Wonderful! - Wonderful! 381: No Links, Just Life

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Griffin's favorite quotable fouth-wall-breaking film! Rachel's favorite not quite in the right demographic artist!Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoyaImmigrant Defenders Law Center: https://www.immdef.org/

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hi, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is Wonderful. Wonderful is a podcast where we talk about things we like that's good that we are into. We are the world's premier authority on good stuff. And the buck stops here. And you gotta wait, you gotta wait till you get the sign off from us before you're like telling your friends,

like you checked out cool slices of watermelon in the summertime. It's like, hold on, let me check with the experts. And you tune into Wonderful and we're like, yes. Yeah, absolutely. You know that Serent Live sketch that Fred Armisen would do sometimes with Kristen Wiig, that Garth in Cat?

Yeah, sometimes I do talk like that in the intro, it does feel like. I feel like I'm supposed to be talking at the same time as you. It's a challenge to think of words to say. I've been cast in a lot lately. I feel like I've been, because of all the touring and just the way our schedules have gotten,

I feel like I have squeezed out a podcast at least once a day for the last six weeks. Can I tell you some of the guidelines that I have picked up on? Yeah, sure. For an intro. Yeah. Here's Griffin McElroy's best practices.

Okay, please, thank you. Energy. Got to. Conversational. Huge. Positive. Yeah, always. Never sad, never sad.

Confident. Yeah. Almost authoritative. Yeah, no, that's the whole thing. That's the whole vibe I'm trying to encompass. It's all a lie. Because there is very little confidence actually behind it. But we all wear masks, don't we?

Do you have any small wonders that you would like to discuss? I kind of had like the perfect thing to watch while you were gone. Okay. Griffin just got back from California. At this point, from my vantage point anyway, less than 24 hours ago. Time is so fucked up for me still.

And it coincided nicely with Lena Dunham's new Netflix project, which is called Too Much. She created this series, and it's about a woman in her 30s that moves to London to kind of get past a relationship and it's got the kind of Lena Dunham like unflinching like flaws in all characters but like you're really kind of rooting for people and that's not always something you get with Alina Dunham project and I really, really enjoyed it and it's actually where I got my big wonder this week. So yeah, so it really served me well.

I would like to lift up a movie I watched on the flight to California that I took last weekend, and that movie was Sinners. Just a great, just a genuinely pretty scary, great action movie with like tons of really amazing characters. It's by Ryan Coogler, who did the Black Panther films and Creed and it's got-

Oh, so like a real Michael B. Jordan. A lot of Michael B. Jordan support in this man's history. And Michael B. Jordan plays twins, plays two characters, twin brothers who return to their home in the Mississippi Delta in like the 1930s from Chicago to open up a juke joint where people can come and drink and dance and then also vampires show up. And it is a really, really, really fucking bold flick

that has a lot of stuff to say, and also just delivers some really great vampire action in a way that, I don't know. Did you feel uncomfortable watching on the plane? Is it like one of those movies where like, if somebody was watching it over your shoulder, you'd be like, ooh. I mean, there's certainly some gnarly moments, yes.

But I don't know, it's not like I watched a girl with a dragon tattoo on a plane once and had to really, really skip around or attempt to. Yeah, I mean, it is, it is, there are some truly, truly staggering artistic choices made in the movie that I am not remotely equipped to try and dissect or discuss, but- I love Michael B.

And he's fucking great. Playing two characters who are twins and being able to distinguish them enough with your, with the power of your acting is truly a feat. And I don't know, it felt very, I think the comparison from dusk till dawn, like it feels appropriate. Where it feels like just like,

here's one crazy day that this group of people had where it feels like just like, here's one crazy day that this group of people had, with also like, you know, a message of the Jim Crow era, South and also modern day. It really, it takes some huge fucking swings and I think it does them with like a lot of grace and skill and I just, I really loved it. Look at us with our media recommendations.

I know, it's been a while since we've both brought one. Like some real Siskels and Eberts. That's us. I would like to talk about a different film for my big wonder though, if I may. Yes. Today I would like to talk about, and file this with,

can't believe we haven't discussed it before, I'd like to talk about Wayne's World. Wow. Right? That's wild. We've probably discussed it before. I'd like to talk about Wayne's World. Wow. Right? That's wild. We've probably referenced it, but I could- Everyone's referenced it is the thing. Like, this is the moment I had

where I was like trying to think of what to talk about and I was like, oh, let's do Wayne's World. And then I was surprised I hadn't done it before because like, I can't think of a single like media franchise or just specifically film, The First Wayne's World, that was more formative for me and Justin and Travis than The First Wayne's World. There are a lot of, particularly from that time period,

a lot of Mike Myers projects, and a lot of them highly quotable. That is one that I never get tired of people quoting. And it's maybe the only one, right? Like I have that in my notes. So I married an axe murderer, also enjoy quoting. I mean, yes. The shine came off that Apple really hard, right? Because we all saw every movie had Mike Myers in it.

Yes. From the years 1992 to 1996, right? Even later than 96, I feel like. Maybe later than 96. I don't know when the last Austin Powers movie came out, but it was an era where this guy was making these monster hits. Wayne's World was the number one grossing movie

the year it came out, I think 1992, which is fucking crazy to think that this SNL sketch turned movie was the biggest movie of the year. But everything that dude touched was catchphrase gold. And that's just so weird because like that's not how anything works anymore. And that realization also kind of led me to like, think about how I think about Wayne's World

as such an essential like landmark piece of comedy and just assume that everyone has seen it. But also that movie came out 33 whole years ago. So like I'm actually probably pretty wrong about that. If you are not familiar with Wayne's World, first of all, you've heard so many, if you've heard people say, Shwing or We're Not Worth It or.

I have to imagine a lot of people have not heard. Party on, Party on Wayne, party on Garth. Like there's a lot of things you've probably heard, even if you aren't familiar. It was an SNL sketch originally. It stars Mike Myers as Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar, who are two best friends, just a couple of slacker,

like well-meaning metalheads who run a public access show out of the basement of Wayne's parents' house where he lives. And from a, one of the more impressive things about Wayne's World, the movie, is that that concept, the concept behind the sketch, is pretty bare bones, right? The character is what carries the sketch, but usually it was just like these two guys hosting a show, they would do like a top 10 list

or like whatever. It was very mutable. It was very like morphable to like whatever they wanted these two characters to like be joking about, which you would think like there's not much there. Like how are you gonna do a whole movie based out of that? I was probably, I was definitely too young to participate in that conjecture,

but I imagine when the Wayne's World movie was announced, there was probably quite a bit of skepticism about like, how are you gonna, how are you gonna move a fight? And what's kind of amazing looking back is they don't do the work to like fill in a lot of holes. Like you don't meet anyone's parents. No.

You don't get any backstory. There's no sense of like who these people were before Wayne's world, you know? But at the same time, it does, it kinda does do those things in a way, right? Like it doesn't beat you over the head with like, you know, Wayne goes upstairs from shooting the show and there's just parents like, oh, thanks guys.

It's all like kept in this like first person sort of like a monologue journal style thing where all of a sudden you leave the basement which has been the like very narrow sliver that you have only seen these two characters through and you watch them go out into the world and you see- He shows you like his collection of name tags from the various retail jobs he's had.

Right, exactly. It's very, it's like shockingly subtle, like really, really good character development stuff, but like it shows you what the world is like that these two fucking impossible weirdos come from. And that's like really impressive stuff. Like it's, I genuinely think it's a very impressive movie. And it, I mean, there were some big names that worked on it.

I didn't realize that Wayne, the character of Wayne, had been workshopped by Mike Myers really extensively before even Wayne's World, the first sketch appeared on SNL. There was an overnight show on a local TV station in Toronto, the show was called City Limits, and he would occasionally bring the character of Wayne on in this like prototypical stage in 1983.

There was a CBC series in 1987 called It's Only Rock and Roll that Wayne just showed up on. So like he had been workshopping this character for a while even before the first Wayne's World sketch appeared on SNL in 1989. And I don't know, it's just like, the jokes are so good. It's really an oversimplification. And there's a lot going on in these movies,

but just like the number of jokes that are just fully embedded in my brain forever, there's really no comparison to anything else. I think the reason this popped up in my mind and the reason I wanted to do it on Wonderful is because our small son got sick while I was gone with a tummy illness. And like, it's hard for me to be around that

without thinking if you're gonna spew. We talked about that. Spew into this. It's so like, the jokes are just almost all non-sequitur weird shit. My very favorite joke in the whole movie, the original Wayne's World, is when Wayne and Garth and their stoner buddies

are standing in this like TV production studio overlooking the set that they've recreated Wayne's basement in the set below after they've sort of sold out to Rob Lowe's character. And Garth looks down and says, we're looking down on Wayne's basement, only that's not Wayne's basement. Isn't that weird?

And there's a moment where everyone's like, oh yeah. And then Wayne just stops everything and says, Garth, that was a haiku. And everyone just kind of like goes like, yeah, all right. Like, cool, you did a haiku. Like it's so, it has nothing to do with anything. It's so like strange has nothing to do with anything. It's so strange why Wayne would catch something like that

or why all of their friends would respond to that fact with such instant satisfaction, like, oh, all right, a haiku, but man, it just fucking hits, man. I was also sort of especially like, I don't know, blown away by the ending of both films where I'm not gonna like fully spoil it, but they break the fourth wall and essentially like say like, I didn't like that ending,

we're gonna do a different one. And I think I was like seven years old when I first saw the first Wayne's World. And as silly a conceit as that is, like I didn't know that was a thing you could do in a movie where the characters could become aware of the audience being there and like change the events of the film

because they, the characters inside the film were unsatisfied by it. I just, I don't think the second Wayne's World movie is as like iconic and pure and strong as the first one. And I also know that there are quite a few goofs across both films that do not hold up to modern scrutiny. But I don't know, I would challenge you to find any comedy from 1992 that does.

But I think both movies are just really, truly impressive comedy writing. And I bet if you asked anyone whose work you admire in the comedy space today, they would almost certainly agree with that. It feels kind of clueless to me and that it is very much of the time period but also like kind of timeless in that like the jokes are just kind of funny because it creates its

own little world in a way like it's not really the 90s you know it's like I don't know it feels like very much of the time period, but also not dated to me when I watch it. The thing that anchors it to the 90s is the music, right? Because like music is so integral to the thing. Yeah, and the wardrobe a little bit. The wardrobe, sure, like the whole kind of like metalhead grungy kind of like vibe,

but like there's not much to the story of it, right? Like the first Wayne's World is a pretty timeless story about selling out to corporate interests and ruining the things that you love that you make with the people that you love to go legitimate or make money. Like that's a pretty like tried and true kind of story formula.

And I think that it does kind of like persevere a bit until like Aerosmith shows up and you're like, whoa, whoa, okay, that's right. This movie is taking place in the year 1992. Thank you for reminding me of that. It just feels really tight too. Like there's obviously like a romantic interest. Like there's these little side things with like Garth

and like there's these little plots that aren't really a part of the bigger story but everything is quick. There's like no wasted time really in the movie where you feel like I'm gonna go and get something to eat. I don't know, I feel like the movie moves fast. It does move fast. It's very satisfying.

It moves fast and there's like more great shit in it than I think I could probably sit here and name bits from the movie for a half hour and not even get to them. And not even get to like the big shit, right? Like this movie spawned a music video for Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. That was like the number one music video

that came out for Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Like that is so played, right? But like so played that you forget. And this is true. This is honestly, I think how I feel about Mike Myers is like he was everywhere and he made probably a billion dollars and was in all of these movies that spawned all these catchphrases

and you could not escape him and folks got burned out, but that doesn't change the fact that that Bohemian Rhapsody car sing-along scene is extremely iconic. And in 2025, it's easy to look at it and be like, oh, well, that's just that. But in 1992, I have to imagine the zeitgeist was probably pretty thrilling to be a part of.

I don't know, man, I don't feel this way about a lot of movies, especially from that era, but I think Wayne's World has some special magic to it. Yeah, I feel like that's one of those movies too that if you've seen it once, you've seen it like 10 times. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know anyone that has just watched that movie once. Well, it also used to be on TV like non-stop

back when that was a thing. Hey, can I steal your way? Yes. Thanks. Thanks. ["The Last Supper"] Okay, so I teased this a moment ago, but I was watching that show too much, which has some hip music in it.

From Aerosmith? No, although maybe, I haven't watched the last episode. Okay. So maybe the last episode has Aerosmith. But one of the songs that came on was a song by Quinny called Touch Tank, which I had never heard before. And I heard it and I was instantly like,

I bet I'm gonna like everything by this artist. And that ended up being exactly true. So this week I wanted to talk about Quinny. Isn't that nice when that happens? Mm-hmm. I feel like you're so good at finding that, at finding like that stuff. I'm so terrible.

Ever since our children destroyed my algorithm on Spotify, like I don't do that anymore. And I feel like I rely on you mostly. So had you not heard this? I'd never heard of Quinny, no. Okay, I felt like I was really late to the party, partially because when I looked this artist up, apparently in 2022, that song in particular went viral on TikTok.

So that song that I heard on the show just over the weekend specifically like was all over TikTok and just like blew her up. But I had never heard it Um, I guess we can play it like a little bit of it. I also brought another song of hers. Cause I thought in my head, like, you know, you kind of get in your head and you're like, everybody knows that song. Don't even play that song. Okay. Okay.

All right. So, so we can, um, maybe play a little bit of touch tank right here. Cause he's so pretty when he goes down on me Cold skinned digger, baby, blue shirt out the laundry He tells me he's gentle when he wants to be So I think he wants to be gentle with me Such a short drive to get to the touch tank Okay, so the artist is Quinn Barnett, professionally known as Quinny. Her debut album, Flounder, came out in 2023. That Touch Tank song was on it.

She is an American indie rock musician from New Jersey. And kind of has this like folky quality, but also poppy. She lists her kind of early influences as, you know, Joni Mitchell. Yeah, for sure. But also says in an interview from this website, Ones to Watch, said that an artist that made her really want to pursue music was Sufjan Stevens. Oh wow.

She said, quote, I went through a multi-year phase when I was 14 or 16 where I was really sad in a childish way. Music was the only thing that comforted me. It was sacred. Sad music can make you more sad, but it can also comfort you at your lowest. I remember listening to Sufjan Stevens

and feeling like someone finally heard and understood the thoughts in my head. Damn, dude, you picked the rightest guy. I feel like Sufjan Stevens has written more music that I have been sad with than any other musical artists. So I feel a kindred spirit in quick. It's not like kind of like gentle dreamy quality, you know? Yeah, sure.

That I think is really nice for somebody who's feeling kind of like isolated, but also has like a real appreciation for just like folksy kind of music. Yeah, sure. She began releasing her music on Bandcamp in 2017. Hell yeah. And had on Bandcamp in 2017. Hell yeah.

And had her first EP in 2019. Between 2021 and 23, or between 2021 and 23, she released music as a duo with her friend, Jake Weinberg, under the name Critter. Okay. And he has since worked as a producer for her. That's fun. Yeah, I will say she's got a new album coming out

this month actually. It's kind of amazing that I found her when I did because her second album, Paper Doll, and the title track is actually now available, but the album is coming out July 24th. Oh wow, that's so soon. Yeah, so very, very soon. Her tour starts September 29th,

and she is gonna be in DC on October 2nd. Hell yeah, man. I thought that was exciting. I also wanted to read what Pitchfork said about her first album. She said, Jake Weinberg's cinematically homespun production means that the medieval acoustics and twinkling pianos sound timeless. Wind chimes running water and sounds of children playing paint scenes of youthful summers spent sneaking out of bedroom windows for a stolen

moment of tenderness. Feed it to me slowly like grapes, pitchfork. Another clip I wanted to play is from another song off of that album, Flounder, and that is from the song called Man. Fuck this soft-boy scam, the cowboy or the Tarzan No amount of nail polish could paint you a good man Man, man So yeah, this is the, I believe this is the first song off of that Flounder album. At least it's the first song that appeared when I downloaded the album. Apparently all of these songs on that album she wrote between the ages of 18 and 20.

Geez, that's crazy. It's just insane. Like here's the thing about Quinny, because I read this article in Medium, and somebody, the person who wrote it was somebody who was like approximately that age, who talked about, who said, quote, "'I think the last artist to capture my heart this quickly was Phoebe Bridgers after I listened

to her sophomore album Punisher in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.'" And I just felt like, oh man, I wish I was Quinny's age. I had this feeling of like this- Oh dude, Feely Bridger's would have hit so right. This music isn't exactly for me. Kind of like Kacey Musgraves. When I was listening to it, I was like,

this isn't for me anymore. This isn't my age. This isn't my generation really. I love it. I can feel it, I can go there. It's not speaking to me. If you were a bit closer in the experience, live in the songs. Exactly, exactly.

Like I understand what you're saying. Exactly, like and that's the way I felt about Quinny. Like I'm maybe not supposed to be listening to this. Yeah. Like it's beautiful, it's exactly the kind of music that I have always liked and probably will always like. I don't know that she. Had you in mind.

Had me in mind. It's kind of the same reason like for example that I loved Fiona Apple when I met Fiona Apple. Like I am approximately Fiona Apple's age. She was writing music that was kind of capturing what I felt like was my experience in the time period that she was writing it. I think Quinny is kind of doing exactly that

with what she is writing. And I absolutely love it. I'm very excited that her new album is coming out this month. Yeah, I'm excited too. I just fell into it when I did. I'm very much looking forward to checking it out. I've only listened to the couple songs you sent over,

but they were both club bangers. Do you wanna know what our friends at home are talking about? Yes. Paige says, my small wonder is the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum and all the other nonprofit museums and memorials throughout Appalachia. I moved to West Virginia in March

and seeing the care time and passion put into remembering this buried portion of history is inspiring. I had never heard of that museum. I'm not surprised. I was gonna ask you about that. Did they say where it is or did you look it up? They did not say. Like where in West Virginia?

Maybe in Matawan. I would be surprised if Matawan didn't. Do you feel like you have a pretty good handle on the whole state? Parts of it. I have a pretty good pan handle on it. Jolie says, I heard Griffin wishing for personal pan watermelons on Wonderful,

so my small wonder is the little orange watermelons I can get at the farmer's market each fall. The first time I cracked into one, I was shocked by the color inside, then delighted by the perfect taste and texture. I've since sought out yellow watermelons and been equally pleased. You seen these guys?

You seen these little guys? Oh man, maybe like restaurants. I feel like we have been to a restaurant where they like put a little square of watermelon on your plate and you're like, what is this? Look at that little guy. Yeah, I feel like I've only had that

as like a little garnish on a, with an entree. Give me a little hand held watermelon. That seems incredible. Thank you so much for listening Thanks to Bowen and Augustus for the use for a theme song money won't pay you find a link to that in the episode description Thank you to maximum fun for having us on the network go to maximum fun dot org check out all the great stuff they have Over there. We've got a bunch of merch over at McElroy merch comm for you to peruse We also have some live mabim bams and Tazs still coming up. We're gonna be in Atlanta during DragonCon in August. And then we have some shows coming up in Texas

and Salt Lake City and some other places coming up later in the year. You can go to bit.ly slash McRoy Tours for ticket links and more information for all that. Anything else, my love? I got a book coming out, bit.ly slash Griffin Stow Away. It's a choose your own adventure book. It comes out next year.

And I think you're gonna like it. It's a sci-fi romp and you get to pick what happens in it. That's sort of the format of the book. Yeah, you would get to, let's say, choose. The adventure. The adventure. Yeah, you get to, let's say, choose. The adventure upon which you. The adventure. Yeah, go. So bit.ly slash Griffin Stow Away is the link for that.

That's it. I'm not gonna say any more links at you. I feel like it's rude to do too many links at someone. No more links. Just life. Unless you're hitting the green with your club's. Gotta hit the green! with your clubs. God, I hate that. Me. Hey! My own Hey! What can I do? My own Hey!

Hey! My own Hey!