The Bechdel Cast - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

On this episode, Caitlin and Jamie *lampoon* the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effin vast. Start changing it with the Bechdel cast. Jamie, a drum roll please. Okay. And here we are at the Bechdel cast episode of National... Wait, the lights aren't on. The lights aren't on. Oh shoot. Oh no. I guess I don't understand

electricity. Welcome to the Bechtel cast. My name is Jamie Loftus. My name is Caitlin Durante and this is our show where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens using the Bechtel test simply as a jumping off point for a larger discussion about representation and stuff. ain't that the freaking truth. And here we are at the end of the holiday season. I'll say it. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of holiday classics at this point.

I think next year we're going to have to really figure out something. Something. Okay. I feel like every year we kind of come up on this, but I thought of a whole new list of things that we haven't covered. We haven't done The Last Holiday with Queen Latifah. Oh, true, true. The thing is that there's a bunch of like 80s and 90s movies that you might not be like

as familiar with, but they were like pretty big, like cultural moments of that, like Scrooge. I feel like we've almost done Scrooge like for eight years in a row. Yeah. Listeners, if there is a holiday movie that we haven't covered, I would absolutely love to know because Netflix is just not churning out the slop like they used to. They're just not. And it's a damn shame. I hate to see that. We did a poll recently for matrons to kind of vote on what other holiday movie we would do this month and

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 1, which is why we're doing that today. But then there's also movies like Ghosts of Girlfriends Past that is a, I think, vague Christmas Carol adaptation. Something like that. I confused it with my super ex-girlfriend, so I actually don't know. Yeah, I have seen Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and retained very little of it, but that is a Christmas time movie. Then you've got Black Christmas. There's the original from the 70s as well as the remake.

There's In Bruges, which is a Christmas time movie. I forget that that is technically, yes. And then we've also got The Long Kiss Good Night, which not enough people voted for, but it's a fun action romp starring Gina Davis forgetting, like she has, she like doesn't remember that she used to be a spy, like an assassin. See, this sounds good. It's awesome. I have not seen, but yeah, I was like, you had me at Gina Davis.

Say no more. Exactly. And Samuel L. Jackson is in it, like, hello. Say no more again. This rocks. So there's more. There's more movies to cover. There's no shortage.

There's more, but you know what I mean. Sometimes it's just like, what? Okay. What we're saying is this is the Bechdel cast. You know, I would say don't worry too much about the Bechdel test when it comes to this movie. Oh, it does technically pass in a few passing moments. However, spiritually, you know, it doesn't. And that's the episode. But if in case you're wondering, the Bechdel test is a media metric created by queer cartoonist

Alison Bechdel, often called the Bechdel Wallace Test because it was in fact co-created with Alison Bechdel and her friend, Liz Wallace. It was originally created as a joke, a one-off joke in Bechdel's iconic comic collection, Dykes to Watch Out for, and was originally centered specifically on why there was no representation of queer women, but it was later sort of straightified for the mainstream. And the version of the test that we use requires that two characters of a marginalized gender with names

speak to each other about something other than a man for more than two lines of dialogue and today we are covering a movie that it's so interesting I feel like it sort of straddles worlds we've covered before but I don't think we've ever this is the first thing we've covered in the national lampoonoon EU, right? The NLEU? Because there's like 12 of these movies that range like 40 years, which I kind of did not remember. Right, because there's a bunch of movies specifically

in this like vacation series where the Griswold family goes on some kind of vacation. And then you've got like National Lampoon's Animal House. They were making these things as late as 2015. Oh my god. Yeah. I've got some NLEU lore to share. It's not particularly interesting, but it just is like it's historically they were making these movies for nearly 40 years. But I think these are sort of outside of Animal House, the vacation movies appear to be the more famous ones. But we're covering, of course, it's that time of the year, Christmas vacation. Even though I feel like vacation is a bit of a stretch,

they're at home. It's a staycation. It's a staycation. And it's a movie and we watched it. But Caitlin, what's your history with this? Caitlin St. John So I have seen this before, probably one time as a young person and remembered very little. I remembered vague moments of like, they get stuck under the log truck. Lauren Henry That was kind of thrilling, I have to say. The log truck. It was like movies from the

80s and 90s. I was like, damn, they were just destroying cars. It's kind of fun. They really did do that a lot. Yeah, this is also a stunt that happens in the first Fast and the Furious movie, where they're like little Hondas drive under a big rig. Wow. Brave of you to say and very true. I mean, I call it like I see it. I remember that. It's not even that I had that memory, but as soon as I was watching this movie, I was like, Oh, that is familiar to me. I have seen this before other moments, like when he staples his sleeve to the

roof, I was like, Oh yeah, that is familiar. But there was a moment that I thought was in this movie that I very distinctly moments like when he staples his sleeve to the roof. I was like, oh yeah, that is familiar. But there was a moment that I thought was in this movie that I very distinctly remembered, which was there's a scene where they're driving in the car and an elderly relative is with them in the back seat. And then the kids realize that she's dead. And they're like kind of flopping her body back and forth. So that does not take place in this movie. I was like, excuse me. Well, I thought this was in this movie,

but this is another national Lampoon vacation movie that I was confusing it with. I think that one that I'm referring to, I think it's just called national Lampoon's vacation. Okay. Listeners, if I'm incorrect about this, let me know. But I had this memory. I was like, oh, I can't wait for the part where the dead relative is in the back of the car. And then it never happened in Christmas vacation. So I was like, oh, guess it's a different movie. So wow, gaslighting. But yeah, I basically remembered nothing about this movie. I'm not a big national lampoon head, not a big Chevy Chase head.

He's my least favorite character from Community. I was about to say my entry point for Chevy Chase was Community and therefore I'm... You're so young. I'm very youthful, but I just I feel like people whose entry point for Chevy Chase was Community have been socially conditioned to hate him and it seems like kind of rightfully so. Yeah, he doesn't seem like a... I mean I don't know how he is as a person. I don't know his politics or anything like that. I don't know what his politics are. I just know that he's like,

famously a monster to his coworkers. Oh, okay. Well then fuck him. Yeah. I believe he is a frigging lib. He votes blue no matter who. So it's not his politics I have quite as much issue with as much as just like, yeah, I'm pretty sure if I'm remembering correctly, I'm going to check this really quick, but he like had beef with every single person on the set of Community, which is why he wasn't on the show the whole time. Yeah, I think they kill him off, I want to say at some point. Yes. Oh, so, OK, sorry. This is unpleasant. But so Chevy Chase was fired from community after he said a racial slur on set.

So he is a confirmed bad person. OK, well, yeah, fuck him straight to hell. Donald Glover has spoken about I'm pulling from a variety article from last year, from 2023. Yeah, that Chevy Chase was removed from the show for literally the safety and like comfort of the cast. Didn't remember the extent to which he's a monster, but he is.

