Well, we knew the honeymoon had to end eventually; after nearly four months of being arguably the world’s most consistently Pauly Shore-positive podcast, we’ve finally found a movie we just plain don’t like. In the Army Now is brazen military propaganda, weirdly racist, and perhaps worst of all, not very funny. But hey, at least the soundtrack has a pretty cool ZZ Top song!
A quick note on the audio quality: We once again had a laggy Internet connection, and somehow lost Callie’s local audio, so you’ll notice significantly more crosstalk than usual on this one (and that’s coming from two people with a pretty high tolerance for crosstalk). Your patience and understanding is appreciated!
Video version:
00:00:00 Trailer for In the Army Now (Daniel Petrie Jr., 1994)
00:06:15 We talked about the Jeffrey Katzenberg/Totally London kerfuffle in our Son in Law episode
As we prepare for our grim tour of duty with In the Army Now, here’s a minisode where we dig a little more into Totally Pauly‘s chaotic live spring break incarnation, “Chillin’ with the Wiez.” We also catch up on some of the more recent happenings in the Paulyverse, leading to the introduction of a new segment where we ask the titular question (answer still inconclusive).
Our year-long deep dive into the filmography of Pauly Shore continues with 1993’s Son in Law: a heartwarming culture clash romantic comedy about how you shouldn’t call members of the white rural working class inbreeders, even after they roofie you and leave you in a compromising position to destroy your sham engagement. Whoops, spoilers!
Video version is below:
00:00:00 Trailer for Son in Law (Steve Rash, 1993)
Can you believe it’s been two full months and we still haven’t dropped the biweekly schedule? Looks like it’s high time to rest on our laurels for a bit. In this “mini”-episode (that is basically the exact same length as a regular episode), we answer listener correspondence, make some corrections, read some relevant passages of Vince Neil‘s section of The Dirt (see, now we have your attention!), and finally get our hands on a (digital) copy of Stoney’s Encino High Journal. Join us again in two weeks as we go deep on 1993’s Son in Law!
We’re now a month into our year-long immersion into the filmography of Pauly Shore, and we’re finally watching a Pauly Shore film! Actually, make that one and a half Pauly Shore films, because we’re pairing his motion picture debut, 1992’s Encino Man, with his (rightfully) lesser-known role in the same year’s Kid n Play vehicle, Class Act. If you’re worried about keeping the movies straight, though, don’t be: he’s pretty much the same character in both. We’ll pick up again in two weeks with Son in Law–see you then, buuu-ddies!
Here’s the video version (unfortunately you’ll have to look at our mugs more than in past episodes, since Encino Man is a Disney I.P. and they don’t play around with copyright):
00:00:00 Trailer for Encino Man (Les Mayfield, 1992)
When we last left our hero, it was 1989 and the world was teetering on the brink of full-blown Weaselmania; now, we’re picking up for a deep dive into the peak of Pauly Shore‘s pre-movie fame, including his MTV show Totally (Different) Pauly, his two (!) imperial-era standup comedy albums, and his 1992 victory-lap HBO special Pauly Does Dallas. Next time, we’ll finally talk about Encino Man! Sound good, buuu-ddies? Cool.
Video version (with much better audio syncing than last time) below:
00:00:00 Pauly’s Totally Buff Special
00:02:30 A representative example of the Totally Different Pauly opening
The podcast event literally no one asked for has finally arrived! From February 2024 until whenever we’ve had enough, we’re taking you on a journey through what we genuinely believe is the underrated filmography of the Weasel himself, Pauly Shore. Join us in this introductory episode as we explain why we’re doing this to ourselves (and to you) and take a quick jog through the random roles that resulted in one of the greatest characters in 20th century American literature.
But first, you’ll notice there’s something a little different this time: Given the importance of the visual medium to our current topic of discussion, we’re experimenting with video! As you can see from the first episode, the experiment hasn’t been an unqualified success; there was some pretty terrible lag on Zach’s end that has been preserved at the beginning for explanatory/comedic effect. We will troubleshoot this moving forward, but in the meantime, enjoy watching our audio swim in and out of sync while the video footage struggles to catch up with our lips! Welcome to the future!
00:01:23 Our infamous episodes on the KISS memoirs (Gene, Ace, Peter, Paul)
Our final song for Jheri Curl June 2K23 ties together all of our themes from this year. Brooklyn-born Ian Isiah grew up singing in gospel groups; he has collaborated with Blood Orange, and also supported him on tour; and this track, 2020’s “Princess Pouty,” was produced by Chromeo.
If Blood Orange’s “You’re Not Good Enough” was the more understated funk of early J.C.M., than this song is what I was referring to when I wrote about “big glossy synthesized horns and harder beats.” As an exemplar of Jheri Curl Music, “Princess Pouty” is in the same category as the funky maximalism of Midnight Star’s 1986 album Headlines.
So that’s it; another Jheri Curl June in the rearview mirror. I know we haven’t been overly consistent these last few years, but next June is JCJ’s aluminum anniversary (yes, I just looked that up), so that pretty much obligates us to do something special. We’ll see you then; in the meantime, enjoy the playlists!
Welp, our seat-of-our-pants M.O. finally caught up with us yesterday when I just straight-up forgot to write a post… whoops. But before I flagrantly shirked my duties as Jheri Curl June co-curator, I had planned to highlight a song by long-running French Canadian J.C.M. revivalist duo Chromeo.
I got into Chromeo sometime between the release of their 2004 debut album She’s in Control and 2007 followup Fancy Footwork. Since then, I’ve dipped in and out of engagement as the effectiveness of their schtick has waxed and waned for me (in brief: loved the first two albums, was lukewarm on 2010’s Business Casual, back on board for 2014’s White Women, was underwhelmed again by 2018’s Head Over Heels, and haven’t heard much after that). To be honest, I think She’s in Control is always going to be my favorite; their newer stuff (by which I mean everything more than a decade into the current century) is just a little too slick for my tastes. But today I’m giving the nod to “Sexy Socialite” from White Women because, what can I say, I’m a sucker for a good Time reference (if you know, you know). It also doesn’t hurt that it’s one of the album’s hardest grooves, and I enjoy how guest vocalist “Ozzie” shows up as the titular “Sexy Socialite” to speak for herself and problematize the song’s essentializing themes. Gosh, it’s almost like singer Dave 1 was a literature professor (fun fact, he was)!
We’ll be back later today (probably) with one more post for Jheri Curl June 2023. In the meantime, you know what to do:
One of the things that has always endeared me to J.C.M. is its ability to mix an extremely fun, funky sound with a certain melancholy. Songs like René and Angela’s “I’ll Be Good,” anything off of Prince’s1999 album or most of the SOS Band’s discography, have a way of expressing heartbreak and longing in a way you can dance to.
Dev Hynes, also known as Blood Orange, built a career off of this very sound, which is clearly rooted in the synthesized heartbreak of ’80s R&B, but with modern pop sensibilities. With its warm synthesizers, chirpy guitar, and shuffling beat, “You’re Not Good Enough” has many of the hallmarks of early J.C.M., particularly from Prince’s first few albums. It has that muted, almost hazy feeling that J.C.M. had until about 1983, when big glossy synthesized horns and harder beats took over. Even the music video (below) has a look similar to Prince’s 1981 performance on SNL.
We’ll be back tomorrow to highlight more post-Jheri Curl jams; in the meantime, playlists are below:
