The Flop House - FH Mini 143 - IP Freely 2026

Episode Date: January 10, 2026

Elliott takes his co-hosts on a tour of properties entering the public domain this year, and leads a brainstorming session about how we might revamp or reboot them, now that we don't have to pay anyone for the privilege.Tickets for Flop TV Season 3 are ON SALE! Also, we’ll be back at San Francisco Sketchfest on January 25! Get tickets now! We’ll be discussing legendary flop THE MASTER OF DISGUISE!Subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets! It’s got fun stuff in it!

Hello listeners. Welcome to another episode of the flop house mini. That's right. Usually the flop house watches a bad movie and then we talk about it. But also usually, because it's half the time, so it's really equal. We do flop house minis where we just kind of talk about whatever we want. Sometimes it's related to movies. Sometimes it's not related to movies.

Sometimes it's related to things that are related to movies. And sometimes it's not related to things. are related to movies. And today... You're saying that like you've got a sexy secret. Have you got... Should we change it from Minnie to like Flop House Unchained or something?

I mean, maybe. Like, it doesn't really make any sense. It's no longer short. It's, you know, it happens half the time anyway. Yeah. So maybe... So welcome to another Flop House Unchanged where we get raw and crazy.

We let ourselves loose. We do whatever we want. There's no rules. Yeah, that sounds awesome. I'm Elliot. Bad Dollop. I'm joined by my co-hosts. Dan Off the Leash McCoy

and Stuart Bow Wow, Wow, Wellington. That's right. And you're in the flop house, dog house. We're talking about something very exciting. That's right. We're talking about the public domain because this episode is coming out January 10th, 2026.

This is one of the most exciting times of the year because this is when we finally get our hands on all those cultural properties that have entered the public domain and we can do whatever we want with them. Yay. Let me explain. every year, the copyright expires on a class of really old stuff,

and it just becomes part of the common creative clay of American art. And I feel like as a creative person who wants to make a living, I love the idea of copyright because I want to make something and then own it and then make money off of it and leave it to my family. But as a creative person who recognizes that, in reality, corporations own most of the copyrights, and they just hold things back and make it harder for other people to do cool things with them, I also like the public domain a lot.

And I think that there's something really exciting about the public domain because you can finally do stuff with famous stuff. And we are now entering this era where the things that are going to the public domain are 20th century things that we are already familiar with. It's no longer like, oh, this old book from like a thousand years ago or whatever is in the public domain. Now I can see. Moby Dork. Shamela is in the public domain. Yeah. Now I can finally make the three but skateers and they can have sex with each other.

Like, who cares, you know? But now we have these new things in the 20th century that are public domain. This year, pretty much everything from the year 1930 is in the public domain now, which is super exciting. Because this has went like movies that people might have watched on their own just because are in the public domain now. So I decided I want to make this a new annual tradition every January. I'm going to talk to my friends, Dan and Stu, and I'm going to say, here's some new public domain properties. What are we going to do with them? Like, what can we do with them?

And so let's talk about some. of them. A few characters are entering the public domain this year that are exciting. For instance, the earliest character of Nancy Drew is entering the public domain. So guys, what are we going to do with Nancy Drew now that we can do whatever we want with her? Keep it playing. What's her whole thing, Dan, before you get creepy? Why is there assumption I'm going to get creepy? Her whole thing, like she's like a young woman who solves crimes. Okay, Dan, don't get creepy. Okay, yeah. She's like, She's a girl detective, basically. Yeah, she's a lady Hardy Boy.

Exactly. But I think she may have predated the Hardy Boys. I don't know. I think she did. I think the Hardy Boys are there. She dated the Hardy Boys? She dated both them at the same time in a movie that I saw. Sounds complicated.

Well, obviously, it was scheduling. It was called challengers. Whatever you did, now next, Luca Gaudine knows going to do challengers, but it's about two boy detectives. and they're dating a girl detective. It's a pretty good, I don't know, that's a pretty good pitch. I mean, they're going to be able to, they'll find all the clues as to infidelities and whatnot. I guess that's true.

It is hard to, it is hard to have an affair when the person you're cheating on is a detective. You would think, but I feel like oftentimes they're so wrapped up in their own mysteries. Oh. They forget to pay attention to the thing right in front of the case. They don't understand the mysteries of the heart. I feel like we're kind of partway to what our Nancy Drew property is going to be. Nancy Drew is like, she's got a lot, she's got a lot. She's got a couple lovers and she's got to, you know,

keep them in the dark about each other and cover up her tracks. Or alternately, or alternately, she thinks that somebody is cheating on her. Her boyfriend's, you know, she's got to figure out the mystery. Maybe it uncorks a larger can of worms. Do they can worms with corks? Almost like a clueless sort of a take where Nancy Drew's what this high school, like, detective who is, I mean, I'm basically talking about fucking Veronica Mars. Or it's about like, you know, like the paranoia.

that seeps in when you deal with mysteries and like it leads her to see infidelity where it may not actually exist. Okay. So I mean that's kind of like a Harriet the Spy type thing where she kind of is intruding in people's lives because she thinks there's more kind of adventure going on in them. Harriet the spy, not in the public domain. Nancy Drew now is.

So let's try it. Nancy Drew, it's like, but this could be like the gritty dark take where Nancy Drew is kind of, she believes that she's paranoid and believes there's mysteries all around her, you know. and she's losing her mind. And then probably elder gods or something. Or we could do the gross out comedy version, Nancy Drewel. This sounds more like Garbage Pail Kids.

Oh, is there something more gross out that garbage bad kids? I love that. Stewart's like, let's do the gross out version. And Dan goes, eh, that sounds like garbage out of it. And Stewart's like, yeah, exactly. I guess I'm arguing with the comedy part of it. What? I mean, if you're going to doubt the legacy of Art Spiegelman, Dan, in the way.

You know, then sure you can. Creator of Garbage Pale Kids. No, it's true. And wacky packages. And wacky packages. And also Mouse, the story of his father's experiences in the Holocaust. Really contains multitudes, Art Spiegelman. Yeah.

So he's not in the public domain yet, though. So let's, okay, Nancy Drew is a, so we're either doing a kind of, a kind of gothic noir where she's losing her mind or it's kind of like, or it's a gross out comedy. Now, what, now, what are the details of Nancy Drew? beyond the obvious. Well, she's like, she's a gross girl detective. I think it's pretty straightforward, sure. She's a gross, so she, it's hard for to go undercover

or to like be, like, to fade to the background because she's so gross. She's always drooling all the time. She's questioning people and they're like, oh, Nancy drools coming over. Yeah. Or like, she'll be like farting and giving herself away when she's hiding in the bushes.

Wait, what's her premise? She's a really good detective, but no one takes her seriously because she's so gross. Because she's the gross. Okay. So it's not just drooling. It's any gross thing.

No. Her given name, her Christian name is Nancy Drew. But the movie is called Nancy drool. They call her that because they call her that because she drool once. So she's got all the suspects in one room at the end. She goes, no one's leaving this room until we find the killer. But she keeps farting. So they all really want to leave the room really badly.

The killer volunteers that they did it because they want to get out of her. She's farting and it's getting smelling. And then she finally throws up and that smells so bad that the killer. It's it, yeah. Well, it's the smell of the vomit that's the worst part. Oh, because it makes everybody throw... You've seen stand by me. Everybody throws up when there's throw-up around, yeah.

That's what happened. Okay. So I think, so Nancy drool, we got it. I don't even know if we need her to be in the public domain to do that. It might fall under the parody rules, but that's cool. It means we don't have to worry about get legal involved, just to check. That's drool is what the tagline would be. Yeah.

That's cool. Just drool it, I think, would be another one. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So that's Nancy Drew is now Nancy Drew. Okay, let's go to another character who is now entering the public domain. Dan's going to love this one because he loves, he loves comic strip characters. And there's no comic strip character that I think has really touched the hearts of America, gotten across the idea of humor, the adventure of comic strips.

No character does it better than Blondie. That's right. Blondie, this is the early, this is Blondie from her first appearance who is a flapper, you know. but I assume you could still do the blondeie who's just a housewife, you know. So, Dan, what are we going to do? Just a housewife? And Dan, what are we going to do with Blondie?

Again, keep it clean. You don't have to keep it as clean as Nancy Drew, who is, I think, potentially a minor, I don't remember. But Blondie, of course, I mean, she is, maybe you don't need to keep it clean. I don't know. She's super hot, you know. Thanks, Elliot.

I don't know, you're attributing all of this purviness to me. I feel like it just makes you sounds like your constant. I don't know, but Blondie. What a deflection. Like Perseus with the shield over here. So there were a lot of Blondie. It was a great defense. You're making me sound purvy, but I don't know, maybe you are.

There were a series of, like, Blondie movies back in the day. I mean, I think it actually is more interesting that she was a flap. Like, the thing is about Blondie is, like, they abandoned the premise in charge in favor of just sort of like, I don't know, suburban comedy. Yeah. But part of the humor of it, I guess, originally was that, like, yeah, she was a free-spirited flapper girl who then marries, like, kind of a square guy and they have a suburban life or whatever. I mean, is he square? He's got that crazy haircut.

And he's such big sandwich. He's a young, rich guy. And I think, if I'm writing correctly, the story is that he gets, like, disowned by his family for marrying Blondie. And that's why they become suburbanites. you know, rather than living it out. Oh, okay. Yeah, well, I think that the fish out of water, like, return to that. Like, that seems like the interesting part of it, right?

So it's kind of a born yesterday type thing? I know I saw that movie, but I can't really remember. Where she's like a gangster's mall who's like, they want her to enter society. And so the guy comes to teach her and make her, you know, educator on stuff, sophisticated stuff. Or like a my fair lady. Playing gin.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But you want, but you want the, or you want the, I hate to bring up vomit again, that scene in your favorite movie Babylon where she's at that fancy party and she just throws up all over the place. Yeah.

Sorry, I'm so sleepy right now. No, this is good. This is good. This is great. Stuart, what do you think about Blondie? What are you going to do with her? And again, this is Blondie, the character, not the band. The Blondie, the band, will not enter the public domain

until 50 years from now. But we have this Blondie start a band. Yes, this Blondie could start a band, for sure. Interesting. Okay, so this is what happens. So Fish Out of Water story. Fish out of water story. She has to learn how to be a suburban housewife

despite having a background as a flapper. And in the process, she inadvertently invents the brownie variation, the blondie. Oh, okay. And they become incredibly rich. So that's the arc of the story. Okay, interesting. You could do that. I mean, that feels like that's your story for.

And Dagwood is asleep when this happens. sleeping off a sandwich And he is There's a little bit of strife Because suddenly they're thrust into the public eye Because of her invention And is this like a big eyes type scenario Where Dagwood is taking credit

For the invention of the blondeie Even though he had nothing to do with him Of course As a sleepy man I have to say I'm so fucking mad That kid in Blondie Who keeps waking up Dagwood Just like wanders into the house

To wake I'm like I mean although Also it's on Dagwood, like lock your fucking door. You know that. Or sleep in your bedroom, not on the couch. You know, that might be part of the day.

How does this kid not assume Dagwood has a gun? I mean, the first time you wake someone up, you intrude in someone's house and wake them up and they don't shoot you. I think that's, the precedent has been set, you know? I don't know. After the first time, maybe that's when he goes to the pawn shop, he trades in a wedding band. It's what he goes, this is what brought me all the trouble.

This is what brought me low. I'll trade it in for a gun now. So Dan's version of Blondie and Vol is kind of like an, like an, an, uh, an, uh, an advocation of the stand your ground laws, you know, that kind of thing. I didn't say that. I just had blocked the door. I didn't say nothing about, you guys brought guns into the conversation. That's true.

That's true. Okay, so Blondie is the story of the rise and, the fallen rise of this family, of a flapper who invents a dessert. Okay, I think that sounds great. I think it's pretty good. Yeah. I think that's good. Okay.

Next, Dan, keep it clean. Okay. Entering the, now in the public domain, the earliest version of Betty Boop where she still looks like a dog woman. That has entered the public domain. Not the later Betty Boop, who is not a dog woman.

I don't know. So I think what... I don't know if there's any way of keeping this clean. I think what we should do is we should sell t-shirts on the boardwalk that feature Betty Boop, but she's like covered in tattoos and has like pistols in her hands.

Stuart, I hate to break it to you. Someone stole your billion dollar idea. What? Oh, hard are you starting spending? You're like, well, what if we just did T-shirts where the Looney T-shirts characters were rappers? Stuart, I hate to break it to you. Okay, okay.

Well, Rick and Morty then. Rick and Morty, but they're like super high. I mean, we've got America's first cartoon sex pot, but she's a dog. I feel like this is, there's got to be some money that we can get from the furry community. While you guys talk about this, I'm going to Google this. You're not aware of the early dog.

So when Betty Boop first appeared, she was the girlfriend of what Bimbo the dog was her. And so she was also supposed to be a dog and she has floppy ears and like a little bit more of a dog-like face. But she still has that baby, that Betty Boop baby head, you know. Oh, that's kind of, this one's kind of terrifying. Is you confusing you, Stuart? No. Making you feel things, searches. That one's kind of weird looking because there's a lot of teeth in that picture.

But this is what we're talking about, like that kind of thing. Well, actually, there was an early outcry that her teeth looked too human, and so the animators went back, and they gave her more cartoony teeth like she had in the video game. Yeah. Just kidding. That's a sonic joke. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. I get it. Yeah. So what are we going to do? And so the Fleischer company or whoever owns the Fleischer estate now, they are arguing, no, Betty Boop is not in the public domain because she is a different character than this dog woman who looks just like Betty Boop. But for all intents of purposes, it's this early version of Betty Boop where she's a dog. So what do we do with this Betty Boop character?

Well, if that's true that maybe we could make a movie about this dog character walking around and everyone thinking that she's Betty Boop and having to disabuse people of that notion, you know, for fear that it'll cause legal troubles for her, perhaps. I'm not sure where to go with this story. Would you call it not Boop or something like that? I'm not boop. Yeah, boopless. Boopless.

Boopeless. Oh, what's the diagnosis, doctor? Sorry, boopless. This is the hardest part of my job. Having to deal with a dog woman who looks like Betty Boop. Boop job. I don't know. Yeah, run with that, Dan.

You got some puns on your tongue. No, no. Yeah. I got puns on my tongue and a song in my heart. Would you call this a re-boop? Yeah. Yeah. So, Dan, you saw the Boop Broadway musical.

Was she a dogwoman in that? Oh, God. This musical was such a fucking mess. Like, I mean, it was basically just like, they saw Barbie and they're like, let's just do that. Where it's, you know, she comes to the real life and has to sort of, I don't know. But like, without any commentary, really. Now, Betty Boop is, are there, because in some ways like Barbie is meant to kind of to represent womanhood, I guess.

Is Betty Boop the same sort of character? I mean, Betty Boop is like Blondie. Like, Betty Boop represented kind of like in the 30s rather than the choice, but represent kind of like flapper, kind of like wild girl energy, you know, like she's a party girl. Eventually they like domesticated her too. But that's what she was supposed to be. The funny thing about the Boop musical to take us down this for it a little bit is there's, you know, this young girl character loves Betty Boop and has like this big,

like a monologue at one point about all the things that Betty Boop represents. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, I mean, like, number one, like no young kid knows Betty Boop as anything other than maybe like, yeah, I recognize that face. Oh, that's a character on a T-shirt that you buy at the beach or on a boardwalk. But also, like, Betty Boop doesn't recognize. Stop reminding me. Like, like maybe at some point she represented some sort of like flapper freedom, but she doesn't represent any. thing too.

I know she's pretty sassy. You've seen the way she puts her hands on her hips and is like, eh, cocks her head at the sign. She represents like monsters and horny, like, ghosts, like, running after her. Dan, I think you're getting, no. The problem is you know too much about Betty Boob. I think to most people, they are not aware of her time spent running, being chased by ghosts who would then stop and do a Cab Calloway song and then go back to chasing her, you know. I think most people only know her as like a sexy babyheaded lady.

Yeah, you are, you're the audience member that they dread a, right? for the Boop musical. But that's the point. Excuse me, where does this fall into Boop continuity? If people don't have any associations with her, they're also going to be like, what are you talking about? Like, why are you trying to make this

into some sort of icon with meaning rather than, you know, a fun old cartoon character? So your answer is, we don't do anything with Betty Boop. We just leave her in the graveyard of ideas. We don't take advantage for now being in the public domain

as a dog woman. I mean, if anything, I would want to lean into more of the weirdness of all those old Betty Boop cartoons. Like the great thing about those is like they had no continuity. It was anything for a gag, like some weird creature would show up and a thing would happen and it would not make any sense and then we'd be on to the next thing, you know. Now, guys, we've gotten pretty far into this mini and I feel like we've really kind of approached

this from a writer's angle, which makes sense because we're all, you know, accredited writers here. But the... We haven't considered casting yet, and I feel like that's a big part. Is there anybody we've talked about blondie? Who have the biggest heads in Hollywood? It's true. I will say that's one of the big strengths of the Barbie movie

was getting Margo Robbie, an actress who looks just like Barbie, but also brings intelligence to it and is a good producer. Because she's the, I mean, she's the start of the movie, so she's not an unsung hero, but she's apparently the person who, like, was like, get Greta Girl away again. I'm going to fight for the things that Greta

Gurg wants to do with this movie. And so they really lucked out that you had someone who is a good producer and a great actress who looks just like the character. So who could be Betty Boop? And she also won the plank competition among all the cast when they were doing a plank competition. Okay. I find that unsurprising considering the shape that she's in.

I guess so. No, but I mean like she's also really tall. I feel like Gosling would have an advantage because he's a little shorter, right? I don't know. I feel like with his kind of shoulders in chest, I feel like he's unbalanced. Unbalanced. It's going to be hard to plank.

So who would play Betty Boop and then let's move on to the next character and even more beloved cartoon character? I don't know. Who's got like a high voice? I don't think we're going to get the head size so who could do the voice. I don't know.

Who's got a huge head? I mean, I do. Maybe I can play Betty Boop. I'm going to say, and I don't mean this in an insulting way at all, Christina Ricci has a very large forehead, has big eyes. She could be Betty Boo for sure.

Yeah, certainly. Good call. Okay. Moving on. So we talked about Blondie. We talked about Betty Boop. Who's an even more beloved cartoon character who's entering the public domain?

That's right. Flip the Frog. The UbIWorks character, Flip the Frog. Oh, sure. What? Of course, when he left Disney, he created the Flip the Frog character

and he is now in the public domain. Stuart, you love Flip the Frog. Dan, are you Googling Flip the fucking Frog? I have it in my... I have a vision in my head. I got him saved in my hidden folder. Yeah. Here we go.

Look at him. Okay. Looks happy. Yeah, he looks like something. He does look like something. You know, let's move along. Let's move along. He looks like he is the sexy secret.

So Flip the Frog is in kind of like a crying game type movie. Okay. It could be. Who knows. All right. So let's move on. It's not just characters. There's also some books that are entering the public domain.

Two big books in particular are entering the public domain this year. We can do whatever we want with them. one, the Maltese falcon. The Maltese falcon, the book, is now in the public domain. So, guys, what are we going to do with the Maltese falcon? And don't just say it's a horror movie where a falcon is killing people. Yeah, I mean, that's the obvious one. So it's, uh, so in the movie, is it about a book called the Maltese Falcon?

No, and again, the movie is not in the public domain. That won't come into the public name for another, I think, 11 years. So this is just the book, the Maltese Falcon by Dachel Hammett. So, Dan, you certainly read this book before. right? I'm trying to remember whether I actually read the Maltese Falcon.

I think I did, but it was like back in high school. Because I've got an idea. Yeah, go for it. Okay, it's called the Maltese Space Falcon. The whole, it's the same old book, but you said it now in space.

Space detectives. You got space gangsters or whatever. Just do it. Call the Maltese Space Falcon. Or when Star Wars enters the public domain in the 20670s, I think in the year 2072 or something like that,

then you do the Maltese Millennium Falcon. You can finally combine them. It's really cute. You think the world's still going to exist then. I mean, the world will exist. I'm not sure if humanity will exist by that point. You know, as he said in Jurassic World Rebirth, the world's going to shake us off like a bad cold or something like that, you know.

So, guys, Maltese space fucking. He does say that. Yeah. Wait, who's he? Oh, the scientist guy. Oh, okay. The sexiest doctor Lewis. Okay.

So, but what would you guys want to do with the Maltese falcon? Dan, what would you want to do like a detective mystery where they're looking for a valuable statue? And you can't do space falcon, Elliot Coltibs on Space Falcon. Yeah. I'm going to do, I'm going to do Gunfighter Falcon, like Wild West. Okay, it's an Old West mystery. All right, Dan. I guess what genre?

Is it pirate falcon? What do you get on there? Maltese Cave Falcon? Underwater Falcon. Okay. The Maltese Aqua Falcon. How would that operate exactly? Well, hard to fly underwater.

Again, the Maltese falcon is a statue of a... I'm going to change my... Can mine be a peanut butter falcon? Tell me how that works. Tell me how that operates. I didn't see the movie, so I can't. Are you talking about the peanut butter solution? Is that what you're playing off?

He's about the 7% solution, the story where Sherlock Holmes is addicted to peanut butter and he goes to Sigmund Freud to help him. Yeah. So, okay, Maltese... The Maltese... Peanut Butter Space Falcon. Let's work on it. He goes underwater at some point because maybe he goes

to a water planet. Mm-hmm. Yep, go on. What? I thought, yeah, I thought you were... No, I was right. Peanut Butter Falcon is an existing movie. I already stole that idea. I was right. You guys were all wrong. I'm right. Wrong? About what? You guys are wrong. I don't think we ever said that's not a thing.

All right. Let's move on to the Maltese Falcon Center Space. Here's another book, entering the public domain. The Little Engine That Could. In the Public Domain right now. What can we do with the Little... engine that could. You guys must know this story, right? You know this story, but what if we came at it from a new angle? Okay. What if he couldn't? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. What if we make it demotivational? We sort of like, you know, train children. And we will train children. It's a book about

a train, yeah. We need to prepare them for the world that exists now where the small get crushed and cannot succeed. So would it end with, so the book as it ends, now, the little engine that could, agrees to take the toys and candy and good foods for all the children on the other side of the mountain. She agrees to take them over the hill, and she does. She's able to do it. In this for after these other... But in the process, she dies, right?

No. That doesn't happen. It ends with her saying, I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could. If you... It's not canonical that she dies afterwards. I think you're thinking of like the giving tree. Oh, okay. But the...

So in your version of it, when the older trains say, I'm not going to do that. It's impossible. they are proved right. And the little engine that could will go up the hill and then went fall backwards or be derailed or something like that?

Oh, that's just a big train of the top that just like sort of slaps them slaps them down. Says we don't want the kids to have this stuff. Slaps her down. And then what happens to the toys?

Do they all die or what happens to them? They're alive? They're all talking and dancing around and asking her to bring her places. Yeah. Oh, okay. I will remind you, maybe you guys have forgotten this.

This is a book for two. This is a book for children. So it doesn't, it plays fast and loose with the laws of reality. Trains talk. Yeah, but if we're making this into a movie, the audience, the core audience knew it as children. We want to give them something to enjoy as an adult. Right. You want it to age up with the audience.

That's a very good point. Okay, so yes. Emotionally complex, right? And dark and pretty. Yeah, the little engine has like a backstory and like a drinking problem. This is a, yeah. The little engine. looking for redemption and then fails.

Does not achieve that redemption? Yeah, yeah. So this is like a Nicholas Wending Riphon type movie. Yeah, maybe the little engine was the train from that thing where if you go on one side, you run over a bunch of people. And if you go on the other track, you're trolley problems. So that's okay, you bring the troll. So the little engine has to go over a hill to bring the toys to the good little boys and girls

on the other side. But it's got it, but there's people on the track and then there's more people on the other track. And she has to decide whether to switch tracks. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What a grim tale. Yeah, it's gritty.

It's super gritty. And then we have, and then we have like a hip hop score, you know, but with some needle drops from the 80s and 90s, you know. Mm-hmm, yeah. A lot of fast camera movement. Yeah, yeah, a lot of fast camera. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, just made it disorienting and unpleasant.

Sickening. We've got the poll quote for the poster, disorienting unpleasant, says Dave McCoy, sickening, says Stuart Wellington. They're like, you can pull quote your own movie? You can now. Look, it's the future. Look, who cares?

There are no rules. Come on. I'm Jordan Cruciola, host of Feeling Scene, where every week I have a different actor, director, or writer as my co-host. And whoever that co-host may be, it is a sure bet that we are digging deep and having a great time doing it. I love that you just did that. Yeah, I mean, if I were going to join a cult, I think this might be it.

A fresh look at your favorite film and a peek behind the. curtain at how movies get made. Oh, okay, I'm going to tell you this whole story. Okay, I almost got fired from that movie. You should be listening to Feeling Scene. I had so much fun. I love what you're doing. I hope I did okay.

New episodes every week on Maximum Fun. On Judge John Hodgman, the courtroom is fake, but the disputes are real. Brian would say, I'm the Gumby of this family. He's just not. Claiming to be Gumby is an ungambi life. claim. No, it's just Gumby and I being our authentic selves. So what's your complaint? Too many sauces? There are no foods on which to put the sauces. Have we named all the sauces on the top shelf yet? Not even close. You economize when it comes to pants. Truly, it's not about the cleanliness of the pants.

Well, why isn't it? This is what I want to know. Judge John Hodgman, fake court, weird cases, real justice. on Maximumfund.org, YouTube, and everywhere you get podcasts. Hey there, flop folk. If you want to drink less in 2026, maybe instead of pouring a cocktail, try Souls Out of Office drinks. They've got the same relaxing vibe with zero alcohol and zero hangover. How well, Soul makes feeling good simple. They make delicious hemp-derived CBD and THC products. And, you know, it can be decent.

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Last week was our Dr. Doolittle episode of Flop TV, where we talked about the 1960s Rex Harrison, Dr. Doolittle. And we have one more episode left of Flop TV. Again, Flop TV is the one hour on your computer live video broadcast where we do the flop house, but we have video segments. We do a PowerPoint presentation. It's a lot of fun stuff. We answer questions from the audience.

There's one episode left that's in February, February 7th. We'll be talking about Plan 9 from Outer Space. That's right. The baddest of the bad movies, supposedly, the one that was elevated to the tip of the top that everyone knows about. Plan 9 from outer space. The crowning masterwork of Ed Wood will finally be talking about it. February 7th.

Not Orgy of the Dead? No. Orgy the Dead is not considered his masterwork. neither not Glenn or Glenda, not Bride of the Monster, or any of those things. Or Bride of the Adam. Was that what was released as?

I don't remember. Released as Brite of the Monster. Okay. I got it mixed up. If you go to the flophouse. Simpletics.com, you can buy tickets for the episodes. Tickets for the episodes,

but you just said the season finale's coming up. Oh, ho. If you missed any of the episodes, you can buy a ticket to watch the recording of that episode. Those will all be available through the end of February in case you can't join us live. If you get the season pass bundle, that's six shows for the price of five. You should do it.

It's like you're taking money from us. Money we can use to feed our families. So now you get to hold on to it. It's like you're stealing one episode out of our pocket. Like you're a little bandit. When we're not looking. Yeah, like you're a raccoon. So that's the flophouse.

com for FlopTV season three as it comes to a close. But we are also going to be in San Francisco in just a couple weeks. We're going to be appearing at SF Sketchfest at Cobbs Comedy Club once again on Sunday. January 25th. We're doing an afternoon show. So you'll still get a good night sweep for work the next day. Don't worry, little baby.

And we'll be there. Go to sfetchfest.com for the schedule and tickets. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to be talking about Master of Disguise, the Dana Carvey movie that has been one of the most requested movies for us to talk about. I think just because of the scene where he dresses up like a turtle man.

That's not the whole movie? No, it's just one scene. No, unfortunately it's a very short part of the movie. Unfortunately, he doesn't spend the whole movie as a turtle man. But that will be Sunday, January 25th, at Cobbs Comedy Club is for an SF Sketchfest. Don't worry, though, Stuart. Pistachio disguises puts on a lot more disguises. Some of them are racist.

Oh, boy. Can't wait to talk about it. That'll be great. Yeah. We had a great time at SF Sketch Fest last year when we talked about, like, Cutthroat Island. When you do all those accents, Dan, you can be like, it's from the movie. I will not. I have to do it.

He's in the movie. All right. So anyway, I'm going to get canceled for this, but I guess it's okay for Dana Carvey to do it 25 years ago. That's what I sound like. I love this version. Me, Dan McCoy, all right. I guess I'm going to get a loud of it. All right.

So that's, again, go to sfetchfest.com for the schedule. A lot of great shows going on and to get tickets. And if you want to buy a book and have me sign it, go ahead and buy a copy of joke farming, how to write comedy and other nonsense. It's available in stores now. But let's get back to the show. We're going to talk about just a few. few more properties that are now in the public domain, what we're going to do with them.

So let's talk about a couple of movies that are now in the public domain as of the release of this episode. These are movies people watch. Dan, did you know, Animal Crackers is now the second Marks Brothers movie to enter the public domain. What can we do with Animal Crackers? I know you'd love the idea of messing with it. Yeah.

Please, let's take something I love and do something new with it for no good reason. Chris Pratt's in it. Oh, God. So this is a Animal Crackers remake. Chris Pratt stars as which of the brothers, or all three of them? Garfield. All four of them. I'm sorry, it's a four Marks Brothers movie.

Garfield. Wait, so he's, wait, he's Garfield in Animal Crackers? Yeah, because Garfield's an animal. That's a good point. That's a good point. Like, so, you know, I mean, obviously the key components to any Marks Brothers movie is the Marks Brothers. We don't have access to the... Debatable.

They made a Three Stooges movie without the Three Stooges. What about the brain donors without them? Sure. I mean, brain donors is the closest. Pastiche. They do an okay job. There's laughs and brain donors.

It's a funny movie, yeah. But, yeah, I'm trying to think, like, what are the... Animal Crackers is a musical mystery about a... A stolen painting. A stolen painting, and you never quite find out who actually stole the painting, I don't think, really, in any satisfying way. I mean, because also it's a movie version of a play where they cut like a third of the play out to make it into a movie.

So a lot of stuff was lost. What you mentioned mystery, we've got a mystery character who's in the public domain now, Nancy Drew. Maybe we just insert Nancy Drew into the Marks Brothers Animal Crackers movie. Honestly, that would be really funny if there was like a child detective who was taking things really seriously and then you had these sort of like four numskulls running around

for acting like children yeah yeah Dan I think maybe we just made that movie better what do you think I don't think it's I mean it's one of my favorite movies in the world but it's it's a good idea

we didn't make it better but the idea of a of a I don't want to I don't love it usually when the Marks Brothers characters are engaging with children in the movies because it's a lot of like the children love them they're just really delightful like it's a way of softening the characters

but I do like the idea of a child who is irritated by the Marx Brothers. Yeah. Act like adults. Exactly. Let's go to, here's one other movie that's in the public domain now. This is a best picture-winning movie. All Quiet on the Western Front is now in the public domain.

The novel, I believe, already was. Now the movie is, we could do whatever we want with that movie. What are we going to do with it? Like put a musical number in it? Yeah. Let's play it all backwards, like in somebody's memories. So I was like, so functionally, like, okay, what's different that, like, between the, like, we already could have adapted the book. And they just did a couple years ago.

There's just a new version of Alquite and the Western. And they, like, did really well, right? So if the movie is what is, like, available to us. So we could re-edit it. We could insert ourselves in it. We could tint it and add, like, 80s music, like the Georgio Moroder. Autropolis. A good idea, yeah.

Yeah. What if we tinted it and we added modern music to it? What if it's all Taylor Swift scored? I mean, that's not public domain music. We do a section that's like rotoscoped. Yeah, you could do that. Are you allowed to do that or is that? Yeah, you could do that.

Are we allowed to do that before? No, you couldn't. So the thing is, anything that is specific to that movie, any changes that were made between the book for that movie or anything that's specific, the imagery from that movie was not in the public domain. Now it is. Now it's, so you could rotoscope it now.

What's different in the movie, the part with the aliens? Yeah, yeah. Well, now the part of the aliens, because we're adding that in. I don't remember all the differences between the movie and the book, but now you could take the footage from that movie, and you could do whatever you want with it, you know. So I think Dan's idea of doing a Georgia Romero on it is kind of a fun one. Yeah.

Yeah, let's make it like an MTV all quiet on the rest in front. There you go, yeah. It loses some of the anti-war message, but it gains dance ability. I mean, when you put love as a battlefield on there, does that dilute the anti-war message? Or does it make it harder, hit harder? Yeah. It's a good question.

Again, love is a battlefield, not a public domain song. We'd have to license that song. Let's talk about there's a play that's in the public domain now. The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau. That's the play where it's a woman on the phone with her lover who is leaving her. And it's just, I believe it's just a one-person play the whole time. What are we going to do with this play? Now this is in the public domain.

We do whatever we want with it. Can we finally provide the other half of that phone conversation? And maybe it's really funny. Yeah, we intercut it with Bob Newhart doing a one-sided clone conversation. Again, Bob Newhart's work is not in the public domain. We've got to license that. But we don't have to pay for the human voice license. So you can use that money for Bob Newhart.

It's half the price of what it would have been a year ago. A year ago, if you want to do that human voice Bob Newhart mashup, you would have to pay out the nose. Now you're just going to pay out one nostril. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah. What are we doing here, guys? We should just cut together footage from all these other movies that involve people talking on the phone.

So it's like she's talking to untold millions of people on the other side of that line. Although we want to pay for a lot of things. Yeah, although I mean... But this is going to make Bafo B.O. So I think we get... Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. People are going to be thirsty for this.

Clammering. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. Oh, a new spin on the human voice? Wonderful. This is exactly what I want. This I got to see. like the human voice

I've got one of those it's like I'm going to picture. What happens in this one? Yeah, sounds good. Okay, so that's what we do. We just cut it with a lot of things. It'll be like that Apple commercial

for the iPhone years ago. It was just shots of people on the phone. But now there's a story to it. Or what if, do you know the movie Sorry, Wrong Number, which is I do know. Which is not in the public domain. But if you cut those together, so

she's on the one end, again, this is the play. So we'd have to shoot the footage of it. There is a movie of the human voice, but it's not in the public domain yet. Okay. You had the play where if you had an actor on stage doing this one side of the phone call, and then you had the footage from Sorry Wrong Number

where she believes there's a man who's trying, she's overheard a call about a man who's going to kill her. And then you cut those together. Yeah, there you go. You've got your story. It's a good idea, yeah. And finally, the last thing we're going to talk about today, finally, it's in the public domain.

I know, Dan, you've been clamoring for something like this. I hope it's Alf. Alph is in the public domain, but Gordon Shumway is not. I don't understand how. Because that was a later edition. Yeah, exactly. You can do all the stuff about Alf in the house. You can't do anything about Melmac that was established in the cartoon series.

Oh, I don't care that. Just kill me. But finally in the public domain is the original German text of relativity, the special and general theory by Albert Einstein. The English translation has been in the public domain since 1995. but we've been unable to touch the original German text. And it's so much more beautiful than the original German. No, because it's a beautiful language, exactly. Dance, do, what are we going to do now that we have,

now that we can do whatever we want with the German text of this. You speak German. Yeah, he's kind of ambition, Deutsch for stay unen sprecken. Yeah, let's, I mean, obviously we put a beat to it. We release it as a fucking awesome rap song. Okay. It's German, so people won't be able to arm. argue whether or not it sounds good.

Too obvious to say. But, you know, that's the best ideas are sometimes like that. Sometimes it's just the first one, the first one, yeah. All right. So just to continue with, just to wrap up what we've talked about. Yeah, sure. We've really come up with a lot of it. We've taken, I think we've...

You've teamed this, right? UTM the whole episode, right? The flop house is, of course, copyright and trademark of us. But we've done exactly what public domain is for, which is to take pieces of culture. and be able to, and not just culture, but also scientific discoveries,

things like that, and to make new things about them that enrich them, that enrich the common culture, and that add new meaning and new ideas to the pot of ideas that all of humanity gets to pull from.

So those ideas, we talked about Nancy Drewl. It's Nancy Drew, but she's gross. Blondie, she's inventing the blondie. That's the story of that. Buddy Boop is a, there's a dog woman

who's constantly being confused for Betty Boop, and she is tired of it. Flip the frog has a sexual secret we didn't really get into. The Maltese falcon now takes place in space, or perhaps it has peanut butter. The peanut butter falcon, again, not in the public domain,

but the Maltesefunk's in space or underwater. The little engine that couldn't, we've taken that beautiful tale of inspiration and we've made it a realistic tale of disappointment. Animal Crackers now has a little kid who is constantly annoyed by the Marx Brothers in it, all quiet in the Western front, is full of 80s hits and tinted imagery.

and the human voice is now slammed up against another a movie that we don't have the rights to, unfortunately. And finally, Einstein has taken his proper role as a rap star, a hip-hop, luminary. The real M-T-squared. Oh, my God. That's what we release it as. We release it as Relativity,

the special and the general theory club remixed by M.C. Squared. That's what we do. Guys, we did it. There's a reason we have the public domain, We fulfilled it today. We did it. So thank you for coming with me on this journey.

Thank you listeners for coming with us on this journey as well. We, of course, are the flop house. We are produced by Alex Smith, our producer. He goes by the name Howell Doughty online,

look up his music and podcasts. He's a wonderful person and a very funny and talented individual. We are part of the Maximum Fun podcast network. Please go to maximum fun. org to listen to other great podcasts you will probably enjoy.

And until then, just keep listening to the Flop House, tell people about us. Why don't leave a five-star rating so that people know that we're doing wonderful things with the public domain here. Come see us on flop TV, and by come see us, I mean,

tune in on your computer. Come see us, January 25th in San Francisco at Cobbs Comedy Club. Otherwise, that's all the business we've got right now, guys. We'll see you next week on a movie version of the flop house where we're talking about a movie rather than a mini version where we drive each other insane. Talk about a mini, yeah. We talk about a mini, yeah.

Mini Mouse is going to be in the public domain very soon, if she isn't already. I can't wait. Okay, so for the Flop House, that's been L.A. Kaelan. This is Dan McCoy over here, and I'm Stewie Wellington saying, bow, wow, wow. Perfect. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. Of artists-owned shows.

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