Midweek Mention... Team America: World Police

Team America: World Police

Sidey: This is the beginning of our puppet themed week, Pete

Pete: week.

Sidey: Puppet week. Yeah. So we're starting off with a film that we, I think you picked particularly with Dan in mind. Team America, World Police.

Pete: Yes. I picked it. Because for a little while I was thinking about, I, like, I liked doing themes that run through the week and Dan had said that he had never watched Team America.

Sidey: kind of turned his nose up at the thought of it as well.

So

Dan: A actively Missed it. Yeah,

Pete: Actively missed it because of the puppet thing,

Dan: just because it looked utter shit and it's the South Park lot, which I never laughed at any of their stuff. And this was from the same camp, and I thought to myself, I'm, No, it's two hours of my life.

I'll probably not get back, so I'm not gonna give

Pete: What I would say is, whilst I have enjoyed episodes, some episodes of South Park, I never really got into it. No I'm

Sidey: No, I'm not a devote t either. The

Pete: was fucking brilliant. And I think what enhanced it was like the songs as well, which are fucking brilliant because they're like, the songs are outrageous as well.

It is a

Sidey: this follows in that mold, in that it's, I guess you could describe it as a, a comedy musical.

Dan: Well, there's plenty of tunes

Sidey: there's lots of sing songs in it. Yeah. Yeah.

Pete: So where do we kick off?

Sidey: Well, we kick

Pete: Oh in pa

Sidey: in gay Paris. Yeah. And there's all sorts of just everyday Parisian type things going on.

Pete: Yeah. A little boy singing fora.

Sidey: Did you see that the streets were paved with Croson?

Did they

Pete: I can't believe I didn't, Men, I didn't notice

Sidey: they are,

Pete: I mean, it's probably worth saying for anyone who's listening to this and doesn't know this is all puppets.

So the, the little boy that we referred to and, and the pit, the French, the peri ends that we're talking about, they, they're all puppets.

Sidey: I don't know whether it's deliberate or not, but I felt like when I watched it, that. In the past and we're gonna get onto the stuff that we watched for the kids stuff later on in the week, they're puppet. So we watched Captain Scarlet and they seemed like there was an effort to hide, to make it, They're obviously puppets.

Yeah. But this, this one, like the strings and everything, it's so evident. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's part of the joke. That is

Pete: part of it.

Dan: It actually starts off on a puppet show. Yes. It doesn't it. Yes, it. And then there's a puppet show within the puppet world that we go on to visit. So you think, first of all, geez, this is budget. Because the first puppet show is just a puppet show,

But

Sidey: is what they showed to the studio execs first, and they are fucking freaked.

Dan: I bet they did. Yeah. As I did when I thought I'm in for like two hours, it is. But then it opens up and you've got this really well done puppet world. Other than fact, they, they don't seem to hide the string too much. You can see the strings.

And they play on that. You know, I mean, it's not anything

Pete: common theme throughout the film of, of like

Sidey: how cheap

Pete: building up to, to big moments and then like ridiculing them with like the shitness that Of puppetry. Yeah,

Dan: The puppet walk or the puppet gestures because a lot of that hand and face and eye gestures are there as well.

So these puppets, I dunno if they're CGI puppets or they, because there's real animation within the faces at points as well in different scenes. But Team America, Who are the superheroes of the world have come to?

Sidey: Well there's some terrorists.

Pete: Yeah. So

terrorists

Dan: in power, and you know they're terrorists.

How?

Sidey: Because they are of Arabic appearance

Dan: with with scars on their faces and really mean looks

Sidey: This is, this is post nine 11 World. Right. So they look, it looks like Bin Laden and that's the look they're going for. Yeah.

Pete: They, they both like, these are like Alka like

Sidey: So they, they've got a W M D.

Pete: Yeah.

Sidey: You can, it is a like flashing light on a briefcase. They're spotted and so Team America. Sent into action and just fucking destroy the whole city

Dan: now you, Peter said to me, Get the subtitles on this so you can read the words of the songs that they're playing, but also the, I dunno if the subtitles then come up because at one point he just says speaking Arabic gibberish, or whatever it is,

Sidey: Yeah. There I did have a list. There's only four times that they speak and it, and it's translatable, like recognizable language. The rest of it, it's just duka. Duer, Yeah. That's what they say. But there is a couple of times it's like, who are you, you bastard. And a few other like little one liners, but the rest of it, it literally is gibberish.

Yeah.

Pete: But so Team America come in in full force, in full effect. Yeah. And then they obviously kill all the terrorists.

Sidey: Well

we're given,

Pete: They, they, they, they

Sidey: we're given an intro to each one and they're kind of their special power, if you like. Yeah.

Pete: The psychic

Sidey: Yeah. One of which is, she's like an empath and another one that, one of the dudes, I can't remember all the characters names, but one of them, he's good at hand, he's good at hand to hand martial class, so that.

The, he gets held at, basically at gunpoint, there's a standoff and the terrorist gun doesn't fire. And he says, Okay, let's do this. Then he throws his gun down and they square up. And then you just have this, I think, hilarious like, fight of flailing limbs, you know, it's puppets and it's like ridiculous.

Dan: Yeah,

They don't even try and make it look

Sidey: No, it's obviously played for laugh and it, and it works for me anyway. But yeah, it's, it's sort of like

I was thinking. In the Avengers, when they have a whole storyline about the, they call it the Sarkovia chords because they keep going around destroying cities and towns and whatever.

That's exactly what happens here. All the landmarks in Paris have blown up, and they're all, you know, at the end they're like, Well, we've saved you all. You know, and they've just fucking, like, Eiffel Towers gone completely shows off.

Dan: They, they've total Paris, but just before they can celebrate one of the comes out of the fountain pond and.

And guns

Sidey: Just as he's proposing.

Dan: just as he's proposing to another member of

Sidey: to Lisa.

Pete: Yeah.

Dan: and he, he's gunned down right in front of his future wife. His perspective wife's eyes, and then it kind of cuts to a musical. And

Sidey: It's

Pete: well, like what I, I dunno whether I wanna, I wanna ask you at each point how you felt or whether we come to it at the end, but I remember seeing this the first time. Same. And. It went from like mouth, like wide open. Like, what the fuck? To killing myself. Laughing.

Sidey: Yeah. We go straight to, It's Times Square and specifically we're in Broadway and there's obviously the real life production of Rent and this is called Lease.

And they cut straight to the sing song, like the finale of the production. And they're singing. Everyone has aids,

Dan: aids, aids,

Sidey: They throw some like racist

Dan: My grandma and my dog.

Old blue, the pop's. Got it. And so do you common everybody we got quoting to do, cuz we gotta break down these barricades. Everyone's got AIDS times

Pete: Yeah

Dan: And

the, the crowd of puppets who are watching them are in tears of emotion and joy. And this sheer Power and brilliance of, of Gary Johnson.

Sidey: his like seminal acting

Dan: who's a famous Broadway actor.

And a little bit later Spotswood a, a chap who's been watching the show goes to see him behind Backstage. Yeah. And invites him to join his world, please. And. Undercover as in

chiro

Sidey: says to Gary, You know, you need to come and get in my limousine and we'll go off.

And he's like, I'm not just gonna get into, you know, a car with some strange dude. And he is like, I'm not gonna, you know, make you suck my dick, like, put my fingers inside you and make

Dan: you Well, no, no, that's, that's what Gary says, first of all, isn't it? Is his, is his kind of misgivings. He goes, I'm not getting in that car. You, you're just gonna make me suck your cock. And he goes, No, Look, my time is is really precious to me.

I'm really busy. Shall we just go? And eventually Gary does and he goes into this awesome white stretch limousine that turns into a plane, and

Pete: And before they take off, he Spotswood turns around and goes, Now suck my car.

Dan: Yeah, I'm only joking Gary. Let's go.

Pete: Oh, he's an Australian guy.

Dan: I think

Pete: Okay. Yes. And then the car turns into a plane and they go off to Mount Rushmore, which is Team America hq. And Gary gets to see firsthand what it's all about. He meets the.

One of the guys, the martial arts guy, I should know all their names because I've seen this quite Chris. Chris is like a bit frosty. He's like, Just see the fuck away from me. Whil, he's playing pool really badly cause he is a puppet.

It's amazing. And there's a guy I, this, this will mean absolutely nothing to, to the listeners, but one of the, there's a guy who plays for our football team, Marv, and, and the blonde hair puppet looks exactly like him.

I can't

Dan: think

Pete: so. Yeah, I know a guy who looks like one of the puppets Anyway

Sidey: he's immediately taken by Lisa.

Pete: He is immediately taken by Lisa, but he's not taken by the, the gig. The, the proposal that's being made by Spotswood and the team is that, look, we need to infiltrate the terrorists to find out where WMDs and, and what the master plan is.

And the only way we can do this is to have somebody act like a terrorist be transformed and. Go. Yeah. And infiltrate them. And he's like, Well, I might be a little bit outta my depth. This seems like you need a lot of training and stuff. He's like, No, all you gotta do spying is acting, is, is what Spotswood says.

But he doesn't,

Sidey: Well he gives him an ultimatum, says like, you can either do it or you can just, There's a door you can just leave and Okay.

Just, just literally walks out.

Pete: Yeah. Walks out

Dan: Lisa runs after him, gives him his card, and then, Goes back with Bax to the chauffeur driver who takes

Pete: he's bizarrely as a woman with a mustache

Sidey: It might have been Bob from Black Adder.

Pete: It might be. I don't, I, there's no explanation for that at all,

Dan: And he, he then goes to be asked to be dropped off. And I think there's another song here.

Pete: well this is, this is the first song.

Freedom isn't Free, which is not a, an absolute belt. But I do like the, Oh, Buckle Fair, Freedom,

Dan: Casa Buckle five.

I like the way he, he put a cast on the prize of freedom.

Pete: Yeah.

And it's a buck oh five. So yeah, he goes to something that I'm a

Like I am totally ignorant about some kind of like statue, about like

Dan: the Abraham

Sidey: Lincoln

It's the, was I've been at all those. He's that's the Washington Monument and then a Lincoln and the chair and all that sort of stuff. But he's obviously like a tiny little thing.

to scale. It's all just completely out, you know, it's just looks stupid but funny.

He has a sort of, he's questioning himself about whether he's, he's got what it takes. He's, he needs to take responsibility and, you know, there's a lot at stake. The, the safety of the world. You know, he's questioning whether he's got it in him to, to act, to be an actor and, and, and get involved.

Dan: But he does. He goes back, doesn't

Pete: he goes back, gets

Dan: What, what's

Sidey: transation,

Pete: Transmogrification cuz the, the, the car valorizes, isn't it? into a, into a plane. But it's transmogrification, which is like, that's, Oh, again, the first, the impact for me.

And of the first time I'm seeing these things where it's like hours and hours of like soaring

Sidey: Well, it's, it might be face off.

It's all a

Pete: yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sidey: to face off and he's just got some right

Pete: He's basically just got a load of hair glu to his face.

Dan: with a darker patch in, in little bits.

And they're all blown away by the sheer brilliance of the

Pete: all

Dan: And, and at one point the, the lady kind of mos her brow, doesn't she? Because she's been working

Pete: Well, this is the sidekick bird who Yeah. He is also a top surgeon. I think a, like running along with this, we get our first introduction to Kim Jong Ill.

Sidey: Yeah.

Pete: Who, who's portrayed not in a particularly positive light by the film and he.

Yeah, the, you kind of find out that he is the driving force behind these

Sidey: Yeah, he's putting out the

Dan: Well, that's it because, because Gary does go to Cairo, he does manage to act his way past the the security guards

Pete: Yeah. Well, he freezes at first. There's a bit of stage right. But then finally comes out. Durka dka, Mohamed G had, and they're like, Oh fuck, he's good.

Oh, he's, he is really good. And he gets in there, I love the bar. And it's playing like the it's riffing on the Star

Sidey: Wars Canteen Band. Yeah, yeah.

Pete: yeah.

Dan: So he, he does manage to destroy with the rest of the team, the, the terrorist cell.

But then the Panama Canal is attacked in, in payback. And we find out that Kim, Jon e is in fact the, the major mastermind behind all this, because while they think they've, they can go and drink cocktails back at the base with Spotswood and it's all done. In fact

Sidey: The

plan is bigger

Dan: block the world

Sidey: they thought. Kim, Jon Ill is dishing out WMDs all over the place.

Yeah. And. as we get into it. It's more nuanced than that because the film, the Film Actor Guild are involved as well

Pete: Headed up by Alec Baldwin. Yeah, I'm, I'm saying it like Alec

Dan: Baldwin. So the Film Actors Guild is abbreviated to f a dot G fag.

Yeah. And at one point we. I dunno whether I'm jumping ahead here because it goes in, in and out a few times, but at one point we introduced to all the actors that are part of it and Oh, dear me, I

Pete: I know exactly. Yeah.

Dan: The, the bit, the Matt Damon bit just absolutely got me because

Sidey: So they knew they they know him,

Dan: yeah.

Sidey: From, from years before. And also they've good powers were Clooney Clooney really helped to get South Park, like up and running and all that. Really loved the film and was a big fan.

And he was like on board. He was like, I would've been insulted if they hadn't put me in it. Matt Dam didn't get it. He was like, The mates of these guys. I don't know why. And they said it was just that when they saw the, the puppet that they'd had made of him, they just looked stupid. So that's why they did that to him.

There was no like

Pete: when it came out Yeah, it

Sidey: But when I saw it, it was like, Oh, we've been exaggerating that so much more. He basically just kind of says his name a little bit. It doesn't go, it just goes mad day.

Pete: Mad Damon . Yeah. But everyone else has got actual lines and all he's got is his own name. Yeah, he did. I saw an interview with, with Matt Damon over and And

Sidey: he's still fine with it.

Pete: He's fine with it. He just said he like, but when it first came out he was like, Shit, is that like what people think that I'm just really fucking stupid and I'm only capable of saying my.

Sidey: name.

Pete: But he said he loved the film. He loved what you know, the, like the guys behind it do and so

on But he does say like, in another interview, people, he's like, you know, you know, what do people say to you most on the street? And he's like, Mad man so anyway, that, that, yeah, that's, that's another little gem.

Sidey: Well, Gary, Gary though, he has a, a crisis of confidence and

Pete: Well, he does, but not, not before him and Lisa.

yeah. So him and Lisa have become very close. The other girl, I can't remember her name, girl,

Dan: it

Sidey: Sarah, yeah. Sarah won

Pete: normal like names and I should be able to remember like Chris and Sarah and stuff like that, but I can't.

But she's, she's, I'm, I'm sensing I'm becoming attracted to get, using her telepathic power. She works out that she might be coming attracted to Gary because of his

Dan: she find she confines that in.

Pete: in Lisa. Yeah. But Then Gary's outside. He's, he's thinking back to his like sad memory, which he then explains as he was he was acting, was his actor that got his brother killed cuz he was acting on the side of the gorilla enclosure and fell in.

And yeah, Gary and his brother fell in trying to, well, went in, tried to save him, say Gary. But his, his brother was like torn to pieces by gorillas. So that's his like, sad thing. That's how he can act so well, cuz he's got

Sidey: his method.

Dan: taps into that. When anytime he

Pete: Lisa asked him what's wrong, He explains the story.

Then they kind of like, they're about to have a moment and she says, Look, you know, I've, I've just lost someone pretty close to me. Like she's moved on pretty quick. It's only been a matter of weeks or. But then she's like, she's like, I would have sex with you right now if you promise that you would never die.

And he just he makes that promise.

Dan: He makes that

promise

Sidey: promise you I

Dan: then they have

Pete: they have.

Sidey: the greatest sex scene of all time.

Pete: Like what? Like all the different, the, all the different positions and just like the ones of like her head going up and down with that, flailing around and stuff.

Sidey: It's that this scene is what got it an NC 17 rating in America, which is like the highest.

Pete: They

have no, other than she's got some boobs.

Yeah. that they have no genitalia

Sidey: So all the like, swearing and they're like

Pete: and yeah, they're really like, Yeah. Some of the like, like not even undertones, like overtones,

Sidey: But it's this, They just can't handle people having sex even when there's no actual genitals or anything involved in it. It's fucking mad. Yeah. But it's hilarious. So they have that. Gary, I wanna move on to the vomiting. Yeah. Yeah. What, how is it that he ends up in the bar? He is, the mission goes bad.

Pete: Yeah. He, he leaves and a and a mission goes bad and they all get like, that's what's his

Sidey: name? Oh, they'll get kidnapped.

Pete: the, the fucking Who's that annoying guy? Columbine and

Dan: Michael Moore. Yeah.

Pete: blows up like HQ and he thinks spotswood and intelligence are, are gone and maybe even Baxter too.

They all get captured. He's in a,

Dan: well, he, he, he's gone off cuz he realizes that he thought

Pete: he didn't save anything.

Dan: He didn't save anything. It's still all out there. He says, Oh, I'm not doing all this again. Like, you know. And so he goes to, to the bar and, and has a few drinks.

Sidey: A few,

Pete: a lot of drinks and Yeah.

And then he's, but, but he's before, before he, he stumbles out into the alley. There's. A guy who tells him a story about Dicks pussies and assholes. Yeah. Which has very, like, has a major impact on him. Cuz even though he's, he's spangled

Dan: There are three kinds of people. There's dicks, there's puss, and there are assholes.

Pete: do the whole speech Okay. So, and then Gary goes outside and the trat like, says, Why, why have you given up on

Sidey: bomb

Pete: Yeah. You burm

Sidey: And he gets, he gets that abuse from there, someone up in a window and then he, he is just like proper down and out.

And he does the, the really, I think, famous vomiting scene. Right. Just goes on and on and on and pans away. And he's just like, So when it, when they do the, the, the way shot, you know, from up above? Yeah. That's actually Trey Parker. Is it Matt Stone and Tray Parker? Yeah, that's actually Tray Parker lying in the vomit.

Pete: Oh, right, okay. They did just have a puppet lying. Okay. That would've worked.

Dan: I'll tell you what, that, that scene did make me laugh because when he throws up and it's like we've all flow up, you know, it's just like, and then there's another bit, but his eyes just ab,

Sidey: so relatable

Dan: like's so relatable

Pete: It's the bit where he is like shaking, but only like spurts are coming out.

Dan: just, he just captures the, the facial expressions of somebody really struggling

Pete: There's been a few, there's been a few. This film has made a few of our top fives, obviously sex scenes vomit seems like there's, there's quite a lot in there.

Sidey: but as they say, you have to hit rock bottom before you can recover.

And he does, He goes back and but he feels like he's, he's got unfinished business and he, he's gotta like represent and be an actor and go and, and do his, his mission. So he goes back to Mount Rushmore, which has.

Decimated. But Spotswood still there, and the conversation from their initial meeting comes back to haunt him because he says, No, I want back on the team.

You know, I need to go and rescue everyone and save the world, et cetera. And he is like, We're in that case. You need to prove yourself by getting on your knees and sucking my dick . He's like, Sorry, what?

then then,

Dan: he's deadly serious. He says, Don't you see? Don't you see your fir It's a trust thing.

It's the first bit of trust. Your first words to me was, I wouldn't do that. And so he convinces him and, and Gary goes down. Yeah. And

Pete: yeah, it's, it's like an off camera. Tend a moment with a couple of like sound effects. Yeah. And yeah, doesn't take very long.

And then Spots was like, Right, you're ready. Let's go in. But he, he puts him through, This is where you get, I mean, we've missed, What we have missed is the Team America song We missed. Like you must when they first like fly out

Sidey: America. Fuck yeah. Lick my ass and suck on my balls. Yeah.

Pete: Yeah, that's good.

Sidey: This one's the Montage,

Pete: then we have the montage song

Dan: fade out in a, if you fade out, seems more like more time as

Pete: past.

Yeah,

Sidey: It's great. That song. It's really, really good. So yeah, he's ready. He's ready to go. He goes out. But this is where we can now cut to North Korea. We've had all sorts of other stuff. I mean, we could go on and

Pete: on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We

Sidey: don't, we've had like bls, the uns weapons inspector in Korea, he gets burned like James Bond style into a, a shark tank.

And we get loads of Ro Marie. Yeah. So loads of Racist abuse, I guess , if you wanna, if you wanna really get into it about Kim Young Ill, but it's okay cuz he's a bad guy. And so now we've got the Film Actors Guild and it's Alec Baldwin delivering a speech to. It's every single world leader is in the room in every single stereotypical costume from their nation.

You can imagine the Mexican guy, should I clock?

fucking

enormous soro. It's amazing. And he's just keeps going on about fags and world. Great. Nice going fag

Pete: to go. Fag. Yeah.

Sidey: That one's I think is aged pretty bad.

Pete: Yep.

Sidey: It's, you get, we see all the different torture that's going on to the members of the team.

One of them's having I think he's got electrodes on his nuts and he's being tortured. Chris or Chris.

Pete: Yeah, Yeah.

Sidey: All sorts of shenanigans going on.

Pete: the buildup. Yes. It's the buildup to the final act, which is cr which is Gary arriving.

Sidey: Kim Young. This, I love this cuz this is like stupid shit that happens in so many films where he is like, he brings up a map of the world with a light where every single w MD is.

He goes, and now is the time for me to, you know, destroy the world. And he presses button in five minutes.

Pete: Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah. So there's a five minute countdown where Gary has to come in and save the day.

Pete: Yeah. And it's basically gonna happen at the end of Alec Baldwin's speech whilst cuz he's obviously through the power of acting, gonna convince all the world

Sidey: leaders

Dan: Well, he is the greatest actor of all time.

Sidey: Yeah.

Pete: Yeah, it says that. But the, the, the final act of, of the, the team America, like working their way through the actors and like the fucking violent, horrendous, but hilarious deaths. Like, yes, Samuel mean l Jackson has like the top of his head kicked off. Susan Sound is like, there's a bit where Yeah, Chris, Chris and Gary eventually like Bond, because Susan Sardon like got her arms side behind her back and she's like, Oh, help me, un time me and everything.

And Gary's like, Wait. She's acting like your powers are fading, Susan. And.

Sidey: So

Pete: Then she comes out, she's going psycho and they like, they throw her off the off the balcony and she just explodes like jam. And then that's when Chris explains why he doesn't trust actors. Cuz he went to a, a production of cats when he was a kid.

And it was like, yeah, the, like the Ron Tom Turga tied me down and I was raped by Mr. Les

It's,

preposterous. Yeah. And then yeah, loads of them died. There's the cats , the panther. Get released in and I think there's ah, yeah. The loads

Sidey: all happens, like clearly dies. Matt Damon dies head and hunt gets cut in half by one of the girls and then Gold es Gary has to have an act off with Alec Baldwin.

Yeah. And he he recites the Cox as asshole and Percy's speech. And everyone's a bit like shocked at first, but he wins around with his stellar acting performance. Gets the standing of ocean.

He

Pete: Dan, at first it's like, Right, you've gotta go down there and you've gotta al act Al Baldwin. He's like, But he's the best actor in the entire world, which is like

Dan: He's decent enough. Yeah. But it's just

Pete: funny that Alec Baldwin's Canadian. Is he or no? American?

yank Yeah. Yeah. But they, they like having to go at the bald, the Baldwins, don't they? Cuz in south, in South Park of the movie,

Sidey: Benny Baldwin

gets

Pete: the, Yeah, there's the Baldwins and they fly in. Oh, who's the, the, the, the Arquettes?

Yeah. Like from Canada or whatever. Anyway yeah. Gary gives that Rosing speech. Everyone's convinced and

Sidey: well, Kim Young Ill guns down at you are a useless Eric Baldwin machine guns him down and his head explodes. But Lisa is able to kind of kick him a little bit from her chair and he falls off in his harpooned on some Kaiser's helmet.

So he's gone and, you know, they've won the end. They manage to stop the timer on 0.000

Pete: He's like, he's like, How do I do it? She's like, Press the big cancel button. So he does that. And then Kim Jong, it turns out as a cockroach that gets a little spaceship and flows

off. As you'd expect. Sorry.

Sidey: So a lot of this humor, This was 2004. Yeah. Which doesn't seem that long ago. But when you hear some of this in the context of how the world operates today Yeah.

It's even more. Shocking. I wanna say, I dunno if that's the right word, but when I first saw it, I was like, fuck, they're really gone for it. But you'd already, I think it's probably worse in South Park. But this still was like, oh my god. You know, like the Asian voice of stereotypes about that fag stuff.

Some of the other things

Dan: nobody escapes. I think that's one

Sidey: they've said themselves that they're like equal opportunity offenders or something like that. So, but

Pete: Right. So, so first of all, so these guys are Canadian.

Sidey: I think so yeah

Pete: Yeah, but they kind of like, they, they derived Canada in, in South Park. It's like all the way through it. They absolutely, The whole film is a piss take about America, Americans, and America. Like the reaction, especially

Sidey: to

Pete: Nine 11, cuz this is like not that long after it. You think it came out in 2004?

So

Sidey: Well, of course it's a reaction to all of that.

Pete: Yeah. So it's

Sidey: you have to put it in context of that, but also you don't, you.

Like if it was to be made today, I just don't think you'd get a lot of this content.

I

Pete: don't

Sidey: And you, and also you, it's difficult to argue that you get a pass because your subject matter is X. Like the stuff about like the fag stuff, I'm like, I don't, I just don't think they would do that now. You know, the thing, the Asian voices stuff.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I mean, I fucking laughed so much through this, but you know, afterwards you've got it. You sort of think, Jesus, man, it's

Pete: like, yeah.

Sidey: close to the bone.

Pete: I, I, the best way of saying it for me is that we all know certain, we all know jokes, we've all seen films.

There's things that we've laughed at and so on. There is, you know, you watch comedy that, like standup comedians seem to be able to continue to get away with it because, and you know, Ricky Jva and others are saying like, it's just jokes. Like we're not, we don't mean it. Like Jimmy Car says, you know, it's.

We're just joking. Right. And because it's like extreme and because it's co like con controversial, that's where the level, it's like people are going like, Oh, that, that's funny. I shouldn't be laughing at it, but that's funny. And that still happens, but just in, in different kind of like forums or whatever, when you take it on like the, you know, silver screen, then like you said, you're gonna have, so you're gonna have audiences that aren't necessarily going. There would've been people, there've been people who were offended by this film. Definitely. I don't necessarily feel bad for having laughed at this film and enjoyed it or anything because, just because I've laughed.

Does it mean to say I'm a racist, I'm a homophobic, I'm none of those things. Right. But it's, I, I do understand that it will offend a lot of people. Yeah. And that probably it would be ill advised to make something along these lines or certainly with that kind of like content nowadays.

Sidey: Yeah, I agree. it's a difficult, isn't it? Cause you.

 don't wanna offended,

Dan: don't go and watch this film.

But it is one of those things for me. I'm not that easily offended. I can understand sometimes how that would offend somebody else and it would make me

Sidey: that's it.

Yeah.

Dan: So it wasn't me per se, but I, I imagine if I was watching this film with, with some people, then it might offend them more than it would offend me.

That could potentially make me uncomfortable, I, I think that a lot of this you have to take with the pinch, so it's done with puppets. For, for example,

Pete: they couldn't have made this, I don't know if that was the, the intention, like, we want to get all of this fucking stuff out there, but we're never gonna be able to do it with like actors, like, like portraying people and so on.

This has got to be, Puppets or whatever. Like, like with South Park, they can get away with a lot more and

Sidey: they

don't they were just watching, I think they were just bored watching Tally and saw a Thunderbirds episode and thought, Oh, that'd be cool to do something like that.

You know, they've done animation. They'd also done like,

Pete: really been done before or since, like with a whole film of like comedy. With like really like controversial topics and, and themes

Sidey: running through it. Well, we can get into in the top, in our top five layer in the week.

Dan: Well, as I say, I actively avoided this, so I wonder if you've got any metrics though? Did it make money? Did it, Oh yeah. Did it lose

Sidey: money? It made money down for sure. It well, I mean, it wasn't as big as success. I thought it would've been budget was 32 mil. Yeah, I mean it's I guess really hands on because you are making these sets, you're making all the puppets and stuff like that.

And it, they made 51. I thought it would've made hundreds, to be honest, cuz it was everyone I, you know, was talking about it. And yeah, I guess there'd be a people put off by it, by the subject matter cuz it was well known.

Pete: there'd be that, there'd be a lot of people will know that it's gonna be controversial and also a lot of people, Just aren't like you Dan, it would be just like, what a fucking hour and a half to whatever it is of Puppet. So I'm not really bothered about that.

Sidey: Metrics though. I mean, it's just north of seven on IMDB rotten tomatoes, 77 averaging and, and 77 on Google as well. So it's, it's up there.

People enjoy

Dan: despite myself, I laughed at this on multiple occasions throughout the throughout the episode. There was other parts that I just thought, Geez, that seems like a little bit embarrassing,

Pete: Yeah, yeah,

Dan: know, a little bit. But

Sidey: the songs were what got me

Dan: were some of the songs, there was, I.

I dunno where I put it down. I think it was the second or third song in the last few lines of it. It just, just the way he tailed off and the, the tone and everything again, just had me laughing long after the line had ended. I was still laughing. The Matt Damon line. I was, I, I watched it, I rew it, I rew it about four times to watch this thing and I videoed it and put it on my Instagram.

Because it was just, it just had me. And even then I couldn't stop laughing over the top of it. Just, he goes, Baden. Oh,

Sidey: I did. I did really enjoy the songs I do. I like that it sends up America and it's like total over the top like reaction to stuff. But also then you get the montage song where it shows like a complete and utter understanding of films and how they work.

You know, deconstruct that in a

Pete: it gives art. I mean, another brilliant song is the one about

Sidey: Harper Oh

Pete: how Shit it is,

Sidey: how shit Ben

Dan: Pearl Harbor sucked.

Pete: I need you as much as Ben Fl needs acting school. . Yeah. He was terrible

Dan: Well, that was it. He was comparing, he was comparing a girl to how bad Michael Bay

Sidey: Mark

Dan: Mr.

Mark on Pearl Harbor, which again was just a really clever, clever way of, of getting your love

Pete: good. Yeah.

Dan: So there was loads. Genius parts in this really, really clever parts. And I, you know, was fantastically clever. There are some parts that will offend people particularly,

Sidey: I mean, my message was just shaking her head like constantly, just like, Oh, this is so child. It's just so stupid. Like, why

Pete: Well, had she watched it before,

Sidey: I dunno that she'd ever sat through the whole thing before, but she was like, she was not

Pete: I

remember some, I can't remember who it was like, loads of us went and watched it at the cinema when it came out, you know, and fucking Rod would laughter and everything.

And there was, there was somebody I remember like just going like, It's just fucking char. But I, I, I do get that in that their type of humor. Is something, you know, a lot

Sidey: it's all or nothing. You know, If you don't like some of this, you won't like any of this.

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. And what, what I would say if, again, Dan, if you haven't seen, it's, it's obviously quite different, but if you haven't seen South Park of the movie, and I know you're not a bit massive fan of South Park, the, the, the

Dan: Not even a little

Pete: but the movie, the fucking songs in that are our next level and that came before this, this film.

But again, the songs are absolute genius. And the. Brilliant. The film's really good

is

Dan: is one of the funnier musicals I've seen.

Puppet musicals,

Pete: Yeah, I imagine. Yeah.

Sidey: I'd be interested to know what our listeners thought

of This one

Pete: I think it, it could be very

Sidey: Yeah.

especially Jeff Kitchen. Probably got a few thoughts on it as well.

Dan: I, I can definitely understand people.

As I did without even watching it. No, this is rubbish. I wouldn't watch it even after watching it.

You know, people, I can imagine people just turn this off halfway through. It would be like that kind of divisive, but yet for me, I was in the right mood and it hit the right mark in, in lots of parts that made me laugh and, and so it's a thumbs up for me.

Pete: I'm glad you enjoyed it then.