The Bechdel Cast - George of the Jungle

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Jamie and Caitlin (of the Jungle) release this episode that they recorded live in San Francisco at SF Sketchfest about George of the Jungle! Watch out for that tree! And speaking of live shows, you can still grab 'on-demand' tickets to stream the live shows we recorded on 'The Goonies' with Sarah Marshall, and 'Hannah Montana: The Movie' with Robert Evans -- tickets at linktr.ee/bechdelcast  For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast. Follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @jamieloftusHELP on Twitter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, this is Matt Rogers. And Bowen Yang. We've got some exciting news for you. You know we're always bringing you the best guests, right? Well, this week we're taking it to the next level. The one, the only, Katherine Hahn is joining us on Las Culturistas. That's right, the queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture.

Don't miss Katherine Hahn on Las Culturistas. Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.

And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Mori Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early

and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Hello, Bechtelcast listeners. It's me, Caitlin. And me, Jamie.

Wow. This is one of our live recordings from our tour earlier this year. This is our George of the Jungle episode. We recorded it live in San Francisco, where some slash most of George of the Jungle takes place. Yes. And we did it for SF Sketch Fest at the Gateway Theater. So thanks to them for having us. Thanks to Cole Stratton for including us in the festival.

We always have a great time. And thanks to everyone who went. It was so much fun because that was like, I mean, I don't know if you've heard of this little thing called COVID-19. But this show was postponed, I think, for three years, or two, at least two years. Quite some time. were just really thrilled to uh to be there and this was pre brendan frazier having an oscar so i'm pretty sure we're talking about this as if we don't know because we don't know because that's how the past works yes so thank you to everyone who came to the show we will be releasing other live episodes we recorded on this tour in the coming weeks and months and here's the thing about those the next few episodes that are coming out there are shows we recorded live in portland and we had wonderful guests we

had sarah marshall for the goonies episode and we had robert evans for the hannah montana the movie episode that's right we also live streamed those episodes and there are things that happened in the live show that we will cut out of the audio episode that will be released on the main feed just because they didn't translate well to audio and because we're withholding assholes true but but but if you want to see the live stream, you can buy tickets slash access to see those shows on demand. Yes. So if you want to see the extra special, the fun little activities we did, including Jamie accidentally throwing a knife. Thank you for saying it. Thank you for plugging.

Yes, that's in the Hannah Montana episode. We also do a treasure hunt and give Sarah Marshall a chocolate box full of hot dogs. There's a lot of fun visual gags that you won't get. So if you'd like to see it and just get a preview of those episodes, you can purchase the video to those episodes individually on our link tree, which we'll link below. Unfortunately, there's no video of the Georgia the Jungle episode, which is a shame because we wore really funny hats at one point. We really did.

But you will hear that segment in the episode that you're listening to right now. Yes. A quick note about it is that it kind of abruptly cuts off toward the end of the show as we are giving our nipple ratings. Most of the episode is intact, but you know, it's not a Bechtelcast live show without some technical difficulty. So it's true. The grand tradition continues. But we had so much, like truly, truly truly truly so much fun at this show thanks again to everyone who is there and i think you'll be able to uh hear our enthusiasm through the that's how podcasts work well enjoy the show enjoy on the pectocast the questions

asked if movies have women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effin' vast, start changing it with the Bechdelcast. Hi, welcome to the Bechdelcast! Wow! Hi, San Francisco, how are you? Hi, Jamie. Hi, Caitlin. Hi San Francisco How are you? Hi Jamie Hi Caitlin

Someone's calling me right now Hello? It's our friend Bryant What? He knows we have a show right now This doesn't pass the That was a sting operation He called at that exact moment

To fuck with us we were gonna have a perfect uninterrupted discussion about no men the whole time well welcome to the show thanks for coming out uh my name is caitlin dorante yeah hello wow. My name is Jamie Loftus. Wow. I'm so glad your applause wasn't louder than mine. It was the exact same.

It's always a chilling moment where you're like, what are we going to do? But yeah, this is our podcast where we take an intersectional look at your favorite movies. today we brought you a San Francisco classic question mark honestly the thing is with this show is it's been on for a

pretty long time and um what you know we we've done the princess diaries uh we've done the social network we did the social network in this very theater was anyone here at that show? wow welcome back hi welcome back this one is going to be just as serious as the social network and I think have equal social impact

on the current climate you know Georgia the Jungle used to be called the Georgia the Jungle and then be called The George of the Jungle And then they dropped the the And now it's just Now it's just George of the Jungle Oh, that got a bigger laugh out of me

Than I was expecting That was pretty good So, yeah, we are covering San Francisco classic George of the Jungle Who's seen it? Oh, we got some George heads in the house. Has anyone not seen George of the jungle?

Round of applause. Whoa. Okay. The proud, the holdouts. Um, I genuinely, you're,

you're missing out. It's a, it's a pretty fun movie. It's true. Um, should we say what the bechdel test is i guess so yeah i guess uh it's a media metric created by queer cartoonist allison bechdel sometimes called the bechdel wallace test yes there are many versions of the test ours is as follows two people of a marginalized gender have to speak to each other about something other than

a man it's nice if they have names. It's nice if their conversation is substantial. Does it happen often? No, but in George of the Jungle, interestingly, it happens when Holland Taylor asks Leslie Mann what her vagina was like after

returning from the jungle from whence George came. Yes. The context of this this there's a lot of like this movie is pg but i feel like they're really stretching it to the very limit there's they're talking about like raw sex at multiple points in the movie there's a whole scene there are several scenes where multiple women are like oh my god george of the jungle would fuck and or they're like he has the biggest dong i've ever seen they all but cut to it like the way that the camera is i like i don't know who the cinematographer of this movie

roger deakins so i just had the most disgusting thought of my entire life. I can't say it out loud. But you know the tunnel from Shawshank Redemption? Yes. Something, something, George of the Jungle's penis. You navigate through it much less. That's okay.

I should be locked up. That was a bad way to start the show. No, but sometimes the camera is angled so close to his pelvis bone that you're like, oh my God, is it going to jump scare out? Like Jigsaw? A rare movie that's about a hetero romance where the man is far more sexualized than the woman oh time and time and time again which uh doesn't make it uh the right decision i feel

like that that's we'll have a whole discussion about that where i feel like you know we're just sort of not we specifically but as a culture culture, we are emerging from the binary flip culture is like, oh yeah, just oppress someone else. You're like, well, don't do that. But I did love the scene where George confidently wears a dress and a hat.

Yes. They should have let him just wear his damn dress. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, he looked good in Armani as well, but why not both? Why not both? Look, we're getting ahead of ourselves. No,

we're so thrilled to have you here. And we're, we're really excited to be talking about cinematic classic, George of the jungle. We love movies from 1997. It's a thing. Yeah, it's true.

Yeah. Jamie, what is your relationship, your history with George of the Jungle oh I I don't I don't remember seeing this movie in theaters I feel like I maybe did when I was really little but I I just remember watching it growing up I remember I don't even think I had like I think the movie is like encouraging you to have a crush on George but I didn't even have a crush on George I just thought that he seemed really. I feel like that is like one of the beautiful, I know, I know that like,

it's currently trendy to be obsessed with Brendan Fraser, but like, I mean, I'm not even like hyper fixate. He's like not Alfred Molina to me, but like, you know, who is very few people are, it's really just the one guy. It's just really Alfred. But Brendan Fraser, but like, you know, who is? Very few people are. It's really just the one guy. It's just really Alfred. But Brendan Fraser, even when I was like a little kid, he was just like a very like friendly and calming presence in a way that I feel like there were like a fair amount of actors like that in the 90s.

