The Flop House - Ep #269 - Friend Request

Episode Date: October 27, 2018

It's our second SHOCKTOBER episode (not that you'd know it, because Dan keeps forgetting to plug in the fucking Shocktober theme)! This time, we return to the social media horror well, with Friend Request. Meanwhile, Elliott gives a peek behind the curtain of Teddy Ruxpin fanatics, Stuart tells us what this movie really should be called, and Dan... well we're still mad at Dan for NOT PUTTING IN THE GODDAMN SHOCKTOBER THEME. Movies recommended in this episode: Hold the Dark Apostle The Funeral

On this episode we discuss Friend request evil is trending The tagline that's not a joke that's Hey, everyone. Welcome to the flop house. I'm Dan McCoy. Oh, hey guys, I'm Stewart the man Wellington. And this is Ellen the boy, Kaelin. What? Are you rethinking your nickname that you gave yourself, the man? Yeah. Yeah. Let me do this again.

And I'm Stewart the Stewart Wellington. Oh, there you go. Yeah. I feel like you took a step backwards with that one. I mean, but it's a very accurate nickname. And that's what we look for in nicknames is accuracy. Uh-huh. That's very true.

Old blue eyes, his eyes were blue and he got old. Yeah, very accurate. Yeah. Jolton Joe D'Amejio, he could shoot electricity from his fingers to make people jolts. Uh-huh. And he loved Jolk Cola. That's also part of it.

And Bruce Springsteen does employ people, I think. I think he does. And A-Rod, he has rods and cones in his eyes, like we all do. I guess he could, we called A-Cone as well. I don't know why they're just singling one rod out specifically, but maybe I don't know. Well, I think because they want to emphasize the fact that he has good nighttime vision, as opposed to his cones, which would handle color. Well, okay, I didn't know that. So this has been the flop as we, we talk about eyeballs and stuff. Yeah, this has been the opt house, the optometry podcast.

Join us next time when we ask better what or better to better now or better now. Is that a, is that a glasses to or better now. Is that a glass of milk? Or better this? It is. You with your perfect vision, don't understand these hilarious jokes. So when you go to the glasses doctor, Stuart, they show you to see if you need glasses. What is a glasses doctor called? It's called a glass homatrist.

Okay, cool. Or a glass ocularist, I'm sorry. And what they do is they show you imperceptibly different blurry images and ask you which one looks better. And half the time you're like, I don't know, I guess the second one, I don't really remember. At least that's my experience. Yeah.

I feel like the ideal optometrist test is just seeing if you can tell if there's motion smoothing on the TV or not. I mean that detects the age of the of the music. I don't know the eyes. The best the ideal optometry visit would be when you if you go to that guy who makes eyeballs and blade runner and he just gives you some perfect eyes just stick some in your head. Uh-huh. Yeah. You gotta get there before Roy Batty kills him. Okay. Is that what they say? The advertisement? Like, you know get there before Roy Batty kills him. Okay. Is that what they say in the advertisement? Like, get on, come on down before Roy Batty kills him.

On the darts as ours, opens 9 a.m. closes when Roy Batty kills me. But the event, if you get there afterwards, there's a pretty decent chance. He's gonna just do some sweet ass improv riffing on space shit and you're like what? This is crazy. Is this for like an album or something?

Okay. So this is a podcast where we watch a bad movie and we talk about it. And we're right smack dab in the middle of the most exciting time of the year. As you can tell from Dan's general energy level, most exciting time of the year. Shoktober where we watch shockingly scary movies. Yeah, if you couldn't tell Elliot when I got here, Dan was passed out on his bathroom floor just wearing his cowboy boots. I had a dust him off, put his hat on, shoving full of steroids and push them out on stage.

Oh boy, we call that an interspace. Yeah. When you're just wearing underpants and cowboy boots. Oh, wait, hold on there, Elliot. I didn't say nothing about underpants. Oh, hi. You thrust me on a stage wearing nothing but my cowboy boots. Two hot TV guys.

Well, thank God we're on the podcast waves. Then yeah, what's what's weird is that you put you shoved him out on stage for a TED talk. Yep. And very difficult to do those when you're not wearing pants for the obvious reason that your TED talk was about the importance of pants. Yeah. And the audience was very unhappy, mainly because they expected to see Teddy Ruxpin The ultimate Ted talk How many people you think go to those things and just like walk away, I fucking pissed because they're like there was no talking bear

I'm gonna put that number in the low once I'm gonna underestimate as hard as possible with that number. But maybe someone, but you're still saying above zero, which means my speculation actually works. I'm going to take a quick moment before we talk about this episode's bad movie to mention a Teddy Ruckspin related story that my wife was taking my son to the Autry Museum here in Los Angeles, which is a great museum of the American West. and they used to have an exhibit about toys that was up, like temporary exhibit. And one day, they didn't realize when they went that the voice of Teddy Ruxpin was going to be there, ostensibly promoting the new Teddy Ruxpin doll, but he was making

like a personal appearance. And she said there were a bunch of guys in like their early 20s. So kind of too young to really have a Teddy Ruxpin doll when they were kids who knew everything about Teddy Rucks fan and we're like peppering this guy with very specific questions about Teddy Rucks. And it opened up a whole new world of fandom that I didn't even know existed. That's great. I just want to know what these sorts of questions were. I'm sure Daniel approached these young man and we're like, Hey, would you like a babysitting job? I have two children that you probably will do horrible.

I'm just joking. I'm not wanting to ride Teddy Rucksman fans. Oh, no, but you're fine making a joke about horrible things happening to my children. Well, let's talk about horrible things happening to children in the movie. Friend request. Friend request. Friend request.

So, Dan, tell us. This is Shocktober and we watched Scary Movies Why. Why this month in particular? Halloween? That's pretty. That's self-evident. You know what? I feel bad that October gets totally judged by this one holiday.

He's like, I'm scary for one day and suddenly I'm the scary month. You know what? You know what? You don't call April tax month and that's pretty scary. is one holiday. He's like, I'm scary for one day, and suddenly I'm the scary month. You know what? You know what, you don't call April tax month, and that's pretty scary, am I right? We don't call July Independence Month. And that's scary for, I guess, the people who lived here before the columnist came in.

So how come, why am I just the scary month? And what would you say to October to kind of make him feel better? I'd be like, I'd be proud of the whole. I'd be like, just chill out, dude. What's wrong? What crawled up your button died? I mean, October, I feel like October is leading the pack

when you, you know, in informal polls of everyone's favorite month, I feel like October is always right up there. So I think that October should just get over a fucking self, all right? Wow, that was very, you're, it felt like you were really puffing them up and then you brought some tough love at the end. Yeah, it sounds like we both,

we met vinegar with more vinegar on that. Yeah. And the flies were like, no, thank you. So, okay, this movie, Friend Request, this is a movie that I'm just gonna say right off the bat, Dan and I have a disagreement about how much this movie is similar to the last movie we did, film house's Truth or Dare.

But you audience, you be the judge. Hey, we report, you decide. So let's, let's do we just dive into friend request. Sure. The totally original story of a story we've never seen before. I didn't say that. And that's clearly cobbled together from a bunch of work.

Dan thinks of this story, sprung whole cloth out of Zeus's skull. Dan was like, how did I ever before seen? Dan was like, how come everybody was going on and on about get out when friend request is really the original horror story of the of the decade. But you'll be the judge. And so we open and let's specify there's like a zillion fucking friend requests, right? Yeah. Yes, this there's like a zillion fucking friend requests, right? Yeah. Yes. This, there's like five movies on, on IMDB with the same name.

So which one, which one did we fucking watch? We watched the one that came out in 2017. That's the easiest way to, this is the one it was, I think a German production in South Africa, this shot in South Africa, but they did it in English because the actors were English. And so that's, I'm gonna look up, it's directed by Simon Verhoeven, who is the son of a director named Verhoeven,

but not Paul Verhoeven, who is not German, but is what Dutch? Yes. So, and it's the one that stars Alicia Devnam Carey, and a bunch of other people. Uh-huh, okay, that's, so just look for a movie that stars a bunch of other people. Uh-huh, okay. That's, uh, so just look for a movie that starts a bunch of other people. Let's start.

So this movie is not cheap at all. Why? Which has one cash star. Alicia Debtah and Harry. She's on TV, right? I have no idea. Probably, uh, isn't, there's somebody in there named William Mosley,

and I was, I had him confused with Bill Mosley from the Rob Zombie movies. That's that. Yeah. It's very different. It's not that guy. Yeah. He's on TV too. So anyway, so it's the 2017 frame or, uh, or, well, 2016 came out in America in 2017, friend request, uh, from entertainment studios. According to Wikipedia, from you'll like this movie studios. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that.

I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not a fan of that. student, a classmate of theirs, Marina.

The thing for me is I'm like, is this guy a student or a teacher because he's fucking cool with his leather jacket, right? I mean, but he's clearly in his 50s or 60s. So unless this is a back to school type scenario, or I don't know, he didn't, I couldn't take my eyes off that jacket, guys. Okay.

Well, a teacher, a cool psychology teacher in the leather jacket and an accent, which I'm guessing is German, tells a bunch of students that their, their classmate Marina committed suicide and uploaded a video of it via webcam to the school's servers and that anyone caught sharing that video will be suspended. And we zoom in tight on the face of one student in particular, Laura Woodson, who is shocked by the news. Flashback to two weeks earlier as the titles tell us where we're introduced to Laura. She is your average Brunette college student.

She leads a very active social media life. She leads a very Brunette life. Yeah, I mean, she does lead a very Brunette life in that she does, in movies like this, Brunette's the ones who do community service. And, you know, have, and have, I don't know, boyfriend. She goes jogging, jogging. does lead a very brunette life in that she does in movies like this brunette to the ones who do community service. Yeah. And, you know, have and have, I don't know, boyfriend. She does jogging jogging.

And she loves jogging. Her main character point that we know is that she loves jogging. It's meant she posts. It means that she's like running to something. She's got a goal in sight and she's trying to get running or running from something. Wow. That's the duality of jogging. Yeah. Perhaps the, she is running, she posts at one point

that her dad would be, you know, such in such a years age if he was alive today. So just like in a Truth or Dare, a movie that this is nothing like, there's a brunette and a blonde and one of the two women has a dead dad. But that's not really a plot point. It never comes up again. It's almost like they just put it in to be like

Blumhouse's Truth or Dare. It is kind of important, though, for the listeners at home that have that spreadsheet that they're filling out. That is similarities with Blumhouse's Truth or Dare, or, uh, or not the Venn diagram. Yeah. For anyone playing Shocktober 2018 Bingo at home,

that's when you want to put a piece on. And she's very popular. She has 840 Facebook friends. More than that, it's crazy. So. That's a lot. And did you, did you, you got your, your, your friend told on Facebook so you can make Laura look stupid?

I don't have it ready right now. Let's do it. I want you to cook that up. I'll cook it up for you guys. Okay. And you got your classic friend group. There's Brunette girl, blonde girl, and other girl. And each of them has a boyfriend. There's Brunette girl, blonde girl and other girl

and each of them has a boyfriend. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's, yeah. And, but one day in class, and they live in, they live in like a nice what on campus housing type situation. I can't tell if it's a dorm. I think they're in an apartment that's slightly off campus.

