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A podcast that holds horror to standards horror never agreed to. Hosts Jeremy Whitley, Ben Kahn, Emily Martin and guests watch, read, listen to, and check out movies, tv shows, comics, books, art and anything else from the horror genre and discuss it through a progressive lens. We'll talk feminism in horror, LGBTQ+ issues and representation in horror, racial and social justice in horror, disability and mental health/illness in horror, and the work of female and POC directors, writers, and creators in horror.
We're the podcast horror never agreed to take part in.
Emily: we're waiting for Alicia, right?
Jeremy: Uh, I think Alicia's
gonna drop in once she gets a
chance to get some food in her.
Emily: Okay.
Jeremy: She just got back from work.
Good evening and welcome to
Progressively Horrified, the podcast
where you hold horror to progressive
standards it never agreed to.
Tonight we're talking about the 2023
Black horror comedy, The Blackening.
I am your host, Jeremy Whitley,
and with me tonight, I have a
panel of cinephiles and cino bites.
First, they're here to challenge
the sexy werewolf, sexy vampire
binary, my co host, Ben Kahn.
Ben, how are you tonight?
Ben: I am doing delightful
after this movie.
This was so much fun.
As we talked about before the show,
I went into it from the trailer
expecting, like, Scary Movie 2 level
of quality, and got an actually really
good, really funny horror movie.
Jeremy: Yeah, that's legit.
And, uh, the cin bites,
our co host, Emily Martin.
How are you tonight, Emily?
Emily: really glad I didn't watch
the trailer because I didn't know
what to expect and I just jumped
in and I was also delighted.
So let's go.
Jeremy: Nice.
And our guests tonight, first off, a
good friend of the podcast and part of
the Talking Comics family, Aaron Amos.
Aaron, welcome back!
Aaron: Thank you very much.
Never been blacker.
Jeremy: And our editor and my wife, Alicia
Whitley, she will be dropping in shortly.
She may edit this out and just
edit herself in saying hello,
like she was here the whole time.
It's hard to tell.
Ben: I do want to give credit where
it's due to the scary movie comparison.
Aaron, that was your friend who made that.
is he like, uh, on any shows or blogs
Aaron: No,
Ben: want, I want to make
sure to give proper citation.
Don't come after me, H Bomber guy.
Aaron: listens to, he listens to
TC and he's, he listens to what I
send him to listen to, but he is
the one that is the, horror purist.
He's like, Valentine's Day, he sits
down and has a full day of horror
movies and it's, it's a whole thing.
It's a whole thing.
Ben: Fucking a king.
King shit right
Aaron: yes,
Emily: yeah, we invite
you to be on the show,
Aaron: like really I've known him
for 25 years and that's been a
tradition since Valentine's Day.
Full movie, full horror movie, a
marathon, at least probably two or three.
There's not a movie you can
think of a horror movie that
I've been able to stump him with.
But I've actually always
asked him to watch these with
Ben: That's, that's good because
the characters in this movie
are fucking stumped by Scream 2.
Emily: think they, they honestly
got it mixed up with Demonite.
Jeremy: it was funny because as it
happened, I was like, he said, Jada
Pinkett Smith, and I was like, yes!
then he said scream too,
and I was like, oh, no,
Ben: yeah, I'm glad that was, like,
our prologue, Caleb, because I gotta
be honest, for flubbing that question,
I'm like, fucking, come on, like,
you know what, yeah, yeah, you get an
arrow in the neck, that's what you get,
Aaron: But that whole scene
sort of set the stage for my,
how much I ended up loving the
relationship between all of them.
Just between the two of them,
what was it, Ron Origi and,
Jeremy: Jay Pharoah
Aaron: that back and forth chemistry
was just like, okay, I'm in.
I'm good.
Let's see where this goes.
Ben: told King, you're really in
the sunken place, I fucking died.
Emily: yeah.
Jeremy: I was like, I don't
know and then he said balls
deep and I was like, oh, right.
Ben: Yeah,
Jeremy: Okay.
Ben: Namdi's so black he was literally
in the White Man Can't Jump reboot.
Aaron: You gotta love when somebody
makes a big picture of Kool Aid
in the Kool Aid shaped picture.
That,
Jeremy: Oh, yeah.
Ben: Oh, that fucking Kool Aid
equal, like, what is that, like,
one part vodka to ten parts sugar?
Emily: Can't, I can't.
Aaron: the cramps.
Oh
god, okay,
Emily: Chekhov's cramps.
Ben: we're gonna, you know, at
Aaron: yeah, let's
Ben: this is gonna be a pretty
scattershot, I'm gonna run through
the plot, we're gonna do it quickly,
and then we're probably just gonna
scattershot our way through our favorite
moments or things we gotta talk about.
Because this
movie was so much fun and so delightful.
Jeremy: we should mention up top that
this movie has, I would say Extreme
Black Bonafides, in that it's directed
by Tim Story, who is responsible for the
reboot of Shaft, he's responsible for
Ride Along and Ride Along 2, Barbershop,
he's been around, he's Also the director
of both of the original Fantastic Four
movies, but don't hold that against him.
Emily: Okay,
Jeremy: they were Fox Films, so.
I
Ben: mean, maybe a little bit.
Aaron: that balances
things out a little bit.
Yeah, let's,
Ben: But this was good.
I
Jeremy: mean, he also directed, you know,
Ra's al Sun music videos, so, you know.
he's been here a while.
Aaron: An experiment, let's just say that.
Jeremy: they didn't know how
to make superhero movies yet.
Ben: I'm not sure, I'm not sure
where Michael Chiklis lands on
the invited to the cookout scale.
Aaron: Ooh.
Jeremy: I don't know.
The shield really, um,
Ben: Right?
How many people are going to be too
Jeremy: Ben Grimm is
probably at the cookout.
Michael Chiklis, I don't know.
Ben: I mean, I don't think people
are going to be too thrilled seeing
Vince Mackey come up for a hot dog.
Jeremy: That is, so it is also written
by Tracy Oliver, uh, who, wrote
Girls Trip, has written a lot of
other good films, great screenwriter.
It's co written by her and Dwayne Parkins,
who is the Dwayne of this movie, who
is also the originator of this story.
They did a short film,
uh, with it initially.
you know, then it eventually got
turned into this much, obviously,
Ben: That checks out.
That checks out.
Alicia: And didn't one of them,
wasn't one of them on like
Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl?
Jeremy: Yeah, that's Tracy Oliver.
Yeah.
Alicia: Okay.
Ben: knowing that Dwayne of the movie
was one of the creators of the film,
I do want to ask, because one of the
few quibbles I have with this movie
is I do not believe Dwayne has a
friend group of all straight people.
So, this is
Aaron: telling you.
He does.
I'm telling you.
He does.
He was literally just his
connection to this group.
And then he's got all his other
queers that are somewhere else.
Wondering where the hell is Dwayne?
Ben: got it.
Emily: it's BFF,
Ben: like, I feel like, you're totally
right, you're 100 percent right.
I feel like, Dwayne and,
which character, is it Lisa?
Aaron: Lisa.
Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, Lisa.
I feel like it's a real, I'm your
best friend, but you're not my best
Emily: yeah, yeah, yeah,
Jeremy: I feel like this is,
Dwayne's college friend group,
and then Dwayne has a completely
different post college friend group.
Aaron: Mm
Ben: uh, the sequel?
Like, I would give everything for a
sequel that is just, in real time,
him and his real city friends at
brunch, where he is just recapping this
Aaron: hmm.
Mm hmm.
Ben: to them over an hour twenty.
And
Alicia: the fact though that there's
no gay panic within this friend group.
They all know who he is.
They all accept who he is.
Like even at the end with
the, did you change clothes?
Yes.
You know what?
Yes, I did.
You know, pretty fantastic.
Aaron: That was my favorite line.
And I will have a story about that later.
And it's, it's, that
connects me to that line.
But that's my favorite line in the movie.
Ben: he fucking ate that outfit.
Emily: yeah,
Alicia: I know you that you're going
to go through the recap really quickly,
but I do want to point out that when
Lisa and I want to call her Annika,
because she was Annika on Empire.
I cannot remember what her name was.
Emily: Allison,
Alicia: Yes, thank you.
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Alicia: When Allison and Lisa are having
the mental conversation and they're like,
Oh, does Dwayne know that Nnamdi's coming?
I really thought that
Nnamdi was Dwayne's ex.
Aaron: Uh huh.
Jeremy: Either
Alicia: I love the way that it turned
out that it's like, No, I just don't
like him because of what he did to you.
To, you know, my friend,
Aaron: Wait, is Alison Boo Boo Kitty?
Alicia: Kitty.
Yeah.
Aaron: I did not realize
that until you just
Alicia: That is Cookie.
That, yes.
Yes, that's Cookie's nemesis.
Yes.
Aaron: Boo Kitty, okay.
That'll make sense.
Alicia: And she was, you know, this,
cast is really like star studded.
I mean, who is at the
top with the earrings?
Aaron: Yvonne Orji.
Ben: Diedrich
Alicia: yes.
And she was in Dietrich Vader
and she was in Insecure, right?
Aaron: she's the best
Alicia: And then Lisa was in the
TV series of, Dear White People.
She played Coco in the, serial,
Ben: Oh,
Aaron: Jermaine Fowler's been
in like a million things.
I've seen
Ben: I
love the movie, but I haven't seen the
Alicia: Jermaine Fowler kind of
looks like my cousin a little bit.
So every time I see him, I'm
like, Oh, there go my play cousin!
But he was also in Sorry to Bother You.
Right?
Ben: Yeah.
Oh, yeah, he was, uh,
Lakeith Stanfield's best
Alicia: Yes.
Yes.
And he was amazing in that.
So,
Ben: Oh, he's real good in this.
He
was really fun.
Oh my god.
Alicia: actor in this, I
was like, Oh, wait a second.
That's so and so.
Oh, wait a second.
That's so and so.
So that had really good vibes.
And I have a few quibbles
with the movie as well.
There were a few places that I quibbled.
So I'm interested in hearing what
your quibbles were and seeing if
your quibbles and my quibbles, I
Ben: You got it.
But yes, the recap, it's a Juneteenth
celebration, slash ten year college
reunion for a group of friends and they
and a couple, Morgan and Sean, get there
first, where they encounter a game called
The Blackening, with this horrible little
fucking little Sambo ass motherfucker, I
didn't really know where this movie was
going, I just knew it was gonna be trope
y, satire, horror movie, so I really
thought for a hot second, I'm like, oh
shit, are we in more racist Jumanji?
Aaron: ha ha!
Emily: I mean, kind of, yeah.
Aaron: Oh, that caught
me off guard, I'm sorry.
Ben: But no, it's just some fucked up
psychological shit their ass named a
black actor who survived a horror movie,
and Sean, this motherfucker, says Omar
Epps and Jada Pinkett in Scream 2,
like a fuckin wrong ass, wrong asshole,
Jeremy: They die in the
cold open of Scream 2.
