The Bechdel Cast - Wayne's World with Maureen Bharoocha

Episode Date: April 30, 2020

Jamie and Caitlin party on with special guest Maureen Bharoocha during this episode on Wayne's World. Excellent! (This episode contains spoilers)For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast.Follow @mbharoocha on Twitter. While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @jamieloftusHELP  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. That's right, the only, Katherine Hahn is joining us on Las Culturistas. That's right, the queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories,

and of course, the culture. Don't miss Katherine Hahn on Las Culturistas. Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.

There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert 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. 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. Party on, Jamie. Party on, Caitlin. It's Bechdel cast. Bechdel cast. Movie time. Feminist.

Woo! Oh, Mike, I wasn't ready and I am so happy. Well, it's the first time I felt good in like days. Oh, yes. So for the listeners at home, we are recording this on the date is March 12th. Coronavirus. It already sounds really dystopian when you say the date is. The time capsule.

Yeah. If you find this at the beginning of or at the beginning of whatever the millionth avengers movie is where it's like robert downey jr's in space he's like day three it's a gloomy day it's a gloomy day but that put me in a great mood thank you thank you you're welcome we're talking about wayne's world Yes, we are. So what we're doing on this here podcast, we talk about the representation of women in movies. We use the Bechdel test as a jumping off point to initiate a larger conversation. And do you know what that is? Not to nag at you.

I have no idea. Jamie, tell me. The Bechdel Test is a media metric invented by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, sometimes called the Bechdel-Wallace Test, that requires that a piece of media have an interaction between two female-identified characters with names who talk about something other than a man for more than two lines of dialogue. Wow, you don't say, Jamie. Yeah, I do say. Okay, well, that passed the Bechdel Test. that's true that's nice yeah that's nice i was talking about coronavirus um passes the virus is genderless um yeah so yes uh today's movie is wayne's world we have a guest with us she is terrific she was a segment director on Jimmy Kimmel Live. She's a filmmaker and the director of the upcoming movie Golden Arm, which is a

female-driven comedy that shows women in the competitive world of arm wrestling. So much fun. It's Maureen Barucha. Hi. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. I'm very excited. Thanks for bringing us Wayne's World. Oh my god, it's one of my all-time favorite movies. Yeah so tell us your your relationship your history with this movie. I feel like this movie is a very seminal movie for me. I think it came out when I was in junior high school so I think it was a time where you're just like being goofy and weird and it's definitely one that I've like probably seen the most. And it was interesting to rewatch it. I rewatched it last night just to be like, okay,

in the lens of the Bechdel test. Yes, indeed. I was like, we'll fight for it. But it's like, oh, it doesn't. It has some issues, but I think it holds up pretty well. I was impressed. I thought, you know, there's definitely elements and in some cases

entire characters where you're like 1992 fuck off but like good I don't know I think it addresses like things that you're like oh it kind of addresses those within the movie at some points you know it is very meta yes and it taught me a lot about a lot of things

about like who are cool girls who are not. About movies and making television. Lots of references. And Wayne's World 2 has even more. I know. Oh, I haven't seen Wayne's World 2. There's a Jurassic Park reference.

There's a Thelma and Louise reference. The Graduate. The Graduate. It's got it all. Jamie, what's your relationship in history? I don't have much of a history with it. I mean, this movie came out before I was born. So I and I didn't I don't know, my dad was a big fan of this movie.

And I thought everything my dad liked was stupid. So I later learned that that was not true. And that this movie I really liked this movie. I like Mike Myers and Dana Carvey individually quite a bit. of learned that that was not true and that this movie i i really liked this movie i like mike myers and dana carvey individually quite a bit i mean my favorite bad horrible horrible movie is the master of disguise starring dana carvey um i love you know i love shrek here's my review of wayne's world i love shrek no but i i this was my first time watching this movie, and I really enjoyed it.

I laughed a lot. I like... It makes me laugh every time. I feel like it's so funny. It's such a great character movie. I feel like everything they do in character is just so funny. I'm obsessed with Garth. I love Garth so much.

And I have to say, too, it's the original, that's what she said. I feel like... Yes! I mean, I feel like when everyone came out and sang that in the office, I'm like, but it's from Wayne's World. And I'm sure that whoever wrote that on the office was well aware. They're like, no, no, no, that was Wayne's World. I really liked it. I had so much fun watching it. I think that on issues of gender, it doesn't do perfect.

But on issues of class, I think it does really well. And I have a lot to say about the perfect class issues addressed in Wayne's World. Caitlin, what's your history with Wayne's World? I definitely grew up with this movie. We had the two VHS tapes of Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2. I saw- Was it a set? You can get it as a set.

You can get it as a set. And then I bought the set also on DVD later. Yeah, these were a huge staple in the Durante household. I even, as recently as two years ago, so I do this fun thing sometimes where I dress up as my own couple's costume because I never have a partner. Very cool. And so I will combine what would normally be two people wearing two different costumes. It's always iconic. Like a Wayne and a Garth. And I will combine them into one costume that I wear the whole thing of.

So I've done that for Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer. You have to say his girlfriend because otherwise she's not a character it's like who's Jennifer exactly they're like who's uh and I also did it for Wayne and Garth so I have a photo that I will share on the Instagram and stuff but it's their classic duo I mean they're like the most like iconic duo yes and it's like I knew who Wayne and Garth were, even though I'd never seen the movie. It's just like in the DNA of the culture. It's in the zeitgeist. It's in the zeitgeist, if you will. The daily zeitgeist, maybe.

Honestly, when I was in junior high school, again, this movie was like, me and my friend group loved it. It was all girls. And I think it was before I really knew what schwing meant. I still don't really know what it means. Boner. So in seventh grade, I went to Catholic school and I just remember me and my friends

we thought it was something exciting like you did a good job. So in class, we would stand up and be like, you got an A. Schwing. Like the girls. I think all the boys knew what it was, so they never did it. I think they thought it was embarrassing. But me and my friends would just be like, swing, swing, swing. Like in class, standing up.

And it's like, now I'm like, what? Just like all the girls in my class were like, showing. We did not realize that you were having a boner. Yeah. And this movie is directed by a woman. Yes. Which I feel like we'll talk about. But it also, I think that like a lot of this movie. Who's like an icon in her own right.

This is like the highest grossing SNL sketch originating movie of all time. Like it's got a lot of, it's got a lot going for it. It helped propel Bohemian Rhapsody to the number two song of 1992. Which is wild because it came out in the 70s. And everybody has done that with their friends. I mean, I feel like that song comes on and you do this scene in this movie. Yeah. I remember doing that in middle school with my cousin and not fully understanding why we were doing it.

