The Friday Show - Kid vs. Spy
Guest:the hitman gets basically drowned in the toilet and he's making like a like a gurgling like and it sounds like yeah we know what it sounds like what i need to explain what it sounds like i think you got it
Marc:Hey, Chris.
Marc:Hey, buddy.
Marc:Are you all packed up?
Marc:Packed for what?
Guest:Apparently you're going to be jetting off to Houston.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:I am going to Houston.
Guest:Not not yet.
Guest:I still have like seven days to pack.
Guest:Oh, OK.
Marc:So you will record next week before you go.
Marc:OK, well, I mean, hey, you've got an outlet here.
Marc:Maybe people could send in some Houston recommendations for you.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I mean, I'm always up for recommendations, but I will say it's a packed, like, two days.
Guest:And I already have, from Mark's interview with Mo, a couple of recommendations.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:The Aga place for Indian food.
Guest:And I might go to the place that Mark mentioned that he, you know, in some, like, mall.
Guest:But I really want to go to the chapel that he talked about.
Guest:Oh, to see the Rothko's?
Guest:Yeah, because, like, I'll be honest with you.
Guest:I went to, like, a museum recently and, like...
Guest:you know, it was beautiful and it was nice.
Guest:And I got an audio tour, which was good, but I didn't, didn't feel anything.
Guest:So I kind of want to go somewhere and see if I feel anything.
Guest:Just stare at those red squares.
Guest:I guess so.
Guest:See if you start crying.
Guest:I know.
Guest:I just kind of wanted to know if I am live.
Guest:Like, so, so yeah, I kind of want to check it out.
Marc:You'll be like Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Marc:You're just like frozen looking at like the pontilism and, you know,
Guest:little characters on the on the on the paintings 100% man oh man that's gonna be me and I'm going there by myself because Erin is uh going with her friends doing like a white lotus trip with her friends so uh so yeah so based on the last couple episodes that that might be a hell of a trip
Guest:Oh, it's already shaping up to be quite hilarious.
Guest:Like my wife's already like asking, you know, what do I think about one of her friends?
Guest:Like not wanting to like take the train to the airport instead of taking an Uber.
Guest:But like Erin like is going to pay for one of her meals because it's expensive.
Guest:So it's like a whole thing.
Guest:I cannot wait to hear.
Marc:This goes back to last week when you said like Erin keeps all these friendships.
Marc:It's like.
Marc:there's a cost in everything pal yes everything everything comes at a premium but hey like for some people that's what you want to pay for you're like look no i got a lot of friends yeah and also this is the entertainment this is what uh what we talk about so yes right yeah for sure
Marc:Well, speaking of entertainment, what has entertained you in the past few days?
Guest:Dude, you know what I did?
Guest:I fired up the Criterion channel and I watched the Amadeus theatrical version.
Marc:Oh, the shorter one.
Guest:Yeah, the shorter version.
Marc:Yeah, how'd that work for you?
Guest:It fucking rips.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:But I found the ending of that movie lacked the emotional thump that the director's cut had.
Marc:Well, remind me what the ending on the director's cut is, because I know very well the ending on the original version.
Marc:It's just Salieri saying, I condemn you all to mediocrity, which I am the patron saint.
Guest:Yeah, that's the very end.
Guest:But what I'm talking about is Mozart's wife being just very upset that Salieri is in the bedroom sleeping.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:And she was like, you should get out of here and everything.
Guest:And then Mozart dies.
Guest:But...
Guest:her reaction in the theatrical version doesn't really make sense.
Guest:It really, she should be upset about the other guy, the other guy who was like asking Mozart to make this vaudeville.
Guest:Oh, right, right.
Marc:But I do think this is like a case, this is a similar case of when you read the screenplay of Django Unchained before watching it.
Marc:I don't know, I don't fault you for this.
Marc:It's like you watch the director, you know, it's called the director's cut, but it's really just like the extraneous footage cut.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you watch that thinking that was the movie and you got all this extra stuff.
Marc:And so clearly then when you watch it stripped back, there are going to be things that you can't forget.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But you come at it from my perspective.
Marc:I had never had any of the previous knowledge of the way that that extended version puts all this.
Marc:additional stuff in between Constance and Salieri so that what you're saying is you missed that like catharsis of her telling him to fuck off at the end of it because you'd been built up that like he treated her like shit or whatever.
Marc:In the actual theatrical version, they don't have any relationship.
Marc:Like they cut all that out wisely.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like, so I do think you're stuck with you're in a little bit of a, of a no man's land, but I, I do, I am happy that you've, that you realize that it plays much better as a shorter movie.
Guest:Oh God.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like there's no, there's no fat on it.
Guest:It just kind of just keeps on going.
Guest:It's really, really well done.
Marc:I also like now that you have watched it again and you have watched, you know, not too long ago, a complete unknown.
Marc:Can you see why they're kind of related?
Marc:Totally.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:Like, like they're, they're, they're right there.
Guest:So yeah, they really make sense.
Guest:And yeah, really great comparisons between the two.
Guest:Also for St.
Guest:Patrick's day, I don't know what you did, but I fired up the fugitive.
Guest:Oh, you just wanted to see that green river?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I just want to see that green river, man.
Guest:And it actually got me thinking, first of all, obviously the movie rules, but has Harrison Ford ever played the heel?
Guest:Yes.
Marc:The one with Michelle Pfeiffer.
Marc:He's the killer.
Guest:Which one?
Marc:Which one's that?
Marc:What Lies Beneath.
Marc:What Lies Beneath.
Marc:It's Robert Zemeckis ghost movie.
Marc:Oh, all right.
Marc:I mean, I'm spoiling it.
Marc:It's not very good, but I'm spoiling it.
Marc:But halfway through, you realize he's the murderer.
Guest:Oh, interesting.
Guest:I'm going to have to check that out.
Guest:Because I was thinking like this guy would make such a great heel.
Guest:Like he, for me, has been, he's like the John Cena of movie stars.
Guest:Oh, he's never turned.
Guest:Yeah, he's never turned.
Marc:But wait, I haven't watched Captain America, whatever it's called, New World Order, whatever.
Marc:I guess he is kind of the bad guy in that, right?
Guest:Accidentally, the bad guy.
Guest:It's not a great movie, but yeah.
Guest:I mean, and it's not even him being the bad guy.
Guest:It's when he's a computer generated.
Guest:It's a computer version, right.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Anytime it's Harrison Ford, it's just like, oh, look at this president.
Guest:He's a dick.
Guest:But he's not that much of a dick.
Guest:He still wants to play ball.
Guest:But anyway, it's complicated.
Marc:I don't like him as the old president because all I think about is him yelling at the old president in clear and present danger.
Marc:Oh, sure.
Marc:No, you shouldn't be the guy who's a dick.
Marc:You should be the one who's going, how dare you, sir?
Guest:Well, I think of him as wanting to get people off his plane already.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Marc:Speaking of that, have you seen this clip from Stephen Colbert with Gary Oldman?
Guest:Oh, of adding farts?
Marc:Yes, because his character in Slow Horses farts all the time, right?
Marc:Does he?
Marc:Stop.
Marc:So they took videos of, you know, other Gary Oldman performances and put farts in them and showed it to him.
Marc:And he's laughing so hard.
Marc:He's crying like he he has he is wearing a scarf and he has to take his glasses off and wipe his eyes with the scarf because he's red faced and crying.
Marc:It is it reminded me of what Mark was talking about, about the farting preacher.
Marc:Like, there's just no way for it to not be funny.
Marc:And you just laugh hysterically the whole time.
Marc:Like, there's just something so undeniable about watching something where they put farts in it and it looks like the person actually farted.
Marc:Like, sorry, you're going to laugh forever.
Marc:Like, there's... I remember one time...
