There Are No Girls on the Internet - What’s your favorite scary movie? Scream, the 1996 horror classic, is a commentary on tech and media frights

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Scream was created against the backdrop of increasing anxiety about tech and media. And the film is practically screaming at all of us about it.  In this special Halloween episode, Bridget joins Annie and Sam from Stuff Mom Never Told You to examine how our collective fears about technology, fame, and the media play out in the lives (and deaths!) of the movies’ teenagers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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There Are No Girls on the Internet is a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. Happy Halloween! Halloween is my favorite holiday. Yes, I am one of those people who starts preparing for spooky season even while we're still solidly in summer. I live for a horror movie, and I think there's just something about how horror is able to do sharp satire or social commentary, against the backdrop of a spooky story. So when I sat down to re-watch the 1996 horror classic Scream last week, a movie that I have not seen since I was a kid, I realized this is a movie that is a movie that is desperately trying to tell us something about our collective rights around media and technology.

I joined my friend Samantha and Scream Scholar in Residence, Annie, over at the podcast Stuff Mom Ever told you to discuss how Scream is a commentary on all of our collective tech and media anxieties. So listen, if you dare. I do think that there's something about anxiety around technology, communication systems. how many scary movies had the trope of like, the phone's gone dead or like some bit of technology that we maybe don't fully understand or don't fully respect or appreciate coming back to get us. Like that is a common, I believe, like a common trope that is really related to our anxieties collectively around technology, particularly new technology, or like over reliance on technology that really sets us up for a kind of horror situation. Yeah, and I've noticed there's like a whole newish genre of like movies like unfriended or movies about like social media and these kind of technologies that are part of our everyday lives. It's also interesting to see other movies like missing or searching where they try to explain.

Because a lot of horror movies, yeah, it's like, oh, the phone's not working really. Like trying to explain how technology can fit into that or how it doesn't. can't, or yeah, that dependence on it. Yeah. So I just watched on the plane to Berlin, I watched Missing. And for those who haven't seen missing, it takes place almost entirely through screens. And so you're watching someone's laptop. You're watching, like, they're having a video chat with somebody.

They're messaging somebody. Like, you're watching security footage from a screen. Like, the whole thing takes place on a computer. And I also, there is, like, a thing that I'm really interested in, mostly because I really like cheesy movies that are kind of like trying to make a social commentary, but it's actually kind of funny, just like Scream. So I watched this movie The Influencer recently, which I thought I didn't love, but like is about anxiety when it comes to people who share their whole lives on social media. Another one that I watched that kind of similar to that is Sissy.

Have you seen that? We just did that as our film of movie. Okay. What did you all think? It made me think a lot about, it stuck with me, I will say. Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely one of those where I left, like, oof, that did not resolve how I would have wanted it to resolve. But, you know, the kind of making money off drama thing, which I know we're also going to talk about in here, left me unsettled.

Yes, I agree. And I will say, like, to set up this conversation, the reason why I wanted to talk about this today is that I watched Scream, the first one, the original from 1996, yesterday. And I was like, wow, you know, this is a movie that is really about the anxiety around technology and media, right?

I had seen Scream. Maybe I saw it when it first came out when I was like a child, but when I, I don't, I've only seen it twice in my life. The first time I saw it when it first came out, a lot of the commentary about media and technology and tropes was really over my head because I was a child. Watching it yesterday, I was really struck by how this movie is really a commentary about the anxieties people were facing in the 90s around media. So I should say right off the bat, I saw Scream 3 in the theater with my friends.

I think I must have seen Scream 2, like, partially on television every now and then, because I remember the Jada Pinkett Smith part this release. But I don't think I've seen the whole thing because I'm looking at the plot on Wikipedia and I'm like, none of this seems familiar to me. Oh dear. I love Scream 2. It was filmed in Georgia, Agnes Scott. Oh! Made in Georgia! Have you ever seen that? At the end of shows? No. Okay, it's what they say at the end of bad reality TV when they've been filmed in Georgia. Okay. Okay. Well, yeah, I'm so excited to have this conversation. And the second one definitely plays into this. So does the fourth one. I'm excited. Let's, yeah, let's get. get into it. Okay. So if you have not seen Scream, the first one, this conversation might have some

spoilers, but like it came out in 1996, so, you know, what are you doing? But having watched it, I was just really struck by the ways in which it is like a commentary on the anxiety that folks have around youth and media. So the rough plot outline of Scream, actually, Annie, as our Scream kind of soar, do you want to hit us with the plot, the plot outline? Oh, my God. I'm so excited. Yeah. So Scream is like many slasher movies. It follows a group of high school students.

And the movie opens with a very violent death scene of Drew Barrymore, by the way, that traumatized me. And introduces you to The Killer who asks, like, what is your favorite scary movie? Quizzes Drew Barrymore's character, Casey, about what it is. And then from there, of course, we get various other deaths. the Rose McGowan's garage death also stuck with me. But yeah, it's one of the things I love about Scream is you're following this group of kids, and they really make you suspect everybody.

But as the story kind of unfolds, you learn that the main character, Sydney, her mom had been murdered, and she had testified about it, and it was this guy caught weary. The names are also great in this movie. I really always. They really, really are.

And there's also some media happening around that. And Courtney Cox's character, Gail Weathers, who is this really ambitious reporter, is in town and trying to ask her, ask Sydney get an interview with her about all of that. And then we have our character Dewey, played by David Arquette, who had a crush on from this movie, who's like the deputy of the town.

So you've got all these characters. And they're just sort of slowly dying off or friends of theirs on the periphery are anyway. And our character, Randy, is sort of our meta commentary guy. He is the guy who has seen all the horror movies, and he is the one who lays out the rules of surviving a horror movie, which at this point, there's a killer around, so they're kind of joking that they're in one. Every screen movie has a party in it, so they go to this party, even though there's a curfew, even though those are killer.

It makes no sense. Like, she's literally being stopped. Dewey as the deputy has been told by his higher up, like, make sure she stays safe. So then in the next scene, he's literally dropping her off at a party and, like, be like, okay, we'll have fun.

Right. Right. But he's trying to, he's got a crush on Gail, who he knows will be there. And they kind of form a duo. Married in real life at the time. At the time, yes.

And Gail leaves this camera inside the party to spy on the kids, which is really funny because it was like a 15-second delay or whatever. It becomes important later. But Randy lays out the rules of, like, you can never have sex. You can never do drugs. You never say, I'll be back, you won't be back, you'll be dead. And then we see kind of people drinking and dying, people having sex and then almost dying.

But all these things, this build up. And then it's kind of hinted that it's her dad. who is the killer. But there's been this throughline of her boyfriend, Billy, who's been pressuring her to have sex. And no, you don't do that if you want to survive a horror movie. And she also has a hang up around it because her mother, after she died, all this commentary was she was a slut and deserved it.

So she has a real hangup about it, understandably. And she eventually is like, okay, I want to have sex. I really want to. have sex, and then it's revealed he is the killer, along with his friend, Stu, Matthew Lillard, and that they also killed her mom because they Billy blamed Sidney's mom for why his parents got divorced. So it wasn't Cottonweary. It was Billy Loomis. And then they say that we're going to blame the movies. We're going to blame the movies. But then Sidney like steals their little voice vocoder thing and comes out

and basically kills them with the help of Gail who's returned after her cameraman was murdered and reports on the whole scene as I think it's Moby plays. I've seen this movie way too many times. That was

a really great rundown. The character Gail Weathers when I first saw Scream as a young person, I didn't really, so I've always liked bad characters, like not necessarily the

ultimate villain. Like, I didn't like Billy and Stu, but, like, characters that are meant to be braddy or annoying or bitty. I've always been like, that's the character that I like. And so I was obsessed with her character. Her little suit, I thought she was so cool. I guess I, like, took away all of the wrong messages

from this movie because I then grew up wanting to be, like, a careerist, a career woman journalist, ballbuster. She also had a lot of the good lines were hers. She really had good one-liners. So you have set the scene beautifully. So when Scream first debuted in 1996,

the country was really engaged in this like national dialogue about the impact of violence in media on youth. In 1996, President Clinton signs the Telecommunications Act of 1996, legislation that has gone on to shape a lot of our internet and media landscape even today. It was a huge change in the telecommunications. because it was the very first time that the internet had been included in like broadcasting allotment, right? It was being, was being legislative, like, how they were metering it out and how people could

access it and all of that. So as part of this legislation, the Clinton administration rolled out technology called the V-CHIP. Do you remember the V-CHIP? I don't remember the V-CHIP. It was kind of a blip in our, I guess, tech and media landscape. Like, I remember a lot of conversation about it, like on television and in, you know, with lawmakers, but ultimately it had a relatively small impact, which we'll talk about in just a moment.

So if you don't know what the V-CHIP is, the V-CHIP was technology meant to allow parents to block like racy or mature content from televisions. Television's manufactured in the United States market since January 2000 were required to have V-CHIP technology. So V-chips worked by allowing your TV to receive a special code in the broadcast signal that was broadcasting shows and movies that indicated a rating of what kind of. of program that was and like whether or not it was suitable for different audiences. So, you know, when you watch TV now and you see up in the corner that little black and white logo like TVMA or

TVY, that is related to Vchips, right? So like TVMA would be content that is mature. So if you had your VCHIP programmed, there would be a code in the programming that would allow you to block mature content from your household if you were worried about your kids seeing it. So the phrase VCHIP was purportedly coined by then representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts, according to him, the V stood for violence because they were really concerned about blocking out violence. But if you asked Tim Collings, who is one of the people who claims to have invented V-chips,

he says the V stood for viewer control. What is the truth? I'm not sure. So parents at that time were really, really had a lot of anxiety that violent movies and violent programming that kids were consuming was linked to violence. behavior. There are like, I wanted to include here, like, whether or not that is true. There is way too much research out there for me to summarize. Some people are like, oh, there's a

clear link. Most researchers are like, oh, the link is like needs more studying, not clear. Do you, do you have any, like, sense of this as somebody who enjoys horror? I am under the impression, because I remember this too, especially somebody who plays video games, this argument comes up all the time about violent video games, that there has not been any, like, definitive link proven. And I think I found one that said, yeah, I mean, it's not like a lot of us who see horror movies are, I'm not a murderer. I don't know. Most of it has been kind of, yeah, there's not, there hasn't been any science to really back that up. But there is a lot of anxiety around it, like we were talking about before, especially around kind of parenting and

like, what should I let my kids watch? Is this going to make them more violent? I have much more knowledge about how certain entertainment and games actually help you work through stuff or form some skills. But yeah, it's a lot of conversation happening and a lot of back and forth for sure. I know around this time frame with all the movies, as this was in conversation, unfortunately, the Columbine shooting happened. And that was the biggest blame, not gun violence, not bullying, but that it was the violence on TV and the games at the the kids played, the two perpetrators played. And they focused on that really hard because it seemed to fit the narrative that they've been trying to set up since 1995. So like four years later, 99 was when the shooting happened. And like the conversations about bullying and the conversations

about being outcast, the conversations about gun control really was sidelined to violence on TV and violence for video games. I remember that being a huge thing. Yes, I've definitely seen that. Do you remember how the musician Brian Warner, who you might be more familiar with as a stage named Marilyn Manson, like he was really thrust into the national conversation about like, what's wrong with our kids? And looking back at that time, even though my research, you know, I'm not a researcher, but what I've looked into the link between violent media and violent behavior, that link does seem fuzzy at best. Like it doesn't seem like there's a lot of information out there that really proves a, you know, a correlation. But I really understand how we still get so much like hand-wriging and anxiety about it.

Because if you're a parent and you're worried about your kids, you're worried about sending your kids to school, you can't really control the legislation around guns in the United States, right? Like we've just like lost the ability to really have any kind of like direct impact on that, I think. You really can't control what's happening at your kids' school when you're not there. I think one of the reasons why you see this anxiety around media is because it feels like something you can control. Like even if that link is not really there between violent media and violent behavior, I think that in absence of feeling like they have something they can cling to, something they can control, something they can like, it just becomes a backdrop to project your anxieties onto that I, But even if it's not really the appropriate thing to hand ring about,

I understand how it becomes like in absence of anything that you feel like you can control, you feel like you can control the kind of media that comes into your home. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Reader Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-844-I-Hart to get started. That's 844-844-I-Hart. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what.

He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is out of last. that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nass would get that, thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And one of the things I find really interesting about Scream is that in the end, almost every killer realizes this. Almost every killer comes out and says, oh, we're going to blame the movies. Oh, I'm going to blame this. Oh, I was on Reddit and now look at me. Like, they know it and they use it. And that's what their defense is going

to be in several cases. Like, actually, the defense they're going to use in court. So they, they recognize that this is a thing. And I think it becomes like almost like a red herring where it's like, if you're so busy focused on Reddit or the movies or the this or the vet, you're not actually focused on the real issue and the killers in these movies, they know that and they're using that as a way to evade their accountability for their crimes.

They're like, I can just blame this. And because of all that anxiety, because of all that hand-wringing, my actual motives, how I've actually done this, just goes overlooked. Right. And it's part of the fun of these movies is they are so meta.

So you're watching a slasher movie that's basically telling you like, yeah, we know people are going to blame us for stuff. And we're going to talk about it, which is one of the things I love about them. Right. And so the way that the scream movies really were a commentary on the conversation around violent media

that we were having at that time in the 90s plays into that so much because with technology like the V-CHIP, the burden was shifted off of like the government. or TV, people who make media onto parents to be the sole controls of what kind of media their kids are consuming. Right? And so, like, if I'm Stu and Billy and I'm just blaming the violent movies, really what

that's actually saying is like, oh, it's the parents. The parents should have, like, used this V-CHIP to block their kids from seeing prom night or Halloween, and they didn't. And now he's a killer. Like, it was just a real way to, like, expertly shift the blame around. I think it mirrors the conversation that folks were having in the 90s. And so even though there was all this conversation and also public support around technology like the V-CHIP that was rolled out, in the end, one of the reasons why, like, Annie, you were like V-CHIP, never heard of it,

is because it wasn't really being used that much by parents. A study that followed 110 families from 1999 to 2000, found that just nine families regularly used their V-CHIP to control mature and violent programming. I have my theories on why this is. I think setting it up was kind of cumbersome. I think a lot of parents were like, this is a little bit complicated. I'm not going to do this. So I went back to check the different rating systems.

Like we're most familiar with like TVMA and things like that. But there's so many of them. There's TVY. TVY 7, TVG, TV PG, TV 14, TVMA. Then inside of that there's different content descriptors, right? D stands for sexual or suggestive dialogue. L stands for coarse or crude language. S is sexual situations. V is violence. FV. is family violence exclusive to the TV Y7 rating.

So it's complicated as hell is what I'm saying. And so I can understand why parents were like, this is way too many acronyms. I have work in the morning. I am not setting this up. I also suspect like if your household was anything like my household, if you were a teen at this time, the responsibility for setting up the technology and like telecommunications in your home probably fell on your shoulders. Your parents were like, I don't know how to set this up. you do it. So if you're the young person who is being asked to like, like, you're not going to be setting up parental controls on your own TV if you are the person who is responsible for setting up how TV happens in your home, right? So that's what I suspect might have been part of why

this like technology just did not take off. You know what I find funny though with that is, yes, I was in that generation, I was a teenager when the internet came out. Like I did not have the access to internet until I left for college. because my parents were not buying the new things. And at this point, it was a new thing. And I would have to go to my aunt's house to use AOL. Yes. And you immediately think of that sound when you connect

and then immediately know the sound when it hangs up and you get real pissed off because someone picked up a phone. Yes, I was in that generation. I find it funny because, yes, we were part of that. Me and my brother, who were around the same age, were the ones who had set it up. But even today, for my boomer parents, we have to set up any deal with the smart stuff

and the likelihood that we know even more so than the younger generations because they're so used to just having it around on how to get it connected because we're like the OG of all of these things. It kind of makes me laugh because somehow the Gen X slash millennials are the ones who have known how to set these things up more so even than most of the younger generations because they just always have had it. Yes, I've actually read some really interesting research and commentary that suggests that the younger generation like Gen Z, they might, like because

they've always had things like iPads and smartphones that are so sort of like drag and drop so sort of like intuitive and if you've always had them, the sort of intermechanations of like how they work and like what is being represented when you do things might be a little bit vague, a little bit vaguer to them than they are to somebody who was my age who like grew up having to understand that kind of thing just to like make it work, right? Like having to understand like when you save a file what that means and like how to find it and all of that. None of this stuff. when I was first using computers was like easily laid out through user, like easy to navigate user interface.

It was a lot of like squinting at the screen and guess and check and like, does this do that? Yeah, we almost had no coding in order to get access to specific sites. You're like, what the hell is I have to control, Alt B, what, F3, what? Yes. But I do find it funny coming back to that when you'd have most of these classics, because when I was growing up, I watched a lot of the cheap. craziest 70s, 80s, horror movies because they were amazing. They were so bad.

The effects were so bad. But it was so good because you still love that idea. I also loved the horror stories. Y'all know what I'm talking about, like the classic horror stories, Appalachian horror stories. You know, came back, like the scariest stories. Like those were the things that I grew up with and haunted me. It still haunts me. I was telling, I think Annie had told you.

No, I had told my partner when I was in middle school. So this was way before y'all. Don't talk to me about age. We would go into different theater companies coming perform. I think I was in the fifth grade, and they were supposed to do a Mark Twain show. And we're like, cool, cool, cool, old school. And then it flipped real quick to an Edgar Allan Poe,

tell, tell heart. So for those of us who didn't know what was coming, because they would have the surround sound of the beating heart, and it haunts, me to this day. That scary, like that story was one of the scariest stories I'd ever heard in my life. And I'm thinking back into like, back to like, would the kids today, would that have scared them or would they've been like laughing? Because they're like, what is that? What is this? Because in my mind, like, it was scary as hell. But realizing how technology has quickly changed

and how like the graphics have changed. And again, yeah, people don't even understand what the phone is. Like, why would you, why would you have to connect to what's a landline? Why would you have to do? What is with the pressing? Why can't they just call a number or say Siri, call this thing? Like, it's quite funny to me that I'm like, yeah, y'all probably don't understand how scary it really was. Yeah. Oh, do you ever watch a horror movie, like, from like the 90s or beyond? And you're like, why doesn't she just use her cell phone to call for help?

And you're like, oh, wait. And it's like a huge phone. Oh, my gosh. In Scream, there is that, like, the scene where it sets the audience up to think that Billy is the killer and a cell, because a cell phone drops out of his pocket and it's like, a cell phone, why? And the cops are like, why do you have a cell phone? And he's like, why do you have them now? How like, it was so unusual for somebody to just have a cell phone? Yes. That means you're rich or you're up to no good. It's kind of like the pages of the my generation. Like, it would admit

immediately you were no good. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Bridget, you need to watch all the rest of the scream movies. It just keep updating us because the newer ones have things with like Siri and your ring camera and like using voice commands and all this stuff. Would you say that Scream is one of the more tech savvy horror franchises? Yeah. I would say that, but I also don't have that kind of stuff. So I never talk to Siri and I don't use Ring. But I think so. I mean, at least like it's definitely addressing the question of, oh, hey, this is the world we live in now. I think the fifth one has a whole thing about, like, Netflix and Reddit and fandom in that way. So, I mean, they are definitely at least engaging in this is the technology that we have, and this is

how we think it would impact or fuel this horror story that we're telling. Yeah, I think it's really interesting when horror movies use technology as a way to, like, like buttress whatever story or message they're trying to tell, which I feel like scream definitely does. So after this V-CHIP technology is put in place, television programs are then rated for how much, like, racy or mature content they contain. And so to give parents ostensibly the power to, like, block their kids from them, even though parents aren't really doing this. However, the news, news programming was exempt from these ratings. And so there was no way to block the news from your home using this technology, just sort of like giving it a pass to come into

people's homes. This coincided with news media becoming more and more solidified as a form of always on entertainment, starting famously with CNN as like the first 24-hour news network, later with Fox News and MSNBC. According to NPR media reporter David Fulkenflick, the subsequent arrival of Fox and MSNBC, it made 1996 a seminal year for cable news. Remember that in the 90s, like big, splashy, gory crimes that played out in the news. 1994, you get O.J. Simpson. 1993, you get Lorraine Bobbitt. The murder of Scott Amador in 1995, who folks don't know who that is.

He was shot and murdered after an appearance on the tabloid show, the Jenny Jones show, where he revealed his secret crush on a man who later shot and killed him and used gay panic as his defense during his trial in 1996. In a piece called How Scream explored the exploitative nature of nightly news, the Smithsonian Magazine spoke to Jamie L. Flexen, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida International University, who said, the onslaught of round the clock coverage of bizarre outlier incidents powerfully shaped Americans' perceptions of crime, saying, I believe because of this, society is much more afraid. The boogeyman does exist in this way, an interaction between the human condition and the business of media amid a context of exploring rare situations to symbolize problems. And honestly, despite all of the anxieties and handwringing about violent media and violent crime and the anxieties around it, violent crime was famously down in the 90s during this time where people were so concerned about it.

Yeah, and I think one of the things Scream does also is that it, this was before true crime had really taken off. People were still fans of it, but there was no Netflix yet. There was no, like, places where it could binge it yet. But there's a point where, as the daughter of this woman who had been murdered, that people are constantly talking about, like constantly kind of sharing their theory is like, oh, no, you're wrong, you lied about her. There's a point where she, like, vocalizes this fear that she has, that if she says something, like, out of place, they will blame her dad because it's usually. the like husband or that like she has this in her head that there are people watching her her story what has happened and trying to dissect it and having to like live with okay i really don't want them to think it was my dad which feels like now watching it almost like premonition

or something like it was it was very on point with that and then going back to something you said earlier, Bridget. The second one, spoilers, one of the killers is Billy Loomis' mother. Oh. Yes. And she has a whole speech that's like, they always blame the mother. And she

did do it. Well, yeah, that's why they're blaming her because she did it. But it was interesting because it's like they were, it was her and then Timothy Olyfant's character, Mickey, who was like, I'm going to blame the movies. And she was like, I never believe that defense never once. She killed.

Mickey is like, no, I just am so upset about what happened to my son and that you did it. But that like that idea of, you know, that story that we want to believe or that is being told that we're seeing in our media, that they really, because I mean, I could go on and odd. Samantha knows, like the fourth one is all about true crime as well. The fifth one's all about fandom. And in fact, one of the actors went on to Reddit to learn about toxic fans. to play a role in there. But also, like, going back to,

the internet was just becoming really big for a lot of us around the time this movie came out. And just for a fun fact, this is one of the first movies that had, they were worried about spoilers. So they wrote different scripts after the first one because they got leaked online.

And so it's really interesting in that way, too, of like, and they even talk about it in the third one about how they have multiple scripts and they don't know which one the murderer is following. As I said, Annie's an expert on all things. But, you know, coming back to, she is. Don't think she doesn't already know. She's already read the article.

I said her saying, and she's like, I know I read this a while ago. I was used as a source. Exactly. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends, me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk, to David Letterman,

help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard,

you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yard. But they're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open.

Since you guys are middle-aged, one erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Huber me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message.

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Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without our... Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stopped by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, I said. You figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. But you know, one of the things coming back to how like news had become a whole thing. I just remembered like the 80s, late 80s in 90s were filled with like unsolved mysteries. Rescue 9-1-1 was regularly played at our house. And that started in 1989. And then you also had things like the top 10 most wanted, which was like talking about that

boogeyman that comes around. But there also had been that moment where news anchors were getting pollicers or being big storytellers. So they could solve a crime. and do it while on air, they would get these accolades. And I remember that being a huge thing. Barbara Walters was huge at that point in time, 60 minutes, which is still going. But, like, that was coming on huge because they would follow people like O.J. Simpson and then have that exclusive interview in the behind the scenes.

Lorraine Bobbitt, I remember this case specifically because the husband came on talking about his thing and had his huge thing of fame. Like, so many things. Now, like, Lorena Bobbitt wasn't so bad in my mind back then, yeah. but today I'm like, oh, okay, I get it. I don't condone what she did, but I'm just saying I get it. But like the early 90s, which this is that high, it is. If you look back, I didn't think about it then, obviously,

but it was going after those reporters who were just willing to, like, crawl over all of the victims, which has become a circus today, and there's a huge, whole different conversation. And now as a podcast, but that was really kind of that beginning of like, Oh, they want to see the gory details. They want to know the depth of depravity of men. And then if we can say it's in a perfect story to haunt everyone, we're going to be famous.

And you even see that in Scream with Gail. You know, she's writing a book about the death of Sidney's mom and has kind of gotten personally involved in the case advocating for the innocence of Cotton, the person who's been charged with her mom's death. And it's clear that she's not doing this because she, like, like maybe she genuinely believes that he's innocent. But when she's talking about it, she says, if I'm right, I could save this man's life.

Do you know what that would do for my book sales? Again, iconic line from Gail Weathers on this one. But I do think that that dichotomy that you're explaining, Sam, about how the news media felt then is what Scream is meant to be a commentary on. So Scream's writers, Adam White and Michelle Delgado said that Scream is meant to be an exploration of this exploitative nature of tabloid news that minds people's worst and most traumatic moments. for entertainment, but doing so under the guise of, like, informing the public through news. And it highlights this kind of interesting inconsistency we saw in media at the time, that the news could cover the minutia of these gory, splashy cases and do so in a way that was exempt from this government V-chip rating.

But had those plot lines been happening on an episode of, like, Melrose Place, they would be rated as mature. I think this moral inconsistency that we saw in media, was exactly what Scream was speaking to, you know? Like, the Screamteens are scolded for watching too many gore, slashing movies. All of this happening while Gail Weathers and these other news anchors are really, like, essentially stalking and surveilling these teenagers to breathlessly and relentlessly cover the minutia of this trauma they're experiencing under the guise of being like, well, the public has a right to know. Right. And it's no, we talk about this all the time when it comes to horror movies,

kind of how it reflects what we're anxious about as a society, but also kind of that judgment of like who's the, who's going to be the victim here, those rules that Randy lays out of like, don't have sex, don't do drugs, all that stuff. So it also feels very like these older people are watching these younger people and like, yeah, you should have listened to me, you deserved that. And now I'm going to put it on the news and make money about it.

Like, it's very, oh, you are a young person who's basically living their life, but she shouldn't have done that and now you're dead and that's your fault. Yeah, it's very voyeuristic. And I think Scream really does a good job also of like, I don't know, asking the question of like, sure, Gail Weather's is not out here of murdering teens, but she is making money off of that. She's profiting off of that personally. So, like, sure, she may not be a murderer herself,

But is she really that much better than whoever is murdering these teens? Yeah. And I love, like, I love how every time Gail Weathers has this thing, there's something you have to appreciate as women, because we're always told, like, ambitious women are tearable. We're watching Gail Weathers, you're like, yes, go get it, Gail. But, like, every movie ends with her realizing, like, oh, I've lost all of my friends, maybe I should.

And then the next movie starts, and she's back where she's done. I'm so glad you brought this up. This is why I love, this is why I, like, I ride for Gail Weathers in this movie and the other screen movies that I've seen is that I feel like the movie is setting us up to be like, wow, what an annoying, conniving bitch. She's going to have a gory death and really get hers and won't that be great. But Gail Weathers always comes out on top. And not only does she come out on top, she doesn't learn a goddamn thing. By the next movie, whatever lesson you think has been internalized by Gail, she's back and worse. And I love that.

I love when this is just like, I mean, I wanted to try to like connect this to some larger, like, moralistic thing of like, it's feminist to like it when like women are, is actually, I just like think that's cool. I just personally like to see when a female character doesn't really learn anything. And like, you know, I don't know. Like, is it so wrong that Gail Weathers wants her Pulitzer? Like, is it so wrong that she cares about her career and like, it's kind of going to exploit some teens to get that?

I mean, the few movies that I actually, thanks to Annie, I've seen more than... I think you've seen everyone, but the newest one. But the newest one, yeah, the game, Annie has made that. This is her gift. But I will say, when she's in crunch, she's going to help out. Like, she's going to be there. She's got her back. She's going to take the perpetrator out.