He sucks. So yeah, this movie wasn't really going to appeal to me. And so when I rewatched it to prep for this episode, I was like, yep, this movie is not for me. Maybe if I had more of a nostalgic attachment to it or something. And I get that a lot of people do, and you'll just have to be ready for us to dunk on it. But that's our job. There you go. Jamie, what's your history with the movie? I haven't seen this damn thing. I remember the second wave of National Lampoon movies. I remember hearing titles like Van Wilder, you know, circulating.

Oh, right. That is a National Lampoon thing. Right. It made it all the way to Young Ryan Reynolds. Here are some more recent titles, more recent, I mean, last 20 or so years. Van Wilder, Van Wilder, The Rise of Taj, which is a Kal Penn character, I guess. Okay. Let's see what else. And then, yeah, for some reason, there was another one in 2015, which stars Ed Helms as a grown-up Russ, which is interesting because Russ is played by Johnny Galecki, who is a working actor. Like a multimillionaire. It's Leonard for crying out loud. So I don't know why Leonard did.

I mean, honestly, it would be interesting if Johnny Galecki is like, here's where I draw the line and not the Big Bang Theory. Whatever. These movies were coming out for and then there was another Randy Quaid one in 2003 Christmas Vacation 2 Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Who wants that? I don't think anyone because I certainly have never heard of it. At least I heard of Van Wilder. Christmas Vacation 2, Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Who wants that? I don't think anyone,

because I certainly have never heard of it. At least I heard of Van Wilder. I think that was successful. Anyways, this is a whole EU. Yeah, no, but I had not seen any of these movies. They were not shown in my household. We just like weren't a big like John Hughes household. No.

Yeah, Chevy Chase is a piece of shit. Randy Quaid don't even get me started. Ooh. However, I do think that this is like an interesting piece of kind of like moment in time cultural stuff. This movie feels so 80s in its presentation of like an upper middle class that no longer exists. Yeah. It's interesting. I'm excited to talk about that sort of aspect of it.

Yeah, and it's a very John Hughes. It is weird that like once I read that this was based on a story that John Hughes had written about the late 50s, it made much more sense to me because I don't think that this world even existed in the 80s. This is like post-World War II, middle class sort of politics. It's weird. Nicole Cuttingham I couldn't even place it. I was like, maybe that's just what Chicago suburbs were like back then. Growing up in a very small rural town, I'm just like, I don't know what suburbs are like. I would never go to one. Is this what it is? I have no idea. So I don't even I don't even know I'm Unclear on that as well

like because this is like a class that neither of us were ever a part of and I know that there's so much movie five versions of it. Also, I mean we had a more Detailed version of this conversation in our matriarch Ferris Bueller episode. But John Hughes also kind of like a right wing kind of guy. This movie does feel conservative coded, I would say. Yes. Anyways, there were a few things that got me. I like that Julia Louis Dreyfus is in this movie, for example. I like kind of the like, it's very low hanging fruit, but the kind of like wasp criticism, like bits with that couple is kind of funny. My mom introduced me to a term over the summer that

like my brother and I kept laughing because we thought she was like, she was unwell. Have you heard of the phrase dinks? No. Oh my God. So I also hadn't, and my brother and I were laughing, we were like, mom, what's wrong with you? Dink is, I guess, like coded with this sort of yuppie culture of the Reagan era. It's an acronym that stands for double income, no kids, dink.

Oh, I've heard that full expression, but I haven't heard it abbreviated as dink. Well, of course, because it sounds ridiculous. But yeah, my mom was like, oh, those dinks. I was like, what are you saying? So that's what's going on with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She's a dink. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

As is her right. Anyways, this movie was like, I don't know. It felt longer than it was. I will say, if you grew up, this movie was like, I don't know, it felt longer than it was. I will say, if you grew up with this movie, I understand why it might feel like a warm blanket in the same way that like, A Christmas Story isn't my favorite, but I get why people like it. It's a series of like, you can leave the room for 20 minutes and come back and be able to understand what's going on. Every scene, Chevy Chase is either like, oh, or I'm horny. And that's the whole movie. That's like, you know, if you're drunk on

eggnog, then live, laugh, love. He's as I was interesting, Angela Battle Amenti did the score for this. Oh, I'm not familiar. He most famously worked with David Lynch. He did like the whole, um, theme for twin peaks. He's like a very, oh yeah. Like blue velvet. Like he did very iconic scores. And then he also did the xylophone when Chevy chase gets bonked on the head. All right. Yeah, I don't know. This movie was like, maybe it won't make for a great episode because I struggled to conjure a strong feeling about this movie. I didn't like it. I get why others do. And I probably

won't watch it ever again. Yeah, I was hanging out with our mutual friend Brian last night. And we were like, what movie should we watch? And I was like, well, I have to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation for work. And he's like, no thanks. So instead we were like, okay, well, what's another maybe like Christmasy movie or what should we watch instead? And Gremlins came up, not as something we really wanted to watch, but we're like, oh,

that's another Christmas movie. And then we both realized we had never seen Gremlins 2. And then we watched that. We should have covered that. It is my new favorite movie. I love and I've already been a longtime fan of the Key and Peele Gremlins 2 sketch. I mean it's a classic even if you don't know what they're talking about, which I don't. Which I never did but it was still so funny and now that I have seen Gremlins 2 and it's

like further contextualized I love it even more. I love the sketch even more. But now I also love the movie Gremlins too. It rocks so hard. I don't care what anyone says. It's awesome. It should have swept the Oscars that year. It's the best movie I've ever seen. Anyway, so let's cover it a different time. Okay, so yeah, we're not a fan of this movie. Shall we take a break and then come back for the recap? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Skylight Frame is more than just a photo frame.

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And we're freaking back. I guess we should have said really quickly. So this movie, yeah, movie written by John Hughes, directed by a guy named Jeremiah S. Chechik. Who? I've got to say, not much to say about him. Not much is known. Hopefully he's a nice guy.

And it's connected to, obviously, National Lampoon magazine, which I have more on in the context section, but that's where we're coming into. Yes. And as you hinted at, it's a movie with just not exactly sketches, but it's just like little moments, little vignettes of like the things that the family is getting up to, except it's mostly just what Clark Griswold is getting up to. And what he's getting up to is Owie or Boner. Horny! Those are his two settings, owie and boner.

And we love that. He's the last family man as is a line of dialogue. Sure. Okay, so we open on an animated sequence featuring Santa Claus. Ever heard of him? He is visiting the home of the Griswold family on Christmas Eve and then chaos ensues. I kind of miss, this is something I miss, is the animated intro. Oh sure, yeah, whatever happened to them. Anyway, then we meet the Griswold family who are in the car on their way to get a Christmas tree. The dad is Clark, played by Chevy Chase. The mom is Ellen, played by Beverly D'Angelo. They have a teen daughter named Audrey, played by Juliette Lewis, and a like, I don't know, 12-ish year old son, Russ, played by a young Johnny Galecki, as we mentioned.

