The Bechdel Cast - Spice World with Amanda Meadows

Episode Date: May 4, 2017

Go on a very confusing trip through the plot holed streets of London with Caitlin, Jamie and guest Amanda Meadows to get to the Spice Girls concert in time! Aristotle 'Alan' Cumming produces!(This episode contains spoilers)Follow @amandonium on Twitter! While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @hamburgerphone   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm NK, and this is Basket Case. What is wrong with me? A show about the ways that mental illness is shaped by not just biology. Swaps of different meds.

But by culture and society. By looking closely at the conditions that cause mental distress, I find out why so many of us are struggling to feel sane, what we can do about it, and why we should care. Oh, look at you giving me therapy, girl. Listen to Basket Case every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one game on their minds, Sword Quest,

because the company had promised 150 grand in prizes to four finalists, but the prizes disappeared, leading to one of the biggest controversies in 80s pop culture. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure

across four decades. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. Listen to The Legend of Swordquest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just boyfriends and husbands, or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effin' vast Start changing it with the Bechdel cast Hello and welcome to the Bechdel cast. I'm Caitlin. I'm Jamie. And we're here to talk about movies, specifically... About what?

Women! Oh yeah! And the portrayal of women. The portrayal of women. What do they like? What do they look like? Do they get... Oh, here's the test. Are there two women in the movie who are speaking to each other about something other than a man? Do they have names?

We want to know. Ideally, they do. Ideally, yes. And that, my friends, is the Bechdel test. Created by... Allison Bechdel. Mr. Joey Bechdel. Bobby Bechdel II. Mr. Bobby Bechtel. Bobby Bechtel II.

Mr. Bobby Bechtel. Yeah, so that's what this podcast is about. And we're going to talk about a movie, as we do every single time. We are so excited for this episode. I am so excited for this episode. I'm pretty excited. Let's just jump right in and introduce our guest. She's the best.

She's so funny. She is a best-selling author and she co-runs devastator press out of los angeles it's amanda meadow oh my god that was a great intro thank you no information about me but like i know i've been to your home you you know what that's's right. You have a lovely home, by the way. Oh, thank you. Amanda. Fun fact about Amanda. She's got a Charlie Brown poster in her bathroom. Yes. And it's from the movie everyone forgets about. I'd never heard of it. I had to look it up after paying at your house. Charlie Brown. They go to France. They stay in the

countryside. There's grape stuff. A house is on fire. Whose idea was that? They're on a plane. It's great. Is the French tourism board responsible for that? Absolutely. Let's bring beloved American characters, you know, just to France, just to like make it appealing to the younger set. My dad has a weird amount of spite for France.

Oh, really? He calls everything that he thinks rich people do French. One time he called me and he was like, where are you? And I was like, I'm in a Starbucks. And he was like, what are you, really? He calls everything that he thinks rich people do French. One time he called me and he was like, where are you? And I was like, I'm in a Starbucks. And he was like, what are you, French? Wait, was he one of those people who like, like instead of calling them French fries, he'd call them freedom fries? No, I think he just like decided that French was a synonym for bougie.

Which makes sense if you view french people as like bread carrying cartoon characters right right i had a an idea for a sketch that i wanted to perform once where it would just be like a quick blackout sketch but it would be jack from titanic and i'm hooked rose or some woman and the woman would say jack i want you to draw me like one of your french girls and she takes off her robe and it's just like her with like a beret and like a striped shirt with like a little red handkerchief and then like smoking a cigarette and holding a baguette great i love it i'm in gimme can it also be the kathy bates character oh yeah molly gimme molly the unsinkable molly brown she's like so The unsinkable Molly Brown. Yeah. She is, like, so very unsinkable.

Hey, what movie are we talking about today? I don't know why I said that in that way. Unsinkable. We're talking about... Oh, man. This is going to be a fun one. Can we just talk about Titanic again? No, we're not.

We're talking... Oh, man. I know that that's what we always want to do. Hey, this is the same era, though. True, same year. Yeah. 97, this is the same era, though. True. Same year. Yeah. 97.

Because the movie we're talking about is Spice World. That's a Yas Queen. Yeah. This is kind of a Yas Queen kind of movie. Oh, it super is. Excuse my shouting. I have a Mike's Heart lemonade. It's a Mike's Harder lemonade.

It has a lightning bolt over the er we yeah it's wild serious if you want to get crazy you're gonna want to fuck with this lemonade does that mean it's like a higher alcohol content than a regular mike's hard yeah it's eight percent it's actually kind of ridiculous yeah it says warning next to it too it says warning contains alcohol yeah i'm not ready just in case I'm not ready. Just in case. I'm not ready. Because it looks like a can of juice, which is essentially what it is, just riddled with alcohol also. When you smell it, it smells like the Love Spell body spray from Victoria's Secret.

Oh, I remember that. Just like candy. Sticky sweet. Yeah, it's like, I wouldn't say it's good, but I would say that I have it a lot. Extremely drinkable. It is peak drinkable, consumable. Love it. Yeah.

Love it. Hitting all the bliss points. Give me my bliss. That's some snack food lingo. Really? Yeah. It's an inside snack food business lingo. Do you know someone in the biz? No, I just read an excerpt from that book about bliss points,

about how Frito-Lay designs tastes to be like peak salt, peak sugar. That sounds really good. Yeah. I bet the Mike's Harder people develop their product using sheer intuition. They're like, we know. Like, but how does it feel? I bet they know. How does a Mike's Hard Lemonade feel?

They ask a bunch of 12-year-olds. Yeah, have this, kids. How does it feel? I want to be a part of a Mike's Hard Focus group. Oh, my God. What would it be like? There's a bad sketch that i could write yeah mike's hard focus group it's a little bit harder than your regular focus group

i'd buy it this is my sketches i'll pay you a bunch of money you want to sketch you want to buy my sketch yeah let's do it let's go back in time. Let's put it to Funnier Dine 2009. Yeah. I'd be like, give me a B-Celeb. Any B-Celeb. B in my sketch that is bad. Whoa, sick roast, Jamie. So we're talking about Spice World. Oh yeah, we haven't said that.

Well, yeah, we did. But then we immediately got off topic. And I prepared for such an eventuality. I said that. Well, yeah, we did. But then we immediately got off topic. And I prepared for such an eventuality. I brought us all physical totems to remind us that we are talking about Spice World. Yeah. So I actually, real, really, no lie, bought these two, two and a half years ago at a 99 cent store. I have these three inch mini figurines of four of the Spice Girls. Let's see. We've got Baby here.

We got Sporty. We've got your Posh. She's in some kind of bikini. Doesn't look that posh. And Scary Spice, who's in some kind of cow themed get up. She loves those animal prints. Yeah, she loves her animal prints. That's what makes her scary.

