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Little problem in the cockpit. T what is it? It’s the little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit. That’s not important right now. You see the first all, Johnny, how much more coffee? No thanks. No wonder you are upset. She’s lovely. And a darling figure. Supple. Pouting breasts, firm thighs, more than five.

Vi. Get that finger outta your ear. You don’t know where that finger’s been.

Todd: Well. All right, here we go. My name’s Todd Adams, and this is Kathy Adams. Welcome back to another episode of Zen Pop Parenting. This is episode number 834. Why listen to Zen Pop Parenting because you’ll feel

Cathy: outstanding, and it’s where Gen [00:01:00] X culture meets real life reflection because we really need to reflect on ourselves with the movie.

Todd: Airplane. Uh, airplane. What a classic. Um, so the last two weeks we’ve done some more current pop culture stuff. Mm-hmm. What did we do two weeks ago?

Cathy: We did Unknown Number. That was on Netflix documentary last week. We did the summer I turned pretty ’cause it was a season finale, but guess what Todd? It really wasn’t.

Cathy: No, there’s a movie coming.

Todd: I know, I know. But I did appreciate the finale more than I thought I would.

Cathy: Good. Yeah,

Todd: it was,

Cathy: but today we decided to kick it back to 1980.

Todd: We are kicking it back. Old school. And, uh, I was so delighted that we decided, we actually thought about doing this with, uh, dump the Dumber or Naked Gun Uhhuh.

Todd: I don’t know. But we just, Kathy and I, even though we weren’t talking about it, I said to myself, we just have to do airplane. And like that night I got home, you’re like, how about we just do airplane?

Cathy: There’s just so much and there’s so like Naked Gun is a whole new. Like new characters, new everything. So it would be too difficult.

Cathy: Yes. I [00:02:00] think someday maybe we will do Naked Gun. ’cause we did see The New Naked Gun Yes. With Liam Neeson. So we can do some comparison, but today we’ve gotta give some, um, kudos to the original, what I consider to be the comedy of my childhood, which I believe shaped a lot of Gen X humor. Um, it’s kind of what we were born into.

Todd: Yes. And, um, I invented a bunch of categories for this podcast I haven’t told yet about. Okay. Um, so we’re gonna like, get rid of most of our normal categories, I think. Can we do the first three? Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, we’ll just play with it. But, um, uh, jokes that went over our heads as kids. That’s gonna be a category right?

Todd: In this movie. Um, yeah, I got a bunch. We’re gonna play a game called Two Truths and One Lie. So instead of trivia. I’m gonna give you two truths about this movie In one line, you gotta figure out what it is. And I got one more. I got one more game. Oh good. And then maybe top 10 parody films. I have that list and Top 10 [00:03:00] Comedy one-liners, which I have a big issue with, but, uh, we could talk about that.

Todd: So

Cathy: my game is gonna be occasionally, I am just gonna stop and say something to you and see if you can say back to me what they say in the airplane. Okay.

Todd: I got a feeling I’m going to do well.

Cathy: You ready? Uh, I’m gonna do one. Oh yeah. Nervous first time. No, I’ve been nervous lots of times. Very good, sweetie.

Cathy: Thanks.

Clip: Nervous?

Todd: Yes.

Clip: First time?

Todd: No, I’ve been nervous lots of times. Um, I gotta, I gotta start with my hot take though. Okay. Um, and it’s not hot. It’s, it’s, it’s, maybe it’s a lukewarm take, but I’m gonna go ahead and say it anyways.

Clip: Boy, it’s hot.

Todd: Do you have any hot sakes, by the way?

Clip: Of course it’s not in Brooklyn.

Todd: Like set up, ready to go.

Clip: It’s like

Cathy: Africa. Uh, not really. Tarzan couldn’t take this kind of hot. I think I have

Todd: more

Cathy: wfs.

Todd: Um, I’m, I’m gonna say best comedy ever. Geez.

Cathy: But that’s your Gen X [00:04:00] ness. Like if our girls saw airplane, they would be like, this is not the best comedy ever. This is, that’s fine. This is your 9-year-old self.

Todd: Yes.

Cathy: Watching. Yeah. This movie. If I,

Todd: if I would’ve seen this movie for the first time as an adult, I don’t think I would like it as much as I did. I think that there, and maybe this gets into, um, a little bit of this going be

Cathy: like you

Todd: little parenting, little parenting action. Or maybe it’s just like evolving things mattered more.

Todd: When we were little kids, things of course hit deeper when we were a little kid. Correct. Whether it’s humor or. Relationships, love or relationships or fun having fun with your friends, you’re, you’re just like brand new. So you’re experiencing these emotions for kind of a, not the first time but early on.

Todd: And I just think airplane, like I challenge and people would say, you know, from our generation, animal House or Caddy Shack Sure. Or those two, um mm-hmm. Those might be up there. I would put bridesmaids in probably my top three funniest movies of all time. [00:05:00] But I think Airplane Takes the Cake.

Cathy: Yeah. I mean, I think there’s a lot of things that converged and we’re kind of sorry to, you know, go ahead and play, set the scene ’cause that’s kind of where we are right now.

Cathy: All right. Okay. So I think a lot of things converged number one, brain development, right? I was not, you were nine. I was 10. We were starting to, uh, you know, it was like fifth grade, sixth grade. We were starting to be interested in more things that we would probably categorize as adult. Number two, the movie channel became a thing.

Cathy: Yeah. So the movie channel, for those of you who don’t know, was a, um, a box that you get for the top of your tv and you could watch movies that were rated r Yeah. So before then, you would see a movie in the theater, or that movie would show up on TV completely cut up. Mm-hmm. Okay. So it’s like, I remember.

Cathy: The first movie that I think I saw on, well this was on video, was Caddy Shack. Yeah. My dad went to the movie store, got Caddy Shack, and we [00:06:00] were able to watch it. For real. I don’t think I was supposed to watch it.

Todd: Probably not.

Cathy: Um, I also saw The Shining on my movie channel, so the ability to see a movie over and over and over again.

Cathy: Yeah. Like, it’s not like I have a memory of seeing this in the theater.

Todd: Yeah. No. I don’t know if I saw the theater or not and, uh, going to the movie store, like was this pre VHS? No, VHS was probably around, it was

Cathy: all around the same. So if, if it was 1980, I was 10. So we didn’t, VHS didn’t really become as big as, at least in my life and in my town until I was in like sixth, seventh grade.

Clip: Yeah.

Cathy: So it was, that’s what I mean, like things were just starting to become, you watch something over and over and over again, you know? And the other thing was, it was a new kind of comedy. Yeah. Like, yes, we had Saturday Night Live. ’cause that started in the seventies and that was satire and everything, but this was ridiculous.

Clip: Yeah.

Cathy: Like what, what kind of humor would you call this? Like, uh, is it slapstick? Absurd parody. Yeah, parody [00:07:00] satire. And it was. Fast.

Todd: Yeah. Um, a hundred and, uh, I listened to, uh, a YouTube clip about this film and they counted 178 jokes Wow. In this 90 minute film. So it’s about one every 30 seconds.

Cathy: Yeah. So, and so, and the reason why this is a re watchable or one that you watched over and over again then or now, is because you’re not gonna catch it all.

Cathy: Yeah. On first glance, there’s things, there’s people in the background, there’s things people are wearing. There’s things that, again, to your point about our age, things that went way over our heads.

Clip: Yeah.

Cathy: Like where we were like, people are laughing, or That’s supposed to be funny, or that feels a little uncomfortable, but I don’t know what that means.

Todd: Do we wanna do the jokes that went over our heads things right now? Or do we wanna wait?

Cathy: Um, let’s, well, let’s explain the movie first. Okay.

Todd: Yeah, yeah. Just so we know what it is. Yeah. Because some people may have not seen this movie in 25 years.

Cathy: Yeah. So again, it came out in July, 1980, um, and it was directed by Jim Abrams and, [00:08:00] uh, Jerry and David Zucker.

Cathy: So did they all three direct it or did they all three write it?

Todd: All three of them directed it. And apparently whatever the Film Institute organizing body didn’t want three directors, but they petitioned some type of appeal process and they were allowed to have a three person directorial.

Cathy: Interesting.

Cathy: And

Todd: I think they wrote it also.

Cathy: It spoofed the 1957 disaster film zero hour, which I’ve never seen. I have,

Todd: I have a clip of it by the way.

Cathy: Okay. And zero hour also has an exclamation point. So for those of you who obviously have never seen airplane or have seen the box, it’s airplane exclamation point. So

Todd: go ahead and play a clip from zero hour.

Todd: Um, and yeah, and just so everybody knows, so I, once again in my research, the ZAZ, the Zucker Abrams Zucker Partnership, they would do these commercials. They would, they would do these spoofing commercials. Okay. So they would watch late night tv. Okay. And they would just take a commercial and then with a video recorder, like spoof it.

Todd: Got it. And one of the movies that they’re watching just to capture the [00:09:00] commercials, was zero hour. And that’s how they came up. That’s how up with this idea. Got it. Um, and. The movie airplane is completely in alignment with, it’s just a total spoof on that. It’s the same story. The same story.

Cathy: Yeah. It some of the language is exactly the same.

Todd: Yes. And I’m gonna play a little bit of that here in a second. Um, there something else. I was going to say about zero hour, but it doesn’t matter. So here, um, you’re gonna hear a scene from zero hour. That probably sounds kind of familiar.

Clip: The life of everybody aboard depends on just one thing. Finding someone back there, not only can fly this plane, but who didn’t have fish for dinner?

Clip: Excuse me. The first officers ill, and, and the captain would like someone with flying experience to help him with the radio. Do you know anything about planes?

Clip: A long time ago.

Todd: So they’re showing the, uh, automatic pilot, which [00:10:00] is just, obviously there’s no pilot. There’s a, there’s no inflatable balloon that is managing. It was just like on instruments or whatever. But what’s funny in that scene is the Leslie Nielsen character just kind of rises up from the ground in that moment.

Todd: Uhhuh, same thing, happens in zero hours. So they like, literally like replicated a lot of how it was shot, where the actors were and everything else.

Cathy: Got

Todd: it. So

Cathy: it’s just, they basically just took something that was supposed to be serious. Yes. And made fun of it. Used jokes, slapstick, deadpan delivery, all that kind of stuff.

Cathy: So the story is there is a regular flight from LA to Chicago. It goes wrong, as you just heard, after the, the crew and a lot of people on board are poisoned by the fish ’cause there’s three. Different meals. I remember I had lasagna. Yes. Um, and, uh, Ted Stryker, who is a, he’s an ex pilot from the war, as Todd said, or as the clip said, and he’s afraid of flying, but he has to help lamb this plane with the help of his girlfriend who’s a flight attendant.

Cathy: Um, and they still use word stewardess, obviously. [00:11:00] Mm-hmm. Um, and it’s about, and the ground controllers who are trying to get them down, so. Airplane is that structure with all sorts of really great, and, and it’s all, it’s also a, not only is it a movie of its time in that the humor was new, but there’s a Todd and I watched it again and there’s just so much in it that is so seventies, you know?

Cathy: ’cause again, it’s 1980s, so it’s not like we even knew what the eighties were gonna be yet. But, you know, like all the religious fanaticism and, you know, just the smoking and the coffee and the drinking and the, you know, there’s just so much that was representative of the time. No doubt. So just a few things about the characters and then we’re gonna move on.

Cathy: Uh, Robert Hayes played Ted Stryker. If you don’t know Robert Hayes, he was in the show. Angie, remember Angie? No. Yes you do. Angie. She was in, um, you actually one time played a, the Angie theme song on this show. Oh. It was the woman who was in Saturday Night Fever and she, um, God, what was her name? But anyway, as you’re finding the, [00:12:00] did you find the Angie theme theme song?

Todd: Was this a good show?

Cathy: I mean, it was on, you know, we didn’t have lots of choices. I watched Angie, you know what I mean? But he was the guy Yeah. In Angie. And then he was, he, he was an airplane too, but that wasn’t as good. Sorry, that’s a hot take. Um, and then Julie Haggerty, she played Elaine, she was not really well known before airplane.

Cathy: And obviously if you have seen, um, what about Bob? You know, she is the wife. And what about Bob? Yes. Um, she’s got a very specific style Yes. Of communication and,

Todd: and I heard her personality in real life is very similar to the character. It

Cathy: has to be Right. Because it’s so unique. Um, and then Leslie Nielsen, who plays the doctor, Dr.

Cathy: Ruach, who, um, he was kind of a serious actor before this movie. He was a serious actor and this was the beginning of his comedy. You know, he became a legend ’cause he was in [00:13:00] Police Squad, which was on tv. And then the Naked Gun Series. Um, then Robert Stack, who was also a serious actor in the Untouchables.

Cathy: Um, and then he became our Unsolved Mysteries guy. Mm-hmm. Did you watch Unsolved Mysteries?

Todd: Um, maybe a little bit. Um, and a lot of these actors didn’t get it. They, they thought

Cathy: they, were they trying to be serious or trying to be funny?

Todd: Well, a few of them started to try to be funny and the directors had to say, stop trying to be funny.

Todd: You have to act as if you’re in this zero hour movie where they’re, everything is on the line. And a few of them, it took ’em a while to figure out. What this movie was supposed to be like and they finally figured it out.

Cathy: And that’s such like one of those comedy directions. I heard Amy Poer talking about that on her podcast is when they would have people come on SNL.

Cathy: Yeah. They would say, just read what’s written. Yeah. And don’t try and be funny. Yeah. Because it’s the writing and the commitment that makes it funny. Yeah. You have to just Totally. So then another serious actor, Lloyd Bridges, you know, he was in Sea Hunt obviously. He’s the father of, uh, Bo and [00:14:00] Jeff Bridges and he was in Airplane and I love his, his role.

Cathy: Yeah. Um, and then he was also in Hot Shots later with Charlie Sheen. We just watched. I got

Clip: picked the wrong week. Quit Sniffing Blue. Right. That’s it for the wrong week. Quit drinking. There you go.

Cathy: Quick, quick, uh, what, what else? There’s like three others of, of those two taking em, vitamin amphetamines and smoking. Yeah. Um, and then Peter Graves, he was also a serious actor. He was in Mission Impossible on tv, and then he was an airplane. He was the, uh, pilot, which his role would be the hardest for me to take.

Cathy: Yeah.

Todd: He, he did not like that part. He didn’t, well, I mean, apparently he couldn’t even look at this young actor in the eyes on set because of the, um,

Cathy: can you play one of his lines?

Todd: Um, let’s see. I got it here somewhere. I don’t know which one. Oh, here we go.

Clip: We have something here for our special visitors.

Clip: Would you like to have it? Thank you. [00:15:00] Thanks a lot. Sure. You ever been in a cockpit before? No, sir. I’ve never been up in a plane before. You ever seen a grown man naked?

Cathy: I mean, these fall into the WTF category.

Clip: Yes. Yes.

Cathy: Okay, so then Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is in this movie, which is so random, but it’s such a funny like just side note, joke.

Clip: 2 0 9 or you are cleared for takeoff. Roger. Huh? La departure frequency? 1, 2, 3, 0.9. Roger. All request sector over what? Flight 2 0 9 or clear for vector? 3, 2, 4. We have clearance. Clearance. Roger, Roger. What’s our vector, Victor?

Cathy: He plays Roger Murdoch. That’s what he keeps saying. Huh? And he, and there, that kid, Joey keeps asking him if he is Kareem Abdul jab Barney says, no.

Cathy: And then everybody else is kind of like, you know, supporting characters and we’ll, we’ll get into them more. Um, so that’s the setup. So do you wanna go into random facts?

Todd: Um, can we do jokes that went over our head or is it premature?

Cathy: Let’s do it. And this can be kind of the remember when too. Yeah.

Todd: Okay.

Todd: Okay. So let’s just stay on target here and do a [00:16:00] little bit of this. Stay on target and then remember when is what we’re doing right?

Clip: Uh, remember when.

Clip: You couldn’t win.

Todd: All right. So, um, some jokes that went over. I’ll just say my head. Okay. And my guess is, ’cause I was eight years old. You were nine when this came out,

Cathy: wasn’t I 10? And you were nine? ’cause I was born. Oh, you’re right. I was nine. I was born in 71. So you’re right.

Todd: So we already talked about captain over’s creepy questions to Joey.

Todd: Right? Like we thought that was maybe I, maybe this is one of the jokes that I didn’t even think was funny ’cause I didn’t understand what the joke was. ‘

Cathy: cause that one, the grown man naked is very literal. The next one is like, do you ever hang around the gymnasium? Yeah. And that doesn’t mean anything. No.

Cathy: To us,

Todd: we’re seeing a movie about gladiators. No, we, we don’t get. So that one actually did go over my head. Okay. The autopilot inflation scene.

Cathy: You know what you should do? You have a sound of like something going over our head. Um, not right this moment. I could probably get something. It goes [00:17:00] yes. Like

Todd: that, like, uh, some kind of sound.

Todd: Can I hear you say that again? Yeah.

Cathy: Like I’m visualizing it.

Todd: I

Cathy: can hear it in my head.

Todd: Right. You know what I mean? I do have some sounds. Um, let’s see.

Cathy: Oh,

Todd: there you go.

Cathy: That’s a cricket.

Todd: I know. But it went over, you know, it was, it was meant for jokes and it went over our head, so it was crickets.

Cathy: Okay. Not exactly what I was thinking, but we’ll let it ride because we gotta keep moving.

Cathy: Okay. Um, so yes, so blowing up auto, which is the autopilot.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t, I didn’t, I don’t think I knew exactly what that joke was.

Cathy: Yes. I didn’t either because we didn’t Thank goodness. Yeah. Understand that level of sexuality yet because it looks like she is, uh, you know. Yeah. I don’t know how much we can say on the show.

Cathy: It looks like that she’s, yeah. Okay. It’s the moral sex happening. There’s some moral sex. Thank, that’s the word I was looking

Todd: for. Uh, the blow gag, which is Lloyd Bridges we just talked about. It’s, uh, sniffing glue and all that stuff. Right? So that Why is he hanging upside down though? Uh, I

Cathy: still don’t [00:18:00] get that in

Todd: 54.

Todd: Maybe. Maybe you haven’t been on Efe. S en amphetamines.

Cathy: Amphetamines, but he’s not on amphetamines. He just sniffed glue.

Todd: I know, but I think he also took Infe s

Cathy: amphetamines. Yeah. So he smoked and then he drank. He’s just,

Todd: he’s just high. He’s just

Cathy: so high that he’s upside down like a bat. Okay.

Todd: Course. All right.

Todd: Uh, Ted, Ted Stryker’s drinking problem. You know,

Cathy: he did think that was funny. I didn’t under I did too, but I didn’t understand why you didn’t understand that they were trying to allude that he was an alcoholic. But his drinking problem is actually, he can’t get the drink in his mouth. Yes. He just throws the drink

Todd: on himself.

Todd: Uh, the jive talk scene I thought was funny. I didn’t quite understand it all. I didn’t understand that either. Yeah.

Cathy: And, and that is like a total, like exaggeration. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like, it wasn’t, you know, it, it wasn’t reality based, it was just based on

Todd: mm-hmm. This one is not the joke, but I think it’s hilarious.

Todd: Okay.

Clip: No, the white zone is foreboding and on unloading. And there is no stopping [00:19:00] in the red zone.

Todd: So, quick trivia about that is they tried to get some voice actors to do that. Okay. And they weren’t happy with any of the voice actors. Okay? So they ended up going to LAX and got plucked. The two people who actually were the ones stop and they ha and they were married in real life.

Cathy: And that’s the joke.

Todd: That’s joke of them

Cathy: having a conversation. ’cause she mentions a vasectomy.

Clip: Yeah.

Cathy: And then he mentions about her getting an abortion. Abortion. Yeah. And they’re doing this over the really funny, see that’s a perfect example in this movie is that is not the main, you’re supposed to be watching Ted Stryker walk through the airport, right?

Cathy: So you’re not really, you’re listening to that. There’s jokes going

Todd: on in the background.

Cathy: A million.

Todd: Yeah.

Cathy: Yeah.

Todd: Uh, the Hari Krishna airport solicitors. Yeah. I didn’t know why that was funny. I

Cathy: didn’t either. I didn’t get it.

Todd: And then finally, the Ethel Merman cameo. Um, I

Cathy: be swell.

Todd: I don’t even know who else.

Todd: Ethel Merman is,

Cathy: oh, I, okay. Uh, I don’t remember what I understood, [00:20:00] but I do know who she is now. Okay. You know who she is now, right? No.

Todd: I mean, I know she’s a famous person, but I don’t

Cathy: know why. Right. Do you remember? It’s so hard to go back to that age. But it was funny that, you know, ’cause we knew everybody in the hospital beds were men who had been in the war.

Cathy: Yeah. And that he, he’s like, oh, you know, he thinks he’s Ethel Merman. Yeah. And it’s literally Ethel Merman.

Clip: Right.

Cathy: So like, maybe we didn’t know who she was, but it’s funny that it’s a woman.

Todd: Yes. Um, so those are the jokes that went over our head. Anything you wanna add to that?

Cathy: Um, yeah. One of them that’s, that I didn’t understand was, um, the kid who’s bringing the other kid coffee.

Cathy: Yes. And he says, again, 1980, everybody, he says, you know. He hands her coffee and then he said, do you want cream? And she said, no. I take it black. Like my men.

Clip: Yes. And

Cathy: they’re supposed to be like 10 years old. Didn’t understand that. I didn’t understand that. I don’t even know if I heard what she said. Right.

Cathy: Um, and let’s see if there’s anything else. I didn’t know what the Peace Corps was [00:21:00] at the time. ’cause they have this whole thing on the Peace Corps. Um, yeah. A lot of it. Again, thus the reason why I’m saying this was so revolutionary or was the beginning of our humor mm-hmm. Because we were being introduced to a lot of things.

Cathy: And again, we’ll talk more about this in wtf, but so much of it was based in, um, racial stereotypes and, um, gender stereotypes. And it was very, I mean, it was of its time, but it wasn’t, we wouldn’t call this movie appropriate.

Todd: Right. No. Not even close. And also hilarious.

Cathy: Yeah. Because of the, because of who we are in our

Todd: age.

Todd: Um,

Cathy: anything else? Remember when? Um, no, I think that, I just, what I will say is that. Our generation, again, hammering this fact, we speak these lines to each other. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, there’s the, what’s your vector? Victor, you know Roger, Roger. I don’t even know if we, I, I can’t even like, it’s like someone may say, when do you do that?

Cathy: I don’t know. But we do it a lot in [00:22:00] the, don’t call me Shirley stuff.

Clip: Stuart said, both pilots, can you fly this plane and land it? Surely you can’t be serious. I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.

Todd: That might be one of the most famous movie lines of all time.

Cathy: Exactly. Because people say it a lot. Or again, old people like us.

Cathy: I say this one a lot and people don’t know it other than five miles.

Clip: Get that finger outta your ear. You don’t know where that finger’s been. You do say that

Todd: a lot. I still don’t even know why. That’s funny. I don’t. It kind of don’t. We know where our finger has been. Is that why it’s funny? Well, first of all, it’s

Cathy: his finger.

Todd: Yeah. So

Cathy: who cares? And number two, the, the guy then looks at it and smells his finger. Yes. Which is gross comedy. Yes. So the whole thing is just a set up. And I say this one all the time,

Todd: just wanna tell you both. Good luck. We’re all counting on you.

Cathy: And he says it even after they land. Yes. Um, okay, so let’s go into some random facts.

Cathy: You ready? Uh,

Todd: hold on. I gotta play the song for our random facts. Okay.

Clip: Eight pounds [00:23:00] here. Do you know the human Eight pounds?

Cathy: Alright,

Todd: why

Cathy: don’t you start? Okay. So a lot of it, we’ve already talked about that it was, you know, based in on zero hour from 1957 that they made a choice to cast serious actors, um, Otto, the autopilot.

Cathy: So again, you know, auto. Otto, OTTO, but he’s the autopilot. Mm-hmm. You know, that’s funny in itself. Um, he was, you know, they’re talking about how he was, you know, put together, who really cares. He’s a big part of the movie. Like at the end of the movie, Otto takes the plane and flies away with his girlfriend.

Cathy: Yeah. Um, I, there’s this, who knows if this is true. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he agreed to play Roger Murdoch, but only if the people, you know, running the movie, uh, bought him a $30,000 Oriental rug he wanted.

Todd: Yeah. Did you get that too? I did get it. I’m not buying it,

Cathy: but, okay. So this is pretty big. So this movie was made for 3.5 million.

Todd: Mm-hmm.

Cathy: It grossed over $170 million. Believe it. I mean, that is one of the most profitable [00:24:00] comedies ever. So, um, there’s parody, there’s a lot of parody in here, uh, like the Saturday Night Fever parody. Um, when they go to the bar, uh, you know, there’s, the Saturday Night Fever was huge at the time. And you know what’s interesting?

Cathy: I watched that scene and I’ve always thought they were also perine, I can’t say that word. You can’t say impa of beans. No, I can’t. That they were also making fun of an officer and a gentleman, but they weren’t because that movie didn’t come out to 1983. Interesting. You know? Yeah. Because he’s wearing his whites.

Cathy: Yeah. And that’s what he does in Officer and Gentleman, but he’s not. Um, and then this was, I mean, basically I think the most random fact is this is the legacy of deadpan movies. Mm-hmm. Like naked gun, top secret, hot shots. Like this is the beginning trail trailblazers. Exactly. And just a few. I I’ll say all the movies that it influenced, um, that I have written down.

Cathy: Um, naked Gun, top Secret, hot Shots and Hotshot Part Two, scary Movie, three and four Austin Powers, um, the [00:25:00] Simpsons. Mm-hmm. The writers say that they were influenced family guy, um, directors and actors that were influenced. Judd Apatow. Um, Adam in Judd Apatow, we know did Knocked up 40-year-old Virgin Adam McKay, anchorman Stepbrothers, and we know he and Will Ferrell, like wrote together.

Cathy: Um, Leslie Nielsen. Obviously, uh, we know about him being, oh, Jim Carrey, um, said that he was influenced by these movies, will Ferrell, and then more recently, um, anchorman. That’s kind of old, but again, you know, from a, from this time, um, Deadpool, the Lego movie. Um, sweetie, pop star, never stop, never stopping.

Cathy: Oh yeah. Which is one of, oh my God, that’s funny. It’s so un over the top. It’s over the top. But it’s not appreciated. No. And and it’s not all good. It’s like, it’s like any movie where you’re like, these parts are good and these parts aren’t. Um, and then I wanna even go into some TV shows that are inspired by this kind of humor, Brooklyn Nine nine Community, um, Rick and Morty, and again, [00:26:00] people who are like, what do you mean it was inspired?

Cathy: It’s that kind of humor that the people who wrote it, it started with Airplane. Yep. What we do in the Shadows, which is awesome. And then, um, I, the move, the two shows that I feel that I love the most, that have the vibe of Airplane are 30 Rock, which is probably one of my all time favorite comedies and Arrested Development.

Cathy: Mm-hmm. They both have. The, the things that they have are the fast humor. So there’s a joke coming all the time. Yep. Like, again, 30 Rock and Arrested Development, you have to watch it more than once, or else you’re not gonna get the whole thing. It also, both shows have the flashbacks, which they do in airplane.

Cathy: You know, they like, they’ll say something and then they’ll flashback to something funny, you know, or something like, oh, they’re up there, they’re on instruments. And then they’ll flash to them and they’re actually playing instruments. Right. That kind of absurdity and it’s just rapid fire, you know? Yes. And then bringing in serious actors like Alec Baldwin or Yeah.

Cathy: Alec Baldwin to, [00:27:00] into 30 Rock and Rested Development, had all these, most of them comedians, but some serious people, you know, like Liza Minnelli and, um, who’s the Stew guy? Carl Weathers. And, you know, they, they brought in these and like Henry Winkler and, you know. Scott Bao, who, you know, I don’t know how we feel about him these days, but he is blah, blah, blah.

Cathy: Um, you know, just funny jokes upon jokes upon jokes. So anyway, I just thought that’s a lot of good random facts because it is so, um, it started something. Let’s just say that

Clip: I’ve gotta get outta here. Calm down. Get a hold of yourself please. Lemme handle this.

Clip: Calm down. I’ll get back to your seat. I’ll take care of this. Calm down. You one on the phone.

Todd: So supposedly Leslie Nielsen, uh, that second slap that he did, that second hit Yeah. Was improvised. And, uh, he accidentally hit her. Now I just watched it. [00:28:00] He didn’t hit her bad, but he may have just like, grazed her with her finger.

Todd: Well,

Cathy: the next person that comes in is a nun nun. And then the line, there’s people like with knives and guns, wrenches. It’s really, again, it’s a kind of f ’cause they’re all hitting a woman. Yeah. Like it’s really bad. Not cool. Um, it’s not cool, but, oh my.

Todd: How, how

Cathy: funny

Todd: it was back then though, sweetie.

Cathy: I know.

Cathy: That’s the thing is this isn’t hard to talk about because again, you’ve gotta talk about the influence of it, but some of the jokes are just, yeah. Wrong. Um, okay, so do you wanna go into WTF

Todd: or do you wanna do another lift? One more thing that kind of, I don’t, this, this would go un uh, go over, uh, our daughter’s heads if they ended up, um, watching it today.

Todd: Have our kids ever seen this? No. Um, so there’s that. I’ll play the, the, uh, the quote,

Clip: but either of you like another cup of coffee. I will, but Jim will, I think I will have another cup of coffee.

Todd: Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home. I’m like, whatever. And then there [00:29:00] is a commercial called Uban, Y-U-B-A-N.

Todd: Do you remember this commercial? I don’t. But I remember adults understanding

Clip: they for more coffee, it’s late. And Jim never has a second coffee. You know, I’d love another coffee. Had seconds of my coffee. Pretty good coffee. That night we both discovered you, Ben. Yeah,

Todd: you Ben. Because

Cathy: she also says Jim

Todd: never

Cathy: throws up at home.

Todd: I know. That’s funny. Um, um, yes. The other thing, so let, lemme keep the joke going. This was Ethel Merman’s final acting role before her death. Okay. Um, Peter Grave felt uncomfortable. I said that. Now I want play a little bit of two truths in one line. Okay. Let’s hear it. You ready? Let’s see how you do. Um, some of them we’ve already discussed.

Todd: That’s why I want to get it outta the way early. Kareem only agreed to appear if the producers bought him a $30,000 Oriental rug. I

Cathy: did hear that.

Todd: Second one is Bill Murray was considered for the lead role of Ted Stryker. And the third one is Leslie Nielsen improvised the famous Don’t call me Shirley Line.

Todd: Which of those three is a lie? I’m [00:30:00] gonna say Bill Murray incorrect. Ah, Leslie Nielsen. That was a scripted line. Don’t call me Shirley. Uh, production, um, uh. Two Trues, one light. Here we go. The film only cost 3.5 mil to make and gross over 170 million. The Autopilot Auto was voiced by Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, and he didn’t have a

Cathy: voice.

Todd: And the third thing is the airport announcers were voiced by actual married couple. We already talked about that.

Cathy: Yeah. Otto didn’t have a voice. That one.

Todd: Uh, the drinking problem Ga gag was written in on set the day of filming. That’s one. Okay. The hysterical pla passenger slap was improvised by actress Lee Bryant and kept in after one take.

Todd: And then finally the Jive Talk scene required real subtitles because even the actors didn’t understand what they were saying.

Cathy: I think that’s probably true. Okay. So I’d say then, I don’t know which one, I can’t remember them all now.

Todd: The lie was the drinking problem. Gag Gag was written Yeah. On the stay of that.

Cathy: Yeah. Okay.

Todd: Um, we already talked about that one. [00:31:00] Alright. Chevy Chase was originally offered the role of Dr. Ruach before Leslie Nielsen. Uh, the directors bought the rights to zero hour and used entire lines verbatim. And then finally the cockpit cockpit set was borrowed from the movie airport 77.

Cathy: That’s true.

Cathy: And I think they pro, I think it’s the first one. Chevy Chase.

Todd: Uh, according to my research, the cockpit set was borrowed from the movie airport. 77 is not true. Oh, that is a lie. I, but they offered it to Chevy Chase apparently. But he’s so young then. Well, that’s the thing. And they decided. To move away from the comedic actors as they grew.

Todd: That was smart. So I think they originally had this, and Letterman actually was supposed to be Ted Stryker and then David. Yeah. There’s even a clip of him, uh, auditioning for the role way. Yes. I’ll try to find that.

Cathy: Um, you can find that. But I also want you to find, speaking of 30 Rock and Airports, you should find some Matt Damon.

Cathy: Oh yeah. Quotes from 30 Rock. ’cause he’s, he’s a pilot. And what is his name? [00:32:00] Carol. Carol. Carol. That’s a girl’s name. Um, so should we go into WTF? Do you wanna open that up? Uh, yeah, let’s open that up.

Todd: Uh, first I gotta head over here. Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got outta hand fast. It jumped up a notch.

Todd: It did, didn’t it? All right. So what do you got for WTF?

Cathy: Okay, so I will say, I have a whole list of things. The first one you just mentioned, the calm her down scene where, you know, she’s the, the woman who says Jim never has two cups of coffee. Um, she is freaking out and they’re all hitting her. Um, and that’s rough.

Clip: Yep.

Cathy: Um, the next one, Otto, because he is very, uh, the inflatable autopilot is, um, very sexual in nature. He does more sexual things than just getting re blown up by, um, Elaine. Um, then there’s, you know, it’s the eighties, so there’s a lot of gratuitous. There [00:33:00] were not a lot, but there was some gratuitous nudity.

Cathy: Yeah. There’s a scene where they’re, no. You know, you’re noticing that the plane is shaking and then they show jello. Yeah. Then they show a woman’s yeahs breast, and then later when they’re all freaking out, the woman doesn’t have a shirt on and just comes right in front of the screen. Yeah. That was like.

Cathy: Everybody. It was like in the eighties, you just had to throw that stuff in.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. And uh, there’s a part where, uh, Leslie Nielsen’s character is as if he’s a gynecologist. That’s my, and the woman is in the stirrups.

Cathy: Yeah. There’s ’cause he’s like literally in the airplane. Yeah. And there’s a woman in stirrups like Todd said, now that I didn’t get either.

Clip: Yeah. ‘

Cathy: cause I didn’t know gynecology then. Right? Yeah. So I was like, what’s happening here? Um, the, the jive scene is over the top. Um, and it is kind of funny that they’re in that scene. I mean, they show these two men talking a few times, but Barbara Billingsley, who was in, leave It to Beaver, you know, who is very well known, obviously by that audience.

Cathy: She actually comes over at one point and says to the stewardess. Um, excuse me, miss. I [00:34:00] speak Jive. Yeah. And then she speaks with them and it’s kind of funny. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, that’s kind of the joke. Um, then all the stuff that Peter Graves has to say with Joey, you know, have you ever been in Turkish prison?

Cathy: Um, do you like movies about gladiators? Have you ever seen a grown man naked? You know. We wouldn’t do that today. I still

Todd: don’t even

Cathy: understand the

Todd: Turkish prison joke. I don’t know, what is it about tur Turkish prisons that I should know about?

Cathy: I don’t know.

Todd: I, I don’t even should look it up. I still got something, some things to learn.

Cathy: Okay. Uh, let’s see. The flashbacks of every time Ted sits next to someone, he tells them his story of he and Elaine and why they broke up. And then whenever he’s done talking, they’re so bored. Yeah. That they are somehow harming themselves as if they’re going to take their own lives again. Not great. Um, and then, you know, the addiction spiral of Yeah.

Cathy: Lloyd Bridges. Um, and, you know, that’s about it. There’s

Todd: a lot of wtf,

Cathy: there’s a lot of WTF in this sh in, you [00:35:00] know, in this movie. Mm-hmm. Um, it just depends on where you get offended, you know? Um. So that’s my WTF. Do you have anything? Um, I

Todd: just, my WTF is not about the movie itself because the American Film Institute ranked airplane, the 10th funniest, um, movie.

Todd: Movie of all time. And I just have a lot of problems with some of the top nine. Okay. Um, so first, do you want me to guess any, how do you wanna do this? You’re just gonna read ’em? No, you got a feeling you’re going to not be able to catch most of these. I feel like whoever wrote this wrote it in 1985.

Cathy: Okay.

Cathy: So it’s probably gonna be Monty Python stuff. No, Monty Python is not

Todd: Blazing

Cathy: Saddles.

Todd: Blazing Saddles is in there. Okay. That was. Totally of that time. Some of these I don’t even think, are comedies The graduate? Is that a comedy?

Cathy: Uh, I mean, kind of.

Todd: So, so first of all, the, supposedly the funniest movie of all time mm-hmm.

Todd: Is from 1959. Oh,

Cathy: yikes. Some like it

Todd: hot. Exactly. Yeah. Is that a funny movie?

Cathy: I don’t think so. And it’s, I don’t know. I mean, it was at the time,

Todd: [00:36:00] so I’m giving thumbs down on some, like, it hot. The next one I’m giving thumbs up. Tootsie. Very funny. I I agree with that.

Cathy: Mm-hmm.

Todd: Um, next one, Dr. Strange Love. Okay.

Todd: How I learned to start warring and love the Bomb. I don’t even know what that means. Okay. Um, Annie Hall still haven’t seen any of his. Yeah.

Cathy: Not a Woody Allen person.

Todd: Uh, duck Soup from 1933, that’s Groucho Marx, right? Oh, there you go. That’s probably funny. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Blazing Saddles mash. The, the movie. The movie?

Todd: Mm-hmm. I liked the TV show better than I liked. Um, the movie. The movie, uh, it happened one night in 1934. Like, come on, stop it. Yeah. Okay. So they, they gotta work on it. Well,

Cathy: who did this list?

Todd: The American Film Institute. Okay. Yeah.

Cathy: Yeah. I mean, you know, if we were boomers we’d be like, this is this what we’re doing right now with airplane is kind of boomy.

Todd: I very naively would think that our daughters think, would think that this is a very funny movie, but maybe they wouldn’t. I mean, they’d be like, huh. I had them watch Tommy Boy and they didn’t think it was that funny. And then I had them watch, uh, what about Bob? And they loved it. [00:37:00] So it’s weird. How do you know what’s gonna hit with this younger generation?

Cathy: Yeah. They didn’t like Wayne’s World either. Yeah. Um, and they definitely didn’t like Austin Powers. No, because I told him it was, he was an international man of mystery and so they thought it was a mystery.

Todd: God, I thought, she’s watching a

Cathy: mystery. He’s like, where’s the mystery? Um, so sweetie, I’m gonna ask you another question.

Cathy: Okay. You ready? Sure. Let me see. I’m gonna see if I have one. Uh, sweetie. A lot of people had plans before the war.

Todd: Just ask George. Zip.

Cathy: There you go. Good job. I know it. Oh, one more. Yeah. Hospital. What is it?

Todd: Uh, it’s a big building. You better tell a captain. We’ve got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.

Cathy: A hospital. What is it?

Todd: It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now. Not

Cathy: important.

Todd: Right now. Tell a captain I must speak to ’em.

Cathy: Certainly.

Todd: See, and they just go right over it. Yeah. Boom. Um, okay. Are we ready for, what are we gonna do next?

Cathy: [00:38:00] Well, I just have some more. I, I mean, I have, let’s see, I have some rolling in the deep.

Cathy: I have a little bit. Okay. But I also have like a list of jokes. Okay. Like that I kind, I rewatched it and just wrote a bunch of things down. Okay. Now, you may have some of these quotes. You know, you may have some of ’em that you can pull up. We already did the white zone, red zone, um, the, you know, George zip, just so everybody knows.

Cathy: I don’t know why I always thought that was funny because it is somebody who died in the war that Ted Stryker feels like he did something wrong that caused his death. Mm-hmm. So anytime someone says something kind, kind of semi positive to Ted Stryker, he’d be like, you know, I wish I could say the same for George Zip.

Cathy: And then it would like, you know, a sound would go off and then he would also see in his head planes crashing and, you know, um, do you remember what the pilot is reading? You know, Peter Graves, the pilot nun’s like. No. Oh, he wasn’t? It’s what he’s reading at the airport before he picks up the phone. What is it?

Cathy: Modern sperm. Oh, really? I don’t even get that. Never even noticed that. [00:39:00] And then, do you remember what he says when there, there’s a phone call for him? Uh, I’ve got it. He’s, they’re like captain over. Yeah. His name’s, you know, his name’s Captain over. Yeah. And then they tell him the Mayo Clinics on the other line.

Cathy: Yeah. So he says, uh, give me a ham on five. Hold the mayo. Yeah. Because Mr. Ham is on another call. I mean, it’s so stupid. It is

Todd: totally stupid, but awesome. It lands.

Cathy: Okay. Um, and then we did not mention that this is again, a little pop culturey, one of the plot lines on the plane. Is this little girl who is, needs a heart transplant.

Cathy: Mm-hmm. And she has played by this actress, um, who played Vicki on the Love Boat. Mm-hmm. So our generation knew her as Vicki on the Love Boat. Yeah. Like that. She’s Captain Stebbings daughter. Like that’s all we knew her. You know? So to see her in airplane was kind of a thing.

Clip: We’re expecting you,

Todd: you and I watched a full episode of [00:40:00] Love Boat a few years ago. They’re dead. It was outstanding because of how bad and stupid it was and good it was. And all the actors that show up, they

Cathy: are all in it.

Todd: Yeah.

Cathy: Like they were they anyone who was big, it was kinda like coming on a talk show. Yeah. It’s like if you had something to promote, you go on the love boat, you have an affair with Doc.

Cathy: Mm-hmm. You know, because the doctor on the boat like made out with everybody. Yes. And then, you know, that was really it.

Todd: Yeah.

Cathy: Gopher.

Todd: What was Gopher? Gopher ended up being a congressman in Iowa, I believe.

Cathy: He sure did. Um, what was, uh, the Isaac? Isaac, yeah. Yeah. I’m doing, I’m pointing it. Todd, like the Todd, the bartender.

Cathy: Okay. Um, let’s see. The one scene that, again, what we would only understand is when both, when all the captains are getting ready to take off, there’s a guy who comes up and starts washing the windshield as if they’re like at a gas station. Yeah. And then he opens the hood of the plane Yeah. As if he’s checking the oil.

Cathy: Right. This is all happening behind the scenes. Right. And then he [00:41:00] comes up to the window for them to, I’m putting in air quotes, pay, ’cause obviously they don’t need to do any of this, but the credit card machine that they have is like, do you have that sound? Um,

Todd: no. I, maybe I can find it.

Cathy: And so it’s kind of like, that is so of our time, and as Todd is looking for.

Cathy: The sound. Todd used to work at a gas station. He worked at a full service gas station. So he did use to do that. Pump people’s gas. I sure did. Check their oil and then slide their credit card. And I did, I worked in retail, so I also used to slide people’s credit cards. Yes. And sometimes you, do you remember what you’d have to do when the slider wouldn’t work?

Cathy: Uh, you’d have to use the pen and then draw and then

Todd: like draw over it. I do remember that. God, it was crazy. I don’t know if this is the sound. Lets see it. Look, hear it. No, that’s not the sound.

Cathy: Sounds like Bells.

Todd: No, these, this is processing credit card payment, so I don’t know what’s going on.

Cathy: That’s probably on the phone.

Cathy: Yeah. When you’re listening. Yeah. Um, so the, another thing is that when Ted decides he’s gonna get on this plane [00:42:00] to, to follow Elaine, his girlfriend, ’cause she’s the, one of the flight attendants, they say to him, do you want smoking or non-smoking? Mm-hmm. And he says, smoking. And so they hand him a ticket that smoke is coming out of.

Cathy: But in real life you could smoke on airplanes.

Todd: I know. I think that’s just terrible. I hated it. I hated, I hated cigarette smoke in general. And I don’t even know how I survived.

Cathy: I just think it was so normal for us. Yeah. Like you were in the front of the plane and people in the back were smoking and you would kind of be like, oh, I’m so glad I’m away from that.

Cathy: Yeah. As if it’s not lingering in the air. Of course. Every seat. Had ashtrays. Yeah. Like they, you could just like how every car had a lighter and what did the fabric end up smelling? Like, my

Todd: god, I know the smoke just was infiltrated, uh, infiltrated the fabric of the seat cushions.

Cathy: Imagine how dirty the windows are.

Cathy: Yeah. And imagine how risky that is if someone like dropped their cigarettes. Something caught on fire. Right. There’s so many, everyone had lighters. I know. I mean, come had lighters and then the sign [00:43:00] said El No. Uh, you smoko. Yes. Um, and then, let’s see. Blah, blah, blah. So going back to the other one, the, the magazine.

Cathy: So on the plane the boy is reading, uh, nun’s Life. Nun’s Life, and the nun is Reading Boy’s Life. Boy’s Life. Very good. Um, and then let’s see if there’s any else, anything else that we haven’t touched. Um, second cup of coffee Peace Corps. There. Something interesting on the second watch is there was two Ronald Reagan jokes in the movie, and at the time this movie came out, Jimmy Carter was president.

Cathy: So Ronald Reagan had not even been president yet. Yeah. And they were already making fun of him. They talk about his movie when he’s the gipper. Mm-hmm. And then when the first woman gets a stomach ache, she says, I haven’t felt this six since that Ronald Reagan film. Yeah. So it’s interesting that we were already making fun of him.

Cathy: He must have been the governor of California probs. Um, and then the, what I think is, makes me laugh still is when they are, the pilots are [00:44:00] dropping like flies. ’cause they’ve had the fish for dinner and they’re like communicating over the intercom to tell the pi the passengers not to be scared, but they’re dragging.

Cathy: Yeah. The pilots down

Todd: and they’re blindly just looking forward, not noticing that there’s a Yeah.

Cathy: They’re dragging the pilots down the aisle. So, you know, so I think that, um, I’m ready for a few quotes. Go ahead,

Clip: captain. Maybe we ought to turn on the search lights now.

Todd: Oh. It’s just what they’ll be expecting us to know.

Todd: I think that that’s a very funny line. What about this one, captain? How soon from new land?

Clip: I can’t tell. You can tell me I’m a doctor. No, I mean, I’m just not sure. Or can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours. Boss, head man. Top dog, big cheese. A head honcho.

Clip: Yeah. Number. Look at this passenger starting to die. Airline. There’s a sale at Penny’s.

Todd: We haven’t even talked about Johnny yet.

Cathy: About Johnny. I think. [00:45:00] For those of us who were really young when we saw this movie, most people loved Johnny the most.

Todd: Oh, for sure. Because he had the

Cathy: best line

Todd: and I think he improvised most of them.

Cathy: And, you know, did you read about him? He died very young. Oh no, he died at 38. Um, I believe he, um, I don’t know if he had cancer there. Something that he had. That’s true. Honestly, Todd, I think he might’ve had

Todd: aids. Speaking of aids, we, uh, I didn’t know Charlie Sheen had HIV.

Cathy: Oh, you didn’t? No. Oh, I knew that.

Cathy: He came out on the talk shows five years ago or something.

Todd: You watched, uh, the Charlie Sheen documentary last night. Two part. We watched part two last night. Heavy man. Uh, yeah. Some heavy stuff going on there. All right. You ready for the top 10 movies? Parents let their kids watch too young?

Cathy: Uh, I can guess some of these.

Cathy: I know. Does this annoy you that I guess No, no,

Todd: no. This, this is good. Go ahead. Uh, Saturday Night Fever that is not on the list, but it needs to be on the list. Grease, uh, grease. Also not on the list.

Cathy: So what age are we? What years? ’cause I’m thinking Gen X eighties.

Todd: These are all eighties. Three.

Cathy: These are eighties.

Cathy: Okay. Uh, animal House. [00:46:00]

Todd: Animal House. What?

Cathy: Not on the list. Caddy Shack.

Todd: Caddy Shack is number five.

Cathy: Okay. Um, so are they all comedies or are they Uh, no. No. Oh, the Exorcist.

Todd: Um, Exorcist is not on the list, so it’s hard to It’s hard to, it’s hard. I’m asking you a lot to guess what these are. Okay.

Cathy: So just do your list.

Todd: First of all, I’ve never seen this Robocop. Whatever.

Cathy: Okay. Yeah. Don’t

Todd: know anything. Basic instinct. I mean, how many parents are taking their kids to basic instinct? Come on. Stop it. That’s, they should have just walked the trail, uh, Poltergeist. Sure. I mean, why are you taking your kids to po Uh, Poultrygeist.

Todd: Porkies.

Cathy: Yes. Like awful movie. Yeah. It’s never just, I’m gonna say something right now. Todd. Those movies from the eighties that are so Gen X. Yeah. Were never doing them.

Todd: Yeah. Porkies was awful. So just a bad movie. Um. Beetlejuice, whatever. That was fine. But gremlins shows up. Scary. Yeah, it’s apparently pretty scary.

Todd: But it was marketed to kids. So those are some of the movies.

Cathy: Jurassic Park, [00:47:00] did you say that?

Todd: Uh, I did not. I think that was in the nineties though. Oh, okay. So this is just eighties. Uh, my honorable mention is the Champ.

Cathy: Very sad

Todd: because my parents took me to see, I was like seven years old and a spoiler alert, John Voight dies at the end of the movie and Ricky

Cathy: Schroeder’s.

Cathy: Very sad

Todd: and it was devastating. Thank you Alan and Sharon Adams from 1978. That was a rough one for me.

Cathy: They also took you to Saturday Night Fever.

Todd: They did. And Animal House. And Animal House and many other things. And just wanna go see the movies. And somehow I ended up, you know, animal human being,

Cathy: I will say.

Cathy: ’cause we’ve already discussed, you know, my dad took me to all these movies and he took me to Raiders of the Lost Ark. And at the end when that guy’s face like, like burns off. Yeah. It’s pretty creepy. Yeah. Like I remember being like, that took me a little bit to get over. Sure. Nazis.

Todd: Yeah.

Cathy: Yep. Um, okay. You know what we have not discussed, Todd.

Cathy: What one of the, you know, we’re talking about things that you still say all the time. Sure. Is the dog [00:48:00] Shep Sit. Shep. Sit. Shep.

Todd: Is it Shemp

Cathy: or Shep? It’s SHEP. It’s Shep.

Todd: It’s Shep. Yeah. Uh, because, uh, the losers, uh, have a dog. Her name is Maya Uhhuh. And Maya, when she was little, she was little young. She would just kind of just wanna love on you and jump all over you.

Todd: Yeah. And I would always say Shep say, because Chris and mania. Would like give the commands and the commands rarely ever worked when she was a baby. And then, and even if it did work, it would be like four seconds and then, and then she’d come

Cathy: back

Todd: and then Maya would come back. So yeah. I, I had said I would always

Cathy: go, Shep, sit.

Todd: That’s the truth.

Cathy: Um, because there is a scene where this dog is like, attacking this guy. Yes. And well, she says, she’s just like, oh, Shep sit. Yeah. And then she’s like, come. Right. And then he just goes right over and attacks him again. So. Um, so that’s pretty good too. So let’s do a really quick, um, rolling in the deep, and with a little bit of parenting, it’ll just brief.

Clip: Okay. [00:49:00] Like you Oh, good. Good. And my cat. I, all right.

Cathy: What do you got? Gen X humor, three entwined traits. Okay. Sarcasm. Mm-hmm. Uh, deadpan. Mm-hmm. Parody and irony. What do you think about that?

Todd: Um, I think that that’s accurate

Cathy: and I think that’s four.

Todd: Yeah.

Cathy: But, um, it’s like, and then the other piece of it is that they’re very layered.

Clip: Mm-hmm.

Cathy: And referenced meaning that they come from inside jokes, which I think is why, like, you know, again, this experience with pop culture always makes me reflect on myself and why I like what I like. And I think part of the reason I like that inside, inside jokes where you have to understand something else, you have to have some cultural literacy to understand certain jokes in movies and tv.

Cathy: That’s so Gen X, you know, it’s so like, it’s not only is it quick, but it’s like we’re referencing something else. Did you pick it up?

Clip: Sure.

Cathy: You know, and that to me is really funny. And I don’t like it when it’s too overt. I like it when it’s [00:50:00] like something. That. Like for example, I, I don’t know if we talked about this, um, last week on the summary, I turned pretty, but Todd and I, when we watched the last episode, there’s this scene where they take the camera and they go around Belly and Conrad and, and while they’re going around them, they look at each other, but then look away.

Cathy: They don’t look at each other at the exact same time. Uhhuh. And it was very, it, and again, I can’t, I don’t know for sure, but to me it seemed just like, um, before Sunset. Mm-hmm. Which is this amazing scene where they kind of are looking at each other, but then look away. And I don’t know for sure that they’re referencing that, but to me, I think they are.

Cathy: Mogie

Todd: called it, you’re like, they’re he’s gonna look away. Right. As she

Cathy: turns, she looks at him. Yeah. And it’s not like it’s that super creative, but it’s like they’re, it’s a love, it’s a, the whole point of that scene in Before Sunset is recognizing that they’re starting to really. You know, they’re, they really love each other or they’re [00:51:00] starting to feel that way.

Cathy: And so anyway, I just thought that was good. Um, so callbacks, you know, background gags, and again, this is why I love 30 Rock. Did you find anything from 30 Rock? Uh, I couldn’t find any good parts. Anything from Arrested Development?

Todd: Um, not right now.

Cathy: Can are? Do you not wanna look, you’re looking at me like I’m not

Todd: good at, I mean, I am, I’m about to cue something else up, but I’m gonna have to interrupt my, your cue.

Cathy: Yeah. Okay. So I will go back to it, but it’s, if you, I think that it is a certain type of humor. I don’t know that everybody loves it, but to be able to have gags that you come back to that like, you know, like this one

Clip: call my whole life, you’ve called me a chicken that’s over now. I have nothing to prove. Not me.

Todd: Unfortunately in Mexican culture, this was a much more inflammatory gesture.

Cathy: So everybody in the family has their own way of doing a chicken and it looks nothing like a chicken and [00:52:00] sounds nothing like a chicken, but they do it all the time.

Cathy: Yeah. Um, so anyway, uh, I think as far as like, um, you know, again, maybe deep cuts here. I think it didn’t, even though we’re like, everything started with airplane, you know, what was before airplane? Todd? What? Mad Magazine?

Todd: Oh yeah.

Cathy: Like, I loved Mad. Did You Love Mad?

Todd: I loved certain parts of Mad Certain parts I would just skip over, but yes.

Cathy: So I think it was my sister who had the subscription to Mad and Cracked.

Todd: Mm-hmm.

Cathy: But I think that was part of it for me was like I wanted to read her magazines.

Todd: Sweetie. Um, trivia. What is the kind of the mascot, main character of Mad Magazine? His name was Alfred e Newman and Cracked was.

Todd: I don’t remember. I believe his name was Syl.

Cathy: Oh, I wouldn’t have gotten that. I just remember I’d get really excited at the, at the end of, I think it was mad they had Spy versus Spy. You remember the they? It was a [00:53:00] black spy and white. I loved it. Spy I loved. But they were often very violent. Oh yeah. It was almost like Tom and Jerry taken Toren.

Cathy: And Stimpy. Exactly. It was so over the top where I was like, woo. But I liked it. ’cause sometimes they would get along.

Todd: Yeah.

Cathy: There would be somewhere. It’d be like, they would agree.

Todd: You ready for a piece on 30 Rock?

Cathy: Sure. Go ahead. Do not blame me. I wouldn’t

Todd: take

Cathy: us

Todd: because she wouldn’t admit to being wrong for challenging my authority.

Todd: Why not? What’s wrong with you? I am right. And he

Clip: knows it. He could have given us food. Maybe this is one of those times when both of you just say on the count of three I was wrong. 1, 2, 3. Never.

Todd: And then the actor

Clip: pulling the emergency

Cathy: exit slide. And we are all

Todd: this actor in that scene just won an Emmy, uh, Stewart, was that his name?

Cathy: Joel? Yeah. I mean he’s Joel in, uh, some somebody somewhere. Yeah. Um, he, and he always talks about that. He’s like, all I ever played were waiters. Mm-hmm. You know, because he’s in another, um, episode of 30 Rock too.

Cathy: They used him a lot. D [00:54:00] that’s right. He did a different character. He was like the guy at the hotel. Yeah. And he’s super funny in everything. But that is when Matt Damon is on 30 Rock and he and Liz are dating, but they’re too similar. So they keep fighting and they can’t resolve it. But he’s a pilot so it kind of goes into airplane.

Cathy: Um, what

Todd: was it we had for dinner tonight?

Cathy: Well, we had a choice. Steak fish.

Todd: Yes. Yes. I remember I had lasagna.

Clip: Bad news. Fog is getting thicker and Leon’s getting larger.

Todd: One more for Johnny.

Cathy: Where did you get that dress? It’s awful. And those shoes and that quote. Geez. And he just comes in out of the blue.

Cathy: Yes. Like what, who, what’s Shawnie doing there? Yeah. But it’s like they just said, Kate, come in the scene and be funny. And he was, and he, uh, by the way, he did die of AIDS related complications. No.

Todd: Um, you, uh, I’m sorry to hear that. Yeah. Um, top 10 parody films, airplane’s, number one.

Cathy: Okay. Uh, naked Gun.

Todd: That’s number two.

Cathy: [00:55:00] Uh, um, top Secret.

Todd: Uh, top secret is not in the top 10.

Cathy: That is awful. Yeah. Top Secret’s. Hilarious. I

Todd: know

Cathy: I actually sent you something from Top Secret. Why don’t you play that right now? It’s the dancing

Todd: scene. Yeah. Um, is it, is it gonna, is it gonna hit.

Cathy: I don’t know, but it’s, I will set it up as you’re playing it.

Cathy: It’s Val Kilmer and they came out three years. It came out in 1983. Mm-hmm. And it had the same kind of humor. And Val Kilmer plays like an Elvis Presley type character. And they, um, and he just has this scene where he sings this song, what’s it called? Something, um, something The Rug.

Todd: I thought it was, um,

Cathy: greatening The Rug.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah.

Cathy: And I really like it. And it’s one of my sister’s all time favorite movies. She loved this movie and used to quote it a lot.

Clip: And again, bell Kilmer,

Cathy: come on.

Todd: It’s funny, it’s early.

Cathy: Well get out on [00:56:00] that floor and hit

Clip: that rug and that.

Todd: It’s funny to see Val Kilmer Young.

Cathy: It is. And it’s funny just in itself because he’s just jumping from rug to rug. And like straightening it. Yeah. And it’s ridiculous.

Clip: Smp

Todd: And these guys, uh, the Zucker Brothers and Abrams did this, right?

Todd: Yeah. This their movie. Yes. Yeah. And I heard it didn’t quite hit,

Cathy: so, and I’m saying top secret, right? I didn’t say hot shots. ’cause sometimes I mix those up in my head. Uh, that’s top secret.

Todd: Say you’re right.

Cathy: Yeah.

Todd: Um, you ready for the other ones?

Cathy: Yes. Keep going.

Todd: I’ve never seen this young Frankenstein from 1974.

Cathy: You’ve seen the Young Frankenstein. No, haven’t you?

Todd: Okay. Uh, space Balls, which is one of my faves. A Todd Fas scary movie. Yeah. Uh, blazing Saddles. Sure. Uh, Robin Hood Men and Tights. Yeah. Uh, hot shots. Yep. Austin Powers International Man of Mystery. Mm-hmm. And then 2004, Sean of the Dead.

Cathy: Yeah, actually he was one of the people too.

Cathy: The director of Sean of the Dead. He was also influenced by the Zuckers. Oh, okay. [00:57:00] Yeah, I’m, I saw that in the research. I just didn’t know if you’d know Sean of the Dead. No.

Todd: Um, okay. What else, what else we got here?

Cathy: Anything? Um, well just to finish off, um, you know, kind of talking about, you know, gen X humor and everything, the, our kind of motto is, the world is absurd.

Cathy: The people in charge are ridiculous. And the only sane way to get through it’s to laugh dryly, ironically, and with a side eye. I love that. Like, that’s so us. Boom. And you know. That we use that in our lives. We use that in parenting. You know, we teach discernment through comedy. At least we do. You and I use a lot of humor in our parenting.

Cathy: We help our kids see absurdity, we point out the nuance in things. We question authority and we survive the kind of chaos with like some irony and some warmth and some ability to, you know, see some funny things too.

Todd: That’s

Cathy: the truth, baby. I know. So that’s not this doing this show was not really about going super deep ’cause it is just what it is.

Cathy: Yeah. Um, so [00:58:00] do you wanna play music game?

Todd: Yes. I’m not proud of my choice. ’cause

Cathy: I think your choice is gonna be lame.

Todd: I think it is too. Are you confident about your choice?

Cathy: I have reasons for it.

Todd: Yeah. I don’t,

Cathy: okay. Let’s hear what you chose.

Todd: You know, there’s a lot of danger. There’s no pilots. There’s food poisoning.

Cathy: I get, it’s not that. It’s about, this was a

Todd: real tough movie for me to encapsulate into a song.

Cathy: So Me too. But the reason that I chose the song that I did Okay. Is because it was more around that time. So the sound is very of that time.

Cathy: ’cause it’s, the song I chose came out in 1977. Okay. And it’s by a band that I love and I still go see them when they’re in concert. Okay. And it is a song by the Steve Miller Band. Okay. Do you know what it is?

Todd: Uh

Cathy: uh. Jungle Love? No, babe, jet Airliner.

Todd: Oh, that’s pretty good. That’s pretty good. [00:59:00] So

Cathy: it’s very obvious in that it’s, you know, it’s a little on the obvious diet, but it’s also at least from that time period.

Todd: That’s true. I’ll tip my hat. You won.

Cathy: Did I?

Todd: Yeah.

Cathy: Yours is eighties. Steven,

Todd: we all had this cd, the Greatest Hits. Steve Miller or Tape?

Cathy: Oh yeah. This, it’s the

Todd: great greatest hits.

Cathy: Steve Miller band is so much of my high school. Every summer we would go see Steve Miller. Yeah. Like it was like a thing, like wins the Steve Miller Band coming.

Cathy: Yeah. And then I’ve gotten to see him a few times, um, after high school obviously. And then, but can I tell you a sad story?

Todd: Sure, babe.

Cathy: So last summer, um, Def Leppard was playing at Wrigley Field and it was gonna be Def Leppard Journey and Steve Miller Band. So I was super psyched, right? All three excited to see we got there on time, but Journey was already playing.

Cathy: And I was like, what’s going on? And I’m like, maybe they flipped him. Yeah. Maybe it’s Journey. And then Steve Miller Band turns out they had sent out an email that I never got saying that because the weather was gonna be really bad. Yeah. They had Steve Miller go on [01:00:00] at four o’clock.

Todd: Yeah.

Cathy: Who’s there at four o’clock?

Cathy: Todd?

Todd: It’s just people that live nearby.

Cathy: And who, who I didn’t get an email.

Todd: We gotta file a protest. I know that.

Cathy: So I miss seeing the Steve Miller band.

Todd: Um, but what about this song?

Todd: Um, okay, I wanna play a few more, uh, sound bites and then we’ll close shop. You okay with that, babe?

Cathy: Um, sure, go ahead. Um,

Todd: I didn’t get a chance to play this one, which is probably my favorite line in the entire movie. I just like to fall in the mud and get kicked ahead by an iron boot. Um, we did the hospital one.

Todd: How

Cathy: about this one? You, you can, you can do it after I say it to you Ready? Sure, babe. It’s an entirely different kind of flying altogether.

Todd: Yes. It’s an entirely really different

Cathy: kind of flying. Flying.

Todd: Yeah. That’s pretty good.

Cathy: I didn’t understand that joke. No. The first time.

Todd: No. Um, I think I did all, oh, [01:01:00] what about this one?

Todd: This is, this probably won’t lend itself to audio, but I’ll play it anyways. Did you like a little whiskey man?

Clip: Certainly

Cathy: not.

Cathy: Then she goes some lines of cocaine.

Todd: Yeah, it doesn’t.

Todd: Um,

Cathy: I got, I got one more for you. Let’s see if you can do it. Sure. You ready? Yeah. Okay. So I’m Leslie Nielsen. Can you face some unpleasant facts? Uh, geez, I don’t think I have that one. All she says is No.

Todd: All right. And then he busts right into it. He

Cathy: keeps going. She’s like, no.

Todd: And then he keeps going and then the flight attendant is crying and she’s like, well,

Cathy: that’s the b You’ve gotta play that clip.

Todd: I don’t even have a husband. Um,

Cathy: he’s like, I’m 27-year-old, 27 years old, and I haven’t gotten married. And then the other woman whose husband is Jim, who’s drinking the two cups of coffee, comes in and says, you know, are we landing soon? Yeah. And he’s like, you know, we should be, you know, are you scared or something?

Cathy: And she’s like, yeah, but at least I have a husband. I know.

Todd: It might take me a while to [01:02:00] find that.

Cathy: It’s all right. Um, I’m gonna look through my list, see if there’s any other, oh, they did a little spoof on from here to Eternity. Um, there’s, when they’re doing flashback scenes there, uh, Elaine and Ted are in the water and the waves.

Cathy: Yeah. Overcome them where it is from here to eternity. Yeah. That obviously doesn’t happen. Um, I found that, I found it. Oh, go ahead. Uh,

Todd: it’s kind of a longer scene, but it’s worth it.

Cathy: Okay.

Todd: Hang on.

Clip: Alright. Oh, Dr. Ack, I’m scared. I’ve never been so scared besides, I’m 26 and I’m not married. We’re going to make it, you’ve got to believe that Dr.

Clip: Ack. Do you have any idea when we’ll be landing pretty soon? How are you bearing up? Well, to be honest, I’ve never been so scared. At least I have a husband.

Clip: That’s so good, so bad.

Cathy: Oh good. He’s 26. [01:03:00] Um, okay. Anything else babe? Uh, you know, I don’t know. I think we got it. I think we got, I think we got it. And you know, for those of you who are fans, hopefully we did it justice. Um, there’s a lot there and it’s actually a very short movie. 90 minutes. Like it’s pretty short, it’s tight.

Cathy: Um, it’s tight. Not a lot of dead weight. And so, you know, you know, watch it your own risk. And, um, and that’s all I have to say about

Todd: that. And we’re gonna play it off to some jungle love because it makes no sense. And, and

Cathy: this is

Todd: supposed

Cathy: to be funny.

Todd: Uh, keep track everybody. See you next Tuesday.

Round two. Change a little bit. And change a little bit. Pretty [01:04:00] pleasant.