There's this whole thing with like a pickup truck that's like driving like an asshole and then a huge logging truck that Clark gets stuck under in their car. A lot of hijinks, a lot of road hijinks. And then they end up in the wilderness where they take an enormous tree that looks like it's like three stories tall from the forest and then they put it up in their living room somehow. So there's that. Then Ellen tells Clark that her parents are coming to visit for the holidays. Clark's parents are also planning to come and these two sides of the

family don't really get along. So Ellen wonders if they should change their plans and do something else. But Clark is like, No, it's my dream to have a big family gathering for Christmas. But don't worry, he won't be doing very much to make it happen. He will be stapling lights on the roof. I guess he does the lights, but he'll do one very complex... This actually does feel kind of... I'm painting with a broad brush here, but this is kind of like father-coded behavior to me, to do one incredibly complicated thing

that no one asked for or wants... Yeah. ...while the mother is tasked with all of the childcare and doing the things that people both want and need, such as eating food yeah yeah correct and wrapping gifts and you know all of the things that are required versus the thing that nobody wants at all yeah yeah that is the whole narrative of this movie uh okay so then we see Clark at work he is counting on his holiday bonus because he wants to install a pool and he's already

put down a $7,500 deposit on the installation of a swimming pool. But his asshole boss, played by Brian Doyle Murray, has not sent out the holiday bonus checks yet. So Clark is kind of panicking. It must really suck being the similar looking sibling of a very famous person. Because they do just look like Brian Doyle Murray to me, just looks like uncanny Valley Bill Murray.

I wonder if like he and I mean, is he I feel like he's probably dead, right? He was old in 1989. I don't know if he's still living. Let's see. Oh no, he's alive. He's alive. He's alive and he's 79 years old.

He should meet up with like Haley Duff and like Elle Fanning. And they should all like sort of have a kiki about this because it has to be like a very disorienting experience. See, I think Elle Fanning is now the more, I don't know if she's the more famous, but she's getting like more work. That's true. Okay, well then maybe Elle's out. Haley Duff is in.

I'm trying to think of a third example of this phenomenon. There's Kevin Dillon, who is an entourage and he's the brother of... Matt Dillon. Matt Dillon. I was like, what's the more famous one's name? Can't remember. Wow. Good for Kevin Dylan for having the Caitlin Durante recall. It's just cause I've seen all those seasons of entourage. Same with um, what's the other, oh my god. There's the Wahlbergs, the Donnie Wahlberg. Donnie is invited to the less famous sibling party. This all sounds like a bad robot chicken sketch

I would have written like five years ago. You know, that's a free idea for whoever, whatever hack comedy writers listening to this free idea. There you go. Have at. Yeah. Anyway, so there's the whole thing with his boss and Clark hasn't received the bonus yet. And then he goes to a department store for some Christmas shopping, except what he does instead is just ogle at the hot saleswoman and he's like, a-woo-ga-hubba-hubba. And of course, that hot sales lady, I don't think we get her name. No. And of course she is behaving completely antithetical to the way that a human woman who's being actively sexually harassed would

She's like lifting her skirt up in the middle. This is all very connected to Obviously just like garden variety misogyny, but also national lampoon specifically Pin in that okay into it. Yes. Let's Okay, so then all of the grandparents show up at the Griswold home and it's chaos. Clark starts decorating for Christmas. He's stapling 25,000 lights onto his house. It looks like shit, if I'm being honest. And then with this decorating process, there's all kinds of hijinks with the ladder and the stapler.

And then when he turns the lights on, they don't work. And so Clark is so disappointed. Oh, nor. And then there's also this running gag with the neighbors and that's the Julia Louis Dreyfus character and whatever that guy is the Dinks, right? They are very like pretentious and they think Clark is. The dinks, right? They are very, like, pretentious, and they think Clark is a loser. And there's this part where, while Clark is decorating, a large shard of ice goes flying out of his gutter and then smashes through the neighbor's window and destroys their

stereo. Wait! Sorry. I just, I didn't, I was not familiar with this character actor who plays the other dink, the non Julia Louis Dreyfus dink. He's a member of the less famous sibling club. He's Christopher Guest's brother. Whoa. Look at that. Look at that. And that just reminds us that we haven't covered a Christopher Guest movie on the podcast. Which makes, oh my god, yes, which is wild because I think he might be my favorite comedy director of all time. Why the hell haven't we done Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, Spinal Tap? So look, I mean that's a matriarch theme waiting to happen. Oh yeah.

That's, I love that man. Anyways, yes, so he's joining my Royal Society of Lessering His Siblings. I can't wait for the first meeting. It's gonna be a bummer. Okay, so then I think it's the next day, Clark goes into the attic to hide some gifts, but then Ellen's mom closes the attic door, not realizing that he's in there,

so he's trapped there while the family leaves and goes Christmas shopping. And so he passes the time watching old reels of family Christmases. Which I guess is a reference to the source material, which is a short story about Christmas 1959. So that's a fun Easter egg for boring people, sorry. Yeah, so he watches that and he's feeling very sentimental

because this guy freaking loves Christmas. Then the decorative Christmas lights thing comes back where there's this whole thing where the lights still won't turn on, but then someone finds a light switch and then they do turn on, but then someone finds a light switch and then they do turn on, but there's all this confusion because no one really knows the source of what's making the lights turn on. Also, these bright lights going on and off are making the mean dinky neighbors pratfall all over their house.

These dinks. These freaking dinks. I have nothing to say about the dinks. I don't think I just think you're like, oh, they're like, yeah, they're low hanging 80s comedy fruit. And I guess they are kind of making fun of married couples with no kids. But I feel like they're more making fun of the class like this snobbyness. Them not having kids I think is commentary on like what selfish adults they are for not, you know, procreating and having a nuclear family the way that you're supposed to in America kind of thing. I agree, but I also think it's like they're coded as so like snobby wealthy that I feel like it almost like, I don't know, for me, at least it like, kind of leveled out in terms of like, it's ultimately saying, not very

much. Right. Well, this movie has an interesting approach to class where the movie does not like rich people, which we see with the neighbors and with the boss, but the movie also hates poor people. And yeah, deems the middle class is the only acceptable socio economic class to be in. Which is very jarring watching in a modern context because I think to most people the Griswolds, they're like living what is now considered to be a wealthy lifestyle. They're homeowners,

they have a ton of, they have room to host like 10 people at their house. You're like, they're living in what would be a multi-million dollar house now. They're about to have a swimming pool. Maybe like there is. He already put down the down payment. He had the money for the down payment where I feel like now and you know like we're not living in flush times. And so you know I'm sure this was unrealistic for the time as well. But it's like you know 30 almost 30 years on like or more than 30 years on all the more unrealistic because you're like, well, wait a second, you guys are rich, but they're sort of, yeah, presented as these middle class heroes in a way that I'm sure was more realistic at the time, but I'm not totally