But she had just seen Wayne's World. Let's do the recap and we'll go from there we meet wayne campbell that's mike myers and his best friend garth algar that's dana carvey there are these two you know grungy rock and roll dudes who have a local cable access show called wayne's world Ever heard of it? Which they tape out of Wayne's basement in Aurora, Illinois. I always think of Mike Myers is so deeply Canadian that I assumed this took place in Canada.

Oh, yeah, no. Illinois, baby. Makes you think. This guy Benjamin, Rob Lowe's character, is a TV producer who sees the show and he's like, hey, I think I can sell this because he's got, I guess, like a client, Noah Vanderhoff, who owns a chain of arcades and is looking to sponsor a show. Then Wayne and Garth and their friends slash crew go to this rock club and this band is playing whose lead singer is Cassandra and Wayne sees her and he goes let me see if I can get this right she's a babe swing this would be so goofy um and he chats with her for a minute and he's like I'm in love with this

woman and then she invites him to another gig of hers meanwhile benjamin and this producer guy russell are trying to pitch wayne's world to noah vanderhoff even though they don't own wayne's world so they go to wayne and garth and ben is like here sign these contracts and we'll give you a bunch of money and like garth thinks it's weird, but this is Wayne's dream. So he goes along with it. They sign the contracts. Then Wayne goes to Cassandra's gig, and they chat afterwards. It's kind of cute. It's cute.

She likes him. He likes her. They are vibing. They start dating. Then Wayne and Garth start doing rehearsals for the, like, sponsored network version of Wayne's World. It's such good satire, too, of how – because it's like you know that the set that they're in is probably what they were doing at SNL. Exactly. And then they just, like, pull out.

This is so stupid. I'm like, this is the whole thing. Yeah, it's great. Right, because it's the set that looks like Wayne's basement, but that's not Wayne's basement. And Wayne, and especially Garth, feel uneasy about Benjamin because he's like this slimy money boy. It's the name of my next movie. But Wayne's dreams are coming true. Slimy money boy.

Is it a boy who gets bitten by radioactive slimy money? Slimy money. So the boy gets bitten by radioactive money. That's what Moneyball is about, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. A ball that gets bitten by radioactive money. So then Wayne and Garth go to an Alice Cooper concert in Milwaukee. And there they bump into a security guard played by Chris Farley,

who, by the way, plays a different character in Wayne's World 2. Really? I think it's a different character. That's kind of funny. I believe so. Who tells them about Frank Sharp, this record producer who is looking for new acts to sign. And Chris Farley lays out his whole travel schedule. And he's like, yeah, he's going to be coming through chicago on this day and then the joke you know the meta joke is made about how oh you know for security guard

he had an awful lot of information what and we're like meta humor we love to see it then wayne and garth go back to chicago for their first taped show but wayne humiliates noah vanderhoff on air so benjamin fires him which is very funny and punk rock sphincter boy which is a boy bitten by a radioactive sphincter yep and then wayne is like well i'm taking my show with me and benjamin's like well i own the show so wayne storms out and he leaves Garth there all by himself, which upsets Garth and they get in this big fight. Cassandra then breaks up with Wayne because he thinks that she might be having sex with Benjamin. Right, which we will talk about.

And this is what we call the low point of the movie. Wait, what? It's almost like she has two degrees in screenwriting. Well, I would never mention my master's in screenwriting from Boston University. Oh, I think that Alfred Molina would have been a great money boy in this movie, by the way. I like when he plays a money boy. I like it. Then Wayne decides to win Cassandra back. And he's going to do that by trying to get that Frank Sharp guy to listen to Cassandra play music in the hopes that he will want to sign her. And using the info that Chris Farley gave them,

they stage this whole thing where Wayne goes to Chicago to get Cassandra, who's in the middle of shooting a music video with Benjamin. He brings her back to his house. They do the wayne's world show from his basement just like old times and then like garth uses his like tech skills to he's a hacker he's a hacker he's very high yes he like triangulates some satellites or something so that cassandra playing on the show will be broadcast on the TV in Frank Sharp's limo. Frank sees it. He goes to Wayne's house. There are various alternate endings, but the real

ending is that he signs Cassandra and basically everyone lives happily ever after. Woo! Yay! So that's the story. Let's take a quick break. And we'll come right back. Yeah. Party on. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered.

There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country

into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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, Catherine Han is joining us on Lost Culture East. That's right, the queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture. I feel some Sandra Bernhardt in you. Oh, my God, I would love it. I have to watch Lost. Oh, you have to.

No, I know, I'm so behind. Katherine Hahn can sing. Oh, I'm really good at karaoke. What's your song? Yeah, what's your song? Oh, I'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, Ludi. Not hawk the slalom. I absolutely love it. It was somehow Shakespearean when you said it. It was somehow gorgeous. Yee, my slok, you hollum. Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

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

to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. Where should we start? Okay, I want to, I guess, maybe get the character, I think, with maybe the most built-in misogyny. Egregious.

Yes. You mean the psycho hose beast? Yeah, the one that they cannot stop. I mean, sucks on many levels. Let's talk about Stacy really quick. Sure. It's frustrating. In a movie that does, like, way better than many movies of this, you know, year and age have any right to do. And in a movie that's directed by a woman, has at least one female writer, you know, in the mix. The fact that Stacey is a character that exists sucks.

So Stacey, of course, being the ex-girlfriend of Wayne, all we know about her is that she's Wayne's ex-girlfriend and that she wants him back and she'll do anything. And jokes are made about her mental state. Jokes are made at her physical expense a lot. She's like hit by a car. She's got like all this. She rides her bike into a parked car.

It's even worse worse and she already has a broken a broken neck from falling through a like a glass ceiling thing i have like mixed feelings about her because i mean i still laugh at those moments but it is like she's very much like pigeonholed into the like and i'm trying not to say the word crazy anymore but she's like the crazy ex-girlfriend stereotype it's kind of hard because yeah they um they say it so much that it's impossible to avoid like that's what they keep saying yeah well he asks her are you mental I mean he asks a few people that but it has a different connotation with her right and it like I mean just that I mean and we we've been trying to I mean it's an ongoing, but we're trying to be aware of it as well.

Of just like the common slang that is ultimately slurs against people with mental illness is, I mean, I don't necessarily hold that against this movie in particular because it was such a cultural thing and still is. But it is like something to be aware of that like one of his catchphrases is that. Like, yeah, the whole argument. Argumental. Yeah. For sure. Yes. So there's that to consider.

