Do Go On - 408 - The History of Barbie

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

The Barbie movie has made over $1 Billion, so we're jumping on the bandwagon and learning about the history of the doll and its journey to superstardom with Barbie expert and friend of the show, AJ from Cult Popture!This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 05:50 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).You can find AJ's podcast here (the ep Jess & Dave appeared on) :https://shows.acast.com/831d9c95-c466-4be2-a66f-2c6375cf8a8c/63f05383479d500011cdb820Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSupport the show on Apple podcasts and get bonus episodes in the app: http://apple.co/dogoon Live show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/Check out our merch: https://do-go-on-podcast.creator-spring.com/ Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.  REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://shows.acast.com/831d9c95-c466-4be2-a66f-2c6375cf8a8c/a9fe4ae2-7bce-41e0-8eda-f59be4147027https://www.slashfilm.com/1341484/an-exhaustive-guide-to-barbie-lore/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we've got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. And welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Jess Perkins. And as always, I'm here with Matt Stewart. Hello, Matt.

Hey, Jess, how good to be here? And quick question for you, how good is it to be alive? Personally, I wish I was ever born. Oh, my God. We are not joined by our good friend, Dave Warnocky. Yes, yet again, he is not shown. We do not know where he is. Yeah.

And we do not wish to know. I say yet again. These episodes are coming out. a funny order? Maybe has he been here recently? He's probably been back. He was probably here last week. I can't remember. Yeah, who knows. I don't, I'm, I'm in charge of the schedule. Don't care. Anyway, this one is, because we're pushing this episode right up the order. It's coming in hot off the presses. It's basically going out live. Yeah, this is basically live. If you were to run down to stupid old studios right now when you're listening, we're here. Yeah. Give us a wave.

We're not in a room with a window, but we'll know. We'll know. You're waving. Anyway, we are very excited to be joined by a friend of the podcast, and you may know him from the world of podcasting. His name is Alexander Jones, aka AJ from Colt Popcher. AJ, welcome to do go on. Thank you so much. It's so good to be here. I'm so excited to read you a report. Yes.

We're excited for that too because it means we haven't written a report. and also like you're doing all of the work with this one because you're doing the report but also people might know might have heard that sometimes we refer to an AJ on the podcast that's you you're our editor as well yes yes I have achieved every podcast editor's dream of guesting on the podcast that he edits I have turned the parasycial relationship

into a real friendship and if I can do it listeners you can do it too Let's not give anyone any crazy ideas. You too can do hours of paid work and eventually climb up the ladder to then do free work at least on the podcast. It's exciting, isn't it? Yes, it is. There will be people out there who'll know you from your viral TikTok videos where you do all the generations. Yes.

How do the generations would respond to a gay character being introduced on a sitcom? Yeah, exactly. Oh, okay. Am I as a millennial? Oh, okay. You should make your own met. You're so good at it. No, no, that's, I think that was, that might have been Gen X. Hmm, okay.

Oh. A little side eye. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You do great side eye for Gen X. Thanks so much. Yes, I got, I like to say I'm mildly TikTok famous. Yeah. Though these days it feels more like I used to be mildly TikTok famous.

I think TikTok fame is fleeting. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And that's the beautiful lesson for us all to learn. So, AJ, you've been editing this show for what? Maybe a year, maybe six months, maybe three weeks. Who knows? I think my first episode I edited was The Matrix with Alexi and Cam.

Wow. Yeah, that could have been a year ago when we're in Sydney. Now, so you've listened to this a lot. You'll know and you'll be able to explain to us how this show works. Yes. Of course I could do that. What an honour. So this is a show where the three of us, well the two of you, and usually Dave, go away and come up with a report and then read it back to the class with, as you say, Matt, dog shit riffs.

See, I'm in a tricky position here where, like, I don't think you'll have had a more intimately familiar with the show guest before, right? And I don't want to come off as like, I know all the in-jokes. So, like, I, like, limited myself to inside jokes writing this report because I didn't want to, I didn't want to come off as a fan, which I am. But I also want to be like, yeah, I'm also a big podcaster as well, you know. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, we've had friends come on the podcast who have listened to Do Go on, and, you know, they kind of know some of the in-jokes and stuff.

But you're paid to listen to Do Go on. I know what gets cut out. Exactly right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're intimate with the dog shit riffs. Yeah, yeah. The shitters to the dog shit rifts. Or as you say dog shit, ruffs, which are lies.

Did I say that? Yeah, well, I mean, that's just your accent, but I love it. Probably the best accent in the world. Whenever Australians make fun of the New Zealand accent, I never hear it. And I'm not precious. I'm not like, don't make fun of me, but I need, like, the fush and chups thing. Yeah. Like, if I can say fush and chaps, then clearly I'm not saying fish and chips.

It confuses me. It confuses me. Yeah. Oh, wow, that's, that's broken my brain a little bit. Yeah, you're right. You've got a very international accent that way, Joe. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's so good to have a Kiwi on because we have a few Kiwi listeners and they have been wanting us to come over and do a show, which I'm so keen to do. But this feels like this is our first solid step across the Dutch to New Zealand. Thank you so much. I'm glad to be the midway point between you over there and coming over here.

Yep, you're our gateway. And look, you know, because you have edited so many of these, that we usually start with a question. Yes, I have a question. And I wanted to make my mark on this show, so I thought I would try break the record for the longest question ever asked and do go on history. He's going to start the report, and then we have to guess.

Yes, it's a 5,000 word question. No, and I did this one to be funny, but also because I am gunning for the shiny golden Gary for best guest award. I'm Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant. I'm getting eaten by a bear to try and get that award. So, here we go. This is my question. Which feminist icon has had over 200 careers, including actor, artist, ballerina, cake baker, chef, circus, performer, dancer, fashion designer, fashion editor, fashion model, fashion trend forecaster,

film director, film producer, floral designer, game show host, interior designer, makeup artist, musician, music producer, news anchor, photographer, photojournalist, rapper, singer, stylist, a TV news camera woman, and Avon representative. This is embarrassing. Please don't guess, please don't guess till I've finished. We've already done Oprah, AJ. We've already done Dolly Parton, AJ. There you go. rapper, singer, stylist, TV news camera woman, Avon representative, babysitter, bake shop worker, beach snack stand worker, business executive, cafe worker, candy or ice cream parlor worker, cashier for McDonald's and Pizza Hut, Chief Sustainability Officer, Crape Shop worker, Dog Daycareer, entrepreneur, farmer, food truck operator, Mary Kay consultant, noodle bar worker, pet boutique owner, security, waitress, artress, art.

teacher, ballet teacher, cooking teacher, English language teacher, music teacher, science teacher, sign language teacher, student teacher, animal rescuer, dentist, doctor, nurse, paramedic, pediatrician, surgeon, veterinarian, paratrooper, US Air Force pilot, a Marine Corps sergeant, a Navy Petty Officer, a UNICEF brand ambassador, the president, the vice president, Canadian Mountie Detective, firefighter, judge, lifeguard cop, astronaut chemist, game developer,

microbiologist, renewable energy engineer, NASCAR driver, beekeeper, cat burglar, cowgirl, magician, zookeeper, superhero, and tooth fairy. Question mark. I have no idea. Completely stump.

That's a lot of jobs. That's too many jobs, I would argue. Some of them also feel just so deeply entrenched in capitalism. Avon lady. Yeah, yeah. Diomitrically opposed Korea's ideology, like UNICEF brand ambassador coming right after Navy Pity Officer.

Yeah, interesting stuff. The way you said them so fast, it's hard to know if some of them were merged jobs as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like B-K for race driver. Oh, wow, okay. She busy. Look, I'm going to have a staff.

mostly because of all the buzz that's happening at the moment in the world. The bees. Is it Barbie? It is indeed Barbie. I have somewhat become a Barbie expert in the last few years, not on purpose, but on my podcast, Colpopshire. A couple years ago, we covered the at the time 37 Barbie films. It took us The episode is 18 hours long

What? 37 Barbie films Well there's 42 now We've recently caught up For the new movie We usually This is not the first Barbie movie No

The big hit No not at all It's the 43rd one Yeah yeah Wow Is it a reboot? No No

And it has nothing to do With the other movies Yeah We usually cover film franchises on Colpoppture. So we've done everything from Godzilla to Godfather to God's Not Dead. That's our brand new tagline. And, yeah, there were 37 Barbie movies, so we recorded it.

Fans of both our shows might remember that Jess, you and Dave guested on our 28-hour Scooby-Doo episode at the start of this year, because there's 47 Scooby-Doo movies. Not all our episodes are that long, but those two are. Yeah, and you did make us watch all 47 Scooter movies, which was just a bit of a pest take. Yeah, no. But you know what, to your credit, you did it. And that's the great number eight wire ingenuity that both our lovely nations share. AJ, I think I can come clean now.

I wasn't actually sick. No. I'm just not watching that many movies, mate. So what are you guys experiences with Barbie? Have you seen the new movie? Did you play with the dolls growing up? Yes and yes. So no one know for me.

Haven't seen the movie yet? I'm keen to see it. I just haven't had the chance. But I did give my sister, I think it was a Barbie present for Christmas when we were kids. And everyone was like, it's so weird. And I didn't, I don't know why. It didn't seem weird to me at the time.

It just seemed cool. Not cool, but interesting. But anyway, it was like, a pregnant Barbie and the stomach could pop off and there was a baby there and then the little stomach would come out. Her name is Midge. Her name is Midge and she will come up. Yeah, she will come up and she features in the film. Exactly. Yes. Everyone, like, because I was eight giving my five-year-old sister or something. This pregnant. And at the time, like, isn't that cool? It's like a functional Barbie. Normally

they don't do anything. Yep. And I was like, that's real weird. O contria, they do a lot. Oh, okay, sorry. You have just mentioned that they do quite a few things. It is so funny that you mentioned Midge though specifically because she is a running joke throughout the Barbie film. So you'll love that. That's great.

I will be discussing the new film, but kept away from spoilers in case people such as Matt haven't seen it. But yeah, what about Jess, did you have a Barbie doll growing up? I had heaps of them. I was also, on my mum's side of the family, right, there's 12 grandkids, but only two of us are. girls and there's a lot of aunties. So they loved buying us like Barbies and and fun toys. I had heaps of them. I loved Barbies and I have seen the movie and I loved it. And I went with

friend of the show, Michelle Brazier, it was for her birthday. We went in a big group of friends. All of us in our mid-30s and we got to the cinema, all dressed in pink of course. And the cinema, the foyer, filled with 13 year olds. And I'm not good at judging the age of kids. They could have been younger, but there was several birthday parties happening, but mostly for tweens. And then there was us, a bunch of mid-30s in the back of the cinema with glasses of wine ready to watch Barbie.

And it was an interesting experience. Is it kind of film that kids would like? I mean, yeah. Yeah. But they would, yeah. That's one for everyone, is it? I think so, yes, yeah. Definitely felt like a lot of the jokes were for us.

Right. It was one point during each other. Yes, this is for us. Swirling you. They're in the wrong, we said. Nice. I went and saw it at a preview screening Girls Night that Hoyts,

the local Hoyt cinema was putting on. I was stoned out of my mind and went into a massive crowd of women dressed in pink. By the time we got to the cinema, there were so many people that they had to pause one of the trailers, well, like one of the like, turn your cell phone off. previews that plays before the movie and they paused it for about 30 minutes to let every to get

everyone into the cinema by the end of which i was significantly less stoned than when i had walked into the cinema so that's funny they're not used to sold out shows at hoits no like is that a such a rare thing that a cinema sells out they don't know what to do it was it was packed though to be fair um and that's what a sold out show is a j yeah yeah that's true that would happen at cinemas all the time. It feels like you're blaming me. Uh, yes. Speaking of the cinematic experience, I did briefly consider trying to make this

Barbenheimer report and do like parallel it with the Oppenheimer story, but despite what the internet's telling you, there are no obvious parallels between the most successful fashion doll in the world and the man who am become death destroyer of worlds. but there's never been two movies that are different from each other release on the same day that's why it was significant you're not going to you're not going to participate in the saw patrol like poor patrol saw 10 see that why that works better i guess as a like as a word play yeah it does it's true but no i don't think so i don't think i'm keen whereas i'm up for seen Oppenheimer and Barbie, I don't think I'm super keen on either of Saw or Snow Patrol.

Poor Patrol, but yes. Or poor patrol. Snow Patrol. Sorry, a little drive-by at the old Scottish band, Snow Patrol there. Not keen on them either. Not into it. Well, before Barbie, the doll, the character came along, the doll industry, mainly focused on baby dolls.

So little girls would pretend to be mothers because it was the 15. and it was important to tell young girls that they have options like, do you want a girl or a boy? Which you can't actually choose in real life anyway. But in 1956, Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, the toy company, was travelling Europe with her two children, Barbara and Kenneth. That's right, their siblings in real life. Whoa.

