We’ve finally reached the movie that gave us the idea for this series (we’ll let you decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing)! Jury Duty may not be great cinema–it’s basically 12 Angry Men with a closed head injury–but we’ve both seen much worse (cough, In the Army Now). And besides, if you’re looking for great cinema, you’re in the wrong place, because next month we’re finally watching Bio-Dome!
Video version:
00:00:00 Trailer for Jury Duty (John Fortenberry, 1995)
00:24:18 Zach made the mistake of editing out some of the Barbarian Brothers references in this episode, as if we were going to stop talking about them
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
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)
It might have taken us 14 months, but the long nightmare that was 12 Months of Mike is finally behind us–and, thanks to the final film in question (2010’s Shrek Forever After) it’s gone out with a whimper. Come hear why it took us two months to work up the enthusiasm for one last shrekquel… and, join us again in the new year for the long-awaited return of Dystopian Book Club with Stephen Davis’ Hammer of the Gods and Richard Cole’s Stairway to Heaven: Led Zeppelin Uncensored!
It’s an experimental episode this time around, as we try to kill two birds with one stone by watching Shrek the Thirdat the same time as we record the podcast. The results are… not great, especially since Zach sounds like he’s recording from a really large open bathroom (don’t worry, he’s not). Still, rest assured that the experience of listening to us watch Shrek the Third can’t possibly be worse than the experience of watching Shrek the Third alone! We’ll be back at the end of July with a more traditional (for better or worse) episode on The Love Guru.
Earlier this month, I noticed a comment on our Instagram that said we’d been “sleeping on MJ.” My first thought was, “sleeping on MJ?! We gave Michael Jackson our second-ever Jheri Curl June Special way back in 2014; we also wrote about his 1988 film Moonwalker for Jheri Curl Cinema! If this is sleeping on MJ, what would being awake on him be like?!” But then I realized, maybe the “MJ” in question isn’t Michael at all; maybe, in fact, it’s his older brother Marlon Jackson. If that’s the case, random Instagram person, then I owe you an apology: we really have been sleeping on MJ these past seven years–but no more.
Marlon, who once described himself as the “background Jackson,” was an original member of the Jackson 5, but didn’t get his chance in the spotlight until the group’s 1984 album Victory: writing, singing, and riding a motorcycle in the music video for the third single and closing track, “Body.” Two years later, he contributed a solo track, “(Let Your Love Find) The Chosen One,” to the soundtrack for the Eddie Murphy vehicle The Golden Child. Finally, in 1987, he released his solo debut, Baby Tonight, for which today’s song served as the lead single and title track.
“Baby Tonight” is the definition of a late-period Jheri Jam, with its busy programmed bass and electronic rhythms (particularly in the remix used for the music video). It actually reminds me, not so much of Marlon’s brothers and bandmates in the Jacksons, but of our 2018 Jheri Curl June honoree Georgio–which might be a backhanded compliment, but I consider it a compliment nonetheless! Sadly, this MJ wouldn’t achieve anywhere near the solo success of the other one (or, for that matter, his older brother Jermaine, who I’m sure we’ll get around to writing about one of these days); Baby Tonight remains his only solo album, though he continues to perform with the Jacksons to this day. Which, for a self-described “background Jackson,” isn’t such a bad thing all in all.
It’s hard to believe, but there’s only one more day of Jheri Curl June! We hope you’ve been enjoying it as much as we have. Feel free to catch up with the playlists below, and we’ll be back one more time tomorrow!
Well, folks, it took us nine months, but our year-long immersion into the filmography of Mike Myers has finally broken us, as evidenced by the uncontrollable fit of laughter Callie breaks into over the thought of Shrek and Fiona driving around in a giant onion. Listen as the last vestiges of our sanity finally slip away–and then come back in the first week of July when we do it all over again with Shrek the Third!
For the very tiny subset of Dystopian Dance Party listeners who are also children and huge Mike MyersCat in the Hatfans (i.e., literally just Zach’s son), here’s a family-friendly version of our most recent podcast. As an added bonus, by just bleeping out the curse words, we put exactly the same amount of effort into making this appropriate for kids as Brian Grazer and Bo Welch put into the actual movie! SON OF A BI…
After eight months, we’ve finally reached the film that started this whole ridiculous project in the first place… and now, jokes on us, we still have to watch three more Shrek movies. Join us as we discuss The Cat in the Hat, the infamous film that ended live-action adaptations of Dr. Seuss books and Mike Myers‘ career as a movie star, all in one fell swoop. We’re so ex-ciii-ted!
The wait is ogre! We’ve reached the halfway point of our 12-month series on the films of Mike Myers, and (sigh) the quarter-way point of the four goddamn Shrek movies we decided to include for some reason. Still, we had fun discussing what makes Shrek a Mike Myers character (spoiler alert: it’s mostly the Scottish accent) and the slow transformation of Shrek from lauded Palme d’Or competitor to Gen Z meme fodder. Remember to tell us which Mike movie represents your birth month, and we’ll see you again next for (deeper sigh) Austin Powers in Goldmember.
