How Did This Get Made? - Cool World (HDTGM Matinee)

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Brad Pitt is a cop trying to prevent Gabriel Byrne from having sex with a cartoon Kim Basinger? You read that correctly. Paul, June, and Jason break down all the insanity in the 1992 hybrid live-action/animated fantasy film Cool World. They cover all there is to know about doodles (cartoon people) and noids (humans), the confusing rules of Cool World's animated realm, Holli Would's desire to become human by having sex with a noid, and so much more. (Ep. #239 Originally Released 05/07/2020) • Do YOU want to pick the movie for an upcoming ep? Vote on our discord here• Get up to 20% off tix to see Jason in ALL OUT on Broadway with code ALLOUTPOD at AllOutBroadway.com• Go to hdtgm.com for tour dates, merch, FAQs, and more• Have a Last Looks correction or omission? Call 619-PAULASK to leave us a voicemail!• Submit your Last Looks theme song to us here• Join the HDTGM conversation on Discord: discord.gg/hdtgm• Buy merch at howdidthisgetmade.dashery.com/• Order Paul’s book about his childhood: Joyful Recollections of Trauma• Shop our new hat collection at podswag.com• Paul’s Discord: discord.gg/paulscheer• Paul’s YouTube page: youtube.com/paulscheer• Follow Paul on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/paulscheer• Subscribe to Enter The Dark Web w/ Paul & Rob Huebel: youtube.com/@enterthedarkweb• Listen to Unspooled with Paul & Amy Nicholson: unspooledpodcast.com• Listen to The Deep Dive with June & Jessica St. Clair: thedeepdiveacademy.com/podcast• Instagram: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & @junediane• Twitter: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & msjunediane  • Jason is not on social media• Episode transcripts available at how-did-this-get-made.simplecast.com/episodesGet access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using the link: siriusxm.com/hdtgm Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Just because you create something doesn't mean you have to fuck it. We saw cool world so you know what that means. Now it's time for How did this get made? We're going to have a good time, celebrate some failure. Let's follow in the mediocrity of subpar art. Perhaps we'll find the answer to the question. How did this get made? Hello, people of Earth.

And welcome to How Did This Get Made? I am tall John Shear. This is another quarantine edition of the pod. Today we are talking about Cool World, and Cool World is a movie that really defies any rational explanation. We're going to get into it. But basically, cartoons want to get into the real world. Cartoons are called doodles. Humans are called noids.

And if you have sex with a cartoon, they become real. Anyway, it's a real big mess. I don't even – I'm not even sure. understand what I saw, but to help me break it down, let me introduce my co-host, Mr. Jason Manzoukas. How are you, Jason? You know, Paul, having just watched this movie, I don't know if it is the quarantine or the fact that I haven't seen another person or touched a human being in two months. But I got, I'll not lie, I got pretty horny for these cartoons. I mean, you really like that cigar chomping partner of Brad Pitt. Nails? That's, yeah. Oh, nail. I'll fuck nails.

Before we go any further, let me introduce someone who I think got a lot of laughs out of this movie because I heard her enjoying it quite a lot. Please welcome Miss June, Diane Raphael. How are you, June? Hi, Paul. I'm okay. How are you? I'm fine. How are you dealing in this quarantine? I'm doing, I'm doing okay. It's actually just thinking, you know, it really is, I don't know, just a very quick shout out to all the people who are not quarantining because they have to go to work right now. I just keep on, you know, it is as hard as this is what we're doing and it's really hard. It is just amazing to me to see so many people obviously doing the frontline work, but also just delivering and doing all of the essential work right now. I'm just very appreciative.

And it truly, it is a privilege to be able to shelter at homes. But so I am doing okay. Well, I mean, do you think it's a privilege to shelter at home and get a chance to watch Cool World? I mean, that's really the question. I mean, it's like being on vacation. Listen, I don't know what happened last night. I don't, you know, and I was actually thinking about who framed Roger Rabbit, which I do think

had a profound effect on me as a, you know, youngster, that movie. And I felt like I was, I felt like my fond memories of that movie were violated. Because this movie is so overtly much more sexual? Or why? Do you feel like this movie is an attack on that movie? Yes, I loved Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And I thought it was so great.

And I just enjoyed the hell out of it. And this movie to me was so terrible, so underwritten, so, I mean, I will, you know, we'll get into it. But I did think Kim Basinger was a ray of light. Yeah, you were getting some solid laughs off of Kim's performance. I'm all-o-led. Well, here's the thing about this movie. And I alluded to it in the beginning. this movie was pitched as a hard R film.

See, original pitch, according to Ralph Batchke, was, it was basically the concept was a cartoon and live action human have sex. They conceive a hybrid child who visits the real world to murder the father who abandoned her. That was the original pitch. And then we get this movie. Now, that's at least an understandable pitch. This movie is, it's hard to parse what's going on.

Ralph Bakshi, who made this is somebody who is, like, comes out of adult animation. You know, he made The Lord of the Rings animated feature in the 70s. He made Fritz the Cat. Like, he's like a, he comes out of a time when adult R-rated animation, like, heavy metal and stuff like that exists. Like, it's not like, like, this. they were trying to make an animated kids movie, you know, that had all this sex in it. I think that's the mistake that, you know, like people had, which was, oh, it's an animated movie, so it's a kids movie.

But this is, my understanding, began intended for adults the same way that, you know, heavy metal might be. I don't even know. I mean, the human world is grotesque. The doodle world is grotesque. It's all so appealing. And none of them seem to be, none of the, none of the major characters seem to be, with the exception of Gabriel Byrne, having created Cool World the comic and so created Hollywood and all this stuff. Nobody seems interrelated, really. Like, I don't understand who means what to who.

I don't understand who are the good guys and the bad guys. I don't understand the stakes of this movie. I don't understand the rules. I don't understand why Brad Pitt is there at all. I have no idea why he's been sent to Cool World. Well, let's just walk it back and just say that there's a big problem with this movie in the sense that Cool World was created by Gabriel Byrne. But Cool World existed decades before Gabriel Byrne created it because that's the world

that Brad Pitt was sucked into after he'd come home from World War. and was in a horrible motorcycle accident with his mother. So, so, mustn't, have, mustn't Gabriel Byrne have created Cool World prior to that? No way. He,

that's in 1942. Like, there's no way. And they actually say in the film, I think Doc Whiskers says, we were here way before you created us. Well, because,

wait, was Doc Whiskers created by Gabriel Byrne? Well, I think that Cool World is, Gabriel Burns' creation in which these characters live, but yet it seems like he's just tapped into something that's in the ether because Cool World exists. Wait, wait, wait. So you think.