That's a big twist. That's Star Wars level sort of sibling twist. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And in Germany, she stumbled across something called Build Lily, B-I-L-D-L-I-L-L-I, which was not a kid's toy, but in fact a doll based off a fictional sex worker who had appeared in the German comic strip newspaper tabloid build since 1955. Vox describes the character of Lily or Build Lily as a seductive and cheeky gold digger, sweet-talking wealthy men into buying her expensive gifts.

After becoming a runaway success in the comic strip, Lily dolls were manufactured and sold to men who'd hang them from their rearview mirrors or display in their office or whatever creepy men in the 50s did with sexy dolls. That's so interesting, isn't it? Yeah. She's a gold-dinging sex worker

and they're like, going to pop that in the office? Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I understand what's going on. I love this character. Yeah, I think it's fantastic. Fantastic, but yeah, what a funny thing that Barbie began as a toy for men. An object of men's lust, yeah. So Ruth Handler had already been on the lookout for something like this

after she'd noticed that her daughter, Barbara, would often assign different jobs to her collection of baby dolls. And she said to her husband and fellow co-founder of Mattel, Alliot Handler, that this could be a gap in the market, that perhaps little girls would appreciate the opportunity to play with dolls that weren't babies, and Elliot was, quote, unenthusiastic about the idea. A husband in the 50s? Yeah, yeah.

It's so funny how many times an idea that's gone huge, the first people were like, I don't see it. There's no market for this, like mobile phones and stuff. No, it's a funny little gimmick, but it'll never catch on. He presumably became more enthusiastic, however, when Ruth bought a few Lily Dolls back from Germany. and as is the case with a lot of great American innovators, Ruth flagrantly stole the Lilly concept

and redesigned the character into an early version of Barbie naming the doll after her daughter. The first Barbie dolls went on sale on March 9th, which is canonically Barbie's birthday. And in 1961, Mattel was sued by Build Lillies' rights holder, Lewis and Mark's company, claiming that Mattel had infringed on the patent for Build Lily's hip joint, and also that Barbie was a direct take-off and copy of Build Lily, while also arguing that Mattel had falsely and misleadingly represented itself

as having the original design. Mattel counterclaimed, and the case was settled out of court in 1963, and in 1964, Mattel bought the original copyright and patent rights for the Build Lily doll for $21,600. So, as is the case, for a lot of great American innovators, they bought them out. Yes. Whoa.

Yes. And that would have been back then in early 60s, that would have been a lot of cash. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Do you think the right amount of cash to sell Barbie? Mm. You're happy with 22 grand now?

You're looking at him. So blank, like, fuck you. Where the fuck you're picking me up on this? I'm just saying that's a lot of money. Yeah, no, you're right. I'm just thinking. that company yourself. They got ripped off. Yeah, but they probably didn't even realize how big. Nah, Barbie was pretty big very quickly, right? Yes, that's true. So they probably knew.

And I guess, maybe it was just like, it's a losing, we've lost. They're also like, come on, we came up with a sex doll that's too small to have sex with. We'll take what we can get. Hey, no, don't speak for every man out there. You don't know, Matt, you know. It's not all bad for Build Lily because nowadays a good condition Lily doll is, an exceptionally rare collector's item, and you can find one in the Coburg Doll Museum where she is credited as the grandmother of Barbie. Oh.

There you go. That's sick. Is that canonical? No. Canonical to real life, maybe not to the actual Barbie models. We would have loved that to be worked into the movie. No, true, yeah.

Like they mentioned like a grandma. Grandma. That would be awesome. As for the Barbie doll, though, how did she begin? What was her first outfit? I know these are all the questions you'll be asking. The first Barbie doll was marketed as a teenage fashion model and featured Barbie in an iconic black and white zebra striped swimsuit. You see this outfit in the Margot Robbie movie. It's the, when the 2001 Space Odyssey parody, it's also the teaser trailer. She's

wearing the first ever Barbie outfit in that. And also much like how Barbie is reprimed. And also much like how Barbie is represented in the film, there was always variety as the first version of Barbie came as a blonde or a brunette. Both kinds. Both kinds. The redheads. On the scrap heap again. You'll have your day in the sun with Barbie, though, don't worry.

Yeah, but do SPF. We don't. We are. That's not what we want, AJ. She was also looking to the side instead of frontways, like with modern Barbies, but even in the 1960s, Barbie had boobs, or at least a distinct bust, which would go on to infuriate parents over the years, but Ruth Handler was adamant that the character needed to be portrayed as an adult or a teenager, and it looks like she was right because Barbie sold over 350,000

dolls in her first year alone, and would go on to sell over a billion units in the following decades. A billion dolls have been sold. A billion. Fuck. That's crazy. And they're all biodegradable, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yep. Yeah. So it's actually doing the earth a lot of good. Most of them are working as fertilizer right now. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What can't Barbie do? She can do anything, including biodegrade. Barbie dolls outnumber people in the United States. A doll is purchased every two minutes on average and Mattel estimates that there are well over 100,000 avid Barbie collectors,

with 62-year-old German collector Bettina Dorfman holding the Guinness World Record for largest Barbie collection, a record she set in 2005 with only 2,500 dolls. She has since expanded to what is now estimated to be as many as 18,500 Barbie dolls. Oh my God. I hope she's got a big house. I think her Barbies have a big house. house and she sleeps in the shed. A little closer to home, a retired

paramedic Patsy Carlisle owns New Zealand's largest Barbie collection boasting a measly 1600 1,600 barbies along with 300 loose barbies or freed barbies, as she calls them, which are barbies not in their boxes. Oh my God.

She lives with her husband in a 1903 pink villa in Hallinsville, known as the Pink palace. But the dolls, the dolls are currently on display in the Wellington Museum. Wow. Has pink always, because everyone wore pink, or a lot of people seem to wear pink to the Barbie movie, is pink always being a color associated with Barbie? Yeah, I guess it's interesting, isn't it? Because her first outfit was black and white. So I guess, I guess pink must have come in very, very shortly after that one, because it is definitely, maybe the box was pink,

because pink is definitely, inarguably, the main color of Barbie. What I can do, though, and this is something we did when we had guests on our Barbie episode over at Colpopshire is, Jess, can you tell me what year you were born, if you don't mind? 1990. 1990. I can tell you the Barbie that came out the year you were born. Yes. And you have quite a big deal. You have the 1990 version of the Barbie Dreamhouse, which is, of course, the main accessory.

that would accompany Barbie. The 1991 looks pretty cool. It's a little mansion kind of thing. It wasn't the original dream house, though. According to House and Garden, the first Dreamhouse was released in 1962 before American women were even allowed to open bank accounts in their name.

Now, Matt, when it comes to you, I know that you were born before the invention of plastic. Yes, let alone Barbies. But I can. I guess my closest one is the sex worker in Germany. I can tell you the Barbie that came out in 1966, your favourite year. Oh, fantastic. Which was the colour magic Barbie, which featured yellow hair and an equally vibrant outfit.

Oh, the Carl Dittrich model, I imagine, who was famously reported and suspended for the grand final, the blonde bombshell himself. But there you go. Yeah, it'll always be associated with the 66 premiership of the same. I killed a football club, even though we did play in the game. Hey, you know how you said your accent isn't different. This is something that trips me up all the time. Kiwis say woman when they are meaning women. So you just said then, many women do that or something like that.

Don't say I said that. That sounds like I'm generalising all women. Many women do this. So now, were you saying women or woman then? I don't know. I've lost track now. It's all just one word over here. There's one woman and it's Jacinta Ardard. Yeah, exactly.

So that's what the plural of woman is woman. Yeah. Because there's only one. Do you have any more women? How do you say it? What about the women? Women. I mean, I'm not saying I say it right.

Right. I'm just saying you say women like I say woman. Okay, here we go, ready? Okay, a single woman, many women. Did that sound different? No. Okay, sure. Does that appease you?

Can I move on now? Maybe my ears is another problem. Yes, I'm sorry. For those interested, the 1993 Barbie, which is the year I was born, is Native American Barbie, which is pretty cool, I guess. Oh, that's kind of cool. Yeah, so Barbie does not just stop at dolls, however, with the character. and her friends having appeared in numerous books, video games and TV shows, and of course a very famous 1997 pop song by the Danish dance pop group Aqua.

Would you say Aqua or Aqua? Aqua. Okay, good. I was worried I'd get another pulled up again from my accent. I'm not having a go at all as well. You say make fun. I love it. I love cultural differences.

But I also think you've got the best accent in the world, the New Zealand accent. I love it. Thank you so much. Very much. But I also, I'm a big fan of Barbie, the song, and Dr. Jones. Yeah. And Aqua in general. Yeah.

Yeah, well, those two Aqua songs that I can recall. Yeah. I think that was a ballad as well. Well, did you know that six months after the release of the song Barbie Girl by Aqua, Mattel sued them? That seems fun. Nowadays, I feel like people associate it as almost like a piece of, like, brand ambassadors. you know, like it's tied in, but it wasn't.

And Mattel argued that the song infringed on Barbie's copyright and trademarks and that the song's lyrics had ruined the reputation of Barbie in which the song's lyrics kind of like make her sound like a bimbo for lack of a better term, something which I don't think is inherently a bad thing, but Mattel in the 1990s thought it was a bad thing. The two parties fought in court for a number of years before it was ruled that the song constituted parody and both parties drop their lawsuits against each other and despite this while the Mattel sanctioned 2023 live action film does not feature the original song there is a cover

slash remake of the song by Nikki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua themselves included on the film's soundtrack Ah because I had heard that they weren't in there which seemed like a weird decision I didn't realize Aqua were involved in the remake yeah so there you go which I've had heard that they weren't in the the remake. Yeah, so there you go. Which I've heard people say is no good, but, you know. The song. It's always hard to cover a classic.

Yeah, exactly right. Exactly. Big shoes to fill. Exactly. And yeah, I was going to make a Barbie shoes joke, but it's like I know that. Well, no, because I know Barbie wears shoes. Well, you can edit out this bit and just do a really good joke. Take your time.

I don't think it's there. Whenever you're ready, you can do it. They're not all winners. And then put in your really good joke about Barbie shoes. If I think of it later, I will put it. I'll do it here after we have stopped recording and I'm editing. And I'll be like, that's the joke and I'll insert it. And then I'll find a clip of you guys laughing and put that under it as well.

You'll struggle to find that, my friend. Good luck. Jess Perkins, notoriously a hard laugh. Stone-faced Perkins. There are also, of course, the Barbie movies, as I'm. I mentioned before, 43 of them in fact, and Barbie movies are truly my area of expertise for better or worse. I've seen them all. The first 42 of these films are animated and all clock in at least 61 minutes, which was our threshold when we covered them. It was like, if it's over an hour, it counts. So there are

purists out there that will say, like, there was a 45-minute animated Barbie movie in the 80s. We did watch it, but not for the podcast. We only counted it for over... over an hour. The animated Barbie movies began in 2001 with the release of Barbie in the Nutcracker and the most recent outing Barbie, Skipper and the big babysitting adventure releasing earlier this year in March. The movies were basically started because as Mattel was developing and growing across the years, they were like, oh, people aren't playing with toys anymore, but they are being placed in front of TVs to watch the same movie on repeat. So, they started making these movies to tie in to the toys.

They're all made for either the straight to DVD market or later for streaming. All very cheap-looking CGI animation, very ropey in the early years. Are you guys at all familiar with the animated Barbie movies? Yeah, I haven't sat down and watched them, but I've seen enough sort of clips and so. You're right, the CGI is average. Okay. I reckon you might recognize bits and people. of it, Matt.

You'll recognise the style. I can picture cheap CGI. Exactly. Yeah, well, that's it. That's Barbie. Isn't it funny that such a huge brand would cheap out on something like that? Well, I think it must be a value for money thing that they're like. Right.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, you've seen any of those? Like, yeah. Yeah. I've seen them. Yeah, that's all of them. You've seen them all. It sounds like, I mean, they must have, but it sounds like,

They started doing a nutcracker, like a ballet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they've ended with a babysitter adventure. They're not afraid to go anywhere, I'm guessing. You can be anything. That's the Barbie motto. You can nutcrack or babysit. Yeah.

And anywhere in between. And within the Barbie canon, there are also sub-canons. As you said, a lot of the films are ballet or fairy tale inspired with Barbie characters, but you've also got the fairytopia. subseries. You've got the Mermaid Tale sub series. You've got the Barbie and her sisters subseries and so on and so forth. All of these have...

Bobby's about sisters. She does. She does. For the most part, these films were all part of the wider marketing campaign to sell the dolls. For example, if you bought your daughter Barbie Fashion Fairy Tale, the like toy set, it comes with a DVD of Barbie a fashion fairy tale. Oh, cool. And what's

this in the movie? Barbie has a cute animal character? Well, guess what? You can buy that too. You can buy a plush of it. And it was very successful. We ended up interviewing one of the animators of some of the Barbie movies as well. And they talked all about that sort of stuff as well.

So it's a whole institution. There is a really passionate fan base for the animated Barbie films. Really? Oh, that's cool. Even though they just throw away things to try to flog dolls, they actually people love them. I imagine the animator you were talking to is probably fully stressed out from being overworked. He's probably done every single one of the movies back to back.

Well, they did a bunch of them in the middle, I think, and then moved on to bigger and greater things. But they actually had very nice things to say about the process. Well, that's nice. I did say, hey, obviously, women can be animators too. Non-binary people can be animators too. I mean, honestly, the list goes on. Nearly anyone can animate if they put their mind to it. Just like Barbie, there's probably an animator Barbie doll.

But in this case, you were, it was a man, wasn't it? No, it was a non-liner investment. You took a risk and you picked the one that could get you in most travel. Well, that one I thought it would be the funniest way to go, but not the way you played it. Jesus Christ. If it makes you feel better, Matt, almost all of these movies were directed by men. of that else. Well, that's surprising to me.

Men don't normally get those kind of gigs. I'm not going to pretend like these movies are particularly good or tell you that there's, you know, hidden value in them. Some of them, worst movies I've ever seen. But when watching them, we decided to be like open and aware to the fact that they were not made for us. and we began to like critically analyze them from that kind of angle. So there are a couple of standout Barbie movies I can recommend if you guys or any of the listeners were looking to dip a toe,

maybe in prep for the new movie. Firstly, if you're a Barbie movie fan, this will come as no surprise, but 2004's Barbie Princess and the Porper, directed by William Lau is widely considered to be the like the godfather of the franchise. It is the fourth animated Barbie release Coming out after Barbie of Swan Lake

And Before Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus It is a gender-swapped musical adaptation Of the 1881 Mark Twain novel The Prince and the Porper In which a young prince and a young peasant Discover they look identical And swap lives to see how the other half live Here it is done with a blonde Barbie And a brunette Barbie

One is a princess But other than that they look identical They look identical. They're the same CGI-I box. How the other half live. This is like trading places, right? Which one came first? I mean, having done a podcast where we cover so many sequels,

the Prince and the Porper is a foundation of a lot of sequels. Like, there are so many franchises that have a Prince and the Porper kind of sequel hidden in them somewhere. But I love that there is a movie amongst all this that is seen as being better than the rest? Oh, there's a couple. Is it good compared to movies or just good compared to Barbie movies? So, great question.

And it's one of these things where it's like, if you had put a Disney animated film sized budget into the animation, you wouldn't have to do that much with the story or the script. Or the songs, especially, which is one of the reasons this movie is so beloved. There are some actually pretty catchy songs in this film. including I Am a Girl Like You, which is sung between the two Barbies when they meet each other. That's sort of the breakout hit from the film.

The villain in the film is played by Martin Short, who sings a song called How Can I Refuse? And that's a good one. And I'm also quite partial to the opening song, which is called Free, in which both Barbies sing about how stifling their individual lives are and how they long to be free. this is my favourite lyric in the song. It says, You would think that I'm so lucky that I have so many things. I'm realizing that every present comes with strings.

Oh, that is good. That is good, right? It makes you think. A bit tone death from Rich Barbie singing about how tough her life is, whilst poor Barbie is also. It's like, come on. Read the room, mate.

All these gifts I get. Just heaps, by the way. Oh, my God. Well, firstly, I don't know where to put them all. Yeah, I've got a whole gift room. Yeah. Which is taking up precious space. And I'm having to buy another house, just for gifts.

Just a house, just to house my gifts. Can you believe it? Yeah. My life is hard. Jeez, I'm jealous. And you don't even have rooms. That must be so freeing. That must be so nice.

I'd also like to mention the 13th film in the series, which is 2008's Barbie and the Diamond Castle, directed by Gino Nishell. This is an original story about two Barbies living together in a cottage in a fairy tale forest who set off together to find the mysterious diamond castle. This one is also a musical

and features some more bangers like connected and two voices, one song. You mean a duet? What a convoluted way to say it's a duet. If you heard the song, Matt, you'd get into it though.

You wouldn't be back talking about it. You'd love it. Honestly, I can get into any music. I've realised that over the last few years doing different music podcasts. If I have an open mind to it, I can love nearly any song, I reckon. Yeah, wow. But I think that's probably true with a lot of people.

It's hard to go into it to like something that clearly isn't very good. But if you want to like it, I reckon you can. Well, I also think that when you're in the middle of watching 37 Barbie movies and the song's a little bit catchy, you're like, oh my God, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. Finally, so quality. So Barbie and the Diamond Castle, it's mainly notable in the community for what many perceive to be an implicitly queer subtext to the film, with many believing that the two Barbies are in fact a pair of cottage core lesbians. There are two male romantic interests in the film, but they are swiftly written out of the story when they are carried away by a rainbow.

So, and from memory... I didn't know rainbows could do that. I don't think they appear in the rest of the film either. So it's widely considered to be the gay Barbie movie and very popular in the community. If you're looking for a fucked up Barbie experience, though, you need to check out 2006's The Barbie Diaries, directed by Eric Fogel, which is the eighth film in the franchise,

plus the first and for a long time only contemporary set film. Focusing on Barbie attending high school, and the film looks insane, you guys. It is some of the most. most cheap off-putting and upsetting animation you'll ever see, widely considered to be the worst film in the series. So that's the Barbie Diaries. Right.

Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't go with more contemporary stuff. I guess that dates, whereas you said it in the olden days, it'll never date. Yeah. Pre-date. Well, a lot of the early ones, so like Barbie and the Nutcracker, for example, begins with Barbie and her little sister in a ballet studio, and she's like, well, have I ever told you the story about the nutcracket? But the more recent ones, like the one I said before,

Well, the most recent one is Barbie Skipper and the Big Babysitting Adventure. That's a modern day story. Running out of ideas. Barbie Skipper and the Big Babysitting Adventure. It's too long a title. I'd edit that down a little bit. Just call it a duet. Agreed.

But so they must be releasing what, two or three a year? Yeah, pretty much. Since 2001, yeah. I can't believe the animator had time to chat to you. Well, they didn't work for Mattel anymore. Oh, okay. Burnt out. Yeah, yeah, obviously.

Yeah. Having seen all 42 of these films and now having seen Griddell Gourwig's 2023 film starring Margot Robbie's Barbie, I can confirm that they had pretty much zero influence on the live action film. I don't think Greta Gourwig has seen the animated Barbie movies. But in regards to my personal experience, watching and analyzing 43 films that are so obviously not aimed at my demographic, has helped me to appreciate more media not made for me, which is pretty close to some of the themes and conversations within the 2023 live action films.

So it wasn't, I need to tell myself that it wasn't all for nothing. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's given you something to talk to us about. That's true, that's true. I'm kind of disappointed that Greta Gerwig didn't even, like at least do a few nods to some of these obscure characters. That would have been fun for the fandom to see a reference. to the worst movie you've ever seen, you know?

I think that, so... Or a couple of guys being carried away by a rainbow in the background at some point. I mean, I've only seen the Greta Gerwig movie once, so maybe there's some hidden things in the background that I didn't notice. But for my money, the only thing, the only vaguely, you know, like, recognisable thing having seen all of them is that one of the Barbies is a mermaid. and when she's credited in the film, it refers to her as like,

mermaid power is like the name of her toy, and I've seen the movie that mermaid power is based off. Okay, that's pretty good. That's a deep card. Yeah, I like that. A live action Barbie movie had obviously been on the cards for years, and since 2009, Mattel had been pretty keen to get their flagship gal on the silver screen,

with the film and its concept being radically adjusted over the years. Notable names like Amy Schumer and Anne Hathaway were at times attached to play Barbie at different stages and Juno and Jennifer's body screenwriter Diablo Cody as well as Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins coming and going from the project.

Names like that. And then Margot Robby was officially cast as Barbie but also was given the role of a producer and it was actually her who nabbed Lady Bird slash Little Woman Director Greta Gerwig for the film. It sounds like she had a big role to play in it. Like there were, I heard that she, you know, was directly dealing with Aqua at one point

trying to get the song involved and stuff like that. Yeah, she did way more for it than just played Barbie, which is awesome. Yeah. Grida Gou agreed to do it upon the stipulation that her husband, marriage story writer-director Noah Bomback, could write the screenplay with her. Oh, I thought you're going to say. Could be Ken. On the stipulation that he can't be involved at all, okay.

I need some time away. We've worked together a lot in the past. And I just need a break. I just need some Greta time. Don't tell him, I said this. I'm saying to him that I'm saying, please, can I have him involved? And you're saying no, okay?

No, that's much nicer, I guess. Yeah, are you guys at all familiar with Gritter Gerwig or Noah Bomback? Not as much Noah, but I've seen little women and other stuff that Greta's done. I've heard of Greta Gerwig and I've heard of, yeah, Yeah, I remember little women getting a lot of love, but I haven't seen, I saw the 90s version of it at the cinemas. Remember feeling sad throughout. Okay, cool. Is it a sad movie?

Yeah, it's sad in places. Parts of it, yeah. Yeah. I think Beth dies. Okay. One of them dies or they all die? You barely remember this movie, but you like remember the name of the character. Yeah, I remember having a crush on Beth when I watched it, and then she died, and I've never loved to get.

I think that should replace How good is it to be alive as your opening... I've never loved to guess. So, well, Greta Gouig and Noah Bomback are both pretty out-of-the-box choices for the director, for a Barbie movie creative team. They both hail from the Mumblecore film movement from the early to mid-2000s,

which is a subgenre of film, mostly characterised by its distinct lack of budget and often like an improvised script, rudimentary camera work. I could list off some films, but not to be the movie buffhipper, you've probably never heard of them. Like, they're very... What are the biggest ones? Francis Haar is a big one.

Hannah takes the stairs, squid and the whale. Heard of any of these? Yes. Yes. They're great. I've heard of squids, I've heard of whales. I've heard of the name Hannah. Hannah takes the stairs.

I'm picking. Is it like literally just hurt? the whole, like an hour and a half of her. It's sitting a stairwell. Yeah, sit in a stairwell. Yeah, it's beautiful. They're very small movies and very like, I want to say like character focused and story focus, but they're not even really that.

It's almost just like there's a very loose narrative. They're basically like very easy to make. And that's, I think, why a lot of them got made. And they're like set in a day usually right there. They're sort of, who's that actor who's sort of famous for mumblecore movies? He's in the Morning Wars. Mark Duplas. Mark Duplas, yeah.

He's who I think I want to think of mumblecore. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Is he in any of those movies you said? Yeah, I think he's in... Oh, God, is he in... Doesn't matter. Francis Hart.

So... Sorry, AJ. Question without notice. Pretty much the polar opposite of the popcorn blockbuster, anyway. That's what mumblecore is. And I personally believe that the mumblecore... Humblecore background is probably key to why the

2023 film is so successful, or at least why it's so weird and why its sense of humor is so strange. It is like a character focused indie comedy in the clothes of a high budget blockbuster in a lot of ways.

And this meta approach to the film and to the Barbie brand is, you know, all through the film. It depicts different versions of Barbie living in some kind of alternate universe named Barbie land when pitching this approach to Warner Brothers, Margot Robbie compared it to Jurassic Park and jokingly claimed that the film would make a billion dollars and guess what happened a few days ago.

Isn't that amazing? After only 17 days since it premiered, it is now the highest grossing film to be ever directed by one woman supplanting Wonder Woman in 2017, which made 821.8 million global at the box office. There are, I think there's maybe movies that have made more than Barbie that have two directors and one of them as a woman, like, I think Frozen 2. There's not that many movies that get up over a billion, are there? No, there's a, you know, there's a billion dollar club and it's your avatars and your

Avengers and Star Wars and stuff. And now Barbie, which is pretty sick. It's great. Yeah. It's great. Yeah, I love it. And it's still, like, it's not looking like that's going to end anytime soon, I'm guessing. I mean, I still haven't seen it.

Yeah. Yeah. That's another 35. There must be others like me. That's 35 bucks right there. There you go. I don't think I've got any pink clothes to wear, but I'm going to have to get myself a pink. You could go as a ken.

Ooh, I could go as a can. Yep. Which can do you think I should go? Kenny Callender, the old horse racing commentator? Yeah, I think you should, yeah. Yeah. So all this talk about Barbie, guys, but who is Barbara Millicent Roberts? her fictional biography has changed and adapted over the years,

but there are plenty of traits and details that have remained consistent. Barbie is usually somewhere between 16 and 19 years old. She has lived in a few different American cities, including Willows, Wisconsin and New York, New York, though these days is typically depicted as living in Malibu, California, with her parents George and Margaret, neither of whom have ever been issued as dolls, which I thought was...

Oh, that's interesting. Her sisters have, but not her parents. Yep. Are they her parents' names? Yeah, George and Margaret are other names. I mean, sorry, they, the real parents' names? No, there was Ruth and Elliott. Okay, I remember that.

I'll just check them at you remember. And it's interesting that she has had some really high-up jobs, like President, and she's 16 to 19. Isn't that amazing? She's done so much. She's not getting my vote. No offence kid. You've got to get some life experience. Life experience? Have you seen her CV? Let's start with a degree. Tell you what, she must be a millennial jumping around that many jobs. Yeah, pick one. Be a master of one. Master of one. It's funny that I'm sure I've heard this before,

but it still doesn't feel right that Barbie is short for Barbara. Yeah. Barbie feels like its own name. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't feel like. like a shortening of Barbara. Barbara. Well, there's also people are talking about now because the movie has been so popular that like, is Barbara going to make a comeback? Because Barbara, I hope I'm not offending anyone here, but Barbara's like not a, not typically a young person's name, you know. No.

Some of the, some of those old people names have made a big comeback in the last couple of decades. Like Jack is a really big for like 20-something-year-olds in Australia, I reckon. Right. And that was like a, you know, a World War sort of name. Yeah, true. And yeah, so I think the names do make a comeback. Jack's feel, Jack feels a bit timeless. I feel like there's always Jacks.

Right. But like names like Edith and, yeah, some of those really old names are coming back. So yeah, Barbara will make a return at some point. I mean, you don't hear baby Jessica's anymore, but that'll turn around. Yeah, like at the moment, I mean, we're working towards it where like the baby's being born now. We're going to hear Matt and Jess, like we hear Gertrude and. Yeah, 100%. Philistine.

That's not one. Go through it and Philistine. Philistine. Phyllis. No, no. Philistine. The old lady down the shop. Dott.

You know? Yeah. So Barbie's parents, they've never been dolls, but they do feature a lot in, or not a lot, actually, but they have been in other pieces of Barbie media. Barbie herself is the oldest of what is usually for Roberts' children, though there have been more who have chillingly disappeared or been retired over the years. You think they've been taken out and killed?

Yes, I do. Can I have a guess at the four? It's a rotating roster, but there's four constants that you can guess, yeah. Because there's Skipper and Stacey. But then there's one that's like, is it Chelsea or something like that? I'm so impressed, Jess. Is it Chelsea? Well, it is Chelsea, but you paused there, and that made sense because Chelsea was originally

named Kelly. Kelly! Whoa. Yes, I had a Kelly. Nice. Why are they changing names from Kelly to Chelsea? Well, how common is the name Kelly compared to Chelsea? Maybe it's just...

Oh, too common, Kelly. I think less common. Kelly was like the youngest one. Right. So she was little, whereas, like, I had a, I had a Stacy who... She was a gymnast Stacy. So she was a smaller doll than Barbie, but she had, she was in a little, like, gym leotard, and she came with uneven bars and little, like, clips on her wrist.

So she could hang from the bars and you could make her do, like, little flips and stuff. I had no idea there were siblings. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's really interesting one was Stacy as well, because obviously the Simpsons parody is Malibu, Stacy. Yeah, exactly. And you're saying that Barbie's now based in Malibu and her sister's name Stacy. So I wonder how they came to that.

There's the episode of The Simpsons like Lisa versus Malibu Stacey, where she meets the creator, and it's like pretty direct reference to what Ruth Handler was like as well. Lisa the Lionheart. Yeah, Lisa Linehart. So Skipper was first introduced in 1964. Stacey first introduced in 1990, and Chelsea slash Kelly introduced in 1995.

Though, as you were sort of alluding to there, Jess, they're basically brunette Barbie, tween Barbie and kid Barbie. Because having seen them in the movies now and seen that their personalities are pretty indistinct, I think it's maybe just more like, do you want to play with Barbie but like a little version of it? Yeah. A more travel, a friendly version.

Yeah, yeah. Other siblings who are no longer with us include Barbie's twin siblings, Tutie and Todd, who had seamless bendy bodies with internal wires. Barbie has a cousin named Francie Fairchild, who was invented for the mod era, and another cousin Jazzy,

who was sort of like a high school, like it was like a high school toy line, and she was the main focus of that. There's also Christine or Chrissy Barbie's little baby sister. These are all missing, presumed dead. Presumed by me. I'm picturing the backyard of the, the

playhouse or whatever there's a row of shallow graves that would be such a great toy set can you imagine getting the the pet cemetery in the back of the Barbie dream house that's the kind of thing that Greta Gourn should have been working with

just in the far background just a few little mounds of dirt in the backyard there is of course also one Kenneth Sean Carson or simply just Ken. He is Barbie's on and off again boyfriend who was originally introduced in 1959,

so just after the original Barbie. Ken canonically met Barbie on the set of a TV commercial, and like Barbie has held a myriad of different jobs since he was introduced, including... No, I won't do all. He's been... But, you know, you've got astronaut, saxophonist, and most recently, Beach is his job in the 2023 film.

Beach. Beach. That's fun. His and Barbie's relationship has also changed over the years while he is mostly depicted as her boyfriend. He's also been her best friend. Poor one out for all the lost souls there. Oh, Ken got friend zone.

He's actually a nice guy. He's a nice guy, but of course she doesn't want him. She wants the bad boys. She wants the travers. Are there other boys? Yeah. Is there a Trevor? There's no Trevor.

Damn it. Ken and Trevor goes well together. These themes are all in the 2023 movie as well. You're going to love the movie. It feels like I'm writing it right now. He's also been her neighbour and her business partner. And in 2004, he officially became her ex. Do you guys remember this?

I remember this. Oh, yes. It was announced by Mattel that the couple had split and Vice President of Marketing at Mattel Russell Arons saying Barbie and Ken feel it's time to spend some quality time apart. Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end. Man, you must feel so ridiculous having like high-level board meetings about this. We need some publicity, what can we do? Split up.

I don't want to jump the gun here, but I think it's time to split up. being can and everyone's going like there's a spit take. Yeah. You're crazy, Darren. There's no way. Well, they won't they? That's what's keeping people involved. Well, I mean, there's still some dramatic tension here because after they broke up, Barbie got a new

boyfriend. Do you guys, this is a bit closer to home for you guys, so you might, do you remember this from 2004 at all? She dated an Australian surfer named Blaine Gordon. Blaine. Which is what an American would name an Australian surfer, I think. Blaine, and we're all surfers, absolutely.

Well, I know I am, and you are. Well, yes, but we're in. So small sample size, but I think we're going to extrapolate that to everyone's the surf. We are champion surfers. But also, like, so Barbie and Ken break up after decades together, 2004, same year, she's dating somebody else? Immediately. Barbie.

Come on. Both part of the same announcement, which tells you there was a little bit of overlap. Overlap, for sure. Oh, my God, Barbie, I'm so disappointed in you. You can be anything, including a disappointment. Hey, we don't know. Maybe Ken was cool with it, you know? That's true.

We don't know what was going on by closed doors. The high closed doors? We don't know what these inanimate pieces of plastic were thinking behind the scenes, yeah. Yeah, she dated the surfer. You could buy dolls of Blaine. He looks, again, he looks like what an American would depict an Australian surfer is like. But much like Barbie's presumably dead siblings, he was discontinued after two years when Barbie and Ken got back together in 2006. It's like, yeah, isn't that how manipulated we were?

Blaine looks fucked, to be honest. That is an ugly doll. Matt's going to Google Blaine Gordon and see like himself as it is in Barbie doll now. I also had no idea that people had, that they all had surnames. So Barbie's surnames, what, Gordon? No, Blame Roberts. Barby's Roberts. Oh yeah, he does.

That's not a good doll. Big lips. Oh my God, look at this middle party's got going on there. This is what I believed everyone in Australia. looked like. Am I incorrect in that? He's got a middle part bowl haircut. I love her. He's got Sandy from the O.C. level eyebrows.

He's got like, his hair's quite streaky. Like he's got sort of, he's put blonde foils through it. You know what? Like Australian man in what year? 2004. Yeah. I think this isn't far off. It's not far off.

It's not bad. Yeah, it's not bad. They've done their research, I reckon, and they're also right to kill him off. We did it here too. Yeah, exactly. We're all pretty glad that Facebook wasn't quite around at that point, and there's not too many photos of the era. Well, speak for yourself.

I'm a bit younger than you, and I have a lot of Facebook statuses that I find myself deleting whenever I'm looking at my memories. Right at the cusp, I was 17. I was 17 when Facebook became a big thing, so it's not the worst thing in the world, but a few 17-year-old statuses being like... Oh, yeah. I go through delete. Every time I get a memory of here's what you wrote 12 years ago,

I'm like, I don't need to see this. Let's just delete it. This could get me cancelled. Yeah, there's that one side where you're like, oh my God, how naive was I? But then the other side where you've just realized something that everyone does at that age, and you're like, all right, guys,

I've got some truth to spread here. And you know who's a good example? I mean, that's all what I've done, but... You know who's a good example of what this looks like on a global scale is Jaden Smith, because Jaden Smith got social media when he was like nine years old, and you can find, like, tweets from him from like 2007, where he's like, how are our eyes real if trees aren't real, or something like that? Like, real, like, pseudo-philosophical. Who's Jaden Smith?

Will Smith's son. Will Smith's son, yeah. Jaden, that's a modernish name. Yeah, you're not getting an old man named Jaden. You know? Yeah, yeah. So there are literally hundreds of other friends, acquaintances, associates, pets, and alternative versions of Barbie herself,

who have graced toy stores over the years. Each one of those characters that I've just mentioned have their own supporting cast. So, yeah, there's too many dolls to mention, but I will go into a few of the more enduring non-barby Barbie dolls outside of who I've already mentioned, which would include Brooklyn Barbie, who is an African-American Barbie,

introduced in 2021 to tie into the animated film, Barbie, Big City, Big Dreams, a film I've seen. Now, this is not just a racially diverse alternative to white Barbie, but an entirely different character who happens to share the exact same first middle and surname as the OG Barbie. The pair become best friends in the film and refer to each other as Malibu and.

Brooklyn affectionately. There is also Alan released in 1964 and marketed as Ken's Buddy, who could fit all his clothes. Alan is portrayed by Michael Serra in the new film, where it is heavily implied he is gay and

absolutely in love with the Ken's. And this is paying off like a long-held piece of fan speculation in the Barbie collectors community. There's also Margaret Shewood or Midge, who we talked about at the start of the episode. This doll was introduced in 1963 and marketed as both Barbie's best friend and for a time the wife of Alan.

But the two are no longer depicted as being married, curiously. He shaved off his beard. Midge is portrayed in the 2023 film by promising young woman director Emerald Fennell, which depicts the character as eternally pregnant. That feels a bit patronising. She's a promising young woman director. she's made movies made. Yeah, that's true.

I really need to take a step back and... Where do you get off? And sorry to step up at you here, but as a feminist, I think sometimes it's important that, you know, you speak up. Yeah. Just sorry, sorry, I'm just interested here Jess's thoughts on those. No, no, well, Jess can have a turn. But I'm just saying, I think it's important that women are respected

and given their space to flourish and grow and you don't have to patronise them. Oh, then, Jess, please. No, but I agree with what I'm saying. Yeah, so in the movie, she is eternally pregnant, referred to as like creepy by some of the Mattel executive characters. And this is, of course, in reference to the 2003 Happy Family line of dolls, which you bought your sister as a Christmas present, Matt,

in which the midge doll came. with a removable magnetic womb, which her unborn child was placed inside. This led to some controversy over the fact that Midge was encouraging teenage pregnancy, because remember, these characters are supposed to be like 17. It's funny also like it's encouraging it. Oh, yeah, this is what I want to do.

I want to have a removable belly. It's also, I guess, just creepy to have a utero baby you can take it on and off. And basically it's a fetus, right? Yeah. But was it made until the 90s? I'm starting to think maybe I bought a knockoff version. That's even creepier somehow, right?

I couldn't have afforded an official Barbie when I was a kid, surely. It was 2003 when this came out. Oh, wow. 2003? Oh, no, hang on. This page I'm looking at says it came out in 63. Okay, maybe there. Oh, Midge came out in 63, but there.

the pregnant version of her. Oh, right. It was earlier than that. So I was like, or have I just made up a memory? That has happened before. But I reckon this would have been in the, like, the mid to late 90s. Interesting. I'm going to have to message my sister later.

Yeah. Actually, she'll be listening. Yeah. You message me. Pregnant merge is far from the only contract. The Barbie brand has faced over the years. Let's do it. Let's get into Barbie controversies.

In 2006, we had Tanner, who was Barbie's pet Labrador, who came with a shitting functionality, in which you could feed it. Is that what they branded it is? Yeah, yeah. You could feed it dog food, and then the dog food would come out its butt. But then the same piece of, plastic piece of dog food, you'd just feed it back to it. So it's like it's a human centipede, but a dog food. Dog version

That is And these people were worried about Encouraging teen pregnancy What are they worried about here? Eating shit kids is eating their own shit Jesus She The dog was

Does feature in the 2020 three film Kate McKinnon plays weird Barbie And has a pet Labrador Which I believe is intended to be Tanner In 1993 A line of Barbie dolls were released Under the name Earing Magic

which featured several of the Barbie characters wearing earrings, including Ken, which sparked a very 1993 controversy over Ken's sexuality. Originally designed in order to make Ken cooler, the airing in the doll's left ear instead sparked a media frenzy with everyone from Jay Leno to the New York Times commenting on Ken coming out, something which at the time was meant pejoratively,

but was actually embraced by many in the gay community who quickly purchased as many of the scandalous dolls as they could. The pressure eventually led to airing Magic Ken being discontinued, but is now considered a valuable collector's item being displayed in several niche museums across America and believed to be the highest selling Ken doll of all time. Wow. God, that's ridiculous. How does Ken sell in comparison to Barbie?

I imagine it's way lower. Yeah, it's way lower. But still, yeah. I think next to Barbie he'll be the most popular dog bought, I would imagine. Even ahead of Blaine? I imagine Blaine's probably a very rare collector's item at this point as well, yeah. Even ahead of Kelly slash Chelsea? Come on.

It's crazy. What's going on? This fandom is weird. Erring Magic Ken also appears in the background of the 2023 film portrayed by Tom Storton. So he's there. You can spot a Ken with an earring. In 2009, Ken had another scandal when Mattel released Sugar Daddy Ken as part of their adult- aimed Palm Beach line. Ken is depicted here in a green-printed blazer white pants and a tiny white dog on a pink leash named Sugar, making Ken Sugar's Daddy, I think, is the idea.

But people were obviously uncomfortable with this, and the doll was eventually discontinued in 2012. But guess who appears in the background of the 2023 film? You can spot Sugar Daddy Ken being portrayed by Would I Lie to You host Rob Bryden in the 2020 film. Oh, amazing. Yeah. That's a fun cameo. Yeah. Where's the connection there?

Where's Greta Gerwig's from America? Well, I wonder how the Rob Bryden connection came about. Well, I mean, it's an incredibly diverse cast in the film. And there's people from all over the show. I run it. It's a massive cast. I guess Margot Robbie would have more knowledge of English stuff, probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's possibly. Yeah.

A growing up Skipper was another dicey Mattel release in 1975, featuring Barbie's younger sister Skipper who had a twistable arm. And what do we want to guess happened when you twist the arm? Yeah, have a guess, Matt. She's growing up. When people twist my arm, I'll have one more beer. I'll have one more. Correct.

That's what growing up. up, Skipper did. Twist her arm. Oh, I don't know. You'll hate this. Is she gonna shit? No, she doesn't shit. I write a passage for everyone growing up.

Yeah, it's when you know, you're a woman. Oh, what, her bust comes in? It grows out, yeah. So she goes a little bit taller. Do you like our phrase that there? Yeah, an awkward old man? Yeah. What, her bust comes in?

Her bust has come in On the eve of her 14th birthday She is also in the film portrayed by Hannah Kaleek Brown So there's no one escapes the The background cast of the Barbie film I love how many cameos are in this There's a lot

Exactly Other notable Barbie controversies include the Ninety-2 Teen Talk Barbie Which came with pre-recorded dialogue You could hear upon pushing a button Some of these lines included, will we ever have enough clothes?

And I love shopping and want to have a pizza party promoting the dangerous stereotypes of women-loving clothes, shopping and pizza. Very dangerous things. Exactly. The doll also could say math class is hard, which led to criticism from the American Association of University Women. So how the teen talk Barbie worked was there were 270 phrases recorded, but each doll

only came with four. So this meant that spread across their sales, there were 216 million possible combinations of four word phrases. And I like to think that means there was one doll that said all four of these

controversial phrases. But I also agree with all of them, and I am a woman. Yeah. And so I feel represented by that Barbie. Exactly, exactly. Which Barbie do you feel represented by? I love Pete.

the talking one. Oh, yeah. You do talk. Math is hard. You do. For the lessas, I'm doing the yap, yep,

yeah, yeah. Simple with my hand. Yeah. And as a feminist, I think it's my right to do that. Yeah, the feminist zoned out for a bit while we're talking about

a female Barbie the talks. I'm like, yeah, a bit much. Yeah, I'm just going to zone out for a little bit, come back when we're talking about something I'm interested in. Well, in October 1992,

Mattel announced that Teen Talk Barbie would no longer say math class is hard and offered to swap anyone who had a math class as hard doll. Oh, my God. No, a switch over math class is great. Yeah, in a different voice. Math classes, enjoyable. Math classes.

My favorite. Math classes, challenging but rewarding. Well, according to the only guide to Barbie Law you will ever need, which is a slash film article, written earlier this year by B.J. Colin Jello, which I was interviewed for. Whoa. A second wave feminism group called the Barbie Liberation Organization made mainstream headlines in the 1990s after switching the voice boxes of Barbies and G.I. Joes in stores to showcase the ridiculous gender stereotypes. This meant G.I. Joe dolls were saying things

like, the beach is a fun place for summer. And the Teen Talk Barbie was saying, vengeance is mine I gotta tell you I relate more to the Teen Talk Barbie there yeah have you become somewhat of a Barbie

expert in New Zealand like you're being interviewed for articles has that happened much since you did the binge so I've it's well because the new movie has come out

has been the main reason that I've been reached out to now I've been so that was from someone covered the podcast and emailed us. I was on the news in New Zealand talking about Barbie, and that's because Richard, my podcast co-host, works for the news.

So he was like, they're wanting me to do a story on Barbie. Can I get you to say a few things and we'll credit you as a Barbie expert? Don't undercut it. Edit that bit out. Just say you're on the news. No, it's still cool. And also, my other job, when I'm not editing, do go on, is I am the social media video editor for letterboxed and so I've done I answered some interview questions for them and then also

made a video for them as well letterbox what is that some sort of a cat feces related website very good very good all right sorry I've been buying my tongue so much hey well it's said so many things funny it's it's actually a a new zealand company letterboxed it's it's it's global but it's founded in new zealand so previous guests Alexi toliopolis is a prolific on there exactly Yeah. Yeah. And I know that listeners are yelling at their iPods about the irony of me making fun of how anyone talks. Yeah, do you want to give us some French again?

Because I had to hear it, man. Paléville, France. And was that the three, the over, the three hour 45 episode? Was that the really long one? I think you trimmed it down to a, yes, it was. The best one. So you've heard, you've heard over three hours of Matt's French. I think you've done enough.

That was, that was... So usually, usually, you know, I edit your guys episodes like over a couple of days. That was one where it was like, clear my schedule. I need to sit down and edit a four-hour podcast. Did you say to your secretary, clear my schedule?

Yeah, absolutely. Cancel my two o'clock. Get me some lunch. Yeah, get me some lunch. I'm going to get into my desk. And coffee stat. In 2014, Mattel received criticism.

over the tie-in book, I Can Be a Computer Engineer, in which Barbie is depicted as being inept at computers and requiring her two male friends to help her after she infects her laptop with a virus on a USB device. See, I think that's empowering because, you know, we hear a lot about... That's empowering for men, you know, getting asked to help our female friends. Oh, okay. Also, women can't be an app on the computer.

It feels like you're really nabing. narrowing what a woman can be, AJ. You're right. And that's just not what I'm about. No, fair enough. Women can be anything, including an apt at computers. The 1964 Barbie babysits line, this is one of the bigger sort of like bigger foibles in the Barbie history.

I can't wait till this makes it to the big scream. Maybe we're skipper involved somehow and they go on an adventure. No, it's not quite that. packaged with another problematic accessory. A miniature book titled How to Lose Weight. And when you turn the book over, it says, don't eat on the back. Yeah. The book reappeared again in the 1965 slumber party line,

which doubled down by including a pink bathroom scales permanently set at 110 pounds. Wait, when did this come out? 64 and 65. Right. Because I thought you saw, at first I was picturing it in the modern day, thinking that that was a joke. No, no. But it was probably just quite sincere back there. Oh my God.

I also had to convert pounds to kilos there for a second. It's set to 49 kilos. Oh, that's Dave Wanicki's comedy weight. Isn't that what he used to say he weighed? I think he weighs more than that now. It was the low 50s, I think. Started eating. And these two barbie sets are, of course, very rare collector's items now with just the tiny

controversial accessories themselves fetching up to $125 each on eBay. So, people love it. People will collect, especially if something's been cancelled. People want it even more, I think. Yeah. I bring all of this up, of course, because really, Barbie's biggest and

most controversial aspect has always been her potentially harmful presentation of femininity, with her unrealistic body standards being criticized right from the beginning. Right from 1959, it was always part of the discourse. There is now other like discourse coming out in that article that I was interviewed for.

B.J. Conjalo talks about how like a lot of people feel like a lot of girls who grew up with Barbie were very adept at separating real life from the representation of the dolls. And there are, you know, I just want to mention that there are some schools of thought that the unrealistic body standard thing is like a made up fiasco that, you know, parents got scared of just like dungeons and dragons and things. Yeah, I didn't think I ever looked at Barbie and went like, oh, I don't look like her. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, because there's quite a few things that are unrealistic about her. Like how her toes are always pointing to the floor. Yeah. Whether she's wearing shoes or not. Yeah. Like, come on. Yeah. That was the shoe joke.

They don't look like that. There was our Barbie shoe joke. We found it. Okay. I think it's a little stretch of a lot of joke, but... According to... to a website I found called Wikipedia.org, which I think just mainly is just stats about Barbie.

I'm not sure. I'll have to check it out. A standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches or 29 centimetres tall, giving her an equivalent height of 5 foot 9 in real life. That's about your height? Nah, taller than me. Barbie's vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches or 91 centimetres in the chest, 18 inches or 46 centimetres in the waist,

and 33 inches or 84 centimetres in the hips. According to research by the University's Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the 17 to 22% body fat required for a woman to menstruate. Wow. Well, that's probably as good because she doesn't have anywhere for that to come out. No, actually, in 1970 there was a Barbie that would do. Can you imagine? Oh, my God.

I can, I can't imagine. She wouldn't surprise me that much if there's a menstruating Barbie released at some point. You move the arm. Mattel said that the waistline of the Barbie doll was made small because the waistbands of her clothes along with the seams and snaps and zippers. Like they add bulk to the figure if the baseline is not unrealistically skinny, which I'm back and forth on. I don't know if that's a good enough excuse or not. I think it's probably just a safe plastic. It was just a numbers game.

Yeah, probably. That's a good point. I don't think this is inherently wrong, but the rise of what has been called Barbie core, the Barbie core aesthetic, has certainly promoted a very specific form of womanhood, which has been fueling discourse since the 60s when it comes to harmful stereotypes. By 1975, Ruth Handler and her unenthusiative. domestic husband and business partner were removed from their posts at Mattel after an investigation found them guilty of issuing false and misleading financial reports.

Ruth's last created decision for Barbie was being like have the doll's eyes look forward instead of to the side. But her original... Oh, what? Well, they initially were like birdheads. No, no, no. They're like looking up to the corner, whereas now they stare at it. She was dealing a bit of side eye. Yeah, right.

She wasn't a bird like, look at it. It's unrealistic body standards for women. One of those lizards that is looking sideways, two different directions. Right. How brutal would that be to be removed from your own company, but also it sounds like for the best. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, I bring her back into the story because her original intentions for the character were positive

and encouraged female independence, which I think is interesting because when, you know, we can look at Barbie as being more progressive now, and that feels like it's maybe something that they pivoted to. But from Ruth Handler's perspective, it was always supposed to be, like, empowering, you know. As the enterprise of the doll grew and grew, these mistakes and problematic elements crept their way in. Some were there from the start. Some turned up sporadically. And for a long time, at least in my life, I feel like the conversation around Barbie really seemed to focus on everything the brand had done wrong. I feel like every conversation growing up about Barbie involved this kind of thing.

And this is, again, a pivotal plot point in the 2023 movie, which I think is great that they're able to acknowledge that and work it into their narratives and things like that. And I think it is important to acknowledge all these faults and understand that the societal standards and feminism looked pretty different in the 1960s to what it does now. You guys do go on, I imagine almost every report you do. you'll come across some like dated or, you know, old form of what we consider okay. And it's less like an excuse and more like an explanation for why things have been the way they are. I don't want to like simp for a corporation like with like Mattel. But I do think the creative human beings at Mattel have done a really like admirable job in recent years to move with the times and understand and in incorporate the constructive criticism leveled at the Barbie brand. It's a brand that is continuously

learning and evolving and updating, which is, I think, more than a lot of brands who have been around for that long can say. For example, Barbie had been incorporating racial diversity from fairly early on, albeit with a few fun stumbles, which we can talk about. Companion Dolls Francie and Christie were both depicted as African-American debuting in 1967 and 1968. The former, though was still created using the white Barbie mould, so it was criticised for lacking African characteristics other than dark skin, as did the 1980s Black Barbie, where the character, that's just what it's called, the character was presented as a different race from the original design, something which is now standard for the dolls today, wherein the different moulds

are used to make more accurate depictions and not just Caucasian characters with different skin tones. Yeah, nice. Yeah. The controversies don't stop, though, because in 1997, this is a dicey one, Mattel teamed up with Nabisco to launch the Oreo Barbie to tie into Oreos so that, quote, What? Girls could play after class and share America's favorite cookie. Wait, so is edible? The doll was edible? The doll's not edible, but it's like Oreo themed, I guess.

