August 26, 2021 • 45 mins
This week Ariel and Jonathan are doubling down on geek news and groan worthy segues. Then find out what Leslie Knope and Harley Quinn have in common in this weeks mashup!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Large Nerdron Collider podcast is a production of My
Heart Radio. Hey everybody, welcome to The Large Nerdron Collider,
the podcast that's all about the geeky things happening in
the world around us and how very excited we are
(00:28):
about them. I am arial casting and with me as
always is scuba Man, Strickland, blood blood bial. Don't know
where scuba man came from, but okay, so it came
from the fact. Okay, because we we tried to record
this podcast and then we had to stop because Jonathan's
(00:50):
question was so stumping to me that we had to
start again. Um. We Originally I was going to have
us just run it, and I was going even have
our super producer tari keep all of ariel struggles in,
but after about seven minutes, you just wanted to, you know,
have it end. So yes, But he had said in
(01:11):
the previous one that he wasn't underwater, So um, that's
that's the truth that my brain normally goes on. People.
I'm so sorry you had to take that journey with me.
I love that you made a reference to something that
only you and I even knew existed. Now we're going
to have you answer the question that you struggled over,
(01:32):
and I will reveal it to our lovely audience. So Ariel,
here is your question. So you're given the opportunity to
go back in time to any point in history to
witness something. However, you cannot interact with anything, kind of
(01:55):
like Scrooge and Christmas Carol. So what is your choice?
I would want to go to the n Muhammad Ali
sunny list in fight. Oh wow, Wow, that's a very
specific answer. I like it. It's a good like it
was a it's a historic fight. Yeah. Interesting, I didn't
(02:17):
really think of you as a as a boxing fan,
so like, I enjoy it. I you know, I love
Rocky and Creed and all those movies. Um, I used
to want to be a boxer before I realized that
I actually liked my face um in my ears. But no,
I I enjoyed that. I I enjoy mm A. It
(02:40):
is hard sometimes to watch people get injured, so it's
it's like a love hate relationship. But I do enjoy
watching stuff. You know, I took I took boxing for
a little bit as well. I didn't ever get good
at it, but I enjoyed it. So yeah, that would
be it. Wow, I'm still reeling. I mean, I feel
like I have been hit by a like a right
cross or something. Uh, you know, so am so. I
(03:01):
actually actually went back and forth on this because originally
I was gonna say I would love to go back
to the sixteenth century England to see a Shakespearean production
during Shakespeare's actual time. But then I sat there and
thought about and thought, chances are, with the accents the
way they would be, I probably wouldn't be able to
(03:22):
understand very much. So instead I would want to go
to the eight World's Exposition in Chicago. Oh, that would
be so much fun because the so the Science and
Industry Museum in Chicago is the only remaining I believe
it's Science and Industry. I could be wrong about this.
There's one remaining building from that exposition that serves as
(03:43):
a museum today in Chicago. The rest of it's all
been taken down. I would have loved to have seen
that in person, because it sounds phenomenal. If you really
want to learn a lot about the position. By the way,
I highly recommend the book The Devil in the White City.
It is a book that tells both the story of H. H.
Holmes and the story of the World's Fair, and it
(04:05):
alternates chapters, so like you'll get a World's Fair chapter
followed by a Holmes chapter, et cetera. And the World's
Fair stuff I thought was absolutely fascinating. Oddly enough, I
found the home stuff a little too dry for my tastes,
but that is really interesting. Um. And I also was
thinking about picking Shakespeare after thinking about it, and I said, no,
(04:25):
Shirley Jonathan will pick that, So I almost did. You
talked about H. H. Holmes, and my brain went to
Sherlock Holmes, which leads us to our first newspiece, which
is about Spider Man. See you guys just to get
to go on all these little uh windy journeys with
me tonight. But today ariel If If H. H. Holmes
makes you think of Sherlock Holmes, why does Sherlock Holmes
(04:48):
make you think of Spider Man? Because Benedict Cumberbatch plays
both Sherlock Holmes and Dr Stephen Strange. And Dr Stephen
Strange is in the Spider Man trailer. All right, now
we've got all the connective tissue there. Yes, we watched
this teaser. It came out the day before we record
this we're recording it on Tuesday, and y'all I love
(05:13):
this teaser. Yeah, me too, Me too. A lot of
this stuff that got leaked, you know, was in the trailer,
stuff like Alfred Molina being in the new movie. But
his reveal is so good. It is so good. And
there's some other little reveals before that that I don't
want to describe because like it made me squee a
(05:35):
little bit, like okay, um, and I don't want to
ruin that that excitement for anybody else. We do get
more of the plot. The thing that I find really
interesting is that fans are are still in one division
grain in the m c U. First, because one, they're
trying to find any little hidden thing, and there were
(05:56):
lots of hidden things in the trailer um, but one
of them is there. Matt Murdoch is in this. Matt
Murdoch is in this a k A. Daredevil um off
of a couple of scenes which so far he has
been saying and everybody saying that he's not so um
if everything about Spider Man has been leaked, but that
that's quite impressive. And then two is that in one
(06:20):
division they had a little heart on August the first
episode and that's when the trailer drops, So everybody's assuming
that that was another Disney Easter A, yeah, that that
was intentionally a reference to a one division moment. One
of the things that I thought was really interesting is
that this reminds me a little bit of a storyline
(06:43):
that actually happened in the Spider Man comics, but it's
a different a totally different storyline um in that. So
the reason why Dr Strange is in this movie is
that if you remember, at the end of the previous
Spider Man film, Spider Man comes home and his identity
is revealed on national television by Jay Jonah Jameson, and
(07:06):
you wonder, well, how the heck is he going to
deal with this? Well, clearly he's dealing with the aftermath
of that in the beginning of this movie, but he
wants to ask after Strange if there's some way that
they could reverse things so that not everyone knows he's
Spider Man, and then we get into the whole multiverse stuff.
And the thing this reminds me of is there was
a Spider Man storyline in which Spider Man has to
(07:28):
make a deal with Mephisto, which erases everyone's knowledge that
he is that Peter Parker is Spider Man. UM. Totally
different circumstances, but a similar kind of idea. And in
a way, you could argue that this is almost like
a multiverse flipping on its head of that particular storyline. UM.
(07:50):
The little easter eggs I spotted I loved. I have
not gone through like frame by frame or anything like that,
but I really dug the trailer or teaser I should say,
it's not really a full trailer. Yeah, I I did too.
I there was a little bit of comedy and it
it did seem a lot more serious than the other
(08:10):
Spider Man trailers UM, which I guess happens as Spider
Man grows up. So but I am very excited about it.
I think it will be a good ushering into this
new phase of the m c u UM agreed. I
also said that I hope that they go to a
reality where Doctor Strange and Peter Parker are both British,
(08:32):
so that way Tom holland Becummer Badge can speak in
their normal accent. You know, you put that on Twitter
and I almost tweeted back, save something for the show.
Show that's fair. But but it is interesting again with
the whole tide to wand Division because one it's going
to be in Multiverse of Madness that you know, they
thought Mephisto was going to be in wand Division, And
(08:55):
this is very similar to another storyline. Even though we
know King the Conqueror is going to be a big
bag bad in this uh in this phase. Well maybe
maybe it'll be one of those things where Kang is
like the big big bad early on and Mephisto ends
up being like the Thanos level big bad at the
end of the phase. You never know. Yeah, possibly, but
we'll see, Like the I I honestly, at this point,
(09:18):
I'm not sure that Marvel should ever pull the Mephisto card,
just because it will consistently become that joke about maybe
it's Mephisto. But let's move on and talk a little
bit about So shank Chi is about to come out
in theaters and I'm really looking forward to seeing that
when it comes out to streaming because I won't be
going to the theater um. But I have to have
(09:38):
to wait forty five days for that. But we also
got a trailer for the next film in the Marvel series,
The Eternals. It's the final trailer in that What did
you think of this trailer? Um? I liked it. They
gave us a little bit more of a story. I
know what's going to happen in this movie. Kind Of
it almost feels so grandiose that I I can't care,
(10:02):
got you? Yeah, you know what, I can see that
like the idea, but like it's kind of like the
opposite of Spider Man, right, because Spider Man is such
a a street level hero that it's something that you
could relate to, like the idea of someone swooping into
rescue you if you were about to get mugged or something.
But when you're talking about existential threats, it starts to
(10:22):
get so big that it's hard to wrap your mind
around it. Um. We do get answers about why the
Eternals didn't, well, sort of answers about why the Eternals
didn't intervene during the whole Thanos thing. That's not terribly
satisfying answer because it kind of just sort of punts
it down the road a little bit. But UM, you know,
(10:43):
I feel the same way. I'm hoping that when I
see the movie it really clicks with me. I'm hoping
also that one of the reasons I don't feel a
deep connection yet is that I don't know these characters.
So maybe once I get to know the character, I
will care more. But right now I'm kind of in
the same boat that you are in. I mean, so
(11:05):
the characters do have more personality. There's you know, we
get to see a little bit about all of them.
They recently talked about how Jimmy Chan is going to
be a nuanced female hero, which we almost talked about,
but then there was too much exciting news to discuss instead.
So like, I feel like I will have to go
into it just assuming I know nothing about the story
and enjoy it for its own piece of fantasy. I
(11:27):
think to to really get into this movie, it looks
like it's going to be stunning. Yeah, it's the visuals
look great. I haven't connected to the characters yet, but
hopefully the film will do that for me. But one
thing I am absolutely certain is going to work for
me is Anthony Mackie signing on to be Captain America
(11:48):
for the fourth Captain America film. I am super excited
about that. Me too, Me too. I think he did
a great job in Falcon and Winter Soldier, even though
the overall mini series was not my favorite of the
Disney television shows. Uh, but honestly, I'm kind of surprised
that it's news at this point because that's how they
(12:11):
left off the TV show so well. For me, it
was the news was more that they were actually going
to make a fully fledged Captain America film, as opposed
to just having him play a role like The Hulk
where he shows up in other movies but he doesn't
get his own film. Gotcha, gotcha? Yeah, I am. I
am happy about that. I hope that Bucky is his
(12:32):
sidekick because I really like their chemistry together. Yeah, I
do too. And Anthony Mackie is just like, he's such
a he's such a charismatic actor. Um and, and I'm
really looking forward to to seeing him on the big
screen as Captain America. Also like, I can't wait to
see a full Disney budget behind like all those effects
(12:56):
and costumes and stuff. The Disney Plus was actually surprisingly
good for a streaming television series as far as effects goes,
but still obviously a tier below like Disney feature film quality.
And also hopefully by that time we'll be back in
theaters and able to um watch it on the big
(13:17):
screen and get all of those little details that they
stick in there. Yeah, I certainly hope so. Well, we've
got some more news items to cover, because, like we said,
there's a lot that's what happens when we take a
week off. But we'll we'll come back and cover some
more news items after this quick break. We're back from
(13:45):
our break, and here's a story that we could have
kind of lump in with the previous ones because it
is Disney Marvel related, but it was of the segment
One Go Way too long, and it's a follow up
on a couple of different stories that kind of don't
reflect so well on on Disney and Marvel, one of
(14:05):
them being that Scarlett Johansson famously sued Disney for the
fact that the company chose to release Black Widow both
in theaters and on streaming, but her compensation agreement was
hinged upon the box office take, not the streaming take,
(14:26):
and she had allegedly asked to negotiate to have streaming
incorporated into that, and Disney and Marvel reportedly didn't return
her calls, essentially, and so she's taken it to court
and um. Then the other one has to do with
shang Chi. Yes, So after that happened and they're still
(14:49):
working through it. Um. And at first, at first I
was like, surely Disney could not have released this movie
that she is a producer on without discussing it with
her first. But you know, there everything with them so
tight lipped that I guess they did. Um. So now
they're looking to adjust things and try to finally figure
out how to fairly compensate their actors. Uh. And with
(15:11):
shang Chi, they said, well, we're going to do exclusively
movie theaters for forty five days and then bring it
to Disney Plus, which will be a fun experiment, which
upset the actors of of shang Chi because they're like,
we're not an experiment. Yeah, so yeah, we're not an experiment.
We are a valued part of this overall enterprise of
(15:35):
the m c U. Like this is like to them,
this is to really to everyone, this is a big deal.
It's a major motion picture. It has you know, has
Asian cast taking the primary spot in a major superhero film,
and this is a big deal. And so using a
(15:55):
word like experiment carries with it a lot of baggage that,
whether you intended it or not, is definitely not appropriate
to describe the situation. And so, yeah, Disney and Marvel
really mostly Disney has found itself kind of at the
heart of this sort of uh storm of scandal. Seems
(16:17):
like it's too strong of a word, but brew haha,
if you prefer and um. You know, originally I was
kind of like, I'm staying out of the whole Scarlett
Johannson Disney thing because it's hard for me to get,
you know, emotionally invested in millionaires being upset at trillionaires. Um.
But on the other hand, hearing more of the story,
assuming that Scarlett Johansson's version of events is is the
(16:42):
accurate one, it's hard to not feel for her because
she if your compensation is dependent upon the profits, and
if there was a decision to switch out the distribution
model and you were left of that discussion so that
(17:02):
you could not have your compensation reflect that, I mean,
that's a big deal. If that happened to me, I
certainly would be up in arms about it. Yeah, yeah,
I agree it It's one of those things that so
I have the same issue where I'm like, it's so
much money, and she made so much money, and if
they hadn't. I certainly the box office was affected by
(17:27):
the fact that they released it on streaming as well
as in theaters, but it also released at a time
that not a lot of people were going to theaters.
And I also so, I don't it had a really
good opening weekend, and after that the ticket sales dropped off,
and I, you know, I don't know how much is pandemic.
(17:48):
I don't know how much of it is people being
interested in a black widow movie. I think Scarlett Johnson
did a fantastic job and I enjoyed it, but you know,
going in it wasn't a superhero movie. I hate to
say it, it it wasn't superhero movie that I was exceptionally
excited about when I first heard about it. It was
much more excited about Captain Marvel, for instance. Well, and
(18:10):
also on top of that, like Disney pulled this so
Ariel and I are both big Disney fans, but we
both can also recognize when a company does stuff that's
not cool, and this was not cool where Disney essentially
played the We just wanted people to be safe during
the pandemic, so we wanted to give them the option
to watch this at home. It's a shame that you
(18:32):
want people to go to the theater and risk their
lives that you have a bigger paycheck, which is not
what Scotlett Johanson was saying. And it ignores the fact
that Disney still released it in the theaters. Like if
that were truly the case, then they wouldn't have released
in the theaters at all. They would have gone only
to streaming at home. So it was a disingenuous, insincere
(18:53):
and sleazy thing to say. And like, it pains me
to say that to you, Disney, but you did or
dirty Yes, I agree, And it's very frustrating, and it
is frustrating for to hear them say Shang Chi is
an experiment, even if it is just on the financial
release side of things, Like I get that that is
an important data point of where do we find that
(19:14):
balance between in theaters and distribution and on streaming, because
everybody's still figuring that out right, But um, you know,
I don't know if they would say the same thing
if it were the next Captain America a movie, if
it were Multiverse of Madness, you know. But in the end, disnease,
Disney's a company, and as much as I might like
(19:37):
some of the stuff they put out, You've got to
remember that. And companies don't always make great decisions. Yeah yeah,
and like and and this is this could be something
where we just point at the new CEO of Disney
and say, you, you might need to take some emotional
intelligence sources. I definitely think he needs to take some
EI courses. That being said, everything I've heard about shank
(19:59):
Chi so far has been fantastic. Every every advanced review
I have seen has got me so excited, Like I
was already excited, Like I didn't have any expectation for
shang Chi. I was not familiar with the property. I
never read those comics. Obviously, the film adaptation is a
very different take than the original nineteen seventies comic book,
(20:21):
which honestly is what we needed because otherwise it would
just be kind of a Bruce Lee sort of clone. Um.
But everything I've seen makes me think like this is
this is one of those movies that could easily be
in the the very top part of like favorite Marvel films,
Like they might go right up there with things like
(20:41):
Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, like films that
I think are some of the best of the m
c U. I I agree, I expected to take a
very high place in my in my bracket of Marvel films.
I do hope that releasing solely to theaters doesn't hurt
their box office. I hope they have great numbers for that,
even though hesitant to have a bunch of people in
(21:04):
movie theaters at the moment um, you know, I want
them to succeed, and I want Disney to see that
there really is value in in more diversity in their superheroes. Um,
and more martial arts because I like martial arts. I
like martial arts. Yeah. You know someone who also really
likes martial arts Batman. And one of Batman's many villains
(21:27):
is the Penguin. Yeah, because I couldn't say Penguin likes
martial arts. Penguin likes. Penguin likes heists and stealing art,
and often if it's in the nineteen seventies, he likes
to steal. He likes crimes that relate to birds. Um.
But yeah, we wanted to talk about this story where
there's an upcoming big annual for Batman Villains coming out
(21:49):
that's that's going to focus largely on the Penguin. But
also other Batman villains, because Batman, out of all superheroes,
I argue, Batman has the best rogues gallery. The Batman's
got the best villains, bar none better than Superman, better
than any Marvel character. He also has some of the worst.
(22:10):
But yes, I agree, he has some of the best.
But you got Joker, Riddler, Penguin, You've got like Zazz
You've got yeah, okay, alright, calendar Man, you know, yeah,
continent many so anyway, one of the stories in this annual,
(22:30):
because it's like it's a collection of different stories, but
one of them is being written by Danny de Vito,
who played the penguin Batman Returns. Yeah. I I never
took Danny de Vito as a comic book writer, so
(22:50):
but I really liked his portrayal of the character. So
I'm really interested to see what stories come out of
him having been in that mindset. Yeah, no, I I
don't think I've really like, I don't know of any
of his written work. I mean, I know obviously of
his his acting and his directing, so I wasn't even
(23:12):
I wasn't even aware that he would have any interest
in writing a comic right, Like often when you talk
to actors. If you see interviews, like really earnest interviews
with actors and they're talking about stuff they've done, you
can kind of get this disappointing feeling that that you know,
for some of them, it's it's the mentality of a
(23:33):
gigs a gig, right, like, Yeah, they went in and
they did their best, and they did an amazing job.
But it was a job. It wasn't anything more than that.
It had no other further meaning. Then occasionally run into
other people like Tom Hittleston and Tom Holland, who takes
such incredible value and ownership of the parts that they
(23:54):
play that it's very clear it means a lot to them.
So I didn't think of the paying and being like
a sauce spot for day de Vito, But apparently it's
enough for him to actually contribute to this work, and
I'm very curious to see it. I am as well.
I think I'm going to read it. I it might
be one of my more favorite roles he's ever played,
(24:15):
quite honestly, Yeah, it's definitely. I really like his version
of the penguin. It's so different from the other versions
that we had seen. Now he's he's clearly an actual
monster in that Tim Burton film. He's not. He's not
like the rotund well to do uh Oswald cobble Pott,
(24:37):
who's also a master thief and and criminal. He's it's
beyond that. So yeah, really uh interesting, And it looks
at least from the illustration, that this incarnation of the
Penguin is going to at least bear some resemblance to
the the Batman returns. Um uh yeah for design yeah,
(25:03):
design yeah, speaking of designing. Speaking of designing, you know
who does a lot of designing. Uh, this is not
my strong suit. Um yeah, I'm gonna say kite man.
Uh well, probably yes, But I was trying to smoothly
(25:27):
segue into our next story, which I guess won't happen.
The people who are involved in a Broadway show do
a lot of designing, from sets to costumes, to sound
to lighting, and soon we will be able to get
all into the bowels of theater craft at a museum
of Broadway. Yeah. I can't wait to climb into those bowels. Yeah. No, no,
(25:54):
you're so sorry, everybody. I'm the one who's being a jerk.
You are being fine. Yeah, there's the museum of Broadway,
which will that's that's a term, right, You're absolutely yeah, absolutely,
you're absolutely right. I am the one being a jerk. Okay,
I mean no, like I was second guessing, like do
people not say that there are lots of things I
(26:15):
say that it's the Bulls of Theater in the Bulls, yeah,
like Cereal. Uh no, no, no, we're yeah, we're talking
about the Museum of Broadway, which is supposed to open
summer of twenty two. Not a whole lot to say
about other than if you read up on the description
of what the exhibits are going to be, it actually
(26:37):
sounds really cool to me, Like you were saying, Ariel,
it's supposed to give you kind of a behind the
scenes look literally in this case, at how shows come together,
the different components that make a show possible, also obviously
honoring the history of Broadway and some of the iconic shows.
I can't wait to go through the Cat's Wing. I'm
(26:57):
sure there will have to be don't know if there
is a Cat's Wing, but there will be a lot
of interactive exhibits and reality experiences. So the first it's
like a three section the museum, three section, theater three
section museum theater museum. It makes sense, all right. The
first section is kind of about how theater moved through
New York, The second section is about the shows, and
(27:18):
the third section is the behind the scenes look. So uh,
maybe there will be a cat's segment, but I hope
not a whole wing. I'm just hoping for a jelical
experience from beginning to end. If I don't get turn
the heavy side layer by the end of it, I'm
going to ask for my money back. I mean, you
don't want people assuming that they're going to die at
(27:39):
the end of Broadway experience rum tum Tugger to be
bumping and grinding all right up against me. I mean,
these are like the expectations I have for a museum
of Broadway. Okay, well, hopefully the ticket price will not
be too bad, so it will be an affordable experience,
cats experience for you John with then well we will
(28:02):
have to see you know. Well, we had one more
story that we were going to include, but we're running along,
but we will come back to that story, and that
is about the Star Wars Galactic Cruiser a Star Wars hotel.
It is a heck of a story to talk about,
because there's a lot of different things. In fact, we
could probably make that a whole segment by itself, especially
once we get to the price, but we'll leave that
(28:23):
for for maybe next week's episode. In the meantime, we're
gonna go to break and when we come back, we
will talk about the things that inspired this week's mash up.
But first let's uh, let's take that break I talked
about Ariel. Welcome back from the break. Thank you, Jonathan.
(28:55):
I'm glad to be back from the break. Ariel has
been breaking all episode. Yeah, apparently every segment my computer
is like, gotta this is such good content. I gotta restart.
That's true, Like after segment one and did it, and
after segment too, it did it? All right, Well, let's
talk about the stories that we didn't cover in our
(29:15):
earlier part of the episode, but that did inform our
mashup decision this week, and one of those is that
HBO Max is going to have a spinoff film focusing
on Black Canary, one of the characters from the Birds
of Prey film, And yeah, that's cool it is. I
(29:36):
liked Journey smollett in in the role, and she'll be
reprising it, and she's working with Misha Green, who she
also worked with on Lovecraft, worked with on Lovecraft Country. Uh.
But honestly, out of the Birds of Prey movie, if
I were going to pick a character that I wanted
to stand alone show, stand alone show from, it would
have been Huntress. Well, me too, but that's because I
(29:57):
have the biggest crush on Mary Elizabeth Winstead. But sure
she also was She had a She wrote a really
good line of comedic and dramatic and I enjoyed it.
But you know, I'm sure this will be really good again.
I think Journey Small it's a great actress. I think
she did a great job with the role. And what
is our second piece that has inspired our mash up
this week. It's that we are getting a Field of
(30:19):
Dreams television show for Peacock. Uh. Like the old movie,
if you build it, they will come. And it's being
done by the team from Parks and rec So that'll
be interesting. On whether it's a drama comedy. Yeah, it's
hard to imagine that they would do it as like
a kind of a drama the way the original film was.
(30:43):
If you've never seen the movie, it's about this guy
who gets obsessed with the concept of building a baseball
park in his corn field and then, um, you know
he's told if you build it, they will come. That's
where that famous phrase comes from. So yeah, I'm very
curious whether or not the Parks and Wreck crew will
(31:04):
leave behind their their comedic shops and sink into drama
or if it's going to be more of a wacky
version of that. I mean, so specifically it's Mike Michael Schert,
and so he also was involved in The Good Place
The Office where the Fruit Falls, So I'm guessing it
will be cheeky, even if it's a little more serious.
(31:26):
So with that in mind, we decided we would mash
up Birds of Prey with Parks and Wreck. Uh So,
just in case you're not familiar with Parks and Wreck,
it was a sitcom that was kind of uh it
really for the first few episodes was heavily modeled on
The Office, but followed the story of Leslie Nope, the
(31:49):
head of the Parks and Reck department in the city
of Pawnee, Indiana, and then ultimately they kind of made
their own thing. Um, they got away from being so
similar to The Office, which was good because those first
few episodes are a little hard to watch, but after
that they get amazing. It's it was one of the
(32:10):
most consistently surreal, absurd and funny shows. That's where Chris
Pratt really came to prominence, Like he really stood out.
And you know, I would say Aubrey Plaza as well. Yes, yes,
Aubrey plazas April fantastic. So yeah, great series and uh
yeah it was when Ariel pitched this one, I was like,
(32:33):
I don't know how I'll do it, but I know
I want to do it. Um, so we each of
our mashups. Ariel, I'm going to ask you who do
you want to go first? Um, I would like you
to go first. And also give everybody just a tiny
bit of a rundown of what Birds of Prey are
if they had not other than eagles and hawks and falcons,
if they hadn't watched the movie or the old TV
(32:55):
show right right. So Birds of Prey is, uh, it's
essentially it's a different it's several different groups of characters
in the d C universe who have formed essentially a
vigilante hero group, and so they're different incarnations. It's not
always the exact same characters kind of like Guardians of
the Galaxy too. I mean, we're familiar with one lineup
(33:17):
of Guardians of the Galaxy from the films, but in
the comics there have been several different characters and several
lineups of that group. Well. In the film Birds of
Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn, uh, the
Birds of Prey consisted of Black Canary, who has a
metahuman ability to uh to project her voice and use
(33:38):
it as like a sonic weapon, Huntress who's mad crazy
good at shooting things with crossbows uh, and eventually a
former detective named Montoya who joins the group, and then
Harley Quinn is also there. In fact, Harley Quinn shouldn't
be there at all, but they wanted her to have
a movie. It really ends up being more of a
(33:58):
Harley Quinn movie than a Birds of Ray movie, which
was something that I got upset about. But um, the
film is still entertaining if you can just get past
the fact that I'm a grouchy old man, and I
got grouchy because I wanted it to be a Birds
of Prey movie in not a Harley Quinn movie. Well, uh,
at least she get an HBO TV show now, so
(34:20):
why don't and Margot Robbie was amazing, so she was
why don't you, grumpy old man into your mashup? Okay,
my mashup is called Birds of Pawnee. Leslie Nope, has
a problem. Pawnee's Harvest Festival is coming up, and while
the band mouse Rat has been threatening to reunite for
the seventh time, there's still an enormous gap left by
(34:43):
the absence of Lil Sebastian, even ten years after the
horse's demise. So she forms a party planning committee, even
calling in her old friend Ann Perkins to join in.
Tom says he's got it all covered, and then he
called up a party planning company to stock the festival
full of superheroes because they're totally the hot thing for
(35:04):
as long as Disney says, so he says. Leslie, impressed
with Tom's proactive approach, but a little worried about what
heroes are going to show up, tries to come up
with a backup plan, but the next day, April comes
in and says that there's a group of weirdos that
have come in to see her, So Leslie goes to
the conference room to discover the Huntress, Black Canary, detective Montoya,
(35:27):
and for some reason Harley Quinn waiting there. Can I
help you? She says, Well, we're here to help you,
says Montoya. Oh you're from the party company. You're our heroes,
says Leslie. I understand all those words, and I'm still confused,
says Harley. What exactly is going on? Says the Black Canary. Well,
(35:51):
so what, We've got the Harvest Festival at the end
of the week, and that's why we're gonna need all
of you, says Leslie. Where's the guy who called us?
Asks Huntress. So Leslie gives an anxious grin to the
camera and then leans out of the room and yells
for Tom, who shows up and immediately makes googoo eyes
at Huntress because she's dreamy. As I have previously established,
(36:15):
you called and said there was an emergency, says Huntress
to Tom. It's totally an emergency. I need the entertainment
at this festival to be on point. I've got potential
investors in that crowd, says Tom. Hang On, says Harley,
So you called a vigilante justice group out to the
middle of nowhere to act as entertainment at a festival.
(36:38):
The middle of nowhere is a bit harsh, says Leslie.
Pawnee has a rich and problematic history, filled with amazing
stories which some are admittedly not fit for history classes
unless you first sign a waiver? Can it? Says Montoya,
who then looks at the others. I told you this
was a mistake, so you called in Vigilantes. I thought
(36:59):
you said it is a company that provided characters for parties,
says Leslie to Tom. Look, I did a perfunctory Google
search and called the top number, because that's always the
best number, says Tom. Google ads screwed us again, says Huntress.
I don't know. I think we could use the vacation,
says Harley. I'm with Quinn, says Black Canaria. Beats chasing
(37:22):
down hoodlums and blowing up third rate batman villains. Montoya
shoots some dirty looking as a nope, can we have
the room? Sure? Sure, says Leslie, and she grabs Tom
and they both leave the room. She turns to him
and says, what were you thinking? Now? We've got vigilantes
in city hall for goodness sake. What would Pawnee's bounder,
Reverend Luther Howell. Say, probably tell me to leave Pawnee
(37:44):
and then confuse me for a Native American, says Tom. Yes,
that's probably true, says Leslie. Just then the conference room
door opens. Okay, we'll do it, says Harley. Great, says Leslie.
We cut to the Harvest festival. Jerry is sampling blueberry
pie and it dribbles down a shirt while he clubs.
Lee tries to clean up and makes a little noises.
(38:06):
April and Andy are daring Huntress to do lots of
trick shots by firing small crossbow bolts and stuff like
the sign above the stage, a balloon that's held by Tom,
who then lets out a high bitch screen, and a
candy apple held on a stick by Jerry, who somehow
manages to then spell more blueberry pie on himself in
the process. Ben is sitting with Leslie, looking absolutely terrified
(38:28):
as Hardly does some wicked roller skating tricks on a
half pipe. Next to the stage. Ron Swanson is chatting
with former detective Montoya about the most effect efficient way
to disassemble and clean firearms, and Donna and Black Canary
are warming up for their killer duet of the classic
song five Thousand Candles in the Wind attribute to Little Sebastian.
But as they are warming up, several men rush the stage.
(38:51):
Black Canary knocks two of them down, and Huntress is
about to shoot a third when April shouts wait, and
that's when they realize that yes, indeed it is mouse
Rat and they have come to provide the backing for
this duet. So you know, christis averted. Though Andy now
has a black eye and the drummer can't walk anymore.
The festival otherwise goes off without you know, many more hitches,
(39:11):
and the next day Leslie is in her office chatting
with the camera. Well, I have to admit it, it
wasn't the disaster I thought it would be. Those ladies
really know how to put on a show. We've received
thirteen letters so far saying it was the best festival yet,
and only two saying it was the worst thing to
ever happen in the history of the planet, and both
(39:31):
of those were from Jeremy Jams, so they don't even count.
It was a pretty amazing day, one I'll always be
thankful for. Though it does turn out that Gotham City
was overrun with Hoodlum's Last Night and two thirds of
it burned to the ground, So you know, sucks to
be them the end. Oh, I liked that. That was delightful.
(39:51):
That was so delightful. Now, so I was like, what
would a Parks and rec episode be if if the
Birds of Prey invaded? Well, I did the exact opposite.
So what would an episode of I Guess Batman be
or Birds of Prey thee if it were inhabited by
(40:11):
the characters from Parks and Wreck? So this is called
Gotham City, Parks and Wreck, birds of a Park flock together.
This story isn't about the Leslie Nope. You know. This
story is about a different Leslie Nope, A darker Leslie Nope,
a Nope that was never born in her beloved Ponty,
but was rather birthed into the underbelly of Gotham. Leslie
(40:31):
a k a. The Nopingale had a passion for parks
and Recreation, but had an even larger passion for bad boys.
After lard and failed romances with the Brandano Riddler and
the Tragermeister and kite Man, she swore off relationships and
focused all of her mannic attention on restoring Gotham City Park,
which up to that point had been a haven for bums,
possums and vegetarians. Yuh. She wanted to turn it into
(40:55):
a place where babies, puppies and tiny horses could frolic safely,
and the people of Atham, we're glad for it. The
project wasn't without its hurdles, however, but she was determined
to succeed. And that's when Ben Wyatt entered the picture.
A mild mannered accounting nerd, he said he would help
her make the park the most glorious thing the people
of Gotham had ever seen, no matter the cost. She
(41:15):
fell instantly in love with his determination, and they started
taking down every obstacle in their way. The obstacle like
Gotham City Bank for funding, the obstacle like the Gotham
City Zoo for their own petting attractions. Then one day
Ben told her to show up at Gotham City Park
at sunset. So she did. When Leslie got there, she
found the entire park, babies, puppies, possums and all frozen
(41:36):
into a giant skating rink. He maniacally said, today, the park, tomorrow,
the city, soon the world, and That's when Leslie realized
that ben Wyatt was not an accounting nerd, but rather
none other than the Ice Clown himself. She broke up
with him after only a brief monologue about her bad
choices and men, and vowed to stop him and though
the park. This angered the ice Clown, but before he
(41:58):
could grab him punish, Leslie skated away, which anchored the
Ice Clown even more so. He called upon all of
her past flames, as well as a few other of
his nefarious friends, Johnny Karate, Freddy Spaghetti to face Haverford,
and John Ralphael, the King of Cool Cats, to hunt
her down. Leslie thought, fine, who can play at this game?
So she fashioned an arsenal from playground equipment swing shots,
(42:20):
chain see saws, and a portable slide cannon, and recruited
her own squad to fight back. All women who flew
just under the radar of what was acceptable twisting law
in Gotham City planning code to their whims, All women
who could be blackmailed into assisting. But what you call
this team of her closest gallop, How's Leslie thought? Her chicks? Chicks,
(42:40):
That's it, she thought, and she has signed them all
bird code names Donna, Mockingbird, April Ludgate, a K A Jenets,
Snake Eagle, and a storkins. In the process of chasing
and fighting each other, they thawed the ice, accidentally set
the zoo animals loose, exploded a waste management plant, collapsed
to ferris wheel, and leveled several buildings until all that
(43:01):
was left of Gotham City Park was a pit, a
big giant hit. And that's when Commissioner Swanson showed up,
yelling stop it, and he arrested them all. He hadn't
wanted a new park, he didn't like the old one,
but he was going to be damned if these ne'er
do wells were going to ruin the rest of his city.
He locked a lot of them up in Gotham Penitentiary,
(43:24):
all except Leslie, who he put on work detail to
fill the pit. He saw too much good in her
to let her rotten prison. The end, I love it,
I love it, Thank you well. That is our mash
up of parks and rec and birds of prey. Clearly
two masterpieces, both of which will soon come to Peacock
(43:46):
like something. Probably won't, but they because D C. D
C as part of the Warner family, and so that's true.
It would be a little bit of a trick to
go from HBO Max to Peacock, but maybe we can
make it happen. Um. But yeah, we're curious to hear
what your thoughts are on our mashups or your own
(44:07):
mashups if you have some plus, if you have any
concept of like mashups we should do in the future.
You know, just unrelated stuff. The more unrelated typically the better.
If it's two things that are kind of similar, it's
it's hard to make anything creative out of that. You
can't really do a lot of free association kind of
with that stuff. But if you've got any suggestions like that,
shoot us an email. The email address we have is
(44:30):
l n C at iHeart media dot com. Yeah, you
can also reach out to us on social media and
say hi. At Twitter we are l n C Underscore Podcast,
and at Facebook and Instagram we're a large inner drunk Collider.
We'd really love to hear from you and talk with you.
And if you like our show, make sure to like subscribe,
share with your friends. The more people we get to
(44:52):
geek out with more fun everybody has, right and until
next time, I am Jonathan. I We'll be saving money
forever so I can go on the Star Wars Galactic Cruise.
Strickland and I am Ariel. This is my Harley Quinn
voice cast in m M M m M. The Large
(45:33):
Nurderun Collider is production of I Heart Radio and was
created by Ariel cast. Jonathan Strickland is the executive producer.
This show is produced, edited, and published by Tarry Harrison.
For more podcasts on my heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows
The Large Nerdron Collider podcast is a production of My
Heart Radio. Hey everybody, welcome to The Large Nerdron Collider,
the podcast that's all about the geeky things happening in
the world around us and how very excited we are
(00:28):
about them. I am arial casting and with me as
always is scuba Man, Strickland, blood blood bial. Don't know
where scuba man came from, but okay, so it came
from the fact. Okay, because we we tried to record
this podcast and then we had to stop because Jonathan's
(00:50):
question was so stumping to me that we had to
start again. Um. We Originally I was going to have
us just run it, and I was going even have
our super producer tari keep all of ariel struggles in,
but after about seven minutes, you just wanted to, you know,
have it end. So yes, But he had said in
(01:11):
the previous one that he wasn't underwater, So um, that's
that's the truth that my brain normally goes on. People.
I'm so sorry you had to take that journey with me.
I love that you made a reference to something that
only you and I even knew existed. Now we're going
to have you answer the question that you struggled over,
(01:32):
and I will reveal it to our lovely audience. So Ariel,
here is your question. So you're given the opportunity to
go back in time to any point in history to
witness something. However, you cannot interact with anything, kind of
(01:55):
like Scrooge and Christmas Carol. So what is your choice?
I would want to go to the n Muhammad Ali
sunny list in fight. Oh wow, Wow, that's a very
specific answer. I like it. It's a good like it
was a it's a historic fight. Yeah. Interesting, I didn't
(02:17):
really think of you as a as a boxing fan,
so like, I enjoy it. I you know, I love
Rocky and Creed and all those movies. Um, I used
to want to be a boxer before I realized that
I actually liked my face um in my ears. But no,
I I enjoyed that. I I enjoy mm A. It
(02:40):
is hard sometimes to watch people get injured, so it's
it's like a love hate relationship. But I do enjoy
watching stuff. You know, I took I took boxing for
a little bit as well. I didn't ever get good
at it, but I enjoyed it. So yeah, that would
be it. Wow, I'm still reeling. I mean, I feel
like I have been hit by a like a right
cross or something. Uh, you know, so am so. I
(03:01):
actually actually went back and forth on this because originally
I was gonna say I would love to go back
to the sixteenth century England to see a Shakespearean production
during Shakespeare's actual time. But then I sat there and
thought about and thought, chances are, with the accents the
way they would be, I probably wouldn't be able to
(03:22):
understand very much. So instead I would want to go
to the eight World's Exposition in Chicago. Oh, that would
be so much fun because the so the Science and
Industry Museum in Chicago is the only remaining I believe
it's Science and Industry. I could be wrong about this.
There's one remaining building from that exposition that serves as
(03:43):
a museum today in Chicago. The rest of it's all
been taken down. I would have loved to have seen
that in person, because it sounds phenomenal. If you really
want to learn a lot about the position. By the way,
I highly recommend the book The Devil in the White City.
It is a book that tells both the story of H. H.
Holmes and the story of the World's Fair, and it
(04:05):
alternates chapters, so like you'll get a World's Fair chapter
followed by a Holmes chapter, et cetera. And the World's
Fair stuff I thought was absolutely fascinating. Oddly enough, I
found the home stuff a little too dry for my tastes,
but that is really interesting. Um. And I also was
thinking about picking Shakespeare after thinking about it, and I said, no,
(04:25):
Shirley Jonathan will pick that, So I almost did. You
talked about H. H. Holmes, and my brain went to
Sherlock Holmes, which leads us to our first newspiece, which
is about Spider Man. See you guys just to get
to go on all these little uh windy journeys with
me tonight. But today ariel If If H. H. Holmes
makes you think of Sherlock Holmes, why does Sherlock Holmes
(04:48):
make you think of Spider Man? Because Benedict Cumberbatch plays
both Sherlock Holmes and Dr Stephen Strange. And Dr Stephen
Strange is in the Spider Man trailer. All right, now
we've got all the connective tissue there. Yes, we watched
this teaser. It came out the day before we record
this we're recording it on Tuesday, and y'all I love
(05:13):
this teaser. Yeah, me too, Me too. A lot of
this stuff that got leaked, you know, was in the trailer,
stuff like Alfred Molina being in the new movie. But
his reveal is so good. It is so good. And
there's some other little reveals before that that I don't
want to describe because like it made me squee a
(05:35):
little bit, like okay, um, and I don't want to
ruin that that excitement for anybody else. We do get
more of the plot. The thing that I find really
interesting is that fans are are still in one division
grain in the m c U. First, because one, they're
trying to find any little hidden thing, and there were
(05:56):
lots of hidden things in the trailer um, but one
of them is there. Matt Murdoch is in this. Matt
Murdoch is in this a k A. Daredevil um off
of a couple of scenes which so far he has
been saying and everybody saying that he's not so um
if everything about Spider Man has been leaked, but that
that's quite impressive. And then two is that in one
(06:20):
division they had a little heart on August the first
episode and that's when the trailer drops, So everybody's assuming
that that was another Disney Easter A, yeah, that that
was intentionally a reference to a one division moment. One
of the things that I thought was really interesting is
that this reminds me a little bit of a storyline
(06:43):
that actually happened in the Spider Man comics, but it's
a different a totally different storyline um in that. So
the reason why Dr Strange is in this movie is
that if you remember, at the end of the previous
Spider Man film, Spider Man comes home and his identity
is revealed on national television by Jay Jonah Jameson, and
(07:06):
you wonder, well, how the heck is he going to
deal with this? Well, clearly he's dealing with the aftermath
of that in the beginning of this movie, but he
wants to ask after Strange if there's some way that
they could reverse things so that not everyone knows he's
Spider Man, and then we get into the whole multiverse stuff.
And the thing this reminds me of is there was
a Spider Man storyline in which Spider Man has to
(07:28):
make a deal with Mephisto, which erases everyone's knowledge that
he is that Peter Parker is Spider Man. UM. Totally
different circumstances, but a similar kind of idea. And in
a way, you could argue that this is almost like
a multiverse flipping on its head of that particular storyline. UM.
(07:50):
The little easter eggs I spotted I loved. I have
not gone through like frame by frame or anything like that,
but I really dug the trailer or teaser I should say,
it's not really a full trailer. Yeah, I I did too.
I there was a little bit of comedy and it
it did seem a lot more serious than the other
(08:10):
Spider Man trailers UM, which I guess happens as Spider
Man grows up. So but I am very excited about it.
I think it will be a good ushering into this
new phase of the m c u UM agreed. I
also said that I hope that they go to a
reality where Doctor Strange and Peter Parker are both British,
(08:32):
so that way Tom holland Becummer Badge can speak in
their normal accent. You know, you put that on Twitter
and I almost tweeted back, save something for the show.
Show that's fair. But but it is interesting again with
the whole tide to wand Division because one it's going
to be in Multiverse of Madness that you know, they
thought Mephisto was going to be in wand Division, And
(08:55):
this is very similar to another storyline. Even though we
know King the Conqueror is going to be a big
bag bad in this uh in this phase. Well maybe
maybe it'll be one of those things where Kang is
like the big big bad early on and Mephisto ends
up being like the Thanos level big bad at the
end of the phase. You never know. Yeah, possibly, but
we'll see, Like the I I honestly, at this point,
(09:18):
I'm not sure that Marvel should ever pull the Mephisto card,
just because it will consistently become that joke about maybe
it's Mephisto. But let's move on and talk a little
bit about So shank Chi is about to come out
in theaters and I'm really looking forward to seeing that
when it comes out to streaming because I won't be
going to the theater um. But I have to have
(09:38):
to wait forty five days for that. But we also
got a trailer for the next film in the Marvel series,
The Eternals. It's the final trailer in that What did
you think of this trailer? Um? I liked it. They
gave us a little bit more of a story. I
know what's going to happen in this movie. Kind Of
it almost feels so grandiose that I I can't care,
(10:02):
got you? Yeah, you know what, I can see that
like the idea, but like it's kind of like the
opposite of Spider Man, right, because Spider Man is such
a a street level hero that it's something that you
could relate to, like the idea of someone swooping into
rescue you if you were about to get mugged or something.
But when you're talking about existential threats, it starts to
(10:22):
get so big that it's hard to wrap your mind
around it. Um. We do get answers about why the
Eternals didn't, well, sort of answers about why the Eternals
didn't intervene during the whole Thanos thing. That's not terribly
satisfying answer because it kind of just sort of punts
it down the road a little bit. But UM, you know,
(10:43):
I feel the same way. I'm hoping that when I
see the movie it really clicks with me. I'm hoping
also that one of the reasons I don't feel a
deep connection yet is that I don't know these characters.
So maybe once I get to know the character, I
will care more. But right now I'm kind of in
the same boat that you are in. I mean, so
(11:05):
the characters do have more personality. There's you know, we
get to see a little bit about all of them.
They recently talked about how Jimmy Chan is going to
be a nuanced female hero, which we almost talked about,
but then there was too much exciting news to discuss instead.
So like, I feel like I will have to go
into it just assuming I know nothing about the story
and enjoy it for its own piece of fantasy. I
(11:27):
think to to really get into this movie, it looks
like it's going to be stunning. Yeah, it's the visuals
look great. I haven't connected to the characters yet, but
hopefully the film will do that for me. But one
thing I am absolutely certain is going to work for
me is Anthony Mackie signing on to be Captain America
(11:48):
for the fourth Captain America film. I am super excited
about that. Me too, Me too. I think he did
a great job in Falcon and Winter Soldier, even though
the overall mini series was not my favorite of the
Disney television shows. Uh, but honestly, I'm kind of surprised
that it's news at this point because that's how they
(12:11):
left off the TV show so well. For me, it
was the news was more that they were actually going
to make a fully fledged Captain America film, as opposed
to just having him play a role like The Hulk
where he shows up in other movies but he doesn't
get his own film. Gotcha, gotcha? Yeah, I am. I
am happy about that. I hope that Bucky is his
(12:32):
sidekick because I really like their chemistry together. Yeah, I
do too. And Anthony Mackie is just like, he's such
a he's such a charismatic actor. Um and, and I'm
really looking forward to to seeing him on the big
screen as Captain America. Also like, I can't wait to
see a full Disney budget behind like all those effects
(12:56):
and costumes and stuff. The Disney Plus was actually surprisingly
good for a streaming television series as far as effects goes,
but still obviously a tier below like Disney feature film quality.
And also hopefully by that time we'll be back in
theaters and able to um watch it on the big
(13:17):
screen and get all of those little details that they
stick in there. Yeah, I certainly hope so. Well, we've
got some more news items to cover, because, like we said,
there's a lot that's what happens when we take a
week off. But we'll we'll come back and cover some
more news items after this quick break. We're back from
(13:45):
our break, and here's a story that we could have
kind of lump in with the previous ones because it
is Disney Marvel related, but it was of the segment
One Go Way too long, and it's a follow up
on a couple of different stories that kind of don't
reflect so well on on Disney and Marvel, one of
(14:05):
them being that Scarlett Johansson famously sued Disney for the
fact that the company chose to release Black Widow both
in theaters and on streaming, but her compensation agreement was
hinged upon the box office take, not the streaming take,
(14:26):
and she had allegedly asked to negotiate to have streaming
incorporated into that, and Disney and Marvel reportedly didn't return
her calls, essentially, and so she's taken it to court
and um. Then the other one has to do with
shang Chi. Yes, So after that happened and they're still
(14:49):
working through it. Um. And at first, at first I
was like, surely Disney could not have released this movie
that she is a producer on without discussing it with
her first. But you know, there everything with them so
tight lipped that I guess they did. Um. So now
they're looking to adjust things and try to finally figure
out how to fairly compensate their actors. Uh. And with
(15:11):
shang Chi, they said, well, we're going to do exclusively
movie theaters for forty five days and then bring it
to Disney Plus, which will be a fun experiment, which
upset the actors of of shang Chi because they're like,
we're not an experiment. Yeah, so yeah, we're not an experiment.
We are a valued part of this overall enterprise of
(15:35):
the m c U. Like this is like to them,
this is to really to everyone, this is a big deal.
It's a major motion picture. It has you know, has
Asian cast taking the primary spot in a major superhero film,
and this is a big deal. And so using a
(15:55):
word like experiment carries with it a lot of baggage that,
whether you intended it or not, is definitely not appropriate
to describe the situation. And so, yeah, Disney and Marvel
really mostly Disney has found itself kind of at the
heart of this sort of uh storm of scandal. Seems
(16:17):
like it's too strong of a word, but brew haha,
if you prefer and um. You know, originally I was
kind of like, I'm staying out of the whole Scarlett
Johannson Disney thing because it's hard for me to get,
you know, emotionally invested in millionaires being upset at trillionaires. Um.
But on the other hand, hearing more of the story,
assuming that Scarlett Johansson's version of events is is the
(16:42):
accurate one, it's hard to not feel for her because
she if your compensation is dependent upon the profits, and
if there was a decision to switch out the distribution
model and you were left of that discussion so that
(17:02):
you could not have your compensation reflect that, I mean,
that's a big deal. If that happened to me, I
certainly would be up in arms about it. Yeah, yeah,
I agree it It's one of those things that so
I have the same issue where I'm like, it's so
much money, and she made so much money, and if
they hadn't. I certainly the box office was affected by
(17:27):
the fact that they released it on streaming as well
as in theaters, but it also released at a time
that not a lot of people were going to theaters.
And I also so, I don't it had a really
good opening weekend, and after that the ticket sales dropped off,
and I, you know, I don't know how much is pandemic.
(17:48):
I don't know how much of it is people being
interested in a black widow movie. I think Scarlett Johnson
did a fantastic job and I enjoyed it, but you know,
going in it wasn't a superhero movie. I hate to
say it, it it wasn't superhero movie that I was exceptionally
excited about when I first heard about it. It was
much more excited about Captain Marvel, for instance. Well, and
(18:10):
also on top of that, like Disney pulled this so
Ariel and I are both big Disney fans, but we
both can also recognize when a company does stuff that's
not cool, and this was not cool where Disney essentially
played the We just wanted people to be safe during
the pandemic, so we wanted to give them the option
to watch this at home. It's a shame that you
(18:32):
want people to go to the theater and risk their
lives that you have a bigger paycheck, which is not
what Scotlett Johanson was saying. And it ignores the fact
that Disney still released it in the theaters. Like if
that were truly the case, then they wouldn't have released
in the theaters at all. They would have gone only
to streaming at home. So it was a disingenuous, insincere
(18:53):
and sleazy thing to say. And like, it pains me
to say that to you, Disney, but you did or
dirty Yes, I agree, And it's very frustrating, and it
is frustrating for to hear them say Shang Chi is
an experiment, even if it is just on the financial
release side of things, Like I get that that is
an important data point of where do we find that
(19:14):
balance between in theaters and distribution and on streaming, because
everybody's still figuring that out right, But um, you know,
I don't know if they would say the same thing
if it were the next Captain America a movie, if
it were Multiverse of Madness, you know. But in the end, disnease,
Disney's a company, and as much as I might like
(19:37):
some of the stuff they put out, You've got to
remember that. And companies don't always make great decisions. Yeah yeah,
and like and and this is this could be something
where we just point at the new CEO of Disney
and say, you, you might need to take some emotional
intelligence sources. I definitely think he needs to take some
EI courses. That being said, everything I've heard about shank
(19:59):
Chi so far has been fantastic. Every every advanced review
I have seen has got me so excited, Like I
was already excited, Like I didn't have any expectation for
shang Chi. I was not familiar with the property. I
never read those comics. Obviously, the film adaptation is a
very different take than the original nineteen seventies comic book,
(20:21):
which honestly is what we needed because otherwise it would
just be kind of a Bruce Lee sort of clone. Um.
But everything I've seen makes me think like this is
this is one of those movies that could easily be
in the the very top part of like favorite Marvel films,
Like they might go right up there with things like
(20:41):
Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, like films that
I think are some of the best of the m
c U. I I agree, I expected to take a
very high place in my in my bracket of Marvel films.
I do hope that releasing solely to theaters doesn't hurt
their box office. I hope they have great numbers for that,
even though hesitant to have a bunch of people in
(21:04):
movie theaters at the moment um, you know, I want
them to succeed, and I want Disney to see that
there really is value in in more diversity in their superheroes. Um,
and more martial arts because I like martial arts. I
like martial arts. Yeah. You know someone who also really
likes martial arts Batman. And one of Batman's many villains
(21:27):
is the Penguin. Yeah, because I couldn't say Penguin likes
martial arts. Penguin likes. Penguin likes heists and stealing art,
and often if it's in the nineteen seventies, he likes
to steal. He likes crimes that relate to birds. Um.
But yeah, we wanted to talk about this story where
there's an upcoming big annual for Batman Villains coming out
(21:49):
that's that's going to focus largely on the Penguin. But
also other Batman villains, because Batman, out of all superheroes,
I argue, Batman has the best rogues gallery. The Batman's
got the best villains, bar none better than Superman, better
than any Marvel character. He also has some of the worst.
(22:10):
But yes, I agree, he has some of the best.
But you got Joker, Riddler, Penguin, You've got like Zazz
You've got yeah, okay, alright, calendar Man, you know, yeah,
continent many so anyway, one of the stories in this annual,
(22:30):
because it's like it's a collection of different stories, but
one of them is being written by Danny de Vito,
who played the penguin Batman Returns. Yeah. I I never
took Danny de Vito as a comic book writer, so
(22:50):
but I really liked his portrayal of the character. So
I'm really interested to see what stories come out of
him having been in that mindset. Yeah, no, I I
don't think I've really like, I don't know of any
of his written work. I mean, I know obviously of
his his acting and his directing, so I wasn't even
(23:12):
I wasn't even aware that he would have any interest
in writing a comic right, Like often when you talk
to actors. If you see interviews, like really earnest interviews
with actors and they're talking about stuff they've done, you
can kind of get this disappointing feeling that that you know,
for some of them, it's it's the mentality of a
(23:33):
gigs a gig, right, like, Yeah, they went in and
they did their best, and they did an amazing job.
But it was a job. It wasn't anything more than that.
It had no other further meaning. Then occasionally run into
other people like Tom Hittleston and Tom Holland, who takes
such incredible value and ownership of the parts that they
(23:54):
play that it's very clear it means a lot to them.
So I didn't think of the paying and being like
a sauce spot for day de Vito, But apparently it's
enough for him to actually contribute to this work, and
I'm very curious to see it. I am as well.
I think I'm going to read it. I it might
be one of my more favorite roles he's ever played,
(24:15):
quite honestly, Yeah, it's definitely. I really like his version
of the penguin. It's so different from the other versions
that we had seen. Now he's he's clearly an actual
monster in that Tim Burton film. He's not. He's not
like the rotund well to do uh Oswald cobble Pott,
(24:37):
who's also a master thief and and criminal. He's it's
beyond that. So yeah, really uh interesting, And it looks
at least from the illustration, that this incarnation of the
Penguin is going to at least bear some resemblance to
the the Batman returns. Um uh yeah for design yeah,
(25:03):
design yeah, speaking of designing. Speaking of designing, you know
who does a lot of designing. Uh, this is not
my strong suit. Um yeah, I'm gonna say kite man.
Uh well, probably yes, But I was trying to smoothly
(25:27):
segue into our next story, which I guess won't happen.
The people who are involved in a Broadway show do
a lot of designing, from sets to costumes, to sound
to lighting, and soon we will be able to get
all into the bowels of theater craft at a museum
of Broadway. Yeah. I can't wait to climb into those bowels. Yeah. No, no,
(25:54):
you're so sorry, everybody. I'm the one who's being a jerk.
You are being fine. Yeah, there's the museum of Broadway,
which will that's that's a term, right, You're absolutely yeah, absolutely,
you're absolutely right. I am the one being a jerk. Okay,
I mean no, like I was second guessing, like do
people not say that there are lots of things I
(26:15):
say that it's the Bulls of Theater in the Bulls, yeah,
like Cereal. Uh no, no, no, we're yeah, we're talking
about the Museum of Broadway, which is supposed to open
summer of twenty two. Not a whole lot to say
about other than if you read up on the description
of what the exhibits are going to be, it actually
(26:37):
sounds really cool to me, Like you were saying, Ariel,
it's supposed to give you kind of a behind the
scenes look literally in this case, at how shows come together,
the different components that make a show possible, also obviously
honoring the history of Broadway and some of the iconic shows.
I can't wait to go through the Cat's Wing. I'm
(26:57):
sure there will have to be don't know if there
is a Cat's Wing, but there will be a lot
of interactive exhibits and reality experiences. So the first it's
like a three section the museum, three section, theater three
section museum theater museum. It makes sense, all right. The
first section is kind of about how theater moved through
New York, The second section is about the shows, and
(27:18):
the third section is the behind the scenes look. So uh,
maybe there will be a cat's segment, but I hope
not a whole wing. I'm just hoping for a jelical
experience from beginning to end. If I don't get turn
the heavy side layer by the end of it, I'm
going to ask for my money back. I mean, you
don't want people assuming that they're going to die at
(27:39):
the end of Broadway experience rum tum Tugger to be
bumping and grinding all right up against me. I mean,
these are like the expectations I have for a museum
of Broadway. Okay, well, hopefully the ticket price will not
be too bad, so it will be an affordable experience,
cats experience for you John with then well we will
(28:02):
have to see you know. Well, we had one more
story that we were going to include, but we're running along,
but we will come back to that story, and that
is about the Star Wars Galactic Cruiser a Star Wars hotel.
It is a heck of a story to talk about,
because there's a lot of different things. In fact, we
could probably make that a whole segment by itself, especially
once we get to the price, but we'll leave that
(28:23):
for for maybe next week's episode. In the meantime, we're
gonna go to break and when we come back, we
will talk about the things that inspired this week's mash up.
But first let's uh, let's take that break I talked
about Ariel. Welcome back from the break. Thank you, Jonathan.
(28:55):
I'm glad to be back from the break. Ariel has
been breaking all episode. Yeah, apparently every segment my computer
is like, gotta this is such good content. I gotta restart.
That's true, Like after segment one and did it, and
after segment too, it did it? All right, Well, let's
talk about the stories that we didn't cover in our
(29:15):
earlier part of the episode, but that did inform our
mashup decision this week, and one of those is that
HBO Max is going to have a spinoff film focusing
on Black Canary, one of the characters from the Birds
of Prey film, And yeah, that's cool it is. I
(29:36):
liked Journey smollett in in the role, and she'll be
reprising it, and she's working with Misha Green, who she
also worked with on Lovecraft, worked with on Lovecraft Country. Uh.
But honestly, out of the Birds of Prey movie, if
I were going to pick a character that I wanted
to stand alone show, stand alone show from, it would
have been Huntress. Well, me too, but that's because I
(29:57):
have the biggest crush on Mary Elizabeth Winstead. But sure
she also was She had a She wrote a really
good line of comedic and dramatic and I enjoyed it.
But you know, I'm sure this will be really good again.
I think Journey Small it's a great actress. I think
she did a great job with the role. And what
is our second piece that has inspired our mash up
this week. It's that we are getting a Field of
(30:19):
Dreams television show for Peacock. Uh. Like the old movie,
if you build it, they will come. And it's being
done by the team from Parks and rec So that'll
be interesting. On whether it's a drama comedy. Yeah, it's
hard to imagine that they would do it as like
a kind of a drama the way the original film was.
(30:43):
If you've never seen the movie, it's about this guy
who gets obsessed with the concept of building a baseball
park in his corn field and then, um, you know
he's told if you build it, they will come. That's
where that famous phrase comes from. So yeah, I'm very
curious whether or not the Parks and Wreck crew will
(31:04):
leave behind their their comedic shops and sink into drama
or if it's going to be more of a wacky
version of that. I mean, so specifically it's Mike Michael Schert,
and so he also was involved in The Good Place
The Office where the Fruit Falls, So I'm guessing it
will be cheeky, even if it's a little more serious.
(31:26):
So with that in mind, we decided we would mash
up Birds of Prey with Parks and Wreck. Uh So,
just in case you're not familiar with Parks and Wreck,
it was a sitcom that was kind of uh it
really for the first few episodes was heavily modeled on
The Office, but followed the story of Leslie Nope, the
(31:49):
head of the Parks and Reck department in the city
of Pawnee, Indiana, and then ultimately they kind of made
their own thing. Um, they got away from being so
similar to The Office, which was good because those first
few episodes are a little hard to watch, but after
that they get amazing. It's it was one of the
(32:10):
most consistently surreal, absurd and funny shows. That's where Chris
Pratt really came to prominence, Like he really stood out.
And you know, I would say Aubrey Plaza as well. Yes, yes,
Aubrey plazas April fantastic. So yeah, great series and uh
yeah it was when Ariel pitched this one, I was like,
(32:33):
I don't know how I'll do it, but I know
I want to do it. Um, so we each of
our mashups. Ariel, I'm going to ask you who do
you want to go first? Um, I would like you
to go first. And also give everybody just a tiny
bit of a rundown of what Birds of Prey are
if they had not other than eagles and hawks and falcons,
if they hadn't watched the movie or the old TV
(32:55):
show right right. So Birds of Prey is, uh, it's
essentially it's a different it's several different groups of characters
in the d C universe who have formed essentially a
vigilante hero group, and so they're different incarnations. It's not
always the exact same characters kind of like Guardians of
the Galaxy too. I mean, we're familiar with one lineup
(33:17):
of Guardians of the Galaxy from the films, but in
the comics there have been several different characters and several
lineups of that group. Well. In the film Birds of
Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn, uh, the
Birds of Prey consisted of Black Canary, who has a
metahuman ability to uh to project her voice and use
(33:38):
it as like a sonic weapon, Huntress who's mad crazy
good at shooting things with crossbows uh, and eventually a
former detective named Montoya who joins the group, and then
Harley Quinn is also there. In fact, Harley Quinn shouldn't
be there at all, but they wanted her to have
a movie. It really ends up being more of a
(33:58):
Harley Quinn movie than a Birds of Ray movie, which
was something that I got upset about. But um, the
film is still entertaining if you can just get past
the fact that I'm a grouchy old man, and I
got grouchy because I wanted it to be a Birds
of Prey movie in not a Harley Quinn movie. Well, uh,
at least she get an HBO TV show now, so
(34:20):
why don't and Margot Robbie was amazing, so she was
why don't you, grumpy old man into your mashup? Okay,
my mashup is called Birds of Pawnee. Leslie Nope, has
a problem. Pawnee's Harvest Festival is coming up, and while
the band mouse Rat has been threatening to reunite for
the seventh time, there's still an enormous gap left by
(34:43):
the absence of Lil Sebastian, even ten years after the
horse's demise. So she forms a party planning committee, even
calling in her old friend Ann Perkins to join in.
Tom says he's got it all covered, and then he
called up a party planning company to stock the festival
full of superheroes because they're totally the hot thing for
(35:04):
as long as Disney says, so he says. Leslie, impressed
with Tom's proactive approach, but a little worried about what
heroes are going to show up, tries to come up
with a backup plan, but the next day, April comes
in and says that there's a group of weirdos that
have come in to see her, So Leslie goes to
the conference room to discover the Huntress, Black Canary, detective Montoya,
(35:27):
and for some reason Harley Quinn waiting there. Can I
help you? She says, Well, we're here to help you,
says Montoya. Oh you're from the party company. You're our heroes,
says Leslie. I understand all those words, and I'm still confused,
says Harley. What exactly is going on? Says the Black Canary. Well,
(35:51):
so what, We've got the Harvest Festival at the end
of the week, and that's why we're gonna need all
of you, says Leslie. Where's the guy who called us?
Asks Huntress. So Leslie gives an anxious grin to the
camera and then leans out of the room and yells
for Tom, who shows up and immediately makes googoo eyes
at Huntress because she's dreamy. As I have previously established,
(36:15):
you called and said there was an emergency, says Huntress
to Tom. It's totally an emergency. I need the entertainment
at this festival to be on point. I've got potential
investors in that crowd, says Tom. Hang On, says Harley,
So you called a vigilante justice group out to the
middle of nowhere to act as entertainment at a festival.
(36:38):
The middle of nowhere is a bit harsh, says Leslie.
Pawnee has a rich and problematic history, filled with amazing
stories which some are admittedly not fit for history classes
unless you first sign a waiver? Can it? Says Montoya,
who then looks at the others. I told you this
was a mistake, so you called in Vigilantes. I thought
(36:59):
you said it is a company that provided characters for parties,
says Leslie to Tom. Look, I did a perfunctory Google
search and called the top number, because that's always the
best number, says Tom. Google ads screwed us again, says Huntress.
I don't know. I think we could use the vacation,
says Harley. I'm with Quinn, says Black Canaria. Beats chasing
(37:22):
down hoodlums and blowing up third rate batman villains. Montoya
shoots some dirty looking as a nope, can we have
the room? Sure? Sure, says Leslie, and she grabs Tom
and they both leave the room. She turns to him
and says, what were you thinking? Now? We've got vigilantes
in city hall for goodness sake. What would Pawnee's bounder,
Reverend Luther Howell. Say, probably tell me to leave Pawnee
(37:44):
and then confuse me for a Native American, says Tom. Yes,
that's probably true, says Leslie. Just then the conference room
door opens. Okay, we'll do it, says Harley. Great, says Leslie.
We cut to the Harvest festival. Jerry is sampling blueberry
pie and it dribbles down a shirt while he clubs.
Lee tries to clean up and makes a little noises.
(38:06):
April and Andy are daring Huntress to do lots of
trick shots by firing small crossbow bolts and stuff like
the sign above the stage, a balloon that's held by Tom,
who then lets out a high bitch screen, and a
candy apple held on a stick by Jerry, who somehow
manages to then spell more blueberry pie on himself in
the process. Ben is sitting with Leslie, looking absolutely terrified
(38:28):
as Hardly does some wicked roller skating tricks on a
half pipe. Next to the stage. Ron Swanson is chatting
with former detective Montoya about the most effect efficient way
to disassemble and clean firearms, and Donna and Black Canary
are warming up for their killer duet of the classic
song five Thousand Candles in the Wind attribute to Little Sebastian.
But as they are warming up, several men rush the stage.
(38:51):
Black Canary knocks two of them down, and Huntress is
about to shoot a third when April shouts wait, and
that's when they realize that yes, indeed it is mouse
Rat and they have come to provide the backing for
this duet. So you know, christis averted. Though Andy now
has a black eye and the drummer can't walk anymore.
The festival otherwise goes off without you know, many more hitches,
(39:11):
and the next day Leslie is in her office chatting
with the camera. Well, I have to admit it, it
wasn't the disaster I thought it would be. Those ladies
really know how to put on a show. We've received
thirteen letters so far saying it was the best festival yet,
and only two saying it was the worst thing to
ever happen in the history of the planet, and both
(39:31):
of those were from Jeremy Jams, so they don't even count.
It was a pretty amazing day, one I'll always be
thankful for. Though it does turn out that Gotham City
was overrun with Hoodlum's Last Night and two thirds of
it burned to the ground, So you know, sucks to
be them the end. Oh, I liked that. That was delightful.
(39:51):
That was so delightful. Now, so I was like, what
would a Parks and rec episode be if if the
Birds of Prey invaded? Well, I did the exact opposite.
So what would an episode of I Guess Batman be
or Birds of Prey thee if it were inhabited by
(40:11):
the characters from Parks and Wreck? So this is called
Gotham City, Parks and Wreck, birds of a Park flock together.
This story isn't about the Leslie Nope. You know. This
story is about a different Leslie Nope, A darker Leslie Nope,
a Nope that was never born in her beloved Ponty,
but was rather birthed into the underbelly of Gotham. Leslie
(40:31):
a k a. The Nopingale had a passion for parks
and Recreation, but had an even larger passion for bad boys.
After lard and failed romances with the Brandano Riddler and
the Tragermeister and kite Man, she swore off relationships and
focused all of her mannic attention on restoring Gotham City Park,
which up to that point had been a haven for bums,
possums and vegetarians. Yuh. She wanted to turn it into
(40:55):
a place where babies, puppies and tiny horses could frolic safely,
and the people of Atham, we're glad for it. The
project wasn't without its hurdles, however, but she was determined
to succeed. And that's when Ben Wyatt entered the picture.
A mild mannered accounting nerd, he said he would help
her make the park the most glorious thing the people
of Gotham had ever seen, no matter the cost. She
(41:15):
fell instantly in love with his determination, and they started
taking down every obstacle in their way. The obstacle like
Gotham City Bank for funding, the obstacle like the Gotham
City Zoo for their own petting attractions. Then one day
Ben told her to show up at Gotham City Park
at sunset. So she did. When Leslie got there, she
found the entire park, babies, puppies, possums and all frozen
(41:36):
into a giant skating rink. He maniacally said, today, the park, tomorrow,
the city, soon the world, and That's when Leslie realized
that ben Wyatt was not an accounting nerd, but rather
none other than the Ice Clown himself. She broke up
with him after only a brief monologue about her bad
choices and men, and vowed to stop him and though
the park. This angered the ice Clown, but before he
(41:58):
could grab him punish, Leslie skated away, which anchored the
Ice Clown even more so. He called upon all of
her past flames, as well as a few other of
his nefarious friends, Johnny Karate, Freddy Spaghetti to face Haverford,
and John Ralphael, the King of Cool Cats, to hunt
her down. Leslie thought, fine, who can play at this game?
So she fashioned an arsenal from playground equipment swing shots,
(42:20):
chain see saws, and a portable slide cannon, and recruited
her own squad to fight back. All women who flew
just under the radar of what was acceptable twisting law
in Gotham City planning code to their whims, All women
who could be blackmailed into assisting. But what you call
this team of her closest gallop, How's Leslie thought? Her chicks? Chicks,
(42:40):
That's it, she thought, and she has signed them all
bird code names Donna, Mockingbird, April Ludgate, a K A Jenets,
Snake Eagle, and a storkins. In the process of chasing
and fighting each other, they thawed the ice, accidentally set
the zoo animals loose, exploded a waste management plant, collapsed
to ferris wheel, and leveled several buildings until all that
(43:01):
was left of Gotham City Park was a pit, a
big giant hit. And that's when Commissioner Swanson showed up,
yelling stop it, and he arrested them all. He hadn't
wanted a new park, he didn't like the old one,
but he was going to be damned if these ne'er
do wells were going to ruin the rest of his city.
He locked a lot of them up in Gotham Penitentiary,
(43:24):
all except Leslie, who he put on work detail to
fill the pit. He saw too much good in her
to let her rotten prison. The end, I love it,
I love it, Thank you well. That is our mash
up of parks and rec and birds of prey. Clearly
two masterpieces, both of which will soon come to Peacock
(43:46):
like something. Probably won't, but they because D C. D
C as part of the Warner family, and so that's true.
It would be a little bit of a trick to
go from HBO Max to Peacock, but maybe we can
make it happen. Um. But yeah, we're curious to hear
what your thoughts are on our mashups or your own
(44:07):
mashups if you have some plus, if you have any
concept of like mashups we should do in the future.
You know, just unrelated stuff. The more unrelated typically the better.
If it's two things that are kind of similar, it's
it's hard to make anything creative out of that. You
can't really do a lot of free association kind of
with that stuff. But if you've got any suggestions like that,
shoot us an email. The email address we have is
(44:30):
l n C at iHeart media dot com. Yeah, you
can also reach out to us on social media and
say hi. At Twitter we are l n C Underscore Podcast,
and at Facebook and Instagram we're a large inner drunk Collider.
We'd really love to hear from you and talk with you.
And if you like our show, make sure to like subscribe,
share with your friends. The more people we get to
(44:52):
geek out with more fun everybody has, right and until
next time, I am Jonathan. I We'll be saving money
forever so I can go on the Star Wars Galactic Cruise.
Strickland and I am Ariel. This is my Harley Quinn
voice cast in m M M m M. The Large
(45:33):
Nurderun Collider is production of I Heart Radio and was
created by Ariel cast. Jonathan Strickland is the executive producer.
This show is produced, edited, and published by Tarry Harrison.
For more podcasts on my heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!