The Bechdel Cast - Something New with Kenice Mobley

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

This week, Jamie, Caitlin, and special guest Kenice Mobley let go, and let flow with an episode on Something New. Check out Kenice's album, Follow Up Question. (This episode contains spoilers) For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast Follow @kenicemobley on Twitter. While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante, and @jamieloftusHELP The two live shows that Jamie and Caitlin are doing in Portland on February 2nd are being LIVE STREAMED for Bechdel Cast listeners around the world to see! Join us for a show on THE GOONIES WITH SARAH MARSHALL (You're Wrong About, You Are Good) and/or a show on HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE WITH ROBERT EVANS (Behind the Bastards, It Could Happen Here)! Watch both, we dare you!!! And if you can't watch the shows as they're being streamed live on February 2nd, no worries! If you buy a ticket, you will be sent a recording of the livestream, and you'll be able to watch the show online for a week after the show! Grab your livestream ticket(s) at linktr.ee/bechdelcast or https://www.curiouscomedy.org/shows See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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if movies have women in them. Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism the patriarchy's effing vast start changing it with the bechdel cast jamie hi caitlin let go let flow let you know honestly i felt attacked by that because i was yeah, I've probably read whatever the book is that that's referencing. I love a little phrase that doesn't change my life. I love it.

Except it does. In this movie, it does. They let go. They let flow. They do it. And then a bunch of stuff happens. And you can feel whatever way about it you want. My other intro option was going to be me asking you if you would like to landscape my backyard oh yes which is a sexual euphemism yes yes for playing with my butt yes

i would love to quote unquote landscape your backyard cool but i'm gonna have my gigantic stinky dog around and i'm gonna keep keep being like you have to come to a garden with me is that cool is that romantic yeah yeah I love that can't wait yeah yeah okay well then we'll do that awesome anyway hi welcome to the Bechdel cast my name is Caitlin Durante my name is Jamie Loftus and this is our podcast where we take an intersectional feminist look at your favorite movies. Yeah. We use the Bechdel test as a jumping off point for discussion on this damn podcast but Caitlin what is that? Oh gee whiz I'll tell you. It is a media metric sometimes known as the Bechdel-Wallace test created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel-Wallace test, created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel in her comic Dykes to Watch Out For, just as a kind of one-off joke as it originally appeared in her comic, but has since

been kind of co-opted into this media metric that is pretty widely used, including us on this show um and there are many variations of the test the one we use is this two characters of a marginalized gender have to have names they have to speak to each other and the conversation has to be about something other than a man and ideally it's a narratively substantial conversation yes which spoiler alert for this movie there's plenty of it yeah but some of them are kind of funny we have some funny passes in this one and i'm excited to talk about them with our amazing returning guest the all-timer let's get her in here i think your sixth appearance on the show yes this is my sixth appearance which means i i've been following and i know that lacy mosley yeah has five and she doesn't know me so this is completely in my head

in one-sided but i was like mosley the mobley i'm gonna win this and you're in first place um i'm there and i'm there for the pay-per-view like but let's introduce you properly she's a comedian you've seen her on the tonight show her album follow-up question just came out it's kanice mobley hi hello it's so nice to see you guys welcome back it's great to see you too. Thank you. I can't believe we, I mean, just a little peek inside Keneese's life for the listeners. We're catching Keneese fresh off a trip to Margaritaville. Yes. So truly the best, I'm sure you're in high spirits, never felt better in your life.

There were so many, because it's in Times Square, it's like up several levels. And at every escalator, there was a person who just shouted at us, welcome to Margaritaville. So it was very clear where we were. There was a light show on the hour where they play the song Margaritaville. There's a Statue of Liberty. She's holding something. And it turns out it can be a glass of what? Margaritas.

And so there's a whole projection thing. There's whales and dolphins. It's a lot. It's a lot of restaurant what? Margaritas. And so there's a whole projection thing. There's whales and dolphins. It's a lot. It's a lot of restaurant is what I will say. It's so much restaurant because, I mean, I guess that there's a lot of reasons. But one of the reasons, I know you haven't had your food yet, is to distract you from how disgusting the food is. Ooh. In my opinion.

Shot fired. Honestly, that's fair because when you look at the menu, they have a little warning triangle with a salt shaker in it. If the amount of sodium in the meal is more than your daily allowance of sodium, and most of the meals have this warning of sodium next to it because most of them, if you eat this, it will exceed your daily amount of sodium that you should be having wow i really love garbage so much i just love trash in the mouth that is wonderful thank you for that information i've seen those triangles and i've just blazed past them never looked at what they were for your death what a treat they're for your death what a treat there for your death yes there for there why i'm losing years of my life happily so too ready to go uh yeah willingly um yes i don't think i've ever been to a margaritaville

oh caitlin this is my first time there's one there's one a city walk we could go anytime oh my gosh i know i've seen it i've seen it every damn time i've gone to universal studios hollywood which has been and yet 20 times and where are you where are you going are you going to oh you're a millionaire going to bubba gump no i usually eat at cletus's chicken shack at simpsons world in the park yeah i see well you know it's not it's not great to hear it doesn't feel good to hear i'm sorry i'm really sorry i think i got a burger with you in the simpsons restaurant we probably went to crusty burger yeah yeah yeah i've never gotten food in simpsons land

that's fascinating i was trying to think of what the Universal hot dog is. They don't really have a signature one. But in Orlando, because I went to both City Walks last year, because I really do love garbage in the mouth. And in Orlando, they have a huge outdoor restaurant called the Hot Dog Hall of Fame, where you can get a footlong hot dog. You get hot dog with shrimp on it. You get a lot of nasty little things. Why would you do that? you really shouldn't do that when i ordered the one the the shrimp hot dog they were like we don't serve a lot of these and i was like all right bring it okay and well anyway i was like there's no hot dogs in this movie.

So that wasn't a transition of any sort. However, we have a movie to discuss. It's 2006's Something New. Yes, indeed. Kenise, what is your history with this movie? So I think I saw this movie in theaters. I've owned this movie on DVD since 2006. I want to say 2007 when it came out on DVD.

Based on this movie and other properties, I assumed that being a woman in your 30s meant that you automatically had a group of four female friends. That was just part of it. Because it's this. It's sex in the city. It's girlfriends. It's living single.

All of these things. It's like there are four women obviously one of them is a little hornier than the others and they all hang out why why are they friends we're never sure that's not clear yeah how they became friends what they have in common i don't know they all have rich people jobs they all have fantastic jobs in this movie. Accountant, doctor, judge, some, probably a lawyer. A fourth one, yeah. Yeah, a fourth thing, yeah. A fourth fancy thing.

Yeah. I love, I do love, like, all the shows you're describing, and I went on a full girlfriend binge during the lockdown, but I love, like, the Sex and the City girlfriends, like, around the table just saying kind of, like things to each other about they're like, are we dying? Is life worth living or not? And you're like, yeah, yeah, totally. They have those conversations.

But like, I could not answer in girlfriends. What are their shared interests? Like, what do they like to do what is the joy in their lives i don't i don't know it i'm trying to remember which pair of characters and girlfriends there's like at some point in the series there's like a contradiction of like how they met like they say they met in one way in season one and then in season three for plot reasons it It's totally different. I'm like, oh, I guess.

I don't know. We live in a void. They didn't know that I would have access to knowing the mistake in the future. Yeah. I feel like the friendship in this movie, too, the four friends is similarly, I don't know, underdeveloped. Yeah. So, Kinise, you saw this in theaters. You bought the DVD.

You have a long history with the movie. Yes. I liked it. And I still like parts of it. But parts of it are like, I think we're past this, right? Hopefully, as a society, we're not like oh what man what also and we'll get into the synopsis of the film caitlin i'm so excited for your wrap-up but in the first what is it 14 minutes when we've established who the character is and everything when they meet for a blind date at a starbucks at a starbucks oh my god i was like strike

fucking one what and it's busy it's a busy starbucks and they're like this is where we go on our first date i'm sorry the way that made me like angry like viscerally because they're in los angeles where there are tons of restaurants and cafes. Yeah. But they choose Starbucks. It was painful. I have to imagine it was like, oh, we will get money from Starbucks to help fund the budget of this movie. If we have it. I don't know that for sure, but I have to imagine. I feel like it would have had to have been because they showed the leg.

They kept cutting back to the sign. Yes. They kept reminding you. And then like the logo is always facing the front I'm like okay this is product placement but why would you make it such a busy I mean they're like oh and Starbucks is so popular right now so of course there's gonna be a lot of people there but you're like this seems like a really stressful it didn't make me want to go on a date at starbucks i feel like you would if you were full sunlight oh yeah well caitlin it kind of looked like the starbucks near your house to me a little bit thank you and and i didn't like it hey it was really busy and oh do you mean the the starbucks in los fil, which is called out by name in this movie,

that neighborhood, because he's like, oh, I just finished up a landscaping job in Los Feliz. Yes. And not to dox myself, but that is the neighborhood I live in. So brag. I've been to that Starbucks. It was fun. It was like all the other ones.

