The Flop House - Ep.#450 - Unfrosted, with Alex Smith

Episode Date: April 26, 2025

We flashback to discuss a movie that was much-requested when it was first released, but just didn't fit into our schedule -- Jerry Seinfeld's baffling paean to the Pop Tart, Unfrosted, a film that throws an astounding cavalcade of comedy talent at ideas that seem (apologies) a bit undercooked. Also, we were blessed by the rare in-studio presence of our beloved producer, Alex Smith, who hadn't actually seen the movie, which made explaining the madness of the "plot" all the more enjoyable.Wikipedia page for UnfrostedRecommended in this episode:Dan: The In-Laws (1979)Stu: Sexy Beast (2000)Elliott: Dark Days (2000)Alex: Gridlock (1996)Aura has a great deal for Mother’s Day. For a limited time, listeners can visit AuraFrames.com to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame, with promo code FLOP. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout!Head to squarespace.com/FLOP for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, use OFFER CODE: FLOP to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

On this episode we discuss unfrosted. Should have been un-made. That was a hot one. Like a hot pop tart. Hey everyone, welcome to the Flophouse, I'm Jay McCoy. Hey, I'm Stuart Wellington. Hi there, I'm Elliott Kalin. And joined in studio today we have our producer who has decided to come kick the tires, check out how the show is being made, make sure that it's not falling apart. That's right, we are joined with by Alex Smith, aka HowlDotty.

Introduce yourself, bud. Hello, I'm Alex Smith. I'm here to kick the tires, make sure everything's going good, audit the show. You've been kind of an absentee producer up to this point. You really haven't been around much. We mail you the checks, you don't fix the plumbing, we still have a mice problem. Somewhat deliciously Alex has not seen the movie, which will be an interesting wrinkle on the show.

I mean, I think he's mainly just going to make sure that we sound good and occasionally double check our facts. You can double check our facts about the movie he hasn't seen? I've got a cool new Flophouse character that I've been working on, which is the guy who doesn't know what happened in the movie. And so he says stuff like, wait, what? Come on.

I think that's my new guy. That's my new guy I'm working on. I think we've had that character on the show a few times. Sometimes he's been named Dan and sometimes Stuart. I don't think so, actually. I think this is a new character. Yeah. Hey, let's get into it, shall we? So what do we do on this podcast, Dan? I don't think so actually I think this I think this is a new character. Yeah Hey, let's get into it. So what do we do on this podcast Dan? Well, it's a podcast where we watch a bad movie and we talked about it and unfrosted

Was a film that you know, usually we do something either we throw back further or we do something that's sort of newer to streaming Or even in theaters. This was one that was much requested at the time or even in theaters. This was one that was much requested at the time. Uh. And we said. All that enthusiasm is done. Wait on it. We said you gotta wait till Unfrosted

is available for home viewing. And they said it's not in theaters, it's a Netflix movie. And we said not interested, no thank you. Let's think of this. We're on a streaming service cycle right now. Netflix is not in the cards. They said we have to wait until Elliot is working for Netflix to start covering only Netflix movies.

Oh, actually, yeah, that's a theme month, right? Back to back, Netflix. Yeah, this is a theme. This theme month is called Nuts Flicks, because these movies are nuts. This is sort of a- Nuts to watch them. Super-sized miss that movie, let's say that.

Yeah, I feel like that's a really good description. Yeah, this movie does exist in that liminal zone, Dan, between so new recovering it and so old recovering it. But I think, you know what? A movie like Unfrosted had such a huge cultural impact. Yep. I feel like people are still raring at the bit to get it. Now...

Raring at the bit, interesting. A couple of videos. I wanted to avoid you telling me that it's champing at the bit, so I just decided to go way off in another direction. It's pretty simple, you just say champing at the bit. So I just decided Champing at the bit, you know, what is champing me you chomp at bits. It's in your mouth. It means chomping Normally we get right into the movie no silly buns, but I think it's important that we take a second and we really talk about our Our relationship with unfrosted Alex. What's your relationship with them? I've heard that Jerry Seinfeld is in it.

That's what I noticed. Wow, yeah. He's not only in it, he also directed it and co-wrote it with a few writers who had worked with him on Seinfeld and written a number of other things. This is a, it's an all-star cast in front of the camera and in the writer's room. Yeah.

Have you guys ever seen Seinfeld? I'm familiar with the television show Seinfeld. Now wasn't Jerry the character played by Jerry Seinfeld, wasn't he obsessed with breakfast cereal? Am I remembering this? He was, yeah. I don't know about obsessed, but he was certainly very interested in them.

I mean, I feel like he was obsessed with everything on that show. Like his potential girlfriend's faults. It does. Which is all, strangely, there's nothing about girlfriend's faults in this movie. Although there is some stuff about unhappy marriages in a running gag involving Walter Cronkite. But this is, it does feel like while you're watching this movie, and we'll get into it,

that you are just looking at the inside of Jerry Seinfeld's head at the things that he's interested in. And what do you want? I mean there's no car talk really in it, but otherwise there's a lot about breakfast cereals. Frickin' frackern in it? Not frickin' frackern, you know, yeah, yeah, the T no car talk really in it, but otherwise there's a lot about breakfast The clicking clack UPR the conservative alternative NPR that will soon become the real NPR. Is it really click and clack? Yeah.

Really? Because those are like noises that like a car might make and then you tap it. I feel like in German it's frickenfrack. Stuart, this is a good time for you to finally get into car talk. German Autosprechen? Yeah, now that one of them has passed, you can finally get into car talk. Yeah. Who's in charge of talking about this movie?

I'm doing the summary today, so let's get into it. Alex? So, Unfrosted is a movie that is mostly in flashback to the 1960s. So it seems very strange that the era we're flashing back from also appears to be the 1960s. We see a kid bundling up a bindle of 1960s stuff and old comic book, old toys, and he goes to a restaurant to drown his sorrows in Pop Tarts.

We'll never learn what he is upset about, I don't think. If they mentioned it, I forgot it. And he reads the origin story on the back of the Pop Tarts box, and he goes, huh, good story. But sitting next to him is Jerry Seinfeld, who tells him that story is baloney. I'll tell you the real story of Pop Tarts. This is when that kid should have left the room.

An old man is talking. Stranger danger. Hey kid, get closer. I'll tell you the true story of Pop Tarts. An old man with a complicated relationship with younger people. That's true. Yeah, but not that young. But still young enough that it's troubling. Yeah. So we go back from the 1960s to, I guess earlier in the 1960s. It's Battle Creek, Michigan, home of the Serial Titans Kellogg's and Post.

Jerry plays the character of Bob Cabana, an employee at Kellogg's, and he works at Fora. And we see just kind of like a lot of serial jokes for a while He's walking around different things are happening. Oh, yeah, there were a lot of them I should say at a time. This is essentially a sketch movie like there's there's kind of a plot but it's mostly a sketch movie and Hugh Grant appears in a part he'll play throughout the movie as Thorough Ravenscroft to the real-life voice of the Tony the tiger character What yeah the life voice of the Tony the Tiger character. Yeah, Hugh is one of- Wait, what?

Yeah. Come on. So that's weird, we're going through what I'm calling the grand-a-sance, which is when Hugh Grant is just showing up in lots of things, and he's in lots of different kinds of movies, but playing kind of variations on the same character. His character in this, his character in Paddington, too,

and his character in Heretic are kind of the same character just in different modes. I will say two things about Hugh Grant in this movie. One, he is one of the things that kind of works for me in this movie. Like, I do find him mostly funny in it. And two, in a movie filled with lies, for some reason, this is the place where I'm like, that's not what Thorol Ravenscroft was like. No, it feels like one of the few times where they're really,

they're edging on slandering somebody in a way. By making the role of Ravenscroft this guy. I think because they have scenes with Walter Cronkite later where they portray him as like a drunk with a bad marriage. And I feel like Walter Cronkite is famous enough that if you know who he is, you're like, okay, they're just making up something. But Thorough Ravenscroft, if you're not familiar with voice actors of the 1960s, and then you might be like, oh, they've they've really take a shit inside a building. I would say the grim grinning ghost is kind of the same thing, I guess.

And and Hugh Grant, he a big chunk of this movie, he's basically topless. And he looks good. He looks good. Now he's doing great. I mean, he's a professional actor, probably puts a lot of work into his body. That's fine. I feel like a lot. I feel like a lot of the people in this movie not all the material Obviously not all the materials good, but I feel like everybody commits I yeah, it was hard for me to find anyone in the movie where I was like I wish they had had somebody else do that job

I feel like everybody's trying to have fun everybody is doing their best some Yeah, pumps performances are stronger than others, but you're right. A lot of times they're given a, let's just say, light material to work with. I bet this is a really fun movie to make, or at least to write, you know. It doesn't feel like a rigorous production. Anyway, getting back into the plot, there's a lot of serial jokes, a lot of jokes about serial. Kellogg's is run by Jim Gaffigan as Edsel Kellogg III, who I believe might be a fictional character. And his rival is Amy Schumer as Marjorie Post,

the real life head of the Post Company, the daughter of CW Post. And they meet up eventually at the Cereal Awards, which are they called the Golden Bowls? Was that what it was? Yeah, I think so. And Kellogg's- Hosted by Cedric the Entertainer.

Hosted by Cedric the Entertainer hosted by Cedric the entertainer Please Stuart if you can remember to point out the celebrity appearances because I might forget some of them We already I already passed over the appearance of Mikey Day Kyle Mooney and Drew Tarver is snap crackle and pop. Yeah Which is a fantastic like waste of time I like watching Alex's face as each of these new details I like watching Alex's face as each of these new details gets revealed. I will say, to put Kyle Mooney in your movie and give him almost nothing to do is strange to me. He certainly makes a meal out of what he gets. The little bit that he gets. But it is not quite at the level of Tim Heidecker being in Bridesmaids and having no lines of dialogue the entire movie.