Right. I'm picturing a creme centre Well maybe Maybe if you cracked the Barbie open You'd find that in there Yum First you lick it Then you dip it

Mum said chocolate isn't good for dogs Yeah Yeah But you can have the rest of my milk I learn a lot from that ad campaign Mainly that chocolate isn't good for dogs What an important thing Probably the most important thing

Oreo has put out into the world Yeah that very day I stopped feeding chocolate to dogs The 1997 release of Oreo Barbie was only the white version But when the line was re-released in 2001 Both a white version and a black version were created

And critics were like Hey do you know what Oreo means in this context Because there could be a derogatory term For someone who is black on the outside And white on the inside So that was then amended and an apology was swiftly delivered. Right. Black on the outside, white on the inside.

So like, yeah. Yeah, okay. That's, I would call that a faux par. Well, another diversity faux par happened in 1997 when Mattel introduced Share a Smile Becky, a doll in a pink wheelchair. And Kirstie Johnson, a 17-year-old high school student from Tacoma, Washington with cerebral palsy, pointed out that the doll would not fit in the elevator of the $100 dream house that had been released. And to Mattel's credit, they went, yep, that's a fair criticism.

And they redesigned the house so that the Cher a Smile Becky could fit her wheelchair in the elevator. Oh, wow. That's cool. Share a smile. Becky's a interesting name. Share a smile. That's her first name. Her first name is Sherrismile.

Beautiful name for boy or girl. Cherrismile. Share a smile. So that's like that's an example, I guess, of Mattel actually being like, yeah, fair enough, we screwed up. Here's us trying to, trying to fix it, which I think is really cool. I'm a bit disappointed in that because that goes against my sort of personal philosophy of doubling down. We'll make it even smaller, smaller dreamtass. That's it.

I find. Well, I guess we'll just delete, share a smile, Barbie now. Is that what you want? We were doing something good. We were trying to be nice. We're the good guy. Barbie media has also taken important steps in recent years, while the films and shows,

they all show that Barbie is capable of tackling all these dozens of different high-octane careers from superhero to spy to video game coda. Some of this media has also taken progressive steps you maybe wouldn't expect to hear from the brand, including the web series Barbie vlogs in which a CGI Barbie discusses everything from girls apologising when they don't need to, to there's an episode about celebrating gay dads.

And there's an episode in 2020 where Barbie talks with her African-American friend Nikki about white privilege in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protest. It's very interesting and very cool. The way that the show is done is like a mocap artist sits in front of a screen and pretends to be Barbie. So the vlogs, there's like glitches in them. There's like bloopers and she'll stumble through words sometimes. And so it's this like really open and honest conversation explaining what white privileges to children, which I think is really cool. That's really interesting.

One of them I think, I've heard Margot Robbie in interviews talking about one of those videos. I think it's the one, it's probably one of like girls saying sorry when they don't have to. And like rather than saying sorry for being late or anything like that saying like thank you for you. patience. Margot Robbie has talked about that and how she learnt a good lesson from a Barbie vlog. I think that's so funny and so nice. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. So according to Avni Banzal, writing for Creative Salon, by 2015, Mattel had launched Barbies with 22 ethnicities, 35 skin tones, 97 hairstyles and nine body types. In general, a standard Barbie doll these days comes in four different sizes ranging from petite to curvy, and curvy is, to be honest, still pretty

skinny. But progress is being made, and Mattel seems to be like at the bleeding edge of diverse representation with their dolls. So perhaps the Barbie doll will continue to fill in the gaps and represent more types of people in the future. In 2023, for example, you can buy a Barbie with a hearing aid, a bald Barbie, a Barbie with a prosthetic leg, and most recently they released a Barbie with Down syndrome. So it really is, you know, they really are trying to put in the work and effort to not just be like paying lip service or virtue signaling, I guess, which is admirable, yeah. Which is great, but I just notice on that list there's no 30-something-year-old bearded podcaster

Barbie. No, no. I think there might be a podcaster Barbie, though. Yeah, probably. I think they're actually... I'm going to look it up. Yeah. I'm on the Mattel website.

Okay. Is it accurate if... It's not bearded and middle-aged? Middle-aged? I'll take all the other stereotypes for male podcasters. You let me know when you'd come to terms of it. I was trying to see if there was a radio Barbie. I don't think there is.

There's probably a DJ. Yeah, absolutely. Age, I agree. We're going to live forever. Yeah. How can you be middle-aged if you're going to live forever? Yeah. I'm still a baby.

The Barbie motto, as I've said a couple of times, is you can be anything. And while her 200 plus careers certainly emphasised that, I think it's great that this message has also been pretty successfully applied to all walks of life with these different varieties of dolls.

I've got a quote here from Ruth Handler's 1994 autobiography Dream Doll, the Ruth Handler story, which says, my whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be.

Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices, which I think is really beautiful and as beautiful as manufacturing plastic can be as we march forward into the end of the world. Yes, it's nice to play a little bit of a role in that too. I have a fact here to end on

that starts out what I hope Jess can say is fun and ends grim. So that's pretty... I've had a hybrid fun grim fact before. Ruth Handler's son, Kenneth Handler, for which Ken was named, I actually grew up to be a filmmaker. He directed the 1974 film Pigeon and the 1985 film Delivery Boys. That's the fun part. Is that fun? That's pretty fun.

Yeah, well, here's the grim part. He sadly passed away in 1994. Ruth Handler has said that her son died of a brain tumour, though it was speculated for years that he actually died of AIDS-related complications, something which was apparently confirmed in 2019. Wow, that's sad. That is the... Bad that she wasn't, yeah, able to talk about it.

Yeah. That must have been really difficult. He has a Wikipedia page, but the Barbara handler does not. So I thought... Oh, wow. Brutal. I think both kids hated the dolls were named after them, didn't they? They're like, I think I've read that they were like, oh, it's so embarrassing. Yeah, I can imagine.

There would have been quite a period. Probably later you'd get over it, but yeah, imagine through your teens, and stuff. Yeah, I'd be pretty mad if I was constantly, like, told I was the girlfriend of my sister as well. Yeah. Yeah, so that's my Barbie report. I hope you enjoyed it. I didn't just enjoy it, AJ.

I loved it. I have, I was looking up Barbies just on, and when you Google Barbie, like, Google has all these pink stars on it, which is really fun. But also, the movie has a 2.9 rating on Google. The new movie. Which isn't good, but I'm going to guess it has slightly more one-star reviews than five. And I'm going to guess there's a recurring theme. A few recurring themes are those one-star reviews. I think the recurring theme is they haven't seen it.

Yeah. No, they didn't get it. What do you call those campaigns? Review bombing or other. Smear campaigns or, yeah, review bombing. Smear campaign. Yeah. Yeah, it is funny.

There's no, I think personally, there's no better way to show how much you're unbothered and don't care about something than by becoming obsessed with it and trying to tarnish its reputation. One thing as well, because I've, you know, so I podcast in the movie space, right? So like the misogynistic internet dwelling dude is like something that I come across quite a lot. And for the listeners kind of look like, you know, I'm podcasting to you. you guys from my attic and I'm beard, bespectacled,

I like movies and I podcast. Like, I fit the bill. And so I come across this kind of, this kind of speech a lot and what... And a lot of our listeners fit that bill as well. I think we're concerned to go about 50% are on that side

of the fence. Bespeckled. Right. Bespeckled. Yeah. And hate women. Yeah. And and then the other half, you know, love women. And I'm one of them. I love women. I love women. Because how hot are women? Just personally. Yeah.

Do you agree with that, AJ? I couldn't agree more. Jess and I talk about all the time. Women are so hot. Dave doesn't quite get it. He doesn't get it. He doesn't see it. He says, I just don't see it.

But for me, it's just like, it's as real as the air we breathe. Yeah. Oh, is gravity real? Yes. Just as much as women are hot. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean. Exactly.

Putting in terms that everyone understands. Everyone can might understand. Yeah. And I guess the. The point I'm making here is like, if these guys on the internet actually like engaged with the 2023 Barbie movie, I think it's an empowering film for men. I think like the message in the film is not like men are evil. It's like, look what an unequal society does to a person, you know, and that can be applicable to anyone. It's hard to get it because there's a jealousy there as well.

as someone who is not hot. Because how gross a men? How gross are men? Yeah, that's right. Two sides of the same coin. But something that, and something that they often say that I agree with, and I think this Barbie movie shows that, go woke, go broke. Yeah.

And I think as it crosses the billion dollar mark. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there's been no better illustration of how true that adage is. Exactly, exactly. Sorry, AJ, before we get into everyone's favorite section on the show, Can we do everyone's least favorite section of the show where you let them know what about your podcast? Absolutely. My podcast is called Cult Popshire and every fortnight we cover a different film franchise.

We like to think that we treat things like Stuart Little and Earbud like other podcasts treat Star Wars and Marvel. So that's me and my buddy Richard. Jess and Dave have been on part of a 28-hour episode if you want to search through the Scooby-Doo episode to find that. Yeah, we've been going for about seven years now, so we've done a lot of stuff. And, yeah, it's super fun, and people should come and check it out if they like. I think they should check it out. Yeah, I think they'll be there an idiot if they don't. Any crossovers with old do-go-on episodes, like Back to the Future?

Yeah, we've done. We re-did Back to the Future, actually, quite recently. Awesome. Yeah, so we're done. What other movies have we done? Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones, we've done The Mummy. Actually, yeah, we did The Mummy right before I, like, made contact with you guys about editing the show.

And I've always thought, you know, if I'd reached out a little earlier, we could have had you on the Brennan Fraser Mummy episode. What could have been? You reached out to me. It was quite a while. We'd talk for ages before I could convince Dave and Jess that you were trustworthy, to be honest. They said, we don't trust those Kiwis over there. cost the Dutch. Honestly, I was, I took a while because I was like, how long does it take me to edit?

You know, it doesn't take me that long. And now, not editing, oh, man, the freedom, the weight off my shoulders. And I wonder if the listeners have noticed it, because we used to edit our own reports. And I always had the fear that we would all edit it differently. So the sound would change every time. So I wonder if they've noticed that it's more consistent now. Well, hopefully. Or they've not noticed it.

anything or they've noticed the quality of editing has dropped off yeah well i can i can share that um you know for all those all the do go on listeners like you might be pretty jealous of me because i get exclusive uh tailor-made podcasts right at the start of all your records where you make fun of me yeah no one else hears them we don't make fun we don't make fun i just tell you to go fuck yourself yeah it's uh that's not making fun of you it's giving you an instruction that's telling you something to do uh with love as well. Yeah, we love. That's just how we communicate over here. I know it's all topsy-turvy. Topsie tervie and you're all, oh, I'm polite about everything over there.

Makes us sick. Yeah, fair enough. It makes me sick too. I wish everyone was, everyone needs a little bit more. I called my mama, the first time I saw it and that was when I was a baby. See, now I know I'm going to have to bleep that out as the editor. Yeah, can you? Yeah, I can. Either bleep it or cut it. That felt awful. It felt horrible. I'm going to be thinking about that for ages. So glad I don't have to edit the episodes anymore. I'm reading my nonsense. Anyway, this is our everyone's favorite section of the show

where we get to thank some of our fantastic Patreon supporters without these people. This show, I don't want to overstate it, but it wouldn't exist. It wouldn't. You can support the show in other ways, of course, telling a friend, giving us a five-star review, but if you want to support it in a way with money, you can go to patreon.com slash too grown pod.

There's a bunch of different rewards on different levels. Jess, what are some of those rewards they can get? You can vote on topics. You get early access to tickets to live shows. You can be in the Facebook group, which is the friendliest corner of the internet. Yes, we actually just made a huge semi-announcement to the Patreon's this week, which, yeah, we're not ready to go public with yet. But if you sign up, you'll see it. Matt and I are in love.

We're finally admitting it. And, um, me, me replacing Dave on this episode will be a permanence change. Yeah, so if you go to patreon.com slash digger on pod, you can sign up and get involved in all that sort of stuff. If you sign up on the Sydney-Shaunberg level, you get to give us a fact or quota a question in a section of the show we like to call fact quote or question, which I think has a jingle go something like this. Fact quote or question, ding! He always remembers the dong. And she always remembers the sing. And the way this bit works is people on the Sydney-Shaunberg level or above

get to give us a fact quote or a question or a bragger or a suggestion or really whatever they like. Can be anything. And then I read them out on the show for the first time. That's just me making an excuse for stumbling over words. And the first one this week comes from Mack Noble, first-time fact-quote or questioner. And they also get to give themselves a title. And Mack's title is Captain Mac Daddy. Love that.

Which I've got to tell you. I love. Similar to Sugar Daddy. in. Maybe Mac has a tiny white dog named sugar. We don't know. We don't know. We'll never know. Or Mac in this case, probably. Yeah, but that good point. Coincidentally. I better name for a dog too. Yeah, Captain Mac. Oh, what a great name for a dog. It's Mac, but it's sugar? No. No, I don't like sugar. I'm not yelling sugar in the park. Sugar! No. If you want to get that Barbie physique, you want to be cutting out all sugar and

food from your diet. And ribs. Which I don't recommend, I should say. Don't recommend it at all. Thank you. I don't want anyone coming at me like they did Mattel, which obviously I'm a big part of that name in a way. Anyway, Captain McDadey's got a fact and the fact is sitting under the stars with a good

fire listening to you guys is one of the loveliest things in the world. Holy shit. That is a fact. I reckon that's an opinion, guys. I'm so sorry. That's an opinion I agree with, but... No, no, no. I'm reading here it is a fact.

It's not fact-fote opinion. No, that's not an option. It's not an option. That's the only one that's not an option. Don't share your dog-shin opinion for this. But facts like this, go nuts. We appreciate that, Captain MacDady. It is funny when occasionally one will come through

that is a sincere compliment. Yeah. It's always halfway between uncomfortable. and lovely. It's the Australasian way, right? That's the same with both of our nations, I think, as we're a lot less comfortable with praise than the Americas. Yes.

It's something we should get better at it because it's nice. Yeah, it's lovely. Thank you so much, Captain Mack. But also it makes me sick. The next one here comes from David Loring, aka FIFO live show supporter. We met David after your show. Yes.

at the comedy festival. Yep. He flew in from Tasmania just for the show and then flew back straight back. Because he'd come over and seen your shows, but my show was in the second half of the festival, and he felt bad for not coming to see my show. So he flew up from Tazzy,

landed a couple of hours before my show, came to the show, flew home really early the next morning. What a legend. Thanks so much. David Loring, who's also got a fact writing, Hey, mates, hope you're all well. I'm well. Yeah, I'm pretty good, thank you.

I'm a little bit cold and I'm a bit hungry. Yeah, it is lunch. Well, it's lunchtime for us, which means it's like afternoon tea time for you. Absolutely. One of my favourite New Zealandisms is what you call. I think our word for it is probably problematic these days, but in America I think they call them an ice cooler. Here we call them Eskis.

Oh, what do you call them? Chili bins. Oh, chili bins. I love chili bins. I think we should adopt that. I agree. We take everything from New Zealand anyway, so we might as well. Pavlova.

Yeah. We might as well take chili. Sam Neal. We may as well take chili bin as well. I mean, the human ones, they come to us. We didn't take them. That's right. They chose us.

Yeah. But the chili bin will take. The chili bin is ours. So, anyway, what are we talking about? David Loring Wrights. Hey, mates, hope you're all well. Let's take a moment to consider the humble flamingo. Yes.

I think it's appropriate. A famously pink animal. Yeah. The Barbie of birds. It is the Barbie of birds. And they have side eyes, like the original Barbies. Just like the original Barbies. I think most people consider them to be a sort of goofy looking bird,

what with their one leg standing ways, an association with tacky lawn ornaments. Fact within a fact, there are more plastic flamingo decorations in the world than there are real flamingos. That is a grim fact. But I've recently learned that they're actually a pretty bad. Bad ass animal.

There's a number of reasons for their badassery. They can reach speeds of 60Ks an hour in flight and can travel between 5 and 600 kilometres a night between different habitats or more. Holy shit. Whoa. But chief among them for me is that not only are they capable of drinking salt water due to having an inbuilt filtration system,

but they can also dunk their whole head into these salt lakes when the water is nearly at boiling temperature. And given the way I will moan about getting a cup of coffee that's slightly too hot and taste burnt as a result, I feel I now have a greater ambition to aspire to, dunking your whole head into the hot coffee. I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that though. No, but, but yes, consider the flamingo. Yes. Okay, yes.

Thank you for reminding me to take a moment to consider the flamingo. That does change everything. Yeah, it does. Now that I've considered the flamingo, I'm going to go dunk my head in a too hot coffee. Yeah. Maybe a salty coffee. A salty coffee, yes. They're great facts, David.

I love flamingos. The bar at Meredith Music Festival, my favorite place in the world, is called the pink flamingo. So I've just got a really happy association when I hear the word flamingo. Flamingo. But it's even better than I realized. Yeah, I had not thought about them that much. And now I feel silly for that because they seem pretty sick.

And I also love because the fact that people will normally give with flamingos is they're actually not pink. It's based on the fungi they eat or something. something. Probably not fungi. What? But then they are pink, can't they? Yeah. So I think they're naturally white, but what they drink or eat makes their feathers pink. That's something like that. Well, because the little baby ones are like great. Oh, there you go. All right. Thank you very much, David. I hope that is the fact that I had tacked on at the end isn't a dog shit opinion.

Because they're not allowed. They're not allowed. Oh, next one comes from Justin McCain or Mr. Justin McCain. A poliz a silly game That's a children's song From the 90s in Australia AJ would make no sense to you Can I tell a story about that song? Yes you may

So we have it here as well And I remember being like six years old And we had a class assignment To write like a lyric for Mr Clickety Kane So if people haven't heard it We basically have to be like Do something with something So it's like

What's it in the actual song? It's like, brush your teeth with orange juice. So do something with something. And I was trying to think of mine. And I remember looking up at the like fluorescent lights in my classroom and thinking like, imagine if someone painted lights, like just put paint on lights. And so it got to me and I was like, paint the lights.

And they were like, okay, that's not enough syllables. What are you painting it with? And I said, well, the paintbrush. And so my contribution to the song was paint the lights with a paintbrush. A very literal child How did I grow up to be this creative? Paint the lads with a paint brush. Yeah.

That's crazy. Justin McCain, Mr. Justin McCain, aka comically stressed new dad of the podcast. Oh, wow. And congratulations on your new stress, Justin McCain. Yeah. You should, I don't know where you're from, I can't remember. But if you should really play Mr. Clickety Kane to your kids.

Yeah. and change the lyrics as, you know, really clever creative people like AJ do. Just buy things in the room. Justin McCain is offering a brag slash question writing. Hopefully by the time you read this, my wonderful wife will have brought a brand new baby into the world. My question for you all is what is your favorite childhood item? Oh. And Justin, as I always request, has answered his own question writing.

Mine is the sheep blanket I got the day I was born. Oh, that's cute. Whoa. I have a couple, probably. One is Dolly. I was very creative with naming toys. Oh, mine was Teddy, a bear. Yep.

Everyone had a teddy. I had a big Ted. It was accidentally put in the bin when I was a fully grown adult. Oh, my God. I'd traveled around to multiple sharehouses just in a store, like in a box. and I think by like my eighth sharehouse, someone accidentally chucked it. It was in a pile of junk somehow. That's genuinely so heartbreaking.

I know, it's so funny. I've carried it around for like decades. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Teddy no! Teddy no! Teddy's off on an adventure now. Yeah, that's a fully my, I'm going to be Mr. Burns later in later. Yeah.

Dolly was a doll that my grandma gave me that wore this like pretty ugly lace. frilly white dress and like a bonnet and she gave it to me when i was maybe one instantly took all her clothes off and then just carried dolly around by the foot forever she had like a soft body but like plastic arms and legs one of those dolls i fucking love dolly dolly where's dolly's probably still my parents place somewhere in a box with all the barbies probably what do you have a jay well part of the perks of living in an attic is i'd like to introduce you guys to Huddles. Huddles!

My little soft toy rabbit that I got given when I was four years old. Yes, Huddles has got ears for days. Huddles has fallen down the back of computer desks in every flat that I've lived in and stayed there for the entire tenure, like living at that flat. But he's still with me, 30 years old and I've still got Huddles by myself. Huddles. Beautiful. Huddles, I'm so glad you had it there.

Huddles looks well loved. Oh yeah, he's got like a bullet hole in the back of his. He'll have to... That's his ass. I have to take a photo with you and Huddles for the Patreon. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I also reckon you've got to get us a screenshot of you on the news as the Barbie expert.

Does it have that in the title? It's his Barbie fan. Oh, I think that they could have bumped that up. Yeah, I think so too. Thank you so much, Justin McCain. Congratulations on the new... Did Justin McCain answer? Oh, did I not...

Yes. His sheep blanket he got the day of one. Oh, yes, sorry. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm thinking, do you remember things called glowworms? Yeah. I love this. It was a little sort of rubbery toy.

Yeah, yeah. And dad would hold it up to the light before I went to bed. And then it glowed. Does that even work scientifically? Well, I mean, that's how like glow in the dark stars and stuff work. Yeah, right. So, and then I just have it and it just sort of be this little glowing. Glowing toy.

That's cute. Yeah, that was sick. Oh, man, feeling nostalgic. Thank you, Justin. And finally this week, we've got one from Stephen Edmonds, whose title is, sorry, no recipe this time. Okay, well, I'm mad at you, Stephen. But still has titled the entry recipe.

Okay. Steven writes, although it will soon be two years since the stupid old studios has got a move, please help if you can, no pressure telethon. There is part of it that I still think about, at least once a month. During Reese's Jaffel segment in the stream recording on YouTube, it's about three hours, three minutes and 50 seconds, there is a reveal from Andy Matthews, some sort of scientists, of Jaffles with cheese and grated carrot. Then the reaction from Reese and Beck was fantastic.

I remember that. Everyone was talking about the ones you go to Jaffles and people are talking about beans and cheese and tomato and ham and stuff. And Andy just like it's another one of the classic options is talking about cheese and and grated carrot and Reese and Beck were disgusted. Does I still have questions about that? Is the cheese also grated? Wouldn't the grated carrot be too wet?

Yeah. Anyway, my actual question is, what would you have in a jaffel? And Stephen writes, if I'm making a jaffel, it is to use up leftovers. Last time I made a jaffel, it was with roast chicken, chrizo and cheese. Oh, that's a gourmet jaffle. Yeah, yeah. You're hitting nostalgia for me as well because our canteen at school did spaghetti jaffles. You're right, yes.

Like, tinged spaghetti. Like, essentially, it's the same as like baked beans, except it's like overcooked pasta instead. But they would sell out really quickly. But the photography studio was right next to the canteen. So whenever I had photography, I'd go and, like, stock up and then pass them out to my friends. It was the best.

So that's my go-to. I was just wondering if Jaffel was an international thing. Apparently, it's an Australian term. Yeah, I was about to chime in. and be like, what's a Jaffel? Oh, it's basically a toasted cheese sandwich, but the edges are sealed. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.

But apparently it's named from its creator, Dr. Ernest Smithers, from Bondi and Sydney, who created and painted the Jaffel Iron in the 1950s. Yeah, right, right, right, right. Yeah, it's not a toasted sandwich. It's a very specific subgenre of toasted sandwich where the machine presses it all together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes. So my go to... What would you call that? I'd probably just call that a toasty. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, I think it's just like a, yeah, slightly, slight variation on the toaster. But, yeah, I'd say mushroom, cheese, tomato or tomato paste. Oh, yep.

It's almost like a pizza. Yeah, a little calzone, essentially. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. AJ? I'm all about the hot sauces. I'll just do cheese and then I'll just do cheese. and then I'll find like an interesting source to peer with it, I think.

Love that. Yeah, yum. That's a good one. Great call. And great question. Thank you very much, Stephen. And thank you as well to Mac, David and Justin. Do I still have a Jaffel maker at home? Can I get some spaghetti and white bread on the way home?

I think the classic ones you would, I'm assuming, are the ones where you press it in and it's got a long metal stick and you put it in the fire. I wonder if that was the original. Oh, wow. Right. Yeah, yeah. I've never done that. That's cool.

Yeah, I don't know if that was the original, but I've seen those around. Sick. But yeah, there's the more sort of classic jaffel iron slash sandwich press kind of thing. Yeah. Something that Breville or someone like that might make. 100%. I reckon I've bought one from Kmart for $15 and then just had an absolute feast. Yeah, man, I'm so hungry for jaffles running.

Yeah, I could really go a jaffel. Unfortunately, there is a place that sells jaffles near us, but it's called the bearded jaffle. And that grosses mad out, so we're not allowed to, we're not allowed to. We're not allowed. No, we don't order from there. Well, you can. I just... I haven't.

It was amazing. I got this. Yeah, it's something I'd... Yeah, I've got to talk to someone about. But I get caught up in my head and now I just can't... If a word grossing me out, attach to the food, anyway, whatever. Don't need... I'm not on the clock in my therapy session right now, but the next thing we like to do is shout out to

if you've rather fantastic patron supporters. Jess, you normally come up with a game here. Yeah, obviously we have to like name their bar. Yeah, Barbie fantastic. I do have every Barbie from the different years in front of me. I could like, we don't have their birthdays, do we? But I could like, I could like randomly scroll to one and read it. Yes.

Would love that. I like that. All right. So maybe Jess, we just go one for one here? Yeah. All right. Well, if I can kick us off, I'd love to thank from Inverell in New South Wales here in Australia, Anna Parker.