And we've talked about him on the show before as kind of like a character actor to like his bones. But when you're like movie star conventionally handsome and you can do character actor stuff people get confused and they don't know what to do with you um but i just like yeah i just i really loved this movie and i uh i think i just had a crush on everybody except lyle and yeah not no disrespect to thomas hayden church um you know i love spider-man 3 do you yes okay i do but i mean but i mean he does a good job however it's a hard act to follow villain wise in spite because yeah and a lot of people are slowly connecting the dots and others

well they don't have two brain cells to rub together i don't know it's alfred alfred fucking molina as dr octopus 2004 anyway someone snorted and i celebrate that yeah we love it do it again oh scary um caitlin what's your i just i just loved it i watched it um i think that there were there was a a sort of a mini renaissance of children's gorilla movies because i also watch mighty joe young a lot oh sure well i also feel like sexy blonde woman and a big gorilla and and a hot guy nearby they were gonna show that to six-year-olds. Does anyone remember Dunstan Checks In? Because that was around this time as well, I believe.

Was it? Yeah, I think. Is that, forgive me. This is a movie about an orangutan named Dunstan, I think. I haven't seen it in 30 years. Now here's my question. Where is he checking in? I think a hotel oh okay thank you so much

and that's the power of collaborative work exactly my favorite not that you asked but my other favorite celebrity celebrity primate movie was, this was a direct,

this was I think a part of the Air Buds cinematic universe. But there were two movies that I can remember. I don't remember what the name of the monkey was, but it was called MVP, Most Valuable Primate. And it was about, I think a chimpanzee that joins a hockey team, which checks so many boxes for me that I left my body because it's like he's looking at the Zamboni

he's like whoa and I was like losing my shit and then they did a direct-to-video sequel to the direct-to-video sequel MVP but this time he's skateboarding and it's most vertical right which is genius you've spoken of these movies before that's how I know about them

we gotta cover MVP month it'll be like Miracle and most vertical not even Mighty Ducks no no I mean they didn't even have that was an all-human team where are the ducks i feel like in 90s kids movies that is not off the table for some reason

animals were joining sports teams it was an epidemic and people were exploiting it. It wasn't right. It wasn't right. Yeah, it was fucked up. But this is, I would say, it was a childhood favorite. But as far as primate comedy for children, it was maybe three or four on my list.

Caitlin, what was your history with George of the Jungle? I think there's a very good chance I saw this at a drive-in movie theater in 1990. I know. Impressive. A lot of people were like, hmm. Yeah, because I would have been like 11 at the time, and I was kind of the target demo. And this is a movie that has been with me since its inception.

What is the subtext to what you just said? I don't know. It was a movie of my childhood. I watched it quite a bit in the late 90s, but not since then. So it was fun to revisit, though. They made a direct-to-DVD sequel of this movie with kind of my favorite genre.

I think there should be a whole podcast about this genre, where it's like sequel where none of the cast was interested in returning. And then it's like some poor, I don't know who becomes George of the jungle, but there's no way he isn't fighting for his life the entire time. Just desperately trying to evoke Brendan Fraser,

you know? Yeah. Yeah. Should we do that podcast? Should we? No, no. Okay. okay no we should do um we should we should do the um primates and sports podcasts okay fair yeah it's like when we did a show in London once brag ever heard of it um and for some reason the venue just put on the marquee Women in Film Podcast.

It was like they looked at the title of their show and they're like, no. They punched it up without asking. Yeah. Should I do the recap? Let's do the recap. Georgia the Jungle. Okay. So we get some animated backstory slash a credit

sequence where we learn about a plane wreck in which a baby was left behind in the jungles of africa where in africa unclear we'll get there we we outsourced that work. We had some research done for us. Yes, yes. I did that. That is like, I love when a movie has an animated opening sequence. And it makes sense for this because George of the Jungle was a Saturday morning cartoon in the late 60s that only aired for 17 episodes. And yet it's famous.

I don't understand that. Who knows? It doesn't make sense. But there's kind of like a lost pilot situation. Right. I mean, the show Lost. Oh, yeah. It's like if Lost happened, but everyone was saved and no one looked for a baby.

Correct. Yeah. So this baby gets left behind. And this, of course, george of the jungle and thank you so much that's his question name he does introduce himself that way or he introduces himself as george primate which is also comedy genius where look i was laughing the way that brendan fraser sometimes says things and he's like leading with his teeth,

you're like, I guess I'm laughing. And then Holland Taylor, oh my God. How do they get Holland Taylor in this damn movie? She's a living legend. And then they're like, you're the mom in Georgia the Jungle. She's a professional. Look, she read the script and she's like, this is good. This will endure.

Yeah, the woman has an eye. Yes. Okay, so baby George is raised by animals. He swings around on vines. He crashes into trees famously. Right. We cut to 25 years later. George of the Jungle is now Brennan Fraser.

But before we really see him, meet Ursula that's Leslie Mann who is on vacation in the jungle nearby how clear was that to you because I was like I wasn't clear if like she was a documentarian that was so bad at it or if she was making home videos or like what she was doing and then it's like later clarified of like, she is the most trust fund kid to ever trust fund kid. Yes. Yeah. I think she's just a rich lady on vacation.

And so she is guided by Kwame played by Richard Roundtree. Shaft. Yes. Unbelievable. And a few of his colleagues. Then Ursula's asshole fiance, Lyle, played by Thomas Hayden Church, shows up. Oh, such camp. Yes.

We were talking about this backstage. Lyle has a shade of blonde that only existed in this calendar year. It's like Jack Dawson's Sandy Blonde. Yeah yeah you couldn't get it outside of 96 it was released in 97 and by that time it wasn't available it's like quaaludes for hair yes all true okay so so lila shows up unexpectedly with two poachers, Max and Thor, and they have heard tell of the legendary white ape. Lyle thinks it's bogus. The poachers want to capture it for money,

and they all set off to go and try and see some apes. And Lyle takes Ursula further into the jungle by themselves. A lion shows up and Lyle trips and is knocked unconscious immediately. So Lyle is so like, he's such a flop that it, it starts to look intentional. Like there were a few points where, and it was like maybe my own like internalized patriarchy where I'm like, surely there must be a greater plan at work here

he couldn't be bad at so many things but he really is so bad at so many things and I really I loved that unlike a lot of movies because this movie is like pretty meta and self aware of itself which is like true to the cartoon because it was like originally a cartoon

that was meant to make fun of Tarzan but I liked it from moment one Ursula very visibly does not like him because it was like originally a cartoon that was meant to make fun of Tarzan. Right. But I liked it from moment one, Ursula very visibly does not like him. It doesn't want, like he walks out, he's like, babe. And she's like, oh no. Brutal. Yep.

So this lion is about to attack Ursula. But just then, George of the Jungle shows up. He swings in and he saves Ursula and he carries her off after he and the lion have had a goofy fight or maybe even an extremely goofy fight yes yes yes yes yes improved upon the original I love and then Brendan Fraser I wonder if like he was just warming like it felt like he was in a way auditioning for a later movie he did Looney Tunes back in action oh yeah

Brendan Fraser really knows how to like interact with ultimately whatever is like the tennis ball in front of him yes and that's a rare skill and he can really do it he really nails it yeah he was spinning that line like a basketball on his little finger it's impressive it was good okay so then ursula wakes up in george's tree house

where she is properly introduced to george she also meets george's friend ape a talking gorilla voiced by john cleese and you're just like, I guess so. I guess. This is like an interesting, I mean, because John Cleese, if you know anything about his personal politics, he can absolutely light himself on fire. But this is like an interesting era for Monty Python actors where they were just in American children's movies

like serially. Because I think Best by Eric Idle and Casper. Right. But they were just like a pop from the crowd for Eric Idle and Casper I mean Eric Idle and Kathy Moriarty and Casper there's kind of like uh like I they didn't kiss but you're like why not you know but that was like kind of what was so sexy about it. Exactly. But we already did that episode. Okay, so we meet Ape, and Ursula faints because women be fainting. Right.

