served in a martini glass, Elliot?

[28:32] And it gets really snotty with you.

[28:35] As much as only champagne from the champagne region can be called champagne, there are rules to make a martini.

[28:41] And it's like, Siri, I don't know.

[28:43] I didn't even want to talk to you.

[28:46] 17 minutes later.

[28:48] Yeah.

[28:49] So how's the heist?

[28:50] Is it exciting?

[28:51] Is there a Danny Ocean type figure?

[28:53] What's going on?

[28:54] It's a pretty great one.

[28:55] They do a complete ripoff of Catherine Zeta-Jones jumping through the lasers.

[28:59] I was going to ask about that.

[29:00] It feels like they kind of have to do that.

[29:01] But it's the person in a Santa Claus costume.

[29:03] Well, this is the evil blonde Vanessa Hudgens.

[29:05] So she's now redeemed within the context of this universe.

[29:08] It's very exciting.

[29:09] Wait, how many Vanessa Hudgens are on the team?

[29:12] All three of them.

[29:13] They all do a princess one.

[29:15] Oh, sure.

[29:16] Yeah, yeah.

[29:17] It's the Hudgevengers or the League of Extraordinary Hudgens.

[29:19] Yeah, they're all there.

[29:20] Does the heist take advantage of the fact that they're all doppelgangers or is that ignored?

[29:25] Okay, good, good, good.

[29:26] Yeah, two of them do.

[29:27] The other one, one of the Vanessa Hudgens has to go to the nunnery where the evil blonde Vanessa Hudgens is doing her heist.

[29:32] The evil blonde Vanessa Hudgens is doing her community service and pretend to be her to get her parole bid.

[29:36] Successfully, might I add.

[29:38] I like this.

[29:39] Yeah, this is exciting.

[29:40] I hate to spoil all these movies for you.

[29:42] No, it's fine.

[29:43] So where does this leave us?

[29:45] In this universe, what's the next step?

[29:48] Well, the most disappointing thing is that they keep teasing the idea of the Vanessa Hudgens' mother coming in.

[29:53] And I was so convinced it was going to be Vanessa Hudgens in old-age makeup.

[29:56] It's a way to sneak another one in.

[30:00] It would have been so great, it was one more, like the perfect crime, get one more Vanessa Hudgens in here, who's stopping you?

[30:05] I mean, they tried, they tried and the film exploded. It was too much Hudgens.

[30:10] As a performer, imagine having that opportunity.

[30:15] By the way, I was just watching a bit of the film Chaplin, which I've never seen before.

[30:19] Don't ask me why, why it was a whimsical choice on my part, but Robert Downey Jr.'s makeup as old Chaplin

[30:28] just looked like they dropped him into a bag of flour and fished him back out.

[30:31] It was such bizarre old age makeup.

[30:34] I love this. Yeah, that's great.

[30:36] That's exactly what they should have done.

[30:39] Was it like when Guy Pearce played a super old man through most of Prometheus and you're like,

[30:43] why did you get Guy Pearce? You could have gotten a normal actor.

[30:46] Just get an old man.

[30:48] It's perfect this way. It's better.

[30:53] I mean, if you like old people to look like wax figures.

[30:58] I mean, I hope you like it because that's how it happens, Dan.

[31:01] Well, there's this particular lifelessness of the makeup in this movie.

[31:07] I guess that's true. Very rarely do old people look like porcelain dolls, I guess is what I'm saying.

[31:12] So what's the next step? After a heist, it doesn't sound like there's anywhere to go.

[31:18] Everyone falls in love. They get the star back. It's very exciting.

[31:22] So it's like a jeweled star?

[31:25] Yeah, it's like a bejeweled star and it represents peace.

[31:28] And if they don't get it back before Christmas, then I think they go to war.

[31:31] These movies always imply that some horrible global conflict is about to break out.

[31:36] Now that I think is very funny.

[31:39] If they're like, if this prince doesn't fall in love with this princess and get married, then the Holocaust will happen.

[31:45] And it's like these stakes are too high.

[31:48] They're too high for this movie.

[31:50] There is a treaty like that in one of the Christmas Prince movies where they've been signing it for like 600 years.

[31:54] And you have to sign it again every century or you just have to go back to war.

[31:57] And it's like, why don't they just say, no, we're not going to start fighting again?

