Tapeworm: A Movie Podcast - The Grossest Superhero Movie Ever Made? | The Toxic Avenger (1984)

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

In this episode of Tapeworm Podcast, we discuss The Toxic Avenger (1984), a cult horror-comedy from Troma Entertainment.We highlight key moments from the film, share our reactions, and explore its low-budget style, lasting appeal, and place in cult movie history.What We CoverStandout moments from The Toxic Avenger (1984)First-time reactions and opinionsTroma’s low-budget styleWhy the film became a cult classic

Do you think this movie is a social commentary on the fact that we need to take better care of our planet? I think that's one interpretation. Yeah, what are your other interpretations? That they didn't put that much thought into it. Probably. But welcome to the Tapehorn podcast. My name is DJ. And I'm Raz.

And why are we talking about taking care of our planet? Well, that's because this week we watched 19 Toxic Avenger. So is this your first experience with this movie? Yeah, I have not seen it before this. Okay, I'm like 95% sure that I forced you to watch it with me years ago. I must have blocked that memory out or fell asleep right in the first couple minutes. It might have been a situation where we put it on, but we never actually watched it. I remember it being on like a one of those old projection TVs back when we were when we were living at Robbs.

It might have been, yeah. Yeah, but there was a lot of drugs and alcohol back then, so that could be another reason why we don't remember any. Good possibility. It's more than a likelihood. So this movie was actually really successful. Yeah, it definitely spawned a cult following. I say even, I would say it wasn't a cult following. A cult following usually is like they don't find a cult following.

an audience until much later. This pretty much found an audience right away. It spawned, I believe, three sequels and a, like, Saturday morning cartoon. That's fair. Okay. So the budget was 500,000. I can't, I don't see. I'm sorry.

$500,000 for a 1984 film? Yeah, 500,000, yep. I'm, uh, I'm impressed. I did not think it would have been that high. Yeah, you think so? Yeah, I mean, I would have expected this would have been like maybe like 100, 200,000 for, for that. No, no, 500,000. Why, you don't think it was that great?

Well, I mean, yeah, 500,000 was, I mean, 500,000 back then is probably what, like 2 million nowadays, 3 million? You're looking it up now. Yeah. Fletian counter. 84. 1.5. Yeah. It's about 1.5 million today. Yeah. So I will say this is their first, like, major success. I'm sorry, this is made by Troma, started by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hurt. Hers. This was their first, like, major success.

But they did have quite a few successes before this. They did what they call sexy comedies, which doesn't sound great. But, uh, From what I could see, their first one made, so the budget was anywhere from 150,000 to 300,000 for this movie called SqueezePlay. The box office, it made $4.65 million. So, and that was in like 1981 or 79, I believe. Yeah, 1979. They made like four or five more of those, three or four. I don't know.

actually I think they made quite a bit of those anyway so they were obviously making money so them dropping 500,000 isn't as crazy as it would be it would be a lot worse if this was like their first movie you know what I mean I mean that's fair I'm going through their filmography now and I didn't realize how many they made but yeah yep and trauma as a production company is crazier still.

Like, they, uh, they produced a lot. There was a lot of things that like, people would come to them and they, they put it out. Hmm. Okay. Yeah, I'm just going through and I'm seeing some, some that I even I recognize. Definitely. A big one, I'm not seeing it here on their, uh, you know what? I'm looking at Lloyd Kaufman specifically.

But if I look at trauma, are you looking at trauma or are you looking at? I'm pulling right off of their trauma.com. Okay. The films that are listed there. So I'm assuming that's including their, uh, well probably,

yeah. That's, that's their production company as well. Yeah. Okay. Troma.com is requiring me to verify that I am a human right on the films. I want to see if they have one specific because there is a movie I think we should definitely do.

Yes, it's a good one. Monster in the closet. It's starring a very young Paul Walker. Okay, I'm curious. Yep. He plays a character called The Professor. It's not a great movie. Anyway, back to Toxic Avenger.

Do you want to do a, like a little two-minute plot rundown? or would you like me to do it? God. I guess I'll give it a shot. Okay. A janitor at a local health gym. Health club is what they call. Yeah.

It becomes mutated by toxic waste after a malicious prank gone wrong and uses his newfound powers to fight crime and stand up for injustices in town or against injustice, I guess. It culminates in a final scene where everyone's happy and nothing bad happens. I mean, yeah, he does go a little like, he is kind of like the hero throughout, isn't he? Yeah, he definitely is.

I mean, he has a few moments where, you know, maybe not so hero-ish, but it was against the people that did him wrong. So I can forgive him for that. I don't know. I would disagree with that statement, but we'll get into that. I want to talk about the, just the actor that they had play Melvin in the beginning before he becomes the toxic Avenger. Yeah. He is like the nerdiest person in the world. But also, so there's, would you consider them a gang?

I wouldn't say a gang per se. Just a group of hooligans. Group of like shitty people. Also. The worst. Like, how old are these people supposed to be? I mean, I kind of took it as like teenagers, maybe early 20s. Okay, because Bozo looks like he's about 45.

Yeah, no, I can see that. But Bozo is the leader of this, like, shitty person gang. And they, they seem to rag on Melvin the Mop boy for literally no reason the entire time. he's like mopping and bozo's like he's stressing me out julie like what is the point of getting pissed off at him i think it's just toxic people toxic toxic people for the most toxic town in america tromaville i mean maybe that's the point it's not about the toxic waste it's about the true toxicity in in people okay you're going way too deep into this movie yeah i got it's kind of how some kind of deep meaning otherwise.

I think, you know, Lloyd Kaufman was smoking some good shit and just came up with this. He must have been. Oh, yeah. He was doing all that blow that the, all that blow that the people who were driving the toxic waste truck,

what they were doing. Yeah, they had a big pile of snow with them, didn't they? Yes, they did. Yeah, the guy's like, he's driving this truck full of, toxic waste and he's like man we've been driving for two hours man we should pull over he's like no the boss would have our asses if we did that he was like but i got all this all this cocaine

and he guys like why didn't you say that earlier and just pulls over and stops right in front of the fucking health club like with open barrels of toxic waste did you notice that you notice it's not even like tied down. No, yeah, they, they slid, like when they break it all slid. Yeah. Like they're asking for something bad to happen. Yeah, it's, it's, it's great. But yeah, the, the actors that they chose to play this, I feel like it fits, it fits the bit so perfectly.

No, it definitely did. I think they chose good. No, it definitely did. I think they chose good actors for that. Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, so basically. they um this group of shitty children decided to play a prank on melvin basically being like having one woman being like oh i'm so hot for you blah blah blah i definitely feel like this happened a lot not probably not a lot and not to this extent at all but when we were in high school it definitely feel like stuff like this definitely happened yeah no it definitely came off as like a stereotypical high school prank.

Yeah. Well, bullying, but yeah. Would you consider that bullying? Yeah, now that you say it, it definitely does feel like it's, it's bullying. Yeah, it's way too malicious to just be a, you know, like, a heartened prank. Well, okay, I'm not saying. And it seemed consistent. I'm not saying what happened in the movie.

I'm saying the stuff that would happen, you know, in our high school experience, where a woman's just leading on like a nerdier person. Oh, no, 100% bullying. Yeah, do you think so? Yeah, no. I mean, it's definitely never happened to either one of us because, you know, it just never happened to us because we were the cool kids. Yep.

Whatever you say, I was definitely hanging out with the nerds mostly. We, I didn't even hang out with the nerds. I hung out with, like, the region. The people who didn't fit in with the nerds, the people who didn't fit in anywhere. Like, that's who I hung out with. That's fair, but I feel like a lot of the rejects that you hung out with, or maybe just tangentially, they hung out with some of the more popular people. You think so? Yeah.

You were kind of, you were kind of both. You had friends kind of all over. Yeah, but I was more of like the, I don't know if class clown is the right word. Not you, but some of your friends, yeah. Yeah. I was the, I was the kid that would do shit to make people freak out. Yeah, I'd just walk up to you and just like sit across from you at a table and stare deeply into your eyes. And then just get up and walk away without saying anything.

Yeah, I can see that. I don't know if that would be like predatory behavior or something. But anyway, yeah, so they, did you know. notice that they had him put on this like pink two two onesy thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did you notice that he wears it the entire movie?

Yeah, he does. I didn't realize him at the time. Yeah. Like it's like it fuses onto him. So basically they play this prank where ladies like, oh, I want you so bad. You're so sexy, Melvin. And then come meet me at the pool. Then the lights are off on the pool.

He's wearing this tutu. he starts making out and they turn on the lights and he's been making out with a sheep he has a line here I don't know if you heard it every time he says it it makes me fucking die

he's like Julie you're so soft and he's just petting the fucking sheep how do you not know that that's not human yeah well he wasn't all there so okay

this movie I'll say this movie has a little bit of a questionable relationship with say one sexuality and two kind of mental capacity

people with discipline yeah that's actually that's better because it's not just mental it's physical disabilities too yeah like did you notice the the gay couple in the in the health club

yeah they are played up as like almost homophobic playing up. Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely an off-color representation. Yeah, but also, you know, it was, it was the 80s. I don't know. Different times, different.

It's not an excuse. No, not at all, but it was not uncommon back then, I guess I would say. Yes, that's more of what I'm trying to get at. But, yeah, they play this prank. he runs away and why did he leap through the window?

I think he was just running and wasn't paying attention. It definitely, that's how I always took it before, but to me it definitely felt like he, this most recent time, it looked like

he jumped straight out the window. No, that's fair. Sorry, I'm reading this. It doesn't tell me what year this came out. What? What you just sent me. 05. Oh, it does say it up there.

Okay. That is way too late to have a movie named that title. Yeah. When I saw that the deer and then I saw that, I was like, what? Yeah. Anyway. So yeah, so he like dolphin dives right out the window and directly into, that previously mentioned that of toxic waste.

And so this is great because he's like literally catching on fire. And the cops who try to help him also catch on fire, which also is great because you can see, you can see the like fire gel all over the cop's hands while he's on fire. But it actually looks really cool because it kind of looks like his skin. skins melting. Yeah. But the whole time that this is happening, Bozo's like, he's faking it, Julie.

He's faking it. Like, how, how is he going to fake being on fire right now? Yeah. I mean, I mean, these people that the bad guys in this film, they're not the smartest people. No, they are not. I think even before that, we get, I think we get our first kill in the movie before Melvin's changed over to the toxic Avenger, don't we? I'm sorry, what?

I think we get the first kill of the movie before Melvin becomes the toxic Avenger. Do we? Is that the car scene? I think it's the car scene, yeah. I think you're right. I think that happens, like, right beforehand. Yeah, so these shitty children who are definitely like 45, they

they uh they run down a boy on a bicycle and i will say the uh okay now as as i guess disgusting as this is so they run down the child and the kid's still moving so they back up over him it's a really cool effect for a low budget movie i i will say most of these deaths are actually really cool. Although I will say I have an issue with one of the deaths, or not one of the deaths, but so the first Melvin death when he becomes toxic Avenger, there's like a, would you say this is a gang with cigar face and everybody trying to get money or trying to? Yeah, that I would say so. Okay. So there's a gang trying to bribe a police officer. It's led by, this guy's cigar face and he's toxic Avenger literally comes in and starts like he's punching people

and just blowing their whole nose off like one punch and their nose is gone which i like i found that that that was cool but later on in the movie he's fighting somebody else and he's throwing like punch after punch after punch and the guy's not going down at all so like Did the movie forget its own rules? Well, I guess was that one of the gym bros? No. So that was in the in the taco restaurant. Okay.

When, but in that same, okay, so yeah, in that first, in that first fight scene, he goes, he fucking like punches off somebody's nose. He, I think he kills, like, everybody except for cigar face. And this is where you first see him start putting the mops in people's faces after they die. But then the next fight scene happens at like a Mexican restaurant. And it's what, three guys come in to the store and they start, they start harassing everybody. And the one guy, like the leader. So first of all, how many different gangs are operating in Tromaville at this one time?

And like later you find out, or you might have even found out at this point already. One of the main gangs is the mayor, the mayor and the police chief, who throughout, throughout the movie becomes more and more Nazi. I don't know why, but I found that, that part was fucking hilarious the entire time. Right from the get-co, they show the police speaking German, I believe. Yes, yeah. Something like that, yeah. But like, if it starts with that, and then later on, he like, Zip. Hiles and then at the very end, I think it's the very end, he starts like clicking his boots together.

Yeah, I think he does that like right in the beginning. What was it? I thought it was like one of the final scenes. He does do it at the end, but I swear I remember seeing him before doing it. Yeah. I think I think in the beginning he's like trying to get people to calm down or like quiet down. So he like shouts and zigheiles and then he like looks at his arm and like uses his other arm. other arm to push it down. I don't know why, but I, when used in comedic effect, usually to show that

the person is a complete idiot and they, they basically turn a, uh, like make a character or Nazi. I absolutely love that. I don't know why. Um, there is a Peter Jackson movie that does the same thing with a doctor. And it is one of the funniest things that I've ever. seen in my life. But yeah, so there's this gang that comes into this Mexican food restaurant. And that's a clunky sentence. So there's this gang that comes into this Mexican restaurant. And they're harassing some people. And Toxy comes in. And he like, he like rips the leader's arm off at the shoulder. And there's this, there's this funny as moment. He like, he rips it off. And the guy's like, come on let's let's go let's fight blah blah blah and then he looks and sees that toxie's holding his arm

and then he looks at his arm and then he starts screaming like he doesn't realize that his arm is gone until after he sees it yeah no it's definitely like one of those classic cuts the arm off kind of like japanese samurai movies yeah like then he realizes i thought it was going to go like I thought he was going to go full just a flesh wound at first Good old Monty Python Yeah I thought he was just going to be like

