The Flop House - Ep. #342 - The Country Bears

Episode Date: May 8, 2021

Hello everyone. We did The Country Bears. For you. THE COUNTRY BEARS. For YOU. It's PURE JOY. Pure joy for MAX FUN DRIVE 2021. If you have the inclination and the means, please become a member at maximumfun.org/join! We love you, listeners!Wikipedia entry for The Country Bears.Movies recommended in this episode:The Joining Max Fun Movie 2021

On this episode we discuss the Country Bears! For Max Fun, Pledge Drive Season. That's right, everybody's favorite thing. Bears and Pledge Breaks. Because good things come and bears. Ugh, damn, no. Hey everyone, welcome to the flop house. I'm Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Bayer Wellington. And I'm Elliott Kaelin wondering where Stuart got that nickname because I've never heard

it before. I thought we were doing like cool bear names like in the movie we were talking about this week. So you're cool bear name is just bear your name with bear in the middle. Yeah, I mean that that's a nickname. You've heard that before. You didn't hear people call me that. Um, yeah, it was because of the time when we were playing softball and I covered myself

in honey and I started running around saying, Hey, must be the honey. That was a good gag to bat your soon swarmed by bees. Yeah. you were soon swarmed by bees. Yeah. Better than being swarmed by bears. No, that's true. Well, each of us has two bears inside of us already. Yeah, we talked about that, that's true, yeah. That, yeah, like so, depending if there's two or fewer bears

swarming us, it's probably a fair fight. But let me just put an asterisk next to what you said. And that asterisk goes to a little yellow box that says, as seen in the new mutants episode, face front true believers, still to fly and stand. This is a podcast called the flop house. And on the flop house, we usually watch a bad movie. And then we talk about it now.

I don't know if the country bears fits into... fits into that rubric but before we get there this is the max fun pledge drive time uh... i believe that elie you have a few words to say quickly off the top seamless as always seamless segue that's right guys it's that special time again pretty good to be and by and by guys i'm not talking to my co-hosts i'm talking to you the listeners it's that special time again. It's pretty good to be, I don't know why. And by guys, I'm not talking to my co-host, I'm talking to you, the listeners. It's that special time again when you get to support the podcast you love so much and show us just how special we are to you and how important we are in your lives.

The flop house, like all Max One shows, is listener supported. The vast majority of the money we make from it comes from direct pledges from listeners like you. And that means we can keep being our dumb goofy selves without pressure from the bosses or the corporate sponsors or just generally the man. Your support gives us the freedom to keep the show honest and stupid

as it already has been from the very beginning of the episode. And your support also gives us the means to say, pay them mortgage on my house when there's not a lot of work because of a pandemic, which I really appreciate that is not a joke and I'm very thankful for it. We know this last year was a weird year for everybody. We know that some of you out there may not feel like you have the means to spend on audio goofs right now.

We totally understand that. But if you feel like you can support our show in this particular manner of pledging money and a monthly contribution, we would be so appreciative if you would do so. So we'll be talking you later in the episode about how the Pledge Drive works, all the great stuff you're gonna get when you join or upgrade your membership. Until then, I'll just say thank you again, and ask you to take a moment to right now,

before you forget, go to maximumfund.org slash join. Right now, don't wait. I mean, you're gonna hear more about it later, but do it now anyway. And make a new pledge or upgrade your pledge. If you can, again, that's maximumfund.org slash join. It's super easy to do and we'll tell you more about it later after we talk about the goddamn country bears for some reason.

If you do it, if you do it now, you can ignore the bullshit that I'll say later. See, that's the advantage of it. You can really ride that 15 second skip button. Just skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, back to the bears, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. But not my part, I put so much effort into it. All right, let's just do it no matter what, but I give you permission to ignore me.

If you've made a pledge on that, you made a pledge at maximum fun dot other wise, right? So attention. That's what I demand. Raptor attention pay attention as if a Raptor was going to attack you. Now, today we're doing something special because it's the pledge drive. We're not talking about some new hit blockbuster that's on HBO Max right now, but we will be doing a lot of that throughout the year. Dan, you very specifically wanted

to, you had a real come to Jesus moment involving the country bear's movie. And I want to hear about this road to Damascus experience you had with the country bearers. Tell us about it before we get into the film. Well, no, I mean, as it has been referenced before, I'm a member of a bad movie watching a group that does, you know, streaming group chats every Monday, and one of them brought the country bears to the attention of the group. We all watched it together.

You know, to a person, I think, everyone had a rapturous response, loved it. The first time I watched it. What are you talking about? Where you were like booze, Coke, weed, what's up? I wasca. It's quite possible there was a little weed involved on my part, which was why the first time around I may have like Laughed hysterically through a lot of it. Dan looks over his shoulder to make sure there weren't any cops even though it's legal in New York now

crazy No, the first time though there are two cops in the movie so he kept thinking they were there to arrest him and got very paranoid Hit behind his couch. Yeah. The first time I focused on how bizarre I thought the movie was, but the second time I asked, I sort of focused as well on like once I got over that, I was like, oh, this is the pull out of working this country bears movie. I really, you know, kind of respect what they're doing here, but, um, but we can just dive into it. I think, okay, let's dive into the, let's, let's stage dive into these bears much like

country bear star Fred Betterhead himself in venture of the stage. Better was Ted Betterhead. Ted is the other one. Oh, okay. Ted is the one with glasses who does not stage dive. Oh, okay. I did want to speaking of stages.

I wanted to set the stage a little bit in that I wanted to place this film in history. This was... Oh wow. During... This came out in 2002. It was part of the move that Disney was thinking like, oh, let's make all of our attractions, our amusements from Disneyland or Disney World into movies. And that had kicked off with The Haunted Mansion in 98, which was not much of a success, I believe.

I don't know what the, I think it was a financial flop. It was certainly a critical one. And then this one. Well, it didn't make any more. So if they thought they'd get money out of it, they would have made five more well except for they made this movie in 2002 this was also a flop commercially incredibly and in 2003 it finally paid off when of course pirates of the Caribbean curse of the black pearl bop-o-b-o there bop-o-b-o baby bear

it was until years later that that Disney hit on the reasoning, well, why don't we just make new versions of the movies we already know are huge hits. Let's just do that. Yeah. Why are we doing that? Why are we coming up with new stories? We can just make the same old stuff. Again.

Yep. Well, they're masters of recycling. Good for the environment. They use all parts of the amusement park and their own IP. Yeah. Oh, thank you. There's the nothing left. They just they just take it to the bone now. Dan I'm so glad I was really worried when you said you're gonna place in history that you were gonna be like the country bears Was coming at a time when America needed to be lifted up after 9-11 and I was like damn I was like this is not something we need to talk about

But during the country bears So let's so as everyone knows now that thanks to Dan, the country bears is based on the attraction of the country bears, what jamboree at, at Disneyland, a Disney world. Now this, if anyone who has never been to this attraction, you go to a music hall where a bunch of robot bears sing about hillbilly stuff. They are wrote, they're hillbilly bears who put on a country show. It's very much, you can tell this is one of those attractions from a time when kind of yokeal country stuff was still really big

in pop culture, which is a period from like the 30s until, or the 20s until like the 70s, basically. You had like a 50 or 60 year period where hillbilly culture was the source of all cultures for a while. Yep, that's why we're all in jug bands, we're in overalls around for some of the case.

Well, in the 80s, we were anyway, but there was a period when it was not that out of the ordinary to see characters that were Hillbilly stereotypes just in a major thing. And the Country Bears movie, I feel like, comes out after that is no longer the case. Right. Well, also, like, look, I will never,

like I love the animatronic attractions in at the Disney parks. I've not seen country bears, but I have a real fondness for the ones that are just like either you float by a bunch of robots doing something or you sit and watch a bunch of robots doing something. When I was a kid, honestly,

one of my favorite attractions at Disney World was the kitchen cabaret, which was just like animatronic food, singing about nutrition. And I remember loving all the corny jokes, loving all the dumb songs, but there's something about watching the movie that has semi-realistic bear costumes as if the country bears have torn their paws

from the bolts holding them down to the floor and are now free to roam around that is very frightening. Well, now, so these are Jim Henson creations and they look to be men and big, big like a bulky bear suits with like an animatronic head on top. Yeah, like in like in freggler rock. Yeah, like team of three ninja turtles. Yeah, yeah, exactly, like TMNT, yeaht yeah exactly but they're bears and they're not ninjas and they look like they could bite someone's head off at any moment i was trying

to think uh... like you bring up the the cultural obsession with uh... like hillbillies uh... made me look up when the Beverly hillbillies movie was launched which was like almost ten years before and i'm sure it was a huge success but interestingly, it also featured the acting talents of Dietrich Bader, who is it? Yeah, the country bear, two country bear is in the country. Two rules.

Dietrich Bader has, I mean, I feel like he is, I mean, he's a very talented comedy performer and he can kind of turn on or turn off Southern, which is something that is, he, depending on the role, he's either a very Southern or very not Southern. You know, but that's... I mean, you could say that depending on the role,

all of us are very Southern or very not Southern. Interesting. I mean, not every performer is Southern all the time. I've spent most of my time not being Southern. I think 100% of your time. Well, anyway, guys, let's talk about, we talked a lot about the country bears in the abstract. Let's learn these particular country bears. So the opening credits, they show us a lot of vintage footage and headlines about these

huge music stars, the country bears. We're introduced to all four of them. There's Ted Betterhead on vocals and lead guitar, Fred Betterhead on harmonica and bass, that's his brother, Zeb Zuber, on fiddle. He's the most yokel of all of them, I think, because he's got a big, big yokel hat, and he plays fiddle. And Tennessee O'Neill, his name is not as fun as the others, who is on the, what they call the credits, the one string thing, it's just a guitar with one string on it. The drummer is human and not really, no one pays attention to them. And they specialize in kind of, well, he's played by MC Gainey.

I paid attention to him. I mean, later he's played by MC Gainey. Earlier on, he's not. He's just, but I assume the country bears like spinal tap, go through drummers like crazy, because they kill them, you know, because bears are, you should not be around them. And they play kind of light adult contemporary country rock,

I guess you would call it, for an entirely human audience. There are not many bears in this movie, and we learned that they broke up in 1991, 11 years earlier. Now Dan, I want to do a one. After influencing the likes of Willie Nelson and a variety of other big names. Yeah, and there's a lot of big name performers

who basically put everything at the feet of the country bears. Now let's talk about these costumes again. I just want to get across my experience watching this movie where, so I watch most of these movies, again, usually while I'm doing the dishes. And so I'm not looking at the screen the whole time. And every now and then the country bears would say a funny joke and I'd laugh and look at the screen and be reminded of how horrific these, how horrifically

to reel these costumes look. And I'd be like, Ah, a bear said that. Yeah, you can smell these costumes. Yeah, it's not the uncanny valley because it's not like you're a case where like, oh, this looks too much like a bear and you're put off by like how it's almost a bear but not. But it is kind of too realistic for what's going on. And also like you've made some mention of it. Like the thing that tickled me the most when I first watched this movie is how little it really figures in that they're bears. Almost not at all. That would normally be the hook of a movie and the decision that this film makes, which like upon second viewing I appreciate even more,

is that they largely ignore the fact that they're all bears. Yeah. And yet the bears are, it's not like you think they're real bears, but they are not cartoonish bear suits. Like they're not cute. Like they look like if you cross one of them, it will rip your throat out with a Steve. They got some heft. Yes, yeah, they look powerful.

