Ep. #342 - The Country Bears

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss the country bears!

[0:03] For MaxFun, pledge drive season!

[0:06] That's right, everybody's favorite thing, bears and pledge breaks.

[0:10] Because good things come in bears!

[0:13] Ugh, Dan, no.

[0:30] Hey everyone, and welcome to the Flophouse. I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:47] I'm Stuart Bear Wellington.

[0:50] And I'm Elliot Kalin, wondering where Stuart got that nickname, because I've never heard it before.

[0:55] I thought we were doing like cool bear names, like in the movie we're talking about this week.

[1:00] So your cool bear name is just your name with bear in the middle?

[1:04] Yeah, I mean, that's a nickname.

[1:05] You've heard that before.

[1:06] You didn't hear people call me that?

[1:08] Yeah.

[1:12] It was because of that time when we were playing softball and I covered myself in honey and

[1:17] I started running around saying, hey, must be the honey.

[1:19] That was a good gag.

[1:22] Too bad you were soon swarmed by bees.

[1:26] Yeah.

[1:26] Better than being swarmed by bears.

[1:30] that's true well each of us has two bears inside of us already yeah we talked about that that's

[1:36] true yeah that yeah like so it depends if there's two or fewer bears swarming us it's probably a

[1:42] fair fight but let me just put an asterisk next to what you said and that asterisk goes to a little

[1:45] yellow box that says as seen in the new mutants episode face front true believers

[1:50] stultify and stan uh this is a podcast called the flop house and on the flop house yes we

[1:59] We usually watch a bad movie and then we talk about it.

[2:02] Now, I don't know if the Country Bears fits into that rubric.

[2:06] But before we get there, this is the Max Fun Pledge Drive time.

[2:11] I believe that, Elliot, you have a few words to say quickly off the top.

[2:16] Seamless as always.

[2:18] Seamless segue.

[2:19] That's right, guys.

[2:19] It's that special time again.

[2:21] You seem pretty good to me.

[2:22] I don't know why.

[2:22] And by guys, I'm not talking to my co-hosts.

[2:25] I'm talking to you, the listeners.

[2:26] It's that special time again when you get to support the podcast you love so much and show us just how special we are to you and how important we are in your lives.

[2:35] The Flophouse, like all MaxFun shows, is listener-supported.

[2:37] The vast majority of the money we make from it comes from direct pledges from listeners like you.

[2:42] And that means we can keep being our dumb, goofy selves without pressure from the bosses or the corporate sponsors or just generally the man.

[2:50] your support gives us the freedom to keep the show honest and stupid as it already has been

[2:55] from the very beginning of the episode and your support also gives us the means to say pay the

[3:00] mortgage on my house when there's not a lot of work because of pandemic which i really appreciate

[3:04] that is not a joke and i'm very thankful for it we know this last year was a weird year for

[3:09] everybody we know that some of you out there may not feel like you have the means to spend on audio

[3:13] goofs right now we totally understand that but if you feel like you can support our show in this

[3:17] particular manner of pledging money in a monthly contribution we would be so appreciative if you

[3:22] would do so so we'll be talking to you later in the episode about how the pledge drive works all

[3:26] the great stuff you're going to get when you join or upgrade your membership until then i'll just

[3:30] say thank you again and ask you to take a moment to right now before you forget go to maximum fun

[3:36] dot org slash join right now don't wait i mean you're going to hear more about it later but do

[3:40] it now anyway and make a new pledge or upgrade your pledge if you can again again that's maximum

[3:45] Maximumfun.org slash join.

[3:47] It's super easy to do, and we'll tell you more about it later after we talk about the goddamn country bears for some reason.

[3:52] If you do it now, you can ignore the bullshit that I'll say later.

[3:56] See, that's the advantage of it.

[3:58] You can really ride that 15-second skip button.

[4:00] Just skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, back to the bears.

[4:03] Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip.

[4:03] But not my part.

[4:04] I put so much effort into it.

[4:06] All right.

[4:07] Listen to Stewart's no matter what.

[4:08] But I give you permission to ignore me.

[4:10] If you've made a pledge already.

[4:12] If you've made a pledge.

[4:12] At Maximumfun.org slash join.

[4:15] Otherwise, wrap the tension.

[4:15] That's what I demand.

[4:16] Raptor attention.

[4:18] Pay attention as if a raptor was going to attack you.

[4:21] Now, today we're doing something special because it's the pledge drive.

[4:25] We're not talking about some new hit blockbuster that's on HBO Max right now.

[4:29] But we will be doing a lot of that throughout the year.

[4:31] Dan, you very specifically wanted to, you had a real come to Jesus moment involving the Country Bears movie.

[4:37] And I want to hear about this road to Damascus experience you had with the Country Bears.

[4:40] Tell us about it before we get into the film.

[4:43] Well, no, I mean, as it has been referenced before, I'm a member of a bad movie watching group that does, you know, streaming group chats every Monday.

[4:56] And one of them brought the country bears to the attention of the group.

[5:02] We all watched it together, you know, to a person.

[5:06] I think everyone had a rapturous response, loved it.

[5:12] the first time what are we talking were you uh like like booze coke weed what's up ayahuasca uh

[5:19] it's quite possible there was a little weed involved on my part which was why

[5:24] the first time around i may have like laughed hysterically through a lot of it dan looked

[5:29] looked over his shoulder to make sure there weren't any cops even though it's legal in new

[5:33] york now crazy huh um no the first time though like there are two cops in the movie so he kept

[5:40] thinking they were there to arrest him

[5:41] and got very paranoid,

[5:42] hid behind his couch, yeah.

[5:44] The first time I focused on how bizarre

[5:46] I thought the movie was,

[5:47] but the second time I sort of focused as well on like,

[5:50] once I got over that,

[5:52] I was like, oh, this is,

[5:53] they put a lot of work into this Country Bears movie.

[5:56] I really, you know,

[5:58] kind of respect what they're doing here,

[5:59] but we can just dive into it, I think.

[6:02] Okay, let's dive into the,

[6:03] let's stage dive into these bears,

[6:05] much like Country Bears star Fred Betterhead himself,

[6:08] inventor of the stage dive.

[6:09] I thought it was Ted Betterhead.

[6:10] Ted is the other one.

[6:12] Okay.

[6:13] Ted is the one with glasses who does not stage dive.

[6:18] Okay.

[6:18] I did want to, speaking of stages,

[6:21] I wanted to set the stage a little bit in that

[6:24] I wanted to place this film in history.

[6:28] Oh, wow.

[6:29] This came out in 2002.

[6:32] It was part of the move that Disney was thinking,

[6:39] Like, oh, let's make all of our attractions, our amusements from Disneyland or Disney World into movies.

[6:48] And that had kicked off with The Haunted Mansion in 98, which was not much of a success, I believe.

[6:56] I don't know what the—I think it was a financial flop.

[6:59] It was certainly a critical one.

[7:00] Well, they didn't make any more.

[7:02] So if they thought they could get money out of it, they would have made five more.

[7:06] Well, except for they made this movie in 2002.

[7:09] This was also a flop, virtually and critically.

[7:12] And in 2003, it finally paid off when, of course, Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl.

[7:19] Boffo B.O. there.

[7:20] Boffo B.O., baby bear.

[7:23] It wasn't until years later that Disney hit on the reasoning, well, why don't we just make new versions of the movies we already know are huge hits?

[7:32] Let's just do that.

[7:33] Why are we doing that?

[7:35] Why are we coming up with new stories?

[7:36] We can just make the same old stuff again.

[7:39] Yep.

[7:40] Well, they're, you know, masters of recycling, good for the environment.

[7:43] You know, they use all parts of the amusement park and their own IP.

[7:48] Yeah.

[7:49] Oh, thank you.

[7:49] There's nothing left.

[7:50] They just take it to the bone.

[7:51] Now, Dan, I'm so glad.

[7:52] I was really worried when you said you were going to place in history that you were going to be like,

[7:56] the country bears was coming at a time when America needed to be lifted up after 9-11.

[7:59] And I was like, damn.

[8:00] I was like, this is not something we need to talk about during the country bears.

[8:05] So as everyone knows now that – thanks to Dan, the Country Bears is based on the attraction of the Country Bears Jamboree at Disneyland at Disney World.

[8:14] Now this – for anyone who has never been to this attraction, you go to a music hall where a bunch of robot bears sing about hillbilly stuff.

[8:22] There are hillbilly bears who put on a country show.

[8:25] It's very much – you can tell this is one of those attractions from a time when kind of yokel country stuff was still really big in pop culture,

[8:33] which is a period from like the 30s or the 20s until like the 70s, basically.

[8:39] You had like a 50 or 60 year period where hillbilly culture was the source of all culture for a while.

[8:45] Yep, that's why we're all in jug bands wearing overalls around for 70 decades.

[8:50] In the 80s we were, anyway.

[8:51] But there was a period when it was not that out of the ordinary to see characters that were hillbilly stereotypes just in a major thing.

[8:58] And the Country Bears movie, I feel like, comes out after that is no longer the case.

[9:03] Right. Well, also, like, look, I will never, like, I love the animatronic attractions at the Disney parks.

[9:11] I've not seen Country Bears, but I have a real fondness for the ones that are just, like, either you float by a bunch of robots doing something or you sit and watch a bunch of robots doing something.

[9:21] When I was a kid, honestly, one of my favorite attractions at Disney World was the Kitchen Cabaret, which was just, like, animatronic food singing about nutrition.

[9:28] And I remember, like, loving all the corny jokes, loving all the dumb songs.

[9:33] But there's something about watching a movie that has semi-realistic bear costumes as if the country bears have torn their paws from the bolts holding them down to the floor and are now free to roam around that is very frightening.

[9:44] Now, so these are Jim Henson creations, and they look to be men in big, like, bulky bear suits with, like, an animatronic head on top.

[9:57] Yeah, like in Fraggle Rock.

[9:59] Or like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[10:02] Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like TMNT. Yeah, exactly. But they're bears, and they're not ninjas, and they look like they could bite someone's head off at any moment.

[10:10] I was trying to think, like, you bring up the cultural obsession with, like, hillbillies made me look up when the Beverly Hillbillies movie was launched, which was, like, almost 10 years before, and I'm sure it was a huge success.

[10:24] But interestingly, it also featured the acting talents of Diedrich Bader, who is in...

[10:29] the country bears

[10:31] who plays two roles

[10:32] in the country bears

[10:32] two roles

[10:33] and Diedrich Bader

[10:34] has I mean

[10:35] I feel like he is

[10:36] I mean he's a very

[10:37] talented comedy performer

[10:38] and he can kind of

[10:39] turn on or turn off

[10:40] southern

[10:41] which is something

[10:42] that is

[10:43] he

[10:44] depending on the role

[10:45] he's either

[10:46] very southern

[10:47] or very not southern

[10:48] you know

[10:50] but that's

[10:50] I mean you could say

[10:51] that depending on the role

[10:52] all of us are very southern

[10:53] or very not southern

[10:54] interesting

[10:55] I mean

[10:55] not every performer

[10:57] is southern all the time

[10:58] I've spent most of my time not being Southern.

[11:01] I think 100% of your time.

[11:02] Well, anyway, guys, let's talk about – we talked a lot about the country bears in the abstract.

[11:07] Let's learn – let's meet these particular country bears.

[11:11] So the opening credits, they show us a lot of vintage footage and headlines about these huge music stars, the country bears.

[11:17] We're introduced to all four of them.

[11:18] There's Ted Betterhead on vocals and lead guitar.

[11:21] Fred Betterhead on harmonica and bass.

[11:23] That's his brother.

[11:24] Zeb Zuber on fiddle.

[11:25] He's the most yokel of all of them, I think, because he's got a big yokel hat, and he plays fiddle.

[11:30] And Tennessee O'Neill, whose name is not as fun as the others, who is on what they call in the credits the one-string thing.

[11:35] It's just a guitar with one string on it.

[11:37] The drummer is human and not really – no one pays attention to them.

[11:42] And they specialize in kind of –

[11:44] Well, he's played by MC Ganey.

[11:45] I paid attention to him.

[11:46] I mean, later he's played by MC Ganey.

[11:48] Earlier on, he's not.

[11:49] But I assume the country bears, like Spinal Tap, go through drummers like crazy because they kill them and eat them.

[11:55] Because bears are, you should not be around them.

[11:57] And they play kind of light adult contemporary country rock, I guess you would call it, for an entirely human audience.

[12:03] There are not many bears in this movie.

[12:05] And we learn that they broke up in 1991, 11 years earlier.

[12:09] After influencing the likes of Willie Nelson and a variety of other big name acts.

[12:14] Yeah, and there's a lot of big name performers who basically put everything at the feet of the country bears.

[12:19] Now let's talk about these costumes again.

[12:20] I just want to get across my experience watching this movie where, so I watch most of these movies, again,

[12:25] usually while I'm doing the dishes.

[12:26] And so I'm not looking at the screen the whole time.

[12:29] And every now and then,

[12:29] the country bears would say a funny joke

[12:31] and I'd laugh and look at the screen

[12:32] and be reminded of how horrifically too real

[12:36] these costumes look.

[12:37] And I'd be like, ah, a bear said that.

[12:38] Yeah, you can smell these costumes.

[12:41] Yeah, it's not the Uncanny Valley

[12:46] because it's not like you're a case where like,

[12:50] oh, this looks too much like a bear

[12:51] and you're put off by like how it's almost a bear, but not.

[12:55] but it is kind of too realistic for what's going on.

[12:58] And also, like, you've made some mention of it.