[32:01] Yeah, it's like this Dead Sea League thing.

[32:05] Do we really have to keep doing this all the time or can we just make kind of a general proclamation that it's cool?

[32:11] And if we hit it, do we just like – can we just ignore it?

[32:15] It's not a real ceiling. It's just a thing that we made up.

[32:19] Okay, so that's the end of the movies, right? No more movies?

[32:22] There is one more, and it is the last and most exciting one and the one that I find most baffling.

[32:28] It's called The Castle for Christmas.

[32:30] That's where this is going.

[32:32] So guys, I've actually watched The Castle for Christmas.

[32:36] Christmas for Leibovitz, you said, Dan?

[32:39] I mean that kind of is the plot of A Cataclysm for Leibovitz in a way.

[32:43] So Stu, you watched this one?

[32:46] I watched this one not knowing the storied legacy that it was completing.

[32:51] It features Carrie Elwes prominently.

[32:55] Wow, Bobby Wobbly himself.

[32:57] With a very thick accent and – wait, who's the lead?

[33:02] Vanessa Hudgens.

[33:03] Brooke Shields. It's Brooke Shields, guys. It's Brooke Shields.

[33:06] Brooke Shields and Yarnell?

[33:08] Brooke Shields who plays a famous author who has –

[33:12] Who suddenly becomes Susan.

[33:14] She became Susan and she is –

[33:16] It's like Teen Wolf but she's becoming Susan and her dad is knocking on the door going,

[33:20] Brooke, Brooke, what's going on in there?

[33:22] Nothing, Dad.

[33:23] She opens the door and her dad's a Susan too.

[33:25] Yeah, her dad's a Susan too and he's like, we've all been Susans.

[33:28] I didn't want to have to tell you this.

[33:30] I was hoping you would skip your generation.

[33:32] So –

[33:33] She has a dance called the Susan at the prom.

[33:36] She is like a world-famous author and she –

[33:39] But she is getting some shit from the fans because she wrote the latest book in her series and she killed off this hunky love interest that everybody loves.

[33:48] And she's like, I can do whatever I want.

[33:50] And all the fans are like, you can't. He's ours.

[33:53] And it's this kind of really interesting take on like ownership and authors and –

[33:58] So it's like a rom-com loosely based on the real story of Arthur Conan Doyle trying to kill off Sherlock Holmes?

[34:03] Very similar.

[34:04] And so the only thing she can do is go buy a castle in Scotland, I think.

[34:09] Scott, you're the expert on Scotland as well, as well as other things.

[34:14] Of course.

[34:15] So –

[34:16] Named after me.

[34:17] So she goes to Scotland to try and get some peace and everybody is super cool there and they're nice.

[34:22] And she's nice because she gives them money.

[34:24] So they like her a lot.

[34:25] But Carrie Elwes does not like her, although they have a little bit of chemistry right away.

[34:32] And she just thinks he's a regular-ass dude, not so much.

[34:35] He owns that castle.

[34:36] That's his thing.

[34:37] But he's like broke as a joke.

[34:39] So he has to give – he's like giving tours of his home and he's being a real dick to her.

[34:44] And she's like kind of a dick to him but not that bad.

[34:47] And then she ends up buying the castle and keeping him on to give the tours and they fall in love.

[34:52] Am I missing anything?

[34:54] You've summarized the plot very succinctly.

[34:56] But you did inevitably miss the most important part.

[34:59] Which is a completely pointless throwaway scene at the hotel where Brooke Shields is staying when two characters come in clearly having a torrid love affair.

[35:07] And it is two minor characters from the Princess Witch movie.

[35:10] Oh, no.

[35:11] They are not related in the plot.

[35:13] They have no connection to anything happening.

[35:15] Sort of a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the universe.

[35:18] Also revealing that Scotland and Aldovia and Belgravia and Montanaro are all real places within the same small block of England.

[35:26] Oh, so those – wait a minute.

[35:27] So they're like independent principalities on Britain somehow?

[35:31] They're close enough that they can sneak away from the castle where they have these royal duties.

[35:34] What?

[35:35] Maybe it's a longer vacation.

[35:37] Maybe during the heist they were able to sneak away.

[35:40] No?

[35:41] Maybe there's a commuter flight from Moldovia.

[35:44] What is it called?

