Legacy and Future Projects

Tonight in your city, someone is walking their dog Someone is crossing the street to their car Someone's kid is riding a bike home. And they're counting on you to drive the speed limit Speeding accounts for nearly thirty percent of traffic fatalities, and most of those crashes don't happen on the interstate. They happen on the streets where people live sllow down It's an act of care for the people around you. So remember Speeding catches up with you Kow the road and respect its limits. presented by Nita, Now back to your podcast Yeah Hi, this is Dick Miller. If you're listening to Junk Food cinema, who are these guys Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Janine Garfalo, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Seaan Penn, Michael Moore, George W. Bush, John Carreed, Kim Jong Il We'll all hate junk food cinema. brought to you by America. fuck yea.ot cam Fuck yeot filmed in super marionation. This is of course, the weekly Colton Eplitition filmcast so good. It just has to be fattening. I'm your host, Brian Salisbury. and this week, Cargill is out hunting for weapons of mass destruction which is what he calls taco Bell and choritos mission. accomplished. So in hisead, returning to the show for this most patriotic of episodes, It's Matt Damon. It's Matt Damon. No, it's the man who bleeds red, white and blue. when he's had too many rocket pops. My actual brother from my actual mother mister Blake Salisbury. Well, thank you very much. You know, I don't recall the last time I had a what did you call that? a pop up popsicle? A rocket pop. What's a pop up popsicle? I don't know. It's a thing that pops up, it's a pop up you know what, let's just move on from that. R Is this a popsicle that shows up when you're looking at like naughty websites and it tells you it'll make your popsicle size bigger if you take this bill and you have to click a little X to make it go away. But then you don't click exactly in the X. So it pops up way more like popsicle enhancement sites Blake, Is that what we're talking about? My rocket pop just just It justys God it just melted. That's the fucking word. God, I can't think today. Yikes. If you or somebody you know is suffering from a melting popsicle, maybe click on this website for the new powerful surging rocket pop. Well my joke just melted away on the accident there. But anyway, I'm excited to talk about this film that we are brought here together to see and review Do you know what today is? Today is Monday. It's our independence Day Is it Iependence Day? That's when we're posting it. Y We are here on America's two hundred fiftieth birthday and Lady Liberty, you don't look a day over two hundred forty if I do say so myself Today we celebrate our indndependence Day by discussing a movie where all the performers are confined by strings We are going to be talking about a massively irreverent puppet movie by the two most irreverent filmmakers who would ever tell you never to make a puppet movie Oh, that's right It's time for Team America World Police Gary, I hate to bring it to you. But the world is on the brink of disaster crime is at an all time high And the only thing standing between order and chaos It is us Terrorize this. And just what does this have to do with me? We need an actor And they say you're the best. five terrorist going southeast on Bakalak andaka Street. Soon every country will be in complete chaos To save the world from falling apart, one team must pull together. All right, let's move It's too soon to be having feelings for you. Maybe, feelings are feelings because we can't control them. The Earth's darkest moment.. We're gonna let end like this. It' mankind's finest hour. There's too many of them. This isn't about sex Gary, it's about trust my God. this when this film hit the scenes, I've never seen a you have to go back to with the early odtss when like South Park was just coming out and it was just like you were glued to your television. There were a few other cartoons that did that. South Park was certainly one of them when we were growing up and this when when I first saw this with you, we were in your bedroom and we had watched Maybe ten minutes before we were just dying of like gasping for air, just dying, laughing. And it was It was one of the most memorable movie going experiences I've had with you, defeinitely in the positive sense. We've talked about the Transformers too, if you don't know that story As me sometime, but this this one was just such a treat and just something I remember very fondly. You know, we, you know, we've covered Independence Day on the podcast and it's the movie that I watch every Independence Day I wanted to find a movie that really encapsulated the fervent patriotism of this particular point in my life. So you pick Shazam And I pick Shazam, starring Sinbad. Uh No, but it's a movie that I feel like really does capture what it means to be American, you know, especially in the post nine eleven Bush administration for sure. But there's a lot of that that carries over. There's just You know I like movies that aren't afraid to hold up a mirror to us when we aren't at our best. And this is certainly one of those. And you're right, like when South Park first started airing I was in middle school and even I even you know, as a kid that young, I remember the must see TV aspect of South Park. You had to tune in. You had to sneak and watch it. Your parents would definitely not let you watch a show like this to see what these four little kids in Colorado were going to get up to. theseese four little animated pukes. what were they going to do And it's like they would kill Kenny every week. What the fuck? momom's gonna have a problem with that. It was like Something really I think I think it was the first time I ever understood the concept of subversive. Like it was something that I felt like I definitely should not be watching. but I really desperately wanted to watch. It's definitely the FOo of just not being able to talk to your friends at the lunch table if you didn't see the last week's episode or the last night's episode or what have you, you definitely got that vibe and I want to say it's like one of the last episodic things in that nature, just because cartoons after that, you had a family guy run And then like, what's long running cartoon at this point? is as impactful or has been I mean, Southberg is still going, which is the crazy thing to think about as well, right? It rivals the Simpsons and the length of it. And whether you're a fan of it, whether you're not, I'm probably on the fence in terms of like, it's definitely run its course. It's definitely seen and come and go, but I think what it does the best of is it takes a very Uncomfortable situations or uncomfortable topics and it throws in comedic timing, comedic elements that you may or may not agree with, but I think what they do is they are able to take something and almost flip it on its head to show the parody or the nonsensical aspect of what's happening. And they do it in this film in so many ways. And I think you have to remember when this film came out This was two thousand four So we're in the like The heart of like you allowing all of our freedoms to be taken away because we're so scared, we're in fear. I think they took a lot of elements of what was happening in this time frame as the American and just literally just juiced it up with like hot dogs and fuck it like times a million and just went overboard with the whole like pro America thing to the point of you actually watch the film America keeps fucking everything up Right? Like that's the real joke of all of this is that we are not the good guys in this scenario, even though we are just clamoring to be in the sense of like just destroying monuments, destroying like livelihoods, just to be able to say we're America. And I think today that probably resonates just as much as it did back then I want to go back to what you said before, Blake. If you were the only kid at the lunch table who didn't see that that week's episode of South Park, thanks to the kids of South Park, they would call you a FOMO or at least something that rhymed with FOMo that I won't repeat here And I also think it's interesting that, you know, as we were growing up South Park became more and more of like just regular viewing. And I think it is one of those things where like your parents will never let you watch this. And I think for us that was true If mom was in charge of the TV viewing, we definitely were not allowed to watch this Dad on the other hand thought South Park was fucking hilarious. And yeah, it's like rest rest in peace dead he can't defend himself. But I would say that he was definitely lauxed with us where he was like, lookook, if I'm watching it, at least you watch it with an adult. I guess in some way that makes it better. But I know for a fact that he let us watch a few episodes and We all laugh about the chef elements of the show. and I think that was one of my dad's favorite characters was Chef. And Teak. He was big fan of Tweak. Yes he did love Tweak for some reason. And there's just that's the thing is that fond memories of being able to repeat one liners you shouldn't be repeating and just so many things about this that just It's weird to have, oh, that's a very childhood like thing when it's that type of material is just it's crazy. It's but this is the world we live in. And I think that's it has shaped us to who we are and it's good to look back and go Why was this funny? What was important about this message that may have crossed the line, but why was it being told in the same time frame as it was? And they do that in every movie they are in, they do that in every show they write. It's incredible. and I have yet to see the book of Mormon, but that's, you know, won countless awards and been touted as one of the best musicals of all time. God, they are creative comedians in their own right And Book of Mormons creation is born of this process and we'll talk about how. But I think all of that leads to us in two thousand four. Like if you understand all of that about our background, you understand how in two thousand four, I would have been I guess almost twenty. You were fourteen fourteen. Yeah. And we were just watching this DVD of Team America World Police laughing our asses off And by that point, and I think it's interesting too to talk about Matt and Treay because the appraisal meter is kind of all over the place for them because at first like a lot of people wrote them off like they make this shitty little you know, vulgar cartoon. It's got no merit whatsoever. and you know, the animation so bad etcera, etceter Then the first movie comes out And it's like a lot of people are like, oh go God, who would ever see this tri? Wait a minute, It was nominated for what now Best song. Wait, what? Like it started to like started to turn people's gears into like maybe there's something here. And then you get to Team America and what before we say anything else One of the things we love at Junk Food Cinema is when filmmakers swing for the fucking fences. There's nothing more American than baseball, right? and swinging for the fences is something we respect the hell out of in filmmakers. So the fact that these guys who had been producing a weekly animated show and if you've ever seen the documentary sixix days to air about what they go through or at least, I don't know if it's the same process now. It seems like they take a lot more time off in between, but like The way that they used to just churn these episodes out and do everything last minute is enough to make like Adam Sandler and uncut gems go completely insane. Well, I love the way you said, you know baseball element, but really what it is is committing to the bit And ye there's so many times in that documentary where I'm just thinking, there's no way that they make these shows in a week but they do I mean at least that's the way that you That was that used to do it. and it's still, I'm sure they still do something very regular. But if you think about how quick you put something together you know, cartoons and any type of things that you see on the streaming services, it takes years and years to put together. They were able to create a foundation of tools and focused more on what is the story that we want to tell based on the current events that are happening And it's really kind of going back to like political humor, I feel like a lot with the with South Park. Like if you look back on like the, you know, even this at the beginning of printing, there's always depending on what I guess part of the country or part of the world you're in and what time you're in. There was always some sort of critical cartoons in the political sphere. This is almost like the moving in the next wave of this from like the newspaper now to the TV. It It just reminds me so much of like it has something to say when everybody else couldn't say it at that time, you know Absolutely. and I do think that there was a long time where I truly believed that Matt and Tree Yeah. some of the smartest most biting saturists who ever lived. And I still think that capacity is still within them.m you know, I'm not going to go into I fell off of South Park and what I think how they I feel like they've lost their way. I want to talk about the fact that in two thousand four they decided the best way to satirize America in the post nine hundred eleven Bush administration was to make a full length Marionette a live action Marionette filt. likeike that is Nobody does that. And there's a reason nobody does that. And there's a reason Matt and Treay will never do that again because you will lose part of your soul in the if they thought making a show once a week and their timetable that they put on themselves was hard enough, Man, I really truly believe that if there is another Heart of Darkness documentary to be made, it's about the making of this film and how they completely lost their minds doing it and how in every interview that they while they were, you know on the press tour for this talking about how they'll never do this again and how they wish they had never gotten involved. likeike it totally fucking makes sense That's the medium they chose. two guys whose entire life had been animation decided You know, we could do a live action movie, but no, let's not do that. Let's do live action. They already did. That's the best part about all this absolly baseball. course. Yes. Oh baseball and like orgasmo Ogas. Yeah. there This is why I think this movie is brilliant is because they were they had tested this craft They had done this in very many different ways. Baseetball in nineteen ninety nine, they did a South Park movie Right? And it's it was basically momentum And what was interesting about this is as Brian was saying is that it was Marionettes. So now you've gone, and it was perfect from a standpoint of sequence of the foundation that they built with the characters they had because it was a different look than any other cartoon. It was almost like the things were on top of the backgrounds in a very interesting way, like they popped out. L there were caricatures cut out. Obviously everybody knows how it looks today But when it first came out it kind of had that look. I think they were like, we can still achieve that in the same way, but it's marionettes And I think there is something to be said about when you're covering uncomfortable topics you almost You almost wanted it to be pop out ridiculous Right because that's that kind of protects it in a way in a very extraange sense. I'm not saying everything in this film is Mor leave right and some of the things that they did and all that. But if you look back on this, there's no way that you could do this with a live action film with people, it's just too much. And I just find that that line to be so interesting if you look at both sides to know, hey, they picked marionettes, not because they just thought it'd be fun, is because that was really maybe the only way to do these jokes Right? It's just it had to be ridiculous and slapstick if nothing else to be pill inside the cheese. You know, if someone were to ask me to define satire I would say it's the truth played for laughs And that's that's exactly what they're doing here is theyre they're They're investigating a lot of hard truths, but doing it in such an absurd, ridiculous taken to eleven way. They were all sitting around laughing and some people made completely miss the message and that's fine you know, the Marionette thing, I think is another reason why this movie, the reason I wanted to have you on here to talk about it is that Team America World Police is a movie that has like a few choice others, wormed its way into our unconscious minds and forever contaminated our shared lexicon. Like for Blake and I, Team America drive it toad to Brian Damnit. for Blake and I, this is our cinematic Shibolith. Like this is the language that we speak It's a core memory that gets activated by the cadence of words from other people who literally have no idea that they're supplying a setup for us. Like someone gives us an instruction we don't understand and Blake and I just go, We're gonna what?re We're gonna what? I love your bowls. Yes. someone expresses an idea we like. That's exactly what we say. I love your bowls or just like knowing that you're going into like the most ridiculous situation and you're just like, I love your balls. There's I think that that's almost a It's really hard to like us. I think our wives do a great job of that I think the biggest problem why people don't like us is because we just do things in one ups and mannerisms and things of this nature that are from this movie and Star Wars and obviously all of the nerd shit that people are like, o those guys Lgitimately, that's how we talk because it's fun. It's fun to relate to that because I can get Brian to crack up and regardless of whatever setting, just by saying three words in a manner, right? Like our first catch of the day. O first catch of the day There's every time There's no of lists of things that we could go through. Like somebody could challenge us. like if you ever play a game of kings and you go round by round of trying to, you know, guess like the chain of grocery store, if you just say One liners from Star Wars or one liners from Team America or one liners from Rush Hour or one liners like it it's just endless amounts of shit that we would just keep having more and more and more because we can go through those movies theoretically in our head. I would be pointing at everyone else at the table going, You know he did. You know, he did. he ain't going to be in the next King three. It's it was a I don't know. Like I think a collection of films is a kind of But it's fine it's a scant few movies. likeike we don't do this with everything Like it's this weird mental illness where we've latched on to like a dozen movies. Ocean' eleven love definitely. But like and those movies just they become our entire language to the point that it's like you have that thing where twins talk about how they have their own language. Like Blake and I can formulate an entire conversation just with very specific movie quotes. And sometimes it's not even about the words that are said in the quote. It's about the cadence of the quote. It's about the inflections. just it's weird. It's almost like a mental illness And I think that's why our wives are always like, you know, when they get together, we have no idea what the fuck they're laughing at. No, it's our ticks. I mean, that's really we're tickick. It's a tourete. Yeahah, we have a very specific form of touretes. You're absolutely not to say P people that actually go through the touretes, I feel for you. It's man We're not minimizing actual tourettes or mental illness. I'm just saying for us It's the mannerisms. It's such the faux pas of not making the joke when it's there because it could never be there again Right? Even though I've made the joke a million times the next time that it could be made, you know, like in an oceans eleven sense if I tell Brian that Oh, Brian, I think you do very well there I think you did Pvo I think it dig proro, I think you' very I look into it. There's so many things that just make me happy and I think quoting the movies that I love is a part of that People love talking about it. I love quotting. Like for example, if Blake said to me like if we were at a restaurant, Blake goes, Hey, you like the soup, I'd say yeah, he'd go, that's great Get in the goddamn house. Get in the goddamn house. And everyonese the table likeike what house? What are you talking about? Like that's just it's because the way you said it reminded me of Elliot Gould. And so the response is not referring to anything that's actually happening. It's just, you said it like this. I'm going to repeat it like that. It's literally a tick is Blike's right. It's absolutely a tick. I will challenge you to find a film that you love to quote. So people look at you like George Clononey looks at the character explaining the game of twenty one to him As he's thirteen in Oceans thirteen. He's like, well, this is the game of twenty one. He just looks up at Lus like, are we are we doing this? Are we really doing this? were to say to, Die Heart is about a cop named John McLlean. That would be that would be my face. Okay. Yeah. it's And so going back to Team America It was so fionable and obviously in terrible ways, but in great ways too because it was like There is a sense on july fourth to be American. and I'm not telling you that's not right. You should be American, but you should also know what America is just the whole like America. like this is what started that whole America. Yeah, literally. like all those shirts you see that are apostrophe Mmerica, they are just saying it the way they do in the song in this movie I mean, I think our world these days is a caricature of this film in certain aspects, which is disappointing But I think that's why it's such a satire in itself to know It goes through in some of the most impressive stunts and coordination of marionettes that you'll ever see in movies ever Um, That it's just fascinating. I'm not a fan of the twenty minute sex scene of with the puppets, but I'm understanding of how that's crazy in a film that you also then blow up the Eiffel Tower Right? It's It's just it's just crazy. And if you haven't seen this film and you're hearing this for the first time, like it's really It's a fun film. It's really fun. You might have some parts that you disagree with, fair enough, but of the time and of the essence It really rung true with a lot of people because it was just a way to laugh through a long time of fear and whether that was right or wrong on some different levels. I think the best part about this film is that it really stuck it to the via Hollywood elite It did not hold back on people that you would think because at the time, movies were movies and the protecting of the Hollywood elite was protecting that. This I don't know if this was the first film. I don't watch a lot of movies as the joke internally, the Discord says, but Was this the first film that? kind of openly took shots at actors for being stupid and Um, you know, like Alec Baldwin was a huge, u instance in this film being made fun of like was this really the first time they took an openly open shot at this, like I guess in cinema I mean, there have been people who have been making fun of movie stars for a while. I mean, fucking buugs bunny cartoons used to do that, but yeah, but like in cinema. No, but you're right. Snding them them up as absolutely maliciously as they do in this film. likeike it's it's like Mel Brooks doesn't put his, you know, put actors in acting situations where he's like making fun of them beyond the character that they're in. like they'll be like, Yeahah, you're a bad actor will be how they make fun of them, right? And not like Not like you think you fucking know everything and it turns out you're a huge douche bag because you tell everybody what to do. Like it's, you know That's a very specific criticism to Lob and I bos It' bo. It's definitely bold. But I want to say one more thing to kind of wrap up the conversation about why this movie is so important to Blake and I. like, yes, I would argue Dad kind of I won't say pushed us toward South Park, but definitely didn't keep us from watching it. And the fact that this is basically The world of South Park merged with Gary Anderson's Saturday morning cartoon shows, specifically Thunderbirds Our Go somethingomet that Dad loved the absolute hell out of. likeike I actually think Dad was preferential to Captain Scarlett. But again, Gary Anderson, right? Gary Anderson, who was the absolute genius of what came to be called Marionation and making these Saturday morning adventure shows for kids entirely with puppets and doing this I mean, it's the reason that the main character in this movie is named Gary is because they are referencing Gary Anderson. I hate predictive markets. I hate the cowuchy bullshit, but I would love to know of the listeners, the percentage of people that actually have seen Thunderbirds our go. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not I find it to be like that whole show in the sixties And even being introduced to that was Dad the one that actually introduced us to that show Oh without have to be without it had to be And it was probably on some random station. He may not have watched it when he was growing up, but he actually just there were things that he was able to tune into that was just like, oh, this is interesting And other people could just flip by it, but it was like, no, these are marionettes going to space And that's a really good pairing of this film is like obviously you have a kind of a quirky film in Thunderbird or it was a TV show, right? Yeah This is obviously a complete difference of that, but it's still a hard thing to do to get Marionettes to actually be characters in a film or a show. It is a preposterously difficult Stupid to think about. reallyally? Yeah, ye so fucking limited in such crazy ways to try and you know their original idea was they were going to remake basically do a day after tomorrow movie with puppets. That was their original idea And it was just and then they got into a rights battle with the people actually owned day after tomorrow. And that's the reason they switched it to kind of sending up you know, the Michel Bay Jerry Bruckhammer actction movie instead. like can I guess day one. But like it justagine like it kind of makes sense if you think about day after tomorrow, there's liter be a scene where global warming chases Jake Gyllenhall down a hallway. And it's like if that was a puppet, it would make sense because you wouldn't be able to see the thing chasing him anyway. It's like also the puppet would be able to walk from Philadelphia to like fucking Washington, DC in the middle of the snow, rightight? Be it' just be like a guy literally traversing snow instead of act whoever the fuck that guy was. I remember that movie watching that at the time being like this is This doesn't even make sense.s likeike this is so stupid. So I can understand how they could be like, no, it's an action film now. It's like, o. Yeah. But dad basically taught us when we were young that Thunderbirds aren't not only go, they are FAB. They're just fabulous. And you mind the gap, by the way. Mind the gap, Alan. Mind the gap, Alan. Sidebar Do you remember that there was a live action Thunderbirds movie also released in two thousand? W called Argo? Is that what I was confusing with? Thunderbirds Argo? No, it's just called Thunderbirds, which is very confusing because they could be referring to a Gary Anderson show. they could be referring to the car, they could be referring to a whole lot of different things. Not only was it also released in two thousand four, it was released three months before Team America World Police. So literally within the same fucking season as Team America World Police. It was called Thunderbirds our go Rambo Redemption Yes, absolutely. Okay. But do you remember that Bill Paxton and Ben Kingsley were in this fucking movie Paxon in, I fucking love Bill Paxton. We were robbed. We were robbed when God took him too early like so many great Bill Paxton. I'm not I don't w want to hate on the man. I'm gonna to go ahead and say that this is probably not in his highlight. This was not in his moratorium reel. What's the film with the two kids the celler Frailty. Frailty dude,'s bestvie in. Frailty iss incredible.' absolutely incredible Do you also remember, Blake that the Thunderbirds live action movie, by the way Thees for good reason. The stones on Matt and Trey to be the only people in two thousand four to make a Thunderbirds esque movie that was actually fucking puppets when Hollywood went. We're gonna adapt Thunderbirds our go, but we're not doing puppets because that's insane they would have thrown a sexinge in there. I know if they gave it to Tay and Madstone, they would have given a sexing. but That Tray Parker Meston I I find it fascinating that they did that. And I don't even remember when that Thunderbirds movie came out. I just recall going, that is dumb. That's not at all the spirit of what that show was. But do you also remember that it was directed by Jonathan Fraks from Star Trek Next Generation. Do you love to go a wandering beneath a clear blue sky? No. this time didnn't happen didn't happen We made it up. follow true fallacies. We made it up God Jon if we didn't Blake. this one's a fact. It's That's such a crazy fact, but Jonathan Fraanks is probably He's just a I can't be mad at that guy. He made that terrible movie, but he's not a bad guy Dude the internet has claimed him in such a major way? It's insane. Like, can you imagine him riding up on a bicycle just being like, how much money would it take to make you direct thunderbirds? Are you ready? I'm about ready to tie it in The reason why because he is able to make fun of himself and he knows he's in he's committed to the bit exactly like Team America committed to its bit When they put that together and put in the hours and hours and hours of work to sell the message. But if you If you truly want to escape being ridiculed and crit like leaning into it a little bit, which is what Johon F Frank says. He knows that he's a meme and he doesn't shy away from that Right? If you know what you do and you do it well and you commit to the bit, that's what makes this a success. You ever have D deja vu seeing Team America after Thunderbirds ever seen a grown marionette naked? It'd never happen. Wikipedia would have you believe The Team of America World Police is a two thousand four American puppet comedy directed by Trey Parker who co wrote it with Matt Stone and Pam Brady. It's a satire of action film archetypes, American militarism and the foreign policy of the United States. The film follows the eponymous international counterterrorism force which recruits a Broadway actor to assist in saving the world from Kim Jong ill and his coalition of Islamic terrorists and progressiv Hollywood actors. That is the starting point for Team America World Police where we are dropped into this story where they are in Paris, right? So there's the for Jacqu first of all Jacques firstirst of all The fact that this movie opens with a marionette doing a puppet show And the fact that that was the first thing they showed the like the people the basically the studio. like here's the day here's here's the movie and it opens with that shot And the fucking money men at that studio are losing their minds because they're like, oh my god, this looks terrible. Oh my god. And then you pull back and it's like, no no, actually the puppets the puppet being puppeteered, those puppets are way more sophisticated. But I just love that like right at theginning the movie they're like a fuck you. ucking cinema dude. mean, that's all I got to say about that. Like you could see that and go. they pull back out of this large vastness of just Marionette like a full on Eiffel toower, a full on Paris rep version of its just it's insane. How much details into this? Dude, they built a hundred sets at like, I don't know, one eighth scale. likeike the production of this movie is absolutely fucking insane. And that's the thing is Everything about this movie on the surface, you're like, this is so dumb. This is so stupid. But there was so much brilliant thought And so much like craftsmanship that went into every part of this, that that's something that's always going to capture my imagination and my attention And in this opening, we're introduced to the team. We've got Lisa who is the psychologist. We've got Carson, who's her love interest We've got Sarah who's a quote unquote psychic. We've got Joe who's a jock and Chris who's a martial arts expert and they're chasing a very broadly drawn Islamic terrorist with a weapon of mass destruction. and in the process of stopping him, proceed to wreck the Eiffel Tower, the Arct de Triumph and blow up the entirety of the Louvre That's about right It's about right. I think that there is literally the opening of this film is the quintessential stinger of the, you know, of the main credit role of the film title sequence. It doesn't very nicely and it doesn't hold anything back and it throws you right in It is a rocket pop of an opening rocket pop of an opening for sure D for this film. came when Matt Stone and Trey Parker were watching television. they came across reruns of Thunderbirds, which Parker had never seen. And they decided that a Marionette action film would be the perfect way to send up all the Jerry Bruckheimer movies. And u in fact, guuy that's voicing Spotswood. Darren Norris. He's imitating the voice of the guy who voiced Jeff Tracy, who was like the leader of the Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds were like a family operation. It was like the dad was the sort of spot aswood character. So so Darren Norris is actually doing an imitation of Peter Dny, I believe Dinaly, I'm not sure how to pronounce his name, but he's the guy that voice Jeff Tracey in the Thunderbirds and what's insane, you know, going back to them Absolutely taking the piss out of the studio. Paramount greenlit the movie immediately because they just made a shit ton of money on the actual South Park movie, right but also because they thought because it's a puppet movie. that it would be cheaper than a live action film. Like they thought, oh, this will be so easy. having no idea what they were getting into Yeah, this had a ten million dollars more budget than South Park, right? Yeah it you're talking about two hundred and seventy puppets It is one hundred cs A hundred sets. And they're not like got people not sleeping taking sleeping pills, working twenty hour days, filling up with the coffee. There is a part of this that feels intense U and maybe too much, but that's what goes into the creative spark and just getting a vision, putting it together and putting it on film. There is a There is passion for this film and you can tell by details and just the beginning intro alone that people really put their time into this. and that's why it comes across as of course controversial, but it's not seen as completely immature and just there is still a satire of appreciation that you just have to have because it's taking complex topics and putting them on their ass, right? And it's not easy to do it that way So meanwhile, team leader Spotaswood is at a Broadway production of Least. f course is a send up of Rnt. and he's basically watching Gary Johnston, who is supposed to be the best actor in the country. He's the greatest actor in the world. He's the greatest actor I've ever seen. He's one of the finest young actors I haveve ever encountered Of course And I wouldn't suuck his stick. Just the the jumping to that is like, o my God. I will suck you dick G. I watched I watched a behind the scenes feature where they describe It was so fucking hysterical, dude because they describe this highly sophisticated process by which they sync dialogue to the puppet job they have all these servos in the heads of the puppets and they're syncking the dialogue to the puppet job movement via this very complex software. And you actually watch an artist have to sit there with a laptop next to Spot is what's head as the line. Please, Gary, I'm not from Hollywood. I'm not going to fuck your mouth and my time is extremely valuable. It plays right there on the laptop screen. It stops and he just goes, Yes, that's nice T ofs How is your day at work, honey That's what he's like' good. It's not a bit. like he is one thousand percent like Yp, that worked exactly the way it was supposed to. and it's just the severed head of spot. So it's like, I'm not going to fuck your mouth And it's also like, how do you know when something is done at that regard Nothing's ever been done like this before. So it's like when you're watching, it' like, yeah, that looks goodough Like which wires should be seen, which there's so much to this that's just you can't just try and it's going to be a success It is so painstaking and that's that's amazing that they even had You know, it's just a guy with a fucking string opening his mouth, right? There was a lot of thought into this because there had to be. Well, I mean, you get the right people, right? So to work as puppet supervisors on this Matt and Tay hired. You had to fuck my mouth. No you had to fuck my mouth. Iired the Gioto brothers. The guys behind killer clowns from outer space Oh Ritters to actually be the like the puppet supervisors of the movie. and it's And again, it's about caring about what you're making even if that thing is silly. If you have a B movie concert concept you approach it like an a movie. That's what Guilla Dl Toro said. and I keep coming back to it because it keeps coming up. likeike they took something as silly as we're going to make fun of Michael Bay movies and Jerry Bruckhimmer movies, which are on their surface already silly. Then we're going to do it with puppets, which adds another layer of silliness, but we're going to produce it as if this is our fucking life's work. And we're going to get people who give a shit. We're going to get people who have devoted their entire lives to this. Bill Pope to shoot this movie. The director of photography on the godamn Matrix. That's fucking incredible. and it actually is a very well shot film from a cinema So he is going crazy because because the thing is like The way that you are able to focus on these puppets versus like it's a completely different ballgame. Like Bill Pope was thrilled to work on it because he just spent the last few years working with green screens for the Matrix and it was like, you know what? I want to shoot a regular movie except I'm eighteen feet tall. takeake mushrooms before you start shooting this thing or you're going to absolutely lose your mind It's likeike, how I describe this film in terms of sequencing to somebody who's never seen it? It's like, do you like Johy Johnny Quest You know what I mean? Like it It goes so fast and so quickly. like some of the jokes are just flying off the handle to the point where like if you're not picking up on it, watching this movie twice is the replay factor for this, I know that's a video game term, but like you can literally rewatch this film and pick up other little jokes. There's so many things sprinkled throughout I mean, Michael Moore makes an appearance in this film and that's a very topical thing at the time because he was involved in a lot of different criticism from a political perspective and they included everybody. There was no lack. of person except for one, which is very, very apparent, which is George W. Bush Well, and it's funny too looking back on the politics of that era It's amazing how notot everything was as cut and dry and neat and clean as we would have liked to believe. I feel like The I mean, I'm not going to go on a political rant and piss off the three guys on iTunes who have a real problem with it. But I really feel like things now are so much more binary in terms of good and evil almost to a cartoonish level how easy it is. It's almost as easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys now as it is in this movie. So again, Satire really is dead. And one of the things that's really interesting about Michael Moore is, you know, at the time, we thought he was this harbinger of truth, right? And then come to find out that he used a lot of deceptive editing to put images together as if, you know, there was causality or there was a relationship when there really wasn't. And one of the ways he did that was he actually got Matt and Tray to be interviewed for Bowling for Columbine because, you know they their families grew up very close to Columbine High schoolool and he also asked them to do an animation for the movie And they were like, yeah, that feels like a step too much toward endorsement one way or the other. so we're not going to do that. So Michael Moore just went and had somebody else do a South Park like animation and put that in right after their segment. never saying that they were the ones that animated it, but by putting it there, strongly suggesting that it was a Mat and Treay animation So like there was a lot of things like that. So again, it wasn't as cut and dry and I feel like this is where these two thrived is like You know, they're taking on both sides quote, unquote, But what they're really doing is just taking on the ridiculousness of existence And one of and that's the reason why they blow up Michael Moore in this movie is because they felt personally betrayed by that bullshit that he pulled in bowling for Columbine. So they literally stuffed a puppet with ham and blew it up I find it amazing that you'll go through and see all these ideas that they're like, you know as they're going through it. and you watched that documentary you mentioned earlier about South Park and how quickly they make those things and how they're making decisions I find it fascinating that they're able to do all these things, add all these jokes and somehow still wrap it all together with a nice bow because at some point you're just making jokes to make jokes, right? Even though that we're talking about our rapport with our one liners and stuff at some point, we stop doing it because it becom stop doing it that night or that that sequence because it has run its course. And I feel like this film is ninety eight minutes long and I never feel like it runs its course, which is not an easy accomplishment with really what you had to work with.veryone So Gary is brought ono the team. they immediately valmorphonize him, I think they call it, where they make him look like a quote unquote Arab terrorist and it's Again we're playaying the truth for laughs and making it big and ridiculous. So they literally like have this whole surgery scene and he comes out of it and they've just slightly painted the puppet's face brown and like glued patchy clumps of hair to his face. It looks like a jackass sequence of them putting pubes on somebody's face. Yes. Yes.'s a gorilla mask. It's like a thousand percent a gora mask. It is so ridiculous And so offensive. They're just like that is perfect. I can't even tell And here's the thing and I know a lot of people are like, how can you talk about this movie? There's so much about it that doesn't hold up. It's very offensive. And I get that But from my perspective, I really think you have to understand that it is a satire, which might sound idiotically obvious, but specifically Matt and Treay have created a world as viewed through the lens of a Michael Bay movie. So they're not just making fun of Michael Bay action movies, even though they literally wrote a song shitting on Pearl Harbor to put in the film They are manifesting The model of a world that is crafted entirely out of the worldview of a Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer movie because those movies are insanely mindlessly jingoistic, right? So it's kind of the difference between going to certain countries on the planet and you know immersing yourself in the culture versus visiting those countries pavilions at EpCOC So it's the reason every time we go to a new location in the world of this movie, it's framed as Paris, three thousand six hundred miles east of America They're sending up the racism, the jingoism, the xenophobia Yeah. a major feature of American culture in the Bush administration post nine and eleven, and frankly hasn't gotten a lot better a generation later. But again, I don't think it's entirely fair to criticize the portrayal of ethnic characters in this as racist because that's literally they're making a statement about how America views the world. This is literally how America sees the rest of the world is this fucking one note and stereotypical. So you know, of course, it's America trying to police the world and they're blowing up every major landmark on the planet. So I guess there's a little roll and Emrick in the mix as well. There's there's it's hard to see because again with the you're You're introduced and are in front of these marionettes doing ridiculous things like throwing up and having sex There are so many messages that are ingrained and deep into this that you're not going at the forefront if you're offended by this film, I understand. And don' I don't think that you're wrong. I just think that the idea that you have to look beyond just what the actual front facing offensive joke is and really what's behind that. That's where I feel like this film has gained momentum over time because if you just look at the title, how is that any different to today if you look at today's politics, again, we're not going to get super into it, but like it is not any different today. And I still think that they're using a lot of the same themes. They being like the overall world is using the same theme that this that this was talking about, which is America having way too much, you know ability to go in and wreck havoc trying to do the and things in the name of freedom That. is an overarching problem even in today's world where whatever side you're on, that that's always a topic and it's always at hand. So you have to go deep into this film and I think as The target audience was us probably, right? Like I mean, at the end of the day, we are white from Midwest. It's not easy to understand why this one kind of resonated with us. and probably if we were from a different background, maybe we wouldn't be so applauding of this movie. But I think that's the point. The point is is that it came out and it defined a lot of problems in the world and it brought it into a very interesting way. and to be honest with you, it followed the same theme as the show. It wasn't overly offensive in various ways that the show didn't do. It kind of kept the same themes there. So yeah, I mean, I don't remember a lot of the criticism at the time because I wasn't paying attention to it, but I'm sure now looking back you could take a lot of the songs and a lot of the jokes is like, yeah, that's flat out just sexist or that's flat out racist. And it's just If you're a type of person that gets offended by those things, you're not going have a good with the film. It's okay. Like to have a bad time. You're gonna to have a bad time. So I think that's just kind of an important note to take that this film is not for everybody. Yeah, and I will say like as much as I do think the satire here still works and still holds up, I will completely cop do There are certain elements of sophhomoreic humor that Matt and Treay have just never let go of. U and that that just absolutely cannot be defended as any doesn't age at all. It cannot be defended as Satire. likeike their over use of the other F bomb And and the R word just constant like even in interviews, they were dropping those fucking words. And it's like, Yeah,'s there's no real good defense for that. but For an example, if America in two thousand four thinks Kim Jong l is the enemy of the world, then in Team America, he's going to be a boond villain And not only that, I don't trust me, I'm not defending Kim Jong Ell. It's weird that I feel like I have to say that. but They go so far with that character to make him like he's a big, huge Asian stereotype. but then the end of the movie, spoiler alert . It's revealed that he's not really Asian. He's a fucking alien. So it's like, they've almost almost acknowledge the fact that there's no way a character on this actual planet could be that enormous of a fucking stereotype except then there's all the other characters in the movie that are like, you know, like the terrorists that are like, Oh, Durka Durka And it's like, Yes, because again, if you ask the average American on the street in two thousand four to tell you what Arabic sounds like That's exactly what they're going to fucking do. I would argue it would be worse, which I probably think about it would be probably easy to think about. So it was Offensive, it was definitely in your face and right or wrong, it was probably a tame version of really what Americans are attributing to these stereotypes and what they actually think And besides the ignorance of blind patriotism in the state of the Union circuit two thousand four Matt and Try just also legitimately hate actors. likeike I've watched a number of interviews they did. And they're just like, yeah, we we hate actors. likeike we he was like they would want to be like we hate our friends who are actors who decide to pursue this business. like They hate the idea that gaining money and celebrity makes you the authority on everything. And that's why why they're satirizing liberalism just as much as right wingv conservativism in this movie is because they legitimately think that that's bullshit And so like you've got kind of Everybody's getting skewered in the movie. So again, yes, Blake, you' are absolutely right. If there are things in this movie that offend you, you are not wrong I just feel like a lot of it fits into what it is about America that they are holding a mirror up to at that point in time O thing, I think is just fucking hilarious is the way that they keep makingim the limitations of Marionettes a comedy feature instead of a filmmaking bug Yeah, they're just like, we're just going to roll with it We're going we're going to lean into it so hard Yeah like which sometimes means the puppets are leaning by the way. Or the puppets are being moved in a ridiculous way. like in a chair, there's a sequence where the head of the intelligence his chair just keeps moving back and back and forth, even though it's a regular dialogue scene and it's It's just Brilliant little notes that you can almost imagine them just saying on set like, let's just roll it that way. It's even funnier. The fight sequences in this movie where they're justing the puppets into each other because they They know and never going to to that And you said it yourself. the cinematographer did the matrix, right? So there's almost that level of anticipation before the fight breaks out, right where there's a o they fuck it they quote the matrix. They're like stop trying to hit me and hit me And it's it's almost like it's an homage to that. But I think the It is an homage to that, but I think the enjoyable part is that it leads up to this giant joke, which is like it just falls flat because you're just like, oh, what am I watching here? whichich is just There's one there's a shot in this movie that Blake and I like it's probably the funniest thing in the movie. And if you were like Taking yourself too seriously, you would never do this in a puppet movie, but like the secret signal that Gary has to give to use undercover as a terrorist justust him flailing his arms in the air. That every time we see that we laugh so hard and we'll be out at a bar somewhere and like if I catch Blake, I'm like where's Blake Im across the room, Blake will just do that He'll just wave his arms in the air. And I'll say, it's me, it's me. And then he'll go smart ass mother. Sart ass Mother fucker. I love yourlls. love your blls. Like the fact that there's a whole montage of Gary like going to all these national monuments to like find his patriotism. And at one point the camera runs into the puppet on the motorcycle and knocks him over. They're so fucking good, dude. It's such a very well thought out film. And that's it's just at the time when you're doing all these marionettes things that' taking hours and hours and you're not sleeping. Yeah, it would be so easy just to go all right, whatever. But they don't. They over do afterfter these messages We'll be right back. Why do Slvannic kids like Casabonita? It' gu Casa Bonita is the only place of its kind in the world. It's a fantastic Mexican village. It's alied with fun and excitement.ood. Tonight in your city, someone is walking their dog Someone is crossing the street to their car Someone's kid is riding a bike home They're counting on you to drive the speed limit Speeding accounts for nearly thirty percent of traffic fatalities, and most of those crashes don't happen on the interstate. They happen on the streets where people live Slow down It's an act of care for the people around you. So remember Beating catches up with you Kow the road and respect its limits. presresented by Nita. Now back to your podcast So we needt talk about puppet sex for a second. No we don't because this is the thing that I it gained the movie a lot of like for a while, it was the reason they got an NC seventeen and they had to cut it way down Here's the thing. You're sitting there at home thinking, yeah, these two freaking weird O perverts just did this movie so they could make two marionettes fuck. Well, you know what the problem with it was, right? the entire time? They were looking for a no strings attached situation, but they couldn't. It was Marionettes. He. I'll take my leave. Thankk you Faira No, but the thing is it was all, as the Joker would say, a part of the plan because they made that scene to distract the MPAA Basically, it's the Kansas City shuffle from lucky number seleven. Everybody's looking right, nobody's looking left. So if all the NPA is focused on is how raunchy that sex scene is, they're not paying attention to all of the other shit that they've put in the movie I ask a question to you because you are more involved in cinema than I am these days. as I ever was Is the MPA as big as it was They I mean, there's been articles and common knowledge. There's even documentaries about how they influence and change films based on whims and not really having anythingthing set in stone and everything is different based on a case by case basis, are they still at that level? or is it more of a well, everything's rated R if there's anything close to it. You know what I mean? Like what does that dynamic look like today? Because back then it was a battleground. Well, yeah, I think the sort of democratization of release platforms has changed. like here the thing is When your movie was only going to make money if it was released in theaters, the NPAA had the most power imaginable Yeah, because R means that you can't bring in the crowd, right? Well, no, but if they said your movie was in C seventeen, it was not playing at theaters Because theaters knew that they weren't going to sell enough tickets to that to make money. Your movie wasn't going to make money. So you had to cut it down to R or your movie was dead in the water, right? So at that point The NPAA, which is made up of a lot of people who should not be telling you what is or isn't appropriate for movies, It's very political They were at their highest power when the theatrical model was still the primary form of film releasing So but this is not this is far from the first time Matt and Treay had tangled with them. likeike the reason the movie is called South Park bigigger, longer and uncut is because they got pissed off at the MPAA when they made cuts to one of their versions. So they sent a worse version just to fuck with him and that got passed which should show you the absolute subjective nonsense of that governing body. So they released the film as bigger longer and uncut because that's the version they sent to the NPAA just to fuck with them and that version got a pass And if you want to see something exactly in that nature, watch this film is not yet rated, which is a great documentary on the NPAA and how that shit goes But dude Even in the behind the scenes feature about this scene and this is what I love. you have set decorators talking about yeah, if you look at the mat painting of the mountains back there, you know all the candles in the forefront like talking about the way they lit the bedroom and the furnishing that they made at one eighth scale from very specific This is Brian really looking at what's happening beyond what's ocurr in front of him, which is Marrietts pretend that they're fucking. I read puppet sex for the articles. Yes, I get it. Point is, these guys are like talking with so much admiration of the work that they've like, we took a very modern furniture designer and made his exact chair down a one eight scale and put it in the bedroom. Like they are so proud of the work they've done. It doesn't matter that two puppets are fucking in the foreground of the work that they've done. And inevitably they're gonna blow it up anyway true, true story. It never happened. It's fiction. Like, I don't think we could et get out of this episode without talking about the aming soundtrack of Team America World Police I just how many versions of America World Police arer there There's the slow version, there's the fast version. you mean America f ye Yeah. Yeah, sorry, America fuck ye.uck Yeah. I thought this podcast was rated PG thirteen. My apologies, we only had so many fucks to give. Thank God NPAA does not mandate podcasts. God, that would be terrible We put the E sticker on every episode, folks I remember having this soundtrack.'s it's a musical. Right? Like that's kind of what this entire film is at the end of the day. in my opinion, it's a musical. So most musicals have catchy songs. This film is not any short Like it has an abundance of songs that are very catchy, they're quotable. and that's what happened at the lunch tables at school, right? You were all singing the songs from this film that you were not supposed to watch as a young kid. I just think their entire career, Matt and Trey have been expert comedy songwriters Like, I mean, you go back to literally their first movie, the one they made in college, Cannibal the Musical has got some really hilarious music in it Um But Dinkle D that opens that movie. I think I know precisely what I mean By the way, is have you ever watched South Park and the Braniff stududio logo that came up with the airplane That's Sidoical Day from Cannibal to Musical. Highly, highly recommend it. U, But I mean, then go then you go to South Park the moovie, which is itself a musical and has one of the greatest like I don't know, God and I'm going to sound like such an idiot now. but like in a what do you call it in a musical where you have like multiple songs going on at once and then they all join a very lay miz moment, but I can't remember what that's called. It's like a medley, but then it joins at the end. They have one of the best ones I've ever heard with U shhut your face, uncle fucker. tomorrow nights. I want to live up there the Revolution side like all these songs joining together. and then blame Canada gets nominated for bestest Song at the Oscars and at the Oscars is performed by Robin Williams So it's like it's hard to discount their abilities as music makers They've won tonyys for the book of Mormon, you know what I mean? Like it's not it's an incredible B. It's not difficult at all to see how the Book of Mormon was birthed from the process of making Team America It's so much funnier if the satirical songs sound like real music, right? Yeah. Yeah. And and it's just like some of these are just straight Bangers, dude. L America fuck yeah. Yeah The ultimate anthem of stupid American jingoism that also works as an anthem of stupid American jingoism that I love to shriek sing I'm about to hot takeake right now Oh hot hot take. I'm doing a hot takeake It's a side bar too Fourth of July songs. I personally think born in the USA is the strongest But once Team America fuck yeah came out, it became top if you're okay with the words, right? They became the top song to play during fourourth of July. in my honest opinion because I that proud to be an American song. I can't feel the non elementary part of that. Like I feel like just doing the pledge of Allegiance at that point would probably be more impactful Born in the USA. yes, but like team America fuck yeah, like that has to be played on every fourth of July like that song. It's funny too, because the song As much as it works on that level is also like, if you listen at the end when they're celebrating like McDonald, fuck Abies fuck Yeah. But then they're like slavery, fuck yeah. It's like, wait, what? And then at one point they're like M Books, sportsmanship and nobody's saying anything But like they're acknowledging the jokes jokes. Yeah, America thinks is awesome is the song, right? But if you listen to the lyrics, they're making fun of them they're making fun of their own country in the song It's just it's, you know, if we were smart in this Americanized country, we would call it banter Right as the English do, right? when you can take the piss out of yourself because that's exactly what that song is doing. U I don't I think it's ultimate patriotism because it's just over patriotism and it's being dumb whichich is what I love about it. And then you have everyone has ADs, which is, of course, the send up of the end of Rnt Uh, which is just like And the best part of that is when they're just saying As at the end and then he's like one obvly eights eight, eight, eight eight, eight, eight. Like you just got that extra one there. The music and timing element of that is gain, these songs are catchy and they're relevant of the time and Rnt was such an overly popular musical. It's like the cats of that generation, right? It was just everywhere. all of the songs that twenty thousand nine thousand, twenty one thousand six hundred minutes. I budget that, but it was just everywhere. I remember that in school. So seeing somebody take take that song or take that that play and the musical and actually flip it on its side to tell a joke It was definitely controversial. It still is, but I think that just goes to show how comfortable they are in the space to go after or I don't want to say attack those things, but just kind of showcase some of the of the time humor, which may or may not hold up today. And then we have Pearl Harbor sucks, which is The one I love to sing the most because it's just like, H need you likeack Band hf likeack needs acting school He was terrible in that film. It's like he's trying to sing a love song, but he just keeps getting distracted by how much he hates Pearl Harbor. L they're doing a bit within the song. But Pearl Harbor is not a great film. I mean, the message of that should be heard by everyone. if you've seen it. It's not great. Yeah, a thousand percent. And then Let's not forget the we do do, which is a thousand percent based on the Toby Keith song. like a lot of the the sort of a combination between the Tobbey Keith and the Alan Jackson song that came out right after nine and eleven You know what I mean? R remember those songs' like, we're gonna we're gonna really tug at the heartstrings of people like dealing with the aftermath. And it's I mean, they did that in an actual South Park episode with an Alan Jackson song. We're doing the whole the Simpson. Oh the lder to heaven. Yeahah. Yeahah, which is where were you when they built that Lder day Hea? The Ladatter to heaven So I like that send up. And then montage. my king God montage It's your bin when you need to put yourself to the test and show us a passage of time, we're gonna need a mountain. That literally goes into any montage playlist. That's what I'm saying. It's a song that describes what a montage is that is itself an amazing montage song Yes. And I think the beauty of that is it has every right to be played in the mon like If you want to work out to a montage, there's no better better way of doing that by adding like the rocky theme songs and whatever hard rock like theme songs to get you through the, but this is a banger Like the montage song is an actual fucking banger. And I think that's where it just it almost goes over fucking the Rocky theme song. I hate to say that, but like is it is so in your fucking face and fast and just like during if you're watching the movie, it's like the perfect peanut butter and jelly put together because it's just fucking craziness on film happening while this song is just banging in your ears. Also, I love that it was originally created for the Aspen episode of South Park, which aired in two thousand two Oh. The K twelve. Yeah, if you French fry when you when you want a pizza, you're gonna have a bad time. Stan Darsh Dirt like that darshy dir And that one's poking fun at the the great film of Vetter Off Dead. So These guys know their film and they know their history of cinema. So what I love the most though, is that basically montage is a riff on break the ice from Rad. So if you listen to those two songs back to back, there's literally a mix by DJ I think it was just by a group called Blood Brothers who did this whole mix of amazing montage songs and you can hear brereak the ice bleed into montage South Park fucking incredible. And so I love that it sounds exactly like a song from the Rad soundtrack. That's always going to win me over I'm the fuck on I' s. Listen you're gonna to also add anything to that montage playlist. Friends to eternity, loyalty, honesty, friends for rest Stick together. God, I love that fucking movie. Are you talking about the band Dragon sound from the movie Miami Connection? Well, yes, yes, I am, Brian. And that movie's so good that it willck I also love that, you know, we love the Wilhelm sccream here at u at Junk food cinema, and sure Matt Tray are movie buffs so they know you can' have a legendary action movie without at least one Wilhelm scream, right But it's not just the presence of the scream in this movie It's that they went so far as to actually credit Sheb Wooy in the credits. And for those of you who haven't heard the history lesson, we've regurgitated on a few episodes, Shb Wooy was the actor credited with that scream, which he first recorded for the nineteen fifty one film Distant Drums And then that audio file got saved in the Warner Brothers sound sound archive as man getting bit by Alligator Ca and he screams earned its name when the file was reused for the charge at Feather River, nineteen fifty three, and a soldier who was identified as Wilhelm Immediately then gets shot by an arrow and they use that scream, i. e. the Wilhelm scream The fact that if you go to the credits of Team America Sheb Wooly is credited in the cast. because they use the Wilhelm Scream. Not every film that uses the Wilhelm Sream will do that Not this time No, that's not correct fabrication. fabrication. We made it up, we made it up Ecept we didn't Ecept we did' I don't know, dude, I still think this movie fucking holds up the whole like The fight scene with all of the celebrities and we're just We're just paroting action movies left and right while also, you know, making fun of like of course the God forbid, anyone says the name Matt Damon around me for the rest of my life. This film not having a rescue sequence was actually pretty funny because Matt Damon has All of the films that he has to be rescued in and I swear to God, the amount of money we've spent on that dude. God, that's how you sounded so much like dad right there. He hated that about Mad Dame and like, why do we keep sacrificing people to save Mat Dame? His bigger problem was the movie Vvertical limit. Like that that was like that was just his like this is the dumbest film ever and I'm tell you why because if you send ten people to save two and only one come backack Math ain't checking out there. Math ain't Mathin famam. Math ain't mathin But you know, they took the controversial thing about adding in all of these celebrities, either high profile, low profile, people that loved it people that hated it. and they just blew them all up Everybody literally blew them all up. That's how they solved the whole like, oh, you got a problem this? Well, everybody's being blown up in the ends so it's fine. Like, would you think would you call us Pussies, dicks are assholes. Um I think that we were dicks that are now assholes. Okay, interesteresting But we are also at a heart of pussy. You know what I mean? Like we're just pussies That's really inspiring words, Bikeke. And sometimes Busies get fucked by dicks, but dicks also fuck assholes I also love there's things I didn't notice until this viewing like the rivets on the streets in Paris are little Croissants Like literally just little tiny croissants, right Then there's things I still didn't notice on this viewing. In other words, IMDB told me. Like the buildings around Kim Jong Il's palace are Chinese takeout boxes Oh, that's brilliant too. And then all the plants on the Panama set are just marijuana leaves. Like that type of detail is almost as like and I don't want to say that this film has anywhere close to being touching Blade Runner's set design and all that stuff that they had years and years and years to make based on the strikes, but there's that level of like appppreciation of detail. you know what I mean? Like somebody somewhere is putting that together going, oh, I got a really fucking fantastic idea. Let's just do it this way. and you This many years later noticed it and how many other thousands, but like that's the type of craft and love and creativity that you really like, whether it's offensive or not. I think that's just fuck that's creative and just fun. Okay, so I'm going to give you one that's really going to bake your brain, right Okay The giant statue in Kim Jong l's foyer. Yes, That's a real person That's a person painted gold. Like if you look closely, you can see it blink No fucking way. o are you kidding me? No, I'm not. I'm not at all. That's insane Right I'm going to look at this right now Oh this is going to really blow your mind, dude wild isn't it's w wild. Yeah. And it also makes it very As soon as you see it and you recognize it, it completely makes the film like It's a weird juxtaposition as you're looking at it. Yeah, you know. God, that's incredible So what I was saying before about this movie tapping into their like they've always been musical comedians. They've always been musically talented. They've always known how to construct humor in a musical sort of arrangement So when they were developing this movie, they flew to New York City to discuss the script with their producer, Scott Ruden, and Ruden had just seen the musical Avenue Q on Broadway. So he put them in touch And I've seen that as. He put them in touch with the composers of AvenyQ, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marks. Basically like Ask them about what it's like to work with puppets. It was kind of like a very surface level like, Hey, they do puppets, you want to do puppets? Maybe we'll figure something out Well, it turns out Robert Lopez ended up working with Trey and Matt to conceive of The book of Mormon So had it not been for Team America World Police, there may not be a book of Mormon. They would not be multi tony award winning playwrights. You know, they they wouldn't have been able to add that to their their their egot potential shelf, you know They've definitely had that whole crown of that might be Post peeak Tray Parker Mata. I'm still interested to see what they do next U and what they're what they're going to do. you know, South Park is a constant, but is it as stale as the Simpsons is? I believe so, you know what I mean? Like I just don't I'm not rushing to go watch the South Aark episode to see. I think COVid kind of killed that for me, which is like, yeah, like it's I think it killed it for them too. I mean, we honest like I mean I don't think they've been the same since right before COVID. But again, that that's just a personal preference thing. I just but that's the whole thing is like what is their next project, their next venture? Are we ever going to get something as crazy scale, ironically that word as this. I don't know. I'm excited to see what could be next, but you know, they're focused and it seems like everything they touch turns to gold in that regard But this must be post peak You know, they did their concert, which was pretty interesting, which was at Red Rocks, where they brought in, you know, Primus and you know, played all of the songs from the show. I don't know if they tapped into Team America in terms of that soundtrack, but justust seeing what they're going to do next might be interesting, but nothing will truly capture this this time frame for me where I felt You know, the world changed after september eleventh, two thousand one, but there was a stretch between Like O four and like that just felt like, I don't know, mayaybe it was just the time that I was growing up where these films and That type of stuff was coming out and it was just like everything just seemed to be as funny as the next and the next thing was coming and it was just even greater. It been more than Iess you And that brings us to the junk food pairing. And for this one, I said fuck you chat GPT. I'm going to feed data into the integrated network for tactical espionage, linked loswless interpretation of geometric and electronic network cluster epitomies otherwise known as intelligence, and find the most American food possible to eat on this, the two hundred fiftieth birthday of the United States. and it returned back to me Oreo Firecracker pop cookies. This is apparently a new variety of Oreo. It's a delightful combination of flavors from a nostalgic American ice pop frozen snack and milk's favorite sandich cookie Spremely dunkable. features a tasty blue raspberry lemon and cherry flavored layers of cream sandwiched between two crispy vanilla sandwich cookie, making them a wonderful summertime treat Apparently despite its name It is not pop Rcks It's it's, I guess supposed to taste more like the the rocket pop And people are very upset that it's called firecracker pop, but it's not actually pop rocks. People are expecting to bite into it and experience that little bit of a surge. So the fact that you've taken essentially the rocket pop that Blake and I' been talking about the whole episode stuffed it inside of an Oreo and it still manages to be a lie H to be the most American fucking snack of all time. I'm gonna be straight with you Did Claude tell you to smoke crack? Is that what that came down to This is a real thing, Blake. It is a real fucking thing. But again, the fact that they also do all of that and still manage to be a lie is ier Americanism. Incredible. Have yourself a fire just smoke crack. That's what he said, smoke a fire cracker pop cook Yes, Oreo. After you have a rocket pop up, you behind. Is that your junk food pairing to put acket pop up yourre behind Yeah, and I feel like saying it like that is Not at all how they would say it in this film, but I'm gonna say it like that anyway. Surprise aurus Surprise, I suppose. Yeah, absolutely. Oh Blank. I'm so glad we got to get together and Wax nostalgic about our love for weird puppet jokes and puppet sex and puppet. fights and just like go on puppet croissants, Puppet croissants and puppet soundtracks that are so pupp and good. I just I love I still love this movie. Yeah, there's a couple of things that maybe don't hold up, but there's a lot about it that still holds up because this was made in the age where Satire was not dead and I'm, I guess desperately holding on to that It's certainly something that you can look back on fondally. And again, all of the controversy aside, there is creativity here and it was around when I was growing up. and I certainly laughed More than I should have and I think I could probably quote this from start to finish even though I won't