sold that it would have been totally realistic in 1989 to be like, I'm just a normal guy. And meanwhile, you have like a three-floor house that you own. Come on, come on. But yes, the hatred of the poor is brutal. Nicole Cotter You will talk more about it. I just did an inflation calculation for $7,500, which is what he did for the down payment on the swimming pool. did for the down payment on the swimming pool. So adjusted for inflation, $7,500 in 89 is almost $20,000 in 2024 money. So he just had 20,000 lying around. Lose dollars. Yeah, but he's a working class hero. And the thing that's frustrating is like, yes, this should be a lifestyle that is accessible

to far more people than it is. And even the whole, I felt myself being mad at J.V. Chase, which it was so this guy, it was like, he wants this bonus for this pool. And you're like, fuck you, man. It's hard not. But then you're also like, well, everyone deserves a holiday bonus. I feel like we're also like modern times, piled with like, I don't know, like I just feel inherently resentful looking at people from the past having more than we will ever have in our lives. But that's just modernity, baby. That's late stage capitalism. Yeah. I mean, I hope everyone I've never gotten a holiday bonus in my damn

life. No. I think Grant got a $35 Best Buy gift certificate last year. Oh my God. Wow. Night on the town. Let's go. You can buy one DVD with that. Are DVDs still a thing? We're getting one Blu-ray. All right, anyway, so there's the whole Christmas lights thing again. Then cousin Eddie, played by Randy Quaid and his family show up in their RV and everyone's like, oh wow, what a nice surprise. Sure, you can stay here. There's plenty of room. And again, what's happening here is that this movie hates poor people and thinks they are a joke.

Yes. Then the family goes sledding at night. Okay, yeah, right. What? Sledding at night? I've been sledding at night. It's not to be contrarian. Really? Yes, I've been sledding at night.

It seems very dangerous. Well, we were doing it at, I would do it at my cousins, with my cousins, but it was like at like a designated area. Like it wasn't just like, yeah, that would have been scary. But there was like, I don't know where this would have been, but there was like a designated area for late night sledding where they had like big floodlights and stuff so you couldn't just like soar into the abyss or whatever. Okay. There doesn't seem to be lights at wherever they are or not significant ones. So and then Clark greases up his sled because he works for some, it reminded me of Eddie Murphy's

job in Daddy Daycare. I wrote that down too where I was like, why so many cereal jobs? Yeah, men just had like a food processing breakfast cereal job. He's making like cornflake lube or something. Like it was really weird. And he makes six figures at this breakfast job. And he makes six figures at this breakfast job. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Jesus Christ.

Anyway, so he greases up his sled with some weird food product and then he goes really, really fast down the hill and crashes. And that's just another one of the little comedy bits that happens in the movie. Then Clark, despite him not receiving his Christmas bonus still, he fantasizes about the swimming pool that he's planning to buy. And this fantasy includes the hot saleswoman from the store from earlier taking off her swimsuit and diving into the pool. And he is horny, horny, horny. So exhausting. I have to say, I was getting really scared. I was getting fearful watching that scene

that he was going, because his niece disturbs him. And I thought there was going to be some like horrible boner joke. Same, because he turned around. Because I was like, am I perverse for having this anxiety? But I thought he's going to be like covering like I didn't think that they were going to show, you know, but like I thought he's gonna be like, which would have been really gross. They don't. He's flaccid as he's having this sexual fantasy. And so whatever, like I that's what I would, I guess I would prefer to have not happened

at all. But again, that's a very national lampoon. I feel like that is almost a weird like wink and nod to like what national lampoon was famous for, which was misogynist jokes. Yeah, right. Yeah. So she's just a nameless, almost naked but not naked enough to make it so that kids couldn't see the movie national lampoonampoon model, essentially. Also reminded me, there's a similar swimming pool fantasy sequence in, is it Fast Times at Ridgemont High? Yes.

I don't think that's, is that a fantasy though? Cause I think that that was just like, there's a part where, and Phoebe Cates. Yeah, Phoebe Cates. And then I think it's Judge Reinhold. I forget which character is having the fantasy, but he's fantasizing about her being really sexy and doing very male gaze choreography, but then it cuts to what she's actually doing,

which is choking on the pool water or something. Yeah, oh, right. So you see the two different versions of it. God, if I was Phoebe Case, I would have gotten the fuck out of Hollywood too. Phoebe Case who is one of the stars of Gremlins 2, my new favorite movie. No kidding!

Oh my gosh. Because she's in the first movie too. Yeah, well I just didn't think she would come back. There she is. Look at that, wow. I love that expanded family. I like Kevin Klein, I like her, and I love their Nepo daughter.

I think I probably brought this up when we covered Gremlins, but their Nepo daughter was one of my favorite indie musicians in college, Frankie Cosmos. Okay, wait, is Phoebe Cates married to Kevin Klein? Yeah, she has been since the 80s. What? Yeah. I had no since the 80s. What? Yeah.

I had no idea. So hopefully that means they like each other. It's a long time. Fingers crossed. You know, many such cases. Anyways, yes, I was reminded of that scene as well. It was like if Phoebe Cates didn't even have a character to snap back to, that's what they're doing.

Precisely. Yeah. Yes. So he's having this daydream, which is interrupted by cousin Eddie's young daughter named Ruby Sue, who tells Clark that she is skeptical that Santa exists because she didn't get any presents last year. And we know this is probably because her parents are poor and they couldn't afford to buy gifts so Clark is determined to prove to her that Santa does exist aka presumably he and Ellen will give gifts to cousin Eddie's two kids and a big moment is made of this and yet it never pays off we never see those kids getting gifts. We don't see Clark shopping for the gifts. Nothing.

Nicole We're just told, I feel like again, like this movie tells us that Clark is a good guy a lot and never really shows us. There's no evidence on screen. Edie No. Nicole Yeah. So cousin Eddie meanwhile is dumping his sewage from his RV into the storm drain, and that's going to pay off in a weird, unfunny way, but that's happening. Yay! Then some more relatives show up. This is Aunt Bethany and Uncle Louis, and there's a lot of jokes to the effect of, old people

are so clueless. And I'm laughing. And that's a lot of jokes to the effect of, old people are so clueless. And I'm laughing. And that's those characters. I'm laughing already. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now it's Christmas Eve, and everyone sits down for a big family dinner, but it's a disaster.

The turkey is disgusting. Aunt Bethany's cat and the Christmas tree get burnt to a crisp because, oh yeah, this movie thinks that animal abuse is hilarious as well. And even more to the point, I mean, because we were just talking about this in our A Crazy Nights episode, like that old people are ridiculous, which is really frustrating given the like prestige of the actors they have cast in these roles. I did a little digging there. Aunt Bethany is played by an actress named May Questel. This is her last film appearance. She's the original voice of Betty Boop in Olive Oil. She's a bit of

a legend. Doris Roberts, who most people will know from Everybody Loves Raymond, is in it. Diane Ladd, who's literally in Chinatown, she has won a shitload of awards, like famous prestige actor, like just all of these famous actors. And then they're like, okay, so here's the assignment. You're old and you're annoying. And you're just like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, no respect.