But don't forget, Caitlin, she then faints again. Yes, multiple times. Yes, yes, yes. Then George notices thatsula has boobs and realizes for the first time that she is a woman because he has never seen a human woman before and then he licks her face look ape okay i think that people will galaxy brain this and be like well he doesn't understand human behavior and And you're like, okay, true. But ape seems to. Why does it?

Ape has books about it. Ape appears to be a Rhodes Scholar. Surely he would have told George not to lick someone's face at some point. So I think that point is moot. And George was acting out of pocket there. He was wrong to lick her face. We talked about this earlier too, but George has,

I don't think like as bad as what I'm about to compare it to, but George has a real watching women sleep issue. I do like, I'm glad it no longer really exists, but the filmic language of man watching woman sleep as a way of saying i love you and not like i'm planning on how to murder you is uh kind of a lost art form and yeah and brendan frazier is looking at leslie man

so it's like very edward cullen yes yeah where he's like i Edward Cullen. Yes. Yeah. Where he's like, I don't sleep so well and doesn't watch TV. Scary. Don't do that. Okay. So then Ursula wakes up and she's like, oh, I have to get back to my fiance. My fiance. My fiance. Yeah.

And then George is like, he's like, I'll help you. So then he calls his dog Shep, who is actually an elephant, and George. Were you laughing? I mean, yeah. I was laughing so much. Every time the worst joke ever happened, I was laughing, laughing, laughing.

An elephant isn't a dog. Come on. It's funny. And that's comedy, yeah. The elephant had a milk bone at one point. And then the narrator says, don't do that. And then I was laughing more.

That's a good joke. I agree with that one. I couldn't write that. Okay, so then George and Ursula then I was laughing more. That's a good joke. I agree with that. I couldn't write that. Okay. So then George and Ursula set out to search for Lyle and the others. Meanwhile, Lyle has gone back to Kwame and the other guides and they are searching for Ursula,

but Ursula is having a really good time with George. She's like not in a rush to get back to Lyle, who she famously hates. Hates, yeah. And she and George are frolicking. They talk to a toucan. They talk to a monkey. He teaches her how to swing on vines. And George is developing a crush on Ursula,

and he tries to seduce her using some gorilla techniques that Ape taught him. Well see here's what I just said. It turns out to be demonstrably wrong. Because Ape does only. What are Ape's

books about? Okay I Because I don't think that like are there a lot of books about like here's how Apes flirt like I don't understand that like, are there a lot of books about like, here's how apes flirt? Like, I don't understand. Here's my theory. After watching the movie three times to prep for this episode,

I think ape knows that. Cause he's like, ape is like, Oh, you got to like puff out your cheeks and throw leaves around and like make all these noises and stuff. I think ape is goofing on him. I think knows that that's not gonna work okay you think apes fucking with yeah that's i mean that is kind of brilliant and very cruel for the first time he's

met one of his own species it's like let me just fuck around but but i guess i i guess that that is kind of funny do you think i was like maybe he was just my theory when he didn't appear to be learning from i was like well maybe he's just reading a series of unfortunate events you know oh like maybe he's reading fiction and so he's not really learning maybe he's watching hollywood movies and would have no idea what romance is like yeah maybe. Maybe he has a VHS player. Well, cause when, when George comes back and he's like,

Oh, ape, that didn't work at all. Ape is like, Oh really? Like he kind of knows he, what's wrong with him? I don't know.

Who would lie to Brendan Fraser? That's fucked up. I know. I know. Okay. So Ursula and Georgeorge they're having a great time he's developing a crush and then they have this romantic moment and they dance he gets her to dance with a scene that's it's a good scene and then lyle and his goons abandon kwame and the

others and they find george of the, and Lyle accidentally shoots him. Cut to George and Ursula on a plane taking him to the U.S., specifically San Francisco. Wow. Ever heard of it? Again, just to shout out another hilarious, hilarious joke in this hilarious movie,

when George gets shot, it freezes, and then the narrator's like, we can't kill George. He's the hero. He's our hero. We gotta bring him to San Francisco, and we gotta do Mayor Willie Brown's nine millionth cameo

of this era in children's movies. It is truly, the fact that he got into Princess Diaries and Georgeorge of the jungle i mean god bless iconic really impressive work yeah okay so uh george needs medical attention so they bring him to the u.s because only medical attention exists here and lyle is left behind. He gets arrested and thrown in jail. The poachers, Max and Thor, they were like, oh, if we go after Ape,

we can make a bunch of money. We can join showbiz because they have dreams of becoming performers. I couldn't keep track of those characters. I was like, who are these guys? They were just trying to do Joe Pesci in Home Alone. And I was like, it's not going to happen, guys. Yeah, yeah.

But they're like, oh, if we go after Ape, the talking gorilla, that's our ticket into show business. So meanwhile, George and Ursula arrive in San Francisco. George is trying to get acclimated to city life and Ursula tells her mom who is Holland Taylor about George and Holland Taylor does not like this at all

but Holland Taylor frames it in a very specific way where she's like I have no problem if you fuck George raw yeah like she kind of like repeatedly is like, no, you should definitely have sex with him,

but you can't marry him. And it's just, I don't know. We've covered a lot of like waspy moms of this kind of like category before. And Holland Taylor is the best of them because it's like a self-aware writing of it where she sounds really horrible when she's saying it. Where you're like, no, George is the best guy in the whole world. He's the himbo of the century. Oh, wow.

Our crowd loves that. Okay, so then Ursula invites her best friend Betsy over and they both see George naked after he comes out of the shower and they're ogling at him. Betsy, classic trope character, she comes in, she's like I'm the best friend. Who you fucking? And then Ursula's

like, oh no one, and she's like, look at that huge penis. And Ursula's like, no, I'm not interested. She's like, well, why don't I take a bite of him? And then Ursula says,

okay, I guess I do like him. And then she disappears for 45 minutes. Unsung heroes of movies of the 90s. Women with curly hair who are barely in the movie. Okay, so Ursula has to go to her engagement party the next day so she leaves george at home but he ventures out into san francisco he goes to the golden gate bridge he saves a parasailor

oh my god, Caitlin, they're turning on you. Sorry, I know that people are listening to this in the future. I just wanted to say that three people just pulled out harpoon guns. And they seem really upset. Yeah, it's the Bay Bridge. I fucked that up. They're slowly slowly lowering them but they want us to know that they have them oh cause the Golden Gate Bridge

is stop stop stop stop stop they're bringing them back out no I'm gonna die on this hill the Golden Gate Bridge it's red right and this one wasn't red No, I'm going to die on this hill. The golden grape.

It's red, right? And this one wasn't red. I should have known. I'm humiliated. Someone just threw a tomato. That's so fucked up. Stop. I'm only human. We're from Los Angeles.

We don't have brains that work. We don't have bridges, okay? Okay. Stop. Okay, let me try again. He goes to the, what's it called? Bay Bridge. What?

Did I get it wrong again? Someone just threw a pineapple at your head stop we're gonna get a bridge and he saves a parasailor whose parachute had gotten caught in whatever bridge it is and ursula is like oh my god george she sees him on tv and she's like george you saved that man's life and she's swooning about it on TV. She doesn't give a shit. She doesn't give a single shit. And then she tells her parents that she doesn't want to marry Lyle anymore. And her parents throw, well,

specifically her mom throws a fit about it. Yes. One of my, I mean, we'll probably get back to this, but one of my least favorite tropes that happens when you have a woman in a romantic lead part where her mom is like, no, I want to get in the way of this.

And then the dad, who has not said a word the entire movie, is like, I support this. I love my daughter. And then she goes, thank you, daddy. And then we all just look at the mom like, what a bitch. It's like, why does it, I mean, it happens every single time.

The narrator even calls her like the meddling mother. yeah. Well, and, and the father says like, what a, he says something really mean about her. Yeah.