Sweet. And Anna Parker can have the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Whoa. Wow, whoa. Barbie released Olympic swimmers with gold medals in 2001. Oh, were they team USA? They are. I think they might have been, as well, I think that would be misleading,

because I think Australia won a few in the pool that year. Yeah, okay. That was a good year for us in the pool. Yeah. It's not like America to have a bit of bravado. Yeah, okay. And market towards the main audience and market. Okay, great.

Yeah. Ridiculous. Have you seen their American soccer team ad? No. It's just basically like, good luck beating us at the World Cup. And it goes like two minutes, and it's, it would have cost them millions of dollars. And it's been, I only saw it once they got eliminated. And then the rest of the world's going, hmm.

But I mean, surely all ads pumping you up for a sports tournament are going to be pretty positive about your chances. It is maybe a little bit too far, but it's so funny. It's got a bit more backlash than probably deserve. I would love to thank from, oh, where's this? To Elle in Utah? Yeah. That's exciting. Brian Cunningham.

Oh, anything salty there or desert-like? Absolutely. I've got in front of me a cooking show Barbie, where she hosted a cooking show in 2008. You can get the figure and also like, a fridge stocked with plastic food and a counter and cooking instruments and even like a clapper board and a camera. Oh, that's good stuff. That's a, because often you'll only get a few, a few little accessories.

So it's nice to get like quite a lot there, which is great. Yeah, yeah. That's a picture of 2L. Beautiful place. Looks great. So, so green, but in the desert. It's just a little like, looks like a suburb planted in the desert. If I could go again.

and I'm assuming I can. Please. I'd love to thank from Reston in Virginia in United States. Dina Gottesman. Dina Gottesman. Would you say Gottesman? Yes. We're going to give Dina the Shear Barbie Doll, which came out in 1970.

It is a miniature version of Shear wearing sort of like a... Didn't look at this before I said it out loud. What we'd now call maybe like a problematic Native American outfit, Oh man But it's a collector's item Dina and it's going to be worth a lot of money Keep it in the box It says here that

The singer wore this for the music video Halfbreed in 1970 Wow okay I'll be a bit more discerning with the next Barbie I've just looked it up Yeah that is controversial But she would wear Like the headdresses and stuff

but it says, just, I mean, I'm not looking into this very much, but it says her mother, Georgia Holt, an aspiring actress and a casual model, is of Cherokee, English and French descent. Oh, it's all good then. Oh, nice. Yeah.

Maybe it's a little less problematic, which is great. A relief for Dina. But, yeah, obviously I have not looked into that too much. Swiftly moving on, I would love to thank from Indianapolis, Indiana, Azade. Azade. Azade.

Azade. That's a sick name. Azade. Azade, I'm going to give the 1962 red flare Barbie, which is a Barbie and a voluminous, voluminous red coat and matching hat, and is said to be inspired by Jackie Kennedy. Wow. Jackie Kennedy.

That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah, I love a big red coat. Can I have one too? No, you can. I know you're dissing me that. No, only one barbie. Damn.

All right, next one comes from, oh, my. God, address unknown. Return to the sender can only shoot from somewhere deep within the fortress of the moles, but please, Mayor, thank you. Thank, and I'm getting word, yes I can. Rebecca Cutler. Nice. Rebecca Cutler, I'm going to give the 2021 line of frontline vaccine Barbie dolls.

Wow. released during the pandemic, including one model, modeled after Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, who co-created one of the vexons. That's pretty cool. Imagine having a Barbie model after you. That'd be sick.

That'd be sick if they're listening. If they're listening, yeah, that'd be sick. And you do want to fill that gap and have a podcast of Barbie? Yeah. Podcasts or podcast of Barbies. Exactly. Would I have to be a Ken? No, they do other characters.

I think it's about... I could be Blaze number two. Yeah. I think it's about like, it's not about like, whether you're a guy or a girl, it's about like your characterisation and life. So to answer your question, you are a kin, Matt, yes. Yeah, you're a Ken. Yeah, but AJ is a Barbie.

I'm a Barbie, correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure you're both having a go at me here. No, not at all. No, it's not an insult. It's just how it is. It's just Ken. He's a bit dopey though, Ken, Ken, isn't he?

No. Barbie's a smart one. Ken's the dopey one. It depends on the kin or the barbats. It depends on the kin. Ken's had a million different jobs. There's no other accent where that rhymes, but you made it work. Depends on the kin.

Okay, I would love to thank from Portland in Oregon. How would you say this name, Matt? ECI or ECUZ. ECHI, EO, ECHU, I'm going to say... ECHI, E. E.E. It's E C-Y. It's E-C-Y.

E-C-Y is a great name, no matter what it is. Isi Hughes. I'm going to give the two, the 2018 tie-in to the movie A Rinkle in Time, starring Mindy Kaling, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, all released as Barbies. So there you go. That commemorates that movie that we all remember. Yes.

All love. So they do some that no one has heard of as well, which is cool. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like President Barbie. The next person I love to thank. Also, address unknown, can only assume from deep within the fortress of the Moll's, Gin Gold. Jingold.

Jingold. Jingold. I'm going to give the 1983 Barbie Townhouse, which was a play set that was sort of your more like yuppie looking, you know. What I'd call it like a Yopro flat, but I don't think they had the term Yopro in 1983. Love that. Yeah. What is that young professional?

Young professional. It took me a few minutes to unpack that. It has a. Added out that thinking time if you don't mind. Make it sound. like I got it straight away. Yeah. It included a dining room and eaten kitchen, living room and bedroom.

Wow. But no bathroom or toilets. Well, as I've talked about before, they don't have the necessary bits. Does that make Barbies all gentlemen then? Yes, I think so. All Barbies are gentlemen. Apart from that one who eats dog shit and shit dogs. The only Barbie doll that's not a gentleman is Tanner the Labrador.

And that's reasonable, I think. That dog is no gentleman It's actually a sick dog It eats it on shit Where are we up to Bopper? I would like to thank from Leeds Oh, Leeds Zez Zez Zez Z in the UK

Lizard Jackson Is getting the Well I took a sip of water At the wrong time man Lizard Jackson Holy fuck Lizard Jackson Frantically searching

For like a lizard themed Barbie There's got to be a crocodile Hunter or something like that right? Control F Lizard. Yes, please. Or crock. Okay. There's got to be.

Surely there was a tie in to Steve Irwin. No, there's no Lizzie, or at least not on this insider website in which they're all presented. I can't find one. But I can Google it. I'll Google Lizard Barbie. Oh, God. This is not, this is people who have turned, like, their Barbie dolls into, like, lizards, like, rip the heads off and things. Okay.

There's a Barbie lizard queen on Pinterest. from, you can buy it on Itsy and it's a... Oh yeah, these are scary, I don't like this. A bootleg lizard Barbie. Bindi Irwin's got a very own Barbie doll. What about that? That's pretty close.

Let's do that one. Yeah. Bindy Owen has a Barbie? According to new idea.com.com. But Bindy Irwin gets a very own Barbie doll. That's awesome. All right. And bringing it home then, Matt, if you want to thank our last...

I'd love to thank from, Austin, Texas, stay weird. It's Breezy. Breezy. That is... I think Breezy gets it. Breezy gets the whole ethos that Austonians like me.

I'd stay there for a week. And others share, like Willie Nelson. Staying weird. Yeah. Breezy. And for Breezy, we're going to give them the 1965 bangs Barbie. Barbie's bangs are back with a striped jumpsuit.

And she's got bangs. Hell yeah. Pretty disappointed there's no Willie Nelson Barbie, but Bangs Barbie will have to do the job. Yeah, yeah. So thank you so much to Breezy Lizard, Jingold, Echie, Essey, Rebecca, Azyard, Dina, Diner, Brian and Anna. And that leaves just the last thing for us to do. Welcome a few people into our Triptage Club. We've got four inductees and unductees.

Yep. Wow. Now I'm starting to talk with the New Zealand accent. What a vows mean anymore? Unductees. I did a gig with Tony Mart last night and he's Australia's another adopted Kiwi. And I think maybe talking to you and him back to back, I'm going to start slipping into it. Yeah, it happens.

So the Trip Ditch Club. Is that what we're doing? Yeah. Yes. Essentially, I zoned down. because I was doing something. Oh, that's a go, because AJ will be able to explain it better than us anyway. Yeah, go on, AJ.

Do you want to explain the Triptitch Club? The Tripitch Club is people who have been patrons for three years or more. Is that it? Yeah, three years straight. That's right. On the shoutout level or above. Yep. And it's an exclusive club.

I think of it as an airport lounge or like a clubhouse. I think of it like a 1950s Vegas lounge cabaret, red velvet. Frank Sinatra. There's a bar. We've got beautiful meal. You can eat. You can, there's sleeping pods, beautiful showers, everything you'd possibly need. It's almost like a Barbie dream house.

Yeah, yeah. Yes. I think I think of it more in the Christchurch equivalent, Christchurch New Zealand equivalent, which is a pool bar that closes at 1030 p.m. Yes. Yeah, yeah. And then there's bunk beds and everybody goes to their bed. Because you can't leave once you're in the trip.

Now, normally Dave books a band. I've actually done it this week. Oh, great. That worked out well. Yeah, and you won't believe it. But to come and play their huge hits like turn back time. That's the ballad. My oh my, Dr. Jones.

That song's a banger. And Barbie girl, I've bloody booked Aqua. Holy shit. Can you believe it? I got him after months. Holy shit. I've got him. That is sick.

I can't wait to meet him. and see him and enjoy them. Yeah. I'm just going to ask to Dr. Jones to be played on Loop. They're not going to do that. Dr. Jones, Dr. Jones, calling Dr. Jones, Dr. Jones,

Dr. Jones, where are you? You know, life was like for me when that song came out of having the surname Jones. Of course. Yeah. It was great. It was great.

Everyone thought I was a doctor. Yeah, it's so sick. It's like when Mumbo number five was big and my name's in that. Oh, of course. Here we go I imagine it was better then than it is now that Alex Jones is also the name

of a guy who believes in a lot of things Yeah yeah I've done As I've sort of tried to become an internet personality I've had to really curb my real name To be as least thought about as possible Yeah Yeah So we've got four inductees

Are there anything else we need to do? Oh you've got any food or drink on the go Well and you won't necessarily get this Having not seen the film yet, but I don't have real food, but I do have decals of food that I've stuck to the inside of fridges and onto plates and stuff. Right. So they can't eat in the film at all.

No, they're Barbies. So, um, well, I imagine in the other Barbie movies they can eat. So it wasn't a ridiculous question. No, they're Barbies. Jesus. Are you okay? Not right now, not the way that I'm being treated here. How are you being treated?

Well, not with a lot of dignity. I think that's a lot of... You're doing a lot of that yourself. Yes. So, okay, so we need to thank these people. I'll hype them up. Okay. AJ, you hype me up.

Okay. All right. Here we go. Here we go. Firstly, welcome in to the Triptage Club from West Lakes in South Australia. It's Sean. Sean, join me on a... Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So, Jean. Dave's lost his job already One in and that's better than anything he's ever done It's not bad

Please welcome from Sydney, Australia It's Nicola Welsh Burke Nicola Nicola Welshberg Or Nicola Welshberg Or Nicola Welshberg if that helps you Yes We're not Welsh and on this deal

You're in the club for good Welcome Make yourself at home Next up from location unknown Can only assume from deep width in the fortress of the moles. It's Anne P. And the man.

And I mean that in like the most positive way possible. Yes. You're the man. We love men here. This is a men loving podcast. And finally from Brown Hill in Victoria, Australia. It's Caitlin Louise. Brown Hill, more like turn that frown hill upside down hill and smile.

Smile Hill. Come on, Barbie. Let's go party. It's a very Aussie trip to club this week. Welcome and make yourselves at home. Caitlin and Nicola and Sean. And that brings us to the end of the episode. Anything we need to sell people before we go?

Bop. Just that we love them, that they can suggest a topic on our website. There's also a link in our show notes. Our website is dogoonpod.com. You can find us on social media at dogo on pod. AJ, where can people find you across social media if they would like to follow you and your podcast?

Yes, so we're cult popshire on all the places. you can find us on all the places you harvest your podcasts from. And if you want to follow me personally, I'm on Instagram at AJ and HD. And that's my username on TikTok as well if you do what to follow. A very dead account, but you can still watch my previous virus. You can see it's former glory. Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you, AJ again for joining us for doing the report.

So we didn't have to. Love that. Thank you for editing it. and, um, uh, yeah. Your TikTok account is kind of like Barbie's cousins. Yeah. It's, uh, taken out the back. Yeah.

And a bullet has been putting in. Yeah. Um, I don't, how do we wrap this up? Uh, I think. How does Dave do it? Well, I, I think we say, uh, we'll see you next week. Yeah. With another fantastic episode of do you go on.

I know that because we've already recorded it. And, uh, thanks so much for joining us, AJ. Oh, yeah. But until next week. I'll say, ladies. Bye! See ya. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are

and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree, very, very easy. It means we know to come to you, and you'll also know that we're coming to you.

Yeah, we'll come to you, you come to us. Very good. And we give you a spam free. Guarantee.