That's my guess. Because when we see, when we see campus housing later, there's a single, which is very hard to get at least at the school I went to NYU singles were highly coveted Uh, and they share it's three of them and I think they might mention rent at one place I'm I'm not sure maybe there's maybe it's just a really nice dorm apparently We shot at the University of South Africa, which looks really nicely appointed. Yeah Okay, but there's this new there's this new classmate. I mean, outside of the inevitable

deaths, it seems like a great school to go to. And they're like weirdly harsh social media rules. I mean, to be fair, they are trying to protect people from posting videos of suicides. So I understand why they don't want students doing that. But they are supernatural suicides, right? We'll get to that. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. Natural suicide. Oh, the suicide was supernatural. It was all biodegradable.

Yeah. It was all, there were no chemicals involved. Anyway, I mean, we shouldn't be meant to. Should we upfront talk about this movie deals with suicide fairly flippantly, and we're going to make jokes, but we, I don't know, we don't think it's a silly subject at all. Yeah, I mean, well, that's, all. I mean, they're not real suicides because they're being forced on them by... Yeah, demonic force.

And one of them is part of a magical ritual. So we can say that we would say that this is not really a movie about suicide, as we'll find out. But we also, I think Stuart, that's a good point to make that we don't want to make light of that. That's a terrible thing. And I think we're on the record previously as expressing our own sensitivity about it. So let's, we won't get into that too much. So let me explain. And we're now, I've been trying to get into, I think, minute seven of the movie. And I'll,

and I'll try, I'd like to plow forward and introduce the villain of the piece, Marina, or as she puts it on her Facebook page, Ma Space, Rina, which makes no sense. She's a star wars character, right? Yeah, I guess so. And she's one of these dark, brooding girls, which you know because she wears a hoodie. Because in this movie, hoodie becomes the supernatural language

for possessed by a demon or evil. Just like in Blumhouse's Truth or Dare, where someone who's playing Truth or Dare and a demon possessed them is also wearing a hoodie when they weren't wearing a hoodie before. So mark that on the bingo board. Anyway, she sends a friend request to Laura and Laura investigates her face for page. She's a very talented animator and artist, but her work has a certain timburtany sensibility. Let's just say. Well, it's more has a certain Tim Burtony sensibility. Let's just say. Well, it's more like, yeah, the ring sensibility. Yeah, I guess it's, yes, it's like a whole Facebook full of the rings or like, maybe she's

just really big on the, on the quay brothers animation. Yeah, and I love it. It like, that's a pretty well curated Facebook page like, there is literally nothing on there that doesn't fit that theme. She's very on message and maybe that's why she has zero friends on her Facebook. Yeah, putting all this work into putting these all like I feel like she would have to actively like weed out bots and shit if she wanted to stay at zero friends. Yeah, every day she checks for bots trying to sell sunglasses to her or sway her vote and

then she has to remove them. So her friend Laura's friends think Marina's weird and Marina has put up a cartoon specifically of a dream She had about a spooky woods where there's a mirror attached to a tree Ooh and Laura's in treat and she talks to Marina and they become friends. You know what? She accepts that friend request Seems like a nice thing to do but as we learned from no good deed, no good deed goes unpunished.

Even though, that's what I walked away with. Except even though in that movie, it was actually not a good deed that would punish, but in fact, a plan ahead of time to hurt a specific person. Which one was, which one was no good deed? With Idris Elba, where the woman lets Idris Elba into her home to use her phone and

he was that just taking the nap. Sir was that obsession. No obsession was the one where at where Idris Elba is married to Beyoncé and is it Ali Larger is trying to steal him from Beyoncé. Yeah, and her arm's grow super long. Even at the time it seemed it seemed weird, but now the very idea of a movie where someone is married from Beyoncé and another woman is like yeah I think I can pull them away. From the level of hubris is astounding.

That is a real your arm's a two short to box with God scenario. I mean which I guess is I mean Jay Z is not from what I remember from the gossip trades is not particularly faithful so maybe I'm overestimating, but anyway. So, and if I'm wrong, I don't assume you for defamation. I got that from a blind item. It said, what one letter last named rapper was it with, was seen not with his queen of a wife? It's like, I don't know who this could be.

So anyway. Kot Kanutling. No one is ever Kanutling and not Kot. So I guess if you don't want to get caught don't canoeedle, you know Yeah, it's the other way. The alliteration is just too tempting for writers and But she she befriends Marina, but Marina keeps bugging Laura upon very much intended because later Marina is surrounded by clouds of wasps all the time Okay, Marina just keeps bothering her.

She comments on everyone on Laura's post. She's photoshopping herself into pictures of Laura, which is weird. And they look at Marina's older posts. Again, like we said, there's all these ringy-outite videos everywhere. You got your satanic scarred pregnant bellies, you got corpses, you got feet stepping on dolls heads, the whole kit end caboodle canoodle. Yeah, and there's later on, we realize,

she has pictures of swollen was, wasp stung, child corpses that were like kids she magically killed. Yes. Like that's wild, dude. Angie threw it through like a black and white filter. Yeah. Yeah, the filter worked. But two, let's just say we all know that Facebook has not been keeping up to its terms

of service and the rules on what is allowed and what's not allowed on. It's like, they're like, well, we want to kick off Marina's video of kids, mutilated kids that she killed, but we also want to be a platform for free speech. And who were we to judge what's acceptable speech or not? That's Facebook. Yep, they're like, something happened. You've got filled with all these creepy pics.

What an amazing and Facebook algorithm was just like, yeah, sure, why not? Let's just throw it out there. And suddenly everyone's mom was getting, it was getting these videos in their feeds. That are, as we mentioned, very well animated. Oh, yeah, there, she, I mean, she has real talent. That's the thing.

She's at the wrong school. She should be at like Cal Arts. She should be at like RISD, maybe Savannah. Like, she would be very well accepted there. I don't know why she's at the school for kids who like to party and jog. It doesn't make sense. Because she's not gonna get invited to those parties,

such as Laura's birthday party. Her friends tell her, why'd you invite Maria and her birthday party? You should disinvite her. And Laura's like, I'm not actually gonna have a party but Marina knows that's a lie because someone posts about it on Facebook well well well seems your best friend Facebook has become your greatest betrayer or a voice on your own face card and

Maria somehow I do like the party it's the like classic teens having the like we're gonna live forever party and you're like Oh you guys are gonna live forever. There's the guy who there's the classic his name is Gustavo He's the chubby jockey friend and he's like you know what to us and to our great futures and to our wonderful careers And to Laura. You're the best and we're gonna be friends for yet. Literally is that they're all and Laura's mom is there and she's acting like she loves being around Laura's friends. And I just have to imagine she's like, oh, these kids, they're so irritating. Yeah, I do like that the mom is introduced

with very little fanfare. Like, almost something like the mom's there. I thought it was, there was a lot, someone just says, I'm trying to get your mom drunk like before you got here. And I was like, wait, what? And then a couple of shots later, you see a woman who looks slightly older than them.

And it's like, oh, that's her mom. Yeah, that was weird. Like I didn't know I did what was going on. Guys, I think I could be a Gustavo. Yeah. I think so. Well, that's your best. I think I'm settling into the more the Gustavo

than the Ron Ron member. I accidentally hope so. I don't know. I always thought a Gustavo Ron. Do you think Ron Ron's as the story. I accidentally hope so. I don't know. I always thought it was a Ron Ron. Do you think Ron runs as they age naturally become Gustavo's? Yeah, I guess that's probably the natural lifespan of like a party dude side character. Yeah.

Uh, now so, and I will leave unsaid the similarities between Ron Ron and Gustavo, because as we've mentioned, truth or dare and friend requests very different movies that are not at all similar. So. Ron Ron was a character for the agents, my friend. Gustavo did not know furrowed. So did not even.

I think I saw him do his brain. There was no. I did not even register Gustavo. I mean, also the fact that Gustavo, I didn't realize this name until much later when after he dies and someone calls him Gustavo, I was like, oh, okay, but Ron Ron, I knew who he was right off the bat. It was like, how do you not know, Ron Ron? What a character.

So everyone gives a dumb speech, but Marina is watching sadly from outside. She's mad. Is she covered in wasps at this point? No, she's still discovered in a hoodie. Okay. And the darkness of her loneliness. Yep. So she accosted Laura in what the dining hall, and they get into an argument. And Laura shoves her, which Jocelyn's, Marina's hood revealing what that she's missing

hair. Now, this is something I couldn't, I didn't track. Did she push her so hard all her hair fell out? No, that's not what happened. I don't think that's not what happened. Don't think that's what the movie was trying to get across. I think the movie was implying that either she tears her own hair out out of anxiety or has some kind of hair loss thing because later her victims start to tear their hair out.

But this is something that like I didn't quite notice when I first watched it and I had to figure it out later, like, oh, that's what happened there. And Marina, Laura feels bad, but her friends are like, just don't talk to her anymore. And Marina starts sending Laura tons of creepy apologetic messages like, please, I'm sorry. Ah, come on, be friends. I love you, be friends forever.

And I mean, she's exhibiting behavior somebody that has, I don't know, that could you need some help? Yeah, I would, as someone, but I could sympathize with Laura a little bit here, as someone who often has trouble not responding to people who either want to be friendly or communicate and then later find myself being like, I don't really have a lot in common with this person. This is not someone who's really a friend of mine, but I feel anxious when I don't get back in touch with them relatively quickly and like, but it's just adding stress to my life.

So I'm just going to say, Laura, you're not a good person as ret seen by what happens in the movie, but I sympathize with the hard situation you got put in. Marina's sending Laura all these apologetic messages. It's really harsh. And Laura starts hallucinating the things from Marina's cartoons. And then we're back to the first scene and we get the news that Marina has taken her own life terrible and that everybody, but we also learned that she somehow all of her personal information has been deleted from the school's day.

And nobody found her body. So. And I feel like we end up seeing that video later and it, you know, it looks like a homemade video. And based on her quality of work up to this point, I would it like, I would assume that this was not a like, that this was just a video. Like it doesn't actually, I don't know, it doesn't actually look like a film suicide. No, it looks like a, it looks like a produced

kind of amateur horror movie video. And it's, it just seems weird that with nobody or and that's the only evidence, it seems weird that the police immediately are, I don't know. Well, as shown by the level of quality of the police in this film, I believe it because the police are terrible in this movie and they basically just keep going up to the the college students being like, hey, so you're going to tell us what's going on now?