I forget. I forget what he says, but it's, I feel like he says, what a piece of shit. He says something like that. Maybe that exactly yeah yeah could be could be uh okay so then it's her engagement party that evening and george is there and all the women are so horny for george and then ursula's mom pulls george aside and she's like stay away from my daughter or I will cut your dick off.

Oh, my God. She is so iconic in that scene, though. Like, I won't stand for people being mean to George, except in that scene specifically, where George is so sweetly like, you don't want Ursula to, like, love George? And she's like, I would sooner nail my tongue to the table every morning at breakfast. And he was like, well, if she's saying it like Miranda Priestly, I guess I like it.

Sorry. I looked at my notes. Ursula's dad says about his own wife as a comedic button to the scene. God, that woman is a pain in the ass. Uh huh. Yep. Hilarious.

Okay. So meanwhile, back in the jungle, the poachers, Max and Thor, capture Ape and plan to bring him to Vegas for a Siegfried and Roy type show. So the toucan shows up in San Francisco and tells George that Ape has been kidnapped. Yeah. So George has to leave and go back to the jungle to save ape and then ursula goes after george because she realizes she loves him yes george so george arrives back in the jungle and he saves ape from the poachers ursula shows up to help they're about about to kiss. But then Lyle shows up

and kidnaps Ursula. They end up on a raft. They're getting swept up by the rapids. And then so George has to do the biggest swing known to man to save Ursula. And he does.

But he still hits that damn tree. You know he does. He of course hits the tree. If there's one thing my man George is going to do, it's hit that damn tree. And he does it every time. People tell him to watch out for that tree. And he doesn't. And he never listens.

He does not. I love that guy. So then George and Ursula get married in the jungle. We cut to a few years later. They have had a Greg. married in the jungle. We cut to a few years later. They have had a Greg. Greg of the jungle. He got her Gregnant. She had a Greg. And

then the movie ends on a Lion King reference where George is holding up his Greg on Pride Rock followed by Ape performing in Vegas in a solo show. The original Marvel mid-credits scene. Yes.

So, that's the plot of George of the Jungle. Great recap. Oh, thank you. Hey everybody, this is Matt Rogers. And Bowen Yang. Thank you. That's right, the queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture. I feel some Sandra Bernhardt in you.

Oh my God, I would love it. I have to watch Lost. Oh, you have to. No, I know, I'm so behind. Katherine Hahn can sing. Oh, I'm really good at karaoke. What's your song? Yeah, what's your song? Oh, I love to. No, I know. I'm so behind. Katherine Hahn can sing. Oh, I'm really good at karaoke. What's your song? Yeah, what's your song?

Oh, I love a ballad. I felt Bjork's music. I just was like, who is this person? I got to hawk this slalom, Luge. Not hawk the slalom. I absolutely love it. It was somehow Shakespearean when you said it. It was somehow gorgeous.

Yee, my slok, you hollum. Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente.

And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes! Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do,

like resume specialist Morgan Santer. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote, what is it, like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered.

There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

Well, I mean, there's so much to talk about with this movie I don't even really know where to I mean where would you like to start oh geez because I know we have like we've got a well we have a we should we just well let's just yeah so so we were were curious because this movie takes place in this very, like it says it takes place in the jungle in Africa, and then it is very unspecific as to where they're talking about. And so we were curious of like, is this based anywhere? What are the, like, what is the culture and what is the wildlife that we're actually supposed to be paying attention to and how accurately does the movie represent it?

Yes. Which we didn't know. And so we contracted some... Some local experts. Yeah. We found them. They're in San Francisco. This is going well.

It really is. And so I'd say without much further ado, would you give us a help in giving a warm welcome to our two experts on this matter? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Hello. Oh, hello. Could you hand me that clicker then?

Yeah, no problem You're welcome Thank you, San Francisco Pretty freaking epic if you ask me Alright Alright Thank you So

I can't do that. I can't maintain this accent. I want to stand up a little bit. Oh, yeah. Let's stand. Yeah. Not you. Relax.

All right. Okay. So. It's a bit of a wildlife presentation we've got. I'm going to keep it up. So. Please introduce yourself. Oh, sorry.

Yeah. Well, Caitlin asked us to present Catfacts on behalf of her. Yeah, a lot of cats in the jungle, allegedly. So this is Catfacts and Other Animal Facts. Yeah. Featuring myself, Lauren D. Titanic. Yeah. And me, Dr. Bambi Orwell.

Sorry, your credentials got left off there. Yeah, it's fine, it's fine, it's all good. But a little more about us. Yes. So I'm Lauren D. Titanic. I've got a master's degree in animals from Animal University. Right. But I hate to mention that.

Meanwhile, I, Dr. Bambi, have a PhD, a bachelor's, and an associate's degree in animal studies from Wikipedia University. No masters. Skipped straight to the PhD. Wow. No credit for the masters. Three degrees low. That's impressive. Yeah.

I bring it up all the time. All right. So first of all, let's just do some context corner. Georgia the Jungle is set, and according to the movie, is set in a place called Bukuvu. Bukuvu. Is that a place that exists? Well, let's ask.

All right. Let's ask Google. We're the experts. And according to Google and also the world, no, it's not. Well, it's spelled differently. Bukavu. Bukavu is a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. City, not jungle.

And also not Bukuvu, Bukavu. Correct. Right, right, right. Yes, yes, yes. So that's not correct, even though the movie keeps mentioning that that's where they are. So we went back to the drawing board to see, did they mention any other locations? Yes. All right.

So moments later in the film, Ursula says, oh, this is the third day in Mbwebwe. And so? Is that a place that exists in Africa? And we're the experts, so we, of course, Googled it. That's right. Is it a real place that exists? Is it a real place according to Google and also the world? No, it isn't.

No. It's not a place. It is an African surname. It's also the fictional province that's the home of Georgia the Jungle. It's kind of shocking that it has its own Wikipedia page given that that is the extent of it. It's what we in our profession call a stub. All right, so...

Now, this is actually a native species to Scotland, if you can believe it. Yeah, well, it's an image of Shrek. Yes. Lauren and I spent years in the trenches of Scotland looking for the rare Shrek. And we found him and it turned out he had aspirations in show business. That's right. And, you know, he's become rather a star.

But really his confused face represents our confusion. Yes. You know. Yes. He's sort of the people's Shrek. So back to what we were discussing. So then we looked at Wikipedia, scholarly journal. Yeah.

I'm an alumni of Wikipedia. It's true. And according to Wikipedia, on the George of the Jungle page, it says, while touring in Burundi ursula blah blah blah so we thought you know like it's a blue link we should click on it you know and we did that's just sort of like research you know so we clicked on go down a rabbit hole if you will yeah yeah and so we clicked on burundi and oh well behold we found a place that exists it's a real country in Africa that's right yes just south of Rwanda so I guess that's where they are in the film so tell us all

about Burundi I'd love to so um it's where Georgia the jungle is canonically set it's a small landlocked country in the great rift valley between the African Great Lakes region and East Africa. And we were really interested in particular about the wildlife. We are, again, wildlife experts. So, Shirley, like, you know, the Henson Company made the puppets for this movie. And the Hensons aren't known for just making shit up. No, certainly not.

So we thought this is probably ecologically accurate. Let's look into it. Yeah, so there's a number of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, among other non-vertebrae animals. Yeah. Including zero species of talking bears named Paddington. That's pretty fucked up. Absolutely devastating.

Okay. So getting into the animal representation of Georgia the Jungle, the film. So there's an orangutan in the film who appears in several scenes. So we're like, oh, orangutans must live in Burundi, right? Did you know that that's true? It's not. It's not true.

They're not there. And it doesn't stop there, all right? Next, we noticed there's a toucan, I believe. That's right. Well, just to go back real quick, orangutans are native to Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now only found in parts of Borneo. Is that how you pronounce it? I don't know.

