Good Job, Brain! - 247: Rooting for the Underdog

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

Let's give it up for the all the Davids who had to face the Goliaths of the world! We salute the little engines that could with facts and trivia about underdogs. When indie cool becomes popular: Colin surprises all of us with a quiz about the top grossing independent movies of all time, and we are still shocked. Karen celebrates the number twos and number twos of the toy world. Chris uncovers some way harsh professional reviews in his quiz, File Under "Dogs." And find out how a company took 40 years to finally become an overnight success, blessing all of us with fruity burps. Take our listener survey! www.surveymonkey.com/r/airwave For advertising inquiries, please contact [e-mail]! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, chivalrous sharp-shooting Sherlock's in Shurpa shirts. Well, welcome to Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and off-beat trivia podcast. Today's show is episode 247, and of course, I'm your humble host, Karen. and along with me are your clamoring club of clever clue clinging clackety cluckers. I'm Colin. And I'm Chris. It sounded like there are a lot of pronunciation landmines there, but, uh, yeah, yeah, exactly.

I avoided them all. All right. Well, without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment, pop quiz, hot shot. Where I have a random trivial pursuit card. You guys have your barnyard buzzers. Here I have a normal trivial pursuit and pop to culture. Let's do pop to culture Blue Wedge TV. What sitcom aired episodes titled Green Eyed Dick, Post Nasal Dick, and Dick is from Mars, Sally is from Venus.

Oh. Chris. I'm going to go with Third Rock from the Sun. Yes. Oh, good call. That is John Lithgow's character. Yep, yep. Pink Wedge for Fad,

what nation's residents were the first to dance the Conga? What nation? Do the Conga, any love to. Chris? Cuba. Yes, Cuba. Good job, brain. Well, you started singing, and I'm like, and it's just like Miami Sound Machine, Cuba?

Gloria. Yeah. Yellowwich. What Fortune 500 company was named for a Herman Melville character? What Fortune 5? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Starbucks. Yes.

Oh, right, of course. Yes. We've talked so many times. I know, I was just like. 19% of every question we've ever asked on the show relates to Starbucks. Well, he only wrote, I mean, I'm sure he wrote many books, but it's only going to be the one. Yeah. It's not Ishmael LLC.

It's the, yeah, right, right, right, right. Purple Wedge music. What nickname did Clash guitarist John Meller earn for the way he played the ukulele as a London street busker? Let me reread it. Oh, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. What nickname did Clash the band guitarist John Meller earn for the way he played the ukulele as a London Street Busker? Colin, I believe in you. Is it just Joe Strummer?

It's Joe Strummer. I think I do get a stage name, but I didn't know that the Joe was a stage name. Oh, yeah, like Joe Cool. Don't overthink it. Yeah. Green Wedge movies, what S word did Kevin Klein's character hate being called in a fish called Wanda? Great film, but what a random specific question.

I haven't seen it. I need to see it. That seems like such a Chris Kohler movie. It does. No, it does. It's why I want to see it. I just haven't. All right. Senator. No. Read the question again, please, Karen. What S word? Did Kevin Klein's character hate being called in a fish called Wanda? Oh, oh.

John Cleese and Jimmy Curtis. Colin. It was stupid. He hated being called stupid. S&G, sports and game. Last question. What three members of the? The Carey family have broadcast major league baseball games. Oh. I could only name one.

I didn't know there are three. All right. Okay. Well, I'll give Chris one. Okay. All right. Okay. All right.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. I'll take me. Okay. Mariah. You dirty dog. Give me a softball here. Hey.

Harry, Carrie. Harry, Carrie. But I don't know, yeah. Yeah, I, I believe he has a son. Is it, is it, is it, is it, is it, is it, is it, is it, Okay. It's both, both chip and skip. Okay.

Oh, no, really? Why I was conflating them. Yeah, okay. All right. Well, there we go. The accidental two for chip and chip and chip. All right. Hey, if you are a hot dog, would you eat yourself?

My only knowledge of Harry Carey is, is Will Ferrell as a, as him and yes enough. Oh, should we do another one? All right, let's do, let's do a normal. Yeah, things are going still well. Okay, here we go. Trivial Pursuit, Classic Edition. Here we go, Blue Wedge for Geography.

What is the main ingredient in the Indian dish, briani? Oh. Chris. Rice. Yes, it is rice. Yeah. Love a good biryani. Pink Wedge, Lady Gaga teamed up with which famous crooner to sing Baby

It's Cold Outside for a Barnes and Noble bookstore commercial commercial. commercial. Everybody. Tony Bennett. Tony Bennett. Tony Bennett. You have two albums out. Yeah.

They teamed up many, many times. Yellow Edge. Who was the first African American woman to be crowned Miss America? Chris. Vanessa Williams. It is Vanessa Williams. I like how they worded the question crowned. To be crowned.

Not when. Yes. Because they stripped her. title. They did, they did. But who needs them? She won. She won.

She did win, yeah. Purple Wedge, who wrote the right stuff, a novel about test pilots in the 1960s American Space Program? Oh, Colin. I believe that was Tom Wolfe, yeah? Yes, it is Tom Wolfe. Yep, that was what my brain went to, but I don't know. My brain went to Ed Harris.