[13:02] Like, the thing that tickled me the most when I first watched this movie

[13:04] is how little it really figures in that they're bears.

[13:08] Almost not at all.

[13:09] That would normally be the hook of a movie.

[13:13] And the decision that this film makes, which, like, upon second viewing,

[13:16] I appreciate even more, is that they largely ignore the fact that they're all bears.

[13:21] Yeah.

[13:22] And yet the bears are, it's not like you think they're real bears, but they are not cartoonish bear suits.

[13:28] Like, they're not cute.

[13:29] Like, they look like if you cross one of them, it will rip your throat out with its teeth or claws.

[13:34] They got some heft.

[13:36] Yes.

[13:37] Yeah.

[13:37] They look powerful.

[13:38] These are powerful bears.

[13:39] Powerful, powerful bears.

[13:41] Well, also, I would like to say that this opening montage, too, like, you wonder to yourself, why did the country bears break up?

[13:47] And you will not get that answer until very late in the movie.

[13:52] And then it's kind of barely there.

[13:53] I get it.

[13:56] Good pun, Dan.

[13:56] Good pun.

[13:57] Not meant to be a pun.

[13:58] You did it.

[13:59] Okay.

[13:59] Listeners, just for the pledge drive Dan has pledged, he's going to make as many bear puns as possible.

[14:05] See if you can find them all.

[14:06] Oh, no.

[14:07] Oh, wow.

[14:08] I've got to start Googling bear stuff.

[14:12] Dan, don't just Google bear stuff.

[14:15] You're going to put safe search on.

[14:17] Sure, why not?

[14:17] I mean, yeah, actually, you know what?

[14:19] It's fine.

[14:19] You're an adult.

[14:20] Just Google whatever you want.

[14:21] within reason uh so we then we're gonna meet our main character barry barrington the name is kind

[14:26] of on the nose that his name is barry he is a horrifyingly again lifelike bear boy and it's

[14:31] kind of like if michael j fox was a bear it's kind of the way it if michael fox from like uh not back

[14:37] to the future michael j fox but class of 1984 michael j fox when he's a little bit younger

[14:41] if he was a bear and he's yeah he's voiced by hayley joel osment who yes do you think

[14:47] Because now he kind of looks like his character

[14:50] I don't think so

[14:53] Because he looks kind of like a bear man

[14:55] Because he's gotten older and he has a beard all the time

[14:58] Yeah

[14:58] Okay well

[15:00] But he doesn't look like

[15:02] He doesn't have round ears on the top of his head

[15:04] You know

[15:05] Or a snap

[15:06] Yeah that's true

[15:08] Barry Barrington is obsessed with the country bears

[15:11] Which kind of makes sense

[15:11] Because there are almost no other bears

[15:13] That talk in existence

[15:14] He assumes that he's adopted

[15:17] because everyone else in his family is human.

[15:18] His dad is Steven Tobolowsky.

[15:20] Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, my friend.

[15:22] No.

[15:22] The joke is he has no idea he's adopted.

[15:26] No, no, he asks, he says,

[15:28] was I adopted that he asks his family that?

[15:31] And his bratty older brother, Dex,

[15:33] played by the voice of Hogarth from The Iron Giant,

[15:35] is like, yeah, you're a bear.

[15:38] You're obviously a bear.

[15:39] It's like Barry guesses that he's adopted,

[15:42] but he can't quite understand that he's a bear.

[15:43] And so finally, Barry, he says,

[15:46] This isn't your family, and Barry runs away.

[15:47] And in case you're starting to wonder, yes, this movie has the same plot as the 2011 The Muppets movie.

[15:53] The Muppets is a straight ripoff of The Country Bears.

[15:55] This is a scandal.

[15:56] Dan, you're a big fan of The Muppets, and you're especially a big fan of Walter, the character introduced in The Muppets.

[16:01] I am not.

[16:01] How did you feel finding out that it's stealing from The Country Bears?

[16:04] This is The Lion King and Kimbo the White Lion all over again.

[16:07] Yeah, Dan, what's going on?

[16:09] I was actually going to bring up the similarity to the film The Muppets.

[16:14] It's hard not to.

[16:15] It's the same plot, Dan.

[16:17] It is the same.

[16:17] It is the same plot.

[16:19] He's going to start a reunion show among the only people that are his species.

[16:22] Yeah, it's the same plot.

[16:23] But I will, in the context of this, I would like to pause it.

[16:26] There's even a bear in The Muppets.

[16:28] His name's Fozzie, Dan.

[16:29] This is wheels within wheels.

[16:31] Everything's connected.

[16:32] We are through the looking glass.

[16:33] I would like to pause it that, among other reasons why this movie may not have hit with the public,

[16:39] the country bears, like the reason this was more successful in The Muppets is

[16:44] the Muppets are characters that

[16:46] have this

[16:48] nostalgia value. People are

[16:50] of a certain age at least

[16:52] are utterly familiar with

[16:54] all of the personalities of the Muppets.

[16:56] So there's this certain

[16:58] zazz to the idea of

[17:00] the Muppets haven't worked together in a while.

[17:02] This guy discovers he's a Muppet. He's going to get

[17:04] them all back together. Here

[17:06] with the Country Bears, we don't have any

[17:08] associations with the beloved characters

[17:10] of the Country Bears. We don't know

[17:12] who all these people are supposed to be it's just a bunch of like interchangeable uh country bears

[17:17] who need to be returned uh to the stage so uh it's it's it's uh it's a less successful plot

[17:25] device here uh you're saying the audience has no there's there's very little stakes if the country

[17:29] bears don't get back together especially since i alluded to this before like until the end there's

[17:34] no real reason why they weren't together the whole time especially when like every one of them that

[17:40] the encounter seems to be down and out and needs this desperately but yeah and is instantly on

[17:46] board yeah exactly well here are the stakes we're gonna get to them as lyndon johnson once said in

[17:50] that famous daisy ad these are the stakes barry takes the bus to legendary country bear hall and

[17:56] meets and is and sees how evil banker reed thimple played by christopher walken in an amazing

[18:01] performance that i love is telling the hall's manager henry a bear one of only two no one of

[18:08] three non-country bear bears aside

[18:10] from Barry. There's Henry, there's

[18:12] the groundskeeper, whose name I don't remember.

[18:14] Big Al, who's voiced by the coach

[18:16] from Major League. Yeah, and there's

[18:18] Trixie, the only female bear we see

[18:20] in the entire movie, which might be why there's not that

[18:22] many bears left, to be honest.

[18:24] If there's that big an imbalance

[18:26] between males and females in the species.

[18:28] Dan, wait. Here's the stakes, and then

[18:30] we'll get into it. The stakes are, they're six

[18:32] years behind on mortgage payments, and

[18:34] they need to raise $20,000 in four

[18:36] days there's no way they can do it christopher walken can and that's 2002 dollars twenty thousand

[18:40] dollars is a lot of money back then yeah uh that's christopher walken cannot wait to tear

[18:44] the country bear hall down and he even has a wrecking ball hood ornament it's incredible

[18:49] it's great and barry is aghast dan tell me what you're gonna tell me and then i have a question

[18:53] for you after that oh uh well i was just gonna say that like oh shit it went out of my head

[19:00] say the question the question is christopher walken's performance is this his greatest

[19:04] performance he is extremely committed in this movie like this like the thing is like a lot in

[19:12] this movie like this movie could be such a an attempt at a cash grab a quixotic one because

[19:18] no one wanted to see a country bears movie but like it could be that but everyone is really

[19:23] putting their all into this thing there's a scene later on where christopher walken is in the room

[19:26] with the bears and he's threatening them and i was like it's hard for me to imagine that christopher

[19:31] walken is actually in this room with these guys in bear costumes acting up a storm really throwing

[19:37] himself into the part of this character of an evil banker who wants to tear down a music hall

[19:42] owned by a bunch of hillbilly bears like if i was ever able to interview christopher walken and talk

[19:47] to him about a single role it would be this one speak to that speak to that stewart i mean because

[19:53] yeah like i would i would ask him like what was going on in your head how did you get into the

[19:58] character of reed thimble etc etc and you'll notice that he was nominated for a bunch of like

[20:04] those joke bad movie awards for his performance in this but i think that's one of those

[20:07] misunderstandings where it's like this is the performance the movie calls for like the movie

[20:11] calls for a big silly performance later on spoiler alert he gets his comeuppance the good guys win

[20:15] he is making the craziest angry confused faces as a crowd sweeps him away and i was just like

[20:21] these faces are torn torn apart i would imagine yeah yeah it's just like the end of the bokai

[20:26] They're going to rip him limb from limb and then his mother is going to parade through the town with his head on a pole.

[20:29] It's like – it's just the faces he's making are so amazing.

[20:34] And it's an – I feel like sometimes movies try to get by on Christopher Walken just kind of being a little off as the only joke.

[20:41] But here they were clearly like, no, you're not Christopher Walken playing this character.

[20:44] You are you playing – you are Reed Thimple and you are like this crazy banker guy.

[20:49] It's not just Christopher Walken mannerisms.

[20:53] One of my favorite little details of his character is that the company he's employing to handle the demolitions is called Slambony Demolitions, which I feel is like a subsidiary of Brazzers or something.

[21:03] Like I expected Johnny Sins to be getting out of the truck.

[21:08] Thank you, Stuart, for injecting that real-life porn knowledge into our MaxFun Pledge Drive episode, the one where we ask our fans to support us.

[21:16] I gotta pay for my porn, Elliot.

[21:18] Just so you know where Stuart's money is going to.

[21:21] I remember what I was going to say, which is just that on the note of like there only being like a few other bears around, like mostly humans and then these like talking bears that everyone treats as if they're just normal people.

[21:33] I find it very funny in the early scenes where they're trying to convince, like the kid is trying to convince his brother bear, brother bear, another Disney film.

[21:43] It's what Disney Plus recommended to me as soon as I was like, I'm not just into bear things.

[21:51] Like, show me The Muppets, since it's the same exact plot.

[21:55] Like, unless Brother Bear is the same plot, you know?

[21:57] Elliot, your next 10 birthdays, you're getting ceramic bears from me.

[22:00] I'm sorry.

[22:00] Thank you.

[22:01] No, I don't want bears.

[22:02] I'm not into bears now.

[22:03] But it's like when years ago, I don't know if IMDb still has the, like, movie recommendations thing.

[22:08] Where it said, if you like this movie, you might like these others.

[22:11] And I was looking up the, it was when From Hell came out.

[22:14] And I looked up From Hell, and on the recommendations, it also recommended, like, Rising Sun and I think Murder at 1600.

[22:20] And I was like, the only thing these have in common – maybe it's absolute power.

[22:23] The only thing these have in common is that they're all movies where prostitutes are murdered.

[22:26] Like, that's not a good reason to choose a movie like this.

[22:29] Terrifying.

[22:30] That's horrible.

[22:30] Anyway.

[22:31] Dan, what were you going to say?

[22:32] The point of what I was saying was when he was trying – the brother was trying to convince the bear brother that he was adopted.

[22:37] He's like, here's my adoption certificate, and here's yours.

[22:40] And, like, pulls up – or birth certificate, and here's yours.

[22:42] And he, like, picks up, like, a tracking collar.

[22:46] Yeah.

[22:46] Like, there's a photo of him being, like, held up by a park ranger, which introduces all these questions about, like, so they know what bears are, like wild bears, and this is a wild bear that has been caught and adopted by a human family, I suppose.

[23:02] It is a bad bar scenario, Dan, or perhaps a bad bear scenario.

[23:06] It is colonization and cultural imperialism writ large where not just other peoples but even other species need to be forced to live in the ways that a capitalist imperialist society demands they are.

[23:17] But yeah, also it's just kind of a funny gag.

[23:19] Yeah, I think you're suggesting that country bears walked so that Paddington could run, right?

[23:24] Is that what you're saying, Dan?

[23:25] Well, seeing as Paddington is based on a series of books that predates the country bears, I wouldn't say that.

[23:32] But Country Bears is based on an electronic live-action attraction at a theme park,

[23:37] so it's kind of the same thing.

[23:38] I wonder which one's first.

[23:39] Windows Paddington.

[23:41] Time to check it out.

[23:42] Anyway, go on.

[23:42] I mean, but there's so many other bears in literature that, I mean,

[23:46] there's Little Bear, and there's Gentle Ben, and there's also Bear Grylls.

[23:53] There's so many other bears in popular culture.

[23:55] You know, who came first?

[23:56] No one will ever know.

[23:56] There's no way of telling.

[23:57] So anyway, two police officers, Officers Ham and Cheats, are set.

[24:02] This is an Officer Cheats.

[24:04] Is that a specific joke?

[24:06] Because Stephen Toblowski is like, wait, that's really your names?

[24:11] And I'm like.

[24:11] It just sounds like ham and cheese.

[24:14] I think it's just the only joke.

[24:16] And this is the second of Diedrich Bader's roles in the movie.

[24:21] Because he plays one of the bears and he plays Officer Cheats.

[24:23] And he has a big fake mustache.