[35:45] Montanaro, Belgravia or Aldovia.

[35:49] Maybe the commuter flight is Moldovia to Edinburgh.

[35:52] So when I was doing a semester in Vienna, I just like was able to hop on a plane and fly to England for a weekend.

[35:57] It was great.

[35:58] I just – I love that this is a movie that revealed two characters were having an affair that you would not know about if you watched any of the three movies in the actual franchise.

[36:07] You have to watch a seemingly unrelated movie, and if you're like Stewart and only watching that, you have no idea what these characters are doing here and probably don't notice them at all.

[36:15] So it is a little bit like the scene in – was it the second Avengers movie where Thor just goes into that cave for some reason and has a vision?

[36:22] And you're like, well, that doesn't – you're just setting up future movies.

[36:26] Like this has nothing to do with any of the others.

[36:28] What are you thinking?

[36:29] It kind of barely sets up future movies.

[36:31] Yeah, it really didn't make any sense.

[36:33] So they're setting up the future movie A Christmas in Fidelity I imagine.

[36:37] That's the hope.

[36:38] I mean at the very least, we've got to be heading towards A Christmas Princess Switch Civil War.

[36:44] Well, they're setting it up for the adults-only rom-com Princess Swap, which is about one knight.

[36:50] Yeah, that's the Brazzers version.

[36:53] Again, K-N-I-G-H-T.

[36:56] It's a – yeah, a K-N-I-G-H-T knight, medieval knight, who has a princess swap one night in order to make sure that war is averted between two sex-based kingdoms.

[37:09] So we've had a lot of fun at the expense of these, but Scott, you have been – I'm sure have been watching a ton of rom-coms for your book.

[37:17] How do these rom-coms fall within your – I guess the thing – compare to the other ones you've been watching?

[37:26] The Pantheon?

[37:27] Yeah.

[37:28] I mean I should say first and foremost I completely love these movies.

[37:31] I do not ironically love these movies.

[37:33] I think they are so fun and good.

[37:35] The last chapter in my book, it's about modern rom-coms, so it starts with When Harry Met Sally and goes up to Netflix.

[37:40] I started writing about these in the Netflix chapter, and it was one of those things where I went into a fugue state that afternoon.

[37:46] Three hours later, I realized I had just written pages of connections between these Christmas movies, and I realized I will go mad.

[37:53] This book will be so much longer than it needs to be.

[37:56] I need to stop.

[37:57] So I turned it into a little sidebar, which is why I was happy to come on this podcast and spill this out of my mouth.

[38:02] Your book turns into House of Leaves about halfway through.

[38:05] Yeah.

[38:06] I don't want your family to find you with just having smeared a map of Belgravia in your own feces on the wall.

[38:12] You're saying, it's all there.

[38:13] It was inside me.

[38:14] It's all there.

[38:15] I have so much sympathy for this because occasionally I'll write little pop culture essays, and I find that if I don't pay attention, all of the dumb connections that don't actually mean anything flow out of my brain.

[38:29] I have digression after digression with a parenthetical in the middle of it.

[38:34] I have to cut it all because I realize no one cares.

[38:37] It makes sense because normally your only other outlet for talking about pop culture is this podcast, which we keep super tight, and we don't allow any kind of digression.

[38:45] No, not at all.

[38:47] It's got to be on point.

[38:48] So I'm curious.

[38:49] What is your – so yeah, what are rom-coms that you think are like the classic best modern rom-coms?

[38:56] So the ones that you think are really examples of the form, and how do the Netflix movies match up to those?

[39:01] Like what's a rom-com where you – if people are like, show me a rom-com, what's one that will show me what this genre can do?

[39:06] What would you point them to?

[39:07] You mean like a modern one?

[39:08] Yeah, yeah, a modern one.

[39:09] I really love the – all three of the To All the Boys I've Loved Before movies in that I think they're – I think they do the teen rom-com thing really well, but I think they're also doing what modern movies do pretty well in that they're way more diverse than rom-coms used to be and actually comment on how not diverse older rom-coms were.

[39:25] I think they – to do a rom-com with continuity because everything has to be a franchise now, they actually make that kind of interesting where they have to – they're kind of forced to make all the characters and the relationships a little more complicated.

