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[0:00] Jesse McAnally: You've been pleasuring me a lot lately. In that last position, your dong went really deep. I think your dong went all the way up and touched my cheese. We're a classy show over here, people.

[0:18] Jesse McAnally: Hello, I'm Jesse McAnally.

[0:20] Andrew DeWolf: And I am Andrew DeWolf.

[0:22] Liz Esten: And I'm Liz Esten.

[0:23] Jesse McAnally: And welcome to The Cheese Wheel, a hyperfixation podcast where our topics are gambled on a big ol' wheel. And you know what? This week, it happened to land on one of Liz Esten's choices. And also, surprisingly, one of our most requested episodes, even back when we were our other podcast.

[0:44] Jesse McAnally: There are technically two songs in it. So, I mean, they are full numbers, though. It's not like they are full, like, emotional musical numbers.

[0:52] Liz Esten: Yeah.

[0:53] Jesse McAnally: If weren't the plot. It's kind of like Barbie, where, yeah, it's not a musical, but it's more of a musical than most musical movies.

[1:02] Andrew DeWolf: They didn't do it live, though. So you're not seeing live.

[1:04] Jesse McAnally: Did you see the Wicked promo?

[1:06] Andrew DeWolf: Is that what we're referencing?

[1:07] Jesse McAnally: Yep.

[1:08] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[1:10] Jesse McAnally: Everything's got to be live now.

[1:12] Andrew DeWolf: Why does it all need to be live?

[1:13] Jesse McAnally: I don't hate live singing. It just needs to be done for a reason. And you know, for everything else, I feel like committing to it is kind of like no film has ever committed to using only on set audio. It just doesn't make sense to do.

[1:25] Andrew DeWolf: It is literally nonsense.

[1:27] Jesse McAnally: It's a bad choice and a stupid, stupid decision, almost as stupid as making it two parts.

[1:36] Andrew DeWolf: You know what else has two parts? A movie called Barb and Star.

[1:40] Liz Esten: Liz, why did you pick this?

[1:41] Liz Esten: I just love this movie. It's delightful. It feels like a movie that everyone would like. It's just so stupid and it doesn't require any extensive thought. It's just fun. Like 90 minutes. It's just good.

[1:54] Jesse McAnally: That's fair. But Andrew, had you heard about this show or this movie before we were talking about it this week?

[2:00] Andrew DeWolf: No, not at all.

[2:01] Jesse McAnally: Okay.

[2:02] Andrew DeWolf: Not even not. You never saw the poster. None of that stuff.

[2:05] Andrew DeWolf: Maybe I saw the poster, but it certainly did not leave an impact on me if I did.

[2:10] Jesse McAnally: So Liz thinks it's one of the most amazing comedies of all time. I am inclined to agree. Andrew, what is your thoughts?

[2:19] Andrew DeWolf: Uh, I think it's okay. I'm not a big comedy guy to begin with, but I never laughed a day in his life. I really, I don't think anything is funny in the whole world is everything is deeply serious.

[2:29] Jesse McAnally: We have literally hours of podcast evidence that Andrew has laughed.

[2:33] Andrew DeWolf: So he's facing it's all AI. I thought that it was a, it was pretty goofy though. I like, I like the tone that it's going for. I like the silliness. Um, this is the type of comedy that I can get behind. It's not too, I don't like comedies that are too like, uh, crass and just juvenile. And it doesn't lean into that too hard. Although there is some, but yeah, so, so we all generally like it. So haters, you can fuck off.

[3:02] Jesse McAnally: I say, Oh, did you like it? I'm star short for star breath. Assume yours is Barbara.

[3:08] Liz Esten: Nope. Just Barb. Plain old bar. I want to thank Barbitstar for hosting tonight's talking club and for making their hot dog soup. I like the salt. I like the hot dog. It's not as runny as it usually is.

[3:23] Liz Esten: What does she draw you? Oh, she gives me bigger teeth, love big teeth. She loves big teeth. Even if it's just two eyes on a bunch of teeth, my new phone case.

[3:36] Liz Esten: It's like I'm listening to the ocean. Wait, I know I'm going to take it home and glue it to our house. I know I'm going to take it home and glue it to our landline.

[3:54] Liz Esten: I'm Barb and this is darn. Roll number again, please. Six 11, six 11. Oh my Barb. She's six 11, six 11. We're in one 24.

[4:06] Jesse McAnally: But Barb and Star Go to the Vista Del Mar is a film written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, directed by Josh Greenbaum. It was scheduled to be released theatrically July 31st, 2020, but was pushed back to July 16th, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[4:27] Jesse McAnally: On January 11th, 2021, Lionsgate announced it would be canceling the film's theatrical release. Instead, open the film via premium VOD on February 12th, 2021. In August 2021, it was announced that the film would receive a theatrical release at the LMO Drafthouse Cinema beginning September 12th at its Los Angeles locations and nationwide on September 19th.

[4:48] Jesse McAnally: Review aggregator websites Rotten Tomatoes reports an 80% of 178 critic reviews were positive. The critical consensus reads bright, colorful, and unabashedly silly. Barb and Star Go to the Vista Del Mar reaffirms that Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig are still as fun and funny as ever.

[5:07] Jesse McAnally: The plot of the film is lifelong friends Barb and Star embark on the adventure of a lifetime when they decide to leave their small Midwest Midwestern town for the first time ever. Um, honestly, I don't even, if it had come out in 1995, I think I would have still liked it, but it would have been with a lot of other silly comedies and kind of been a little lost in the shuffle of the Austin Powers and Wayne's World to ease.

[5:32] Jesse McAnally: Um, but sadly we don't get fun comedies anymore. Um, especially ones that kind of are just out to entertain you. Um, in the day when the bear is considered one of our greatest comedies or the menu is considered one of our greatest comedies, I think we're in a drought of actually funny movies.

[5:51] Andrew DeWolf: Are those considered comedies? I thought the menu was a horror movie.

[5:53] Jesse McAnally: The menu is marketed as a horror movie, but it's technically a horror comedy.

[5:59] Andrew DeWolf: Horror comedies are not comedies though.

[6:01] Jesse McAnally: I mean, they are, but they're not. It's it's a norm core horror film that's read as a comedy.

[6:09] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah. I enjoyed it despite that, but you know, it's not a problem, but I want a real honest to God, stupid, fun comedy. And sadly, what has taken that place in the, the, the cultural zeitgeist are these fucking funny book movies, these goddamn comic book movies, I think. Cause they throw a quip out every 15 minutes. There's suddenly a comedy.

[6:26] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. A comedy needs to have a funny premise, not just jokes. Um, and this does, because I mean, Jess, you're neglected to mention that this is a spy thriller.

[6:43] Andrew DeWolf: Truly one of the most shocking parts of the first watch of this film is discovering that aspect of it. Um, it's the first thing you discover though, but I highly recommend going into this movie completely blind. Like don't, don't look up shit about it. Don't listen to a podcast about it, especially.

[7:01] Jesse McAnally: Okay. Can we talk about Kristen Wiig's career all together? Um, overall, yes. Uh, before we, cause I think that her past 20 years of existence in the zeitgeist is actually fairly important for painting why this, what this film means in her overall career.

[7:17] Liz Esten: Um, Liz, what was your opinion of Kristen Wiig when she was originally on SNL?

[7:21] Liz Esten: Uh, she's one of my favorites.

[7:23] Jesse McAnally: Okay.

[7:23] Liz Esten: Um, I, I mean, I loved all the women on SNL because like, you know, at the time it's kind of hard to find a funny woman on TV in the 2000s.

[7:31] Jesse McAnally: I agree.

[7:32] Liz Esten: I honestly think she was kind of the secret energy of SNL in those days. Cause she was a writer, she was like Tina Fey, but she could actually perform comedy instead of just read funny lines into a teleprompter. And she was unafraid to kind of look stupid. And I think that that's kind of led the way to a lot of my favorite current SNL, uh, SNL performers, specifically, uh, Sarah Sherman, I feel like owes a great debt of influence to Kristen Wiig.

[7:58] Jesse McAnally: Then while she was on SNL, she would do a lot of movie roles. Um, specifically things like Walk Hard, your beloved Walk Hard.

[8:07] Liz Esten: Yes.

[8:07] Jesse McAnally: Also on my list. Uh, Whip It, uh, How to Train Your Dragon. Uh, small roles where she didn't really shine and she was always kind of the girlfriend. Especially like in this period, I think of Paul, where she is just the girl in that movie.

[8:20] Andrew DeWolf: Was that the Simon Pegg alien movie that I didn't watch?

[8:27] Jesse McAnally: Yes, it is. Like in MacGruber, she's just the girl MacGruber's meant to have sex with.

[8:33] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[8:33] Jesse McAnally: Well, that was her role in the sketches too. It was just implied.

[8:36] Liz Esten: Yes.

[8:38] Jesse McAnally: Um, but then we get Bridesmaids where she and Annie Mumolo wrote this big Brock's office breaking film that got nominated for several Oscars. Like that was how big that film was.

[8:49] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah. That was one that I heard about, but I never actually saw, but everyone said it was really good.

[8:53] Jesse McAnally: Here's my opinion. I don't think Bridesmaids is good. I think it's a, I think it's, Liz, you and I were talking about this earlier, so I was really hoping I wasn't dropping a ball on you here.

[9:02] Liz Esten: Oh, no, no. I, I will, I will defend a bit what you say after you talk.

[9:07] Andrew DeWolf: I have no opinion. I've not seen it.

[9:08] Jesse McAnally: It is a film that has a great premise, a great cast, but it sadly was still in that, uh, Judd Apatow period where every comedy movie was over two hours. There was a great 90-minute movie in there, but it's two hours long and it's so boring and then the laughs get further and further away where you just kind of in the middle of a slog and it's, I saw it in theaters and felt that the pace was just horrendous.

[9:31] Liz Esten: Um, but that being said, Liz, uh, you, do you have different opinions on that or you, can you see that argument?

[9:39] Liz Esten: I will say I have, I see the argument. I agree. It's too long. I haven't really watched it since I watched it the first time on streaming probably at my house. But I also make the argument that this is 2011 ish.

[9:52] Jesse McAnally: Okay.

[9:53] Liz Esten: This is early 2010s. Women led comedies are kind of rare in the zeitgeist. So watching a bunch of funny women just be funny for a couple hours, even if the pacing wasn't great and I'm not a big Melissa McCarthy person, be perfectly honest with you, and I just like, didn't vibe with all the jokes, just seeing a bunch of funny women work together and be people and not be around their, it's not around, it's a friendly relationship with each other and not a man. Chris O'Dowd is there, but he's barely a person, which is great.

[10:24] Jesse McAnally: And Jon Hamm.

[10:28] Liz Esten: And Jon Hamm is also here. And I love that. I can say that about the two main male characters in a comedy movie about women.

[10:36] Jesse McAnally: So I give Bridesmaids that credit. It's not my favorite movie, but I give it that credit.

[10:41] Liz Esten: But I'm going to give that credit to something else coming up later.

[10:43] Jesse McAnally: You're going to give it to Ghostbusters 2016?

[10:44] Liz Esten: Yes I am! Cause Ghostbusters 2016 is good.

[10:48] Jesse McAnally: I liked it even in 2016 when people hated it. I was a fan of it. I was an unabashed fan of it.

[10:55] Andrew DeWolf: Man, I have not seen any of these movies.

[10:58] Andrew DeWolf: I'll say the Ghostbusters trailers didn't look very good, but I did not actually watch it. So I'm not going to step in.

[11:05] Jesse McAnally: Post Bridesmaids, she did not do a comedy follow-up for five years. And that follow-up was Ghostbusters. She instead was growing her cred in the indie world, doing some whack-ass movies that I think are incredible. Like the Skeleton Twins and Diary of a Teenage Girl and The Martian.

[11:24] Jesse McAnally: And her next main comedy that she's a major role in is Ghostbusters. And I think she's very good in it. I think everyone is kind of working at a level unseen in the theatrical cut of the Ghostbusters movie.

[11:37] Andrew DeWolf: The directors, the, okay, here's my soapbox about Ghostbusters 2016.

[11:42] Jesse McAnally: Okay.

[11:42] Andrew DeWolf: The original cut is good. You cannot find it fucking anywhere anymore because the only version that got released on physical media was the extended unrated version, which is like two hours and 15 minutes, which ruins the pacing that they originally had.

[11:56] Jesse McAnally: I mean, you could yo-ho in a bottle of rum it, man.

[11:59] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, but shouldn't you release the good one?

[12:01] Jesse McAnally: Yeah.

[12:02] Andrew DeWolf: But yo-ho in a bottle of rum.

[12:03] Jesse McAnally: Um, and since then, um, this is her first collaboration with the writer of, uh, Bridesmaids. This was supposed to be her big return to comedy and it sadly, the COVID pandemic ruined it. And I, I think this would have been a really popular and a big hit. And since then she's done two things, a boy called Christmas, which was garbage.

[12:24] Andrew DeWolf: I think I saw it part of the opening of that and it looked like shit.

[12:32] Jesse McAnally: It is shit. Um, and doesn't he like live in the woods or something like that?

[12:48] Andrew DeWolf: Come on, Patreon, tell us to cover that!

[12:50] Jess McAnally: Oh, don't.

[12:51] Andrew DeWolf: And then Despicable Me 4.

[12:54] Jess McAnally: And truly, I am so disappointed, in all that context, to say that this should have been her return to form. This should have been her, like, really redefining what comedy films could be, because Tina Fey has that proto-feminism where it's like, girls are great because—I like Tina Fey stuff, let's be clear—but, like, what she makes is for girls, quite often. Like, Mean Girls is a film for girls that men can enjoy. Where this feels like a comedy for everyone.

[13:27] Andrew DeWolf: Kristen Wiig is in an Emmy-nominated Apple TV series.

[13:31] Jess McAnally: Yeah, but who's watched it?

[13:33] Andrew DeWolf: People that watch Apple TV shows.

[13:35] Jess McAnally: I'm just saying, she is doing something that's getting her attention. It's not what she deserves, but she's getting something.

[13:41] Andrew DeWolf: But also, I think that TV shows are the devil.

[13:46] Jess McAnally: They're not just—TV shows aren't the devil. Movies aren't the only way people break out. Jeremy Allen White didn't break out because he was in a movie. He broke out because he was in a bunch of TV shows. And Walter White didn't break bad in a movie, so—

[13:59] Andrew DeWolf: He broke bad on television. TV has value in an actor's career and a market. I have a lot of thoughts about that that I don't want to unpack in my Barb and Star episode.

[14:11] Jess McAnally: Yeah, I'm just saying, you can't disregard TV shows as a sign of their still not succeeding.

[14:18] Andrew DeWolf: My cup overfloweth with television shows that even the good ones I won't even give a bit of attention to, because I have only a fair amount of time on this earth, and it is getting less and less by the day. So I'd rather watch Barb and Star and 50 more films like it than start one TV show.

[14:37] Jess McAnally: Andrew, can you please describe what this movie is like?

[14:39] Andrew DeWolf: I'm sorry. Um, oh my goodness, it is—it's like almost a surreal movie, like a surrealist comedy, but it's not—it's not quite there. Like it's most—it's grounded for a lot of it, but then when the comedic bits happen, some of it is just complete absurdist nonsense. So it's difficult to like pin it down to like one particular tone or style.

[15:07] Jess McAnally: I think the absurdist tone runs throughout consistently.

[15:11] Andrew DeWolf: You think so? It's just—it is also starting from a framework that feels like a normal comedy, but I feel like surreal things happen right away.

[15:20] Jess McAnally: They do a very good job setting up like the weird surrealist spy tone in the first two minutes.

[15:26] Andrew DeWolf: Surreal things happen right away, but then we immediately cut from that to like Barb and Star just sitting on a couch and working a retail job. Doing a little dance number with their feet. And then they—then they just go to a book club, which is not a book club, it's a talking club.

[15:43] Jess McAnally: Oh no, it's a talking club. I love talking club, that's fucking phenomenal.

[15:48] Andrew DeWolf: Would you get kicked out?

[15:49] Jess McAnally: They literally—the worst fucking club I've ever seen, like why would anyone ever want to be here? Today's topic is jobs. They're eating hot dog soup and I've like never heard of that and it looks awful.

[16:00] Andrew DeWolf: What the fuck is that?

[16:02] Jess McAnally: It's big vomit. We put hot dogs in.

[16:06] Andrew DeWolf: Before we begin, I just want to thank Barb and Star for hosting tonight's talking club and for making their famous, usual hot dog soup.

[16:16] Jess McAnally: Again.

[16:17] Andrew DeWolf: You're welcome. It's a simple recipe.

[16:19] Jess McAnally: Simple.

[16:20] Andrew DeWolf: Gail's not here, but it's six o'clock on the dot, so it's time to lock the door.

[16:24] Jess McAnally: I'm here!

[16:25] Andrew DeWolf: You're late, Gail.

[16:26] Jess McAnally: Buh-bye!

[16:27] Andrew DeWolf: I love the design of that house, the wood paneling on every square inch of that room for the talking—talking house. I love—the design elements add to the jokes here.

[16:42] Jess McAnally: Also, there's a person who was late to talking club, there's a person who was late to talking club, so she's just knocking on the door, it's like, I'm so proud of you, like from the slider.

[16:51] Andrew DeWolf: Well, yeah, because she was one minute late and she wasn't allowed in.

[16:56] Jess McAnally: And then they get kicked out of talking club for lying about getting fired for their jobs.

[17:00] Andrew DeWolf: Which they didn't get fired, they got—

[17:03] Jess McAnally: They got laid off because the furniture store closed. They didn't tell them for two months.

[17:07] Andrew DeWolf: Oh my god. So I don't know what to compare this to. I think you said Austin Powers, which I think that's a decent comparison.

[17:15] Jess McAnally: I mean, it's kind of a lazy comparison, because the only reason why I'm—is because we have an evil version of the character, played by the same lead actor of the film, and they're pale and goofy and doing a voice.

[17:28] Andrew DeWolf: Can I be horny on Main?

[17:39] Jess McAnally: Are you—are you hot for Kristen Wiig in The Weird Wig?

[17:41] Andrew DeWolf: Yes.

[17:42] Jess McAnally: Uh, no, no.

[17:43] Andrew DeWolf: Oh lord.

[17:44] Jess McAnally: Evil Kristen Wiig.

[17:45] Andrew DeWolf: That's Kristen Wiig in The Weird Wig, yes.

[17:47] Jess McAnally: Yes. That would be on my Hear Me Out case.

[17:49] Andrew DeWolf: You're into the helmet hair?

[17:52] Jess McAnally: I swear to god, like, I don't know what it is, but I'm like, yeah, that works.

[17:58] Andrew DeWolf: I hate to bring it to you, but she'll never be in a real relationship with you. She'll only drag you along to get what she wants, and then dump you in the ocean.

[18:05] Jess McAnally: No, no, no, that's part of it.

[18:07] Andrew DeWolf: Okay.

[18:08] Jess McAnally: He's not committal. That's what he wants.

[18:10] Andrew DeWolf: No, no, Liz, you don't understand, that's part of it.

[18:15] Jess McAnally: I hope your partner is not listening to this specific episode.

[18:19] Andrew DeWolf: So, all right, I can describe the plot to the extent that we have a plot.

[18:25] Jess McAnally: I do, I have the plot pretty much memorized, you know.

[18:28] Andrew DeWolf: All right, I'm just gonna—well, I think it's funnier if I explain and you correct me, because I like to be funny about it, I don't know.

[18:35] Jess McAnally: Yeah, no, be funny. If your facts aren't correct.

[18:38] Andrew DeWolf: I thought you were never funny, I thought you didn't even know how to laugh.

[18:40] Jess McAnally: Andrew doesn't believe in comedy.

[18:41] Andrew DeWolf: Oh, I don't believe in comedy, that's why I'm an anti-comic.

[18:45] Jess McAnally: Spoilers, and if you want to go in without knowing things, now is the time, you have to stop listening. Sorry.

[18:53] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, check out—check out, we're gonna spoil the whole shebang. So, it opens with a, like, I think it's an Asian boy on a bike delivering newspapers.

[19:06] Jess McAnally: His name is Yo-Yo.

[19:07] Andrew DeWolf: We don't find out their name, Yo-Yo, until later, but yes, their name is Yo-Yo, and that's my favorite character, obviously. He's precious.

[19:13] Jess McAnally: And he goes back to a secret tree, and he has a secret treehouse club, and it's just the most bizarre fucking thing you'll ever see. He just goes into the fucking underground of this tree and meets with, like, two, like, a scientist and just an agent guy, and then a weird lady that's very pale and has hell met, like, a hair that looks like she's wearing a gladiator helmet.

[19:45] Andrew DeWolf: She comes out and makes herself soda, and then the scientist is like, oh, we made the mosquitoes that can instantly kill a cow with one sting, which mosquitoes don't sting. I'm assuming that's part of the joke, is that they keep saying mosquitoes sting.

[20:01] Jess McAnally: They bite?

[20:02] Andrew DeWolf: Like, I don't know, but yeah, they develop mosquitoes that kill you instantly with one sting, and then they're like, okay, time to kill a bunch of people for no reason, and then the scientist is like, no, and then they kill the scientist.

[20:18] Jess McAnally: So that's the big plot reveal.

[20:20] Andrew DeWolf: That's the plot of the movie. They want to kill a bunch of people with mosquitoes.

[20:24] Jess McAnally: Yeah, Andrew, what's her sad backstory?

[20:28] Andrew DeWolf: We're gonna get to that later. We have to go to Barb and Star now. Barb and Star work at a furniture store.

[20:33] Jess McAnally: The furniture store gets shut down, they get kicked out of Talking Club, and they're like, you know what?

[20:37] Andrew DeWolf: We need to do something.

[20:38] Jess McAnally: It's just the way he said it. That's like a normal thing that happens to people.

[20:43] Andrew DeWolf: They got fired, then they got kicked out of Talking Club.

[20:46] Jess McAnally: They didn't get fired. The furniture store was shut down.

[20:49] Andrew DeWolf: Quick gaslighting me, Andrew. They got severance.

[20:53] Jess McAnally: They're like, we need to do something. So they go to visit Del Mar, which is a place that maybe really exists in Florida.

[21:00] Andrew DeWolf: It maybe exists in Florida, I'm not sure.

[21:02] Jess McAnally: Probably not.

[21:03] Andrew DeWolf: No, it doesn't. But they go to Florida, because why wouldn't you go to Florida? And of course, when you go to Florida, bad things happen, as usual.

[21:12] Jess McAnally: So they get to stay at this really nice hotel that they weren't gonna stay at originally because they accidentally booked a motel, but then they decided to stay at the hotel instead, and they get let in. It's because a family went missing in the hotel room, but we're gonna gloss over that.

[21:24] Andrew DeWolf: The husband did it.

[21:25] Jess McAnally: The husband definitely did it.

[21:26] Andrew DeWolf: The husband always did it.