[24:25] and dex is mad that nobody seems to realize that barry is a bear of course he's figured out he's a

[24:30] dogtective but nobody else seems to be thinking that barry is a bear uh henry is showing barry

[24:35] around the storied country bear hall and he says at one point that hendrix played there but the

[24:40] biggest of them all was the country bears and i was like whoa movie wait a second it is i am willing

[24:45] to suspend my disbelief that there is a group of bears that can play music and were once rock and

[24:49] roll stars it is hard for me to imagine them being bigger stars than jimmy hendrix this is a strange

[24:54] world that we live in don't make me suspend my disbelief are you saying that if there was a band

[25:00] full of musical bears that wouldn't be the hugest thing ever come on he's got you i mean are zz top

[25:09] the hairiest rock stars in the world the biggest basically three three bear men trace hombres yep

[25:16] yeah and uh but there's also the idea but also they're not in direct competition with each other

[25:20] like jimmy hendrix was was played hard rock and the country bears play soft country rock like

[25:25] why would you compare the two of them i don't understand why would you compare the two of them

[25:29] i don't get it anyway elliot's getting in the game he's got a point now i got it look i gotta

[25:33] pick up the slack we promised a lot to our pledge people and dan is not doing the bear puns so uh

[25:39] barry decides that his higher purpose in life is to save the hall with a reunion show henry is

[25:44] against the idea until he hears barry singing a country bears song with real passion and they

[25:48] pull out the dusty old tour bus and pull out the dusty old roadie mc gainey who i guess has been

[25:53] living on the tour bus with a chicken when i love the idea i love the idea that the casting agent's

[25:58] like we just need you to do the same thing you did in con air you're the same character basically

[26:05] and he's like so this is a sort of con bear no no no no no no there's no actual cons uh so now

[26:13] they got to go to the first first bear on the list is fred betterhead uh he's a guard at a

[26:19] security guard at a music at a studio where they're shooting a music video yeah this is this

[26:22] is like a real like mass effect 2 situation where you got to track down your your elite team of

[26:26] battlers exactly except they're an elite team of country bears uh they and by elite i mean

[26:32] certainly they're the elite country bears there are no others they're the best by definition

[26:35] is betterhead a sex pun like what like what i honestly couldn't figure out no complaints

[26:43] Okay, I'm just wondering.

[26:44] The only thing I can think of,

[26:45] because it's not like a rock and roll thing

[26:46] that I could think of.

[26:47] I mean, a head is like a pothead,

[26:48] but the only thing I could think of

[26:52] is that it's a play on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

[26:53] villain Leatherhead, who's a Cajun alligator.

[26:56] But I was like, that's a strange reference

[26:58] for this movie to make, you know?

[27:00] Yeah.

[27:01] Especially because by this point,

[27:02] I think the Ninja Turtles were a Nickelodeon property

[27:04] that's direct competition with Disney.

[27:06] Anyway, Fred is a guard at a music studio,

[27:08] at a set where they're shooting a music video.

[27:12] The singer recognizes him, and they jam on a musical number, and Fred stage dives, but there's no one in the crowd to catch him, so he just falls on the ground.

[27:18] Barry shows up.

[27:19] By the way, I just want to say, this singer, Crystal, she was a minor star of the time.

[27:27] There are some people in here that are musical figures that you will recognize.

[27:32] Later on, Bonnie Raitt and Don Henley are dude in the movie.

[27:37] I will make you love me's Bonnie Raitt.

[27:40] The saddest song in the universe.

[27:42] But there are also people like Crystal here

[27:46] or the waitress later who had like a hit

[27:50] and maybe are not like at the forefront of our mind anymore,

[27:53] but are people who maybe would have been known

[27:57] at the time of the Country Bears to audiences.

[27:59] Like the waitress later is the one who I was informed by.

[28:02] Audrey did the song,

[28:03] It's just a little crush.

[28:06] That one.

[28:07] Oh, yeah.

[28:08] See, I didn't recognize them,

[28:10] I wondered if they were real so like there's there's a version of this movie that came out

[28:14] eight years later that like uh Rebecca Black is in it and there's a version of it that comes out

[28:18] now that like Billie Eilish is in it like I get it okay yeah yeah well what I like about this

[28:23] sequence is that like they're they're doing this music video and like every once in a while it'll

[28:28] just cut to the side and you'll see Fred Betterhead and you're reminded that oh yeah there's a country

[28:33] bear running around like no one in the in the movie as dan's mentioned like in any way registers

[28:40] that they're bears and it's weird that they're bears they're just totally accepted every there

[28:44] you go and so you just yeah every there's this constant shock of recognition throughout the

[28:48] movie in you the audience that a bear is in this scene yeah yes no you you've hit upon it exactly

[28:54] like again watching it a second time the effect was dimmed i could focus on other things but the

[29:00] first time around i would just start giggling every once in a while because there's like bears

[29:04] roaming around and no one was acting like that was weird it's a little bit like the first time

[29:08] you see cats and you and throughout the movie every five minutes you're like this is really

[29:11] happening like there's really a cat singing right now like this is this is something i never thought

[29:16] i'd see i never dreamed of um fred's immediately on board with the reunion uh henry calls up the

[29:21] bears old promoter rip holland played by the late alex rocco and he goes oh the man who stole the

[29:27] ban from me and there's bad blood between them we never find out what that's about it's never

[29:31] explained he rip agrees to promote the band henry doesn't know that rip is at rock bottom he's

[29:36] actually we find out using a desk at a furniture store to work from that's pretty that was a good

[29:41] gag i like that one yeah uh and fred tells barry that the country bears big break came when they

[29:47] won a talent contest beating a boy who could make armpit fart music that's gonna come back it's not

[29:53] a one-off gag so be ready for that who did not take the loss well no let's yeah let's just say

[29:58] that next they go to a beehive themed roadhouse where zeb zuber uh is is a honeyholic wait let

[30:04] me finish this sentence dan okay he is a honeyholic mooching off of the bartender queen latifah

[30:09] and you're right you're right no i should not have interrupted and i have another i have another

[30:14] sentence uh after that but we can but dan before i get to that sentence uh tell me what you're

[30:18] gonna say i well i mean number one number one this is one of the moments where you're like okay i

[30:24] guess this is one of the reasons the country bears broke up that this uh that zeb zuber had a honey

[30:28] habit yeah sure honey habit and the film because it is for kids didn't really want to go into the

[30:34] implications of yeah of what all this means but also i just found it funny that again a world

[30:38] where there's barely any bears like barely any bears sorry same good one it's the same one but

[30:44] But it was great.

[30:44] I mean, we'll give you half credit for each.

[30:47] Okay.

[30:47] A world with so few bears, mostly humans in this bar, but it is a honey bar.

[30:56] There's honeycombs on the walls.

[30:57] There's an electrified bark back scratcher that one of the bears enjoys.

[31:01] Which I think would work in a normal bar.

[31:03] No, I love it.

[31:04] But it does seem built for bears.

[31:07] It's true.

[31:09] Now, is Zeb Zuber the one that's voiced by Stephen Root or by Toby Huss?

[31:14] Zeb Zuber is the one who's voiced by Stephen Root.

[31:17] Toby Huss is Tennessee O'Neill.

[31:19] And Diedrich Bader does Ted Betterhead.

[31:21] And Fred Betterhead is Brad Garrett.

[31:23] So many great character actors.

[31:26] This movie has a great cast.

[31:28] You've got Diedrich Bader, Stephen Root, Christopher Walken, Alex Rocco, MC Ganey, Toby Huss.

[31:35] There's a lot of great people in it.

[31:38] The other cop is Daryl...

[31:40] Is Daryl Mitchell.

[31:41] Yeah.

[31:42] Hot off the success of Galaxy Quest, you know?

[31:45] Yeah.

[31:45] This is not a bad cast for a Country Bears movie.

[31:49] And I guess when they were going through all the silliness,

[31:51] they just had to bear with it for the paycheck.

[31:54] Anyway, moving on.

[31:55] The covers were bare.

[31:56] So, Dan, you're right.

[32:00] It is strange that in this world with very few bears,

[32:02] I guess there's enough people who are addicted to honey, you know?

[32:05] Yeah.

[32:05] And I'm glad, yeah, if this was an adult movie,

[32:08] There'd be some joke about him servicing Johns in exchange for honey, and I'm glad that it's for kids.

[32:13] They did not do that.

[32:13] So Queen Latifah agrees to a bet with Barry.

[32:17] He'll wager the country bear bus, and she'll erase Zeb's debts if he can win a music contest against Brian Setzer.

[32:24] So the next scene is just Brian Setzer and Zeb Zuber, which, again, I'll remind you, Zeb Zuber is Stephen Root.

[32:32] I assume Stephen Root was not in the costume.

[32:34] I've got to imagine he just did the voice.

[32:36] I don't know.

[32:36] No, I kind of like to imagine he was in it.

[32:38] Maybe.

[32:39] I mean, he wore that pan suit in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

[32:44] Maybe he did that here.

[32:45] Now, this was a tough scene for me.

[32:47] I've gone on record about my difficulties looking at rockabilly dudes.

[32:52] But, you know, the country bears, you know, I did it for the movie.

[32:56] I did it for work.

[32:57] We appreciate that you bared with it.

[32:59] Did you sex up by looking at them or what?

[33:00] I don't understand.

[33:00] I don't know.

[33:01] It's just, there's something that doesn't rub me right, you know?

[33:05] I remember, for some reason, I was talking to Sammy recently about Rockabilly and Neo Swing guys.

[33:11] And I was just going on about how dumb their long keychain chains are.

[33:15] And I was showing him pictures of, like, old Zoot Suit guys.

[33:18] And he was like, that looks cool.

[33:20] Then I showed him modern ones.

[33:21] And he goes, that one doesn't.

[33:22] And I was like, Sammy, thank you.

[33:24] Each thing has its time.

[33:25] Yeah, that's true.

[33:26] And Rockabilly, it's kind of like that.

[33:28] There's this weird subculture that maybe I don't like it because I know if given the right circumstances,

[33:33] I totally would have fallen into it where it's like super where that that that subculture of like super punky anti-establishment people who all look like Betty Page or or like a 50s greaser, you know.

[33:46] And I and it's given the right circumstances, I'd probably be there.

[33:50] I'd have a tattoo of a laughing devil with a mustache or something on my on my arm, you know, and I'd be in a rockabilly band.

[33:57] Then I'd then I'd become older and I'd start wearing Panama hats and bowling shirts and hanging around Coney Island.

[34:03] Like, that's, yeah, that's a lifestyle that, maybe that's why I don't like it is because it's an alternate sliding doors parallel world for me.

[34:08] A road not taken.

[34:10] Interesting.

[34:11] Well, I apologize to any Rockabilly listeners for the past one minute of content.

[34:17] And to Rockadoodle, the hit cartoon movie about a rock and roll rooster.

[34:22] Anyway, so to make a long story short, Zeb Zuber wins his music contest with Brian Setzer in which they sing a song about honey.

[34:28] Well, they sing a song about what's going on right there.

[34:32] The song appears to be improvised on the spot about how I, Brian Setzer, am fighting this bear in a music battle and how they're doing.

[34:42] It's off the dome.

[34:44] I guess it's supposed to be off the dome.

[34:44] And this is followed by a lovely interlude where Christopher Walken wearing a three-piece suit without the jacket from the waist up and boxer shorts from the waist down is just smashing models of the Country Bear Hall over and over again.

[34:59] And each time, he smashes it and goes, oh, no, Bear Hall.

[35:02] And then smashes it again, oh, no, Bear Hall.

[35:04] And it is delightful.

[35:05] It's so great.

[35:08] It's like, how is this not a gift that I've seen attached to things?

[35:12] Just him going, oh, smashing it, going, oh, no.

[35:14] Oh, no.

[35:15] Yeah.

[35:15] And then he just dumps the smashed pieces on a pile of smashed pieces.

[35:20] And I couldn't tell.

[35:20] Is he in a building, or is he in, like, a trailer of a truck made up to look inside, like, an office?

[35:25] I couldn't quite tell where he was.

[35:27] but yeah he's inside all of us uh and you know what it and that that scene does not bode well

[35:33] for the country bears they're gonna need they're gonna need all the support from their community

[35:37] and you know who else needs support from their community that's right us the flop house so

[35:42] that's how you do it no i i bow to the master it's the max fun drive folks and uh it's the

[35:48] one time a year uh that we uh interrupt our regular programming to ask you uh the listener

[35:55] to consider supporting us financially with money now uh think of the flop house as like a three

[36:03] legged stool that one of the country bears might sit on to play one of their banjo songs okay

[36:08] one of those legs is me dan elliott okay we watch the shitty movies or good movies in the case of

[36:14] the country bears we talk about them we try not to murder each other now another leg of the another

[36:20] leg is max fun uh that's they help us get advertisements they help us get guests organize

[36:26] fun stuff uh and then the third leg that's kind of the most important one that's you that's right

[36:31] you listen to our show you tell your friends about it you tweeted us you uh like uh my instagram

[36:38] pictures and you support us with your hard-earned money uh so what we're asking is for you to

[36:46] consider if you aren't already a supporter to uh head over to maximumfund.org join and consider

[36:53] becoming a supporter of the flop house uh for five dollars a month you can uh you can join as a

[36:59] maximum fund high fiver uh that gives you access to bonus content and that's not just the flop house

[37:04] bonus content of which there is already a lot i mean i've made you guys play a lot of role-playing

[37:08] games with me uh but there's also plenty of additional content we've recorded uh episodes

[37:14] about uh bad television shows uh i think there's a couple of our like live episodes up there dan

[37:20] is that correct uh yeah and we recorded a special episode already this year where elliot took the

[37:27] reins and ran us through a very spooky adventure that's true that for ten dollars a month you can

[37:35] be a friend of the family in addition to the bonus content you also get one of 38 enamel pins of

[37:41] whichever your favorite show is like the flop house in this case this year's pin for the flop

[37:45] house commemorates probably one of the most important moments of the of the television show

[37:50] television show of the podcast that's right the moment when a uh truth-speaking hero named stewart

[37:57] was relaying the events of the movie castle freak and then a bunch of haters including his co-hosts

[38:03] and late great director stewart gordon of the director of the movie castle freak all decided

[38:08] to tell him he was wrong so dan i mean stewart live your truth keep recounting those votes maybe

[38:15] maybe it'll turn out that a ding dong was ripped off uh i mean check the tapes it's all there uh

[38:21] we did check the tapes that's why we know it didn't happen and there's additional and there's

[38:27] additional levels above there obviously if you can afford it um so now is the time head over

[38:34] to maximumfund.org slash join uh sign up if you have not joined before and if you already are a

[38:41] supporter of the show first off thank you so much uh you allow us to do this you're an important uh

[38:46] leg of the stool that that a country bear is sitting on um but you can also consider if you

[38:51] can afford it uh why don't you why don't you consider upgrading your membership to get some

[38:56] of those cool items some of those cool gifts i was wondering if i could i was wondering if i could

[39:01] but in with a with another incentive gift i want to throw into the pot uh let me check i'm gonna

[39:07] check the rules yeah i think you can okay okay good great great uh so people may know that i have

[39:13] a uh comic book right right now it's called maniac of new york it's been selling out on comic book

[39:17] store shelves but i'm not talking about that book to get you to buy it you can't sold out i am saying

[39:22] that i'm going to give 10 people who are making new pledges or upgrading their pledges at random

[39:29] Ten of them will be chosen, and we will get in touch and get your address, and I will send you a signed copy of an issue of Maniac of New York.