Everyone's going to correct me all the time. Oh, she breaks the accent for that. And Sumatra, okay. So we've got the toucan, Tuki Tuki, who famously flies from Africa to San Francisco in about 20 minutes. Hilarious joke, but he's George's, you know, sort of what we would normally see as a pigeon

in American movies. They're known for their colorful bills and loving fruit loops. So we're thinking, you know, toucans must be native to this region. Well, are they? No, they're not from Burundi. They don't live in Burundi. They don't live anywhere in Africa. Never.

Guess where they do live? It's Central and South America. Pretty far away. Fun little fact, though in africa and asia hornbills now hornbills uh occupy the toucans ecological niche which is an example of convergent evolution and we know exactly what all of that means yeah no well it's like well we we joke we're like oh it's like the the bill has an erection, you know? But that's just a little zoo talk.

It's the little nasty things we say. Yeah. We got the snot. So the point is they easily just could have put a horn bill in the movie and it would have been accurate. But instead they're like, no, let's put a toucan, even though they don't live in Africa. Anyway. All right. Okay. I'm going to fuck up this pronunciation too, everyone. they're like no let's put a toucan even though they don't live in africa anyway all right okay here's i'm gonna fuck up this pronunciation too everyone uh is it capuchin capuchin capuchin how does everyone know everyone in san francisco is a fucking genius interesting

you fucking weirdos i walked outside someone i got hit on worse than I've been hit on in my entire life, but the weirdest guy I've ever met, inside of three seconds. You people are sick here. Thanks for coming to the show. We appreciate it. You know it all, weirdos. Capuchin monkey. So this is a

capuchin monkey that George helps by giving it the confidence to stand up to its bullies, which of course is a tale as old as time. Classic storytelling. Capuchin monkeys, you'll never believe this, do not live in Africa. They are also native to Central and South America. No, it's like that they didn't have encyclopedias when clearly Ape has a full set. It's just unbelievable.

What else do we have here? Oh, of course, there's Shep, one of my favorite characters, George's pet elephant. So, okay, do we find elephants in this area of Africa? Well, yes, but only African elephants. But Shep, however, is an Asian elephant. We are not quite sure how that happened, but I think that that's actually kind of more of a failure of storytelling. That's true.

I just switched into New Jersey for a second. Storytelling. I can't wait to get cancelled by everyone in Australia for this bit. All right, moving along. Asian Elephant is in a movie that's supposed to take place in africa that's right yes it's not not correct so that's fucked up um all right so also there's a lion in uh early in the movie of course george famously fights this lion and we're like oh wait a minute lions do live in burundi, but not in the jungle.

Oh, no. They live in the savannas and grasslands and rocky hills. Which they would know if they watched the movie they parody in the final shot of the movie. The Lion King. Yes. Takes place entirely in the savanna. Exactly. But what can you do?

What can you do? All right. Research is what can you do what can you do all right uh research is what you can do um now let's get down to brass tacks here this is the real important part and this has been i mean i know this has been uh sort of the mission of your research for for a very long time yes well yes caitlin and i work closely on this yes Yes, yes. She's your muse, you could say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So specifically the number of nipples that cats have. And so lions have four nipples.

Oh, good. Yeah, I just want you to know. Yeah. Okay, back to – so we've got – Well, moving on to Ape. So Ape appears to be a gorilla. We were able to figure that out pretty quick. Mm-hmm.

Right? And, you know, gorillas do live in Burundi. However, Lauren, if you'd like to. Well, yeah. Well, they used to until they went extinct due to poaching and habitat loss. So sorry to bring the show. What is otherwise this very awesome, lively, wonderful show that everyone's enjoying so much? We just wanted to let you know that if Ape was real, he would have died.

And so that in a way is kind of like beautiful. We thought it was nice that the writers, where is this going? I don't know. Bambi, where's it going? The writers of the movie wrote in Ape because it was sort of like you become attached to his character and then you realise, oh no, there's none of them anymore due to a series of really tragic events. Of unfortunate events.

A series of unfortunate events. By Lemony Snicket. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's move on. So a little fun fact. Thank you, thank you. This was actually my doctoral thesis.

Yes. So Ape is voiced by actor John Cleese, who is better known, most famously, his most famous role is voicing the Frog King in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third. Yeah. Yeah, and he's a troubled frog, but ultimately he died at the beginning of the third movie.

So, yeah. He's fine. R.I.P. R.I.P. R.I.P. We love Kings. Well, that's that. We just wanted to thank Caitlin and Jamie for flying us in.

I think it was worth it. And, you know, just like they're so beautiful and interesting. You know? We should bring them back to the stage. Yeah, let's welcome them back. All right. Welcome back, Caitlin and Jamie.

Hey, everybody. This is Matt Rogers. And Bowen Yang. We've got some exciting news for you. You know we're always bringing you the best guests, right? Well, this week we're taking it to the next level. The one, the only, Katherine Hahn is joining us on Lost Culture East. That's right, the queen of comedy herself.

Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture. I feel some Sandra Bernhardt in you. Oh, my God. I would love it. I have to watch Lost. Oh, you have to. No, I know.

I'm so behind. Katherine Hahn can sing. Oh, I'm really good at karaoke. What's your song? Yeah, what's your song? Oh, I love a ballad. I felt Bjork's music. I just was like, who is this person?

I got to hawk this slalom, Luge. Not hawk the slalom. I absolutely love it. It was somehow Shakespearean when you said it. It was somehow gorgeous. Yee, my slok, you hollum. Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Farrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.

And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career

without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state.

And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad free subscribe to the iHeartTrue Crime Plus channel available exclusively on Apple Podcasts they were wonderful and and so pretty. Almost as pretty as us because it's a competition. But yes.

And yeah, I'm going to get into hand-to-hand combat. Okay. Well, now that we know all about how... I mean, I feel like part of the reason that we wanted to talk about how wildly inaccurate and kind of randomized and underthought the way that the jungle is built out with animals is because the way that Africa and the African jungle are portrayed in the movie overall just makes no sense. Yeah.

Particularly with the African characters who are in the movie. So we have Mr. Kwame and then these three porters. And the way that they are characterized, especially the porter characters, is... They are like the funniest characters in the movie. For sure. Like time and time again. Like it's a frustrating thing to watch because I like checked everywhere I could.

I'm like like were these characters even intended to have names no there's three porters they are all referred to as Ursula's friend and an African tour guide which is a very long way of not giving someone a name right and on one hand it's like something that surprised me about this movie is like lyle is a very clear flamboyant colonizer character like he's fucking arrogant he never knows what he's talking about um he's constantly bullying people and belittling people and assuming that they know less than he does he does specifically mr kwame and the porters um and he's always wrong and they're always laughing at him in a way that's very satisfying.

But on the other hand, we don't know what their names are and we don't know anything about them except that they know that Lyle is an incompetent loser. Well, I would even say that the movie, the movie is inconsistent with how it wants you to feel about these characters because it doesn't even present him as always wrong because for the first few moments of the movie the way they're represented

is like they take the expression shake a leg literally because they like don't fully understand like the nuances of the english language they uh are easily startled by like modern western things like flash photography or like one of them the movie throws one of them off of like a I don't know which bridge Lyle throws them off a bridge but that is like the inciting incident for like

yeah I do agree that it's like they are shown as being like I think even more offensively cartoonishly like they're shown as like being well they're not familiar with western civilization so we don't need to respect these characters right which happens all the time but then when Lyle shakes the rope bridge and one of the porters nearly passes away but then the narrator is like no one's gonna die in this movie I swear

and so he comes back even though he should have died right uh and he's just mad and then there's like a turning point where all of a sudden like you're saying like the broad offensive traits we were introduced to go away and all of a sudden like lyle comes over to them and is like condescending to them about like i have this polaroid camera and cigarettes and cigars, and in exchange, I'm going to take your land. He's using the most colonizer, colonizer language ever. And they know exactly what a Polaroid camera is,

and they're laughing at him. And for the rest of the movie, they're laughing at him, and he falls into a pile of shit, and then they say to camera camera we're laughing at him. It's such a funny line. It's a good line. The line is bad guy falls in poop.