[21:27] Jess McAnally: But that never gets mentioned again. There is an agent guy that we saw at the beginning, and he's like the guy who's gonna try to kill everybody, and he's there. Andrew, do you recognize that man from any other famous franchise?

[21:41] Andrew DeWolf: Probably, but no.

[21:44] Jess McAnally: He is known for one very famous young adult franchise, titled Fifty Shades of Grey, where he is Mr. Grey. So this is him really trying to play against type, and I think it's actually amazing because of that context.

[21:59] Andrew DeWolf: It's kind of funny, though, because he's kind of still in a similar role.

[22:03] Jess McAnally: I don't think he required singing about seagulls in that other role.

[22:07] Andrew DeWolf: No.

[22:08] Jess McAnally: No, but he's still like the love interest, though, that they're fighting for.

[22:13] Andrew DeWolf: No, but he's not the main character, and he's not a weird masochist who doesn't believe in consent.

[22:18] Jess McAnally: And he doesn't have a weird mom that he also has sex with?

[22:20] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, it doesn't have a weird mom-whore complex.

[22:23] Jess McAnally: I thought the woman was the main character in Fifty Shades of Grey.

[22:25] Andrew DeWolf: No, the man's the main character, and the woman is the love interest.

[22:29] Jess McAnally: Really? That ruins the whole series for me, is what I thought it was.

[22:33] Andrew DeWolf: Wait, wait, wait. I'm kidding.

[22:35] Jess McAnally: I'm kidding.

[22:36] Andrew DeWolf: And just really into Fifty Shades of Grey is what we're learning.

[22:39] Jess McAnally: I've never read any of it. So the book is from the point of view of Anastasia Steele, real name, and it is about Christian Grey through her point of view. I would not be first to call Anastasia Steele a three-dimensional character.

[22:58] Andrew DeWolf: Audience surrogate.

[23:00] Jess McAnally: Yeah, so imagine if, like, Bella Swan from Twilight had even less personality and charisma.

[23:07] Andrew DeWolf: That's Anastasia Steele.

[23:08] Jess McAnally: Okay, can I make a pitch for why we should do the Fifty Shades of Grey movies on this?

[23:13] Andrew DeWolf: I've seen all three, no.

[23:16] Jess McAnally: I think the first one's an actual movie. I think the first one's a quality movie.

[23:19] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, but we should just do the first one. The other sequels are garbage.

[23:21] Jess McAnally: I think we have to do Twilight first if we're going to do the Infinity Gauntlet series.

[23:25] Andrew DeWolf: Yes, we do. And we have to read the fanfic first.

[23:28] Jess McAnally: Can we just do the livestream of all the Twilight movies, because sincerely, Eclipse doesn't exist.

[23:34] Andrew DeWolf: Eclipse shouldn't exist.

[23:38] Jess McAnally: Well if we do that, it's going to have to be in person and we're all going to get drunk except you, Joe Sour. Sorry.

[23:47] Andrew DeWolf: I will do other things.

[23:48] Jess McAnally: And you're going to get trashed and you'll just sit there.

[23:50] Andrew DeWolf: Wow, y'all are getting sloppy.

[23:52] Jess McAnally: Anyway, back to the plot summary.

[23:55] Andrew DeWolf: Yes, still in progress. Where were we? The agent guy is there now.

[24:01] Jess McAnally: He's there. He's at the hotel. He's going to kill everybody with the mosquitoes that we talked about earlier. Remember that? During the seafood fest thing.

[24:08] Andrew DeWolf: Oh, the seafood jam. And if he does this, then he can finally be official with the other Kristen Wiig character.

[24:15] Jess McAnally: Her name is Sharon Fisherman, just to clarify. So when we say Sharon, it means evil Kristen Wiig. When we say Star, it's nice Kristen Wiig.

[24:22] Andrew DeWolf: We could have made him start with different letters. Either way, continue, Andrew.

[24:27] Andrew DeWolf: Okay, so they meet at the bar and he's sad because the mean woman that wants to kill everyone doesn't—

[24:36] Jess McAnally: Sharon Fisherman.

[24:37] Andrew DeWolf: Just call her mean woman. It's probably better. Doesn't love him.

[24:42] Jess McAnally: And so they get fucking trashed on the biggest fucking drink and some drugs that are in the drink that, you know, I don't know if that's legal to do, but sure.

[24:52] Andrew DeWolf: With the best margaritaville record needle drop I've ever heard.

[24:57] Jess McAnally: And the best techno remix of My Heart Will Go On. They got Richard Cheese playing back there, too.

[25:03] Andrew DeWolf: Richard Cheese showing up quite a few times, Lounge Against the Machine.

[25:06] Jess McAnally: Oh, yes. Yeah, he does my favorite cover of Down with the Sickness.

[25:11] Andrew DeWolf: Ooh, wah, ah, ah, ah. They have a threesome. This is a major plot point.

[25:17] Jess McAnally: Barb and Star both decide to sneak off and talk with—

[25:26] Andrew DeWolf: His name's Edgar Paget. I believe it's—Barb is the one who decides that she's good without him and is totally fine.

[25:36] Andrew DeWolf: Star is in love with him. Barb is like, I'm good. I'm just going to go on some adventures.

[25:43] Jess McAnally: So you have kind of a love triangle, but it's not. They decide to not do that.

[25:48] Andrew DeWolf: I appreciate that. Yeah. No love triangle.

[25:52] Jess McAnally: They tease it. They're like, we're going to do that, but then they just don't.

[25:56] Andrew DeWolf: But neither of them have any idea about the whole spy thing.

[26:00] Jess McAnally: And he lost his microchip, which the microchip is needed for the mosquitoes.

[26:06] Andrew DeWolf: So he has to get that back, and the lady's mad about it.

[26:09] Jess McAnally: And he's still hung up on the lady, but eventually he's not.

[26:12] Andrew DeWolf: Eventually he gets the microchip back, and then some shit happens, and the lady shows up.

[26:17] Jess McAnally: You're forgetting the great character of Darley Bunkle.

[26:21] Andrew DeWolf: Darley Bunkle! We can bring him up later. He's barely relevant.

[26:26] Jess McAnally: He is, yes. He's so funny.

[26:28] Andrew DeWolf: And you're not bringing up Trish, the most important part of this.

[26:31] Jess McAnally: No, Trish doesn't come until later!

[26:33] Andrew DeWolf: Well, Trish is teased. Yeah.

[26:35] Jess McAnally: Trish is brought up throughout, and it's a running...

[26:38] Andrew DeWolf: Okay, there's too much stuff. It's just random bits.

[26:41] Jess McAnally: There's a lot going on. There's a lot of random bits.

[26:44] Andrew DeWolf: But the main aspects of it is eventually they sort of get tied into the whole spy thing, and they're threatened to get killed, but they get away, and they end up saving the day somehow from the mosquitoes.

[26:58] Jess McAnally: And then it ends, and Yo-Yo shows up and says, Ha ha, you forgot about me? But actually he's just there to party.

[27:04] Andrew DeWolf: So it's all good.

[27:06] Jess McAnally: Well, it ends with the evil woman gets stung by mosquitoes, or bitten by mosquitoes, if we're being technical.

[27:12] Andrew DeWolf: And she's just like, I'm going to conquer you!

[27:15] Jess McAnally: And then Star is like, maybe you should just get a friend.

[27:18] Andrew DeWolf: And she's like, I have no friends!

[27:20] Jess McAnally: And he's like, I'll be your friend, and I'll be your friend.

[27:22] Andrew DeWolf: And a girl's like, sure?

[27:23] Jess McAnally: And then all the crowd's like, I'll be your friend!

[27:25] Andrew DeWolf: And that's how the movie ends.

[27:27] Jess McAnally: For some reason it ends as if it's a children's movie.

[27:30] Andrew DeWolf: It's kids like a kid.

[27:32] Jess McAnally: I swear to God, this is the exact ending of a Pee-Wee's Playhouse episode from childhood.

[27:37] Andrew DeWolf: You know what? No, Pee-Wee's Playhouse is a great comparison, actually.

[27:41] Jess McAnally: Hang on. This has the feel of a Pee-Wee episode.

[27:45] Andrew DeWolf: It's better than Big Top Pee-Wee, I will say that.

[27:48] Jess McAnally: I've never seen any of these, so I don't know.

[27:50] Andrew DeWolf: You've never seen Pee-Wee's Big Adventure?

[27:52] Jess McAnally: I've never seen a single Pee-Wee Herman movie.

[27:54] Andrew DeWolf: What?!

[27:55] Jess McAnally: I feel like Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is actually a decent comparison for this, though.

[28:00] Andrew DeWolf: Like, you know, it's also kind of in that surreal territory.

[28:05] Jess McAnally: I've seen clips, so I know the vibe.

[28:07] Andrew DeWolf: But it's maybe a little less annoying.

[28:10] Jess McAnally: You know, a little less screaming at the top of your lungs every five seconds.

[28:14] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, I mean, it's not identical.

[28:16] Jess McAnally: I'm just saying it's got some stuff that's similar, tone-wise.

[28:20] Andrew DeWolf: It's like if you got your Austin Powers into your Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

[28:24] Jess McAnally: Not a terrible mix. It works.

[28:26] Andrew DeWolf: You know, it goes down easy.

[28:28] Jess McAnally: Though it does make me imagine a Pee-Wee Herman-Austin Powers love child, which is a horrifying sight.

[28:35] Andrew DeWolf: They both wear suits.

[28:37] Jess McAnally: They do both wear suits, so that would be good.

[28:39] Andrew DeWolf: But I feel like they'd be extra annoying.

[28:42] Jess McAnally: Would they be British or whatever accent Pee-Wee Herman has?

[28:45] Andrew DeWolf: We have to ponder this. How about you listen to some commercials while we think about this?

[28:49] Jess McAnally: Alright, that's a good transition to the mid-show, right?

[28:53] Andrew DeWolf: That was unintentional, but yeah.

[29:05] Jess McAnally: Hey guys, sorry to interrupt you in the middle of the show, but we've got a show on you. Today's show is brought to you by the extremely kind donations by our donors over at Patreon.

[29:12] Andrew DeWolf: And at Patreon you can get some fun stuff, including our monthly Patreon meetups. Last month we had a little bit of fun. I'm going to see if we can do it a little bit before or after Thanksgiving this year. Maybe we'll do a Wicked-themed one. Hopefully Liz and Andrew will join the next one.

[29:27] Jess McAnally: And also we have our... you can request episodes. If you are at our $20 level, you can pick something that you want us to cover and we have to cover it. If you're at our $5 level, you can be a part of the vote. In fact, our next two episodes, we have done one by vote and one by Patreon request.

[29:47] Andrew DeWolf: So our next Patreon request episode is Dodgeball, an underdog story. And the one following that, it looks like the vote is leaning towards Rocketman, which will be our last Cheez Wheel episode of 2024. So a lot of cool things over there, and if you're not involved in that, you should really be sad about it.

[30:06] Jess McAnally: We also have our great Discord chats where I send a lot of bootlegs of Broadway shows. So if you want access to those too, come join us there.

[30:14] Andrew DeWolf: Our current patrons are...

[30:36] Jess McAnally: Joe, Bjorn Hermans, Toriana Frazier, Sammy, The Adequate Amount Jacobsons, Kaylee Blazier, The Omega Geek, Maddie Wargill, Elisa Erdman, Evan Ball, Zachary Torres, Mara Marasso, Mara, Possessed Washing Machine, Nick Roten, Puffy Boy, Sydney Hicks, Gold Plated Kiki Mora, Ari Arte, Emma, Kara Balda, JRL Studios, Alexandra Tom, Flippity Jigget, Sarah, and Ashley O'Neil.

[31:04] Andrew DeWolf: Flippity Jigget? That's a new one.

[31:06] Jess McAnally: It's from The Sound and Music.

[31:08] Andrew DeWolf: A flippity jiggity...

[31:10] Jess McAnally: They used to be someone else, I don't know.

[31:12] Andrew DeWolf: Gotcha.

[31:13] Jess McAnally: Got it!

[31:14] Andrew DeWolf: But they all support us here on Patreon, and, honestly, with the new Apple requirements coming in next month, as well as... so, good news, it seems that Patreon has opted to just not put the donate button on their Apple app, so you have to do it as opposed to dealing with a fee, which is the right move, in my opinion, and they've delayed the removal of the tiered system, or the per-creation system, till next year, so November of 2025. So we've got a little bit of time to kind of figure out our Patreon system in the meantime.

[31:47] Jess McAnally: That's excellent news. I'm glad Apple hasn't fully screwed us for at least one year.

[31:52] Andrew DeWolf: Thank you, Apple.

[31:53] Jess McAnally: So let's get back to the show.

[31:55] Andrew DeWolf: Hey guys, that was a pretty neat break.

[32:08] Jess McAnally: I think we've thought over that topic a good amount. Enough for us to say, let's compare our opinions to those of the real critics over on Letterboxd.com. It's your favorite part of the show, it's PREVIEWS!

[32:19] Andrew DeWolf: It's time for PREVIEWS!

[32:26] Jess McAnally: So how about we get started. So this is your first episode of the Cheese Wheel. This is a game where I've pulled real-life Letterboxd reviews, and Andrew and Liz have to go head-to-head and guess whether they're a one-star review or a five-star, based on nothing but the review alone. It's harder than it sounds.

[32:41] Andrew DeWolf: All right, Liz, you're first.

[32:42] Liz Esten: All right.

[32:44] Andrew DeWolf: Killer bees? Hashtag what? Spell W-U-T.

[32:48] Liz Esten: One.

[32:50] Andrew DeWolf: That is correct!

[32:52] Liz Esten: I thought they were mosquitoes.

[32:53] Andrew DeWolf: Are they bees? Did I hear that wrong?

[32:55] Liz Esten: No, they're mosquitoes.

[32:56] Andrew DeWolf: COVID was a weird time where the killer bees were also out, and COVID.

[33:00] Liz Esten: Oh, right.

[33:02] Andrew DeWolf: The murder hornets or something.

[33:05] Liz Esten: I remember everyone that was mad about COVID, they were also like, Oh, they just make up news stories. Look at killer bees now.

[33:09] Andrew DeWolf: Man, COVID. We were still doing this fucking podcast back then.

[33:18] Liz Esten: Well, since we don't actually have a studio, we never had to do anything.

[33:22] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, it was weird, because everyone else was freaking out, like, how are we going to keep doing our show? We just kept going like nothing ever fucking changed.

[33:29] Liz Esten: Yeah, we don't live near each other. We don't even like each other.

[33:31] Andrew DeWolf: Jess and I have still never met in person.

[33:34] Liz Esten: It's never happened in one time.

[33:35] Andrew DeWolf: This is our talking club.

[33:37] Jess McAnally: Yeah.

[33:38] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, Jess did text me. Would I get kicked out of talking club? And I'm like, yeah, I would. I would want to bring up Phyllis's horses too much.

[33:46] Liz Esten: Yeah.

[33:47] Andrew DeWolf: All right, Andrew.

[33:48] Andrew DeWolf: Yep.

[33:49] Andrew DeWolf: This is like the Muppet movie. If the Muppet movie wasn't the Muppet movie and was a tax write-off.

[33:55] Jess McAnally: They didn't release the theaters.

[33:57] Andrew DeWolf: I'm going to say one, because I feel like that sounds negative.

[34:00] Liz Esten: That is correct, Liz.

[34:02] Andrew DeWolf: Trish is so inspiring. A water spirit and a single mom who works two jobs. She's a survivor.

[34:07] Jess McAnally: She's played by Reba McIntyre, everyone.

[34:11] Andrew DeWolf: Trish is Reba.

[34:13] Liz Esten: Five, because it's Trish.

[34:16] Andrew DeWolf: That is wrong.

[34:17] Liz Esten: That was a one.

[34:18] Andrew DeWolf: I was equally confused.

[34:19] Liz Esten: Damn, why would you hate on Trish?

[34:21] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[34:22] Andrew DeWolf: Seagulls in the sand, can you hear my prayer? Then it's seven dots.

[34:28] Jess McAnally: So that is a quote from one of the songs, which we have to talk about the songs next.

[34:32] Andrew DeWolf: Oh, yeah, five. Got to be five. Got to be five. Come on.

[34:34] Liz Esten: That is a one.

[34:38] Andrew DeWolf: Motherfucker, dude.

[34:39] Liz Esten: What the fuck?

[34:40] Andrew DeWolf: This is a tough one.

[34:41] Liz Esten: Yes.

[34:42] Andrew DeWolf: If I were a member of Talking Club, I would start talking about this movie, even if it wasn't one of the selected topics, and I would get kicked out of Talking Club, but it would be worth it.

[34:51] Liz Esten: This is me just talking to people that I know who have never heard of this movie, and I'm like, please watch it. Please.

[34:56] Andrew DeWolf: Five.

[34:58] Liz Esten: That is correct.

[34:59] Andrew DeWolf: You know who was one of the biggest people that really wanted us to cover this on Musicals with Cheese?

[35:04] Liz Esten: Arnold?

[35:06] Andrew DeWolf: Yes.

[35:07] Liz Esten: Joel kept suggesting it.

[35:08] Andrew DeWolf: Arnold was the reason I watched this.

[35:09] Liz Esten: Is it really?

[35:10] Andrew DeWolf: It's one of the reasons. It came up in conversations with them, and I was like, okay, I'll watch it on Hulu.

[35:17] Liz Esten: Well, thank you, Joel.

[35:18] Andrew DeWolf: Thank you, Joel Arnold. We wish you could be here.

[35:20] Jess McAnally: All right, Andrew.

[35:22] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[35:23] Andrew DeWolf: I almost threw up on the bus.

[35:26] Liz Esten: That doesn't sound very fun.

[35:28] Andrew DeWolf: I'm going to say one for that.

[35:29] Liz Esten: That is correct.

[35:31] Andrew DeWolf: Liz.

[35:32] Liz Esten: Yes.

[35:34] Andrew DeWolf: Oh, five.

[35:36] Liz Esten: No, that was incorrect.

[35:38] Andrew DeWolf: Andrew, last one. You could win this here.

[35:39] Andrew DeWolf: What?

[35:45] Andrew DeWolf: Romy and Michelle? I don't even know what is that.

[35:46] Liz Esten: Romy and Michelle's high school reunion?

[35:48] Andrew DeWolf: Yes.

[35:49] Liz Esten: I see the comparison.

[35:50] Andrew DeWolf: Five.

[35:51] Liz Esten: I'm going to say five.

[35:52] Andrew DeWolf: That is incorrect.

[35:54] Liz Esten: That is a tied game.

[35:56] Andrew DeWolf: Fuck.

[35:57] Liz Esten: Damn.

[35:58] Andrew DeWolf: Congratulations both on being losers.

[35:59] Liz Esten: I didn't know what that other movie was. That was like a pure guess on me.

[36:03] Andrew DeWolf: It's fine. I feel like people overrate it.

[36:06] Liz Esten: I feel like people overrate things from the 90s as well as things released recently.

[36:10] Andrew DeWolf: I don't know.

[36:19] Jess McAnally: Let's talk about these songs.

[36:21] Andrew DeWolf: See, it's not like a normal musical where you can actually just look up these songs.

[36:26] Jess McAnally: You have to kind of like – I know what happens in the song. We get to the Vista Del Mar and there's a wonderful musical number about what it's like there.

[37:00] Andrew DeWolf: You change your sheets here every day.

[37:02] Jess McAnally: Almost every day.

[37:04] Andrew DeWolf: Everywhere I look I see official couples.

[37:08] Jess McAnally: And soon my turn will come around.

[37:13] Andrew DeWolf: A man must do what it takes to win his sweetheart.

[37:17] Jess McAnally: So I'm going to kill everyone in this town.

[37:21] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, it's kind of a funny moment because it's just a song out of absolutely nowhere though.

[37:28] Jess McAnally: It's well choreographed.

[37:31] Andrew DeWolf: Though the dancing leaves some to be desired.

[37:34] Jess McAnally: Welcome to Palm Vista is what it's called.

[37:37] Andrew DeWolf: All right. Also, all the songs were written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo.

[37:42] Jess McAnally: I think that the musical numbers work because the tone is just so bizarre that when they come out of nowhere, they kind of don't come out of nowhere.

[37:52] Andrew DeWolf: I was going to say, you know how Howard Ashman had this thing where you like fade into a song so it feels more organic and it's like a Disney Renaissance classic trope? Imagine that, but you completely ignored it and you just like jumped right into it.

[38:05] Jess McAnally: But it's like really funny the way they jump into it.

[38:08] Andrew DeWolf: But it never feels like jarring.

[38:10] Jess McAnally: Maybe it's because the first thing we see, the first image of this movie is Yo-Yo singing right to the camera.

[38:17] Andrew DeWolf: Lip syncing to the camera, yeah.

[38:19] Jess McAnally: We set up that we're going to be a sing song.

[38:24] Andrew DeWolf: We're going to have not just, like, non-diegetic numbers, but we're also going to have diegetic songs about loving boobies.

[38:31] Andrew DeWolf: And my friend from high school recently passed. A lot of good, good stuff going on in here.

[38:38] Andrew DeWolf: But we all know the thing, the one that takes the cake, is the seagulls.

[38:53] Andrew DeWolf: It's in a fog, I'm under her spell. Am I in heaven or am I in hell?

[39:03] Andrew DeWolf: Leaping, doing the splits from my heart. Going higher and higher, my legs spread apart.

[39:10] Andrew DeWolf: Now I'm twirling like a baby ballerina who's digging a hole with the force of his feet.

[39:18] Andrew DeWolf: Watch me climbing. I'm going up a palm tree like a cat up a palm tree who's decided to go up a palm tree.

[39:28] Andrew DeWolf: Seagull on the tire, can you hear my prayer? I keep trying, but I'm getting nowhere.

[39:36] Andrew DeWolf: It's in a fog, I'm under her spell. Am I in heaven or am I in hell?

[39:47] Andrew DeWolf: The seagull song is probably one of the best modern musical numbers.

[39:53] Andrew DeWolf: Modern movie musical numbers of the past at least decade, I would say.

[39:59] Andrew DeWolf: I'm trying to think of songs that compete, and you've got I'm Just Ken.

[40:03] Andrew DeWolf: But the lyrics in this, I mean...

[40:06] Andrew DeWolf: I'm going up a palm tree like a cat up a palm tree who decided to climb up a palm tree.

[40:12] Andrew DeWolf: Just incredible lyricism, pleading with the seagulls that are there on tires.

[40:18] Andrew DeWolf: Seagulls that are stock footage, but you know.

[40:20] Andrew DeWolf: If you aren't catching it, the joke of this song is that the lyrics just kind of describe whatever is happening or are nonsensical and terrible on purpose it seems.

[40:31] Andrew DeWolf: So it's almost like an anti-song number, but it's still kind of a good song number, so it's weird and funny.

[40:39] Andrew DeWolf: And it's also, there's jokes in the audio mix.

[40:43] Andrew DeWolf: Like that is how...

[40:45] Andrew DeWolf: Like when he says, to the left, to the right, he is banned all the way to the left and all the way to the right for each of those lines.

[40:52] Andrew DeWolf: And this is on a different level of comedy than most movies.

[40:58] Andrew DeWolf: And I hate saying that because it makes me sound like I'm just like a fucking hipster.

[41:03] Andrew DeWolf: Like, man, this is just on a different level, guys.

[41:06] Andrew DeWolf: But no, this kind of is.

[41:08] Andrew DeWolf: Also, for those of you who are wondering, this entire Seagulls song, it's on YouTube, isolated, by itself.

[41:14] Andrew DeWolf: I watch it when I'm sad, a lot.

[41:16] Andrew DeWolf: And you want to know what breaks my heart?

[41:18] Andrew DeWolf: Not even at a million views.

[41:20] Andrew DeWolf: Not even.

[41:21] Andrew DeWolf: Also, my favorite little part about this song is that there's an end where he's in the ocean with that random woman who appears to sing backup for him, who never shows up again.

[41:29] Andrew DeWolf: And he's ripping off his shirt, but it wasn't intended to be a ripoff shirt.

[41:33] Andrew DeWolf: And he goes to the director, like, Jamie Dornan goes to the director, like, I want to rip my shirt off.

[41:37] Andrew DeWolf: It's like, okay, it's not a shirt meant to rip, but like, go for it, man.

[41:42] Andrew DeWolf: So during the scene, he's ripping his shirt and the hem doesn't go.

[41:45] Andrew DeWolf: So he just pulls it over his head in the middle of a take.

[41:49] Andrew DeWolf: Because it's not meant to do that.

[41:51] Andrew DeWolf: Jamie Dornan, I had written off as a bad actor for so many years because he was so horrendously terrible or miscast in Fifty Shades of Grey, the series.

[42:03] Andrew DeWolf: He was not supposed to be in Fifty Shades of Grey.

[42:07] Andrew DeWolf: He was a last minute replacement.

[42:09] Andrew DeWolf: It was supposed to be Charlie Hunnam of Sons of Anarchy.

[42:11] Andrew DeWolf: That might have been better, but still.

[42:13] Andrew DeWolf: No, it wouldn't have been.

[42:14] Andrew DeWolf: He was also in Your Beloved Once Upon a Time.

[42:17] Andrew DeWolf: He was going to bring up My Beloved Once Upon a Time, which is the first time I saw him in anything.

[42:20] Andrew DeWolf: And I had a crush on him for a while because of that.

[42:23] Andrew DeWolf: And then he was in Fifty Shades and my crush dissipated into nothing.

[42:27] Andrew DeWolf: Like my Zachary Levi crush that I had many years ago has dissipated into the ether of space.

[42:32] Andrew DeWolf: Oh.

[42:33] Andrew DeWolf: Into nothing.

[42:34] Andrew DeWolf: God, I forgot.

[42:35] Andrew DeWolf: This show can finally give me an excuse to talk about wild mountain time.

[42:39] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah.

[42:40] Andrew DeWolf: Anyway, but after this movie, my crush on Jamie Dornan is back in full force.

[42:46] Andrew DeWolf: We're back!

[42:47] Andrew DeWolf: Yes.

[42:48] Andrew DeWolf: I think he's going to have a career renaissance and this film is going to spike up in popularity.

[42:52] Andrew DeWolf: I'm hoping.

[42:53] Andrew DeWolf: I doubt it.

[42:55] Andrew DeWolf: Also, shout out to some random person who went on some random lyric website and actually typed out all these words.

[43:00] Andrew DeWolf: Because someone did it and you're brave.

[43:02] Andrew DeWolf: On that note, I really don't want to ruin too much more of this film because honestly, the more we kind of analyze it, the more we pick it apart, the less sense we'll start to make.

[43:13] Andrew DeWolf: Like, we'll just kind of sound like crazy people talking about killer bees and, you know.

[43:18] Andrew DeWolf: And culottes.

[43:19] Andrew DeWolf: And culottes.

[43:20] Andrew DeWolf: It's difficult to just discuss a comedy that's good without just ruining every single joke.

[43:25] Andrew DeWolf: So I think we've said what we need to say and you guys should just watch this.

[43:31] Andrew DeWolf: Like, it's better than you would expect based on the stuff around it.

[43:36] Andrew DeWolf: And it's sad to me that this is, like, probably Kristen Wiig's least well-known comedy when this is easily her best comedy.

[43:44] Andrew DeWolf: On that note, what is our overall thoughts and our cheese ratings?

[43:49] Liz Esten: Liz, you're up first.

[43:50] Liz Esten: I love this movie. I first watched this movie when I had mono and Jess told me I couldn't do any work.

[43:57] Liz Esten: That sounds like me.

[43:58] Liz Esten: Yeah, because he banned me from working.

[44:00] Liz Esten: Oh, yeah.

[44:01] Liz Esten: It was after I called you an idiot for some kind of movie opinion.

[44:04] Andrew DeWolf: It's in the transcripts.

[44:05] Liz Esten: Don't worry.

[44:06] Liz Esten: Yeah, it's in the transcripts.

[44:07] Liz Esten: Keep the joke running.

[44:08] Liz Esten: Keep the joke running so we can make merch.

[44:10] Liz Esten: But yeah, I watched this when I had mono and it really picked up my spirits after I watched Marry Me and nearly fell asleep.

[44:18] Liz Esten: Marry Me is so boring, y'all.

[44:20] Andrew DeWolf: I watched that with COVID, so yes, I agree.

[44:22] Liz Esten: Yeah, it's really boring.

[44:23] Liz Esten: Even when you're sick, it's like, wow, even a movie about when you're sick and your brain isn't functioning.

[44:28] Liz Esten: Damn, that's impressive.

[44:30] Liz Esten: Except for that one song at the end. I'm a weird sucker for that song.

[44:33] Liz Esten: But anyway, that's not Marry Me.

[44:35] Liz Esten: Barb and Star is an amazing movie.

[44:37] Liz Esten: You should watch it.

[44:38] Liz Esten: It always brightens up my day.

[44:40] Liz Esten: I watched it yesterday after work and it was kind of a rough go.

[44:44] Liz Esten: And it made me feel so much better immediately when I got home.

[44:48] Liz Esten: I love this movie.

[44:49] Liz Esten: I'm going to give—you should watch it.

[44:52] Liz Esten: You should definitely watch it.

[44:53] Liz Esten: It's also easily accessible on Hulu if you want to watch it.

[44:57] Liz Esten: It's always on Hulu.

[44:58] Liz Esten: You just have to search it because they buried it in the algorithm.

[45:00] Liz Esten: You know those Thanksgiving holidays are coming up.

[45:02] Liz Esten: Maybe it's a good choice for the family.

[45:04] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, except maybe all the sex jokes.

[45:08] Liz Esten: It's PG-13 sex jokes.

[45:10] Liz Esten: It's PG-13 sex jokes.

[45:11] Liz Esten: It's mostly about dongs.

[45:12] Liz Esten: Barb and Star don't curse.

[45:13] Liz Esten: They're very nice people.

[45:15] Liz Esten: They're from the Midwest and they hate being mean.

[45:18] Liz Esten: Also, this is just an awesome female friendship movie.

[45:20] Liz Esten: I love these Barb and Star.

[45:22] Liz Esten: They're just so—they're such good friends.

[45:24] Liz Esten: And I love that they have a minor squabble at the end, but they work it out immediately.

[45:29] Liz Esten: It's so good.

[45:30] Liz Esten: It's so good.

[45:31] Liz Esten: I'm going to give this mac and cheese with pineapple in it, I guess, to make it tropical.

[45:36] Liz Esten: I can't think of anything.

[45:38] Liz Esten: It's a weird—it's a tropical setting, so I don't know what cheese to give it.

[45:42] Andrew DeWolf: Fair enough.

[45:43] Andrew DeWolf: So I think—I think this was quite good.

[45:47] Andrew DeWolf: I was surprised, actually.

[45:49] Andrew DeWolf: I was worried it was going to be more of like just a romantic comedy, which at some points it kind of is, but it really has that absurdist humor that I enjoy.

[45:57] Andrew DeWolf: So it works for me.

[45:59] Andrew DeWolf: I thought it was pretty good.

[46:00] Andrew DeWolf: I actually think I like this more than, say, Austin Powers, which I think leans too heavily into sex jokes.

[46:04] Andrew DeWolf: Whereas this has this kind of sex humor, but it's not the only thing it has.

[46:11] Andrew DeWolf: So, yeah.

[46:12] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, I thought it was good.

[46:14] Andrew DeWolf: If you like making fun of tourists as well, there's a good amount of that.

[46:18] Andrew DeWolf: And I'm definitely a fan.

[46:19] Andrew DeWolf: I fucking hate tourists.

[46:22] Andrew DeWolf: That's that read on this film I wouldn't have even thought about, but it is so accurate.

[46:26] Andrew DeWolf: I'm going to give it a cheese that I actually quite like, and I've probably given this before because this is one of my favorite brands of cheese.

[46:32] Andrew DeWolf: But I think it fits because there is a scene with some nasty alligators in it.

[46:38] Andrew DeWolf: I'm going to give it Old Croc Cheddar Cheese, which is an Australian brand, and crocodiles are not alligators, but you know what?

[46:45] Andrew DeWolf: Yeah, they are.

[46:48] Andrew DeWolf: Controversial takes here in the cheese room.

[46:52] Andrew DeWolf: I love this movie.

[46:53] Andrew DeWolf: I'm very glad that...

[46:55] Andrew DeWolf: Did I suggest you watch that, or was it just a full Joel suggestion?

[46:59] Andrew DeWolf: It was like a partial Joel suggestion, and it was a...

[47:01] Andrew DeWolf: I was on Hulu when I had Mono, and I saw it, and Kristen Wiig was in it, and I remember, oh, someone told me to watch that, and I forgot who.

[47:09] Andrew DeWolf: So I was like, whatever, let's watch it, and I did.

[47:13] Andrew DeWolf: I watched it alone, and it's like a comedy that is still funny alone, which is rare to find.

[47:20] Andrew DeWolf: I can thoroughly enjoy this and chuckle to myself and have a great time watching this alone.

[47:26] Andrew DeWolf: It's better with a group, as all things are, but it's not one that requires it.

[47:31] Andrew DeWolf: I feel like, you know.

[47:33] Andrew DeWolf: And it's not based on any awkward humor or anything like that.

[47:36] Andrew DeWolf: It's just fun, silly humor.

[47:38] Andrew DeWolf: If you were a fan of Conan O'Brien in the 90s, you will love this.

[47:41] Andrew DeWolf: So I am giving this Barbara's Baked Original Cheese Puffs, as well in competition with Star Dairy's 10-Year-Age Cheddar.

[47:50] Andrew DeWolf: So then you've got Barb and Star.

[47:53] Liz Esten: Oh god, I have Barb's Cheese Puffs at my job.

[47:57] Liz Esten: I didn't think of that. I've never eaten them.

[48:00] Andrew DeWolf: It's time to spin the wheel to figure out what we're covering next week.

[48:04] Andrew DeWolf: It is wheel time.

[48:05] Andrew DeWolf: Alright, we brought in the wheel, look at it, I've given it a good waxing, a lot of new choices on there.

[48:11] Andrew DeWolf: What do we have as guests for next week?

[48:13] Andrew DeWolf: We did hint on something, and I don't think it's going to happen like that.

[48:18] Liz Esten: Okay.

[48:19] Andrew DeWolf: I mean, I thought we said we were covering Joker.

[48:21] Liz Esten: I thought we were covering Joker 2.

[48:23] Andrew DeWolf: We talked about this.

[48:24] Liz Esten: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[48:25] Andrew DeWolf: Alright, let's spin the wheel!

[48:27] Andrew DeWolf: Look at it go!

[48:28] Andrew DeWolf: Look at that go!

[48:34] Andrew DeWolf: Oh my goodness!

[48:35] Andrew DeWolf: That actually messed it!

[48:37] Andrew DeWolf: Next week, we are not covering Joker Folly Ado, nor are we covering Joker 2019.

[48:45] Andrew DeWolf: We are covering the 2024 film The People's Joker by Vera Drew.

[48:52] Andrew DeWolf: This decision was made, a little peek behind the curtain, because I decided, you know what, I'm going to pre-watch Joker 2 to see if there's anything worth talking about.

[49:01] Andrew DeWolf: Oh my god, that film is such a nothing, it would have made for the worst, most boring episode.

[49:09] Andrew DeWolf: There's stuff to talk about with The People's Joker, though.

[49:11] Andrew DeWolf: I can't believe I thought there was potential there.

[49:14] Andrew DeWolf: There was none.

[49:15] Andrew DeWolf: But we've got something else coming, and I'm actually very excited to talk about that.

[49:20] Andrew DeWolf: So join us next week for us to talk about The People's Joker.

[49:24] Andrew DeWolf: In the meantime, thank you for listening.

[49:27] Andrew DeWolf: Please follow us on iTunes and Spotify at TheCheeseWheelPodcast.

[49:31] Andrew DeWolf: If you could, your fingers are already right there anyways, why don't you leave us a little review on Apple Podcasts?

[49:36] Andrew DeWolf: Leave us a comment on Spotify, it helps us get information out there.

[49:39] Andrew DeWolf: And if you can't support us on Patreon, we get it, things are hard financially.

[49:43] Andrew DeWolf: You can't just throw money away on a podcast every time you feel like it.

[49:47] Andrew DeWolf: So if you could, if you are free and able to, please send this podcast, if you're enjoying it, to your friends.

[49:53] Andrew DeWolf: Send it to your mom.

[49:54] Andrew DeWolf: I feel like moms need more podcasts in their life.

[49:57] Andrew DeWolf: Follow us on Twitter at CheeseWheelCast.

[49:59] Andrew DeWolf: We're on Patreon at Musicals with...

[50:01] Andrew DeWolf: Sorry, we're on Patreon at TheCheeseWheel.

[50:03] Andrew DeWolf: You know what? We've made a Blue Sky, we've made a Threads.

[50:07] Andrew DeWolf: We're on YouTube at Musicals with Cheese.

[50:10] Andrew DeWolf: We're on Patreon, patron-only podcast.

[50:12] Andrew DeWolf: We just covered Halloween Town 2, Calabar's Revenge.

[50:16] Andrew DeWolf: What a nothing movie. Holy shit.

[50:18] Andrew DeWolf: Email us at musicaltheaterlives.gmail.com.

[50:21] Andrew DeWolf: Our Keeper of the Cheese is Juliet Antonio.

[50:24] Andrew DeWolf: Thank you, Juliet. I hope you're having a good day, whatever you're doing.

[50:27] Andrew DeWolf: Just know I'm giving you an emotional high-five right now.

[50:30] Andrew DeWolf: Thank you to Andrew DeWolf for editing this show.

[50:34] Andrew DeWolf: Thank you to Liz Esten for co-hosting alongside us.

[50:36] Andrew DeWolf: And you know what? Thank me for being a friend.

[50:39] Andrew DeWolf: We'll see you next time on The Cheese Wheel Podcast.

[50:44] Andrew DeWolf: And I want to thank Trish for inspiring us all.

[50:55] Andrew DeWolf: Seagulls in a group, can you hear my prayer?

[50:58] Andrew DeWolf: I keep trying, but I'm getting nowhere.

[51:02] Andrew DeWolf: Head's in the fog and I'm under her spell.

[51:05] Andrew DeWolf: This couldn't be heaven, I know I'm in hell.