Because I do like, I do like the second detective who is like the sassyest guy who it feels like right before the movie he watched uh street fire the legend of Chun Li and he's like, I'm going to be the next Chris Kai. I guess so there's a great moment later on I'll just skip ahead to where he is making it very clear on the phone that he does not want Chinese food for dinner. When he should be watching the person who's in danger being attacked by a demon and he's just he's just saying no not Chinese. Not not Chinese. No, not Chinese, not Chinese. Okay, we can have Chinese. And it's like, you know, he walked in and realized, like, guys, I know what

I'm going to say on the phone during the scene. It feels like an actor workshopped moment. But I just love it. He's literally just saying it to the phone. No, not Chinese. No, not, no, not Chinese. I don't want Chinese. Now, now you had mentioned that, Laura had been hallucinating some images, like some images from the videos that Marina had made. Yes. And all of these hallucinations and dreams

she have follow the same pattern that is kind of set up by an earlier moment in the movie where she has given a video of a cute kitten by her friend and then the cute kitten immediately turns into a monster thing. And that's basically the template for this whole movie. Like every single scare is normal, normal, normal, up gross thing. Yeah. It's tons of jump scares where it's like, yeah, walking around, walking around, looking

at a wall, mutilated face. So if walking around, walking around if walking around, walking around. So I appreciate the movie has that. Something comes out of you. I appreciate that the movie has that statement of purpose right up front and then you're like, basically, that's like a, if you're, you have to be this tall to ride this ride type thing.

Like, if you can handle this scare, so you can handle the rest of this. You think it was a subtle commentary. You think that they're like, we're gonna put in a literal cat scare at the beginning to signal to the audience what they're in for. Cat scare, I've never heard of that, Dan, what's that? Well, that's when you have,

you need the doctor sends you in for further scare tests and if they send you to get a cat scare. Okay. I thought it was when you thought that maybe you're pregnant with a cat briefly. Oh yeah, we've all been there. Luckily, yep, that's a scene from deleted scene from sleepwalkers. Yeah, that's right. Or cat people. Okay, so sorry for the discussion. Or Oliver in company. Sort of. So, no, Stuart, I'm glad you mentioned that

because I actually did, I forgot about that scene and did not make that connection, that the movie is literally like, hey, we're gonna do this. We don't have any other ideas. So Marina somehow sends Laura another message. But as we all know, she's dead dead even though they didn't find her body And it's a burning picture of Laura. This is this is the video

She's burns a picture of Laura then hangs herself over the fire and I guess catches on fire And they try to delete the video, but an unknown error occurs They can't do it and then the Facebook page starts posting it to Laura's page and tagging all of her friends Ah, and they're all commenting like, why would you do this? That's sick, stop this, don't do this. Everyone's really taking the time to write comments. And I think that's part of the social age

is that people finally have the time to make comments on videos that they don't like rather than just turning them off. They can write, hey, gross, don't do that. Unfriend me, I don't like this. Yeah, they take a break from commenting positive things over at the Garfield fan page, which the official Garfield Facebook page that posts a picture of Garfield every day and like thousands of people make comments that are like,

I love Garfield or that's too much lasagna. So they'll take a break from doing that to go comment on this horrible video. Stuart, I think you say that as if you're not part of that model. I have to believe you are. It's it's probably my favorite corner of the internet, to be honest. Yeah. Now what are your feelings on Garfield's feelings about spiders? Well, wait, what? I don't know anything about this. Oh, it's one of his lesser known traits. Garfield's feelings about spiders. Wait, what? I don't know anything about this. Oh, it's one of his lesser known traits.

Garfield. Okay, hate spiders. He's always smashing on the back. That's on the backside of his rosemaking. Yeah. Yeah. So everyone knows, front hates Mondays, loves lasagna, questionably overweight since he's gotten slimmer as the years have gone on.

Really? Which is really, if anything, it's a positive example to all of us that we're not stuck in the body we're in. We can be proud of the body we're in, but if we want to change it for some reason, we can change it. Just look at Garfield. He's a cat.

I don't know. He's somehow, he's gone from overweight to just slightly pleasingly plumb. You know, society might not like my nice thick Garfield, but I love him. I remember every idea I'd be a body of a cat. I remember as a teen I was being made fun of my friends because I liked thicker Garfields.

What a dumb thing that was. But now I want to go on that Garfield page and do that every day and just be like, watch out, normal, he looks like he's got mischief on his mind. So I think it's so. Okay. She's losing, but she's losing friends. Are you gonna fuck a tag Nermal in that account? Because if not, you're like, come on, dude, you got to let him know. So, yeah, Laura's friend count starts dropping and it leads to the best line in the movie,

I think, or one of the two best lines. This is from her blonde friend who says, unfriend that did bitch. But she can't do it. Facebook won't let her unfriend it. Also should have been the title of the movie. Yeah. We didn't mention that this movie was another country that was titled unfriended,

like the movie that we watched. I think last year, the one that all a better movie. Computer desktop. Oh, definitely. I would say that was a, I didn't love that movie, but still a much better movie than this. Yes. Yeah, it's very, it was called unfriended in other countries, which is a lateral move

from friend request. I have to say, I mean, this 100% should have been called delete your account, right? Yeah. Yeah. It seems to me the overwhelming chance over the other, like the middle third of the movie. But she can't delete her account. She even calls tech support, although the guy on the phone says to her, this is not the call center. So I don't know who she's calling. Dr. Bird. Like it. Ma'am, this is just like I can't help you at all.

She's like, Zucks, I'm having trouble with your Facebook page. Can you, can you undo it? And he's like, do you mean to call Zuckis, the Star Wars bounty hunter? And she's like, no, you mark Zuckerberg. Oh, people call me Markie Berg. I'm sorry, no one calls me Zucks. Yes, what's the problem? Yeah, yeah.

Zuckerberg's, I think we can all agree that Zuckerberg's more of a foreland than a Zuckis, right guys. Oh boy, it's he ever. Oh, spin for good. But meanwhile, it's he ever. Oh, spit it for you. But meanwhile, Elon Musk more of a dengar. I guess actually of all those guys, Steve Mann and would be the dengar. He's the guy could mostly just wearing soiled like scarves

wound around his head. So anyway, Laura goes for help to this guy, Kobe, who I couldn't tell if he was like her ex-boyfriend or just a guy who had a crush on her. He doesn't see people like my boyfriend. Or just, yeah, the best beef you can get. Yeah. Good beef.

And he, but he's a computer hacker, of course. You can tell because he's got hand tattoos. He has, and he has a neck tattoo too, right? Which means maybe he is a chef. How it be probably is. And he is still holding a torch for Laura, right? Yes, yeah, he's still has a thing for Laura. So going to him, you know, that's the last thing

she wants to do, but she needs his help. So he has to. I don't know. Maybe she likes being around him. I mean, everything about her voice, physical appearance, when she's near him, the way she her body language, her attitude says the opposite that she does not like to be around him. Okay, maybe I was paying too close attention to the close captions rather than the images on the screen. Well, I think you just saw this guy with tattoos and you're

like, this guy looks cool. Okay, maybe he's the Ron Ron of the movie. Although to be honest, I recognize that actor because he played like a a petulant young man on the television show Revenge, where he spent most of the most of the show like complaining that nobody wants him to date this much richer younger woman. And so I don't know, I've kind of carried that that negative feeling into this movie. I don't know if that's kind of carried that negative feeling into this movie. I don't know if that's right. Maybe I did it wrong.

What do you guys think? I mean, you can't, I mean, it's part of, I guess, classical Hollywood film theory that when you see an actor in a role, you carry with them your memories of all their previous roles. It's the things that would allow someone like Carrie Grant or Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney or Catherine Hepburn or Barbara Stanwick to build a persona larger than what she's given or he or she is given to her. Ernest from the Ernest from the Ernest movies exactly. That's literally the same character so it's not the same thing at all. Literally well well Elliott. It's kind of the ultimate in that example I think. Not at all. They literally follow from one movie to the next.

That's why every earnest movie, there's a mid-credit sequence where Samuel Jackson tells him where he needs to go next. Guess what? Guess what? You're going to be scared, stupid motherfucker, and the next to the camera goes, what? And then it says to be continued, you know? And then all the guys in the theater

explain to their dates, what just happened? Or some of the girls explained to their dates. Yeah, I know. Of course. The girls can be nerds too, Stuart, team comments. I mean, I think I was mainly making a mansplaining joke to mansplaining my joke to you. But I didn't get it. So what you're describing, Elliot, is probably the reason every time I see an ad for this is us pop up on my television. It brings me back to watching Gilmore Girls and seeing Milo ventomiglia playing Jess, the worst character in the history of television.

And then I throw an old boot through the TV screen, and I go, I'm fucking TV. And then you look at the camera. And then you look at the camera. You're looking at somebody old boots around. Yeah. Well, he then then still looks at the camera and says, I lose more TVs that way. Yep. Somebody should keep those boots out of arms for me.

That reminds me of when I was a little kid and my and I got like really, we're just in a store one. I know. I think what I love is one memory, Daisy chaining to the next. Stuart, what's next? What I was, what I was a kid, I like through a tangentment broke something.

My parents were like, so next time, how can we keep this from happening? And I was like, well, maybe keep stuff out of my reach. What a man. Oh, what an asshole. What an idiot. Not the answer they were looking for. So Kobe hacks into Marina's account, which is still active. And he sees all this morphing occult symbols. And he goes, this isn't even

code. I don't know what this is. It looks like Matrix code, but it's all like Satan letters. It looks like the screensaver that my buddy Porter used to have running on the screen while he was downloading trance albums and like bootleg anime. I just love that when we've got witchcraft going on here, but for some reason witchcraft still needs to use some kind of code. Well, it's crazy witch code, but it still exists. There's still a source code. Well, as Warren Ellis might say, magic is just the cheat code for reality. So it's even...

Sounds like a real asshole to me. Yeah, we're not. I mean, as we say that at like a bar. I mean, he's he bright typed it at a bar onto his mobile device, which he needed to tell everybody about how amazing it was. Now, that's a specific reference to Warren Ellis's old mailing list, where he would talk at incredible lengths about how amazing his mobile devices were back when people didn't all have cell phones that had data plans. Anyway, I guess magic is also just a programming language in a software code, but you make a good point, Dan.

It's stupid. So, but then one of Laura's friends, the aforementioned Gustavo, he's the next victim. He finds a room or the first victim. He finds a room full of weird baby dolls and flies and multi-stays. Why do you think Gustavo was targeted to be the next victim. He finds a room or the first victim. He finds a room full of weird baby dolls and flies and multi-faceted. And why do you think he's targeted to be the first victim? Do you think he was the best of them all? It's one of those things where in real life,

you think Marina would strike at the person who would most affect Laura. Because what she wants is for Laura to feel alone. So you think that she would first attack the person that would have the most impact on Laura. Or maybe she would start small and get bigger, but that seems unlikely. But I think because in the movie, you kill off the least important character and also the one who has like any sort of personality, you know, you kill off the joky one first because they're the least important to the rest of the movie usually. But much the same way that in Avengers Infinity War, I had a real issue with Thanos'

battle plan because it opened by sending hordes and hordes of foot soldiers out and then they followed it up with these enormous war machines that could just roll over opposing armies. Go on. Dude, that's not what you do. You send out your big metal first to really kill as many as you can, then you send out the foot soldiers, not once they've been softened up, but in a movie, you have to heighten. So you can't do that way.

You have to heighten the threads. Do you think maybe it was also Thanos was just trying to show off how little regard he holds as foot soldiers in? And he's just like, I got zillions of these turds. He can kill as many as you want. Maybe. It's like that moment in Braveheart where he where they go, should we shoot more arrows? Arrows cost money sending the soldiers.