But yeah, overall, just her character is framed as like, I mean, to bring back one of our catchphrases, bitchy obstacle. Bitchy obstacle. I still have to make that t-shirt. You know, now that we're going to be obstacle bitchy I still have to make that t-shirt I you know now that we're gonna be in quarantine I mean she literally physically comes like in his when he's like yeah when he's like he's moving toward Tia Carrera she like literally just like pops into frame right and she's like Wayne Wayne and then like later um there's like the fake ending or

the alternate ending where like she's like and I'm pregnant pregnant. And then she's like, I'm pregnant, which is why I've been so moody. You're like, oh, boy. There's also, I mean, and I laugh at this scene too, but when she's like, here's a gun rack. I got you, like, here's a gift. I don't even own a gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack. Okay, that's a great joke, though. It's like me and my friends quoted that all the time. When misogyny is well written, it's like, my friends quoted that all the time when when misogyny is well written it's like

what the fuck i think again this is like because i saw it at like such an impressionable age i think it was like oh yeah she's somebody that you don't want to be you don't want to be that girl that's like like a clingy desperate jealous unstable right yeah and it's like get over it like we broke up two months ago like I already lost you like all that stuff where it's like oh she's just not listening it's right which is I mean and then then there's the other side of it if like we see stalker behaviors in rom-coms especially all the time and when a male character does it it's almost glorified in many cases and it's made to seem like wow he's so committed he's not going

to take no for an answer because he loves her but then when we see stacy exhibiting the same behaviors it's with like the soundtrack sting from the shower scene yes like and literally i mean the fact that they call her a psycho hose beast is like what does that even mean i don't like hose like dick like what is the i think it just means like a, just like a crazy, monstery person. Right. Like, she is made out to be kind of this, like, monster who we're supposed to be laughing at. But I think that if you take away a lot of, if you tone down the performance a little,

because it seems like that actor was asked to really play it up. Yeah. Yeah. Like, and it's like, she deserves better than this character. Yes. I mean, what's interesting about it, because when I was watching it in the lens of this, I was like, oh. But then there's a scene where they address it.

Right. Wayne addresses it with Cassandra. And he's speaking in Cantonese. And there's subtitles. But he's saying like- There's a lot going on. Right. There's a lot to unpack.

I forgot that part. But he's like, I'm probably partly at fault for her behavior and it's like okay well you're acknowledging it but you're still the movie still frames her as being this like unstable I almost found that more like I thought it was an interesting choice to address it but then to address

it and then continue to treat the character the exact same way is like it was interesting because he started to address it and then Tia Carrere's character was like no way as like well then why did you bother it was interesting because he started to address it and then tia careers character was like no she just like the woman was kind of like you should have been more firm she was not an ally to other women again i love this movie so much but i was just like oh i wish that this looking back on the lens you're like oh this they could have handled it even still be funny but right maybe approach differently for sure i mean it's like even if like tia like if cassandra had like agreed and been like well

you know sometimes like it wouldn't have even really changed the scene right and if she was like don't do that to me don't like mistreat me if we're gonna start dating i hope you learned something from this experience i totally forgot that he even addressed that maybe because it was in canton i mean it's but yeah stacy is is treated very poorly by the story and by the editors and by every level of production. And all the other guys, too. When she sees Garth, Garth's like, ugh. Yeah, he's creeped out by her. And she has no bearing on the story, so she doesn't even need to be there.

You could easily remove her character and nothing would change narratively. I feel like it's almost my theory, because I don't, and also I like, if Stacey's ever referenced in the sketches, I don't know. No, she was never. I think she was a construct of the movie. Right, because these movies are based on SNL sketches. Right. I've seen some of them, but I'm almost like, maybe they referenced other people? I was guessing they didn't. But the fact that, like, I feel like it's almost like she was written to make Wayne seem cooler or

like more desirable um it's like a way of them the movie has of telling you like well you know they're kind of doofuses but they're really desirable doofuses because look at this girl who's throwing herself at Wayne repeatedly it's true I feel like it's almost like a way for the movie to, yeah, just say that they're cool by creating a character who is not being treatable. Right. They're like, oh, even though this guy is a quote-unquote loser who lives in his parents' basement, he still – He can still have someone love him.

He fucks. He has fucked. Don't worry.neyland just closed i literally went to disneyland on the last day of disneyland no i went yesterday holy shit holy shit wow wow wow don't don't edit it out this is a scary day i was wondering i was like rise of the resistance this is the last time anyways um okay so yeah i want to talk about cassandra and like kind of just the romantic storyline um that is present in this film. So starting with kind of, like, the romantic pursuit.

Sure. I felt as though that was handled fairly well. Me too. I agree. I agree. In the sense that, like, he approaches her for the first time when they're at, is that place called the Gasworks? The Gasworks, yeah. And he says, hey, can I call you sometime? And she's like, well, come to this party.

And, you know, implied that we'll talk there. So, you know, she invites him. It's not as though he's just like showing up and invited somewhere. And then he goes to this party and he approaches her and says, want to go somewhere and talk? She says, yes. They chat.

They start to vibe. She thinks he's funny. He thinks she's hot. That's the dynamic of their relationship but i i actually like there's one little pivot that happens in the movie at the beginning when he meets her that i think it's little but i think it does a lot when he sees her at the gas works she's pretty obviously everybody wanted to be her i wanted to be you know like you want to be her but she's talented she's singing and then she kicks ass then she beats up a guy and he's like whoa so i like that when he sees her it's not just that she's pretty it's that she's pretty she's a rock star and then she kicks some guy's ass yeah i'm gonna i'm like yeah i'm gonna kind

of advocate for this relationship a little bit i don't love how it's treated in the third act where she, I feel like they kind of, I mean, she does stand up for herself at pretty much every opportunity where it makes sense for her to. And I don't, I mean, it's like the movie, the editing of the movie has this goofy way of introducing female characters where it's with music. It's with the slow push in to Garth's love interest, whose name escapes me. Oh where it's with music it's with the slow push in um to garth's love interest whose name escapes me oh it's dream woman yeah she does not have a dream woman okay dream woman and then we have the slow push into cassandra the first time we see her and it's like a part of the way the movie is stylized that does objectify them right but once we meet cassandra she is very talented she advocates for herself with the with the club owner um she literally kicks someone else's ass before being like hey and you have to pay me um there is a point where when she and wayne are in bed she has to take a call for work