That's okay I can still fight Like But then the The guy who has all the face paint In that scene He comes over and he starts Like hand to hand

Toxie fight And like lay it you know, punches land, but nothing happens. Like, this guy can obviously rip off an arm, but he can't get, like, a couple punches and nothing happens. I don't know. I just feel like, I feel like some, I feel like the movie forgot its own, like, plot point there.

No, I can definitely see that. I forgot its own, own rules. Yeah. In the same scene, though. I mean, this was a low-budget movie. Yeah, true. Now this scene does have a part in it where most people, this movie loses them. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Okay, so in, so in the restaurant there is a blind woman and she has a seeing eye dog with her. And unfortunately, the gang that comes in does kill the seeing eye eye. dog. Most people, at least that I've watched this movie with, that's where this movie loses them. Did you even see that part? I recognize the dog was missing, but I missed the actual, like, I guess, killing scene. I wonder if, where did you watch it? I watched it on, God, was it Hulu? No, it was Prime. Prime. Prime. Okay. That, I, that's where I watched it, too. And I swore I saw, it, but I do remember getting up at some point. So maybe they took it out. Who knows? Maybe they did remove it, which, you know, it's implied heavily. Well, actually, no, they say the blind woman says

in that same scene, like, they killed my dog. I don't know how to survive without my dog. So I, I don't think the movie loses anything if they don't show that anymore, if they, if they remove that scene or that specific imagery, I should say. But yeah, but that that is how Toxy fucking develops a girlfriend. Were you expecting that? No, not at all. No, for him to have a love interest? No.

I am curious, though. So you knew nothing about this movie, right? Yeah, no, correct. I've never seen anything. I've like, maybe seen like images, but never seen any clips or anything. Okay. Going into this movie, what were you expecting? Probably just like a traditional monster movie almost.

Like I gets corrupted and turned into a monster. I was expecting the hero element. Really? Yeah. Even with the name toxic Avenger? Well, you know, avenging is his own death or dismemberment, yeah. Okay, I guess. I can see that.

I can see. Where, where, you said earlier that there was an exception to his, but it, you can justify it because it was somebody who wronged him, right? Yeah. So I guess what it comes down to is that he was going after these people. Like, I don't remember them committing any crimes or anything in the meantime, like at the time, except for I think like while they were trying to run over the guy, the kids again. but I don't remember them committing crimes and him catching them in the act. Okay, so yes, he did not catch them in the act. Besides one time, when those children were just sitting in the middle of the fucking road,

why were those children sitting in the middle of the road? Bad parenting. I don't know. Yeah. So Toxy comes over, he like swoops in because the bad, that group is about to like run them down. So he comes over, he grabs the children and puts them down. He should have then proceeded to go into that house and then beat the shit out of those children's parents. Because like, what the fuck are they doing?

Anyway, besides that, yes, he doesn't catch them in anything. But it is implied that those, that group does that often. Like they are known entity to the tag. that they run people down. And I will say when he goes after the two males, they did just kill a woman. Okay, I must have missed that part, but yeah.

Okay, so they, they go, they steal a car and they kill an old woman with her own cane, so that way they can steal the car. The one guy's like, how do you feel about driving a nice Japanese import?

And they look and see this old woman trying to struggle to lock her car door while holding a giant grocery bag. And they're like, let me help you. And then they just beat the shit out of her. Yeah, I must have missed that part. Okay.

Yeah, so they, that happens. Then that's when Toxies like on top of the car. Do you remember that? all. Yes. I remember him getting like run over and he grabs onto the car, which I find I love because you can actually see on the car. The handles. Yeah. And it goes away in the next scene. Yeah. So anytime that like it's far, they had welded like handles onto the top of the car.

So you see him holding on to the top and they're swerving and everything. And then the next, the next shot is like zoomed in and he's like holding on to the side. side or something. But yeah, I saw that too right away. I was like, that looks, it's like trying to find a, uh,

when you can see the wires. Mm-hmm. I love trying to find stuff like that. Or I think my favorite is, I'm trying to think of what movie it was. It was like 2007. Was there, was there like a James Bond style movie in 2007?

Not offhand, but there probably was some kind of spy movie or something. Yeah, I remember, I specifically remember a movie like that. And we're watching it and I'm looking and you can clearly see that the car that they're sitting in is in drive or is in park. And they're like flying through the city at super high speeds. So like obviously the car is on. on a dolly. It's just, it's fun, fun for me to see stuff like that.

Who's the next thing I wanted to talk about? How did you feel about the little love montage? When they're on the bed? No, no, when they're like moving into his little toxic prailer. Yeah.

And like, you see, you see him like hanging up pictures of the dog that died. Yeah. She's like, so she's blind. The entire movie when she's in it is just, it's just gags of her being blind, really. Yeah. Like, they go over to, over to her house when they first meet.

And she's like, watch that step. And then just completely misses the step and just falls down. Yeah. Uh, like, let me grab this cane and she has like, she has like 80 canes standing by the door. And she just knocks them all over. Why do you need that many canes? Well, because she loses them, I guess. I don't understand.

But then she, she hits them in the nuts with the fucking cane. Just stupid shit like that. But that's another good point. That is like, you see them walk into her house. And it's probably like 30 minutes in at this point. You don't see his face. He's constantly walking backwards anytime that he's on camera. Have you noticed that?

Yeah, it wasn't, or he has that sheet on him or whatever. Yeah. Like what, halfway through maybe? I think it's 48 minutes is when you finally see his face. I don't remember. It was for, it was for that girl. the girl who wronged him, I think. Yeah, okay.

When he finally takes off, he's doing the elephant man thing. No, it wasn't the girl who wronged him. It was the other girl. I can't think of what her name was. Not Julie, but it was the other guy's girlfriend. Who, so this guy, he does like the elephant man with a sheet to freak her out. You think that it's toxic, but it turns out it's the boyfriend. So Toxie does the exact same thing.

But this time it's very obviously Toxie. She is actively masturbating in a sauna to the polaroids of the people that they killed with the car. Did you pick up on that? I did. That was, I think it just goes to show you how twisted they really were. Okay. Yeah. Yes.

Yes. So like it's not a huge issue that Toxie went and. murdered these people, but would you masturbate in a sauna? No, I feel like it's just one, aside from the hygienic reasons. Okay, okay, hold on. It's just odd. If you owned your own sauna in your backyard, it's still way too hot, it'd be too uncomfy.

Exactly. Like, why would you like, no, it's, it's too hot to do anything. Like, I don't, I don't even think I'd want to sit in there. And I think we talked about this last episode or one of the catch-up episodes. I don't do well in the heat at all. So I don't think I'd go into a sauna in the first place, let alone want to masturbate in the sauna. Also, go ahead. I'm sorry.

No, I'm just because like I said, it takes a certain kind of twisted person. Yeah. Like, these people are all fucking in the health club anyway, which. That's true. very handsy. At one point they're actually fucking. Yeah, and they mentioned, I forget his, I forget his name, but he mentions that,

oh yeah, I talked to whatever, and he said, well, have a long time. But not even that. Or no, no, actually it is that scene, but you see them fucking in that same scene, because they start fucking, and Melvin's

over here, mopping, and he hears a noise so he walks over, and he's watching him with this big grin on his face. And the guy's like, get out of here pervert. And the woman pulls out a switchblade. She's like,

before I cut you. And then he starts screaming and runs away. Yeah, no, I remember that. That's right before the prank, I believe. Yeah.

I think it's probably what triggers it. Okay. So I think what happens is it goes that. And then it goes, you see them run over the little boy. Which, that little boy, he's probably like 14. And he's like,

thanks, sis. And he gets on his bike and starts going away. That sister must be 45. Even Ray, was like, I thought that was the mom. What is happening? But yeah, I, The, like, there's throwaway lines that just, they don't need to be there at all.

But yeah, you get, you don't get to see his face. So let me ask you this. Do you think people can hear him when he speaks? Yeah, because he talks to his girlfriend, doesn't he? He does, but I don't know. I thought maybe she was like the only one that could hear him. Because he has this like weird angelic voice that sounds like voice. that sounds like voiceover.