Not that she's black. Yeah. How do we feel about her curly one i mean are we addressing what's problematic in this movie or what's problematic about the spice girls as an entity i think as an entity because like the movie is actually not that offensive it's just kind of bad yeah so tell us about like when when did you first see this what's your history with this movie uh let's see so i like i immediately loved the spice girls i was the right age i think i was like in fifth grade when wannabe came out and yeah it was just like me and the girls at school just figuring out which spice girl we're gonna be it was pretty for me, but I got to sit and watch everyone else argue

about whether they were baby or posh. So that was fun. And I loved the first album. I never got to see them live, but I did see Spice World in theaters and I hadn't seen it since last night. And today I watched a bunch of clips in random order. Which is kind of like watching the movie anyway.

Yeah, I think it was probably closer to real order than I think. But yeah, it's just a crazy madcap like monkeys style adventure. And, you know, it did seem kind of feminist when I was a kid. Now it's like it almost feels like it was before its time because it was like kind of ironically feminist. I feel like they weren't trying, but it somehow ended up still. It was like weird corporate feminism. It's a very like neoliberal capitalist. Yeah.

Girl power. Right. They like say Wonderbra like 18 times. They, like, say Wonderbra, like, 18 times. They were getting money from Wonderbra. It was so much Wonderbra. They were like, girl power, because this is something we can put on an iridescent sticker that little girls will buy. I had so many shirts that said girl power when I was little. And they were all pink.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, there was the little, like, crop top with the shoulder, like, the cap sleeve that said, boys lie. And there was, like, an iridescent print. Like, there was this girl who wore it, like, every other day at school. I was like, oh, she's like a Spice Girl. Let's swap, like, graphic tease stories. My fifth grade school picture, I have braces and i used to love getting cornrows

which is like weird and i used to love getting cornrows i was uh i you know whatever did you do the butterfly clips i did the butterfly clips okay and in this particular like is a specific genre of cornrow that i'm okay with right i it was, it still looked a little bit off. It's Massachusetts. I was wearing a, yeah, it was, it was, it was a very poor neighborhood in Massachusetts.

We all had cornrows. It was a different time. Anyways, I'm wearing a t-shirt that says, Too Young for Ashton. Oh, I remember those shirts.

Yeah. You can get them at Macy's and my aunt got it for me. I didn't need to. Too Young for Ashton isn't like Ashton Kutcher. Yeah. Yeah. You can get them at Macy's. And my aunt got it for me. I didn't need to. Too Young for Ashton isn't like Ashton Kutcher. Yeah. Yeah. Because he was on that 70s show. He was on first name basis like fame in the early

aughts. Like Do Where's My Car? Ashton. 70s show. Yeah. I remember that. I was a little too old for him at that point. And it said Too Young for Ashton. As if to say, listen Ashton. I want to fuck it, but I recognize I'm too young for ashton as if to say i want to fuck it but i recognize i'm too young lit yeah it was actually a very progressive shirt or a warning to ashton he's like hey what a cute little oh no she's too young hey baby i like those knee socks yeah read my shirt i'm too young

for you i'm too young for you but i think you're very handsome oh my god should i should i do the recap of the story i don't know yeah let's do mean, oh, how do you even recap a movie without a plot? I don't know. It is hard to say. It's a series of skits. Essentially. I'm winded. It's not even sketches, skits.

Yeah. It's not sophisticated enough to have a sketch in it. We cannot apply the term sketch. It is skit. Yeah, skit all the way. It's a decidedly skit movie. The story focuses on the Spice Girls. They all play themselves.

They're already, like, famous in the movie. They have, like, I guess a manager named Clifford. I'm not entirely sure what his job is. And then he has, like, another person who helps named Debra. They're kind of, like, keeping the girls on track because they're about to do a live show in a few days or some amount of time. Minutes?

It might be minutes. The concept of time is very confusing in this movie. Meanwhile, there is this guy who runs a tabloid magazine. He's like, I hate these Spice Girls. People like them too much. I want different headlines. So he hires this like... He's so sweaty in every season.

He's like, I made them. I can destroy them. And he's just covered in flop sweat. I was like, what is he so stressed? He's almost like a J. Jonah Jameson, like, all I think about is Spider-Man. Where he's like, all I think about is Spider-Man. Where he's like, all I think about is the Spice Girls.

He's like a strung out J. Jonah Jameson. Just like with way lower stakes. So yeah, he hires a guy, like a photographer, to kind of go undercover and try to dig up some dirt on the Spice Girls so that he can start running different headlines for his tabloid. He got the foggy, toe-sucking picture. Meanwhile, there are these two other like Hollywood guys who want to make a movie about the Spice Girls. So they're like keep pitching stories to Clifford. They're American. Ew.

So those are like some of the subplots. I guess the main plot is just the Spice Girls preparing for this concert. They go to dance camp or something. Yeah, they go to boot camp. And they have a friend named Nicola?

They have a pregnant friend. And they're trying to support her and her pregnancy. And it's just about them having a friendship and being in a girl band together it's such a confusing movie it's like every part of it i'm like do they hate mothers do they like mothers right because do they because they they they're like we're so happy for you or whatever and then right and then they're like, we're so happy for you or whatever. And then they're like, if we were mothers, we'd be fat and boring. And then you see that long, admittedly great skit about babies. Like, how many babies do I have again?

Right. This movie is, there's like all these like dream sequence slash weird flash forward type things sprinkled throughout. And then at the end it's revealed, it's been a movie the whole time. This movie is so meta. Yeah, it's crazy. It's a thinker. It's a real thinker. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world feeling where there's all of these different camps of people going after the Spice Girls.

But they don't give you enough time to understand what their like angles are necessarily. Right. There's also the two screenwriters who are like trying to like pitch a movie. Right, right, right. Pitching. And then there's like Alan Cummings in it, which I forgot about. Oh my God. And how like just following them.

Did I forget about Alan Cummings? Yeah, he's trying to make a documentary about them. First of all, let me say. Why are there so many antagonists in this movie? But none of them are even like all that bad. They're just like comically absurd. Things end fine. Yeah, they do the concert.

Everyone loves them. First of all, let me say 100% I would totally have sex with Alan Cumming. Oh, my God. He's such a babe. That's a hard no for me. Yeah, I'm super in. I yeah i'm surprised we do not have the same taste in men we that's like the best part of like a solid friendship is like there's never going to be a clash i'm gonna i'm gonna take alfred melina every time you're gonna take alan

coming every time and we'll all go home happy low-key i'll still take take Alfred Molina and Paul Giamatti. But Alan Cumming is my high-end queer, he knows a lot, I can learn a few things kind of love affair. I don't like to be taught. I'm like, I'm going to show you how it's done. I'm Blanche Devereaux. Oh, gee whiz. That's our Jamie I'm a real blanch I wish I was a real blanch

I'm more of a Dorothy I think yeah me too but I want to be a Sophia she's so funny I'm not familiar enough with the show so I'm just going to call myself I'm like really a Raphael from the Ninja Turtles you're a crude dude with an attitude

there's actually Spice Girls Ninja Turtles connection I read the because I vaguely remembered that Roger Ebert particularly really really really hated this movie and like wrote a really fun bad

review of it where he says the Spice Girls are I'm paraphrasing but like they're as easy to distinguish as the Ninja Turtles. But it doesn't matter because none of them have any personality. Like they look very different, but they're all the same person. I was like, interesting parallel. What a thinker.