Marc:It was so pure.
Marc:We were in the offices.
Marc:I think you were probably still upstairs, you know, working on Maddo and Liz Winstead show.
Marc:And after Morning Sedition, we were down in the offices and, you know, it's like me and Maren and Dan Pashman.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I, you know, we would usually spend that time doing production work for like the next day.
Marc:And I think it was because we were putting something together, some audio thing.
Marc:And we're looking through like a collection of sound effect CDs.
Marc:You know, there was like a live CD library back then you had to like import it into your, you know, editing software and whatever.
Marc:So, you know, looking through these CDs for whatever sound effects we needed.
Marc:And there was one whole CD that was just farts.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:oh no and so instead of like putting you know that we didn't use it for the whatever we were producing but we were like just popped it in the boom box and just pressed play and listen and just let it roll like listen to the cd that was just farts and we were laughing so hard like no sound was coming out like it was like like three people in like silent buckled over laughter just
Marc:And I brought that up to Mark recently because of that Gary Oldman thing.
Marc:And I was like, do you remember when we listened to that fart CD at Air America?
Marc:And he was like, remember?
Marc:Like, you don't forget a thing like that.
Marc:This guy remembers nothing.
Marc:He was like, oh, of course.
Marc:You're not going to forget that thing.
Guest:We fired up the farting CD, of course.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:Radio, man.
Guest:It's the best.
Guest:And I loved when Mark was talking to Jane Marie this week.
Guest:She was talking about live radio.
Guest:And she's cutting tape and doing stuff right before This American Life goes on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There really is nothing like live radio.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I, I agree with her.
Guest:Like, you know, I also am very good at live radio and just like doing things on the fly.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:It is, it is a weird thing that you just can't, you know, unteachable.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's not unlearnable obviously.
Marc:Cause we learned it, but there's no, there's no course you can take to perfect it.
Marc:You either have the instincts to do it or you don't.
Marc:I, I remember, uh, like when I first started working on the Rosie O'Donnell, uh, show on Sirius XM, they, uh,
Marc:you know, Rosie didn't know me from Adam and, and I don't think she was very trustworthy of me at first.
Marc:Cause I, you know, probably look like a 12 year old to her.
Marc:And she's like, what the fuck?
Marc:You know, I come from massive syndicated television deal where I made a hundred million dollars.
Marc:Like, why is this kid running my show?
Marc:And,
Marc:it was like my ability to do what you're talking about those like you you don't speak you just produce the show live and it's like somebody like does something or says something and you have like an immediate synaptic response to it and you hit a button and it like makes everything 10 times better like that just had to happen a couple of times and she was like oh okay i get this i get that guy does this and that's why he's here you know like and and it really is like she wasn't going to argue with it because she's not like oh go get somebody else
Marc:Like I know this guy, I know Gino, bring Gino in or whatever.
Marc:He'll do it.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:It was like, once that was happening, she's like, oh, that's what that job is.
Marc:Oh yeah.
Marc:That's crazy.
Guest:I know if he can do that fine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like these things that you're able to do with the clock ticking down.
Guest:It's akin to like those like miracle plays in sports, right?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like Bo Jackson throwing out Harold Reynolds at the plate or Jeter flipping the ball.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Two minute drill in football.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's just like that.
Guest:It's unteachable.
Guest:You just have it or you do not.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I will say the one thing that I do, I mean, obviously we're saying unteachable in the aggregate, but obviously there's little things that people teach you throughout and you learn and you apply.
Marc:And I will say the one thing that was pretty...
Marc:it was like probably like the most important lesson was when I was in college and I was working at the radio station.
Marc:So I started taking a bunch of like broadcasting courses that were like outside of my major, but I just was like, well, I work at a radio station.
Marc:Now I should take these courses.
Marc:And there was this great guy.
Marc:His name was Joe Dembo.
Marc:If you look him up, he was a, he was a vice president at CBS and like from like,
Marc:you know the the the peak of like cbs radio being like a news center and uh he uh was teaching at fordham as you know in his retirement age and teaching you know how to how to write for news radio and uh basically writing copy like that's actually like an applied skill you can learn like there are rules to it things like that and he said one time and i just i
Marc:I've never, I don't forget it to this day.
Marc:I don't forget it when it's like, Hey, everybody, we got to leave the house to get to your grandparents on time.
Marc:That kind of thing.
Marc:He said, the clock is a tyrant.
Marc:That was it.
Marc:That was the very simple thing.
Marc:He said, the clock is a tyrant.
Marc:And I always remembered it.
Marc:And it is so true.
Marc:It's like, you can't, it doesn't argue with you.
Marc:It won't reason with you.
Marc:There's no negotiations.
Marc:You have to abide by its rules or you're dead.
Marc:You're off with your head.
Marc:Yeah, I love that.
Guest:Yeah, that's amazing.
Guest:And what a true statement that is.
Guest:And yeah, live radio, there's no fucking around.
Guest:It is either happening or it's not happening, right?
Marc:I think about that, too, in regard to doing WTF, which is now, you know, we're in our 16th year of doing it.
Marc:And I'd be lying to you if I said, oh, it's just totally easy.
Marc:It's the easiest thing.
Marc:I put it on autopilot.
Marc:No, it's like still work.
Marc:And it's it's like, you know, there's a grind to it because we've got to do two episodes a week and whatever.
Marc:But man, we did live morning radio for two years and I was way more burnt out.
Marc:oh yeah oh yeah like by the end of that like obviously i didn't want our show to get canceled which it did but like by the end of that i was feeling it like the the daily grind of that three hours every day you got to refuel the fire that was fucking hard every single day yeah
Guest:And, and you, you know, you also had like a whole bunch of different hats.
Guest:You had to like coordinate, you know, guests and, you know, figure out segments and all this stuff.
Marc:I mean, like my day just began when the show ended, you know, it was like, we had this three hour show and then it was like, all right, got another eight hours of work ahead of me.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Just brutal.
Guest:Like, what a grind.
Guest:My God.
Guest:And I will say, I feel like Jane Marie in another universe, you, like, she seems like your counterpart, right?
Guest:Like, she seems like, you know, a person akin to what you do.
Guest:Right.
Marc:I guess kind of, but she's totally on Mike personality.
Marc:I mean, like, I don't know if you've listened to the dream, but she's, you know, it's funny because she's from Flint or I think Lansing, Michigan, but near enough to Flint that, you know, she clearly gets compared to Michael Moore and, and addresses that.
Marc:I think in the first season of the dream, if I remember correctly, I don't think it was just an interview with her that I heard.
Marc:I think it was on the show that she like had his complicated feelings about Michael Moore.
Marc:Like, ah, does he exploit people or not?
Marc:But like,
Marc:she has a lot of his style like putting herself into the story and you know it revolves a lot around her dragging stuff out of her family and that so i i definitely you know have a kinship with anyone who is a producer who is you know um you know trying to pave their way in podcasting and and you know kind of figure out this lawless industry um and also like her radio background but like i i also do know like hey i'm
Marc:despite the evidence before you right now as we speak i am not a mic guy right i am not like the front of uh camera or or in your ears personality like this is just a quirk that you and i happen to be doing this well you can do it though like you know you and i think at wnyc you were on the mic right for a little bit you were like oh come up next yeah i didn't like it no oh yeah all right
Marc:No, it felt unnatural to me.
Marc:It was it was like it was not my natural resting place to be, you know, like my brain moves too fast for the skills you need to be a very effective communicator.
Marc:And I can tell it when I listen back to this when I'm editing it, that it's like I can spot the the inefficiencies in my own presentation style.