Who made Doc Whisker's? Doc Whiskers, I think, is living in an alternate reality world. That's, yes. No, I think you're right. So the very beginning when Doc Whisker escorts Brad Pitt into Cool World, I don't really remember what he said, but I feel like it was something, I feel like the idea is like you could go here, you can go into this world, you can go into that world. Like, there's tons of doodle worlds you could go into. With a doodle multiverse. I felt like, I felt like Doc Whisker's,

Doc Whisker says to Brad Pitt, I was trying to go into your world. You weren't supposed to come into my world. Like Doc Whisker's, when he creates the portal, you know, between tune world and, or cool world, rather, and reality in the 40s when Brad Pitt has come home. in his joyriding with his mother on the back of a motorcycle helmetless and gets into an accident. And he gets sucked straight into Cool World. And Dr. Whiskers or Doc Whiskers, I'm not sure if he's a real doctor or if, you know, I don't know if he's an MD. Oh, he's a doodle doctor. A doodle doctor.

Yeah, he's a doodle doctor. So he, but he says I was trying to put, I was trying to go to your world. I wasn't trying to pull you into my world. And then, but what I couldn't figure out then is we make the time jump to the, whatever, the 90s, and Gabriel Byrne is in prison, right? Which is not really touched on. He murdered someone. He is a murderer. He's a murderer.

He murdered a man who was sleeping with his wife that is so gently. It's just mentioned, we don't get any sense of that. I mean, also, Gabriel Byrne, when we meet him in prison, he's released and he goes home to his house, which looks. like it's been kept up fine. Okay, here's my main, while there's so many issues. How long was he sent away for? Great question. For murdering a person.

Great question. Noyed. Two years? One? Yeah. Because here's the timing of it. His neighbor's daughter, that girl, whoever she is, who is obsessed with him has such a, like, intense connection with him.

I couldn't really understand why. But how could she have known him? He must have been put away for, like, years. Or, see, I tried to figure that out as well because I was like, why do the neighbors care so much about him?

You know, they come over unannounced in the middle of the night. Also, the mother and the daughter appear to be the exact same age. Which I found confoundings. No, it was, you know what? This was the 90s when if you were like 13, you dressed like you were 37.

Maybe, but they just seemed, when she said mom, I was like, oh, I thought these were like roommates. Anyway, regardless, I couldn't tell, like, was he returning to the house he'd always been in? Or was he a new neighbor that they got to know and like that we just didn't see off camera? It looked to me, like he pulled his car into the driveway in the same clothes that he left prison in and got right back to work drawing Cool World, the cartoon or the comic book. Because, by the way, also in this world, Cool World, the comic book is enormously popular.

He goes to a comic book shop to buy his own work. The comic book shop only seems to sell cool world comics and the whole wall. And are we to believe that because of the setup in prison, because he has a full draftsman's table and lamp and everything he would need, has he been just continuing to draw the cool World comic from prison? Clearly, because he's allowed to profit off of his own creation while in prison for having

killed someone? He's buying the backlog. I mean, maybe it's like an OJ situation where everything he makes goes back to the family of the manny murder. You think there's a Ron Goldman type family scenario. I don't know because he is living in a shack.

He's living in, no, he's living in like a house. A nice house, June. A shack. That's a shack. Wow. That is, if you think that is a shack, that is, that, that's crazy. Because he's living in a perfectly lovely ranch house in the valley. No, not the valley. He's living in the outskirts of Vegas.

The outskirts of Vegas. And by the way, that's 1992, but the movie starts in 1945. So then the movie really does take a big jump from 1945 to 1992 after the first five. minutes because Frank Harris, that's Brad Pitt's character, is escorted in there after a very upsetting opening. And I know this is not a kid's film, but it's a PG-13 movie in which they show a motorcycle getting into a head-on collision with a pair of aggressively drunk drivers also, I guess, in the first Vegas casino.

The mom and him go flying off in different directions, although the mom is not that bad for flying off a motorcycle. And he goes through a terribly upsetting bout of PTSD thinking he's back in the war. He's calling for a medic. No medics arrive. And then he's just kind of sucked into the cool world. And then we never know what happens for or we don't see the 50 years that transpires after that. No, we just jump straight ahead.

and when we when we go we jump straight ahead to Gabriel Byrne in prison drawing Hollywood in prison. And then we go into Cool World and Brad Pitt is still there. He's been there for 50 years and now he's Cool World's number one detective. But here's the issue that I had. He could leave Cool World at any point. So why did he not leave Cool World? Like this at one point when he decides to go out. This I kind of understood at the end.

And it was because at the end, when he's faced with the reality of having to go back to the real world in order to get Hollywood and Gabriel, in order to get Hollywood back, he doesn't want to go back to the real world because it means he has to face and be accountable for the killing his mother. He didn't kill her, though. He was, like, it would be one thing if he was irresponsible, he was hit. Paul, he was irresponsible. You don't put anyone on a motorcycle without a helmet. This is 1945, June. This is a time when... They have this funny little helmets, but they have helmets.

I think in 1945, there are more casual helmets. No, no, no. I think there are casual rules. You don't put an aging woman like that on the back of a motorcycle just for fun. Of course it was his fault. Anyone who gets on a motorcycle has a death wish. I'm so sorry. June, I'm telling you that this is 1945.

if he just come home from the war, he loves his mother so much. I think regardless of safety protocols, I think perhaps it is just the guilt of having encouraged his mother to encourage his mother to come out for this joy ride and that it led to her death. I think. And why was he driving that fast? No, no, he wasn't. That was those other people. The drunk driver is at fault. He was driving pretty fast.

We cannot lay blame at the feet of Brad Pitt here. The drunk drivers are in flame. Yes. I mean, they're so aggressively drunk. Are you saying the drunk drivers or not to, are Brad Pitt is not? Listen, if you had told me he was going out for groceries and his mother happened to be in a car, I would say, of course, he should completely let this go. This is a horrible accident that happened.

He got on a motorcycle with his mother. June. In 1967, that's the first. I was worried before the accident happened that she was just going to fall off and die. June. In 1967, that's when the government said that you needed to wear a helmet. 1967, this is 20 years before that. They are, there was 1990.

Here's the thing. Have some common sense. I think you are looking at the, I agree with you, June. The war, knock the fucking sense out of him. I agree with you, but I think they are, he and his mother are acting a period appropriate. Yes. Period. That's all I'm saying.

And we can only look at it through the lens of what would people be doing in that. Yes. And they are doing that. but the drivers are truly the villains of this moment. They're maniacs. The death of his mother at Brad Pitt's feet because of no helmets. Not alone. No helmets.

There weren't that just didn't exist. Like the reality is he's participating. Here's a great option. Don't get on a motorcycle. Do you ever see the great escape? You ever see the great escape? The great escape there running motorcycles with no helmets. Come on.

Coming at it from an emotional point of view, not in culpability. or blame point of view, from an emotional point of view, I'm not trying to legally litigate who it was wrong here. From an emotional point of view, I understand why Brad Pitt is afraid to go back to the real world and face the reality of what happened to him. I understand that, but that's 50 years of dealing with that guilt. Fifty years, there's a weird thing going on here.

To me, it seems like, I mean, why do they even need a police officer there? They're dropping anvils on things. People are milking their own breasts. Like cars are hitting people. Like, what is a police officer doing there? He's also, his badge says 0.01. Or 01.

So he's the first cool world police officer, which is. Doc whiskers. That's what I kept on wondering, like, what is the letter of the law, in cool worlds. Like, what is he upholding? Is he only making sure that noids don't have sex with doodles? Because he's the only human there. He's the only noid.

So what is he protecting anyone from? Tell himself. Yeah, that's all he has to do. And he's adhering to that because correct me if I'm wrong, but he's, while interact, while Hollywood, the Kim Basinger character is, you know, represented as, as like the Jess is it what's is it Jessica

Rabbit like the what's the Hollywood is she's a femme fatal She's like the bombshell of Cool World What's the is it Jessica Rabbit And who framed Roger Rabbit? Is that her name?

Yes it's just Jessica Rabbit yeah But also in Cool World There's no agreed upon animation Like her animation is wildly different Than everybody else's animation too Just FYI and I will say There was stuff that I liked about I wish

Yeah I like that part I wish we'd lived in cool world, frankly. I wished we'd lived in and understood the rules of cool world better because once they leave cool world and go back into Vegas, I'm like, I don't care about any of this. See, I disagree. My favorite part of the movie was seeing Hollywood and seeing Kim Basinger like be a doodle in the real world. Like to me, that's a movie I would watch. You were having so much fun at that point. I wanted to see her going to Starbucks and ordering a car.

coffee. I just wanted to see her out and about in the real world as a needle. She got very southern in the real world. That southern accent was kicking in the real world. Apparently, according to some of the lore around the movie, in the middle of shooting, Kim Basinger decided that she wanted to make this a children's film that she could show kids in hospitals. And so she made a very strong move to start like sanding. off the edges of her character a little bit. And so I do believe that she does feel like she's in a different movie. And I feel like that's an active choice of Kim Basinger, just being like, I'm going to milk

the comedy here. She's great. She's great. And my mom's alien. My stepmom's an alien. She can play physical comedy really, really well. I mean, let's be, let's not mince words. Kim Basinger is amazing.

I mean, like, there is, there is, you'll get no arguments from, she was great in cellular, a movie we did. She's been, and then. she's not to mention, like the actual movies that are Hollywood Confidential, movies that are truly exceptional movies. Yeah. She's very talented. The juxtaposition for me here was I found the storyline when it was inside of Cool World to be easier to follow than outside of Cool World.

If you found it easier to follow, I want to ask you a question. So not that it made sense. Not that it made sense, but that I just understood a little bit more the, the, the, the, the, some of the rules, you know. Right. And I'm not, I'm not asking it in a way of like, I'm not asking it in a way back. No, Jason, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm simply asking like, I don't know if I understand it. Can you please help me?

Is it the idea that Brad Pitt's number one job is to make sure that Kim Basinger doesn't fuck annoyed. And has Kim Basinger been trying to bring other noids in? Because it seems like he says to her, like, I am checking it on you. I know what you're trying to do. And so she has some sort of magical powers, which we're not really sure about, that she's bringing in, Gabriel Byrne. You got over here. So why couldn't he make it over there? Or for that matter, why couldn't I? You could help me There'll be no crossovers while I'm around I've got news for you pal

I am not your ordinary doodle I've been checking up on what these noid dames have got going in the real world and I want it It seems like the Gabriel Byrne scenario Has been going on and off You know like he

And where were those guys coming? from. And why were they? Gabriel Byrne seems to be able to. Okay. Now, again, these are rules I decided for myself because I just needed them. You set out like a, just a book of rules for every movie you watch. Yeah, yeah. I write a rule book. And someday I'll publish them all. Yep. Just so you can get through the enjoyment of the movie.

Yeah. But you, but this movie, this movie, this movie does. does require you to make a couple of decisions for yourself because I wrote down a few times here. I don't even know what to write. Yeah. Like you're in a world where you're like no one's leading me by the hand. I rewound. There was a couple of times where it moved to a different scene and I was like, oh, wait a minute. What was I supposed to learn from that previous scene and I would rewind it?

Rewatch that scene and be like, oh, I don't know. I don't know why nails getting trapped in the fountain pen is like dangerous. Yes. I don't know. What is that pen? Somehow the existence of free floating ink is dangerous, is like a threat. Well, because to me, I always thought the idea was that they could be erased. Paul, you're holding a pen up right now on Zoom.

And I don't know if that's a threat or not. But well, are you a doodle? If it is, if you're a doodle. I mean, but at one point, Brad Pitt takes his pen out and goes, this is a weapon here. Then he shoots ink into nails his liquor cup, and he drinks it, and nothing seems to happen. Who are you? Who are you? I didn't create you?

No shit, Sherlock. What'd you do with this, Steve? I'm a cartoonist. I drew all this. I have visions. This place exists with or without you. You believe me, right? I'm not one of your creations.

Oh, you're not pretty enough. Good one. Ordinary fountain, right? Yeah. Wrong. Around here. Sit down. Around here, this can be a big nuisance. You thirsty, nails? Oh, no! Get it? One should be careful how they wave this thing. No, I don't get it. Of course you don't get it, because you're a wackadoo. And around here, everything goes. Everything, everything, except one thing. Yeah, what?

Noids do not have sex with doodles. Right? Noids do not have sex with doodles. You think she's got a thing for you, don't you? That's sweet. But don't flatter yourself. She's a waste of ink. Clear?

Truth is, she's been after me and every other noid who's come through here. It's just that no one's been insane enough to get involved with her. You keep your pencil in your pocket. You know what I mean? Okay. So you guys know, right, okay, we all grew up, I'm sure, watching Looney Tunes cartoons. You know the episodes, every once in a while there would be an episode where the animator, where Bugs would talk to, or Daffy Duck would talk to the animator.

And the animator's hand would come in and erase Daffy Ducks beak so he couldn't talk anymore. or would the hand and the pencil would come in and fuck with the drawing, right? And it would break the fourth wall of animation to presume someone else is controlling us. We do not have free will, right? We are not characters that exist. We are the mouthpieces of this godlike other hand, right? It's not a space jam world where these characters are shooting their own TV shows and acting. So what I expected was Gabriel Byrne would be that character.

That character. And he even says to Hollywood at one point, can I erase you or I can erase you? Like he makes a threat almost. Like I can erase you, which confused me because I was like, oh, is that? Because that's a story I can get on board for. You know, the creator of a world gets sucked into it and has to. to, you know, through his knowledge of the world he created, figure out either how to get out, how to make the world better, whatever.