[39:37] What?

[39:37] Hopefully issue number one.

[39:38] I have to check how many copies I have on hand of issue number one.

[39:41] But you will get an issue of Maniac of New York signed by me that's going to go to ten randomly chosen new or upgrading pledge members of Maximum Fun.

[39:52] Just to say thanks.

[39:53] And to the many other people who don't get one in the mail, I also want to say thanks, but I only have so many copies.

[39:59] But this is your chance.

[40:01] And I'm going to jump in.

[40:01] I'm going to jump in and offer another show-specific reward.

[40:06] We will choose 10 at random to receive a drawing done by me, Dan McCoy, of the Flophouse.

[40:15] Hello.

[40:16] It's me, Dan.

[40:17] I've been doing a lot of drawing.

[40:20] You're going backwards, Dan.

[40:21] During the pandemic.

[40:23] Uh, if you follow, uh, me on Twitter, you might've seen a few of my drawings, uh, and

[40:29] I will do a, um, let's say a character of the listener's choice, a request of like a

[40:37] character.

[40:38] Now you can't get too detailed.

[40:40] Just tell me a character.

[40:41] Don't be like the dude standing on top of a mountain with a shovel.

[40:46] Who's got the head of a lion, but his tail is a, but, or I don't feel like you would

[40:51] appreciate the specifics.

[40:53] This sounds like an amazing character, Dan.

[40:55] I don't know why you wouldn't want to draw that.

[40:56] The tail is a butt?

[40:57] I mean, come on.

[40:57] How does that even work?

[40:58] Anyway, 10 random people.

[41:01] This is your chance, 10 random people, to finally get that pregnant Sonic drawn by Dan that you've always wanted.

[41:06] Oh, my Lord.

[41:07] You're putting it in people's hearts.

[41:09] Dan, it's already in people's head.

[41:11] Pregnant Sonic is the most popular character on the internet.

[41:13] Oh, God.

[41:14] So, once again, for new supporters and upgrading supporters, there's a lot of great gifts available to you,

[41:22] including a pregnant Sonic drawn by Dan

[41:24] and an autographed comic by Elliot.

[41:26] That's amazing.

[41:27] Just head over to MaximumFun.org slash join.

[41:29] Thank you so much.

[41:31] Thank you, Stuart, for doing that so well

[41:35] and laying out what our listeners can do

[41:37] if they'd like to support us at MaximumFun.org slash join.

[41:41] But hey, guys, we've got bigger problems than that

[41:43] because Brian and Henry still need to collect

[41:45] two more hibernating has-beens,

[41:47] and they're running out of time.

[41:48] So let's return to Elliot summarizes the country bears

[41:51] already in progress when last we left the country bears barry and henry had managed to collect fred

[41:57] betterhead and zeb zuber next they need tennessee o'neill who it turns out has become a marriage

[42:02] counselor but he frequently breaks down in tears during sessions because he misses his love trixie

[42:07] who he says ran off with a panda at lunch he tells the other bears he cannot play without her

[42:12] and then this waitress recognizes them and starts singing their song kick it into gear

[42:16] or something like that and it turns into this huge musical number and it's like a big screen

[42:21] version of that chili's ad where they sing the baby back ribs song it is yeah it's like this is

[42:26] like what space jam is to that nike commercial this scene is to that chili's ad guys were you

[42:31] as blown away as i was by how much this turned into a just a restaurant fantasia you know yeah

[42:37] i mean i enjoy seeing a thing like this where so much effort has been put into something just

[42:45] inherently impossible to take

[42:47] seriously. And this is

[42:49] a fully choreographed number. It's like

[42:51] you know, something that say like the Mamma

[42:53] Mia films really like capitalize

[42:55] on. Like the idea of like, well

[42:57] this might

[42:59] be dumb, but hey, do you like fun?

[43:01] You know, and that's what this feels like.

[43:03] I mean, the thing is the Mamma Mia movies are doing it with real

[43:05] songs. I mean, they're all real songs, but songs that

[43:07] people are like, oh yeah, this one. It's a jukebox

[43:09] musical. This, I assume, I don't know.

[43:11] Is this a real song? I assume it was original

[43:13] for the movie but a lot of these songs were written by this guy uh who uh let me look up

[43:19] his name he won bernie for like eight grammy's his name's ted betterhead he's the lead singer

[43:24] of the country bears oh of course of course of course i'm sorry he's a bear no let me look up

[43:29] the music you keep going it's hard to write a song when you're a bear because you have paws

[43:33] and so it's hard to play a piano and also hard to write down things so i have to assume that

[43:37] because there is a moment where they look at uh the note that barry wrote when he ran away and

[43:42] the paper is covered in in scratches yeah yeah yeah and so i have to assume that at a certain

[43:48] point you get so rich that you hire a human to write for you and a human to play the keys and

[43:53] they just play every key on the piano until they hit the right one that you want and it's a very

[43:57] laborious process but so you can't argue with a hit like kicking into gear it was probably written

[44:02] by that guy from uh under the silver lake john hyatt wrote the songs john hyatt wrote them he's

[44:09] had uh eight grammy uh nominee nine he's been nominated for nine grammy awards wow uh oh then

[44:16] i'm impressed eight grammy nominations not impressive but nine okay yeah now you're talking

[44:20] yeah no but he's had like uh songs done by uh bb king bob dylan bonnie rate shaka khan eric

[44:29] clapton jewel iggy pop jone bias like it just goes what are some of the songs tell us some of

[44:34] the songs he's written uh i'll look i should have had this at the ready but i don't so well

[44:39] i'll continue the summary but you keep looking up i'm sure our listeners know but the moment

[44:43] the moment that this uh this dance number lets up uh they like are snapped back into reality

[44:50] they're in the diner again people are not dancing anymore the waitress is uh the waitress is asking

[44:54] uh how do you like your eggs and i think it's zeb zuber just shouts out hot and i fucking lost it

[45:04] there's like there's a lot of i mean i wish i didn't have to say this because it's the country

[45:09] bears movie it's a movie based on animatronic attraction there's a lot of funny jokes in this

[45:14] movie like this movie is not taking itself that much more seriously than it needs to take itself

[45:18] it feels like a real lark of a movie that the kind of thing that like would be direct to streaming

[45:24] right now because it's not big but it's like everyone in this movie seems to be on the same

[45:28] page of like look we're making a country bears movie like are we really gonna like we don't have

[45:32] to take it seriously but let's let's reach the level of cartoony energy and there are times when

[45:37] like i was talking about christopher walken's facial expressions there's scenes with steven

[45:40] tobolowski where he's just hurling himself into the movie with such high energy nobody in the

[45:46] movie is like even queen latifah nobody is like i'm too cool to be in this country bears movie

[45:50] they're like all right yeah we're making this dumb country bears movie let's do it and there's

[45:53] a bunch of really funny jokes in it okay uh coming up soon thinking barry has been kidnapped the cops

[45:59] chase the bears out of the diner and they go to a car chase they hide in a car wash the cops go in

[46:03] the car wash and they get knocked around for such a long time dedrick bader's mustache falls off

[46:09] and they're flying at one point from the air hoses and barry and barry as they drive away is just

[46:14] laughing at the pain these these police officers are getting for trying to protect him like there's

[46:18] like a red light on him from from this the car wash so he looks very devilish laughing at these

[46:24] very evil and there's one joke at the end of the sequence it might be after a scene i'm sure where

[46:28] the one

[46:30] the other cop

[46:31] his

[46:31] I forgot his name

[46:32] his hair looks silly

[46:33] because of what happened

[46:34] and DiGiubito goes

[46:34] your hair looks ridiculous

[46:35] and then turns his head

[46:37] and his hair has been blown

[46:38] so far behind him

[46:39] that there's this long

[46:40] it's like if Johnny Bravo

[46:41] was a Parasaurolophus

[46:43] like his hair has gone

[46:44] from the top of his head

[46:45] to just sticking out of the back

[46:45] and I was

[46:46] and I laughed so hard at that

[46:47] I was like

[46:47] you got me movie

[46:48] I didn't expect that

[46:49] and that's a ridiculous psych gag

[46:50] it's like

[46:51] yeah

[46:51] he goes to the hairstylist

[46:53] he's like

[46:53] make my hair look like

[46:55] the Rocketeer's helmet

[46:56] yeah

[46:57] Yeah, he just brought in a snork, and he said, like this, but towards the back.

[47:01] That's what I want.

[47:02] Right before that sequence, there was another dumb joke that I loved, which is as the cops are chasing the Country Bears bus,

[47:10] they spot them, and the bus is parked right next to a sign that is advertising bingo at 9 p.m.,

[47:18] and Diedrich Bader says, bingo, 9 o'clock, because he sees them, and it's great.

[47:21] It's a great joke.

[47:22] Yeah, that's a good joke.

[47:25] Anyway, Barry calls Dex to say he's okay, and Dex is about to tell Barry that he's a

[47:30] part of their family, but Barry hangs up before Dex can say it.

[47:32] The bears take a moment to watch a little scene from an old Country Bears cartoon in

[47:37] a motel, and the Country Bears cartoon is very clearly like a slapdash, cheapo, like

[47:42] 60s or 70s cartoon, and when it's over, I forget which way I just goes, that was bad.

[47:47] And that's the end of the scene.

[47:48] There's some people who know what they're doing making jokes in this movie.

[47:54] Anyway, luckily, they find out Trixie is performing in the bar next to their motel.

[47:58] Tennessee goes over.

[48:00] They sing a lost love ballad.

[48:01] They are instantly back in love again.

[48:03] You wonder, why did they break up in the first place?

[48:05] It doesn't matter.

[48:06] They're in love again.

[48:06] The challenges of this movie are so easily overcome, and that should be annoying, but it's a country bears movie.

[48:12] Like, I don't really want to see them struggling.

[48:13] Like, come on.

[48:14] Yeah.

[48:15] And I don't want to stress out over this.

[48:17] Are these bears going to get back together and just sing their songs again?

[48:20] Like, they say, put your hero up a tree, throw rocks at him, and get him down from the tree.

[48:24] It's a country bear.

[48:25] I don't want to see him get stuck in a tree.

[48:26] I don't want to throw rocks at him.

[48:27] Just get him out of that tree.

[48:28] And in this scene, both bears' singing voices are provided by Bonnie Raitt and Don Henley, who are both sitting at the bar.

[48:36] Yeah, so they are watching their voices come out of bears, which must be a strange experience.

[48:41] Horrifying.

[48:42] This is another one of those scenes where I was just watching, and I'm like, okay, so there are two more realistic than I would like bears

[48:49] singing this love ballad to each other.

[48:51] There are no other bears in the room.

[48:52] This is not a bear world.

[48:54] It's a strange movie.

[48:56] It's a strange movie to watch sometimes.

[48:57] I was like, Bonnie Raitt, you succeeded.

[48:59] You've given us something to talk about.

[49:01] Yeah, that's true.

[49:02] Finally.

[49:03] Speaking of song titles,

[49:05] just so the listener isn't hung up

[49:07] on the fact that there's no payoff,

[49:08] John Hyatt, the only song title I'd recognize

[49:11] was Have a Little Faith in Me,

[49:12] but he's done other stuff.

[49:13] How does that song go?

[49:14] I don't think I know that one.

[49:15] I don't know it well enough.

