George of the Jungle

Jamie and Caitlin (of the Jungle) release this episode that they recorded live in San Francisco at SF Sketchfest about George of the Jungle! Watch out for that tree! And speaking of live shows, you can still grab 'on-demand' tickets to stream the live shows we recorded on 'The Goonies' with Sarah Marshall, and 'Hannah Montana: The Movie' with Robert Evans -- tickets at linktr.ee/bechdelcast 

For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast.

Follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @jamieloftusHELP on Twitter.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, back dolcast listeners will Me, Caitlin and me Jamie. Wow.
This is one of our live recordings from our tour
earlier this year. This is our George of the Jungle episode.
We recorded it live in San Francisco, where some slash
most of George of the Jungle takes place. Yes, and

(00:24):
we did it for SF Sketch Fest at the Gateway Theater.
So thanks to them for having us, Thanks to Cole
Stratton for including us in the festival. We always have
a great time, and thanks to everyone who went. It
was it was so much fun because that was like,
I mean, I don't know if you've heard of this
little thing called COVID nineteen, but this show was postponed
I think for three years or two at least two

(00:46):
years sometimes, so it was really lovely to be back
with everybody in safe and wonderful space and we were
just really thrilled to be there. And this was pre
Brendan Frasier having an oscar. So I'm pretty sure we're
talking about this as if we don't know, because we
don't know, because that's how the past works. Yes, so

(01:08):
thank you to everyone who came to the show. We
will be releasing other live episodes we recorded on this
tour in the coming weeks and months. And here's the
thing about those, the next few episodes that are coming out.
There are shows we recorded live in Portland and we
had wonderful guests. We had Sarah Marshall for the Gooneyes episode,

(01:30):
and we had Robert Evans for the Hannah Montana the
Movie episode. We also live streamed those episodes, and there
are things that happened in the live show that we
will cut out of the audio episode that will be
released on the main feed, just because they didn't translate
well to audio and because we're withholding assholes. It's true.

(01:53):
But but but you want to see the live stream,
you can buy like tickets slash access to see those
shows on demand. Yes, so if you want to like
see the extra special, like the fun little activities we did,
including Jamie accidentally throwing a knife. Oh, thank you for

(02:16):
saying it, thank you for plugging. Yes, that's in the
Hand of Montana episode. We also do a treasure hunt
and give Sarah Marshall a chocolate box full of hot dogs.
There's a lot of fun visual gags that you won't
get and so you so if you'd like to see
it and just get a preview of those episodes, you
can purchase the video to those episodes individually on our

(02:40):
link tree, which will link below. Unfortunately, there's no video
of the George of the Jungle episode, which is a
shame because we more really funny hats at one point.
We really did. But you will hear that segment in
the episode that you're listening to right now. A quick
note about it is that it kind of abruptly cuts

(03:01):
off toward the end of the show as we are
giving our nipple ratings. Most of the episode is intact,
but you know, it's not a becdelcast live show without
some technical difficulty. So it's true the grand tradition continuing continues.
But we had so much, like truly, truly, truly, so
much fun at this show. Thanks again to everyone who

(03:23):
is there, and I think you'll be able to hear
our enthusiasm through the podcast. Work well. Enjoy the show, Enjoy.
On the bedl cast, the questions asked if movies have
women in them? Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
Do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zeph and Vast start

(03:48):
changing it with the Bechdel Cast. Hi, welcome to the Beckdelcast. Wow.
Hi you Sam Francisco. How are you? Uh? Hi Jamie, Hi,
Caitlin right now? Hello? What's our friend Bryant? What he knows?

(04:08):
We have a show? Right? This doesn't pass the well
all right, that was a sting operation. He called it,
that exact moment to fuck with us. We were gonna
have a perfect, uninterrupted discussion about no men the whole time. Well,
welcome to the show. Thanks for going out. My name

(04:34):
is Caitlin Dronte. Yeah. Hello, Oh my name is Jamie Loftus. Wow.
I'm so glad your applause wasn't louder than mine. It
was just exact same it would have been. It's always
a chilling moment where you're like, what are we gonna do? Um?
But yeah, this is our this is our podcast where

(04:56):
we take an intersectional look at your favorite move vs.
And today we brought you a San Francisco classic question mark. Honestly,
the thing is with this show is it's been on
for a pretty long time, and um, what you know,
we we've done the Princess Diaries, We've done the Social Network,

(05:17):
we did the Social Network. In this very theater. Was
anyone here at that show? Welcome Hi, welcome back. Um,
this one is going to be just as serious as
a social network, and I think have equal social impact
on the current climate. You know, George or the Jungle

(05:37):
used to be called the George or the Jungle, and
then they drop the the and now it's just now
it's just George of the Jungle. Oh that got a
bigger laugh out of me than I was expecting. It's
pretty good. Um so, but yeah, we are covering San
Francisco classic George of the Jungle. Who's seen it? Oh?

(06:01):
We got some George heads in the house. Has anyone
not seen George of the Jungle? Round of applause? WHOA, Okay,
the proud, the holdouts. Um, I genuinely, you're you're missing out.
It's a it's a pretty fun movie. It's true. Um.
Shall we say what the Bechtel Test is? I guess so, yeah,

(06:22):
I guess. It's a mediametric created by a queer cartoonist,
Alison Bechtel, sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace Test. Yes, there
are many versions of the test. Ours is as follows.
Two people of a marginalized gender have to speak to
each other about something other than a man. It's nice
if they have names, it's nice if their conversation is substantial.

(06:44):
Does it happen often? No? But in George of the Jungle, interestingly,
it happens when Holland Taylor asks Leslie Man what her
vagina was like after after returning from the Jungle. From
whence George came the context of this, there's a lot
of like this movie is PG, but I feel like

(07:04):
they're really stretching it to the very limit. There's they're
talking about like raw sacks at multiple points. There's a
whole scene. There are several scenes where multiple women are like,
oh my god, Georgia the Jungle would fuck and or
they're like he has the biggest dong I've ever seen.

(07:24):
They all but cut to it, like the way that
the camera is. I like, I don't know who the
cinematographer in this movie is, Roger Deakins. So I just
had the most disgusting thought of my entire life. I
can't say it a lot, but um, you know that

(07:45):
you know the tunnel from Shawshank Redemption, Yes, I something something.
Georgia the Jungle's penis you navigate through it much less
that's okay, I should um, I should be locked up?
That was that was a bad way to start the show.

(08:05):
Um No, But there are sometimes the camera is angled
so close to like his like pelvis bone, that you're like,
oh my god, is it gonna a rare vie? Are
out like Jig Saw, a rare movie that's about a
head of row romance where the man is far more
sexualized than the woman. Oh, time and time and time again,
which doesn't make it the right decision. I feel like

(08:28):
that that's We'll have a whole discussion about that. Where
I feel like, you know, we're just sort of not
we specifically, but as a culture we are emerging from
the binary flip culture is like, oh yeah, just oppress
someone else. You're like, well, no, don't do that. Um

(08:49):
but I did love the scene where George confidently wears
a dress and a hat. Yes, they shouldn't let him
just wear his damn dress. That's what I'm saying. Yeah,
he looked good in our money as well, but why not?
Why not both? Look, we're getting ahead of ourselves. No,
we're so thrilled to have you here, and we're really
excited to be talking about cinematic classic George of the Jungle.

(09:11):
We love movies from nineteen ninety seven everything. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, Jamie,
what is your relationship your history with George of the Jungle. Oh,
I don't. I don't remember seeing this movie in theaters.
I feel like I maybe did when I was really little,
but I just remember watching it growing up. I remember.
I don't even think I had Like I think the

(09:33):
movie is like encouraging you to have a crush on George,
but I didn't even have a crush on George. I
just thought that he seemed really nice. I feel like
that is like one of the beautiful I know. I
know that, like it's currently trendy to be obsessed with
Brendan Fraser, but like I mean, I'm not even like
hyper fix it. He's like not Alfred Molina to me,

(09:55):
but like you know who is very few people are.
It's really just the one guy. But Brendan Fraser, I like,
even when I was like a little kid, he was
just like a very like friendly and calming presence in
a way that I feel like there were like a
fair amount of actors like that in the nineties. And
we've talked about him on the show before is kind

(10:15):
of like a character actor to like his bones. But
when you're like movies start conventionally handsome and you can
do character actor stuff, people get confused and they don't
know what to do with you. Um, but I just like, yeah,
I just I really loved this movie. And I I
think I just had a crush on everybody except Lyle.
And yeah, not no disrespect to Thomas Hayden Church. Um,

(10:40):
you know I love Spider Man three, do you? Yes? Okay,
I do, but I mean, but I mean, he does
a good job. However, it's a hard act to follow,
villain wise because yeah, and a lot of people are
slowly connecting the dots and others, well, they don't have
two brands up together. I don't know. It's Alfred fucking

(11:03):
Molina as doctor Octopus Chidas in four. Anyway, someone snorted,
and I celebrate that. Yeah, we love it. Do it again,
scary m Caitlyn, whats your I just I just loved it.
I watched it. Um, I think that there were there
was a sort of a mini renaissance of children's gorilla movies,

(11:27):
because I also watched Mighty Joe Young a lot. Oh sure, Well,
there's a sexy blonde woman and a big gorilla and
and a hot guy nearby. They were going to show
that to six year olds. Does anyone remember Dunstan checks in?
Because that was around this time as well. I believe
that it. Yeah, what is that Forgive me? This is

(11:51):
a movie about an orangutan named Dunston. Okay, I think
I haven't seen it in thirty years. No, No, here's
my question. Is he checking in? I think a hotel? Oh? Okay,
thank you so much. And that's the power of collaborative
work exactly. My favorite UM, not that you asked, but

(12:15):
my other favorite UM celebrity h celebrity primate movie was
this was a direct to This was I think a
part of the Airbud cinematic universe. But there were two
movies that I can remember. I don't remember what the
name of the monkey was, but it was called MVP
Most Valuable Primate and it was about I think a

(12:35):
chimpanzee that joins a hockey team, which checks so many
boxes for me that I left my body because it's
like he's looking at this amboni, He's like oh like
and I was like losing my shit. And then they
did a direct to video sequel to the direct video
sequel MVP, but this time he's skateboarding and he it's

(12:58):
a most Vertical Prime, right, which is you've spoken of
these movies before. That's how I know about that. We
gotta cover MVP month. It'll be like Miracle and Most
Vertical prim Not even Mighty Ducks. No, no, I mean

(13:20):
they didn't even have that was an all human team boom,
Where are the Ducks? I feel like in nineties kids
movies that is not off the table. For some reason,
animals were joining sports teams. It was an epidemic and
people were exploiting it. It wasn't right. It wasn't moos

(13:41):
fucked up, but this is I would say it was.
It was a childhood favorite. But as far as um
a primate comedy for children, it was maybe three or
four on my list. Kaitlyncher, what was your history of
Georgia the Jungle. I think there's a very good chance
I saw this at a drive in movie theater in
nineteen I know, impressive. A lot of people were like yeah,

(14:06):
because I would have been like eleven at the time,
and I was kind of the target demo and this
is a movie that it's been with me since its inception.
What is the subtext to what you just said? I
don't know. It was a movie of my childhood. I
watched it quite a bit in the late nineties, but

(14:27):
not since then, so it was fun to revisit. Though.
They made a direct to DVD sequel of this movie
with kind of my favorite genre. I think there should
be a whole podcast about this genre where it's like
sequel where none of the cast was interested in returning,
and then it's like some poor I don't know who
it becomes George of the Jungle, but there's no way

(14:49):
he isn't fighting for his life the entire time, just
desperately trying to evoke Brendan Fraser, you know, yeah, yeah,
should we do that? Podcast? Should be no? No, okay, no,
we should do um we should we should do the
primates in sports podcasts? Okay, fair? Yeah, fair. It's like

(15:10):
when we did a show in London once brag ever
heard of it, um, and for some reason the venue
just put on the Marquee Women in Film podcast. It
was like they like looked at the title of their
show and they're like, no, they've punched it up without asking. Yeah, yeah,

(15:33):
should I do the recap? Do the recap Georgi or
the Jungle? Okay, so we get some animated backstory slash,
a credit sequence where we learn about a plane wreck
in which a baby was left behind in the jungles
of Africa. Where in Africa unclear, we'll get there. We

(15:56):
we outsourced that work. We had some research done for us. Yeah,
I did that. That is like I love when a
movie has an animated opening sequence. It didnt makes sense
for this because George of the Jungle was a Saturday
morning cartoon in the late sixties that only aired for
seventeen episodes, and yet it's famous. I don't understand that.

(16:17):
Who knows it doesn't make sense, but I do. But there's,
you know, kind of like a lost Pilot situation. I
mean the show Lost. Oh yeah, it's like if Lost happened,
but everyone was saved and no one looks for a baby. Correct. Yeah,

(16:37):
So this baby gets left behind, and this, of course
is George of the Jungle, and thank you so much.
That's his Christian name. He does introduce himself that way,
or he introduces himself as George Primate, which is also
comedy genius. Look, I was laughing the way that Brandon

(16:57):
Frazier sometimes says things and he's like leading with his teeth.
You're like, I guess I'm laughing. Or and then Holland Taylor,
Oh my god, it's how did they get Holland Taylor
in this damn movie? She's a living legend. And then
she's they're like, you're the mom and Georgia the Jungle's
she's a professional. Look she read the script and she's like,
this is good, this is this will endure. Yeah, the

(17:19):
woman has an eye. Um okay. So baby George is
raised by animals. He swings around on vines, he crashes
into trees famously. Right we cut two twenty five years later.
George of the Jungle is now Brennan Fraser. But before
we really see him, we meet Ursula. That's Leslie Mann,

(17:42):
who is on vacation in the jungle nearby. How clear
was that to you? Because I was like I wasn't
clear if like she was a documentarian that was so
bad at it, or if she was making home videos
or like what she was doing. And then it's like
later clarify, like she is the most trust fund kid

(18:02):
to ever trust Fund kid. Yes, yeah, I think she's
just a rich lady on vacation, and so she is
guided by Quam played by Richard Rowntree and Shaft, Yes, unbelievable,
and a few of his colleagues. Then Ursula's asshole fiance, Lyle,
played by Thomas Hayden Church shows up. Oh, such camp. Yes,

(18:28):
we were talking about this backstage. Lyle has a shade
of blonde that only existed in this calendar year. It's
like Jack Dawson's Sandy Blonde. You couldn't get it outside
of ninety six. It was released in ninety seven, and
by that time it wasn't available. It's like qua ludes
for hair. Yes, all true? Okay. So, so Lyle shows

(18:57):
up unexpectedly with two poachers, Max and Thor, and they
have heard tell of the legendary white ape. Lyle thinks
it's bogus. The poachers want to capture it for money,
and they all set off to go and try and
see some apes, and Lyle takes Ursula further into the
jungle by themselves. A lion shows up and Lyle trips

(19:23):
and is knocked unconscious. Immediately, so Lyle is so like
he's such a flop that it starts to look intentional,
like like there were a few points where and it
was like maybe my own like internalized patriarchy where I'm like,
surely there must be a greater plan at work here.
He couldn't be bad at so many things, but he

(19:44):
really is so bad at so many things. And I
really I loved that, unlike a lot of movie because
it's like movie is like pretty meta and self aware
of itself, which is like true to the cartoon because
it was like originally a cartoon that was meant to
make fun of Tarzan. But I liked it. From moment one,
Ursula very visibly does not like him. It doesn't want

(20:05):
Like he walks out, he's like babe, and she's like,
oh no, brutal yep. So this lion is about to
attack Ursula, but just then George of the Jungle shows up.
He swings in and he saves Ursula and he carries
her off after he and the lion have had a

(20:26):
goofy fight or maybe even and it's an extremely fight. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
improved upon the original. I love. And then Brendan Fraser,
I wonder if like he was just warming, like it
felt like he was in a way auditioning for a
later movie. He did Louie Tunes back in action. Oh yeah,

(20:47):
Brendan Fraser really knows how to like interact with ultimately
whatever is like the tennis ball in front of him. Yes,
and that's a rare skill and he can really do
really nails it. Yeah, he was spinning that lion like
a basketball on his little finger. It's impressive. Okay. So
then Ursula wakes up in George's tree house, where she

(21:09):
is properly introduced to George. She also meets George's friend Ape,
a talking gorilla voiced by John Cleese, and you're just like,
I guess, so, like this is like an interesting I
mean because John Cleese, if you know anything about his
personal politics, like he can absolutely light himself on fire,
you know. But this is like an interesting era for

(21:29):
like Monty Python actors where they were just in American
children's movies, like serially because it's like I think best
by Eric Idol and Casper, right, but they were just
like a pop from the crowd for Eric Idle and Casper,
I mean Eric Idol and Kathy Moriarty and Casper. There's
a kind of like, uh, like they didn't kiss, but

(21:52):
you're like, why not? But that was like kind of
what was so sexy about it? Exactly? But we already
did that episode. Okay, So we meet Ape and Ursula
faints because women be fainting, right, but don't forget Caitlin.
She then faints again, yes, multiple times, yes, yes, yes.

(22:15):
Then George notices that Ursula has boobs and realizes for
the first time that she is a woman because he
has never seen a human woman before, and then he
licks her face. Look Ape, Okay, I think that people

(22:36):
will Galaxy brain this and be like, well he doesn't
understand human behavior, and you're like, okay, true, but Ape
seems too Why does this Ape has books about it?
Ape appears to be a Rhodes scholar. Surely he would
have told George not to lick someone's face at some point,
So I think that point is moot and George was

(22:58):
was acting out of pocket there. He was wrong to
lick her face. We talked about this earlier too, but
George has I don't think, like as bad as what
I'm about to compare it to. But George has a
real watching women's sleep issue. Uh huh. I do like
I'm glad it no longer really exists, but the filmic

(23:20):
language of man watching woman's sleep as a way of
saying I love you and not like I'm planning on
how to murder you is kind of a lost art
for him. And yeah, and Brendan Frasier is looking at
Leslie man it's like very Edward Culin. Yes. Yeah, He's like,
I don't sleepy, don't do that. Okay. So then Ursula

(23:46):
wakes up and she's like, oh, I have to get
back to my fiance. And then George is like, he's like,
i'll help you. So then he calls his dog, Shep,
who is actually an Ella hint and George, Yeah, were
you laughing? I mean yeah, I was laughing every time

(24:10):
the worst joke ever happened. I was laughing, laughing, laughing.
An elephant isn't a dog. It's funny and that's comedy. Yeah,
the elephant had a milk bone at one point, and
then the narrator says, don't do that. Yeah, and then

(24:34):
I was laughing more. And that's a good joke. I
agree with that. I couldn't write that, okay. So then
George and Ursula set out to search for Lyle and
the others. Meanwhile, Lyle has gone back to Kwame and
the other guides and they are searching for Ursula. But
Ursula is having a really good time with George. She's like,

(24:58):
not in a rush to get back to Lyle, who
she famously hate hates. Yeah, And she and George are frolicking.
They talk to a toucan, they talk to a monkey.
He teaches her how to swing on vines. And George
is developing a crush on Ursula and he tries to
seduce her using some guerrilla techniques that Ape taught him.

(25:23):
We'll see. Here's here's where what I just said it
turns out to be demonstrably wrong because Ape does only
what are apes books about? Okay? I because I don't
think that, like, are there a lot of books about
like here's how apes flirt? Like I don't understand. Here's
my theory. After watching the movie three times to prep

(25:46):
for this episode. I think Ape knows because he's like,
Ape is like, oh, you gotta like puff out your
cheeks and throw leaves around and like make all these
noises and stuff. I think Ape is goofing on him.
I think he knows that that's not going to work. Oh, okay,
you think Apes fucking with it? Yeah, that's I mean,

(26:08):
that is kind of brilliant and very cruel. For the
first time he's met one of his own species and
it's like, let me just fuck around. But but I
guess I guess that that is kind of funny. Do
you think I was like, maybe he was just my
theory when he didn't appear to be learning from I
was like, well, maybe he's just reading a series of
unfortunate events, you know, like maybe he's reading fiction and

(26:31):
so he's not really learning. Maybe he's watching Hollywood movies
and would have no idea what romance is, Like maybe
maybe he has a VHS player. Well, because when when
George comes back and he's like, oh, Ape, that didn't
work at all, Ape is like, oh really, like he
kind of knows he what's wrong with him. I don't

(26:53):
know who would lie to Brendan Frasier. That's fucked, I know,
I know. Okay, So Pla and George they're having a
great time. He's developing a crush and then they have
this romantic moment and a dance. He gets hurt of
dance with a scene that it's a good scene, and
then Lyle and his goons abandoned Quame and the others,

(27:17):
and they find George or the Jungle and Lyle accidentally
shoots him. Cut to George and Ursula on a plane
taking him to the US, specifically San Francisco. Ever heard
of it? There again, just to shout out another hilarious,
hilarious joke in this hilarious movie. When George gets shot,

(27:39):
it freezes, and then the narrators like, we can't kill
George the hero. He's our hero. He gotta bring him
to San Francisco and we gotta do you know mayor
Willie Brown's nine millionth cameo of this era in children's movies.
It is truly the fact that he got into Prince's

(27:59):
diary and George of the Jungle, I mean, god bless iconic,
really impressive work. Yeah, okay, So George needs medical attention,
so they bring him to the US because only medical
attention exists here, and Lyle is left behind. He gets
arrested and thrown in jail. The poachers Max and Thor

(28:23):
they were like, oh, if we go after Ape, we
can make a bunch of money. We can like join showbiz.
Because they have dreams of right becoming performer. I could.
I couldn't keep track of those characters. I was like,
who are these guys? Like they were just trying to
do Joe Peshi in Home alone and I was like,
it's not gonna happen, guys, Yeah, yeah, but they're like, oh,

(28:44):
if we go after Ape the talking Gorilla, that's our
ticket into show business. So meanwhile, George and Ursula arrive
in San Francisco. George is trying to get acclimated to
city life, and Ursula tells her mom, who is Holland Taylor,
about George and Holland Taylor does not like this at all,

(29:09):
but hall and Taylor frames it in a very specific
way where she's like, I have no problem if you
fuck George raw. Yeah, Like she kind of like repeatedly
is like, no, you should definitely have sex with him,
but you can't marry him. And it's just I don't know.
We've covered a lot of like waspy moms of this

(29:32):
kind of like category before, and Holland Taylor is the
best of them because it's like a self aware writing
of it where she sounds really horrible and she's saying
it where you're like, no, George is the best guy
in the whole world. He's the hymbo of the century.
Oh wow, our crowd love that. Okay. So then Ursula

(29:54):
invites her best friend Betsy over and they both see
George naked after he comes out the shower and they're
ogling at him. Betsy classic Trope character. She comes in,
She's like, I'm the best friend. Who you fucking And
then Ursela is like, oh, no, one, and she's like,
look at that huge panut and Ursela's like, no, I'm

(30:21):
not interested. She's like, whoa, why don't I take a bite?
And then Ursela says, okay, I guess I do like him,
and then she disappears for forty five minutes, like unsung
heroes of movies of the nineties, women with curly hair
who are barely in the movie. Okay, So, Ursela has

(30:42):
to go to her engagement party the next day, so
she leaves George at home, but he ventures out into
San Francisco. He goes to the Golden Gate Bridge. He
saves a para sailor. Sorry, I know that, Like people

(31:04):
are listening to this in the future. I just wanted
to say that three people just pulled out harpoon guns
and they seem really upset. Yeah, I it's the Bay Bridge.
I've fed that. They're slowly lowering them, but they want
us to know that they have them. Oh, because the

(31:26):
Golden Gate Bridge is stuff. Stop they're bringing them back out. No,
I'm gonna die on this hill. The Golden Grape it's red,
right and this one wasn't red. I should have known.

(31:48):
I'm humiliar. Someone just threw it tomato. That's so fucked up.
Stop I'm a man na. We're from Los Angeles. We
don't have brains that work. We don't have bridges. Okay, stop, okay,

(32:12):
let me try again. He goes to the what's it
called bay Bridge? What did I get it wrong? But
just throw a pineapple at your head? Stop bridge. Say
it's a para of sailor whose parachute had gotten caught
in whatever bridge it is. And Ursula is like, oh

(32:33):
my god, George. She sees him on TV and she's like, George,
you saved that man's life. And she's swooning about it
on TV. She doesn't give a shit. She does give
a single shit, And then she tells her parents that
she doesn't want to marry Lyle anymore, and her parents
throw well, specifically, her mom throws a fit about it. Yes,

(32:53):
one of my I mean, we'll probably get back to this,
but one of my least favorite tropes. That happens when
you have to get a woman in a romantic lead
part where her mom is like, no, I want to
get in the way of this, and then the dad,
who has not said a word the entire movie, is like,
I support this, I love my daughter, and then she goes,

(33:14):
thank you, daddy, and then and then we all just
look at the mom like what a bitch. Yeah, It's like,
why does it? I mean, it happens every single time.
The narrator even calls her like the meddling mother. So yeah, well,
and and the father says, like what a he says
something really mean about her. Yeah, I forget, I forget

(33:34):
what he says, but it's I feel like he says
what a piece of shit? Like he says something like that,
and maybe that exactly yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, could be,
could be. Uh okay. So then it's her engagement party
that evening, and George is there and all the women
are so horny for George, and then Ursula's mom pulls

(33:56):
George aside, and she's like, stay away from my daughter,
or I will cut your dick off. Oh my god.
She is so iconic in that scene though, like, I
won't stand for people being mean to George, except in
that scene specifically where George is so sweetly like you
don't want Ursula to like love George, and she's like,

(34:18):
I would sooner nail my tongue to the table every
morning at breakfast. Here's like, well, if she's saying it
like Miranda Priestley, I guess I like it. Sorry, I
looked at my notes. Ursula's dad says about his own
wife as a comedic button to the scene. God, that
woman is a pain in the ass. Yep, hilarious. Okay.

(34:42):
So meanwhile, back in the jungle, the poachers Max and
Thor capture Ape and plan to bring him to Vegas
for a Siegfried and Roy type show. So the Toucan
shows up in San Francisco and tells George that Ape
has been kidnapped. So George has to leave and go
back to the jungle to save Ape, and then Ursula

(35:05):
goes after George because she realizes she loves him. Yes, George,
so George arrives back in the jungle and he saves
Ape from the poachers. Ursula shows up to help. They're
about to kiss, but then Lyle shows up and kidnaps Ursula.
They end up on a raft. They're getting swept up

(35:25):
by the rapids, and then so George has to do
like the biggest swing known to man to save Ursula,
and he does, and then still hits that damn tree,
the tree. If there's one thing my man George is
gonna do, it's hit that damn tree. And he does

(35:47):
it every time. People tell him to watch out for
that tree, and he never listens. He does not. So
then George and Ursula get married in the Jungle. We
cut to a few years later. They have had a
Greg Greg Greg of the Jungle. He got her greg nant,

(36:07):
she had a Greg and um. Then the movie ends
on a Lion King reference where George is holding up
his Greg on Pride Rock, followed by Ape performing in
Vegas in a solo show the original Marvel mid credit scene.

(36:27):
So that's the plot of George of the Jungle. Oh
thank you well, I mean there there's so much to
talk about with this movie. I don't even really know
where to I mean, where where would you like to start?

(36:51):
Oh geez, because I know we have like we've got
a well we have a we should we just well,
let's just yeah. So we were, um curious because this
movie takes place in this very like it says it
takes place in the jungle in Africa, and then it
is very unspecific as to where they're talking about, and like,
so we were curious. It's like, is this based anywhere?

(37:15):
What are the like, what is the culture and what
is the wildlife that we're actually supposed to be paying
attention to? And how accurately does the movie represent it? Yes,
which we didn't know, And so we contracted some local experts. Yeah,
we found them. They're in San Francisco. This is going well,

(37:36):
it really is. And so I see without much further ado,
would you give us a help in giving a warm
welcome to our two experts on this matter? Thank you? Okay, holdah,

(38:01):
could you hear me that clicker there? Oh yeah, no problem, Yeah,
welcome they thank you. Don Francisco. Pretty freaking epic if
you ask me. All right, um, all right, thank you? So, Um,

(38:22):
I can't do that. I can't. I want to stand
up oh yeah, yeah, that not you relate. Okay, so
I don't know why on live presentation we've got. I'm
gonna keep it up, so uh please introduce yourself. Yeah sorry,
uh um, well, Caitlin asked us to present catffects on

(38:42):
behalf of her Yeah, a lot of cats in the
jungle allegedly. So this is catffects and other animal effects. Yeah,
featuring myself, Lauren D. Titanic, Yeah, and me doctor Bambi orwell, sorry,
the your credentials got left off. It's fine, it's fine,
that's all of it. But a little more about us. Yes,

(39:04):
So I'm Lauren D. Titanic. I've got a master's degree
in uh animals from Animal University, right, but I hate
to mention that. Meanwhile, I, doctor Banbi, have a PhD,
a bachelor's and an associate's degree and animal studies from
Wikipedia University. No masters, skipped straight to the PhD. No

(39:31):
credit for the Yeah, I up all the time. All right, So, um,
first of all, let's just do some context corner. Um,
George of the Jungle is set in according to the movie,
is set in a place called book. Is that a
place that exists? Well, let's ask all right, we will

(39:52):
ask Google, any experts, and according to Google and also
the World, no, it's not. Well it's so spelled differently.
Is a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
City not Jungle? So and also not Bokovo, correct, right? Right? Right? Yes, yes,

(40:17):
so that's not correct, even though the movie keeps mentioning
that that's where they are. So we went back to
the drawing board. See did they mention any other locations? Yes? Right,
So moments later in the film, Ursula says, oh, this
is the third day in Bow and so is that
a place that exists in Africa? And we're the experts,
so we of course googled it. That's right. Is it

(40:39):
a real place that exists? Is a real place? According
to Google and also the world. Um no, no, it's
not place. It is an African surname. Um. It's also
the fictional province that's the home of Georgia, the Jungle.
It's kind of shocking that it has its own Wikipedia page,
given that that is the dent of it. That's what

(41:01):
we're in the end. It's what we in our profession
call a stub. All right, So now this is actually
a native species to Scotland if you can believe it. Yeah,
well it's a it's an image of Shrek. Yes, Laura
and I spent years in the trenches of Scotland looking

(41:26):
for the rare Shrek and and we found him and
it turned out he had aspirations and shell business and
so and you know, he's become rather a star. But
really his confused face represents our confusion. Yes, yes, he's
sort of the people's Shrek. So back to where we
were discussing. So then we um looked at Wikipedia Scholarly Journal. Yeah,

(41:50):
I'm an alumni of it's true. And according to Wikipedia,
on the George of the Jungle page says while touring
in Burundi or sah blah blah blah. So we thought,
you know, like it's a blue link, we should click
on it. Yes, and we did. That's just sort of
like research, you know. So we clicked on got down

(42:13):
a rabbit hole if you will. Yeah, yeah, And so
we clicked on Burundi and oh god, we found a
place that exists. It's a real country in Africa, that's right, Yes,
just south of Rwanda. So I guess that's where they
are in the film. So tell us all about Bundy.
I'd love to so, um, it's where Georgia the Jungle

(42:34):
is canonically sit. It's a small landlocked country in the
Great Rift Valley between the African Great Lakes region and
East Africa. And we were really interested in particular about
the wildlife. We are again wildlife expert. So Sureley, like,
you know, the Henson Company made the puppets for this movie,
and the Hensons aren't known for just making shit up. No,

(42:57):
so I thought this is probably elogically accurate. Let's look
into it. Yeah, so there's a you know, there's a
number of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, among
other non vertebrae animals, including zero species of talking bears
named Peddington absolutely gating. Okay, So getting into the animal

(43:20):
representation of Georgia the Jungle of the film. So there's
an orangutan in the film who appears in several scenes.
So we're like, oh, orangutans must live in Burundi, right,
did you know that that's true. It's not it's not true.
They're not there and it doesn't stop there all right.
Next we sat we noticed there's a there's a two

(43:42):
can I believe that's right. Um, well, just to go
back real quick, orangutans are native to Indonesia, Malaysia. There
are now only found in parts of Bonneo. Is that
how you pronounce it? I don't know, everyone's going to
correct me all the time. That and Sumatra? Okay? Um, so,

(44:04):
well got the two can Tuki Tuki who famously flies
from from Africa to San Francis going about twenty minutes.
Hilarious joke. Yeah, but he's Georgia's you know, sort of
his what we would normally see as a pigeon in
American movies. Uh that they're known for their colorful bills
and loving fruit loops. So we're thinking, you know, two

(44:27):
cans must be native to this region. Well, well are they? No,
they're not from they don't live in Burundi, they don't
live anywhere in Africa. Never guess where they do live.
It's Central and South America pretty far away. Yeah. Funny
little fact though in Africa and Asia hornbills now hornbills
occupied the two cans ecological niche, which is an example

(44:52):
of convergent evolution. And we know exactly what all of
that means. Yeah, yeah, well it's like, well, we we joke.
We're like, oh, it's like the the bill has an erection,
you know, but that's just a little uh, that's just
zoo talk. It's a nasty things. We say, yeah, I
got the snort. So the point is that easily just

(45:14):
could have put a hornbill in the movie and it
would have been accurate. But instead they're like, no, let's
put a two kin, even though they don't leave in
Africa anyway. Okay, here's I'm gonna fuck up this pronunciation
to everyone? Is it capuchin? Capuchin? Capuchin? How does everyone do?
Everyone in San Francisco is a fucking genius? Interesting, you're

(45:37):
fucking weird. As I walked outside, someone I got hit
on worth than I've been hit on in my entire life,
but the weirdest guy I've ever met inside of three seconds.
You people are sick here. Thanks for coming to the show.
You know it all weird enough. So this is a
Capuchin monkey that George helps by giving the confidence to

(46:00):
stand up to its bullies, which, of course as a
tale as old as time, Yes, classics storytelling. Kapuchan monkeys,
You'll never believe this do not live in Africa. They
are also native to Central and South America. Now it's
like that they didn't have encyclopedias when clearly Ape has
a full set. It's just unbelievable. What else do we
have here? We have? Oh, of course there's a shep,

(46:23):
one of my favorite characters, George's pet elephants. So, okay,
do we find elephants in this in this area of Africa? Well, yes,
but only African elephants. But sheep, however, is an Asian elephant.
We are not quite sure how that happened. But I
think that that's actually kind of more of a failure

(46:43):
of storytelling. You know, that's true. I just switched into
New Jersey for a second storytelling. I also, I can't
wait to get canceled by everyone in Australia for this bit.
Having a long Asian elephant is in a movie that's

(47:05):
supposed to take place in Africa. That's right, Yes, not correct,
So that's fucked up. Yeah, I'm all right. So also,
there's a lion in early in the movie. Of course,
George famously fights this lion, and we're like, oh, wait
a minute, lions do live in Burundi, but but not
in the jungle. Oh no, they live in the savannahs

(47:27):
and grasslands and rocky hills, which they would know if
they watch the movie they parody in the final shot
of the movie, The Lion King. Yes, takes place entirely
in the savannah exactly. But what can you do? What
can you do? All right, research is what you can do. Um. Now,
let's get down to brass text here. This is the

(47:48):
real important part. And this has been I mean, I
know this has been sort of the mission of your
research for for a very long time. Yes, well, yes,
Caitlyn and I work closely on this. Um. Yes, it's
she's your muse, you could say, ye, so um, specifically
the number of nipples that cats have, and so lions

(48:12):
have four nipples. Oh good, I just want you to know. Yeah, okay,
So moving on to Ape. So Ape appears to be
a gorilla. That's we were able to figure that out
pretty quick, right, and we were. You know, gorillas do

(48:33):
live in Burundi, however, Lauren, Yeah, well they used to
until they went extinct due to poaching in habitat loss.
So sorry to bring the show. What what is otherwise
is very awesome, lively, wonderful show that everyone's just wanted
to let you know that if Ape was real, he

(48:54):
would have died. And so there, in a way is
kind of like beautiful. We thought it was nice that
the writers where is this that I don't know right movie?
There is of the movie wrote in Ape because it

(49:16):
was sort of like you become attached to his character
and then you realize, oh, oh no, there, you know there,
there's none of them anymore due to a series of
really trait unfortunate events. A series of unfortunate events by
Lemony Snickett. Yeah, yeah, all right, let's move on. So

(49:37):
this is actually my doctoral thesistant. Yes. So ape Is
is voiced by actor John Cleese, who is better known
most famously now. His most famous role is voicing the
Frog King in Shrek two and Shrek the Third. Yeah, yeah,
you know, and he was he was a troubled frog,
but ultimately he died at the beginning of the third movie.

(49:59):
So yeah, it's fine. We love kings. All right, Well
that's that. We just wanted to thank Caitlin and Jamie
for for flying us in. I think it was worth it. Yeah,
and uh, you know, just like they're they're so beautiful

(50:20):
and interesting, you know, we should bring them back to
the stage. Welcome them back, all right, Welcome back Caitlin
and Jamie. They were wonderful and so pretty, almost as

(50:45):
pretty as us because it's a competition, but yes, and yeah,
I'm gonna get into hand to hand combat with Okay, Well,
now that we know all about how I mean, I
feel like part of the reason we wanted to talk
about how wildly inaccurate and kind of randomized and underthought

(51:06):
the way that the jungle is built out with animals
is because the way that Africa and the African jungle
are portrayed in the movie overall, it just makes no sense. Yeah,
particularly with the African characters. Yeah, who are in the movie.
So we have mister Kuame and then these three Porters,

(51:28):
and the way that they are characterized, especially the Porter characters,
is they are like the funniest characters in the movie
for sure, like time and time again, Like it's it's
a frustrating thing to what because I like checked everywhere
I could, like, were these characters even intended to have names? No,
there's three porters. They are all referred to as Ursula's

(51:52):
friend and an African tour guide, which is a very
long way of not giving someone a name, right, And
on one hand, it's like something that surprised me about
this movie is like Lyle is a very clear, flamboyant
colonizer character, Like he's fucking arrogant. He never knows what
he's talking about. He's constantly bullying people and belittling people

(52:16):
and assuming that they know less than he does. He does,
specifically mister Quame and the Porters, and he's always wrong
and they're always laughing at him in a way that's
very satisfying. But on the other hand, we don't know
what their names are, and we don't know anything about
them except that they know that Lyle is an incompetent loser. Right. Well,

(52:37):
I would even say that the movie the movie is
inconsistent with how it wants you to feel about these
characters because it doesn't even present him is always wrong
because for the first few moments of the movie, the
way they represent it is like they take the expression
shake a leg literally because they like don't fully understand
like the nuances of the English language. They are easily

(53:01):
startled by like modern Western things like flash photography, or
like one of them the movie throws one of them
off of like a well, at Lyle throws them off
a bridge, right, but that is like the inciting incident
for like, yeah, I do agree that it's like they are.
They are shown as being like I think, even more

(53:21):
offensively cartoonishly like, they're shown as like being, well, they're
not familiar with Western civilizations, so we don't need to
respect these characters, right, which happens all the time. But
then when Lyle shakes the rope bridge and one of
the porters nearly passes away, but then the narrator is like,
no one's gonna die in this movie, I swear, And

(53:44):
so he comes back even though he should have dined,
and he's just Matt. And then there's like a turning
point where all of a sudden, like you're saying, like
the broad offensive trades we were introduced to go away,
and all of a sudden, like Lyle comes over to
them and is like condescending to them about like I
have this polaroid camera and cigarettes and cigars and in exchange,

(54:07):
I'm going to take your land. Like he's using the
most colonizer colonizer language ever and they know exactly what
a polaroid camera is and they're laughing at him, and
then for the rest of the movie they're laughing at
him and he falls into a pile of shit, and
then they say, two camera, we're laughing at him. But
like it's like the line, it's such a funny line.

(54:27):
It's a good line. The line is bad guy falls
in poop, classical element of physical comedy. Now comes the
part where we throw our heads back and laugh, and
then they do it. Then they do It's like, have
you guys taken a UCB class? Oh, they're they're giving
hard three one. Yeah, but yeah, the movie it's almost

(54:50):
as if the movie for the first few minutes wants
you to make an assumption about the characters as being
like oblivious and they don't understand what's going on on
and they don't know things. And then it's there's a
hard turn where it's like, oh, shame on you for
thinking that they speak English this whole time and they
know they're like far more aware of everything than especially Lyle.

(55:14):
But we only thought that because you character it that way.
And also it's like there's all those different assumptions of
that the movie makes of like they spoke English the
whole time is such a loaded thing, Like why do
you have to speak English to be considered to be
a civilized, respectable person. Colonialism, Like there's kind of like

(55:35):
all of these like subtle things at play that this
movie is in no way equipped to handle. But even
with like the tone that this movie is taken on,
like you're totally right where the porters should first of
all have names, because they do have like pretty distinct
personalities for like side characters basically, And also, this is

(55:56):
a movie that takes place in the African jungle, and
every black character is very much a side character, which
is ridiculous. Hollywood movies set in Africa still are always
about white guys. Yeah, they're yeah, and mister Quam, I think,
is like the most the most characterized of the group,

(56:20):
But it's also like that's mostly just because he has
a name and he appears in multiple scenes and he's
played by a very famous person, but it's not like
he's given really much of Like the porters and mister
Quame are there to make fun of Lyle, which is
an admirable task. Yeah, it's important to enjoy when Lyle

(56:42):
falls into a pile of shit, But I just feel
like there's like more room in the story to give
them more of a story or like kind of like
you don't even need like Lyle's goons or anything like
that kind of other characters to make space for them.
You know, Lyle's goons, who are given far more characterization
and names than when they're the fucking like dog nappers

(57:02):
from one hundred and one Dalmatians. You're just like, who
are these guys? Get them out of the movie and
like make room for people. You know. Yeah, that was
really frustrating. And yeah, and also like the actors who
played the Porters were so fucking funny. It was so
like every line was so good. Yeah, and then that
sort of like brings us to Lyle. Who is I mean,

(57:25):
I feel like Lyle. I don't know. I've we've talked
about the different tropes over the years of like there's
very often especially in like movies for younger audiences, but
sometimes for grown ass people as well. You know, it's
like you see like a huge societal issue that's like
completely boiled down to one character and their sins, and

(57:48):
it's like patriarchy the guy, And if you can defeat
patriarchy the guy, then the world turns into the windows
two thousand screensaver, you know, like every think is amazing
all of a sudden, or like capitalism the guy. We've
like talked about that sort of thing, and Lyle sort
of seems to be like colonialism the guy. And if

(58:11):
you defeat colonialism the guy, you defeat colonialism, which of
course is like overly simplistic and very much not true.
And it's also fun to watch colonialism the guy fall
into a pile of shit face first. Yeah, it's very satisfying. Yeah,
I guess I appreciate that the movie recognizes him as

(58:31):
the villain. I don't know, I mean, because like colonialism
is not always demonized in movies, so especially not in
the nineties, Like it's like glorified in the nineties very often.
But because but I feel like the offset of that,
of like making Lyle colonialism the guy that like removes
pressure from other white characters like Ursula, who is doing

(58:57):
like jungle tourism and like is a US fun kid
touring the African jungle in ways that I think is
like that's open for discussion, right, you know, But because
Lyle is so diabolical, it sort of removes the pressure
from other white characters in the movie from what they're
complicit in. True, Um, well this is a fun compo.

(59:21):
Um I did like, but but also like, okay, so
Lyle is a lot of things. The guy. He is
colonialism the guy, which he is punished for to extent.
I think that they should like kill him, but when
but you can't do that in the movie. He's also
misogyny the guy. He comes up to Ursula the first

(59:42):
time that they speak, and he goes the jungle loves you,
You're beautiful, like he also tries to do. He gaslights
her a little later because when he shows up after
she's been rescued by George, she's like, I remember what
happened when the lion showed up, Like you left or
like you tried to run away, And he's like, what

(01:00:04):
are you talking about? I was fighting the lion the
whole time. You just don't remember because you were so terrified,
right right, I mean he's he's the worst, and like
he um, you see after George takes Ursula away, he
knows exactly what's happened and then he like bursts a
bunch of berries on his arm. Um that I bet

(01:00:26):
if we looked up, we're not native to Africa. I
bet they were from like, uh, Massachusetts, but he like,
you know, exploded a couple of Massachusetts cranberries on his
forearm and is like, no, I you know, he like
makes up a lie, a coward. He is a very
effective villain because he is he is the most evil

(01:00:47):
and only Holland Taylor likes him and she's the other
most evil character. Yes, but I mean later in the
movie it's it's the other moment with the Porters that
I wanted to shout out was that that does sort
of come back where whenever Lyle tries to use a
Swahili phrasebook, he says something that makes no sense, and

(01:01:11):
the way that I feel like anytime someone's using a
phrasebook in a movie, they're like, I can't think of something,
I don't know, but I know what you mean. It's
a it's a classic formula for yeah, and this time
I was not laughing, but it only like sort of
makes the Porters angrier at him, and then over time
they do seem determined to like bail on him and

(01:01:34):
leave him for dead, which at that point is extremely
earned and sort of was from the beginning, because why
is he there? What is his job? That was my question,
what is his job? Oh? Yeah, don't. I mean, I
mean you could ask that question of Ursula too, because
I was like, oh, she's a YouTuber. Well she does.
She's like, I have to go to work, George, so

(01:01:56):
stay at my apartment. But then like she's kind of
just walking around like where I don't know. She goes
to see but when she says she's going to work,
she goes and says hi to her dad at the bank.
Oh right, which is like she's a bank heiress. That's
her whole things. And a round of applause for that.
Now I'm kidding. Um, yes, Caitlin, Bank of America. M yeah,

(01:02:22):
I mean, but what does any rich person's job? You know,
we don't know what her job is. We don't know
what Lyle's job is. But what do rich people do?
I don't understand. Are you defending them like I'm in
a way in a way the movies, No, I'm saying that. Um,
I don't know what I'm saying. I do think if

(01:02:43):
this movie was made today, Ursula would be making a
shitty podcast. Um, can we talk about Ursula? I would
love to talk about Ursula. Okay, So, like her character
exists in the story because she's Georgia Jungle romantic interest,
and so there's some interesting things happening there, such as

(01:03:07):
there's the Born Sexy Yesterday trope but inverted right. Yes,
they did a Ghostbusters twenty sixteen. They gender swamped that.
And for anyone who's not familiar with the Born Sexy
Yesterday trope, it's a like sci fi trope that or
it's like mostly a sci fi trope that is characterized

(01:03:27):
by usually a woman being like an alien or a
like cyborg or like some kind of like sci fi
thing and fallsome love the first man she meets. Generally,
it's I mean, it's like an extension of like sexy
baby ideology right where it's like Bill Paxton shakes you up.

(01:03:52):
One day you're like a goo goo ga ga, and
then you're and then three days later but but but
you have like huge naturals, and one week later you
marry Bill Paxton and everyone's like yeah, and then you
win an oscar. It's like pretty wild. It's yeah, it's
a woman who have like a fully formed, mature adult

(01:04:12):
woman body but like the mind of a baby more
or less, and she has to be taught things by
the first man she meets and she usually falls in
love with him. He teaches her about like sex and
stuff like that. Yeah, the fifth Element, I feel like
it's kind of like the quintessential example of that. But
it is really like it's a short It's like a
writing shortcut, not only if you want to underwrite a woman,

(01:04:33):
but also if you want to make a very boring
man seem more interesting, where like you have like a
really boring male protagonist and he's like, oh, yeah, this
is like three plus three and then she goes, oh god,
and he goes yeah. So in this case, in this movie,

(01:04:56):
it's like switched because this time it's a man who
doesn't know anything and who falls in love with the
first woman he sees, who he doesn't even realize is
a woman until he's like cold compressing her boobs and
he's like, what are these? Well, I felt like it
was like there, I mean, there is like born Sexy

(01:05:17):
Yesterday traits into like the way that it's played. But
also I felt like the movie took a fair amount
of time to show that. It was like, even though
everything about George of the Jungles world is completely fucking
made up because it's a cartoon, but there was like
some sort of exchange where like he showed her his

(01:05:37):
world I thought in a more equitable way where when
she didn't understand what things were, he would just tell
her what it was and like wouldn't challenge her to
Like an example that stood out to be was when
Ursula was staying in George's treehouse. He didn't pressure her
to like change the way she was dressing at all.
She was wearing her own clothes the whole time. If
she didn't understand what was going on, He's like, oh,

(01:05:59):
this is what this is is And I didn't feel
it lazy put like too much pressure on her to
join or not join. But then when George goes to
San Francisco, Ursela's like, you gotta get in ARMANI, we're
going to Emon Marcus like she Actually, I think in
another inverted way where I feel like you more often
see in the Bourne Sexy Yesterday trope, like the person

(01:06:22):
who is like falling in love with the Bourne Sexy
Yesterday character, They're like, you have to assimilate to what
I'm doing. And in a way that like George doesn't
do to her. He's just like is interested in her,
and it's like, this is what I do. Do you
like this? And she does. But then they go to
San Francisco and she's just like take that dress off.

(01:06:42):
You're wearing a tuxedo, and you're like to where where?
Like why does they need an Armani tuxedo? Like he
looked nice in that dress, any I mean he looked
nice in everything he wore. It was Brendan Fraser, Like
he looked amazing. But it was just like, I thought
it was interesting that he didn't put pressure on her
to assemily, but that wasn't true in the reverse. The

(01:07:04):
narrator even says something like Ursula, being of a conservative
mind regarding gender roles, takes George shopping at Nieman's or whatever.
But also she's a bank heiress, so that's just hyper realism.
Yeah you think she's voting dec she's voting blue no
matter who. Yeah. But yeah, so so there's that interesting

(01:07:29):
component of their relationship. But yeah, there's like there's ways
that that is subverted. Where again, in the traditional born
Sexy Yesterday trope, it would be like the man teaching
the woman about like here's how to kiss and love me.
But there's they're gonna get I'm a virginum. But in

(01:08:00):
this case it's not like, well, first of all, he's
learning sex from Ape, like how sex works, but it's
just fucking with him anyways. Ape is a bully um.
And then we go see his show in Vegas. Honestly,
yeah sure, and then George is like, Oh, there's this

(01:08:22):
coffee commercial that's gonna teach me how to love and
then he figures and then he figures it out on
his own. That's what happens in the movie. What I
guess We're just gonna let that slide. He Okay, he
sees a coffee commercial and then what and then he

(01:08:44):
does what. I'm not saying it's right, but his reaction is, Oh,
this is how I'll get Ursula to love me. The
killed Georgy said, no, don't worry about it, don't worry

(01:09:11):
about it, don't worry about worry to protect them today. Okay,
what is it? He said? You wait, you really don't know, buddy,
one of these Oh I've heard he said. He had
a can of vodka mule. Yeah, your Freddy and slip

(01:09:34):
it all over the place like it's the fucking water park.
I say, like he said, he fingers it out on
his phone, which would have been really interesting to watch.
Wait did everyone hear that? Yeah? Everyone heard that. Okay,

(01:10:15):
we're gonna okay, James, No, No, we're gonna figure this
out together. So he figures yeah on his own and
then he fingers her um, and she was like, who fuck? While, UM,

(01:10:37):
I do I do like that Ursula like there is
a certain amount of because like, I think there are
moments within Ursula and George's relationship that are up for question. However,
Cathartic I thought to see Ursula be it felt like
her parents were pressuring her to be in a relationship

(01:10:58):
with Lyle, because he was like, if like a rich
person arranged marriage kind of thing for sure, um. And
also they look a lot alike, and you're just like, oh,
I don't want to I don't want this, um, And
she doesn't want this. And the second she met someone
she was actually interested in, she kind of just started.
She didn't just like not care when Lyle was held captive.
I loved how the second he was like, there's multiple

(01:11:21):
times where she's like mentioning that Lyle's in jail on
another continent but murder right, but only because it's inconvenient
to her today, She's like, well, I have to, like
I'm supposed to bring Lyle, but he's in jail in Africa,
and like she just doesn't give a shit about him.
And I think it is like fun to see a

(01:11:43):
woman who's being forced into a marriage she doesn't want,
just like get to say shit like that and be like, yeah,
my Hembo's on TV at the Bay Bridge and okay,
ink you San Francisco. There No, but like that, she's
just like, yeah, fuck while, like I met someone I

(01:12:04):
actually like and to see her like actually enjoy yourself
a little bit. That said, I do think her family
votes read in every single election and always has. Yeah, scary.
Well that brings up the Okay, we've covered a lot
of movies recently that involve a love triangle um specifically

(01:12:24):
a woman having to choose between two men. Some of
these episodes haven't come out yet at the time of
this live show, but we've got this love triangle in
this movie called Titanic. There there's and we've never covered
it before. That's so weird, but yeah, there's a love
triangle in Georgia the Jungle. We have an upcoming episode
on Sweet Home Alabama, where there's a love triangle. We

(01:12:48):
have an upcoming episode on something New, and then of
course Titanic. Let's take a little detour to examine the
parallels between George or the Jungle and Titanic. Shy, because
I mean it's nineteen ninety seven, literally the same year,
and Georgia the Jungle comes out first, and so I

(01:13:10):
have to imagine James Cameron in his forty five story
tall house underground, shaking in his boots when he sees
this damp. He's like, oh no, they're coming for me.
Because the parallels are shocking, are shocking. Yes, starting with yeah,
curly haired high society woman is engaged to an evil

(01:13:33):
rich man and his hair it's flopping around and he
and he can stop saying fiance. Yes. Then we've got
another man who has no material wealth and and so,
and in one of the movies, no material who saves

(01:13:55):
the rich woman from death m okay, and she starts
to fall in love with this quote unquote poor man.
I mean you said that, like George of the Jungle
had money somewhere, not actually poor Yeah, right, okay. Then

(01:14:20):
the poor man gets a makeover and tries on a
suit to adhere to the standards of the rich people.
M Okay, then we've got the woman has an uptight
mother with a Transatlantic accent who tries to keep her
daughter away from the poor man so that the rich
daughter will marry the evil rich fiance. The poor man

(01:14:46):
has to save the rich woman from a boat catastrophe
at the end, and how and to give George of
the Jungle the edge in this regard only how amazing?
What did it happen if Jack Dawson had whacked into
one of those smokestacks, that was a bigness. What if

(01:15:11):
Jack Dawson Kareem's into one of those Titanic smokestacks, And
that's what this is, That's what knocks it over kills Fabricio. Whoa,
They're like, watch up for that. Yeah, I mean Jack
Jack Jacob Titanic. It rights itself, my fiance. And then

(01:15:37):
the final thing I noticed is that the rich lady
wears a necklace with a jewel on it, and that
necklace is called attention to several times. Yes, and Georgia
the Jungle also has his own his own necklace. And
I liked that bit where Ursula makes a little assumption
about him and is like, oh, did you I forget
what the animal? He did? You fight a crocodile? Yes?

(01:15:59):
And then he's like, I did a dental procedure on
the crocodile. They're like, okay, Brendan Fraser literal genius. Interesting,
He's not going to go out there and fight. He's
so gentle and so sweet. I guess to sort of
put a button on how their relationship. I think, honestly,
there's a lot of movies that came out this same
year that did much worse with building a convincing and

(01:16:24):
like somewhat equitable relationship. I at least get why George
and Ursula like each other. It doesn't feel I mean,
in a movie that feels really really forced and contrived
in a lot of ways on purpose, I thought it
was good. Like I just they're sweet together. And also
I feel like trust fund kids and people who grew
up and were raised by like monkeys have a lot

(01:16:47):
in common, and they're both sort of like we we
both don't know how the world works, and let's not
follow rule. Rules aren't applied to us, you know, And
in that way it's kind of beautiful. They're both so sexy.
I don't know. I had a quick thing about Brendan
Frasier in this movie specifically because there was Brendan Frasier.

(01:17:11):
He's going through you know, he's going through his renaissance,
and yeah, we said I did not come up with that,
but I wish I had. But Brendan Frasier is like
experiencing this resurgence and the movie he's resurging for we
don't have time, but he is experiencing our resurgence and
people are excited about it. So he's been talking a

(01:17:32):
lot about sort of his like first Hollywood like Leading
Man Heyday and Georgia the Jungle is kind of like
smack in the middle of that. And I found an
interview from late last year where I mean, I guess,
like even us, like when we talk about Georgia of
the Jungle, it's like Brendan Frasier is ripped in that movie,
like he's so Hollywood handsome that it's like he's he's

(01:17:55):
basically naked the whole movie, like it's it's wild. And
he did one of the actor on actor interviews with
Adam Sandler late last year and talks about like how
he had a full blown eating disorder for the entire
time of this movie, and to the point where it
like affected his like ability to just like for his

(01:18:15):
brain to work. I look, it's late in the show
and I'm bringing this up, but he said that he
starved himself of carbohydrates for months at a time, which
is really dangerous to look the way that he does.
In George of the Jungle, he said, quote, I would
drive home after work and stop to get something to eat.
I needed some cash one time, and I went to

(01:18:36):
the ATM and I couldn't remember my pin number because
my brain was misfiring, and so I didn't eat that night.
And yeah, okay, guys, he's fine. Now, it's just remember
back to when I accidentally said finger. But I did, like,
I think that Brandon Fraser is kind of one of

(01:18:57):
the few Hollywood leading men who has actually spoken to
this in terms of, like we talk about it all
the time, because I do think it disproportionately affects women
and fems, but it does also affect men, and Brendan
Fraser is kind of one of the only people that
has sort of spoken to that over the years on
a number of issues. And the other person who has

(01:19:19):
interestingly is Zachster, who we love. He also said that
he went for years without ever eating carbs and saying
that like it affected his brain and ability to do
basic things. And then he spoke about this, I think
ironically and also m really in a funny way when

(01:19:40):
they revealed his wax sculpture of his like abs at
Madame Tissot's, He's like, yeah, whooo, I think this is
very dangerous though, which is like pretty iconic to do
to undercut the event so severely. But but like, you know,
it's like the there there are on the pressures put

(01:20:01):
on um people of all genders who are expected to
look a very particular way. And this movie is you know,
even if you love it, which I do, I love
the part when he fingers the cone um, but like it.
You know, I appreciated that he he's able to and

(01:20:24):
that like there has been sort of I guess enough
of a cultural shift, not entirely, but it's some some
sort of cultural shift where he's he feels like he
can he can talk about it now. M Yeah wow.
But here's a question, Yeah, does this movie pass the
backdel tists not to go full bamby what was my
name Bamby orwell Bamby orwell I like that you made

(01:20:49):
it up. So yeah, it does pass the Backdel test.
In the scene where Uh Ursula's mom, who is named
Beatrice I believe, Uh says do you have a fever,
how's your temperature? What color is your tongue? And what
is your vagina like right now? And in so many words?

(01:21:12):
And um, she says in the Pig movie, yeah, yeah, yeah,
and Ursula says, it's all normal. First of all, what
even is a quote unquote normal vagina? Ursula. Secondly, it
does pass the Backtel test. You're nitpicking there, Ursula, I

(01:21:33):
should have said in the movie and to me, here's
what a normal vagina means, and then describes her on
to her and she was like, and then it got
fingered by by George. You're happy. Um, yeah it does.
It passes a couple different times, but that was my
favorite by a long shot. You would think with the

(01:21:55):
best friend character Betsy, it would pass more. Here's where
I found it past. The only time between the two
of them in multiple scenes together, Hello Hello, which is
narratively impactful because we hadn't seen her before. That's true.
But other than that, She's like, hello, Hello, Hubba Hubba,

(01:22:17):
and then that just kind of like that's kind of
the rest of the movie. Yeah, so it's not it's
not an extreme past. I well, I wanted to give
a quick shout out there. There were two credited writers
on this movie. Um, one of whom is a woman,
Audrey Wells, who wrote a number of kind of classics
of the aughts. She also wrote Disney's The Kid, Remember

(01:22:39):
that one she wrote under the Tuscan Sun. My mom
got so fucked up over that one. Shall we dance?
Same story? And Um. Then the last screenplay shot up
before she passed away in twenty eighteen was The Hate
You Give. So she's a very legendary, respected, wonderful screenwriter

(01:23:00):
that was gone too soon. So it was nice that
there there was. And I feel like, you know, even
though I wouldn't say that you could make a mad
max argument that this is really a woman's story, there
are I mean, I think like, because of Audrey Wells's work,
I would guess that that women are you know, more
present in the work than they would have been otherwise.

(01:23:23):
M true, very true. Yeah. What about our nipple scale? Though?
Are the one metric metric where we rate the metric
movie WHOA Lord Are the Rings? Reference Jamie, I cannot
answer any follow up cross Well, this is our metric
where we rate the movie on a scale of zero

(01:23:45):
to five nipples based on how affairs Looking at it
from an intersectional feminist lens um, I would say, hmmm, this,
it's like, yeah, I mean, I'll let me talk through
it for a moment. We've got is Ursula damseled a

(01:24:06):
number of times? Does she think constantly? But does she
also later save George at the end for one second
and then and then he she does pass out, and
then he also drops her and she's like, I want
to tell you that I love you, and he's like,
there's no time to talk right now, and then he
drops her on the ground, and then he keeps fighting
the bad guys. So that's not maybe the best. It's

(01:24:29):
not the best when he licks her face while she's unconscious,
and yet I am rooting for them. Mistakes were made, okay,
because well, I was starting to talk about like the
love triangle relationship dynamic that's so prevalent in so many
movies where it's just like, yeah, I want her to

(01:24:51):
pick George obviously, and I do hope they stay together forever.
If away just like make halland Taylor upset. Um and
I know, I mean not the real Holland Taylor. I
want her to be so happy, for sure. But but yeah, no,
I mean I I was rooting for that relationship. It

(01:25:13):
seems like they were happy together, although you know she
unquestionably I don't know. I mean, I guess it would
have been worse if George moved to Sam I'm sorry,
there would it would have been worse. I just really
I remembered where we were. No, but like, it makes
more sense that she would move there than he would
move to where she was, because it seemed like she
didn't want to be there anyways, right, But yeah, it

(01:25:35):
does mean that she has to give up her question
mark job. She has to give up her job and
family that she loves. But I don't know that she
loves her family or has a job. And that's a
conversation for another day. Sure sure, sure, um, So we've

(01:25:55):
got that, We've got the very underdeveloped characters of the
Porters and mister Quame a general misrepresentation of Africa in general,
for sure, and in a movie that largely takes place
in Africa to be mostly about white people, is um.
I mean, it's a very Hollywood thing to do, but

(01:26:15):
it's not. We don't like it. It's bad. How many
fingers are you going to give the movie? Um? I'll
give it one and a half fingigers. And where are
you putting those fingers? Well, I think it's important that

(01:26:42):
I give one or I put I put a finger
into our special guests on the show Bamby. They would
love in that. Oh my god, they would flip. And

(01:27:04):
then my half finger, just the tip I will put
this is horrible. Um, I'll put my half finger into No.
I'm just okay. No, you said into no one, no

(01:27:25):
one told you to do that. I'll put it into George.
What about you, Jamie? Where are you putting your fingers?
I look, this has nothing to really do with my

(01:27:47):
intellectual opinion. I just wanna you know, I'm I'm I'm
throwing in two fingers because I want to have a
good time one and a half. Come on, we're already here.
You true fair for what? Okay, I'm gonna give it.
I'm gonna give it two fingers, and I'm gonna give them. Well,

(01:28:08):
I guess I don't know. You know, I'm gonna give
them both to Betsy because it seems like she really
wanted to do something with her fingers for sure, and
I wish her the best in her future fingering endeavors.
And I think that that's feminist of me to do
DoD feminine finger Um. So that is where the recording

(01:28:31):
cuts off. Luckily we were almost done with the show. Um,
the part that got cut off, it is just us
saying thanks to everyone who came out to the show,
Thanks again to SF sketch Fest for having us, Thanks
to our special guests Lauren D. Titanic and Bambi orwell

(01:28:52):
was that your fake name, Jamie Bambi orwell, yeah, I
think that those that okay, fake name, Hello, I'm so sorry,
those are real people, our friend Kaitlyn d. Sorry, Lauren D. Titanic, Yeah,
which is um not at all even close to being
an anagram of Kaitlyn Durante, so don't even try to

(01:29:12):
make that connection. And Bambi or will like literally just not.
It's just that's just the name of a human woman
and a woman in stems, so watch your mouth, and
a real person. So yeah, and a real human person
is the best I can say for her, yeah, other
than that she's I'm afraid of her. But thank you
to Lauren and Bamby for lending their their cat facts,

(01:29:36):
their animal facts in general. Depending on how much you
hate them. Maybe they'll be back someday. Yeah, let us know,
really currently unclear if they be welcome back. Let us
know how horrified you were by those real people. And
while you're at it, give us five stars on Apple Podcasts. Yeah,

(01:29:58):
because that's always a nice thing to do, And be
on the lookout for more live show episodes that we
again will be releasing soon, and like always, check us
out on Twitter and Instagram. You can subscribe to our
Patreon aka Matreon at patreon dot com slash Spectecast, where

(01:30:19):
you will get two bonus episodes every single month for
five dollars a month, plus access to the entire back
catalog of all the Matreon bonus episodes. Yay, all right,
we will We'll see you next week. Bye bye,