Let it bro, let it bro, let it bro

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Hello and welcome to Shameless, the pop culture podcast for smart people who love dumb stuff. You're joined, as always, by Melbourne writers Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald. Hello Zazie and hello producer Eilish Gilligan. Hi! Hello, guys. Coming up on today's show, are the Jonas Brothers in serious debt or something? This was a popular response to the movie trailer for the upcoming Camp Rock 3, starring and produced by the Jonas Brothers.

So what's going on with the Drobro of resurgence? Well, we investigate it because we promise you hard-hitting stuff. And we also have a bonus Jo Bro Christmas movie review for you. Happy December. Guys. This is what we're in the mood for. I could not be more excited. This is exactly what my brain needs right now. A Jo Bro Christmas movie review with some added info about stuff that... doesn't matter to anyone's experience. Is there anything anyone needs more? No.

There isn't. I have a recommendation, by the way. Oh, kick us off. Well, actually, before my recommendation, just a wholehearted endorsement of your eternal recommendation in The Traders. It's just now occurred to me I've never spoken about The Traders. I... I cannot believe you've never spoken about it on mic because it's all we text about. I know because I took about three and a half weeks off the pod. Yep. And in that three and a half weeks, dear listeners, I need to catch you up.

I've watched every season of the Traders UK, including the celebrity season. So I'm currently four seasons deep on the Traders. Mitch and I locked in. Not only that, I mean, Evelyn would also like a bit of credit.

I keep tuning to my family going, God, Zara is right about the traitors. And Evelyn was sitting there being like, I have been telling you to watch this for months. Well, I also do have like, there's probably like three or four people in my life that were telling me this for a long time. Naima, head of social media was one. My brother-in-law Darcy was another.

And I feel like such a fraud sometimes when I go on here and then everyone gives me credit for making this a movement when there were many other people in my life as well. Well, now like my dad, my grandmother, it is a family, almost rite of passage that we now get. together we talk about the traders we unpack what's happening we're all watching different seasons it's just what was your favorite season good question i think celebrity traders uk was like upper echelon

I do not think you can beat Celebrity Traitors UK. That is so good. That finale is one of the best pieces of television I've seen in years. Oh, any requests for, surely they're going to do a season two. Any celebrity requests for who you want to see on?

I don't care. That's the thing, Michelle. I do not mind. I am not a high maintenance fan. I am a low maintenance fan. I trust them. I didn't barely know any of the celebrities before I watched the celebrity version, which shows to me I don't need to know them. My one request is that Claudia... the host of the show, continues to host forevermore. She's actually now my number one get for Shameless Podcast. I want Claudia. Claudia Winkleman.

Claudia Winkleman, I want her on an episode of Shameless. I will not die happy until that happens. I would love that too. I saw a comment on a TikTok that was like, my great joy is not just that you guys are watching the traitors, but that you now in Australia know who Claudia Winkleman is. is because I understand she's a British treasure well let me tell you she's an Australian one now too I'm obsessed with her I'm utterly Gil do you know who we're talking about

I don't. I'm so sorry. You would love Claudia Winkleman and Eilish out of everyone in the public eye that you adore. I think Claudia could ascend never to number one. That's Lady Gaga. I think she could ascend to number two. She gives distinct gill energy. She's right in your Venn diagram.

Really? Has a great fringe as well, so you have that in common. Yes. Wow. Fringe buddies. That's such a nice thing when people think of you like that. Also, I'd hate for you to watch and be like, what the fuck, guys? No, I love her. I love her. Stalk her on Instagram.

think you'll get the vibe. You'll be like, you know what? This is a bit of me. She's a delight. What are you actually recommending though? Oh, sorry. Yes. A piece in the New Yorker. This was published a couple of weeks ago. It's called A Battle With My Blood. This is an essay by Tatiana Schlossberg.

devoured this piece. I will say take care while listening. If you have anyone in your life who is terminally ill, maybe give it a miss until you're in the right headspace to give it a read. Tatiana is 35. She is, of course, part of the Kennedy family. Yeah, she's the daughter of Caroline Kennedy. Her brother is Jack Schlossberg, who we've spoken about on the show. Her uncle was JFK Jr. Her grandfather was JFK.

big famous family but this piece Mish I also read it a few weeks ago it is one of the more beautiful essays I've read in a really long time to your point though it's very sad because she was straight after the birth of her second child, almost immediately diagnosed with terminal cancer. Yes. I cannot imagine. The words she puts to this experience are searing and gorgeous. They are like a punch to the gut.