[49:17] hum a couple of bars

[49:19] hum a couple of bars

[49:19] just make it

[49:21] is that the one that goes

[49:22] have a little faith

[49:23] for our lives

[49:24] to be over

[49:25] is that the

[49:26] Dawson's Creek song

[49:27] is that it

[49:27] yeah it goes

[49:30] in me

[49:31] bum bum

[49:33] in me

[49:33] bum bum

[49:34] so that's the one

[49:35] have a little

[49:35] little little

[49:36] little faith

[49:36] yeah sure

[49:37] and there's canons

[49:38] that go off

[49:39] representing faith

[49:40] so yeah

[49:41] Bonnie Raitt

[49:42] you may know her best

[49:43] from the band

[49:43] the Dire Raitts

[49:44] huge couple of hits

[49:46] from them

[49:46] uh they so you now i ran out of bear puns so uh they only need one last member of the team ted

[49:54] betterhead they call him and he is busy polishing a rolls royce we assume he is the successful

[49:59] member of the group and he hangs up on them he pretends he's going through a tunnel hangs up on

[50:02] henry they show up at what they think is ted's estate to find the man they think is his gardener

[50:08] who is clearly elton john and as soon as they walk away they say oh that guy looked like elton john

[50:13] and then later we're just told for real no that was actually all john he says oh ted's down at

[50:17] the country club uh and so they show up the country club ted is very mad they're there they look out

[50:23] of place at this rich country club because they're hicks and also fucking bears but everyone nobody

[50:28] treats them like they're outsiders they sit down and talk to an old lady and she's laughing it up

[50:33] jokes about salmon the fucking buffet has like a full trout yeah he just takes yeah that's a good

[50:41] point uh and but ted is guys yes before we move on can we just pretend that when you said uh

[50:47] dire rates i said something about honey for nothing yep okay let's go everyone so uh let's

[50:56] correct the record pause it go back and then just pretend when it happens that i did that

[51:02] yeah well luckily this is just the rehearsal we'll get it we'll get it right for the main

[51:06] for the main performance okay we'll have it on the day what i like is that honey for nothing

[51:10] is a joke off of the movie which bonnie raitt is in so you really have to know the movie

[51:15] it doesn't really yeah no it doesn't yeah yeah they're two different pun tracks really honestly

[51:20] but yeah that tastes right together you got your bonnie rat my country bonnie raitt my country bears

[51:24] bonnie rat is of course the founder of the band rat it's a different person yeah yeah um what i

[51:30] wonder that's uh now i want to do a mad magazine article that's just bonnie raitt's career and

[51:35] She's in Dire Rates.

[51:36] She's Vonnie Ratt.

[51:38] Oh, all those things.

[51:39] Yeah.

[51:39] Anyway, she's in the California Ratesons.

[51:42] So Ted is very mad.

[51:44] He says they're pathetic.

[51:46] This is never going to happen.

[51:47] The show's never going to happen.

[51:48] Everyone kind of blames themselves, and they walk off together.

[51:51] But Fred Betterhead is mad.

[51:52] And he goes to confront Ted and finds Ted singing It's Not Unusual, not a Country Bears song.

[51:58] It turns out he's not a member of the club.

[52:00] He's part of the wedding band that's performing at the club.

[52:04] And Fred goes, Ted, you're a wedding singer?

[52:08] And it's one of those things where it's like, is that a bad thing?

[52:12] It's the kind of thing where if not for the movie The Wedding Singer, I wouldn't necessarily think that that was any worse.

[52:16] You're still a professional musician.

[52:18] Anyway, Ted admits he's not rich, but he still doesn't want to be in the show for some reason.

[52:23] And Fred punches Ted until he passes out.

[52:26] And they kidnap him.

[52:27] And they kidnap him.

[52:28] I was like, that is not okay.

[52:30] this is this is one of two moments coming up where i was like okay country bears that was

[52:34] too intense for the country bears uh dex tries to tell the cops that barry is safe but they do

[52:41] not believe him regardless they disappear from the movie from this point on i don't think they

[52:45] show up again it's just i i i like in that scene just like they sort of cheerfully ignore the fact

[52:51] that uh our main character is a bear here they're also like dex is like trying to tell them the

[52:56] truth and he gets really frustrated with him and after he leaves they're like nothing but positive

[53:01] about what a great kid he is yeah like i like their attitude is what i'm saying yeah they're

[53:06] really they're really funny and but and uh they and in a normal movie i would be like okay so the

[53:11] cops just disappear from the movie we never see them again again it's the country bears who cares

[53:14] it's essentially it's it's it's kind of one step up from a sketch movie like who cares so uh ted

[53:20] still doesn't want to do the show even when he's on the tour bus for very vague reasons he's just

[53:23] kind of like i'm the only one who's organized around here you guys aren't organized and we're

[53:27] not a family and we never were a family which is cold considering his brother is in the band like

[53:33] yes part of his family is there and barry is like but your family are the people that you're right

[53:39] this isn't a family because your family are the people who always i don't believe in you or

[53:42] whatever and he realizes just like my family hey i do have a family he runs all the way back home

[53:47] yeah we can only assume don't see any buses or trains or anything you just see him running and

[53:52] And he's at home and his mom is so excited to hear his voice that she drops the pie that she's holding on the floor.

[54:00] And I'm like, but the pie, like you could have just, like it doesn't take any extra energy to put down that pie.

[54:05] But Dan, she's got, she's got so much pie.

[54:07] It's established earlier on that when she's, she's worried, she bakes things.

[54:10] So she's constantly baking throughout the rest of the movie.

[54:12] So they've got, I imagine Stephen Tobolowsky, he saw the pie on the floor and he was like, oh, thank God.

[54:17] I couldn't eat another pie.

[54:18] Thank goodness.

[54:19] And also he's so excited.

[54:20] And when he sees Barry, he's just like, Barry!

[54:22] Like, it's the most, it's the biggest response.

[54:26] But, like, if my son showed up, if my son I love disappeared and then showed up, I'd react that way, too.

[54:31] I'd drop a pie.

[54:32] I don't care.

[54:32] Dan, your child, who you love, who you gave birth to, not really because he's a bear.

[54:37] You hear the kid.

[54:39] You know the kid's okay.

[54:39] Just use the extra second to put the pie down on the counter.

[54:44] You're just so excited.

[54:45] If only so you don't have to clean up that pie later.

[54:48] It's a small price to pay to not have to just be able to hug that bear kid.

[54:51] You're going to have ants all over the place.

[54:53] That's the problem.

[54:54] You think there's not ants in that house already?

[54:56] You've got a bear leaving honey all over the place?

[54:58] That's true.

[54:58] The bear probably eats the ants.

[54:59] Yeah, they're delicious.

[55:00] Yeah, the bear eats the ants.

[55:01] They love it.

[55:02] Anyway, Barry goes back.

[55:04] Fred on the bus finds an essay that Barry left behind where he says the country bears together as a group are his heroes, not one by one, together.

[55:13] and ted betterhead shows up at barry's house and apologizes and they decide the show is on uh-oh

[55:18] but walk-in stole the bus and then he imprisons the other bears at gunpoint and he has he has

[55:25] a bandolier of trank darts so i guess it's implied as a triangle but he just has a gun in his hand

[55:30] pushing them into a jail cell and i was like this move this is the second moment where i was like

[55:34] this is too much country bears i don't like the idea that country bears are being held at gunpoint

[55:37] this is not good and this is when when christopher walken reveals why he wants to tear their house

[55:44] down or their country hall so much stew dan who wants to sell the dark secret that uh is is lying

[55:50] behind the hatred of uh reed thimple well he starts he starts by unbuttoning his shirt and i was like

[55:57] does he have a embarrassing country bears tattoo does he have a horrible scar caused by a bear

[56:03] attack what could it be yeah but it turns out he's the fartist from earlier in the movie

[56:10] like doesn't want the bear say like oh the farting boy or something like that something like that

[56:15] just to put a hat on it yeah he said yeah he said you like what was it like you've ruined 30 years

[56:21] of my life or something and i was like yeah wait a minute how old was he when he was a farting boy

[56:26] because christopher wogan looks like he's also making a lot of assumptions about the role of

[56:31] like a farting musician that was the issue i had cultural landscape the idea that if he had only

[56:38] won that talent contest fart music would have been the next big thing that would have been the wave

[56:43] he would ride in recording history and crazier things have happened a guy sped up his voice

[56:47] and pretended he was a group of chipmunks and was it and had several number one hits so strange

[56:53] things could happen but also the idea like if if being a farting musician was that close to the

[56:58] surface of bubbling up you would have had another shot the one talent like just keep trying just

[57:03] keep pushing yeah you know no no no he's he's blaming others for a problem that's really his

[57:07] own his own yes his own he let he let one rejection shoot him down and you can't do that

[57:12] if you're gonna be a creative professional you gotta get used to you know reed thimple listen

[57:15] to me you gotta get used to rejection all the reed thimples out there all the fart musicians

[57:19] out there you can't let one no crash your dreams a hundred no's maybe it's time to look for

[57:24] something else but you can't let that no crash because you're gonna you're gonna face rejection

[57:27] you know you got to really need to do it i mean not only is he a bad like farting musician though

[57:32] but he's a bad uh evil businessman because the country bears at this point the the the building

[57:40] the the grand old country bears opry whatever it's called is like six years behind on its payments

[57:47] uh so it seems like only to get around to revenge now seems like laziness on christopher walken's

[57:54] he's a bad farting musician he's a bad evil businessman but is he a good farting businessman

[58:00] yes he's i mean in the top fart in the ranks of farting businessmen it's just him and warren

[58:06] buffett at the top yeah at the very top uh because look that guy's old you got to believe that he's

[58:11] there's a lot of stuff coming out of him but and it's thanks to max fun pledge thank you dan thanks

[58:16] to max funds pledge supporters that i can say whatever i want i can say whatever fart stuff

[58:20] about warren buffett i want not worry about offending the bosses of the advertisers anyway

[58:25] oh we can't we can't do we can't do any warren buffett jokes because old country buffett is one

[58:33] of our sponsors of course warren buffett's famous company yeah yeah brookshire hathaway just bought

[58:38] a majority stake in max fun and that's why we can't make any more jokes about warren butt fit

[58:43] yeah the guy warren butt fit is the guy where any pair of pants he puts on it's they're like

[58:48] the traveling pants they just fit perfectly they look so good sample size so good perfect butt fit

[58:53] i mean a little loose in the in the thighs but otherwise it fits perfectly on the butt

[58:58] how's the bunghole area lbj how's uh it's too tight too tight i gotta call up hagar and and

[59:05] have them make it a little bit looser the horrible hagar the horrible that the famous recording of

[59:12] of uh of lyndon johnson he's calling hagar the horrible the viking from the comics who owned

[59:16] hagar slacks and to tell him about one yeah to tell about how tight they were someone please

[59:23] diagram what happened over the last two minutes impossible put it put in a time capsule and bury

[59:29] it in your yard bury it oh shit yep so here's what i'm gonna say about dan uh him as a businessman

[59:36] yes at any point in the last five and a half years let's say he could have foreclosed on that hall

[59:41] but also they're six years behind on rent it's only twenty thousand dollars and that's a big

[59:46] haul so they locked in their mortgage at amazing rates and that's what you got to do lock in that

[59:50] mortgage at a good rate refi if you have to to lock in that rate it's worth stacking the extra

[59:54] years onto the onto the end of the schedule you know elliot i love that you're thinking about this

[59:58] because i i have to tell the story that audrey re-watching this also for the second time with me

[1:00:05] took a moment to do the math at the end

[1:00:08] to make sure that one

[1:00:09] concert could have paid back

[1:00:12] the mortgage on this property

[1:00:14] so like you know you guys

[1:00:15] yeah I was like how much were the tickets

[1:00:17] how many people were in that

[1:00:19] that venue

[1:00:20] I mean you can't

[1:00:23] there's no way you can fit more than what

[1:00:25] 400 people in that venue you know

[1:00:27] oh you think so? I think you can get up to 5 or 6

[1:00:30] I mean I don't know if bears

[1:00:31] have to follow fire occupancy limit rules

[1:00:33] you know but they're bears

[1:00:35] Anyway, law doesn't apply to bears.

[1:00:37] At any moment in the movie, they could have just said, human law does not apply to bears.

[1:00:40] Yeah, they break every human law, bears.

[1:00:42] No, no, just that's – you're thinking of a cat.

[1:00:44] What?

[1:00:44] Cats do that.

[1:00:45] One cat in particular, every human law, even the big ones.

[1:00:48] Anyway, so the show is on, but Walken stole the bus.

[1:00:52] They're caught at gunpoint.

[1:00:53] Like regicide.

[1:00:53] What?

[1:00:55] Sorry.

[1:00:55] Like regicide.

[1:00:56] Like regicide, yeah.

[1:00:58] You know that – well, what's the name of that cat?

[1:01:03] Macavity?

[1:01:04] Macavity.

[1:01:05] I should say Moriarty, but Macavity is the cat version of Moriarty.

[1:01:07] Macavity's just ripping off a mattress tag and stuffing it into a queen's mouth to kill her.

[1:01:12] Like, he's breaking every law.

[1:01:14] Yeah, he's got his little pad.

[1:01:17] He checks off two for one.

[1:01:18] He's like, he's taking an endangered sea turtle off of their egg-laying place and just throwing it through a plate glass window of a store.

[1:01:26] There's just so many laws he can break all at once.

[1:01:28] Anyway, so they have to save all the rest of the band.

[1:01:33] Barry's family, they find out that Barry's tracking collar that Dex showed him, he left it on the bus.

[1:01:38] I don't know why he had it with him.

[1:01:38] They ever use that to track them down.

[1:01:41] There's a very long kind of boring sequence of Ted is in a boat being pulled on a trailer by the family's van, and he's almost always falling out of it.

[1:01:52] It is the Howard the Duck biplane sequence of this movie.

[1:01:55] Yeah, that's the one part where I zoned out, really.

[1:01:59] Luckily, the boat, eventually the boat bursts through the wall and frees the other bears.

[1:02:03] The bears, Christopher Walken at that point has abandoned the bears.

[1:02:06] I don't know where he is.

[1:02:07] I guess he's at the hall.

[1:02:09] They go to the hall, but there's no audience there.