Because he was in the movie. It was a good movie. That was a great movie. Okay. Green Wedge for Science and Nature. How many years did it take Microsoft Windows to go from 1.0 to 10.0? So again, how many years did it take Microsoft Windows to go from 1.0, the version, to version 10.0? Multiple choice. Oh, oh, okay. Oh, all right. 20, 25, or 30?

30. It is 30. Okay. All right. Last question, Orange Wedge for sports. For which NBA basketball team did Lamar Odom play during his rookie year? Oh. Okay.

And I will set down my buzzer. I was he drafted by, oh, let me buzz in here first. Very pro forma, you know, yeah. Just because Chris had stains, you know, yeah, the good job rain rules of order require me to um tickle the horse um uh was was was if you will if you will if you will man for me it's it's a it's a toss up here between clippers or bulls was it was it was it the bulls was it the chicago bulls it's the la clippers ah okay all right well there you go overthinking LA clippers okay all right well by way of intro here bear with me uh I believe it was

last episode, we got to talking about movies before the pandemic at one point, and I mentioned what the last, we talked about the last movies that we saw before pandemic, right? Chris watched Cats. Yeah, yeah.

Chris saw Cats. I saw Uncut Gems. Well, I also definitely remember the first movie that I saw back in the theaters after pandemic. I mean, it definitely got very easy to watch movies at home there for a while. So the first movie that we made the trek

back to the actual butt in a chair in a theater was everything, everywhere, all at once. Oh, yeah. Which was just too much of an opportunity to pass up to see on the big screen. As you probably saw, just recently, it scored 11 nominations at this year's Academy Awards. By the time this episode airs, who knows, it may have already won one or more awards. Yeah, several, let's say. So anyway, I was thinking about this movie. because, you know, not only is it doing great, but it is an independent film.

I was inspired. What could we talk about, about the little guys, the underdogs? And that is our theme for today's episode. Underdogs, upsets, cheering for the little guy, number two. And so this week, we're rooting for the underdogs. Well, let's just roll right from there into a quiz I have prepared for you, too. This will be a write-down quiz. I mentioned I was inspired by indie films, independent movies, and I did a little research here, put together a quiz for you about some of the highest grossing, independent films of all time.

What is an independent film, you might ask? Yeah, that's my question. What's the proper definition? Yeah, I am going to be a little intentionally slippery and evasive here to avoid complaints from our moviegoing fans in the audience. But generally you've got your major studios, okay, historically over the years, you know, your Disney's, your universals, several other names that are household names. And when we talk about independent films, we're talking about movies that are largely made outside of that system, okay? not being produced or financed or developed by what are considered at that time, the major studios in Hollywood.

And it gets fuzzy because over the years, you know, especially starting in the 1990s, a lot of what were one time legitimately independent film companies proceeded to be purchased by the major studios. This quiz is about movies that at least when they came out were legitimately considered independent film by the film community, okay? And we're going to leave it at that, all right? Okay, we will make this a write-down quiz. All right, I will give you some clues.

You will be giving me the name of the movie here. Okay. Controversial upon its release in 2004, this film would go on to become the highest grossing, independent film of all time. A record it holds to this day. It has undoubtedly the oldest source material of any movie in this quiz. 2004.

Source material. I'm thinking like the Bible? Who stars in it? Give us a... I will not be telling you anything like who stars in it. These are big name movies. I guarantee you you have heard of this movie. Just trust your gut.

Trust your gut, Karen. I think you're smarter than you think. Answers up when you are ready. Okay. 2004, largely the passion project of one man. It is indeed the passion of the Christ. You have both written down. Yes, Mel Gibson, directed, co-produced, made this movie happen.

Oh, personal. Yeah, it really, really was, really was. Yeah, and as I say, no small amount of controversy for many reasons. nearly 20 years ago, and still the top spot. Wow, no way. Even adjusted for inflation. Okay, moving right along. Like its main character, this 1997 American film had humble beginnings evolving from a story originally written for a university playwriting class.

More descriptions, please. It was written for a university class. at Harvard University. Oh. Oh, okay. Thank you. I guess. Perhaps too much of a clue there.

Maybe, I don't know. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. They had to, let's see here, Karen. Yes,

you both got it there with the Harvard clue. It is goodwill hunting. Okay. Written, of course, by Matt Damon, the student at Harvard at the time, and Ben Affleck.

Well, it's hard to think that that's an indie film. Yeah, I mean, they're big stars now, you know? I mean, they were nobody's then. I mean, it took them, it took them a long time to get that movie made.