No lines of dialogue. Nothing funny. The whole time you're like he's got during the okay Maybe during the credits he does something zany. Maybe he has a post credits I mean again, I've said this before on the podcast I think maybe he showed up and they did not realize he was on set because the way he's even shot in the frame It's like they don't really know that he's there. Yeah Yeah, but anyway, I think they cast him really well because he does have guy your friend is marrying kind of yeah Yeah, I think that's fair. That's fair. A guy who you can almost, in certain situations,

you just can't describe him really. Yeah. He smiles a lot. Yeah. Oh, he's nice. He's a nice guy. What are his interests? Something, you know?

Sports, I guess. Probably home brewing. I'm guessing like maybe golfs. I don't know. Yeah, or maybe he likes to grill. Maybe a history channel. Yeah, history stuff. Or maybe he reads like a long,

just whatever fantasy novels they sell at the airport. Like he's not gonna take deep into fantasy, you know? So Kellogg sweeps the Golden Bowl awards, but Jerry suspects that Post has something up their sleeve. They seem oddly sanguine about losing all these awards. And then the next day, I guess, he sees two kids sneaking into the post dumpsters and he finds out that they're eating hot goo

they found in there. And these kids I love. I think they're great. Especially the girl who plays, I don't know her name, but I think her performance is so funny in this movie. And they're my MVPs for this movie, those kids. They eat hot fruit goo, he tastes it.

And Jerry instantly runs to his boss and he's like, Post is working on a fruit flavored pastry. And this could put Post over the top. This could make them the top company in Battle Creek, Michigan. This is definitely one of the points in the movie where I'm like, huh. So it's really still a movie about Pop Tarts.

It is a movie about Pop Tarts. Although it is, this is where it introduces, kind of like, this is like the space race. Like the joke of the movie in that there, if there is one is like, let's treat this race for like a toaster pastries as the space race. Now space race, you're talking about the Boonta Eve pod race featuring Anakin's guy walking the Bulbor, right?

That's exactly what he's talking about. Yeah, he's talking about that space race. He's also talking about the Wacky Racers space race. Oh, cool. The Hanna-Barbera characters. He is's talking about. Yeah, he's talking about that space race He's also time at the wacky racers space race. Oh cool the Hanna Barbera characters He is not talking about basketball. That would be a space jam Yeah, but again jam you might find it in a pop tart, you know good Yeah, ideally. Yeah. I mean if you find jam in your pop tart, you don't have grounds If you had found human blood in your pop tart to that company don't eat the rest of it unless you're a vampire in which case Go for it. If you have found human blood in your Pop Tart, sue that company. Don't eat the rest of it unless you're a vampire, in which case, go for it. But taste it first to see which one it is.

That's true. If you have to taste it, you've got to take a bite out of it. Because jam and blood look relatively similar when they're delivered in a hot pastry. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's why you see so many. They explain that in, what, Sweeney Todd? That's right.

That was a cut song, though. The cut song, which is called Jams a Lot Like Blood parentheses when delivered in a hot pastry. So anyway, it's soon it's national news that people are trying to make a pastry filling thing. We have this Walter Cronkite thing with Kyle Dunigan.

Okay, I'm like, who's... That was the one that I, one person I had trouble placing. Yes, he's wearing a lot of makeup, Andre. Another person that I got actual, I wouldn't say laughs out of, but the closest to me laughing was Cronkite. And I think that it was, of the comedy people, like I think he commits the straightest to what he's doing.

Like in general, I think the people who are most successful in this movie are the people who are going full bore as straight as they can with the material. Yeah, I mean, as often as the case with comedy. I actually, I thought his performance was fine. I did not like those jokes that much because it feels like an easy go-to to have a character who's an authoritative character

be like, yeah, my wife says I'm drinking too much. It's a lot of that kind of joke. I didn't like so much. I liked it when he was just like playing with the toys. Like, it goes away and then it comes right back to me. He always has a different 60s novelty type toy. So later on when he's using Silly Buddy, that part's funny. Anyway, Kellogg's, they hire their detective,

Sebastian Maniscalco, to take a look at what's going on. That's when Charlene's eyes perked up. She's like, my favorite comedian? And and she said I have to leave the room and she came back flushed a few minutes later He has spy footage from inside post they are using data from Kellogg's earlier fruit pastry research And they're obviously post spies at Kellogg to save the company Jerry says there's only one option He's got to work with his old colleague to save the company. Jerry says there's only one option. He's got to work with his old colleague, Stan Kowski,

who he calls Stan, but is soon revealed to be Donna Stankowski, Melissa McCarthy, who now works at NASA on the moon landing. But there's some moon landing jokes, but then he convinces her to come back with him. There's Amy Schumer. She shows the Dumpster Kids,

their experimental fruit pastry, and they say it's good, but it doesn't toast well. There's this long scene of the toaster being on fire or whatever and her her like right-hand man is max green Greenfield from new girl mostly is how I know although he's now on like that CBS sitcom The neighbors or something Neighborhood yeah huge deal huge so So anyway, he's his right hand man who mostly gets into trouble and she yells at him and stuff.

Stan is like, hey, we need a team of radical thinkers. And so they introduce in a parody of the of the astronaut press conference that you'd see in like the right stuff. You know, they introduce their new invention team. Do you guys want me to go through who it is or do you wanna take turns naming? Please do, because then I wanna yell about it for a little bit. Okay.

I wanna get Dan all worked up. Okay, yeah. His day ends up. East Coast ice cream magnate, Tom Carvel, of Carvel Ice Cream. Were you guys familiar with Carvel Ice Cream when you grew up? Not growing up as a midwesterner, Stuart.

Yeah, no, but when I came out here, all everybody wants to talk about is fucking Fudgy the Whale. Fudgy the Whale, Cookie Puss, yeah. So I grew up with Carvel, so it wasn't until I was much older that I realized this is not a national chain. And other people are not watching commercials

with Cookie Puss arriving from space. When you're writing letters to your pen pal in Alaska, they're like, why are you fucking talking about Cookie Puss, dude? I'm like, you must get the best cookie, is that where Cookie Puss lives? Yeah. Do you ever see Fudgy the Whale in the water?

Off the coast? Off the Juno Sound or whatever? Yeah, but they didn't know what I was talking about. Then you've got James Marsden as Jack LaLanne, Jack McBrayer as Steve Schwinn of Schwinn Bikes, you've got Bobby Moynihan as Chef Boyardee, and you've got Thomas Lennon as Harold Von Braunhut, who I was talking to Dan about this before the recording.

They present him as a Werner von Braun, like kind of ex-Nazi type. I did a little research. In reality, there was a Harold von Braunhut who here he's credited as the inventor of the sea monkeys, which he is. He did a lot of Mueller stuff. He was actually born Jewish and then as an adult became hugely racist and was affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan nations. So they are wrong that he was German,

but they're right that he was a racist. A racist, yeah. It's okay. And also Univac, the computer. And these are called their taste pilots instead of test pilots. Now here's what makes me angry about this thing. Is this lander of Univac

No, you know, I have been accused not unfairly of Sometimes being like the logic police on jokes. Yeah, but I don't think you can not even accused you were you you're an undercover Busts under your name. Yeah why I think of a logic thing. I pull out an abacus. No, that's more just a counting. I saw that video the person had recorded with their phone where you interrupt their joke and they're like, can I see your badge, sir? And you're like, you don't need to see my badge.

Anyway, it was, it was, you look came off very bad in a tan. But I, here's the thing. I just don't think you can go this fully to fucking crazy town. Even in a movie with as little to do with reality as this, I'm like, why? Why is Steve Schwinn bicycle inventor or seller, whatever the fuck the guy. Because it's all, again, this is all just the stuff

that's floating around in Jerry Seinfeld's head. I think that's a big part of it. I think you're right. I think the thing that ties this together is not what would make any sort of sense if we're trying to take this spot seriously, but it's just literally what things are floating around in a baby boomer's head from their childhood.

I'm surprised Charles Atlas was not the guy that they had instead of Jacqueline. And I almost wonder if they wanted Charles Atlas and then couldn't get him, because I know that like the Charles Atlas company is litigious, I know they kept Flex Mentallo from being republished for a long time, that comic series. So I wonder if that's the case,

because it feels like it's literally just, what stuff did I have as a kid? Schwinn bikes, I certainly had those, yeah. Sea monkeys, yeah, for sure. Chef Boyardee, we had a lot of that. I think that's, Tom Carvel, I grew up hearing his commercials all the time as a kid in the New York area in the 60s.

I feel like Bobby Moynihan commits to the Chef Boyardee character. And I think he's pretty funny. All of those people, I enjoyed him the most. He always commits to his roles. Yeah, he's a committer. I feel like the, it's always nice to see Jack McBrayer in things.

I've been a fan of Hibbs ever since I was a college student when I would see him at the UCB all the time. But here's what I'll say about this movie. And I generally like Thomas Lennon unless he's in a weirdly racist puppet master movie. I mean, yeah. Just the one, the specific one. Just the one. He was only in the one. But I love Thomas Lennon.

I mean, again, ever since he was a member of the state, I've been a fan of Thomas Lennon's. I think he's hilarious. But here's the thing that got to me around this point in the movie. And it really hit me when Peter Dinklage showed up. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm a member of the state, I've been a fan of Thomas Lennon's. I think he's hilarious, but here's the thing that got to me around this point in the movie, and it really hit me when Peter Dinklage showed up. Yeah. Oh yeah.

There's a lot of people in this movie who I've not seen on screen in a little bit, and they have aged, and that's just a natural part of life. But there were a number of times in the movie where I would see somebody and be like, oh, they've gotten older. Like, I didn't realize that they'd gotten older, because I haven't seen them in bits for a little bit.