Too busy. Anyway. Too busy. There's, it's so funny, like the reasons that the movie is telling you that this couple may not be compatible when there's so many reasons available so many reasons you're just like why not these people yeah but you you're a long time you're a long time viewer of something new a long time viewer of this film yes yes yes okay jamie what about you i've known about this movie for a long time but i had never seen it before we were uh prepping for this episode and i'm excited to talk about it i feel

like it's like there's i don't know there's a lot of there's a lot of interesting stuff here and i also agree with you kenise where you're like you know you can feel the 06 on this movie pretty heavily yeah i appreciate what it's trying to do and it's doing a lot of it in a pretty dated way. But I'm excited to talk about it. Caitlin, what was your history with Something New? Same as yours. I hadn't seen it before prepping. And I don't even know if it was really on my radar until we started getting requests for it at some point during the show but uh yeah there's

a lot to talk about and i'm excited to get into it i was i knew about this director because she's a very iconic music video director sanaa hamri yeah i knew her from music videos but also sisterhood of the travelinging Pants 2. An extremely traveling pants movie. Yeah. Extremely traveling movie. Yeah. But she, I mean, if you look at her music video resume, holy shit.

It's like she started in her like early 20s directing Mariah Carey videos, made a bunch of those, then did Destiny's Child, Kelly Rowland, Jay-Z, The A-Teens. That's a deep cut. Solange, Prince, Seal, Jadakiss. Lenny Kravitz, I saw. Joss Stone, remember her? I do. She did the Super Bass music video. Okay, this makes a lot more sense.

I did not know her history as a music video director. But the things I think I like the most about this movie and its direction are very like music video type of style. So this makes me very, very happy. I thought that the sex scenes in this movie were very music video in a way that I thought was fun. Like I was like, oh, we're doing foot stuff. Yeah.

Foot stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And she's done a ton of t i think she does mostly tv now she did a ton of like empire and shameless like she's working nice indeed shall i do the recap let's do it okay actually let's take a quick break first, and then we will come right back. 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 Bernhard 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, 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.

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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 iheart radio app

apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and we are back also christina aguilera and sting sorry i just was like she's directed so many music videos wow okay here is the recap of something new we open on a wedding where the groom and guests abruptly leave kenya mcqueen that's sanaa lathan at the altar but it was just a dream haha ken ha. Kenya wakes up. We are in Los Angeles. Ever heard of it? It is Valentine's Day. She has a busy work day, but no romantic evening plans. At work, her friend or her colleague, Leah, tries to set her up on a blind date with this guy named Brian.

But Kenya is like, pass. Yeah. She then goes out with, she never yells at Leah for setting it up at a Starbucks. Yeah. I really feel like we should have gotten a follow up with Leah with like, okay, what are you,

what were you thinking? Man, the first date thing pisses me off, but I do like, and I took Caitlin's screenwriting class because caitlin's a wonderful teacher and we talked about developing character in the first section of the script and i do like how they do very quickly establish that obviously she wants to be married that her life is a certain way she wakes up and it's just disappointment on her face um which begs a very important question that i will get into later. Why?

This woman likes nothing. This woman has no interest. This woman, there's nothing about this woman except she is an accountant. That's all you need to know about her. She's an accountant. We do hear a lot about what she doesn't like and not a lot about what, that was something that I was like, I kept waiting to be like, okay, what is her secret passion? Or like, why does she, it seems like she really enjoys her job what about it like what

got her into it and no but we don't learn a lot about what she likes we she's she I don't know but then it's weird because it's like she's introduces like a more optimistic character where she's like I believe that I am going to get love. But then it's like, but I don't know. It's bizarre. But then she rejects love all the time. I mean, I love that. I love, oh, we're rejecting the call? Yeah. Of course.

You're going to want to reject the call. In what ways? Like, that's the thing. Like, the options where it's like her, before they meet at the Starbucks, she runs into these black guys who are standing outside. And it's like like all the options are bad like what love is she turning down that was like reasonable and we're led to leave believe that she's unreasonable it's just like no she doesn't want to date the guy with their super long

pinky nail that probably does a lot of cocaine it's it's literally I mean if that was if we were supposed to believe she was unreasonable for not wanting to date any of the men at that extremely busy Starbucks, I don't know what to tell the world. That is a very common experience. Right. And yeah, I thought it was funny. Yeah. This movie's weird. Oh, the first I was going to say that the first very funny 2006 Bechdel test pass is her talking to Leah about wedding dresses. And Kenya telling Leah that she should choose a dress that she likes better.

That means that she'll be very uncomfortable in it. And I was like, well, it does pass. But but at what cost? Yes. Okay, so then Kenya goes out with her three friends because all adult women have exactly three friends and they all hang out together all the time. And who knows how they met? I'm so glad you said that.

Not important. Yeah, or what they have in common as far as like interests go. Don't get into that. But her friends are Suzette, played by Golden Brooks, Cheryl, played by Wendy Raquel Robinson, and Nedra, played by Taraji P. Henson. They talk about how they are among the 42% of black women who are educated professionals who are also unmarried. Kenya's friends criticize her for

having standards that are too high because she has this list of criteria for her ideal black man. I went to a historically black college and I remember like the first week of college in some sort of big presentation someone did tell, and at a historically black college, the ratio is often more women than men. At my college specifically, it was eight to one. Wow. And yes, they were like, you black women are getting degrees, which means that if you are unmarried by the time that you are 35, you are more likely to die in a plane crash than

to ever get married that and just underlining that starting when i was 18 just making sure i was aware um hey you're choosing education and therefore 18 years old be unlovable just so you know oh my gosh that is so aggressive and despicable i i thought it was interesting that like that i because it reminded me of i'm trying to remember is it sleepless in seattle where carrie fisher is meg ryan's friend where they brought up another statistic and the thing is most of those statistics are made up to scare women and make them feel bad like yeah i remember like famously there's like a something like you're more likely

to be killed in a terrorist attack than get married after 30 something was like a famous yeah but that was like on the cover of like life magazine in like the 70s or 80s like it's just like we just need to make women feel as bad as possible so they'll date these garbage men yeah so that they'll lower their standards. Yes. It sucks. Let us be garbage. That's what men are saying to me. And then I'm like, yes, let's go to Margaritaville. Oh my God, he paid for my dinner at Margaritaville.

He's a keeper. Yeah, I love him. But I thought it was interesting that this scene gets more and like talks about black women in their 30s specifically. But they never I was waiting for them to bust the numbers. But then the number just kept getting more specific in a way that was more aggressive towards them. And then the scene ended. It was like, oh, no. Right.

So because Kenya's standards are so high, her friends encourage her to be more open minded. They say, let go, let flow. That's like the new motto of all the gals in the group. Sounds like a tampon commercial, but I was like, let's roll with this. Or let go, stop flow would be tampons. Stop flow. Maybe a bad um so because kenya decides to like take her friend's advice she decides to go on this blind date after all and it ends up being with this guy named brian played by simon baker but she's

immediately uncomfortable perhaps because she's at the most crowded Starbucks of all time. Perhaps. But she's uncomfortable and she leaves almost immediately. And you get the sense that the reason is that she is not interested in dating a white man. Then she goes to Leah's engagement party and she's like, wow, this landscaping is amazing. I want landscaping like this from my backyard. As one does. Yeah. Yes. And guess who's there it's brian and he's like i heard you like my landscaping i love how they have like five different meet cutes and they're all boring like it's like yes we met at starbucks she liked my

landscaping i'm like yeah guys we gotta find a better meeting story and she's having like a panic attack at each one because he's like i heard you like my landscaping and she's like um never mind i have to go yeah but she decides to hire him for his services so he shows up he starts brainstorming ideas but she continues to be you know quote-unquote high strung at one point a spider gets in her hair or she thinks a spider is in her hair and she like has a meltdown basically she's just not really being her best self no around brian well to be fair before that spider thing happens this is something brian does a lot where it's like i think i was like oh this is very like oh six slightly coercive romance where he's like you're coming to the this garden with me and she's like no i'm not it's 2 p.m i am at work i'm working

right now and he's like you're coming to this garden with me and she's like i guess i'm going to this garden with you and then that's kind of I guess I'm going to this garden with you. And that's kind of how they go on all of their day. The way later he's like, and now you're going hiking with me. Yeah. She explicitly was like, like on a date.

Cause if it's a date, I'm not interested. And he's like, it's, it's just, you're hiking with me. And she's like, well,

I fucking hate hiking. So I don't want to go. And also the clothes they both wear while they're hiking are not appropriate hiking wear oh no he's really like brian i feel like really is like living up to the vibe that his name gives off he's really brian-ing out because he's just like a weird guy truly okay so meanwhile at work kenya is being considered for partner i it took me a while to figure out what her actual job was she's an accountant right but yes i didn't know i didn't know accountants could be partners right and she works at a place firm and a firm as partners i think i don't know anything about it i was like is that true because I was like I

I just wrote down like might be question mark don't know firm equals partners I was like does everything that's business work exactly like a law firm I thought she was a lawyer for a while but then they kept saying accounting well because the firm that she works at sounds like the name of a law firm because it's just a bunch of people's last names i don't remember what they are but her mom makes neither did her mom it's something like her mom is like yeah you work at bippity boppity and boop or something and it's alfrey woodard too and you're just like yeah i i i was i i love her so much and i was also like wow they really gave her a pretty thankless mom role here where she's just like yep my daughter has to get married and like that's all of the lines and then she's like brb i gotta go shopping because i love shopping yeah

yes and then uh there well i'm sorry everything's coming now. But it's always like in rom-coms or like any coming of age-ish story for women, the dad always gets the cathartic speech. He always gets to be like the reasonable one. And I love the dad character in this movie. But I was also like, it's always the dad that's like, my baby deserves the world. And she's like, you're right. I'm going to go find brian yep and put him in a mariachi suit we'll get to it but why with a over a t-shirt over yeah is this necessary no um okay so she's an accountant we think and she's considered doesn't matter at all what she does not quite i mean in the grand tradition of women in rom-coms having jobs that you're like is that

a job this movie very much follows at least she's not a curator at a museum or works at a fashion magazine. Or an undercover journalist. At a fashion magazine. Who must sleep with the scoop. Yes. So her being made partner is contingent on this account she's working on for this guy named Pino. But he doesn't seem to trust that Kenya can do a good job because he's racist and also probably sexist. Probably.