These are powerful bears, powerful bears. Well, also, I would like to say that this opening montage to like you wonder yourself,... why did the country bears break up and you will not get over learned that answer intel very late in the movie and then it's kind of barely there it's not i get it good

not meant to be a okay but you did it okay uh... listeners just for the pledge drive dan has pledged he's going to make as many bear puns as possible See if you can find them all So I start googling bear stuff Dan don't just Google bear stuff you're gonna put say search sure why not I mean yeah, I actually you know It's fun. You're an adult just to Google it everyone

Within reason so we then we're gonna our main character, Barry Barrington. The name is kind of on the nose that his name is Barry. He is a horrifyingly, again, life-like bear boy. And it's kind of like if Michael J. Fox was a bear. It's kind of the way it, if Michael Fox, from like, not back to the future Michael J. Fox, but class of 1984, Michael J. Fox, when he's a little bit younger, if he was a bear.

And he's, and he's, yeah, he's voiced by Haley Joel Osment, who, yes, you think? Because now he kind of looks like his character. Oh, my God. Because he looks good. Because he's got a bear man. Because he's gotten older and he has a beard all the time. Yeah. Okay.

But he doesn't look like he doesn't have round ears on the top of his head, you know, or a snap. Yeah, that's true. Barry Barrington is obsessed with the country bears, which kind of makes sense because there are almost no other bears that talk in existence. He assumes that he's adopted because everyone else in his family is human. His dad is Steven Tobalowski. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no't quite understand that he's a bear. And so finally, Barry, he says, this isn't your family and Barry runs away. And in case you're starting to wonder, yes, this movie has the same plot as the 2011 The Muppets movie.

The Muppets is a straight rip off of the country bears. This is a scandal. Dan, you're a big fan of The Muppets and you're especially a big fan of Walter, the character introduced in The Muppets. How did you feel finding out that it's stealing from the country bears? This is the line

silences and the white line all over again yeah Dan what is yeah i you know i i i i was actually going to bring up the similarity to the film the muppets it's a minority it's the same plot and it is the same

it is the same he's going to start a reunion show among the only people that are his species right the same plot but i i would i will in the same plot but I would I well in the context of this I would like to have a bear in the muppets his name's fuzzy Dan this is wheels within wheels everything's connected we are through the looking glass I would like to pause it that among other reasons

why this movie may not have hit with the public the country bears like the reason this was more successful in the muuppets is the Muppets are characters that you know have this nostalgia value people are Of a certain age at least are utterly familiar with like all the personalities of the Muppets So there is like this certain like Zazz to the idea of like oh the Muppets haven't worked together in a while like this guy discovers he's a Muppet He's gonna get them all back together. Here with the country bears,

like, we don't have any associations with the beloved characters of the country bears. We don't know who all these people are supposed to be. It's just a bunch of like interchangeable country bears who need to be returned to the stage. So it's a less successful plot device here. You're saying the audience has no there's there's very little stakes if the country bears don't get back together. Especially since I alluded to this before like until the end there's no real reason why they

weren't together the whole time especially when like every one of them that the encounter seems to be down and out and needs this desperately but But yeah, and it's instantly on board. Yeah. Exactly. Well, here are the stakes. We're going to get to them. As Lyndon Johnson once said in that famous day's he had, these are the stakes. Barry takes the bus, the legendary country bear hall and meets and sees how evil banker

read the simple played by Christopher walk in in an amazing performance that I love is telling the hall's manager, Henry, a bear, One of only two, you know, one of only three non-country bear bears aside from Barry. There's Henry. There's the groundskeeper. Big out. Big out. Loist by the coach from Major League. Yeah. And there's Trixie, the only female bear we see in the entire movie, which might be why there's not that many bears left to be honest. If there's that big and imbalance between males and females in the species. Dan, wait. Here's the stakes.

And then we'll get into it. The stakes are there's six years behind on mortgage payments and they need to raise $20,000 in four days. There's no way they can do it. Christopher Wacken, and that's $2,000. $20,000 is a lot of money back then. That's Christopher Wacken cannot wait to tear the country bear haul down and even has a wrecking ball hood ornament it's incredible it's great and bear is a guest

dan tell me what you're going to tell me and then i have a question for you after that oh uh... well i was just going to say that like oh shit it went on my head say the question the question is christopher walkin in performance is this is greatest performance He is extremely committed in this movie like this like the thing is like a lot in this movie like This movie could be such an attempt in a cash grab a Quicksade of one because no one wanted to see a country bears movie

But like it could be that but everyone is really putting their all into this thing. There's a scene later on where Christopher Walken is in the room with the bears and he's threatening them. And I was like, it's hard for me to imagine that Christopher Walken is actually in this room with these guys in bear costumes acting up a storm really throwing himself into the part of this character of an evil banker who wants to tear down a musical owned by a bunch of hillbilly bears. If I was ever able to interview Christopher Walken

and talk to him about a single role, it would be this one. Speak to that, speak to that, Stewart. I mean, because yeah, I would ask him what was going on in your head, how did you get into the character of Reed Thimble, etc. And you'll notice that he was nominated for a bunch of those joke bad movie awards for his performance in this. But I think that's one of those misunderstandings where it's like this is the performance

the movie calls for. Like the movie calls for a big silly performance. Later on, spoiler, he gets his come up and it's the good guys win. He is making the craziest angry, confused faces as a crowd sweeps him away. And I was just like these faces are torn apart, I would imagine. Yeah, yeah, it's just like the end of torn apart, I would imagine.

Yeah, yeah, it's just like the end of the box. They're going to rip him limb from limb and then his mother's going to parade through the town with his head on a pole. It's like just the face is he's making are so amazing. And I feel like sometimes movies try to get by on Christopher Walken just kind of being a little off as the only joke. But here they were clearly like, no, you're not Christopher Walken playing this character. You are you playing, you are re-thimple, and you are like this crazy banker guy.

It's not just Christopher Walken, you know, manorisms. One of my favorite little details of his character is that the company he's employing to handle the demolitions is called Slam Boni Demolitions, which I feel is like a subset area of browsers or something. Like I expected Johnny Sins to be getting out of the truck. Thank you.

Thank you Stuart for injecting that real-life porn knowledge into our Max Fun Pledge Drive episode. The one where he asks for fans, this affordance. I got a pay for my porn, Elliot. Just, you know, where Stuart's money is going to. I remember what I was going to say, which is just that on the note of like, there only being like a few other bears around,

like mostly humans and then these like talking bears that everyone treats as if they're just normal people. I find it very funny in the early scenes where they're trying to convince, like the kid is trying to convince his brother bear, brother bear and other Disney film. That is what Disney, it's what Disney plus recommended to me as soon as I was like I'm not just into bear things like there's show me the muppets since it's the same exact plot like

brother bear is the same plot you know LA your next 10 birthdays you're getting ceramic bears for me I'm sorry thank you I appreciate no I don't want bears I'm not into bears now but it's like that when years ago I don't know if I'm DB still Thank you. I don't want bears. I'm not into bears now. It's like when years ago, I don't know if IMDB still has the movie recommendations thing where it would, if it said if you like this movie, you might like these others. I was looking up the, it was when From Hell came out and I looked up From Hell and on the recommendations it also recommended like Rising Sun and I think Murder at 1600 and it was like the only things these have in common, maybe it's absolute power. The only thing these have is common is that they're all movies where prostitutes are murdered.

Like that's not a good reason to choose a movie. Like that's terrifying, that's horrible. Anyway, Dan, what are you gonna say? The point of what I was saying was when the brother was trying to convince the bare brother that he was adopted, he's like, here's my adoption certificate, and here's yours, and like pulls up, or birth certificate, here's yours,

and he like picks up like a tracking collar. Yeah. Like there's a photo of, and like pulls up, or birth certificate, and here's yours, and he like picks up a tracking collar. Yeah. Like there's a photo of him being like held up by a park ranger, which introduces all these questions about, so they know what bears are. Like wild bears, and this is a wild bear that has been caught and adopted by a human family, I suppose. It is a bad bar scenario, Dan, or perhaps a bad bar scenario.

It is colonization and imperial, and cultural imperialism writ large, where not just other peoples, but even other species need to be forced to live in the ways that a capitalist imperialist society demands they are. But yeah, I was just kind of a funny gag. Yeah, I think you're suggesting that

country bears walked so that Paddington could run, right? Is that what you're saying, Dan? I've seen as pattington is based on a series of books that predates the country bears. I wouldn't say that, but... But country bears is based on an electronic live-action attraction at a theme park, so it's kind of the same thing. Which one's first? When does pattington?

I mean, check it out. I mean, there's so many other bears literature that i mean there's little bear and there's uh... uh... gentle bend and there's also uh... uh... bear grills there's also so many other bears popular culture you know who came first no one will ever know there's no way of telling so anyway two police officers officers ham and cheats uh... uh... set this is an honest or is that a is that a specific joke because

the the the the the the the the the the

the the the the the the the the the

the the the the the the plays one of the Bears and he plays officer cheats and he has a big fake mustache and Dex is mad that nobody seems to realize that Barry is a bear. Of course he's figured out he's a dog detective but nobody else seems to be thinking that Barry is a bear. Henry is showing Barry around the story country bear hall and he says at one point that Hendrix played there but the biggest of them all is the country bears and I was like whoa movie, wait a second. I am willing to suspend my disbelief

that there is a group of bears that can play music and were once rock and roll stars. It is hard for me to imagine them being bigger stars than Jimmy Hendrix. This is a strange world that we live in. Don't make me suspend my disbelief, that's it. Are you saying that if there was a band full of musical bears, that wouldn't be the hugest thing ever. Come on, Scott.