They die before the credits
Ben: even Jada Pinkett in Demon Knight.
The end.
Aaron: wait, when they asked the
but when they asked the question
I literally started sweating
because I couldn't name one either.
I was like, I, I well, there are
none.
Ben: where this podcast comes in handy.
My mind went I went straight to, uh, Mindy
and Chad Meeks Martin from Scream 5 and 6.
Jeremy: I said Jada
Pinkett from Demon Knight,
Emily: Yeah, that's what I did.
Jeremy: my second would be Brandy
from the second I Know What You Did
Last Summer, which, she just sort
of survives because she's Brandy.
Alicia: My answer was Blackula,
but I don't know if that really
counts as like surviving the horror
movie as much as like becoming
Emily: Yeah, he didn't really
survive it either though, like he was
turning into a pile of bones at the
end of the
Ben: I'm trying to
remember Blackula, and I gotta be
honest, the only image that really
sticks with me is Blackula just
throwin a barrel at a dude like
Alicia: I had to throw in the thing.
Yeah.
Jeremy: That was the first thing
that came to my mind as well.
Emily: Did
Ben: part of the movie.
Emily: Busta Rhymes survive H2O?
Ben: Does LL Cool J surviving
Deep Blue Sea count?
Emily: I think so.
I think so.
That's what, that's what
my buddy was saying.
My buddy's like, wait, Deep Blue Sea.
Jeremy: Buster Rhymes does get to do Kung
Fu at and on Michael Myers, but he does
Alicia: Who was the one who
survived in um, Do you see,
you know, the one in space?
Remember they went to hell in space?
Ben: Oh no, Lawrence Fishburne does not
Alicia: Not Lawrence
Fishburne, the other guy.
Emily: other guy does survive, yeah.
Aaron: not the other guy.
Emily: Um,
Jeremy: is being the other
Aaron: The other guy.
Emily: well, it's hard to remember because
he's opposite Laurence Fishburne, okay?
Ben: that's
Alicia: wasn't Lawrence Fishburne.
Ben: that's why you should've
said the cameraman from Scream 2.
That dude, That dude, is still to
this day the smartest character
in any of these movies we've ever
seen, who just immediately realizing
he was in a horror movie, fucked
off for the rest of the film.
Aaron: Hey, you need a dose of common
sense in there to, to relate to
the audience sometimes, you know.
Ben: Oh, that dude?
Fucking king.
Jeremy: Now that I think about it,
Emily: Richard
Ben: to be confused with
the king in this movie.
Emily: no, Richard T.
Jones was the guy in Event
Horizon who played Cooper.
Yeah.
Ben: I feel like eventually you're
stretching it far enough to be like,
I don't know, I think Jemon Hanzo
survived Gladiator, does that count?
Emily: Samuel L.
survived Spear, but so
Jeremy: just a little story about Alicia
and I watching this movie last night.
She was being very annoyed by all the
people just calling this man King, uh,
and she was pretty sure it was like a,
she thought it was like a Hotep thing
going on during the movie, and I was
like, I'm pretty sure that guy's name is
Alicia: I didn't realize his
name was
Jeremy: to look it up on IMDB and
I was like, yeah, his name is King.
Alicia: I was like, Oh my
God, this girl finna get on my nerves.
And she keep calling him King Oliver.
Oh, how you doing King?
What's going on King?
I was like, Get out, straight
out, trying too hard.
Jerry was like, that's his
name and I was like, oop.
Ben: I've been watching Fullmetal
Alchemist, so I've been like, yep, King,
first name, no questions, moving on.
Aaron: awesome
series, by the
Ben: Oh, I oh yeah.
Emily: least his middle
name wasn't Fuhrer, or
Aaron: uh, yeah,
Emily: Although at least with Full
Metal Alchemist, they delivered on
Ben: The next step would have
been like, actually, Fyura's
his first name and King is his
Aaron: oh, good Lord,
Emily: In this movie or FMA?
Ben: Sure.
Aaron: where have we seen Namdi before?
Maybe, you said it earlier, I thought,
Ben: Uh, he was in the, uh,
White Men Can't Jump reboot that
Hulu was, that Hulu promoted.
Aaron: that's what it was, alright,
Jeremy: Did they promote it?
I don't remember that
Ben: Well, that they made.
Aaron: I love when they rip your
shirt off and they're like, damn,
yeah, okay, that wasn't just me,
okay,
Ben: Yeah,
I mean, fuckin valid.
Aaron: I was like,
okay.
Jeremy: Teen Wolf TV show.
Some people love, I've never met a person
who's seen that movie, but I know a
lot of people on the internet that are
Aaron: What show is this?
Jeremy: Teen Wolf, the MTV Teen
Alicia: You've never met a
person who's seen the movie
Jeremy: Or, they've seen the TV show,
Teen Mole,
but lots of people on
the internet love it.
Ben: I still know him as the guy
from the Hulu movie with the co star
of Lil Nas X's prison music video.
Aaron: Oh, no.
No, not Jack Harlow.
Ben: Yeah,
that was a Jack Harlow vehicle.
Aaron: lord, I forgot about that as well.
Alicia: And you want to, you
want to pick up on this recap
Ben: Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Emily: There we go.
Aaron: because I was literally
about to go down a path of how Jack
Harlow reminds me of a thinner chunk
from The Goonies, but go ahead.
Okay, I was, I'm glad we stopped me
before I got too far down that path.
Ben: So anyway, so after that, we get
to the rest of the main characters.
We got Dwayne, he's driving the car, or
not in the, he's in the passenger seat.
We got Lisa.
We got Alison.
Allison's deal is that she's got
a white dad, Dwayne's deal is that
he's that bitch, and Lisa's deal
is that she makes bad decisions.
Or good decisions.
NumbD has character development,
Aaron: Oh, oh, it was, the decision
changed as he took the shirt off.
Ben: Oh yeah, no, I mean, after that
it's like, yeah, fuck him, you could,
like, you could cheat as many times I
get why you would let that cheat on you,
Aaron: mm hmm,
Ben: I guess is the nicest way to say it.
Lisa, you might be weak, but I
ain't casting the first stone.
There you go.
Let they who are without sin.
I I get it, girl.
I
Emily: Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Ben: you know, they're on their way.
We also got Shanika.
She picks up, Clifton.
So, oh, y'all, how quickly did y'all
realize how fuckin sus Clifton was?
Aaron: Oh, good
lord.
Emily: get go.
Aaron: I was just like,
nobody, nobody invited him.
This man was not invited.
Emily: yeah,
Ben: Yeah, this man invited to the
exclusive fuckin 10 year cabin getaway
reunion, and nobody knew he was coming.
Yeah.
Aaron: Nope.
Ben: Bullsh
Jeremy: Morgan is already dead, so
nobody can ask her at that point.
He, you know, claims
that Morgan invited him.
Aaron: Yeah.
No, I can't see him.
I'm working in the same circles.
That's all I'm saying.
Ben: yeah.
because apparently he had access to
her phone to text in the morning,
so you think he would have been
like, By the way, Clifton's coming.
Aaron: First of all, first of
all, let's be clear, Morgan is
not sending an evite to anyone.
That's just not
happening.
Ben: I assumed, I assumed the whole
thing was Clifton's plan, was that
like, he already, like, he just sent
him out, and none of them asked who sent
it, or they just all assumed Morgan.
I don't know how Clifton's plan
was supposed to work, they don't
really explain it in the finer
details, It doesn't matter, I
don't care, and neither should you.
Aaron: just go along for it.
Ben: yeah,
anyway, we just get a lot of like, great
chemistry, we learned, Nnamdi cheated on
Lisa a whole bunch, they're back together
now, in secret from Dwayne, cause Dwayne's
got a whole bunch of notes about his
friendship with Lisa and feeling taken for
granted, you got King, he's just a really
cool dude, he's got a white wife, uh,
Jeremy: He's an ex gangster, they mention.
Ben: yeah,
Aaron: Yeah, he cha.
He
changed
Jeremy: are surprised that he does
not have a gun with him, which
will turn out later to not be true.
Emily: yeah.
. Ben: Anyway, they do Molly and play
spades and just have a good old time.
Alicia: I believe that is
Dwayne's drug of choice.
He said, Molly.
Ooh, my drug of choice.
And that scene where he was
shifting moodily before like
taking off all his clothes
Emily: Yeah.
And dancing.
Yeah.
Alicia: it's about to head this way.
Emily: Yeah.
I just love how she was like,
how dare you just shift?
in your chair at me?
Alicia: you just shift in your seat at me?
I gotta ask though, because
I am not a party person.
I am a in bed by 9 30 person.
My drug of choice is red
wine and buttered popcorn.
would taking Molly in a
cabin in the woods be fun?
Because it seems like
a waste of party drugs.
Emily: I mean, I think it depends.
I have never taken Molly, but I know
people who have and, at my college,
we might as well have been a cabin
in the woods with a bunch of buddies.
my buddies were taking
Molly and in their dorm.
Alicia: It just seems
like a waste of, like,
Ben: haven't taken it either.
Not for lack of trying, mind you.
Just not good at it.
Alicia: Yeah, but,
Jeremy: Missing your
Alicia: just, I didn't know, I didn't know
if anybody else had that experience and
Ben: I, I did have that thought of like.
Alicia: I was like, this just doesn't
seem like it would be fun for me.
Ben: Now if someone was like, here,
take these shrooms, you're in a
cavern, let's take these shrooms.
I'll be like, yeah, yum,
yum, yum, Mario, I'ma
grow
Aaron: I was gonna say it seemed like they
had something for every occasion that they
brought along with them and he started
Alicia: Even studying.
Ben: I think what was wild to
me, was how Card Games was put
on the same level in drugs.
Whaaat?
Alicia: a cultural thing.
Jeremy: This isn't, do we need
an explanatory comment here
Alicia: Yeah.
Explain to Marikama about spades.
Aaron, how's your spades game?
Okay.
So I am also so so.
I'm good at the trash talk, but I
learned to play spades in middle school.
We used to play for french
fries because they were the best
things that the cafeteria had.
And that was my, because my family lived
in a white neighborhood, and we moved
to this town that was, I, at the time,
I did not realize, like, just how racist
and recent the history of racial violence
was in the town that we moved into.
But if I haven't explained before,
I moved into a neighborhood where
I literally wasn't allowed to go
to the pool because I was Black,
and that was the neighborhood pool.
So, yeah, second pool, playing spades.
So I lived on the other side of
town from all the other Black kids,
and I was always accused of talking
two way, acting two way, whatever.
But learning how to play spades was my way
of, like, reclaiming my cultural identity
and having it in with the other kids.
But for Black people, spades is
not something to be Entered into
Aaron: it's really not.
Alicia: lightly, like there is no time
in your life as a child where you are
introduced to the game by people who
will gently teach you how to play spades.
Like, it's, it's like be,
it's like sink or swim.
Aaron: You
Alicia: people will trash talk you.
And trash talking is part of it.
Like, it's the way that, you know,
it, it's the way that we strengthen
our, our familial bonds in our youth.
We just,
Emily: Yeah.
Alicia: we toughen them by repeating.
It's like, if you can handle what
your family is going to throw at you
at the card table, you can go out
into the world and handle whatever
the world is going to throw at
Aaron: Here's the thing with spades.
It is one part sublimated black
anger, one part, one part alcohol
and one part intense competition.
Alicia: Intense.
Thanks.
Aaron: you put all that together.
And you have a situation that's
gonna, that you have to sort
of get through, and it is, it
becomes, what starts off as a game.
But the deeper you get into it, it really
becomes the thing that will define your
relationship with whomever you're playing
Alicia: And people will really just
pick the thing that they know you're
insecure about and just keep, going at it,
Aaron: If you want to, if you want to
see more behind the scenes of the, the
spades situation, there's an episode
of Black ish where the grandmother
teaches them how to play spades and
it is hysterical and very accurate.
Alicia: I did see that there was a, I
cannot remember her name, but I did see
that there was an academic who made a
spades course for black kids who just
didn't learn as part of like a master's
thesis or a dissertation project.
I'm okay at spades.
I would not at a family reunion or
get together volunteer myself to go
sit at a table with card players.
Aaron: I
would sit behind someone talking shit.
Emily: Yeah, there you go.
Alicia: There you go.
So, so yeah, so the card game,
it's not just a card game.
It's.
Ben: No, this is the where the culture
divide comes because when people like,
hey, we're doing game night, I hear
that like white people game night.
I'm like, oh, you're
busting out some board game.
I really don't want to play.
Alicia: Oh, wow.
Okay.
So what do white people do at game
night?
Do y'all like y'all play Monopoly
and stuff?
Like,
what do you do?
Jeremy: It's funny to me because
when you started describing spades,
Emily said, like magic, the gathering
Aaron: I heard that,
Jeremy: my brain five minutes before
that was like, how do I describe
in the whitest possible terms?
What the spades is like to Emily.
And I was like, Do I go with Settlers
of C'tan or Magic the Gathering?
And then Emily said Magic the Gathering.
And I'm
Aaron: been enveloped in such
whiteness so quickly in my
Alicia: I know.
I, I know.
I've never played Magic the
Emily: I guess we have psychic powers
too, Jeremy.
Jeremy: I lost my mind.
I just I blanked out
for a minute there.
Ben: now because I went to the
fucking camp and we did have, it
wasn't spades, but we did have some
sort of like team based competition
card game psychological warfare.
Jeremy: screwer
Ben: know what the game was,
but like, I'm familiar with the
Jeremy: Mow.
Aaron: Was it war?
Alicia: for my grandmother,
it was Pinochle.
You know, she used to
have Pinochle nights.
People
Ben: I,
Alicia: over and they'd
Ben: I want to say we
called it spit, but I,
Alicia: oh, spit
Aaron: Spit.
I remember spit.
Alicia: I tried to teach her spit
once and she told me it was a
stupid game for stupid people.
Ha, ha,
ha, ha, ha!
She wasn't wrong.
You've been
Jeremy: thing about war that
nobody actually teaches you
about war is that it's just a
competition of who cheats the best.
Emily: Yeah.
Aaron: Welcome to
life.
Ben: or in real life?
Wank.
Alicia: you've been,
you've been cheatin at war.
Jeremy: Yes, absolutely.
Alicia: I feel like I just learned
something new about our relationship.
You wanna play spades
with me next time we go to
Jeremy: that's why I hold the deck
in my hand, because then when I grab
the card off the top of the deck,
I'm not grabbing the card off the
top of the deck, I'm grabbing the
card off the bottom of the deck.
Alicia: Stop, you play magic tricks?
Aaron: wow.
Alicia: You're doing some,
you're doing witchcraft with war?
Ben: You doing some Ben Affleck
in the casino type shit?
Alicia: You doing close up magic?
Ben: He does that.
If you don't know that Ben Affleck
counts cards in real life at
casinos, congrats, you know that now.
Aaron: Wow.
Alicia: Oh wow, Ben,
you really don't
want Ben Affleck to be in his bag, do you?
Ben: no, I don't say that as an
attack, I say that as like, damn Ben
Affleck, fuckin go off, hell yeah, you
count them cards.
Fuck them casinos.
Alright, this movie anyway, they
they, the friends, like us, have
fuck around for about half an hour.
And then, they, until like Doors
locked, they're lured into the game
room, where they're shown that
Sean is dead, and if they want to
save Morgan, they gotta Answer a
whole bunch of, like, black trivia
questions, and it's fucking hilarious.
And then we get to, like, the big,
I don't know, Scene, denouement, I
don't know what the fuck you call it,
where they gotta vote for who's the
most black and therefore who will die,
Alicia: Okay, before we get to that, there
are a couple of questions in this Black
Trivia game that I felt like were very all
right?
The first one that really got to me was
when they said, what's the second verse
of The Black National Anthem, and I was
like, Jeremy, I only know two lines.
I only know, Stony the road we trod.
Aaron: That's two more than I knew.
Okay.
I'll be very honest.
Alicia: And then the second one, I
got the black Aunt Viv question wrong.
I was so disappointed.
I thought she was only in two seasons,
but I remembered that she was pregnant
with Nikki and then when Nikki came,
it was light Aunt Viv and I couldn't
remember which season that was.
So I was disappointed in that.
Aaron: I never forgave them for Ls
and Viv, but that's another story.
Miss
Ben: and, and,
Alicia: different story.
Aaron: never forgave them for that.
Ben: It's like, it's like, bush
gore and light skin on Viv,
Aaron: I got
Ben: equally damaging to our nation and
should never be forgotten or
forgiven.
Aaron: I want that on a
T-shirt
Alicia: I feel bad for
light skinned Aunt Viv.
because it's not her fault,
Ben: Oh, no.
Alicia: you know, that what happened,
Aaron: No, that's why I said
I never forgave them four.
I
I
never forgave
them
four for nice guy Daphne
Maxwell Reed I got, I got.
I got nothing against you, Daphne
McSworry, I got nothing against you.
Live your life.
Alicia: we just, Janet
Hubert
was too.
Anyway, and then the third one that
really got to me was when they said
how many black actors were on Friends.
And I said, Aisha Tyler.
Yeah,
name five.
And I, said,
Aisha Tyler.
that's the only one I know
because I don't watch Friends.
And when they said, this is how
they got to vote for who's the
Blackest, because they got it
wrong, because they named five.
And then the little thing said, wrong.
The correct answer is, I don't
Aaron: don't know,
Alicia: watch Friends.
I watch
living single.
which I have to tell you, not five days
ago, I was in the car with my daughter
who was talking about, you know, when
I never watched Friends and I was like,
this is a Living Single household.
We don't, we don't watch no Friends.
What are you talking about?
And she was like, I know it's bad.
We tried watching that
one episode and it sucked.
And I was like, that's right.
So we don't know nothing about that.
Aaron: It's just, it's like, it's like
whether you're a Popeye's or a KFC
house, it's like, you got to choose.
You
Alicia: That's how, and that's how I
knew that this movie was written for me.
'cause at first I was like, I don't know
about if I don't even like this movie.
And they got to that and
I was like, oh, oh Lord.
Oh,
Ben: the line earlier in that scene was
when they were trying to figure out which
white people would be trying to kill him,
with the list ranging from all of them.
Emily: God.
Ben: the O'Reilly Auto
Parts jingle is done more
than the national anthem.
O'Reilly
Jeremy: Auto
Alicia: Parts.
Ben: A monkey that's
Alicia: I edit this 'cause we're
Ben: terrible.
Also, it's gonna sound
terrible because I was singing.
And
Alicia: Aw.
Ben: that.
Emily: jeez.
Ah, jeez.
Ben: Oh,
Emily: Cut that shit out.
Ben: Look, I'm very good at lots of
things.
Singing is not one of them.
Alicia: they have to vote
somebody off the island.
They have to vote for the blackest
person to leave, which they do not do.
Emily: No, they
Ben: No, they vote for the one they
just decide they want to die the most.
Aaron: You know, compelling reasons.
Emily: They do have their reasons.
yeah,
Ben: I,
Aaron: Kill them
yourselves.
Alicia: twice.
Ben: when they eventually reveal
Clifton's, like, backstory, that, like,
you know, he, Spoilers for later in
the recap, that he drove drunk after
getting made fun of, and hit and killed a
woman, I'm like, Man, movie, you already
told me he voted for Trump twice, you
Alicia: Like, what are you, I'm
not going to have no sympathy.
Ben: like, I'm not gonna feel
sympathy, and you don't need to
give me extra reasons to hate him,
Emily: yeah.
Ben: there.
Aaron: I felt that same
way about the Joker movie.
I'm like, I don't care
about the Joker's backstory.
The Joker is just evil.
Let the Joker just be evil.
And that's kind of how I
felt about Cliff today.
Just
Emily: It's funny, because my, my
roommate was describing Clifton they
were like, this guy has real Joker vibes.
Um, before, before the reveal.
Aaron: Yep.
Ben: That is one of my quibbles, because
I'm like, damn, I think it almost would
have been even funnier if it wasn't, like,
if there wasn't this drunk driving thing,
it was just, he was just this angry that
Lisa revoked his black card at a party.
Emily: Yeah, well, the other thing is
that, like, the only other way that I
could see him surviving the situation
after he was, like, talking about the
Bagha shit Was him trying really, really
hard to not be the blackest one there,
and he was just that desperate but,
yeah, now that we know that he actually
did those things, I assume, we don't
need to know that he killed somebody.
Ben: Which, I guess it depends on
what state he was in that he quit,
because he only served four years?
Yeah, he could have gotten
his voting rights back.
Aaron: Oh,
Alicia: mean, wasn't he in Vermont?
Emily: Yeah.
Alicia: guess that's where he's from.
He's from Vermont.
Like, they don't need states
in Vermont.
Ben: I can't imagine all of
them went to college in Vermont.
Alicia: yeah, that's a good
Ben: Now, that would be a
plot twist for the movie.
Alicia: Anyway, so,
Ben: they vote Clifton because
Clifton voted for Trump twice, which,
Fuckin yeah, of course, fuckin kill
Alicia: And they tried to
kill him before they voted.
Ben: percent.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, I think it is when King got
attacked a few times Allison stabbed
herself, pulling the arrow out of King.
That was fucking hilarious.
They're both in pain and on
drugs for the rest of the movie.
Everyone's on drugs, it's great.
This is like how I would
be in a horror movie.
On drugs.
At least preferably.
Aaron: That's what I was gonna say.
I think that I would prefer to be
on drugs if it's a horror scenario.
Ben: Oh, 100%.
Look, if a slasher is after me, I
might as well also be on shrooms.
Emily: And I think that the drug
of, in this case, the drug of
choice, or the, unilateral choice.
Was that being Adderall was
probably the better one for her.
since, you
know, yeah, she did react well.
Ben: Because after Clifton dies, they
decide to, and yes, they bring it
up, all the things, they split it up!
Where half decide to risk it in
the house, and half decide to
just get the fuck out of Dodge.
But uh oh, there's two killers,
so they're both fucked!
Or are they?
They're not.
King jumps out of a tree to attack
one killer, and then Allison
goes full fucking Wolverine and
just kills the shit out of him.
She, she punch stabs him so much that
she's got like the predator mud paint,
she's on adderall, she's got arrow
hands, and she is going to stab punching.
It's pretty great.
Aaron: That's a promo for Adderall.
Alicia: is what they discover.
he is got asthma, he's wheezing and the
killer is, yeah, the killer has one eye.
stumbling around.
I felt bad for him a little bit
except he was trying to kill people.
Emily: yeah,
Ben: mean,
Emily: probably a racist
piece of shit too, but
Ben: I mean, he did have
a confederate flag in
Jeremy: I, I,
Aaron: There is that.
Jeremy: I do have to say, we did,
gloss over the existence and saving
and then death of Ranger White here.
who, who comes to the rescue,
but they're not sure if they
can trust this guy or not.
Alicia: he is one of the good ones.
Ben: be fair, if
Jeremy: makes the point that he would,
he could, he would get invited to
the cookout, but he would not come,
because then he feels that his place
there would would then damage the, you
know, the vibe of the all black space.
Ben: what a real one,
fucking Ranger White.
Aaron: him all the points for
that response, but I still
wouldn't have unlocked them doors.
I'm sorry,
Emily: Yeah,
Alicia: I felt so bad for him at that
moment 'cause I knew I wouldn't either
and I'm like, I know you're gonna die.
And I'm, I.
Feel like you are probably
not the bad guy here.
However.
Aaron: only question would have
been, what should I tell your family?
How should I inform them?
Ben: you want to talk
tropes in a horror movie.
If a cop or somebody that makes you
feel safe finally finds you, and
then you all get in the car, And
then he gets out and says, Wait here.
Alicia: Can you hand me the keys while
Ben: He
is,
he is dead within, at best, minutes.
Alicia: It's Like,
that happy death day cop.
She's like, no,
Ben: like,
every time, like, Fuckin
Tucker and Dale vs.
Evil,
Alicia: take me to jail.
Ben: Yeah.
Scream 2, like, fuckin again?
Every fuckin time.
But anyway.
they then cut to the other three who are
hiding in the biggest fucking air vent.
Jeremy: this is a die hard size air vent.
Ben: an air vent that could
fit three peeve three fully
grown adults side by side.
Aaron: I'm trying to figure out
how did he get up there so fast and
making so little noise that the guy
who could hear him playing a record
from the other room didn't hear him
struggling to get into the vent.
Ben: it's especially funny because when
there's two people, there's clearly only
enough room in the vent for two people,
and then as soon as Dwayne needs to get
up there, it now has room for three.
It's hilarious.
This movie's delightful.
Did I mention the whole time Dwayne is
wearing a robe that says that, bitch?
Aaron: yes.
I also want to know where
you can get a device that's
literally called Signal Jammer.
I want to get one
Emily: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Jeremy: You gotta, go to Gotham
City to get a device like that.
Emily: Yeah,
Ben: Lisa goes full the butler did
it in the pantry on killer number
two They don't even show like
there's just like his face gone.
No face at all.
is gone.
No face Freddy
Alicia: Yeah, but she uses the
candlestick that everyone mocked.
Emily: Yeah.
Aaron: Alison's like, you know, you
don't need to, you can, it's fine, he,
okay, nevermind, go ahead, keep going,
just, just her working through that
Ben: oh, oh, yeah Oh, look,
Lisa's got a lot to work through.
Good for you, Lisa.
They get lured into the basement where
they see Clifton and, Sean, their dead
bodies, except, uh oh, Clifton isn't dead.
He's the bad guy.
Alicia: Oh, I thought it was
Ranger White that was there.
Aaron: That was Ranger White, yeah,
that was stumped over the table,
Emily: yeah,
because he put Shauna in the well.
Ben: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Emily: yeah,
Ben: My bad, my bad.
Alicia: Yeah, there is
a well in the basement.
Ben: Yes, there is a literal sunken place
as well as the one King is in for having
Aaron: like,
Ben: non seen white lady.
Aaron: what the hell
kind of house is this?
Like, I had the same question,
where, where, where does the
occasion come for a while?
Ben: it's a white people murder house,
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah.
It is definitely a murder house
that is off the grid for a reason.
I don't know.
I haven't heard of a house with like
a fucking ring well in it like that.
Aaron: Let me, let me check
Zillow real quick, see what
Emily: Okay.
Sounds.
Well, try Xilogon Wild.
That's
usually the one that has it.
Jeremy: Well, you know, I, I
would say he is a bit of a a
mansplainer and, uh, all that.
So putting somebody in a well,
actually, is pretty normal for him.
Aaron: He's probably right.
Emily: Well, you know,
Ben: I,
Emily: was probably on purpose.
Was that a?
I really hope
Jeremy: I don't know.
I don't know if
Emily: That I really
hope that was on purpose.
Ben: I, I did,
Emily: If it
Ben: did,
Emily: see you.
Ben: one of the other running gags
in this movie that I love is Shanika
just constantly hating the fuck out of
Clifton just for having an Android phone.
Aaron: Oh God, that was the first audible
laugh I had in the entire, in the store.
He's like, well, you know
some people like androids.
Wrong,
not true.
Ben: when he, when they get to
the cabin and he asks if anyone
has an Android charger, and she
just says, we don't support that.
Alicia: Jeremy, you have anything to add?
Jeremy: It does have the better
operating system, though.
Alicia: all right.
I knew, I knew you and your
little green text bubbles would
have something like that to say.
Ben: Oh,
Aaron: if I
Alicia: time we having a group chat with
people, here come your green bubbles.
Aaron: listen, if I can't, if I can't
put an emoji on your message, then
Alicia: Exactly.
Aaron: you.
Alicia: it comes back and just
says, Alicia liked a message.
Ben: Green,
Jeremy: listen, the
difference between our phones,
Alicia: I couldn't talk to
Jeremy for a solid month.
I don't know what happened, but at some
point there was an update and every
time I tried to talk to him on speaker,
anybody with an Android, I tried to
talk to them on speakerphone with my
iPhone and people be like, I can't, I
just can't hear you, you're breaking up.
Ben: the green text bubbles are the
phone equivalent of having a car
on cement blocks in your driveway.
Emily: I
Jeremy: listen,
Emily: mean, it could go multiple
Jeremy: to, if y'all want to do something
on your phone and there's not an app for
it in the app store, you can't do it.
If I want to do
Alicia: doing it.
Jeremy: and there's not an
app for it in the app store,
Alicia: yourself.
Emily: called Jailbreak, okay?
Jeremy: to the scary background,
Alicia: What's your podcast?
Podcatcher of
Ben: doing?
What, what, what fucking dark, dark
web apps are you downloading, Jeremy?
Alicia: Exactly.
Aaron: I'll just say to this day, as
of this recording, I have not had a
need to do anything I wasn't able to
Alicia: Exactly.
Ben: my phone to do is
Alicia: That part.
Anyway,
Emily: have to have Twitter on your phone
if you're on, if you have an Android?
Is that it?
I feel like it would be the
Ben: no, I'm, I'm just saying
Twitter's bad for the brain.
And it's, if, if it's still on
your phone, I don't know, like,
just for your own mental health,
just take it off that thing.
If you gotta just keep scrolling
when you're on your computer,
I get it, but just don't give
yourself access to it at all times.
It's no good.
Emily: The podcast is on Patreon.
Just go on Patreon.
There are free, free tiers now.
Just go on
Alicia: Yes, and if you're a fan of
this podcast, we in no way mean you
when we make fun of Android users.
Emily: Oh, yeah,
no,
Alicia: just mean Jeremy.
Emily: that's why, yeah,
Alicia: ha!
Emily: said anything.
Because, I mean, I, I will say,
I do, this is my Apple iPhone.
I'm holding it up.
Alicia: Just in case,
just in case we thought.
ha
Ha
ha Ha
ha ha
ha
Emily: I do have a PC
Jeremy: doesn't that come
Alicia: Ha ha ha!
ha!
Ben: Ew.
Aaron: Oof.
Emily: Shit!
Look, it's too soon.
We were just on fire, okay?
Don't light me up again!
Jeremy: it
Alicia: Anyway, so yeah, Clifton, corny
Ben: Clifton reveals his, you know,
villainous backstory of they made
fun of him for not being good at
spades, because he lived in Vermont,
and how it just gave him a, I don't
know, a racial inadequacy breakdown?
Emily: Definitely a complex of
Ben: Yeah, definitely,
oh, definitely a complex.
I don't know, what's the race
equivalent to a Napoleon complex?
Aaron: Life.
Just.
Ben: Damn, Aaron, just
Emily: Jam.
Aaron: saying.
Alicia: I have nothing
Ben: damn.
Alright, yeah, that,
took, that took me out.
I need a second, fuck.
anyway,
yeah, he got drunk, killed a
woman, blames them for making fun.
Oh, he even has a line where he says,
like, Her body hit my car, which is
some real fuckin passive voice, like,
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: person killed in police
involved shooting type bullshit.
Aaron: Oh God, I didn't even, I
caught it when he said it, but now it
didn't even like unravel in my brain.
Yeah,
Emily: Yeah.
Aaron: hit my car.
Ben: I think it was just a really
good line to show just how deep the
blaming anyone but himself goes.
Because the story is really like He got
shit at the card game where everybody
always forever get shit and his response
was to get like wasted and then drive so
fast he hit a person and at no point does
he accept any responsibility for that he
blames them for making fun of him driving
him to drink and then I guess drive.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: Blames her for being, blames his,
the woman for being hit, like, Clifton is
very much a MAGA vote and piece of shit.
Emily: Yeah, he's a sociopath.
Ben: So it's really satisfying when
King and Allison just fuck with
light switches, Until they manage to
distract him, And then Dwayne hits
him with Chekhov's chili pepper,
and Spartan kicks him down the well.
Emily: Bless.
Yeah.
Ben: it's very satisfying.
Also, there's a lot of crossbow,
and the crossbow looks really cool.
If you're a fan of crossbows,
boy, is this a movie for you.
Aaron: How many arrows
do those things carry?
My lord.
Emily: you've read Berserk.
You can put like a million of them
Jeremy: Well, they got those, like,
vertical loading crossbows, so all you
gotta do is, like, work the clip on
the bottom and another one pops up.
yeah, it's much slower to load, like, a
legit crossbow, an old school crossbow.
You can't,
Emily: you know a shady ass white
boy is reading Berserk, though.
Like
Jeremy: Yeah,
Emily: Mogatwins.
Ben: Clifton is very much a Trump
voting, uh, it's actually Boku no Hero
Academia, like, type motherfucker.
Aaron: Oh my god.
Jeremy: must have planned from
the beginning of this story.
Like, you know, the chili pepper
is introduced pretty early, but,
like, to kill Clifton with actual
seasoning is pretty hilarious to me.
Like, just to hit him with
seasoning and kill him.
Ben: That's so fucking funny.
Alicia: Well, it doesn't kill him.
He is laughing maniacally at the
bottom of the well at the end.
So
Jeremy: I mean, I assumed that
was, like, Joker laughing at
the end of the first Batman
movie.
Aaron: Very Vincent Price.
Alicia: Joker's not Joker.
Joker doesn't die
is what I'm saying.
Jeremy: Batman
Ben: In the first
Alicia: But I mean, he doesn't die.
He just,
Aaron: Well, depends on who you ask.
There's just a whole bunch of jokers.
Jokers like a Gremlin?
Jeremy: one of Bebe's kids?
Ben: Also Honestly, probably,
possibly, one of my, the funniest
parts of the movie for me.
Dwayne and Nnamdi finally, you know,
they get their own psychic talk.
They're
able to communicate with Gwenz's.
Only really that Clifton is
also in on the psychic talk.
Aaron: I love that.
I loved that.
Ben: that he overheard their psychic
talk.
Alicia: did you hear that?
Yes, and the fact that they just throw
in like, song lyrics at different places
that I was able to chime in with, like,
I'll hit him high, and you hit him low.
And then the other one that I was like,
Jeremy, did you see this one coming?
Is when, um, somebody
says, you are my sister.
And the other person said, my strength,
and I said, and my pride at the
same time that everyone else said
it, so is this the part where we
talk about specifics from the movie?
Ben: Oh yeah, this is, we are
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: just talk about whatever,
Jeremy: the mid credits
Ben: Oh yeah, where
they they know, they don't know
what to do, but they know they can't
call the cops, so they call the fire
department who hit him with the hose.
Aaron: And Dwayne.
Alicia: Dwayne's reasoning
was very logical and
sound.
Ben: sound,
Alicia: I called.
the fire department.
Because they don't have guns.
Aaron: I do have a story.
That's related to Dwayne
changing his clothes.
This literally happened.
My junior year in college,
I came home from school.
I was in Buffalo, New York, and that
summer I was awakened by the smell
of smoke, and I could eventually
realize that the house was burning.
Lightning had struck our house.
I promise you this is
going to have a point.
Lightning had struck our house.
we lived in a duplex, so I was trying
to get the downstairs neighbors and
my mom out of the house, because
like, my mom like, she didn't
believe it, she wasn't waking up.
In any event, it's raining.
Everyone gets outside, everyone's
downstairs, the first thing everyone
notices is that I was fully dressed,
my clothes were color combined, my
shoes, everything,
I was, I
was ready.
Alicia: over.
Aaron: Here's why that happened, because
Anyone who lives in a dorm with a bunch
of drunken people who come back at 2
in the morning and decide to make mac
and cheese drunk realizes that the fire
alarm is going to go off at 2 in the
morning in the middle of the winter.
I went to Syracuse in the middle
of the winter and you find ways.
Of learning how to get dressed
with a snap of fingers.
So it was like, I was, I had
gone to boot camp for fire
escape and was literally outside.
So the next day we go
stay in a hotel that day.
The next day we come back,
we're walking up to the house.
Everyone in the neighborhood is like
outside, like, here's the guy that comes
out of a burning house, fully dressed
and color, you know, color coordinated.
I'm like, be giving my talk
later if you want to know how
to do this.
You know, it's fine, but it's true story.
So when they showed Dwayne in that extra
outfit, I was like, yep, that's my guy.
Emily: Yeah, Yeah, he's ready.
My joke was that the fire
department sprayed him with the
hose because he was just that fire.
Ben: another great moment in the movie
is when Clifton tries to give Dwayne his
bag, like, puts it against his chest,
and Dwayne just doesn't even lift his
arm and it just fucking just falls
straight down.
Aaron: Like again, that's my guy.
Yep
Ben: Yep,
Aaron: 100
Ben: they, they knew he was
sus right from the start.
Aaron: no, but I still
like King very honest.
I don't know
Ben: Yeah.
Aaron: It's like just
put it right out there.
to use true to character true
to character all the way through
Alicia: that
Ben: that he wasn't shot twice.
He was shot once by two arrows.
Yeah.
Aaron: Same old does count.
Oh
Alicia: I thought was interesting about
Clifton as a character, and one of the
reasons why I was like, I don't know
how I'm going to feel about this, is
that they were playing with a lot of
different stereotypes and tropes as far
as blackness goes, Testing people's
blackness, black checking, you know,
deciding who is or who is not black enough
based on what they, what they do, what
they like to do, how they talk, what
they, what, that is a thing that happens
that is, that can be very damaging.
Aaron: Mm
Alicia: However, Clifton is a cornball
from head to toe, and he is one of
those people that complains about
getting his, you know, black card
revoked for no reason other than
the fact that he's just different
without realizing all of the shitty
things that he's done along the way.
Because in this friend group, you
have lots of different people who
are accepted for who they are.
being themselves in
lots of different ways.
And it's like, that could be the case
in some places that people rejected you
because you were khakis, because you
like manga, because you talk differently.
Because you don't know how to
play spades, but also, that does
not mean that that is this group.
and they could be, they were kind of
horrible in their own individual ways.
Ben: Also, if liking anime isn't
black check out any fucking mang
Alicia: well that is something that
you, that is something that especially
in the nerd community and in the
comics community that I have heard.
I have heard black people, black men
specifically saying black girls didn't
like me or didn't talk to me because
I was into manga or I was into anime.
And, and yeah, and like, sometimes
it's like, that might have been true
in some cases that people thought you
were weird and different, but there
are a lot of black girls who are
out there who like that stuff too.
Like, you know, it's
it's not necessary.
And so a lot of times with guys like that,
You find that that maybe there's something
else going on that you have not examined.
But I did think Clifton um,
when uh, who was shooting was
King shooting the gun and he was
holding it sideways.
Emily: Oh No, that was
a comedy.
Yeah.
Alicia: it sideways, and Clifton
just reaches up and corrects
it.
Emily: was so good.
I mean,
Alicia: That was so funny.
Emily: before we hit record, I
think Jeremy, you were saying
that the movie had like a, maybe
a short films worth of ideas.
but the characters filled it out
perfectly, and I didn't even notice,
like, I didn't really, I wasn't even
thinking about that, because every
exchange of these characters was so
good, and so telling, and just like, the
visual storytelling of that correcting
the gun was so brilliant, and also
it's a slasher movie, I wasn't really
expecting it to go above and beyond,
Ben: I do get what you're saying though,
Jeremy, like, you know, and that,
this is something like why I have the
quibbles that like, the questions and
the game element isn't really Elegantly,
like, structured throughout the movie.
It's very much like, now we
have the question game scene.
Now we're on to Chase scene.
More questions Chase.
Alicia: would take longer.
Jeremy: I mean, it's kind of like
if they got out of the bathroom in
the first 15 minutes of Saw, like,
and then it was just another movie
from there?
Alicia: It's like somebody, saw
the game Blackguard Revoked, and
then thought, what if there was
somebody who was mad about Blackguard
Revoked, and then Made that into a
Ben: Yeah.
Alicia: slasher movie.
Ben: I'm with you.
I don't think there was necessarily
enough story for a full movie,
but I think what saves it is that
there was definitely enough story.
Yeah.
Yeah.
jokes and comedy for a full
Emily: Yeah,
Jeremy: Yeah,
and I
mean, like, Alicia was pointing out,
Nicole Oliver used to write for Awkward
Black Girl and a bunch of other stuff,
like Girls Trip, that is structured
on that sort of character interaction,
the, like, you know, making, making.
The way that characters relate to each
other seem and feel really real and, uh,
you know, I, I haven't seen the short
film version of this, uh, which, which
does exist, but like, I would imagine
that's where a lot of, you know, her
expertise as a screenwriter came into,
you know, making this version of it.
Aaron: I think the way the movie was
structured I think those things that were
probably associated with the original 15
minutes Those big moments were probably
the big adventure or or or horror moments
And I think everything else the connective
tissue was the jokes, but the jokes
weren't I don't think the jokes like
these bombastic You know, slapsticky, and
this is maybe where the comparison that
we had off air and maybe a little bit on
air to Scary Movie franchise comes in.
They weren't these big sort
of slapsticky visual jokes.
It was really so much of what I
think even we've talked about so far
tonight were things that were said.
under their breath, you know, on the
side, sort of like an aside to what was
actually happening in the main scene,
but ended up getting the bigger laugh,
which is what I think made it a little
bit smarter because it wasn't like,
Hey, we're about to set up this joke.
Here it comes.
Wait for it.
Bam.
There it is.
Did you see it?
Alicia: Even the, barf joke,
Aaron: yeah.
Alicia: I'm, I was fully
prepared for the barf to happen.
Every time Dwayne said, I
throw up when I get nervous,
I throw up when I get nervous.
And I was like, Oh my God, there's
going to be like, throw up.
I'm not going to deal well with this.
But when it came and when it
happened, it was so hilarious.
And it was because it was so the cut
to just barf exploding out of that
vent.
I
Emily: projectile, vomit.
Alicia: it, and it was
just, it was so perfect.
So I think that there were some
funny moments that other hands, like.
Ben: Again, there is the version of
this that is like, scary movie 2,
the jokes are lazier, more obvious,
they just come from a place of like,
Lazy stereotypes and movie cliches
instead of any kind of real identity
or real appreciation for the genre.
Like, there's a, you know, an
us, evil version of this movie.
Aaron: Do have to call out the
quibble that I've mentioned
off air earlier with Shiniqua.
Because, again, and I've said
this on a bunch of different
shows with different things.
Black girl hair don't work like that.
Alicia: Uh, huh.
Aaron: You are not going to dip your head
all the way under water and then come up
with your waves and everything perfectly
laid, with your edges perfectly laid,
and then you're not going to walk half
a mile back to the house and have your
entire outfit be pressed and dried again.
I was like, I'm like, I'm
struggling with this right now.
I'm really struggling with this scenario.
Ben: I
feel like that
had to be
Alicia: came off, like, when
he
Ben: Oh!
Well, that was so funny was that this
thing that would only be like this
Saw, hostile fucking torture porn,
like The scalp comes off as instead
like, Oh no, they got her weave!
Alicia: They're gonna scalp her!
That's her wig!
Run, Morgan, run!
Ben: Part of me definitely wonders
if like, if that was just like a
Ryder and X Mails contract being
like, no, I'm not doing the last
third of this movie, fucking in a
soaking wet outfit and
Aaron: With that
Alicia: wig and
Ben: Yeah.
Yeah.
it's like, like, realism get fucked.
Aaron: it was laid.
I was like, okay, I don't know what
product you're using, but okay, that's not
Alicia: What were
Emily: Mm-Hmm.
Alicia: of your other quibbles?
Yeah,
Aaron: the idea we kind of talked
about a little bit earlier the idea
of Dwayne not necessarily that he
wouldn't have this friend group.
I think I don't know if they resolved
that scenario between he and Lisa.
I kind of feel like because he
kind of made a very valid point.
but basically backed out because
she just beat the shit out of
somebody with a candlestick and
I'm like, okay, I don't blame
Ben: I mean, yeah, you're right.
There isn't really that
resolution to like,
Aaron: so it's like it's still out there.
She's, she was a bad friend and
maybe your expectations were his
expectations were a little too
high, but, I kind of wanted to see
that play itself out a little bit.
the other thing was, I felt like
that, Was the closest they came to
addressing any of the stereotypical
issues that were laid on each character.
Now, not that type of movie, I get it.
It was a lot of stuff that was just
sort of laid out there, and just sort
of left, you know, the issue with
her being biracial, and kinky past,
Ben: I mean,
Aaron: you know, etc, etc.
Ben: Yeah, like, that's, that's a
little fucked up to the point I've
had a picture of a zebra and goat.
That's you.
right?
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: little fucked
Aaron: Problematic.
Alicia: That was kind of funny, though.
Jeremy: I mean, I feel like there's
some of that is, is them commenting
on, you know, the difference between
the rest of them and Clifton is
that the rest of them are like.
Okay, you just said some
shit making fun of me.
I'm going to make fun of you back
or I'm going to like, tell you
that's fucked up and, you know,
do something about it.
Whereas Clifton walks off and
makes it his whole personality
for, you know, the next 10 years,
Aaron: Yeah.
Jeremy: which is the same thing
that a lot of those, guys that
Alicia was referencing earlier do.
Is there like, rather than just letting
it roll off, and you know, continuing
to live your life, You just make
being rejected your whole personality.
Alicia: I really thought that we
were going to find out that Clifton
was raised by that white family
and like, that's why he was super
Aaron: Yeah.
Alicia: worried about acceptance
and rejection and stuff like that.
But, uh, nope.
Ben: I mean, there's definitely a
version of Clifton that is a lot more
sympathetic, but also fucking, how
fucking funny is Jermaine Fowler?
Like, just being, like, the most
suspicious ass fucking weirdo, and
then just the full on sociopath.
Emily: Yeah.
Alicia: no.
Now I'm talking.
Ben: There,
Emily: his
facial tick
Alicia: to
Ben: it does complicate a little bit this
again, the fact that they do all come
from very different walks, different,
you know, other identities there is
a bit of a message of like, oh, well,
for as much shit as they give each
other, there's no, you know, they each
got their own different way of being,
and they're all, is equally black, but
then you also have Clifton would be
like, well, hold on, there's a fucking
line, and Clifton crossed that line.
Aaron: Yep.
Twice.
Alicia: Twice.
Aaron: Yes.
be
Alicia: I bet he would have voted
for Trump a third time if he could.
Ben: He might, if he's, if he wasn't at
the bottom of the well, I'm sure he would.
I mean, so I guess this movie does,
and again, and please let me know
if I am completely off fucking
base with this, is it does kind of.
Combine, like, Hartley, you know, there's
no wrong way to be black with also,
yeah, but some skin folk ain't kinfolk.
Emily: right.
I mean,
Aaron: yeah.
Ben: Again, let me know if
I'm just, if I am just fuckin
flubbin it on this analysis here.
I'm,
Aaron: No, I don't, well, first,
Emily, what were you gonna say?
Alicia: Yeah, Emily.
Emily: sorry, I was just gonna say, I
definitely understand that there are
boundaries, there has to be boundaries
there, and there's certain boundaries
and this isn't really a serious thing,
but like, yeah, like, it totally
Ben: mean, I get it, on the jewish
side, we got dudes like fuckin Stephen
Miller, fuckin throw his whole ass out.
Alicia: Is Stephen Millett
your Candace Owens?
Ben: yeah, he's a, yeah.
yeah.
Emily: Yeah.
Ben: and Ben Shapiro, just
throw the whole ass man out.
in the trash.
Aaron: Ugh.
Anyway.
You're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna
send me to, send me to bed with that
thought on my
Alicia: look, we can talk about it later.
I, one of my quibbles, I think, was just
about the amount of joking that they
did, I always worry about, and I guess
maybe this is something that I have to
think about for myself, is that how is
a wider audience going to take this,
and like, what kind of jokes are going
to come out of, other people consuming
this media, you know, like Dave Chappelle
talking about people coming up to him and
saying the N word in the street, like to
him, they were, they were,
saying his jokes back to him,
Aaron: you literally
took the worst out of,
I was literally
Alicia: like, yeah, and like the,
the beginning, like I was telling
Jeremy, they're saying the N
word left, right, left, right.
And I was like, look, I've been in large
groups of black people and we, we don't
just call each other the N word all
the time.
Like, that's not,
Ben: notes a little difficult.
Alicia: it's not,
Ben: few few less lines
Alicia: yeah,
Ben: just quote directly.
Alicia: it was like, there are a few
places where it feels very earned and
it definitely feels in the dialogue.
Definitely.
It feels very real,
Ben: Oh, but they are, they
are throwing it out with
Aaron: yeah,
Ben: abandon.
Alicia: of
the, jokes.
that they make, like, like, would I
tell my biracial sister, they go to, you
know, they go to that panda bear and ask
you, yeah, I would throw her the panda
bear and I would throw me the brown
bear, I'd throw Jeremy a, like, a polar
bear, teddy bear and be like, one for
each of us, but I don't know that that
is something that I would necessarily
want other people thinking, oh yeah,
it's okay, we can joke about, you know,
Aaron: but the thing is,
so
Ben: I wish, y'all could have seen
Jeremy's fucking charismatic as fuck
smirk at being called a teddy bear.
Cause I'm not gonna lie, it was, it was a
fucking, it was a fuck, it was a smolder.
And I wish y'all could have seen it.
Alicia: that's my little
sugar bear right there.
But
Aaron: So here's the thing.
I didn't feel like that all the banter
back and forth between them was out of
place and I say that because one of the
things that was to the two experiences,
one of the things I noticed, I learned
growing up especially in the community
and where I grew up was numbers
increases that kind of exuberance.
Like, if, if you're, if it's you and
your friend and yeah, you're probably
going to be a little bit more relaxed
and calm, but the minute there's like.
Seven of you all hanging out.
Everyone's just gonna act a
fool because they just are.
The other part of it is in terms of
how often people will use the n word.
As someone who got their hair cut
every two weeks for most of their
adult life in the black barbershop.
Yes, there are.
There are.
Alicia: I suppose, you know what?
I was, I was every month in the salon,
so I was with the older ladies, so
maybe that's why I missed out on
Jeremy: I
just, I just kept wondering
where Luke Cage was to tell
them not to use that word.
Alicia: Oh, oh
Jeremy: TV Luke
Aaron: the things I could tell you
hearing growing up in there, I was
just like, literally, why are you,
why are you saying these words
in
public, in
public, it's like,
Alicia: what was the reason?
Aaron: It was, yeah.
Alicia: the other, kind of concern
that I had well, the other, my
other thought was that this is a lot
like bodies, bodies, bodies, except
I actually like these characters
Emily: Yes.
Ben: Like,
Alicia: absolutely detesting all of them,
but it's like they're elder millennial,
like, caricatures, all of them, and
so that kind of.
That's kind of where I came back
into the movie, where I was like,
okay, we're making fun of the slasher
trope, we are, you know, we have these
caricatures of people I did find the
joke where he said, y'all got to stop
calling my wife, the man, pretty.
Emily: Yeah, yeah,
Ben: yeah,
I do, like, appreciate you
bringing up bodies, bodies, bodies.
Cause I, you're right, it is
very different to Gen Z versus,
you know, millennial versus,
versus, uh, millennials.
But also to the degree where
it's like, yes, what I like about
bodies, bodies, bodies is how
much I detest these characters.
And they're fucking pointless,
gloriously, like, and they're
super enjoyable, dumb, deaths.
Alicia: yeah.
I hated, I hated
almost every minute of that movie.
I'm so angry.
Ben: I find Bodies by Bodies to be one of
those either you love it or you hate it.
I don't know anybody that's
just new, that's just neutral
on Bodies, Bodies, Bodies.
Jeremy: It was shifting moment to moment
for me, from full on love to full on hate.
Ben: with this one, and partially
just because their chemistry was
so good, I'm really happy this is a
movie where all six main characters
Alicia: Yes, like, I
feel like that needs to be highlighted,
Lisa is set up to be the final girl.
Lisa has all of the final
girl, just averageness.
Like there's no.
There's no, you know, when everybody's
handing out their little game pieces
and they're like, you're, he's from
Africa and she's biracial, like, she
has no deal, there's no thing with
her other than she keeps going back to
Namdi and she's best friends with Dwayne.
Ben: it takes at the end of
the movie for someone to even
ask, like, What is your deal?
And she's like, I'm an attorney!
Alicia: yeah, yeah,
yeah,
Ben: movie to learn
Alicia: yeah.
Like, even when they were voting for,
when they were deciding who are we gonna,
who's not the blackest, nobody says
Aaron: Nope.
Alicia: Lisa.
At all.
Ben: for it to get around,
Alicia: Yeah, I kept waiting
for, well, what's Lisa's deal?
Nobody says anything
Ben: there is something to be said
that, you know, with the exception of,
our first two characters, you know, uh,
Sean, and later on Morgan, I feel like
by not having a high buy count, even for
a slasher movie, by the nature of what
this movie is, like, this isn't a film
that traffics in Violence to black people.
This isn't a movie reveling in
showing you terrible, violent things
happening to black people at the hands
of racist white people in the woods.
Like, it would have been very easy to make
a version of this movie that That does not
realize how upsetting its imagery actually
is.
Alicia: also the fact that
like, Clifton paid 1, 000
Ben: Oh!
Alicia: killed,
Ben: thousand do
Emily: yeah.
Ben: A thousand
total!
Alicia: So he was paying
those brothers 500 each.
That's why I was like, I
don't know how, you know, this
guy's asthmatic.
He's got one eye, like he can't fight.
He's getting beat up and
he's only getting 500
Ben: you can get
Alicia: to kill us.
Ben: hundred dollar hit.
Emily: Well, they were
only charging like 3.
58 for gas, so, I mean, I guess
the economy there is really
Ben: Oh, and then when
Dwayne takes the money?
Yes!
And then he keeps the money!
He puts the money
Alicia: Oh, that's
offensive.
Ben: fucking funny!
Jeremy: do want to say, this is not
movie related really, except for that
it happens in the movie, just as a PSA.
If you get shot with an arrow,
break the arrow, leave it in.
Like, do not pull it out,
because arrows are tipped, so
you rip when you pull it out.
And you will bleed to death unless
you have something to bandage it
Ben: that might legitimately be the
worst part of the movie, is that it
might inadvertently teach someone
fatally bad lessons about what to do
if they're ever shot with an arrow.
Jeremy: if
it goes out the other end, break
it, pull it through the other end.
If it's stuck in you, leave it
there until you can get to actual
medical attention and break it.
Just,
Ben: Yeah, because then they're
like, what do we do now?
I'm like Three of you have arrow wounds!
A
Emily: Yeah, I mean, I, with that, and
with the, uh, the concern that, you know,
the jokes will be repeated I mean, the
jokes will be repeated situation, I'm
a little bit, like, I've, you know, in
general, I would be more worried about,
just because the jokes are so funny, but,
um, you know, if somebody's learning arrow
etiquette from this film, then I think
they're already too far gone for us, but
Jeremy: I mean, just, just if you do
end up in a situation where you're
lost in the woods and somebody shoots
you with an arrow, just leave it in.
Emily: yeah,
Aaron: Notice.
Jeremy: it doesn't
catch on everything, but
Ben: I assume, in.
this situation, you are drunk and have
just shot your buddy accidentally with
an arrow you just got from Walmart.
In which case, please
remember this podcast.
Emily: yeah, well,
Aaron: See?
I've said it before, I'll say it again.
Everything I know about survival
I learned from Naked and Afraid.
That's pretty much it.
That's all you need to know.
Jeremy: mean, I feel like Ben
made a very important point.
Like we want you to remember this podcast
when you're drunk and lost in the woods.
That's, that's the best
time to think about
Alicia: And when all you have
is your Android phone, you
know, make sure that you
Jeremy: make sure you
get on podcast addict
and listen to her.
Emily: Because you're
not going to have iTunes.
Let me tell you what.
Alicia: do people in.
So, you know, as far as like the
picking on each other do people in
other community, is that a thing
that you all do in your communities?
Do you
like
Emily: absolutely.
Ben: 100%, it's something I've Grown
less tolerant of as I've gotten older.
I've gotten to be a little less
like, Yeah, we're an asshole being
asshole people, but like, That shit,
but hey, it's just, you know, it's
what you do, and tell people up.
And now I'm like, Why are
we being mean assholes?
Like, Like, this, this sucks.
Can we just say, It's shitty,
there's a, Can we just say
it sucks to get made fun of?
Can we maybe just not do it?
Would that be the worst thing?
Emily: I think the biggest thing I've
learned as an adult is, you know, that
you can say, hey, maybe not right now.
And that's not going to,
like, destroy the vibe.
At least for people that you,
you know, genuinely want to keep
and will be the best people to
Ben: again, I, I grew up in the, you know,
the great Jewish Italian alliance that
helped build Long Island, and so, we,
we call it, uh, we call it Bustin Balls,
over here, yup,
Emily: yeah,
Ben: is, the, is the
anthropological vernacular,
Alicia: Hmm
Emily: yeah.
And that's you know, we, you don't have to
bust balls so hard that you're just, like,
obliterating each other, but I feel like
that's one thing about this movie that,
Jeremy: Oh, easy on the balls.
Emily: yeah, go easy on the balls.
They're very sensitive.
But that is one thing that I felt was
natural about this friend group is that
they had all of their little ways that
they teased each other and then, um,
you know, I felt, I felt that was fine.
Ben: it, it very much felt like the
teasing of friends who know each other,
and Know their limits except for when
they press those limits and then that
becomes, you know Something that they
then have to deal with during the movie.
Aaron: When Sneak was showed up with
her bottle of wine and you know, she's
trying to come in, was it through
the window or something like that?
and and doing basically stuff, that
whole exchange, they're like screaming,
yelling back and forth to each other, and
then he's like, go through the fucking
door, and then he's, he's like, love
you, love you, and they just keep, they
keep on going, that was just it, I'm
like, that's That's that exemplifies
exactly what we're talking about.
It's just, yeah, we're going to talk shit.
We're going to, we're going
to get in each other's faces.
We know we don't mean it.
We know it's just the thing that we're
going to just, you know, move on to
the next thing and never go back to
this and it doesn't because it's,
it's not even like it's a thing that
happened that they were supposed to
feel in the moment and sort of let go.
It's just, it's just like, It's just words
It's just words that should
never even be absorbed because,
you know, it means nothing.
So that's kind of how it was.
So it's not really like, I get what
you're saying about busting balls, but
I guess even when I'm like with my mom,
it's funny, my mother calls us the Glee
Club, my group of friends, even when we're
together, I didn't even know, I wouldn't
even be able to clock all the shit we say
back and forth to each other that, you
know, by the time we finish that sentence,
someone else is on to their next read.
And then by the time they finish,
somebody else is on to the next read,
and then we've forgotten whatever was
said, and then move on to the next
thing, but it's like, and we all walk
out, you know, give each other our big
hugs before we leave, you know, because
this was like our, the end of like a
nine hour brunch, and we call it a day.
We just go
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah.
I wanted to talk briefly because
I think, you know, in terms of our
progressive politics section of the show,
I think it's, you know, we've, we've
addressed a lot of the questions here.
You know, in terms of representation, it's
really great because everybody, uh, every
part of that camp out or not camp out.
See the cookout.
Yeah.
Aaron: I just wanted to, I
wanted to wait long enough.
I wanted to just wait and pause.
I'm like, let's see if she gets it.
Let's see if she gets it.
Let's
Emily: Look, I know, I know who I am.
I'm not going to make any fucking excuses.
Aaron: I was
Emily: If your, if your
video is on, you should know.
But anyway, the, um, just so
you know my name is Emily.
Just remember that.
I'm talking to the reader or
the, uh, the listener, you know?
Okay.
Anyway, um, the, the one thing
I did want to bring up was the,
the characterization of Clifton.
And his facial tick.
I'm not sure what that was
about other than him being
Ben: I I do feel like that
was
That, no, that's a fair quibble.
I do feel like that is just, you know, I
feel like that's just some straight out
little bit of ableism on the movies part.
I do feel like that is just using a a
deformity or to try to just as a way to
just in that stereotype of like look that
means he's extra shifty as you know it's
very much oh it's not something where that
the movie explores it's just kind of a way
to demonize to demonize them in that kind
of Classic way that disability has long
been used to give him that little cherry
on top the villain the villainy sundae.
Emily: yeah, I, I mean, that was my
only, like, big question about the
movie in terms of, like, all of the
other stuff that it was dealing with.
Ben: Also surprisingly mean to people
with asthma, but you know what?
Deservedly.
Emily: but for real, though, does
Clifton play, I think Clifton
does play Magic the Gathering.
Do you, do we think that he plays
Swamp main because of his complex, or
is he, like, more of a blue player?
Aaron: He said a lot of words that
I have no idea what they mean.
Emily: Swamp, swamps have black mana.
That's the,
that's
Alicia: what that means.
Aaron: I know I do not know
what that means.
I want to learn,
Ben: blue eyes
Emily: Don't worry about
Ben: dragon.
I
Jeremy: he plays Yu Gi
Emily: Okay, yeah, Yu
Gi Oh, Yu Gi Oh is um,
Ben: likes Seto Kaiba a lot.
Emily: Yeah, he's more
of a Seto Kaiba guy.
Aaron: I will say,
Alicia: me.
Aaron: I will say, no matter which Kahn
I go to, whether it's the local Kahn
here, Awesome Kahn, or New York Comic
Kahn, or wherever, the minute I walk
into those tabletop gaming rooms, I'm
like, I once again feel like an outsider.
I'm like, this is the only place in any
nerd event where I feel like an outsider.
Because I'm like, I have
no idea what is happening
right now, but everyone
is enjoying themselves.
Jeremy: I mean, I
regardless, that guy has strong opinions
on Joey Wheeler, that's all I know.
Emily: Yeah.
yeah, going in there.
Ben: Oh, Clifton absolutely has
called Joey Wheeler too urban.
Emily: On Twitter, yes.
Aaron: Not Twitter,
Jeremy: Clifton's all
Alicia: never mind.
Jeremy: Clifton is a
Emily: about it.
Yu Gi Oh's a
Ben: an anime character,
they gave a Brooklyn accent.
Emily: yeah.
Joey Wheeler.
too too wit.
Alicia: All right.
Emily: Anyway, this is all Yu Gi Oh.
We're weebs.
Also not apologizing for that.
Ben: I'm apologizing a little bit.
Emily: I'm not.
Aaron: listen, live in your space.
Emily: Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean,
we all,
Ben: The, shame?
Deep seated.
Emily: yeah.
I'm the one who fucking brought up
Berserk, and you know what, I do,
uh,
ask
for,
Ben: legit bringing up Berserk.
Emily: well, have you, have you read
Berserk?
Ben: I haven't, but I know it's great,
and it's always okay to bring up Berserk.
Emily: I don't know.
We'll have the conversation later.
Anyway,
Ben: Okay, I still have about,
I still got another, like, 350
chapters of One Piece to get through.
Emily: Have fun reading manga forever.
Ben: I will!
It's great!
Emily: Bless.
anyway, I have it, but I've watched it.
Okay, anyway, sorry, we just,
like, fucking hijacked this for
weeaboo corner, but like, anyway,
the, the point being yeah, the
Clifton
Alicia: a slur?
Is
Emily: you know, apparently not.
I, you know what I've,
Alicia: that what y'all call yourselves?
Like, is that like, is it?
If I called you that,
would that be offensive?
Emily: no,
Alicia: I
Emily: I mean,
I don't
think when I, when I first heard
the term, no, it's okay, because
I, when I first heard the term
weeaboo, I was like, Excuse you?
And then,
Ben: I'm gonna say any slurs for
American anime watchers should be used.
Emily: uh, yeah,
Aaron: what would, what
would the equivalent of that
would that be for a cookout?
Ben: Are you, are you invited to the,
are you invited to the Kahn after party?
Aaron: There you go.
Just trying to, just trying
to figure out what the
safe
space is.
Ben: rave.
Emily: Oh yeah, yeah, are you
invited to the furry rave?
There
Aaron: you.
There
you go.
I was just trying to figure out where
Emily: Camp out.
Listen,
Alicia: Yeah.
Ben: any of those spaces are safe.
Emily: it depends on how many
pokeball shaped Molly you're taking.
Alicia: Oh, wow.
Anyway, so would you recommend this film?
Emily: Absolutely.
Aaron: god, yes, yes,
Ben: my god, so,
Alicia: I've recommended
it to three people today.
Emily: Yeah, yeah, I would recommend it.
I was the only reason I haven't
recommended it to anybody is that I
haven't seen anybody that I didn't already
see while I was watching the movie.
Alicia: Well,
Aaron: Apparently I was the only
person I knew who hadn't seen
it, so, hey, there you have it.
Ben: You caught
up.
Alicia: yeah.
Aaron: Everyone I mentioned
it to had thoughts.
I was like, oh, okay.
So apparently, I mean, apparently
I wasn't invited to the cookout.
I'm learning this as we speak right now.
Ben: do we have recommendations?
Aaron: Oof.
Ben: I, I, I, can kick us out.
I'm going to recommend, it
hasn't actually come out yet.
But it looks really funny.
I love the cast and I really
like this director's past film.
And I'm going to recommend
The Book of Clarence from
director writer, director James
Aaron: Oh,
Ben: starring Lakeith Stan,
yeah, starring Lakeith Stanfield.
Uh, you also got Omar Sy from, uh,
Lupin Anna Diop from, uh, Titans, RJ
Seiler from Power Rangers, David Oyelowo
from the MLK biopic Alfre Woodard
from a whole bunch of fucking stuff,
uh, from everything.
you got Caleb McLaughlin from
Stranger Things just, James
McAvoy is in this fucking thing,
Aaron: I never in my life thought I
would hear someone describe a cast that
included Alfre Woodard and a Power Ranger.
Alicia: Right.
Okay,
Emily: Rangers,
Jeremy: What if Alfre
Woodard was a Power Ranger?
Aaron: We
Ben: That'd be, yeah.
Emily: yeah.
Ben: So anyway, has not come
out yet, so it might not be
good, but it looks really good.
And you know what?
By the time this podcast
drops, it will be out.
So there you go.
Alicia: well, since tis the season
I enjoy Terrible holiday movies,
like, made for television hallmark
style rom com holiday movies.
And recently I've been on a kick of,
watching ones from the OWN network,
like the Oprah Winfrey versions,
which have generally been a little bit
more fun than some of the other ones.
However, Jeremy and I stumbled
across a movie that came out some
time ago called The Bitch Who Stole
Christmas, and it is a drag race movie,
starring RuPaul, and It was very kitschy.
It was very Drag Race.
I think RuPaul was excellent.
And there are some, some,
some real stellar moments.
So if you're looking for a bad
Christmas movie to watch, I highly
recommend The Bitch Who Stole Christmas.
There is a scene of RuPaul saying,
I am your mother, I've always been
mother, while climbing a giant
tree Christmas tree, so, fun times.
Jeremy: That is fun times.
Aaron: Who's next?
I didn't have anything that immediately
sprung to mind that was related as
a movie, but really just the sort of
comedic style that made me, it made
me think of, and I don't know, maybe
I'm the only person who will, who have
seen this, the Black Lady Sketch Show.
Jeremy: Oh, no, we've, we've seen
Ben: Absolutely.
Yeah.
Aaron: me a lot of those vibes.
Robin
Alicia: see, see.
see.
see.
see.
Aaron: So, that's what,
Alicia: If you like
Aaron: are the vibes, the comedic
vibes that it was giving me.
Mmm.
Alicia: You know what, it was also giving
me a little bit of Grand Crew as well.
So, um, if you didn't watch Grand Crew
when it was on, Nicole Byards, especially
the scene where, or the episode where
he's teaching him how to trash talk.
He's like, your head lookin ass,
your neck lookin ass, you know.
Because they go head, neck,
chest, feet, like, yeah,
um, I take it back.
I take back the bitch who stole Christmas.
I
Aaron: ha
Alicia: Cru.
Emily: Sounds good.
Alicia: this, cut this, cut this.
Jeremy: Heh heh heh heh heh heh.
Emily: In terms of recommendations
if you want to see a movie that is
satisfying, but with slightly more
violence and slightly less likable
characters Sissy is another great one.
And I also just recently found out
this has very little to do with this
movie, but it is the season right now.
Of course, it'll be when you're listening
hopefully you can still find this movie.
You don't mind watching a
Christmas movie in February.
But it's vs.
the Devil.
Alicia: Hmm,
Emily: And, it's kind of like the
devil or the, excuse me, the Santa
Claus versus the Martians vibe.
Alicia: why not Santa versus Satan?
I mean, it's right there.
Emily: Uh, it's a Spanish film.
Well, I believe, I believe it's,
well, it's a Mexican.
Yeah.
That's French.
Alicia: That's French.
bud.
Jeremy: I
know.
Alicia: Oh, bienvenu.
Emily: well, it's actually a Mexican film.
I should say that it's in Spanish,
but you know, I should be clear
about origins of these things.
So yeah.
Alicia: Emily Martin have to hide?
Hiding the origins of films.
Anyway.
Emily: Subscribe to our Patreon
to find out what do I have to say.
Jeremy.
Jeremy: I've been thinking, I feel
like there's a lot of things that I
could recommend, but, uh, just today
I watched the first two episodes of
the new Disney Plus Percy Jackson
show, uh, with my daughter, Mara, who
we've been reading the books together.
Alicia: And oh boy, she was,
she said she was watching
the trailer over and over
Ben: Ooh.
Alicia: to watch it without you.
Ben: Aw,
Emily: Awww.
Alicia: She's like, Mommy, I'm breaking.
I'm breaking.
I don't think I can make it.
Jeremy: she insisted on watching
the movies that we already
knew were bad before we watched
them, and they are very bad.
previous iteration of Christopher
Columbus fronted Percy Jackson movies.
We sat down to watch these today, and
there's two episodes out at this point.
They'll probably all be out by
the time this is going up but
they went ahead and, you know,
kick started it with two episodes.
The best way to actually tie it to this
show at all is that Chiron the centaur
is, who's one of the main characters of
the series that, you know, sort of his
mentor is played by Glenn Turman, who
was in, uh, the original Gremlins movie.
Alicia: I
Jeremy: hey!
Alicia: is that Colonel
Taylor from a different world?
Jeremy: He's
Aaron: thought so.
Yeah,
I think I did.
Jeremy: Yeah, it's Mr.
Hansen from the Gremlins, Yeah, might
Aaron: Hold on.
Let
Jeremy: gonna take that out, hold on,
Alicia: Jeremy, I just really feel
like the fact that you recognize
him from Gremlins and not from
a different world just says
something about where we both come
Aaron: Oh,
you know what?
Ben: Uh oh.
Jeremy: I will say though, that, Mr.
D.
Dionysus, who is the camp, uh, leader
who I always give a crazy voice when I'm
reading the book I was so excited when
Percy Jackson walks into his little hut,
and it's Jason Metsoukas, I was like,
perfect casting, 10 of 10, must recommend.
This is, this is,
uh,
Ben: is, uh, Jason Zuki playing?
Jeremy: Dionysus.
Emily: Wow.
Jeremy: Yeah.
The, like, core cast of kids that
are gonna be the, continuing.
Characters are really great.
Even the like little bits and
pieces of things that as we've been
reading the books, I've been like,
wow, this is a little early 2000s,
um, have kind of been addressed.
They've been fixed up a little bit.
It's like, it's, it's better
than it is in the books even.
They haven't Megan
Mullally is in the cast.
She hasn't shown up yet, but I'm, I'm
excited for her to to show up, but
yeah, it's a, it's a great so far.
It's a great cast and they, they
do a really good job with it.
And it's a diverse group of characters
and worlds a lot more than it has
to be with a story about Greek gods.
Which I, I've appreciated about recording
stuff in general, but I appreciate
especially the way it's done in this show.
But yeah, definitely worth, checking
out if you haven't watched it probably
the whole season is out by now,
because it's February, we're recording
this just before Christmas, so, that
one's definitely worth checking out.
I think that's it, right?
Everybody recommended
something?
Ben: I think so.
Jeremy: All right.
Well, uh, that's it.
Aaron, can you, uh, let people
know where they can find you,
find out more about what you do?
Aaron: I literally forgot for a second.
You can
Jeremy: You forgot who you were?
Aaron: I was like, where am I?
What's happening?
You can find me, probably every Wednesday.
on a new episode of the Talking Comics
Podcast, where a bunch of us just
sit around our virtual clubhouse and
talk all things nerd, mostly comics
and, you know, have a good time.
So, by the time this comes out, we'll
be full on into the new year of, of
comics and seeing what's what and,
you know, having lots of things to say
about it, so you can check us out there.
Jeremy: Awesome.
And Alicia, can you let people
know more and more about where
they can find you online?
Alicia: Well, um, I'm still
on Twitter, at Alicia Whitley.
And I'm also on Blue Sky, at
Alicia Whitley dot whatever the
ending to Blue Sky addresses is.
And yeah, that's pretty much
what I'm doing right now.
There you go.
Jeremy: Awesome.
And you also have, book reviews and
stuff out there now, so, I guess they
can find that stuff through your Twitter.
Alicia: They can, yes, they can.
Jeremy: And of course, uh, if you're
listening to this podcast, you're
experiencing Alicia's work right now.
She edits this and every, every other
episode of this for since it got,
since it started sounding good, uh,
Alicia: Aww, thanks
bud.
Jeremy: No problem.
Emily: you, Alicia.
Alicia: is when I started.
Jeremy: Yeah,
Emily: We appreciate you so much.
so
much.
Jeremy: And, uh, Emily, what about you?
Emily: Megamoth.
net it's just a link to all my stuff
highlights, mega underscore moth on
Instagram, and mega moth on Patreon,
which, you know, I also have free tiers,
but sign up to Patreon for the podcast
first, and then you get the extra bonuses
for me, like, my respect and gratitude.
Jeremy: Okay,
Aaron: a cost.
Emily: Yeah.
Jeremy: cheap for respect,
but you know, still.
Uh, and Vin, what about you?
Ben: Yeah, check me out.
Uh, ben con comics.com.
Uh, Ben Con comics on Instagram and
Blue Sky and, you know, be, be a Pal.
Order some books.
My most recent work is the Captain
Laserhawk manga from Tokyo Pop,
and you can pick up my novel,
El Campbell Wins Their Weekend.
Emily: Or else.
Jeremy: Yeah, um,
Emily: you.
Ben: Yeah,
Jeremy: and as for me, you
can find me at jeremywhitley.
com.
Uh, you can find me on Twitter
and Instagram at jrem58, and
BlueSky and Tumblr, jeremywhitley.
You can, right now, probably pick up
my, uh, my new book, The Cold Ever
After, which I, uh, wrote and Megan
Wong illustrated, it's out from Titan
Comics right now, if it's not in the
store, ask them to order it, it's
fun, it's got a little bit of horror,
a little bit of romance, a little
bit of, fantasy in there, so I think
if you enjoy this podcast, you'll
probably enjoy, That book as well.
You can also, uh, while you're at
it, pick up the dog night 'cause that
is still out . It hasn't gone away.
And of course you can, uh, find the
podcast on Patreon at progressively
horrified on our website at
progressively horrified transitionor
fm and on Twitter at Prague Horror Pod.
We would love to hear from you.
And speaking of loving to hear from
you we would really love it if you
could rate and review this podcast
wherever you're listening to it.
And that will help us find
more listeners, which will help
us keep making the podcast.
So we would really appreciate that.
Thanks again to our guests, Alicia
and Aaron for joining us guys.
This was a, this was a fun one.
Aaron: fun.
So
Emily: Thank you so much.
Alicia: Thank you for having me.
Ben: Thank you so much
for coming on, everyone.
Aaron: Of course.
Great time.
Great time.
Jeremy: Well, until next time,
everybody stay horrified.
Emily: Clap.