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[0:00] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Ariana Grande, hi. I'm Cynthia Erivo, and you're listening to the Broadway Podcast Network. Visit bpm.fm, to discover more.

[0:12] Speaker 2: Welcome to the wrong cat died the podcast breakdown of the cat's tastrophe. I'm your host, Mike Abrams, and today we're covering the fat cat. And no, I'm not talking about the jazz club in the West Village. I'm talking about the 25 pounder himself, Buster for Jones. Cue the intro music. There's

[0:29] Speaker 3: a cat over here. There's a cat over there. I'm the wrong one died. I'm the wrong one died. You Music.

[0:45] Speaker 2: Welcome to the wrong cat died the podcast breakdown of the cat's catastrophe. Today, let's cover the fat cat, Buster for Jones. So far I've nicknamed every other cat, and I really wanted to nickname him throughout this episode, and I wanted to call him Buster for rhymes, but we know Andrew Lloyd Webber doesn't believe in rhyming, so let's stick with Buster from here on out, there's a lot to unpack with Lucifer, and let's just say that I learned a lot more about British history than I ever needed to know. But let's start with the obvious. Lucifer is fat, and he is fat shamed from the minute he steps on stage. He's so fat that in the UK production, they had him walk around with a giant silver spoon for the entire show. It was like his fat kid, pimp cane keeping all his kittens in line. His song almost exclusively focuses on his Corpulence. Let's just look at a few of the lyrics. He's not skin and bones. He's remarkably fat. Lunched at the tomb on cabbage, rice pudding and mutton. He has grown unmistakably round. He's a 25 pounder, and he's putting on weight every day. But despite his obesity, the other cats seem very joyous and happy to know him. He's clearly a smart cat, and he lives his life to the fullest, which is probably why everyone enjoys being around him. What's unfortunate is he really only see Buster fur during his song in most casts, the actor who played Buster fur is usually also playing Gus as well. His stage time is insanely short, but the song is actually really great. It gets stuck in your head a lot, and let's be honest, this should be where I stopped a section. All you should need to know about Buster is that he's fat, he's rich and he's jolly, but that's not it. And because I need to dig deeper, I gotta talk to you about a few interesting quirks I learned about bustafer in his song, and there's three I want to cover. And God bless the third one. First, it's noted that bust of fur is a parody of the Edwardian era of British history. I'm sure all of you, just like me, knew exactly what the Edwardian period is. I actually had no idea, and I don't expect any of the listeners to but really it's the very, very, very short reign of King Edward the seventh who only ruled the empire for nine years. The best way I could describe the Edwardian era is to say that it's like a Great Gatsby party. It's a romantic golden age of long summer afternoons and Garden Parties where the sun never sets on the British Empire, which really makes bus defer an extreme throwback to this period. Second Buster is described as the Brummel of cats. I don't know if you know who Beau Brummell is, but Beau Brummell is the founder of dandyism. Brummel is still associated today with style and good looks. It's the iconic figure of fashion from the British olden days. The song has a ton of references to Buster first fashion, and it's highlighted that he wears white. So I'm not a fashionista. I don't know anything about fashion, but I believe Buster is not allowed to perform on stage after Labor Day. And this last anecdote is by far my favorite Buster for song, names, three places by name, drones, blimps and the tomb. And you'll notice all these establishments are gentlemen's clubs. Yes, you heard that right. They are gentlemen's clubs. And before we dig deeper on this topic, and yes, we are going to be digging deeper on this topic. I want to remind everyone that parents bring their children to see this show. Seriously, why do parents bring kids to see the show? Why mom, did you bring my sister at a young age to see this show in the first four episodes alone of this podcast, I've covered rumored adultery, I've covered rumored incest, I've covered a cockroach tap dance. I've covered a gyrating hip thrust of a rock star, and now I have cats attending strip clubs. Seriously, parents, please stop bringing children to this show. I'm begging you. But back to busta for making a rain catnip on all these kittens in the gentleman's club. All these locations are fictional, but the drones club is widely known from the PG Wodehouse stories about, wait for it, the Edwardian period, so at least Andrew Lloyd Webber tied a couple things together. It plays off a stereotype of the non working, rich male going to strip club. And the stories have incredible character names like Tubby biscuits and stinker again, I learned way more than I ever needed to know about this time in British history. And I'm hoping that one day it inevitably plays off in some trivia I do in the West Village. And I was planning on ending this section by listing off better fictional cat strip club names, but I've generally tried to keep this podcast family friendly ish, plus the idea of an obese, musical cat spending all this time at a cat strip club makes me feel such a whirlwind of different emotions that I just want to move on. And I think you do too. If you really want to know my top fictional cat strip club names, most of you know how to get a hold of me. So how does best of for Jones's song differ from the poem? It doesn't. It is word for word the same as the book. If anything, they add a quick quirk at the end of the song by having Buster sing Toodle pip, which sounds like Adam Sandler doing a Billy Madison voice. Let's dig into some real and fictional characters for Buster for Jones. Let's start with the real people, because Buster reminds me of two greats who died too young. The first is Chris Farley. Chris Farley is one of the most brilliant comedians in the modern era, and he was admired by everyone. He lived his life to the fullest, maybe a little too full, and was jolly as they come. Plus, I can totally imagine Chris Farley walking around an SNL set with a giant spoon and absolutely no explanation. Can you imagine how good Chris Farley would have been in this movie? James Corden will be great, but Farley would have been amazing. The second is Notorious BIG biggie. Smalls was corpulent and admired his name literally has Biggie in it. He definitely entered a gentleman's club or two in his lifetime. Plus, can you imagine Buster strutting around the strip club with his giant pimp spoon going, I love it when you call me big papa. Throw your paws in the air if he's a true player. For the third one, Buster for reminds me of Winston Churchill, I think it's just the look Lucifer looks like a weird cat parody of Winston Churchill and the black suits and the cane and everything about it just kind of lines up. Plus the show is British, and so having the Prime Minister of the UK is definitely fitting. On top of that, the thought of Winston Churchill spending most of his time at a strip club is just kind of funny to think about. What about one fictional character. How about Bluto from Animal House? Pluto is the life of the party and famously street smart. I say that because we all know he's not book smart. He gives off the I don't give a shit vibe. He doesn't mind feeling out of college. He's also a slightly underutilized character in Animal House, which is a little bit of how I feel with Buster fur in the cat's musical. And last but not least, Lucifer reminds me of Mike Jones. Who Mike Jones? Who Mike Jones? If you didn't get that joke, you probably don't remember 2005 Mike Jones is a rapper that had 15 minutes of fame because he wrapped his phone number in his song. Either way, Buster and Mike share the exact same last name. They sing a lot about visiting gentlemen's clubs, plus Mike Jones' song could easily be converted to be part of this new cats movie. And we know Andrew Louis Weber loves changing great characters into rappers. Seriously, why do you change rum tuck Tucker? I still can't get over that, but this just fits perfectly. Imagine Buster for steps up on stage with his giant pimp spoon in hand and goes back then cats didn't want me now I'm hot. Cats all up on me. 281330800, faux hit Buster for Jones up on the low because Buster Jones about to blow. Okay, I can convert one more Mike Jones lyric before the ice was on my grill, before I got my major deal, these cats wouldn't give a damn if I was shit, yeah, when Lin Manuel decides to turn cats into a hip hop musical like Hamilton, please use this as my audition tape. What? Welcome to the internet rumor mill, one of my favorite parts of every episode for a cat that frequents the strip clubs, busters rumor mill is actually pretty standard stuff, but let's dive in. The first is his astrology sign. He's a Sagittarius. Do all Sagittarius cats frequent strip clubs? I don't know. I don't want to know. Let's move on next. Buster has a complex family tree. He's Alonzo uncle. I don't know who alanzo is. I don't think he's really involved in the show at all, but they say he's a scrappy Alley Cat, and because of that, Lucifer shuns him throughout the show. He's also Mr. Misophyllies uncle, and he loves that nephew. He's super proud of him. And it's rumored that Victoria might also be either his daughter or his niece, which, again, I'm not sure how that's going to work. I'm not sure if this is like an Alabama version of cats. It should be too shocking that for a fat, Jolly cat who frequents strip clubs, he has a few rumored affairs, Buster is tied to Jenny, any dots and jelly Lorem. And the last rumor is not actually a rumor, but it's a part that I want to tie together. So the last rumor is that Buster for Jones and Grizabella are friends growing up, and they grew apart when Grizabella was kicked out of the tribe, Buster for was too important for her to talk to, and because of that, it put Buster for in a lot of pain. Here's where I want to take a minute, though. I want to combine these last two rumors a little bit, because if you combine this rumor and the last rumor, you get a really interesting friendship triangle. So here's my take on how this goes bust of her and Grizabella are friends growing up, and so was Grizabella and jelly. Jelly ends up giving her chance to sing, to allow Grizabella the chance to sing, and what's one of the most selfless acts during the play. But jelly also sleeps with bustopher, who had a falling out with Grizabella? Are these two things related? Did Grizabella get kicked out of the tribe, but avoided bust of her not because he was important, but because he slept with her friend, and then jelly felt so bad about sleeping with her best friend that she gives up her chance to perform as a way of saying she's sorry. These are the types of questions that I want answers from from Andrew Lloyd Webber, well, that and why on earth he would change rum Tucker. Her into a rapping streetcad at night. Favorite YouTube comments for as fat as Buster for Jones is his YouTube comments are actually pretty slim. Here are my four favorite devoted catesian then in fact, he's remarkably fat. Now in fact, he's remarkably thick. Lori and Damon, also a fat cat, is probably quite unusual for the jellicles. They're alley cats. Food wouldn't come quite consistently, even for the magical misophyllies. And I really want to find out, Lorien, why are you digging so deep? Nico pink, Buster, damn. I want to cuddle za potato Cat, cat defender, this musical predicted the fat except its movement. So why does bust for Jones deserve to die over Grizabella, well, it's 2019 and we've made a lot of progress for equality, but a rich, fat white guy is still doing all right. The overfed rich cat shutting his stuff with a giant pimp soon still deserves some form of consideration for the Heaviside lair despite his promiscuous gentleman's club hobby, quick counter. As amazing as bus for Jones is it seems hard to reward a cat who's only in the show for one song and sings the entire thing about stuffing his face with food while flinging dollar bills on kittens. We shouldn't be rewarding this behavior. So how do we rate bus for Jones on a scale of one to nine? Cat lives? I give him three and a half cats, one cat for every strip club he frequents, and an extra half cat for the cat visual of him getting a lap dance from the Taylor Swift kitten. Thanks for listening to Episode Four about Buster Jones on the wrong cat died the podcast breakdown of the catastrophe. To follow along. You can subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher or anywhere else who was in the podcast. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at the wrong cat died, or check out our website, the roncatdide.com you.