I mean, there were a number of, you know, potential directors. They had to fight even to stay cast in the movie. I mean, in retrospect, yeah. I mean, of course, you know, I mean, it went on to win. I mean, they won Academy Award and Robin Williams won Academy Award for his role in the movie. All right, let's stay in 1997. And I want you guys to just, just open your minds here, all right? And just go with me.

this 1997 British release was a hit not just at home but around the world it was by far the number one grossing movie in the UK stayed that way until it was overtaken by Titanic I'm going to give you some awards this movie won okay and you tell me if you think you can guess the movie right and maybe you guess it maybe you won't but here we go all right 1997 it won the BAFTA award for Best Film It won the European Film Award for Best Film And it won the Academy Award for Best Original Musical Or Comedy Score That's all I'm going to give you I'm going to need a guess 1997 British

I think Chris and I should work together Okay Let's turn the Mortal Kombat Fatality into friendship Yeah okay 97 musical or comedy score British Oh, so I was thinking, oh, man, no, the Irish blues, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, it's not bad. Oh. Oh. Is it the, is it the full Monty? Karen, it is the full Monty. Oh my God! Yeah, it is the full Monty. And that movie stayed the top grossing movie in the UK for so long, for so long. And like if you, if you, if you, if you, If you look at the list now, like honestly, like 99% of the movies above it are Star Wars and Avengers and, you know, avatars and things of that nature. Yeah, just an astoundingly big hit in Britain and the rest of the world.

And, of course, there was the touring the musical show and all that. Yeah, the Fulmonte. Robert Barathean was in the Fulmonte. All right. Two points available on this question. There are two films. from Asian countries in the top 20 highest grossing independent films of all time. For one point each, can you name these movies?

From Asian countries. Household names, yeah. Would they be independent in their own country? What if it's funded by a major studio in their own country? But you're talking about American release. Yeah, that's right. And certainly some movies on this list, you know, may have in some cases been distributed with some financing but we're talking about how the

movie was financed produced generated largely distributed yeah yeah oh we're no we're working together i forgot we're working together okay oh that's right oh sure okay okay okay all right exactly well why don't you try to give me one name why don't you try to give me one name here parasite parasite parasite is one yes from 2019 oh okay that's right oh what's the other one you wrote that's the only one I didn't write that no no no I wrote a crouching tiger hidden dragon I was wondering if like that you got it you got it those are the two there you go that's right wow yeah that is so not indie to me oh yeah so two points I guess to both of you now we're sharing yeah we've I mean we've answered everything correctly I guess so you would have been tied on down

the line all right this 2002 film had a budget of only five million dollars never never hit number one at the box office but went on to become the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time spawning not one but two sequels and a TV show I know okay but we're working together so you're fine Chris I got okay you know what Karen's very confident what was your guess what was your guess what was your I was always going to say Bridget Jones' diary. That's a good guess. That's a good guess. That's a good guess. I think Karen thinks she knows it. Yeah.

My big fat Greek wedding. Ding, ding, ding. You got it. $5 million budget. I mean, we say only. But I mean, you got to keep in mind in the world of Hollywood, you know, in 2002. That movie eventually made more than $350 million against its $5 million budget. And then now they're coming.

up with the three. That's what they say. It has not come out yet. Believe it or not, this non-traditional 1990 superhero film released by New Line Cinema was at the time the highest grossing independent film to date. Okay. There's a lot of change in the 1990s. So this was right before kind of the indie revolution.

When I hear New Line Cinema, I think of teenage movies. Mutant Ninja Turtles. Really? Interesting. I was going to say Batman. It was, in fact, Teenage Mutin Ninja Turtles. Major studios passed on,

more than one major studio passed on this movie. They smelled flop. They smelled potential failure. In particular, Chris, another favorite of yours, the failure of the Masters of the Universe movie not long before that, kind of scared off some of the major studios.

Disney passed on it, you know, I mean, Periment passed on it, yeah. They made a He-Man movie? Oh, they did. It was live action, but they did it the cheap way, which is, oh, He-Man comes to Earth. He-Man is in New York City. He-man is in a house.

Fish out of water, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do we hit fish out of water, but it's like, it's not what anybody wanted. It was like, no, no, no, no, we want to see, like, you know, the castle. The castle. The characters. Right, exactly.

It was not great. Courtney Cox was in it, though. All right. last one. And in keeping with the theme of underdogs in particular, this 1990 independent film had a long road to the screen, but eventually became one of the biggest hits of the decade, one of only three Westerns ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. I'm going to guess Unforgiven. That's a really good guess I wrote down Tombstone

I wrote on Tombstone I love Tombstone Tombstone good movie too Unforgiven is one of the other three Westerns to win yeah yeah yeah just yeah 92 so just just a little bit earlier

this movie started out as like basically a spec script it was no one bought it the eventual director and star of this movie loved this story. He encouraged the writer to turn it into a novel

because it wasn't getting published as a script. And he's like, if you turn into a novel, it'll get published. And I will buy the rights, essentially, is what happens. But the novel was rejected multiple times. Finally, the novel got published in 1988, and the director and star of this movie

bought the rights, wanted to direct it. they had trouble raising money for the movie the studios were scared off by westerns at that point it had been a long time since someone had made a serious grown-up western to this point any any any dances with wolves there you go

I have a costa dances with wolves that's right yeah and in retrospect I mean this movie was inescapable at one point it did so well so well huge yeah his Perry didn't hot shots The ultimate mark of distinction, yeah, being parodied. He's cooking eggs on her stomach, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And then, I mean, it's no coincidence that I think, you know, there were several kind of more high-profile Westerns over the ensuing years. It kind of sort of kick-started the belief that a Western could do well. So Costner, I mean, to his credit, man, he really, he fought for that story slash novel slash movie all the way from the beginning, written by Michael Blake. I should, of course, give this writer credit by name, Michael Blake.