We're also introduced to a like a scary milkman character played by Christian Slater and he looks great He looks he's very smooth-faced. He looks much younger than I would expect But Dinklage and Slater are both in this milk mafia kind of thing later later later. That's that you show what you say, right? Yeah, I'm like, oh, you're coming off pretty well because you're just doing, you're playing this as if it's a drama. Yeah, they're playing the material straight. So yeah, these threatening milkmen show up and Bob's like, what was that about? And his boss tells them, milkmen have always been a violent syndicate,

milk has always been a mob type organization, and they're gonna be mad that Kellogg's is now making a non-milk based breakfast product. They're not gonna like it. And this feels like a one-off thing, to be honest. You see like black and white photos of the history of milk, and it felt like the scene in the jerk when they're watching the film strip of cat juggling or whatever it is when uh

And it's where it's clearly just like a one-off silly thing I was like, but no, this is a tightly written movie. So this plot comes back quite a few times You know this because this movie is somehow a sketch movie that that does Continue to remember its threads even when you're like, that's fine. I need to know more about that I'm glad they don't pay off it remembers its threads, but it doesn't pay off. There's a later on, there's a sentient ravioli that I'm like, oh, this is gonna, you know, cause trouble for us. And like do something like save somebody or whatever.

I'm watching Alex's confusion when he hears sentient ravioli. Yeah, and also the milk stuff to get taken care of off camera, basically. Like the president takes care of that off camera. We'll get to the president, John F. Kennedy, played by the president takes care of that off-camera. We'll get to the president, John F. Kennedy, played by Bill Burr, but that'll come later.

So the lab gets to work. We get a brief appearance by Aparna Nancharla as a scientist who is just handling the computer. Great to see her. I don't mind seeing her in a movie. She's great. There's lots of jokes about the brand taste pilots. It goes on for a long time

and Amy Schumer's getting suspicious. Hugh Grant shows up. He wants to use the lab as his rehearsal space for production of King Lear and Stan and Thorol. They do not get along. Uh-oh, Thorol's gonna be a thorn in their side. The balance is breaking down. He's like.

That really seems like something you could leave out. Yeah, you would think. No, no, you would think, you'd think, but again, this is like a side-field episode. You would think. No, you would think. But again, this is a side-filled episode. All the storylines are going to come together. I think it's important that each taste pilot gets a fully realized arc in this movie. I don't know if you're aware, Alex. Stewart dosed your drink with mushrooms before you came over.

So what you think is the plot of this movie is not actually a plot. Stewart's right that each of the taste pilots does get an arc for the most part. I don't remember Carvel getting one, but I'm not even going to go into it. Like Jack Layne, the fact that people can see his dick through his pants so he has to make other pants. I'm not going to get into that. The sentient ravioli that Thomas Lennon and Chef Boyardee make, I guess we'll touch on that because it keeps coming up.

Shows up for a final gag. I think it's pretty important. Yeah, so the five cereal families meet in the back of a grocery store at night. And they- We get Andy Daly as what, the Quaker Oats guy? He shows up as the Quaker Oats guy. He's funny.

I mean, again, Andy Daly's hilarious. Like there's, that's a good gag and also he's hilarious. You know, I'll watch anything with him in it. I've worked with him and he's super great to work with so There's a lot of funny people in this At a certain point you get over the idea that the Quaker Oats guy is actually the guy who runs Quaker Oats So she says we've got this new toaster pastry it's gonna be on shelves next week and Bob and Stan are like we've got to Stop this there's only way to do it cut off the supply of sugar to post so they go to Puerto Rico to meet with El Sucre

And yeah, he controls all the sugar. He's like a drug dealer He briefly watches a ventriloquist played by Tony Hale who makes fun of his grout and the bad grout job on the tiles So of course, he's taken out his dumbiest shot. Okay. I thought that was kind of fun That was a good gag where you hear the shot off-screen you think he's been shot, but the dummy has been shot. And then he immediately shows up and starts making fun of the grouch. That's pretty funny. The one thing that he shouldn't make fun of, yeah. They say they'll buy all the sugar that El Sucre is bringing on.

And it's implied that, uh-oh, now they're on the hook for all the money for this sugar. They're going to be in trouble. But that doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter. Now, Post can't make anything. But Christian Slater as the milkman, he's threatening Bob. The taste pilot inventions, they all misfired. They just haven't done what they're supposed to.

The dumpster kids, they invent Rice Krispie treats, which is something the movie never really picks up on. That that's something. The movie mentions it. Off-brand garbage pail kids. The dumpster bottom kids. Yeah, that's the we have garbage pail kids at home, right? Yeah.

Dumpster kids. That's you want garbage pail kids. And your grandpa is like, I got you what you wanted for your birthday. Dumpster bottom kids. They just teach about being thrifty and recycling. I don't like this. They're not gross at all. And the kids tell them, you got to combine the things that you have.

So Bob and Stan combine the taste pilot's ideas. It eventually helps them to invent the pop tart. Everyone celebrates with a party where they dance the twist. Oh right, we were inventing the pop tart. That's right. Lost track of the... They still don't have a name for it though. Or is this one they call it a Trat Pop? I can't remember.

No, it's later. Okay, so Post needs sugar, so the only place to get it is from Cuba, so they go to Soviet Russia to pitch to Khrushchev, played by Dean Norris. Played by Hank Schrader, hell yeah. And his interpreter is the actress from the Borat sequel, right? Yes, it is. From Maria Bakalova. Yeah, it's Maria Bakalova who's our interpreter.

His interpreter. But she's, again, she's funny. They're fine. It's an all-star cast. It's amazing how much talent has been thrown at this crap. And like it looks good, like the movie looks good. I would say the movie looks a little made for TV ish, but that's yes It's a sketch movie doesn't need to look great. You know it looks fairly pretty but also flat. It's yeah, it's colorful

But flat it's all it's all floodlit the way that like a network television show I don't know I mean check the check it, but I think didn't Conrad Hall do the cinematography I do think it's actually Hit on the head with a coconut beforehand. It was a notable cinematographer. So they called him the Prince of Lightness beforehand. I'm going to look it up while you guys keep talking. The cinematography, Dan, it's by Bill Pope.

Oh. He's worked with a lot of people. Sam Raimi, worked with the Kowskis, with Edgar Wright, did a lot of music videos. This was the cinematographer on Dark Man. Yeah, the fucking Matrix. On Dark Man? Did a lot of stuff. Let's see. Here's his filmography.

Spider-Man 2. Army of Darkness. Spider-Man 2, one of the best movies ever made. Dan, your favorite movie, Blank Check. The remake of Bedazzled, another of Dan's favorites. Scott Pilgrim. The Spirit, former Flophouse movie. Oh, sure, yeah.

The Jungle Book remake that Jon Favre did. Another Flophouse movie, Alita, Battle Angel. I mean, the problem with the spirit was not that it looked bad, it was everything else. Yeah, yeah. Another Flophouse movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania. So now, Bill Pope now has a number of movies in the Flophouse, not because of his work on them.

No. Yeah. We gotta get him in here. Oh, he did the pilot for Freaks and Geeks. They did the pilot for Maximum Bob. Zero Effect. I like Zero Effect. Oh, he did Zero Effect with Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller.

Yeah, yeah. Clueless? So he's done a lot of stuff. He's done a lot of stuff. Great work. We can't take him down. No, let's not take him down. Wouldn't want to.

Let's try. You know who we should take down? Whoever made the decision to present Khrushchev as if he was kind of like a grumbling kind of beast of a man, when if anything Khrushchev made, say what will about you know the problems of Soviet Russia and so when I will at least he took a step forward in denouncing Stalinism in his speech you know to the Congress anyway so to so Khrushchev says I'll give you sugar in exchange for they pitch him a couple ideas for Soviet cereals and they says I'll give it to you if you have sex with me.

And so it's implied that Amy Schumer does. Bob is kidnapped by the milkmen, their leader, Peter Dinklage. Amy Schumer playing what noted feminist icon in some ways, has to sell her body for sugar. Okay, just to clarify. This is a movie that I would say does not have politics on its mind, which means it stumbles at certain points for that reason. Later on, as we'll get to,

there is a big parody of January 6th, which is not trying to make a point about January 6th. It's just like, this is like a thing that happened. And so it's like, it's weirdly- Oh, are you saying that the way that they use workers desiring what unionizing and fair wages being January sixers is complicated? It also, yeah, it's also taking a,

it's the idea of a brand mascots unionizing is a joke in it. And I don't think that it is an anti-union message so much as them not caring or thinking about it. It feels tone deaf as opposed to like, let's take the unions down. Anyway, Bob's kidnapped by the milkmen, is led by Peter Dinklage. He of course forces Jerry Seinfeld

to walk through a barn full of farting cows, which is too much for Bob and he quits the project. Meanwhile, there is a living ravioli loose in the lab that was created as a combination of Chef Boyardee's work and the sea monkeys. The White House sends a helicopter to pick up. This does kind of feel like the worst version of the Manhattan Projects.

Oh, the Manhattan Project's the comic book? Yeah. Oh, okay. I was like, I don't know, the nukes were probably the worst part about the... The worst version of the Manhattan Projects was probably the one that killed all those Japanese people. But yeah, still the... I'm talking about the comic. You're talking about the Jonathan Hickman comic. Yeah, sure. The Manhattan Projects, yeah.

So, the White House sends a helicopter to pick up the Kellogg's people, takes them straight to President Kennedy, played by Bill Burr, says they need post to be... Do you think that's a hair piece? No, I think that was his real hair, Stuart. I think that was his real thick brown hair. And he normally wears a bald cap. That's what I was going to say. Because he knows it makes him more relatable as a blue collar guy if he's bald.