Yeah. That's played over top of a bunch of like grunts and groans. So to me, it seems like it's translating all the grunts and groans into that voice. That's fair. I can see that. But like, who knows, maybe because she's blind, she has different senses. Like some kind of psychic ability, yeah. Yeah, that's the type of bullshit that is, or,

The way that this movie handles disabilities, like when God giveth, he taketh away. And at one point, she even says, like, she reads palms. Like, she has psychic abilities. Although, that scene also leads to one of my favorite, one of my favorite gags. Do you remember that scene? No. So she's like, I read palms. And she grabs his palm.

she starts doing, you know, the feeling, the reading and everything. I don't remember what she says. But then she's like, let me see your other poem. And she reaches and she just like grabs his dick. And she just keeps like, and it's, she's like feeling and feeling and padding. And you hear Toxy be like, and she's like, she finally realizes after like a full 30 seconds of touching his dick just like, oops, and she gets all embarrassed and like smiles and everything.

Like, I'm sorry, but you, you can tell that that was a dick and not a hand. I mean, she's blind. It takes her a bit. She's really got to feel the thing. Okay. When was the last time that you felt a dick and was like, that could be a hand? I mean, I don't go around touching other people's dicks, so, uh, never I mean when was the last time you grabbed your dick and was like oh that that's my right hand exactly no but I think I think you bring up a good point though because like this movie is it's absurd it's intentionally offensive too yeah it's what makes it entertaining despite it being so low budget so campy yeah and I think just with the

some of the scenes that they do, I think, is just so bad it's good. Yeah, 100% agree. It is, it is very stupid, but it's so entertaining. Like, I have a great time watching this movie. I get a big, dumb smile from beginning to end. No, and I think that's the whole point of this. movie is that you're supposed to understand the capiness of it you're supposed to see like behind the scenes almost like like the uh the car handles for the you know when he gets flipped over into it

like you see the scenes of the movie making process and i think that's the point yeah and honestly it's it's one of those things where that i can think of trauma never really not that they never really improved but they never really lost that vision Well, I think it comes down to they never had to improve because that's at the core of what they do. Yeah. I didn't want to say they never improved because they absolutely did. As you watch them go farther and farther, like I think the next is like class of Newcomb High or something. I can't remember exactly what the next movie is.

But I'll say it's better than this movie in a technical standpoint. but it's still the same amount of fun. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, that's fair. It's, yeah, that is something that I do want to bring up. The kills in this movie are some of the best damn kills I've ever seen. Like, uh, there's a guy who gets killed by a exercise machine. Do you remember that kill?

Um, no, I don't. Okay, so this guy is selling drugs out of his locker at the house. health club for the mayor. And it starts out, he sells a couple joints, like a bag of joints. Then he sells like a bag of coke. And then he just sells like two straight up heroin needles. Like already filled just two needles. So then Toxy comes in and he's doing this.

The drug dealer is doing this machine. I don't know what it's called. But you like, you lay on your stomach. You put your legs in this. I don't know what they're called. You put like your legs, these levers on your legs and you kind of curl your legs and it pulls the weight up. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I got you. I don't know the name, but yeah. Yeah. So the guy pulls, Toxy comes in, he flips him over. He lifts the weights all the way up and he pulls the drug dealer forward and then he drops the weights and the, you know, the bar that goes

through all the weights where you can select how much weight you want. That goes through his mouth and just completely obliterates his skull. Did you really miss this kill? I must have. Because I remember the guy working out. Oh, my God. That's like one of the best kills. What part does it happen at?

I can't remember. I don't remember exactly. Is it after the taco place? Yeah. It's after. that it's closer to the end. Is it a guy wearing the green shirt? I think so.

Yeah, and he's like laying on his stomach. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I do remember this scene because he like chokes him to death and shoves his head underneath him. Yeah, and it's just like drops and just obliterates his head. Yeah, no, I get that.

It's a good scene. It's one of my favorite kills. I think the weakest kill is the girl who is in the sauna. Yeah, I can see that. Because doesn't he just like put her on the coals? Yeah. I mean, terrible way to go, but yeah.

Yeah, but like in a scene where a man's head explodes by weights. Yeah, basically you find out that the mayor is evil. The whole time, Toxy is regarded as, Toxy is regarded as a hero throughout the movie. Mm-hmm. And then he kills a little woman in her. dry cleaners who also is he okay he has a pretty racist line here too yeah uh i'm not gonna say it but there is a racist line in there but so he kills this little old lady and he knows that he fucked up but he uh he abandons his little toxic trailer which by the way this trailer that he lives

in is in like a toxic waste dump right? Yeah. Which is fine for him. But why is he moving his girlfriend in there? Like, and she keeps running into shit. There's just open barrels of toxic waste bubbling. Like, she's going to walk into that.

She's going to, he's just trying to make a wife of Toxie. Yeah. Which I'm surprised they never played on in the sequels. Yeah, anyway. I don't, I don't think they did either. I don't think I've ever seen any of the sequels. I don't know. But, so yeah, you find out that, or no, he, he kills that woman,

then he grabs the, the girlfriend, and they go out into the middle of the field, and they live in a tent. So, and you cut to police chief and mayor, and they're talking some shit about how, you know, he killed an innocent woman, and then police chief is, like, well, she wasn't necessarily innocent. Like, what do you mean? And what did he say?

She was running a slavery ring? Yeah, I think so. Like, or was it, she was running a white slavery ring or some shit like that? I forget how exactly said it. But they're like, we can't let the press know about that because then they're going to be like, oh, Toxie's a hero again.

so the mayor gets the fucking what national guard involved yeah army national guard yeah i forget who it was and they they basically like they go to hunt him down and then all the kids were like no he saved my life blah blah blah whatever and i don't remember what happened at all after that All I know is the mayor gets killed, but I don't remember how. I must have missed that mayor dying part because it seemed like just a happy ending. No, the mayor dies. I want to say Toxy does the like, let's see, let's see how, what is it? He says something along the lines of like, let's see how much guts you really have and then

reaches into the stomach. And then he literally rips out his. Yeah, that was the mayor. Yeah, he just rips out his gut. Yeah, and then he like dies and then everybody's all happy, which I don't know, if the National Guard is right there and you literally murk the fucking mayor, I feel like they might have a little bit of an issue with that. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like they definitely didn't do their job there. No, not at all.

Well, I mean, then again, there were people on the way too, pretty much. True, yeah I don't know Maybe they could tell that The mayor was a shitty piece of shit Yeah, you can tell something wasn't something right Yeah I did forget one thing

At one point Cigarface gathers a bunch of people Because he survives the first Interaction with Toxy And they surround him And they're all pointing guns at him And of course, Toxy does the stereotypical backflip out onto a fire escape, right? And all of these people fire at once and they all shoot each other.

It's kind of a, you know, whatever. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's a nice stereotypical scene. Yeah. What made it hilarious for me is after that happens and they're all like laying dying, actually just flips them all off. Did you see that part? Yeah.

It's just the way that he's looking and he's just like, and it just starts flipping all of them off. And just this guy in this giant suit. I must have rewind it like three times just to watch that. Nice. Yeah, it's fucking dumb. I think that's some like one of the better, those parts are like some of the better parts of the movie,

where it's just so, like, quick little ridiculousnesses. Yeah, little jabs, little... Yeah. Yeah. Do you have anything else that you want to say about it before we get into our final thoughts? It was not good, but not bad. It was just a fun, fun little film.

I don't know what to say. Did you have fun with it? I, surprisingly, I did. It was not one of my favorite, like, crappy movies that you've made me watch. Yeah. but I can see the cult appeal. That's usually what happens with toxic Avenger for the most part.

Like everybody that I show it to, they're always upset when I put it on. And by the end of it, they're always like, you know what? That was fun. That was a lot of fun. It's stupid.

And I don't think I ever want to watch it again. But it was fun. Yeah. It's not something you watch so much as experience. Yeah. Yeah. And of course, you know, I watch it at least once a year. Well, I mean, you're crazy. So, you know. Yeah. It's not my favorite movie, but it's up there.

That's fair. That's fair. Yep. I actually, I've been trying to convince, trying to convince my fiancé to let me get a tattoo of one of my favorite movies. And every time she sees it, she's like, no. So what? What? What? What tattoo? I will, I will show you a link of it because, yeah, I want, I want a very specific thing. And she's always like, no. So we kind of keep going back and forth. And I'm like, what about, what about just this one specific thing?

And she's like, maybe. Nice. There you go. I want the head, but she's like, no. I'm like, what about just the lips? she's like maybe. Why not on their head? Right?

That's what I'm saying. If you like it, just do it. Just, yeah. This will be like your test. See if she really loves you. Yeah, right? No. No, I can't just do that.

We are planning on getting tattoos after marriage. But, so it's definitely, we got to do that first. You're going to get matching tattoos? Not matching. tattoos, but tattoos to like represent each other. They're matching tattoos.

No, they're not matching tattoos. No. Like, she's going to get something that represents me. You're getting a tattoo of your, of your significant other. That's a couple tattoo. Okay, but couple tattoos to me, like. They don't always have to match. But you have to like look at them and be like, there's another piece. Like, the other person obviously has.

you know, like if I, if I get a tattoo, which this is honestly what I was thinking, the giant scar across my hand from when I almost cut off my finger a few months ago, I was thinking about like at the end of it, putting like a little sunflower. And then like down the scar, putting little leaves, like the scars, the stem. Okay. And like the sunflower is her favorite flower. So that would be the tattoo for her. Either that or I was thinking about tattooing like needle and thread across the scar. I got you. I got you.

As a funny little thing. But anyway, we got really far off a topic there. What were we talking about? Not my favorite movie, but. Yes. It's pretty far up there. Okay. Yeah.

Would you recommend people watch it? I would. I think you should watch it once. Okay. I was worried that you were going to be like, no. Absolutely not. No, this is, it's a cult classic. It's not like some rando.

Like if you, if we were watching poltergeist. Polter you like. Yeah, I would be like, no. Don't watch it. If you like that stuff, go ahead, go ahead. But. No, you can do without. This is one of those cult classics where I feel like, yeah.

Okay, did you know that it was a cult classic going into it? Yeah, because I've heard it before. Okay. Okay, I just wasn't sure if you were familiar with it any sense. No, I figure if I've heard of it, it's probably a cult classic. Okay. Although that is not the genre. Fair.

That's not the... whole that's not the main requirement for a cult classic though because no of course not of course i i don't know did you have any experience with basket case before no no i might have like seen a random thing in like walmart one time yeah no okay so you like yeah like something about it seemed familiar but no nothing really okay did you even like know the name of it before i think so Okay, but yeah. That's, yeah. Definitely, you should watch this movie.

Yeah, like, stop what you're doing. If you are driving right now while listening to this, put it on. I don't give it. Over safely. No, no. No. They're going to come to Jim Bros. I mean, it's not intentional.

The Jim Bros were hunting people down. I'm telling them to do it. accidentally. No, don't, don't pull over safely. You know what? Wait till you get to your destination. And then don't talk to any of your friends for the next. How long,

how long does this run? Hour and a half? An hour and 20 minutes, I think. Hour and 20? Okay, yeah. You don't need to talk to friends for an hour and 20 minutes. You don't need, you know what,

put it on, watch it like seven times. Like, just back to back. I guarantee you, each time you watch it, you're going to probably not notice anything else, but it's going to be a lot of fun.

Yeah. I don't know. Do you have anything else you want to say about toxic adventure? No, I think that about covers it. No? Are you ready to watch the sequels? Sure. Yeah, really?

Because I was not going to make you do that. Yeah, no. I wasn't even going to make you watch the remake. I'm curious about the remake, but I don't necessarily know if I need the remake. I kind of feel like I do want to watch the remake. Not anytime soon, but I feel like I'm worried that... I'm worried that...

Because I watched the trailer, and I'm worried that the remake is going to kind of take away some of the magic. Mr. Roboto. What? Did you just have a stroke? No, you did. You were all robotic. Okay. Sorry.

Okay. I said, I'm worried. I'm worried to watch the remake because I'm worried that it's going to take away some of the magic. Yeah. And then you said, Mr. Robato. Yeah, no, sorry. You cut out like all the way. Okay.

But yeah, I'm just worried that it's going to lose some of the magic of the original film for me. I don't know. I don't want them to solely Toxie's name, you know, did I lose? No. Did I lose you? Okay. Okay. No, I mean, I can see that.

I don't know. Maybe I'll watch it one day. Who knows? But I'll say that has been 1984's toxic Avenger. Next week, are you okay if we do that movie next week? What movie? Giverr.

Oh, yes. You go with that? Now, do you, all right, so I was going to edit this, but we can do this now. Do we want to do Giver next, or do we want to start that game you mentioned? the game I mentioned. Yeah, like, we'll do, we'll do Geiver next.

And then we, from there, we'll do the game. Because we might do the game earlier in the, or like, earlier in the week, we will at least come up with our suggestions. And then we'll play the game. And then that way we know what to do either way. You know what I mean?

Yeah. So this week we'll do the mostly because I watched the trailer last night and I I really just want to watch the guy. Also, I don't have anything prepared for the game. Okay, fair enough. I mean, I figured you were just going to have AI, you know, miss something. I mean, I can come up with two right away off the top of my head. AI does some that are good, but most of the time it's like the most stupid off-brand movies. You know what I mean?

Yeah. But, yeah, we'll do the Geiver next and then we'll start doing the game, which we'll talk about it once we get off here. But yeah, yeah. Join us next week when we talk about 1991's The Geiver starring Mark Hamill and Michael Barryman. But thank you for listening to the Tapeworm podcast. My name is DJ. And I'm Raz. And we will see you next week.

See him. Bye.