Now that's a real Thanos, the king of England. He was the original Thanos. That's the real Thanos. Hey. You're well, isn't it? All you need to know is that Gustavo goes into an elevator, the power goes out, and then Laura's friend Isabel. This is the non-Lora or blonde friend. This is just the other friend.

This is Gustavo's girlfriend, right? And Gustavo's girlfriend opens the elevator door and sees Gustavo slamming his head against the walls until his head is just a bloody pulp. Isabel is sent to the hospital with, I guess, a case of being very afraid. It's never quite clear why she's in the hospital, but with I guess a case of being very afraid. It's never quite clear why she's in the hospital, but she's like, Laura, you know who killed him. And guess what? Some prankster posts the video of Gustavo's death onto Laura's Facebook page,

and everyone's like, Laura, why do you keep doing this? He's just like this. And they also realized that Marina, who is still operating on Facebook, friended Gustavo right before he died. That's right, yeah. Which I would think at this point would lend more credence to the idea that she hadn't committed suicide yet.

Yes, but they immediately jumped the idea of her being kind of a ghost or a witch. Now, I mean, she does have that crazy magic code so that that backs up that idea. I assume that Gustavo accepted the friend request because he saw it said Marina and he was like, I love the water. I love to be at the shore.

I love boats. Yes, I would love to friend request. That sounds great. He remembers back to his, he remembers back to his spring break on Crete and the Mediterranean waves in his face. He's like, I bet I get 10% off of Katamaran rentals if I'm a friend of the marine on Facebook.

So yes, a thousand times, yes, I will, yes, yes, I accept your friend request a thousand times, yes, make me the happiest friend in the world. And then they have a Facebook marriage, and it's beautiful. Laura gets suspended from school because everyone's like, Laura, stop posting these videos here, Paige.

And she's like, I didn't do it. I don't know. And then secretly they're assuming that she turns around and looks at the camera and says, ain't I a stinker? But that that that that that that that that that that that that. So the Kobe tells Marina, oh, it tells Laura, oh, Marina's pictures of wasps everywhere. And legend says that wasps follow witches around.

Now guys, I'm not a witchologist. Is this true? Dan, you're a student of the Mystic Arts. Do wasps follow witches around? Because I know they have familiar, like I cats often follow witches around. The wasps? Yeah, I've never heard this one.

I mean, you often hear of demons having flies buzzing around them, you know, to indicate rot, but I don't think that wasps are a thing. I mean, there are thing in the world. I mean, you've got a wasp nest in your home. Like, don't take my advice and think, oh, they're not a thing and just allow them to sing you like you got to get that thing out of there. Now I imagine Dan you watching the movie and you see a wasp and you're like what is this bizarre Dr. Susical creature? It's bottom is much larger than it's top. Now here's an imaginary beast and where to find it. Now does this explain why if they're always following by wasps, does this explain why those witches are always at Martha's Vineyard?

Okay, I get it. Whoa, wow. Get it? Get it to different kind of wasps. It's okay, I can make that joke. I'm Jewish. So anyway, they investigate, they investigate Marina's dorm room and all this stuff and they find out that she was a word of the state who was sent to some kind of boarding

school where she was a loner who would often just spend time exploring the dark web and staring at her own reflection in the computer screen. And these other kids, the other kids, she said, they said, hey, she's giving us nightmares and they beat two boys, beat her up. And they were found later dead with faces mutilated by wasps things. And guys, did it make you feel as old as it made me feel that they can say, oh yeah, when she was a little girl, she was investigating the dark corners of the internet. Because when I was a little boy, we did not have that.

And it made me feel very old that she had it when she was a girl. I did not think about it, but that does make me feel old. Well guys, it's easy to forget that when you're younger, that even though we might look back on that time as like an idyllic paradise, it actually had some dark corners, you know that when you're younger that even though like we might look back on that time as like an idyllic paradise It actually had some dark corners, you know, and it's good things that it's a good thing that friend requests kicks over those rocks And we realized that you know back in the day there was a dark web

Yeah true, but it was all geocities and angel fire sites took them very long to load Uh-huh, but when you when it load at oh boy gross Watch out she was always on the on the on the witchcraft to news groups So the computer hacker he does some more research about dark mirror occult turns out there's a ritual where I do like that when he's I do like that when he's googling black mirror It does one of the autofill options is like black mirror season three or one of the autofill options is like Black Mirror Season 3. Oh yeah, that's pretty cool. That's a little bit of realism.

I think one of the pictures that he finds in his research that's supposed to be a science, I think it's from one of Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabusa movies. So somebody I guess was having a little bit of fun there with German filmmaking. I assume that was director of a hoven being like, hey, he's a little Easter egg for the real German cineast

for the fans of Deutsche Film. So, Deutsche Kino. But the finds that there was a ritual where you got revenge on people by killing yourself, hanging yourself in front of a mirror over a fire and you turn into a demon. And as soon as he learns this, all the screens in the computer lab go nuts

and the lights go out and he's like, ah, ah, ah, and the scene ends with a friendly silent janitor who does not understand what this crazy kid is up to, walks in. This janitor, favorite character in the movie, just going to tell you guys this. He appears in just this one scene and he says more with his like, come on, what's this, what's this nonsense? Look at the kid that anyone else does. It's more acting in that one moment than anyone else has in the whole movie.

Yeah, I just love that character. Yeah, it's it's it's that kind of like side character who gets almost no lines big laugh like the like the the hotel made in Ghostbusters. It's the same kind of performance. Or the scene and it's a mad, mad, mad world where the plane is flying around and they go, they go, it might crash, get the fire department and or something like, oh, the firemen are here and you pan over and you just see that the firemen are the three stooches and they don't say anything and they do not appear again in the movie. And every time I've seen that, that's the biggest laugh in the entire film is just like, because you know who the three stooches are.

Uh-oh, this is going to be trouble. They're going to be good firemen. Thousands will be killed, probably from their antics. It's like that thing you're talking about how once you see Ernest in one movie, every time you see Ernest in another movie, it just builds on the like the soupy flavor of a delicious Ernest performance.

It's similar because the three stooges do play basically the same characters, but it's not exactly the same as what I was saying earlier. We're just talking about an actric carrying a persona from one role to the next, so that when you watch a movie with Humphrey Bogart, even if the movie doesn't do a great job of building his personality, you already know it from his previous roles. It imputes it with a greater strength, almost like a bullia bass or a sauce that's been reduced for many, many years. But yeah, no, Ernest and the three-stuages, actually, this janitor is kind of like if Ernest P. Whirl

was a real person, like that's kind of the look I get from it. And I know, I'm like, I'm like a real cartoon character, yeah. I know Jim Varnie was a real person, but like he was playing it as a crazy character. He was an, I thought he was animated. I mean, yeah, he was, he was on MoCAP, yeah. Yeah.

I didn't know what you were saying. No, I was trying to work in some joke about the importance of being earnest in here, but I don't think it, uh, I don't think it worked. Uh, Viva Variety beat you to that by almost 20 years, Dan. Well, it beat me to a lot of things. Elliot. Do you remember they did that bit where they had Jim Varnie and it was the importance of being earnest with Jim Varnie and it talked about, and they're all talking about this rascal earnest. But they're all talking about it as if it's a yeah. And he's he's teaching someone I say know what I mean, Vern, I think. Okay. So then Marina goes after Isabella in the hospital, sends all her regular goons, the pregnant corpse, kids with no faces. Yeah. Isabelle kills herself. Does that video get posted

on Laura's Facebook feed? You know it, but she's already been suspended from school. Now at this point, and at this point, the law she's in the hospital, Isabella's running around, obviously scared. And her face is constantly mascara street. And I feel like it's taking place over a cup. This is taking place over a day or so. Like why does she keep putting mascara on? Because Stuart, unfortunately, our society judges women even during the hospital in the hospital? Yeah, you're right. On keeping up their appearance that way.

It's unfair, but friend of quest is all about turning a mirror on the unfair things in life, a black mirror, if you will. Oh, it's like a turned off computer. The idea, another great performance that has no dialogue at all is when Isabella's parents finding out that her daughter is dead are walking down the hall and give Laura the bitchiest look.

She deserves, but I don't know if the parents really know why she deserves it. So that Kobe is like, we've got to destroy her black mirror. We need to find her laptop and destroy it. And then the ritual will be over. Of course, Marina goes after Laura's blonde friend. First, the worst thing that she does to any of them, she's printing all of these occult symbols on a black background from Laura's friend's printer. And it's like, you're using up all of her ink. It's a college student. She has to print out term papers.

She's going to end up with those pages that are really like all faded because she doesn't have enough ink for all the letters She's gonna hand that in her psych professor who has already Admonished her for using social media in class is not gonna accept it This is I mean that goes beyond the pale just using up all her ink Dan. How would you react to that? Warly I don't know what you're I don't know what you're teaming me up for here Elliot I'm just saying you're a writer. You understand how important it is to have ink in your printer. Is that a, that sounds like a euphemism or something?

Yeah, speaking of Dan, I have some ground up rhino horn, this will put ink in your printer. Just. So anyway, just end the CGI wasps attack. Oh no. So they learn more about Marina.

She, her mother was an occult whose house burned down. And then they kind of, if I misunderstood, but it kind of made it seem like the mother was killed in the fire, but they kept her on life support until Marina was born, which leads to my other favorite line in the movie. She was alone in the womb for months. As if that was, that's a sinister thing.

When, unless you're a twin, like me, everyone's alone in the womb for nine months. That's how it works. That's how it works, everybody. So should I worry that you two guys are going to attack me because you're so lonely from being in the womb by yourself? Like what is that supposed to mean? She should have invited some friends over.

Is that why you moved? Yeah. Is that why you moved away at it so that we wouldn't attack you if our, our lonely womb rage? I was like, where can I go that has the most twins? So there aren't people who are just going insane from the from the solitary confinement that is the womb. Oh, no. At so

a rage. Of course, what womb rage? Yes. Like the phrase that stood out are lonely womb rage. I think that's an appreciation.

That could be a death metal band, right? The only womb rage. Yeah, that's an appreciation. That could be a death metal band, right? The only Wumrage. Yeah, that's a song. Which reminds me that have you guys ever seen, there's a software movie that's a parody of Tomb Raider that's called Wum Raider. And I think it's very funny because it's not, I think that people think of it as sexy. It's like a womb. That's really weird.

Like most of these titles have like bust in the title, which makes more sense like womb. Do you think? And it makes it sound like you're like someone's stealing a baby from inside a womb. Yeah, that's far right. Yeah, that was the original title of, what was that, the inside, that French.

