Spice World with Amanda Meadows

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Speaker 1: On the bel Cast, the questions asked if movies have women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy and best start changing it with the Beckdel Cast. Hello and welcome to the Bechtel Cast. I'm Caitlin, I'm Jamie, and we're here to talk about movies, specifically what women. Yeah, the portrayal of women. The portrayal of women. What are they like? What are they like? Do they get? Oh? Here's the test. Are there two women in the movie who are speaking to each other about something other than a man? Do they have names? We want to know Ideally they do? Ideally yes, And that, my friends, is the Bechtel Test created Bye Joey Bechtel, Bobby Bechtel, the second Mr Bobby Beckdel. Yeah, so that's what this podcast is about. And we're going to talk about a movie as we do every single time. We're so excited for this episode. Yeah, I'm pretty excited. Um, let's just jump right in and introduce our guests. She is the best. She's so funny. She is a best selling author and she co runs Devastating or Press on a Los Angeles it man meadows. Oh my god, that was a great intro. No information about me, but like, I know I've been to your home. You know what. That's right, You've a lovely home. By the way, Well, thank you, Amanda. Fun fact about Amanda, She's got a Charlie Brown poster in her bathroom. Yes, and it's from the movie everyone forgets about. I'd never heard of it. I had to look it up. After Charlie Brown. They go to France, they stay in the countryside, there's great stuff. A house is on fire. Whose idea plane? It's great? Is the French Tourism board responsible for the absolutely let's bring beloved American characters, you know, just to rants, just to like make it an appealing to to the younger set. My dad has a weird amount of spite for France. Really, he calls everything that he thinks rich people do French. One time he called me and he was like where are you And I was like, I'm in a Starbucks and he was like, what are you French? Wait? Was he one of those people who like, like, instead of calling them French fries, he'd call them freedom fries. No. I think he just like decided that French was a synonym for bougie, which does, which does? Which makes sense if you view French people as like bread carrying cartoon characters. Right. I had an idea for a sketch that I wanted to perform once where it would just be like a quick blackout sketch, but it would be Jack from Titanic and Rose or some woman. And the woman would say, Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French girls. And she takes off a robe and it's just like her, with like a beret and like a striped shirt, with like a little red hand, like smoking a cigarette and holding a bag a t great, I love it, I'm in give me. Can it also be the caffee Baits character? Oh yeah, Molly sinkable Molly Branch, Yes, like so very unsinkable. Hey, what movie we're talking about today? I don't know. I said that we're talking about We just talk about Titanic. Ackat, No, we're not talking man. Well if I know that, that's what we always want to do. Okay, this is the same eraboh true, same year because the movie we're talking about is Spice World. That's a yas queen. Yeah, this is kind of a yas Queen kind of movie. It's super is excuse my shouting. I have a Mike's Hard lemonade. It's a harder. I has a lightning bowl over the r we. Yeah, it's wild serious. If you want to get crazy, you're gonna want to funk with this lemonade. Does that mean it's a higher alcohol content than a regular mix hard? Yeah, it's it's actually kind of ridiculous. Yeah. It says warning next to it too, it says warning contains alcohol. Yeah, I'm not ready. Just in case I'm not ready, because it looks like a kind of like juice, which is essentially where it is just like riddled with alcohol. Also, when you smell it, it's it smells like the love Spell body spray from Victorious. Remember this candy sticky sweet? Yeah, it's like it's it's I wouldn't say it's good, but I would say that I have it a lot, that it is peak drinkable, consumable. Love it. Yeah, and all the bliss points. Give some snack food lingo, some inside snack food business lingo. Do you know someone in the biz? I just read an except an excerpt from that book about bliss points, about like, how like Freedola like designs tastes to be like peak salt, peak sugar. That sounds really good. Yeah, I bet the Mike's Harder people develop their product using sheer intuition. They're like, we know, like, but how does it feel? How does a Mike's Hard lemonade of twelve year olds? Yeah? I have this kid's how does it feel? I want to be a part of them's hard focus group? Like what would it be? Like? There's there's a bad sketch that I could write Mike's Hard focus group. It's a little bit harder than your regular bug. I'd buy it. I'll pay you a bunch of money. Do you want to buy my sketch? Let's do it. Let's go back in time, spitch it to funnier name in two thousand nine. Yeah, I'd be like, give me a give me a be selep any b selep be in my sketch? That is bad? Whoa sick? Ross? Jamie? So we're talking about spice World and said that, well, yeah we did, but that we immediately got off topic. And I prepared for such an eventuality. I brought us all physical totems to remind us that we're talking about Spice World. Yeah, so I actually really really no. Lie bought these two two and a half years ago at a ninine cent story. I have these three inch mini figurines of four of the Spice Girls. Let's see. We've got baby here, we got sporty, We've got your posh she's in some kind of bikini, doesn't look that posh? And scary Spice who's in some kind of cow themed get ups. Animal prints. Yeah, she loves her animal prints. That's what makes her scary, not that she's black. How do we feel one? I mean, are we addressing was problematic in this movie? Or was problematic about the Spice Girls as an entity? I think it's an entity because, like the movie is actually not that offensive, it's just kind of bad. Yeah, so tell us about, like, when when did you first see this? What's your history with this movie? Let's see, so I like, I immediately love the Spice Girls. I was the right age. I think I was like in fifth grade when I Wannabe came out and yeah, it was just like me and the girls at school just figuring out which Spice Girl we're going to be. It was pretty obvious for me, but I got to sit and watch everyone else argue about whether they were baby or posh, so that was fun. Um, and I loved the first album. Um. I never got to see them live, but I did see Spice World in theaters and I hadn't seen it since uh last night, and today I watched a bunch of clips in random order, which is kind of like watching them anyway. Yeah, it was probably closer to real order than I think. But yeah, it's just a crazy, mad cap like Monkey's style adventure and and uh, you know, it did seem kind of feminist when I was a kid. Now it's like it almost feels like it was before it's time, because it was like kind of ironically feminist. Um, I feel like they weren't trying, but it somehow ended up still. It was like weird corporate feminist. It's a very like neoliberal capitalist. Yeah, girl power, they say, wonder if they were getting money for so much like girl power because this is something we can put on an eardescent sticker. The little girls will die. So many shirts that girl power. When I was little and they were all pink. Yeah yeah, like I I there was the little like crop top with the with the shoulder like the caps leave that said boys lie and there's like an eardescent print. Like there was this girl who wore it like every other day at school. It was like its like a spice girl. Let's stop like graphic t stories. I had my fifth grade school picture. Um um, I have braces. And I used to love getting corn rows, which is like weird. And I used to love getting corn rows. That was, yeah, what you do the butterfly clips? I did the butterfly clips, and in this particular is a specific genre of corn row, right, I mean it was. It still looked a little bit off, but I was wearing a yeah it was. It was. It was very poor neighborhood and Massa jees, we all had corn rows. It was a different time. Anyways, I'm wearing a T shirt that says too young for Ashton's. Oh I remember those shirts. Yeah, you get him a Macy's and my aunt got it for me. I didn't need to too young for Ashton isn't like yeah, because he was on show. He was on first name basis, like fame in the early ots like do Where's My Car? Show? Yeah, I remember that I was a little too old from at that point, and it said too young for Ashton, as if to say, but I recognize I'm too young. Yeah. It was actually a very progressive shirt or a warning to Ashton, say he's like, hey, what a cute little Oh no, she's too young baby, like knee socks lead my shirt and too young for you? Too young for you, but I think you're very handsome. Oh my god. Should I'll do the recap of this. I don't know, let's do it. I mean, how do you even recap a movie without a plot? I don't series of I'm winded. It's not even sketches skits. Yeah, it's not sophisticated enough to have a sketching sketch. It is ski decidedly skin room. The story focuses on the Spice girls. They all play themselves. They're already like famous in the movie. They have like I guess a manager named Clifford. I'm not entirely sure what his job is. And then he has like a another person who helps named Debrah. They're kind of like keeping the girls on track because they're about to do a live show in a few days or some amount of time minutes. The concept of time. It's very Meanwhile, there is this guy who runs a tabloid magazine and he's like, I hate these Spice Girls. People like him too much. I want different headlines. So he hires this like he's so sweaty and everything. He's like, I made them again a stroidem and he just covered in flop sweat. It's like, what is he so stranged? He's it's like almost like a j Jonah Jamison, like all I think about his Spider Man where he's like, oh, I think about is as Spice Girls. He's like a strung out just like with way lower steaks. So yeah, he hires a guy like a photographer to like kind of go undercover and like try to dig up some dirt on the Spice Girl so that he can start running different headlines. He got the he got the foggy toe sucking picture. Meanwhile, there are these two other like Hollywood guys who want to make a movie about the Spice Girls, so they like keep pitching stories to Clifford. So those are like some of the subplots. I guess. The main plot is just the Spice Girls preparing for this concert, Like they go to dance camp or something like and they have a friend named Nicola. They have a pregnant and they're like trying to support her and her pregnancy, and it's just about them having a friendship and being in a girl band together. It's such a confusing movie, Like every part of it, I'm like, do they hate mothers? Do they like mothers? Do they? Because they they're like, we're so happy for you, and then right, and then they're like if we were mothers, we'd be fat and boring. And then you see that long, admittedly great skit about babies, like how many babies do I have? Again? Right, this movie is there's like all these like dream sequence slash weird flash forward type things sprinkled throughout, and then at the end it's revealed it's been a movie the whole time. This movie is so met Yeah, it's crazy. It has a thinker thinker. There's like this it's a mad, mad, mad mad world feeling where there's like all of these different camps and people going after the Spice girls, but they don't give you enough time to understand what they're like. Angles aren't necessarily There's also the two screenwriters who are like trying to like pitch a movie and then there's like Alan Cummings in it forgot about Oh my god, and I forget Yeah, he's trying to make a documentary about them. First of all, let me say, why are so many antagonists? But none of them are even like all that bad. They're just like comically, Yeah, they do the concert. Everyone loves them. First of all, let me say, I would totally have sex with Alan Cumming. Oh my god, he's such as a hard note for me. Yeah, I'm super surprised we do not have the same taste in men. We That's like the best part of like a solid friendship is like there's never going to be a clash. I'm going to take Alfred Molina every time. You're gonna take Alan Comming every time. Well, I'll go home happy, Okay, I'll still take Alfred. Mollie and I had. Paul likes like my high end, like queer. He knows a lot. I can learn a few things. I don't like to be taught. I'm like, I'm going to show you how it's done. I'm Blench devereauh she was, that's our Jamie. I'm a real blanch. I wish I was a real blanch. I'm more of a Dorothy. I think, yeah, me too, but I want to be a Sophia. She's so funny. I'm not familiar enough with the show, so I'm just gonna call my home. I'm like, really a Raphael from the Ninja Turtle. There was crude dude with an attitude. There's actually a Spice Girls Ninja Turtles connection. I read the because I vaguely remembered that Roger Ebert particularly really really really hated this movie and like wrote a really fun bad review of it where he says, the Spice Girls are in paraphrasing, but like they're as easy to distinguish as the Ninja Turtles, but it doesn't matter because none of them have any personality. Like they look very different, but they're all the same person It was like interesting parallel Saker would disagree. I would too, but I just thought it was interesting that he felt so like really revisited this movie a number of times in specials in books, like he for someone who disliked this movie, he really put some hours into really thinking about it, because it's a really interesting failure. Like there's a lot to dissects. It's like a time capsule. It's like what other point in time would this be allowed, right, Yeah, just pretty much. I remember this exact day. This movie is super popular when it came out, but it like not that it hasn't aged well because I just watched it and I enjoyed it, not because it's a good movie. Mostly it's just it has great jokes. This is a very funny movie. I totally forgot. There are a lot of funny moments. I was telling Jamie before we started recording that, like, I probably saw this movie for the first time. I might have been around when it came out, if not, maybe a few years later, but I was still you know, young, uh, you know, early teenager kind of thing, and I totally dismissed it as a movie that, like I probably have paid attention to it. I was like, oh, I don't want I don't I don't really care about the Spice Girls. I was more into Backstreet Boys. I was your favor. Brian me too. He had a hard condition, which would be Brian he did. He was the hot one. No, Nick Carter was a hot one, but Brian was the one who brought a certain something to the table. Brian had a really nice jaw line, and that was what I liked about he was Kevin's cousin. Kee was the old one that was the more square faced dude with like the ash brown hair. Right, it's like always just like a regular dude with the spiky hair. Yeah. And then I remember my mom had a big crush on Kevin, even the time that he wore the kilt. I know, Keny was killed. And then Howie was the worst of all. He's saying that song Spanish Eyes. How he super gross. But a j Vanity came god and he was troubled. He went to rehab, but he was like, oh about it. I saw I've told Caitlin this story before. I'm pretty sure, but I saw my first back story my first and last back Street Boys concert the night before nine eleven. Alright, and your mom September ten was part of a simpler time because she wanted to see who wasn't Cisco Cisco Cisco opened Wow. She I missed part of the concert because she wanted to get in line and meet Cisco. She thought he was a babe. And then and then Nick and I had a sign that was like I love you Brian anyway. Anyway, So yeah, I saw this and not long after I came out, and then I like dismissed it as something. I was like, why would I want to watch this this this is a dumb girl movie. I want to watch Indiana Jones instead, and like, yeah, I went through cool girls syndrome too. Yeah, I mean, I'm still there. But then but so I rewatched it for this episode and then I was like, holy crap. It was kind of like how I experienced clueless. Like the first time, I was like, you know, it's just it's just dumb Beverly Hills girls. And then and then I forgot that it was like riddled with jokes. There's so much comedy in it and clothes and in Spice World. I saw this movie a little bit. I probably saw it like more early two because I was I was too young for it when it came out, and so I became more acquainted with the Spice Girls kind of after they had already sort of gone away. I came in around S Club seven. My sweet spot is S Club. There ain't nobody like an S Club party. That's about where I was at. But I I have seen this movie a ton of times, and for some reason, I remember being so scandalized by it at the time and thinking like, oh my, like I shouldn't be watching this, like their skirts are so short and they say bra But I loved this movie and I still now like watch I hadn't seen it in at least ten years, and it's so much it's even more fun to watch now. It's so good. Yeah, it is a fun movie to watch again. I mean, if you're like a budding screenwriter, don't take any hints or cues from it on how to write a screenplay, because it doesn't do a good job with that in terms of like story structure, but as far as just like lovable cares and funny jokes, it's an enjoyable movie to watch and kind of a British tradition two of like there were the Beatles movies and the in the sixties, and then the were the Monkeys. They were like they were like making fun of the Beatles, right right right yeah, and then there's that like kind of Benny Hill quality too. There's just like this whole like tradition of like British camp. Yeah, and it doesn't take it so like literally. My one of my favorite parts about the movie is the tagline, which is they don't just saying that's like I had taglines for the movie. There's another one that's like, so you want a revolution, do you? It's like, how does that relution? What happened? A bus blows up? I wonder what you mean? I wonder like I do wonder, like would this movie be incredibly not just confusing, but like not fun to watch for someone who had not even been sort of alive in I count myself as sort of being alive in in it. I existed, but I didn't know what things were. I feel like this is a good window, like timing wise, like there's a really good double dutch opening for like nostalgia. So like if you just go down a tumbler hole long enough, you'll, like you'll piece it together from the banana clips to the glitter and then the platform shoes, and then you'll eventually make it to the Spice girls get there and then you and then you'll figure out what was going on, and then you'll watch Spice World and you'll really appreciate it. But it won't be the same, right, Yeah, because it is. It is like peak very specific time and place. Um, but that's why it's so great. I don't know that's why it's fine. Nineties cancer will remember. I mean I was eleven when the movie came out. I was like, it's the peak demographic for the Spice Girl and this movie. Even so, I was like too busy, Like Bank to the Future is my favorite movie. It still I say that was you also yesterday. I have not grown much as a person, but have a series of unfortunate events tattoo and I love it. So no regrets, no need to grow. As far as the characters, we already kind of went through them. But we've got baby and sporty and ginger and posh and scary Spice. I was gonna ask, how do we feel about the one spice girl of color being named scary? I mean, we don't feel good about it. It's very on the nose. It's like because it wasn't it a tabloid that named them those names. It wasn't an official thing. It was like they came out and then like I think maybe it was the Daily Mail or some ship that was like reviewing them and called them like blank spice, blank spice. Yeah, like that was that was like the media's immediate take on the format of the Spice Girls and so it was just like she's scary. She's just scary, and that stuck. Yeah, oh my god. Yeah. So they're basically like, oh, this one has red hair, so she's ginger, right, this one acts like a baby baby, which is like that's true. Yeah, it's like some of them, it's pretty easy to pinpoint. There's not seen in this movie where Baby is not actively licking a lollipop through any bit of dialogue. Real gross dis and like even her like her give like they all kind of borrow things, like the baby Spice is just so obviously like a harrow Juko girl, Like she steals so much from Japanese culture. She literally in that scene where they're like, you know, you're gonna say hello to the whole world, and she immediately it's like, I'm going to take Japan, like right, she says, they're very it just like come on, baby. I like how they are asked, oh, how many countries are you is it going to reach? And they're like millions, maybe mole yeah, and then aliens come back seeds crazy alien let's start. That's a pretty good representation of what this movie is. The story of this movie is the Spice girls are very famous so that the same ship from Independence date comes down with like millions of lights. But like like Mars attacks style aliens probably very campy, wet wet they one of them they're covered in goop. Yeah. Their hands are just knuckles, like a three knuckle cluster. One of them knuckle cluster, knuckle, rageous bar of hand. One of them grabs scary spices breast and sexually assaulter. Yeah, and then the other aliens, Like I told shake her hand. He was like I thought that was her hand, Like, oh boy, a little bit more research. Can you only punch if your hand is only knuckles, you may have gently punched. Yeah, And then like later they asked Ginger for a kiss, So it's like, okay, well if you ask, if you know what a kiss is, then you should know what a hand is. So you just wanted to legit go for Melboe. That was the UM. I love that the Spice girls can speak the language that they're speaking, or at least understand it. Yeah, And it's like does that have three ksus it's purple. The Spice girls are totally They just conform to whatever is needed for the skit they are appearing in. Yes, which is like, oh, there's aliens. Well they speak alien and they're so willing to like absorb anything into spice cannon, which is like so great. And that's like kind of the core idea of a pop group too. It's like, you know, like it's a shape shifting parasite, like you like this, we're this like right, I mean, I guess that is close to like a modern day equivalent would be like Katy Perry of like whatever. Katy Perry doesn't have a personality, she's doing whatever the fuck you're supposed to be doing as Yeah, where it's like, oh, we like aliens right now, et let's do it. We're the eighties are green lipstick while I do it right, like the eighties are back. We're doing t G I f like she does not. She's like, you want me to shoot cream out of my titties, I'll do it. What do you want? And that's how girl groups and and guide groups to an extent worked. Yeah, it's true, still work. They're just they're just they're just avatars and we're just projecting ourselves onto them. I'm kidding. That's thank you so much. I'm doing a real deep die. Let me just continue on with that because I have a few scenes I want to discuss. The scene when they're in Milan and the backup dancers come in, Oh yeah, and everyone's like, oh, what's what's this because they're like these chiseled muscle guys with like only like shiny underwear on or like tidy Whitey's or something objectification but like it's fine, and everyone's like, we don't want them this, this is not what we wanted. And then you see a few of the girls talking to like a different one of these guys, and these scenes are so funny because Scary like looks at the one guy they're like talking about their junk and they're like, what do you think this is real? And she's like no, I think it's just a rolled up pair of socks. Uh, And she's like making fun of his muscles. And then Baby is talking to a different one and she's explaining to him why there's not enough room in her bed for him because of all her stuffed animals and dolls, and then Sporty, I think, is talking to a different one and I think they're talking about Milan's soccer team and how they suck, which is like who gives off fun. It could have been like these girls like oggling over these hot men and they were just like, oh, you guys are dumb, get out of here. We don't want you here, which these movies all about. It's like there's no love interest. It's just them a celebration of their friendship and they're like girl power. Well, okay, I'm gonna usually I'm the one to be like in defense of the movie. But there are so many male antagonists and they're all ineffectual like olymptics idiots, and it's very clearly portrayed. But also the Spice Girls are portrayed. It's almost everyone in this movie is made out to be like a completely stupid um, which is an interesting choice creatively. It's like stupid world where everyone's everyone's fucking dumb. But but still they're lives are almost completely dictated by the decision or like there are men trying to actively manipulate them all. Forty five of the villains in this movie are stalking them and like throwing obstacles in their way to the demands of them, right, And it's like this is not satire, but you know, you could see where people would be like hey, maybe, like maybe there was one person who did a draft of this movie that very likely went through four thousand drafts. Sixth of the world contributed to the script, and it's based on an idea by the Spice Girls. Though, so what if we went on tour and we're very famous and they're like, we've got it, girls, just give us like six years. Um. But there's just like there's all these men trying to manipulate them, and arguably it kind of works, but also what kind of doesn't because like really nothing changes from the beginning to the end of the movie. They start pretty famous, then even more famous. Yeah, what does right? They don't like demolish the system that created this problem where they're surrounded by horrible dudes. It's not an important movie. Will say I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say this movie didn't change the world. It was like, I know, I know, it's a very profound. It was like, at times really well observed. There were lots of like really funny parodic elements where you're like, oh, yeah, that's true, but there's nothing on top of that. There's no like counterpoint, there's no razor to it. I mean there's no there's no really anything that happened, Like you could watch any five minutes of this movie and have no idea where it takes place in the story because nothing happened, like many happens. But it's beautiful. In a few times that like feminism is mentioned, it's almost as a joke or as like right, nothing, you know, no, one's like there's no feminist agenda that this moment. But it doesn't seem like a joke when you're the appropriate age to be watching it like this, when it doesn't feel that way when you're like twelve, Yeah, when it's like because that's like when they say it's totally empty and almost poking fun at like you know whatever feminism as a selling point as as just a veneer. But yeah, they don't really demolish that in any way. Yeah, where there. And but if you're eleven and you're like power, you're like, yeah, I should be like these girls who are actively selling me wonder brass girl power to use my credit card at North Stops. Yeah, I do love this humor that we're I think it's like is this dress too short? Or should I have this dress? Or this dress? Dress? Yeah, dress and then the little Gucci dress, and then Baby says, I think you should have the little Gucci dress. And then they're like, yeay, Baby, you fucking idiot. Oh man, that seems so funny that that's when they're talking about the horoscopes and she's like, you're an aquarius, so you don't believe in anything. She's like, well, I don't believe that either, what you say about capiticorns. But the two times. There's one scene where remembering the photo shoot, when they're dressing up as each other, that was really fun. Yeah. I was just thinking about that. I think it's is it Melby who dresses up as Ginger Spice and she's like a good feminism whatever, because I guess Jerry slash Ginger was she like quite outspoken aboutism, and I don't remember that she was the most outspoken about it, but it was it was still various surface level. She's usually the one that says yeah. And then whenever the writers who were trying to pitch movies to Clifford, they're like Spice four five, where Ginger is like the master disguise and so she runs into this little phone booth and then twirls around and then Bob Hoskins comes out, it's amazing, and then he's like feminism, equality between the sexes or whatever. So like both times, like any time that, like like I said, like feminism or girl power is mentioned, it's like usually at the bed of a joke like that, it's yeah, it's totally throw away feminism for the sake of like this is starting to be marketable, but not even quite marketable enough to not be endorsing bras constantly. So ye, I would like to draw attention to how many very British sounding names through are in this movie. Peek Alan Cumming plays a character named Pays Cuthberts and smithe, oh yeah, it's great. Mark McKinny is great and great and yes at Martin Bonfield and uh, Kevin mcmxvott, it's just it's uh, it's this movie is so British. There there's a barnaby. You can't it's law, you can't have a British one without a barnaby. Yes, And then the came is we've got Elton John, We've got Elvis Costeller, we've got meat Love as the bus Drive, We've got Stephen Fry, we've got Hugh Laurie back when they were still I think Jennifer Saunders at peak abbab. Yeah, as it says Jennifer Saunders as fashionable woman. There's so many that would have been, like the Americans would have just been called fashionable women. CBS Money Days, Well, wasn't there. There's basically a show that there was designing one designing Women. Yeah, I hear, that's a good show. Yeah, you know, I haven't really seen it since I was a kid. It's like kind of a haze. I just remember that's Delta Burke, right, I think so? Yeah, I don't know. I remember I had like a line of clothing at Kmart and I thought that was like peak fashion. I still actively wear a lot of Like I got really into the Miley Cyrus Walmart line in high school because it was like trendy but also affordable. And I still have a lot of Miley tanks. How many pieces do you have? I have like from the Miley collection and saying I still rotate out three or four just basic tanks. Wait, it's like that, whatever Camies, what happened to all the Camees? Where did they go? We need we need a Camey cameo, oh no, what a horrible joke. Okay, um, remember that scene where Posh is talking to a person who I don't know who it is, and she's like, what do you how do you feel about ment to raise? And she is like, I think he's great. I'm wearing it mental ray shoes right now. Some of my other favorite jokes, because I just had to write them down and I must share them with you now is Deborah and Clifford or in a bar and Deborah is like, famous, such a fickle thing. And then she orders a drink from the bartender and he turns around and it's Elvis Costello and then she goes, just a minute, can you make that a double? This avie is so funny, It's really funny. It was nominated for literally every Razzie possible, but I don't even win. I don't think that they Yeah, what move didn't win for being the worst? It didn't even it didn't even win for being um Ebert's least favorite. That distinction ended up going to Armageddon. Oh that's he does suck, So yeah, my mom was so horny for that movie for sure. My dad kind of low key crying. He cried during Like, there's two movies where I remember as a kid my dad cried. One is Arming Adam and the other is Adam Sandler's big Daddy in the courtroom scene that is kind of a sad scene. My mom gave me romantic advice ones based off of Adam Sandler's Click for real. I was going through a dark hour of the soul. I forget which one, but it was a couple of years ago, and she was just like, maybe it's kind of like and I saw this movie recently called Click, because she said it like I didn't know what it was. I saw this movie recently called Click, and there's a part at the end where he's talking to his father and like he wishes there were so many things that he had said and then he didn't and then he lives, Like you can't really go back. You can't really just rewind as like, Mom, thank you so much. There's not really a remote control on your life. That's a good point that Jamie. I never thought of that before. I didn't realize. My mom had a similar epiphany with Queen Latifa's last holiday. She was like, you gotta live in the now. You're so worried all the time, honey, is that the one where she thinks she's dying she gets like a weird cat scan or am I travels the world or something? Is Steve Martin and that one there's there's that down the house. God, there's such a weird stretch of Steve Martin movies and the odds where like I'll be in a movie with anybody, a bunch of dogs, a bunch of babies, anything, ones, I could bring my banjo on set. Steve. Okay, Steve Martin, he should have been in this movie. Needs to stop playing the banjo. I'm calling him out and saying he's in a classy way. I'm like, so over. I saw him play the banjo on Accident a couple of years ago, and I was just like, yeah, I was well. I was working in radio at the time, and he and they were like, we have a surprise guest. I'm like, oh, cool, maybe it'll be someone that I like, and and then it was like Steve Martin. I was like, I love Steve Martin's comedy. And then they're like, but tonight he's just playing in the banjo. I was like, fuck off, Like what are you? How did some monkeys pot scenario. They're like, hey, guys, great news. We have Steve Martin. You know that I'm really good at this. Watch me do something else, and like how just hold hold up? His rep says he'll only come if he does the band. He would only goddamnit, we need him that he'll only play with I think he released an album with Paula McCartney's ex wife. Steve Martin, you're unnoticed. They were in the Hams. In the conversation struck up and you do funny things only you make me laugh, you little monkey. Put down the banjo. I don't want to read your novels. I don't want to read your not I didn't read shop Girl, though shop Girl is good. Then he wrote that one about the art world. That's like sitting on my shelf. I'm never going to read it. I'm never going to read an object of beauty. I don't know why I'm so mad at him for doing things that aren't what I want him to do. Now you've awoken something in me too. I've been really mad at him for some time. I realized, and I hated this episode of Spice World. He stuck about he had a he had a really good memoir. But even that, now I'm just like, well then do that, Like, yeah, Born Standing Up is amazing. It's a great book. But it's also like, why are you just go just are a joke man? Why are you speaking in jokes? Can I share a few more of mine? Spice? Thank you? I love I like that Roger Moore. Every time you see him in a scene, he's holding a different baby, animal or just animal in general. There's the scene where I think you see the Spice girls like rehearsing for the concert is kind of early on, and someone goes, that's absolutely perfect without it actually being any good, an amazing line. I wish I had written that that's a great summation of the Spice without being good at all. Clifford at one point says, oh, it's when they want to go and like play around on the boat, and he's like, if they wanted to be spontaneous, they need to clear it with me. First funny line. Funny, it's great and the movie is full of these. It's a fucking funny movie out don't tell me otherwise. And if you like this movie, or if you don't, I still recommend a similar movie called Josie and the Pussycat. The Pussycats is amazing good. Yeah, sorry for that voice, I think, Yeah, I think you're really talking about the cheeseburst. Let the listener overdose in the bathroom. I can't, I can't do this. Jamie just pulled a half eaten cheeseburger out of some spoil from like full two and a half hours. Oh man, alright, choking on that. I'm going to say a few other things that I wanted to mention. I liked it. None of the drama in this movie derives from issues between the band or like with the girls themselves, because like a very common like trope or just an easy direction. They could have taken this in as, oh, they're not getting along, they're mad at each other, but they're never like They're always like on the same page. They're always getting along, which hey, maybe that doesn't make for a great movie with a central conflict. I don't know, but I just like that because often if you have like a group of women, you see them on the screen portrayed as being they're in competition with each other, and Caddy and Petty towards each other very is so noncompetitive to the point where it's just like they're all the same person, Like they're all the same dumb person to the point where it's like, oh yeah, even though these male antagonists are I mean, that's the only reason they exist. And that's also unfortunately true in real life where that guy named Simon who's not Simon Cowell but no Simon Cowell that created the X factor, uh like created the Spice Girls and his weird sex lab or whatever, and you know, and I think it is funny that, like we are to believe in the mythology of this movie that the Spice Girls have known each other since childhood and they used to hang out in the cafe when they were waiting full record deal different ages and like creations of science basically like did you know the Spice Girls literally had to go to like camp to become the Spice Girls, Like there was a there was a re education camp. It was like a definite full brainwash, like they're not I mean, not that dramatic, but they went to fucking camp to become popster, which also happens in Korea. And it's really interesting and there's a really good show about it on Netflix. I'll tell you about Oh yeah, it is really good. It's really good. Yeah, that's that was like a nineties thing that's like still happening. It's still happening in Korea, and it's they rotate them out by your It's very weird, but also like what an amazing gift. Yeah, but like I agree, Citland, I like I kind of like that they weren't in competition with each other and that there wasn't like every other Muppets movie where they all have to break up and come together. That part is always really sad. I hate when the Muppets break up and I have to come back together. There's a lot. It takes up a lot of the end of the second age the Cheetah Girls too, not the Cheetah Girls to the one where they go to Barcelona, the Cheetah Girls as well. Right, Yeah, I mean in this movie, they don't really break up, but they all kind of like go off and separate, but not because they're having like an internal conflict, but because they're at the mercy of other people demanding this schedule of them, and they're like, I don't know if I want to do that. We just want all we want is to just be able to respect ourselves and and hang out with our friends, especially when they're about to have a baby. Yeah, I like that they take her. They take Nicola, the pregnant friend to the discotheque. And also I guess it's a gay bar. It's like it's like there's a lot of drag queens there and they're just like also just mess shirts and like go go stop, bring backsh already. I love Mesh. We're ready. Like it's hard to find sometimes, I thought like it would be cool to own more Mesh. Let's go to eBay where we gonna find it. Yeah, it's hard to get those laundry bags and just cut some holes. Good idea. We're just like bast just where I bought a basketball penny once to wear under overalls. So just like maybe the most the poorest fashion choices I've ever made. But I was like, I'm at Bonnaroo, I'm going to get a Mesh shirt. And overall George's that is very There's some there's some great pictures of me in front of mushroom fountains wearing this brilliant outfit created at the Walmart across the street from Bonaroo. Please tell me I'd read the novel of Walmart across the street from Bao. What is it like working there for one week out of the year, Well, Spice World. Does anyone have any other thoughts about the movie? I still love it that scene where they like flashback to like their early days, would want to be there, like singing along to their own song in that cafe. I got legitmate nostal check about it. I'm kind of missing about it right now. And then I was like, oh, ship, yeah, I do have a connection to this movie. It's not just like a weird memory I have. What was I gonna say about Spice Cross. Oh yeah, they're a product of men, but they pretend to be empowered and they sort of are. But are they just too stupid? Like we don't there are a bunch of real science creations they do. Women in stem created them? Who knows that? But guy Simon created them? Yeah, I guess it's a I mean it's this movie is so much fucking fun and it could not have existed in like this other than this span of ten days. Would it have made sense? I love that when the bus makes the jump and it clearly just switched just to like a miniature toy set of a bus jumping from like it's so I love those things. I still geek out over like the practical effect gag. It's like and it's like surprisingly a self aware movie. It is it realizes there's a problem, but they have no intention to fix it. So here's some goofs right right, there's Spice Girls songs, Like, here's a lot of like Spice Girls B side songs. And also I wanted to say that that there's such a seventies vibe to this whole movie, especially in the opening segment where it's like, you know but and I guess the reason that is or like part of the reason that was sort of amped up in post production was because this is the same year that Austin Powers came out. That's right. So the seventies were hot and a mess. It was like seventies should never be in fashion, and there it was a gross decade. I thought I was there. I should know. First of all, I just want to apologize to our listeners for our bad attempts at British accents. Number one, sorry, number two, sorry number two. I want to shout out my good friend British Martha, whom I call it British Martha to her face, Sorry Marsha, Martha, what not the whatly? We're so sorry, so so sorry, so sorry. And three were good feel like an east End there's sporty spice she has like a Oh. Speaking of British, Caitlin Durante went at a bar will order a drink as if she were all over twist. The other night we were in a par together. Thank you said excuse me? Could I trouble you for a glass of wine? And the bar the bartender or maybe it was water water? Can I trouble you for some water? It was Lisa, may I have some water? Like she was asking for gruel. It was amazing. I always the same thing, though, because these bartenders are super intimidating out here. I just inhale, I go, well, can you please get I always phrase it like that when I'm asking for water because I'm not giving them any money. I'm probably not even going to take them for a water. Maybe I'm a bad person. I don't know, but I always say can I trouble you for some water? Because I know it's like an annoying thing and they're not going to make any money off it. If I'm ordering an actual drink, I say pizza. I want gin and tonic and bloody blading. My father died of consumption and I got full pen to give me some Jimmie Dodges. I won't currently Wally. Oh, my uncle killed themselves after the business went bused. There's a rubbish. There's a rubbish. There is a rubbish. Cheese bacon has got off and you gotta chuck it in the bin is what I need to do apologize for. Yes, British Martha, I love you so much. I miss you every day. She's still alive. I don't know anyone British. Yeah, A moment of silence, My British. The British people are normally acquaintances, so I feel weird addressing, though I understand we count all the uncle enough to have a British like a friend, like a British friend, you know. Man. Anyway, let's talk about whether or not the movie passes the Bechdel test. But guess what it does, Like super does. I feel like it's aggressively proving to you that it does, and every second without saying it, because I don't think I think this predates the beck they'll test by like a couple of years. I think late nineties. I don't know exactly the same. Yeah, I'm not sure when I brought Yeah. In most scenes, I would say that at least the girls are in they are talking to each other about not a man. In fact, there's a scene where Alan Cumming, who is making the documentary about them, is sort of interviewing them and he's like, do you have any time for boys? And Sporty goes boys doesn't ring a bell, and then Scary says, with boys, you should just be able to wheel them in. And then they're there and that's it. And then Baby says yeah, and order them like a pizza, and Posh is like, yeah, I'll have a deep pen six foot green eye paralleaf It like there there's an opportunity for them to be talking about men, and they're just making of it. They're like boys growth and there's no and like and and this sort of factors into like the weird portrayal of motherhood in this movie, where they're so happy for their friend, but then they picture motherhood is being kind of gross and unappealing and like as a robbery of their independence. And I think that that sort of extends to their attitude towards men of like they view relationships and men is sort of a way of robbing their independence, which is interesting for scientific aliens created by name Simon. It's complicated also that the Betel test was first introduced in eighty five, but it wasn't like popularly referenced until maybe early two thousands, right, that was that was thirty years or more ago. Yeah, if you haven't read it, dikes to watch out for. It's very good comic and there they are collected and you should read them. Yeah, oh my god, it's just like so filtered through the male gaze at there's so many opportunities that they create to talk about it and said, it's just like they talk about looks again, and they don't really talk about like the system itself. So it's frustrating. It's like, yeah, it's a lot of girls just being girls and there's fluffy fun happening, but there's a lot of like real stuff that they could talk about the very ignoring So as an adult, that's very unsatisfying. It's very like watered down quote unquote feminism absolutely like the most water done. It could be very sexy, like yeah, and there's that scene where I think it's posh is like I had I had a nightmare that I had a head but there was no makeup on it, and everyone's like disgust, like yeah, and that her I like legitimately felt bad when I want and I was like, oh no, I should go my lip glass. Don't fall into their trap. That's what they want you to do. Here's the thing. I bought a lip glass. Sorry, it was a wet and wild. It was a wet wild, a false alarm. It was a wet wild. That's my nickname from my vagina. Min'd still the sand lot mine. I was going to say in our sand lat episode was the cave from Aladdin. That's the don't touch anything it laps and then you'll be trapped inside and you'll have to wish your way out. That's exactly how it were. Do you have a genie living in your uters? Because that one. Yeah, but it doesn't work for me. It works for whoever's trapped in there, right, But at the end you have to wish him free. And then I clim X when you wish the genie free, Only then can I come a true act of altruism where I killed myself is oh anyway, yeah, the movie again, you know, they're talking to each other, oftentimes about fashion or scopes or other not important things. There's no grade level here. It's past fail because it's like a D like honestly, but past fail, so it passes. Hey, speaking of grades, we rate the movie based on its portrayal of the women in the movie. We have a nipple scale zero to five nipples. We can describe those nipples if we so choose. I'm really thinking about this, Um, I think I'm going to give it like a two and a half nipples. Okay, yeah, for a moment I thought three, but it's like a little too high. The movie doesn't make sense, let's be honest. But okay, So, like one of them is like a little baby nipple, like really it's like a very like it's like the size of a quarter and it's really pink. And then the other is like like a classic nipple, like a little brown protrudes a little bit. Yeah, and the half nipple is like one with a really like large areola. Good good, Yeah, I'll give it two and a half as well. I think, yeah, it's a I wouldn't even say that this movie's heart is in the right place, because I don't think it has a hard Is it in the right place? Um? But I you know, I think it made little girls feel good even when they didn't realize it was probably hurting them a little bit. So it's a it's a tricky gray area where it's like I'm never gonna discredit like go palette, like that's a great phrase. But also when you're being pedaled merch the whole time time, it's like, well, that said, the movie has been forgotten and doesn't make any sense. So at the end of the day, who you know who am I? I am just a cyborg created by a man named Simon, So I don't really know what I'm saying at all. You are about a hologram. I am a hologram. I'm a hologram some some never mind, please buy my sound chat. Yeah, I'm gonna give it. I guess two nipples. Two and a half of my nipples are Alan Cummings. You know, Alan Cumming has like an extra an extra half pocket. It's in my pocket. Yeah, I would give it to nipples. Although a thing I wanted to say that I did before is that oftentimes in a comedy movie, a lot of the funny lines are being delivered by not women. So I like that the women in this movie have a bunch of funny scenes and lines and jokes. At some point, I agree, even if they didn't write them themselves, right, who knows trues it to deliver a joke. Movie was written by a woman named Kim Fuller, plus two other people who have received three cents and royalties every time the movie airs on free Form, which is a legal stream. That I found was something that had been aired on free form, So shout out to my free form heads out there. I've never watched freeform. Right, you can take this part out. This is bad. This is about networking. I'm going to get blackall industry between like actually and Mary Kate movie. I don't want to. I don't want to start freeform beef. I can't afform more beef in my life. That's a thick slab off. I don't have any more room, all right, good, good good. That's where I keep all my conflict and also my beef. Men. Yeah, two nipples. I'll give it again. Any mention of like feminism and girl power and stuff like that is very watered down. It's not really substantiated by anything. Even so, it's a it's a fun movie. Um it's like we said, doesn't make any sense. I don't really mind that, even though I do have a master's degree in screenwriting, which I hate to bring up, but um, that does it. It's still it's a it's a fun watch. I'd recommend it if you just want like some kind of mindless fun. That and again, Josie and the Pussycats love that movie. I like Josie a lot. That's a really good movie. The nipples belong to that. That that's a good one. He loves snips, love snips at the bast rally her beef. You have your beef? Are you gonna get your beef? Girl? No one has ever specified weather meat loafs made of beef or like some other meat processed. Yeah. I feel like he's a combo of something. He's like a bunch of hand sandwich is putting a blender. Oh man, that's a really good album. Me and my dad used to listen to it in the car. There's a song about making out at the movies, and then my dad and I would make you would like I like that. Mike's her lemonade. I like the meat Loaf in the movie says I would do anything for those girls, but I won't do that talking about fixing the bathrooms, and I did not trees it's so healthy. I did not know that that was meat Loaf until I was watching the credits. Meat Loaf as Benny the Best Driver, such a talented act. Like I know that that sounds like a hilarious joke, but he's really good and rocky horror. He does his best with what he's given in Spice World, and he's really good in Fight Club. Beat Loaf is a great actor. Don't remembering he's in the support group. He's like the bigger he's the beefcake. Oh my god. I also he brings the beef in Fight Club. He should have been in the Wrestler. He should have been one of the like down and out wrestlers in that. Yeah, Mickey work didn't deserve a comeback. Give meat Loaf back revisionist history. If he had gotten into the wrestler, that could have been like a whole resurgence. He wouldn't have to be on the Celebrity Apprentice's I need to find him. I could fix him. I could Fix Me Podcast? Where's he a? Let me at him? Missing neat loof mydcast. He's old. Oh it might be too late to fix him. He's sixty nine. Oh shit, perfect age. It's true. It's way older than I thought he was. Like I was ten years off. I know. I was like, he's the horny age baby. Hey, Amanda, where can people find online? I forgot what you're doing a podcast? I think we all Yeah, okay, great, I had these totems and everything. I'm looking at these dolls. I'm forgetting where I am like, Yeah, this is I'm spinning my sporty spy still new and box still im back? Oh no, it is it going to tip over or not? And then Juno's in it too black those credits we don't see whether it's lands or not. What a film? Just kidding. It's fine. You can find I'm at a Mandonium on Twitter. You can follow my all comedy book publishing company, The Devastator at Devastator Press. It's on all the social media's and my book we don't think You're racist. Soothing affirmations from people of color is a bailable everywhere books are sold, and it's actually turning one years old, like this week baby bouncing baby books, your old eyes, your books, growing teeth. Now it has little baby teeth. I'm gonna buy it. Yeah, it's a good it's a good one. You can get it on Amazon, you can get it on devastator press dot com, and you can get it just anywhere books are sold. Perfect. Hey Jamie, what do you want to plug anything? I'd like to plug. I'm working on a project right now, and it's like I still can't really talk about it that much, but it is in relation to Meet Love's come back, so I'm also involved in this. I can't like. Yeah, we are all very and like Aristotle's kind of in charge of it. But anyways, you know, as we know Bat out of Hell, Bad at of Hell, to Back to Hell, which is also an album, and also apparently Bad out of Hell three, the monster is loose. So right now we're we're going on Bad at Hell four, back to back into Hell, and we're calling back to bat Hell too because that was our favorite bat at of Hell. But if it's there and back again, a back to Hell story, back to Hell story of the Bat out of Hell right and we're doing him in time for meat Loaf's seventieth birthday this year, we're gonna We're gonna do a rush order and then I'm going to write him an indie sleeper um that people won't see but when he dies, so I'll be like, hey, that was pretty good. Yeah. I'm also I'm producing the motion comic that ties into the movie. Anyway, if you want to follow me old Caitlin here, oh Caitlin okay and hit you can follow me at Caitlin Durante okay. Um. Hey. Also, if you're on the Los Angeles area, you can come to my monthly live show called Luck of the Track at Nerd Melts first Friday of the month. Also, we just want to thank you so much for being here. It's been a blast. What a fun episode. I had a lot of fun here, you guys. This was one of our wilder episodes. I love when we just get loose and celebrate. Up. Pala girl, Pala. Sorry I messed up the inflection. We all have done a very bad job with the British act. At the end of this podcast, we're all going to go out and shop for a lip shaped couch and we're gonna get on it together and talk about astrology. I'm going to get a swing to put in my bus. I love on the doors to their bus it said max capacity five girls. I love that. Oh my god, it's very Do you think that Aristotle will get a presidential Medal of Honor someday for sitting? Yes? I think he's going to get like a purple heart too, just because like it's the emotional damage that we're inflicting upon him, is it's like combat's enduring him, if not worse. Alright, well, it's been great. It's been a groovy baby. That was Austin Powers until next time. Goodbye bye, goodbye, bye bye bye bye. Could I trouble you? FISTI water