You are ZZ top, the harriest rock stars in the world, the biggest car. Basically three very bare man, trace, hambre, as yet. And there's also the idea, but also they're not in direct competition with each other. Like Jimmy Hendrix was played hard rock and the country bears play soft country rock like Why would you compare the two of them? I don't understand. Why would you come there the two of them? I don't get it anyway Ellie It's getting in the game. He's got a point now. I got it look I got a pick of the slack. We promised a lot to our pledge people in Dan is not doing the bear funds so

Berries decides that his higher purpose in life is to save the hall with a reunion show Henry is against the idea until he hears Barry singing a country bear song with real passion. And they pull out the dusty old tour bus and pull out the dusty old Rody MC Gaini who I guess has been living on the tour bus with a chicken. One I love the idea of the casting agents like we just need you to do the same thing you did in Con air. to do the same thing you did in Conair. You're the same character, basically. And he's like, so this is a sort of Con bear? No, no, no, no, no. There's no actual cons.

So now they gotta go to the first bear on the list is Fred Berened. He's a guard at a security guard at a studio where they're shooting a music video. Yeah, this is like a real like Mass Effect 2 situation where you gotta track down your elite team of baddlers. Exactly, except they're the elite team of country bears. And by elite, I mean, certainly they're the elite country bears.

There are no others. They're the best, just by definition. Is better had a sex pun? Like what? What? I honestly couldn't figure out. No complaints. Okay.

The only thing I could think of, because it's not like a rock and roll thing that I could think of. I mean, I had this like a pot head, but, or the, like, the only thing I could think of is that it's a play on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Villain Leather Head, who's a Cajun alligator. But I was like, that's a strange reference

for this movie to make, you know. Yeah. So especially because by this point, I think the Ninja Turtles were a Nickelodeon property that's direct competition with Disney. Anyway, Fred is a guard at a music studio at a set where they're shooting the music video. The singer recognizes him and they jam on a musical number and Fred stage dives but there's no one to catch him so he just falls on the ground. Barry shows up.

By the way, I just want to say, this singer, Crystal, she was a minor star of the time. Some people in here that are musical figures that you will recognize later on, Bonnie, Raten, Don, Henley are doomed. The movie. I will make you love these Bonnie, Raten. That is song in the universe. But there are also people like Crystal here or the

waitress later who have like a hit and maybe you're not like at the forefront of our mind anymore but are people who maybe would have been known at the time of the country bears to audiences like the waitress later is the one who I was informed by Audrey did the song. It's just a little crush. That one. Oh, yeah. Okay, I see, I didn't recognize them, but I wondered if they were real. So like there's a version of this movie

that came out eight years later that like, Rebecca Black is in it, and there's a version of it that comes out now that like Billy Eilish is in it. Like I get it, okay. Yeah, yeah. Well, what I like about this sequence is that like they're doing this music video video and like every once in a while,

it'll just cut to the side and you'll see Fred Betterhead and you're reminded that, oh yeah, there's a country bear run around. Why? Because no one in the movie, as Dan's mentioned, like in any way registers that they're bears and it's weird that they're bears, they're just totally accepted every day.

And so you just, yeah, yeah every there's this constant shock of recognition throughout the movie in you the audience that a bear is in this scene yeah you hit upon it exactly like again watching you the second time the effect was dimmed I could focus on other things but the first time around I would just start giggling everyone's too well because there's like bears roaming around and no one was acting like that was weird it's a little bit like the first time around, I would just start giggling everyone for a while because there's like banners roaming around and no one was acting like that was weird. It's a little bit like the first time you see cats and throughout the movie every five minutes,

you're like, this is really happening. There's really a cat singing right now. This is something I never thought I'd see. I never dreamed of. Fred's immediately on board with the reunion. Henry calls up the bear's old promoter, Rip Holland played by the late Alex Rocco. And he goes, oh, the man who stole the band from me.

And there's bad blood between them. We never find out what that's about. It's never explained. He, he, ripp agrees to promote the band. Henry does know that Rip is at rock bottom. He's actually, we find out using a desk at a furniture store to work from. That's pretty good. That was, that was a good gag.

I like that one. Yeah. And Fred tells Barry that the country bear's big break came when they won a talent contest beating a boy who could make armpit fart music. That's going to come back. It's not a one off gag. So be ready for that. Who did not take the loss well?

No, let's, yeah, let's just say that. Next they go to a beehive themed roadhouse where Zib Zuber is a honey holic. Wait, let me finish this sentence. He is a honey holic, wait, let me finish the sentence stand. Okay. He is a honey holic mooching off of the bartender, Queen Latifa. And you're right, you're right. Dogs should not have interrupted that.

And I have another sentence after that, but we can, but Dan, before I get to that sentence, tell me what you're gonna say. Well, I mean, number one, number one, this is one of the moments where you're like, okay, I guess this is one of the reasons the country bears broke up that this That Zubber had a honey habit. Yeah, sure honey habit and the film because it is for kids didn't really want to go into the Implications of yeah of what all this means, but also I just found it funny that again a world where there's barely any bears

Barely any bears, you know, sorry, I think Good one. It was coming the same one, but it was right. I mean, we'll give you the same, we'll give you a half credit for each, yeah. Okay. A world of so few bears, mostly humans in this bar, but it is a honey theme, it is a honey bar. There's honey cars in the wall. There's a electrified bark back scratcher

than one of the bears in which I think would work in a normal bar. No, I love it. I think it was love it. But it doesn't built for bears. True. Dan, there's a lot of them. There's a lot of them. Is Seb Zuber the one that's voiced by Stephen Root or by Toby Huss? Seb Zuber is the one who's voiced by Stephen Root. Toby Huss is Tennessee O'Neill. And Dietrich Bader does Ted Betterhead and Fred Betterhead is Brad Deer.

It's so many great characters. I mean, this movie has a great cast. Like you've got, Dietrich Bader, Steven Root, Christopher Walken, Alex Rocco, MC Gainey, like Toby Huss, like there's a, there's, there's a lot of people in it. The other cop is Darrell.

Is Darrell Mitchell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, hot off the success of Galaxy Quest, you know, yeah, there's like this is a fair This is not a bad cast for a country bears movie and I guess when they were going through all the silliness They just had to bear with it for the paycheck anyway moving on there in this the covers were bear So so Dan you're right. It is strange. I've been this world with very few bears. I apparently yes There's enough people who are addicted to honey, you know, and I'm glad, yeah, if this is an adult movie, there'd be some joke about him like servicing John's in exchange for

honey and I'm glad that his kids they did not do that. She so Queen Latifa agrees to a bet with Barry, he'll wager the country bear bus and she'll erase Zeb's debts. If he can win a music contest against Brian Setser. So the next scene is just Brian Setser and Zeb Zuber, which again, I remind you, Zeb Zuber is Steven Root. I assume Steven Root was not in the costume. I've got to imagine he just did the voice.

I don't know, I kind of like you imagine he was in it. Maybe, I mean, he wore that pants suit in the ballad of Buster's Grugs. Maybe he would do that here. But it is auster's Grugs. Maybe he did that here. But it is a- Now, this was a tough scene for me. I've gone on record about my difficulties looking at rockabilly dudes, but you know, the country bears, you know, I did it for the movie.

I did it for work. We appreciate that you bear it up. I'm looking at them or what? I don't understand. I don't know. It's just, there's something. So it doesn't rub me right, you know. I remember, for some reason I was talking to Sammy

recently about rockabilly and then Neo Swing guys, and I was just going on about how dumb their long keychain, chain's are, and I was showing pictures of like old zoot-suit guys, and he was like, that looks cool, then I showed him modern ones, and he goes, that one doesn't, and I was like, Sammy, thank you, for each thing has its time.

Yeah, that's true. And rockabilly is true. It's kind of like that. There's this weird subculture that, maybe I don't like it because I know if given the right circumstances, I totally would have fallen into it, where it's like that subculture of like

super punky, anti-establishment people who all look like Betty Page or like a 50's greaser. And given the right circumstances, I'd probably be there. I'd have a tattoo of a laughing devil with a mustache or something on my arm. And I'd be in a rockabilly band. Then I'd become older and I'd start wearing Panama hats and bowling shirts

and hanging around Coney Island. Like that's a lifestyle that maybe that's what I don't like is because it's an alternate sliding doors parallel world for me. A road not taken. Anyway, so anyway, so anyway, by and says any rockabilly listeners for the past one minute of content and to rock a doodle they hit the rockabilly movie about a rock and roll rooster. Anyway, so to make a long story short, Zed Zubber wins his music contest with Brian Setser in which they sing a song about honey.

And how? Well, they sing a song about what's going on right there. Like, but the song is like, appears to be improvised on the spot about how I, Brian Setser, and fighting this bear in a music battle. And how they're doing. It is very, it's off the dome. I guess it's supposed to be off the dome. And there's this is followed by a lovely interlude where Christopher

walk in wearing a three-piece suit without the jacket from the waist up and boxer shorts in the waist down is just smashing models of the country bear the country bear haul over and over again and each time he smashes it goes, oh no bear haul and this has to goes, oh no, fair haul. And this guy says, oh no, fair haul. And it is a life haul. It's so great. I like, it's like, how is this not a gift that I've seen attached to things? Just saying, oh, smashing, going, oh no. Oh no.

Yeah. And then he just dumps, he dumps the smashed pieces on a pile. And I could tell, is he in a building or is he in like a trailer of a truck made up to look inside like an office? I couldn't quite, is he in a building or is he in like a trailer of a truck made up to look inside like an office? I couldn't quite tell where he was, but yeah, inside all of us. And you know what?

Well, and that, that scene does not bowed well for the country bears. They're going to need, they're going to need all the support from their community. And you know, who else needs support from their community? That's right. Us, the flop house. So I say you do it, Dan. That's how you do it. No, I, I bow to the

message. It's the max fun drive folks. And it's the one time a year that we interrupt our regular programming to ask you the listener to consider supporting us financially with money. Now, think of the flop house as like a three-legged stool that one of the country bears might sit on to play one of their banjo songs, okay? One of those legs is Medan Nelliet, okay? We watch the shitty movies or good movies in the case of the country bears. We talk about them, we try not to murder each other. Now another leg of the another leg is Max Fun. That's they help us get advertisements, they help us get guests, organize fun stuff.

And then the third leg, that's kind of the most important one. That's you. That's right. You listen to our show, you tell your friends about it, you tweeted us, you like my Instagram pictures, and you support us with your hard earned money. So what we're asking is for you to consider, if you aren't already a supporter,

to head over to maximumfund.org slash join and consider becoming a supporter of the flop house. For $5 a month, you can join as a maximum fund high fiver. That gives you access to bonus content, and that's not just the flop house bonus content of which there is already a lot. I mean, I've made you guys play a lot of role-playing games with me, but there's also plenty of additional content.

We've recorded episodes about bad television shows. I think there's a couple of our live episodes up there, Dan, is that correct? Yeah. And we recorded a special episode already this year where Elliott took the reins and ran us through a very spooky adventure. That's true.