And just to close it out here for someone who needs closure on the anecdote, that third Western there in the trio was 1931's Cimarone. I cannot confess to having seen this movie. This was a pre-code movie, but all credit to Cimarone with Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven. Yeah. So not bad, you guys. You guys, you know, you know your indie films may be better than you thought. Yeah, because these to me aren't even, like, they don't have what we currently think of the indie moniker.

You know, we Americans maybe especially, we sometimes equate indie with like art house or, you know, avant-garde. And not saying that that doesn't overlap. But yeah, at one point, every one of these movies pretty much had to face an uphill battle of some sort. Yeah, good job. Well done. So on the top of the show, we described this episode dedicated to the underdog, the little guy you cheered for, the number two. So in my segment today, I assure you, I will cover the underdog, the small guy you cheer for, and the number two. I'm going to play a mystery clip first.

I'm not going to explain it, but it's going to come back later. It'll all be related, I assure you. All right. It was the producer who led me, producer director who led me into this. He had the idea that he should actually come over as a very, very proper and rather cultivated English gentleman. I thought that was a great idea. So let me set the scene. Late 90s, a man called Bruce Lund.

Bruce Lund had an idea for a board game, and it was to teach young kids how to take care of their dog. The real focal point of this game is this centerpiece that he imagined, which is like a large toy dashhound, like sausage dog. Players take turns feeding this toy dog with fake dog food accessories, and then you take turns pumping its leash, and the dog will start farting and more and more, and eventually that dog food will travel and come out as a pilot. of dog poop. And if that happens on your turn, you take your little scooper, you scoop it up, the player who collects three poops wins. So this was in the late 90s. He couldn't find a single game company or a toy company who's interested. Everybody laughed at having me the people he worked with was kind of like, this is too weird, man. And just to give you the toy landscape, what we're seeing at that time. This is late 90s.

Let's just say the year 2000. In year 2000, we saw Sony PlayStation 2, the poochee or the, the Ibo robot dog. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Razor Scooter, hit clips, which is like the music player. So I'm sure when Bruce Lund kind of showed his idea, the toy execs were like, who wants this manual clay squeezing, simple, basic looking dog when you can have a robot dog, right? And most importantly, who wants to play with dog crap? You can go buy realistic poop at your local Spencer's gift store, like gag gifts.

And it's not a toy. It's a gag. That's something that you really feel you need. Yeah. You can get almost the real deal. Right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, if you have access to a dog, you can just get it right from the source, too.

Yeah, straight from the source. Thank you for Bruce Lund. Dutch company called Goliath Games became interested and helped him and developed the game, bring the game to life, and more importantly, to the shelves of stores. The game is called

Doggy Doe. 2010 finally hit the stores, one top toy of the year in the Netherlands in other countries. And this was one of the first early examples of toys

making poop fun. Fast forward. That was 2010. Fast forward to 2018. At the North American International Toy Fair in New York City, people saw many toy companies, including Mattel and Hasbro, promoting so many poop and toilet-themed toys. 2018. So here are examples, some names of these games and toys. Don't step on it. Which you can guess. It's like a game mat. you're like blindfolded there's like dog poop and you're like listening to directions uh flush in frenzy poopies poop balls man i came across this blog it's called a toy box philosopher dot com the writer had this entry called here's the poop where they went and bought

some of the poop toys and tried it out it's pretty involved so okay let me just describe some so there was pooperoo's in the box is a toy toilet a collectible like squishy monster and little packets of toilet paper and a poop scoop. So what you're supposed to do is you fill up the toy toilet with water. You put the packets of toilet paper in the water. The wrapper dissolves in the water becomes gel, revealing a monster snack. Okay. All right.

Okay. There's so many ideas at work in this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's so many. There's dissolvable. Whiteboard, and it's like, yeah, dissolves. Who? Monsters.

Candy. And all of it is circled. Everything is circle. Yeah. Someone just stands up for like five hours and it's just like big circle around everything. Everything. This example, dissolve the toilet paper packet. It reveals a boot that you're supposed to.

Then feed it to the squishy monster. You jam it into the squishy monster's mouth. Then you squeeze the monster to help it travel through to its butt hole. And there's a photo of, like, trying, trying to get the boot to pass through. So, so many ideas. And then just very quickly, the next toy, the writer plays with is it's kind of like one of those collectible figurines blindbox where you don't know where you're going to get. Yeah, yeah.

So, so the figurine comes with parody food, like parody branded food like poop tarts, poop farts, which is pop tarts, poop farts. And it always comes with a drink. So there's farta, like fanta. get this. The soda can is actually a syringe. You're supposed to fill it with water, inject the water into the figurine's mouth.

You shake the figurine and you wait. If, because this is blindbox, you don't know where you can get, right? And if your figurine has a heart-shaped butthole, then you have a pooper. If it doesn't have a heart-shaped butthole, then it's a spitter. So slowly but surely,

The reaction between the water and whatever powder is inside the toy will react and become solid and it will exit one way or the other, depending which figuring you have. And I sound so funny and gross. All this stuff is so cute. It's sparkly. It's glittery. Even the toilet is cute. The boot is cute. The butt holes, the heart shape.

