It’s not enough that we slave over each episode. We also put up cool links to videos and whatnot inspired by our conversation. Ian does it on our Facebook page and I bring it on the website. We have lots of great links so let’s get going!
First up, Ian and I talked about a movie that details the construction of the trap that opens Raiders of the Lost Ark. That would be a hell of a thing to have to make. Talk about your building codes! How do you build poison dart shooters to code? This has led Ian to ask, “What if Raiders of the Lost Ark had been made with Lego?” I think it would look something like this:
Is that how the movie really opens? I don’t remember it being that gag-filled. Or Lego-y.
We talked a little bit about the Oscars. I thought that the first film to win the Oscars was Wings and I was right! Ian was able to find the original trailer:
Tony Shaloub won the Oscar for Best Actor that year, but more for his work on this:
The Oscars are always awarding people retroactively for good work that goes unrecognized. Glad they could correct the original oversight!
We also talked about how no one likes rich people:
Yeah, they are all pretty much jerks (judging by this trailer).
We celebrated a belated Sadie Hawkins Day! Though Ian and me are some o’ them poor fellers who is already married. Here’s a cool cartoon made by Columbia Studios in the 1940s:
Not bad, but the chaotic anarchy of the original strips will never be outdone, I don’t think.
I’ve edited two different clips of the Sadie Hawkins Day race from two different Lil’ Abner movies. I hope I haven’t cut them out of all context, but if you know the comic strip, you’ll know that once a year Dogpatch holds a race in which any eligible woman can marry any eligible man, IF she can catch him.
First, from the 1940 movie:
This film is pretty good and I say that as a huge Lil’ Abner fan. The music is terrible though. If you listen to it during the chase sequence it sounds like music from a Robin Hood-style adventure film. It features the great Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat.
All right. let’s turn our attention to the 1959 film, which was an adaptation of a Broadway musical:
I think this film is really great. It has a crazy plot – as crazy as any of the plots in the comic strip – plus crazy, colourful sets and costumes and it has Julie Newmar as Stupefying Jones. ‘Nuff said.
(Late update: Sadie Hawkins Day is traditionally held on the Saturday after November 9th. The tradition of “allowing” women to propose to men on February 29th of every leap year has unofficially become known as Sadie Hawkins Day.)
I told Ian a touching story of how I met my childhood best friend. It’s one of those “meet cute” stories. He chased a friend and me home, hitting us with his metal Gentle Ben lunchbox. Ian posted this video in tribute:
Watching that video, I was surprised that a) Dennis Weaver and Clint Howard were stars of the show and b)they were still alive when the series ended.
My lunchbox-bashing friend and I became huge fans of the Goon Show and it was a big part of my emerging love of comedy. Ian found some great video of the Goons recording the show and “goon”ing around. Unfortunately, I can’t embed it here on the website. So, instead, I’ll let Monty Python tell you how great the Goon Show was:
What can I say? They’re right!
Okay, we talked a little bit about lunchboxes. It turns out that both Ian and I had Road Runner lunchboxes when we were in elementary school. Do we need any other reason to play the very first Road Runner cartoon? I didn’t think so.
So very, very entertaining. Let’s enjoy it while we can because I’ll probably have to disable the embedding eventually. (My feeling about embedding content in websites is this: Since anyone can post any sort of video they like on Facebook, what is the difference with embedded videos on websites? Still, it seems that a lot of YouTube videos don’t allow embedding. I had to download this and re-upload it. Very annoying!)
Our lunchboxes looked like this:
My friend’s Gentle Ben lunchbox looked like this – only closer and more painful.
Now that is a picture from more innocent times!
We also talked about Tex Avery cartoons. Along with the really good Warner Bros. cartoons – Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck – Tex Avery’s cartoons were always something we looked forward to as kids. Ian chose the House of Tomorrow; I chose this one:
Not the greatest quality video, but at least I could embed it!
Since it was our thirteenth show, we talked about superstitions. I mentioned Friday the 13th, and that prompted Ian to tell us all about Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan:
Not bad, but do you know who else took Manhattan? That’s right! The Muppets!
And do you know who also took Manhattan? Leonard Cohen.
All our female listeners of a certain age had their hearts melted.
Ian and I discussed the theory that there are an infinite number of universes. It is possible that in an infinite number of universes there might be a planet where everyone is named Dave.
It is possible that such a planet might exist and it is likely that such a planet would be really confusing.
Ian has a theory on the origin of the greasy glaze that covers your garden-variety hardcore nerd. It is demonstrated here:
Does this connection make doughnuts less appetizing or more appetizing? I know my answer and it may not be what you expect!*
(*Dave’s answer: “Melon.”)
Ian and I spent an awful lot of time talking about Dungeons and Dragons. Well, I spent an awfully long time talking about it. As someone who played D&D a lot as a teen, you’d think I’d know about the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, right? Nope.
What the…? That is an incredibly dangerous ride! That isn’t even funny.
“Well then, Mr. D&D nerd, how about the movie? What did you think of that?” Actually, I never heard of that either.
A few thoughts after seeing that trailer:
1) Of course, the game is called Dungeons and Dragons so there’s got to be tons of dragons, right? Right?
2) Jeremy Irons??? Someone had some financial problems to straighten out. Perhaps he took a share, hoping to pull off an Alec Guinness. Tough luck, Jeremy!
3) Wow, did that computer animation once look really great to us? Or was it pretty lame and we put up with it because it was a novelty?
4) Whatever happened to Thora Birch? Remember when she was all the rage in Ghost World and Scarlet Johannson was second banana?
Sigh…the good old days.
Okay, last and absolutely least, Ian mentioned a strip club that is a few blocks away from his office at Hellkitty Studios called the Cobalt Hotel, whose Girls! Girls! Girls! sign inspired some of the insipid hair metal that just had to die, die, die at the beginning of the nineties. I apologize for the next clip:
OMG! People were cheering louts riding motorbikes onto a stage! Fuck that shit. I’d comment about the video, but I couldn’t be arsed to watch it.
Oh, now I’m in a bad mood, which is no way to end a links post, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Ugh. See you next week, friends!