For $10 a month, you can be a friend of the family in addition to the bonus content. You also get one of 38 enamel pins of whichever your favorite show is like the flop house. In this case, this year's pin for the flop house commemorates probably one of the most important moments of the television show of the podcast. That's right. The moment when a true speaking hero named Stuart was relaying the events of the movie Castle

Freak and then a bunch of haters including his co-hosts and late great director Stewart Gordon of the Director of the movie Castlefreak all decided to tell him he was wrong. So Damn, I mean Stuart live your truth. Keep recounting those votes. Maybe it may be it'll turn out that a ding dong was ripped off I mean check the tapes. It's all there. We did check the tapes. That's why we know it didn't happen And there's additional and there's additional levels above there. Obviously, if you can afford it. So now is the time. Head over to maximumfun.org slash join.

Sign up if you have not joined before. And if you already are a supporter of the show, first off, thank you so much. You allow us to do this. You're an important leg of this stool that a country bear is sitting on. But you can also consider, if you can afford it, why don't you consider upgrading your membership

to get some of those cool items, some of those cool gifts. I was wondering if I could bud in with another incentive gift I wanna throw into the pot. Let me check the rules. Yeah, I think you can. Okay, okay, good, great, great. So people may know that I have a comic book route right now. It's called Bain Act of New York. It's been selling out on comic book store shelves.

But I'm not talking about that book to get you to buy it. You can't. It's sold out. I am saying that I'm going to give 10 people who are making new pledges or upgrading their pledges at random. 10 of them will be chosen and we will get in touch and get your address and I will send you a signed copy of an issue of maniac of New York. What? Hopefully issue number one, I have to check how many copies I have on hand of issue number one, but you will get an issue of maniac of can you are assigned by me that's going to go to 10 randomly chosen new or

upgrading pledge members of maximum fun just to say thanks and to the many other people who don't get one in the mail I also want to say thanks but I only have so many copies but I'm going to jump in I'm going to jump in. I'm going to jump in and offer another show specific reward. We will choose tenant random to receive a drawing done by me, Dan McCoy, of the flop house. Hello, it's me, Dan. I have a Daniel I'm drawing. You go back to stand.

Yeah, during the pandemic. If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen a few of my drawings. And I will do a, let's say, a character of the listener's choice. Wow. A list of requests of a character. Now you can't get too detailed.

Just tell me a character. Don't be like the dude standing on top of a mountain with a shovel who's got the head of a line but his tail is a but or I don't appreciate the specifics. This sounds like an amazing character, Dan. I don't know why you wouldn't want to tell us about. I mean come on, how does that even work? Anyway, 10 right? This is your chance 10 random people to finally get that pregnant sonic drawn by Dan that you've always Got oh lord I'm putting in people's hearts. So Dan. It's already in people's head

Pregnant sonic is the most popularly character on the internet. Oh, so once again for new and new Supporters and upgrading supporters. There's a lot of great gifts available to you, including a pregnant Sonic drawn by Dan and all the great comics by Elliott. That's amazing. Just head over to MaximumFun.org slash join. Thank you so much. Thank you Stuart for doing that so well and laying out what our listeners can do if they like to support us at MaximumFun.org slash join.

But hey guys, we've got bigger problems than that. Because Brian and Henry still need to collect two more hibernating has bins and they're running at a time. So let's return to Elliott summarizes the country bears already in progress. When last we left the country bears, Barry and Henry had managed to collect Fred Betterhead and Zeeb Zuber. Next they need Tennessee O'Neill who it turns out has become a marriage counselor, but he frequently breaks down in tears during sessions because he misses his love, Trixie, who he has ran off with a panda. At lunch, he tells the other bears he cannot play without her, and then this waitress recognizes them and starts singing their song, kick it into gear, or something like that.

And it turns into this huge musical number, and it's like a big screen version of that Chili's ad where they sing the baby back ribs song. It is, yeah. It's great, yeah. This is like what Space Jam is to that Nike commercial. This scene is to that Chili's ad, guys. Were you as blown away as I was by how much this turned into a just a restaurant Fantasia, you know?

Yeah, I mean, I enjoy seeing a thing like this where so much effort has been put into something just inherently impossible to take serious away. And this is a fully choreographed number. It's like, you know, something that would say, like, the Mamma Mia films really like capitalize on, like, the idea of like, well, this might be dumb, but hey, do you like fun, you know, and that's what this feels like. Yeah, I mean, the thing is the mama mea movies are doing it with real songs

I mean they're all real songs but songs that people are like oh, yeah, this one. It's a jukebox music on this I sue I don't know is this a real song. I assume it was original for the movie, but a lot of these songs were written by this guy Let me look up his name. He won. He's on like eight. It's his name's Ted better head He's a lead singer of the country base. Oh, of course. Of course. His name's Ted Betterhead. He's the lead singer of the country bass. Oh, of course, of course, of course. I'm sorry. He's a bear. No, look at the music.

You keep going. It's hard to write a song when you're a bear because you have pause. And so it's hard to play a piano and also hard to write down things. So I have to assume that- Because there is a moment where they look at the note that Barry wrote when he ran away.

And the paper is covered in in scratches Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so I have to assume that at a certain point you get so rich that you hire a human to write for you And a human to play the keys and they just play every key on the piano until they hit the right one that you want And it's a very laborious process But you can't argue with a hit like kicking into gear. It was probably about that guy from under the silver like John Hyatt wrote the songs John Hyatt wrote them. He's had eight Grammy nominated for nine Grammy Awards. Wow. Oh, I'm impressed. Eight Grammy nominations not impressive, but nine. Okay. Yeah. Now you're talking. Yeah. Yeah, but he's had like songs done by BB King, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raite, Shaka Khan, Eric Clapton, Juley, he popped, Joan Bias, like it just goes on.

What are some of the songs? Tell us some of the songs, these are it. I should have had this at the ready, but I don't. Well, I'll continue the summary, but you keep looking up. I'm sure listeners know, but I don't know. The moment, the moment that this dance number lets up I'm sure listeners know but I don't know the moment the moment that this This dance number lets up They like are snapped back into reality. They're in the diner again people are not dancing anymore the waitresses the waitresses is asking

How do you like your eggs and I think it's Zeb Zuber just shouts out hot and I Fucking lost And I fucking lost it. There's like, there's a lot of, I mean, I wish I didn't have to say this because it's a country bearer's movie. It's a movie based on animatronic attraction. There's a lot of funny jokes in this movie. Like this movie is not taking itself that much more seriously than it needs to take itself. It feels like a real lark of a movie that the kind of thing that like would be direct to streaming right now because it's not big. But it's like everyone in this movie seems to be on the same page

of like, look, we're making a country bear's movie. Like, are we really gonna, like, we don't have to take it seriously, but let's reach the level of cartoony energy. And there are times when, like I said, Christopher Wachens facial expressions, there are scenes with Steven Tobolowski where he's just hurling himself into the movie with such high energy. Nobody in the movie is like even Queen Latifa.

Nobody is like, I'm too cool to be in this country bears movie. They're like, all right, yeah, we're making this dumb country bears movie. Let's do it. And there's a bunch of really funny jokes in it. Okay. Coming up soon, thinking Barry has been kidnapped. The cops chase the bears out of the diner and they get a car chase. They hide in a car wash. The cops go in the car wash and they get knocked around for such a long time. Dietrich Bader's mustache falls off and they're flying at one point from the air hoses

and Barry, as they drive away, is just laughing at the pain these police officers are getting for trying to protect him. It's like a red light on him from this car wash. So he looks very devilish laughing at these people. He looks very evil. And there's one joke at the end of the sequence. It might be after a scene, don't you think, where the other cop, if you guys name it for me, his hair looks silly because what happened?

And did you really go, you're hair looks ridiculous. And then turns his head. And his hair has been blown so far behind him that there's this long, it's like if Johnny Bravo was a Paris Rolliface. Like his hair is not on the top of his head to just seeing on the back. And I was, and I laughed so hard at that. I was like, you got me movie.

I didn't expect that. And that's ridiculous. Like egg. It's like, yeah, yeah. He goes to the hairstyles. He's like, make my hair look like the rocket tears helmet. Yeah.

Yeah. He just brought in a snorke. And he said, like this, but towards the back. That's a lot. Right before that sequence, there was another dumb joke that I loved, which is they, as the cops are chasing the country bear's bus, they spot him and the bus is parked right next

to a sign that is advertising bingo at 9 p.m. And Dietrich Bader says, bingo, nine o'clock, because he sees him and it's great. It's a great joke. Yeah, that's good. This is good joke. Anyway, Barry calls Dex to and it's great. It's a great joke. Yeah, that's good. This is it. Anyway, Barry calls Dex to say he's OK. And Dex is about to tell Barry that he's a part of their family,

but Barry hangs up before Dex can say it. The Bears take a moment to watch a little scene from an old country Bears cartoon in a motel. And the country Bears cartoon is very clearly like a slap-dash cheapo like 60s or 70s cartoon. And when it's over I forget which way I just goes that was bad and that's the end of the scene. Like there's you there's some people who know what they're doing make a joke in this movie. Anyway luckily they find out Trixi is

performing in the bar next to their motel. Tennessee goes over they sing a lost love ballad they are instantly back in love again. You wonder why did they break up in the first place it doesn't matter the love again the challenges this movie are so easily overcome and that should be annoying but it's a country bears movie like I don't really want to see them struggling like come on yeah I don't want to stress out over this on these bears gonna get back together to sing their song like this they say put your hero of a tree throw rocks at him and get him down from the tree It's a country bear. I don't want to seem to get stuck in a tree I don't want to throw rocks at him. Just get him out of that tree, you know and in this scene both Both bears singing voices are provided by Bonnie Raight and Don Henley who are both sitting at the bar

Yeah, so they're watching their voices come out of bears which must be a dangerous This is another one of those scenes where I was just I was just watching it. I'm like, okay, so there are two more realistic than I would like bears singing this love ballad to each other. There are no other bears in the room. It's just this is not a bear world. It was, it's a strange movie. Yeah, I was like, Bonnie, right, you succeeded. You've given us something to talk about.

Yeah, I'm sure. Speaking of song titles, just so the listener isn't hung up on the fact that there's no payoff, John Hyatt, the only song title I'd recognize was Have a Little Faith in me, but he's done. How does that song go? I don't think I know that one. I don't know it well. It's just like the one I was trying to do.

It's like a couple of bars. Yeah, I just made it. Just make it. Is that a little bit of this? Have a little faith. For our lives to be over. Is that the Dawson's Creek song? Is that a little, have a little faith for our lives to be over? Is that the Dawson's Creek song? Is that it?

Yeah, it goes. Have a little faith in me, bump, bump. Have a little faith in me, bump, bump. So that's the one. Have a little, little, little faith. Yeah, sure. And there's cannons that go off representing faith. So yeah, Bonnie, Bonnie Raite, you may know her best

from the band The Dire Rates. Huge couple of hits from them. They, so, I ran out of bear puns. So, they only need one last member of the team, Ted Betterhead. They call him and he is busy polishing a Rolls Royce. We assume he is the successful member of the group and he hangs up on them. He pretends he's going through a tunnel, hangs up on Henry. They show up at what they think is Ted's estate to find the man they think is his gardener

who is clearly Elton John and as soon as they walk away they say, oh that guy looked like Elton John and then later it's we're just told for real. No, that was actually Elton John. He says, oh Ted's down at the country club and so they show up the country club. Ted is very mad they're there. They look out of place at this rich country club because they're hicks and also fucking bears but yeah everyone nobody treats them like they're outsiders they they sit down and talk to an old lady and she's laughing it up and jokes about salmon the fucking buffet has

like a full trout yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but Ted is yeah yeah before we move on, can we just pretend that when you said, dire rates, I said something about honey for nothing. Yep. Let's go. We want to pretend that happens. OK, let's go everyone.

So let's correct the record. Pause it. Go back and then just pretend when it happens that I did that. Yeah, well, luckily this is just the rehearsal. We'll get it right for the main performance. Okay, well have it on the day. What I like is that honey for nothing is a joke off of the movie, which Bonnie Raid is in.

So you really have to know the movie. It does it, really? Yeah, no, it doesn't. Yeah. Yeah, there are two different pun tracks, really, honestly. Yeah, that tastes right together. You got your Bonnie Raid in my country, my country bears. Bonnie Raid is, of course course the founder of the band Rat.

It's a different person. Yeah. Yeah. What I wonder, that's, now I want to do a Mad Magazine article that's just Bonnie Rates career and she's in dire rates. She's Bonnie Rat. Oh, all those things. Yeah.

Anyway, she's the California rate since. So Ted is very mad. He says they're pathetic. This is never gonna happen It shows never gonna happen. Everyone kind of blames themselves and they walk off together But Fred better head is mad and he goes to confront Ted and finds Ted singing. It's not unusual Not a country bears song. It turns out he's not a member of the club. He's part of the wedding band That's performing at the club and And Ted goes, Oh, Fred goes, Ted, you're a wedding singer. And it's one of the things where it's like, is that a bad thing? It's the kind of thing where like, if not for the movie, the wedding singer,

I wouldn't necessarily think that that was any worse that you're still a professional musician, you know? Anyway, Ted admits he's not rich, but he still doesn't want to be in the show for some reason. fred punches ten until he passes out and i was like that is not okay this is one of two moments coming up where i was like okay country bears that was too intense for the country bears dex tries to tell the cops that bury a safe but they do not believe him regardless they disappear from the movie from this point on. I don't think they show up again. It's just, I like it that scene,

just like they sort of cheerfully ignore the fact that our main character is a bear. Here, they're also like, the text is like trying to tell them the truth. It gets really frustrated with him. And after he leaves, they're like nothing but positive about what a great kid he is.

Yeah. I like their attitude, is's what I'm saying. Yeah, they're really funny. And in a normal movie, I would be like, okay, so the cops just disappear from the movie, you never see them again. Again, it's the country bears, who cares? It's essentially, it's kind of one step up

from a sketch movie, like who cares? So Ted still doesn't want to do the show, even when he's on the tour bus for very, very reasons. He's just kind of like, I'm the only one who's organized around here You guys aren't organized and we're not a family and we never were a family Which is cold considering his brother is in the band like yes The part of his family is there and Barry is like but your family are the people that you're right

This isn't a family because your family the people who always I don't believe in you or whatever and you realize it's just like my family Hey, I do have a family, he runs all the way back home. He's great. Look at all the assume, don't see any buses or trains or anything, you just see running and then he's at home. And his mom is so excited to hear his voice that she drops the pie that she's holding on the floor.

And I'm like, but the pie, like he could've just, well, he doesn't take any extra energy to put down that pie that you've been doing. But Dan, she's got so much pie. It's established earlier on that when she's worried she bakes things. So she's constantly baking throughout the rest of the movie.

So they've got, so I imagine Steven Tobelowski, he saw the pie on the floor and he was like, oh thank God, I couldn't eat another pie. Thank you. And also he's so excited. When he sees Barry, he's just like, well, it's the most, it's the biggest response. And if my son showed up, if my son I love disappeared

and then showed up, I'd react that way too. I drop a pie, I don't care. And then, Dan, your child, who you love, who you gave birth to, really, because he's a bear. You hear the kid, you know the kid's okay, just use the extra second to put the pie down on the counter. You're just so excited. If only so you don't have to clean up that pile here.

A small price to pay to not have to just be able to hug that bear kid. You can have ants all over the place. That's the problem. You think there's not ants in that house already. You got a bear leaving honey all over the place. That's probably true. He's the ants. Yeah, I don't know.

Delicious. He'll bury it's the ants, they love it. Anyway, bear he goes back. Fred on the bus finds an essay that Barry left behind where he says the country bears together as a group are his heroes, not one by one, together. And Ted better had shows up at Barry's house and apologizes, and they decide the show is on, uh-oh, but walk in, stole the bus, and then he imprisons the other bears at gunpoint. And he has a

he has a bandelier of drank darts so I guess it's in flight of the trangler but he just has a gun in his hand pushing them into a jail cell and I was like this move this is the second moment where I was like this is too much country bears I like the idea that country bears are being held at gunpoint and this is not good and this is when when Christopher walkin reveals why he wants to tear their house downs or their country hall so much stew dan who wants to sell the dark secret that uh... is is lying behind the hatred of uh... lead thimple

well he starts he starts by unbuttning his shirt and i was like does he have a embarrassing country bears to have to does he have a horrible scar caused by a bear attack? What could it be? Yeah, but it turns out he's the fartist from earlier in the movie. It doesn't want the bear saying, it's like, oh, the farting boy or something like that. Something like that.

Just put a hat on it, yeah. He said, yeah. He said, you, like, what was it? Like, you've ruined 30 years of my life or something. And I was like, yeah, I mean, not how old was he when he was a farting boy? Because Christopher Logan looks like he's making a lot of assumptions about the role of like

a farting musician and like, that was the issue I had. Cultural landscape. Well, the idea that if he had only one that talent contest, fart music would have been the next big thing. That would have been the wave he would ride in recording history. And crazy things have happened. A guy sped up his voice and pretended he was a group of chipmunks

and was it and had several number one hits so strange things could happen but also the idea like if if being a farting musician was that close to the surface of bubbling up you would have had another shot the one talent like just keep trying. Just keep pushing, you know. No, no, no. He sees blaming others for a problem that's really his own. His own. Yes, his own. He let one rejection shoot him down and you can't do that. If you're going to be a creative professional, you got to get used to, you know, read Thimple. Listen to me. You got to get used to rejection. And all the read Thimple's out there, all the fart musicians out there. You can't let one know, crash your dreams. A hundred knows, maybe it's time to look for something else, but you can't let that know crash you're gonna face rejection.

You got a really need to do it. I mean, not only is he a bad farting musician, though, but he's a bad evil businessman because the country bears, at this point, the building, the grand old country bears' operate, whatever it's called, is like six years behind on its payments.

So it seems like only to get around to revenge now, seems like laziness and physical effort. He's a bad farting musician, he's a bad evil businessman, but is he a good farting businessman? Yes, he's one of the top farting businessmen. In the ranks of farting business business man it's just him and warbuffet at the top yeah at the very top

uh... because that is old you gotta believe that he's there's a lot of stuff coming out of the and it's thanks to max one pledge that that you can thanks to max ones pledge supporters that i can say whatever i want i can say whatever part step about warbuffet i want not worry about offending the bosses of the advertisers. Anyway. Oh, we can't do any Warren Buffett jokes, because old country Buffett is one of our sponsors.

Of course, Warren Buffett's famous company. Yeah, yeah, Brikshire Hathaway just bought a majority stake and max fund, and that's why we can't make any more jokes about Warren Buffett. Yeah, Warren Buffett is the guy where any pair of pants he puts on it's they're like the traveling things they just fit perfectly they look so good sample size is good perfect but fit I mean a little loose in the in the thighs but that's what you want it fits perfectly on the butt how's the how's the

Bunghole area LBJ how's it's tight, too tight. I gotta call up Hagar and have them make it a little bit looser. The horrible? Hagar the horrible. That the famous recording of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, Yeah, to tell about how tight they were Someone please diagram what happened over the last two minutes Impossible put it put it in a time capsule and bury it in your yard Barry Oh shit Yeah, so here's what I'm gonna say about Dan him as a businessman Yes, at any point in the last five and a half years, let's say he could have forecloses on that hall

But also there's six years behind on rent. It's only $20,000. And that's a big haul. So they locked in their mortgage at amazing rates. And that's what you got to do. Lock in that mortgage at a good rate. Re-fi, if you have to, to lock in that rate, it's worth stacking the extra years onto the end of the schedule. I love that you're thinking about this

because I have to tell the story that Audrey, rewatching this. So also, for the second time with me, took a moment to do the story that Audrey rewatching this also for the second time with me took a moment to do the math at the end to make sure that one concert could have paid back the mortgage on this property. So like, you know, you guys just, yeah, I was like, how much were the tickets? How many people are in that, that venue? I mean, you can't, there's no way we there's no way you can fit more than what four hundred people in that venue you know you think so i think i don't know the five

i mean i don't know bears are bears have to follow fire occupancy limit rules you know but uh... bears anyway at law doesn't apply to bears that any moment in the in the movie they could have just said human law does not apply to bear that break every human law exact no no just that's your thinking of it's cat cat What? Cats do that. One cat in particular, every human law, even the big ones. Anyway, so there the show is on the walk and stole the bus. There's not a gunpoint. What? Like Regicide. Like a Regicide. Yeah, you know, you know that, you know that, uh,

well, what's the name of that cat? Why have I? Micavity. Micavity, as I say, more yard yard but mechavity is the cat version where mechavity is just ripping off a ripping off a mattress tag and stuffing into a queen's mouth to kill her like he's breaking every law he's got his little paddy checks off two for one he's like he's he's taken an endangered sea turtle off of their their egg laying place and just throwing it through a plate glass window The store this is so many laws he can break all once anyway, so They they have to save all the rest of the band

Barry's family they find out that bears tracking Barry's tracking collar that Dex showed him He left it on the bus. I don't know. He had it with him They're used that they release that to track them down There's a very long kind of boring sequence of Ted is in a boat being at least have to track them down. There's a very long kind of boring sequence of Ted is in a boat being pulled on a trailer by the family van and he's almost always falling out of it. It is the how are the duck biplane sequence of this movie?

It's not. So one part where he's zoned out, really. Yeah. Luckily eventually the boat burst through the wall and frees the other bears. The bears, Christopher Walken at that point has abandoned the bears. I don't know where he is. I guess he's at the hall.

They go to the hall, but there's no audience there. The place is deadly quiet. They catch Christopher Walken. This part is a little unclear. Paying off Alex Rocco, I guess, to not promote the show. But then when they're like, rip, you didn't promote the show, Christopher Walken is like, I didn't know. I don't know. Look, it's he did it. Like he's, and, uh, but there's no audience. But then it turns out seconds later, there is an audience. Yeah.

They just had to park in the back behind the country bear hall. Yeah, because Bigel and one of them is, uh, didn't want to messin' up his lawn. Because Bigel has a running gag about how important his lawn is to him. The audience floods in. Christopher Walken makes the greatest angry, surprised faces. It is children's Panamim Theater, like all over. And then they saved the hall. They name Barry an official country bear. And they play a whole song. And Barry gets a guitar solo.

And then over the credits, you get real-life testimonials from the real-life musicians who are in the movie about how important the bears are to them. And then, and as mentioned, with all the energy of someone who didn't like, really fully read their contract, it's like, now I gotta pretend that the country bears are a fucking musical influence on me

and actual music star. Okay, sure. And this stuff seems fairly, fairly added. Like, yeah. Barely, barely add lived, yeah. And this is when Exhibit and Wyclef, John, show up. They were, I don't think they were in the movie before this. So I wonder if they had scenes that were cut off, cut out.

Let's just imagine they got caught coming out of the bathroom on the line. And they're like, hey, you want to say something about the country bears? Sure, whatever. Well, and there's,'s some of the testimonials. I get the implication that they were suggesting that at one point, the country bears dabbled into hip hop. And I got increasingly nervous they were going to have a country bears hip hop song, which luckily did not manifest.

Yeah, luckily that doesn't happen. That would be too much to bear, unbearable. And then as mentioned before, Disney plus then recommends Brother Bear because I guess bears are the only thing I'm into now. I guess I just love anything with bears in it. I want to read, I want to watch the bear, I want to watch Jack the Bear, I want to watch everything with bear in the title. The Witches of East Bear, all of everything, all the stuff with bears.

I'm sure. I'm sure. Yeah, the Witches of East bears, it's the the witches of Eastwick but they're all bears not while browsing through the bear necessities catalogs actually the way the the witches of breast week but they're all bears that's the weird part it seems like the title's got mixed up a little bit yeah I'm glad you guys took this journey with me uh to the country bears I'm glad we had this journey through country bears, legend, we got to a little snippet of taste

of the different porn habits of stew and dance, stew being more of a hardcore internet guy and Dan being more of a cinematics guy. And Dan, I will say, you watch this movie, and then you were like, guys, you gotta see this country bears movie. It was not since cats have you talked about a movie this much, I was like, what about Monari? And and you were like I don't give a shit country bears and

Then watching it. I was like I get it now. I get it. This is a silly movie But it is a much better movie than a movie based on the country bears has any right to just in terms of the quality Well, let's I mean let's get into the final judgments good bad bad bad movie kind of like I the thing about this movie is like It has it bears a similarity Still good and that's a musical about actors in furry outfits or CGI and cats case but And it they both have a similarity in that so much work is put into what is essentially not the greatest idea

for a movie. And cats that make all the wrong decisions, like the country bears, I think, basically actually works on its own terms because it makes all the right decisions for an untenable center. I mean cats, cats is attempting to say something about the human condition through the form of singing cats and it fails miserably whereas the country bears is like let's make

something a kid can watch for an hour and a half, you know, and it totally succeeds. The director of this, this was his first and only feature. I want to assume it's because this feature was the country bears, which did not do well. But he was a writer for many episodes of Animaniacs. And the writer of this, most recent credit, was Game Night, which is a very funny comedy. So like, and great cast, great songs.

Like, the people behind this knew what they were doing. And what they were doing was making a movie of the country bears. I don't know if I'd say great songs. I would say the songs are fine. I didn't. The songs are better than you would expect from a country bears.

You would think that if they're doing it on a curve. You would think if they're doing their reunion show, they wouldn't open with a fucking ballad, right? Yeah. I will say, the songs are, these are songs I would see hearing on the radio. Like, yeah, they're not bad songs. Yeah, well anyway, but point is, I would not say,

like, don't expect that this is anything other than a goddamn dumb movie, but it's a movie I kinda like. No, I did, I, watching the movie, it was fairly early on that I was going to be like, I was like, I can have to really go and record something for public where I say that the country bears is a movie I kind of like. And by the end of it I was like, well I should have been ashamed. Yeah, sure, country bears kind of liked it. It's not, again, if you're going to watch a movie, I'd prefer you watch the movie, I'm going to recommend it at the end of the episode, which I think is your great

movie. But if you're looking for something to do with kids on Disney Plus and it's a rainy Sunday afternoon, why not throw the country bears on there? Go ahead, it's fine. They might have some nightmares about those bear costumes, but hopefully not. See what do you say? Okay, so just to pull back the curtain on my viewing habits lately, I'm just trying to catch a little bit of movies when I can

Life's hard for old Stewart so I watch the first half of this movie in between opening the bar and closing the bar and When I went back to work I found myself wishing I could just go home and finish country bears I like I was thinking I kept finding myself thinking about it, thinking about that little bear guy running around, running down the street, and thinking about how the emotional climax of this movie involves a performer,

a performer in a bear costume running down a street, and how hot and sweaty that must have been for him. It's a lot of fun. There's some lot of fun. There's some genuinely good jokes. I think the choice to make them like animatronic instead of some kind of like 2002 level CGI effects, which would have been horrifying. I think it was the right move, even though it's super weird.

I think it's way more fun to watch these like animatronic bear faces. Yes, yeah. So yeah, and people in bear costumes. Contra bears good movie, thumbs up. Nice, kind of like. Yeah, I was talking about this to Sammy and he was like, is this the movie you liked the most

of any of you seen on the flop house? And I'm like, no, it can't be. Can it? And I don't think it is. I think there was still that Hallibary kidnapping movie where she has to where she has to chase after the people who kidnapped her kid. That was a tense movie. But otherwise, you know, it's pretty, it's, it's, it's our first flop house movies. This is one of the better ones, which, yeah, you know, is faint, the faintest of

praise. Well, so if you were alive on our show, The Flop House, to bring you the hottest news about how the Company Bears movie from 2002 is actually pretty fun, then maybe you would like to consider joining Max One Fun. Now, I will say, so during this time we have been collecting sort of testimonials from people and I will ask Jordan to put some of the ones that you recorded in your own

voices after this break, but I also have gotten a lot from people who wrote in and I was going to read something here, but honestly, like the thing is, like, everything is so sweet and so personal that I felt like a little weird sharing because like, I am almost embarrassed by like, we have met something to people and that is very sweet. And so I just kind of rather than getting too much into anyone person's very personal sort of like sharing, I want to say like the themes that I saw is that like along with the laughter, people have looked for us in this time, especially this last year for a lot of comfort, just like a comfort lesson, something that makes them feel safe,

something that uplifts them, something that feels like it's reliably there, when they feel bad, listening to friends talk to one another in this time where there's less socializing helps them not feel alone. And I get it because I also am a max fund listener. When I was going through worst times than I, I feel I am,

even now in the case of all this pandemic stuff, when I was going through bad times, podcasts were there for me. I felt comforted. I got to, I've gotten to meet people through maximum fund, make, make friendships with them. All of our fellow podcasters that may have been so wonderful and If this is valuable to you It is a good thing to support like people. This is how we make our money off of the show and as much as we do love it at this point in our lives There may not be time in our lives for it if we weren't

making money off of it. On top of that, it is a genuine support. I have been fortunate enough to keep my jobs to the pandemic, but as Alit said, work has been spotty. Stuart is a small business owner of a bar. This is not a great time for bars like Don't recommend the podcast. Yeah, having the podcast has honestly like Captives the float during this time so um if you visit maximum fund or slash join you can see all the ways you can give most people choose $5 or $10 per month and some support $20 a month or more any level that you feel comfortable at

Please you know choose what what works for you You can boost your membership between levels if there's a specific amount you'd prefer to give and I you know I just want to say it's been a tough time for so many of us But your support helps us continue Your relationship is you know beyond the financial support even the fact that we know that there's an audience who this is important to is important to us and has become like a weird sort of like honor to be able to visit with all of you. honor to be able to visit with all of you. So if you would like to and if you can please go ahead and join at maximumfun.org forward slash join. Ryan Knoxville Tennessee. It's great. It looks mean to the flop house quite a few years ago.

The thing that I appreciate the most other than just the humor of this show is how honest they are with dealing with their own mental health. It was at a time where I felt embarrassed to have the same medication for it. I felt like an outcast, there's like a loser, and hearing these guys be open about it and seeing the success that they've had really was inspiring. And it's really helped me develop more of my own voice and start my own podcast called BRB AFK. Yeah, I'm going to plug it.

But seriously, I'm so thankful to have this show, especially this last year with the pandemic and everything seen just nuts. They helped me get through the year, some really good episodes, and I'm grateful to the shows around. The guests now I say bye. And now we will do letters from listeners like you. You know, the letters segment is kind of like its own little magical world. Let's say you were in a forest and their trees had doors on them, doors that led you to different towns to different places.

There's a door shaped like a letter. Why, let's open it up and see what's inside. Bump, bump, bump, pararam, bump, bump, dararam, Dun, dun, dararam, dararam, Listeners of every age, would you like to hear something strange? Stay tuned here and you will spy letters for the flop house guys. This is Letter Time. This is Letter Time.

Questions we don't know how to answer. This is Letter Time. Buckle up for Letter Time! This is Letter Time! This is Letter Time! Questions we don't know how to answer! This is Letter Time! Buckle up for Letter Time! Ask us about its wee barely-re-member! I am the letter with a personal question! Makes you squirm! You're uncomfortable with emotion!

I am the letter all about Dan! Saying he's cool because it was written by Dan! This is Letter Time! Everybody Letter Time! Letter Time! Letter Time! Letter Time! Letter Time! time letter time letter time letter time letter time doodoo doodoo doodoo in this time we read letters I kind of wish this song was better la la la la la letter time la la la letter time letter time la la it's letter time letter time

la la la I'm wasting time wasting all of your time. Weeeeeee! So that was the... Okay, you know, I was kind of down on that song, but you know, wouldn't be over by the end. I like it. Okay, good. I think the Wii really... Yeah, the Wii really. Yeah, the Wii really.

Yeah, that's why to be. I mean, that's another reason we need a little more money for the max fund drive though to pay off, do you know what I mean? Pay any off, yeah. Especially when I go, what's this? What's this? There's letters everywhere. What's this? There's letters everywhere.

What's this? There's questions in the air. What's this? I can't believe my eyes. I must be dreaming. Or my ears. It's letters, time. That's not fair.

What's this? What does Danielle have money for to buy a Lembus bread? This is from Alphan. This is from Elijah last name. There must be something in the mail that says that letter times at hand. And so I'd like to hear this letter. Continue, Dan.

Sure. So reading letters, reading letters. Is this so fine? Guys, I have to sing these songs to my son every night before he goes to bed I got there stuck in my head Yeah, so this letter is from Elijah last night with held Elijah wood who who writes Dear flappers I've been listening through the back catalog recently and had the pleasure of hearing your

Doctor do little episode in said episode Elliot speculates as to whether the testimony of a stick insect would be acceptable in court, and wondered if the defense would be able to successfully impeach the animal's character. As a flop listener who went to law school in England, I hope I can offer some clarity in response to this definitely serious legal inquiry. After a thorough look at the case law, I found that there's actually precedent for an animal's appearance, testimony in the space being accepted in English courts. And here there is a content warning for some misogyny and general dodging us. In 1677, a dog was brought to call it, to testify in a case of a woman accused of having sex

with said dog, the dog, quote, owned her by wagging his tail and making motions as if it were to kiss her. Now, the poor woman's defense was that there was malice in the witnesses, the dog presumably included, but this attempt to impeach the character of the dog failed and the woman was convicted. So in blatant answer to Elliot's question, it seems given the low threshold in this case,

it is at least theoretically possible a stick insects testimony could have been used to execute Michael Sheen and Dr. Doolittle. In real, English, legal history, the court system was much more professional by Victorian times, but also there were no talking animals in real history either. However, real English laws, unlikely to make much appearance in movies, English law is notoriously poorly depicted in British media because of the overwhelming influence of Americanization on the non-lawyer British creative super-duced things. For example, British newspapers readily illustrate stories about court proceedings with stock

flows of gavils, despite the fact that gavils have never been used in English and Welsh courts, the hilarious law and order UK just recycled US scripts without trying to make it fit the legal system for a start. There's no plea bargaining across the pond. Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over-

Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they get over-

Did they get over- Did they get over- Did they wear wigs in the show? They would be awesome. They got to wear wigs. That's the most important thing. The Academy Award nominated in the name of the father, despite being based on a true story, decided to just import American court tropes, including showing a solicitor without higher court rights of audience arguing in place of a barrister.

Translation. Wigless lawyer incorrectly shown in the position of a Wig Deloitte. That was helpful. This leads me to a question. One of the floppers favorite ridiculous courtroom antics in film, to rival a stick insects taking the stand as a witness. Even if the law isn't accurate, there's nothing so much fun as a good kangaroo court on screen, especially if an actor is willing to embrace the large ham trope. Yours flop

fully Elijah Lestin withheld. When I was thinking about this, I couldn't think of, unfortunately, a courtroom scene. I'm sure there are many that I have gaffawed at with incredulousness, but I did think of double jeopardy. The movie that is based on such a huge misunderstanding of what the double jeopardy law would be saying that since she was already framed for husband's murder, she can now murder him and the courts cannot untouchable talking about you. Yeah. Yeah. It's the perfect crime. I like to do is go to jail for it already. I feel like my favorite courtroom movie probably doesn't hold up to actual legal rules. And that of course is my cousin Vinnie. I love it so much. I've seen it in a million. No, what I've always

heard is that my cousin Vinnie is one of the more accurate. Wow. Yes. So it's not. It's actually show out of water. No, it is not. No, the two Uts had some excellent legal representation. Oh, man, I love it. It wasn't until I saw my cousin Vinnie that I realized that you have to share your evidence with the opposing side. Yeah.

That there's the whole discovery process where you have to show them what you're going to argue with because there's so many courtroom movies or TV shows where there's the whole discovery process where you have to show them what you're gonna argue with because there's so many courtroom movie or TV shows where there's a surprise last minute witness who like brings in some and as a lawyer you're not supposed to always allowed It's always allowed and it's bad-loyering for you because you don't know what they're gonna say like a lawyer is not as a lawyer They tell you never ask a question. You don't know the answer to and you you're not allowed to just bring something in and be like Oh, yeah, the other you don't know the answer to. And you're not allowed to just bring something in and be like, oh yeah, the other side

doesn't know this person exists, but we're gonna bring them in. It's a real trial, I assume they would like, stop the trial to share that information. And then they would, because if, in other things, my one experience on jury duty was seeing how long everything takes and how a trial

can just stop for a week and then come back. And it was that there's, it's so much of it is about the judges' schedule. Like trials are not as speedy as the I guess the Constitution declares to man's but but it wasn't until my cousin Vinnie that was like oh so you can't just drive up with us with a last minute witness and blow the other case out of the water. Surprise witnesses and each more surprising than the last. And it makes me think of the, the non-witness version of that is in the miracle

on 34th Street when they dump all that Santa Claus mail out. And I'm like, well, what is this supposed to prove? Nothing, like this, this is dumb. And I think in the movie they're even like, well, that's not good evidence. But I've never really been able to understand how the case works in that movie or how the judge has to be-

Why not? I mean, decision. I to understand how the case works in that movie or how the judge comes to his decision. Well, I think the great thing about that movie is it's pretty clear that the judge is looking for and excuse not to can't fake this guy because of all the back. Like the hate mail he's been getting and everything. Like you just, you know what? Sure. Guys, he's saying a close. I'm not super well versed in legal stuff, but

Is the courtroom scene in Ghostbusters 2 with the ghosts is that is that realistic? I mean that's only realistic in that. I mean the thing is if a ghost is gonna break up a courtroom to try to kill the judge who gave them the chair There's a lot of usually there are motions and paperwork that they have to go through before they get here in that in that Yeah, yeah, but you know the scolary brothers, they just do whatever they want. That's why they got the chair. You know? I mean, actually, you know what? I don't think it's, he says, I gave him the chair,

but they're in New York State during that scene, right? I think a capital punishment had been against the law of New York State for years. So unless, I guess depending on how long, he would have been, is playing a judge in that one. So lawyers, I guess depending on how long, I see what it is playing a judge in that one, so lawyers write in some with the history of capital punishment in New York State. Or like, I mean, capital punishment

was against the law in the United. It was declared, if I'm remembering right, I thought the Supreme Court declared it cruel and unusual at a certain point, and then it was brought back because our country got meaner over time. But yeah, I don't know. We'll have to see if that's actually true.

Oh, you know, look it up, Elliot. It's not on the goofs page. You know, it goes plus just two, I can see. Guys, I could be wrong, but it's possible we just discovered a new goof. And the flop house may have made news in this country, but it's episode news about ghost busters too.

You can use, okay, well, the second. No, wait, here's the other thing I want to say about me looking for a 34th Street They should so the trial is they think he's insane because he declares himself sand on their commit I'm right. I wish the movie had had the guts to commit him to the its an asylum and then an army of elves Just breaks the walls down and just fighting with guards as they as they break Santa Claus out and as Santa Claus flies off He goes human human law has no call as no holdover L flaw. Yeah and they says you've tasted my generosity now taste my wrath. Yeah exactly. And he's just he drops a huge lump of coal on the insane asylum killing dozens. Yeah sure. And all the cookies and milk that are in the

break room have been devoured by a voracious Santa Claus. Yeah, well, then it becomes the movie ends in a chilling dystopia where cookies and milk now have to put out every night to satisfy the angry, the angry God with Santa Claus. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it becomes like Shirley Jackson's the lottery or like, it's a good live episode of the Twilight Zone where it's like Santa's coming kids have to put out the cooking cookies Santa Might come tonight. Uh don't take my children Santa Claus

Good all year. Oh, yeah, but I was good all year Santa. I was good all year. Not good enough You know wishes him to the cornfield Which is kind of like kind of like the evil robot Santa from future Rama right? You know what? I just pulled it I just pulled a country bear mop it's you're right. I shouldn't have done it like that. I apologize Future Rama producers and writers This a second and final letter for the episode is from Lindsay last name with held who writes Dear floppers every once in a while Elliot says something that makes me think he knows a lot about ska What's the deal with that?

Sincerely, Lindsay last thing withheld. What is the deal with that? I certainly know more than I want to about Scott, but it's, I'm not a big Skaw fan. Sure I love Madness, everybody loves Madness, some of their songs, but. Pistons off the Skaw fans and the rock belly. Wow. Yeah, and when you know it, if I was listening to, if you put on a wheelchair-making ska, I'd sit there and be fine with it.

But a good being a guy who went to a load of punk shows in my college years, which is the early 21st century, in the late 20th century, I saw a lot of ska opening bands, and I'd be like, I'm just here to see the bouncing souls. I don't need to sit through a ska band, but I guess I have to, you know, I just here to see Screeching Whizel. I don't want to see a bouncing souls. I don't need to sit through a scaband, but I guess I have to, you know, I just here to see Screeching Whizel. I don't want to see a scaband. But you just sit through a lot of scabands if you were into punk and kind of poppier punk at the time. Now, of course, it was, it was a real eye opener when I started going to middle shows with Stuart and there were no scabands opening for them. And I said, oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. You switched your allegiance. Yeah,

if we go see Carcass, there's not gonna be a scob-and-playing beforehand, you know. But man, what would happen if that happened? Well, well, you know, I think it would go a little something like this. It would be a little something like this. Deep, deep, deep. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, like this. Well, let us move on to our final segment of the evening where we recommend movies, you know, like, look, we like the country bears, but maybe you're not in the movie for a movie about a group of country singing bears. Maybe we don't want the classic flopphouse recommends sticker that just like the Oprah Book Club logo, we don't want that slapped on the country bears DVD necessarily. Yeah, I mean, certainly I wouldn't understand passing on the country bears dvd necessary yeah i mean certainly i wouldn't understand passing up the country bears but it takes all kinds so i'm going to recommend

any birdy recommend it we don't want to we don't need a double i'll recommend uh... i rewatched uh... because uh... my brother wanted to watch it and we were doing uh... you know a distanced family watch uh... of the the sugarland express uh... Spielberg's first movie for the theaters, Duel was released theatrically, I believe only overseas. And then Sugarland Express came out and then it was on to jaws. But this, so this was his debut.

And rewatching it, I was impressed by how early on he was just sort of a master of visual storytelling. There is a lot of... It's a much smaller, more human movie than a lot of his later films became, but it also, from the start, has so many technical challenges. The crane will widen out and you'll see so many cars doing so many things. I guess I haven't even said the story. The point of it like it's a long slow car chase at the beginning of the movie a very young Goldie Han visits William Atherton known as the perennial 80s dick in movies like Ghostbusters, Real Genius, Die Hard. Anyway, here, much more

likeable, but still a duface. They break out of jail even though he's set to be released soon because their child is going to be taking away from them from child services and they end up getting in this slow speed chase. And it's interesting to see it was based on a real incident and I feel like it was very much kind of an early rumbling of celebrity culture of today. I mean, I guess, you know, like outlaws were always celebrities, but this is kind of like a modern version of it that like a modern American version of it that wasn't as often caught and paraded in pop culture because it wasn't as big a phenomenon as it is now sort of like the the giant celebrity scandal kind of thing, but you go to love these characters, you see them go through this, it has a very 70s vibe. It feels very different from a lot of Spielberg movies. It feels very, like it has that human comedy that Jaws has

and like a lot of great faces of like character actors that then later on sort of the some of the slickness maybe took away from Spielberg as great as some of his other movies are, but it was very enjoyable. I recommend it. The Sugarland Express. Yeah, Sugarland Express is really good and I've always looked at it as a kind of road not taken for Spielberg. Yes, definitely. It's weird like Altman Spielberg kind of. Yeah, it's much more of Spielberg doing the kind of movie that you saw a lot of in the 70s before he essentially invented like modern blockbuster movies with jaws.

That's a segue, I don't mean to jump ahead in my recommendations. That's a segue to, I was gonna, in addition to the movie I'm recommending, because this is the Max one pledge drive, I don't recommend a book that I'm reading. Currently reading Bob Ballabans, Close Encounters of the Third Kind Diary, which is his, like, diaries from the making

of Close and Gows of Third Kind, a Steven Spielberg movie, and to really fun read, and there's a lot of neat behind the scene stuff about that movie that I didn't know before. But a lot of it is just anecdotes about him and a Francois Trufo hanging around waiting for the times when they were supposed to be shooting scenes Because there were so many special effects shots to wait for

But that's not the movie I'm recommending sure close encounters is great. I'm not recommending it this time I'm recommending a different movie. Hey guys The criterion channel seems to know exactly what I want to see because they've got a whole collection of check new wave movies up and Long time listers in the flop house may or may not be aware that I love the check new wave or end that entire movement of Eastern European kind of new wave films of the early to mid 60s. I'm a big fan and so there's a bunch of movies that I'm what closely watch trains which is one of those movies is one of my all-time favorite movies

intimate lighting is another great one but anyway the one I'm recommending is those are both in that collection that's on criteria right now. But another one that I just saw is called Something Different. This is the, I think, featured debut possibly of Vera Chitalova, who directed Dazeys, which I recommended a little while back. And it tells two parallel stories.

One is about a housewife who has become very frustrated and dissatisfied with her life and embarks on an affair that kind of starts to replicate the things going on in her marriage. It seems like she's just kind of stuck in those things. And it appears to have a story of an Olympic gymnast who is practicing and preparing for an exhibition. And she's having to push herself really hard to do new moves that she's not used to at a time when she's getting older than Jim Nuss usually are and is finding it more difficult and the Jim Nuss is played by Eva Bossa Kova who was a real Olympic gold medalist

from Czechoslovakia and so there's a lot of great gymnastics in the movie, but it's a Czech no-Wave film which means that it's a little sad but also a little funny. There's great black and white, just kind of crisp imagery and the way that it kind of counterpoints these two stories and these two women who are both eager for something different in their lives but find themselves kind of still trapped by the way of living that they know and the things they're used to. I just really liked a lot. So that's something different. It is not, I just wanna say right off the bat, it is not the basis of the something different, Zima commercials that would air on American television

30 years later. It's not related. So this is something different. It's currently on the criterion channel and it's available in other places too. Before, sorry, before Stuart makes his recommendation, I don't wanna, a very important piece of information. I've done some research.

It seems that the death penalty in New York State has been abolished and reinstated many times over the years, including in 1860, it was abolished by accident and was corrected in 1861. But apparently according to the Ghostbusters fandom.com. Okay. Wiki. Let's see, the Scolari Brothers trial was in 1948 during which time. Okay, it was legal then, yeah.

It was legal, although Harris-Eulin's character, Judge Wexler, would have only been 21, making it unlikely he would be presiding over it. Where did they get the information that the Slurry Brothers Trials from 1948? Is that the novelization? I do not. The Ghostbusters to February 27, 1989 draft.

So this is, I guess, an earlier draft is specified that was 40 feet. So. You know what, I'm not gonna take that as canon, to be honest. I'm gonna, I hate to make enemies, but I'm gonna take issue with the Ghostbusters fandom Wiki site and say that this is a possible goof.

Yeah, I mean, or incorrectly regarded as goof. Yeah, do you think that original script, it was like the skill-ary brothers had lines and they're like, you executed us three years after the end of World War II. Yeah, because they had just had to place it. Yeah, and you're like, oh, wow, I understand this. Okay, so I'm going to recommend a movie that is hot.

It just hit Netflix this week. It's hot, just like my eggs. It just hit Netflix this weekend. So I guess last weekend, if you're listening to this, when it launched and not right now while we're recording it. Be more complicated. Get more lost in the weeds of this. I love it.

I'm recommending an animated movie that hit Netflix called The Mitchell's versus The Machines. It is super duper fun. I think it's produced by Lord Miller. I'm not sure. But it is. It's fun. It used a lot of different animation techniques and styles. It's, I don't know, just fun. Great. Recommend it. It's family film. Watch it. It fun. Great, recommend it. It's family film. Watch it. It's a blast.

Enjoy it. It reminded me a little bit of, it reminded me a little bit of spider verse in that while watching it, it kind of reminded me of when I was younger, and I discovered like Japanese animation and was so shocked at like,

I was so into this thing that feels new at least for me at the time. I don't know why like like the Pixar stuff never really did that for me. I mean Pixar movies are great but like the animation style never really like you know never really caught me like I don't know I guess maybe it was because we were watching computer animated movies like as as they were figuring out the technology but I don't know but this is uh Mitchell's version of the machines reminds me of spider verse and that it feels like this is kind of a new thing this is the way uh animated movies are going to be going and do I don't know it was great it's great yeah I've been seeing a lot of buzz on the internet from like you know film

people I know recently about this so that's that's yeah I'm curious yeah it's great well Elliott I believe that before we go you might have one final thing to say about the Max Fund Drive I do guys maybe we didn't mention it in this episode I can't remember but it's the Max Fund Drive. I do, guys. Maybe we didn't mention it in this episode. I can't remember, but it's the Max Fund Drive right now. And I wanted to take a moment before we left to make sure I get to say thank you. I feel like we can't say it enough. Thanks to everyone listening. Thanks to the current Max Fund Pledge members who are staying in the course with us. Thanks to current Max Fund Pledge members who feel like they can upgrade their memberships this year. Thank you to future Max von Plegers who haven't

pledged yet, but are about to make that leap and join. What's really like Stuart and Dan said, an amazing community of like people who talk, people who listen, sometimes the talkers listen to each other, sometimes the listeners talk a little bit. And it would not exist at all without your amazing and generous support. Max von could not exist without its members and their pledges.

So we really thank you about that. And I want to say one of the best things about Max Fund pledge drive, other than, of course, making it possible for Stuart and I to stay afloat again for me to pay my mortgage and feed my children, is other than that, which is still very good, is knowing that for reasons that I cannot begin to fathom, and this fights against our push a little bit, that people enjoy what we're doing

Enough to pay money for it Which always kind of surprises me, but it's a really wonderful thing like I'm a max fun pleasure myself And I get it that there's like I get a certain amount of happiness from supporting the creators and artists that I'm a fan of and I Hope you do too and like I get pleasure from their work And I get pleasure from knowing that I'm being a part of making that work possible And we really couldn't and wouldn't do this without you like I get pleasure from their work, and I get pleasure from knowing that I'm being a part of making that work possible, and we really couldn't and wouldn't do this without you. I think by this point,

Dan and Surtan, I would have found some other way to spend our time, but you're helping us stay the course with it. So thank you very much for supporting us and for considering supporting us if you haven't supported us yet. And just for being the sweet people that you are, who make this show worth doing for each of us.

And the dream of any creator is to have their work connect with someone that they otherwise never would have met and never would have had contact with. And this is that time of year, Max von Pledge Drive Time, when it really hits it home to me, how that we get to do that. And what a special relationship that is, this is when I really think about it,

and it makes itself known. So thank you very much for being the other half of that connection. It's really wonderful and special to us. So one last reminder, if you're ready to become a new member at this point or if you're already a member and you're ready to upgrade your pledge, just go to maximumfund.org slash join, put in information, choose the level that feels right for you, and let them know that the flop house is the show or one of the shows that you want to support because you don't have to just choose one.

You can do multiples. Again, that's maximumfund.org slash join. It really means a lot to us. Thank you so much. Do it now. Don't forget. Do it now, folks. Maximumfund.org slash join.

Do it now. Do it. I know you're not doing it. Go do it. Do it now. Do it. I can see you. I can see you're nearby.

Do it. Go for it. Do it. Well, man, do it now. Do it. I can see you. I can see you. Go for it. Go for it. Do it. Come on, man. Do it. Speaking of wonderful people, thank you to Jordan Cowling for editing and producing the show. Thank you to again, Max Fun, for being the support system that allows us to do the show. If you like the show, please go out in the world. Rated on iTunes, tell people about it. But we've come to the end of this episode with a lot of love for the country bears. Who would have thought it so many years ago, and we all got together, but this would be where we'd find ourselves today. No, I mean, I remember seeing the posters for the country bears when it was coming out

and being like, that's garbage. And now I was so wrong and I want to say Elliott of 20 years ago. Hey, don't be so cynical because like a good friend of yours will say someday. Good things come in bears. Ugh, even when I say it, it's like ashes in my mouth. Oh, I can't forget it. Harble. All right, no.

For the flop house, I've been Damakoy. I've been Stewart Bear Wellington. Love that nickname, famous nickname. Get back around. And I've been Elliot Kaelin. Thanks for bearing with us. Oh, man, got to the point at the end. Oh, man.

Oh, man. Got to the point at the end. Oh, man. Got to the point at the end. On this episode we discuss, the country bears currently at 31% on rot tomatoes. What the fuck? That's pretty good and yet pattington 2 is the best reviewed movie of all time. What's going on here? Maximumfund.org

Comedy and culture artist-owned audience supported Maximumfund.org. Comedy and culture. Artist-owned, audience supported.