You know, everything's cute. It's not like garbage pale kids. It's not going for gross energy. It's right. Okay. Yeah. And it's colorful. And kids today love it.

And experts, and I'm sure like marketers or people who study trends and stuff, have really been looking at this poop toy phenomenon, why and how? And when did it become cute? When did it become like socially acceptable, you know, normalized and colorful and pretty? So people have thoughts. Experts have thoughts. So one interesting theory is that the generation who grew up with like edging. or cartoon shows like South Park, you know, where there was a talking poo character,

Mr. Hankey, that generation are now parents. And so they have kids. So for them, poop is, it's not as taboo as the generations before, right? It's like on screen and it talks and how funny, you know. Right. Just like a member of the family, really. Yes, yes, yes. But most people agree there is one contributing factor, one major in,

flexion point when poop became cute. Most people are certain. And I'm quoting Slate here. It starts with the poop emoji. Okay. In 1997, three different Japanese cell phone carriers had their own distinct emoji sets. And each one of them had a poop emoji. And this is 97, right?

So we're not colored touchscreen. This is like, yeah, yeah. D pixels, right? Right. So out of the three companies, SoftBank, or what became SoftBank, 1997, their poop emoji, it's like a black and white pixely poop with a smile. Ah. It wasn't until Apple entered the emoji scene that the now famous poop emoji found its true,

cute little face. Slate went on interviewing Angela Guzbin, who interned at Apple in 2008. 2008. It was a while ago. She was on the team that was tasked with the goal of designing Apple emojis, including the poop emoji. She says, one of the things we debated was, how do we want to draw this little pile of poop? Do we want to keep the eyes? Do we want it to smile? Do we want flies around it?

Some, you know, other versions have flies. They kind of went on downplaying the grossness and upped the cuteness. Yeah, yeah. the kawaii trend of the 1980s to everything to something cute and the fact that bodily humor is actually extremely prevalent in Japanese.

Like that's never been taboo in Japanese children's entertainment. The manga that kids were reading and things like that, I mean, you had nudity and you also had bodily humor jokes, you know, and that was crayon Xinchan. Krayan Shinshan and butts and poop. And that that Japanese

Dairy Queen Swirl, you know, manga poop, you know, with whether it had a face or not, no hang-ups about that body humor. Poop always sort of shows up in comics and things like that because, because they're aiming straight at what do kids find funny? So yes, and now this is why in the beginning of the segment I played that clip. It was Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Patrick Stewart talking about his illustrious voice acting role of playing the poop emoji

in the emoji movie. They talk about the perfect combination of the actor and the role. Well, you know, he played poop in Royal Shakespeare. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right, let's take a quick break

and we'll be right back. When Johann Rohl received the letter on Christmas Day 1776, he put it away to read later. Maybe he thought it was a season's greeting and wanted to save it for the fireside. But what it actually was, was a warning, delivered to the Hessian colonel, letting him know that General George Washington was crossing the Delaware and would soon attack his forces. The next day, when Rawl lost the Battle of Trenton and died from two colonial Boxing Day musket balls, the letter was found, unopened in his vest pockets. As someone with 15,000 unread emails in his inbox, I feel like there's a lesson

there. Oh well, this is the constant, a history of getting things wrong. I'm Mark Chrysler. Every episode, we look at the bad ideas, mistakes, and accidents that misshaped our world. Find us at constantpodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. from Beneath the Hollywood Sign. Mary Astor has been keeping a diary. Mary writes everything down. And so this torrid affair with Georges Kaufman is chronicled on a daily basis.

In great detail. And Iif pulls out a box and gives McAllister a ring saying, here's something to remember me by. This article caused Daryl Zanick to hit the roof. Actress Ruth Roman followed that up with playing a foil to Betty Davis in Beyond the Force. I mean, if you can stand toe to toe with her, boy.

And she does because she plays the daughter of the man that Betty Davis kills out in the hunting trip. And it's directed by King Vidor, so he's no slouch. How do you go wrong with that? Speaking of the Oscars, talking about what I call Beginners Luck, it's all about the actors and actresses who won an Oscar on their very first film. Get your fix of Old Hollywood from Stephen N on the podcast from Beneath the Hollywood Sign. You're listening to Good Job Brain. Smooth puzzles, smart trivia.

Good job, brain. And we're back. This week, we're talking about underdogs in Chris, you're up. I have yes so I have coincidentally put together another movie themed quiz so here's here's how mine goes for you all whether good or bad you know success or failure indie or major motion picture every film can feel like something of an underdog when it's when it's put up against the scathing tongue the pen of a of a critical what I have assembled for you is a list of quotes from negative reviews of films. I will give you the quote from the negative review and you tell me the title of the film that that negative quote is describing.

Just to keep things a little more on theme for you folks, every film in this quiz has the word dog in its... Yes, so we're titling this quiz, file under dogs. By the way, I'm going to read these quotes to you. I'm going to say, just for funzies, where the quote was from, what outlet, the year of the film, and then I'll give you a quote. If you hear me say the phrase film title, that means I've taken the film title out of the quote. All right, here we go.