I will put the link, we'll put the link to this piece in the show notes. It's stuck with me. I read it shortly after it came out and I have not stopped thinking about different scenes that are painted throughout this essay. I have not stopped thinking about it since I've read it.

yeah give it a read I think it's gorgeous I feel like two of the scenes for me the one passage she had about going through her childhood trying to kind of almost protect her mother from pain because Caroline Kennedy has been through so much with loss in her family and the idea now that she can't do that anymore.

And second to that, she speaks pretty harshly about her cousin, RFK Jr., who's now, you know, as we've spoken about on this show, trying to fundamentally change how healthcare is spoken about and treated in the U.S. really fascinating. There's so many elements to this story. It's like, it's a story about her battle with leukemia, but there are so many side stories running concurrently through it as well. It's just, it's a lot and it's stunning.

Yeah, thank you for bringing that to the show. Shall we do a little tone pivot? Oh my God, that's serious. We're now turning to the least serious stuff in the world. Depends on how you felt about this movie, I guess. Now, a question for the listeners. I don't know if any of you watched the Jonas Brothers Christmas movie on Disney+. Doesn't matter if you didn't. We did. And we are here to talk to you about it because I had such a rollicking time watching this. Oh, my God.

So this dropped on Disney Plus on November 14. to no reception. The only reason we are now talking about this on Shameless was I was watching Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, of course, binging every single episode in maybe one sitting on Disney Plus. And then all of a sudden I got served an ad at the end of the season to be like, what about the JoBros movie?

And you thought, yeah. And I went, what do you mean there's a Jonas Brothers Christmas movie? And I went, oh, this must be like a relic from years past. No, no, no. 2025, JoBros Christmas movie. Watched the trailer and I was like, interesting. Popped it in the window.

Forgot about it. It was like maybe one for us to do. Then I came across the tweet from Ultra Gloss that read, genuine question, are the Jonas Brothers in Syria is dead or something? This was last week. That got 366,000 likes. I went, hmm.

Something in the ether about Jonas Brothers doing shitty movies. And I want us to talk about it. Well, that tweet came up because it had been announced that they were doing Camp Rock 3. I didn't even know there was a Camp Rock 2. I'm so sorry. Where they are starring in it and producing it. The first film came out in 2008.

Demi Lovato, of course. Of course. The second came out in 2010. So there's been a 15-year Camp Rock hiatus and the Jonas Brothers thought 2025's the year we bring it back to Camp Rock 3. And so I understand between the Christmas movie that passed everyone by...

and Camp Rock 3, there is something to be said for having a conversation about why they're leaning into the Disney of it all so much. They are leaning into the Disney of it all. Now, here's a snippet from a recent feature Deadline wrote.

about the Joe Bros Christmas movie and they wrote this. In some ways, underneath the wackiness and the jokes, the Disney Plus film is pretty autobiographical. The three brothers have been open about the rifts that grew between them in the earlier days of fame that led them to pursue solo careers. In 2019, they reunited as a band and have been working as a trio ever since. So the film centers around the JoBros, who have wrapped up a tour in London.

They're all trying to get home for Christmas. Christmas magic slash chaos ensues because Santa Claus goes, ah, ah, ah, they don't love each other like they used to. I'm going to derail their plans to get home until the Jobros reunite in their brotherly love. and then they can go home for Christmas. And keeping in mind these are sort of 40-year-old men.

Thank you. Yeah. Very worthwhile to remind ourselves of that. Yeah. And so there is, look, I got to say, I found this a little sci-fi, this film, because there was some magical undertones. Santa was, he wasn't pulling out a wand, but he was doing some spooky shit.