Classical element of physical comedy. Now comes the part where we throw our heads back and laugh. And then they do it. They do. It's like, have you guys taken a UCB class? Oh, they're giving hard 301 vibes. Yeah.

But yeah, it's almost as if the movie, for the first few minutes, wants you to make an assumption about the characters as being oblivious and they don't understand what's going on and they don't know things. And then there's a hard turn where it's like oh shame on you for thinking that they speak english this whole time and they know they're like far more

aware of everything than especially lyle but we only thought that because you characterized them that way it that way and also it's like there's all those different assumptions of uh that the movie makes of like they spoke english the whole time is such a loaded thing like why do you have to speak english to be right considered to be a civilized respectable person colonialism like there there's kind of like all of these like subtle things at play that this movie is in no way equipped to to handle uh but even with like the tone that this movie's taking on, you're totally right where the porters

should first of all have names because they do have pretty distinct personalities for side characters, basically. And also, this is a movie

that takes place in the African jungle and every black character is very much a side character, which is ridiculous. Hollywood movies set in Africa still are always about white guys.

Yeah. They're, yeah. And Mr. Kwame, I think, is like the most, the most characterized of the group. But it's also like, that's mostly just because he has a name and he appears in multiple

scenes and he's played by a very famous person right um but it's not like he's given really much of like the porters and mr kwame are there to make fun of lyle which is an admirable task yeah it's important to uh enjoy when lyle falls into a pile of shit. But I just feel like there's more room in the story to give them more of a story. Or cut out, you don't even need Lyle's goons or anything. You could cut out other characters to make space

for them. Lyle's goons who are given far more characterization and names than the porters. When they're the fucking dog nappers from 101 Dalmatians you're just like, who are these guys? Get them out of the movie and make room for people.

Yeah. You know? Yeah, that was really frustrating. And also, the actors who played the porters were so fucking funny. It was so... Truly.

Every line was so good. Yeah. And then that sort of brings us to Lyle, who is... I mean, I feel like Lyle I don't know I've we've talked about the different tropes over the years of like there's very often especially in like movies for younger audiences but sometimes for for grown-ass people as well um you know it's like you see like a huge societal issue that's like completely boiled down to one character and their sins.

And it's like patriarchy, the guy. And if you can defeat patriarchy, the guy, then the world turns into the Windows 2000 screensaver. You know, like everything is amazing all of a sudden. Or like capitalism, the guy. We've like talked about that sort of thing. And Lyle sort of seems to be like colonialism, the guy. And if you defeat colonialism, the guy, you defeat colonialism.

Which of course is like overly simplistic and very much not true. And it's also fun to watch colonialism, the guy, fall into a pile of shit. Face first. Yeah. It's very satisfying yeah i guess i appreciate that the movie recognizes him as the villain i don't know i mean because like colonialism is not always demonized in movies so no especially not in the 90s like it's like glorified in the 90s very often and but but because but i feel like the

offset of that of like making lyle colonialism the guy that like removes pressure from other white characters like ursula who is doing like jungle tourism and like is a trust fund kid touring the african jungle in in ways that I think is or like that's open for discussion right you know but because Lyle is so diabolical it sort of removes the pressure from other white characters in the movie from what they're complicit in true um well this is a fun convo um I did like but but also like okay so Lyle is a lot of things the guy. He is colonialism the guy, which he is punished for to an extent.

I think that they should like kill him, but you can't do that in the movie. He's also misogyny the guy. He comes up to Ursula the first time that they speak and he goes, the jungle loves you, you're beautiful. And you're like, the jungle loves you, you beautiful. And you're like, who is this man?

He gaslights her a little later, because when he shows up after she's been rescued by George, she's like, I remember what happened when the lion showed up. Like, you left, or like, you tried to run away. And he's like, what are you talking about? I was fighting the lion the whole time. You just don't remember because you were so terrified. Right, right.

I mean, he's the worst. And like you see after George takes Ursula away, he knows exactly what's happened. And then he like bursts a bunch of berries on his arm um but i bet if we looked up we're not native to africa i bet they were from like uh massachusetts but he like you know exploded a couple massachusetts cranberries on his forearm and he's like no uh i you know he like makes up a lie he's a coward. He is a very effective villain because he is the most evil

and only Holland Taylor likes him. And she's the other most evil character. Yes. But I mean, later in the movie, it's the other moment with the porters that I wanted to shout out was that that does sort of come back where whenever Lyle tries to use a Swahili phrase

book um he says something that makes no sense and the way that I feel like anytime uh someone's using a phrase book in a movie they're like what they I can't think of something I don't know but I know what you mean it's a it's formula for comedy. Yeah. And this time I was not laughing. But it only like sort of makes the porters angrier at him. And then over time, they do seem determined to like bail on him and leave him for dead, which at that point is extremely earned and sort of was from the beginning. Because why is he there? What is his job?

That was my question. What is his job? Oh, yeah. We don't do. I mean, you could ask that question of Ursula, too, because I was like, oh, she's a What is his job? That was my question. What is his job? Oh. Yeah, we don't. What does he do? I mean, you could ask that question of Ursula, too, because I was like, oh, she's a YouTuber. Well, she does. She's like, I have to go to work, George, so stay at my apartment. But then, like, she's kind of just walking around, like, where?

We don't know. She goes to see, but when she says she's going to work she goes and says hi to her dad at the bank oh right which is like she's a bank heiress that's her whole thing and a round of applause for that no i'm kidding um yes caitlin bank of america um yeah i mean but what is any rich person's job you know we don't know what her job is we don't know what lyle's job is but what do rich people do i don't understand are you defending them like no no i'm like in a way in a way the movies no i i'm saying that um i don't know what i'm saying i do think if this movie was made today ursula would be making

a shitty podcast um can we talk about ursula i would love to talk about ursula okay so like her character exists in the story because she is georgia jungle's romantic interest and so there's some interesting things happening there such as there's the born sexy yesterday trope but inverted right yes they they did a ghostbusters 2016 they gender swapped that and for anyone who's not familiar with the born sexy yesterday trope it's a like sci-fi trope that or it's like mostly a sci-fi trope that is characterized by usually a a woman being like an alien or a like a cyborg or like some kind of like sci-fi thing and falls in love with the first man she meets generally it's I mean it's like an extension of like sexy baby ideology right where it's like Bill Paxton shakes you up one day you're like and then you're and then three days later but but you have like huge naturals and then

right you one week later you marry Bill Paxton and everyone's like, yeah. And then you win an Oscar. It's like pretty wild. Yeah. It's women who have like a fully formed, mature adult woman body, but like the mind of a baby more or less. And she has to be taught things by the first man she meets. And she usually falls in love with him. He teaches her about like sex and stuff like that.

Yeah. The fifth element i feel like is kind of like the quintessential example of that yeah but it is really like it's a short it's like a writing shortcut um not only if you want to underwrite a woman but also if you want to make a very boring man seem more interesting where like you have like a really boring male protagonist and he's like oh yeah this is like three plus three and then she goes and he goes yeah so in this case in this movie it's like switched because this time it's a man who doesn't know anything and who falls in love with the first woman he sees who he doesn't even realize is a woman until he's like cold compressing her boobs and he's like what's what are these

well i felt like it was like there i mean there is like born sexy yesterday uh traits into like the way that it's played but also it i felt like the movie took a fair amount of time to like show that it was like even though everything about george of the jungles world is completely fucking made up because it's a cartoon um but there was like some sort of exchange where like he showed her his world i thought in a more equitable way where when she didn't understand what things were he would just tell her what it was and like wouldn't challenge her to like an example that stood out to me was when Ursula was staying in George's treehouse he didn't pressure her to like change the way she was dressing at all she was wearing her own clothes the whole time if she didn't understand what was going on he's like oh

this is what this is and I didn't feel at least he put like too much pressure on her to join or not join but then when George goes to San Francisco Ursula's like you gotta get in Armani we're going to Neiman Marcus like she actually I think and in another inverted way where I feel like you more often see in the Born Sexy Yesterday trope like the person who is um like falling in love with the born sexy yesterday character they're like you have to assimilate to what i'm doing and in a way that like george doesn't do to her he's just like is interested in her and is like this is what i do do you like this and she does but then they go to san francisco and she's just like, take that dress off. You're wearing a tuxedo. And you're like, to wear? Why does he need an Armani tuxedo?

He looked nice in that dress. I mean, he looked nice in everything he wore. It was Brendan Fraser. He looked amazing. But it was just like, I thought it was interesting that he didn't put pressure on her to assimilate, but that wasn't true in the reverse. The narrator even says something like, Ursula, being of a conservative mind that he didn't put pressure on her to assimilate but that wasn't true in the reverse the the

narrator even says something like ursula being of a conservative mind regarding gender roles takes george shopping at neiman's or whatever but also she's a bank heiress so that's just hyper realism yeah true you think she's voting she's voting blue no matter who yeah but yeah so so there's that interesting component of their relationship but yeah there's like there's ways that that is subverted where again in the traditional born sexy yesterday trope it would be like the man teaching the woman about like here's how to kiss and love me but there's say that again

i'm a virgin um but in this case it's not like he first of all, he's learning sex from ape. It's like, who might know how human sex works, but is just fucking with him anyways. Ape is a bully. I would go see his show in Vegas, though. Honestly, yeah. For sure. And then George is like, oh, there's this coffee commercial that's going to teach me how to love.

And then he figures it out on his own. What? That's what happens in the movie. What? I guess we're just going to let that slide. Okay, he sees a coffee commercial. And then what? And then he does what

i'm not saying it's right but his reaction is oh this is how i'll get ursula to love me. Wait, but Kayla, did you hear what you said? No. What did I say? Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. We're going to protect them today, okay? What is it?

You said you... Wait, you really don't know? Buddy. What did I say? No. I've had a can of vodka mule yeah your Freudian's slipping all over the place like it's a fucking water park what did i say he said he fingers it out on his arm. Which would have been really interesting to watch. Wait.

Did everyone hear that? Yeah, everyone heard that. okay we're gonna okay no no we're gonna figure this out together so he figures it out on his own and then he fingers her um and she's like woohoo fuck Lyle um I do I do like that Ursula like there is a certain amount of, because, like, I think there are moments within Ursula and George's relationship that are up for question. However, cathartic, I thought, to see Ursula be, it felt like her parents were pressuring her to be in a relationship with Lyle

because he was, like, it felt like a rich person arranged marriage kind of thing. For sure. And also, they look a lot alike, and you're just like, I don't want this. And she doesn't want this. And the second she met someone she was actually interested in,

she kind of just started, she didn't just like not care when Lyle was held captive. I loved how the second he was, like there's multiple times where she's like mentioning that Lyle's in jail on another continent but murder right but only because it's inconvenient to her today she's like well I have to like I'm supposed to bring Lyle but he's in jail in Africa and like she just doesn't give a shit about him and I think it is like fun to see a woman who's being forced into a marriage she doesn't want just like get to say shit like that and be like, yeah, my himbo's on TV at the Bay Bridge. And OK. Thank you, San Francisco.

No, but like that, she's just like, oh, fuck Lyle. Like I met someone I actually like and to see her like actually enjoy herself a little bit. That said, I do think her family votes red in every single election and always has. Yeah. Scary. Well, that brings up the, okay,

we've covered a lot of movies recently that involve a love triangle, specifically a woman having to choose between two men. Some of these episodes haven't come out yet at the time of this live show, but we've got this love triangle in Georgia. There's this movie called Titanic. And we've never covered it before.

That's so weird. But yeah, there's a love triangle in Georgia the Jungle. We have an upcoming episode on Sweet Home Alabama where there's a love triangle in Georgia the Jungle. We have an upcoming episode on Sweet Home Alabama where there's a love triangle. We have an upcoming episode on something new. And then, of course, Titanic. Let's take a little detour to examine the parallels between Georgia the Jungle and Titanic, shall we?

Because, I mean, it's 1997. It is literally the same year. And George of the Jungle comes out first. And so I have to imagine James Cameron in his 45-story tall house underground shaking in his boots when he sees this damn movie. He's like, oh no, they're coming for me. Because the parallels are shocking.

Are shocking. Yes. Starting with. Yeah. Curly haired high society woman is engaged to an evil rich man. And his hair, it's flopping around. And he can't stop saying, fiance. Yes.

Then we've got another man who has no material wealth. And in one of the movies, no material. Who saves the rich woman from death. Okay. Then she starts to fall in love with this quote unquote poor man. I mean, you said that like George of the Jungle had money somewhere. Not actually poor. Right, okay.

Then the poor man gets a makeover and tries on a suit to adhere to the standards of the rich people. Okay. Then we've got the woman has an uptight mother with a transatlantic accent who tries to keep her daughter away from the poor man so that the rich daughter will marry the evil rich fiance. The poor man has to save the rich woman from a boat catastrophe at the end. And how, and to give Georgia the jungle, the edge in this regard only, how amazing would it have been if Jack Dawson had whacked into one of those smokestacks?

That was a big misapprehension. What if Jack Dawson careens into one of those Titanic smokestacks and that's what this is fucked up. That's what knocks it over, kills Fabrizio. Whoa! They're like, watch out

for that. I mean, Jack, Jack, Jack of Titanic. It writes itself! My fiance! And then the final thing I noticed is that the rich lady wears a necklace with a jewel on it, and that necklace is called

attention to several times. Yes. And Georgia, the jungle also has his own, uh, his own necklace. And I liked that bit where Ursula makes a little assumption about him and it's like,

Oh, did you, I forget what the animal, did you fight a crocodile? Yes. And then he's like, no, I did a dental procedure on the crocodile.

I'm like, okay, Brendan Fraser, literal genius. Interesting. He's, he's not going a dental procedure on the crocodile. And they're like, okay, Brendan Fraser, literal genius. Interesting. And he's not going to go out there and fight. He's so gentle and so sweet. I guess to sort of put a button on their relationship,

I think, honestly, there's a lot of movies that came out this same year that did much worse with building a convincing and somewhat equitable relationship I at least get why George and Ursula like each other it doesn't feel I mean in a movie that feels really really forced and contrived in a lot of ways on purpose

I thought it was good like I just they're sweet together and also I feel like trust fund kids and people who grew up were raised by like monkeys have a lot in common and they're both sort of like we we both don't know how the world works and let's not follow rule rules don't apply to us you know and in that way it's kind of beautiful they're both so sexy i don't know um i had a quick thing about brendan fraser

in this movie specifically because there was a brendan fraser he's going through you know he's going through his brennissance and yeah we said i did not come up with that but i wish i had um but uh brendan fraser is like experiencing this resurgence and the movie he's resurging for, we don't have time. But he is experiencing a resurgence, and people are excited about it. So he's been talking a lot about his first Hollywood leading man heyday, and George of the Jungle is kind of smack in the middle of that. And I found an interview from late last year where I mean I guess like even us like when we talk about George of the Jungle it's like Brendan Fraser is ripped in that movie like he's so