Some should be pretty easy, some will be pretty tough, buzz in if you think you know it. Question number one, the New York Times, 1989. Wow. If there were no other animated film in circulation at the moment, film title would be marginally worth recommending on the merits of Mr. Bluth's animation, as it is opening in the formidable wake of The Little Mermaid, this film might as well roll over and play dead. Karen. All dogs go to heaven. Correct. It's all dogs go to heaven by a Don Bluth animation.

Tough. It was really good. All from the New York Times. Yeah, well, you know, I'm saying, you know, again, no matter what, I mean, remember, even famously, Citizen Kane, they found a negative review of it, which brought it brought in the Rotten 30s, that's right, that's right, 99. They had to dig it up from, like, you know, the 30s or whatever. Yeah. All right. Question number two.

This is from The Spectator, 1975. The 11 characters working in the bank are just as dreary as the scenery. The only thing I can say in their favor is that they object to the foul-mouthed comments of the robber hero. Colin. That is Dog Day Afternoon. That is Dog Day Afternoon, Al Pacino, John Cazale. I was thinking of not telling you that. They all had dog in the title, and it's letting you work it out.

But after two, we would have been like, wait a minute. And in fact, for number three, you might need it for this one. A little more obscure, but let's see. Question number three, this is the Washington Post, 1980. Although cast in a supporting role, second in command to the obsessed mercenary played by Christopher Walken, whose zombie trance and impenetrable motivation would be better suited to a zap fest about robots, Tom Berringer is spared unsightly hang-ups

and handles the weaponry more sexily than the ostensible star. So he handles the weapons more sexily than... So a lot's going on there. There's weaponry, there's Christopher Walken, there's Tom Berringer, 19. I feel like I should know this. Has dog in the title. Yeah.

I mean, if the light's not going off. Sure, some listeners know. The movie, the film is called The Dogs of War. Oh, okay. Hey, sometimes trivia is hard. That's right. That's true. That's true.

Yep, that's right. All right. Question number four. The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 1996. Garofalo has a certain barbed charm, but it's put to shallow use here. The worst insult is to Thurman, who is condemned to play yet another male trophy, a fantasy girl who scrunches her nose when she laughs and walks like a newborn fawn.

That's, it's very descriptive, I would say. All right. Well, I think, Colin, I think buzzed in a little bit on the first. I think we both know it. It is must, must love dogs, right? No, truth about cats and dogs. Oh, okay. I was absolutely wrong. Karen is correct. This is a rom-com.

It's more, this is the Cyrano de Bergerac. Yes. Jean Garofalo is self-conscious and she has a gooderman imitating her on a gate. Yeah. Question number five. The Washington Post, 1997. In film title, a blithely, unfunny, low-budget comedy from director Barry Levinson, the American president, the most featured character in the movies lately,

has been accused of sexual misconduct on the eve of his intended re-election. Remember the theme, Colin? I believe that is Wag the Dog. That is Wag the Dog. With Robert De Niro. That's right. The whole point of this movie is they generate this war. War.

To distract from the president. I forgot that was like why they did it. Got it, got it, got it, got. Yeah, yeah. Justin Hoffman, Kierston Dunst, yep. Question number six. Chicago Tribune 2002. Cuba Gooding Jr. slums it here,

getting his name above the title in exchange for getting dragged through the snow, sprayed by a skunk, chased by a bear, and punched out by James Coburn. Wow. I don't know James Cobra was this. Aaron buzzed in first, yes, and it's... Snow dogs. It's snow dogs. Snow dogs.

Disney's Snow dogs. The review also mentioned that, like, the trailer for this movie and the posters certainly make it seem like it's a Disney live action movie that's about a bunch of talking dogs, you know what I mean? Oh. Making wisecracks to each other. There's apparently one dream sequence in which the dogs talk to each other. But, like, that small sequence was made to service all the marketing for the movie.

Bait and switch. Yeah, exactly. Yep, yep, yep. You had my interest with talking dogs. Yeah, I know. But you closed the deal with Cuba Gooding Jr. Academy Award winning. Yeah, yeah.

Question seven. Entertainment Weekly, the year is 2000. As young Willie, Malcolm in the middle's Frankie Muniz, looks uncomfortable without any irony to latch on to. And a subplot about the black denizens of World War II era Yazoo, Mississippi, is dropped before it can threaten to develop an edge. Wow. What is this movie? Whoa, Frankie Munez World War II. Yep. In the military. This sounds vaguely.

Frankie Munis led young Frankie Muniz, 2000, dog in the title. If you got it at home, you get double points. I'll give you guys, I'm going to give you guys the second quote. Okay, okay. Worst of all, the Jack, worst of all, the Jack Russell playing Skip is allowed to mug a. Frazier's Eddie instead of behaving like an actual canine. Karen. My dog skip

There you go The film is called My Dog Skip Is Kevin Bacon in that one? I think he is Sorry maybe he is Well that if he is And that Jack Russell

Has a great Kevin Bacon number That's for sure I like how I like how they're making it sound Like the dog was agitating For more screen time I can't believe they let the dog Get away with this

What a diva Yeah All right Question number eight People magazine That's People's Picks and Pigs and Pan Scholars. People. People Magazine, 1992. Director name jumps capriciously from standard narrative to flash back and flash forward, never showing the crime that is the movie's pivotal event.