No respect. Particularly because Diane Ladd is in her early 50s when this movie comes out and they're already treating her like she's a thousand years old. Does she play one of the grandparents? She plays Chevy Chase's mother. Oh, okay. While being, let's see, while being less than 10 years older, 8 years older than Chevy Chase and she's playing his mother. The hatred for women knows no bounds anyways.

Yep. Okay, so all this chaos ensues at the family dinner. And then things seem like they're going to turn around when Clark finally receives what he thinks is his holiday bonus check. But instead it's like a jelly of the month club. So he throws a fit because now he can't afford the swimming pool. And he says that all he wants for Christmas is for someone to bring him his boss so he can punch him or something. I don't know. I was

like tuning out during this long tirade he's going on. Lauren Henry Cousin Eddie is like, I'm poor, so I can't detect nuance. So I better go. Let me take this seriously. Yeah, so he leaves and goes to kidnap the boss. Meanwhile, Clark, who is still acting berserk, goes outside and cuts down a new tree from the yard of their dinky neighbors. But oh no, there's a squirrel in the tree. And it's running around the house and terrorizing the family. There's a snake in my boot. More like there's a squirrel in my tree. Exactly.

I think the squirrel part kind of woke me back up a little bit. I do like a good rodent chase. And then they lost me again. But for a second, I was like, oh, squirrel fun. That reminded me of the scene in Monty Python, the Holy Grail, where that like killer bunny is just sort of like flying horizontally across space. And like furious rodent. I'm laughing. I'm laughing. It's funny. It's good. I like rodent movies. Ratatouille? Rattatoeing? I guess what I'm saying is I like ratatouille, ratatouille. I guess what I'm saying is I like

ratatouille and ratatouille. Those are movies that I like. And so the squirrel worked for me. Yeah, that makes sense. There is a great way I feel like we've talked about you continue. I need I'm thinking about rodents for a second. Okay, we should do rodent. Tauber. Well, okay, because I was looking for I know I bring him up all the time, but Mike's Mike, one of my favorite YouTubers, who made an iconic video called The Animated Rodent Agenda of 2006 and 2007, because there was Flushed Away, Over the Hedge,

Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Ratatouille, Back to Back to Back to Back, all rodent-centric movies that all did well in the space of two years. Wild. And why is that? It makes you think. back all rodent centric movies that all did well in the space of two years. Wild. And why is that? It makes you think. Anyways, Rodenttober is well within our reach. Does anyone want that? Thoughts?

Too bad. We're doing it anyway. Okay, we're doing it. Cut, print, done. Anyway, okay. So there's the squirrel and Clark eventually gets the squirrel out of the house. But everyone is just like freaked out mostly by Clark's behavior and the various tirades he's gone on. So they try to leave, but Clark demands that they all stay. And then cousin Eddie shows back up with Clark's boss, who Eddie has kidnapped as per Clark's wish earlier. And Clark calls out his boss for withholding bonus checks and being a greedy prick. And his boss is like, damn, you're right. I guess capitalism is bad. And he like has this weird redemption.

And then a bunch of cops show up because of this abduction. But the boss is like, no, no, no, it's fine. Everything's fine. I learned my lesson. Classic rich guy, classic rich guy. Yeah, rich people are always regretting, exploiting the labor... Famously. ...of people in the classes below them. And then he tells his wife, um, who I was like, I recognize her from something.

And what I recognize her from is she was on a Star Trek show and she was on Star Trek TNG in a small part a few times. Very nice. Yeah. Okay. So then they go outside because they spot a shooting star and Clark is like, it's the Christmas star. Except it's actually something to do with the gas that was created by the raw sewage that cousin Eddie dumped down the storm drain. And then there's a big explosion and the family's

like, ha ha ha ha, what a wacky Christmas. Now this is like the second sewage plot point in a holiday movie we've covered this week on the show. Oh yeah! Because Crazy Knights also has a big suit like guys come on. Let's not have shit. I mean Poopoo Joke can be funny but neither of these are. No. But thankfully that's the end of the movie. That is the end. So let's take a quick break and we'll come back to discuss. ["Skylight Frame"]

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Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. I think I kind of said everything I already had to about National Lampoon magazine, but I did just want to touch on if you're not familiar with National Lampoon or why it's called these it was a humor humor Magazine, uh-huh that existed from 1970 to 1998 was very popular I think it like kind of peaked in the late 70s into the 80s when these movies were coming out

I remember that my dad had a copy of it. I think one of the funny, I mean, but all of the, you know, have you ever seen that if you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog cover of National Lampoon? I don't think so. I do think it is quite funny. My dad used to have a copy of the, yeah, it is,

you know, it's edgelord shit. You know, it's late 20th century edgelordism. And it is a dog with a gun to its head. It's photoshopped. If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog. And I'm laughing. However, most of the things in National Lampoon, I would not be laughing. I think it's whatever an extremely mixed bag. But there were some like famous comedy writers that did more surreal funny actually funny stuff that was in there but there was plenty of stuff that wasn't it was pretty notorious for having a lot of casual racism and it was all but branded as being like overtly misogynist where many of the

covers are like there's like topless women on the covers, the jokes are often exploitative and fucked up. So that's the legacy of the magazine. And so that's very much, obviously the playbook that the NLEU is pulling from. And I would guess that this movie is probably on the lower end of that, as opposed to, I mean, I haven't seen Animal House. I'm sure we'll have to get around to it someday. Someday. But I think that like these are sort of like less leaning into that. And it's still pretty bad. So I just wanted to say that. Yeah. Yeah. My guess is that they wanted to appeal to a wider demographic. And so they had to make it like more family friendly.

Yeah, no, I think this is just like their family, the family branding of a very dirty magazine. And then they are like, or, you know, if you just want to date out with the boys, you can go see, you know, what Animal House or Van Wilder, whatever the fuck. Yeah, right. But yeah, this one is like a little more tame, but it's still there's still plenty, plenty,

plenty to talk about. Where would you like to start, Caitlin? I mean, I would just say that the opening sequence of this movie pretty well sets the tone for all the things we're going to see throughout the movie because it's a father who is dragging his family into this bad idea that he has. Like you said, it's like he's doing the thing that no one wants and no one asked for, but he's like, well, I'm the man of the family, so everyone needs to listen to me and I'm in control and what I say goes. So he's taking his family to go into the wilderness to dig up an enormous comically large Christmas tree. On the way, he gets into a road rage dick measuring contest with people who are very poverty coded. And it's another like,

look at these poor people. Aren't they horrible? They're out to get him Yeah, yeah, it is very like you're saying a masculine dick measuring contest I mean most of the setups here and I know this is very intentionally done is like look at how ridiculous Clark is mm-hmm like look how misguided like the thing that's tricky is like I don't think we're supposed to think he's right much of the time But we are supposed to always like him and right what would make this whole situation so much easier to swallow, and it wouldn't resolve every problem with the movie, certainly, but if like it was a married

couple doing this, like if it was a clueless married couple, as opposed to it's just like so clear that Beverly D'Angelo, who again is way too talented to be in these movies, like is never going to get a laugh line. She's going to be the straight person in every single scene. She's going to be heavily gender coded. Like it sucks because you get, I think it's honestly probably just because Julia Louis-Dreyfus is cast in that role, but like that's the only straight couple where you really see the woman in the couple get precedence in terms of getting the jokes and getting the laugh lines.

Because the movie is just like, Beverly D'Angelo is just a reflection board to prioritize Clark's feelings, whatever Clark wants, she has to rise to the occasion to do, even to the point that at the end, it really bummed me out and felt very, again, telling of how conservative a household this is. First of all, it's not indicated that Ellen works. It seems like she's a stay at home mom, which certainly happened in the eighties, but does feel more late fifties than late eighties.

But that like, when she finds out that Clark has put down the equivalent of $20,000 today on something without talking to her, like she has no reaction to that. And, like, it just, like, goes to show how clearly unequal this, like, household is, where it's like, oh, my God, like, my mom would have just, I don't know. Blew a gasket, like, yeah.

Yeah, she would have run over him with a car. Like, if one parent... But I feel like it's implied, like, well, he's the breadwinner, so he gets to make all financial decisions. And like work in the home, it has no value. And homemakers just have to get in line. Just all these very traditional conservative values that these movies sort of embody. Right. So she has no reaction to learning that her husband just spent an enormous sum of money without consulting her.

She does have other reactions throughout the movie, but it's always just like, Clark, oh, come on, stop that. Stop it. And like her whole character is just like, oh, that's my husband. He's annoying and I hate him, but I love him. But he's always doing something and I'm always nagging him. Right. And thankfully, she's not hyper.

She's certainly not even in the top 50 percentile of naggiest mother characters we've seen. She is a very likable character. It's just that we don't get anything for her. She doesn't really get to be funny. She does, like you're saying, like push against Clark very lightly every once in a while, but he always overrides her where she's like,

I don't know, do we really wanna have like our entire family stay here? And he's like, yes. And then does nothing to contribute. It's also heavily implied that like, it's okay that Clark is having these horny fantasies about the woman who plays the store clerk. I guess her name is Mary and she's played by a model named Nicolette Scorsese but not related

to. Not of those Scorseses because I was gonna say that would be wild. I was gonna say is she the less famous sibling and then she could join the club your club if she if she was the less famous sibling of Martin. No. Have you seen Caitlin Martin Scorsese's like TikTok collaborations with his Gen Z daughter? No. Oh my God. Martin Scorsese has like a 25 year old daughter named Francesca and she has like I'll send them to you this like series of very funny very sweet Tik Toks of her just like talking to her dad about like she had him like live comment on her doing a like makeup Get ready with me video and he's like trying to keep up. He's like, okay Francesca's putting on some rouge and like he's trying to

narrate it. And it's so yeah, Francesca Scorsese is my my nepo baby of choice. She's very funny. That's great. I love the and I don't think we've brought this up on the podcast before, but there's that clip that's been circulating around the internet ever heard of it. Of Al Pacino doing an interview and his phone has a Shrek case on it. He has a Gen Z daughter too, yeah. And the interviewer is like, why do you have Shrek on your phone?

And like Al Pacino tells this like very weirdly constructed story about how his daughter like took his phone, put a Shrek case on his phone, and then gave it back. And then the interviewer is like, oh, so that's why you Shrek it or something like that. He uses Shrek as a verb. It's incredible. He, Al Pacino's cracking up too. He's like, he loves it. He noticed who would be, okay, I watch it. Who would be expecting Shrek? Who? That's mine. He's so protective of his Shrek phone case. Who would be extracting? Who would be extracting Shrek? Who? That's mine. We have to show that at the Shrek Tandix shows. Another reason to come to our shows listeners.

Oh my God. She came back and she had this on it. She said, it's Shrek dad. I said Shrek, wow. Okay, babe, I'll hold onto it. And that's the whole story. I got- It's awesome. It must be so weird having a very old dad. Yeah, but anyways, good for them

for supporting their Gen Z daughters in their various pranks. Anyways, Nicola Scorsese, I just wanted to like shout her out because I feel like she's just done no justice in this. For sure. Anyways, we were talking about Ellen. Yes.

Before we got distracted by the Shrek phone case. It's a part of a longer conversation about just the way that Clark interacts with women in general, because I kind of just made a list of all the women he interacts with and what that looks like. Hit me. And with Ellen, his wife, it's her, you know, quote unquote, nagging. To be fair, the movie doesn't super frame it that way. It is more just that she is calling him out

for his ridiculous behavior, but it also means like, yeah, she's not having any fun. None of the comedy is anything that she generates. And she doesn't get to be quirky or eccentric the way that Clark is. Which sucks, because I feel like it would, again, it would still be a boring movie, but it would resolve a lot of the more obvious misogyny

of this movie if she was simply allowed to participate instead of being relegated to reacting. Right, for sure. Then you have his daughter, Audrey. Juliette Lewis. Who I don't think Clark ever interacts with one-on-one. There are several scenes where he interacts with his son. He's having Rusty, you know, help him with something interacts with one-on-one. There are several scenes where he interacts with his son.

He's having Rusty, you know, help him with something or just like talking to him about something. But Clark and Audrey never have like a one-on-one scene. Again, it's this very conservative thing where I think we see Audrey helping her mom cook. We see they have a brief interaction in the kitchen. And then Russ is outside helping his dad. It's again, that like very rigid gender family unit stuff.

For sure, yeah. Now with Clark and his mom, I think he also does not ever interact with her. There are a few scenes where Clark will have like a pretty significant emotional moment with his dad, especially there's one toward the end where Clark's dad comes in to say like, yeah, the holidays are hard, but you're handling this terribly so get your head on straight son. Nicole Asprey Fathers and sons, fathers and sons.

Nicole Asprey For sure. But Clark and his mom don't say a word to each other. Or if they do, it's not memorable enough that you'd notice. Which is ridiculous. It's fucking Diane Ladd. And yeah, I think the most we get from her is, like, there's three different women who come. Again, it's just the very gendered reactions, right?

When Clark, you know, the house doesn't light up the way he wanted it to. I think it's Ellen, Audrey, and his mom all comfort him and are like, it's okay, Dad, it's all good. I think Russ sort of does, but the older men are like, Clark, you suck, you're a loot. There's just no one is stepping outside of stock gender roles,

according to their age and relationship to him. And yeah, it's just so it's irritating, but it's also just so boring. It's so boring. There's no interesting choices made in the entire movie. Not a single one. Yeah. Yeah. Similarly, he interacts with cousin Eddie a lot, but he barely acknowledges Eddie's wife, Catherine. She has to have like two lines of dialogue. Like, it's ridiculous. And the thing is, they still go out of their way because she's not a woman. She's a poor woman. So they still go out of the way to be like, to be clear, she's gross. She's gross and we don't like her. But also you will not hear her speaking. I think, like, honestly, the character,

the poor character that gets the most characterization is his niece, Ruby Sue. So, yeah. She has the longest, I think, interaction with him that a woman has in the whole movie, possibly. Yeah, because there's that long scene where she's like, she's questioning the existence of Santa Claus because he didn't bring her any gifts, aka her family can't afford to

buy them Christmas gifts. And it's implied that Clark will be like, oh gosh, how tragic, I'll get her gifts, I'll prove to her that the magic of Christmas is real. But then again, as we mentioned, this is never paid off on. It's just a loose end. And it's like, well then why spend that like five minute scene setting all of that up if you're not gonna pay it off?

John Hughes. I know. Because to that, like that actor, Ellen Hamilton Latson, she's adorable. And she also gets a couple of jokes in too, where she's like swearing and shouldn't be swearing, which I do think is like poverty coded of like, these kids are like, lash key kids, they're not well behaved. Well, her grammar too, like she's speaking in quote unquote, improper English. And it's implied that like, oh yeah, poor people don't know how to use proper grammar.

It's interesting. I feel like the only women that are, or women or girls that are allowed to have any laugh lines, because she does deliver it in a funny way, the child actor. The only two women that have laugh lines, it's either because of their class status or their age. Where like Aunt Bethany, clear example of just ageist tropes top to bottom, right? With Ruby Sue, classist tropes about the lower class. And then Julia Louis Dink, whoa Dinkus, is like another like upper-class coded, like that's what's generating the comedy. Like none of them are just funny because you can be. It's all like connected to some other aspect

of their personhood that it comes from. It's just, again, boring. Boring, right. So his interactions with Aunt Bethany, for example, are him basically just like berating her for ageist reasons. And she's characterized in a way that is extremely ageist where she's, oh so confused, oh no she wrapped up her cat and a jello mold as if they're Christmas gifts, oh she says the Pledge of Allegiance instead of saying grace at dinner. So just all these things.

And then her husband similarly is like played for ageist jokes where he like doesn't know that he's on fire or that he doesn't know how fireworks, the classic ageist trope of forgetting how fireworks. He doesn't notice that his toupee fell off that kind of stuff. So but yeah, back to the point of how Clark interacts with women, it seems especially egregious with Aunt Bethany where he's just like, oh, look at this old broad, so annoying. And also very national lampoon coded. I think that with both of the elder fathers, there's

when they're cutting through like, where is everyone staying in the bed? Both of the fathers are like, one is like looking at like a teen magazine implied to be horny. The other is looking at the ceiling at like a scantily clad poster of a woman in Russ's room implied to be horny. So like even though quiet moments with them, they're like the same way that Chevy Chase's character is

like I'm horny behind my wife's back. And like, a horny woman that is like real does not appear in the entire movie. Because even with that moment with Mary, the sales clerk, at the beginning, she is sort of uncomfortable with him. But then as the scene goes on, it almost feels like the movie buys into Clark's, like, delusional read of the scene. And by the end, she's, like, pulling her skirt up.

And she's like, look, there's no lines in my bra-bra-bra. And you're like, well, so it just doesn't matter. Like, and I know we've talked about this with John Hughes before, but it's like, under duress, he has written women semi-competently. But there's just entire movies, years, decades, where he just is like, I don't feel like it. Not this time.

Oh, okay. Also to marry the sales clerk, he tells her first that his wife is dead. And then he's like, Oh, no, she's alive, but we're divorced and she's long gone. Just the idea that like, lazy joke, man has a wife who's a ball and chain keeping him from being able to flirt with and kiss on hot younger women. Right. Which is like, I know the trope this is referencing, but like it's just not doing anything. Meanwhile, his wife isn't even allowed to be interesting for 45 seconds. Like it's just, it's, it's a bummer. And you get like with, just to go back to Audrey for a second, you get like a suggestion

of a character from her, like where you get, yeah, where she's like, I don't know, it's again a stock character but she's like a moody like eighties teen girl that like screw my family. Like, okay, that's a starting point but it's also a finishing point for this. And it also kind of goes away after a while because she goes away after a while because I guess we just don't care about her. Right. Yeah. And then the final person on my list was his mother-in-law, Ellen's mom. And it's said that Ellen's parents don't like Clark. Clark doesn't really like them. If he does have any interactions with his mother-in-law, who I forgot to look up who

she's played by. Also I was having a hard time. It took me like, by the end of the second watch to be like, Oh, this is who his parents are versus this is who Ellen's parents are because I could not really tell who is who because they're so like, kind of just, just like a blob of grandparents to me. I was just like, Yeah, do any of them have any distinguishing qualities besides one of them having like orange hair? Oh, Doris Roberts plays his mother-in-law. Right. Who's so iconic. And yeah, she was also fading into the background for me, which

you're like, that's certainly not her fault. Like she's awesome. Yeah. She just wasn't given anything in the script. Yeah. So yeah, if he does have an interaction with her, it's again, brief and unmemorable. And I don't really know, but they do have a pretty like antagonistic relationship because in-laws are so horrible. Another boring cliche choice. I will say not to like give the movie any unnecessary credit, but there is there is a little bit of a button on the like Santa is real thing because Ruby Sue does think that the little like the shooting star is he's like that's the Christmas star. So I think that there is a little bit of a button on

that. Not enough. I know. No, I know. I just, there was an attempt. But again, it was like, going back to the discussion of class, I mean, cousin Ed, right? That's his name? Eddie. Eddie. Whatever. It's implied that they are poor through a fault of their own, which I think is a very, very common trope with these kinds of characters. Yeah, they're presented essentially like hillbillies.

The mother has no sense of autonomy or character. We get a little bit of information from cousin Eddie where it's implied that he made some bad decisions that led to their living in an RV as opposed to poverty is a systemic issue. They're implied to not smell good. They're implied to like somehow not have an awareness of social cues.

They're implied to be entitled to be like free loading off of others. And even in that scene at Walmart with Clark, Clark is clearly presented to be the better person. And it's also implied that cousin Eddie was expecting him to do this and is going to take advantage of him. For sure. When he suggests like, well, could I maybe get the kids some gifts? And cousin Eddie is like, oh, yeah, I guess I have, I guess I have the whole list right here. And also I want this and my wife wants this. So it's just like presenting, you know,

poor people as freeloaders who are poor as a result of their own carelessness. And it's just like some of the most pernicious tropes around poverty that exist. And they're all in this movie and that they're violent as well with cousin Eddie kidnapping the boss. They're delusional because there's a moment where Ellen and Clark are talking about cousin Eddie being out of work and she says something like, oh yeah, it's been seven years since he's had a job. It's because he's holding out for a management position, presumably one he wouldn't be able

to get, but he's so delusional to be holding out for that for so long. And again, to just heap misogyny on top of that, it's not implied that they had even considered that she would possibly work because this movie weirdly takes place in the late fifties. Um, and yeah, I mean, it's just like the way that they're costumed, the way that they talk, the way they behave is all just like, so heavily laid in with these recognizable stereotypes. They're also like, I think that there is like ableism encoded within the ageism of the grandparent

characters. But there's also ableism towards the poor characters too, where there's like this one off joke about how Ruby Sue used to be cross-eyed, but then she had an accident, now she's not. And just like lazy, shitty- Nonsense. It's just, this is like some of the most like lazy bottom of the barrel clearly written by a white guy who's never experienced poverty. For sure.

I just, I don't know, I like it less and less. I didn't even like it. I was just like, I'm completely neutral. And now I'm just like, this sucks. Nicole Cuttingham The more you interrogate it, the more you realize it's bad. And again, as we said, the movie has criticisms of rich people. But the boss has this weird redemption arc at the end where he magically realizes that capitalism is bad and he shouldn't have withheld the bonus checks from what seems like an already pretty cushy salary for Clark. Right.

Which again, it's like, I don't want to be like, oh, he doesn't like, I don't know, I guess the question of like, who deserves what is like, always, that's not an easy question to answer. Like, yes, they should have given out Christmas bonuses to their entire but, but like you're saying, like, there is a clear cutoff for where justice should be served in terms of like, redistributing money. Certainly, we wouldn't want that for cousin Eddie or his family. No. And the rich capitalist boss is like, oh, Fooey, I was wrong about withholding that. And I'm nice now because, again, rich capitalists always see the error of their ways. JK, JK. I mean, it's a very neat solution. But yeah, I mean, it's a very neat solution. But yeah, I mean, it's just it's ridiculous.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. And you're like, okay, so the lesson we learned is nothing. And now they have an expensive in-ground pool. And this is the last movie from this like particular family unit. So this is effectively where their story ends is they get a pool. Wow, good for them. There are other national lampoon vacation movies.

It's just focusing on a different family after this, I guess. Yes, this is the last, or at least my understanding is that this is the last one that, oh no, wait, there is, no, that's not true. There's one in- There's Vegas. Yeah, like 10 years after that. Yeah. Okay, is no, that's not true. There's one in There's Vegas. Yeah, like 10 years after that.

Yeah. Okay, so no, there's there's there's one more there. Don't worry. It doesn't end at pool. I don't really have that much else to say about this movie. Do you have anything else? I really don't either. I would say like this is, if anything, a movie to like fall asleep to at your aunt's house I guess.

But I don't know it is just like I think very dated and for my money at least profoundly boring. Yeah I'm already yawning about it. And it's just a waste of so many talented actors of this day. And spotlights, I think the two worst people in the movie, personally, Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid. And you're like, we're just shoving all of these very talented women out of the way to make way for like two famously horrible men and live, laugh, love. This movie does paradoxically pass the Bechdel test a couple of times. Yeah.

But spiritually, it doesn't. How many nipples do you even, like one? I wouldn't even give it that. I really truly, it's weird because it's not the most hateful movie we've seen and not the most problematic, but it is still doing a lot of very problematic things and I don't really have anything nice to say about it. I did like the scene where the cute fluffy cat is released from the box, not before it's violently shaken around by Chevy Chase who knows there's a cat inside and still

shakes the box several times. That was a little baffling. I don't mind a like cartoonish death in that way, but the box shaking bothered me more than the the cat launching through the floor. I did think that was a little bit funny. But I also thought the national lampoon, if you don't buy this magazine, will kill this dog was a little funny too. I guess they don't mind killing animals because yeah, the cat burns to a crisp, it gets electrocuted and then fries and burns up something like that. Sad. So I'll get the movie point five nipples for I don't even know what because what little we get from the women in the movie I don't know enjoy watching them on screen that's the best I can say for

it and I like the cat so a half a nipple to all of them in the giving Christmas spirit I'm gonna give it one nipple because we do get some at least some physical comedy from Julia Louis Dreyfus. I love her and it's just nice to know that she went on to actually get to play real roles. I'll give it one nipple and I'm going to give it to Miss Julia. And with that, folks, that's a year. That's a year of the Bechdel cast. Yeah, yes it is. You can follow us on Instagram and join our matrion at patreon.com slash Bechdel cast.

And we want to tell you about the upcoming live shows we have in LA, San Francisco, in Portland, in kind of the back half of January. We're doing a fun LA show where we're just celebrating the Bechtel cast. We have all these special guests and it's a variety show, lots of fun little segments and stand-up sets and everything. And then we're doing Shrek Tanik in San Francisco for a Titanic show and in Portland for a Shrek show. So all the dates and details and tickets are on our Linktree, Linktree slash Bechtelcast. And the shows for LA and Portland are being live streamed. So even if you don't live in

any of those places, you can still access the live streams. We're so excited. We love our animal toys and I'm excited to do Shrek Tanik. And in the meantime, if you want to join our community where we've teased slash figured out in the space of this episode,

we're going to be doing a Christopher Guest Month. And a rat month. month and rodent tober. You can go over to our Patreon aka matri on where you can you know for five dollars a month or I believe a little less if you pledge for a year if you want to get in on that you can get two additional episodes with just Caitlin and myself every month around a theme of ours or sometimes your choosing. Very fun community and as always it is like the fastest and best way to contribute to the show and keep the show going. You can also if you want to get some seasonal merch head over to our store at teapublic.com slash the Bechtel cast and

with that let's just never talk about National Lampoon again. Fine by me. Bye bye. The Bechtel cast is a production of I Heart Media hosted by Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus produced by Sophie Licht, edited by Mo Laborde. Our theme song was composed by Mike Kaplan with vocals by Catherine Voskrasensky. Our logo and merch is designed by Jamie Loftus. And a special thanks to Aristotle Acevedo. For more information about the podcast, please visit linktree slash Bechtelcast. Hi, I'm David Boren. And I am his dear friend Langston Kerman. And we host My Mama Told Me, a podcast about black conspiracy theories.

We just did a spectacular live show with some of your favorite comedians on the planet. David, tell them who was there. We had the Kid Mero, Marie Faustin, and we had Jaboukie Young White. Some of your favorite comedians playing some of the most offensive and groundbreaking games. So listen to My Mama Told Me on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We want to speak out and we want this to stop.

Wow. Very powerful. We want to speak out and we want this to stop. Wow, very powerful. I'm Ellie Flynn, an investigative journalist, and this is my journey deep into the adult entertainment industry. I really wanted to be a player boy, my doll. He was like, I'll take you to the top, I'll make you a star. To expose an alleged predator and the rotten industry he works in.

It's honestly so much worse than I had anticipated. We're an army in comparison to him. From novel, listen to The Bunny Trap on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and my latest interview is with Wiz Khalifa. The craziest part of my life,

I can go from performing in front of 40,000 people to either being in a dressing room, being in a plane, or being back in a bed all by myself. He is a multi-platinum selling recording artist, mini mogul, and an actor. Which of them are the one, the only? Which? Khalifa!

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join iHeart Media Chairman and CEO Bob Pitman for a special episode of the hit podcast, Math & Magic Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing, as he interviews the iconic and prolific Martha Stewart in front of a live audience in celebration of her 100th book. "...Did you ever think you were going to wind up writing a hundred books?"

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