She's going to fight. So when it counts, she's there. And then she doesn't get hers. She saves, she, like, saves the day. Like, you think... And also, she's going to... It really teaches you don't count out Gail Weathers. You might think she's dead in that van.

She might look dead, but don't count out Gail Weathers. She'll be right back. She'll be right back. She's got nine lives. That's the joke. Does she, is she in the most recent scream? Yes. Oh, thank God.

Yes. I also like in the fifth one, it opens with Dewey, like, drinking at 9 a.m. And he's watching Good Morning America, and she's on there, and she's, like, talking about how bad her hair. used to be and I'm like, yeah. Good for you, Gail. You know.

Honestly, I, as much as I love the like horror, women and horror movie tropes, like Final Girl, I would read a deep dive analysis of like, f***chie, you know, character that we're supposed to hate, but like, actually we kind of love. I, you know, if you ever, like, there's a, I think there are a lot of them horror movies.

Like, if you've ever seen, it's not a horror movie, I guess it's a thriller, but the hand that rocks the cradle, I think it's Julianne Moore's character who's like the smart-mouthed, like, bad-ass-real-estate lady in House of Wax. I remember famously that Paris Holted is kind of the annoying friend in House of Wax, and they really make a meal out of her murder in that movie. They really, like, are really excited to kill Paris Hulted in a gruesome way in that movie. Because she's, like, the annoying girl in the movie.

One thing I do like about Gail Weathers, though, is, like, I like Gail Wethers. That makes it sound like I don't. But one thing I like about it is that her and Sydney have this really adversarial relationship. They become friends and they still fight. And I like that they show that. They still show like there's a,

because Gail still wants this story of Sydney's. And Sydney's still like, no, that's shi. But they are still friends. So I like that it kind of plays out that way that eventually you're like, oh no, they're buddies. and they show up for each other. And they have a complex relationship. Yeah, I think, like, showing...

They've been through a lot. They've been through a lot together. So they're not, like, braiding each other's hair. But when it matters, they stick up for each other. When it matters, Gail's out of that van with a gun, ready to save the day. Like, yeah. I'm sorry. I'm, like, so, like, in deep in this conversation.

I know. I am too. I told you from the beginning. I told you from the beginning. And he's ready. And it is. I like, it's just a really, I don't know. I don't know where to go with this.

I think Scream, really, they were on to something about making a commentary about media anxieties and anxieties around violence. And it's interesting to me that it's had such an enduring legacy of making commentary for like a decade now. Like, I guess Scream came out in 1996. The most recent one was what? 22. Yeah.

So like, a decades-long legacy of commenting on our collective anxiety. around technology and media and violence at our behavior. And I think, you know, that iconic line that Billy says in the first movie where I think it's Sydney, like, you've seen one too many movies. And Billy is like, movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative. And to me, that's like the ultimate encapsulation of the entire anxiety and conversation. It's like, well, is it the movies?

Is it the media? Is it the content? Or is it something else that these movies are just allowing for more creativity or more, you know, a smokescreen to, like, have people do more crimes and have more violent behavior. Like, that line, I think, really reveals the ultimate anxiety that I think Scream is really commenting on.

Yes. And I think, like, every movie has some version of that where it ends with, oh, I'm going to blame the movies. And it allows them to, yeah, I mean, essentially, they've found, that they can do this. They believe they can get away with it through this. But it's so many other things.

Like, it is, I think a lot of this also boils down to we can't just give one reason. There's not just one thing. Like, maybe you did get on Reddit and it didn't go well for you, but that can't be like the only thing. Like, for that Reddit has to have existed in the first place. And you also have a character like Randy, who is, so into horror movies. He's the one that lays out the rules.

And he is not a killer at all. He has consumed all of this stuff, maybe even more. And he isn't a killer. So I think it's interesting that they also have sort of a foil for all of these killers who are the movies

made me did it and then you see Randy and he's not at all. But also it is funny that they always have this laying out of the rules scene And in the most recent one, they were like, oh, no, we're in a franchise. Like, that's how big it's gotten. It used to be like, it's a sequel, it's a trilogy, and now it's a franchise.

That's hilarious. Yeah. But it does, it has endured to the point that, yeah, it's a franchise. And I think ultimately, like, that's my point is that violence is such a complex. issue. Like, we've been hand-rigging about how we curb and combat violence for so long that these tidy explanations, Reddit, violent movies, violent media, watching the OJ Simpson trial on the news, whatever, this don't work. And I think that ultimately, like, that is what the film is trying to show that interpersonal violence is always more complicated than that, always

more complex than that. So if somebody is trying to sell you, like, this is the reason, that person is perhaps not bringing in the nuance to the conversation that if you're not. deserves. I think that maybe like that is what scream is ultimately trying to tell us. I agree. I absolutely agree. Because again, every, every movie has this like moment, like almost montage where you believe it's every person at one. You're like, oh, it's you. Oh, it's you. Because there are all these complex reasons or why people might do it. And yeah, just the like simple, oh, they watched a lot of horror movies. It just, it doesn't work. And that is never how it is. these movies a lot.

And that's not how it goes. Residents Scream, Scholar and Residence, Annie Reese. Yeah. Oh, what a day. You've brightened my day, Bridget. I really, I mean, like, it's just so fun to talk about horror movies. Like, everybody in my life knows that, like, if you let me go off on, like, my favorite piece of horror growing up, and still today is Tales from the Crypt.

I've seen every episode. When I was a kid, I used to do, I do an impression of the Cryptkeeper that, like, my brother, We would like die of laughter impersonating the cryptkeeper. It's just so fun to talk about horror and like, I don't know, we should get more than one month a year to do it. You are welcome back anytime to talk about horror. I feel bad. I feel like I just went on and on, but I have, you know, I could keep going,

but then none of us would get out of here. Should we do, we should do a part two on Scream 2. Yes. I think this is like third episode. for us have on a screen. Fourth? But there's something to say about every one of them, though. Second ones blame the mother.

Third one's Harvey Weinstein. The fourth one is true crime and women. And then the fifth one is fandom. The sixth one is trauma. What's going to be the seventh one? Trump. I think the seventh one is going to be, ooh.

Because I think Sydney Prescott wasn't in the most recent one because of contracts. They didn't want to pay her now. Oh, is that? I think she's going to be in the next one. So I think it's going to be some kind of like... Oh, she is going to be in the next one? It sounds like it.

They haven't finalized anything. They got a lot of backlash for not having her on. Yeah. Maybe the next screen will be that the real killer will be predatory contracts that lock you in for years. I, oh my God, I would love it. I would find some way to talk about it on this show. Like, oh, it's so bad.

You honestly, suppose we haven't done the second of the new, newer franchise. Oh. I do have a lot of thoughts about that one. That one has a lot of bait and switches that I have a lot of thoughts about. Like, oh, I know, the killer. Oh, okay. I don't. I mean, we could do an emergency episode next week.

An emergency. The three of us watch one of the other screams. go to town. Count me in. I'm here for that. Are you ready? We'll see you next week. See you next week. Yes.

If we make it. I don't know. Who's going to be the final girl? Yeah, don't say it. Don't say the line. You know what it is. Don't do it. Anyway, I'll be right back, y'all.

Most more movies are racist, so who knows? I feel like the prediction would be Annie, but, you know, whatever. Oh, no. Oh, wow. I feel like I'd be the first one to go for some reason. like Asian women are seen as like

really trashy Asian fetishist level. Right. So unless it's an Asian horror movie, then I'm the one that's killing everybody for sure. Maybe you've got like one streak in your hair like, ooh, she's got a red streak in her hair. That's how you know she's a bad ass. If it's not all, yeah. If it's not all pink

then it's deaf or purple, then I'm definitely got the one streak and I've definitely become possessive. Yeah. If we're doing an Asian level of horror movie. Oh man. I'm so this. I'm into it. However it works out, I definitely want to hear your thoughts one way or another, Bridgett, when you watch the rest of them because perhaps, obviously, I have a lot of thoughts.

I'm going to watch. You have an assignment from the next Wednesday. Yes. I'm like legitimately excited. Oh, wow. Yes, this was so delightful. So thank you as always, Bridgett, for coming on. We love having you. Where can the good listeners find you? can find me on my pod. There are no girls on the internet on IHeartRadio. You can find me on Instagram at Bridget Marie in DC. You can find me on TikTok at Bridget Makes Ponds. Yes. And definitely looking forward to the next time you come, whether it's screen based or not. And you can find us, listeners. You can email us at Seth MediaMOM stuff at iHeartMedia.com. You can find us on Twitter at MomStub Podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at Stuff Mom Never Told

You. We have a T-Public store and we do have a book. where there's a lot of stuff about screaming there, uh, that you can get now wherever you get your books. Thanks as always to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya and her contributor, Joey. Thank you. And thanks to you for listening.

Stefan never told you's a prediction of IHeartRadio. For more podcasts on My Heart Radio, you can check out the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman

help make you funnier. This week, my guest. SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season, and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments.

If we didn't talk ever again, I was fine. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to her, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball.

So listen to Point Game on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Ashanti Plummer from Fud Around and Find Out. This week, Aizzie Fud and I sat down with Step and Curry. Step talks pressure, confidence, and what it really takes to stay great. There's different categories, I guess. on like conditioning shooting drills where you try to simulate kind of games. Look at her face.

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