The robbery of a diamond wholesaler. Taryn. Reservoir dogs. So, so many of these, many of these films, it is Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarant. You know, many of these reviews are for movies that had, at least, at the very least, in some cases, say, a profoundly negative reception, sometimes a mixed reception. Sometimes they were good films and somebody just didn't like it. This People Magazine review, like, again, reviewing films, especially like, you know, when you're doing it right then and there, it's a very difficult job because something could become, say, an acclaimed masterpiece. Yeah.

You're the person you just didn't get it. The People Magazine Review, I'm sorry, is a list of cool things about. about this movie and but written in a way that suggests that the the author just has no idea like why they would do with this but you know and just just like this he doesn't even show the crime all they show is what the guys do after what doesn't make it yes yeah that's the point yes exactly right yeah so question nine uh we had to get him in here Roger Ebert here he is Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, 1980. Among the great unrecorded conversations in Hollywood history,

we must now include the one in which Chevy Chase's agent convinced him that playing Benji would be the right career move. Oh. Karen. Is this like Shaggy Dog returns? It's not in the Shaggy Dog series now. The verse, okay. It's not shaggy dog anything.

The SDU. Another line from the review. Chevy Chase dies, goes to heaven, and is processed by a Mr. Higgins, who informs him that he can redeem his sinful record on earth by going back and solving the original murder. The only catch is he'll have to go back as a dog. The film was called, Oh, Heavenly Dog. Oh, Heavenly Dog. Wow.

Which Chevy Chase plays Benji, literally Benji. Like, not, he's, Roger Eber's not being funny. It was, it was a Benji movie, but it was trying to, like, they were trying to make a Benji movie for adults. So it was like a PG-rated Benji movie. It's just the dog doing stuff. I mean, here's Chevy Chase's narration over it, you know, because it's him. But, yeah, I won't go in to what happens in the plot, but you can Wikipedia it.

and your, and your eyeballs can melt. Some good, some good people got tricked into being this movie. Yes. Okay, well, I'll move on. We'll move on to the final question. Question 10. This is the BBC review in 2006. As the workaholic district attorney turned into a bearded collie,

Tim Allen only stops short of leg-humping in his attempts to win our affections. Karen. This is part of the SDU. This is part of the Shaggy Dog universe. Returns to... No, it's just the Shaggy Dog. It is... They remake it every X number of decades.

This is the 2006 remake of the Shaggy Dog. I remember this movie poster. It is of Shaggy Dogs, like the dog's face. But they photoshopping Tim Allen's eyes, human eyes. Some of these films probably. deserve to get ripped into. Yeah. Good job. Brains. Good job. If you're out there and you got all 10, congratulations to you. You are a true lover of dog films. Yeah. Very, very little overlap in our quizzes, luckily. Yeah. It's like, I went and saw reservoir dogs and there were no dogs at all

in that movie. For reservoirs. Why couldn't Harvey Kytel have been played by a dog that he did Comical Voiceover for Two and a half stars. Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. At the Explorers podcast, we plunge into jungles and deserts, across mighty oceans and frigid ice caps, over and to the top of Great Mountains, and even into outer space.

These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Vigelan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. So come give us a listen. We love to have you. Go to Explorerspodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app.

That's the Explorers Podcast. We have our last segment. Colin. All right, let's do a little quick, free association-style word game here. all right no no tricks no jokes i'm just i want you guys to just give me to just say the first thing that comes to your mind all right all right okay um and we'll go we'll go in order here all right you can each give me an answer all right uh we'll go we'll go Karen first then Chris um name name me

a brand of root beer Karen A and W all right Chris uh docs okay yeah all right and it can be the same one it's all right don't feel don't feel too much pressure uh name me a brand of lemon lime flavored soda. Sprite. Sprite. Name me a brand of sparkling water. Perrier. Boublee.

Boublee. Bois. Both very French. Yeah, good, good. Yeah, my angle into this story started with reading about Perrier, very French, authentically French, not fake French, anything like that. Let's pause there. Let's pause there. All right, I'm glad you, I'm glad you named some names here for me.

Let's jump back a few years. In the period from 2010 to 2014, all right, was a lot of change in the beverage industry. In that period, Coke and Pepsi, you know, they, of course, just don't make their respective namesake sodas. They're huge, huge, huge corporations diversified many brands and sub-brands across all the segments of the beverage industry. Over those four years, 2010, 2014, Coke and Pepsi each lost about five percent. market share in the water segment all right oh now that's that's big deal if you're at coke or Pepsi losing four four and a half five five and a half percent of any segment you don't want to see that in that same time period a company with the extremely inspired name of national beverage

corporation experienced 67 percent growth all right they were killing it in that time period and this was all leading up to around 2015 was really kind of a high or low watermark, depending on how you look at where you were in this industry, for sales of sodas, sugary sodas and sugary drinks in particular, all right? The National Beverage Corporation was just take share hand over fist of market away from the big names with their number one product, a little drink brand, I know you know, known as LaCroix. Wow. I have to say, like, right around 2015 was the first year I remember, like, hearing about LaCroix.