But Brad Pitt's presence really fucks that whole thing all up because it appears as though it's Brad Pitt's movie, not Gabriel Burns movie. And that's when I couldn't figure out who are the gangsters working for. Why is it like a classic 1940s noir with a femme fatale? and the bad guys and the cops chasing after them and the dames and the it felt honestly like somebody took and I know that this is like probably a hacky thing to say but like someone took the beginning part of one script and then another part of script and just kind of merge them together because the first 15 minutes don't mesh you you're

introduced to something and then they reset the entire table again it's you should just start in prison with him drawing her she reaches out and we're in. Like, I don't even think we really even need the Brad Pitt character because even at the end, the Brad Pitt character doesn't serve to save the day or just stop anything. Brad Pitt's character has no arc, period. No arc.

He is not a hero. He is just along for the ride. He, there is nothing that he does. The only story point that we get, and spoiler alert is that he becomes a cartoon at the end. I mean, that's it. It's interesting. Gabriel Byrne and Brad,

Pitt are redundant. Yes. Redundant characters because they are both on some kind of a journey but not, but, but, but, but Gabriel Byrne is the only one who has real power and agency. You know what I mean? He's the only one who can change it because he created it in a weird way. But why doesn't he know Brad Pitt is there is what I couldn't figure out? I mean, here's the thing.

I connected more to Brad Pitt's journey because I did feel like, okay, here's this guy who's suffering from PTSD and is trying to honestly accept reality as it is, that he is both not in the war and that a terrible thing has happened. And I don't know if you get, like, I know what Doc, I know what Doc Watts's his face says in the beginning, but it did seem like the fact that he was so disoriented made him more and so unable to like figure out what was real and what wasn't and still in such trauma over the war and what he had seen made him more susceptible to being like sucked into this doodle world. Like there was something about his brain and the way his meant what was happening with

his mental health, which made him, uh, a prime candidate. But do you think his mental health? I don't think his mental health was off until he was violently thrust off that motorcycle because he seemed to have come home from the war perfectly happy. He was wearing that brand new suit. He had gotten that new motor. cycle. He seemed happy go lucky, unfazed by the war that he just fought. Only in that moment did his brain get a little bit jostled. Like I see what you're saying. And I appreciate it.

Well, maybe that's true that maybe it was just triggered by him being, you know, in this terrible accident. But either way, it did seem like there was this, that he was crime to get sucked into the doodle world. But what I did like about his journey was the, it did seem at the end like I don't know that he didn't have a purpose like I kind of thought he went back to the real world to die there to become a doodle like he knew going in yes I'm going to try to save the universe but I'm ultimately going to sacrifice my body and die so that I can become a dude why would he want to even save cool world like what is there just a hiding thought for him I mean what is the threat lovely what is the threat that what is the threat that cool world and

real world will just because, you know, because what happens is, you know, once Gabriel Byrne fucks the cartoon, like, so the one rule of cool world is noids, which is what, like, humanoid, I guess is what it is. Right. Humans cannot have sex with doodles, period. Like, that's the, that is the one enforced rule. But there's only one human in cool world, and that's Brad Pitt, who is. is abiding by that law to a degree.

Now, let me ask you. That is this. I mean, that is his, that is the one thing he can do in his job description. And he's the only one that could possibly break that law. Does the law, so that begs the question. Why does the law exist? Right. Something must have happened.

I mean, there were doodles before. I think they probably got really close to having sex. Well, let's talk about the spike. because the spike is a children's story that they tell the doodles about a doodle that escaped to the real world and put a spike in the top of a Vegas casino and if you take out the spike

you're essentially taking the plug out of the ink well I mean this is I don't even really venture to go there fucking bananas isn't that Doc Whiskers Did Doc Whiskers? Isn't that Doc Whiskers? He did that He did that? He escaped

No, I thought it was No, because Doc Whisker's said, I tried to touch the spike, but it was too powerful for me. And then she says, get out of here, dummy. I'll do it. No, at the very beginning, Doc Whisker's has the spike, right? Oh. And he's using it to open the portal to tune world.

Whoa. See, Jason, while that was happening, I was just screaming. Yeah. I was just screaming uncontrollably. And I was writing, why does the spike look like sperm? It does. It is an odd looking spike. When I saw those cartoons show up, I just started screaming.

I mean, I missed that whole scene. Well, you thought June, like, what I love about this show is I get to watch many of film with June. And she never knows what she's in store for. She doesn't, she is going in completely blind. So when June starts watching this movie, I think you're thinking it's a 1940s. Of course I was. Military Man Come Home movie. And so for you.

to have that pure reaction that you didn't even understand that cartoons are in it was one of the most joyous experiences I've ever had in my life. See Doc Whiskers. Can you even imagine? Jason, were you aware there were cartoons in this? I did. I was. Yeah. I knew this to be. No, I had, I didn't see any, I didn't see any artwork. All of a sudden. No, no. This must have been very unsettling. It was. And I, and I've never seen this movie before. And frankly, I, I didn't see any, I. I didn't see any, I. I don't. I've never seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit before. Oh, really? Which is interesting. Yeah.

It's a great movie. I kept while I was watching this being like, oh, I'm annoyed that I've never seen. I'm annoyed, first of all. I just want to establish I am annoyed. But I'm annoyed because I haven't seen who framed Roger Rabbit. And I feel like a bunch of us conversation wise will be drawing comparisons. and I was like, fuck, I'm going to be out on that. But I knew this to be a cartoon world,

but the thing that I did remember about it was that it was dirty. Like the story around this when it came out was that it was dirty. This came out prime blockbuster time for me when I was working at Blockbuster. And I never rented it, but it seemed like, ooh, this is, yeah, like this is going to be like the dirty, who frame Roger Rabbit, although I never reached out to get it. I just think that we're trying to explain so much.

And the simple version of the film, and I think it's actually a really great idea, is like a creator being trapped within his creation. I mean, there was a John Candy movie, I think called Delirious that was like that. Like, he was a soap opera writer who gets, like, sucked into his own soap opera, and he's got to write his way out of it. You know, I think Stranger Than Fiction has an element of that. But that's the simple way in. Oh, the idea that not only that, but what's even so much more compelling about it, which I think is such a great starting point, is a man, like, let's maybe, and I don't, again, because we don't get into the murder and all the rest of it, but like a man, an imprisoned man who falls in love with the woman he's drawing.

Amazing. And that is, that is the only way he can escape is into this fantasy world. That's, there's something quite compelling. about that. Like, as we, and I will say, as we sit right now, many people stuck in small places, stuck in quarantining prison-like conditions, it is, I can imagine a world of wish fulfillment, of wishing to be elsewhere, a world in which there are no rules, a world in which there is chaos, any of that. Like, that's, I understand that. But yet when he gets there, he seemingly is, like, in awe of it, not like, oh, I know that this door opens up into this thing.

Yes. Like, it seems like he's a visitor in this world. He doesn't seem like he has any. It feels like the first time he gets sucked in is the first time he gets sucked in. Right. You lose even the fun of the master is now in the world. That's what I don't get. You know, like, that's why I feel like if the movie had been about Gabriel Burns' character and his,

his discomfort with wanting to have this love with Hollywood, but the knowledge that to do so would potentially collapse both of their worlds, that's a movie. Like, unrequited love. This is what I don't understand. Why make him a murderer? It doesn't, why? Why don't make his wife dead?

His wife dead. And they both dealing with. of grief. These two men did, one with his wife, one with his mother, and they both are looking for escape and they, and they switch spots. There's so many parallels. They're both murderers, but they, we're coded, we're coded to tell us Brad Pitt wearing gray, which is like the hero's color scheme, and Gabriel Byrne only wearing black suits, a black jumpsuit in prison and black suits on the outside. Like, he is meant to be the bad guy. And what I don't understand is why. They don't seem opposed. They don't, they're not at odds. They are not like, it doesn't make sense to me.

The only thing that they're against is Brad Pitt's like, don't fuck the person that you want to have sex with. Um, but he doesn't abide by that rule. The doodle, Paul, the doodle. The doodle. Yeah, sorry, you're right. Sorry, I didn't mean to say that. And I apologize to anyone. out, yes. The doodles. Any doodles out there? Sorry to doodles. But I also feel like Kim Basinger's character, Hollywood, and Hollywood, if she could,

and she did, which I think was the tagline of the movie, is the, is that when she gets into the real world, she starts acting like a child, but she's very manipulative and she's living, it's seemingly a very rich life in cool world. Like, it's not like, oh, I've never touched anything before. It's like, you're in that world. My stepmother is an alien. She's acting as if everything is brand new to her. Right.

And I understand that everything is tactile. I mean, there's a lot that's new. She was two-dimensional before. Well, yes, she was, but here's what I don't understand. Yes, she was. She was a drawing. Of course. Yeah, but she's in a world of drawing.

Why was she able to, for example, this is where it broke down for me, where I was really like, I don't get the rules. I understand. Did you throw your book out the window? Book went out the window. You know, guess what? I'm rewriting the rules. If it's like two-dimensional world, fine. And it is characters who yearn to be real.

Right? Okay. But when Gabriel Byrne falls in or Brad Pitt, I can't remember what it is, someone burns him with a cigarette. So there is the ability for their, to have cause, there's causality in their actions and reactions. Like, they are not, when he goes to touch her, he is able to physically touch her. He is able to be burned by her cigarette.

Right. It's not like they exist. It's not like he is three-dimensional and they are two-dimensional. It is. Brad Pitt cups his girlfriend's face. Like he puts his arm around his girlfriend. He's in a car that's three-dimensional and then sometimes two-dimensional. It seems like everything is working.

Why in Cool World are some settings and cars practical real-life cars, not drawings of cars? That's again. And this is like, this is where I think the Roger Rabbit comparison is really the only one to talk about where you can say the rules were very clean and clear. This is what happens. This is the world. Like here it's a junk drawer of animation. Everything is happening to the. the point that it just feels like

they're just like more, dump more shit into every frame. It's, it's a, it's a mess of, of things, styles, attitudes. How does Brad Pitt know you can't fuck a tune? A doodle. Why is he? Like, why is, yeah. How does he know that?

Did his boss tell him? Has there been evidence of it before? Like, what's, did he do it once and it went poorly? Because here's the reality. Brad Pitt's character has a girlfriend who, want to fuck. And they can kiss and they can do other stuff, I guess.

But they can't kiss. They do kiss. They say they can get close to it. They do. They kiss on the mouth. Yeah. I thought that they like watch each other and masturbate or something because she's like we can do something.

They are for sure mutual masturbating. They are for sure doing hand and mouth stuff. But like, and probably finger stuff, you know, is. I don't think they're doing that. But like sex, sex makes it like a magic trick that you can then go to the real world, I guess. But I don't know why. Well, no, then you become real. But like, but if she becomes real, like, is she manipulating Gabriel Byrne this entire time?

Does she just want to become real or does she love Gabriel Byrne? Of course. Because Paul, she's manipulating him. But why? To become real. To become a real. Because I think it's like a Pinocchio. I think she wants to become a real girl.

But she doesn't like have any. feelings to this person who created her? No, she's like, get me, yeah, no, she just wants She just knows that he's a sucker that will fucker. Because when she gets to the real world, she's like, men. Look at all these men. She wants to smell the men. She wants, yeah.

And is that Frank Sinatra Jr.? She's like, let's make love. It is. Yes, it is. Yeah, she said, like, she said, like, I can have sex with any man in this room or something. But then also, in that scene, she starts reverting back to her cartoon shape, but it's a different cartoon shape.

Well, they both start having like, like fits or spasms of cartoon, um, of tune, tune stuff. Like they both like, doodle stuff. Suddenly Gabriel Burns hands are big giant like tune hands or whatever. Like they're having like, um, like tune episodes. Yeah, like they're having like tune seizures and coming. But I get that.

But why is she turning into a different tune? Wouldn't she just turn into a different tune? to her own tune again? She's in a different body. I thought I actually liked that cartoon, that doodle that she was turning into. I thought it was really funny. I just think she,

it almost felt to me like whatever that doodle was, was an earlier version of Hollywood. Okay. Oh, interesting. I thought it was just, I thought it was because they had broken the barrier, like tune shit was just like happening to them like like free form tune stuff like it was out of control basically and that's why when when more tune stuff starts happening Las Vegas starts to become people

at slot machines start turning into wolf tune character and like and what I did like I like and I know like this movie I want to be very clear is not good and it is it is incredibly difficult to make sense out of. Yes. But I found a lot of the animation stuff, a lot of the animated chaos fun. Like when Las Vegas is overrun by chaotic tune characters, like that stuff was,

I enjoyed that. Like they did, it was like I enjoyed the kind of, because that to me, I was like, this I get, this is chaos. This is tune world invading, Vegas. Got it. Okay. But my whole thought, my thought about that is, if Tune World invades Vegas, then it just becomes cool world. Right. So why would you want to create another cool world?

Oh, I don't think, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think this is akin to a multiverse story and that if you open a if once you start uh if you travel between multiverses and try if you go it's like you know Rick Remender's Black Science or any number of of of you know multiverse specific comics or anything like this when you are when you're talking about going between things the effects are catastrophic on both ends, right? Right. So, right. So she doesn't intend to create another tune world,

but she does want to get the spike for what reason, maybe just to become permanently real? That's maybe to destroy it so that, like, is she trying to destroy the spike so that she can just be now, so that nobody can come get her and bring her back? I think part of it is I want to become real, real, but she is real real. I don't know. And it bothers me that it's so...

Yeah, it bothers me too. It bothers me too. Here's the thing about Cool World that is very true. And it's also true for alternative comics at the time. Cool World is like sexual depravity. like it is a world of lasciviousness like like it is like the the world that existed in like in the kind of um uh in the alt comic worlds of like the 70s and 80s like like I'm talking like you know crumb and all the stuff that was beyond was it was a lot of like sexual lasciviousness creating creating animated and cool uh not cool but animated the animated the animated cool world aesthetic felt to me like those 70s, 80s, erotically charged,

lascivious, like cartoon, like, I'm trying to think of a couple of, Fritz the Cat, heavy metal, all have this kind of stuff as a part of it. I do like that. I like that idea that is emerging of so many styles. Like there's like Frank Fizzetta kind of images in the background. then there are like simple loony tune images. She's a little bit more of like a modern day cartoon character.

Like there's so many different things. And then when Gabriel Byrne, and we haven't even talked about this, and this will be, you know, we're getting towards the end here, when Gabriel Byrne turns into a superhero that kind of looks like,

like a traditional like Shazam. Shazam, yeah. He looks like he's basically got Shazam's color scheme. And he looked like Gaston from the Beauty and the Beast. And but why would he transatlant? transformed so crazily into that character that has nothing that looks like him. I mean, like, is that what he's always wanted to be? Cool world doesn't seem to have, um, superhero archetypes.

You know what I mean? It isn't like a cool, it is like a seedy underworld. Like it's gangsters and, and she's a, she, you know, like Hollywood seems to be like a gangster's mall and like everything. the archetypes are 30s and 40s gangster movies. They're not like superhero stories. They're not Silver Age DC superhero world they follow

them find themselves in. They find themselves in what looks like a noir. It looks like a femme fatale setting up a dupe to kind of get one over on them. It's more like a it's more like a film noir in its kind of set up. She's just using Gabriel Byrne as leverage to get into the real world like that, you know, blah, blah, blah. All the kind of and the cops are corrupt and everything, nobody's seen.

And none of it seems, though, I'm grasping at all of the kind of little things to try and make order out of it. But there really, there really is no goal. There's no stakes. There's no protagonist. There's no antagonist. and there are no set rules. So it's just a matter of visual stuff and hunky Brad Pitt, I think. I think that they thought they could get away with,

what if we just made a movie where Jessica Rabbit was more sexual? And at the end of the day, that's what they decided that they would commit to because this is a movie that I said. It was Pitch's this very simple idea about basically an estranged daughter trying to kill her father, that then the script is given to somebody else and they rewrite it, then it's given to somebody else. It was supposed to be a horror film. Then it became a comedy film. And then it went from R to PG-13.

Brad Pitt switched roles. Brad Pitt was supposed to be the creator of Cool World, the comic book artist, and Gabriel Byrne was supposed to be a detective, and they switched. Then Drew Baramore dropped out. And then Kim Basinger came in. Then Kim Basinger decided to switch. And then Frank Bashee came to set and punched the producer in the mouth. Like, this movie was plagued from start to finish.

The backstory of this movie is insane. And it's a mess. And I think that what we're reacting to is some editor was in a room going, like, I think this kind of can make sense a little bit. Because also it feels like the animation is done in a vacuum where it's like, I don't even think Kim Basinger is basing her performance on what she does an animation. in a real world. I think that's two separate performances.

Well, that's the thing is in, in, um, cool world, she is clearly in command and in control. She is, she's playing everybody. She's the smartest person in any room. She is without a shadow of a, she's also like the, the, one of the most, um, famous people.

she's this icon. And she is the iconography. She is the iconography of cool world, really. Yeah. She is it, right? So it's such a powerful character that when she gets to the real world, and instead it becomes more like my stepmother is an alien as if everything is like, like discovery brand new, it takes away some of what I, it takes away some of her.

She is so often the dragon. driving engine in Cool World because it's what she wants that we're seeing. And that when we come into the real world, all that slows down. And it becomes really just like, I'm not sure what's going on. You know, like I'm not sure what the goal is. I mean, I imagine if we had given her another week or two to just sit in her body and just experience like the, the basic functions of a body. You know, she might gain some of her confidence and power back.

But June, what do you think? But do you think that she's, is that different from being two dimensional or three dimensional? Because she's seducing him like she would seduce, like, as a three dimensional character. She, she just seems so, like, she seems like that scene where the neighbors come over. I think she's having a hell of a time being a real person and is just enjoying it. And I think we're seeing her kind of on vacation Where she's like got the thing she's always wanted So yes, she is a bit different and she's not as

But I I genuinely enjoyed that part of the movie Because I thought it was just fun at least And the rest of the movie was so grim to me And so with all these doodles like it was not I did not want to be in that doodle world I did not like it I didn't like seeing those things flying by. Like, it was all so unsettling to me.

By the way, when they go to Vegas, also disgusting. Like, it's the only time I've ever seen Vegas in a movie that looks like Vegas in real life. It's just like dark. It's dim. It was not aspirational. It was not like, wow, it was a real gross point of view of Vegas. It was not good. The movie itself, it has, like, darkness within it.

You know what I mean? Like, the movie. itself is not pleasant. You know, like there's not, there are no heroes to root for. There, like, everybody is, everybody has done and behaved

reprehensibly, you know, in some way, shape, or form. Uh, or feels they have, you know, no, and, and maybe that's part of it, but it was really, it was a, it was, I don't know, man. It was a,

it was it was tough to watch but i will say and again i am just catastrophically lonely i really was like i would like to hang out with that animated hollywood like she's looking great this is but she's the villain jason she's the villain she wouldn't want you she'd use you she is the negative The point of a Femfital. You want to fall for the Femfital. That's why the Femfital is successful in leading the leading man down the road to disaster and ruin. That's what's great about a noir, you know, is, is, oh, believe me, I know, as we talk about that on unspooled all the time. What's that? I said we talk about that on unspooled all the time. You guys, have you guys wrapped that up now that the COVID has hit? No, it's actually going real strong. We're doing live

shows. We're really getting it out there. We're really having so much fun. Just kind of breaking down these archetypes. Yeah. It's good to know. You're pouring a lot of energy and effort into doing unspooled. That's cool. Yeah, well, you know, we've got to get a lot of guests. It's hard to get guests for, you know, in the quarantine, but we're just really trying to get the, we're trying to get cool guests in the show. And that's really what the It's hard to get, well, I mean, June and I are right here. Sure. All right, let's move on. Let's move on right now and continue here. So obviously we had opinions about this movie,

but there are people out there with a different opinion. It is now time for second opinions. All right, so guys, that this person recommends it. Tell me what is the message? Heart is subjected. All right, so guys, these are five-star reviews,

cold from Amazon.com. The average rating of this movie is 4.3 out of five stars. There are 412 total reviews. 67% are five-star reviews. Only 9% are one-star reviews. Andrew Sisnell in 2019 writes, ahead of its time, I have never seen anything like it. This is why life is worth living all men, five stars.

Don't know what that means. All men. That all men, I guess maybe, like, this is why we'd all love to. to have someone like Kim Basinger? I guess that's the point, I think. All right. This one from Destroy 777 from 2015 writes this, Brad Pitt is hilariously young.

Five stars. Very low bar for the five stars. And there are some really interesting ones in here. This one is a lot of these. Douglas Helvey, my daughter loves Cool World, Jeannie M. Rasmus, my daughter was looking for Cool World, I forgot it, it existed, I bought it, it's perfect. And then I wanted to read this final one for you here. This is a little bit longer, but it's kind of great. It's from JC. It was written in 2003, and it goes like this. The title, Cool World, is meant to be a sarcastic quotation. Holly seems to portray evil in the most appealing way. There's a lot of evil going on in the background and foreground of this film throughout. Temptation, I believe, is the main subject.

But there are other subjects tackled in the movie as well. If you have only seen this movie once, it deserves a second look. And if you still don't get the message, then I can only say that cool world is a reflection of the people who really are. And it's ironic that so many people seem to hate this film. You simply can't compare this to who framed. That movie was a typical Disney flick. Cool World is a satire of our society.

Five stars. There's one line I didn't put in because I couldn't know how to get it in here. But this great world, it goes, this great line, Cool World is a complex film and it was written as a puzzle for people to figure out later on. Wow. I think that five stars. I do think you can look at Cool World. and I'm sure the writer somehow this was the writers like ha ha ha I do think cool world slash

you know it's not for nothing her name is Hollywood I think cool world and you know Hollywood are supposed to be like um you know Hollywood Los Angeles like I think it's supposed to be it should have been Los Angeles instead of Vegas though exactly it's I think it's meant to be a a place of avarice and vice. Like, it is where you push down all of your grossest urges and desires. Because that seems to be what the people of Cool World concern them. Everybody in Cool World is a bad guy. Everybody is a villain.

Everybody is a crime boss. There are no, in Cool World, you never go to, like, a light venue. You never go to, like, a pleasant place. The all of Cool World is seedy and gross and dangerous and people are duplicitous and liars and nobody can be trusted. I don't get it. Like, I don't understand what the movie is trying to show me about humanity or about ourselves. I don't know what it's meant to show me about relationships. I don't know what its message or theme.

I don't know what the theme of this movie is. Well, I mean, do you think that we should, listen to J.C. and like watch it a couple more times and see if we can unpack it. Here's one thing I will say and I'm very, very reluctant to say this. I don't want to say this. But this movie is as close to a Jacobs Ladder scenario as I've seen in a very long time. You know, guy gets hit in the first scene on a motorcycle. he first goes into wartime flashbacks and then as he's dying he this cartoon thing that he's aware of this comic book or whatever he just I'm so sorry is he dying though is he died could have been I mean he

was hit he was hit head on his studebaker his mom's yeah mom dies but he doesn't look like he's sustained he's talking he's conscious he like gets over to her he doesn't look like he is sustained like devastating. I agree. I agree. But the mom only has a little bit of blood coming out. The mom only has a little bit of blood coming out. But like I'm also saying

he's mentally fractured. You know, like maybe this, maybe it's not a Jacobs Ladder scenario. Maybe if they, how about this? If they pulled back at the end and he was like in a mental institution just drooling on himself, would, and the cool world comic book

was in his lap, would you be like, Oh, that's what this all was. Yes. But by the way, here's a better version of this story. I don't know if either of you remember. There's a TV show back when I was a kid called Amazing Stories. They just kind of came out with it again on Apple TV. But there's a great episode about like a World War I or World War II pilot.

They're in a bomber. And he's an animator or an illustrator. And they're under, they're under attack. And he starts drawing like a wheel for the plane, a cartoon wheel. And it becomes real. and he actually saves the day, like the plane lands, like on this cartoon wheel.

Like, he's able to, like, take his drawing into the real world. And I think the problem with this movie is, we are introduced to a lead character, like, that opening scene,

like, if he's been getting through the war by making these comics, great. Like, if he's the original artist, if he's the Stan Lee, and then Gabriel Byrne took over after he died.

If we even knew that he read comics. Sure. Yes. Like, we need some connection. Let's see him first in a foxhole. Everything's going, crazy around him and the only thing he's clutching is that comic and then gave listen if we knew his

mom read comics waiting for him to come home so many ways to go but i guess the question that only matters is would you recommend it jason i'll let you go first would you recommend this film you know yeah yeah i'm gonna say yes i mean it's a fucking weird movie it's a you did a 180 there early on you said you would it and now you've come back i think that this movie this conversation maybe it is a puzzle that we're unlocking. I would. I mean, like, this is, I think, it's, it is, hmm, listen, if you've listened to the podcast and you've gotten to this point and are waiting to decide whether to watch it, I think you'll know what you're in for. So I say, yes, watch it. Because I think there's a ton of. And then that's on you. Yes, that's on you. I think because,

because there are huge problems with it structurally. Huge. It really is a confounding jumble of nonsense. But within that, I think there is some incredible Ralph Bakshi art. I think there is some incredible animation. I think there is really fun, weird side characters, side bits of physical comedy in the cartoon world that are fun and interesting to watch. Like, I was still drawn to watch it. It wasn't, it was a, me because it was confusing and needlessly so, but I would, I would recommend watching it for its, look, look, there are not many movies that do this. You know, there are not many movies that attempt this. Big swing. This is without question a failure. In no way is this a success,

but there's something about it that if your expectations are this is going to be a mess, but there's interesting stuff in it, then I'm always, I always think, listen, also I will say, watch Ralph Back, she's the Lord of the Rings. It's unbelievable.

So interesting. You know what I mean? It's like, like, this is a master at work. So it's, it might not be a good movie, but there is, there is somebody incredible doing,

doing stuff in it. That being said, it's bad. It's a bad movie. It's not, worth it. And if you are watching it and are like, I don't understand what Jason's talking about. I hate this. Please feel free to turn it off.

June? Yeah, I agree. I mean, it's something to see. It's something to rest your eyeballs on. And that's kind of it. So for me, I don't care for animation. I don't. It doesn't, I've never

connected to it. I just don't. Again, I love two frame Roger Rabbit, but I don't I'm not going to watch something for the animation. And so I just didn't really, nothing dazzled me in that world. I love the transformation of Hollywood into a real person.

And I liked her in that, I liked her performance and I thought there were some really fun moments when she became a human. But that's kind of it. It's a bunch of gobbledygook and doesn't add up to anything. Again, I just, I really, I can't, I can't impress upon the audience enough.

Just imagine, just watch, watch the first, I would say watch the first 20 minutes after listening to this podcast and just think about what I went through having no context for what was about to happen. And also watch the first 20 minutes and realize how little you understand. what's going on. Yes. You know, like, I was a full 40, I looked 40 minutes in and I was still like, what's going on? What's the, what story are they trying to tell? Yeah. Maybe we're telling you, if you watch this movie, know that it's kind of hard to wrap your

head around so you can enjoy it and you can really kind of parse it out. Like, you're not dumb for not getting it. No, we've just spent. You know, let it wash over you. You know, this might be one of those movies that's a good, like, stoned watch. Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely.

The visuals are delightful and funny and weird and crazy. And you don't need to worry about the story because that's, I think, I don't know, that's kind of what I feel like would be the satisfying part is the, is the tune, is the cool world, all the nonsense of the cool world like that. Like I loved, you know, like it scratched a lot of my animation. It's just like, I don't know, that seems like a bad. building and they pan up in the building is like this huge circular tower. And I was like, yeah, I like that. I like, I like dumb jokes like this, you know, like that are that are fun, you know.

You know what I wish they had done. Yeah, but the movie is just like, bur, tough stuff errone. You know what I wish they had done? I wish they had more fun with like the dimensions of people. Like, I wish Hollywood was either a lot taller than the humans or like kind of little. You know, I feel like there were opportunities to just have more fun with humans being in that world. And then conversely, doodles being in the real world, those opportunities were missed. I'm going to put it down on my list of definitely watch it because very rarely on this show, am I this confounded or the, this kind of like, wait, what? And there is a joy in the amount that we have done this show to feel that,

like to feel it nonstop for the hour and 45 minutes. It really continues to turn a screw of confusion that I found it to be a unique film that I think is above the fray and how crazy it is. So that's three across the board. The movies that I feel like I find that I would not recommend are movies that just do the thing and then it's all lateral moves from there. It's all just more of the same. And it's like, who cares? Boring, right?

This movie does not do that. It changes the game and the rules every couple of minutes so that it really keeps you engaged but infuriatingly confused. I talked about how this movie had like very difficult production issues, but the final straw was the promotion of this movie. The studio literally placed Hollywood, the character on the Hollywood sign. Like they built an extension on the Hollywood sign with her and she's giant. She is as big as the D in Hollywood and she is sitting on the D. and people freaked the fuck out. Like, that has never been done before.

And I've seen some pictures of it. You can Google a picture of Hollywood on the Hollywood sign. People were angry. This movie angered people on every single level. I joked before about the tagline, which I did know, but I will read it to you. The tagline of the movie is Hollywood, if she could, and she will. That's the tagline. and the movie, the budget was $30 million, and it grossed $14 million.

And I think with that, it's a perfect way to end and say, Jason, June, anything you guys want to plug? June, anything? No, I just want to say, again, thank you to all of the nurses and doctors and everyone who's out there working hard, taking care of people right now, especially in the healthcare industry. I'm just so appreciative. That's all. I think there's a lot of great. There's a lot of great.

I will echo June sentiment, especially to the medical professionals, the first responders, people who are out there on the front lines of this, you know, absolute catastrophic nightmare that we find ourselves in. Thank you. You're doing absolutely, you know,

incredible work under unbelievable duress. and in a scenario in which we find ourselves on a ship that appears to be leaderless and without any rules, thank you to people who are trying to make sense of what is going on. And, you know, the more that we can provide any solace distraction, the more that we can, through putting out podcasts or consuming things or whatever, pointing you towards things that can provide some sense of relief. You know, like I know we've been hearing from people who are like grateful for the ability to kind of tune out the nightmare and the world and the news and just have a bit of fun

and a bit of levity with the, I know I feel it when I see new episodes of my favorite podcasts pop up. So hopefully we are that for you guys. We're happy to be here. And I'm glad that we are still doing it makes me happy to see you guys on Zoom and talk to you guys about dumb movies that it might seem trivial or silly in this time. But I know there's thousands and thousands of people out there who when they see our podcast pop up in their podcast app know that they are excited to have this time with us. And I am grateful for you guys. And I hope that, you know, especially those of you out there who are.

are working in those dangerous fields and are on the front lines of this, I hope that you guys are enjoying these episodes and know that we appreciate you. Well put, Jason. And I will, and I'll just kind of continue this pass along of supporting all these amazing people. I also just want to give a shout out to all the delivery drivers, the people that are waiting in lines in supermarkets to do your supermarket shopping for you or to go to your target or working in your favorite restaurant so it doesn't close. And, you know, the people that, you know, the people that, are working on the front lines of, for lack of a better term, comfort. Like there are so many people that are out there that are doing so much. And, you know, from FedEx drivers to delivery people and

mail workers and everything like that, I just, I want to give a huge shout out to them. And they're spending a lot of time in their cars, and I've talked to so many of them about having this on with them. And so I really appreciate that. And I know for me, small businesses are really important. I really want to make sure that if you're in your community, we're trying to help, whether that's ordering in a meal once a week, or if that's supporting your local comic book shop, which is actually something that I've been doing with my new Marvel series that Jason's going to be on. We're just talking about local comic book shops and how you can get out there and support them. These small businesses that surround us that we maybe sometimes take for granted need our help right now.

So, you know, I think there's a lot of ways to get in and support our community. A lot of these small businesses are really. really operating in a very dangerous small margin. So they are really under threat. And I think there's also too, you know, a lot of, if you are in a position where you are able to give money to places, there are places that need it. You know, like we did a big mouth table read that benefited feeding

America.org. The Parks and Rec episode that aired, last week, raised millions of dollars for a couple of different organizations. So, like, there are, and those, those things remain up on YouTube. They are, they are things you can watch an episode of Parks and Rec, a new episode. You know, there are things that you can watch for entertainment sake, but that are also giving you an opportunity to donate directly to well-vetted, well-sourced charities that need your money.

And by the way, we are also doing that here at How Did This Get Made? We have two shirts that are all the proceeds go to Feeding America. That's our quarantine buddies shirt and our Gish and Gert shirt. That's, you know, Annabel Gish and Jamie Gertz on a shirt designed by Pete the S-Man Skidase. And we actually saw Annabelle Gish wear a Gish and Gertz shirt. So all that money goes right to Feeding America. But thank you all for, oh, Jason's pulling it out right there.

I've got my Gish and Gert shirt right here. I'm wearing it. I love my Gish and Gers shirt. I plan on wearing it when we inevitably meet Annabeth Gish and Jamie Gertz. They, it's going to be great. It's going to be a great episode. And also, I want to thank everybody here at Earwolf for all their tireless work of putting this show together. Not only the people that work on the show like Averill and Nate and Molly every week,

but the people that are literally keeping Earwolf afloat. And that is our producer, Cody, and our engineer Devon. our team is absolutely amazing. July, I'm sure everyone is going through a lot of stress and the way that Earwolf has kind of jumped in. And like Jason was saying, continue to produce these podcasts and made it easy for people to produce these podcasts

has just been absolutely mind-blowing. So I just want to say a thank you to all of them, essential workers indeed. And we will see you next week on the mini episode. Make sure that you give me a call at 619 P-A-U-L-A-U-L-Sk. 619, P-A-U-L-ask. You could talk about Cool World. You can explain what I got wrong,

or you could just talk about your personal life. I solve problems on that thing. So give us a call, 619, P-A-U-L-A-L-A-Sk, and that will be next week for the mini episode about Cool World. We will see you next episode. Bye for now.