The inside, yeah. It was womb, right? It was womb, right? That was the French title. And they were like, I don't think this is going to fly in America. So, uh, the blonde friend, oh, no, and Laura's friend count has dropped to 24 by this point, which the movie presents as if it's a really bad thing when it's like, well, a bunch of her friends are dead. So that's worse than her Facebook friend count going

down. Yeah. Yeah. At this point, I don't really care for Facebook friend count has gone down. It's not. It's more in the skull. It'd be one thing if she was maybe like, if her, at no point, other than the fact that she likes to document stuff on Facebook, it never really showed that like having,

having a lot of friends on Facebook was that important to her. Like maybe if she was like one of her things was applying for a job or something where they're like, oh, you need to have a very active social media presence in order to get this job. But like, it's not like tied to her goals or anything, right? Well, but they're trying to like use it, I mean, like, they're trying to use it as an indicator

of real life friendship, which is why I think it would be funny if there was like one friend that she had who didn't use Facebook at all. And like the movie turned into a comedy of just like her trying to like keep this information away from her friend. Or just Marina keeps trying to get that person on Facebook because she can only. Yeah. Yeah. Except her friends are like a fucking American online CD. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, or it could be funny. There's, there's the people that Laura like only like new years ago and doesn't know anymore. And they're like, I guess I'll check out what Laura's up to since high school.

Whoa, whoa. What is she is to? She's Louise. Yeah. Uh, Lauren, oh, then, uh, while Lauren Kobe are, uh are poking around this burned out cult farm, her blonde friend in the hospital, she gets possessed while the cop, as I mentioned before, is talking on his phone about how he does not want Chinese food for dinner. The blonde manages to rest the cops, gun away from him and shoot herself.

And the cops partner gives him a look like, come on, man. Like seriously. It's, it's pretty great. I, I, I got to love these two cops at one point. The second detective was like, so uh, where'd she torch herself? And you're like, really? You asked that. I mean, the it made me want to see a movie that's from the point of view of the of the cops who are trying to figure out something that's going on with a bunch of teens in a hard movie.

And they're like, this we're reaching a lot of dead ends, everybody. You just know teens are dying, but we cannot figure it out. Oh, somebody tell us something. Yeah, these, these two cops with a clear rich inner life based around not wanting Chinese food. Anyway, they want around this cult farm. Laura doesn't say anything spooky while Kobe keeps seeing spooky things. I say, I saw something pretty spooky, a really sick tag that said Satan. That's how you know it's cool. Cause Satan was there when he was a 16 year old and he was like, check this out. He's like, check this out. I've been

really working on my bubble letters. He was going to put in Satan plus Debbie forever, but he ran out of time to go. But it's like an avid and Costello movie almost where she will wander past a hallway and not notice the ghost in it. And then Kobe is like, anyway, Kobe stabs Laura because he says, Hey, if you're dead, then she can't care about killing us to make you lonely anymore. Stabs Laura, but not very well because she runs away and it doesn't seem to affect her that much. Yeah.

And it is. That is 100% the one twist in the movie that I kind of liked. The idea that a guy realizes that he is being spooked and that he is the next on the list to die. So he's like, I, despite the fact that I have feelings for this woman, I care about my life more. So I have to kill her. And I wish that they had played that up a little bit more.

Like they'd played at the tension of this guy's, like, almost Cohen Brothers, he asked, inept murdering of his friend. But, like a desperation. But I mean, I agree that there's just, I feel like there's a seed of an interesting idea in this movie in the villain, the evil spirit, wanting the heroine not dead, but lonely.

And I think that's kind of interesting. And if they didn't tie it to Facebook in such a stupid way it could have been like intriguing horror premise and i like yeah the guy being like well can't make you lonely if you're dead so yeah true i mean isn't death the ultimate loneliness uh... sure i guess i don't know i haven't thought about that much uh... i guess i i guess i'm gonna say that i'm gonna. I mean, don't worry about it. Laura managed to eventually find herself

to the abandoned factory where Mary and Kiel herself, or where Mary and Kiel herself, not Mary, I'm sorry. Where Mary and Kiel died, she gets a frantic call from her mom, who as we can see from all sorts of spooky CGI, video manipulation effects is being be deviled by Mary. I feel like the idea that the call goes down.

I like the idea that only now she's like, oh right, I have a mom. And mom's love Facebook. They do. She's always saying, it's always commenting on the Garfield post. Oh no. Her Dr. Boyfriend shows up,

Kobe stabs him in the neck through the back of the neck, which is pretty impressive. And he's about to kill Laura, but CGI wasps swarm around him and kill him. And Laura's like, what do you want from me? And Marina's ghost, as a little girl, comes up and says,

I want to be best friends forever. And Laura finds Marina's laptop and body, and the laptop is almost beckoning her. And, oh, suddenly she's looking in a mirror in the forest, and it goes jump-sat her, cut to, she's back at college. Wait, who's that creepy sweatshirt figure sitting off to her side being a creepy weirdo? It's Laura, but now her Facebook page is just

La spaceura, like Marina's page. And she's the new, she's been possessed and she is the new Lonely Demon been possessed and she is the new lonely demon. Okay. Because Marina got her revenge or is it the kind of thing where Marina is now doomed to live inside of Laura's body and they've got to like, it's like an all of me type situation. Okay. Okay.

Uh, so what I can't figure out is is Marina's in, is she possessing her body and she is now Marina just in a different body or has Laura been turned into a friendless weirdo like Marina? And like, is the movie saying she is now doomed to have no friends and be into like God's stuff? I mean, that's the great thing about art. It's really up to you to interpret that. Oh, cool. I never thought that art. You say, should I check this out? Yeah, yeah. Just Google art. See what comes up. You know,

Google deviant art. I think you'll like that. So, it reminds me of the time when I was home from college and I had some friends over and my little brother came down and he's like, Hey, guys, do you like art? And we're like, uh, yeah, I guess. And he pulled out his glass of weed pipe and he's like, oh, that's art. Oh, man, it took me sit like my brain just couldn't process. Exactly what was happening.

I mean, was he high? Was that what it was? I mean, was he high? Was that what it was? I mean, probably. Although, that's the, you should have said, actually, that's an example of craft, a very different thing, but related. Thanks, little brother. Anyway, guys, let's get back to what we were doing, playing Duck Hunt, I assume. Yep. Why did, why, I thought that like destroying the mirror or whatever was gonna save Laura

She didn't destroy the mirror like why did she just why didn't she destroy it guys? She was already under the spell of Marina at that point and also at that point Laura has no friends on Facebook Her other friends are dead and her mom so she might be like you know what all Cards on the table before I did not need Marina's friendship, I had plenty of friends, I was a friend rich. But now at the bottom of the barrel, I can't afford to be so choosy. She's got real leverage over me. So, you know what?

Yes, Marina, we will be friends. But I'm being honest, it's only because you have cut me off from all other sources of friendship. So, all cards on the table, do you still want my friendship knowing that I'm only giving it to you out of desperation? And Marinas like, yeah, that was the point, dude. I'll take whatever friendship I could get. I don't care.

And they were like, all right, as long as we're okay with each other, we understand this. We know that our friendship is based on a foundation of me being an outcast because of you. And Marinas like, yeah, outcast, let's be a rap duo. Like this kind of crazy girl and a ghost. Let's do it. And Laura's like, I don't know. But a month later, Laura's like, yeah, let cash. Let's be a rap duo. Like this kind of crazy girl and a ghost. Let's do it. And Laura's like, I don't know.

But a month later, Laura's like, yeah, let's try it out. Sure. Think about their first, their first album, You Be a Ghost. If you with, is this the letter you and B is the letter B? And it's a huge hit. It's a huge hit. Not just because of the novelty of a college age girl and her ghost friend putting out a rap, but because

the beats are super tight. And her language, it just opens up a new world. She's working with rhymes in a way that people just haven't done before. She packs them in so tightly, but then she'll like extend what she's doing into almost a trans vibe. And so it really makes a mark in the hip hop world. And suddenly Laura and Marina, or Lorena, as they they perform under that's their outcast type name. I mean, they have their other personas. Marina is also called like, it's called like Ghost 45

and and that's and Laura's rap name is like, you know, is like, you know, girl gone or something like that, but girls spelled G URL. So they're just blazing up the charts. And it's like, yeah, we finally found our place. And it's ironic. And Marina killing all of Laura's friends gives her a ton of street cred. A ton of street cred. She's been there. She's lived that life.

She's got blood on her hands. So when she wraps about killing people, it's for real. Like people know she's walked the walk. She's from that. And so it really, but brings them together in a way they never thought before. And eventually, they have their arguments. They split up for a little bit and they come back together they have their solo projects and experimental stuff.

Marina gets a little too involved in conservative politics in a way that people has people worried about her sanity for a little bit. Yeah. And then she comes back and they're doing you know it's been a while since they performed and they're like, but they're still friends. And they're like, we've been toured together a long time. Let's do it. Our fans still out there.

It's been years. There's only one way to give it a shot. And the tour is a huge success, a huge hit. It's amazing. And it's a global tour. They're touring for like two years straight. Oh, wow. Yeah.

People are so excited. They're like, we forgot we needed this. We forgot we needed this. And at the end of the final tour, they're on stage. Just playing the hits. Just, I mean, the hits and also like sometimes they're just kind of freestyle. Oh, yeah. And the audience loves it. Like Paul Simon. Just, I mean, the hits and also like, sometimes they're just kind of freestyle, experiment and the audience loves it.

Like, like, pulsing it. Yeah, exactly. Because they're like, you guys skills haven't missed a beat and you've evolved with the times. What you're doing now is so different from what you did when you started, but there's still a continuity of style and taste. And at the end of the concert,

Laura turns to Marina and goes, Marina, we've had our uptimes, we've had our down times. But you know what? You are my friend and you're my best friend. Thank you. And Marina is so overjoyed that she ascends to heaven in what becomes the most viral video in the history

of online videos. And that's the end of a beautiful career. So you're saying that this movie actually had a happy ending? I mean, if you've tacked on my stuff, then yes. Okay. Yeah, that's great. And I like it. She said,

She said, And I like it. She said, And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it.

And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And I like it. And what friends do. And then, yeah, sends to heaven. She came down from heaven for that last part,

and then she ascends back up. I mean, that's, yeah, that scene got a little bulky, but it's okay. It's good. Well, I realized after the fact that I should try to tie in the type of the movie. Yeah. So guys, is this a good, great movie, an amazing bad movie,

or a slinky slonky movie? Oh, what? Oh, yeah, I can raise ours. This a slinky slonky movie. Oh, yeah, I can raise ours. This is slinky slonky, right? This is movie totally terrifying. Uh-huh. Is it totally snorrifying? Sure. Or is it frighteningly funny?

Okay. Uh-uh. Which one is the closest equivalent to slinky slonky? I guess snorrifying. Oh, okay. I mean, to meinky slunky. I guess snorfing. I mean, to me, very Dan, the best way to describe the movie is slinky slunky. That's all right. Well, I guess three slinky slunkies then.

Okay, so guys, if slinky slunky is not an option, thanks Dan. What do you say? I say snorfying. I say, this is between snorfifying and frighteningly funny for me. Like it's not that great. It doesn't drag that much. It goes along pretty fast. And I find it hilarious that it's so rooted in Facebook. A thing that young people, as I understand, don't actually really use that much anymore.

Yeah, they're all about the Instagram now. They've really tied this into this. It's just a fad horror movie and I find those kind of hilarious whenever the horror tries to be like, just tap into like, what's cool and misses it so completely. Yeah, I mean, the thing that keeps it from being frighteningly funny for me is the, I don't know why it bugs me, but the idea of the, I know there's like demons of magic and shit involved, but the idea that like the villain in the movie is this poor woman who, this poor girl who's been like abused and doesn't have friends and is this like, I don't know, artistically talented golf character

who then kills herself is like, like fuck that dude. So I'm gonna say snorifying. Yeah, it's one of these movies where the heroes give you very little to root for them other than the fact that they are attractive and already happy. Yeah, and the villain is, as you're saying, someone who has really, life has been so unkind to them. And they have so much to give the world in the form of their art.

She is, it would be another thing if she was really untalented almost or is like the character, they're looking at her animations are like, she's terrible. These are bad. But it's a weird movie for, I feel like especially for, it reminds me of in Green Lantern, where they're like, Ryan Reynolds is a totally buff,

super hot fighter pilot. And the bad guy he's gonna beat up on is a nerd in a wheelchair. Where it was like, hold on a second. What is this movie telling me? It feels like with this too, where it's like the fans, the people who are gonna watch horror movies

are often the people who would sympathize more, I'm guessing with Marina than with Laura. But maybe I'm wrong about that. Yeah. All right. Uh, so mix. Let's say. Okay. So Dan's like, so we say frighteningly funny.

Wait, no, but we didn't say that. Ha ha ha. The Alright! Tommy is about to books! One, two, one, two, three, four. Hi everybody, my name is Justin Macarroy. And I'm Sydney Macarroy. And together we're the host of Saw Bones, a marital tour of misguided medicine. What does that mean for you, the podcast consumer?

Well, it means that you're gonna get a lot of stories about how we used to do weird stuff to people in order to try to fix them. Do you know that we used to think diseases were crossed by bad smells? And that we used to eat mummies for medicine? That's super funny. I can't do like.

Well thanks, and we hope you'll kind of like our show, Saw Bones, a marital tour of misguided medicine. It's available every Friday, wherever fine podcasts are sold. Or, at its beautiful, picture as comb at... Maximumfundauer. Alright. The secret is out! I opened my eagle officially had a wrestling match. On the next Tyson fights, I'm talking all about it. The rat battles are going to start it.

Over the line. You ain't ready. Oh, throw it! Oh, throw it again! Ha ha ha! And to how I hurt myself in ways I didn't know I could. That day and a day before, I got so many texts from people who really care about me who were like, please don't break your neck. The only place you can get the full story is on the newest episode of Tights and Fights. Find it on maximumfun.org or wherever you get podcasts.

Okay, so we've come, we've closed the casket on that one. It's open a new casket for a new thing. Yeah. Well, uh, Elliot, you had some promotions you wanted to do. Uh, I just wanted to, yeah, no going on. Wait, what are you going to say? We're you're going to set them up? Yeah, I'm just setting you up, man. That's a lie. I was just like, I. No going. What are you gonna say? Where are you gonna set them up? Yeah, I'm just setting you up, man. That's a lie.

Dan's like, I'm trying to think of like a great book. Like I put it in a box. I put a T ball, I put a ball in a T and you like, balked, you're like. But then you said, no, then you said, as if you had another thing to say. So I was like, oh, Dan's using a space filler, just found like, oh, and usually people do that

to fill space between sentences or words. So let's see what's coming up next. Let's see what hot new ideas coming out of Dan's mouth. Oh, nothing. Oh, great, okay, thanks. So let me just promote, we've got a couple live shows coming up as we've mentioned on this show before November 3rd coming up very soon after this episode comes out at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana

Saturday November 3rd at 7 30 pm as part of the Earlham artists and lecture series the floppess is gonna be there We're talking about Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, right? Oh, yeah That kingdom if that kingdom's already fallen down. We're gonna kick it. Well, it's down. Oh Yeah, beware of dinos. Mm-hmm. Then on January 26th, 2019, that's right. The future on Saturday, January, January 26th, we're gonna be in Wisconsin. That's right. We don't care that it's winter in Wisconsin. We're gonna be there anyway. We're gonna brave the whole Jesus Christ. I didn't even think about that. What? Oh, it's the thing everyone mentions to me when I mention the show to them.

They go, you can go to Wisconsin in January and I'm like, yeah, we don't give a shit. We'll deal with anything for our fans. Yeah, for our fans, we would walk through hellfire. We'd walk through blizzard fire. And so brave of you to say. Yeah. And so Saturday, January 26th, January 26th,

at the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the Wisconsin Union Theater. We're gonna be there. It's gonna be great. Dan, it's gonna be fantastic. Dan, even though it'll be cold, you can eat a lot of cheese curds. It'll make you feel good. I don't think that's what that's supposed to be. Dan probably bloated.

I mean, to be fair, if the dairy that sells ice cream at the University of Wisconsin is open, we should go to that. They make great ice cream there. Okay, all right. Let's say, so I hope it's open. Call that side, call inside. That's, there's something that, something that Sammy started saying when he gets into his bath on very particularly hot days, which we have a lot of here in

sunny LA, he'll get in and go, ah, a nice hot bath on a nice hot day. You're just not an elderly man. Oh, it must there's one time once when Daniel and I were having lunch at a diner and I got soup before my food and I was like, ah, it's nice to have a nice cup of soup before food. And she was like, you just sounded like the oldest man in the world. But guys, I'm not here just to talk about flop house. I'm also here to talk about the children's book of end of the century, another 21st century.

It's only been a few years. Horse Meets Dog. That's right, my kids book with Tim Miller, my first ever kids book. It's about a horse that meets a dog. It's called Horse Meets Dog. Comes out October 30th, right after this episode comes out, right Dan? Yes, me and Dan.

So pick it up or pre-order it at your local bookstore. I'm gonna be doing some horse meat stag events that I'm gonna tell you about now. I'm gonna be touring for a few days all over the country, mostly school visits, but I'll be doing a few store appearances. For instance, Wednesday, November 7th, at 4 p.m. I'll be at Green Bean Books in Portland, Oregon.

That's Wednesday, November 7th, at Green Bean Books. On Thursday, November 8th, the next day, I'm gonna be at abeen Books in Portland, Oregon. That's Wednesday, November 7th at Greenbeen Books. On Thursday, November 8th, the next day, I'm gonna be at a great good place for books in beautiful Oakland, California, at 7 p.m., I believe it might even be a pizza party. So that's, I'm in Oregon, on November 7th, I'm in Oakland, November 8th,

and then Sunday, November 11th at Skylight Books in LA, I'll be having what is for me, the like hometown launch event for Horsemeat's Dog, that's at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 11th at Skylight Books in LA, I'll be having what is for me, the like hometown launch event for horsemeats dog that's at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 11th. Come on down to Skylight Books. It's a great store and I'm going to try to make it so that we have cookies there. Wow, 3 p.m. You're going to get fucking raw, I bet, right? Oh, yeah. That's when I get a little blue. Yeah, the 3 p.m. show. No, just getting these are all ages events. It's a kids book. Uh-huh.

Okay. So don't come in expecting Elliott to do his like, his like super gross material. Yeah, it's not going to do a seven words you can't stay on television. Uh-huh. Yeah, I'm not going to do my joke about a, well, there's a joke I used to tell that was very vulgar, but I felt was constructed very well. And a former coworker of mine ruined it, but I was deliberately saying it wrong over and over again to the coworker, I can never

say it again or even hear it. I think that coworker was a difficult human being, but I always enjoyed that gag when you ruined your joke. Yeah. You would go again, again, do it more, make him sadder. And I'd be like, Dan, but I thought we were friends. You accepted my friend request, and you're like, you're not invited to my birthday, and I killed all your other friends. Yeah, I'm a ghost now, guys.

So. So what, when you imagine if there's one person who thought they were really close to Laura and Marina is just not trying to kill them, and they're like, come on, Laura, I thought we were really good friends. These are the jokes that should have been in the movie. Yeah, it should have been. There's someone who's on, Laura, I thought we were really good friends. These are the jokes that should have been in the movie.

Yeah, it should have been. There's someone who's like, Laura, you were, like you were the, the maid of honor at my wedding, but this demon is not trying to kill me. Are we not that close and Laura's like, people drift apart, I'm sorry, Bethany, we're just not the close friends we were anymore. But maybe Laura's trying to save Bethany's life, you know?

Oh, good point. Oh good point. I like it. Okay. We'll save it for friend request to request it again. Okay. Let's move on to letters. Before Ali, it says something again. And this first letter is from the thaw. Hey guys, what's that sound? It sounds like Elliot saying something again. And what he saying is that we're all friends in the end. Friends to the end, friends around the band. So please, won't you accept my request? At your best, open your chest and let me in to your heart as your friend.

Let's never part till the end. Get my request and be friends with the Flophouse letters. Thank you for that letter song. So this is from Matthias, last name I tell you, who writes, Dear Flupers, he says he intended to write Floppers, but his phone keyboard had a weird hiccup. Thanks for telling us. It certainly took less time than changing it manually. I'm currently listening my way through the back catalog and the intervals between new episodes. So I'm getting a full dose of flop energy.

And being German, one reoccurring element I kept noticing is Stuart's excellent grasp of the German language and German pop culture. Oh, yeah. Stuart, not only were you able to casually drop the original name with the three penny opera, but you even offhandedly refer to the German hip-hop group. Bich kind.

Dich can do. Okay. Well, I don't think is an internationally well known. I'm sure you've mentioned it before, but do you speak the language or is this just a range of coincidences I'm more primed to notice? And that's a question to the whole gang. Are there German movies you particularly enjoy to make it a bit harder? I'm going to exclude the smash hits such as DOS boot and

Lives of others or in order to preempt Elliott's answer metropolis and M Greetings from a beautiful on-tumnel Southern Germany Matthias German fill yeah, and also the question for Stuart. Yeah, let me jump right in here and answer some shit Yeah, let me jump right in here and answer some shit. Uh, uh, yeah, I, uh, I, I studied German language in school and then I spent six months in school. I spent a semester studying in mainly Marburg, Berlin, and, uh, Vien. Uh, so yeah, and I won't shut up about it right guys steward is always telling us about his time in germany

exhausting i never really liked bread or brute until i had some herty germans farts brute he's always he's always like excuse me or should i say and shul to gun

and shul to gus and Shul to Gun. Oh, and Shul to Gun. Thanks guys. And Shul to Gun Z. But it's, uh, yeah, but Stewart, yeah, he, he, he often tells legends about his time in Germany, where I believe you were what, what do they call you over there? Uh, dust, vice night, the white night or something like that. Uh, you, uh, you would fight dragons and things. Mm-hmm.

I ate dragons and things. I was a real sink-free type character. Sink-free from soul caliber, not the knee-blingslide. Oh, and that's sick-free from sick-free from Roy. Well, I mean, kind of in between that, to be honest with you. So, so German movies, huh? Stewart, what kind of German movies do you like? I mean, I mean, I mean, this was an Academy Award winner, but I like the Blech-Tremel, the tin drum. I also like the novel.

Let me see. I feel like I've definitely seen some German horror movies that I'd liked. And I like, downfall was a German movie, right? With Bruno Gown's Hitler performance. It has been much, much meamed. It's a crazy thing that it is, it is such an intense moment in a very intense movie about, and a very intense subject, and it's like me, it, it looks so well as a meme. Yeah, what I mean, that scene alone is like the idea of seeing an actor having to work through

that, and I don't know, pretty great. Yeah. Yeah, Dan, what are you going to say? Well, we actually brought it up earlier in the episode. I really like the testament of Dr. Mabous. That's a very good film. I actually don't remember a lot about it. I just remember loving it a lot. And I remember the scene where they're trapped in a room with a bomb and they flood it to help themselves escape. And it's a very tense scene that you sort of like, in a way that people I think who aren't familiar with, older movies wouldn't expect out of an older film.

But I also, I mean, I just like a lot of German expressionist films. I mean, some of them I like better in theory than in practice. Like everyone talks about the cabinet of Dr. Calgary. Like, and I saw like pictures of sets and cabinet of Dr. Calgary, and like this movie must be the greatest movie ever. And then I saw it and I'm just like,

okay, it's kind of boring. Like I probably got off better. Keep that cabinet closed. Better just, it's fine to just see pictures of the sets and think about the movie but you thought it was the cabinet of Dr. Calamari and you just think about all that delicious squid. Yeah. I think you pronounce that wrong. It's gala ma. Yeah, the cabinet of Dr. Gala ma. That's yeah in New Jersey they say the cabinet of Dr. Calagar.

But I've actually got a goal. Now there's a movie that I would see. Actually, I, I, I feel different. Actually, I love Gabagol. I like the counter, Dr. Caligari, but I feel that way actually about Noose Farad too. I've always found Noose Farad to be coming from a foreign movie. But the images that, the still images really scary. I'm going to mention to get something a little more modern here, because everyone expects me to say an old one. I really liked Goodbye Linnon when that came out,

about a family in East Germany, when the wall is coming down, where the kids try to kind of not make, make it so their mother does not know that East Germany is essentially collapsing. And as a way of making her feel better towards the end of her life. And I liked that movie and I felt like,

it's not that I experienced that moment in person. I was just a kid when it happened. I was not living in Germany, but it felt like it captured the feeling of like, oh, like this something really amazing is happening and life is changing in a way that seems like it's going to be much better. Obviously life is messy, but I thought I really captured

that moment really nicely. Okay, well moving on. This next letter is from Jay Elliott last name with held. Who writes? He has a secret identity. Maybe you can guess from the middle name. He writes, hello my sweet boys. Hello my sweet boys. I got sober about 10 years ago. And during...

Congratulations. Yes, and during the recovery process, I met some truly amazing people for whom alcoholism, slash addiction turned out to be a fatal condition. After living through the deaths of these friends, I found myself completely humorless when it came to jokes about or a glib handling of drunks, addicts, or recovery in general. So sorry for large chunks of this podcast. I had never before lost my sense of humor about any subject and until it happened to me, I thought it could happen to me. So I guess my question is has anything similar ever happened to you? Are there any subjects you just can't laugh about it anymore?

Have you ever lost respect for an artist or their work through to their tone deaf handling of the subject? You were sensitive to yours in floppy to J. L.A. Lasting withheld Sensitive question. I mean we this is this is the, we end up talking about stuff like this kind of regularly. I feel, I mean, both on the show and also, I mean, I find myself talking about it a lot in just, in life at the bar.

I'm sorry to bring up bars. Yeah, just gonna reveal, you're a real, we'll be Goldberg in next generation type, who's always talking to people about what's going on in the mind. Yeah, Gynans like, so how do you separate art from the artist? Ha ha ha. Sorry, Dan got nervous and was looking at our art.

Oh, yeah, yeah, I was just looking at our art. Okay. I mean, yeah, there's definitely stuff. Uh, I don't know lately, lately I get bothered more and more when comedies just lazily fall, because people have become slightly more enlightened and realize that certain subjects are not okay to make fun of. It seems like some comedians and comedy writers fall back on Classism more often

that I'd like and it kind of bugs me because like just doing like a poor Southern accent is not that that alone is not a joke. And I don't know. I feel like classism sometimes just seems like it's still an okay thing to make jokes about. And like being poor is a choice or something, and that bums me out. Yeah, I don't have anything that comes from the same sort of tragic place that the letter writer is talking about, but I do feel like I have never particularly liked when comedies put guys in drag and like the joke is just like that they're men wearing women's clothes or they're like men trying to be ladies like that that has never been

particularly funny to me even before I became slightly more enlightened than I was as a young person, but like now with sort of trans issues and like the idea of gender spectrums, like I find it even more off-putting, like to just pos it that as a joke. Like, oh guys, and a woman's clothes, you know Yeah, I I think

There's something about like when a when a TV show or a movie Kill someone as a joke like if a death is kind of tossed off very casually but like can work in the right type of thing, but it happens too much. And I think in a weird way, it's like, just mainly just growing up, but like becoming a parent has, it's like, oh, I see how easy it is for people to get hurt, you know? And there's people that I really worry about all the time.

And so it's hard for me to watch something and not be like, who's the person that this is happening to? There was a, this is not a movie to be shown, but there was a meme that was going around recently, which was just people re-tweeting the headline, Neanderthal Child was, you know, bones say Neanderthal Child was devoured by a giant bird, or something like that.

And the meme was literally just people re-tweeting that headline. And people would be commenting and making jokes off of it. And I was like, I mean, even if this happened thousands of years ago, this is still a joke about a child dying. Like this is, and not a, not a, not like a, like a fictional child, like which would be bad enough, like a real human being, like a Neanderthal

but a real human of a sort, like was a child and was died at some point and was either eaten by a bird or killed by a bird. And it was like, I don't, I just don't see where, like I don't, I don't see where the joke is. We had that, recently, we were doing a pretty harsh take down of true crime stories of podcasts. It's a little bit of that where it's hard for me not to put myself in the position of the person who cares about this person that this thing happened to, even if

it's like an extra, I was reading a comic book recently where the main character was just kind of like in a funny way, just like casually murdering bystanders because they're an assassin. I was like, uh, this makes my tummy hurt. I don't like this. Like this is not something that I that I'm enjoying. And though we didn't particularly touch on examples of, uh, you know, like people, artists that we admire who have bad takes on things. Since we kind of went vague, one of the things that I, over the last few years, only got

made aware of is the amount of, like, of turf, basically, you know, like, trans exclusionary radical feminists within the British comedy community. And there's a lot of British comedy that I like and it is a little distressing that whether whether or not it's specific takes from specific artists or it's just that I now associate a lot of those that scene with those attitudes. It makes it kind of hard for me to be excited and seek out like British comedy shows. Oh yeah, I mean the best thing you can do if you want to enjoy any sort of comedy is never learn anything about the people who make it. Yeah. And any or listen to them outside of the work

they're doing. And if and then hopefully inside the work, they won't say things you don't like, but what are you going to do? I would say this is not exactly answering the question, but like, I go back and forth a lot with Quentin Tarantino where it's like, he's a fan of so much of his work, but there's so much problematic stuff even in movies that I like. I like Inglourious Bastards, but there's parts of it where I'm like,

this is ragingly insensitive to the actual thing that you're handling. And I have to tell myself, this is a movie about movies, this is not a movie about people or real history or real life because there's a bunch of parts where in that movie where Quentin Tarantino is taking on the mantle of Jewish revenge against the Nazis. And it's like, this is a more complicated situation than I think you're going to be able to handle

in this movie, Quentin. Like, I know that you probably mean well, but this is, there's a lot going on here that you are stirring up that is not, doesn't fit what you're doing. You know, it doesn't, doesn't work right. But I just have to tell myself, like he is working with tropes and he's not really thinking too deeply beyond that.

And at the same time, I can understand people that are put off by that insensitivity and cannot accept it and will not appreciate them as an artist. Oh yeah, I mean, there's, there is no artist that I feel so passionately that they're amazing that if someone was like, there's a thing in that movie

that just I can't handle it because of this other thing. There's no artist for me like, well, you're wrong. Change the way you feel about things. Like this is, what are you missing from your life? It's the same way there was a time once and this is not exactly the same thing where we did a flopp house live show. And I mentioned at one point that I had not seen any episodes of community and the audience booed me.

And it was like, it was like, dude, if you are so obsessed with this thing, you can't even handle that I haven't gotten around to seeing it. That I didn't even say I didn't like it. I can't say I didn't like it because I've never seen it. If it like, then that's not my problem. I'm really glad that I didn't get to say it in like a movie. It would have torn me to pieces. Oh, it would have been like the end of the Bacchai.

It would have just been ripped to shreds and your head braided around the town. Uh-huh, but I would have had a smile on my face. They're tearing your body apart and you're like, were that? I said, I love making hot tics. Speaking of which, like talking about a guy who, like, it's harder to enjoy his stuff now.

Dan Harmon? Dan Harmon. Yeah. Like I like all his shows pretty much, but boys, not a good guy. And from what I understand. And certainly has had a famously abrasive person. Yeah. Anyway.

So I guess what we're saying is there's a certain part of me that I always feels like it is up to a specific person to understand what is okay with them and what's not okay with them. Yeah. I think nobody can tell you you need to be okay with this thing. And I mean, I think that's an important part of being a responsible appreciator of like pop culture and media is to hold it up to some kind of standard

and to determine what your standards are. Yeah. One last. Or if you're Dan, you call them Danerds. Yeah. Danerds. Yeah. Danerds? I, because I, I, it's my personal brand on the English language. It's often as possible.

Yeah, or as you call it, your personal Dan. Yeah. Yeah. It's very confusing because he'll be like, oh yeah, I had to get a birthday present or birthday Dan present. So I went to the McCoy store, toy store. And I'm like, just use the same words we all used. And it's very confusing.

Look, you're talking about it. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, at least we're talking about it. He's like, I need to get some fried chicken. So I went to McCoy Rogers. Wait, okay, let me do the math. Oh, Roy Rogers. Okay. It's like everything is copy rhyming slang with Dan. Wasn't that just these two words? Wasn't that a bit on friends where Joey kept calling his Adam's apple a Joey's apple? He got me friends. Oh boy. It's not a bad joke.

One last letter that it's from Neil last name with help. No, I see a rise line on your lips. Hi flop stars. I've been really struggling with my belly flops lately. I'm mostly over-rightening into a traditional dive posture, but occasionally landing feet first, wondering if you have any advice for splash maximization. You know, I find that when you're belly flopping,

just don't think about it too much. No, okay. That's how it works. Say that again, Dan, but more like a song. That's how it works. Okay. Classic. Yeah, I guess what Dan's saying, which I would agree with, is when it comes to belly flops,

gravity is your friend. Don't fight it. Your body is gonna wanna fight it because the feeling of falling through space is one that your body is not crazy about because evolutionarily in terms of man's ancient history, it would mean you were about to plummet to your death. But you want it to happen. So you got to fight that instinct and really give yourself over to gravity.

Elliot's paraphrasing the main monologue from the movie gravity, everybody. And I would say, you know, I don't want to surprise anybody. Hold on to your hats. But when I'm trying to get maximum splash, I usually opt for a can opener instead of a belly flop. I know it's crazy, right? I just feel like I get a little more splash zone. All right, so I hope that helps you

with that totally sincere non-ironic question. Mm-hmm. Take that. Let her write her. Hey guys, this is the time in the podcast where we usually recommend movies that we like. Movies that probably you should watch instead of the one that we watched. Mm-hmm. I got one. I saw... Rip it in Rip it, Dan. Okay. I will rip it and then subsequently I will rip it. Not a fan of that phrase. I've never fully understood my opinions.

I don't know. I just know I don't like it. But in a different way than I've never really liked cake the tires like the fires, that's another one I'm not a fan of. But not for the same reason. Okay. Subburn all those tires.

It's bad for the environment, do you? Exactly. But on the other hand, bagging a tag it, which should be horrifying to me. I'm like, all right, okay. You put your groceries in a bag and then you slap a tag on it. Yeah, to be so to know which house it's going to be delivered to. Mm-hmm. I've almost forgotten what movie I was gonna talk about after all that. You can do it now. Called Hold the Dark.

Hold the Dark. It's a Netflix movie. What's the Spider-Man movie? What? Spider-Man movie? Yeah. It was a movie that was acquired by Netflix. Check it again.

I thought it wasn't developed by Netflix. It was acquired. Well, I don't fucking know, man. Okay, one of the other. Love, I love the fourth degree that Stuart's given you right now. Just one more thing. Get in that, Fluxenwie. One way or the other.

Oh, what? So, let me, so they caught this flick in a net. Oh, that makes sense. That makes sense. So, hold the dark. It starts Jeffrey Wright. It starts Jeffrey Wright. I saw it in the theaters because I hold the dark, it starts Jeffrey Wright. It starts Jeffrey Wright. I saw it in the theaters because I like the guy,

so the director is Jeremy Solney so much that I was like, who cares if I can see this for free at home? I'm gonna go out to the movie theaters. I'm gonna pay my money. I'm gonna see it on a big screen. It's the same guy who made Blue Ruin and Green Room. And Murder Party. And Murder Party, yeah.

That's another great one actually, that people forget about. And it's about, like you just now. It's about Jeffrey Wright as a writer. He has been called to a remote town in Alaska by a mother who has had her child taken by wolves. And she wants him to kill the wolf that took the child and there's a lot more to the story than that, but I will not ruin any of the actual developments.

That's just the setup. And it contains a sequence in the middle that is one of the most harrowing sequences. I think I've seen in a movie and it made me feel like this really like I was in the action. In a way that was very just quieting and um and he's a director who. Both I mean Sony Sony air Sony a seems to like he he both has. He makes violent movies and he makes the violence so tense and unpalatable and gross that, and like, and like, thoughtless, like, it feels like, it feels like such a pointless thing, even if there is some catharsis at the end, which, question mark as to whether

not this movie gives it to you. Yeah, I would say, I was going to say this movie has gotten, I think, slightly worse reviews than either of his preceding films. There were, because he's paired with Make and Blair, who was the star of some other movies and also the writer of his, like, writing partner. Yeah. And I would say that this movie, for me, I enjoyed it about as much as the other. Like I really liked it.

But I can see where people are coming from in that. There's a lot less humor in this movie than the previous couple of films. And certainly less than Murder Party, which has a lot of humor in it. And it doesn't give you a lot of catharsis at the end of this film. It's also, it's a slower burn than the other movies.

It takes its time in a way, the other movies are not super speedy, but I feel like they move at a more at a brisker pace. Yeah. That's actually, I haven't finished the movie yet, and one of the things I'm struggling with with it is that it's moving a little slowly for me Oh, I thought I just need to give myself up to it I thought it hypnotic in that way and probably it helped that I saw it in the theater where you can give yourself Full attention to something rather than I mean the best way to watch it isn't the way I've been doing it while I do my dishes

Yeah, I've had with the kitchen lights on me that wasn't that with the direction intended and I with the kitchen lights on me that wasn't that with the direction intended and I also give the movie props for Feaching a featuring a super dope tune by Polish black metal band evil feast. I guess you didn't pick that up what I like to get it props was that Jeffrey Wright plays a writer which leads me to believe there should be a movie where everyone plays jobs based on their names. So like, everybody might be a writer, Jeff Bridges would be a Bridger. Someone who makes Bridges. We got a, yeah, we got a rats in burger here. Billy Crystal will be a, would be a jeweler. So that guy makes burgers out of rats. Yeah, dude, come on.

Yeah, of course. All right. And Craig teen Nelson would be the lead singer of the band Nelson. I thought he was. He's here with his brother, John T Nelson. Kevin Bacon would be like a pig farmer or a butcher. All right. Well, anyway, that's my way.

You'll probably think a few more before the end of the episode. Oh, you know it. And I'll interrupt whatever else we're doing. Okay. Well, fictional character, Jessica Fletcher would play a cool, big character. episode. Oh, you know it and I'll interrupt whatever else we're doing. Okay, well, fictional character Jessica Fletcher would play a maker. Yeah, would make would make well, I thought a flinch made arrows. Oh, yeah, that's right. Sorry. But it could be, but someone Tom Baker would be a baker. Yeah. Yeah. A Dell would be a computer.

would be a computer. What a different world would be if dude you're getting a Dell meant that a deal was going to perform a concert at your house. Oh man. So I'm going to continue this trend. I'm going to recommend another movie from a indie author director who released the movie on Netflix just now. I'm recommending a puzzle, the new movie by Gareth Evans, the director of the raid, the raid 2, and a very stirring section of which one was that? VHS 2? I think that's the one. And it is a... Well, when I saw ads for it, I kind of assumed it was a movie that was made

just for me because it's the raid director directing my man, Dan Stevens. And it is a period piece where a man with a troubled past has to go rescue his sister who has been abducted by an evil cult And it basically is kind of like a and there's scenes of extreme violence and it's kind of like if somebody made a more violent version of the wicker man crossed with the silent hill video games So check it out and Michael Sheen's in it too. Okay I love if that's what the poster said. Oh, I have Michael Sheen in it too. Yeah. Two great recommendations that I will now recommend also a great movie, but a different

kind of movie. You guys may remember a few episodes back. I recommended the movie Tempo Po, directed by Juzo Atami. And recently I saw his first movie, which is called The Funeral. And it's a movie that you might call like process drama because it's very much about the process of a family planning and pulling off,

pulling off like it's a heist, a family planning and then going through a funeral for the grandfather family. But it's both very funny at times and very serious and sad at times, but it's like you're watching, it's more like a portrait of a family than anything else. So you're kind of dipping into the lives

of each of the members of the family in ways that show you things about them, but there's no big dramatic confrontation. At one point, you learn one of the characters is having an affair. And that's something that it just informs everything they do from that moment, but it's not like leading up to some big reveal where everyone finds out, you know, in the middle

of funeral and it's either hilarious or heart wrenching or something. So not a not a plot heavy adventure is what you're saying? It is not. Yeah, this is not a this is not a plot heavy quest. It's not a it's not a rollercoaster thrill ride. But I found it to be really touch, alternately really touching and just very interesting to see the family. One, partly, if you have any interest in how a traditional Japanese funeral is pulled off, which is something I didn't know anything about, that's interesting. But it's everyone in is really good and the characters are really strongly drawn in their moments. And I just,

I thought it was, I really enjoyed being able to kind of like experience this with this family. And there's a speech that the grandmother at the end gives, it's her husband who they are in the funeral for, that is so like, like kind of plain, spokenly emotional and like heart-rending in a way that is, a lot of the movie is, I guess, about the kind of forms of Japanese ceremonies and how the family has to keep contorting itself to do what is proper and right for a funeral, even if it is stressful or not how they're feeling

at the moment, or there's a scene where they're literally watching a videotape that's about how you're supposed to talk to people at a funeral that you're holding or attending, and she gives this speech at the end that is so like kind of nakedly personal. And I just found it really super moving and really beautiful. So the funeral, not to be confused with Abel Ferreras gangster movie, the funeral, which is a very different movie. This is the funeral of the Japanese. Yeah, I should clarify the movie I recommended Apostle should not be confused with

the rather devolved movie, the Apostle, which is still a good movie. Yeah, you can watch you can do a double-feet Whereas Dan calls them Danble Features Uh-huh, and hold the dark shouldn't be confused with I don't know the dark is now or Uh, that's the best I could come up with Okay, sure. Okay. I can't be a dancer in the dark. No Uh, darkness falls Okay, sure. Okay. Can I have a little answer in the dark? No. Darkness falls. Darkness falls, that's the most ironically named town in history. It shouldn't be, it shouldn't be confused with hold the mayonnaise, which is what I would say if I was ordering a sandwich at a deli.

Why would you hold the mayonnaise? Shouldn't it go on the sandwich and not in your hand? No, I want to hold it so I can use that as a lubricant for my own purposes later. Okay. Depending on how good the sandwich is. Okay. Well, would you make sure to tell the deli man so that he does his best work? I'm like, deli man, if this sandwich is as good as I think it's going to be, then I'm going to show my appreciation in a way that you might not expect. Wow, wow, that's the like clickbait headline. This this deli sandwich was great. And you'll never guess what happened next.

Well, like, why does this have a picture of Jody sweeten from full house? It's insane. I guess I have to click through. These are censored historical photos I wouldn't believe. They're just, hey, this is just public domain photography that you made me click through. I think that this is the perfect gross note on which to end. Uh-huh. So thanks for listening. Oh, yeah, you had something to say before we go, Elliot.

Before we go, I just want to remind people we're part of the Maximum Fund network. And there's a lot of great Maximum Fund shows on there. I want you to enjoy them all. But if you liked this show, if you always liked it, if you just started liking it or if you're worried you won't like it anymore and you want to take advantage of this one moment where you like it, please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, podcast, or ear spin or pod news or whatever.

I don't know. Somebody told me that like we need new listeners and that's a way we can do it. And feel free to tweet about us. Use the hashtag flop house. Instagram about us. Use Facebook. Just make sure not to befriend Marina because she'll kill everyone you know and then turn you into a Marina. I feel like I feel like as long as you don't unfriend or you're fine. Yeah, we have to invite her to your birthday party and it's just awkward. Oh, right. Yeah. so again go to max fun Listen all those shows leave some reviews for us tell people about us. We would love that

All right, well, thanks everyone. It's been great to talk to you as always and a great to talk to the audience But it's time to go so for the flop house. I've been Dan McCoy. Hey, I'm Stuart Wellington. I'm Ellie Kaelin and Sunny Los Angeles. Sorry. Bye. Yeah, if we don't get add money, we're gonna have to close the flop house guys. Uh oh. I guess we're gonna do a dance competition.

A dance count. I was gonna say a bikini car wash, but I guess dance competition is slightly more PC. We'll do a bikini dance car wash competition. And the guys in the cars are like, my car's not getting very clean with all this dancing going on. What do you think that there's a lot of reviews online for the bikini car wash that are mad at how or the car wash aspect of it is. Yes, and they're like, uh, they played the song,

pony by Ginny Wine on repeat like 10 times. I will say my windshield ended up very clean until the boob prints began to mess it up again. Yeah, they started to appear. They didn't even offer to do the interiors. to mess it up again. Yeah, they started to appear. They didn't even offer to do the interiors. Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture. Artists don't.

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