And I feel like for me, that summer, it just kind of just burst onto my scene anyway. But it had obviously been building steadily over the previous, yeah, four years, as I say, 67% growth. LaCroix, in particular, really made their primary gains among young people. This is from an article in the Orlando Sentinel in 2019, quote, among a flood of sparkling waters, LaCroix is arguably the ugliest in a good way. And then it goes on to talk about how Pepsi is redesigning their cans around that time to appeal to a younger crowd. It says, LaCroix fans seem to have gravitated toward the outdated neon cans because they don't have corporate associations. And then there's a quote that says,

I bet most people who drink LaCroix don't even know what national beverage is. And that is undoubtedly true in 2015. It was still true in 2019, probably still true today. So they were one of these things that kind of took forever to become an overnight hit. Would you like to take a guess? We'll do closest to here. When did LaCroix sparkling water debut? When did it make its entry into the market?

So must be before. Let's say 1922. Maybe like the 70s or something like that. Maybe it was like, you know, regional. And yeah, so like, I don't know, 1974. LaCroix was introduced in 1980, 1980. Before we're born. I mean, LaCroix is like as old as Pac-Man.

I mean, LaCroix is an established name. Can we please not talk about how ancient things that were born in 1980 are? Just, you know, just for reasons. Wow, it is super old. It is decrepit. And one foot in the grave already. They were a big hit, or they were certainly at least known in the Midwest, is from what I've read. It's because the original company that introduced McCroy was based in Wisconsin.

They are based in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Oh. Okay. Now, let's, let's, what, Croy is French for Cros? It is a direct allusion to La Crosse, the town, which is named after the sport, lacrosse, which, yes, which was, I mean, the sport was a Native American sport, but the, the French-ified name of it was given because the equipment sort of resembled a closure. or like a, yeah, a religious sort of cross. Anyway, yeah, we're going real deep in the history here. So it all comes back to France in one way or another.

Right. So Perrier, okay, so let's come back to Perrier. Now, Perrier, I mean, has been around for a very long time. For most of its history sold in Europe, in France, and in UK. In the late 70s, the Perrier company decided to break into the U.S. market. In 1976, they sold 3 million bottles of Perrier, okay? Is that a lot? So, right.

So that's your baseline. Three million bottles in 1976. By 1979, they sold 200 million bottles. Okay. So extremely rapid growth. Even Perrier was not sure how successful they would be in America, you know, the land of beer and soda, right? Perrier became, maybe not household name, but it was extremely, extremely,

successful. They bought Calistoga. They bought Poland Spring by 1988 Perrier alone accounted for 80% of all bottled water imported into the U.S. All right. So in the 80s, Perrier kind of had this market to themselves. I mean, they definitely were getting Coke and Pepsi's attention, but they didn't warm up nearly as quickly as the G. Heilman Brewing Company of La across Wisconsin. The Highland Brewing Company is sort of an underdog in the sense that they had been around for a really long time. They had made some very well-known beers, but they were not, they were not as successful as like Anheiser Bush or, you know, Miller or, you know, some of the other big, big, big dogs, if you will, in the, in the brewing game. But they were around for like

a hundred years, they decided in 1980 to sort of position an anti-Perrier drink, all right? Oh. So now Perrier very deliberately, you know, kind of to triangulate themselves. And they did, they did this really well. Perrier kept kind of the high class appeal. Yes. And the sort of the French chiffide is like, oh, it's Perrier. How fancy. The Highland Brewing Company saw some room here to kind of come in below Perrier on sort of the snob scale. And yeah, like very deliberately, we are an American, all American brand. You made right here in the USA, made in the Midwest. Capitalizing on the Frenchy name. Having it both ways, which is really nice. Like capitalizing on the French name, but also if you go to, if you go to the LaCroix website on their on their

frequently asked questions page, literally the first question is, how is LaCroix? proe pronounced and the answer is la croix it rhymes with enjoy which is a delightful little bit of marketing copy intentionally it's not la qua it is lacroix american sparkling water if you're from you know in or around lacrosse wisconsin you you may have heard of lecroy your entire life but i i promise you it took a long time to uh make its way out to the coasts basically blow up in the few years leading up to 2015. I read that 2015 was a 30-year low point for soda sales in the U.S. Sugar sales sales.

So in the 90s, actually, the Heilman Brewing Company had to spin off the brand. So it had been a while since they had sold it to what eventually ended up at National Beverage Corporation. Yeah, I mean, that is the, you know, maybe humble, often at points underdogged, story of how LaCroix took 40 years to be an overnight success, and I can't believe I didn't know it, had to share it with you all. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if nothing else, it got a good swath of Americans saying pamplammeuse,

so it can't be all bad. Why did they just say grapefruit? Why is it pompomous? This is the drink that started off as anti-French, right? Or anti-snob anyway. Yeah, right. All right. And that's our show. Thank you guys for joining me and thank you guys, listeners, for listening in. Hope you learned stuff about LaCroix, dog movies, indie movies, and poop toys. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, on all podcast apps and on our website, good job, brink.com.

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