Marc:because i'm measuring it up to the people i know are good and i'm like they have a real clarity of brain to mouth and how to effectively communicate what they want to say in a way that will make it land um the in the most square way and uh you know i think you and i have good conversations on here i think i have good conversations with mark but i would not call myself a broadcaster and i and i can tell you
Marc:Very specifically, the skills I don't have that make a person a good broadcaster.
Guest:Well, you know, it's funny because Mark was mentioning on Thursday's episode with Chris Fleming in his monologue where he talked to a doctor and was diagnosed with obsessional anxiety.
Guest:And I'll say...
Guest:he was rattling off some of those symptoms.
Guest:And some of them I was like, oh, well, I kind of have that.
Guest:Like when you talk about like, oh, well, you know, listening to the episode back when you're editing it, when I'm listening to it, when I'm just listening to it on my phone, like that's all I think about are all the words that I miss saying and all the imperfections.
Guest:And like I think about like –
Guest:You know, not only that, you know, during the day, but like when I'm going to bed, I'm thinking about all the things I did wrong, not only to, you know, this last day, but like years ago.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's this, you know, obsessional anxiety that, you know, Mark has it to 11.
Guest:I just have it probably at like a four or five.
Marc:Well, I think that also goes into what I was talking about with Mark in the bonus episode this week when we were talking about his documentary.
Marc:And like, you know, for what you're saying, I don't think I have that type of, you know, regretful hindsight.
Marc:But I fully kind of understand where it comes from.
Marc:And, you know, that that idea of like seeing yourself throughout your life, like I don't understand how the younger generations are.
Marc:are coping with it because like, I know, you know, from the standpoint of like, they see themselves all the time.
Marc:They're, they've been videoed and, you know, they have, they have, they have photo, they have a computer in their pockets that has their whole life on it.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Right.
Marc:and meanwhile we only have like five or six photos ever but like thank god because i don't know about you and i'm guessing i i know what your answer is based on what you just said but like i don't i i'm not hard on myself about the past and i don't like have like tons of regrets but a lot of times i find myself thinking about like who i was when i was younger and i was not like
Marc:of ne'er do well or a fuck up, but I still like, look at that guy scoldingly.
Marc:Like, I'm like, I'll start thinking about something.
Marc:I'm like, you fucking idiot.
Marc:Why did you say that?
Marc:Or like, you wrote, what did you, you wrote that?
Marc:That's, that's terrible.
Marc:That should have gotten another pass.
Marc:Like, how did you get away with writing that?
Marc:Like, I'm very like, you know, on top of that.
Marc:And I have to, I'm like, I'm glad I don't spend too much time thinking about it.
Marc:Cause I would probably be like hypercritical about it.
Marc:If I, if I thought about it too much and like,
Marc:I don't want to watch versions of myself like that.
Marc:Like I want that to be firmly in the past.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Never to ever be seen again.
Guest:Just like bury it 20 feet deep.
Guest:I, dude, I think about like, I think about when I messed up, Dan Pashman was like producing a segment, like a pre-taped segment.
Guest:And I like messed up and I did the fourth segment before the third segment.
Guest:And I still think about that to this day.
Guest:Oh man, yeah.
Marc:mistake I made like it is it is brutal sometimes yeah just like being in my own head I have I so you know we wrote the WTF book Waiting for the Punch and you know that was like a massive assembly job by me it took two years right and you know I'm proud of the book I'm proud of the content but every time I look at it I am upset at it because
Marc:A lot of what I was able to do to assemble that book was to find the chunks that I wanted, send them off to audio transcription, and then when I get the transcriptions back, I would assemble it text-wise.
Marc:Well...
Marc:There are going to be misspellings and things that get, but then you have editors and everybody gives it a read.
Marc:You give it a read.
Marc:Everybody checks things.
Marc:And there's a process that went for one fourth of the entire time I spent putting the thing together was like a review process.
Marc:And so people check things.
Marc:You had spelling errors.
Marc:You had this, you had that.
Marc:The comedian and actor, John Glazer, his name came back spelled G-L-A-Z-E-R.
Marc:It's actually spelled with an S. And it got in the book and nobody caught it.
Marc:People did an index of the book.
Marc:It just got by all of us.
Marc:And so then we sent a copy of the book to every person who...
Marc:who was in it, right?
Marc:And, you know, started getting emails back or, you know, Mark would get a text, right?
Marc:Oh, I got the book, love it, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Marc:We got an email from John Glazer and all it said was, thanks for the book, you spelled my name wrong.
Guest:Ugh.
Marc:And I'm like, and then I wrote him this like very long apology.
Marc:Like I'm mortified that that happened and blah, blah, blah.
Marc:Never heard back.
Guest:Oh no.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So like, that's the worst.
Guest:That's like the, the move though to like, never like, that's what I would do to like my worst enemy.
Guest:Oh my God.
Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So I was just like, oh man, how did that fucking happen?
Marc:So anytime I look at that book on my shelf, I'm like, oh, there's that book where I fucked up John Glazer's name.
Guest:Nothing else.
Guest:Nothing else.
Guest:The fact that you assembled it, it was a work, like you had to pull, put all these strings together and lump them all together.
Guest:Two years of my life.
Guest:Nope.
Guest:Nope.
Guest:Nope.
Guest:That's where I misspelled that guy's name.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Not fun.
Guest:Not fun at all.
Guest:What was fun was Mark's monologue made me wonder who wasn't texting him, right?
Guest:So I was like, oh, that's interesting.
Guest:And then I read his newsletter.
Marc:Yeah, you got a reveal.
Guest:Yeah, it was a nice little mystery.
Guest:I felt like I investigated a reporter there.
Guest:I was like, oh.
Marc:Well, it's actually the interesting thing about it, though, is I think that that specific thing is what...
Marc:tipped him over to being like i gotta get on this medicine oh really yeah yeah yeah like like you know he was like that was ridiculous i was getting all weird now the other thing is and dawn is the one who pointed this out to me she's like does he think maybe he should give himself a pass
Marc:on getting worried about the girlfriend, not texting him back.
Marc:Like he lost a girlfriend five years ago who suddenly got sick and died within a week.
Marc:Like you think that maybe that's part of his brain that is like, wait a minute, I'm not hearing from her.
Marc:Is everything okay?
Marc:Did a tragedy happen?
Marc:Like, I think he'd be somewhat susceptible to that.
Marc:And it's not having anything to do with whatever lifelong anxiety he says he has.
Right.
Guest:See, these McDonald's, they're so smart.
Guest:And yeah, I wonder if Mark brought that up to his doctor.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I mean, if you're doing a 90 minute psych eval and the massive trauma that occurred in your life within the last five years doesn't come up, I would get I would ask for a refund.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Man, I got to say, I love that Mark, like, bears his soul.
Guest:Like, it's brave and scary to put yourself out there like he does.
Guest:Like, you know, and like to talk about he's going to be on this new medication.
Guest:And it did make me wonder, like...
Guest:you know, what his monologues are going to be like now, you know, post-medication, you know?
Guest:So I wonder if there's going to be like a change.
Guest:And it got me thinking like, man, you've seen it all.
Guest:You've seen the whole arc of this person.
Guest:And you've seen like, you can probably look at, you know, all your episodes and define them by errors.
Guest:Like, oh, this error is when, you know, like he was smoking cigars, you know, kind of like looking at the walls of the Grand Canyon and seeing all the different water lines.
Guest:It's like-
Guest:Oh, yeah, this is the nicotine gum era, you know?
Marc:Well, it's funny that you bring up two things, cigars and nicotine gum, that are not isolated eras, but rather very direct exit ramps in cycles that he goes through all the time, right?
Marc:So that is what I notice.
Marc:I would say that overwhelmingly what I notice is...
Marc:You know, he he grows as a person, obviously.
Marc:And that's one of the things that I think people like about the show is that they can kind of feel like this guy's trying to be better year after year.