[1:02:12] The place is deadly quiet.

[1:02:13] They find, they catch Christopher Walken.

[1:02:15] This part is a little unclear.

[1:02:17] Paying off Alex Rocco, I guess, to not promote the show.

[1:02:21] But then when they're like, Rip, you didn't promote the show.

[1:02:23] Christopher Walken was like, I didn't, I had nothing.

[1:02:25] I don't know.

[1:02:26] Look, it's, he did it.

[1:02:26] like he's and uh but then there's no audience but then it turns out seconds later there is an

[1:02:32] audience yeah they just had to park in the back behind the country bear hall yeah because big

[1:02:36] didn't want him messing up his lawn because big al has a running gag about how important his lawn

[1:02:42] is to him the audience floods in christopher walken makes the greatest angry surprised faces

[1:02:47] it is children's panamime theater like all over uh and then they saved the hall they named barry

[1:02:53] an official country bear and they play a whole song

[1:02:55] and Barry gets a guitar solo

[1:02:57] and then over the credits you get

[1:02:59] real life testimonials from the real life

[1:03:01] musicians who are in the movie about how important the bears

[1:03:03] are to them

[1:03:04] and then as mentioned

[1:03:06] with all the energy of someone who didn't like

[1:03:09] really fully read their contract

[1:03:11] it's like now I gotta pretend

[1:03:13] that the country bears are a fucking

[1:03:15] musical influence on me an actual

[1:03:17] music star okay sure

[1:03:19] and this stuff seems fairly

[1:03:21] fairly added

[1:03:22] barely like barely barely ad-libbed yeah and uh this is when uh exhibit and wyclef jean show up

[1:03:29] they were i don't think they were in the movie before this so i wonder if they had scenes that

[1:03:32] were that were cut off uh cut out unless i just didn't recognize just imagine they got caught

[1:03:37] coming out of the bathroom on the line and they're like hey you want to say something about the

[1:03:41] country bears sure whatever well and there's there's with some of the testimonials i get the

[1:03:46] implication that they were suggesting that at one point the country bears dabbled into hip-hop

[1:03:51] and I got increasingly nervous

[1:03:53] they were going to have

[1:03:54] a Country Bears hip hop song,

[1:03:56] which luckily did not manifest.

[1:03:57] Yeah, luckily that doesn't happen.

[1:03:59] That would be too much to bear.

[1:04:01] Unbearable.

[1:04:02] And then as mentioned before,

[1:04:04] Disney Plus then recommends

[1:04:05] Brother Bear

[1:04:05] because I guess bears

[1:04:06] are the only thing I'm into now.

[1:04:08] I guess I just love anything

[1:04:09] with bears in it.

[1:04:10] I want to watch the bear.

[1:04:12] I want to watch Jack the Bear.

[1:04:13] I want to watch everything

[1:04:14] with bear in the title.

[1:04:15] The Witches of East Bear,

[1:04:19] all everything,

[1:04:20] All the stuff with bears, you know.

[1:04:21] East Bear?

[1:04:22] Yeah, the Witches of East Bears.

[1:04:24] It's the Witches of Eastwick, but they're all bears.

[1:04:25] While browsing through the bear necessities catalog.

[1:04:28] It's actually the Witches of Restwick, but they're all bears.

[1:04:33] That's the weird part.

[1:04:34] It seems like the title's got mixed up a little bit.

[1:04:36] Yeah.

[1:04:37] I'm glad you guys took this journey with me to the Country Bears jamboree.

[1:04:42] I'm glad we had this journey through Country Bears legend.

[1:04:47] We got a little snippet of taste of the different porn habits of Stu and Dan.

[1:04:51] Stu being more of a hardcore internet guy and Dan being more of a Cinemax guy.

[1:04:54] And Dan, I will say, you watched this movie and then you were like, guys, you've got to see this Country Bears movie.

[1:05:01] You wouldn't stop.

[1:05:02] It was not since Cats have you talked about a movie this much.

[1:05:04] I was like, what about Minari?

[1:05:05] And you were like, I don't give a shit.

[1:05:07] Country Bears.

[1:05:07] And then watching it, I was like, I get it now.

[1:05:11] I get it.

[1:05:11] This is a silly movie, but it is a much better movie than a movie based on The Country Bears has any right to, just in terms of joke quality.

[1:05:19] Well, let's get into The Final Judgment's good, bad, bad, bad movie you kind of like.

[1:05:25] The thing about this movie is it bears a similarity to Cats.

[1:05:30] It does bear a similarity to Cats.

[1:05:33] Still getting points.

[1:05:34] and that it's a musical about uh actors uh in furry outfits uh or cgi in cat's case but uh and

[1:05:44] it they both have a similarity in that like so much work is put into what is essentially

[1:05:50] not the greatest idea for a movie and and cats that make all the wrong decisions like the country

[1:05:58] bears i think basically actually works on its own terms because it makes all the right decisions

[1:06:04] for like an untenable center i mean cats cats is attempting to say something about the human

[1:06:09] condition through the form of singing cats and it fails miserably whereas the country bears is like

[1:06:15] let's make something a kid can watch for an hour and a half you know and it totally succeeds

[1:06:21] the director of this uh this was his first and only feature one assumes because this feature

[1:06:27] was the country bears which did not do well uh but he was a writer for uh many episodes of uh

[1:06:34] animaniacs and the writer of this most recent credit was game night which is you know a very

[1:06:41] funny comedy so like they're and you know great cast great songs like the people behind this

[1:06:47] knew what they were doing and what they were doing was making a movie of the country bears

[1:06:52] i don't know if i'd say great songs i would say the songs are fine i didn't the songs are better

[1:06:57] than you would expect from a country bears you would think you think that if they're doing it

[1:07:00] on a curve you would think if they're doing their reunion show they wouldn't open with a fucking

[1:07:04] ballad right yeah i will say the songs are these are songs i would see hearing on the radio like

[1:07:11] yeah they're not they're not they're not bad songs yeah well anyway but point is i would not say

[1:07:16] like don't expect that this is anything other than a goddamn dumb movie but it's a movie i

[1:07:23] kind of like watching the movie it was fairly early on that i was going to be like i was like

[1:07:28] am i gonna have to really go in record something for public where i say that the country bears is

[1:07:33] a movie i kind of like and by the end of it i was like why should i be ashamed yeah sure country

[1:07:37] bears kind of liked it it's not again if you're gonna watch a movie i'd prefer you watch the

[1:07:41] movie i'm gonna recommend at the end of the episode which i think is a great movie but uh

[1:07:45] if you if you're looking for something to do with kids uh on disney plus and it's a rainy sunday

[1:07:50] afternoon, why not throw the country bears on there? You know, go ahead. It's fine. They might

[1:07:54] have some nightmares about those bear costumes, but hopefully not. Stu, what do you say?

[1:07:58] Okay, so just to pull back the curtain on my viewing habits lately, I'm just trying to catch

[1:08:04] a little bit of movies when I can. Life's hard for old Stuart. So I watched the first half of

[1:08:10] this movie in between opening the bar and closing the bar. And when I went back to work, I found

[1:08:18] myself wishing i could just go home and finish country bears uh i like i was thinking i kept

[1:08:25] finding myself thinking about it thinking about that little bear guy running around running down

[1:08:30] the street and thinking about how the emotional climax of this movie involves a guy a performer

[1:08:36] a performer in a bear costume running down a street and how hot and sweaty that must have

[1:08:42] been for him uh it's it's a lot of fun there's some genuinely good jokes uh i think the choice

[1:08:48] to uh i think the choice to make them uh like animatronic instead of some kind of like 2002

[1:08:56] level uh cgi effects uh which would have been horrifying uh i think that was i think it was

[1:09:03] the right move even though it's super weird i think it's way more fun to watch these like

[1:09:07] animatronic bear faces yes yeah so yeah country bears costumes country bears good movie thumbs up

[1:09:14] nice kind of like i was talking about this to uh to sammy and he was like is this the movie you

[1:09:20] likes the most of any you've seen on the flop house and i'm like no it can't be can it and i

[1:09:25] don't think it is i think there was still that halle berry kidnapping movie where she has to

[1:09:29] drive where she has to chase after the people who kidnap her kid that was a tense movie but

[1:09:33] otherwise you know uh it's pretty it's as far as flop house movies this is this is one of the

[1:09:38] better ones which yeah yeah you know is faint the faintest of praise well uh so if you rely on

[1:09:47] our show the flop house to bring you the hottest news about how the country bears movie from 2002

[1:09:54] is actually pretty fun uh then maybe you would like to consider uh joining maximum fun now i

[1:10:01] i will say so during this time um we have been collecting sort of testimonials from people and

[1:10:10] i will uh ask jordan to put some of the ones that you recorded in your own voices um after this

[1:10:17] break but i also you know have gotten a lot from people who wrote in and i was going to read

[1:10:24] something here but honestly like the thing is like everything is so sweet and so personal

[1:10:31] that i felt like a little weird sharing because like i am almost embarrassed by like we have

[1:10:39] meant something to people and that is very sweet uh and uh so i just kind of rather than getting

[1:10:47] too much into any one person's uh very personal sort of like sharing i want to say like the themes

[1:10:53] that i saw is that like along with the laughter people have looked for us um in this time

[1:10:59] especially this last year for a lot of uh comfort you know like just like a comfort lesson something

[1:11:05] that makes them feel safe something that uplifts them something that feels like it's reliably there

[1:11:10] when they feel bad um listening to friends talk to one another in this time where there's uh less

[1:11:18] socializing helps them not feel alone. And, you know,

[1:11:22] I get it because I also am a max fund listener when I was going through worse

[1:11:26] times than I, I, I feel I am, uh,

[1:11:29] even now in the case of all this pandemic stuff,

[1:11:32] when I was going in through bad times, podcasts, uh, were there for me. I,

[1:11:36] I felt comforted. I got to, I've gotten to meet people through maximum fun,

[1:11:41] uh, make, make friendships with them. Um,

[1:11:44] all of our fellow podcasters i've met have been so wonderful and um if this is valuable to you

[1:11:51] it is a good thing to support like uh people this is how we make our money off of the show

[1:11:58] and as much as we do love it at this point in our lives uh there may not be time in our lives

[1:12:05] for it if we weren't making money off of it on top of that it is a genuine support i have been

[1:12:14] fortunate enough to keep my job to the pandemic but as elliot said you know like work has been

[1:12:19] spotty uh stewart is a small business owner of a bar this is not a great time for bars like

[1:12:25] don't recommend the podcast yeah having the podcast has uh honestly like kept us afloat

[1:12:32] during this time so um if you visit maximumfund.org join you can see all the ways you can give

[1:12:39] most people choose uh five dollars or ten dollars per month and some support twenty dollars a month

[1:12:46] more any level that you feel comfortable at please you know choose what what works for you

[1:12:52] you can boost your membership between levels if there's a specific amount you'd prefer to give

[1:12:57] And I, you know, I just want to say it's been a tough time for so many of us, but your support

[1:13:03] helps us continue.

[1:13:04] Your listenership is, you know, beyond the financial support, even the fact that we know

[1:13:10] that there's an audience who this is important to, is important to us and has become like

[1:13:18] a weird sort of like honor to be able to visit with all of you.

[1:13:24] So if you would like to, and if you can, please go ahead and join at MaximumFun.org forward slash join.

[1:13:33] Ryan, Knoxville, Tennessee.

[1:13:36] I started listening to The Flop House quite a few years ago.

[1:13:40] The thing that I appreciate the most, other than just the humor of the show, is how honest they are with dealing with their own mental health.

[1:13:51] It was at a time where I felt embarrassed to have to take medication for it.

[1:13:56] I felt like an outcast, like a loser.

[1:13:59] And hearing these guys be open about it and to see the success that they've had really was inspiring.

[1:14:09] And it's really helped me develop more of my own voice and start my own podcast called VRB AFK.

[1:14:16] Yeah, I'm going to plug it.

[1:14:19] But seriously, I'm so thankful to have the show, especially this last year with the pandemic and everything seemed just nuts.

[1:14:27] They helped me get through the year, some really good episodes, and I'm grateful that the show's around.

[1:14:36] I guess now I say bye.

[1:14:38] And now we will do letters from listeners like you.

[1:14:44] You know, the letter segment is kind of like its own little magical world.

[1:14:50] Let's say you were in a forest and there were trees that had doors on them, doors that led you to different towns, to different places.

[1:14:57] There's a door shaped like a letter.

[1:14:59] Why, let's open it up and see what's inside.

[1:15:02] Bum, bum, bum, ba-da-dum, bum, bum, da-da-dum, dun, dun, da-da-dum, da-da-dum, da-da.

[1:15:12] Listeners of every age, would you like to hear something strange?

[1:15:17] Stay tuned here and you will spy letters for the Flophouse guys.

[1:15:22] This is letter time, this is letter time, questions we don't know how to answer.

[1:15:26] This is letter time, buckle up for letter time, ask us about bits we barely remember.

[1:15:31] I am the letter with a personal question, makes you squirm, you're uncomfortable with emotion.

[1:15:36] I am the letter all about Dan, saying he's cool because it was written by Dan.

[1:15:41] This is letter time, everybody letter time.

[1:15:43] Letter time, letter time, letter time, letter time.

[1:15:46] Do-do-do-do-do-do.

[1:15:46] In this time, we read letters.

[1:15:49] I kind of wish this song was better.

[1:15:51] La-la-la-la-la, letter time.

[1:15:54] La-la-la-la-la, letter time, letter time.

[1:15:56] La-la-la, it's letter time, letter time.

[1:15:59] La-la-la, I'm wasting time, wasting all of your time.

[1:16:02] Whee!

[1:16:02] So that was the letter time song.

[1:16:05] You know, I was kind of down on that song,

[1:16:06] but it won me over by the end.

[1:16:08] I like it.

[1:16:09] Okay, good.

[1:16:10] I think the wee really.

[1:16:11] yeah the joie de vivre i mean that's another reason we needed a little more uh money for

[1:16:17] the max fun drive though to pay off daniel pay daniel yeah especially when i go what's this

[1:16:23] what's this there's letters everywhere what's this there's questions in the air what's this

[1:16:27] i can't believe my eyes i must be dreaming or my ears it's letters time that's not fair

[1:16:31] what's this what does danny elfman need money for to buy lembas bread this is from

[1:16:37] elf man this is from elijah last name there must be something in the mail that says that

[1:16:47] letter time's at hand and though i'd like to hear this letter continue down

[1:16:53] uh sure so reading letters reading letters is so fine guys i have to sing these songs to my son

[1:17:04] every night before he goes to bed.

[1:17:05] They're stuck in my head.

[1:17:06] Yeah, so this letter

[1:17:11] is from Elijah Last Night Withheld.

[1:17:13] Elijah Wood.

[1:17:13] Who writes,

[1:17:15] Dear Floppers,

[1:17:16] I have been listening

[1:17:16] through the Bat Catalog recently

[1:17:17] and had the pleasure of hearing

[1:17:19] your Dr. Doolittle episode.

[1:17:21] In said episode,

[1:17:22] Elliot speculates as to

[1:17:24] whether the testimony

[1:17:25] of a stick insect

[1:17:26] would be acceptable in court

[1:17:27] and wondered if the defense

[1:17:30] would be able to

[1:17:31] successfully impeach

[1:17:32] the animal's character.

[1:17:33] As a flop listener who went to law school in England, I hope I can offer some clarity

[1:17:38] in response to this definitely serious legal inquiry.

[1:17:41] After a thorough look at the case law, I found that there's actually precedent for an animal's

[1:17:50] appearance, testimony in the space being accepted in English courts.

[1:17:54] And here there is a content warning for some misogyny and general dodginess.

[1:18:02] In 1677, a dog was brought to testify in a case of a woman accused of having sex with said dog.

[1:18:11] The dog, quote, owned her by wagging his tail and making motions as if it were to kiss her.

[1:18:16] Now, the poor woman's defense was that there was malice in the witnesses, the dog presumably included,

[1:18:23] but this attempt to impeach the character of the dog failed

[1:18:26] and the woman was convicted.

[1:18:27] So in blatant answer to Elliot's question,

[1:18:30] it seems given the low threshold in this case,

[1:18:32] it is at least theoretically possible

[1:18:34] a stick insect's testimony could have been used

[1:18:37] to execute Michael Sheen and Dr. Doolittle.

[1:18:39] In real English legal history,

[1:18:42] the court system was much more professional

[1:18:43] by Victorian times,

[1:18:45] but also there were no talking animals

[1:18:47] in real history either.

[1:18:48] However, real English law is unlikely

[1:18:52] to make much appearance in movies english law is notoriously poorly depicted in british media

[1:18:57] because of the overwhelming influence of americanization on the non-lawyer british

[1:19:02] creatives who produce things for example british newspapers readily illustrate stories about court

[1:19:06] proceedings with stock photos of gavels despite the fact that gavels have never been used in

[1:19:11] english and welsh courts the hilarious law and order uk just recycled u.s scripts without trying

[1:19:17] to make it fit the legal system for a start there's no plea bargaining across the pond

[1:19:22] and do they wear wigs in the show that would be awesome i think they gotta wear wigs that's

[1:19:27] that's the most important thing yeah and the academy award nominated in the name of the father

[1:19:31] despite being based on a true story decided to decided to just import american court tropes

[1:19:37] including showing a solicitor without higher court rights of audience arguing in place of

[1:19:43] a barrister translation yeah translation wigless lawyer incorrectly shown in the position of a

[1:19:49] wigged lawyer thank you for the translation that was helpful uh this leads me to a question what

[1:19:54] are the floppers favorite ridiculous courtroom antics in film to rival a stick insect taking

[1:20:00] the stand as a witness even if the law isn't accurate there's nothing so much fun as a good

[1:20:05] kangaroo court on screen especially if an actor is willing to embrace the large ham trope yours

[1:20:12] flopped fully elijah lasting withheld when i was thinking about this i couldn't think of

[1:20:17] unfortunately a courtroom scene i'm sure there are many that i have uh guffawed at

[1:20:23] with uh incredulousness but um i did think of double jeopardy the movie that is based on such a

[1:20:31] huge misunderstanding of what the double jeopardy law would be saying that uh since she was already

[1:20:38] framed for her husband's murder,

[1:20:40] she can now murder him

[1:20:41] and the courts cannot

[1:20:43] prosecute.

[1:20:45] It's the perfect crime.

[1:20:47] All you have to do is go to jail for it already.

[1:20:48] I feel like my favorite courtroom movie

[1:20:51] probably doesn't hold up to actual

[1:20:53] legal rules, and that of course is

[1:20:55] My Cousin Vinny. I love it so much.

[1:20:57] I've seen it a million times.

[1:20:58] What I've always heard is that My Cousin Vinny is one of the

[1:21:01] more accurate courtroom movies.

[1:21:03] So it's not

[1:21:04] out of order.

[1:21:07] No, the two Utes had some excellent legal representation.

[1:21:12] Oh, man, I love it.

[1:21:13] It wasn't until I saw My Cousin Vinny that I realized that you have to share your evidence with the opposing side.

[1:21:19] Yeah.

[1:21:20] That there's the whole discovery process where you have to show them what you're going to argue with because there's so many courtroom movies or TV shows where there's a surprise last-minute witness who, like, brings in some – and as a lawyer, you're not supposed to –

[1:21:33] And it's always allowed.

[1:21:34] It's always allowed, and it's bad lawyering for you because you don't know what they're going to say.

[1:21:37] Like a lawyer is not – as a lawyer, they tell you, never ask a question you don't know the answer to.

[1:21:42] And you're not allowed to just bring something in and be like, oh, yeah, the other side doesn't know this person exists, but we're going to bring them in.

[1:21:47] Like it's a – in a real trial, I assume they would like stop the trial to share that information, and then they would – because if –

[1:21:56] The other thing is that my one experience on jury duty was seeing how long everything takes and how a trial can just stop for a week and then come back.

[1:22:04] And it was that there's so much of it is about the judge's schedule that like trials are not as speedy as the I guess the Constitution demands.

[1:22:11] But but it wasn't until my cousin Vinny that I was like, oh, so you can't just drive up with us with a last minute witness and blow the other case out of the water.

[1:22:18] Surprise witnesses, each more surprising than the last.

[1:22:22] And it makes me think of the non-witness version of that is in Miracle on 34th Street when they dump all that Santa Claus mail out.

[1:22:32] And I'm like, well, what is this supposed to prove?

[1:22:34] Nothing.

[1:22:34] Like, this is dumb.

[1:22:36] And I think in the movie they're even like, well, that's not good evidence.

[1:22:40] But I've never really been able to understand how the case works in that movie or how the judge comes to his decision.

[1:22:46] I think that the great thing about that movie is it's pretty clear that the judge is looking for an excuse not to convict this guy because of all the bad – like the hate mail he's been getting and everything.

[1:22:57] He's just like, you know what?

[1:22:59] Sure.

[1:23:00] He's Santa Claus.

[1:23:02] I'm not super well-versed in legal stuff, but is the courtroom scene in Ghostbusters 2 with the ghosts, is that realistic?

[1:23:11] I mean, that's only realistic in that –

[1:23:14] I mean the thing is if a ghost is going to break up a courtroom to try to kill the judge who gave them the chair, there's a lot of – usually there are motions and paperwork that they have to go through before they can appear in that courtroom.

[1:23:24] But the Scolari brothers, they just do whatever they want.

[1:23:28] That's why they got the chair.

[1:23:29] Harris Euland gave him the chair.

[1:23:31] I mean actually, you know what?

[1:23:32] I don't think it's – he says, I gave him the chair, but they're in New York State during that scene, right?

[1:23:37] I think capital punishment had been against the law in New York State for years.

[1:23:41] So unless I guess depending on how long is playing a judge in that one lawyers right in some with the history of capital punishment in New York State or like I mean capital punishment was against the law in the United.

[1:23:54] It was declared if I'm remembering right I thought the Supreme Court declared it cruel and unusual at a certain point and then it was brought back because our country got meaner over time.

[1:24:02] But yeah I don't know we'll have to see if that's actually true.

[1:24:06] look it up uh elliot it's not on the goofs page of ghostbusters 2 that i can see guys i could be

[1:24:13] wrong but it's possible we just discovered a new goof and the flop house may have made news

[1:24:16] in this country beers episode news about ghostbusters 2 news you can use uh okay well

[1:24:24] the second and final wait here's the other thing i want to say about milcom 4343 they should so

[1:24:28] the trial is they think he's insane because he declares himself santa and they're gonna commit

[1:24:32] him right i wish the movie had had the guts to commit him to the insane asylum and then an army

[1:24:37] of elves just breaks the walls down and he's just fighting with guards as they as they break santa

[1:24:42] claus out and as santa claus flies off he goes human human law has no call has no hold over elf

[1:24:47] law and yeah and then he says you've tasted my generosity now taste my wrath yeah exactly and

[1:24:55] he's just he drops a huge lump of coal on the insane asylum killing dozens yeah sure and all

[1:25:01] And all the cookies and milk that are in the break room have been devoured by a voracious Santa Claus.

[1:25:06] Yeah, well, then it becomes – the movie ends in a chilling dystopia where cookies and milk now have to be put out every night to satisfy the angry god who is Santa Claus.

[1:25:18] Yeah.

[1:25:18] It's like – it becomes like Shirley Jackson's The Lottery or like the It's a Good Life episode of The Twilight Zone where it's just like Santa's coming, kids.

[1:25:28] Have to put out the fucking cookies.

[1:25:29] Santa might come tonight.

[1:25:30] don't take my children santa claus good all year we've been good all year but i was good all year

[1:25:35] saying i was good all year not good enough you know wishes him to the cornfield which is kind

[1:25:39] of like kind of like the evil robot santa from futurama right you know what i just pulled it i

[1:25:44] just pulled a country bear muppets you're right i shouldn't have done it like that i apologize

[1:25:49] futurama producers and writers uh this uh second and final letter for the episode is from lindsey

[1:25:55] Last Name Withheld, who writes,

[1:25:58] Dear Floppers, every

[1:26:00] once in a while, Elliot says something that

[1:26:02] makes me think he knows a lot about Ska.

[1:26:03] What's the deal with that? Sincerely,

[1:26:06] Lindsay, Last Name Withheld.

[1:26:08] What is the deal with that?

[1:26:09] I certainly know more than

[1:26:12] I want to about Ska, but it's

[1:26:14] I'm not a big Ska fan. Sure, I love

[1:26:15] Madness. Everybody loves Madness, some of their songs.

[1:26:18] Pissing off the Ska fans

[1:26:19] and the Rockabilly

[1:26:22] people. Yeah, and you know what? If I was listening

[1:26:24] to if you put on a real jamaican ska i'd sit there and i'd be fine with it but being a guy who went

[1:26:30] to a load of punk shows in my college years which is the early 21st century uh in the late 20th

[1:26:36] century i saw a lot of ska opening bands and i'd be like i'm just here to see the bouncing souls

[1:26:41] i don't need to sit through a ska band but i guess i have to you know i'm just here to see

[1:26:44] screeching weasel i don't want to see a ska band but you just sit through a lot of ska bands if

[1:26:48] if you were into punk and kind of popular punk at the time.

[1:26:53] Now, of course, it was a real eye-opener

[1:26:56] when I started going to metal shows with Stuart

[1:26:58] and there were no ska bands opening for them,

[1:27:00] and I said, oh, I see, okay, yeah.

[1:27:02] You switched your allegiance.

[1:27:04] Yeah, if we go see Carcass,

[1:27:05] there's not going to be a ska band playing beforehand, you know.

[1:27:08] But man, what would happen if that happened?

[1:27:11] Well, you know, I think it would go a little something like this.

[1:27:15] It would be a little something like this.

[1:27:16] Well, let us move on to our final segment of the evening where we recommend movies.

[1:27:26] You know, like, look, we like the Country Bears, but maybe you're not in the mood for a movie about a group of country singing bears.

[1:27:34] Maybe we don't want the classic Flophouse recommends sticker that just like the Oprah Book Club logo.

[1:27:40] We don't want that slapped on the Country Bears DVD necessarily.