and he's like goofing around and being like cute. And then she's like, hey, this is a work call. Like, fuck off. And like there's and then at the end when Wayne goes and does like, you know, the reason that so many women have imposter syndrome of like, well, did you consider you're getting this opportunity because he probably wants to fuck you? She's like, hey, could you be more insulting about the way you're even he's like you're having sex with him right probably and she's like no that's not how i get a gig like right so yeah definitely standing up for herself i like that but then but then the way how like the

third act becomes like i don't know like the way she almost feels not as smart it's like she's being like who wouldn't see rob lowe's right I agree you know which I get I get for the plot but yeah it's like why is she now becoming this like he just wants to give me a job and then like Wayne's approach to being like oh because I and I feel like the movie is kind of telling us a little bit that Wayne is right because we know that Rob Lowe is trying to like get the girl and so it doesn't really help on that end and then Wayne's solution to Rob Lowe offering Cassandra this like opportunity and bad faith is by getting her another opportunity but both of them are just trying to get her opportunities so that she'll be their girlfriend

right and it's not because it's like I believe in your talent blah blah blah and so I just found it discouraging but I think Cassandra is not at fault and she's awesome. Yeah, she's super kick-ass. Yeah, I do agree with that. And just to kind of wrap up on the conversation of like the how the romantic pursuit is handled, like because so many movies, as we already kind of hinted at and have discussed on the podcast at length, you know, have a predatory romance or a man like wearing a woman down um and what wayne is doing is sort of just the bare minimum of decency of just like hey can i call you like he learns cantonese he learned he does learn cantonese for her but um you know i guess it was refreshing to see even though again it's just the bare minimum um but it was nice i mean he apparently just heard with respect oh the other thing i was gonna say is when they go on the date to like guitar

center or wherever the fuck they go you're like there is more than a physical attract like you understand why they like each other and like yeah wayne is like obviously not like the coolest and like not the most desirable and like will they be together in real life excuse me making powder oh he's so hot no the coolest and like not the most desirable and like, will they be together in real life? Exqueeze me? Baking powder? Oh, he's so hot. But like, but I like that the movie takes the effort to like write a scene with them

where it's like that scene where they're both speaking Cantonese. You're like, oh, there's a connection between them. And then you see like, and they have stuff in common. Like this is cool. Right. Yeah. So back to the, how the movie handles the male gaze i feel like yes it does kind of objectify the women when they're shown like these are the women

that the men are interested in but i also missus vanderhoff she has a scene where someone's like you're hot she's like oh oh do i frighten you no No. Do you want me to? But like, I don't know. I just felt like that was handled a little bit better than we're used to seeing also because like in a few episodes, we've talked about how certain movies will use like a really exploitative, like hyper-sexualized shot of a woman that like lingers all over her body. We see like a shot up her ass and like a shot just of her tits and stuff like that, specifically to communicate to the audience that like a shot just of her tits and stuff like that specifically to communicate to the audience that like the male protagonist of this story is attracted to this woman um i think we talked about this a lot in like the sandlot episode it happens in transformers and stuff but

like and we're like well there's there's better ways to do this there's better ways to indicate to the audience that the man is attracted to this woman that aren't so like objectifying and male gazey and i thought this movie actually did a pretty good job yeah between showing that like wayne is attracted to cassandra because it cuts this like fantasy dreamy shot of cassandra while she's playing the bass on stage we only really see a shot of her kind of like torso. It's pretty stationary. It's not lingering.

And then like Dreamweaver starts playing. And we're like, oh, that's how we know he's like... Into her. Into her. And then same thing with Garth. Sure, the woman is not named that he's in love with. And he's never spoken to her before. I like that she's just working at the donut shop. She's just working behind the counter at the donut shop.

And like the way that we the visual indication that we know that Garth likes her is that it's just like a slow-mo shot of like her hair blowing in the wind. Just like her shoulders up. Like it didn't feel super, you know, it didn't

feel male gaze-y really or objectifying. So I was like, oh, that actually was like handled better than we've seen before and I think too like with these characters what I like about it is that they're not kind of guys that are like yeah I could get that girl like they're like oh man I love her like she'd never like me like I feel like there's something that feels innocent and sweet about that that's like still they're doing boner jokes and like swing yada yada yada like no keep going keep going yikes yosers um i think there's something so sweet about them as characters that when you do see them objectifying or looking at a woman it is sweet and they're like i could

never have a girl like that right they are yeah they do the whole like that's like just like softens the blow a little bit yeah i do have complicated feelings but and then also like wayne declares that cassandra will be mine oh yes she will be mine the same way he declares that that guitar is gonna will be his literally okay could you be more object yeah yes yeah so. Yeah. So not perfect. It's not perfect. I liked, I also liked when he speaks Cantonese, it seemed like that was going to go in a racist, racist, racist direction. But then it is actually dealt with from what I mean.

And for our Cantonese speaking listeners, let us know how you felt about it. But I like it seemed like I was like, oh, no. Yeah. Because it's 1992. And that is, you know, not 1992 is not above that behavior. It's nestled right in there. Yeah. It's emblematic of this time.

But then it was like dealt with pretty well. And it ends up being kind of a reason that Cassandra is like, oh, this is kind of might be worth my time you kind of understand you're like okay okay yeah i i tend to agree but yeah i think i need we need an outside perspective yeah i mean there are some other jokes that come in later like the cream of some young guy yeah but then cassandra like is like wayne like she calls him out on that stupid probably brazen you know what i mean yeah it's like hey don't say that well i couldn't help but feel there was like a weird racial thing when we see her like kick that guy's ass and then like yeah well then and then everybody was kung fu fighting that and then it's also like okay is this movie implying that

like all asian people know like martial arts because in the second movie we meet her dad cassandra's dad and there's this whole like kung fu parody sequence there oh i didn't i honestly didn't even i was just like oh she's she's cool she gets ass that does i mean also the fact that she's the only person of color in the whole movie. Yes. In the entire movie. Nobody else. Nope. And it's like unfortunate that it's like 1992, like having a lead who is a woman of color is like, that wasn't happening in 1992 very much, but she's completely alone in that regard.

Get out a couple other, you know. There's also an aspect of the kind of romantic storyline where, and I don't know how to feel about this right now necessarily, so maybe I'm going to have to like talk through this. But the story becomes about Wayne not trying to fix the situation with his show after he's like lost it but about trying to like get her back exactly oh yeah so i would have thought that like and it was like a few years since i re-watched this so i didn't remember exactly how things played out at the end it gets kind of complicated at the end it does and then there's all like the alternate endings don't really help but like the same thing happens in wayne's world 2 where like the premise of that movie is wayne is trying to put on this concert called Wayne Stock. But part of the way through the movie, he and Cassandra break up.

So he has to go like win her back and stop her from marrying Christopher Walken. Sure. But yeah, the story in both of these movies becomes about like, well, who cares about that other thing I was doing? That's going to get sort of sidelined I have to like focus on getting this woman who I love like back in my life yeah which again I don't know how to feel about that I don't really I just think it's like weird and confused like I think because it focuses the attention like on the female character but in a way that it's like well he deserves her so he he has to like win his property back. And it's kind of,

I feel like it does nothing to go back on like Rob Lowe's bad faith thing because like you could qualify what Wayne is doing to also be in bad faith. We know that he knows she's talented, but like he wasn't jumping to give her this opportunity when he first met this guy.

He jumps to give it to her when he feels like he's losing her. And so you're like, meh. That plus like he shows up to her film shoot, which he was not invited to. And he's like, and there's no film in this camera. And then he opens it up and like all the film pours out. So we're like, snake joke. Oh my God, the snake. I liked that.

It was kind of like a one-off line, but it's like Tia Carrera shouting to Rob Lowe. She's like, I think the snake is asleep. her. And Wayne says, I don't think she wants me to. And then Garth says, let me tell you a little something about women. They want you to come get them. They love it. And we're like, no, Garth. No. Well, Garth, I feel like, OK, maybe I'm just not as attached to Garth. It's so interesting to have somebody that has never seen it for the first time. It's like, oh, OK. I'm very interesting to have somebody that has never, like, you know what I mean, to have seen it for the first time. It's like, oh, okay.

I'm very attached to Dana Carvey. I'm not as attached to Garth. I feel like there is, like, and maybe this is coming down on it too hard, but with Garth there is kind of that, like, Revenge of the Nerds-y kind of, like, vibe of, like, there's a lot of, and I don't even think this is a bad thing but like for uh young men who are nervous to talk to like romantic interest and all this stuff and then you see all these catharsis scenes and some of them are fantasy and some of them are real of like if you're a dorky guy don't you just wish you could tase a bully or like don't you just wish you could like do you know like I think that there's a lot of like wish fulfillment offered on Garth's part, but it still looks silly. And so you're like, I don't know it. I don't know how to feel about it.

I like him. I just I'm like, there is something that I'm just like, what's going on with Garth? What's going on? Again, in the second one. Oh, he has a match that is his identical. Oh, yeah. He just he gets with a woman who looks exactly like him. Exactly.

Exactly. It's really funny. That's really funny. But before that, he's with, is that Rebecca Romaine Stamos? No. Is that who that is? In this one? No, no, no.

In Wayne's World 2. No, it's Kim Basinger. That's Kim Basinger. I always get them. Yeah, Kim Basinger is in the second one. I cannot tell. I just knew that off the top of my head. I was like, whoa.

Oh, hell yeah. Nailed it. And then the Garth is the sister from The Wonder Years. Oh, the woman lookalike? Yeah, his lookalike love interest. Cute. We've got to take another quick break, but we will come right back. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was murdered.

There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhearts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, this week, we're taking it to the next level. The one, the only,

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the stories, and of course, the culture. I feel some Sandra Bernhardt in you. Oh, my God. I would love it. I have to watch Lost. Oh, you have to. Oh, my God. I would love it. I have to watch Lost. Oh, you have to. No, I know.

I'm so behind. Katherine Hanken's thing. 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, Lugie. Not hawk the slalom. I absolutely love it. It was somehow Shakespearean when you said it. It was somehow gorgeous. Yee, my slok, you hollum. Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I have a lot of questions, like how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job?

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

without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. That was my best way. Aspincture says what? What? Oh, that's actually a good transition into talking about class stuff with this movie. Yeah.

I thought it does really well movie I thought it does really well I thought it was really cool right at the very beginning they're calling cops pigs love that that's fun and the cop is like haha yeah I am a pig he's like I know what you're doing yeah I

think that the way like cause Garth and Wayne are so goofy and I feel like a lesser movie would be like, you know, like either poor people or people who like are, you know, working paycheck to paycheck are stupid and goofy. much and the rich like asshole characters are so awful that it is kind of like this cool cathartic thing where you're like rooting for like these people that you would you're more likely to relate with like these goofuses and then you have like Rob Lowe really Rob Lowe and out slicking his hair all the way back he's so hot in this movie he He's so hot. You're so horrible, but it's not fair. And so waspy. I think it's the first time, too,

everybody knew that he could really do comedy. Ooh, is it? Yeah, I think so. I read about this, because he was apprehensive about being in this movie, because he's like, I'm not a comedy actor. I don't know how to do this. And they just, I guess, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey

were like, oh, just pretend, just act like you're Lorne Michaels. And he's like, okay. That's great. And then also the guy Benjamin Cain, or not Benjamin Cain, sorry. Russell? He's so great. Noah Vanderhoff.

Oh, yeah. He is so dumb and he's so clueless. And like I think that like Mrs. Vanderhoff, who does not get a first name, does like I mean she comes off much the same way and she's treated like bad on a gender basis. But I liked the way she was treated on a rich person basis. Like this movie just has like kind of like this eat the rich mentality that's very pro-DIY and pro, like, I don't know. I agree. Because even like Rob Lowe's interaction with Mr. Vanderhoff, like that scene where he convinces him to buy the show is so brilliant. It's like, he's such a great scene. It's so slimy.

It's really good satire of like how like big corporations buy little things and then destroy them. And speak. It's just for a commercial. That brings me to some of my favorite jokes in this movie, which is one, Garth reading Benjamin's daily planner, and he's like, Thursday, purchase feeble public excess show and exploit it. And then he's like, wow, feel sorry for whoever that is. Oh, so funny.

And then the product placement scene my god scene we used to do that all the time like we would just re-in everything we would eat anything that was like a product we would just like do at wayne's i will not bow down to any corporate sponsor and then he's like i have a headache eating doritos try a new print little yellow different and it's the taste of a new i mean every single moment in that is like so perfect love it and it's uh the isn't it start off with like roblo coming down to talk to way to garth and he's just like has that weird helmet on and like starts hitting like there's so much randomness in this movie that's so great yeah i guess like garth is like a tech genius he's building a frankenstein

like you see a disembodied hand and he was like garth we haven't talked that It's like he's building a Frankenstein. Like you see a disembodied hand and then he's like, Garth, we haven't talked that much. And then he's just like, okay. And like one of my favorite scenes is when he's like having him sign the contracts and he like puts the pen. He's like, does anybody else find it weird that he

just shows up with contracts? Okay, the commercial satire scene and that scene that you're talking about marine reminded me so much of josie and the pussycats which comes later but there's that scene where the band josie and her bandmates go into uh the bathroom and they're like isn't it so weird that they're just like they haven't even heard us play but they're like signing us to a record deal and And they're like, nah. And then that whole movie is just like one moment of product placement after the next.

So I was like, oh, this is, I probably love Josie and the Pussycats so much because I was so attached to Wayne's World. It does have the same energy. I've never seen Josie and the Pussycats. Oh, it is amazing. I love it. It is perfect. Yeah, I don't know why it wasn't my... Wayne's World is great, and it's better than Wayne's World. What?

Yeah. I don't know about that. It's funnier. It's better. And also, Wayne wears his own merch, which we do sometimes. We do that. Oopsies. You know what?

We get it for free, so... I wanted to talk a little bit about the director, Penelope Spheres. So this movie was directed by a woman, which is one thing I didn't know in seventh grade, but I kind of love that it became one of my favorite because it's like there's not many movies directed by women or there weren't many that I feel like I connected with. And I did and I didn't realize that it was directed by women. So I think it's such a great. I had the same experience.

Yeah. She also directed such films as Black Sheep, Little Rascals, and Beverly Hillbillies. Wow. Yeah. I knew she did Little Rascals. I didn't know Hillbillies. And the movie was also co-written by a woman, Bonnie Turner, who returns and co-writes the sequel. But Penelope Sears was not asked back to direct

yeah yes so basically she and mike myers had some issues uh the main things seemed to be and it was all shrek's fault uh the main thing seemed to be that she was so insistent on shooting the Bohemian Rhapsody scene in the Marthmobile, which Mike Myers didn't think would be funny, even though it became the iconic moment of the movie. Oh, men are so dumb. He also complained about the headbanging in that scene, hurting his neck. And he had a fit one day, and he's like, I had a fit one day and he's like i can't move my neck like that why do we have to do this so many times no one's gonna laugh at this and then

he also uh threw a fit because um there was no margarine for his bagel on at craft services one day what these are the these are the legends of the waynes world set i mean there's this is just a small part of it i think but um But so, yeah, there was some issues between the director and Mike Myers because of that. And then the other big thing seems to be that they had issues over the final cut of the movie where Mike Myers wanted it to be recut. Penelope Spheres did not.

So she was not, and that's, it seems to be the main reason she was not asked back to direct the sequel do we know if the version is her version or was it a recut version do we know i don't know for sure um i can't tell but penelope spheres has been pretty like outspoken about this in the ensuing years especially as it has become more quote unquote okay for women to talk about these things. So we appreciate, I mean, that's like kudos to her because it's like, you have to imagine there are a million stories like this and women are so, I mean, especially in comedy

at this time, no women were directing. And so for one of the, I mean, mean it's just i feel like further proof to like you can be working at the top of your craft yeah she like no comedy was doing better than wayne's world and that still wasn't enough to keep i think she wrote i could be mistaken i think she wrote an article a couple years ago about how like she had an interesting time in industry where she did this and then she did little rascals and beverly Hillbillies and then kind of went dry. Yeah. It's like she was making she was she was directing like huge movies that made money and that were like big. And then it's just she did.

She made what ended up being a flop, which was. But women only get one flop. Exactly. And she spoke. She speaks to this a lot. The movie was, I think, senseless. Senseless didn't do very well. And she was like, yeah, I got put in like director's jail. So she's been quite outspoken about this because she stopped making studio films.

My favorite headline that went with this was Wayne's World director Penelope Spheer is on leaving Hollywood behind. They can blow me. And then she's like, that's a quote. Print it. Headline. Do it. And, yeah, she's spoken out about how you know women are not if often given second chances in hollywood especially if they make a mistake or they

direct a movie that underperforms at the box office it's like who knows what happened with that movie it could have been like not her mistake maybe not her fault right yeah um and then she goes on to say you know uh you know male directors can get arrested for like having coke or drunk driving or they direct flops. Or being misogynistic. Right. And they're given tons more chances. She's also talked about how like she had to take whatever jobs she was offered because as a woman, she didn't get offered that much. So she couldn't really be choosy about what she did. So she, you know, just kind of took anything that came her way. didn't get offered that much so she couldn't really be choosy about what she did so she

you know just kind of took anything that came her way also she was um 45 when she was hired to direct wayne's world oh wow and she's a real hero for real she is she yeah turned i'm glad she's advocating for people that's so badass she turned the so the movie had a $20 million budget and ended up grossing $121 million domestically. I think it was close to like $180 million worldwide. And she has become one of only a handful of women who have directed a movie that grossed over $100 million. Wow. The elite club. I know.

And really like a cult classic. I mean. A cult classic about like so for a woman to direct a movie about men who like love rock and roll like it's a comedy yeah this was like unheard of and still not really happening it hasn't really happened again and then it was i think her her background in directing documentaries about like music and metal and rock and stuff yeah that like she was approached for this but um yeah yeah when this town should have been championing her they were poo-pooing they were trying to poo-pooing knock her down yeah not cool the other

thing that we haven't talked about the movie i just wondered what you guys thought was the portrayal of like like queer if you were going to do like a queer feel like this movie mostly avoids that, although it's not perfect. It does do better than you'd expect of a comedy from the early 90s. But there are the one thing that I noticed or one of the main things I noticed was there are a lot of like no homo moments. Yeah. There's this one guy on their like crew, Terry, who keeps going around to the different men, friends of his and says like, I love you. He is met with varying responses. Wayne will be like, um, yeah, I love you too. Like he's creeped out about it. He says it to Garth then and Garth is just like thank you he says it to Russell later on in the movie and Russell is just like okay whatever

and a car crash almost ensues from there and then Russell's I guess his arc at the end of the film he's like I've learned that platonic love can exist between two grown men and then there's also like the cop that they meet is always talking about like

doing cavity searches and like I I guess, reaching into a man's asshole. And then you get that look from Rob Lowe basically to camera where it's like he literally gives if you could communicate the phrase no homo with your eyes. He doesn't. And when he gets to the house, he like has a weird walk. He's walking. Yeah. Yeah. Where it's like, that's not how I guess.

Yeah. So there's there's all these moments very of its time but i agree it's like not as like not that it's not bad but it's like it doesn't it's not as bad as you would expect but it's still not okay that it was there at all yeah on the other side of that i do think that garth and wayne's friendship is a pretty positive portrayal of male friendship um There are examples of like, I mean, Garth gives Wayne that horrible advice about like, no, do stalk a woman. But I did find it generally encouraging that when they had a conflict, Garth told Wayne how he was feeling right away. And they like, they'd gotten in argument about it,

but they did talk about it. And it's like the fact that, you know, a man communicating to another man his feelings on screen is like kind of a big deal. But it did feel like that. They do that a lot, yeah, where they're just like, hey, did you ever think about this? Yeah, are you attracted to Bugs Bunny when he puts on a dress?

And then Wayne is like, no, I'm not attracted to men. Me neither. It's like, okay, we all know that Bugs Bunny is hot and a dress to fuck. Drag Bugs Bunny. Which is like, I think a very common. It's very common. Yeah. It's very common. I'm right there with him are you asking if you thought maybe there was any sort of like homo romantic undertones no I think just like the portrayal of like I love you I think that because it would have been interesting if it was just like the explanation at the end about like platonic love is okay like we're just making sure that you know

no one was gay it's platonic it does seem to feel very of it its era in that way where it's just like okay relax like it's okay yeah but also they're not wrong platonic love is okay yeah it's okay it's okay to like show your emotions with your male friends it's okay to say i love you the way it's presented feels like yeah and i do like that like yeah they they like men tell each other they love each other and that, and they mean it. And maybe they shouldn't have called that much attention to it of, like, whoa, look at this.

But, like, I don't know. For its time, it's doing okay in terms of, I think, the way that the masculinity is portrayed through their friendships. Yeah. I thought. I think it does hold up pretty well. And I think it would be interesting, because I'm thinking about Wayne's World 2 that's not directed by a woman. And I don't think it does hold up pretty well and i think it would be interesting because i do i'm thinking about wayne's world too that's not directed by a woman and i don't think it probably would do as well i think there are some changes made in wayne's world too that kind of get things a little wrong yeah that wayne's world one gets more right yeah yes i agree here's something i

never noticed until this rewatch garth orders a jelly donut at the diner. And then this is toward the beginning of the movie. And then we see him drinking the jelly out of the donut with a straw. And I was like, that is comedy gold. There's so many like subtle things that are just like a look or like that or what's his name? Bundy. You know, he owns the donut shop, Stan Mikita's donut shop. You know, we start talking about in the heat of war.

Oh, right. Like the self-reflexive stuff in the movie is like I never even thought about it when I watched it. But it is like such an interesting device that not many movies can pull off. Yeah. And it pulls it off so well i was yeah that was impressive ed o'neill that's ed o'neill ed o'neill yeah i think it does kind of uh but i mean certainly in terms of like a 90s movie it does better than you think it will yeah right i well i guess i'm curious because you two are both very attached to it yeah were you going into this like kind of like oh no i hope that this movie isn't secretly

horrible oh yes to everybody yes and how did you feel going out i was like wow i don't have to hate this movie yeah no i was i was if this movie is like just horrible i'm gonna be crushed because it is such it did shape me so much and i feel like again me and my group of friend girlfriends were like this was like one of our most quoted this and like peewee's big adventure i feel like we're like the most quoted movies in our friend group so i was like no i hope it's just didn't just like ruin us completely yeah and i don't think that it did i think it does hold up and yeah yeah just looking at the lens now it's like okay yeah it's not perfect but again by 1992 standards like it could have been a lot worse none

of the women talk to each other yes so that brings us to to the bechdel test um yes i would say this is a not pass i do not believe women are even really ever in the same room or seen together i mean nope the words they're one with tia with cassandra and stacy's in the background making it with that guy i mean they're in the same space and they're talking about and they're talking about her but they never speak to each other you know there are a few moments where like women will drive up in a convertible and they're like hey way, Wayne, you're Wayne from Wayne's World, right? Woohoo, party on. But we don't know what their names are.

And now we're talking about Wayne. Also, those moments just serve to, again, do I think what the Stacey character functions as is just being like, look how hot and cool everyone thinks Wayne is. Yeah, they're pretty badass. Also, that's weird. The movie starts, which is interesting. When I was watching it I was like oh it starts with Rob Lowe in bed

with Ione Sky oh wait I don't know who that is she's from Say Anything and it's like her idea and he like takes her idea he takes credit for it didn't even connect that yeah he's just in bed with her

we never see her again and she's like you haven't been into shakies in a while. And he's like, yeah, I've been busy producing television. She's like, these guys are great. And like, gives him the idea.

God. She should get a finder's fee. Yeah. The fuck? She should have a percentage of this. He basically stole this woman's idea. Typical. And then at the end,

he just like, kisses her to like, make her forget about it. Yeah. He's like, oh, what if I seduce you god damn it rob low yeah but i'm like oh wow it's like none of the women yeah as far as its representation of women um it's not great and i would argue i mean even though even though i love cassandra and i think she has a lot of strong traits i don't think that she necessarily has a lot of agency in the story we don't see her moving the story forward on her own

in any meaningful way and there's nothing she really does that disrupts other than falls for Rob Lowe's trick basically there's nothing she does that meaningfully impacts the plot and I feel like even though she is a very strong cool romantic love interest plot wise she's she's not very often moving the plot forward she's more of supporting whatever wayne's doing she also is i mean that was one of the first interracial romantic relationships i had ever seen on screen in a movie so yeah that's not nothing yeah i mean i feel like i think at the time you're just like she's so cool she's like really talented she's strong so i think like in that maybe in that time period it's like

well there weren't really that many kind of cool kick-ass love interests like that and then she just became you know like to your career is like so cool yeah but yeah looking back on it now you're like she kind of also is like this like dream girl like almost like fetishized a little bit about like you know it's like oh okay now again through the lens of it's like in a way she's a little bit of like a just a fantasy yeah a bit but again i i wanted to be her yeah i mean she's cool yeah and jamie i think she loses even more agency in the sequel oh god yeah yeah yeah this yeah the second one is funny but i feel like it i think it's really an interesting watch because i'm gonna watch it tonight it's troublesome because i just re-watched it the other day but like yeah like i said her her father comes

in and he's like i will decide who you marry cassandra and like she like so any agency she had in terms of her like i guess romantic guess, romantic partner is, like, completely stripped of her. Like, for the sake of a joke that is bad and racist. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot. Actually, I would say, like, the second one, they added another, like, a race in the second one, I think, is probably an issue. They add another character that's, like, a Native American. Yeah.

Oh, right. That he goes on, like, a walkabout and like he's he's just like an imaginary it's like not good yeah it's like how did you get worse on some of these topics it's almost like they should have let penelope like directed something to consider how about that no it does not even remotely pass the vectal test and i think that a lot of female characters we see on screen are never even given names. I think that Cassandra may be the only woman with a first name. Stacey. Stacey.

Cassandra and Stacey. And those are kind of the only two women. Yeah. And then you have a Mrs. Vanderbilt. And a dream woman. His wife. Yes. And a dream woman.

And then the girl on the bed. Yes. And then the girl whose million dollar idea is taken from her. Stolen from and then the girl on the bed yes and then right girl whose million dollar id idea is taken from her at the top of the movie is how she's credited i'm pretty sure uh well let's rate it on our nipple scale zero to five nipples based on its representation of women um yeah it's not good so it's maybe like because it handles like its approach to comedies so much better than it's not like it's not contemptful or contemptuous no of women but it doesn't feel the need to include them in any meaningful way really aside from cassandra who like we discussed

isn't given much agency we never really really, we understand why she likes Wayne, which is that he makes her laugh, which is like boring snooze. Like, yeah, can't she be funny also? Like give her some jokes. Like, can't that be part of it? I don't like that. I mean, whatever.

I mean, I guess that narrative is true for some people, but my mom would always be like, I married your dad because he made you laugh. I'm like, well, guess what? You're divorced. See how that worked out for you. My mom and my, you know, mom and dad's crumbling marriage. My mom is the funny one and my dad has no personality whatsoever.

So, you know, why don't we see more of that? I know. I want to see this movie if you flipped all of the gender. Yeah. Like, would anybody buy it like let's remake it yeah i'm in funny women with boring partners need a better representation on screen yeah wanda's world where's the reboot no just a new original idea yeah yeah it's like that deals with the same themes like your movie which we'll get to in a moment but okay so nipple scale i'm gonna give it like i guess like a one and a half maybe a two because that's too high i'll give it a one and a half with like also with the caveat that it is not contemptuous of women. It's just a movie about like cool dudes who like swing all the time.

You know, so. But I still love it. So one and a half. I'll give one nipple to Garth's lookalike lady in the sequel. And I'll give my half nipple to Garth's lookalike dog from the first movie. Woo. I'll do one and a half as well. I like Cassandra. I think that it's like really, there's a lot of good stuff there. I wish she had gotten to do more and motivate more and had a woman to talk to. Stacey character very badly represents women. The other women are kind of just throwing themselves at Wayne

or having their ideas stolen. So that's not great. But the fact that Penelope Spheeris is at the helm of this, doing what no one else was doing at this time and doing it very successfully and that she's continued to speak out on behalf of other creators and there's a female writer. There's a lot going on here that is, like i think like really progressive in a way that is like interesting

because it's not a way that in a way that is like the movie doesn't draw attention to that it just is really fucking good yeah especially in a movie that's so meta and draws attention to other aspects of just storytelling and movie making yeah inside the movie and i like and i really like that like there are there there's a an iconic movie about a pair of men that's directed by a woman point break is the only one other one i can think of yeah uh because you get a different like and men have been able to direct how women's stories go for so long that it is cool to see what, indirectly or not, but what a female perspective on a male friendship is. And it's usually healthier. And for a movie that ends up being this influential, that's important.

So I think that there's a lot going on. One and a half, and I'm almost tempted to give it a two, but I'll stick at one and a half. Yeah. I'll give one to Cassandra and then half a nipple to, yeah, the woman whose idea was stolen. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think I'm going to go with a two. Okay. Just because I agree with all the stuff you're saying, and I think Stacey's not great. You know, that's, like, probably the biggest, like, if they maybe had just made her different.

But I think the fact that it was directed by a woman and that it isn't there's no like meanness i mean there is but not like it's not it doesn't harp on it um and so also that it's just one of my favorite movies and i'm like i can't i can't not but i wish that it had had more women in it or that they had maybe had some conversations or a more crucial although um the whole the end of this movie is wayne like setting up his girlfriend for success he's like i want i'm gonna have you play in front of mr sharp so that you can get a record deal like he's not really trying to he's not advocating for himself he's like here cassandra you you get this record deal and isn't that also problematic that he saves her yes he got it for her i mean should i go back to

yeah he got it he got it for her yeah but like in a time where like men had to advocate for women like no one at least he's an advocate no one else was vouching for women and they didn't have their own power or we didn't have enough like power to do it ourselves. No one was listening to us. I think too. I'll give it a two also because of when he sees her. And I like the fact that it's not just she's a vapid pretty girl. She's talented.

She's a rock star. She demands money and she kicks ass. All in the first scene. All in the first scene. That's why he likes her. Yeah. You know. he likes her. Yeah. You know? God, I love this woman,

he says. Well, Maureen, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Tell us what you'd like to plug and where can people follow you online.

Tell us about your movie. So, Golden Arm is my movie starring Mary Holland, Betsy Sedaro. Oh, they're so funny. Yeah. Actually,

that's what I was like. It would be perfect to do Wayne's World because I feel like I hope and I know that once this movie comes out, it's going to be like a cult classic because Mary and Betsy together as a duo is incredible. And I think it is like jumping off

from like loving Wayne's World or Tommy Boy or like Adam Sandler where there's like these great, Laverne and Shirley, like these great duos. And that's what this movie kind of celebrates it's basically a movie about two friends that find each other again um kind of it's a half road trip half arm wrestling sports love it comedy and the cast is just like it's a ton of women like Dot Marie Jones, Kate Flannery, Don Luby, Aparna Nancherla rounds Rounds it out with Ron Funches, Eugene Cordero,

Anai Barucha. It's just a really rich fabric of women. And it definitely would pass the Bechdel test. Do the women talk about arm wrestling? They talk about arm wrestling. They talk about their dreams, their fears. It passes. They talk about a lot of stuff.

But yeah, it's just, I think it's really, I'm really proud of it. And I think that once it comes out, I hope that Mary and Betsy get into the lexicon of, like, those classic comedy duos. That's amazing. Yeah. Awesome. It was supposed to play at South by Southwest, but we got canceled. And then it got canceled.

But just follow me on Instagram at Maureen Barucha and Goldenarm the movie and I'm sure it'll pop up somewhere else we got some stuff in the works glad to hear it you can follow us on social media at Bechtelcast we've got our Patreon patreon.com slash Bechtelcast

$5 a month gets you two bonus episodes we've got merch at tpublic.com slash the Bechtel cast. Rate and review us on your podcast platforms. Give us five nips and party on. Shawing. Excellent. Pandemic swing. Bye. 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, us on Las Culturistas. That's right, the queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories,

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