Marc:But what I noticed because I've been with him for so long is how he repeats these cycles.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:For me, it's more like anything you can do to potentially alleviate that for yourself.
Marc:And so if it means taking some medicine, like I am all for it.
Marc:Like, you know, whatever you can do to get yourself out of these loops that obviously make you unhappy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, totally.
Guest:And, uh, yeah, I, I feel like I'm, I'm like right there.
Guest:Like I'm, uh, taking this, uh, GLP one medication to lose weight and, uh, gotta say it's working great.
Guest:It's, uh, I feel, feel good.
Guest:And, uh, I feel like myself again, like, I don't know how I got over 200 pounds, but, uh, but it happened.
Guest:So, uh, so yeah.
Guest:And I, I know some people are going to be like, ah, you know, he, he cheated, uh, to lose weight.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Cause people think that that's like the easy way out is to, uh, is to
Guest:There's nothing easy about any of it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So, you know, it just feels good to have myself again.
Guest:So, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, fuck anyone who thinks that's some issue that you shouldn't do.
Guest:Also loved Jane Marie talking about her time with the royals.
Guest:First of all, I had to assemble which royals that she was talking about.
Guest:And I landed on the Harry and Meghan, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, they're the only ones here.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, that's right, right?
Guest:So the fact that she did the whole Dead Moms Club thing, oh boy, that's something that I would think about for the rest of my life, is bringing that up.
Guest:And it actually made me remember when we were doing Morning Sedition and Reagan died, and we started doing Dead Reagan Monday.
Guest:And years later, we would be working with Ron Reagan, right?
Guest:He was like...
Marc:Yeah, he was a liberal, so he came to work at Air America.
Guest:Yeah, so yeah.
Guest:I was like, oh, he probably wouldn't have enjoyed Dead Rig in Monday.
Guest:But, you know, everyone else did.
Guest:It was good on you, though.
Guest:For sure.
Guest:Did you or anyone you know ever, like, sell knives or do the Avon thing?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, I have friends that did that stuff.
Guest:Yeah, me too.
Marc:And I mean, I've known... You know, part of it is, like, just...
Marc:It's like the same way you like get your politics initially from your parents and it then depends how you live your life, whether you keep them or whether you move on.
Marc:But like I've obviously kind of kept my parents, you know, cosmopolitan liberalism.
Marc:Then also one of the things that I just knew growing up was that like Amway was a scam.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like that was just something like just treated it like that.
Marc:They're like, Oh, that's an Amway scam.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like, and, and so then anybody I ever knew who did it, I was like, are you doing one of those scam things?
Marc:Right.
Marc:So it's just never came into my head that this was something, it's like wrestling.
Marc:Like I grew up knowing it was fake.
Marc:Like there was never one moment in my life where I ever turned it on and was like, Oh, these guys are really hitting each other.
Marc:No, I just was like taught to me.
Marc:Oh, this is a fake thing.
Marc:It's done for fun.
Marc:And you can watch it that way.
Marc:And then I loved it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So like,
Marc:it's the same thing with the amway stuff so i would see you know i had friends from high school and that who started doing it and i that like 20 years ago 25 years ago whenever that would happen to me was like what happens now when people find out their friends are like maga like i'd be like oh no i can't be friends with you anymore right you felt that scam oh yeah yeah
Marc:Yeah, because then they'd always want to do it around you.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Like I would like I would just it would be like, you know, oh, I haven't heard from this guy in a while.
Marc:Yeah, let's go.
Marc:We'll go hang out.
Marc:And then you're like, you know, 45 minutes into hanging out.
Marc:And he's like, oh, have you ever tried this energy drink?
Marc:And it's like, what?
Marc:This is a fucking sales pitch.
Marc:No.
Guest:I can get you a case of this stuff.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Easy.
Guest:You can sell it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Really, really interesting stuff there.
Guest:I remember going to a seminar once and like, I just wasn't buying what was being sold, but like other people were, I'm just like,
Guest:Yeah, I guess I'm just not like I'm not affected by this bullshit.
Guest:And that made me really happy.
Guest:That's like, oh, good.
Guest:Like this is not absorbing into me.
Guest:I just bouncing off of me like bullets off of Superman.
Guest:So, yeah.
Marc:Well, also now I see it anytime it's happening.
Marc:Like a couple of years ago when the NFT craze started, I was like, you're all fucked.
Marc:I see this one coming.
Marc:You fucking suckers.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:Also really loved Chris Fleming episode.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like just two, two guys talking shop.
Guest:And like, I kind of felt again, felt kind of uncomfortable.
Guest:Like they were just talking about really like getting into it.
Guest:And like, I love that, like Mark's a sitter now and just like love all these, like just mechanics of doing this, this job.
Guest:And like, gotta say, just,
Marc:awesome to see these two comic geniuses just talking to each other well also to see two guys who you like as as mark said he's like i didn't think i would ever be keyed into this guy like it didn't seem like my style and then to just fully come around i love that he started in tossing it to him he was like i am a new fan of this guy chris fleming like like he's he's he's bought in
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I actually paused the episode, watched the Polly bit that he was talking about.
Guest:Great, great stuff.
Guest:And man, I know some Polly people and I got to say, very on point.
Guest:Like, oh yeah, that's it right there.
Guest:Oh, just fantastic.
Guest:And I also love the vegan too thing.
Guest:I really hope someone clips that and makes it whatever, a TikTok or an Instagram reel or something.
Guest:It's really, really great stuff.
Marc:Well, anything anyone wants to add about this week's shows, please send us a comment, send us your ideas, your suggestions.
Marc:We have a link in the episode description there.
Marc:And if you are new to the Friday show, something we've been doing over the past several months is
Marc:is a little parental guidance segment.
Marc:You know, if you have younger kids and you're looking at ideas of what to show them, they want to watch movies, but you're not sure what's appropriate as they start to age.
Marc:We have started a segment on the show where we do a little PSA for parents.
Marc:And the person who guides us through that is my son, Owen McDonald, who has been watching films recently.
Marc:that are, you know, a little older than the childhood fare he was enjoying now that he's 13 years old.
Marc:So we did that again.
Marc:And this is the latest installment of our parental segment with Owen telling us what he watched and whether it's appropriate for kids his age or younger.
Marc:Hello, Owen.
Marc:Hello.
Marc:So we're back.
Marc:We've just watched another movie this past weekend, and it was a new one for you.
Marc:And it was a PG-13.
Marc:And I feel like we're getting, you know, a little farther along in terms of, you know, whether or not movies are appropriate for kids.
Marc:Are they too adult?
Marc:Are they too childish?
Marc:You know, and you've been kind of right snug in the comedy zone here, right?
Marc:You like watching these comedies.
Marc:So why don't you tell everybody what the latest comedy you watched was?
Guest:Alright, well, first of all, it definitely seemed like an adult movie, but it wasn't rated R. Definitely seemed a little bit more like, well, it was a parody of spy movies, and it was Austin Powers.
Guest:Do you remember what the subtitle is?
Guest:No.
Marc:International Man of Mystery.
Guest:I had no idea there was a subtitle.
Guest:It's kind of like how the naked gun of the subtitle as well.
Marc:Yes, that's right.
Marc:That did have a subtitle from the files of police squad.
Marc:So, yes, you saw Austin Powers, which you'd heard about for a long time.
Guest:Long time.
Guest:You showed me the beginning or the I think it was like a music video of Sol Bossa Nova.
Guest:Oh, probably.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:You know, you listen to that song, I think, way back.
Marc:There was some YouTube video you watched when you were real little that was like the most famous songs from movies or something like that, right?
Guest:Kind of.
Guest:I just rewatched it because I knew a lot of classical pieces.
Guest:It was mostly classical pieces, but Soul Bossa Nova was on there as well.
Guest:Was that song written for the movie?
Marc:No, no.
Marc:It's a Quincy Jones song from the 60s.
Guest:So that was why they used it in Austin Powers.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's a good song, and they also use a lot of other 60s songs I know of.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, you mean just on the soundtrack?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:But in the movie, too.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, why don't you tell people, so this is the best thing I think we can do, is have you tell people what the movie was about from your perspective.
Marc:Then I think there's probably a lot of people listening to this who have seen Austin Powers, but at least they can find out right now listening to you what a 13-year-old thought of it and was able to take away from it.
Guest:I've asked some people about it and they said they've heard of it.
Guest:So some people have heard of it before and they don't know what it's about.
Marc:Well, some people, you mean your peers, people your age?
Guest:Which I'll get to in a second.
Guest:I was going to tell you about something yesterday, but I wanted to save it for this.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So anyway, it's about a spy or a detective kind of who is like James Bond, but funny.
Guest:And he frees himself to the 90s.
Guest:He freezes himself and he tries to stop the villain who also freezes himself.
Guest:And he teams up with a female spy who he ends up marrying at the end.
Guest:And they try to defeat this man who is trying to defeat them.
Guest:Dr. Evil is the is the villain.
Marc:And what's unique about Dr. Evil and Austin Powers?
Guest:So they're both played by the same actor, Mike Myers, who is also from Shrek and Wayne's World.
Marc:Yeah, that's funny.
Marc:You knew him from both things because you've seen Wayne's World, but you know Shrek very well.
Marc:In fact, there were a couple of times where you said you thought he sounded like Shrek.
Guest:Yeah, but he's not Scottish in this.
Guest:He's British.
Marc:Yeah, and he's not either in real life.
Marc:So he's doing a bad accent in both, kind of.
Marc:He definitely, when he's doing the Shrek voice and the voice he's done in other characters where he's a Scotsman, he's pulling that from his own life.
Marc:Yeah, makes sense.
Marc:All right, well, I mean, it's a very simple plot to this movie.
Marc:Really, the plot is just there as an excuse to make jokes and spoofs about a spy from the 60s coming into the 90s 30 years later.
Marc:And what would you say is the central conflict in the movie?
Marc:What's the problem of a spy from the 60s coming into the 90s?
Guest:He's different.
Guest:He thinks everything is still in the 60s.
Guest:He kind of brings the 60s back.
Marc:Yeah, but he's like kind of in the free love era, right, of the 60s.
Marc:And in the 90s, people are being more responsible, right?
Marc:And that's kind of the thing he's got to figure out is like, oh, I'm in a new time and place.
Marc:Yeah, he keeps calling people babies.
Marc:Yeah, baby, and he thinks that women will just jump into bed with him whenever he wants, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, so in terms of that, that's a good segue into, what did you think of the content of this movie?
Marc:Did you think it was okay?
Marc:Did you think it was appropriate?
Guest:This time, I think, out of all the PG-13 movies I've watched, I think this is probably the most lewd.
Guest:It does kind of really ride the edge, I think, yeah.
Guest:But would you say it ever goes over the line?
No.
Guest:Kind of.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Which parts?
Guest:The parts where it looks like they're having sex.
Marc:Oh, which part?
Marc:But it's like a fake-out and they're playing Twister?
Marc:Yeah, okay.
Marc:But, I mean, that's a joke, right?
Marc:You're not really seeing that.
Marc:But I got scared for a second.
Marc:You thought that that was going to happen?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So, you're right.
Guest:This is another good segue into...
Guest:I'm sighing because I'm just still baffled by the fact that this actually happened.
Guest:My friend, the one I said put the dog on the toboggan a couple months back, I recommended him to watch this movie.
Guest:Austin Powers.
Guest:He'd never seen it.
Guest:He never saw it.
Guest:Did he know what it was?
Guest:He's like, no, I don't know what this is.
Guest:I'm like, oh, you've probably seen that bald man doing this, putting his pinky to his lip.
Guest:And I was like, you've probably seen that before tons of times.
Guest:But that's from a movie.
Guest:And I told him about the movie.
Guest:I told him, I was like,
Guest:It's a little it's a little lewd, so you'll probably like it.
Guest:So then I told him, go to Apple TV when you get home, search up Austin Powers and then watch it.
Guest:And the next day I ran in the class and I asked him, did you watch Austin Powers?
Guest:And he said, yeah.
Guest:And what do you think?
Guest:Well, he didn't watch the whole thing.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:But he was like, remember that part where they're like running?
Guest:And like, I immediately thought of, oh, probably the first scene in the entire world.
Guest:Not the first scene, but like the first scene with Austin Powers.
Marc:Where they were chasing him while the Sol Bossa Nova was playing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he said, remember the part where he keeps getting stuck in the car?
Guest:I was like, oh my God, he actually did watch it.
Guest:Did he?
Guest:Or did he maybe just watch the trailer?
Yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I said he tells lies the last time I talked about him.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's possible he just watched the trailer.
Guest:But that still means he got a good idea of what the movie was about.
Guest:But, hold on, it goes even further.
Guest:This actually might be a reason why he didn't watch just the trailer.
Guest:I was like, look up the movie on YouTube.
Guest:I want to see if you actually know what it is.
Guest:So he looked it up, shows me the phone, and it's a clip of Dr. Evil going, you know, you just don't get it.
Marc:Do you know who Mike Myers based Dr. Evil on?
Marc:No.
Marc:That's Mike Myers doing an impersonation of Lorne Michaels from Saturday Night Live.
Marc:We just talked about him in the last episode.
Marc:That's right, when we talked about Three Amigos.
Marc:And the visual aspect of Dr. Evil is he's supposed to look like a villain from the James Bond movies.
Marc:There was a villain called Blofeld.
Marc:But also Blofeld had a big fuzzy angora cat face.
Marc:which Dr. Evil has as well.
Guest:Well, also, I feel like he kind of looks like old Anakin Skywalker.
Marc:Oh, yeah, I get that.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:Like when he's in the Darth Vader helmet, when he takes the helmet off.
Marc:Now, my question to you about the James Bond stuff was...
Marc:Did you feel like you understood how it was parodying that stuff?
Marc:You've never really watched a James Bond movie, so did you get it?
Guest:Well, I know what the song sounds like.
Guest:I know it from GoldenEye, the video game.
Marc:You've heard it, though, before to the, you know, just general the James Bond theme.
Marc:But like, I also think you've probably seen enough stuff in popular culture that is referencing James Bond, like, you know, stuff where James Bond sitting around a card table, you know, playing cards against the bad guys.
Guest:There was a deleted scene from The Simpsons that had him, right?
Marc:Yeah, there's that, or like James Bond laying on the laser, you know, laying on a table where the bad guy's going to zap him with a laser, that kind of thing.
Marc:This movie, though, actually, there's some James Bond element in it, but there's a lot of other...
Marc:movies from the sixties spy movies and just sixties movies in general that this, that Austin Powers is, is taking off on like mostly the Matt Helm, uh, movie series with, with Dean Martin.
Marc:Uh, there was another movie series called, uh, our man Flint with James Coburn.
Marc:Uh, so those are like kind of closer to the, to the way that these Austin Powers movies are, but James Bond is obviously the one everybody knows.
Marc:Uh,
Marc:which is where some of the jokes come from, like that woman's name, which you were very shocked that they said her name over and over again.
Guest:I actually thought he was saying vagina.
Marc:Yeah, well, I mean, that's the joke.
Marc:They want you to think he's saying that.
Marc:It's actually fudgina with an F. Yeah.
Marc:Did you notice any other people in this movie who you recognized from other things?
Guest:Just Will Ferrell's in it playing like an Egyptian man.
Marc:Yes, he was like a henchman who had, you know.
Guest:He's not even doing like a Middle Eastern accent or anything.
Guest:No, he just sounds like Will Ferrell.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Why did he get shot at the end?
Marc:Well, he was supposed to just be burned like everybody else, but he was still alive when he got dumped into the dungeon or wherever that was.
Marc:And then they sent someone in there to kill him, and they didn't kill him right away.
Marc:They just kept screwing up his death.
Marc:That was the joke there.
Guest:So he's basically still alive.
Marc:No, I think he wasn't because they waited and waited and they didn't hear him.
Guest:Then you told me long ago about the steamroller.
Guest:Oh, yes.
Guest:We saw that.
Guest:We've seen that part before.
Marc:I think maybe I showed you a clip of that.
Guest:I don't think you did.
Guest:I remember you just telling me in detail, and I was like, I'm picturing this now.
Guest:And then I saw it, and I was like, yeah.
Guest:It's not that much of a cartoony sense.
Guest:Like, in The Naked Gun, when the steamroller runs over the guy at the end, he actually flattens him like a pancake.
Guest:This time, I'm pretty sure it would just end up being like, you hear bones crushing and stuff like that.
Guest:I was expecting it to end like The Naked Gun.
Marc:That it would just look like a flat pancake.
Marc:In terms of people that you know from other things, though, I pointed someone out to you that was in it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Who was that?
Guest:It was Carrie Fisher, right?
Marc:Yeah, Carrie Fisher.
Marc:She leads the father-son group meeting, and that's where Dr. Evil is with his son.
Yeah.
Guest:You know, I'm just wondering, you know what have played like if this movie was like remade in in 2025, kind of like how they're remaking the naked gun with Liam Neeson.
Guest:Yeah, I think they should.
Guest:If if he was still if this if he was still alive, they would probably cast him as Dr. Evil.
Guest:Paul Rubens.
Marc:Oh, that's interesting.
Marc:So remake it with Paul Rubens playing Dr. Evil.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I think he plays someone in the second Batman movie.
Marc:He does very briefly.
Marc:He plays the Penguin's father.
Marc:He's just a very quick cameo scene.
Marc:He doesn't have any lines.
Yeah.
Guest:But is he kind of like an evil-looking man or something?
Marc:He looks like a count.
Guest:Like a guy with a monocle and a mustache.
Guest:Well, that's kind of like what the Penguin is.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:So I think it would be funny to see him playing Dr. Evil in a remake of this movie, if there was ever a remake.
Guest:But they did make a sequel, apparently.
Marc:They made two sequels.
Marc:Now, what would you think?
Marc:Are you interested in watching those?
Marc:No.
Marc:No.
Marc:Yeah, I would recommend against them.
Marc:I think they're very unfunny, but your mileage may vary.
Marc:What did you think of this?
Marc:Did you enjoy Austin Powers?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, you did?
Guest:Okay.
Marc:Some of it, yeah.
Guest:Some of it.
Guest:What was not enjoyable?
Guest:Just how they kept reusing lewd jokes, like melons on top of... You didn't like that part?
Guest:No, actually, it was... No, I did like when they had cups of milk flowing out of...
Marc:What you're talking about is the part where everybody's moving around.
Guest:First, it's just Austin Powers, right?
Guest:That part was just like, ugh, keep doing this.
Guest:Because I think they did it already at the beginning, and then they did it again.
Marc:Then they did it again later with Austin Powers and Vanessa, and the joke is that they keep obscuring their private parts with various things.
Guest:So, like, pineapples, then...
Marc:giant melons yeah which that's like an already what about the sausage there was a giant sausage no that was a balloon and then a balloon oh she bit a sausage
Marc:Remember, she held the sausage up and took a bite out of it.
Marc:And then, yeah, a balloon that she blew up and it flew away.
Guest:Yeah, some of it's funny, but then some of it's just like, oh, you keep reusing this.
Guest:But I laughed out loud, like more than out loud, when they obscured it with two cups of milk.
Guest:That poured milk.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Because it's like...
Guest:That's like science, basically.
Marc:There we go.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No flies on you.
Marc:You got it.
Marc:What would you say is in your memory the funniest part of the movie?
Marc:Like what was the thing that made you laugh the hardest?
Guest:I like the part where, well, I don't know if this made me laugh the hardest, but where Dr. Evil keeps going, shh, shh, once there was a man named Shhh.
Guest:Oh, McDonald had a shh.
Marc:Yeah, that is a very funny part.
Marc:And that is one of those things where in the sequels, they repeat that over and over and over again because they knew people thought it was funny.
Marc:And so that's mostly what the second and third movie are, just repeating jokes that worked the first time.
Guest:I would have laughed if this joke wasn't used in tons of movies, but where he just keeps peeing.
Marc:You're right.
Marc:We have seen a bunch of movies where someone is peeing for a very, very long time.
Marc:We've seen movies.
Marc:We heard it on the Adam Sandler CD.
Marc:There's been a lot of jokes of just very, very long pees.
Marc:And that's all.
Marc:That's all the joke is.
Guest:Nothing else.
Guest:I would have thought it would be a bit funnier if that was not used in tons of things.
Guest:So, I mean, I think they should just try and add some funnier potty humor in it.
Guest:like actually the part that was funny where he is where he keeps squeezing like he thinks the cowboy thinks he's squeezing a poop out yeah that is a funny part that that that's like the only sense of like real a real like original potty humor joke yeah so wait why don't you explain what was happening there he goes into the bathroom and
Guest:Yes, and this hitman appears out of the window and starts almost strangling him with his lucky charms.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And Austin Powers starts grunting because he's trying to force... Because he's getting killed.
Guest:So he's going like...
Guest:And this cowboy in the, this very stereotypical American in the stall next to him is like, you okay in there?
Guest:He looks down at the ground, too, and he sees, like, his feet flapping, right?
Guest:So he thinks he's really struggling.
Guest:So then he, the hitman gets basically drowned in the toilet, and he's making, like, a gurgling, like...
Guest:And it sounds like... Yeah, we know what it sounds like.
Guest:What, I need to explain what it sounds like?
Marc:I think you got it.
Marc:Yeah, but then the guy says to him, hey, hey, that sounds pretty nasty over there.
Marc:How about a courtesy flush?
Yeah.
Marc:I also like that when, before he drowns the hitman, he's saying, cause he met the guy outside at the table.
Marc:Oh yeah, he met number two.
Marc:Number two, right.
Marc:So then he's, he's fighting against this hitman and he's going, who does number two work for?
Marc:And the cowboy says, that's right, buddy.
Marc:You show that turd who's boss.
Marc:I always thought that was a good joke.
Guest:That actually is funny.
Guest:That's probably the funniest one.
Guest:Because I think the whole reason why they named that guy number two was just to lead up to that scene.
Guest:Oh, you think so, Doctor?
Guest:Yeah, I think you're probably right.
Guest:I think that's exactly why they named him number two.
Guest:Because when they first introduced him, they don't even make any jokes about number two.
Marc:Well, no, they say, this is my number two man, his name, number two, right?
Guest:So that joke is enough.
Marc:But yes, I think you're totally right.
Marc:It reminds me of number one from The Simpsons.
Marc:Yes, right.
Marc:Now I have my favorite moment in this.
Marc:I remember in the movie theater, the, the, the part when I saw this that made me laugh the hardest and it still makes me laugh, but it's not like one of those, it's not a big psych gag.
Marc:It's not a, it's not potty humor.
Marc:It's actually just really dumb.
Marc:And I think that's why it made me laugh so hard is right before that, right before that toilet scene, when they're in the casino and,
Marc:First of all, I think it's funny when he says, allow myself to introduce myself.
Marc:Like, I always thought that's funny how he gets hung up with that.
Marc:But then, so number two says, hit me.
Marc:And he says, I like to live dangerously.
Marc:And you can then see he uses like x-ray vision to see the card.
Marc:And he knows, oh, there's a five there.
Marc:So he hits and he gets 21, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So then the dealer deals to Austin Powers and he says, five.
Marc:And Austin Powers says, I'll stay.
Marc:And he says, you have five, sir.
Marc:I suggest you hit.
Marc:And he says, I also like to live dangerously.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then the dealer turns over the cards and he goes, 20, 20 beats your five.
Marc:That part, I was laughing like two scenes later when I was in the movie theater, still thinking about that.
Marc:Cause I just thought it was so dumb.
Marc:There's no way to justify it as a joke other than, yeah, this is just really stupid that he would not hit on five.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:By the way, that guy, the guy that's dealing the cars, he's from Seinfeld.
Guest:Yes, the Soup Nazi.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:That's like one of like the two episodes of Seinfeld you've seen, right?
Guest:Yeah, because I don't really like Seinfeld that much.
Guest:I like The Office.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:But that was like, I guess, a classic episode, right?
Guest:Yeah, because it's always referenced like when like that's basically like when you think of Seinfeld, you think of that episode.
Guest:That's one of them for sure.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Guest:And just the no soup for you thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Also, in that movie, you knew who another person was, and it wasn't an actor.
Marc:It was somebody playing himself.
Marc:Burt Bacharach?
Marc:Yeah, you were like, oh, I know who Burt Bacharach is.
Marc:I don't know how I know it.
Marc:Probably just because of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.
Marc:I think that's what you said.
Marc:You were like, he wrote Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.
Marc:Okay, so what do you think?
Marc:You said you enjoyed the movie to a point.
Marc:You thought some of the stuff was a little too lewd.
Marc:So you're 13.
Marc:You're going to be 14 pretty soon.
Marc:How would you rank this movie for kids your age?
Marc:Should it be for older kids?
Marc:Is your age the cutoff?
Marc:Is it not appropriate for anyone younger than you?
Marc:What do you think?
Marc:What's your assessment?
Marc:for anyone younger than me.
Guest:Maybe a 12-year-old.
Guest:Like a mature 12-year-old?
Guest:Somebody could handle it?
Guest:But if I suggested a 13-year-old to watch this movie, then there you go.
Marc:A 13-year-old who's probably already talking about this kind of stuff at school.
Marc:Yeah, so.
Marc:All right, well, so Austin Powers, good for 13-year-olds, probably not for anyone younger than that.
Guest:Except for maybe 12-year-olds or 11-year-olds, actually.
Guest:I'm thinking about it now.
Guest:Probably 11-year-olds would like it as well.
Marc:That's got to be a parental judgment, though, right?
Marc:Parental guidance, yeah.
Marc:It is suggested.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Well, you did good.
Marc:Thanks, son.
Marc:All right, Chris.
Marc:So Austin Powers, was that a thing you came to, you know, just when it came out in the theaters or what?
Guest:I missed it in the theaters and it was a VHS purchase for me.
Guest:That's how I experienced that.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And so you're, oh, you're also, you know, probably what, 18 at the time.
Marc:You're not in any, you're not in any concern zone that Owen might've been in to feel awkward watching the play Twister or whatever.
Guest:First of all, I can't believe he is getting this old.
Guest:Like it is, it's funny.
Guest:It's like, it's like, you can see the way this is all going towards like, he's going to get to the, you know, Adam Sandler zone really soon.
Guest:Like it's, it's so cool to see all of this happen.
Guest:Um, but no, no, I, I, uh, I never experienced, uh, or had to not be experienced to awesome powers at an inappropriate age.
Guest:And, uh, I gotta say really interesting on some of Owen's takes.
Guest:Um, I, I, I thought, uh, I first of all love that he knows the song from like, what do you guys have?
Guest:Like now that's what I call music from movies, volume one.
Marc:No, no, it was a, I remember it was like some just YouTube video that was like, you know, the, the best songs in movies.
Marc:It was, you know, some, some cheap algorithmic thing that popped up a lot, probably like similar to that.
Marc:Remember that video that went around a lot about the guy doing all the dances that were in films, something similar to that.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So yeah, he knew that Quincy Jones song before we saw the movie.
Guest:And I gotta say, Owen recommending Austin Powers to his friend is the spark that will feed their friendship for years.
Guest:Oh, sure.
Guest:And unfortunately, I believe his friend only watched the trailer, which I love that that question stumped him.
Guest:He was like...
Guest:Yeah, me, might have just watched the trailer.
Guest:I also love that Owen was like, let me see your phone.
Guest:Like, he wanted to see the receipts.
Guest:He was like, what did you watch?
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Oh, great.
Guest:Also, I did not know any of those, like, Matt Helm or, you know, R-Man Flint movies.
Guest:So I guess, like, I always assumed Austin Powers is just directly ripping off James Bond.
Guest:I didn't know that there was another...
Marc:Yeah, it's actually like pretty minimally James Bond.
Marc:It's just like James Bond is what everybody knows.
Marc:And like, you know, there's direct stuff in there like odd job.
Marc:It's, you know, random task or whatever.
Marc:Or like, you know, Dr. Evil looks like Blofeld.
Marc:Like that's that's very clear.
Marc:But but it's beyond just like spy stuff like there's there's.
Marc:uh, the whole ending sequence where he's taking the pictures of Vanessa, right?
Marc:Like that's from blow up.
Marc:And, uh, uh, the, the scene when he shows up at that party in the sixties and he says, this is my happening and it freaks me out.
Marc:That's from beyond the Valley of the dolls.
Marc:So it's just like, it's a sixties pastiche.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:and uh you know people just know james bond from that era and he's like the spy but like also there was a tv show called secret agent that's where that song comes from where the you know secret agent man so like it just was everything and it's very very mike myers like that's how his brain works is he just like puts it into a cuisinart and spins it around you know all these references and everything
Guest:Well, it's funny that like Daniel Craig was like famously was like, oh, you know, this, you know, we can't do James Bond ever since Austin Powers came out.
Guest:Like, wait, what are you talking about?
Guest:Like, they're apparently not the same thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Although I do like that the very first James Bond movie Daniel Craig makes is one involving cards, which is like, you know, like.
Marc:The most cliche James Bond thing there is.
Marc:Like, oh, I can't do this movie anymore because it's too spoofable.
Marc:Well, why'd you do the most spoofable thing first?
Marc:Right.
Marc:Also, you know what aged so poorly is, so Casino Royale comes out in 2006, right?
Marc:Right.
Marc:it is like at the peak of the like televised poker craze.
Marc:So they're playing Texas hold them in like Monaco or wherever the fuck they are.
Marc:It's like, you guys don't think you maybe should have played blackjack.
Marc:Like every other James Bond thing that's ever been made.
Marc:It's like such a specific thing.
Marc:It would be like, if you were like, Oh, Hey, you know, check out my virtual reality headset.
Yeah.
Marc:this is how we're gonna break into this building you know yeah that also that casino royale also opens with a parkour sequence it's like i'm just realizing right now it's the most 2006 movie ever made it is so dated it is of its time
Guest:Also, what will never get old is a child clearing their throat before saying the word vagina in front of their dad.
Marc:Really, really enjoy that.
Marc:He was like Maude Lebowski.
Marc:It's like, does that make you uncomfortable, Mr. Lebowski?
Marc:Vagina.
Guest:Just really love that little man.
Guest:And I knew he was working up to it the entire time.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I will say though, it got me thinking about the whole thing.
Marc:We've talked about it many times of like young people.
Marc:And I don't mean young, his age.
Marc:Like we're always like, what is with these like, you know, people on Tik TOK and Instagram and all social media who are like, think sex scenes are bad and there should be no sex scenes and movies and this kind of puritanism that is infected the culture.
Marc:I think it's as simple as.
Marc:that like, okay, Owen said he was scared that potentially he was going to see sex in this movie when he's watching it with us.
Marc:And it was a joke.
Marc:They were playing Twister, but he still said he got really nervous, right?
Marc:Like, I think that's all it is.
Marc:And it's the fact that 20 year olds just all live with their parents still, right?
Marc:And so all these young people are like, I don't want to be watching this.
Marc:TV shows.
Marc:And then all of a sudden there's fucking in it.
Marc:I'm watching it with my parents, you know, get this out of here.
Marc:But like, we just think like, wow, that's weird.
Marc:These adults don't like, uh, uh, sex scenes in movies and TV anymore.
Marc:No, it's the, yeah, they're adults, but they're still at home.
Marc:They might as well be kids.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I remember seeing like the makings of a sex scene and I just got up and walked, walked to like go to the bathroom or something.
Guest:Like I did not want to be in the same room as a sex scene and my parents.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, didn't you, your parents used to cut it.
Marc:Your dad would cut them out of the movies for me.
Guest:Well, for sure.
Guest:But like, you know, I'm, I'm just saying we're on watching on cable and something.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's a glancing blow.
Marc:I don't need.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I feel like I didn't have that.
Marc:And I, I always think I attributed to my grandfather who would talk about all the time, just talking about sex.
Yeah.
Marc:not far off is that he had this it was a very funny thing that like if you're talking about a movie around them my grandparents and i said something like uh you know oh it's good it's very violent though like and i would be saying this like you know it's like my grandmother like we're talking about like an arnold schwarzenegger movie or something
Marc:and uh i'm like oh this movie was so good but it's violent my grandfather he would say this every time like it was a new realization he'd be like oh i like violence like like i would hear you did every time like he'd be like like you know you hear them say like oh we saw this movie and my grandmother would be like it was good it was a little violent and he'd be like oh i i like violence and
Marc:and he like it like he found a 20 in his pocket exactly and then i remember it would be said enough times that then it was almost like you know his like a almost like a mantra around movies you know like like he was like yeah i saw this movie i i love a good movie like that with some violence i like violence and we would laugh and then he started to add to it and a little sex that was how i like violence and a little sex
Guest:Like little pepper and salt and pepper.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Marc:And I actually think that's really healthy.
Marc:Like, isn't that the whole thing about like horror movies is like they give you a catharsis.
Marc:Like that's why people who like horror movies like them.
Marc:It's like, oh, I can live through a terrible thing there in the movie and then I don't have to have that in my life, you know?
Marc:Right.
Marc:And it's like, well, yeah.
Marc:So if you watch a movie and there's some shoot them up action, then you don't go through your day thinking you're going to kill everybody, right?
Marc:Right.
Marc:Or like, oh, there was a little sex in that movie.
Marc:Great.
Marc:I don't have to have a porn addiction now or whatever.
Marc:Kids now, like, you know, this is porn in their pocket every minute.
Marc:And I'm like, oh, I think that's probably part of it that I was like, hey, my grandfather liked it.
Marc:I'm sure this is fine for me.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:Oh, man, I can't wait to.
Guest:I'm going to I like violence.
Guest:I'm going to I'm going to fire up collateral this weekend.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:You're perfect.
Guest:No sex, though.
Guest:But no, it's not violence.
Yes.
Marc:I'm thinking about my grandfather had some good systems from that on that regard.
Marc:He also he was like in his 70s and we'd still go to the office.
Marc:Just he just liked working.
Marc:And but one of his regular things was he'd go to the office and that morning he'd look in the newspaper and he would read the obits and he would take down the age of every person in the obits.
Marc:And then he would average it.
Marc:And if the average was younger than him, he would eat a salad for lunch.
Marc:And if the average was older than him, he would eat a cheeseburger.
Yeah.
Guest:unbelievable unbelievable i very much look forward to adopting that system such a treat yourself moment or totally maybe we scale it back he also made it when he was uh he he quit smoking cold turkey the only person i've ever known in my life we did that
Marc:And he did it before I was conscious of it.
Marc:I think probably I was a little kid, but like, yeah, he, it was, it was like a lore in, in our family that like, oh yeah, grandpa George, he just decided one day to stop smoking and he had smoked like a pack a day and he just didn't smoke anymore.
Marc:And he had made a deal with himself that when he became, when he was 80, he would start smoking cigars again and like clockwork, like the day he was 80, he's, and you'd never see him without a cigar then.
Marc:he just cigar every and then it became real easy to buy him birthday presents and stuff like hey grandpa cigars he's like oh my favorite grandson oh like he earned it it's like i'm 80 it's like you know what what else is there like i remember my dad saying that i was like i brought it up to him once i was like dad grandpa's smoking a lot of cigars he's like what the fuck am i gonna do he's 80 he can he's allowed he's not driving drunk like he's just smoking a cigar let
Guest:let him do the thing he likes to do yes oh fantastic uh i i'm bummed that owen did not like the melons gag like i thought i always thought it was like a rube goldberg machine of covering genitals you know what you know what i think uh he's missing a context there that you and i have but i shouldn't speak for you maybe you don't have this i definitely have it from when i was a kid we watched benny hill yes and they did this
Marc:All the time.
Marc:So I, I guarantee that Mike Myers was even thinking of Benny Hill.
Guest:For sure.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And yeah, I guess, I guess having that context helps, but like, I don't know.
Guest:I just feel like that's a fun thing to do anyway.
Guest:The more, you know, when they get to the sausage and the, uh, the toy, it just, I don't know.
Guest:It, it, it, uh, it's such a lovely little joke there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Well, I'm glad Owen is now of age to watch more PG-13 movies.
Guest:What's in his queue?
Guest:Do you know what else he's going to be watching?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:You know what I would like to do with him is branch him out a little bit and not get too hardcore about it, but branch him out a little bit into some action-adventure movies that are for the PG-13 set.
Marc:I do think he could watch The Fugitive.
Marc:I think that's a perfectly fine one.
Marc:It's minimally violent.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:The intensity is not overbearing.
Marc:It's not like he's going to have nightmares about it or something.
Marc:And it ends, you know, it ends all well, you know, like this guy doesn't get screwed and sent to the death penalty or something.
Marc:So, like, I do feel like that one is there for the taking if he's willing.
Marc:And yeah, I just think there's, there's other ones.
Marc:There's like a lot of stuff from like the nineties was a better class of like mid-level, uh, PG 13 action movies, like the mission impossible movies.
Marc:You know, those are, those are great.
Guest:It must be like a bonus of having, you know, of like, you know,
Guest:having a child, being a parent to listen to them, explain what was funny in a movie.
Guest:Cause I gotta say that it's, it's, it's almost like a, like a badge of honor, like just listening to it.
Guest:Like you must have been like just beaming on the inside.
Marc:Well, I do feel in some ways I'm like, okay, I did the right thing.
Marc:Like, like at least you feel like, okay, you know, if anything else has been a failure in my parenting, I at least know that I set him on the right humor track.
Marc:100%.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Everything else may go to shit, but man, at least he knows what's funny.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah, for sure.
Guest:And man, it's so great to hear Owen and experience these movies through his eyes.
Guest:It's really, really fun.
Marc:Well, good.
Marc:We'll keep doing it.
Marc:If if you have any suggestions about movies that that we should cover here, either with Owen or without, you can click on the link in the episode description and send that to us.
Marc:And we will be here next week.
Marc:Chris will not be in Houston yet.
Marc:So you got another week out of us.
Marc:And and that will be next Friday.
Marc:Until then, I'm Brendan and that's Chris.
Peace.