Well, there was some effects, let me tell you, some sparkles on screen. Basically, the film is, as Michelle said, yep, they've got to make it home. And there are lots of hurdles. They're cursed. So there are lots of hurdles they constantly have to face. At one point, they're about to go.

down in a plane oh yeah the private jet almost well hang on is this one of those cases okay if you guys are listening to this and you're going to be grumpy at us for a jonas brothers christmas spoiler off to be blunt

Off you go. Get better priorities. Off you go. Get better priorities. There will be spoilers. Because none of us even knew this movie existed, so we're going to spoil it for you. And also, dare I say, it doesn't matter if you know that that plane nearly went down and then it doesn't go down, you will still.

enjoy the film with that major spoiler. And also, of surprise to no one, it would be a surprise if, by the way, the Jonas Brothers died in this film because their private jet crashed. But they didn't. They didn't. They conquered all.

Yeah, 100%. Now, the thing about… this film is I got really confused because yes they play themselves so it's Joe Nick and Kevin and but they have these little like personality quirks where I'm like so is this what you're actually like and is this the actual tension between you

For example, Nick Jonas, the storyline that Nick carries is that like he's the one that's doing all the work for the band. He's the type A logistics guy. I'm carrying the mental load. These little playful sort of fuckers don't do anything. Yeah. And then Kevin's personality quote. is he and his wife spend all their money on dumb shit they don't need.

And therefore, he's a little cash strap, but also he wants a bigger spot in the band. He wants a solo. He wants a solo. And so the whole movie, he's like, how do I talk to my brothers about the fact that I want a solo? Keeping in mind, I need Kevin Jonas's age. He's 38. He's 38. 38! I'm rounding up to... 40. Keeping in mind that. And then what's Jo's? Jo's is I'm single. I have the...

The mystique of being like the single heartthrobby guy, but my brothers discount me as a party boy when deep down I want like a committed relationship again. Yeah, I want love. They think I'm a fuckboy, but I actually want love. Gil, I know you have some snippets. I'm wondering, did you manage by any chance to nab the one of Nick Jonas on FaceTime with Priyanka Chopra?

Oh, you know I did. Okay. This was in the like ninth minute of the film and I enjoyed this exchange. All you need to know is Nick's finished his last show on stage in London. He's FaceTiming Priyanka and he's going to make it home for Christmas. You guys already started opening gifts. How could I stop her? There's like stacks of presents. I know, I know. All good. Just can't wait to see you guys. You look tired. I mean, six months of touring will do that to you.

Not to mention six months of obsessing over every single detail of tour creative and the album artwork and next year's routing, all while my brothers enjoy their carefree existence. And I ran out of that fancy eye cream you got me. I knew it. It's showing. We knew you hadn't been doing your nightly dabs. You've got to look after your under eyes. I know.

I was absolutely waiting for the product placement shout out in that dialogue because the pivot made no sense. Oh, you thought it'd be a nobody wants this kind of serum pivot. Also, my favorite part about movies like this is how specific they have to do to give you context. So it's like, yeah, it was really hard when I walked 700 miles six months ago on the tour where we had that conversation, like the context building and dialogue.

Yeah, really good. But also like to the autobiographical bit that we spoke about, all of their partners, well, now two of their partners, sorry, Jo, are involved. So Priyanka is the wife. I'm pretty sure their daughter plays.

the daughter. Yeah. Kevin's wife, Danielle, is also included. Joe is single and therefore pursuing a love interest. And then when his love interest came in the film, I was like, is he actually dating this woman in real life? Or is she an actress? This is where it gets confusing. Is this a documentary or is it a film?

It is. Well, this is the other thing. Documentary. Santa is at the bar. Yeah, but it's not the real Santa. It's the man that looks like Santa. Did you clock who was playing Santa? Yeah, the guy from Modern Family. Mitch from Modern Family. Yeah. Made an amazing Santa.

Sorry to interrupt you. I got way too excited then. That was very rude. Which leads me to the fact that the thing that no one is expecting me to say right now. nobody, is that the opening scene of this movie is not with the Jonas Brothers. It's with Will fucking Farrell. Will Farrell has at least five to ten minutes of airtime. Will Farrell opted in. He got a brief and said, would you like to be in the show?

the Jonas Brothers Christmas movie, The Supernatural One, where they have to fall in love with each other again. And Will Ferris said, absolutely, that is what I would like to do. Something's going on with Will's career, though. Have you guys been watching any free-to-air TV lately? No. Zara. I would kill to know the pay packet PayPal put in front of him. Beautiful ads, by the way. He's very funny. I would say out of all the comedians, all the actors, Will Ferrell would be like top five for me.

hilarious man, anger man, amazing, blah, blah, blah. He is on that many PayPal ads right now and they're long and they're meaty and it's like PayPal literally would have just said to him,

do some comedy. Here's your setting. He's in a different setting every time. One's in a bathtub, one's on a plane. I've never seen those ads. He's in that I'm cashing in part of my career and I kind of love it. I tried to do some digging as to how Will Ferrell ended up in this movie and he ends up in this movie as...

like the character he plays is again himself. He brings in not just himself but his entire real life family. Is that his real family? They are his kids. He brought them in. So he's got three sons. And they play. Jonas Brothers stans. So they've like Jonas Brothers stans at like the number one ticket holder for Jonas Brothers. And so when I was Googling, like, how has this come together? I saw Nick Jonas do an interview and he said that it's because he did a cameo in...

Will and Reese Witherspoon's movie, Quarterly Invited, remember that one? And then when they were talking about cameos for the Jonas Brothers Christmas film, Nick's like, easy. I did one for Will. he'll do one for me. Because this is the other part I really want to say, and I think some listeners will be really surprised by this. I fucking loved this film. I think this is such a strong Christmas film from Will being involved to the very end.

I was surprised and delighted the whole way through. I out loud giggled at least five times. I know, I heard it. Did you guys like this? Am I alone? No, I loved it. I thought it was really fucking good. I can't take myself out of the mode of watching it for work.

So I was like watching it and laughing and kind of pulling past and thinking this will be really fun to talk about. So the joy of it is like knowing that it's part of the job. I'm trying to work out if I watch this on my average Thursday night. I don't think it was bad. I would say I'm so sorry, Gil, because I don't know if you're going to agree with this. I could have done without the musical numbers.

Oh, okay. So I thought, okay, first of all, I think, Zaz, the setting in which you watched this film potentially hindered your experience of the film because you were like, oh, I'm going to watch it today at work. And I was like, well, I'm going to watch it tonight while I'm crocheting like Christmas on. And that was like way more fun than I saw you. You were working while you were watching this movie.

Captain efficiency over there. Yeah. You have to do at least three things at once. And second of all, I think the music was really good. It's a very, very hard task to write a bunch of fun Christmas songs that haven't already been done. Yep. I think they did a good job. Look, guys, I really love a movie musical. Yeah, me too. This film included. Actually, that's a lie. We do. Every so often.

Name one. High School Musical. I, again, even High School Musical, I would, apart from that one song where Gabriella stands up and goes, Troy, and now I can hardly breathe. Sorry. Apart from that one song. I would happily remove every other song from High School Musical and I'd happily remove every song from this Joe Rose Christmas film. No, no, no way. Yes, I would. Yep. We're all in this together. You would delete that?

You would delete that beautiful, heartwarming, unifying. Just a little jig. I did the dance. No, I didn't just do the little jig. Everyone knows what movement I just did. No, say, oh, yeah, I do know what. Everyone knows. They're listening to this. We went silent, but they know what I was doing. What about bet on it?

Yeah. On the golf course. On the golf course. No, guys, I'm being fully serious. I loved the storyline of Gabrielle and Troy. I love the storyline of them. I would happily skip all songs and I mean that wholeheartedly. The same thing with Glee. I love the storylines of Glee, the musical elements of Glee.

Not my fave. Don't yuck my yum. My yum is the dialogue. And to be honest, you're actually yucking ours. No. That was a big gaslight. I appreciate that you guys like it, but you need to appreciate it's not for me. Okay, that's totally fair. I do think in this case the storyline.

for the Jonas Brothers Christmas movie was actually strong enough to carry them through without musical numbers. But also they're quite funny. They're really good. They're quite funny and they're good actors. I think a lot of it's, you probably didn't realise because you were probably on Slack or something. A lot of it's in their physical, facial expressions.

comedic timing not in their voices it's in their visual appearance hit it dj give us something else okay do we need context or can we just hit it i can't even remember what snippet this one is um it's when they have to stay at a really bad hotel in amsterdam oh yeah

I need people to remember, if you don't find this funny, this was where I was kind of cackling out loud at the office. The physical comedy of this and the way they look in the moment, I'm preempting it sounding bad, was really fucking funny. How is this the only hotel room in the entire city? Trip advisor just says, don't. Lock the door. Yeah.

The lock is just two pieces of string. Tie it tight. Tie it tighter or something. You need to do it? No, I can do it in a sailor's knot. Okay, well, I'm definitely sleeping with a passport pack on tonight. You don't need to sleep with a pack on.

For the uptight responsible, and you're very lax about passport safety. I call middle. You can't just call middle when I'm talking about the pack. Well, yes, I can. I'm older and I'm taller. My shoulders are broader. No, they're... Your shoulders? Absolutely not. Literally, the website's dedicated to my shoulders. No. That's it. Right now. There's no chance. back to back look nick guys would you please shut up i'm trying to figure out how to get us home i love

The Jonas Brothers make fun of the Jonas Brothers more than anyone else makes fun of the Jonas Brothers. And I think that comes to the core of this episode right there. Yes. I think they have been able to somehow maintain some level of relevance because they are happy to be the... ones to say you think we're embarrassing so do we and that's fine and i love that for them and i love it for us like they're not trying to be this high level artistic group

They are fully embracing that they are a bit naff. In fact, very naff. Let's deep that. But first, a word from today's sponsor. Oh my God, Zaz, how little time is left until the actual holidays. I swear I blink and suddenly it's the day before Christmas. I know, the vibe is festive, but sometimes the panic for last minute gifts is totally real. We all need a gifting spot that has absolutely everything you could possibly need. And that, my friend...

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Thank you so much to Maya for making this episode of Shameless possible. The Jonas Brothers are everywhere, particularly when it comes to odd films. Let's do it. quick recap, perhaps, of the Jonas Brothers' career up until this point, and then we can analyze what the hell's going on. Yeah, we will offer depth beyond just vibes on the Christmas movie. That's what we promised you today. So in case you didn't know, there are three. Profound. This is value adding. Kevin. 38.

Nick? 33. Wow, you're going in an odd order. Jo. 36. There you go. There's also one more Jo, bro, who we always forget about. Well, I thought everyone forgot about Kevin, but everyone forgets about Frankie. Frankie has 1.8 million followers on TikTok, by the way. Yes. So I think that the thing about the Jobros is maybe there's a bit of a misconception that they were like a manufactured product made.

within the confines of Disney. Not quite the truth, Mish. No. So these boys grew up in New Jersey with their mum and their dad. Their dad was the pastor at the local church. They grew up in a pretty religious household, obviously. They were... essentially pillars of the community, the pastor's family. Also, I'm always conscious about saying pastor.

I'm obviously Australian and I feel like they're the pastor's family. Yeah, I know. That's the thing. Pastor, in terms of the job, is much better said in an American accent than an Australian one. They're the fettuccines. Yeah, because we sound really stupid. Sound really bogan, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But both of us, all good.

Now, Nick was actually the one who first started performing professionally. He was on Broadway by the age of seven, which is pretty nuts. And then his brothers essentially followed in his footsteps. Kevin started acting in commercials. Joe started performing in theater productions. And soon enough, they were actually discovered.

by Sony and signed as a group in 2005. So the ages are really interesting here that they were discovered in 2005 and signed. But Kevin was 17, Joe was 15, and Nick was 12. So to have a band... With a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old, it's really fascinating trying to work out what your market is. 100%. But because Sony was a secular or is a secular record label and the boys were not making Christian music.