[39:35] So there's something about Netflix kind of taking over the rom-com genre that's actually making weird, interesting things come out of it, which is part of why the book is subtitled The Rise Again of the Romantic Comedy.

[39:47] I think we're in an interesting era.

[39:49] I feel like Char and I have been watching – we watch a lot.

[39:52] Like during the holiday break, we watched a bunch of Netflix rom-coms, I think primarily Netflix.

[40:00] other streamers and I'm trying to remember the names of them all because

[40:04] they're all fucking the same they're all like puns based on Christmas shit but

[40:09] like who's the one with Jimmy Oh Yang where he he like our catfish is somebody

[40:16] oh yeah that one not particularly great but it does it did have like a really

[40:21] good take on the baby it's cold outside song where they like fuck around with the

[40:26] lyrics and like modernize it well so even that was like okay there's some

[40:32] interesting stuff going on here even if I don't like the whole movie yeah I mean

[40:36] part of why I like the cinematic universe that we just spent a bunch of

[40:38] time breaking down is the writers are clearly doing whatever they can to mess

[40:43] around within this very established framework and it's pretty fun to watch

[40:45] now do you feel that they're like I mean I feel like with a lot of the Hallmark

[40:50] movies and this I could be unfairly you know tarnishing them I feel like a lot

[40:56] of Hallmark movies are very conservative in their viewpoint at least

[40:59] in like structure or you know you have your two you know regular you know the

[41:05] the same kind of leads you're always used to seeing like she works at a

[41:08] magazine he is an architect or some shit do you see I mean do you feel like

[41:14] they're they're pushing the boundaries on those at all with Netflix or I think

[41:19] it I think it's been true in general actually Hallmark is even getting better

[41:22] at that we've actually I mean it's not at all uncommon that they'll do movies

[41:26] where both you know people don't have to be white people in the couple or they've

[41:31] done same-sex Hallmark movies and nobody you know nobody seems to have raised a

[41:35] giant protest out of it that I've seen at least so but I do think Netflix and

[41:39] Hulu are both better at pushing that faster I mean you know Hulu had happiest

[41:43] season last year oh yeah that single all the way this year so so I think there's

[41:47] the studios you know as usual are a little slower to jump to this stuff

[41:51] although I think they're getting there mm-hmm what is it about Christmas that

[41:55] has made it such a big setting for romantic cuz I feel like if you watch

[41:59] old Christmas movies their family movies a lot of them they're not so much

[42:02] romantic movies but now it feels like Christmas is all romance families stay

[42:07] out of the way Jews never welcome no thank you well we were trying to find

[42:11] Hallmark put out a put out like a like a Jewish like a couple that like is like a

[42:17] Jewish woman or a Jewish man Christian partner and I couldn't we kept trying

[42:22] to find what it you know it has some name like kosher Christmas or some shit

[42:25] but we were looking for but we couldn't find it but yeah I was really looking

[42:30] forward to that but what is it like Scott what it why do you think Christmas

[42:33] is suddenly so romantic why not why not I'm trying to think of other holidays

[42:39] that could be equally I mean like why not Halloween would you think yeah why

[42:44] not Valentine's Day which is about love but like Halloween you know there's a

[42:47] lot of stuff you can do with costumes and mistaken identity and like things

[42:50] like that why not why Christmas huh I write the screenplay I think Halloween

[42:55] rom-com is legitimately great idea it's a great actually yeah I think it's the

[43:00] same reason they do action movies at Christmas it's a really easy way to add

[43:03] some texture to your background that's a good point it comes with a lot of

[43:07] assumptions that everybody already understands right you know yeah that

[43:09] makes sense yeah and I assumed I mean like it's the the calculus changes with

[43:15] streaming I guess where it's like these things aren't necessarily gonna get

[43:19] become perennials the value is that there's a new interchangeable one every

[43:24] year but if you have it in your back catalog you know I imagine it's like you

[43:29] know Chris writing a Christmas song I'll also blame love actually pulling it out

[43:33] I feel like love actually is partially to blame yeah that's a chapter in my

[43:37] book oh not my favorite yeah that's one I it's a movie that I've never I've

[43:44] never actually seen love actually and I feel like I it I feel like through my

[43:48] life I've seen it go from like a big hit movie to movie that people like as a

[43:53] guilty pleasure to a classic movie to a movie people hate and I'm and think is

[43:58] bad and I've never seen it and I mean just look at that's a stacked cast

[44:01] Elliot it's crazy it is a stack cast but like there there are a lot of movies

[44:05] with amazing cast that are it's the kind of you could normally only get for

[44:08] like a doctor strange movie that's this there's something I mean as bad as it is

[44:17] that all all major filmmaking now seems to be about making big budget

[44:20] franchises that have to make a billion dollars or else their failures there is

[44:25] something really fun about like how every big-name actor no matter how

[44:28] amazing they are has to have a that has to be in a movie at some point where

[44:30] they're talking about made-up science fiction bullshit that doesn't matter

[44:33] that nobody cares about it there's something very English about that it's

[44:38] like watching Dame Judi Dench be an air elemental in the Chronicles of Riddick

[44:42] like she said that there there must be the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts must

[44:47] have a class now that's called like making making BS sounds real yeah

[44:52] they're like okay you're gonna read this this paragraph before the class this is

[44:57] all about like keeping two-dimensional barriers from colliding which would

[45:01] create a synecdoche of transmutational matrices yeah you got to figure out a

[45:06] way it say it sounds like it's a real thing say it with your accent well okay

[45:14] is Scott is your book on shelves now my book is on shelves on February 1st

[45:18] February 1st you tell us the title again it's called from Hollywood with love the

[45:22] rise and fall and rise again of the romantic comedy on February 1st plenty

[45:26] of time to buy it before Valentine's Day published by Harper Collins there's an

[45:30] audiobook version if you if you buy one copy hit me up and I'll send you a book

[45:34] plate on Twitter if you buy a hundred copies I will grant you a boon where can

[45:41] where can people find you on Twitter then I'm at Scott Meslow that's MES

[45:45] LOW and you can also read me at GQ and at Vulture and do you Elliot or Dan

[45:51] Elliot you got a book coming out don't you want to plug your book real quick

[45:54] my comic book you mean yeah yeah sure it's a book it's two pages it's pages

[45:59] between two covers that's a good point yet looks like the Earl of book said

[46:03] when he didn't want to finish his poker hand but he wanted something to read he

[46:06] said just bring me some pages between two covers books now yeah well there's

[46:13] new issues of maniac of New York the Bronx is burning from aftershock comics

[46:16] by me and the amazing artist Andre Moody come I'm always mispronouncing his name

[46:23] issue two should be on shelves right now it's a four issue miniseries the

[46:27] sequel to maniac of New York which is now out in trade maniac of New York

[46:31] volume on the death train so pick up the trade maniac of New York volume on the

[46:35] death train and then pick up the issues for maniac of New York the Bronx is

[46:38] burning also I have to say you're at Harper my books are from Harper to my

[46:42] children's books horse meets dog and shark when hippo from balls are in Bray

[46:46] a division of Harper kids that's right it's the book house today the book house

[46:52] boys Scott thanks so much for joining us I'm really glad we got to do this yeah

[46:58] that was a blast man thanks guys normally normally I just text with Scott

[47:02] about Elden Ring spoilers and hitman details and various other video game

[47:07] bullshit so this is great it's great we'll get right Sunday yes Sunday there'll

[47:13] be a rom-com video game where I get to run away from a giant beautiful vampire

[47:19] lady and every time she gets like a looney tunes cartoon she's like I can't

[47:34] believe you're opening this up on my way out the door we could go for another

[47:36] hour right now so yeah this podcast is part of the maximum fun network of

[47:42] podcasts a lot of great shows on there to come out this episode has been

[47:48] produced and edited by Alex Smith who is very understanding for our late

[47:52] delivery I am one of the hosts my name is Stuart Wellington I own a couple of

[47:57] bars in Brooklyn called hinterlands and minis you should check those shits out

[48:00] and my co-hosts are Dan McCoy this is pretty much the one thing I got going on

[48:04] right now so I hope you keep listening and Elliot Kalin see those aforementioned

[48:12] books and I've got some other stuff coming up that I will talk about on a

[48:15] future flophouse podcast episode yeah stay tuned and our guest has been Scott

[48:20] Maslow

[48:27] maximumfun.org comedy and culture artists owned audience supported

FH Mini 47 - The Netflix RomCom Cinematic Universe, with Scott Meslow

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