Hollywood handsome that it's like he's he's basically naked the whole movie like it's it's wild and uh he did one of the actor on actor interviews with Adam Sandler late last year and talks about like how he had a full blown eating disorder for the entire time of this movie to the point where it like affected his like ability to just like for his brain to work. Look, it's late in the show and I'm bringing this up but he said that he starved himself of carbohydrates for months at a time which is really dangerous to look the way that he does in georgia the jungle uh he said quote i would drive home after work and stop to get something to eat i needed some cash one time and i went to the atm and i couldn't remember my pin number because my brain was misfiring and so i didn't eat that night and yeah okay guys he's fine now it's okay just just remember back to when I accidentally said fingering but I did like I I think that uh Brandon Fraser is kind of one of the few Hollywood leading men uh who has actually spoken to this

in terms of like we talk about it all the time because i do think it disproportionately affects women and femmes but it does also affect men and brandon fraser is kind of one of the only people that has sort of spoken to that over the years on a number of issues and the other person who. Zach Efron, who we love. He also said that he went for years without ever eating carbs and saying that it affected his brain and ability to do basic things. And then he spoke about this,

I think ironically, and also really in a funny way when they revealed his wax sculpture of his abs at Madame Tussauds he's like yeah woohoo I think this is very dangerous though which is like pretty iconic to do to undercut the event so severely uh yeah but but like you know it's like the the there are there are a ton of pressures put on um people of all genders who who are expected to look a very particular way and this movie is you know even if you love it which i do uh i love the part when he fingers the

coffee um but like it you know i i appreciated that he he's able to, and that there has been sort of, I guess, enough of a cultural shift. Not entirely, but some sort of cultural shift where he feels like he can talk about it now. Yeah. But here's a question. Does this movie pass the Bechdel test? Not to go full Bambi, what was my name?

Bambi Orwell? Bambi Orwell Bambi Orwell I like that you made it up so I did yeah um it does pass the Bechdel test in the scene where uh Ursula's mom who is named Beatrice I believe says, do you have a fever? How is your temperature? What color is your tongue? And what is your vagina like right now? And in so many words. She says that in the PG movie.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And Ursula says, it's all normal. First of all, what even is a quote unquote normal vagina, Ursula? Secondly, it does pass the test you're nitpicking Ursula should have said in the movie and to me here's what a normal vagina means and then describes her own to her mom and then it got fingered by George. You happy? Yeah, it does. It passes a couple different times, but that was my

favorite by a long shot. You would think with the best friend character, Betsy, it would pass more. Here's where I found it passing the only time between the two of them in multiple scenes together. Hello. Hello. passing the only time between the two of them in multiple scenes together hello hello which is narratively impactful because we hadn't seen her before that's true but uh other than

that she's like hello hello hubba hubba and then that just kind of like that's kind of the rest of the movie yeah um so it's not it's not not an extreme pass. I will, I wanted to give a quick shout out. There, there were two credited writers on this movie. Oh yes. One of whom is a woman, Audrey Wells,

who wrote a number of kind of classics of the aughts. She also wrote Disney's The Kid. Remember that one? She wrote Under the Tuscan Sun. My mom got so fucked up over that one Shall We Dance, same story and then

the last screenplay she wrote before she passed away in 2018 was The Hate U Give so she's a very legendary respected wonderful screenwriter that was gone too soon so it was nice that there was and I feel like even though I wouldn't say that screenwriter that was gone too soon so it was nice that there there was and and

I feel like you know even though I wouldn't say that you could make a Mad Max argument that this is really a woman's story there are I mean I think like because of Audrey Wells's work I would guess that that women are you know more present in in the work than they would have been otherwise. True, very true. Yeah. What about our nipple scale though? The one true metric. Metric where we rate the movie.

One metric to rule them all. Whoa, a Lord of the Rings reference, Jamie. I cannot answer any follow-up questions at this time. Well, this is our metric where we rate the movie on a scale of zero to five nipples based on how it fares looking at it from an intersectional feminist lens um i would say hmm this it's like yeah um i mean i'll let me talk through it for a moment we've got is ursula damseled a number of times does she think constantly but does she also later save george at the end for one second and then

and then he she does pass out right and then he also drops her and she's like i want to tell you that i love you and he's like there's no time to talk right now and then he drops her on the ground and then he keeps fighting the bad guys so that's not maybe the best uh it's not the best when he licks her face while she's unconscious um and yet I am rooting for them mistakes were made okay because well I was starting to talk about the love triangle relationship dynamic that's so prevalent in so many movies where it's just like, yeah, I want her to pick George, obviously. And I do hope they stay together forever. If only just make Holland Taylor upset. And I mean, not the real Holland Taylor. I want her to be so happy forever.

But yeah, no, I mean, I was rooting for that relationship. It seems like they were happy together. Although, you know, she unquestionably, I don't know, I mean, I guess it would have been worse if George moved to San, I'm sorry. It would have been worse.

I remembered where we were. No, but it makes more sense that she would move there than he would move to where she was because it seemed like she didn't want to be there anyways. Right. But yeah, it does mean that she has to give up her question mark

job. She'd have to give up her job and family that she loves but i don't know that she loves her family or has a job and that's a conversation for another day sure sure sure um so we've got that we've got the very underdeveloped characters of the porters and mr kwame um again general misrepresentation of Africa in general, for sure. And in a movie that largely takes place in Africa to be mostly about white

people is, um, I mean, it's a very Hollywood thing to do, but it's not, we don't like it. It's bad. How many fingers are you going to give the movie?

Um, How many fingers are you going to give the movie? I'll give it one and a half fingers. And where are you putting those fingers? Well, I think it's important that I give one, or I put, I put a finger into our special guests on the show, Bambi and Lauren. They would love that. Oh, my God. They would flip and then my half finger just the tip i will put this is horrible um i'll put my half finger into no i'm just okay no you said into no one no one told you to do that

I'll put it into George what about you Jamie where are you putting your fingers? This has nothing to really do with my intellectual opinion. I just want to, you know, I'm throwing in two fingers because I want to have a good time. Ooh, uh-huh. One and a half? Come on. We're already here, you know?

True. Fair. For what? Okay, I'm going gonna give it two fingers and and i'm gonna give them well i guess i don't know you know i'm gonna give them both to betsy because it seems like she really wanted to do something with her fingers for sure and i wish her the best in her future fingering endeavors and i think that that's feminist of me to do too feminine finger um so that is where the recording cuts off luckily we were almost done with the show um

the part that got cut off is just us saying thanks to everyone who came out to the show thanks again to sf sketch fest for having us thanks to our special guests lauren d titanic and bambi orwell was that your fake name jamie bambi orwell yeah yeah i i think that those that okay fake name hello i'm i'm so sorry those are real people our friends caitlin d oh sorry lauren d titanic yeah which is um not at all even close to being an anagram of caitlin dorante so don't even try to make that connection and bambi orwell like literally just not it's just and that's just the name of a human woman and a woman in stem so watch your mouth and a real person so and a real human person is the best i can say for her yeah other than that she's i'm afraid of her but thank you to to lauren and

bambi for lending their their cat facts their animal facts in general and depending on how much you hate them maybe they'll be back someday yeah let us know really currently unclear if they'll be welcome back let us know how horrified you were by those real people and while you're at it give us five stars on apple podcasts yeah because that's always a nice thing to do and and be on the lookout for more live show episodes that we again will be releasing soon and like always check us out on twitter and instagram uh you can subscribe to our patreon aka matreon at patreon.com slash spectral cast where you will get two bonus episodes every single month for five dollars a month plus access to the entire back catalog of all the mat two bonus episodes every single month for $5 a month, plus access to the entire back catalog of all the Matreon bonus episodes.

Yay. All right. We will see you next week. Bye. Bye. Hey, everybody. This is Matt Rogers. And Bowen Yang.

We've got some exciting news for you. You know we're always bringing you the best guests, right? Well, this week we're taking it to the next level. The one, the only, Katherine Hahn is joining us on Lost Culture East. That's right. The queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious

as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture. Don't miss Katherine Hahn on Lost Culture East. Listen to Lost Culture East on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti.

And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unnerves the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts.