Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - Everyone & Minions

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

Comedian Emmy Blotnick and Emma get overrun by Minions while Jenny Slate explains just what it takes to create an adorable little superstar.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey guys, I'm Emma Choi and welcome to Everyone and Their Mom, a weekly show from Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. This week we're talking about the Minions, you know, from the movie, with Wait Wait panelist, comedian, and someone who I think drinks pickle juice right out of the jar. It's Emmy Blotnick. Hey Emmy. Hi Emma, you're right about me. I love it. Hi, Emma. You're right about me. I love it. Well, Emmy, the Minions are everywhere, as I'm sure you know. I mean, you've probably seen them in an insurance commercial, on the Twinkies box, on Tic Tac never been hotter for the Minions. I know. I mean, much like COVID, the Minions have become endemic.

The rise of Gru is an absolute box office hit this summer. You've probably noticed that you can't go more than like 10 seconds without seeing one of these yellow TikTok guys promoting everything from your bananas, your happy meals. And Universal Studios kind of accidentally created the universal object of affection, which is apparently a little round guy wearing jeans who just wants to hang out. And I feel like it's why we love Danny DeVito so much. Same characteristics, right?

Yes, I see that. I see the link there. I mean, I think the really beautiful thing is that everyone is making the Minions, like, their own. And there's this trend. I feel like maybe you've seen it. The Gentle Minion TikTok trend continues. It's where a group of kids, mostly young men, dress up in suits and show up at movie theaters to see Minions, the rise of Gru. I like this. I like that as a trend. I feel like, you know, there's not a lot of

excuses to, like, get dressed up anymore, so. No. Hashtag gentle minion in case you want to get in on this. At this point, it's gone a little overboard. Currently, it's a lot of unruly teens running around in suits, and so much so that a theater in the UK is

quote, currently not admitting unaccompanied children wearing suits for Minions Rise of Gru. Like, Gen Z committed so hard to the bit that international film law has changed. That is incredible. Yeah, you rarely ever hear a thing that's like, hey, everyone stop cleaning up so nice and coming to the cinema. hey, everyone stop cleaning up so nice and coming to the cinema. Okay, minions are everywhere and people love them. We wanted to talk to an expert on creating lovable characters. Will you introduce yourself to us?

Sure. Hi, my name is Jenny Slate. And I'm Jenny Slate. I don't know what else to say. You're a comedian, You're a writer. Yes. And most recently you co-created, produced, and started a movie that's out now called Marcel the Shell with Shoes On about a tiny lovable creature. So thanks for coming here.

Thanks for having me. Can you describe Marcel the shell is a little creature who's one inch tall. And his body is a shell, but like where, you know, the little snail would come out. He has just one googly eye, his one eye. And he has two shoes and he has a face. And about, you know, like a little over a decade ago, Dean Fleischer-Kamp, who also directed the film, he and I created this character and he has like a little voice like, it like sounds like this, like this is like what Marcel

sounds like. And he mostly just like talks about himself. And it's not like that big of a deal. But in one way or another, I guess it's rather interesting. And that's what he's like. That's awesome. And it feels like you've decoded what makes something lovable. Like you took a shell and you're like, bam, lovable. Is there like a checklist that makes something instantly adorable, lovable, cute? I mean, well, Dean is the one who really did the character design for Marcel. That was all him. I think that the element of mismatch, like that he's a little dude,

a little guy trying to do things that since we're big, we know actually how big they are. Let's say like in our film, Marcel has lost his family. If you had lost your family or if I had, you would understand that that is the biggest thing. It's the most gigantic loss. And we watch him go through it. and it is not just a mismatch. It's extraordinary that he decides to match up with the adventure of finding his family when, of course, we know that he is so very small. Yeah, he's a tiny little guy.

Yeah. To get into character, did you, like, hang around a bunch of giant furniture and pretend to be small? character did you like hang around a bunch of giant furniture and pretend to be small you know i think i uh it's not hard for me to get into character as marcel um because because a lot of being him is just being as um like easy breezy as i would like to be if i weren't as anxious as i am sure and also you know know, like, I'm a 40-year-old woman with, like, a, you know, a version of what a female body is, and that's not always the most, obviously, like, stress-free thing to have.

No. So, you know what I mean? So to play, like, an ageless male shell feels really good. Can you tell us more about, about like how did he come together? Did you just like collect some random stuff in your house? Yeah, that actually is what happened. I started doing the voice and Dean started to interview me in that voice. And that's some of that audio, you know, is in our very first Marcel the Shell short.

And then Dean went to the craft store in our neighborhood and he went to the toy store and he got like a big container of shells and googly eyes and he got like a doll that was sort of like a Polly Pocket, but not really, like not the real one, a cheaper one basically, and started to like basically like glue gun stuff together or like glue stuff together.

And he made a bunch of different character uh passes like different tries at making the guy and then um he finally did find the right combination and was like i think this is him and i looked and i said oh that's definitely him i feel like there's a really thin line between cute and creepy. Like, were any of those, like, outtakes of Marcel the show? Like, you're just like, that's not right. Like, no. I don't think that – I'm trying to think if, like, there's anything creepy. Like, because he has such a small voice, it was really important to make a laugh for him that wasn't creepy.

Yeah. And wasn't like cackly. And so for the most part, and what I finally settled on was Marcel's laugh sounds like this. It's like. Marcel the show came out like 10-ish years ago. Was there something broken inside of us back then that we needed like lovable things at that moment? I think that moment is always occurring. Yes. And we're lucky that we have, you know, new ways to try to soothe ourselves. It used to be that I would assume you would either have to like go out into nature or if you were

like a person of extreme privilege, maybe you could like go to, I don't know, like hear an opera or like, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Like be in the Queen's Garden and like hear the harp or something. But I think it's nice that we have movie theaters now. we were like, if we're going to make something that goes in there, you know, we want it to be really, really, really beautiful and really soothing and really funny all at once. Because what you're saying, like 10 years ago, what did we need? Like, I just think we need the same thing that we needed then. Yeah. Well, what do you think we can learn from Marcel? Well, I think one thing to learn is that like, there are very few moments where only one thing is happening for you.

For example, Marcel feels grief that he lost his family, but he also feels pride in the way that he's structured his life. He also feels determined to live a beautiful life. Very rarely is something entirely 100% either good or bad. Marcel's a nice example of what that can look like. Yeah, absolutely. Should I just like glue one big eye to the bottom of my body for Halloween? Like, I think there's gonna be a lot of Marcel Halloween costumes. And I'm very excited about that. I certainly hope so. And I hope I get a picture of every single one of them. It's also like, you know, a good costume for chilly Halloweens.

Absolutely. Unless you're doing sexy Marcel, then it's a little bit cold. Yeah. Well, Jenny, if it's okay, we want to play a game with you called Where Did the Shoes Go? Are you up for it? I'm ready. Awesome.

Okay, so your movie is called Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. So we figured you must be an expert in figuring out where to put shoes on, like, weirdly shaped objects. Fun. Yes. So we're going to give you an object, and you tell us where to put the shoes. Sound good? Okay.

Great. Let's do it. A bread knife. Where do the shoes go? Oh, a bread knife. I would stand him vertical, and I would put just one shoe on the very bottom of the handle. Yeah, and make it be like a little hopper. I love it.

I love it. Great. A big-ass airplane. Where do the shoes go? Oh, I would stand it up as well so that it looked like a penguin. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and put the shoes on the tail. Okay, this one's harder.

Loose soup. Where do the shoes go? I guess the shoes, well, they could go on the side like little crackers. You know what I mean? Or they could just float right in the center like a dollop of something. A black hole. Where do the shoes go? The shoes go forever.

So true. Okay, how about a shoe? Where do the shoes go on the shoe? I guess I'd put them on the toe of the shoe. Yes, I think totally. Yeah. How about a kiss? Where do the shoes go on the shoe? I guess I'd put them on the toe of the shoe. Yes, I think totally. Yeah. How about a kiss? Where do the shoes go?

The shoes go on the tongue that comes out of the kiss. If you're doing a French kiss, you also get some shoes. Okay, I'm going to do that next to my kiss. Scissors. Where do the shoes go? Cute. Cute. I think I would spread the scissors apart so that their handle was like the eyes.

And I would put, so you could just put some googly eyes in the, in like the, if they have like little circles on the handles, you know what I mean? And then make the blades of the scissors point down. Yeah. And then put a, put a shoe on like the point of each scissor. Yes. Okay, totally. It would have to not pierce through the shoes, but that's troubleshooting we'll do later.

Sure. And finally, a ball of wet yarn. Where do the shoes go? I guess I would unravel the yarn and put a shoe on each end of the yarn and then have the shoes just run around and run around and run around until it became one ball again.

Yes, I love that. Well, okay, those last two, the Scissors and the Wet Yarn, those are some characters we're trying to get to catch on. I mean, what's your take? Do you think they sound like future superstars? Oh, sure. I mean, it's really all about that it factor. You really never know until you see it in person. Everyone and Their Mom presents Mr. Scissors and Dr. Yarn.

Oh god, it hurts. Where am I? Well, what do we have here? Welcome to Behind the Washing Machine. I'm Dr. Yarn. Who are you, little fella? I'm Mr. Scissors. If you're a doctor, could you help me out? The dog chewed me up pretty bad before I fell back here. Sorry, my doctorate is in medieval literature. Oh. Well, at least I'm not bleeding, because my insides are just plastic. Where did you say we were? Behind the washing machine. The dog brings all of his enemies back here. He brought me here ages ago. I've been damp since 09.

What's that smell? It's just black mold. You'll get used to it. Are we gonna die back here? Probably not. It's hard to die when you're already in hell. Oh god. Okay, Emi, we got a game for you if you're down. Always. Amazing. Okay, well, the minions are well known for speaking in total gibberish, so we wanted to see how good you are at translating gibberish. I'm going to say something in my own personal language, Emily's,

and you tell me what I said, okay? Ooh. Here we go, okay. Scoop-a-nappy-doo. Ooh, that was, uh, pass the salt, right? Exactly, yeah, yeah, very good. Scoop-a-nobby-doop. Scoop-a-nobby-doop. Uh, I just don't think that Arctic freeze is a flavor of Gatorade.

Precisely, yeah, yeah. Thank you for phrasing it like how I phrased it. Okay, here's one really easy one, okay? Scoop-a-nobby-doop. Uh, that was no thank you, okay? That was no thank you, right? That one was I eat glass. Ooh, cutting. Okay,

another one. That's a, you can make it in the microwave, but it's better on the stovetop. Yes, exactly. Very good. Last one, me. I'm blanking out on this one. Okay, okay, here we go.

Okay, so what I actually said, if you listen closely, was sometimes I wonder if I use the minion memes to deflect my tenderness towards my inner child, but a little gibberish man is a joyful symbol of the child I used to be. Wow, I mean, philosophical, layered, No wonder it was over my little head. Well, now you've got your trainer course and Emily's. Congratulations, Emmy. Oh, scoobity-doo-bop. Well, Emmy, thank you so much for talking to me about these weird little yellow denim guys. This was so much fun. It was so much fun. Let's put on some suits and

go see the film, shall we? We shall. Here's the cutest part of the podcast, the credits. This show was brought to you by Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. This episode was produced by Haley Baker, Zola Ray, and Nancy Seichow with help from Oja Lopez, Blythe Robertson, Lillian King,

Sophie Hernandez-Semignoni-This, and the man who held the subway door for me yesterday. Thanks, guy. Our supervising producer is Jennifer Mills, and our Mr. Scissors is Mike Danforth. Once again, Lorna White, thank you so much for helping with our sound. It was raining so much this week for some reason. Thank you to WGN News for the clip you heard about the Gentle Minions trend.

Wow, the news is great. Thanks to Jenny Slate for calling us from the coolest room in her house. There's a bathtub behind me. You can see her movie Marcel the Shell with shoes on in theaters now. Thank you to my co-host, comedian, Witwik Panels, and prospective business partner, Emmy Blotnick. Yes, exactly. Thank you.

You can see Emmy in person at the Cherry Lane Theater from July 19th to 22nd. Tickets at cherrylanetheater.org. I'm Emma Choi, and you can find me at WaitWaitNPR and gluing googly eyes to everything in my apartment. They're all looking at each other. It's so cute. Okay, I'm done. This is NPR.