¶ Intro / Opening
Weird, Weird.
Welcome back Midnight viewers, and welcome back Ripley Gene, and welcome back me. The m was on a hiatus last week you were there. I was sick, sick as a dog. I don't know dogs are sick?
YO.
Anyway, Happy New Year? Do we continue to say that now? Is it too late? Ask Larry David. Welcome back to Father Malone's weekly roundup. I'm Father Malone and with me as always is the dog obsessed with Colin Jos. Don't lie. You sit still for exactly one television show, Pop Culture Jeopardy, and only half the time before we start. I have
¶ Star Wars Fandom Rant
a quick question for Star Wars fans, What the fuck A said? What the fuck is wrong with you and not watching and embracing and crowing about Skeleton Crew. It also means what the fuck is wrong with you and the attitude we used to be the red headed step children of fandom to fantasy for science fiction, to science fiction for fantasy. Here are my Star Wars bona fides. I saw it before the addition of episode four to
the opening crawl. I'm a little bit older than the series itself, but it may as well be my foundation for space opera and eventually sci fi, as it was seemingly for everyone in my generation, well not everyone. The main cross section of gen X that sided with the Boomers and their hatred of Star Wars were Star Trek fans.
Trekkies. Oh don't call us trekkies. That's the name applied to us. We prefer trekkers. Oh my god.
I had friends who had an organized starship club that was connected to some greater star Trek fan run starfleet. This is pre internet, all communication by phone and really by mail, and they had ranks and duties. It was the nerdiest of the nerd shit, and I loved them.
But there are others.
I had hardcourt doctor who folk who wore the scarf and blistering heat and had quotes at the ready. Loved them, and Gundam fans loved them. Doune fans, well we all felt pretty bad for done fans. Star Wars kind of robbed it and then the movie, which I loved. Don't get me wrong, but Doune fans seemed a little sad in their Harconin finery at conventions. Harconin say what you want about the Lynch film. They at least said the villain's name correctly, but Star Wars fans were the underdog.
It was the biggest and most popular science fiction phenomenon the world had ever seen, but fans were basically tolerated at conventions unless it was a Star Wars convention. Then all the Star Trek pricks could piss up a rope. And to be honest, I know Star Trek people who now sneer if I bring up Star Wars. So how did this fandom slide so effortlessly into the worst thing this side of Snyder's Minions. Star Wars was the spiritual
one Jedi and shit Yoda yo. Suddenly people are calling for the heads of the heads of lucasfilm.
Look, on some level, I get it.
We all got older, and when Lucas brought it back, he kept it pitched at kids. So all that fan fictioning we'd been doing in our heads for a decade and a half as we matured into adults became a null and void. We were counting on Star Wars aging with us, Nope, denied. Even with some of the darker
shit in the later prequels. It's not meant for older fans who should be savvier and watching proper sci fi anyway, And even by the time of the prequels, the market was already flooded with novels and comics and video games, stabulishing other tributaries from the main theatrical river. That's putting aside what we all managed to put aside when we were bitching about the prequels, the fucking Holiday special. I know it can't be fun, but I'm really with Lucas
about purchasing them all and burning them. And then after that, the original trilogy was followed by two fucking horrendous TV movies about the Ewoks, one featuring Wilford Brimley as a badass. There's a sequence of fetish shots of him gearing up for battle. It's Wilford Brimley. I am now not going to do the diabetes joke. It's a terrible affliction. Along with those misbegotten horrors, we had a animated show about
droids and a fucking another one about the fucking Ewoks. Now, I don't know how many of my fellow Star Wars fans are also students of semionics, but I don't think you need to know too much about it to figure out what these signs and signifiers might have held for the future of the franchise might not be pitched at the age we'd hoped. And then we got the prequels. Your mileage may vary, but at least their original and not nostalgic carbon copies. And with those, Lucas eliminated any
other Star Wars media. No more canon, he said. And after that we get the fucking felony verse. Is that the name for it? I don't care. I'm not a fan. His stuff has always been circling the original trilogy drain, all the same missions in different low coals, all the
same goals, same quests. I know he created a lot of characters you're all in love with, and I like some of them too, but it just seems like he was the guy who stuck around the office long enough and was obsessed enough that somebody eventually just said, here, man, i'm tired.
You take it from here.
And then we had the fuckeroo of the new sequels, and then more TV series, and then more prequel movies and new terrible series. I get it. It's frustrating how much mediocrity got thrown at us in the pursuit of paying off the bill Disney had spent for lucasfilm, but as fans, you've certainly lived up to.
The fanatic part of the word.
So either shut up and leave or give everything it's due, because right now there are two Star Wars properties that are as good as anything we've gotten since nineteen eighty three, and if I'm being really honest, since nineteen eighty and neither one has the nostalgia bait of a baby Yoda. Two properties that could not be more dissimilar in plant, in theme, in execution, and or is obviously one and guess what, it absolutely slakes the adult thirst for Star Wars.
Complex characters navigating hostile situations, sharp dialogue, motivations are clear and concise, and the storytelling is fucking awesome. On the other end of the spectrum or galaxy, we spend a lot of time on the outer rim, don't we. But that's not where this week's selection lies. Quite frankly, I'm not sure where this series takes place, and that's kind of the point. That's right doing what even the Lucas
wasn't ever really capable of. John Watt and Christopher Ford have given us a kid Star Wars that's just a god, damned light God. It took us a while to get here. But put down your sabers and just relax. Star Wars fans,
¶ Skeleton Crew Review
we're talking about Skeleton crew.
What are you in for?
What are you in for?
I found something buried in the woods. This is unacceptable. Do you understand?
What do you think it is?
Don't touch anything?
What did you do?
We're lost, really lost. Stay together, we just need some directions.
Home alone kid, Hey wall, where'd you two find an old Republic credit?
Over here? Quick?
I'll get you home. We'll make a partnership, but we have to move faster. I need you to take the controls. Okay, leil lel. A crew of murderous pirates is coming from.
Something's wrong.
They're not going to just turn up. We need to find them. We're not alone on there, be warned. Every booby traps.
Russ when none day ago. If you hear this, don't.
Give up no matter what.
Here's what you probably keep hearing goonies, and it is that it has that flavor. It is, after all, about four tweens engaged in a story that sets them on a quest for hidden treasure, just like our one eyed Willie Chasing Gang in a movie that's not as great as you remember. But really, this is Treasure Island, and it's the fucking best adaptation of that book since Wallace Beery stomped his peg leg through the nineteen thirty four edition. I know Tim Curry is in that Muppet flick, but
that's not great. Tim Curry is great. That's a common mistake people make. They remember a movie that Tim Curry is in and then remember it as a good movie.
It wasn't.
Tim Curry is just awesome. Filling in the traitorous adult role. Here is Jude Law as a pirate with dozens of aliuses and a connection to the force. Also aiding them is a droid, a fucking pirate robot with a creature living in its skull, and it is voiced by Nick Frost from Sean of the Dead and other Edgar Wright properties. He's pretty much the best first mate you could ever hope for. If AI is going to speak like a pirate and give us this kind of automaton, then take over already.
That's right.
I say automaton just like I say automobile. We get locales we've never seen before in this universe, including Suburbia, which I thought we'd never see, and quite frankly, I hoped we never would. So I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable it all was, and a nice reminder that not every story in the Star Wars universe involves grand prophecies and mystical objects. That's why and Or works so well.
It stripped the storytelling away from the Jedi and all the controlling forces and turned it over to ordinary folk in this universe. Yes, all have their part to play in the grand scheme, but the stakes in the situations can be just as great if they're personal. Adding to that personal touch are the adults on this suburban world of at at in real characters, not just scolds or obstacles or bumblers. Tell me, every adult besides the Fortellis
were not total fucking idiots in the goonies. One of the parents here is a straight up practical alien, by the way, as is one of our child leads, and it always works. Who knew you could have an alien character filmed beside the other actors and not laid in by some bleary eyed keyboard monkey months later. It must have been so distracting for the other actors to have an actor present in the scene with them, and not
a fucking tennis ball. Speaking of practical Phil Tippett's shop did a stop motion character in one of the later episodes, and I think it's the biggest creature they've done. Maybe that space Slug was bigger.
I don't know. Maybe that was a puppet, not slow motion. I don't know.
There are more obsessive nerds out there with the answers. Anyway, all the kids here are great, the characters and the actors. Not a whiff of precocious to be found. And along the way they managed to encounter a whole host of new and interesting characters, including that werewolf from the original New Hope Cantina, and he's awesome as an antagonist. Interesting characters,
interesting choices. I never thought in my life i'd see a scene where Jaliel white Erkele shares the frame with Jude Law, but this series does that, and it gives us my absolute new favorite character in the whole goddamn shebang, a bounty hunter named Pocket played by Kelly McDonald from Trainspotting and Brave and Boardwalk Empire. Goddamn she is awesome. I keep saying awesome.
A lot.
But then there is that Goony's Eighties connection. What that movie did get right and is replicated here is the sense of actual danger. There seems to be a concerted effort behind the scenes to give us genuine thrills, and that includes some truly harrowing stuff. And every episode since I'm waxing, Rhapsodic always managed to defy my expectations. By that, I mean they telegraph stuff and deliver on that, but then there'd be some twist or innovation I wouldn't see coming.
This is coming out on If you're listening to this episode the day it comes out, it is the Monday before the season finale. So I'm recommending the show at a bit of a disadvantage. But unless the ending turns into some sort of deep fake remember all these folks situation, I feel confident you won't be let down. I know it's been a long trek Star Wars, but everyone should just fucking chill out. Stop obsessing it what came before
or what might annoy you in the future. Right now, there's as good as you're going to get for the franchise. And or watch the first season, Skeleton Crew. Watch the first season and can we please get a musical biopic
of figuring Dan and the Modal Nodes. They'd finally have a legit reason to do a musical Star Wars you know what, fuck it while I'm at it and fan fictioning all over the place remake can bo jest on Tatoween with the sand People only the sand People are the French Foreign Legion defending against Imperial troops as they try and get a foothold here in the Outer Rim. Oh okay, I get it. The Outer Rim is cool. You are correct, Ripley.
You know what?
One more recommendation Skeleton Crew related. I know Christmas is over, but Jude Law plays Kate Winsland's brother in The Holiday, which is a Christmas movie, but really it could be said in any holiday. I encourage you to see it. It's Jude Law's best performance. I'm speaking specifically as the play within a play character of mister Napkin Face.
So it's time for you to choose young or Ripley.
No, I told you that pop culture Jeopardy is not an option here at the roundup. Weekend Update is, but I get to choose the era. What are Weekend Update anchor or anchors that aren't my favorite?
For two hundred? Who is Colin Jost? Take it away, hp J, Thank you HP.
There's currently a chimp with a camera strap to its back roaming your property. Just act naturally. Oh, I see what you're doing. You're going Colin Jost adjacent. You're going with Colin Contemporaries.
I love it.
¶ SNL and The Lonely Island
Here's a quick SNL fact the board that indicates what sketch goes where while they're planning the show. Each week has had the same category of cards basically since the first season fifty years ago. Cold Open, Monologue, Music Break, Weekend Update, week in, week out. The styles of comedy have changed, the performers have been replaced with others the music guest after music guest after music guest, but the
format was always solid. That would change after the two thousand and five hiring of Akiva Shaffer, Andy Samberg and Yorma Tacone, a Berkeley bred comedy trio that had already established themselves as the Lonely Island. After them, a new card hit the board, the SNL Digital Short. Now, I don't think SNL was in any sort of trouble when they came along. As a matter of fact, the year's Lonely Island were on SNL appear now to be one of the show's patented golden ages. The writing and performing
were in sync and absolutely sparkling. But what Lonely Island did was managed to pull the show kicking and screaming into the twenty first century. All the shouts of diy we kept hearing at the end of the nineties are embodied in These guys have an idea for a sketch that would be impractical to mount in the studio, run down and film it with some home video equipment. Bam, two minutes of comedy to plug in wherever you need
it now. It may be said that the current iteration of SNL maybe leans a little too heavily in the pre tape arena, but pretapes were still pretty sparse at this point, and remember they once had Schiller vision. And even as the shorts became more elaborate, they seemed to become more innovative, employing the full resources of SNL's production staff and performers, and frequently directed by Shaffer, whose progress as a filmmaker you can just watch season season. It's
like film school and action. The shorts with spotlight hosts in truly unexpected in thrilling ways and meander down every comedic attitude with Lazy Sunday and Natalie's rap as monster hits for them and the show employing this here YouTube thing something the show barely understood. Apparently they were pretty quickly giving out one of those Lorne Michael's Bobbles, a mid budget paramount Starr, but they at least got to
rewrite and direct it. That was hot Rod and it's okay, there's some very funny stuff, but you can tell it to rewrite of a plot in characters they'd never have come up with, kind just kind of a tail ender of that whole Aren't White trash? Hilarious cycle of films like Talladega Nights and Joe Dirt? How is the Lonely
Island's first film not going to be music driven? And evidently they basically had to finish the season, go make the movie during the summer and be back for the show and then do post every other week or something. It sounds hillatious That pressure Cooker seems to work well from Studio eight h, but not necessarily on location in Canada. I will say that the riot scene is very very funny, but that's about all. It wasn't until after they'd left SNL that they hooked up with John Appatoo, who caught
into their idea of a music mock documentary. I Los Spinal Tap but plugged into the proliferation of self funded tour in depth look into the private lives of pop stars that seem to be everywhere one direction. Katy Perry the Bieber from twenty sixteen This is pop Star, Never stop,
¶ Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
never stopping.
Okay, where to start? Ever since I was born, I loved music as soon as I could. I started a band right away.
We knew he was something special. Immediately, I said, Man, this guy right here, he's gonna make it big.
Call it for real. I should be saving the record industry. Everybody's waiting to see, like what he does next.
Connor's hot.
You tell me you didn't see him and say, yo, he's the stars.
All so expressive. Connor currently is thirty two people on his personal payroll. Sure, Connor surrounds himself with people who are agreeable.
Like Cartney and Kanye and Yeah, I was all my woodwork. It's kind of my passion because it was a mask.
Still me, I'd love to get Connor to the point where he's just kind of everywhere, like oxygen or gravity or clinical depression. He's just everywhere.
I make sure all the instruments are tiptop. No one really plays guitar, but we got him here and pays he wants one.
A genius. It's pronounced to bora.
What's the origin of that. I believe it's not a competition, not.
Because I'm so in a way, being righteous is my weakness.
People say I'm so well pretentious for the gene years, you know, it takes a village to make me looked out.
Originally titled Connor for Real, the idea was more focused on the one character. It was Appata who suggested that what makes the lonely Island so damn good is there are three of them and their friendship, and perhaps they ought to focus on that, and thank god they did, because that's what forms the beating heart of this film and ends up elevating it above the dozens of musical
misfires we've had between Spinal Tap and Now. Samberg plays Connor Friel and Now Connor for Real, who was once Kid Connor, part of a pop rap boy band known as The Style Boys. Tacone plays Lauren Boschard, kid Contact of the Style Boys and now Connor's DJ, and Schaffer stars as Lawrence Done kid Brain who quit the business and became a farmer. It's weed, I'm spoiling that joke as a fellow cannabis cultivator Kid Brain forever fuck Connor in Contact so kind of like Destiny's Child are the
supremes The Style Boys. Standout was Connor and he blew up huge. He's an amalgam of every self obsessed entertainment type of the last of like a hundred years, and as he's about to release his sophomore album, that's when the film begins. Predictably, things go south, very quickly and very hilariously. They're aided ably by a heavy hitting supporting cast, in addition to the seemingly endless array of music industry icons playing themselves. Fellow SNL veteran Tim Meadows. Is there
anyone better than Tim Meadows? Anyone who immediately sends you it ease when he shows up in something he plays? He plays Connor's manager and once the fourth member of Tony Tony Tony, Tony Tony Tony Tony also appearing are other SNL players like Maya Rudolph, Joan Cusack, she was on SNL for one season.
Am I the only one who remembers that?
Bill Hayter, Kevin Neeland, Jimmy Fallon, and Chris red as A Kanye Tyler, the creator mashup Hunter, the Hungary who proves to be Connor's salvation and destruction. The documentary style, while drawing unnecessary comparisons to spinal Tap, allows this seasoned group of sketchwriters to effectively give us a dozen cent pieces that operate remarkably well as a whole. And that is in no small part to the central performance by
Andy Samberg. As much as he's been the face of Lonely Island and gotten a lion's share of the attention over the years, I think Samberg is wildly underrated as a performer. Like the best of SNL players, he can navigate not only the different layers and styles of comedy whatever the given setup, but he's also pretty dynamic as
a dramatic actor. Check out Palm Springs, the comedy from twenty nineteen that The Lonely Island produced and Samberg co stars alongside recent Penguin Megastar Selfia fl Cone, herself, Kristin Milioti. That is a very funny but very serious film about Wow. I can't get into that. There's too much plot in that one. We just don't have time. Just watch it, Palm Springs. It's amazing and more to the point, Samberg is great there, and he manages one of my favorite
sleights of hand here. He takes an arrogant prick of a character and slowly makes us care for him and deeply. Apataw was definitely onto something. I think this is their most successful work to date, and it's undeniably because of the dynamic amongst the Lonely Island themselves. Even though Shaffer isn't on screen as much as the others, the scenes where all three or together feel natural and joyous, even
when it's a scene based entirely in conflict. I'm going to get back to Shaff in a second, but one of the central sources of the Style Boys fracturing in the film is Connor's theft of a Verse, written by Lawrence's kid Brain. It's the catchphrase verse, and it's what propelled Connor to superstart him ahead of his first solo album and you can hear why.
He's kinda bitch. Say word word dok D Sorry yeah, squirrel j ballance.
In my check.
On Honey Baskins door, now broaking with the boy.
Watch me.
Swinky put my mamma pet music concis like a mother creak up.
Patrick Stewart money. You don't conn.
It was Shaffer that came up with Patrick Stewart money. I said he wasn't in the film much, and that's to be forgiven, even though he shares directing credit. You get the idea Shaffer is the one dealing with the annoying on st a while, you know, actually directing the movie. Do I have a favorite Lonely Island guy? Obviously Shaffer. So I don't know if I'm being subjective or not, but I've seen mcgruber. I'm gonna go with all of Shaffer's SNL digital shorts as precedent and the work done
here and say it's him doing the directing. Oh and he did that Chippendale Rescue Rangers movie, which I don't know how it isn't spoken of as fondly as Roger Rabbit was in its day. Are we just living in a post mash up culture? The idea of crossovers is so pedestrian.
Now are we that jaded?
Speaking of jaded, I was feeling pretty defiant about the prospect of a Naked Gun remake till I heard Shaffer was directing with Liam Neeson as Frank Drevin. That's coming out later this year, and we're definitely going to be covering it. I haven't even mentioned the fucking music, Make no mistake. Even if the music had been straight pop numbers with no irony in it, it would still work as a movie. It would stand as a comedy without
any music. But then less we forget it's the Lonely Island, And really they're one of the best musical acts of the past twenty years.
Think about it.
How many times have you listened to I'm on a Boat or Lazy Sunday or G'Z in My Pants or through It on the Ground. I bet it was a lot more and a lot sooner than the last time you put on LMFAO's Party Rock. Because musically they're just as earwormy as the best of whatever genre they're locked onto. But they're incredibly clever lyrically, even when it's nonsense and
the songs in this film do not disappoint. From the opening banger, the unironic irony fest, I'm so humble with frequent collaborator Adam Levine, I'm allowed to say banger.
I'm just under the age cut off limits.
About that so oppressive mishalf Frequently I mentioned all of my success is way. Girls say that I should model my Familey's fool from all the rock swallow, I'm the most bit of will, has a bit of bull reel normal Larry Arnold's watch norma ary.
I hate compliments. Put them in the mortuary.
I'ms ordinary that it's truly quite extraordinary, not adition. But I'm winning.
You will give me a needing because I'm sulting.
People have them done.
I'm not you too, the virtue signaling panic fest equal rights this way straight we k straight and gayskay sure and change suth up beauty my gay.
We can't live this weight gay.
We can't turn away the gate.
And so wan make the South the time of changes now sports Lying in bed next to ten beautiful girls, all straight, and while the made left everyone at them, I was thinking about the world high wings. How is it that I can't have so much straight sex, while some door repressed, not gay, happen sex not gay, putting on a wedding dress. I assume I don't really know
that much about it. Beef jerkey tastes good, politics are reported and if girls want to have sense with me, because it says this so Bet and.
Gage, I'm not Connor would like you to know he's not gay. To a duet with Hunter two bandidos that has a bit about a digeridoo that made my late wife laugh so hard I thought she was going to pass out in the theater. Sincerely, when's your first cousin with the digii do?
And when you came, you know what sounded like? Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow.
You know what?
You know what?
All of the music here is not only as good as anything we've gotten from Lonely Island's solo work, but it's much more pointed, filling out this universe rather than just devolving into joke machines. For those of you who haven't seen it, there is a scene between Connor and his manager and a swarm of angry bees that is
just incredible. I envy you your first watch Future running Man director Edgar Wright had this to say about the scene quote, there has to be a special Academy Award for the bees scene in pop Star Never Stop, Never Stopping as usual, his instincts are correct. I'm gonna play just a piece of it, but just having the audio won't do it justice.
I think, like, are you wearing sunscreen? It's overcat, it can still burn you through the cos.
Am.
I just gonna keep heaping praise on this movie. You're fucking right, I am. The Christmas season was filled with duds and the horizon looks so murky. So I'm gonna go on and on about something that's legitimately worth not only a watch, but a rewatch and then a listen to the soundtrack and any further exploration of the Lonely
Island catalog. And you should definitely be listening to the Lonely Island Seth Myers podcast, where all three members and Seth Myers are doing an episode by episode analysis of all their digital shorts. People use the word obsessed a little too casually these days, cheapening the word I am obsessed with that show, you will be too. I don't know if this movie will be as formative for the
current generation as Spinal Tap was for mine. But it deserves to be just that, a music and comedy foundation that others can build on.
¶ Conclusion and Farewell
And that is it. That's right. Only two choices this week. I did mention I've been ill. Lady.
Thank you once again for joining us here at Father Malone's weekly roundup, and thanks for sticking with us here at Midnight Viewing Tune back in this Friday, We've got a brand new anthologies attack with Antonio Lapour. We're talking the Coen Brothers Western anthology, The Ballad of Buster Scrugs. If you want to hear it right now, go over
to patreon dot com slash Father Malone. Subscribers get episodes early and commercial, and it gives you access to subscriber only series like Cable Box Theater where noise Junkies host and Midnight Viewing composer HP and I take a look at early cable television theatrical presentations. We just dropped a new episode where we tried to drive each other insane by selecting the worst made for TV, fair imaginable for each other. I chose the Day my Kid went punk.
He chose Rich Little's a Christmas Carol tune in to see who won. Spoiler we both lost. If you want to support us here in less financially dependent ways, you can always give this show a five star review on your listening deviceive choice, or write a few nice words, maybe share it on your social media, log into your spouse's account and make them a subscriber, whatever you can do. Hell,
just listening is enough. I'm truly thankful until next time. Obviously, we're gonna leave you with the lonely eyelands l.
Thank them losing the mind. Drop in today to treat a car or a bottle of pills. And after that, I'm on a fishing quest.
Put my mind, body canceled to the test, and after that, I mean my total spirit. It's a rattlesnake, so I have to give it then a drinkle his blood and steal his powers and slither around in the dirt for hours.
And after that I start jerking off.
Up on a mountain, jerking off down by.
The lip, jerking off.
And that's when I had my epiphany, if you can't spend your whole life jerking off.
And after that, I'm going back to the city.