I would disagree. I would disagree. I would too. But I just thought it was interesting that he felt so like really revisited this movie a number of times in specials, in books. Like he, for someone who disliked this movie, he really put some hours into really thinking about it. Oh yeah. Because it's a really interesting failure. Like there's a lot to dissect. It's like a time capsule. It's like at what other point in time

would this be allowed right yeah just 1997 pretty much i remember this exact day yeah this movie was super popular when it came out but it like not that it hasn't aged well because i just watched it and i enjoyed it not because it's a good movie mostly it's just it has great jokes this is a very funny movie i totally forgot there are a lot of funny moments uh i was telling jamie before we started recording that like i probably saw this movie for the first time it might have been around when it came out if not maybe a few years later but i was still you know young uh you know early teenager kind of thing and i totally dismissed it as a movie that like i probably only half paid attention to it i was like oh i don't want i don't i don't really

care about the spice girls i was more into backstreet boys uh yes b uh who's your fave brian me too he had a heart condition which was brian he did he was the hot one no nick carter was the hot one no brian was the was the hot one. No. But Brian was the one who brought a certain something to the table. Brian had a really nice jaw line and that was what I liked about him. He was Kevin's cousin. Kevin was the old one that moms liked. Oh, Brian was the more square-faced

dude with like the ash brown hair. Yeah. Right? It's like always just like a regular dude with spiky hair. He was a little shorter. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I remember now. My mom had a big crush on Kevin, even the time that he wore the kilt. I know, Kevin was gross. Oh, kilt. And then Howie was the worst

of all. He sang that song Spanish Eyes. Oh, Howie. Howie's super gross, but AJ. AJ. With the man that he came. God, and he was troubled. He went to rehab. Oh, no. But he was, like, open about it i saw trying to grow i've told caitlin this story before pretty sure but i saw my first backstreet my first and

last backstreet boys concert the night before 9-11 all right and your mom september 10th 2001 part of it simpler time because she wanted to see, who was it? Cisco. Cisco opened. Wow. And I missed part of the concert because she wanted to get in line and meet Cisco. She thought he was a babe. And then

I had a sign that was like I love you, Brian. Anyways. I saw this movie not long after it came out and then i like dismissed it as something else like i why would i want to watch this this this is a dumb girl movie i want to watch indiana jones instead and like yeah i went through cool girl syndrome too yeah yeah i mean i'm still there but then it's for babies but i so i re-watched it for this episode and then i was like holy crap it was kind of like how i experienced clueless like the first time i was like

hi you know it's just it's just dumb beverly hills girls and then and then i forgot that it was like riddled with jokes there's so much comedy in it in clues and in spice world i saw this movie a little bit i probably probably saw it more early, because I was too young for it when it came out. And so I became more acquainted with the Spice Girls kind of after they had already sort of gone away. I came in around S Club 7. That's more my sweet spot,

is S Club. There ain't no party like an s club party that's about where i was at but i i have seen this movie a ton of times and for some reason i remember being so scandalized by it at the time and thinking like oh my like i shouldn't be watching this like their skirts are so short and they say brah but i loved this movie and i still and now like watch i hadn't seen it in at least 10 years and it's so much it's even more fun to watch now it's so good yeah it is a fun movie to watch again i mean if you're like a budding screenwriter don't take any hints or cues from it on how to write a screenplay because it doesn't do a good job with that in terms of like story structure. But as far as just like lovable characters and funny jokes, it's an enjoyable movie to watch.

And kind of a British tradition, too, of like there were the Beatles movies in the 60s and then the monkeys. Where are the monkeys? They were like making fun of the Beatles. Right, right, right. Yeah. And then there's that kind of Benny Hill quality to, there's just like this whole tradition of like British camp. Yeah.

And it doesn't take it so seriously. Like literally one of my favorite parts about the movie is the tagline, which is, they don't just sing. That's like the tagline. There are a lot of bad taglines for the movie. There's another one that's like, so you want a revolution, do you? It's like, how does that...

What's a revolution? What happened? That's right. A bus blows up at the end. Is that you mean i wonder like i do wonder like would this movie be incredibly not just confusing but like not fun to watch for someone who had not even been sort of alive in 1997 like i count myself as sort of being alive in 1997 in that i existed but i didn't know what things were. I feel like this is a good window. Timing-wise, there's a really

good double-dutch opening for 1997 nostalgia. So if you just go down a Tumblr hole long enough, you'll piece it together from the banana clips to the glitter and then the platform shoes and then you'll eventually make it to the Spice Girls.

And then you'll figure out what was going on and then you'll watch spice world and you'll like really appreciate it but it won't be the same right yeah because it is it is like peak very specific time and place um but that's why it's so great. I don't know. That's why it's fun. 90s kids will remember. I mean, I was 11 when the movie came out. I was like, it's the peak demographic for the Spice Girls and this movie. Even so, I was like too busy. I'm like, Back to the Future's my favorite movie.

It still is. I was going to say, that was you also yesterday. It's still a great movie. I have not grown much as a person I have a series of unfortunate events tattoo and I love it no regrets no need to grow

as far as the characters we already kind of went through them but we've got Baby and Sporty and Ginger and ginger and posh and scary spice i was gonna ask how do we feel about the one spice girl of color being named scary i mean we don't feel good about it oh yeah it's very on the nose it's like because it wasn't it a tabloid that named them those names it wasn't an official thing it was like they came out and then like i think maybe it was the daily mail or some shit that was like reviewing them and called them

like blank spice blank spice so yeah like that was that was like the media's immediate take on the format of the spice girls and so it was just like, she's scary. She's just scary. And that stuck. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. So they're basically like, oh, this one has red hair, so she's ginger.

Right. This one acts like a baby. So she's a baby. Which is like, that's true. Yeah, it's like, some of them, it's pretty easy to pinpoint.

There's not a scene in this movie where Baby Spice is not actively licking a lollipop through any bit of dialogue she has. It's real gross at times. It's disgusting. And like even her like her gift

like they all kind of borrow things like Baby Spice is just so obviously like a Harajuku girl. Like it's she steals so much from Japanese culture to be cute. She literally in that scene where they're like you know you're going to say hello to the whole world and she immediately it's like i'm gonna take japan like right she says yeah they're very honest about it

it's like oh come on baby i like how they are asked oh how many countries are you is it gonna reach and they're like millions maybe more yeah and then aliens come back. Oh my god, the alien scene. The alien scene's crazy. The alien scene is crazy. Let's start with that. Because that's a pretty good representation of what this movie is. The summary of this movie is the Spice Girls are very famous. So famous. That's literally all that happens in this movie.

But the same ship from Independence Day comes down with millions of lights. But like Mars Attack style aliens come out. Very campy. Very wet aliens. They're covered in goop. Yeah, their hands are just knuckles. It's like a three knuckle cluster.

One of them knuckle cluster. It's the worst thing I've ever heard. It's a nutrageous bar of a hand. One of them grabbed Scary Spice's breast and sexually assaults her. Yeah. And then the other alien's like, I told you to shake her hand. He was like, I thought that was her hand. Like, oh boy.

I love that. You could have done a little bit more research. Can you only punch if your hand is only knuckles? Right. You may have gently punched her. And then later they ask Ginger for a kiss. So it's like, okay,

if you know what a kiss is, then you should know what a hand is. So you just wanted to legit go for Mel B's boob. Yeah, they just wanted to molest her a bit. I love that the Spice Girls can speak the language that they're speaking. Or at least understand it.

And it's like, does that have three K's? I think is what Sporty Spice says. It's perfect. Full K's. The Spice Girls are totally, they just conform to whatever is needed for the skit they are appearing in.

Yes. Oh, there's aliens well they speak alien and they're so willing to like absorb anything into spice canon which is like so great and that's like kind of the core idea of a pop group too is like you know like it's a shape shifting parasite like you like this? We're this. Right. I mean, I guess as close to like a modern day equivalent would be like Katy Perry of like. Yeah, she's whatever.

Katy Perry doesn't have a personality. She's doing whatever the fuck you're supposed to be doing. She's a human green screen. Yeah. Where it's like, oh, we like aliens right now. E.T. Let's do it. I'll fucking alien.

The 80s are back. I'll do green lipstick while I it. I'll fucking alien. The 80s are back. And I'll wear green lipstick while I do it. Right. Like, the 80s are back. We're doing TGIF. Like, she does not. She's like, you want me to shoot cream out of my titties? I'll do it.

What do you want? And that's how girl groups and guy groups to an extent worked. Yeah, it's true. And still work. They're just avatars and we're just projecting ourselves onto them i'm kidding that's really deep thank you so much i'm doing a real deep dive on spice well let me just continue on with that because i have a few scenes i want to discuss oh please the scene when they're in milan and the backup dancers come in

oh yeah and everyone's like oh what's what's this because they're like these chiseled muscly guys with like only like shiny underwear on or like tighty whities or something objectification but like it's fine worry and everyone's like we don't want them this this is not what we wanted and then you see a few of the girls talking to like a different one of these guys and these scenes are so funny because scary like looks at the one guy they're like talking about their junk they're like what do you think this is real and she's like no i think it's just a rolled up pair of socks and she's like making fun of his muscles and then Baby is talking to a different one and she's explaining to him why there's not enough room

in her bed for him because of all her stuffed animals and dolls and then Sporty I think is talking to a different one and I think they're talking about Milan's soccer team and how they suck which is all fitting very British of like who gives a fuck

it could have been like these girls ogling over these hot men Which is very British. Like, who gives a fuck? It could have been like these girls like ogling over these hot men and they were just like, Ooh, you guys are dumb. Get out of here. We don't want you here. Yeah. Which is kind of what this movie is all about. It's like, there's no love interest. It's just them, a celebration of their friendship.

And they're like, girl power. Well, okay. I'm gonna, usually I'm the one to be like in defense of the movie but there are so many male antagonists and they're all ineffectual like limp dicks idiots and it's very clearly portrayed but also the spice girls are portrayed as almost everyone in this movie is made out to be like a completely stupid right um which is an interesting choice creatively yeah it's a stupid world where everyone's in spy's world everyone's fucking dumb but but still their lives are almost completely dictated by the decision or like there are men

trying to actively manipulate them all right 45 of the villains in this movie are stalking them and like throwing obstacles in their way right making demands of them yeah and it's like this is not satire but you know you can see where people would be like hey maybe like maybe there was one person who did a draft of this movie that very likely went through 4,000 drafts. Absolutely. This is a Franken-script. A sixth of the world contributed to this script. It was based on an idea by the Spice Girls, though.

No. What if we went on tour and were very famous and they're like, we've got it, girls. Just give us like six years. But there's just like, there's all these men trying to manipulate them. And arguably, it kind of works, but also it kind of doesn't, because, like, really nothing changes from the beginning to the end of the movie.

They start pretty famous, and they end even more famous. That's true. Yeah. What does... Right, they don't, like, demolish the system that created this problem where they're surrounded by horrible dudes. No. Right. This is not an important movie, we'll say.

No. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this movie didn't change the world. Yeah. It was like... I know it's... What? I know. I know it's a very profound...

It was like at times really well observed. There were lots of like really funny parodic elements where you're like, oh, yeah, that's true. But there's nothing on top of that. There's no like counterpoint. There's no razor to it. I mean, there's no there's no really anything that happened. Like you could watch any five minutes of this movie and not... Have no idea where it takes place in the story.

Right. Structurally. Because nothing happens, but it's beautiful. And the few times that, like, feminism is mentioned, it's almost as a joke or as, like... Right. Nothing, you know, no one's like there's no like feminist agenda this movie but it didn't seem like a joke when you're the appropriate age to be watching it like this exactly it doesn't feel that way when you're like 12 yeah when it's like because that's

like when they say it it's totally empty and almost poking fun at like, you know, whatever. Using feminism as a selling point, as just a veneer. But yeah, they don't really demolish that in any way. No, they reinforce it. They just use it and point at it. Yeah. But if you're 11 and you're like, girl power, you're like, yeah, I should be like these girls who are actively selling me Wonder Bras.

Right. Girl power to use my credit card at Nordstrom's I do love this humor where I think it's Paj is this dress too short or should I have this dress or this dress or this dress yeah Gucci dress or the little Gucci dress and then Baby says I think you should have the little Gucci dress

and then they're like yay baby you fucking idiot oh man that seems so funny though that's when they're talking about the horoscopes and she's like you're an Aquarius

so you don't believe in anything she's like well I don't believe that either right what you say about Capricorns oh yeah great but the two times there's one scene where remember in like the photo shoot when they're dressing up as each other that was really fun yeah i was just thinking about that i think it's is it mel b who dresses up as ginger spice and she's like a good power feminism

whatever because i guess jerry uh ginger Ginger, was she quite outspoken about feminism? And I don't remember that about her. She was the most outspoken about it. But it was still very surface level. She's usually the one that says girl power. Right. Yeah, yeah. And then whenever the writers who were trying to pitch movies to Clifford, they're like,

Spice Force 5, where Ginger is like the master of disguise. And so she like runs into this little phone booth and then twirls around and then Bob Hoskins comes out. It's amazing. And then he's like, feminism, equality between the sexes or whatever so like both times like any time that like like i said like feminism or girl power is mentioned it's like usually at the bed of a joke like that yeah it's a yeah it's totally throw away feminism for the sake of like this is starting to be marketable right but not even quite marketable enough to not be endorsing bras constantly. So, yep. I would like to draw attention to how many very British sounding names there are in this movie.

Oh, yeah. Peak Alan Cumming plays a character named Piers Cuthbertson Smythe. Oh, yeah. Great. I'll say Mark McKinney is Graydon. Graydon. Yes. And Martin Bonfield. And Kevin McMaxford.

It's just, it's, it's really great. This movie is so British. There, there's a Barnaby. You can't, it's law.

You can't have a British film without a Barnaby. That's true. And then the cameos, we've got Elton John. We've got Elvis Costello. We've got Meatloaf as the cameos. We've got Elton John. We've got Elvis Costello. We've got Meatloaf as the bus driver. We've got Stephen Fry. We've got Hugh Laurie back when they were still a thing.

Jennifer Saunders at peak ABBAB. Yeah. It says Jennifer Saunders as fashionable woman. There's so many. That would have been like the American series version of Ab Fab. It would have just been called Fashionable Women. CBS Mondays. Well, wasn't there?

There's basically a show that's. Oh, yeah. There was Designing Women. Designing Women. Yeah. I heard that's a good show. Yeah. You know what?

I haven't really seen it since I was a kid. It's like kind of a haze. I just remember. That's Delta Burke, right? I think so. Yeah. You know what? I haven't really seen it since I was a kid. It's like kind of a haze. I just remember that's Delta Burke, right? I think so. Yeah. I don't know. I just started watching Golden Girls. I remember she had like a line of clothing at Kmart and I thought that was like peak fashion.

I still actively wear a lot of like I got really into the Miley Cyrus Walmart line in high school. Oh shit. Because it was like trendy but also affordable. And I still have a lot of Miley tanks. How many pieces do you have? I have like from the Miley collection. I still rotate out three or four just basic tanks. Wait, it's like that cammy, whatever.

Cammy. What happened to all the camis? Where did they go? Where did all the camis go? We need a cami cameo. Oh, no. What a horrible joke. Okay.

Remember that scene where Posh is talking to a person who I don't know who it is. And she's like, how do you feel about manta rays? And she is like, oh, I think he's how do you feel about manta rays and she is like oh um i think he's great i'm wearing manta ray shoes right now some of my other favorite jokes because i just had to write them down and i must share them with you now yes is uh deborah and clifford are in a bar and deborah is like fame is such a fickle thing and then she orders a drink from the bartender and he turns around and it's Elvis Costello. And then she goes, just a minute.

Can you make that a double? This movie is so funny. It's really funny. It was nominated for literally every Razzie possible. But I don't think it didn't win. I don't think that they, yeah yeah what movie didn't win for being the worst it didn't even it didn't even win for being um ebert's least favorite that distinction ended up going to armageddon oh that's that's correct that movie does suck so yeah my mom

was so horny for that movie yeah for sure my dad kind of low-key cried he cried during like there's two movies where i remember as a kid my dad cried one is armageddon and the other is adam sandler's big daddy the courtroom scene that is kind of a sad scene my mom gave me romantic advice ones based off of adam sandler's click for real i was going through a dark hour of the soul i forget which one but it was a couple years ago and she was just like maybe it's kind of like in i saw this movie recently called click she said like i didn't know what it was i saw saw this movie recently called Click. And there's a part at the end where he's talking to his father. And like he wishes there were so many things that he had said. And then he didn't. And then he realized like you can't really go back.

You can't really just rewind. I was like, mom, thank you so much. She's so wise. There's not really a remote control on your life. That's such a good point, Jamie's mom. I never thought of that before. I didn't realize. My mom had a similar epiphany with Queen Latifah's last holiday.

She was like, you've you gotta live in the now. You're so worried all the time, honey. Oh, is that the one where she thinks she's dying? Yeah. She gets like a weird CAT scan or MRI or something? Yeah, and then she like travels the world or something. Is Steve Martin in that one? There's what?

Or is that bringing down the house? No, that's bringing down the house. That's different. Oh my God, there's such a weird stretch of Steve Martin movies in the aughts. Where Steve Martin's like, I'll be in the aughts. Oh my God. I'll be in a movie with anybody.

A bunch of dogs. A bunch of babies. Who cares? Anything. As long as I can bring my banjo on set. Steve. Okay.

Steve Martin. He should have been in this movie. Needs to stop playing the banjo. I'm calling him out. I'm saying Steve. But he's doing it to stop playing the banjo. I'm calling him out. I'm saying, Steve. But he's doing it in a classy way.

I'm like so over it. I saw him play the banjo on accident a couple of years ago. And I was just like. Yeah, I was working in radio at the time. And they were like, we have a surprise guest. I'm like, oh, cool. Maybe it'll be someone that I like. And then it was like, Steve Martin.

I was like, I love Steve Martin's comedy. And then they're like, but tonight he's just playing in the banjo. I was like, fuck off. Like, what are you? How dare you? It's a monkey's paw scenario. They're like, hey, guys, great news. We have Steve Martin.

You know that I'm really good at this? Watch me do something else and the producer's like hold up hold up his rep says he'll only come if he does the banjo and they're like god damn it well we need him he'll only play with I think he released an album with

Paul McCartney's ex-wife Steve Martin you're on notice they were in the Hamptons and the conversation struck up. You do funny things only. You make me laugh, you little monkey. You don't put down the banjo. I don't want to read your novels.

I don't want to read your novels. I did read Shop Girl, though. Shop Girl was good. But then you wrote that one about the art world that's like sitting on my shelf. I'm never going to read it. I'm not going to read that book. I'm never going to read it. I'm not going to read that book. Never going to read an object of beauty. I don't know why I'm so mad at him for doing things that aren't what I want him to do.

No, you've awoken something in me, too. I've been really mad at him for some time, I realized. And I hated this episode of Spice World. He had a really good memoir. But even that now, I'm i'm just like well then do that like yeah born standing up is amazing it's a great book but it's also like why are you just go just write a joke man why are you hey speaking of jokes can i share a few more of mine from spice world great set thank you uh I love that. I like that Roger Moore, every time you see him in a scene, he's holding a different baby animal.

Oh, yeah. Or just animal in general. There's the scene where I think you see the Spice Girls like rehearsing for the concert. It's kind of early on. And someone goes, that was absolutely perfect without it actually being any good it's an amazing line i wish i had written that that's a great like summation of this place without being good at all clifford at one point says oh it's when they want to go and like play around on the boat he's like if they wanted to be spontaneous they need to clear

it with me first. Funny lines. Funny lines, guys. It's a good line. These are good. And the movie is full of these. It's a fucking funny movie. Check it out. Don't tell me otherwise.

And if you like this movie, or if you don't, I still recommend a similar movie called Josie and the Pussycats. Oh, Josie and the Pussycats is amazing. It's good, yeah. Ooh, sorry for that voice. It's good. cats oh jessie and the pussy cats is amazing good yeah oh sorry for that voice i think yeah i think you were really talking about the cheeseburger let the listeners i used to go overdose in the bathroom i can't do this jamie just pulled a half-eaten cheeseburger out of some foil. From like a full two and a half hours ago. Oh, man.

All right. She's eating it. While you're choking on that, I'm going to say a few other things that I wanted to mention. Okay. I like that none of the drama in this movie derives from issues with the girls themselves. Because a very common trope or just an easy direction they could have taken this in is, oh, they're not getting along. They're mad at each other.

But they're always on the same page. They're always getting along. Which, hey, maybe that doesn't make for a great movie with a central conflict. I don't know. But I just like that, because often if you have a group of women, you see them on the screen portrayed as being... Yeah, they're in competition with

each other in some way. Competing and catty and petty toward each other. They're so non-competitive to the point where it's just like they're all the same person. Like, they're all the same dumbitive to the point where it's just like they're all the same person like they're all the same dumb person to the point where it's like oh yeah even though these male antagonists are i mean that's the only reason they exist and that's also unfortunately true in real life where that guy named simon who's not simon cowell but knows no Simon Cowell that created the X Factor, like created the Spice Girls and his weird sex lab or whatever.

And, you know, and I think it is funny that like we are to believe in the mythology of this movie that the Spice Girls have known each other since childhood. Right. And they used to hang out in the cafe when they were waiting for a record deal. Even though they're like different ages. Different ages and like creations of science basically like did you know the spice girls literally had to go to like camp to become the spice girls like there was a pre-education camp it was like a full brainwash like they're not i mean not that dramatic but they went to fucking camp to become pop stars.

Spice camp! Which also happens in Korea, and it's really interesting, and there's a really good show about it on Netflix that I'll tell you about. Oh, yeah, it is really good. It's really good. Hmm. Yeah, that was, like, a 90s thing that's, like, still happening. Yeah, it's still happening in Korea, and it's, they rotate them out by year. It's very weird.

Hmm. But also, like like what an amazing gift yeah but like i agree caitlin i i like i kind of like that they weren't in competition with each other and that there wasn't like every other muppets movie where they all have to break up and come together that part's always really sad i hate when the muppets break up and have to come back together it takes forever it takes up a lot of the end of the second half yeah the cheetah girls too yeah not the cheetah girls too the one where they go to barcelona the cheetah girls as well right yeah i mean in this movie they they don't really break

up but they all kind of like go off and separate but not because they're having like an internal conflict but because they're at the mercy of other people demanding this right schedule of them and they're like i don't know if i want to do that we just want all we want is to just be able to respect ourselves and and hang out with our friends especially when they're about to have a baby yeah i like that they take her they take nicola the pregnant friend to the discotheque right and also i guess it's a gay bar. It's like, it's like, there's a lot of drag queens there. Yeah.

And they're just like, also just mesh shirts and like go-go stuff. Can we bring back mesh already? I fucking love mesh. We're ready. Like, it's hard to find. Sometimes I've thought like, it would be cool to own more mesh. Let's go to eBay. Where are we going to find it?

Yeah, it's hard. Get those like laundry bags and just cut some holes. Oh, good idea. Or just like basketball pennies. I bought a basketball penny once to wear under overalls, which is like maybe the most, the poorest fashion choice I've ever made. But I was like, I'm at Bonnaroo. I'm going to get a mesh shirt and overall jorts. That is very Bonnaroo.

There's some great pictures of me in front of mushroom fountains wearing this brilliant outfit I created at the Walmart across the street from Bonnaroo. Please kill me. I'd read the novel, The Walmart Across the Street from Bonnaroo. Please kill me. I'd read the novel, The Walmart Across the Street from Bonnaroo. What is it like working there for one week out of the year? Well, Spice World. Does anyone have any other thoughts about the movie?

I still love it. That scene where they flash back to their early days when Wann be there, like singing along to their own song in that cafe. I like got legitimately nostalgic about it. I'm kind of missing about it right now. And I was like, oh, shit. Yeah, I do have a connection to this movie. It's not just like a weird memory I have. What was I going to say about Spice Girls? Oh, yeah. They're a product of men. Yes. But they pretend to be empowered, and they sort of are, but are they just too stupid? Yeah, they're a bunch of real science creations. They do feel like lab experiments.

Maybe women in STEM created them. Who knows? That would be really cool. No, but that guy Simon created them. Yeah, I guess. I mean, this movie is so much fucking fun, and that would be really cool no but that guy simon created that yeah i guess it's i mean it's this movie is so much fucking fun and it could not have existed in like this other than this span of 10 days in 1997 right would it have made sense i love that when the bus makes the jump and it clearly just switches to like a miniature toy set of a bus jumping from like it's so i love those things i still geek out over like the practical effect gag yeah it's like and it's like surprisingly

a self-aware movie totally it is yeah it realizes there's a problem but they have no intention to fix it so here's some goofs right. Here's like an hour and a half. Spice Girls songs. Here's a lot of Spice Girls B-side songs. And also I wanted to say that there's such a 70s vibe to this whole movie, especially in the opening segment where it's like, you know, and I guess the reason that is, or part of the reason that was sort of amped up in post-production was because this is the same year that Austin Powers came out.

That's right. So the 70s were hot. So 1987 was a mess. It was like the 70s should never be in fashion. It was a gross decade. I thought I was there. Yeah. I should there. Yeah. I should know. First of all, I just want to apologize to our listeners for our bad attempts at British accents.

Number one. Sorry. Number two. Sorry. Number two. I want to shout out my good friend, British Martha, who I call British Martha, to her face. Sorry, Marsha. Martha Whatley.

Martha. Martha Whatley. We're so sorry we're so so sorry so sorry and three i think we're good sorry bruv i would do like an east enders yeah you took like a street accent yeah sporty space she has like a little oh oh oh speaking Oh, speaking of British, Caitlin Durante went at a bar. Ooh. Will order a drink as if she were Oliver Twist. The other night, we were at a bar together, and Caitlin said, Excuse me, could I trouble you for a glass of wine?

And the bartender, or maybe it was water. Could I trouble you for some water it was please i may have some water like she was asking for gruel it was amazing i always do the same thing though because these bartenders are super intimidating out here i just inhale i go can i please get i always phrase it like that when I'm asking for water because I'm not giving them any money. I'm probably not even going to tip them for a water. Right.

Maybe I'm a bad person. I don't know. But I always say, can I trouble you for some water? Because I know it's like an annoying thing and they're not going to make any money off it. If I'm ordering an actual drink, I say, please, sir, I want a gin and tonic. You're bloody bleeding.

My father died of consumption. And I've only got four pence to give you some jammy dodgers. I want a curly whirly. All my uncles killed themselves after the business went buzzed. There's a rubbish. There's a rubbish. There's a rubbish. There is a rubbish. Your cheeseburger's cut off

and you gotta chuck it in the bin. That was wrong. That was bad. Sorry, Martha. This is what I needed to apologize for. Yes. British Martha, I love you so much.

I miss you every day. She's still alive. I don't know anyone British. A moment of silence. The British people I know are only acquaintances, so I feel weird addressing them. I understand. We can't all be cool enough to have a British friend. Like a true friend, not like a Facebook friend.

Man. You have to have a British friend. Like a true friend, not like a British people. You know, man. Anyway, let's talk about whether or not the movie passes the Bechdel test. That's a yes. Guess what it does. It like super does. I feel like it's aggressively proving to you that it does at every second without saying it. Because I don't think, I think this predates the Bechdel test by like a couple of years. I think late 90s. I don't know exactly. It might be the Bechdel test by like a couple years I think late 90s I don't know exactly it might be the same yeah I'm not sure when uh I want to say brought to our yeah in most scenes I would say that at least the the girls are in they are talking

to each other about not a man in fact there's a scene where Alan Cumming who is making the documentary about them is sort of interviewing them and he's like do you have any time for boys and sporty goes boys doesn't ring a bell and then scary says uh with boys you should just be able to wheel them in and then they're there and that's it and then baby says yeah and order them like a pizza and pasha's like yeah i'll have a deep pan six foot green eye pearloaf it like there there's an opportunity for them to be talking about men and they're just making fun of it they're like boys gross and there's no and like and and this sort of factors into like the weird portrayal of motherhood in this movie

where they're so happy for their friend but then they picture motherhood as being kind of gross and unappealing and like as a robbery of their independence. And I think that that sort of extends to their attitude towards men of like they view relationships and men as sort of a way of robbing their independence, which is interesting for scientific aliens created by a guy named Simon. It's complicated. Also, the Bechdel test was first introduced in 85, but it wasn't popularly referenced until maybe early 2000s.

Interesting, right. 85, wow, that was 30 years or more ago. Yeah, if you haven't read it, Dykes to Watch Out For is a very good comic. And they are collected, and you should read them. But yeah, oh my god. It's just so filtered through the male gaze. There's so many opportunities that they create to talk about it. And instead, it's just like they talk about looks again.

They don't really talk about the system itself. So it's frustrating. It's like, yeah, it's a lot of girls just being girls and there's fluffy fun happening. But there's a lot of real stuff that they could talk about that they're ignoring. So as an adult, it's very unsatisfying. It's very like watered down, quote unquote, feminism. Absolutely. Like the most watered down it could be.

Very sexy. feminism absolutely like the most watertonic could be very sexy like yeah and there's that scene where i think it's posh it's like i had a i had a nightmare that i had a head but there was no makeup on it and everyone's like oh disgusting like yeah and that hurt my i i like legitimately felt bad when i went i was oh no. I should go buy a lip gloss. Don't fall into their trap. That's what they want you to do. Here's the thing. I bought a lip gloss.

No, you bought a lip gloss. Sorry. It was a wet and wild. It was only like $1.50. Oh, that's okay. It was a wet and wild, guys. False alarm. It was a wet and wild.

That's my nickname for my vagina mine's still the sandlot mine i was gonna say in our sandlot episode uh was the cave from aladdin oh that's great the cave of wonder don't touch anything it'll collapse and then you'll be trapped inside and you'll have to wish your way out that's exactly how it works do you have a genie living in your uterus because that one yeah but it doesn't work for me it works for whoever's trapped in there right but at the end you have to wish him free yeah and then i climax when you wish the genie free only then can i come it's a true act of altruism i gotta write that down before i kill myself

aristotle is crying oh my god anyway yeah the movie passes the best test. Again, you know, they're talking to each other, oftentimes about fashion or horoscopes or other not important things. There's no grade level here. It's pass-fail because it's like a D, like honestly. But pass-fail, so it passes. Hey, speaking of grades, we rate the movie based on its portrayal of the women in the movie. We have a nipple scale, zero to five nipples.

We can describe those nipples if we so choose. I'm really thinking about this. I think I'm going to give it like a two and a half nipples. Ooh, okay. Yeah. For a moment, I thought three, but give it like a two and a half nipples okay yeah for a moment i thought three but that's like a little too high the movie doesn't make sense let's be honest right but like what okay so like one of them is like a little baby nipple like really baby's nipple it's like a very like it's like the size of a quarter and it's really pink and then the other is like like a classic nipple like a little brown protrudes a little bit yeah and then the half the half nipple

is like one with a really like large areola good good good yeah i'll give it two and a half as well i think yeah it's uh i wouldn't even say that this movie's heart is in the right place, because I don't think that it has a heart, nor is it in the right place. But I think it made little girls feel good, even when they didn't realize it was probably hurting them a little bit. So it's a tricky gray area where it's like, I'm never going to discredit, like, go pilot. Like, that's a tricky gray area where it's like, I'm never going to discredit like, go pilot. Like, that's a great phrase. But also when you're being peddled merch the whole time, it's like, well, that said, the movie has been forgotten and doesn't make any sense.

So at the end of the day, who am I? I'm just a cyborg created by a man named simon so i don't really know what i'm saying at all you are but a hologram i am a hologram i'm a hologram can i trouble you for some some never mind please buy my soundtrack yeah i'm gonna give it i guess two nipples all two and a half of my nipples are alan cummings oh okay that's good you know alan cumming has like an extra an extra half nipple it's in my pocket yeah i would give it two nipples although a thing i wanted to say that i did before is that oftentimes in a comedy movie a lot of the funny lines are being delivered by not women right so i like that the women in this movie have a bunch of funny

scenes and lines and jokes excellent point i agree even if they didn't write them themselves right who knows who wrote it to deliver a joke The movie was written by a woman named Kim Fuller. Plus 200 other people who've received three cents in royalties every time the movie airs on Freeform, which is the illegal stream that I found was something that had been aired on Freeform. So shout out to my Freeform heads out there. I've never watched Freeform. You can take this part out. This is bad networking.

I'm going to get blackballed in the industry. It was sandwiched between Ashley and Mary-Kate movies. I don't want to star Freeform beef. I can't afford more beef in my life. I'll probably have all the beef I need. That's a thick slab of beef.

I don't have any more room. All right. Good. Good, good. And my beef locker. Beef locker. That's where I keep all my conflicts and also my beefy men. I need to go to bed yeah

two nipples I'll give it again any mention of like feminism and girl power and stuff like that is very watered down it's not really substantiated by anything even so it's a fun movie. Like we said,

it doesn't make any sense. I don't really mind that. Even though I do have a master's degree in screenwriting, which I hate to bring up, but it does. It's still a fun watch. I'd recommend it if you just want some kind of mindless fun.

That and, again, Josie and the Pussycats. Love that movie. I have to rewatch that. I like Josie a lot. That's a really good movie. The nipples belong to... That, oh, that's a good one. Yes, I'm stealing it.

Meat, love, snips. Meat, love, snips. At the Bexel Cash rally, this is what we will do rally Jamie's got her beef you've got to have your beef too how are you going to get your beef girl get your beef no one has ever specified whether meatloaf's made of beef

or like some other meat processed I feel like he's a combo he's like a bunch of old ham sandwiches put in a blender. Oh man. That's disgusting. That's a really good album. Me and my dad used to listen to it in the car.

There's a song about making out at the movies and then my dad and I would make out. Bonding. You and Mike. Me and Mike's heart are lemonade. I like that Meatloaf in the movie says i would do anything for those girls but i won't do that talking about fixing the bathrooms i love when i did not know boundaries it's so healthy i did not know that that was meatloaf

until i was watching the credits it's like meatloaf as benny the bus driver right when he's normal looking you can't tell he. Meatloaf is such a talented actor. I know that that sounds like a hilarious joke, but he's really good in Rocky Horror. He does his best with what he's given in Spice World. And he's really good in Fight Club. Meatloaf is a great actor. Right. I don't remember him being in it.

He's in a support group. He's like the bigger, he's the beefcake. Oh my God. I also. He brings the beef in Fight Club. He should have been in the wrestler. He should have been one of the like down and out wrestlers in that movie. Yeah.

Mickey Rourke didn't deserve a comeback. Give Meatloaf the comeback. Revision is history. If he had gotten into the wrestler, that could have been like a whole resurgence. He wouldn't have had to be on the Celebrity Apprentice. It would have been nice. I need to find him. could fix him i could fix me all right spin-off podcast where's he at let me at him missing meatloaf

he's old oh it might be too late to fix him. He's 69. Oh, shit. Hey, perfect age. It's true. He's way older than I thought. I thought that was like, I was 10 years off. I know. I was like, he's the horny age, baby. Hey, Amanda, where can people find you? Oh, hey. Online. Hey, Caitlin. I forgot we were doing a podcast.

I think we all did. Yeah. Okay, great. I had these totems and everything. I'm looking at these dolls. I'm forgetting where I am. Leo! Are one of these like your Inception? Where's your spinning top?

Yeah, I'm spinning my Sporty Spice still new in box, still in package. Oh no, is it going to tip over or not? Oh no! And then Juno's in it too. Yeah, and then Black just credits. We don't see whether it lands or not. What a film. Just kidding.

It's fine. You can find me on the internet. I'm at Amandonium on Twitter. You can follow my all-comedy book publishing company, The Devastator, at Devastator Press. It's on all the social medias. And my book, We Don't Think You're Racist, Soothing Affirmations from People of Color is available everywhere books are sold

and it's actually turning one years old like this week. Congratulations. Really? Yeah. Wow. A little bouncing baby book is one year old.

I know. Your book's growing teeth now. It has little baby teeth. I'm going to buy it. Yay. It's exciting. It's a good one. It has little baby teeth. I'm going to buy it. Yay! It's exciting. It's a good one. It's a good one. You can get it on Amazon. You can get it on DevastatedPress.com and you can get it just anywhere books

are sold. Perfect. Hey, Jamie, what do you want to plug? Anything? I'd like to plug, I'm working on a project right now and it's like I still can't really talk about it that much, but it is in relation to Meat Loaf's comeback. I'm also involved in this i can't yeah we are all very and like aristotle's kind of in charge of it but anyways you know as we know bad out of hell bad out of hell 2 back to hell which is also an album and also apparently Bat Out of Hell 3 the monster is loose. So right

now we're working on Bat Out of Hell 4 Back to, Back into Hell. We're calling back to Bat Out of Hell 2 because that was our favorite Bat Out of Hell. What if it's There and Back Again, a Back to Hell story. A Back to Hell story of the Bat Out of Hell. Right.

And we're doing it in time for Meatloaf's 70th birthday this year we're gonna we're gonna do a rush order and then i'm gonna write him an indie sleeper um that people won't see but when he dies i'll be like hey that was pretty good yeah i'm also i'm producing the motion comic that ties into the movie anyway um if you want to follow me old Caitlin here old Caitlin you can follow me at Caitlin Durante

on Twitter hey also if you're on the Los Angeles area you can come to my monthly live show called Luck of the Draw at Nerd Melt first Friday of the month also we just want to thank you so much for being here it's been a blast monthly live show called Luck of the Draw at Nerd Melt. First Friday of the month. Also, we just want to thank you so much for being here.

It's been a blast. What a fun episode. I had a lot of fun here. This was one of our wilder episodes. I love when we just get loose and celebrate girl power. Girl power! Sorry, I messed up the inflection. We all have done a very bad job

during the British accent. At the end of this podcast, we're all going to go out and shop for a lip-shaped couch. And we're going to sit on it together and talk about astrology. I'm going to get a swing to put in my bus. I love it. On the doors to their bus, it said, max capacity, five girls. I love that joke. Oh, my God.

It's very oh do you think that um aristotle will get a presidential medal of honor someday for sitting in a room with us for so long yes i think he's gonna get like a purple heart too just because like it's the emotional damage that we're inflicting upon him is it's like combat it's injuring him if not worse yeah alright well it's been great it's been a groovy baby that was Austin Powers same here

behave until next time goodbye bye goodbye bye now bye bye now

bye could I trouble you for some water Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unnerves the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state.

Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm NK, and this is Basket Case. What is wrong with me? A show about the ways that mental illness is shaped by not just biology. Swaps of different meds is shaped by not just biology. Swaps of different meds. But by culture and society. By looking closely at the conditions that cause mental distress,

I find out why so many of us are struggling to feel sane, what we can do about it, and why we should care. Oh, look at you giving me therapy, girl. Listen to Basket Case every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one game on their minds, Sword Quest. Because the company had promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared, leading to one of the biggest controversies in 80s pop culture. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for

The Legend of Swordquest. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. Listen to The Legend of Swordquest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.