Back at home, Brian has started doing the landscaping job. Kenya is looking at his muscles. Then her brother Nelson, played by Donald Faison, shows up and he's like, you need a boyfriend. He jump scares into the movie he's yes it's the most Donald Faison entrance ever because he's just like a pane of glass you're like oh it's Turk yes and then he shows up with his girlfriend and the running joke there is that every scene he's in he has a different girlfriend but he shows up with the girlfriend. And the running joke there is that every scene he's in, he has a different girlfriend. But he shows up with the first girlfriend.

But he's like, hey, sister, you need a boyfriend. And also, you went on a blind date with a white guy. That's disgusting. How did he know that? Right? I don't know. Was a spy at the Starbucks? I didn't even think of that.

Whoa. How did he know that? How did he know? Bizarre character. Anyway, so Kenya and her brother Nelson meet up with their parents to celebrate their mom's birthday. They go to this dance performance that's very sensual. And it's very sensual. Which is kind of an awkward thing to see with your parents yeah especially because it seems to awaken something in Kenya this dance makes her horny I mean it's really beautiful I was trying to look I couldn't find I looked I was like who are those dancers what dance company is that can I watch more couldn't figure it out but and then that was I mean that's also a very music you're

like oh of course she directed music videos. That was like a sexy music video in the middle of the movie. Yeah, that's great. Like that. And when it's showing the showcase, like the close up of Brian's muscles as he's working, all those like little touches that have like artistry in what is otherwise a very traditional romcom. I like those a lot.

I really I love a music video to direct or pivot. It just works. Except when it's McG. And then it doesn't. You didn't like Charlie's Angels 1 and 2? You didn't like those? I mean, I do have a huge soft spot for Charlie's Angels 1. I will, I have to admit.

But I can't, I can't, I can vouch for mcg i don't have enough vouch um was there not a kind of random dance scene in the episode that we covered with you kanice before this one and she's gotta have it isn't there a scene where like they watch a dance it sounds familiar yes it's because the whole most of the movies in black and white except for this dance in color yeah yeah yeah oh yeah yeah i have a very different like filmed dance scene but yeah wow okay i'm sensing patterns listeners think kniesbley dance break think it make that a thing start a show new merch coming out soon let's get there let's get the ball rolling on this yeah let's make it

happen okay so she's horny now because she watched this dance then one night brian is working late on her backyard she orders them takeout they have some wine together they talk about romance and dating and she's like i prefer dating black men and he's like well i like all women and she's i like that she kind of in a way that i felt i agreed with she was like oh ew you know she's like or she's like oh so you're like a player a piece of shit yeah yeah and he's like no no that my mom i'm just i'm just brian don't worry about it all right sure dude um and then there's the scene where he makes her go hiking despite her many protests and it gets romantic because it starts pouring rain so they need to like of course

go to a tree and and kiss yeah that's necessary in the rainstorm yeah got it got it but as he's dropping her off back home she's like this is not going to go any further bye but then he comes into her house yep and they kiss passionately and they have sex he paints her toenails yes I was like he does he does he like I was like wow wiki feet was just not around then because I just don't think you would see that in a movie today wait Jamie are you on wiki feet I am on I have five stars thank you for asking you. You have five stars? Yeah. Caitlin, are you on WikiFeet? I've never looked, but I don't imagine I am, but I don't know. I'm on WikiFeet, and I'm so mad that I'm only three and like a quarter stars. My feet are bad, apparently.

That's what the internet has voted, that I have bad feet. Yes. See, I would like to just posit, my feet are pretty gross, and they seem to like that. So it may just be a compliment to your feet because I know I have like little like I call them hobbit feet. They're just like they don't have a real shape. They're flat. They're just like a weird triangle. It's at the base of their giant tufts of fur on them like hobbits.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to get into it. That's besides the point. But yeah, I've got hobbit feed in there for uh 3.25 or something damn yeah i mean i've got i got hair on my toes but they just don't give a there's a there's a new uh there's a new foot website someone told me about called girlfoot.com which just feels too on the nose yeah but i checked and it's real and okay got a page there too i'm gonna look at it after this

see if i'm on there see if i'm similarly lowly ranked come on i hope you're pulling a five over on girl foot who knows what they're doing over there i'm gonna have to like hire a photographer to take photos of me with my feet in it just so that i can get a higher foot rating on wiki feet maybe that's and then you're playing right into their feet. You're playing right into the soles of their feet. Wow. That's exactly what they want. Okay.

So meanwhile, in the movie, Kenya and Brian have had sex. The next morning, they're doing pillow talk, and he asks about her hair. He's not sure how weaves work. And this prompts her to realize that this relationship with this white guy and their cultural differences will never work. So she tells him to leave, and she also fires him as her landscaper. Bad. Don't do that, employers. It does seem like he's almost done he does yes yeah and then her

friends are like kenya if he can dick you down well who cares if he's white go for it let go let flow i love that the white is the problem not the doesn't listen when i say i don't want to do things or the fact that he like lets his he brings listen when I say I don't want to do things. Or the fact that he, like, lets his, he brings his dog to work. I don't know. There's lots of issues. But the white thing, the white thing. He's extremely condescending to her on many occasions.

Yeah, he's, like, coercive in the activities that he wants her to do. Just, like, all this stuff. They don't even know each other well. And he's like, yeah, you're too uptight. And she says, does it show? And I don't know why that made me so mad like bitch you don't know me what are you talking about also are you doing your job like yeah get out of my house it's none of your business yeah leave me alone it's night time why are you here there uh i really hated how he talked to her about her hair and then but and then

like every time he does something like that he'll then be like what and you're like brian i have a whole list what do you mean so her friends are like but he's got a good dick so who cares and so she decides to keep seeing him. I'm sorry. If the dick was bad, could she still be racist? Like if the dick is bad, you're right, Kenya. This right off white boys entirely. That one dick, the whole thing's bad. Get rid of it.

Who knows? She decides to keep seeing him. She also has her weave taken out. Then there's a montage of them being cute and romantic together this is when he paints her toenails they go to a comedy show where s'more is doing stand-up she does a whole set she does a whole set very funny set i enjoyed it a lot i did too i was laughing but some of her friends are skeptical about kenya being with a white guy especially walter played by mike epps and also there's a

scene where kenya has to explain the black tax to brian where because of systemic racism black people have to work twice as hard just to prove they are equal and he's like what i had no idea and then he did oh he did the brian thing where yeah where he where he's like are you sure are you sure you're not being dramatic or like are you sure you're not like paranoid paranoid oh my god he literally was like are you sure you're not being hysterical and she's like no i'm not and he's like okay you're like sure look at brian there's just so many reasons to not to not be rooting for brian i'm rooting against both of them to be honest she has a nothing personality he's kind of a person do they deserve each other maybe i did

write down i was like these people are two different flavors of boring and like they want to like so that does i don't know sometimes i'm like this is probably something i've done where you're like wow a different kind of boring than me it must mean it's interesting and then you're like no it's just not my boring it's that person's boring and that can work two borings cancel out and make an interesting um he's like have you ever heard of like aquamarine paint i'm like oh my god these two and she's like no i'm too boring i only like beige and we're like she only likes yeah beige is my favorite it's silly okay so then kenya throws a housewarming party her brother nelson is trying to set her up with this guy, Mark, played by Blair Underwood, who Nelson had invited to the party.

So they meet and Mark asks her out, but she's like, I don't know. Meanwhile, Kenya is starting to question her relationship with Brian, especially when he brushes her off, wanting to talk about race and the microaggressions she's experiencing at work. There's this scene in a grocery store where she gives a few monologues that I want to examine more closely, but basically they break up. So Kenya goes out with Mark and they hit it off and they have a lot in common. But a couple couple weeks later brian shows up and apologizes to kenya he wants to make things work but she's like nah i met someone he says i love you he does say he really goes for it how long were they dating i'm sorry how long did this landscaping job take for

him to say that i'm sorry her backyard is not that big i I don't understand. Maybe a few weeks. Okay. I'm not sure. Maybe. And then he puts the most 2006 looking fountain I've ever seen in my life. Like the kind of fountains he was installing. They're looking pretty rough these days. They don't look good. Kind of old.

Yeah. Yeah. So she keeps seeing Mark, but something doesn't feel quite right. He's perfect on paper, but she doesn't feel any spark. So she breaks up with him. How long? Because they meet him, like her parents meet him. How long are they dating?

The timeline for everything is very confusing. Oh, what? Not sure. And Kenya's friends are like, well, if you felt that spark with brian then maybe reconsider but brian has gotten back together with his ex-girlfriend penelope then at work kenya is made partner after she stands up for herself she like does i think there's like a microsecond of tension where she stands up for herself during a meeting where she's once again being treated in a very racist misogynist way and then she goes back and you're like oh i like i

honestly i was i kind of i liked that she did get the promotion and it went the correct rom-com way because i was like if she leaves her i'll be so pissed for her but then she does she gets you know the the guy never apologizes for being racist the whole movie but he's like hey your partner so i guess i'm redeemed whatever my name is and you're like all right right yeah okay movie then kenya goes with her family to a cotillion which is something i only know about because rose talks about it in titanic oh she's like it was gonna be an endless parade of parties and cotillions and i was like wow that must mean fancy party yeah yeah i think my sister did that really really yes my older sister not my twin

sister because that'd be messed up uh where it's like she got to do it and they were like nah we don't think you need to be introduced to society in such a way so yeah but my older sister, because that'd be messed up. It's like she got to do it. And they were like, no, we don't think you need to be introduced to society in such a way. So, yeah. But my older sister did it. She had a white cotillion dress, long gloves. There was a guy. There was lots of conversations around it. Yeah.

Whoa. It just means that there's pictures in my mom's house of my older sister in a cool dress and a lot of other black teenagers just trying to be fancy. It is like a teenager thing, right? Because you're like a debut you're being debuted yeah all these people in this movie seem to be adults so like i think they're attending it because i think it's like in a community event um yeah but i don't think okay she's not supposed to be in this like wave of people who are being introduced to society i I don't think. Okay. I get it.

No, because she shows Brian a picture of herself when she was debuted when she was a teenager. So I think, yeah, she's it's like she's attending as a community member because then they also show like just a random music video montage of teenagers walking down the being like,'m a woman now you can marry me or whatever it's supposed to mean i don't really is that is that what it's for i don't quite understand i think it's the same thing as that yeah it's like yeah okay these are the seasons eligible ladies who are fresh and new um look at these number of women who are fresh and new pick one marry her i don't know these are the people who is acceptable to have kids with don't have kids with other people they're gross poor people are gross get them out of here um so and then at this cotillion kenya is getting drunk and she's like loudly roasting it she's like good luck finding love.

And she's kind of like calling out the classism of it all. And then she goes to the bathroom and starts crying because she misses Brian or something. How long ago did they break up? I don't know. What? Timeline unclear. Yes. And then her dad comes in to the restroom and he's like. Which he shouldn't do.

Yeah. But then he's like, which he shouldn't do. Yeah. But then he's like, I'm a doctor. Cause another woman comes into the ladies restroom and he's just like, I've seen it all. I've done it all. I'm a doctor. I can be here.

So her dad is like, look, love is an adventure. I can tell that you love Brian. So go do something about it. So Kenya gets in her brother's jaguar or something and she races off she finds Brian and she's like you're the one that I want I can be myself around you and you love me the way I am isn't he dating someone at this time yes he's still with Penelope

I think but she's like I love you and he's like well I love you too and I never stopped loving you and then they kiss kiss kiss why were you dating Penelope then he's like fuck you Penelope who knows she's like I was minding my own business and you came back into my life what yeah it is bizarre that he gets back with his long-term ex like that's yes that's a hard left that's a hard don't do that brian grow up brian so they kiss and then she brings him back to the cotillion and they dance and then they cut to their wedding the end so let's take a break and we will come back to discuss. Hey, everybody. This is Matt Rogers.

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Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Where to start? I just wanted to start by shouting out the key creatives in this movie so we do have we have we've already given the full list of works from Sanaa Hamri who is really cool she also has I didn't know anything about her background but she's um she's Moroccan by birth she's half Jewish she's like she's got a really um multicultural background And she's a music video director. But this is like, it's a movie about Black women in their 30s made by women of color around that age, even though the director wasn't even 30, which made me feel great

about myself. We also have a kind of like legendary tv writer who is also a black woman uh her name's chris turner i didn't know her by name but she wrote on kind of every show for a while she wrote on everybody hates chris she wrote on sister sister she wrote on the cosby show she wrote on living single so she had had the four friend system down already. I'm also seeing... Bernie Mac Show. Bernie Mac Show. Whoopi.

Home Economics. She's working right now. So she's like a legendary... She's mostly in TV. But I just thought it was cool that it was like, oh, this is what we talk about all the time of like random white guys or white women taking the reins on stories that aren't theirs. And how you can tell.

And for this movie, I mean, it is trying to do some stuff and I think it probably would have been kind of groundbreaking for 2006 yes um luckily we have moved past uh we haven't passed this and that's encouraging um because like mainstream rom-coms skew so white and so there's kind, it wouldn't occur to anyone, like any of the characters to address anything like racism. Because like rom-coms operate on a premise of there needs to be something keeping these characters from being fully together until the very end. Something needs to be getting in the way.

And oftentimes, especially with like hyper white rom-coms, it will be like a lie or a misunderstanding or a bet. Think of like how to lose a guy in 10 days while you were sleeping. Those like teen rom-coms of the 90s, like 10 Things I Hate About You or She's All That. There's all these like kind of very contrived, like very like movie things that never happened in real life. Or like a person. That's like most of the J-Lo ones except in maiden manhattan it's class or is it a lie is she lying and made in manhattan is she pretending oh yeah she's pretending to be rich yeah she's pretending to be a lady who's staying at the hotel versus a lady who works there she wasn't visible before but now because she's presumably on a fur coat person but wearing

a nice coat she is fancy and therefore deserving of love yes right it's a class-based lie yes yeah so it's always things like that whereas in this movie the thing that's getting in the way is far more grounded and realistic and happens in real life, which is like tension from being in an interracial relationship. Does the movie handle this amazingly well? I would say probably not. It could go deeper. Maybe well for then. Yes. Right.

I think we've had, as a society, much better conversations about race. Maybe well for then. Yes. Right. I think we've had as a society much better conversations about race. We're not done. But we've had better conversations around it. And so the expectations are also different. Because truly if today a man was like, I don't know, maybe you're being sensitive. I'd be like, fuck you. Fuck off. Yeah. like it's uh it is there is still like the classic rom-com implication that like he

quote-unquote fixes her with his mediocre coercion tactics i was like with his magic penis he adds color to her life right but yeah it was very rare for a rom-com from the mid-2000s to address things like microaggressions and white privilege and things like that. So I was surprised that it was having those conversations. For me, this movie felt like, I don't know, it felt like two things being true at one time. A lot of the times we're like in 06, I can't think of another movie that was even attempting this discussion. I like that it's being a there's one oh what is it guess who with aston kutcher and bernie mack oh my god i've seen where they are similarly dealing with a white guy black girl bernie mack as the father but it

is not good i was gonna say something more educated than that but genuinely that movie is not good nor does it say anything particularly meaningful about the black experience it's just they've swapped it because it's supposed to be like a new version of guess who's coming to dinner and while that one was supposed to like push boundaries and be a conversation starter. This one was not. That is. Yeah. I don't think anyone really remembers. Guess who?

And they shouldn't. They shouldn't. I do remember. Ashton Kutcher really was working back then. I feel like he didn't deserve to meet Bernie Mac, but that's my opinion. And then Zoe. Zoe Saldana is. Yeah. The woman that. Zoe Saldana wouldn't marry ashton kutcher be serious in his dreams in 2006 maybe that was maybe yeah he was punked and she was just center stage what no and she was wow she was crossroads oh yeah how times have changed yeah um well in comparison if that then something new is

groundbreaking revolutionary never been done before um right but i do like it was i wanted to go back to like how this movie was reviewed or like received at the time because it seemed to be received pretty well and again like another gigantic issue of the 2000s and still today but less so than before is like you still have just vastly majority white movie critics yes and so all of this needs to be taken with a gigantic grain of salt uh because you're like well i don't know how we should feel about how you know ro Roger Ebert feels about this topic. Although he gave this movie a terrific review. Okay.

Three and a half out of four stars. Because to me, this is the same level as Silver Linings Playbook. And Silver Linings Playbook got a lot of awards. And to me, I put these on the same footings, where there's a salsa dancing competition. Are we a 70s episode of the Brady Bunch? What are you talking about? I think that like the movie was received pretty positively.

I mean, it was received as a rom-com. I was like, this is a really like I've never seen a rom-com explore these themes. But the tone of a lot of the reviews i just like i don't feel good or bad about it but i was like that's interesting like they all mentioned like i've never seen this topic even attempted in this genre before and i was like oh i guess that like yeah that that is a big thing but also we can hold the truth of Brian sucks. Okay. Brian sucks. But Kenya also kind of sucks, dude. Like think of your friend groups.

None of you would hang out with her because she doesn't have any interest or perspective or a visual style or anything. She's nothing outside of that. She works really hard, which is great. But what did she, what did she like? Is she funny? She loves beige and she hates the color red and dogs. When she self-identified as beige, I was like, that is a bold move.

Because most people, like, even if you are personality beige, you don't usually admit it. You think you're interesting. Right. Right. Everyone thinks they're interesting right right everyone thinks they're interesting but but i don't think that i don't think that kenya really thinks that about herself but it also doesn't seem like a concern like she's just like i am who i am which is beautiful but also like brian wants to change her yeah yeah i don't know does he like her or does he like the changed version of her that he hopes to create? Good question.

But I also like personality beige as a description of a type of person. And I will be using it moving forward. Just like him. Yeah, I have personality beige. We're done. But yeah, can we go through the ways that he is a shitty person? Because he's often talking to her in a way that's very judgmental condescending he's doing the kind of like you know the the gaslighting thing of like are you sure you're not just being paranoid you're too uptight people are being racist to you yeah oh you need to relax

right yeah let me see okay so so this is the scene where i think they're like having takeout together in her house he comments on all of her like walls and furniture and everything being so beige did i ask you yeah i hate it yeah and and he's like when are you gonna paint when are you gonna bring some color in here colors are exciting and bold and she's like well i'm not bold i'm boring and he's like i don't even think you know who you are you haven't taken the time to get to know yourself because you're always working you don't know me it's excuse you frustrating right sir he's very like i don't know yeah he's very like thinks he knows her way better than he does immediately yeah which she pushes back on she's

like yeah yeah you don't know me but i i i guess i was having trouble getting into my 2006 brain in certain moments where i'm like how am i supposed to feel about her in this moment because it's obvious that like the script and the movie are very on her side we are seeing things generally through her perspective so i don't think at any point you're supposed to be like, I don't like her. But there's moments where I'm like, are we supposed to think she's being unreasonable right now by like telling Brian who's telling her who she is and like what she should do? Like, I feel like we were supposed to think she's been she needs to loosen up because look at this. Look at this, Brian. I don't know.

They do that from the very beginning when she does look at her calendar and it's just thing after thing after thing. They're like, wow, look how uptight this bitch is. Instead of like, she's important and busy. Right. I don't know. It's just like a genre-wide trope of like,

it reminded me of a movie I barely remember, but it's like the strongest I've ever felt this trope. The Sandra Bullock two weeks notice where she's like, I need to be forced to be married because I'm at I'm so at work. And you're just like, yeah, the trope of a woman can't have a romantic life because she already has a job. Yeah, you can't have both. And you got to be a little worse at your job so that men will like you because they're not going to like you as this confident successful woman no stop that that's gross stop it you got to be less yeah less dial it back so a few moments later in this same

conversation in the same scene he says something like i take it you don't date white guys and she says i happen to prefer black men it's not a prejudice it's a preference and then he responds with sure it's your preference to be prejudice right first of all you can't be prejudice or racist against the fucking oppressive class like you can't that's not how that works and then he's like oh you're prejudice because you don't like white people who have been actively oppressing you for your entire life and all of existence and then he does make this little face he makes this i just i went back and watched it again he makes this he makes this little face with that to me was like he was like i just blew her fucking mind and it's like oh oh, my God, Brian.

There's two things going on there. There is, like, I don't think it's great for you without any sort of background in it or knowledge to say, like, oh, there's an entire race of people and I don't date them. I don't think that's great. But if most of your interactions do involve, like, oh, yeah, I explain what my life is as a woman of color. And they're like, maybe you're just being paranoid i think that's like if you are doing something besides that then yes maybe she should consider you but why should she consider you if you don't think her experience is valid why should she consider you which he does all the time right constantly this whole thing is here's how you are

but here's how you should be and when you say anything i'm not gonna listen i'm not gonna believe you i'm not gonna validate anything and it's like why would she want that but yeah but uh she does apparently because they get married at the end they do they do she says i can be diminished for the rest of my life but you know what it's worth it because I had a day. I had a day where I wore a fancy dress and it means that I'm valid, baby. We're doing this. For the roast of Brian and partially Kenya's personality that we're about to unleash,

I will say the freeze frame shot this movie ends on, what a beautiful picture. They really are both so hot and you're just like wow they're attractive people that's a picture that i would scroll past on instagram and be like i want what they have i get it but also is that the piece that i'm missing because the only thing i think they have in common is that they are hot they are both hot yeah well that I mean, that's a classic rom-com. Is that all it takes? You're like two sexes equals one sexy. Two sexies who are geographically near each other equals love. I guess. According to rom-coms. Outside of that, what do they have in common? Yeah, they don't. What do they like? He likes hiking. He likes gardening. He likes his dog. She doesn't like any of those things nope she

likes the dog by the end right that is the change that's the one change which i think is a mistake you're letting a dog in your house like this i'm sorry i know you both feel differently but uh no that's gross get that can you taste animals that dirty filthy animal that like walks right by its own shit are you kidding me and it's gonna walk with its bear paws but look at max he's cute i was like she bought a house in los angeles like you you can't let anyone first of all i was i was really i was like wow she must be making good money as accountant yes partner and and it's cool that they like and i don't know there are parts of this movie i liked where it's like you see uh that most of the movie happens in like baldwin hills and you see like historically black areas

of la that aren't shown in movies a lot and like that part and then and then her house is so cute and then i was like yeah don't let especially like a new boyfriend's big stinky dog i like dogs but only if it's mine like shout out sunny if it's yours it shouldn't be at the house if it's mine. Shout out, Sunny. If it's yours, it shouldn't be at the house. If it's mine, it's got to be at the house. Wow. Wow. Yeah. A brave stance to take. But to your point, I did. That's one thing that I, the reason why I bought this movie,

the reason why I've seen this movie several times is because it did have a lot of things in it that I hadn't seen before. So like I lived in Los Angeles for a period of time, I hadn't seen Baldwin Hills represented in this way. I hadn't seen a movie where it was like four black professional women, like doing stuff. I hadn't seen a lot of that before. So in that way, for me, it was, I'm sorry, something new. But now I do think that stuff is dated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. But yeah, you do see representation of characters and situations you don't normally see, especially

for this era. Like a main character who is a black woman with like a white collar job. She's rich. She's successful. All of her black friends and her family members have white collar jobs. They're doctors, they're're lawyers they're judges she knows her worth as a professional even though other people around her are constantly questioning it like that client guy but like she knows her value she never like questions that she knows her skills uh as it relates to her as an accountant at bippity boppity boop the accounting i did feel like at the end of what

is what did y'all think about this where at the end she stands up for herself at work and it's like a good scene and you're like okay she got what she wanted out of that like she is gonna have this job on her own terms and she's gonna have two days off a month and that was a huge win for her look at her advocating for herself she gets 48 hours with which to be a human being the rest you guys own okay she really girl bossed her way out of that one uh but but i felt like again like i was trying to figure out i was like how does the movie want me to feel in this moment i felt like it was like wow because of brian's love i'm able to stand up for myself now which doesn't even track with their relationship like it just was like yeah i guess that this is what happens in 2006 rom-coms at this point but it's like i liked the read of that scene where

she's like spent a lot of the movie figuring out what she wants and what she doesn't want and what she will accept as treatment and what she won't, even though accepting Brian makes no sense if your standards are raising throughout the movie. But I don't know. I felt like it was like, oh, and because Brian's dick taught me so much, I can now stand up for myself at accountants. I don't know, but I couldn't tell. No, I do.

That's a magical dick. I feel like that makes me not question that you don't believe my experience. That's a magical. That's I don't think I've had dick that does that. No, I've yet. Dick that makes you feel confident. Interesting. But I agree with you, Jamie, as far as you're doing that that the way that you said that sorry i'm looking something up on girl foot

um no but i know what you mean i think that that is the intention of the movie like he broke her out of her shell like he he does the whole jack dawson thing to rose where it's like yeah i i'm a free spirit and I am helping you to open up blah blah blah even though she has her friends to do that whatever but going back to the part that feels dated to me about like this representation of these like rich and successful black people is that that is accompanied by a lot of classism where like donald fazan's like oh i'm not gonna shake hands with him he's the help yeah cheryl her uh kenya's friend starts dating mike epps who is i'm not exactly sure his job i don't know if he's like a fancy chef or if he's like a line cook i don't

know his job is unclear in this movie but she perceives him to be lower class. Because she's like, oh, how come the only guys who like me are the ones like wearing an apron and a name tag? Or a name tag, yes. They end up getting together and I think getting married. But I guess what I'm saying is I think there could have been a more interesting intersectional approach to this. Just kind of like romance and just like interpersonal relationships in general. But they are classist in a way that I tend to associate more with rich white people. I mean, anyone can be classist. Point is, I think that those characters attitudes would be handled

differently if this movie came out today. Yes, I 100% agree because I think we do have more class consciousness and it is very frustrating. I was raised, of course, not only in a black home, but a religious black home. And like a lot of my family is still Republican, but there is this very deep tie to know we are going to prove racist wrong by out capitalistic them. So we're going to prove racists wrong by out-capitalisting them. So we're going to, like, if we have more money, we would show that we are valuable and that we are not the thing that racists think we are. If we do this elaborate charade, which is what Cotillions are,

where it's like we're like society too. If we can do this just as well, like we're, and I'm like, let's step away from that. Maybe we have value because we're human beings. We don't have that value because we're wealthy. It's a frustrating thing that they do. And I think specifically in the early 2000s where it's like, okay, we want to show black people

what we don't want to fall into stereotypes. So all of them have to be kind of perfect. All of them have to be professional. All of them have to have money. All of them have to have money. All of them have to be in this way because that shows we've advanced versus that shows some really flat characters like Kenya. Right. That's how you get I love beige. Yes. Interesting. And I don't necessarily like blame the characters for having that kind of mindset of being like we have to be like the richest people in the community to prove our worth because we've all been brainwashed by

capitalism and certainly in 2006 like there was not that much challenging of of class at least in the mainstream exactly i'm thinking of uh paris hilton wearing a shirt that says stop being poor. And that was like, God, what 2006 is about. Yeah. So I, I get why that happened. Yeah. Cause we were all poisoned by the sickness that is capitalism, but,

but yeah, I'm glad that we are stepping away from that to some degree. Yay. Fingers crossed. And, and when you, when you you put the sort of like the race and class intersection

of this movie the way you just did, it's weird because it's like I don't know. Maybe it just is the time that this was written and released in because it's not like this movie isn't set up to have that discussion. It's just like, because this movie is

trying to have a lot of discussions you know to varying degrees of success as we're talking about but like I think it's like cool and like ambitious and different of like a lot of the conversations this movie is at least attempting but like class isn't really one of them and I feel like in certain moments it's like I don't know I mean I don't know it in a way that felt like i think i understand what the writer's going for but it just kind of came off a little flat because you know it's like brian does have less money than kenya it doesn't seem to generally bother him but there is one scene where they're arguing about race and it's also like this is unrelated but that scene is

very blue um i was like why is this scene so blue grocery store lighting is famously so blue so it was very music video lighting so you're like it's blue um but they're arguing at the at the pharmacy in the scene where i hate brian maybe the most where he is saying like oh can we not talk about race today? I just need the night off. And like, you're just like, wow, strike 500 for Brian. But he sort of brings up he brings up class briefly in that discussion of like, well, I don't bring up class all the time. And sort of equating these issues. And it's like, it feels like classes almost brought up as as like well brian's really oppressed too and it's like well no being a middle class white guy yeah like is he's he's not like but it felt like the the movie would sometimes try to approach a discussion like that but then it never quite like even

started the conversation so i don't even know how it really felt I honestly felt the same way about gender not being woven into the conversation that interesting to me I feel like the women feel oppressed only because it's like no one loves me yeah I don't have a boyfriend their oppression is that they aren't getting dates that's their oppression yeah um interesting i mean i think it's open to interpretation but uh for example like when she's talking to that client in the recap i was like he's racist and also probably sexist but like oh yeah it seems like she was only ever speaking about him undervaluing her because she's black and not because she's a black woman. Even though this guy's probably sexist also.

Yes. Because he is trusting of only white men. Right. It's like not like I was I was kind of confused of where they not that I like wanted more of her. But I was kind of confused why we would introduce the character leah if because i thought that was like oh maybe this is going to be a character of like how is a white woman treated in this uh work setting versus a black woman but you never kind of see you only see leah worrying about her wedding dress at work that's it and then i don't think you see her at work again what does she do i don't know is she accountant too yeah i don't know she had an

office she did probably because the women in this story aside from kenya we don't see them in the context of what they're actually doing for work nope we only know of them as they relate to their relationships with men yeah so i do think this is not an excuse for the movie but i do this is not a new test that exists there are so many tests for movies out there but i do i run a it's a what would my mom say test okay okay if a movie has too many ideas going on i think people like within our age range and younger are like yes we get all these but my mom would be like what was that thing about that other like i thought the story was about this one thing so that i know this one thing but then you added

some other stuff in there i don't know what are we talking about now so i will say that it just having one thing that it's talking about right does lean it towards the passing the will my mom like this test okay my mom test nice yes well yeah and i also like want to be like aware of like the fact that when movies are made by people marginalized in any way there's always additional pressures of like you need to be saying this this and this and like i don't want to be a part of that problem of like why didn't this movie attack every single intersectional issue that black women face why it's like well shut up you don't ask that of most movies um i think that like the reason and also like listeners if you disagree with the approach like let us know i i think that the reason that it feels very relevant to this movie is because it seems to be this movie's

agenda but yes i agree with you kenise and and your mom's theoretical opinion of of like it seems like possibly like chris turner was like i need, you know, what am I going to focus on? And she chooses, you know, race specifically to focus on. But I do. But it's like there was definitely room and and kind of like the characters were there. Yeah. To talk a little more about gender. I would love for one of them to have a passion, just a single passion. And there were a few things set up at the beginning of this movie that I feel like kind of fell to quote my favorite song from A Star Is Born, by the wayside, because of Brian. And I know that he's romantically in the rom-com, whatever. But it's like at the beginning you set up that Kenya is an inherently optimistic character, which kind of seems to go away.

And then you also set up this like friendship this very 2000s friendship dynamic and as weird as that friendship dynamic is and it's like the four women i you know that could be a really fun dynamic to watch but the movie kind of bails on that also and then they kind of only come back to be like come on give brian a chance or depending on the needs of the scene come on give blair underwood a chance like yeah what so they kind of bail on the girlfriend slash sex in the city slash living single setup that we get at the beginning and i kind of i was bummed about that i wanted more of it yeah i wanted more it's like you hired alfre woodard yeah and then you did nothing with her

come on you gave the big speech to the dad. Yeah. Oh, okay. Sorry. Just when you said that, I was like, okay, new reality show, guys. And this idea, don't steal it, anyone who's listening, but it's a competition for four person friend group, okay?

And we've got people, different contestants vying for the different roles. We've got to have one horny one. We've got to have one uptight one. We've got people, different contestants vying for the different roles. We've got to have one horny one. We've got to have one uptight one. We've got to have like all these different, like one pragmatic one. It's the Ninja Turtles group. Like four types of people are all represented in the Ninja Turtles. And they're often represented in these friend groups as well.

So yeah, competition show. Love it. I'm like, do the four friends exist for men as i guess ninja ninja turtles falls into it i don't think they value friendship i don't think they do that do men have friend groups what that aren't just like this is cheese this is cheese too we went to college together that's as much as we've talked about it that's it and then i feel like the permutation of that that was in like kids media that i was really into in the 2000s were like the three friends the two girls and the one guy and you had and then you had to end up with

or the two guys and the one girl i mean sure because you have harry potter setups versus lizzie mcguire setups okay it's all making sense in my head there's venn diagrams coming together i'll release my chart i was thinking dawson pacey joey but yeah yes yes the three the three friends but that's the teenage setup once you're an adult all the friends need to identify as the same gender and they you can't remember how they met no you can make one more what we do what do we do together we drink together that's it what are you talking about we all have a cosmo glass and we order cocktails i did love it was um there there's i just love the amount of um gigantic wine glasses in this genre but it was reminding me of like my days of watching too much scandal where she was drinking Olivia Pope sized wine. Like I just, you're like, generally you don't fill the wine glass to the top,

but in rom-coms you do. You do. And then you talk to your dad on the phone. Did you guys ever see the girl, the woman in the window across the street from the girl in the house or something like that? I don't remember the full title. It was a long title.

But Kristen Bell has like a glass of wine and she empties an entire bottle of wine into the glass and just walks around like delicately holding this absolutely massive, completely full glass of wine. That's what all of these movies need. I support it. I really appreciate the rom-com pour. It's a heavy pour.

If I open a restaurant, I'm not saying I will, but I would have that on the menu it would be you can have a size like a regular or a rom-com pour which is just like a huge glass of wine yeah you have so many good ideas you got this reality show yeah this wine bar slash restaurant yep hire me um i can try to make these things or i can just generate dumb ideas for you until the day you die yeah i want to go back to that grocery store scene because i feel like kenya's giving a couple it's like a back and forth but there are a few chunks where she's like kind of monologuing and i felt it was she was like providing effective commentary. And it felt like this was like kind of the scene that like the movie was like, this is what we want to say. But then also not because she gets married with him after like barely apologizing.

So I don't know. It's confusing. But she says things like after Brian is like, I don't want to talk about this tonight. It makes me feel uncomfortable. And she says, first of all, you don't have to talk about being white because no one reminds you every day that you're white. The only time you guys know you're white is when you're in a room full of black people. I'm in a world full of white people. And every day they remind me that I'm black. And if I can't talk to you about my frustrations if i'm supposed to just keep that to myself and then he interrupts her and is like well you're a senior manager at one of the whitest

firms in the country you graduated these like ivy league schools you own a home you earn more money than 98 of the country he's like no i'm oppressed you're like oh no you're not right yeah and then he's like you make more money than me so yeah tell me about your frustrations he's like being very sarcastic and then she says you don't want to hear it you don't want to hear about when i show up at an account meeting they always have to regroup when they find out that i'm the one who is responsible for their multi-million dollar acquisition they'd rather trust it to a file clerk who gets me my goddamn coffee. Again, some more classism. Because he's white. And do you know how insulting that is? And then she goes on to say, you know, I need to be able to talk to you about this stuff. I'm not going to keep it to myself or deny who I am. He says, all I wanted

was a night off. And she says, well, that's what being black is, Brian, all I wanted was a night off. And she says, well, that's what being black is, Brian. You don't get a night off. And he's like, well, and then he says, I'm never going to be on the right side of the war going on in your head. To me, implying like this is all in her head. Brian is constantly calling her hysterical for experiencing systemic racism.

Truly. I can't stand Brian. And then so he's like, you know what? I'm never gonna be on the right side of this because I'm not black and I'm never gonna be black. Also after what? A couple of conversations, you've decided there's no more I could learn,

I'm done and therefore I'll never get to the point where I understand other people or what they're going through. I can't. It's not possible. And it's unreasonable for you to expect me to do these things. And then he later says, he's like, I'm sorry. Like, he does apologize. But he's like, I'm sorry. Someone left work.

And I was like, so you did that? So that was your response response i was having a bad day so hey if anyone walks off the job again you're gonna have to deal with it just so you know what our marriage is gonna be like you're good that's gonna be under you i'm gonna say some racist shit but it's because i had a hard day that's it's fine when i have a hard day i get the night off from discussing racism with my girlfriend who's experiencing racism on a constant basis seems reasonable and then at the end of that scene the scene where he comes to her house and apologizes he says like to be fair he says like i may not always relate but

i can promise i will empathize. Right. But then he says, it would be a shame to let something so superficial get in our way as if racism is superficial. That felt to me, I'm curious. Okay. If I was, let me know if we're reading this the same way.

It felt like there was a very like of the era color metaphor being made with Brian's arc and story specifically where he's like saying very surface level but it's like he's using like kind of Sesame Street logic that is true but ignores the complicated issues that I thought this movie was supposed to be about where he's like it's just the color of your skin and you're like yes that is the sesame street lesson but kenya is talking about a society living in a society and this isn't sesame street but then there are like sesame street like where he's like you need more color in your life like there's all these like color metaphors and brian's constantly bringing them up and i never really know what he's talking about. And then he's like telling her she's kind of being hysterical.

And so it doesn't quite, it never really scans that like, whatever it was doing, it didn't quite work for me. Yeah, the nail polish. Oh yeah, the nail polish. The nail polish scene. He, okay, we don't know

what he's talking about at first. And he says, I know you're sensitive about color, but we can just keep this a little secret and you think maybe he's talking about their relationship and her being quote-unquote sensitive about color referring to race but then he's like ha ha ha i'm painting your toenails red yes and like fake out and like that's obviously the joke also was he good at this i'm sorry that was like like right has he painted a lot of toes before because otherwise he'd be he's gonna be bad at

it and you're gonna have to get rid of it right he's on wiki feet can he is he's on wiki feet he's a complicated man okay okay he's been practicing okay fair fair fair and that like i mean that like it just feels like muddled metaphors because that like works as a bad rom-com metaphor of like you need like because that's like a lot of how i feel like we convince ourselves that like a professional woman should be with a crummy guy of like i open your mind to like fun? Yeah. You know, I feel like that's so, I don't know why Knocked Up is the first movie that jumped to my mind of like, yeah, sure, I fucking suck.

But like, aren't I a good time? You're too uptight, so love me. More color, more fun. But because their story is so based in race as well, and like the lessons they're learning are supposed to be grounded there. It just gets really like muddled and I don't know. It wasn't scanning for me quite. Right.

I appreciate that. There is a rom-com that tries to tackle this subject matter. Yeah. Again, there had been very few before this and honestly not that many since um that directly address the tension that comes with being in an interracial relationship again the way this movie addresses it does feel very of the time but i imagine that it let a lot of people feel seen and represented or like let their relationship feel seen on screen. And like we talk about stepping stone movies all the time where it's like if this movie hadn't come out, who knows what wouldn't have been made or like because this movie was well received and it seems to be a pretty well loved movie.

Like what did it make possible for it to be made you know outside of that so I feel like you know it's like it's it's it's net good and it also I don't know I was just even with like the precise setting of this movie and also with some of the themes of interracial relationships I was like oh a lot of this is actually like similar themes are touched on uh in a better modern way in like the later seasons of insecure I mean but again it's like if you can think of that few examples like maybe there's I'm sure there's plenty that I just don't I didn't personally obsessively consume but you know it's like it's an underexplored topic. But at least it's nice to know it's been explored better since. Yeah. Yes.

I was trying to think of a more delicate word than better. I'm sure it exists. I think better is great. Yeah. I want to talk briefly about Mark, the Blair Underwood character. Mostly to say that. Mark's such a dud. A lot of rom-coms have this guy the other guy who's not as cool the flop there was like a movie where Michael Showalter is

directed it where it's like the Steve or the something but it's the guy who gets left at the altar it's the guy who gets left yeah I don't know about this movie it's called oh my gosh what is it called the only joke i remember from it if we're thinking about the same movie is a guy is talking to a woman and he's like oh i'll have my intern's assistant's intern's assistant call you to schedule a date and i was like that's such a funny joke but that's the only thing i remember the back the baxter yes oh yes yes a baxter is the nice dull guy in a romantic comedy who is dumped at the end of the story for the protagonist i've never heard of this this is a fun concept i wonder i kind of want to watch it maybe i'm thinking what's the movie with amy poehler and paul rudd they came together yes

maybe i'm thinking of that movie also one of those guys yeah is that showalter is it somebody who was in that crew oh the one of those maybe a david wayne perhaps oh yeah the state people yeah yeah the state i don't know yeah all those movies are like all muddled in my brain no wait that was showalter okay okay it might even be him that says the joke i'm thinking of but that might not says the joke I'm thinking of, but that might not be the movie I'm thinking of. I don't know. Michael Showalter is like,

loves to comment on rom-com tropes. I wonder why. Why is that? We should have him on the show. Yeah, get him on. Michael Showalter, explain yourself. Seems unusual for a man, but I'm here for it.

Let's chat. Mark, though,ir underwood he tells a story to kenya's parents about how he lied to her in order to trick her into hanging out with him as if it's a super cute story that does happen and then her mom is also like that is so cute yes thankfully kenya breaks up with him right after that scene but i was like oh i mean but it's like i've been in relationships where like especially you know if you go far back enough i was like i was in relationships in college where like the way that we started dating was like presented as this big joke and then you repeat it back to yourself now you're like that was fucking horrible but were people not like oh we're like every story about how grandparents meet is like the most

horrifying thing i've ever heard in my life yes it's an attack there's a wonderful i think it's like click hole or the onion article about that but yes we were like that's a crime now grandma don't don't like that right stop like he followed me for 47 blocks until i agreed to go out with him he slowly wore me down until i had no will to live and then that's why your grand your mother exists yeah my grandparents met via cat calling i think i've told that story on the show before though yeah um my grandfather leaned out the window of his car and was like because my grandma was walking her baby sister in like a carriage and then he was like hey is that your baby and she was like no

he's like let's go out tonight because i want to put one in you and then like two months later he did or something i don't know oh god I haven't checked their fuck math they're dead I can't ask um but but I did appreciate okay getting back to the movie I did appreciate that that was framed as a negative thing to have done yes in 2006 because I wouldn't expect I wouldn't necessarily expect that in a movie of this era true I liked when she was like he is a black man he knows something about black hair hopefully so for him to say i like your hair better this way in the weave is like huh okay i get the measure of this man no thank you um and i did i felt connected to that i liked that meanwhile brian in that scene where he's like how does your hair work i don't know yeah and

she gets upset and then he says sorry if i offended you i just want to know what you look like completely naked oh shut up are you joking my ass brian shut up it's like comical i don't know like they framed it like it's a good thing that he said that yeah but no and then in the next scene she goes and gets her weave taken out as if she's like oh he was right i shouldn't have do you guys know how much weaves are that's an expensive proposition just on one i'd be like yeah i'll we'll talk as like the next cycle because like this is like a time period commitment. Right. And at the end of this time period commitment, I might consider that.

But to go and get it cut out, did you just get it done? That's so much. That's like wasting so much money. That's a process. Shut up. I really don't like I mean, and this seems specifically aggressive because it's he does not fucking know what he's talking about. And he doesn't have interest in really knowing what he's talking about. But I really don't like when in any partnership, but it's like usually a man to a woman when they're it's like a racialized extension of like the the like you look so much better without

makeup or like how i like to look at you and how i tell you you're beautiful is how you're most beautiful that's the way you should do it if you feel beautiful and it happens to involve something that i don't like then that's not how you're beautiful and it's like well then you don't respect me stop i think that he thought he was like oh i i want to see you as you are but it's like well then you don't respect me stop i think that he thought he was like oh i i want to see you as you are but it's like no see her however she wants she's comfortable being seen you fucking loser brian i swear to god maybe brian gets better i've over time like in the way that like so many people we know have gotten better on issues hopefully maybe brian gets better but as brian stands in 2006 he's not he needs to step it up not enough no really a lot yeah but then and then it's like it's presented as and this often does

happen but like the burden is on her to educate him yeah right and make the changes he's not changing his house layout he's not getting his hair redone he keeps bringing his dog inside yeah she doesn't like fucking dogs stop bringing your dog around yeah right you live somewhere put it where you live yeah so it's her it's her burden to to educate him and to make him aware of all of this stuff that he's like willfully or generally ignorant of so that's a burden she has the burden to like accommodate his standards and oh i i fine i'll paint my walls because you think i should be not liking beige yeah fine i'll take out my weave because you want

to see me with my natural hair all this stuff it's frustrating she should not accommodate any of that the burden should not have to be on her to educate him about all this stuff also okay i did laugh at the scene where she so she tells him about the black tax and he's like oh i never thought about that oh i know yeah next scene is the housewarming party she has that she has because he's like yeah you look like you need to relax shut up brian but he's going around it's it's mostly black people at the party you can tell that he like feels out of place and he's like trying to i don't know make friends mike epps yells at him because he's like you're stealing my barbecue secrets and so he goes over to another group of guys who are saying something like oh that wouldn't have happened if it was a white guy. That white guy would have gotten promoted.

And then he tries to Brian tries to chime in and be like, oh, are you guys talking about the black tax? And they're just like, what? Leave us alone. Also, I love the idea to add a black party. The only thing we talk about is black. It's a black party. So we talk about black stuff.'s a black party so we talk about black stuff you know you get it i did think it was very funny how like you know everyone starts teasing

him and making fun of him for because that was really fucking weird and but then it's like this scene kind of leaves you being like oh man brian's not fitting in like well maybe if he was being less fucking weird there's a loser also in a situation like that just shut up and listen brian yeah you need to learn things clearly so shut up and learn yeah and listen i i did appreciate i mean it's like that there was with the people in kenya's, there was kind of like a spectrum of how people felt about Brian, where some people were like, Brian, you know,

is it Mike Epps is like the, the cook character, right? Yeah. Yeah. Walter. So I feel like he was generally on Brian's side. Cause it was like more of like a class solidarity thing of like,

he's a working guy. I like him. And then, but he didn't at first yeah he had to come around on right so it's like you like the people in her life are like thinking brian as a prospect to different degrees and so there is she is like surrounded by different opinions about it but i guess just none of the opinions quite made sense to me because brian sucks the one that did track the most for me was when her friends are like, you're not going to marry him, except she does.

But like before that happens, they're like, if he can dick you down, who cares if he's white? You're not going to marry him. Just get it while it's there. I appreciated that. But but that was one of the only things we knew about Kenya really is that she didn't want a casual relationship. She wanted a serious relationship. any other thoughts about the movie i would like to see another movie by this director because again i do like those music video like very visual touches uh and i would like to see what she does with them in another environment hopefully that is

a little bit more up to date yeah I would like to see if she hasn't she's directed three movies and then I think just kind of like really leaned into tv tv I'm sure I've seen she did she did an episode of glee she did that she did like a Sherlock. I would love to see another movie from her. Yeah. Because she hasn't directed a movie since 2010. Did anyone see the movie Just Right? Oh, it's another rom-com with Queen Latifah and Common. I missed that one.

I did a long time ago, but I haven't seen it probably since it came out. I've never seen it. Well, the time has come for another movie. I'm ready. Okay. I'm prepared. Good. I'll tell her. she's my friend please

let her know please let her know um and also please let her know that i really uh the super bass music video was really important to me well does the movie pass the bechdel test it does it does a bunch of different times not thoroughly but a bunch of different times. Not thoroughly, but a bunch of different times. The women do talk about men a lot. They do. But yeah, there's a few exchanges here and there. But it would pass more if we had a better understanding of their friendship, for example. Yes. The four friends. What do they like to do together besides have like galentine's day drinks because i think the night that they meet up it's valentine's day oh yeah probably but then and the whole time they're just like oh we're unmarried wish we were with men and not with

you losers right but again if we yeah if we, I was hoping for more scenes with them and just like getting a sense of their friendship. But when they are together, pretty much they only talk about men. But yeah, there are little exchanges here and there that pass. Yeah, I wish that again. And it's like, I guess we've said this a few times, but for the for the final time i really wish that um the mother-daughter relationship could have been used more effectively and in a less boring way but yeah what can you do i guess you could do something but you didn't write a different movie yeah it's a lot of her mom kind of criticizing her or being like when are you getting married or oh you might be getting married to blair underwood oh my gosh pop the champagne she was

like crying and it's like are you gonna congratulate her for making partner at her firm oh oh and then the way donald fazan said the doctor and the missus i was like does she what does she do does she have does she have jobs does she have a job we don't know we don't know not important not important doctor and the missus you go shopping yes she likes shopping um our nipple scale a scale of zero to five nipples based on examining the movie through an intersectional feminist lens. I would give this, I'll give it a 2.5 because I think that for the time, it's attempting to have a conversation that a lot of movies and rom-coms especially, were not attempting to make. It was representation on screen of things that you don't often see in mainstream movies,

such as an interracial relationship wherein the tension that often comes. Yeah, I have a master's degree. Sorry, I just wanted to let you know that I heard that. Appreciate it. Yeah, that's why I said it. But the tension that often derives from an interracial relationship, especially one where one of the people is a white person with a lot of white privilege, I think it explores

that relationship dynamic in interesting ways that feel authentic. But I don't think that Brian redeems himself after the shitty things he says or that he demonstrates enough growth for her to take him back at all. And making it seem like the choice was between Brian and Blair Underwood, which he simply could have continued looking for someone that yeah she liked true yeah why does she love brian also her speech at the end where she's just like i think they tried to tell us why she loved brian well she was that self you haven't showed us yeah yeah and she's like yeah you probably think i'm neurotic and and

ridiculous and blah blah blah all blah, all this stuff. But you let me be that way. I feel myself around you. And it's like, he doesn't let you be that way. He's been trying to change you the whole movie. What are you even talking about? He made you change your house and your hair and your like life attitude. Yeah, right.

So not sure. But I think it's doing enough stuff that was like again feels groundbreaking for the time that I'll do like a split down the middle 2.5 nipples I will give one to Sanaa Lathan because I not her character in this movie because she's really so bland and beige but as a performer as an actor I love her a lot um I'll I'll, I'll split between Sanaa Homri, the director and Chris Turner, the screenwriter of the movie. And I will give my 0.5 nipple to Max,

the dog. Cause he's a cute golden retriever. And he's nice. Um, I'm tempted. I, yeah, I guess I'll go down the middle.

I'm like tempted to give it like half a nipple higher only because it's nice. Yeah, I guess I'll go down the middle. I'm tempted to give it half a nipple higher only because it's for its time. Again, not just an underexplored topic in movies, but in this genre specifically, I guess outside of Guess Who, for some reason, 2006, but that's more of a comedy than a rom-com. Either way.

Either way. I'm glad it exists. I'm glad it exists. I'm glad it exists. I don't know that I'll be like returning to it super often because I just really don't like Brian. I don't I I weirdly don't even super duper mind that Kenya is kind of boring. I don't know. I for some reason I can deal with a boring character but I can't I can't deal with Brian.

Brian really bugs me and I feel like because of for like modern audiences at least the rom-com tropes associated with Brian which is like I accept you as you are except change everything about yourself and like yeah I'm I'm not listening but I'm totally listening babe like that kind of stuff undercuts what this movie's potential was which was like if it if it was like illustrating like an emotionally healthy and equitable interracial relationship that would have been so cool i just don't think that that's the relationship that we got here right and so that is ultimately a bummer. But I really, like all the creatives involved, like, I like that this collaboration happened. It would be cool to see them work together again, this writer and director,

and put Sanan Lathan in it again. Let's do it. Let's take two it. And yeah, I don't know, I guess I'll go two and a half. I'm tempted to give it three. And I guess whoever's editing the Wikipedia these days, you could just kind of choose whatever feels right for you. Ultimately, if someone wants to take you on a first date at a busy Starbucks, it's probably not the person for you. And also fire the friend that orchestrated that, which she did say. She did say, like, what the fuck was she thinking?

Leah. Yeah, I'll split my nipples, what the fuck was she thinking? Yeah. Yeah. I'll split my nipples. However, the math shakes out between the beige wall and the aquamarine wall. Wow. There's two kinds of walls in this world. Yeah. Famously.

Yeah. Can you tell about you? I'm going to give it three because i think it's important to remember that this came out the same year as crash oh wow and when it comes to a conversation about race this is way better than that yes fair this is this doesn't make me literally pull my hair out um so i'm gonna give it three and i'm gonna give one to the musical sequence where they're watching a dance in kenya is getting horny i'm gonna give one nipple to the scene where simon pegg is digging up earth and we're getting lots of close-ups of rippling muscles simon oh

simon baker simon baker yeah you said simon pegg i what? Could have been. What a movie it would have been. That was a different movie, different vibe entirely. It was a Star Trek. I don't want to get into it. Okay. And then I want to give one full nipple to the little mariachi costume that he has on in the end. Because I know that that's going to be but i was like wood smash so he wears it well except for the untucked in t-shirt that he has

but his butt looks good in those pants and i think we've got to acknowledge that that's i'm fine fine i'll do it i dropped the ball i dropped the ball i i liked i liked seeing the i did i wasn't sure what they were talking about when she's like, do you know that guy? I was like, why is he going to come as well? But it was like, no,

just steal his clothes. Yeah. Cool. It's a suit technically. Come on. Yeah. Well, Kenise,

thank you so much for coming back for a sixth appearance. Thank you for having me. Let's make it seven. Let's do it. When do you want to do it? Next week. Cool. Meet us at Margaritaville.

Where can people follow you online? What would you like to plug? Tell us about your album. Sure, sure, sure. Et cetera. Okay. So you can follow me at Kniece Mobley on all the socials. I even signed up for Hive.

I don't even know what people are using anymore. I'm on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and I guess Hive now. And soon girlfoot.com. What's it called? Girlfoot. Yeah. Yeah. It's girlfoot.com.

They care about my numbers across all platforms. So please follow me so that they're not like, actually you sucked and we decided based on your low follower counts okay so and then also if you like buying albums which my record company says that you should push people to do please buy my album follow-up question put out by blonde medicine it. It's a fun album. It's been written up in a few places. It just got showcased on Ebony Magazine, which we had Ebony come to the house every month and it was always on our coffee table.

So that's a big deal for me, but it was on some other lists too. Pace Magazine, etc. So if you don't hate me here, you might like me there. So listen to me. Strong,

soft endorsement. Yeah. Everyone loves you. Yes. That is not true, but I appreciate you saying that. Well, we love you.

I love you. Here on this Zoom call, you're universally loved. Yay. Okay. Okay. And you can follow us at Bechtel cast on twitter and instagram and you can follow our patreon it's girl foot girl girl foot sorry uh you can follow our patreon aka matreon five dollars a

month we'll get you two additional episodes uh from caitlin and myself every month as well as access to over a hundred episodes of back catalog over there I think maybe even closer to 200 at this point this past month we did the Pinocchio wars in which we covered all three and maybe even a fourth adaptations of Pinocchio that have come out in the past calendar year it's true who knows why you know Italian icon Pinocchio he's back and i still find him so boring except when he's played by polly shore and then and then he's awesome but father so you can go over there for that or you can worry it's really funny um okay or you could go to

tpublic.com slash the bechtel cast for all of our amazing merchandise, including new designs we just released, Feminist Icon Paddington, Shrekian, and the Flubber Mambo by Danny Elfman. And all of that can be found on our link tree. So we got to plug the link tree more because there's so many other goodies there. Is the link tree something you plug? I guess so. It is now. I'm plugging it. Awesome.

All right. Well, we're plugging it. And hey, don't forget, let go, let flow. I'm about to go do that right into my toilet. I have to pee so bad. I have to pee so bad too. I've been waiting. I was like, I want to be polite, but I have to pee so bad.

Okay, let's go let it flow. Bye. Bye. I'm letting it flow. 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 Catherine 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 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. fascinated crooks everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one woman wiki leaks she exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state listen to crooks everywhere on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast