Halloween Spirit: The Stuff with Josh Griffey

Josh Griffey from the Messed Up Movies podcast joins Brian to prove that enough is never enough of The Stuff!

Are you consuming this podcast...or is this podcast consuming you? 


Nope, it's definitely the first one. 


Support us on Patreon!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When I was a little girl, I didn't think there
was anything that I liked better than ice cream. Now
I'm a big though, when I've decided there's something I like.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Much better.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's called the stuff. And believe me, now it's ever enough.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Guys A meaning.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Junk and watching robberish, you better come out.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
And stop me. All right, this is Dick Miller.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
If you're listening to Junk Food Cinema, who are these guys?

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Get ready to stuff your faces, especially your ears, with
a brand new episode of Junk Food Cinema, brought to
you by Benign Bacteria.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
Dot com dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Dot We have to keep the world safe for ice cream.
This is, of course, the weekly cult exploitation filmcast, so
good it just has to be fattening. I am your host,
Brian Salisbury, and we are still very much in the
Halloween spirit.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
And we want you to join us.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
Join us, joy us.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
But one person who won't be joining us this week
is Cargill, who was just too stuffed to record this week.
So in his stead we have the Mad Russian of
Junk Food Cinema.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Not because he's.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
From Russia, mind you, but because he's always Russian. From
one perfectly inappropriate joke to the next. He is the
co host of the Messed Up Movies podcast and a
crafter of disgusting nightmares at Misfit Parade Productions. Ladies and Gentlemen,
Boys and girls, Ready or not, Here comes Josh Griffy.

Speaker 5 (02:19):
My god, Brian, I think I just made stuff in
my pants at the incredible entry.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
This guy.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
You're on the show long enough and you eat enough
of the food that we recommend you will constantly be
making stuff in your pants.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
Yeah, it's you know, one way or another. Front's backs.
It's all stuffed.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Hey, speaking of being stuffed, why don't you cram eleven
years of junk Food Cinema into your ear holes because
we have an entire back catalog over a decade worth
of episodes on your favorite podcast. You can follow us
on social media and if you really like the show.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I mean you really like the show, I mean.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
You like it as much as Michael Moriarty likes Taking
the Breaks off of Sanity, you can go to Patreon
dot com jrug Fud Cinema financially support the show.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
We greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
We've popped the lid on our Halloween content, and, as
today's film will attest, once you pop, you can't stop.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
It's nineteen eighty Five's the Stuff warning.

Speaker 6 (03:15):
We interrupt this presentation with the following urgent message regarding
the stuff. If you see it in stores, call the police.
If you have it in your home, don't touch it.
Get out. The stuff is a product of nature, a
deadly living organism. It is addictive and destructive. It can
overcome your mind and take over your body, and nothing

(03:39):
can stop it.

Speaker 7 (03:51):
Are you prepared to say on the air that you've
actually seen people devoured by the stuff?

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Tonight? America is in grave danger.

Speaker 7 (04:07):
Hey, it's Giva giant.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
It's gonna carry you at.

Speaker 6 (04:26):
The stuff. You have been worn, Griffy.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
Was this your first time grappling with the stuff? Or
have you have you ingested it before?

Speaker 6 (04:38):
No?

Speaker 5 (04:38):
I actually have seen this movie many times. I think
this is one of the prime examples of I think
something you really champion here at Jung Food Cinema. But
it's just a movie that completely out kicks its coverage.
Oh yeah, on every single level. Right, I'm on, I'm
scrolling the internet now, reading the elevator pitch. I'm looking
at Stelle's production stale. It's all this stuff, You're like.

(05:01):
This has all the hallmarks of a movie that should
absolutely suck every ball available to it, but somehow is
just so incredible.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Right.

Speaker 5 (05:09):
The script is incredible. Michael Moriarty's character is Mo ruffafued, right.
I just want Mo of it all the time. It's
such an underappreciated character. The stuff effects are shockingly great.
Chocolate chip charge Like, this movie just has every single
thing I love in it, and I can't believe it
works as well as it does.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
There are character names in this movie that feel like
they read from the cash sheet of a misfit parade short,
and I appreciate.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
I'm going to take that as a huge compliment.

Speaker 4 (05:40):
You should because and much like you, I very much
appreciate nineteen eighty five's This Stuff, or as I call it,
Invasion of the Blobby Snatchers.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
But I didn't always.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
This is a movie I've been trying to book for
only a yeah, for a short time. I've been trying
to book this movie because I had a cinematic redemption
with The Stuff. A couple of years back, or it
may have even been within the last calendar year. I
did not like the Stuff initially, and probably for the
same reason some audiences didn't, and when I say some,
I mean most audiences didn't, is that I was expecting

(06:15):
a straightforward horror movie and this is something much smarter,
much more darkly comedic, and you know, something that needs
to be enjoyed on a different level. But to speak
to something you said about this movie outkicking its coverage,
which is the perfect expression for either of us to use,
because we are two guys who could use that expression
when it comes to our spouses. Absolutely both very much

(06:36):
did OutKick our coverage there. But the thing that I
think is the reason that the stuff outkicks its coverage
is because that punter happens to be Larry Cohen aka
King Cohen, aka one of the absolute greatest schlockmeisters of
all time, a guy who is kind of it feels

(06:59):
like Roger Korman's kid brother. But yeah, you know, And
to get ready for this episode, I rewatched King Cohen,
which is the documentary about his life and his work,
and Mick Garris, the legendary horror director, said of Larry Cohen,
he's really he produces really radically unique entertainment.

Speaker 5 (07:18):
So I love Larry Cohen I saw him on a
shudder did like the hundred scariest movies, and this was like,
to me, like a summary of why I love Larry Cohen.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
Right, they're talking about.

Speaker 5 (07:28):
The Shining and arguably one of the greatest masterpieces in
the whore genre, and they cut to Larry Cone and
he just goes, you know that Kubrick a real stickler
for details, no oxidation of the breath in the snow,
and he's like and he just kind of does this
like New York struggling, what are we gonna do? As
like that such a perfectly shitty take on that movie.

(07:51):
But again, because that's like Larry Cohen. He probably spent
his whole career people telling him he was making trash movies. Right,
God told me to que the wing Serpent. I'm actually
a huge, huge fan of It's Alive the trilogy. I
got my wife to rewatch all those with me this year.
Michael Moriarty plays the father of one of the creatures
in part three. Right, great scene when he bangs a prostitute.
She's like, get it off, man, you're gonna give me

(08:12):
a thing neither here nor there that has nothing to
do with the stuff.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
But I think I think.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
Larry Cohen embraces that guy who did more with less
and just he probably always heard that critique and it
doesn't feel fair to him because so many of his
peers and compatriots at the time these movies are clearly
putting in a lot more work on the idea side
of the movie, right, And you can laugh at that
for the stuff and it's alive whatever. But to me,
when I watch this movie, it evokes that same thing

(08:37):
I loved in RoboCop, right, kind of this biting societal commentary.
It has the fake commercials, right, so that's a very
surface level comparison. But she's even watching Jason run around
the grocery store and destroy things and fight his family.
I think there's a commentary to this. And when you're
working at low budget, to me, the idea is the king, Right,
You're never gonna match the big movies, But if you

(08:58):
put the time and love in to the idea, that's
where Larry Cohen separates from me.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
The thing about him that I've always appreciated is that
he is a maverick and a gorilla.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
He is a guy who literally started his career writing
TV and just trying to get on and constantly being
thwarted by, you know, directors and actors. So when he
started running into static with directors and actors changing the
course of what he was writing, he decided, well, I'm
just gonna direct. I'm gonna direct it myself. That way
I can control both facets of it. And then it's like,

(09:31):
now I'm bumping up against studio, so I'm just gonna
produce shit myself. So he's a guy who literally just
out of necessity in order to maintain the integrity of
his vision. And it's hilarious to use words like that
when we're talking about movies like it's a live three
Island of the Alive.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
I understand that, dude, that movie is so fucking good.
By the way, if you ever anywhere with me and
you give me like two beers, I will talk about
that movie for so long.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
And that's the thing is his whole body of work
is like that, where it's like, it's not about what
the movies about, it's how Larry brings what the movie's
about to the screen. It's the way that he delivers,
and he is so dedicated, so dedicated in fact, that
he will do fucking anything to get the right shot.
And when I say anything, I mean he will steal shots.
He will make bullet casing like empty you know, like

(10:19):
blank shell bullet casings fall from the top of the
Chrysler building without a permit nor telling anybody below that
it's happening. And when his ad says, hey, we're causing
a panic down there, he says, take a camera down
there and shoot it.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
We'll use that too, always be using it.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Yeah, that was like when I got Werner Herzog's master
Class and he's like, walk full three thousand miles in
a straight nine, brings the bolt cutters. He's like if
you would have seen him get arrested, And I was like,
what does this have to do with movies? And I
was like, do I not care about sentimental There's something
about the guy who just so cares about their vision
air quotes that they're just like, yeah, crimes are an

(10:54):
acceptable price to.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
See this movie on the screen.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
And by the way, this is a Larry Cohen movie
distributed by New World Pictures, which means Roger Corman is
also involved. You got Roger Corman and Larry Cohen. It's
like the Twin Powers of B movie Royalty Hit the
Corman alone. I kind of went down a rabbit hole

(11:20):
preparing for this episode because in addition to watching The Stuff,
in addition to watching King Cohen, I crossed a couple
of Larry Cohen movies off my list that I hadn't
seen yet, one of which was one you mentioned, God
Told Me To, Yeah, which is just a fucking fascinating,
fascinating film that I think is begging to be remade
because there's so many interesting ideas in that movie.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
And then I also watched I The Jury with Armanda Sante,
which is Larry Cohen. Note, so this is Larry Cohen
writing a Mike Hammer Mickey spellane detective story and played
by Armanda Sante, And it's several fucking incredibly insane movies
all crammed into one, and it's it's absolutely amazing. But

(12:02):
I just kept coming back to noticing themes in his movies.
So one of them is the idea of mass hysteria,
where you see it and God Told Me to you
also kind of see it in the Stuff. There's also
the idea of turning the innocent or innocuous things in
life into malevolent forces. It's alive is a great example
of that. The stuff is a great example of that.

(12:23):
And then deep state corruption is a theme that keeps
coming up again as again, you know, whether it's God
told me to e the jury or the stuff.

Speaker 5 (12:33):
Yeah, well, when you were mentioning, God told me to us, like,
this might not be the right time for that movie, right,
we need escape this.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
In in our world now.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
And that's one of those movies that you're like, wow,
that's kind of getting better with age, but for the
wrong reasons. But yeah, I think the Larry Cohen esthetic,
I think there's there's and it's a very overused, kind
of trite thing to say, right, but there's a punk
rock attitude to it which is sure yelling up at
the powerful, and Michael Moriarty's just this normal, wise, crack
guy who just walks through just kind of easily dismantling

(13:03):
it and punching people in the face. But it doesn't
change the fact that these systems are always pressing down
on us, whether it's the news, whether it's your parents,
whether it's rich guys on a yacht. And I think
that's just something that people always latch onto, right. If
this is something we have a big debate right now
in the comedy world, which is good comedy punches up

(13:24):
and I think good horror movies punch up too right.
And again, I'm sure there are people that would take
umbrage with calling this a horror movie, but to me,
this is fucking terrifying rights as a fat guy, I
was like, this would be the worst movie for me
to possibly exist. I would be the very first day
one casualty. I'd be the first guy on the street
corner with like a spinny set.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
A coke, get some stuff. Whew, that would be my life.

Speaker 6 (13:50):
If the taste doesn't get your cream.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
Will So for those of you who haven't seen the stuff,
this is a movie about Again. This is the great
thing about Larry Cohen is in addition to being you know,
having being a maverick, being a gorilla filmmaker, having that
punk rock spirit, I think one of his other great
traits is his ability to improvise, his ability to build
something great, something unique, something really spectacular out of the

(14:18):
smallest seat, right like, for example, Maniac Cop, which is
one of my favorite of his movies, Maniac Cop and
Maniac Cop two.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
You know that you did with Bill Lustig.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
One of my favorite things about that is that that
whole franchise, there's three of those movies, right, started not
with a script, not with an idea, but with a tagline,
like literally, Larry Cohen came up with a tagline, you
have the right to Remain silent forever, and Bill Lustick said,
that's not just a poster, Larry, that's a movie. And
then from thence into Maniac Cop and here again with

(14:51):
The Stuff. It's this is a movie about killer yogurt. Yes, like,
let me rip the bandaid off right now. The Stuff
is a movie about killer yogurt. It's a mysterious, sweet,
addictive substance that they find pretty much bubbling up from
the bowels of the earth. That becomes a popular dessert
in America, but it starts to have this really negative,

(15:11):
weird effect on people, and certain individuals within the country
are like, this needs to be stopped, We need to
root this out. That's the elevator pitch is essentially this
is a movie about killer yogurt.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
It's like when I was a kid and my mom
would take me to tcby if I just looked around
and I was like, there's something on tort going on here.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
I can't put my finger on it, you know.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
I remember Tcby came out and my mom was just
having us crush these like bowls of essentially froo and
she's like, it's healthy for you, and I was like,
there's no way it tastes. But see what it wasn't
doing was you know, that's the great line that he
has at the end, right, and he's like, are you
eating it?

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Or is it eating you? It's like that's and again.

Speaker 5 (15:48):
But this is kind of a the bastard child of
the Blob and basion of the body Snatcher, as you mentioned. Yeah,
and there is something very beautifully American about this film,
right that excessive, greedy mind dig it up and then
we as people just immediately start slapping it in our
face and our kids. At one point we see that
they're feeding it to dogs. And this really tackles that,

(16:09):
you know, kind of explosion of fast food and gluttony
that we've all. You know, everyone who loves junk food cinema,
I'm sure is in on this this craze too, But
I think that's what I love most. There's just this
pure American kind of fuck uness right now. The line
of exactly what this movie is. It's making fun of
us right to our faces, and we love it the
whole time.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, he has a line.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
Someone interviewed him about this movie and he made a
remark about he made a remark that felt like a
personal attack, Like, I know it wasn't, but.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
The whole movie is a personal attack. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
One of the things he said he cited as an
influence was the sheer volume of junk food we consume
every day. We continue to eat these foods despite the
fact that some of them are killing us, And I'm like, okay,
you're kind of stealing the log line from my podcast
as well.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
But I kind of saying, Larry, Yeah, hey, everything's killing us, Larry,
let us have something, Jesus, let me let me have
my fucking yogurt.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Let me have the cruelest beals above yogurt TZB why uh.
But he also said the main inspiration was the consumerism
and corporate greed found in our country and the damaging
products that are being sold. In fact, it's crazy that
we're talking about we're doing a full episode on this,
because just a couple of weeks ago, Weinberg and I
were doing an episode.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
On Overlord, and I don't even remember.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
How those old Sunny d commercials came up, but we
were talking sea I know, yeah, yeah, try to draw
a fucking line between those two I don't.

Speaker 5 (17:29):
Know, Nazis and Sunny d Yeah. I'll be working on
that for a while.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
So we were talking about those sunny Dee commercial from
nineties and how there was always the purple stuff, right, yeah,
like they would come in from playing basketball. Okay, we
got we got milk, we got juice, we got purple stuff. Oh,
Sunny d And I'm like, I want to hold on,
hold on, hold on. We just kind of breezed past
this what the fuck is the purple stuff? Because either
either you are coming over to Little Wayne's house after

(17:55):
fucking school.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
That's dude, I believe, Yeah, I believe that's the legal
label for it drink and.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Your mom's just letting you pound coating with your buddies
after school in between bites of bagel bites, or you know,
I need more information about what the purple stuff is.
And so we started going back and forth about what
a remake of the stuff would be like, and I
said I wanted to remake up the stuff that was
called the purple stuff, and I just want to know
what the fuck is in there in those commercials, or.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
It's the pink stuff, it's what they make the McNuggets
out of.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
There's so many you can call the remake TC bye bitch, right,
and that would be our remake and it.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Would just be all these things.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
It would be called like murder Berry or something. It
would be a frozen yellow place, right.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Ooh that's good.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah, I see, there's so many where Because again I
think what I also love about the stuff is it
gets right to the core of this also very American idea,
which is I know it's killing me, fuck you, it's
my freedom's right, Like we still smoke, we still drink
and drive, we do everything bad all the time. And
I do think it's a bold choice to just it
would be like going to an old country buffet and

(18:59):
walking around is like a Jersey shore guy with your
abs out and just being.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Like shape shit.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
And that's what this whole movie's about, right, And I
there's something I just I love about that, right, And again,
maybe we did grow up in this drinking ecdo cooler
snacks and what like mountain dewke code ran, I feel
like they were trying out a lot of stuff on us.
Oh right, was kind of like a back If RFK
Junior had said what he said in the nineties, we
might have been like maybe right, Like there's some weird

(19:27):
shit that they were trying out on us.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
The sheer amount of Nickelodeon products that they put out
for kids, like Floam and ghak and schmig or whatever.
I don't I don't know.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
Yes, well, if you remember Nickelodeon's entire core premise was
just spraying people with the stuff. That was the whole network, right,
just fucking dropping the stuff on us.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Slowly taking over their brains, like it come to the
Kid's Choice Awards and gets slimed, and then as soon
as you get slimmed, you're like in the family.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Now, right, what if this is what our K Junior's
brain worm was made up with? The stuff? Oh wait,
you think it's the It's not years and years of
drug uses. Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
He went on to, uh, uh, you can't do that
on television and said, I don't know one.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
So that was it.

Speaker 5 (20:09):
It couldn't possibly be from skinning bears and whales illegally.
Who knows what it's from. Man, maybe Cheryl's got something.
I just know this guy's wrong. There's something very wrong
with him. But I also know there was something very
wrong with the things we were eating in the nineties.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
All of this is true at the same time.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
Dunk a ruse, dunka you into a coffin, because they
will kill.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
You after these messages.

Speaker 6 (20:31):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 7 (20:32):
We taste go to day taste cakes every way, ki kid.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Enough the stuff and the stuff, the chaste that makes
you hungry for more.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Enough, it's never enough.

Speaker 5 (20:44):
The stuff taste that to liver.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
But I kept thinking about like remaking this, and about
how you could do this with a sort of like
Steve Jobs like figure and you know, like selling whatever
the latest thing is and like everybody, because that's kind
of I think the modern day analog of this is
how how do you release something that everybody just ubiquitously
has and it's an Apple product. But then I realized something,
as I'm like, you know, fan casting and doing all

(21:14):
this head cannon about a remake, is this is how
much smarter Larry Cohen is than me. It's it wasn't
an accident picking yogurt like The killer yogurt thing wasn't
just for the shock value of that elevator pitch.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
The yogurt thing is twofold one.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
It's it's it's essentially it's just a big white blob.
It's homogeny. It's the idea that capitalism reduces identity to
just mass consumerism and we all become one giant, homogeneous mass,
very much like a yogurt. Right, So you've got that
coming that Hell, are you just dropping philosophical bars on
us right now? That was incredible. But that's what I like,

(21:51):
that's why he picked yogurt. It wasn't an accident, like
and that's why I realized, like, as I'm like doing
all this, like oh could be this, that and the
other thing, it's like, no, it kind of has to
be yogurt for this to work. Because the other thing
he's doing is that he's making fun of the trend
in the eighties because in the eighties we saw the
rise of the low fat craze and this sort of
like we're gonna get healthy and diet, we're gonna eat
low fat things. But the thing about the eighties that

(22:13):
they didn't know is that all of these low fat
foods were processed and they were quote unquote fat free
and sugar free, but they often loaded with sugar and
refined carbs and like trans fat laden margarine and like
all this shit that was really bad for you, but
it was quote unquote fat free or quote unquote low
sugar whatever, And so we thought we were consuming something
that was good for us, when in reality it wasn't.

(22:36):
And Larry is aware of that even in nineteen eighty
five when he's making the fucking movie. So he's using
yogurt as sort of the paradigm of health food, right,
and the idea that this health food is actually taking
over people and destroying them is another satirical barb at
the world around him.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
So again, yogurt was not an accidental choice. It's also kind.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
Of a more elitist food choice, right, Like when we
were kids, people who ate yogurt, You're like, oh, rich people, right,
Like only the rich kids had yogurt when we were kids.
The rest of us did not have yogurt fruit cups
or whatever. That is wild man, that you said that,
that's crazy.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
You remember the first time you ever heard the term froyo,
and how much you wanted to punch the person that
said it.

Speaker 8 (23:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
See I was kind of aid.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
I was like, oh, it sounds kind of cool, like,
it sounds kind of fun, it sounds exotic, and then
you went in and you're like, oh, it's just shitty
or ice cream. I remember being like really excited and
then being very sad, man like. It was such a
fucking turnaround. But see, this is why Brian, I think
you've missed. You've missed the boat on what the podcast
remake would be, right? You run, you run a massive

(23:44):
podcast empire, right. I think the clear way to remake
this movie is if we had taken like a Joe
Rogan before he ruined everything and he was selling like
what are those like supplements? Right, Like he was selling
alpha brain and all these things, and Alex Jones is
selling pills to all these guys. I think a podcaster
who's like hyper militant, right, he starts selling some kind

(24:06):
of you know, tcby bitch and he's doing that, and
then all of a sudden, those people become the insurrectionist.
And I think that's the kind of mode you got
to get into for twenty twenty five. If anything, I
think the stuff is kind of this quaint look back
in America where we believe that one man could go
and fix society. It's kind of like a trashier version
of mister Smith goes to Washington, Right, Yeah, absolutely, we

(24:28):
gotta make it meaner. I think it's gotta be a
podcast bro that ruins it all. Mister Smith goes fat free.
Absolutely no, but you're right, God, you're making me understand that.
That's exactly what the remix would have to be.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Is it would have to be some fucking edge lord
douchebag podcaster selling a supplement called stuffed.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
Right, Like, how many people you know that now are
like I wake up every day and do cold plunge.
I do fucking jiu jitsu. Like Mark Zuckerberg's like, I
don't need coffee. I have a guy who stands by
my bed and attacks me like it's the Pink Panther
every morning with jiu jitsu.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
And I was like, these people will do anything if
they think it is good for them, right.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
I will wear uv mask like every night is the
purge because it's of my skin.

Speaker 5 (25:08):
Question Mark, Yeah, that's right. It's like, yeah, man, that's fine.
I'm just out here, rawdog in wife and just you know,
I brush my teeth. That's about the most take of
my body. So I would be the one man. I
would be more rough of food, not brought in by
the stuff, unless they put it at Taco Bell, then
I would be caught for sure.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
In the remake, the supplement would be called stuffed with
an apostrophe D and it would literally be like, take
this so your pants get stuffed. It's like it's like
a dick pill.

Speaker 6 (25:34):
Right.

Speaker 5 (25:35):
Oh it's yeah, it's like a dick pill that gives
you abs and stuff. Right, and it's like, you're fifty,
that's no way, that's no time to slow down.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
You got to get up. You got to get stuffed, right,
you could do one of those?

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Yeah, and that it's like and then then we're talking
less about consumerism and more about toxic masculine Look, this
would here you go that that is the new thing
that we need to attack. Yeah, it's writing itself through us.
This is what's happening. But to talk about the actual
movie we're here to talk about for just a second.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
That's right, to talk about a movie, Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
Want to talk about the amazing Michael Moriarty, who is
absolutely Larry Cohen's favorite maniac and a guy who always
takes the scenic route to stability, I guess, is what
I'm trying to say. He's playing this character who was
formerly in the CIA but is now an industrial spy

(26:28):
and he's hired to steal the secret of the stuff.
Now that's a fine character. There's nothing inherently weird about
that character. And I feel like on the page Michael
Moriarty was not satisfied that there was nothing weird about
that character, so he decides to adopt a Tennessee Williams
esque accent.

Speaker 5 (26:48):
Yeah, he's essentially like corporate Espriana schnagel Puss in this movie.
It's kind of a bizign because this is one of
those that's a great point. I would love to read
the script and see how much of that made it in.
It's just the very first time you meet him, right
he rolls in. He got kicked out of the FBI,
and he's like, you know why they call me Mo
because every time someone gives me money, I want MO.

(27:09):
And it's one of those I remember watching it the
first time. I was like, wait, what was that? I
was like, what's going on? And then it's one of
those every line he has, like the kid gets in
his car and he's puking up the barbasol, right, and
he's just like, hey, it's all right, everyone's got to
eat shaven cream.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Once in a while. They're like, what does that mean?
What do you say?

Speaker 5 (27:26):
That's just how Michael Moriarty he. He kind of floats
so effortlessly through this movie. He's like a god amongst
other men, and it is one of those things you
wonder a lesser actor, Right, Does this movie work without
Michael Moriarty being an absolute freak show in the middle
of this film?

Speaker 4 (27:43):
Let me answer your question with another question. Does Ce
the Winged Serpent work if Michael Moriarty plays it straight?
Does It's a Live three Island of the Alive work
if Michael Moriarty plays it straight? Does the first Troll
film work at all? If Michael Murray already plays it
straight and also isn't named Harry Potter because his name

(28:05):
in that movie is.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Actually, yeah, a little more hatred in that.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
I feel like, I feel like Troll is more accepting
this more exclusive of film that's.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
Kind of the sad one where he's like, I am
the snape, right, Like Mike Murriyarty just realizes who he's
going to be.

Speaker 4 (28:27):
One is a movie called Troll with a character named
Harry Potter. One is a character named Harry Potter invented
by a troll. So you know, it all kind of
rounds out.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Okay, See that's another See this is this is your
greatest gift, Brian. It's just connecting things in my brain
to have no reason being in the same hemisphere.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
That's like I'll be laying in.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
Bed tonight staring at the ceiling being like, what the
fuck did he say?

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Hey man Achio full circle.

Speaker 5 (28:52):
Yeah, I don't know, there's something about and I will
say I think this is another great Larry Cohen tool
in his toolbox.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Right. The casting in his movie movies is always so sharp.

Speaker 5 (29:02):
Yeah, right, And I think this movie especially right because
you get Garrett Moore as playing chocolate Chip Charlie. I'm
constantly doing his you know I told you My Hands
at Leath of Weapons. Fucking incredible. He takes a character
who on the page probably felt mostly inconsequential and gives
him so much life and vibrance. Right, You've got Paul
Sorvino is Colonel Spears, who some kind of outcast has

(29:23):
just taken over a chapel in the middle of the way,
who is making the most wild decisions constantly. That's the
point in the movie where Michael Moriarty all of a
sudden switches from a costello to Abbott. It's like, it's
incredible that Paul Sorvino is able to put Michael Moriarty
in the more reasonable of two men box. But I

(29:44):
just I think the casting of this movie is so
fucking phenomenal and another reason why this movie so overachieves.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Well.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
Again, much like Roger Corman, Larry Cohen is a filmmaker
who believes in the idea of having stables of actors
like Michael Moriarty is an ol is in almost everything
he made. Paul Servino has been in a number of
Larry Cohen films as well. I mean, they are actors
all over this movie that you've seen in other Larry
Cohen films. And you're right the fact that Paul Servino

(30:12):
comes into this movie because apparently the entire time he's
been in The Doctor Strangelove that's been running parallel to
this film, just waiting for them to intersect. And it's
fucking amazing, but like that character has to be immensely
over the top in order to compete on the screen
with Michael Moriarty who has one linen suit and a

(30:32):
handkerchief away from being big daddy and auditioning for Law
and Order.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
Hot tin roof. Yeah, it's kind of amazing.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
The scene where Paul Serveno's just getting a little too
handsy with the girl and Michael Moriarty's like, hey, I
think you're moving in on my girl there, fellow, and
he goes, don't worry, You'll be a casualty of war.
And I was just like, this movie's off the rails
and loving it. This isn't a train derailing. This is
an off road high speed race where maybe some people
will die, but we'll all chug a monster energy drink

(31:01):
together at the end.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
And I fucking love it.

Speaker 5 (31:05):
Also, again, if you remade this movie, Colonel Spears feels
like he would definitely be the modern day character that
this movie runs through. I love the part with Out
of Nowhere. It's just like, it's cool, I've got two
radio stations in Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Yeah, he's Ted Turner, He's General Ted Turner. What's going exactly?

Speaker 5 (31:20):
He's just like he's doing the Rush Limbaugh thing before
Rush Limbaugh was was huge. I'm imagining and dude, they
just throw in there like just in case you thought
Colonel Spears might be okay, guy full racism, and you're
just like, God, every single thing with this character is.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Dialed all the fucking way up to eleven.

Speaker 5 (31:39):
And there's something about it that what Larry Cohen still
maintaining that this feels kind of like a real world
is actually the greatest trick of this movie to me,
cause there is this little family drama tucked into the
middle that gets consumed by these fucking wild side characters.
But even Paul Sorvino's a character that, as we live
in twenty twenty, you're like, oh, that guy's everywhere, and yes,

(32:02):
he's in positions of power. This movie makes more sense today.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, it's like, what are you broadcasting?

Speaker 4 (32:09):
It's nineteen eighty five, what are you broadcasting on those
two radio stations in Atlanta? Oh, arn Anderson turned on
Rick Flair again, like constantly updating people.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
You'll never guess it was a spinebuster.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, it's like we're just being updated on the membership
of the Four Horsemen. Every week, Like, I don't I
don't understand what is happening. It's just all int Wa
wrestling updates.

Speaker 5 (32:30):
See I imagine it's his his platoon or whatever. That's like, God,
this this detail sucks. Let's just put up some fake
microphones and let him screaming at him for two hours,
get it out of his system so he can come
back and pretend that he's still the colonel. And by
the way, I have to say, the Larry Cohen choice
of them getting in cabs to drive to the station
had me fucking rolling. It's it's just great, man, this

(32:53):
movie's great. And uh again, I think a lot of
that goes to the cast.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
Well, I mean, it's it's hard to like and I
understand why. Like the marketing for this movie was bad.
It's sold it as a straightforward horror film. But by
the time you get to the end of the movie
and you've got Doctor Strangelove, you know, in Atlanta over here,
and then you've got what it would sound like if
ben Wa Blanc was played by Mment Walsh over here,
you've got to know that you're in a satire like

(33:20):
you've got When Paul Sorvino is saying things like America's
never lost a war and the kids like what about
nom and he goes, oh, we lost that one at home.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Son. It's like, wait, what what are you talking about?
Or like the fact he's saying uncle, Thanksgiving? What's wrong?

Speaker 4 (33:34):
He loves the sight of blood, but the white stuff
coming out of the what they call the stuffies is
disgusting to him, Like, how do you not know that
this movie is less the Blob and more idiocracy at
that point it really is.

Speaker 5 (33:46):
And I think the wildest thing is that the end,
Paul Sorvino gets on and he's like, friends, Americans, I've
never lied to you.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
You know that's true.

Speaker 5 (33:53):
Uh. I think we have a problem here. If you
have the stuff, get rid of it. If you know
friends that are eating stuff. And then Mo rutherb comes on, Yeah,
if you all retail, I'll get rids of it. And
people hear these two men and just go yep, because
the ad exact lady in the next scene is like
and they did listen, and they did burn down the
stuff and blow up a bunch of buildings. And I
was like, again, I think this was built in a

(34:15):
time when we thought Americans could win.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
It might be.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
It might be the biggest twist in the movie is
that at the end all the Americans just come together
to defeat the stuff. That really caught me off guard today.

Speaker 8 (34:29):
Oh yes, burning all the stuff we have in America
is actually easier than Barry and Dan Hondeya and the
Texas Desert. You can just take my word for it, like,
what the fuck is happening? And that's Michael Moriarty, that's
not even him at.

Speaker 5 (34:42):
Wallh saying that, holy shit, man. Uh but yeah, that's
what this movie is. It is just literally bizarre. It's
almost like that guy at the Pacers halftime show who
like spends plates on sticks while this chihuahua does backflips
off his crotch. Yes, and you're just like, that's an
incredible series of things. I don't know why I have
to watch it, but now at least in something I

(35:03):
can say I saw. That's how I think of the
stuff is the bizarre halftime show.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
And I will say the thing in.

Speaker 5 (35:09):
The movie that I always forget how good it is
is the stuff practical effects.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
I think that's the.

Speaker 5 (35:15):
Other element of this movie that you cannot sleep on
that keeps it being a classic to me.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
The effects in this movie, Like, yes, they are cheap
because Larry Cohen makes everything on a budget.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
But I'll tell you what they're not. They don't suck.
Like I know. That's as least critical as I can be.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
They're cheap, maybe because Larry con makes everything on a budget,
but they're fucking awesome visually, Like the way people's heads
break apart when they are revealed to be just like
these hollow stuff vessels, Like it's so unsettling in the
way that they're constructed. Like the way they have the
stuff like look like it's running across a floor, like
it really does. It harkens back, of course to the

(35:55):
effects in the original Blob. But at the same time,
this is three years before the re make of The Blob,
and we're like, holy shit, could we remake the Blob?

Speaker 3 (36:02):
It's like, yeah, we sure can.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
Or oh my god, dude, the guy who gets consumed
by the blob in the hotel room and the poo
stuff that like pulls him up the wall onto the.

Speaker 5 (36:12):
Ceiling, Oh my god, that is such I am such
a sucker for spinning room gags.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
Oh yeah, this is also one of those moments where
I was like, this.

Speaker 5 (36:20):
Is why Brian is a high level podcaster, and I'm
not because whereas you saw the homogenization and white topianness
of the stuff, I was like, Oh, that staying came
from the mattress. We know what that that's a different
kind of stuff. I thought we were gonna have a
Godzilla versus calling white Kaiju bad.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
The amount of people eating the stuff off the ground
in this movie is the most disturbing part of this movie.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
It may be the most horrific thing in the film.

Speaker 5 (36:45):
This movie literally starts with like a Tarkowsky stalker like
there in his mind that looks like that scene in
Stoker where they find the room at the end, and
I was like, what the fuck is this art house shit?
And then he's just like, hi, ah, there's white stuff
here this ground and I was like, yes, that's where
guys go to bust in the middle of a shift.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
Don't do that.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
And he's just dunking his finger in it and immediately
putting it into his mouth. So tist good, let's go, and.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
I just doing it for somebody.

Speaker 5 (37:11):
This next thing we see is a the Stuff commercial
and it's everywhere, and I was like, yeah, that feels
that feels a little American to me.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Just yeah, I got it on my finger. I best
puts it.

Speaker 8 (37:22):
In my mouth.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah, No, that's entirely It's the only way it could
be worse is if it came out of his ear
and then he put it in his mouth.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
But look, what is the what.

Speaker 5 (37:30):
Is the grossest bodily fluid to accidentally eat?

Speaker 4 (37:33):
Brian Oh, I don't know that we need to do
this Letterman top ten list at all, but.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
I think it's ear wax.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
You brought it up.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
I think it might Would you rather eat a Q
tip or a tissue that someone blew their nose in.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
Look, all I'm saying is Bernie Box does not have
a flavored bean, So I think those were.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
Not flavors at TCB. Why so I thought we'd take a.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
Jesus.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
I was just about to give you props for bringing
up Tarkowski on the same episode that I use the
word homogeny when talking about this stuff, and then we
ended up right back here.

Speaker 5 (38:06):
Hey, hey, we met at a air quotes film school.
That's true film school in gigantic air quotes. Yeah, by
the way, did you know Hugh Jackman's been hanging out
at ball State lately.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Fuck off? What sidebar? What? Dude?

Speaker 5 (38:27):
He is banging a professor at Ball State?

Speaker 3 (38:32):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (38:33):
What who used to be a Broadway actress? I guess
you are mad libbings this conversation I need.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
I'm not Hugh Jackman.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
The Wolverine is banging a ball State professor and has
been hanging out on campus. And I've seen kids who
are on campus posting pictures with Wolverine.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
I guess all I can say is I will speak
more highly of my school from the one.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
I will say.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
My wife was not with me because she was like,
did you see Hugh Jackman's at Ball State? I got
the story and I was like, that's kind of weak,
and she goes what I go. He was with a
lady for his whole life, like a woman, and everyone's like,
look at Hugh Jackman being with a normal woman, right
a Hollywood alis after being a normal one, cheats on her,
blows up his marriage to then just get in a
committed relationship with a Ball State professor. That seems like

(39:23):
the weirdest, Like I want a documentary on Hugh jacks Yes,
because I was like, if you plow up your marriage
of like decades. That feels like you're like, there are
young people who want to be famous. I will go
to Leonardo DiCaprio route and just be running through some people. Right,
I've missed these glory years back when I had my
Wolverine origin body.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
I'm gonna be tearing through them.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
No, this man is committed and visiting his girlfriend in
fucking Munsey, India. There is something psychotic about that that
I cannot wrap my brain around.

Speaker 4 (39:53):
Wow, he's uh, he's Wolverine and she's his weapon. X. Look,
I do want to go. I want to talk about
more of the effects in just a moment, because there's
one that has been memed and celebrated all over the
internet that we.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Have to talk about.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
But I think to be fair, we need to mention
that this movie is edited by a narcoleptic, because it
drops us into what seems like the end of act one,
and it keeps teleporting to different points along the storyline
at random intervals, like we are dropped into some redneck

(40:28):
discovering the stuff, no titles, no opening credits, nothing, and
then instantly we see we see it moving around in
a kid's fridge without any indication of how we got
from groundwater yogurt to nationally coveted product.

Speaker 5 (40:41):
There's just a sweaty boy walking around with no shirt
and a kids. Shit, You're like, wait, what what's happening?

Speaker 4 (40:45):
I literally thought my streaming service had jumped to troll two.
I was like so confused as to what was happening.
But then I find out that the original cut of
the film was much longer, and Larry Cohen thought that
it was, you know, is more dense and sophisticated, which
is not what this movie needs to be. I mean,
this movie is smart enough without also being sophisticated. But
New World, who released it, they felt like they didn't

(41:08):
move enough, the pacing wasn't right, so they cut the
film and they cut a lot out of this film,
And if you watch you can tell like there are
cuts where characters aren't even finished saying their last syllable
and it'll just move on to the next scene. There's
also moments of like terrible adr Like there's one scene
because along the way throughout this movie, mo of course,

(41:29):
Michael Moriarty has joined forces with the kid. The two
of them are are kind of positioned in the movie.
Is the only two sane people left in America.

Speaker 5 (41:39):
It is the wildest just thing the movie does, which
is the kids like, hmm, I'm fucking eating the stuff.
It's good, by the way, Shout out to whoever runs
marketing at Barbasol. Maybe one of the best product IMDb
pages ever, right, Barbasol being featured in the stuff Jurassic
Park very good. But Katie shaven cream and just fucking bails.
And Michael Moriarty just happened it that very moment, after

(42:02):
we've just seen him in the South doing whatever espionage
he's doing, stops, picks up a ten year old kid
who's puking his guts up, and then it's just like,
come get on this private plane.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
It's insane. Did I miss something? There's no connection with
those characters prior to that moment, correct.

Speaker 4 (42:18):
So the only connection And again this is owed to
the terrible editing and how much this movie was chopped
down before U before they released it. But he opens
a newspaper and says, oh, look, this kid ran a
muck in a grocery store. I guess he doesn't like
this stuff either, And literally from that rise snippet of
a conversation he shows up at the kid's front door.

Speaker 5 (42:39):
Oh, He's essentially like, that's the John Connor. I need
this kid on my team exactly. He's like, I'm going
to recruit this ten year old who fucking ransacked a
grocery store precisely.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
But yeah, So I think that I would like to
have seen the longer version, not so much because I
think content wise it would have been better, but just
for continuity's sake.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
Like, there's what I was getting to is there's this.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Adr line where because they've like they're approaching this this
factory in Georgia where supposedly all of the stuff is produced,
and they're gonna like pretend that they don't know each
other and approach it from different vectors. And literally when
he gets to the hotel, when Michael Moriarty gets to
the hotel with Andrea mar Marco Vichi, who plays Nicole
who's become his girlfriend in the movie, the two of

(43:24):
them are checking in to the hotel, and of course
the camera's not on anyone's mouth, and you just hear
Michael Moriarty in a fucking recording booth go, Jason should
be here by now. It's like you're supposed to be
in COCKEDO right now, Why would you fucking say that
out loud? But it's just like we're just trying to
connect dots that got chopped out of this movie.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Yeah, there's a.

Speaker 5 (43:40):
Couple of those, right, Like when they're in bed together
and the stuff comes out of the pillow, right, absolute
motel nightmare. And then a guy with a mustache just
runs in and says something that's almost inaudible. Right, He's
like and I was like, wait, who's this? And then
he gets caught and stuff, but they're trying to light
it on fire to save him, even though I thought
he was a stuff zombie. And that's just kind of

(44:01):
an experience you have like ten times in this movie
where you're like, did I look down at my phone?

Speaker 3 (44:05):
What did I miss? What's happened?

Speaker 5 (44:08):
But again, weirdly, and I think this is another brilliant
thing about kind of the low budget appeal of these
kind of movies.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
As long as it has the goods.

Speaker 5 (44:18):
I don't think it fully matters, right, Like to your point,
I don't know if the fully laid out thesis of
the stuff matters to me that much. I still feel
like I got everything I wanted, right, and there's something
about kind of the bespoke nature, right of the really handmade,
kind of crunchy special effects, that it lends itself to
this kind of frenetic, chaotic no one knows anything moment.

(44:41):
We're in the middle of a body snatcher's thing, and
at the end they say only thousands have died, and
you're like, I bet a million fucking Americans have eaten
this shit already. And so I think there's something about
that kind of frenetic just bouncing around and breaking stuff
that actually the movie weaponizes very effectively.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
Okay, I understand that, but let me pitch you something.
What if? What if?

Speaker 4 (45:04):
The thesis of this movie was three hours long and
included the words homogeny and references to Tarkovsky, and was
delivered an electric hall at Ball State University by Wolverine's
main piece.

Speaker 5 (45:14):
Okay, so, Brian, you should sell a supplement which is
just your ideas because I was starting so flaccid and
now I'm fully aret that is a great idea for
a movie.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
After these messages, we'll be right back. Sensation eleven now,
Elevation never.

Speaker 7 (45:37):
Genus is never.

Speaker 3 (45:40):
The suck, the chase, hungry for more suck.

Speaker 5 (45:46):
Taste Delivered Us is.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Never Enougheno, never speaking of the bad editing.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
By the way, we haven't mentioned it yet, but Danny
i Ello is in this any speaking in the few
seats he has.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
This might be my favorite scene in the movie, which
is just Danny Iello trying to help the resistance but
side eyeing his dog as if it's like a dog
from the Omen and the movie just not addressing it
at all because we haven't fully seen the repercussions of
the stuff, right. But he's like, yeah, I never I
never throw anything out. I got these documents and the dogs.

(46:22):
And he's like, hey, man, it's cool. I would never
say anything. I love the stuff. You love the stop
we hit the stuff together, and he just goes upstairs
and Boe Ruttherford takes someone else's dog in the kitchens, like, hey,
let's go eat food together. That to me is like
the best stuff in this movie, which is where we're
just not acknowledging that something so bizarre is happening and
the movie hasn't done the work to let us know

(46:43):
what that is. But then the next scene we see
is Danny Iello trying to call on a phone and
the dog doesn't just attack him. The dog fucking pulls
the phone line out like it's man's best friend. And
I was just like, that's great, that's all the payoff
I need.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
Danny Iello is in a sketch like the rest of
these people are in a movie.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Ye.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
Anny ILO's in a sketch where he's afraid of his dog,
Like that's the whole joke, and the punchline of the
entire sketch is that the dog is smart enough to
pull the phone cord out of the wall when he's
calling for help, because apparently this dog is a criminal mastiff.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
Mind.

Speaker 5 (47:17):
I was gonna say, there's something very Beethoven about this
that I enjoy very much, and I ELO's the Charles Grodin, right,
there's something about that that just works for me.

Speaker 4 (47:27):
Beethoven's Fourth, Beethoven's fifth, and Beethoven's stuff evidently, But again, yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:32):
Stuffed Beethoven. It's the Taxi dermyed Horre movie version.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Oh that's the sequel the kids don't want to watch,
but again.

Speaker 5 (47:39):
If you remember the first Beethoven. I watched this with
my kids because I think they need a fun childhood movie.
It's COVID whatever. I forgot the entire story of that movie.
It's just that a guy with the weirdest prescription glasses
of all time wants to buy giant dogs so he
can see what bullets do when their heads fucking explode.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
Yep, he's buying ballistic skull dogs. Yes, I was like that.

Speaker 5 (48:00):
That's the wildest thing in a kid's movie that I
had just totally forgotten is that this guy just wants
to steal Beethoven so he can shoot it in the
head with bigger bullets. And my kids are like, what's that?
Or's like nothing, Just ignore.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
It, just go back to the Hys.

Speaker 4 (48:13):
That franchise is so fucking weird. It gets brought up
a lot on blank Check. And one of the weirdest
things about is the guy you're talking about the mad Scientists,
who literally just wants to murder dogs like he's in
a South Park episode, Like he's just like that cartoonishly
evil is played by Dean Jones, who was like one
of Disney's favorite actors in the fifties. And also and

(48:35):
also the fact that those movies, depending on which sequel
you watch, like the it's like a weird star trek
thing where like the even numbered sequels are the Charles
Groden family and the odd numbered sequels Beethoven's living with
a completely different family, and it goes back and forth. Yeah, yeah,
the sequels.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (48:51):
Mastically our fay themselves like it's there's like a multiverse Beethoven.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
Yeah, but like they keep going back to the universe,
a universe be from film to film, like it doesn't
make any fucking sense.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Well, they do this in air Bud.

Speaker 5 (49:05):
We talked about that a little time last time we talked,
which is just does every Golden Retriever have such high
level athletic jeans, Like any Golden retriever with any family
who has like kind of a shady dad situation, that
dog learns sports and it is incredible.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
I would I'm just saying bye about the third movie.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
You think the people who are involved in other professional
sports would start literally pinning a rule into the official
rule book that says, no goddamn dogs can play this sport.

Speaker 5 (49:33):
Or someone shows up and I don't know, a lah
like a Michael Vick and is like, my dog also
loves sports. Sh you have a dogg that just beats
the shit out of air Bud. That's the sequel.

Speaker 4 (49:45):
I really wonder that's who they almost cast in Beethoven
instead of Dean Jones was Michael Vick.

Speaker 5 (49:51):
He was actually busy doing real dog crimes at the time.

Speaker 4 (49:55):
He was busy training dogs to rip phone chords out
of the wall. But again, the crazy part of that
scene is the hatchet job editing, because we see Danny
Iello is suddenly doing this like, no, I love the stuff.
Stop looking at me, dog, stop looking at me, like
and then it cuts to a bunch of people eating
the stuff at like a stuff stand, I guess, and
it's like da da da da da. And then we
cut back and I Yellow is being full on attack

(50:16):
by this dog, and it's like, what happened during the cutaway?

Speaker 5 (50:19):
Yeah, the scene starts with him on the floor reaching
for the phone and it's.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
Like, wait, yeah, we're missing a Beethoven sequel in here somewhere,
because I am thoroughly lost.

Speaker 5 (50:30):
Yeah, but you know what, You know what, sometimes I
think it's fun and I think this is something we've
lost a little bit in movies today. Movies are so
fucking predictable all the time. Now, Yeah, I love movies
like this It's just like, how the fuck did this
movie happen? Right? If you add this movie today and
get Saves the Cat to death, right, it'd be grosser,
it'd be more toxic masculine. There's something about like Larry

(50:52):
Cohen just forcing these tiny little oddities into the world
that I do appreciate. And I think time is very
kind to these shaggy dog movies. And there's just something
so fucking weird about it that I can't put my
finger on because, again, going back to what I started
with on paper, nothing in this movie should work for
me correct, But every single time I watch it, I.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Feel like I like it more.

Speaker 5 (51:16):
Also, the more that the mistakes become apparent to me
and this and that I just it makes me fall
more in love with it. And I think that's kind
of the unquantifiable thing that you guys talk about all
the time on junk food Cinema, right that despite all
of these limitations, these movies somehow just burrow deep into
our souls, right like the stuff they hollow us out

(51:37):
and just fill us with this mushy goodness. And I'm
here for it.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Yeah, it's go Bigger, Go Home, And the movies that
go Home are never featured on this podcast, is that's right?
But speaking of cramon weird shit into this movie, can
we talk about the hour talking about the amount of
uncredited before they were big celebrities that are in this yes?

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Please? Okay, So we mentioned that grocery store. I love
the kid.

Speaker 4 (51:58):
I love this kid Jason who just like this kid
immediately's turned on to the fact that there's something wrong
with the stuff. I'm not eating this stuff and no
one else should either. So he has this fucking he
goes ape shit in this grocery store and starts destroying
display after display of the stuff. Right, did you happen
to notice as our half pint hero is trashing this supermarket,

(52:19):
who was working as one of the grocery store employees.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
One of the guys that he took out? Yeah, I.

Speaker 8 (52:28):
No?

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Who? Who?

Speaker 4 (52:29):
Fucking Eric Pogosian No from Talk Radio is one of
the clerks.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
Yeah, he's from Talk Radio.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
The bad guy from Under Siege too is literally one
of the dudes that like does a three stooges pratfall
trying to grab him.

Speaker 5 (52:41):
Oh my god, I do it. Okay, So Talk Radio
is one of those weird movies. I saw at Ball
State that I like showed people and it was like,
this will show him that I know about real movie stuff.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Yeah, you and Hugh Jackman watched talk radio and Tarcosia. Yes,
feel if you hear this, I'm available, dude.

Speaker 5 (52:58):
I would love for some reason, the way I imagine
that is me and Hugh Jackman with no shirts on
love seat, eating a Jimmy John's and just watching and
soaking in talk radio.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
I imagine the two of you making a musical on
the campus of Ball State that's called Ball Australia.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Holy shit, dude, that's such a good idea. We were
at Ball State.

Speaker 5 (53:22):
You remember that one class they stole the equipment and
made the vampire porno correct. Yes, that was classic. I
was always so mad I didn't have the guts like
Berner Herzog.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
To do that.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
Now, it would be weird enough if Eric bagos In
was the only note in this section.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Eric shagozi in. Wow, that blows my mind.

Speaker 5 (53:40):
Okay, Patrick Dempsey is in this movie, the super hot
Patrick Dempsey.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
Mix Steamy himself is in this fucking novel. Yeah, so
you know how we play. So you know the final
shot of this movie after they've turned on the stuff
and they're burning everything, and.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
They have that shot with drug dealers.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
Yeah yeah, they blow up a stuff like standale, a
restaurant that's very conspicuously between a McDonald's and a KFC.
I'm sure they were thrilled to be in this scene.
There's that sequel setup, like that fake sequel shot where
it's like you have these scuzzy dudes acquiring the stuff
clearly via the black market, like uh oh yeah, coming back.
One of the dudes buying the stuff, he has no lines.

(54:19):
You see him for a split second. Is fucking Patrick Dempsey.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
That's insane. Wow, because I remember that last scene. Yeah,
I didn't. I didn't put that together at all. See
that's what I mean. This cast is even better than
I gave it credit for at the start of the film.
But we're not done.

Speaker 4 (54:34):
Uh by the way, working in the factory because their
dad's in the movie with no lines whatsoever. Playing a
factory worker. Is Mira Sorvino.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Yeah see that would make sense to me, That would
make sense.

Speaker 4 (54:45):
And then of course you have people like Abe Vigoda
and Clara Peller, The Where's the Beef Lady featured in
a stuff commercial within the film. So it's just like
so much happening in that film in the background.

Speaker 5 (54:57):
But again, I think that's the thing that the kind
of watching the marketing of the stuff happen as these
as again almost these band aids to the horrific hack
job that happened in the edit suite, right, just like
we're gonna cut to Ape and Goda like, how's your dinner, honey,
where's the stuff?

Speaker 3 (55:13):
I was just like, yeah, that's cool. I'm glad that
that's why not? Why not?

Speaker 5 (55:18):
And by the way, I again, we grew up with
this stuff. Remember what was the one? It was gushers
where you would eat a gusher and your head, your
eyes and head would start bulging. Right, Yeah, it's almost
as if like gushers were acid, and you're just like, yes,
I want that to happen to my body.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
That only happens when you take the purple stuff. Yeah,
when you take the purple gusher.

Speaker 5 (55:37):
That's the one. What is it about the color purple?
What was that? What was that all about?

Speaker 4 (55:42):
Well, I mean it almost won Oprah and Oscar, So
I mean that's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
I just fucking walked right into that right in.

Speaker 5 (55:50):
But see I was saying, the ones that were colored
like toxic waste, those to me felt like they were
the most appealing snacks of that age, right, Anything that
had that mutagen, right, that teenage mutant ninja turtle mutagen color,
That's what I always wanted to be putting in my body.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
We were pretty messed up, and that to pursue it
to that, I called the dude scuzzy who were buying
the stuff on the black market, that would entirely be me.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
And I can't even lie. You think you'd be out
there doing deals.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
Knowing how I reacted to four Loco being pulled from
the shelves for its tendency to kill frat boys, Yeah,
I'd be scrounged for mint condition, never removed from box
cartons of the stuff within a week.

Speaker 5 (56:30):
I do feel like there was a real sadness when
the first four Loco went away, not because I was
giving it to others, but because I was drinking three
of those myself, and that would have you fucking sailing
through the night. There was like a real betrayal with that.
I don't know, dude, I find it. I don't think
you'd be like on craigslist hunting for the stuff.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
I don't know, dude, I know myself well enough that
I can't. I can't rule it out, is all I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (56:55):
How you think you'd be on the streets like I'll
jerk you off just put some stuff on my guns?

Speaker 3 (57:00):
How do you think you get the stuff once it's
off the market. That's how I've always gotten the stuff.

Speaker 5 (57:06):
I love this idea that you're just like I would
be a junkie for froyo, so determined that this would.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
Be a real reality.

Speaker 5 (57:14):
Again, know thyself, I fucking love that for you, dude,
I really do.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
I know that sounds horrible, but I love that.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
I wanna go back to Garret Moores for just a
second of these awesome effects. Garrett moorees in this movie
as a famously distinct amos aka chocolate Chip Charlie. His
death in this movie is the man, I tell you what,
It's the money shot of the film.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
It's the meme mother load when.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
His head just keeps expanding and that fucking puppet is
so of course, this is the one scene that as
I'm watching the movie for this episode, my eight year
old son decides to stop looking at his iPad and
look at the TV screen and of course this is
what he sees.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
And it's just like the.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
Way this head stretches and then the stuff like starts
coming up like the stafe of marshmallow Man's hemorrhoid.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Oh yeah, out of his throat. Like it's just so
fucked up and so good.

Speaker 5 (58:04):
Do you remember in Candyman where Hella's coming through like
the extra room where the candy and they had that
giant miror where she's coming out of Candyman's mouth. Yes,
that's what Garrett Morris looked like in this moment, and
it's fucking metal.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
It's so awesome. Again.

Speaker 5 (58:19):
I think the stuff too, there's this extra thing in
the movie. They just don't address that.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
The stuff.

Speaker 5 (58:24):
Not only do we eat it, and it's not quite
mind control or body snatches. It's almost as if this
thing augments us and turns us into these kind of
superpowered automatons.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
And that moment was kind of.

Speaker 5 (58:36):
The first one where we really sat on a person
who's making real distinct decisions. Right, he has to get
his way through security, he has to deal with the
fucking racism of Paul Sorvino.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Just be like, all right, I'm ready, I'll deliver, I'm
bringing all.

Speaker 5 (58:48):
This marketing thing, pulls her into a back room, only
to then unfold it. So I thought that kind of
jack in the box quality of that scar scene is
the other thing that really made those effects. It kind
of earns that extra thirty seconds of sitting there watching
the face just undulate.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
That to me was the shot of the movie for sure.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
I mean, we've talked a lot about Invasion of the
Body Snatchers and the Blob, but I'm starting to realize
that the perfect double feature for the stuff is They Live,
because that's another movie that uses a supernatural threat to
have this whole satirical statement about America and its consumerism
and how capitalism is turning us all into slaves. Like essentially,

(59:28):
these are the two movies that have mirroring messages.

Speaker 5 (59:32):
Yes, now see, my original thought for junk food like
double feature was Bad Taste, the Peter Jackson movie. Oh sure,
but that movie doesn't capture the americanness that this one does,
right sure, because on that one it's just like kind
of bulbous, giant ass aliens who turn us into fast food.
I think this one does have that extra satirical thing,

(59:53):
so I think they live as a perfect pairing for that.

Speaker 4 (59:56):
I also love that Danny Ielo or I can't maybe
a spulsor, you know, refers to the people who buy
the stuff as stuffies, which reminds me of this bit
that I started my buddy Jeff has with the website
rage Select, where he does video game reviews.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
I can't remember what game we were playing, but I
invented the world's worst snack food. It was a hot
dog that was stuffed with Twinkie cream and I called
it a stuffy and we just kept going back and
forth making disgusting jokes about this.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
This episode brought to you by stuffy stuffies. It's got
chilly on the inside.

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
No stuffies, Well you want to live forever you apes stuffies.

Speaker 7 (01:00:32):
Get stuffed because yeah, I get stuffed.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
Yeah that's good one.

Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
And then you fast forward to now me being a
dad and my eight year old son's favorite thing in
the world is stuffed animals.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
And guess what he calls them stuffies? Y, Yes he does.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
So whenever he says that, I either have to think
about this movie and it's zombified capitalists like victims, or
I have to think about a hot dog full of
Twinkie cream and all the disgusting jokes I made about that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
So that is the again full circle for kids.

Speaker 5 (01:01:02):
Yeah, I was gonna say, there's there's an a media
image to that one that I think makes it probably
less appealing than it tastes. I would imagine that would
taste pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
You know what looks like it would taste really good.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
Like as we get to the end of this movie
and we see the stuff, like, I love that, the
shots of the stuff that look like it's running through
the factory floor, it's all dude.

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
When it turns into the giant Kaiju version of the stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
Yes, and the building is fresh, the buildings are breaking,
and then they Michael Mori already blows up this rock
quarry to try and bury this lake of goo, a
lake of the stuff, like it's where it's coming up,
the primorial goo soup of the stuff. And all I
could think about is supposed to be this triumphant moment
as these rocks are falling, And all I could think
about was, man, I bet the stuff would taste good

(01:01:44):
with some cookie crumbles in it.

Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
Also, I was like, that stuff's living and huge, couldn't
just like shake off the dust that just got blown
on it, like the stuff will be back, We'll be
because they even talk about it at the end. It's like,
now we're making because the guy who hires them, right,
the guy who's protecting the word to ice cream, and
the mind guy right who found the stuff. Originally, they
joined forces to make the taste where they're gonna cut

(01:02:07):
down the stuff less so it's not as harmful to us,
just kind of low grade. And I will say I
think it's one of the best choices in the movie.
At the end where Michael Maury already shows up with
his gun like he promised he would, and Jason comes in,
he's like, oh, thiss just no place for a kid,
and he's like he ain't a boy no more.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
He lost his family to the stuff, and Jase like, yeah,
I've seen it.

Speaker 5 (01:02:25):
I'm not and they just at gunpoint make these fuckers
do like a Joey Chestnut the stuff eating contest. That
is so awesome. It's the kind of anti you know,
kind of corporate Catharsis that we need, right. I couldn't
for some reason, I wanted to say cunt Tharsus, which
might also work for these two guys.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
Put it on a yeah, put it on a T
shirt baby, right.

Speaker 5 (01:02:48):
But yeah, I don't know, man, I I do think, yeah,
there is that that kind of corporate thing, and I
think we're dealing with a lot of this now in
the world. Oh you think that, Yeah, right, there's there's
something horrible going on. I can't put my finger on it.
It does involve white creamy stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:03:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:03:05):
There was something cathartic about that moment that I really
needed today. It was one of those I was like, fuck, yeah, man,
let's come.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
Yeah, my fuck, yeah, let's go.

Speaker 4 (01:03:14):
Moment was in that scene where he's forcing those corporate
guys that basically they had headed the company that manufactured
and sold the stuff. But in that I couldn't even
think about him like pulling a seven on them and
making them eat themselves to death, like they were both gluttony.
All they could think about was the fact that Michael
Moriarty is dressed like Connor McLeod in this scene.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
Which also in the High Top rebox Yeah dude.

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
Which also effectively means he's dressed like McGruff the crime dog.
Because in our Highlander episode we discovered that if you
look at Christopher Lambert's costume and in the first Highlander
movie he's dressed exactly like McGruff, the crime dog.

Speaker 3 (01:03:47):
Exactly to a tea.

Speaker 5 (01:03:49):
Right, Yeah, I don't know, man, there's something And I
like the idea in that scene too, that they don't
show us the guys ripping apart, like uh, Garrett Morris's character.

Speaker 8 (01:03:59):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
What they do is they hear the cops and he's like,
right on time.

Speaker 5 (01:04:03):
He's like, all right, let's go do some more crops together, Jason,
I'm your Paul now right, I'm your daddy. And we
just watched these guys like scrounging around for the containers
of the stuff like they want more so watching them
become junkies like that, these companies make us. I don't know, man,
this this movie again, I think it's it looks like
this kind of sugary bullshit snack. But there's like there's

(01:04:27):
a density to this movie that I do appreciate, even
in this kind of truncated chop to hell version.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
No, I think Eric Roberts said it best in the
King Cohen Documentaries. Describing a Larry Cohen film, he said
it's like a student film with a lot of money
in a real good script.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Yeah, And I do think.

Speaker 4 (01:04:46):
That there it's a student film in that it's trying
to push boundaries, it's trying to try things that are
different and get a message out there. But it's got
enough money to you know, go for the genre crowd
pleasing stuff, and it's got a good enough script that
elevates a of just being you know, drive in runoff. Like,
I really do think that a Larry Cohen movie is
going to be wild. It's gonna be over the top.

(01:05:07):
There are things in it that are gonna work, there
are things that aren't gonna work. But it's going to
be fully idiosyncratically a Larry Cohen film, and it's gonna
be unlike anything else you've ever seen. And in fact,
I feel like a lot of what Larry Cohen was
doing was cutting edge, and he's been copied and imitated
a thousand times, like you know, for example, he created

(01:05:28):
a TV series called Branded right yep. Branded is the
show that Walter in The Big Lebowski fanboys over when
he meets that creator in the Iron Lung at Larry's house.
But he but Larry Cohen also created a show in
nineteen sixty seven called Coronet Blue, where a man is
found floating in the Hudson River with adonnesia and the
only thing he can remember are the words Coronet Blue.
It turns out Cornet Blue is a secret ring of

(01:05:51):
sleeper Russian agents in America, and he was he was
in deep cover as a Russian spy trying to pass
as American and when he wanted to defect, the Russians
tried and failed to kill him, and now they're trying
to finish him off before he remembers the names of
the other agents in the group called Cornet Blue. That
show aired on TV thirteen years before Robert Ludlum published
The Born Identity.

Speaker 5 (01:06:11):
Jesus, Dude, that's crazy. I've never heard of that show,
but that was very captivated. I was like, I watched
that show right now.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
Yeah. No, it didn't go anywhere.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
The show didn't go anywhere because, ironically, because the star
of that movie, his contract was up, and instead of
renewing to do more Cornet Blue, he went and worked
on a show called NYPD that was also created by
Larry Com But then he got thrown off of it,
basically got stolen away from him, and then the actor
for Cornet Blue decided to do NYPD instead.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
Damn, Eric Roberts nailed it right.

Speaker 5 (01:06:39):
I think student film gets thrown around a lot in
the indie community, right, Indie filmmakers like, we don't want
our movies to look like student films.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
It's pejorative.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
It's used as like exactly something to put them to
me down.

Speaker 5 (01:06:50):
It takes me back to that day. It's like, remember
when you just had so much fucking love you just
wanted to add to the movie body right, I just
want to add something, right, to share how much love
I have for something before you get like ruled to death.
And that's not how you do this, And that's how
you do that, And don't start until you have the
perfect script and the perfect cast and the perfect budgets.

(01:07:10):
There's something about that age, right, just that anything is
possible because we love.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
Movies so much.

Speaker 5 (01:07:17):
And yes, when you don't use it as a pejorative
and you just use it as man. Larry Cohen fucking
loved movies and he shared that love with us every
single time he made a movie.

Speaker 4 (01:07:26):
It's like, yeah, he's making a movie about killer yogurt,
He's also making a movie about killer yogurt that has
a lot to say about, you know, capitalism and mass consumerism.
I mean ideas that were prevalent then that are even
more relevant today. He's also making a movie about killer
Yogurt that name drops Frank Herbert, like go see Agent
Frank Herbert, obviously the nod to the sci fi writer
who pinned Dune, like he's doing so. And he's hiring

(01:07:49):
actors that are fucking like a list actors. Maybe they
weren't at the time, maybe they were, but we know
them now as being a list fucking actors. And you've
got guys like like like Michael Moriarty who was never
satisfied with a normal take and loved working with Larry
Cohen because Larry comb would just feed him stuff or
let him try stuff on the fly, because he was
such a run and gun filmmaker and wanted his movies

(01:08:12):
to be different. So I just I applaud the movies that,
you know, as Griffy said at the tap of Show
outkicked their coverage. And Larry Cohen, much like a Roger Korman,
is somebody that was able to create things that were
both entirely B movies but with an A movie mentality
and an a movie effort and the result is something
that is just captivating on all levels.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
Oh one hundred percent. Man.

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
I think about this all the time, which is when
you're working at a low budget, man, and you're trying
to make movies, it is so fucking brutal.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
It's so absolutely brutal.

Speaker 5 (01:08:47):
And it is one of those when you start making movies, right, man,
it's a miracle that any movie exists that's any good.
And especially these guys that bring them in right, they
didn't let the limitations slow them down. It just kind
of it's that Orson Wells thing, right, limitations breed more creativity.
And I don't know that anyone would fucking confuse Larry
Cohen and Orson Wills, but I do think that it's

(01:09:07):
it's charming man, right, It's like when you that's why
we all like Rocky. I just watched that with my
kids and they were fucking shocked at the end of Rocky.
He didn't win the fight, right, And I said no,
but he won everything, man, And they're like, no, he
lost his Like he won everything. He was a guy
with nothing who didn't fucking break. He didn't go down,
he stood up and that was the win. And they

(01:09:28):
couldn't wrap their heads around that because they're still young
and had their whole lives ahead of them. But it's
a middle aged man. You're like, that's everything.

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
It's so true. It's so true. Stuffy's we except bitcoin.
I don't know. Also except shitcoin. That's right. Oh is
that a thing? I don't know?

Speaker 4 (01:09:46):
It should be the shitcoin. It's currency that's been smuggled
into this country. Up someone's wrecked him. Oh yeah, shitcoin.
And that does bring us to the junk food pairing.
And for my junk food pairing, I went with specifically
Hoggendaws Vanilla I ice cream because of its resemblance of
course with the stuff, but also because Hagenda's Vanilla ice
cream specifically was one of the many edible on screen

(01:10:08):
stand ins for the.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
Titular stuff in the film. Was it really? It was Hogendaws.

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
Also, by the way, like Larry Cohen was born in
New York City, and like the stuff Hagendas, the words.

Speaker 3 (01:10:19):
Is entirely invented, has no actual meaning.

Speaker 4 (01:10:22):
So the stuff being sort of this catch all term
that can be you know, this sort of indefinable amorphous
blob it's just the stuff, right. Well, Hagendaws sounds like
it's German or maybe Danish or has some kind of
foreign meaning, but it doesn't. It doesn't mean anything, but
it will still be delicious as you watch the movie.

Speaker 5 (01:10:42):
Okay, I went a little out of bounds. I think
for this one. I would be shocked if you didn't.
So I found this product. You can find it under
hashtag loube life. Oh God, and it's cotton candy flavored.
And the image to me evokes very much that kind
of stuff marketing.

Speaker 3 (01:10:59):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:11:00):
It's this very jip drippy, goopy bottle. This says hashtag
lube life. Have a splash right next to it. It's
a cotton candy that's also getting creamed by another bottle
of lube we can't see. I think if you pair that,
there's also this product you can look up that's edible
sex dust, and I think the combination of this really

(01:11:20):
captures what the stuff is getting at.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:11:22):
It's in us, it's on us, and it's, you know,
making things more pleasant that maybe shouldn't be.

Speaker 4 (01:11:29):
Oh man, that is You're right. It was out of bounds,
and I appreciate that you don't know if.

Speaker 5 (01:11:35):
Any of it counts as food, but it is edible.
You could have maybe mixed in some barbasol in there. Yeah,
that'll make it palatable. Look, you could have don't make
it better.

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
You could have gone with whip cream toefoody yogurt. All
these things were also used to be the stuff. You
could have gone with mashed potato flakes and polyurethene foam
that were also used for this stuff. But no, you
went with edible sex dust. And that's what I appreciate.
It's about you.

Speaker 5 (01:11:56):
I know why I'm invited on this show.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
I know my route, and we love you for it.
I also love that. Michael Moriarty to this day, just
to give you an idea of the specific, specific stratum
of bonkers that he lives in, still to this day,
thinks that he was fired off of Law and Order
because he threatened a lawsuit against Janet Reno, who was

(01:12:18):
coming down hard on violence in television.

Speaker 3 (01:12:21):
So he threatened to sue her.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
And he said that the Dick Wolf and the producers
didn't like that he was going to do that, and
they fired him. And they've all been like that had
nothing to do with anything. Michael Moriarty is just cucku bananas.

Speaker 5 (01:12:33):
They're like, we didn't even know that was on the table. Yes,
we don't like it, but there were many many other reasons.
Uh yeah, man, Michael Moriarty, God bless him, an early
version of Nick Cage.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
Almost in my mind, that's not why you love.

Speaker 4 (01:12:51):
Thank you so much Griffy for joining me as we
both devour the stuff. I'm so happy we got to
talk about this movie. I'm so glad that I was
able to come to it with the right mindset and
see it for what it really is. And I'm kind
of angry at myself from years ago when I first
saw it that I didn't really latch on the way
that I should have. I'm glad you were here for
the cinematic redemption as part of Halloween's spirit.

Speaker 3 (01:13:12):
So please let people know where they can find you
in the inner webs.

Speaker 5 (01:13:14):
Yeah, man, I love that. There's nothing better than refinding
a movie and it finally works for you. That's a
great thing, man, I'm glad to be a part of that.
You can find our podcast, the Messed Up Movies Podcast
wherever you find podcasts. We have a Patreon too. You
can also find my production company, Misfit Parade. We have
misfit Parade dot com. You can watch all of our
short films. We have a YouTube you can subscribe to

(01:13:36):
Misfit Parade also. Also we are we have an Indiegogo
campaign going for our feature film. We are so close
to finishing Brian. It's killing us. But we're so close.
Mister Cream Jean's heidie hole a hohoror anthology, or as
I call it, a come pendium.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
Hey o, here you go.

Speaker 5 (01:13:53):
That's the kind of high level writing that people will
appreciate on this podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:13:58):
Starting to understand why this stuff heel to you as
an episode exactly, dude.

Speaker 5 (01:14:02):
You can find that on Indigogo. You have to specifically
type in mister cream jeans. Because we were shadow band.
We got confirmed from Indigogo. They did not want us
on the front page. But still going strong man. We
are very close to finishing the movie. I just wrote
a new segment called Pluche that I know you'll love.
So yeah, we would love to have your support man
on the pod with the movie. You guys are in

(01:14:25):
the right place man Jung Food Cinema. I am a patron,
the best patreon on the Internet. Thanks for having me man.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
I always love it when you're here, and as we
wrap up here, always remember to ask yourself, are you
eating it or is it eating you?

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
Either way, one lick is never enough.

Speaker 7 (01:14:48):
Light, stuffy, shoving your face whole stuffies.

Speaker 3 (01:15:01):
What really killed Kennedy? Stuffies? What are you chicken back? Stuffies?

Speaker 4 (01:15:06):
The only way to save this marriage stuffies