[1:27:43] yeah i mean certainly i wouldn't understand passing up the country bears but it takes all

[1:27:48] kind so i'm gonna recommend and you've already recommended it we don't want to we don't need

[1:27:52] a double yeah i'll recommend uh i re-watched uh because uh my brother wanted to watch it

[1:27:57] and we were doing a you know a distanced family watch uh of the the sugarland express um steven

[1:28:05] spielberg's uh first movie for the theaters duel was released theatrically uh i believe only

[1:28:10] overseas uh and then sugarland express came out and then it was on to jaws but this so this was

[1:28:16] um his debut and re-watching it i was impressed by how early on he was just sort of a master of

[1:28:24] visual storytelling there is a lot of like it's a much smaller like more human movie than a lot of

[1:28:33] his later films uh became but it also from the start has so many technical challenges like the

[1:28:41] the the crane will widen out and you'll see so many cars uh doing so many things let me i i guess

[1:28:47] i haven't even said the story the point of it like it's a it's a long slow car chase uh uh at the

[1:28:53] beginning of the movie a very young goldie hawn uh visits william atherton known as the perennial

[1:29:00] 80s dick in movies like uh ghostbusters real genius die hard anyway uh here much more likable

[1:29:08] uh but still a doofus they they break out of jail even though he's set to be released soon because

[1:29:13] their child is going to be taken away from them from child services and they end up getting in

[1:29:18] this uh slow speed chase and um it's interesting to see it was based on a real incident and i feel

[1:29:25] like it was very much kind of an early rumbling of celebrity culture of today i mean i guess you

[1:29:36] know like outlaws were always celebrities but this is kind of like a modern version of it that like

[1:29:41] a modern american version of it that uh wasn't as often caught and parodied on in in pop culture

[1:29:49] because it wasn't as big a phenomenon as it is now sort of like the the giant celebrity uh scandal

[1:29:57] kind of thing but it you grow to love these characters you see them go through this it has a

[1:30:02] very 70s vibe it feels very different from a lot of spielberg movies it feels very uh like it has

[1:30:10] that human comedy that jaws has and like a lot of great faces of like character actors that then

[1:30:17] later on sort of the some of the slickness uh maybe took away from spielberg as great as some

[1:30:23] of his other movies are but um uh it was it was very enjoyable i recommend it the sugarland express

[1:30:30] yeah sugarland express is really good and i've always looked at it as a kind of road not taken

[1:30:34] for spielberg yes definitely like it it's weird like altman spielberg kind of yeah it's it's much

[1:30:40] more of spielberg doing the kind of movie that you saw a lot of in the 70s before he essentially

[1:30:44] invented like modern blockbuster movies with with jaws um uh that's a segue i don't mean to to jump

[1:30:54] ahead in my recommendations that's a segue to i was in addition to the movie i'm recommending

[1:30:58] because this is the maximum pledge drive i want to recommend a book that i'm reading i'm currently

[1:31:02] reading uh bob balaban's close encounters of the third kind diary which is his like uh diaries from

[1:31:10] the making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind a Steven Spielberg movie uh it's a really fun read

[1:31:15] and uh there's a lot of neat behind the scenes stuff about that movie that I didn't know before

[1:31:18] but a lot of it is just anecdotes about him and Francois Truffaut hanging around waiting for

[1:31:24] the times when they were supposed to be shooting scenes because there were so many special effects

[1:31:27] shots to wait for but that's not the movie I'm recommending sure Close Encounters is great I'm

[1:31:31] not recommending it this time I'm recommending a different movie hey guys the Criterion channel

[1:31:37] seems to know exactly what I want to see

[1:31:38] because they've got a whole collection

[1:31:40] of Czech New Wave movies up

[1:31:42] and long-time listeners in the Flophouse

[1:31:45] may or may not be aware

[1:31:45] that I love the Czech New Wave

[1:31:48] and that entire movement

[1:31:50] of Eastern European kind of New Wave films

[1:31:52] of the early to mid-60s.

[1:31:54] I'm a big fan

[1:31:55] and so there's a bunch of movies

[1:31:56] that I closely watch.

[1:31:58] Trains, which is one of those movies,

[1:31:59] is one of my all-time favorite movies.

[1:32:00] Intimate Lighting is another great one.

[1:32:02] But anyway, the one I'm recommending

[1:32:03] is those are both in that collection

[1:32:04] that's on Criterion right now,

[1:32:05] but another one that I just saw

[1:32:06] It's called Something Different. This is the, I think, feature debut possibly of Vera Chitalova, who directed Daisies, which I recommended a little while back.

[1:32:18] And it tells two parallel stories. One is about a housewife who has become very frustrated and dissatisfied with her life and embarks on an affair that kind of starts to replicate the things going on in her marriage.

[1:32:31] It seems like she's just kind of stuck in those things, and it pairs up with the story of an Olympic gymnast who is practicing and preparing for an exhibition, and she's having to push herself really hard to do new moves that she's not used to at a time when she's getting older than gymnasts usually are and is finding it more difficult.

[1:32:49] And the gymnast is played by Iva Bosakova, who was a real Olympic gold medalist from Czechoslovakia.

[1:32:56] And so there's a lot of great gymnastics in the movie.

[1:32:59] But it's a Chekno wave film, which means that it's a little sad but also a little funny.

[1:33:03] There's great black and white, just kind of crisp imagery.

[1:33:06] And the way that it kind of counterpoints these two stories and these two women who are both eager for something different in their lives

[1:33:15] but find themselves kind of still trapped by the way of living that they know

[1:33:21] and the things they're used to.

[1:33:22] I just really liked it a lot.

[1:33:23] So that's something different.

[1:33:24] It is not, I just want to say right off the bat,

[1:33:26] it is not the basis of the something different Zima commercials

[1:33:31] that would air on American television 30 years later.

[1:33:33] It's not related.

[1:33:35] So this is something different.

[1:33:36] It's currently on the Criterion Channel,

[1:33:38] and it's available in other places too.

[1:33:39] Before, sorry, before Stuart makes his recommendation,

[1:33:44] And I don't want to—a very important piece of information.

[1:33:47] I've done some research.

[1:33:49] It seems that the death penalty in New York State has been abolished and reinstated many times over the years, including in 1860.

[1:33:57] It was abolished by accident and was corrected in 1861.

[1:34:03] But apparently, according to the GhostbustersFandom.com wiki, let's see.

[1:34:12] The Scolari Brothers trial was in 1948, during which time—

[1:34:18] Oh, okay, it was legal then, yeah.

[1:34:19] It was legal, although Harris Ulan's character, Judge Wexler, would have only been 21, making it unlikely he would be presiding over a death penalty case.

[1:34:29] Where are they getting the information that the Scolari Brothers trial was from 1948?

[1:34:33] Is that in the novelization?

[1:34:34] i do not the ghostbusters uh to february 27 1989 draft so this is i guess uh an earlier draft

[1:34:47] is specified that was 48 so i you know what i'm not gonna take that as canon to be honest i'm gonna

[1:34:53] i'm gonna i hate to make enemies but i'm gonna take issue with the ghostbusters fandom wiki site

[1:34:57] and say that this is a possible goof.

[1:35:00] Yeah, I mean...

[1:35:03] Or incorrectly regarded as goof, maybe.

[1:35:05] Yeah, yeah.

[1:35:05] Do you think that original script,

[1:35:07] it was like the Scolari brothers had lines

[1:35:09] and they're like,

[1:35:09] you executed us three years

[1:35:12] after the end of World War II.

[1:35:14] Yeah.

[1:35:16] Yeah, because they just had to place it.

[1:35:18] Yeah.

[1:35:18] And you're like, oh, wow, I understand this.

[1:35:21] Okay, so I'm going to recommend a movie that is hot.

[1:35:24] It just hit Netflix this week.

[1:35:27] it's hot just like my eggs uh it uh it just hit netflix this weekend uh so i guess last weekend

[1:35:34] if you're listening to this when it launched and not right now while we're recording it

[1:35:38] be more complicated get more lost in the weeds of this i love it yep uh i'm recommending an

[1:35:43] animated movie that hit netflix called the mitchells versus the machines it is super duper

[1:35:50] fun uh it uh i think it's produced by lord miller i'm not sure um but it is it's fun it uses a lot

[1:35:58] of different animation techniques and styles um it's uh i don't know just fun great recommend it

[1:36:05] it's family film watch it it's a blast enjoy it it reminded me a little bit of um it reminded me a

[1:36:11] little bit of spider verse in that while watching it it kind of reminded me of when i was younger

[1:36:17] and i discovered like japanese animation and was so shocked at like i was so into this thing that

[1:36:25] feels new uh at least for me at the time i don't know why like uh like the pixar stuff never really

[1:36:32] did that for me i mean pixar movies are great but like the animation style never really uh like

[1:36:38] you know never really caught me like i don't know i guess maybe it was because we were watching

[1:36:44] computer animated movies like as as they were figuring out the technology but i don't know

[1:36:50] but this is uh mitchell's versus the machines reminds me of spider verse and that it feels like

[1:36:55] this is kind of a new thing this is the way uh animated movies are going to be going and i don't

[1:37:03] know it was great it's great you gotta check this out i've been seeing a lot of uh buzz on the

[1:37:08] internet from like you know film people i know recently about this so that's that's uh yeah i'm

[1:37:13] curious yeah it's great uh well elliot i believe that before we go you might have one final thing

[1:37:21] to say about the max fun drive i do guys maybe we didn't mention it in this episode i can't remember

[1:37:26] uh but it's the max fun drive right now and i wanted to take a moment before we left to uh

[1:37:32] make sure again to say thank you i feel like we can't say it enough thanks to everyone listening

[1:37:36] thanks to the current maximum fun pledge members who are staying the course with us thanks to

[1:37:41] current MaxFun Pledge members who feel like they can upgrade their memberships this year.

[1:37:44] Thank you to future MaxFun Pledgers who haven't pledged yet but are about to make that leap

[1:37:48] and join what's really, like Stuart and Dan said, an amazing community of people who talk,

[1:37:53] people who listen.

[1:37:54] Sometimes the talkers listen to each other.

[1:37:56] Sometimes the listeners talk a little bit.

[1:37:57] And it would not exist at all without your amazing and generous support.

[1:38:02] MaxFun could not exist without its members and their pledges.

[1:38:05] So we really thank you about that.

[1:38:07] And I want to say one of the best things about MaxFun Pledge Drive, other than, of course,

[1:38:11] making it possible for stuart and i to stay afloat uh and for me to pay my mortgage and feed my

[1:38:16] children is other than that which is still very good is knowing that uh for reasons that i cannot

[1:38:21] begin to fathom and this fights against our push a little bit that people enjoy what we're doing

[1:38:25] enough to pay money for it which always kind of surprises me but it's a really wonderful thing

[1:38:30] like i'm a max fun pleasure myself and i get it that there's like i get a certain amount of

[1:38:35] happiness from supporting the creators and artists that i'm a fan of and i hope you do too and like i

[1:38:40] get pleasure from their work and i get pleasure from knowing that i'm being a part of making that

[1:38:44] work possible and we really couldn't and wouldn't do this without you i think by this point dan and

[1:38:49] i would have found some other way to spend our time uh but you're helping us stay the course

[1:38:54] with it so thank you very much for supporting us and for considering supporting us if you haven't

[1:38:58] support us yet and just for being the sweet people that you are uh who make this show worth doing for

[1:39:04] each of us and the dream of any creator is to have their work connect with someone that they

[1:39:09] otherwise never would have met and never would have had contact with. And this is that time of

[1:39:13] year, Maximum Pledge Drive time, when it really hits it home to me that we get to do that and

[1:39:18] what a special relationship that is. This is when I really think about it and it makes itself known.

[1:39:22] So thank you very much for being the other half of that connection. It's really wonderful and

[1:39:27] special to us. So one last reminder, if you're ready to become a new member at this point,

[1:39:31] or if you're already a member and you're ready to upgrade your pledge, just go to

[1:39:34] MaximumFun.org

[1:39:35] slash join.

[1:39:36] Put in information,

[1:39:37] choose the level

[1:39:38] that feels right for you

[1:39:39] and let them know

[1:39:41] that The Flophouse

[1:39:42] is the show

[1:39:43] or one of the shows

[1:39:44] that you want to support

[1:39:45] because you don't have

[1:39:46] to just choose one.

[1:39:46] You can do multiples.

[1:39:47] Again,

[1:39:47] that's MaximumFun.org

[1:39:50] It really means a lot to us.

[1:39:51] Thank you so much.

[1:39:52] Do it now.

[1:39:53] Don't forget.

[1:39:54] Do it now, folks.

[1:39:55] MaximumFun.org

[1:39:56] Do it now.

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[1:39:57] I know you're not doing it.

[1:39:59] Do it.

[1:39:59] Go do it.

[1:40:00] Do it now.

[1:40:00] Do it.

[1:40:01] I can see you.

[1:40:01] I can see it in your earbuds.

[1:40:03] Do it.

[1:40:03] go for it do it come on man do it speaking of wonderful people thank you to jordan cowling for

[1:40:09] editing and producing the show thank you to again max fun for uh being the support system that

[1:40:16] allows us to do the show um if you like the show please go out in the world uh rate it on itunes

[1:40:23] tell people about it but we've come to the end of this episode with a lot of love for the country

[1:40:30] bears who would have thought it so many years ago and we all got together but this would be

[1:40:36] where we'd find ourselves today no i mean i remember seeing the posters for the country

[1:40:40] bears when it was coming out and being like that's garbage and now i was so wrong and i want to say

[1:40:45] elliot of 20 years ago hey don't be so cynical because like a good friend of yours will say

[1:40:51] someday good things come in bears oh even when i say it it's like ashes in my mouth oh i can't

[1:40:57] forget it horrible all right no for the flop house i've been dan mccoy i've been stewart

[1:41:03] bear wellington love that nickname famous nickname around and i've been

[1:41:08] elliot kalin thanks for bearing with us oh man got a point at the end

[1:41:14] on this episode we discuss the country bears currently at 31 on rotten tomatoes what the fuck

[1:41:29] no that's pretty good and yet paddington 2 is the best reviewed movie of all time what's going on

[1:41:37] here maximum fun.org comedy and culture artist owned audience supported

Ep. #342 - The Country Bears

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