If he wears a bald cap. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. OK, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I thought I was going crazy. So a lot of people don't know, Bill Burr originally started as a comedian named Bill Furr. And the idea was that he had this thick head of hair. And he got a bad haircut. It never worked. He bombed every night.

He got a bad haircut one night. And he was like, I'll just shave the rest off. And he did amazing. He killed. And so from that point on, he realized he was a reverse Samson, as it's known in the scientific literature. And this hair actually made him weaker as a comedian. Yeah. Interesting. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. A little background. That's a little bit. So that's my from my segment Behind the Burr, where I tell you stories about Bill Burr's history. Anyway, how did Bill Burr's name get attached to the thistles that get stuck

to your socks when you walk through a forest? Stay tuned for the next episode to find out Well, I can so so the president is like the Russians are working with post we got to stop them I'll help you with the milkmen, but the milkmen they make inroads by convincing thorough Ravenscroft to unionize and cause trouble for Kellogg's There's a NASA style test of the Pop-Tart. It's successful, but it ends in an explosion that kills Jack McBrayer's character,

and he has a full cereal funeral, which involves his coffin being floated in milk and cereal and the different mascots. Don't worry, this takes forever. I gotta say, it didn't make me laugh, but this is like the, again, one of the moments that threatened to make me laugh, but this is like the, you know, again, one of the moments that Threatened to make me laugh when they're you know, like Slowly pouring cereal and milk into the hole

I think it's like if this was a sketch on a TV show, I would I think I'd be laughing at it But by this point I was like done with cereal jokes. I was like We've had a lot of cereal jokes in this movie The and we I guess we also forgot to mention that in the testing scene where Jack McBradyer's character explodes, we see a friend of the podcast, Ronnie Chang. Oh, that's right. Ronnie Chang shows up very briefly. And he's funny. He has like three lines, but he's really funny.

So Kellogg and Post, they meet up at night and they have a rendezvous that almost turns romantic, but it's interrupted by the living ravioli that is peeking around. Oh, that's right. They need a product name. So now we go to, of course, Don Draper and Roger Sterling as played by the original actors, Jon Hamm and John Slattery. And we do a Mad Men parody where they're trying to sex up the product.

It's really, it is really like just a, it's directly a reference to the Belle Jolie campaign in the Mad Men series, right? Yeah, yeah. It's great, it's great to see Mad Men written by people who aren't as good as Mad Men writers. It really, well, you know, it's, I was surprised the movie just went directly into direct parody. Like it's not even just a reference. They're doing a scene It's just a direct parody of that show well again like things probably bouncing around Jerry Seinfeld's head They did slip very naturally back into those characters. I'll say that oh, yeah, I mean it's great to see him

Yeah, I mean that to be honest It was true that like John Hamm still got done driver, but even more so like John Slattery He can do Roger Sterling it seems like without even thinking about it. so naturally. I mean, of all the days to be on set, that's the day I would have picked. Yeah. And like the moment where... The way the day unfrosted, you know, unfrosted sweepstakes.

Well, and like the banter between John Hamm and Melissa McCarthy was funny, where they're like kind of flirting, and kind of, I don't know, I thought that was good. I'd want to be there for that serial funeral. That sounds really cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you'd have all the costumes and everything, a lot of celebrities there. I mean, that's when like every now and then at the Daily Show,

you'd have to dress up a correspondent in a funny costume and you'd see them walking through the hallway and you'd be like, this is what it feels like to work on a television show. Like in the movies, there's always a Roman centurion walking around the back lot, you know. They haven't made Roman movies in years, but there's, I mean, except for a gladiator too, I guess, but there's always a Roman centurion in the back lot of a movie studio. So they need a name, they call them the Dumpster Kids, they end up with the name Tret Pop, and... So an acronym for or something.

A palan... well, it's not a palanquin, it's not the same backwards and forwards, but if you reverse it, it'll be Pop Tart. Oh! Which is why it pays off later on. Pays off later. So it's called a Trat Pop. They fire all the mascots. And on the day that the FDA is supposed to certify that they can sell Trat Pops,

the FDA guy is played, of course, by Fred Armisen. They throw Ravenscroft in a QAnon Shaman style version of the Tony the Tiger costume. He leads the mascots in a January 6th style protest to stop the certification. And it's one of those things where it's like, was it really obvious to you guys? Because it only kind of slowly dawned on me

how close they were parodying that thing. Because I saw his costume and I go, okay, it looks like the QAnon ship. But as soon as they say we got to stop the certification, I was like, oh, so they're really going all the way into just doing a January 6th parody. That's all it is, and as you say, it's not political. It's just like, hey, remember this thing that happened?

And I'm sure at the time, I wouldn't have found it funny, and now I certainly don't find it funny. Like, it's just gotten less and less funny over time. Well, I couldn't tell if- Dan doesn't like his heroes from January. You got me. A lot of people don't know that if you play a lot of the episodes backwards, you can hear Dan saying subliminally, release the heroes, pardon the heroes.

Yeah, but I was surprised. I couldn't tell. I was like, is this tasteless to me or is it not? Because I think January six is is gonna turn out to be A pivotal moment in American history in a bad way, you know, not in a good way It's not like that was what shook America out of it super and got us to clean up No, but like there was a that that incident had a chance for America to be like this isn't us. We've got to change things and instead people were like that was weird Anyway, but I think but it was it was one of those things where like,

I don't love that they're making light of it, but also I don't hear a lot of people talking about it. And I have certainly written things. If my third volume of Maniac of New York ever gets finished, you'll see that I have kind of my, like a play on that in there. So it was one of those things where it's like, well, at least I-

Serial mascots, right? The serial mascots, yeah. So at least I'm seeing this event reverberating in the culture in some way, as opposed to it being forgotten about. You know, so I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell. This is the least relevant way for it to be represented in the culture. I mean, we'll find out if the new Naked Gun reboot features a junior or six bit.

That would be amazing. They're like, the only way we can handle this material is in parody movies. It's the only way, you know. So they, but they managed to, Bob just takes the stamp and stamps their certification. They did it. Pop-Tarts get on the shelf. Walter Cronkite's announcing the product on the news, but his script, he'd used some Silly Putty on it and it messes up the script.

So he reads it backwards off the Silly putty and it says Pop-Tart. So that is now the new name. Yeah. Oh. That long walk was really worth it. Setting up this. That sucks. That sucks really bad.

It kinda does, yeah. Yeah, it's really. Name. So we could do that. There are a number of things in the movie. I think this movie is most successful with the one-off jokes. It's good that they hadn't.

They're throwaway jokes. They hadn't trademarked Trap Pop, huh? And they could just switch over? Yeah, just naturally. Even though it sounds too close to pop art, which leads us to yet another cameo. We'll get to that first. We'll say that Pop Tarts launch the same day as Post's Country Squares,

which is their competing product, and of course pop tarts sell out and this is a They earlier they're talking about it as a pastry dingus and then this scene it feels like such a Play off of the HUD sucker proxy scene where the hula hoop gets get becomes popular and where they refer to it as an extruded Plastic dingus and it's like it just very I wonder if that was now that we know that the cinematographer worked so closely with Sam Raimi maybe those were his ideas for how to do it I don't know maybe he's maybe he's riffing off his own work in it which is kind of fun Bob fills us out on what happens next jokes jokes jokes everyone has joke kind of like what happened to them but Bob goes on the

Johnny Carson show and is shot by by Andy Warhol because pop-tart sounds too close to pop-art. And Andy Warhol is so close. Played by Andrew Rannells, of course. Played by what? Of course. Who's that? Played by Andrew Rannells, of course. One of the original cast of Book of Mormon. Ah, housing girls.

I think that's Dan Levy, Dan Levy as Andy Warhol. Oh, you're right. You're fucking right. They look so similar when they have big blonde rings and glasses on. No, that's Dan Levy from Schitt's Creek playing Andy Warhol. And of course it's funny because in real life Andy Warhol was shot and paralyzed. It is pretty funny actually. Again the movie is riffing off of history in a way that is maybe oblivious to the implications.

So Bob finishes the story, he's telling it to that kid in the restaurant. The kid's parents come and get him. And the kid is like, oh, wow, mom and dad. We never know why what his problem was, why it's solved. Oh, no, you know what? They say they're going to buy him something. I forgot what it is, though. And Bob says goodbye to him in the living ravioli peaks out of his pocket. And he's like,

did you see that mom and dad? But they didn't see it. And then we get credits, there's no credit in the scenes. And your favorite thing happens, Elliot. They all do a dance over the credits. So there are some bloopers, but it is mostly all the characters in the different scenes dancing together

to the same song. And as Dan knows and as Flawless Listers know, I hate this, I hate this shit. I always hate it. I don't like it. Someone was having fun without you. It always feels to me like they are trying to make me feel good by showing how they're throwing

a party and I get to watch it. And it's like, oh great. I mean, Barbie Star, a movie I really love, they do the same thing at the end and I'm like, fuck this, don't like it. I don't like it at all. But also because it's such fake fun. I don't really think that they just let loose

and had fun dancing for the movie. I think that they were told, like we're gonna do this thing at the end, we're all gonna dance. We're gonna shoot some B-roll of us dancing. We're gonna shoot B-roll of us dancing, everybody look like you're having a good time. But I don't think, it would be one thing if it was like,

actual footage. Jerry Seinfeld shooting at their feet. Yeah, exactly. If it was actual footage of a party that they had where they were having a good time, I'd be like, you know what? That's kind of fun to see that. Yeah, like some like a steady cam footage

or a handheld footage of the rat party. Exactly. Where they're all ripping huge lines, right? Just getting fucking crazy. There is a movie that did that and I don't remember which one it is. But isn't it, or like that, was it Book Club or one of those with Mary Steenburgen where like at the end I think they are showing pictures from the rat party and Ted Danson is in one

of the pictures and there is something nice about like, oh her husband showed up for the rat party. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Hell yeah, Book Club. But here it just feels fakey to me. So anyway, the movie ends as it began, bright and colorful, very loud, meaning nothing, having no relevance to the world that we live in.

Guys, that's unfrosted. That's the story of how the Pop-Tart was invented. Yeah, the true story. I gotta say, I gotta give you credit, Elliot. You blazed through that adventure in out done. I could have done it even shorter, but I had to make sure to mention all the taste pilots. Yeah. Let's do our final judgments, I could have done it even shorter, but I had to make sure to mention all the taste pilots.

Let's do our final judgments, whether this is a good bad movie, a bad bad movie, or a movie we kind of liked. Alex, why don't you start off with the... Now you're into it. I got to do the Miss That Movie thing. Yeah, yeah, Miss That Movie. So Miss That Movie is something that regularly happens on our minis. If you're not listening to our minis, what are you even doing with your life?

That's your problem. I mean, regularly, I think we did three of them. First off, Elliot, fuck off. Dude. Okay, so. I think he's asking for another one. Yeah, he's just begging for it, he's gagging for it. So it's, what is it?

Should, wait. I think one is gotta not have missed it or something. Sad I missed it. Sad I missed it. Had to not miss it. Yeah. Had to not miss it. That means you literally, upon hearing this, immediately ran out and watched the movie.

Wow, you know what, I actually hate having to go first on this because, because you guys have described a lot of stuff that almost made you laugh. You've described a lot of stuff that sounds like it kind of sucks. But then also a lot of people that I like who are funny. So I'm going to give this a, what do you call it? Like a tentative or it's conditional on your all's thing. But I think I'm sad I missed it.

I think I'm sad I missed it. So Alex was sharing with me today while we were walking around midtown Manhattan. It's always bad when Stuart says something like that. It starts like that. It's always bad. No, but Alex is saying that when he edits the episodes, he often puts the movie on so that he's watching the movie

while we're talking about it. So he didn't have that opportunity this time. Are you going, do you think when you edit this episode, you're going to be watching Unfrosted? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's basically what I was setting up. Actually, I will, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Okay, so yeah, you had to not miss it.

Yeah. And you can pick up, I think there are a few famous people that we missed in mentioning, and you can pick them up. Yeah, just insert it into the episode. Yeah, just have that, yeah. Really low voice. Okay, well, I'm gonna say this is a bad, bad movie, and that overall, you know, I didn't enjoy it,

I wouldn't recommend it. It's just, but it's a weird experience because it's like, it's not terrible. Like they threw a lot of talent at this thing and everyone's trying, but none of the jokes are quite funny enough and they aren't presented in quite a funny enough way to make up for the fact that

this is a completely irrelevant movie We're like, why does this exist? Why did you think you had to make 90 minutes of this thing? like this is a movie where I'm like I almost wish that like quibi was back because it's like if this movie was like Broken up into quibi sized chunks and you watched it that way. I bet each one I'd be like Oh, this is you know amusing enough that maybe I'll check in again. Maybe with Unfrozen, Quibi could work this time.

Yeah. Yeah, and a Pop Tart is kind of a quick bite, you know? It's even more of a quick bite than the shows that were on Quibi, yeah, sure. But you know, I think that Seinfeld probably was like, it's like a Pop Tart, it's like a treat, it's like a little confectionary, but unfortunately- That's not a bad Seinfeld impression right there. Well, it's kind of a bad, but it's more like a pop tart. It's like a it's like a treat. It's like a little confectionary, but unfortunately, it's not a bad Seinfeld

But it's more like a pop-tart has No nutritional value and it will make you sick because you have too much of it. Yeah, so that's what I say What do you say Stuart? I was about to I was about to do a Seinfeld impression But I feel like we'd get hit with some legal issues because it would be too close but I feel like we'd get hit with some legal issues because it would be too close. He kind of write in his voice. Be fraudulently misleading people into thinking that Jerry Seinfeld had appeared on the show.

So yeah, that's the thing. Like it took me so long for my brain to accept the reality of what I was watching that I was genuinely watching a movie about pop tarts that is not factual. It's, but it's also not like a metaphor. It's just this movie about pop tarts. And it's not funny enough for it to really justify that.

It's just really strange. And I mean, I guess I'm glad that a lot of funny people got paid, but no, I would say this is a firm bad, bad movie. Unless, unless, is there a way? I find it just so, it's a curious movie. But I think it's bad, bad. It's just like, it's so strange. I am gonna, after my description of the movie,

after my summary, I think this is gonna sound a little contradictory. And certainly I don't see it quite the same way as you guys. In some ways, this is a movie I kinda like. And I'll tell you why I said that. I don't think it's super successful at everything it does, but I wanna judge it on a different standard than a regular movie.

And I think the problem with this movie is partly that it is trying to be a movie with something of a story, but it should be a sketch movie. And at heart, it wants to be a sketch movie. And it's really hard to do a good sketch movie. It's nearly impossible. There's very, you need to think about it. Kentucky Fried movie.

I mean, even Kentucky Fried movie has like long stretches of crap, you know? And when you think about it, other than Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it's hard for me to think of a sketch movie where I'm just like, I love it. Scene after scene, banger after banger. Like and the Holy Grail, it's hard for me to think of a sketch movie where I'm just like, I love it, scene after scene, banger after banger. Like you watch Holy Grail,

the first six scenes in a row, I think, are just classic solid, like genius sketches. And that's really hard to do. And you have to be the funniest sketch group, potentially in the history of the world to do it. And so I think it's, I'm giving the movie credit for being exactly what I think you guys in a way are faulting it for being,

which is like empty calories that mean nothing and are just kind of like, what about this? What about this? Is this funny? Try this thing. And I think it is, even on that level, it's not always successful, but I found myself, even though I wasn't like holding my sides

as they split with laughter, I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would going into it. And it was nice to see like a lot of funny faces doing funny things. And you know, it's a it's like not really a movie. I guess that's what it comes down to. The thing is that ultimately I like the idea of a sketch movie, even if it's not going to work. But I feel like they like laser focus in on the serial

and 60s jokes so much that it wears thin so quickly for me. I agree. Here's my pitch. If Jerry Seinfeld had come to me with this, I would have said, I think what you have here is not- What would that sound like, Dan? Hey! Is that a rare motto?

What's going on. Hey! Is that Ray Romano? Hey! Okay Dan, you're Jerry Seinfeld. Do it for real. You're Jerry Seinfeld. You're bringing it to the swimming. Uh, Elliot. I can't do it. That was great. Okay Stuart, you're Jerry Seinfeld. Bring me this project. Okay, you might have to redact this Alex because this is going to be too close. A movie about cereal, delicious!

Okay, Alex, you're Jerry Seinfeld. We're like two people who have no Jerry Seinfeld. Get you to me. What's the deal with you not making the business movie that I wanted to make? I think the problem was having Midwestern and Southern Gentiles trying to do a Jewish

Long Island depression. So Jerry Semmel comes to me with this. I would have said, I don't think you have a movie here. I think you have the seeds for the beginning of a sketch TV show. I would pitch it to him, I would call it Boomer Vision. And it would just be like sketches about stuff for people who grew up in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s.

Don't set it just in the 60s, but the idea that like, here's a sketch show that's about the different things that are floating around in our parents' generation's dumb heads that they can't let go of. And it's why they have so much trouble moving forward with the times or recognizing that they're not the center

of human civilization. And I think there could have been some really funny sketches in here for that show. But I know what you're saying. Like for a movie, you're like, you get to a certain point about, and it's not that long, it's like 37 minutes in, and you're like, oh, they're still talking about cereal, huh? Still doing cereal jokes, you know I really like the idea of hiring a bunch of Gen X and Millennials

Comedians to perform on the boomer comedy show so that they still feel sort of alive I think that would be I would love it I would I mean I also I would now I want to this is maybe this is the show that I want to make is the show about that show where it's like the young people who have to work on, not young, they're millennials, they're not that young anymore, it's about the Gen Z people who work on the show. Oh, I'm so pretty, y'all. The 30 Rock about the Pop-Tart movie.

Yeah, and again, the best thing about 30 Rock is that it is about the show about the making of a bad sketch show. Like, it is very clear to us that this is a bad show or a dumb show they're making. And I love that. Can I ask a question that maybe I'm asking this kind of late in the process here, but-

This is a podcast, we talk about bad movies. Yeah, yeah, question. I'm Dan McCoy, that's Ellie Kaelin. That's your friend, Dan, yeah. But is it known, is this something that like Pop Tart came to Jerry Seinfeld to do, or was it something that he wanted to do and then he had to clear all of the serial brands and stuff? My guess is that he probably had to clear it.

Okay. You never know. I mean, there's so much brand IP stuff right now. Yeah, like every sketch on a Saturday Night Live episode. Well, but even the fact that like, I know that Kellogg's has been going around saying, how do we make movies out of our mascot characters? Like what's our shared universe? So you never know, it's possible that they came to him

and he said this is what I'm interested in, but I wouldn't put it past Jerry Seinfeld to see the other movies that are being made about how products came about. The Flaming Hot Cheetos one and the Air Jordan one and being like, hey, you know what product? I'd like to see that about Pop Tarts, cause he has a bit about Pop Tarts

in his act. And so I couldn't, I wouldn't be surprised if that just came out of his natural interest in breakfast foods, you know. Cause it really does sound like the kind of thing. Like it sounds like it could be a 90 minute ad for Pop Tarts, except for the fact that there are other cereal brands in it.

Yeah. And the Doughboys need to get Seinfeld on to do like a snack or whack with Pop Tarts or some shit. Yeah, they should. Um. Hey. Hey guys. This podcast is sponsored and what is it sponsored?

Has sponsored. And it had sponsored too. It had sponsored but it's no longer not sponsored. If you say it's Kellogg's, I will flip my label. You know what? Oh, Stewart, this was no, this was the hold on. I'll just say there's a Daily Show I did where we ended the act with a joke that I made about China trying to undermine America. And I was like, what are you Bank of America? And then literally goes, the Daily Show is brought to you by Bank of America.

And this is not a planned joke. It was just like they had happened to just buy a sponsor spot with a commercial bump and That joke was the one that went before it. Oh, it was great. I have a DVD of that somewhere. That's incredible Well, this podcast is sponsored in part by Squarespace your way to set up a unique presence online If you I guess a pop tart is kind of like a square space It is a square space in which a rectangular space is held If you you the listener is offering services It is a square space in which filling is held. If you, you the listener is offering services,

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The Flophouse is also brought to you by Aura Frames. You know guys, Mother's Day's coming up. We all got mommies. Mm-hmm. And. We do got mommies. It's thing is, the thing my mom loves more than anything, other than like, the thing she loves more than anything is a phone call from her baby boy, Stuart Wellington. And when she's talking to me, she loves looking at pictures of me. And a great way that you can give her pictures of you

is by sending her an Aura digital picture frame. They're great because you can take a entire digital library of photos and you can preload it and send that picture frame to your parents. And you know what, that's great because I've done this for a couple of my older, my father-in-law and my parents.

And the thing is, they're not particularly good with technology. So if I can do that all in advance, then they don't have to worry about it. I know Dan has done that as well. He's also got an Aura frame in the other room. And every once in a while, I'll see a picture of myself at Dan's wedding. And I'm like, oh yeah, I do love Dan McCoy. The Aura frames were named the best digital photo frame by Wirecutter and is featured in

495 different gift guides last year. So the next time you need to call your mom and you want her to be looking at pictures of you, why don't you send her an Aura Frame preloaded with pictures of all the fun times you're having. So Aura is a great deal for Mother's Day for a limited time. Listeners can save on the perfect gift by visiting AuraFrames.com to get $35 off, plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat Frame. That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com. Promo code FLOP.

Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Tees and sees. Do you guys think that Ura would like it if we point out that it's a perfect gift for your MILF, your mother I'd like to frame? I mean, we can try it. We can, I mean, I don't know if they'll,

they might not like it. I'll pitch it to them. I'll pitch it to them as a new slogan. That's true. Ali, do you have any personal plugs before we move on to letters? Boy, do I ever have personal plugs. You betcha, Dan McCoy. By the time this episode comes out, you know what's also going to be out is my new children's

picture book, Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House, featuring art by Tim Miller, my collaborator from Horse Meets Dog. This is my third children's picture book. It is the first one that I think is not just a sketch, but is a full kind of real story. It tells the story of Sadie Mouse, a mouse who's tired of being a good mouse and doing chores and decides she's gonna do all her chores the wrong way so that she never has to do them again. And she wrecks her house as the title promises.

Sadie Mouse will wreck the house. That Sadie Mouse wrecks the house, go to your local independent bookstore, just pick it up off the shelf if they don't have it, ask them to order it. That's great value. They'll do it for you. Yeah, great value.

But before you leave the store, pay for it. Yeah, you should pay for it. Yes, of course. Don't just pick it off the shelf and walk out. Yeah, you do it for you. That's great value right there. Yeah, great value. But before you leave the store, pay for it. Yeah, you should pay. Yes, of course. Don't just pick it off the shelf and walk out. Yeah, you gotta pay for it. Unless you're in one of those stupid stores where you can just like pick things up and walk through the door and it automatically charges you.

I do have those now. There is a book called Steal This Book that's not this book. This is Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House. That's on bookstore shelves now. Also on shelves in another kind of bookstore, a comic bookstore, are issues of Harley Quinn my series from DC Comics I'm writing the main Harley Quinn book. It's been super fun

she is fighting gentrification in a very chaotic and not particularly effective way and Her arch nemesis is falling in love with her and are they gonna get together? I don't know. She's already with poison ivy, but maybe this real estate developer Althea clang will be able to win her away I don't know, she's already with Poison Ivy, but maybe this real estate developer, Althea Klang, will be able to win her away. I don't know, we'll find out. I'm going to be on this book for a while, and I'm bringing in just a lot of story points that are going to continue to come together

and bounce off each other in different ways. The funny thing is I'm writing an issue right now, but I have no idea of how far ahead I am of the issue that is out now. I think the one that's out, about to come out, and will be out when this episode is released, I think is one in which Harley Quinn has to face her greatest nemesis, her own brain, which is trying to take control of her body.

And I think introduces my new favorite characters on the book. These two pre-existing DC characters, Mayfly and Gun Bunny, who are two ladies with guns that are kind of assassins. I teamed them up and they're now friends called the Gun Buddies and they're best friends who take hits and they're, you know, they're really fun and they're very supportive of each other. So that's Harley Quinn on comic book store shelves now.

And of course, there's my other podcast, Smart List Presents Clueless, the game show podcast I do with Sean Hayes and that's still going strong too. So if you like very short podcasts about puzzles and games It presents Clueless, the game show podcast I do with Sean Hayes, and that's still going strong too. So if you like very short podcasts about puzzles and games and riddles, that's the one to go to. The episodes are very short.

You can listen to like three or four of them in an hour. Oh, wow. It's so short there. That is short. You can listen to three or four flop houses in an hour, but you'd have to listen to them so fast it would melt your brain. I have two very quick plugs. I just want to mention that the bar that my wife and I inherited

when our friend passed away, Commonwealth Bar in Brooklyn, is going to be reopening next week, which will be two weeks ago when this episode airs. So you can go now. So if you're in Brooklyn, you should go. You should go and support. Well, does this episode drop on the 2nd of May? Oh, just so you know. I don't know. If you're around for Derby Day come visit

Oh, the Commonwealth see if it's open if it's not come back in a week Yeah, I mean it's gonna be open and then finally if you like Stuart Wellington And you like watching me nerd out about nerdy things you can go over to my twitch channel. I'm on those things my twitch channel is Stuart Wellington and That's my name and I hang out usually for about two hours, and I build and paint like Warhammer stuff, and I yap, and it's a lot of fun. So come visit me.

Good evening. Thanks for tuning in to 101.1 Max Fun. It's midnight here on Host to Coast, and we've got Sarah from Michigan on line one. Hi, I'm calling in for some help. I used to love reading, but between grad school, having kids, and the general state of the world, I can't seem to pick up a book and stick with it anymore. Sarah, this is an easy one.

Just listen to Reading Glasses, a podcast designed to help you read better. Brea and Mallory will get all the pressure, shame, and guilt out of your reading life. You'll be finishing books you love in no time. Great, that sounds amazing. Also, I do think my husband is cheating on me with Mothman. Can you help me with that one?

Ooh, I don't think they cover that. Reading glasses every Thursday on Maximum Fun. WrestleMania is the biggest. And busiest. Time of the year for wrestling. And the Titan Fights podcast is more important than ever. We have so many questions to explore. How can you understand John Cena's motivation as a bad guy?

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Let's answer some letters from listeners. This first letter is from Adrian Lastname withheld. And Adrian writes, Hey Peaches, I was wondering who your favorite characters that are that have your job? Maybe you like them because they let people get an understanding of what you do. Or maybe it's in a setting that you wish your job was like

so hijinks could happen to you. Like Elliot writing for shows, children's books or comics. Stewart with his bartending and fitness influencer lifestyle. And Dan going to the Alamo to watch films all the time. Love ya, Adrian last name without. Now let me say two things. First off.

Right off the top, I haven't been to the Alamo in a while because they were on strike and as a union man, I was boycotting in solidarity. Thank you for doing that, Dan. Congratulations to them, they're back at work. They won reinstatement of the fired workers that they were striking over and other issues. So perhaps now I shall return.

Yeah, were you a regal or an AMC guy in the meantime? I had been going to regal in the meantime. Our friends over at Blank Check had a discount code for them. Ooh, okay. And number two, I am still a writer. At least half of writing is not getting paid for the writing that you do. And I'm in that phase. You don't have to get paid

for it to be a real writer. Right now. It all takes its good words down, yeah. That being said, I'm mostly a podcast right now, so I guess. And Alex Incorporated? Yeah, Alex Incorpor, so I guess. And Alex Incorporated? Yeah, Alex Incorporated. I'm a real Alex Incorporated.

I guess it's not a movie, but I'm gonna go with Steve Martin in Only Murders in the Building, because like him, I'm sort of a tightly wound man. There's a certain warmth there, but a lot of don't touch me energy as well. So what do you say Stuart? Yeah, let's see, what's, I was gonna say Alex and Cocktail.

Incorporated, yeah. Brian Brown and Cocktail, yeah. That's probably the closest. I mean, I feel like there's gotta be some cool bartenders and things, but I don't know. Bar owners, I don't know. Bar owners? I don't know, Sam Malone's? Well, yeah, I think most bar owners in movies

are the worst people in the world. They're usually not the good guys. Oh wait, just like Stewart. Roadhouse, Roadhouse has a good bar owner. Thank you, I'm the guy from Roadhouse that hires, not the remake, I'm not as cool as Jessica Williams, I am the weird guy who hires Patrick Swayze to protect his business.

Man, yeah, that's awesome, thank you. Alex, that was great. Yeah, you know what? Hey, I'm here to help. Speaking of, producer Alex, is there a way, do you see yourself before you toss to Elliot and Elliot all? When have I really seen myself portrayed on film? Aside from Don't Worry Darling,

when the nurse wife comes home to see the schlubby podcast producer wasting away under a lamp light all day. Alex's wife saw the movie in advance and was like, this movie really spoke to me, I think you should watch it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something about this just made me, something about this made me feel represented, I don't know what it was, but yeah, I don't know,

is there a, I guess, I mean, if- You're a musician, a musician as well. Okay, aspiring musician, so yeah, I guess- You don't have to, as long as you're putting words on the paper and strumming those instruments. You don't have to get paid to be a musician. Aspiring musician, this is easy, Purple Rain. Yeah, yeah, I can see that.

I get it. My dream is to premiere a song that the rest of my band hasn't even heard yet. And have everyone in the room just stop and watch it happen and go, that was the best thing we've, and know before they've even heard the song before, that it's the best song they've ever heard

in their whole life. This is the pivotal moment that changes their life. Ali, do you have something? So this is characters that we do relate to or we want to be? Either one. What was the question? I think they left it wide open. They're like, does it,

I take it to be relate to, but it's kind of also like, does it represent your field well? Does it inform people? Or is it like how you wish your field actually was like, kind of? Oh, I see. I think, well then, it might be, maybe it's the same answer for, I don't know.

I guess the writers, because I took it as who's the person who does my job in fiction that I guess the writers, because I took it as who's the writer, who's the person who does my job in fiction that I would like to, that I wish I did it that way. And so I'm a writer, that's what I do for a living. I'm a writer, you all know who I am, how I make my living. I can catch your shark for this much. I can catch it and write about it for a little bit more. Oh. So, uh... It's Peter Benchley.

Yeah, so that's's all over that thing. Sharks, giant squids, he knows he's not doing comedy essays. That's his grandfather's stuff. So, I think the first writer that came to mind honestly was Ford Prefect, who is a roving reporter for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. His beat is so much more about party life than mine would be, but I like the idea of going around different planets and writing about it. And who else is a traveling writer that has adventures? That's right, Jessica Fletcher.

So I think aside from the fact that you are constantly surrounded by death and wherever you go, murder follows, I think you'd want to be Jessica Fletcher, right? Because she has so many adventures. She's a successful writer. People respect her. And she gets to live the work, you know, in a way that most writers don't. She's got that quiet sass.

There's like a twinkle in the eye. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like Elliot. Quiet sass. You know me. This second and final letter is from... Hey, Elliot's just saying what Elliot is thinking. This is from Linnea Lastnamewithheld. Quigley?

Probably. Who writes, hi Floppies, I don't actually understand a lot of your references and jokes. As I myself am not. I'm Linnea Quigley. As I myself, I bet she would understand. Yeah. Yeah, probably very much so, yeah.

As I myself am not that into movies that much, but I stick around for your immaculate vibes along with your wonderful guests. So as a person who has seen fewer movies than the average American, I was wondering, are there any movies that you have seen that you consider unremarkable, average, or even below average,

but have somehow ingrained themselves into your mind for years to come. My movie is Hannah, 2011. It's a decent movie, I wouldn't say spectacular, but good. It holds no particular sentimental value, but for whatever reason, I've rewatched it several times and have pressed to name my quote favorite movie, I would say Hannah.

Not for any grand reason, but because it has stuck with me for all these years for reasons I can't explain. Eric Banner's in that, right? Yes, I think he's. You're thinking of Eric Hanna. He probably got confused. Yeah, whenever her name was said. Yeah, they say Hanna, and you go, no, it's Banna.

I've watched movies that I considered better than Hannah, movies I enjoyed more than Hannah, but the fact that Hannah is still in my mind over 10 years later cements it into favorite status. I've since realized that I don't gauge favorites in media bays based on if I liked it a lot in the moment or even if it was well executed, but how it sticks with me regardless of quality.

Then my heart says it's made for me. So do you have a movie like that? And by what scale do you gauge what your favorites are? So as someone who has watched too many movies and was also unsupervised a lot as a child, like a lot of the movies, there are a lot of unremarkable movies that stuck in my brain simply because

for whatever reason they were on television a lot. Like I think I saw Brewster's Millions like 20 times, despite each time being like, I'm sure this will get funny at some point, and it never happened. That was the toy for me. That was the movie that was always on TV, and every time I'm like,

I don't know why I'm watching this. Problematic choice. Doesn't work. And then there are movies like, I was, I couldn't sleep recently. You may have noticed there's a lot of stress in the world. I was like, oh, you know, I couldn't sleep recently. You know, you may have noticed there's a lot of stress in the world. I was like, oh, you know what's on Amazon Prime,

a movie that I watched a lot as a kid, just because it was on, is Feds. I watched Feds. Yeah. Just because it's sort of like a pleasant movie with not that much conflict about, you know, two ladies who are friends who are in the FBI training program.

It's Mary Gross and Rebecca DeMornay. Mary Gross, right. From True Beverly Hills. I remember we taped that off one of those like showtime preview weekends. And so I watched that a few times. Making the most out of your dollar, I like it. It's pleasant, but I mean in terms of like favorite movies, I still I think would put my perception of quality higher in my, like, oh, what's my favorite?

But it's kind of a mix, like, because I do think that my favorite movies aren't necessarily like the ones that I'm like, oh, this is like the best movie. But, you know, like I would go to something like, I don't know whether it's still my favorite, but I remember watching Heather's over and over and over again when I was like a teen,

and that was kind of it for me at the time. I don't know what it would be now, but that's one that comes to mind. You also watch just one of the guys a lot as a teen, but just the one part. Just the ending. You're like, I've seen everything up till now, I don't need to worry about it.

Yeah, I get the gist. There's like, I've seen everything up till now, I don't need to worry about the atmosphere. Yeah, I get the gist. There's like an old guy, who's apparently a teenager. Yeah, an old guy who's a teenager. Yeah, I would say, I mean, again, like, I'm kind of in the same boat, and it's hard for me to be like, it's hard for me to be like, this is a... I would just say the movie that I watched the most,

that if I'm like, that I think about the most, and will watch in its entirety, if I have the opportunity, that if I'm like, that I think about the most and will, it will watch in its entirety if I have the opportunity is The Guest, the Adam Wingard Simon Barrett movie with Dan Stevens. There's just everything about it is, is like calibrated exactly for my brain. It's not so exciting that I get too worked up, but it's not too sleepy that I can't it won't keep me enthralled I Find I you know I would say that we've talked about this movie before so it's not a surprise I guess or it's not a new thing but like Teen Wolf probably falls into that category for me I'm like this is not a good movie. This is a bad movie, but I've watched it so many times

We watch it so often when I was a kid that it's just stuck in my head But also my head just things stick in that are dumb I saw the movie getting even with dad with Macaulay Culkin and ten dance and once in the theaters and yet I remember big chunks of it for no reason. I don't know why does he ever get even with death? He does get even with that. Oh, thank God, but I think Teen Wolf is the one where it's like Oh, well, this is a part of me even though it's it's objectively not good. It's objectively not a good movie. It's stupid I don't like it. When it comes to favorite movies, I gotta just say,

what movie do you enjoy the most? What movie brings you the most pleasure when you watch it? And that's how I decided what my favorite is. And I got my top five favorites, which for listeners know. High Fidelity moment here. Number one, it's gotta be taken to Pelham 123, the original. Number two, Shadow of a Doubt.

Number three, The Mir the miracle Morgan's Creek And then number four and five it's probably singing in the rain and Wizard of Oz which again like these are not ones where I'm like Oh, these are my guilty pleasures. These are obviously like these are really good movies. Those last two are great movies But I really thought he was gonna say fast five was But I can't help it if my face runs towards beauty, you know, towards magnificence. I can't help being a genius. But it's purely because, like, if I'm thinking about what movie, when I'm watching it, do I get literally the most visceral pleasure out of? Like, it's those movies. And that's probably Wizard of Oz.

Like, I think there's probably no movie that I find as magical as a Wizard of Oz. So like, maybe that's my favorite, but I don't know. It seems like it's too common a movie to mention. So maybe that's why Pelham gets the top spot. I'll just say something that has popped into my brain a few times as we've been talking about this. If we're talking about a movie that we acknowledge

is not super good, not better than all the other movies out there, has great vibes, is fun to watch, and you kind of want to watch it all the time. You feel at home when you're watching it. I know this is true for me, and I know you guys appreciate this one as well, but Don't Tell Her It's Me is like, is that movie, like.

We saw that in the theater recently. Have you ever seen it in a theater? Was that a Ridiculous Sublime? Yeah, it was a Ridiculous Sublime. And it wasn't a riff show, we were just watching it straight with an engaged audience, and it was so fucking awesome.

That sounds great. I did host a riff show of it one time on the screen, but mostly I've watched it just on TV. It's one of those things where I'm like, is this Stockholm Syndrome, or have we been wrong? Because this audience is like mostly people who had never seen it before and they were going nuts for it.

It honestly played really well with the crowd. In a legitimate, sincere way? Yeah, yeah. I mean, people were like, it's dumb, but they- I went nuts for it the first time I saw it and I was in college, so I think, yeah. I think it is that, it is all that. It's guaranteed entertainment, right?

Is that what the box says? It is perfect for Ridiculous Sublime, where the idea is like, it is not one or the other. Like, you can't separate the fact that it is dumb from the fact that there is stuff that works in it for real. Like any movie featuring Eric Roberts. Let's talk about our recommendations, movies that maybe would be a better way

to spend a little time than Unfrosted. And speaking of Ridiculous Sublime, that's a Nighthawk series. I went to another series at the Nighthawk, a regular series that they do called The Deuce, where they show movies that showed in 42nd Street theaters, sort of during the heyday of all of the movie theaters being there. Dan, are you the programmer at Nighthawk?

No, that's our friend Christina, we had her on the show. Yeah, yeah, you might remember. Seems like there's a lot of Dan-centric material going on at Nighthawk. Although this is programmed by the two guys who run the Deuce. I do not know their names, I apologize, but they're very entertaining. Danny Deuce and Donnie Deuce.

The Deuce Broys. We saw The In-Laws from 1979, starring Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, and I walked out of it and I was texting Elliot about how like, you know, when we were growing up, there was a lot of talk about like, oh, you know, if you wanna study a comedy screenplay, study Tootsie, and Tootsie's never been my movie.

Like, I don't think it's a bad movie. No, you're not in it, you didn't write it, you didn't direct it, yeah. But, no, unfortunately I don't get any residuals from Tootsie. Elliot looks mad right now. It's like, what movies is Dan walking around claiming are his movie? I'm saying I don't go for that one so much,

but I watched the in-laws and after the first couple of scenes I'm like, fuck Tootsie, this is the movie that should be looked at for screenplay, because immediately, immediately, within the first couple of scenes, you're like, what's going on? I'm intrigued by what's going on. You're introduced to Peter Falk and Alan Arkin,

and you know what these guys' deals are. Like, you know how funny it's gonna be when they get together. And it's weird, because it's like these two guys, both kind of with deadpan energy, but Peter Falk is playing a guy that you don't know whether he's a lunatic or not, but he's very chill about it the whole time.

And Alan Arkin is a guy. That's basically Colombo, right? Yeah, he's basically playing Peter Falk. And Alan Arkin is this guy who is super tightly round, freaking out internally the whole time, but it's all internal. He's completely deadpan, and watching them go through adventures together

is so funny. You know, everyone was laughing like through the entire film. It is a movie from the late seventies. There's a little bit of unfortunate sort of like cultural stuff in there, but if you can get past that, I don't think there's a lot of like ire or like malice in it. It's just, you know, not not great. But it's very, it's very funny, and those two guys are just naturally charismatic, just sitting and breathing.

So I recommend that. I love the thought of Dan bursting out the double doors of the theater and going, fuck Tootsie! Immediately walking out of there. There's a reporter jotting this down for the headlines. Dan to Tootsie, drop dead. I am going to recommend a movie that I had been wanting to rewatch for a while, and I finally got around to it, is 2000's Sexy Beast, written and directed by Jonathan Glazer.

Oh, that's a good movie. I hadn't seen it since it first came out, It's called Fartsy Beast, written and directed by Jonathan Glaser. Oh, that's a good movie. I hadn't seen it since it first came out, and what, I was 20 years old at that point. And I remember watching it and being kind of put off by how artsy it is, and how dreamlike at points. You want it to be more fartsy? Well, I think I was expecting it to be more of a straightforward crime movie. Ah.

And I, obviously there's the like the big centerpiece flashy performance by Ben Kingsley, which got him a Best Supporting Actor win, right? But watching it again, like it's so like, Ray Winstone is so great and I want every piece, every article of clothing he wears. And it's just such like, I don't know so like, Ray Winstone is so great and I want every piece, every article of clothing he wears. And it's just such like, I don't know, like I identify so much more with this guy who's like trying to retire and keep like his old friends are like, no, like, keep doing this shit. Like, I don't know. I think it's great.

It's it was a really it was a really fun rewatch. And it's it's always fun to rewatch a movie that you hadn't seen in so long and you kind of thought it was one thing and watching it as an adult, it feels so much different. Kingsley was nominated, but he lost, and you'll be happy about this, George, to Ian McKellen for the Fellowship of the Rings. Ooh, well, yeah, it's hard to beat the goat.

Speaking of which, there's a goat character in it. He was playing a goat in that movie? I, there's a goat character in the movie. I know there's a goat character in Wicked. Sexy Beast has, I think, the best portrayal of it being really hot at the very beginning. At the very beginning of the movie. And you're so happy about how hot it is. I am not that guy. I'm like, I don't want to be there, but I appreciate how much she's into it. Yeah, enjoying being cooked is so good.

Well, and the way that like, Ray Winstone's voice sounds like if you had to make like a Weber grill have a voice. Yeah. Yeah. Which one do you want to go on? Yeah, Elliot, you start talking. I'll go.

Alex can do next, yeah. So I watched a documentary, ooh, that actually I remember had come out in the theaters when I was in college, and I don't know why I didn a documentary, ooh, that actually I remember had come out in the theaters when I was in college, and I don't know why I didn't go see it, and I finally saw it, and that documentary is called Dark Days, and it's directed by Mark Singer,

and it is about the people who were living in an abandoned underground Amtrak tunnel in New York in the 1990s, and it's one of these documentaries where there's no narration, it's just people talking to the camera and footage of people going about their lives in this very kind of like both bizarre but also strangely normal subculture

because they're living in a tunnel and they have to make their own kind of makeshift homes and things like that and hustle for survival. But at the same time, they're just people and they have, you know, regular moments of life and they're dealing with their mistakes that they've made in the past and what brought them to this place. And, and I really liked it a lot. The people in it are really engaging and the way it's put together felt like it was like not a, it's not trying to force what's

going on into a narrative necessarily. There is kind of an end point at the end, but before that it is not trying to, it's not reality TVing the thing where it's like, and now this person's gonna deal with this person in this way. There are two stories in it that two of the people in tell that are heartbreaking, that are just so incredibly horrifying.

And so I wouldn't watch it if you're someone who is easily upset necessarily by people in turmoil, but I thought it was really good and... Is this the movie about people living underground in New York City? Yes. Okay. Yeah, and there's one scene in it,

but there is, having said that, there's one scene in it between two guys, one who is cooking a meal and the other one who finds it disgusting that the guy just leaves his pots and pans all over the ground where the rats are running around that is very funny to me and has it has some very funny lines In it and so there's funny moments in it. There's some really Heartbreaking moments in it, but overall I just thought it was a is really good You know, so it's called dark days and I think it's available on to be America's favorite streaming service

Alex I'm gonna I'm just pick a random recent watch from my movie night where we watch a lot of like straight to video 90s, early 2000s stuff. This was a TV movie from the 90s that I think was like made for German television is something that somebody said, but I don't know if that's true or not. But this is a David Hasselhoff movie from 1996

called Gridlock, where he plays a rogue helicopter pilot for the New York police department. And he's like, keeps getting in trouble. And it's a knockoff of Die Hard in the sense that like, literally like every beat of the movie is trying to replicate something that happened in Die Hard. There's literally like a scene where he is trying to get back in the building by using the fire hose

and like kicking the glass. Oh yeah, there's all those scenes where John McClane's flying a helicopter. Well, that's the really funny thing about it is he's a helicopter pilot who keeps getting in trouble because he doesn't listen to his boss, his boss, the whatever you call the commissioner or whatever. And, and what, what that means for a helicopter pilot, because helicopters can't do a lot

of like rogue shit. You know, so what it means is he keeps, he keeps landing it, getting out and then like breaking into a hostage situation to like solve the, like. So you're saying the helicopter pilot aspect of it is not really that germane to what's going on. Well, and then when they punish him for stopping a hostage scenario,

he just, they just stick him back in the helicopter and they go, all right, watch traffic. And I'm like, what was he doing? What was he supposed to do before? That's the way it was. There was a helicopter pilot once who didn't listen to orders and he didn't shoot on some people they wanted to

and they put him in the running man game. So like, it could be really bad if you're a helicopter pilot who dissipates orders. You might end up on national TV running for your life. Against buzzsaw. But it's a really funny little like experiment in recreating Die Hard at a very low budget to where there are four or five action sequences that happen on this same ledge, on the same building.

They keep going back to the same ledge. The ledge is the character, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The ledge is the third character after Cathy Ireland. Cathy Ireland is his girlfriend in it. So it's very 1996 is what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, well, that's that's it. That's the last thing that we do in the show.

Other than Alex is here so I can thank him in person. Alex, thank you for producing the show. You guys are welcome. You're welcome. Thanks. And also thank you for being here, because I don't have to send you notes about what happened in the show at all. You know it. You're here. You know every inch of it. Do you have anything you want to plug out? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll plug some stuff. I have I have

Let me let me plug three things real fast. One is a podcast. I do called the big howl and possum podcast. It's a absurd little funny comedy podcast that I do with a character that is a huge talking possum. Okay. And it's a very absurd show. It's a short podcast. It's like 30 minutes long. And I think it's a very, very funny. And I think listeners to this show will, will enjoy it. So check out the big Helen possum podcast. I have a Twitch stream. I stream three times a week. We watch like a lot of different kinds of stuff on there. Game shows, TV movies, stuff like that.

And that is twitch.tv slash big howl dotty. And then I've been a guest on a couple of those. It's fun. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good time. So check that out. Come, come watch me over there. I stream on Monday nights, Wednesday nights and Friday afternoons. And then my music, howl dotty. Monday nights, Wednesday nights, and Friday afternoons. And then my music, Howl Dottie. I write and produce songs that are oftentimes funny,

but not always purely comedy songs. And you can find those anywhere you listen to music. Anywhere? Anywhere that you listen to music. Yeah. Like an old gramophone? Yeah, you're fucking Victrola. Alex is a wonderful musician, which has also been very helpful to us too,

because we can be like, Alex, can you make us music for a thing? Yeah. And he said, yes, we can, I can. Yeah, I just wrote a bunch of tunes for the new Flop Tales adventure that's available. Slop Tales. Yeah.

Slop Tales, yeah. Available on the bonus feed. But we got a heart out today, so let's just say thank you to Maximum Fun. Go over to MaximumFun.org, check out the other great podcasts on our network, and catch us next time. For the Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington.

I'm Elliott Kalin. We've been joined by... Alex Smith, aka Howell Doddy. Bye! I was expecting Elliott to talk a bunch when he knew we had a hard time. That would have been like me. Alright, let's get into it. Yeah, Elliot, I got to go to this funny bone, I got him. My funny bone. I got him. Oh, his funny bone is so...

My funny bone's crying, yeah.