Their dad kept it hidden from the church community. They really tried to work relentlessly throughout this time to make it work. They were playing in shopping malls, school assemblies, anywhere that would take them on. Only their first album failed to meet Sony's commercial expectations. They didn't sell enough. They were dropped. At the same time, this quote-unquote secret of their music career came out to the church community. Their dad was kind of ushered out of his job.

as the community pastor. Yeah, and the thing is, so the story goes is that the parents sunk a lot of money and lost a lot of money in trying to build the Jonas Brothers into a thing. Their mum said that they lost their house. They had to move to a two-bridge in place that they rented for free from a friend. After they were dropped by Sony, they were picked up by Disney's record label, Hollywood Records. And that's kind of how they became the Jonas Brothers that we know today.

I've said on the record before, I've never considered myself a JoBros girly. However, if I had to pick a brother growing up, big Disney Channel kid, always a massive fan, had a bit of a crush on Nick. But grown up. Whoa. What do you mean? I thought collectively we all thought it was Jo. No, now I'm Jo. Which is also controversial. I want to put an answer. This is like the time you said you're obsessed with aquariums.

Above anyone, I'm obsessed with Sophie Turner. However. We fight and we ride for Sophie. We always fight and ride for Sophie. And I will come back to my complicated feelings around Jo in the end of the episode. But right now. my taste in Joe Bros Brothers would be Joe. Are you saying it wouldn't be? I would say, yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, yeah. Unfortunately, he's really got it going on. It's with an asterisk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But unfortunately. Yeah.

I can't lie. Yeah. So here's the thing. In a documentary that they did in 2019, not the Christmas movie, a documentary in 2019, they actually made... a note of saying that when they were picked up with Disney, they said yes to absolutely everything because they, I mean, once you've had an album with Sony and it's collapsed, you see that your family lose a lot as a result of your career not working. They just said yes to absolutely.

everything and they didn't want any ops taken away. They tilted in fully. Now, we also know the Jonas Brothers and the purity rings, like it's been a big thing ever since they've been in the public eye that the Jonas Brothers wore purity rings in public to signify they were saving themselves for...

marriage. In that doco you just referenced, they spoke about the impact that scrutiny had on them at the time. They also basically clarified that they did wear purity rings when they were young teenagers.

But when they kind of grew up and started actually wanting to have sex with people, they stopped wearing the rings. But by that point in time, of course, it was a huge joke. Everyone knew about it. Everyone was consistently speaking about it. Yeah, they will be forever associated with a purity ring.

I feel now after years of pretty huge success, they split from Hollywood records in 2012. They announced they were officially disbanding in 2013. Here's what I missed at that time. I really missed the fact that it wasn't a happy split. Oh, yeah. Did you know that? Well, a spokesperson for the band said at the time that there was, and I quote, a deep rift within the band. Also, they split in the middle of a tour. There's a little bit of oasis about this.

Yeah, Joe Bros, Oasis, one and the same. Did you catch the Oasis gag in the movie? No. No. Yeah, at the very end, Santa's like, all right, now I've got to go see Oasis. Oh, that's funny. Well, see, now this is why you don't work while you're trying to watch a Christmas movie. No, I also missed that, but this film. Yeah, you missed that. So, Witty, I was looking up the writers behind this film because I'm like, who are these geniuses?

Did we say this once? I can't remember if we just said it behind the scenes. I think we did a whole episode, may have been a slow news week, on Lifetime movies. Yeah, we did. And we said we would like to write one one day. Baby, you name. the day i think that we like i would love to create something like this you should because they do have genuinely witty right and it's just fun

It's fun and silly. And I love that Santa made that joke. That is funny. That is a great joke. Thank you, Santa. Thank you, Gil. Now, according to the documentary, Back to the Split and this deep rift within the band. The split was very much driven by my man at the time, Nick.

He was feeling really burned out. He wasn't enjoying the tour. He was feeling disconnected from his brothers, an interesting parallel to the Christmas film. Right? He said, in reflection, I can definitely see how I could have more lovingly communicated something that needed to be said.

think we all knew it had run its course I just didn't know how to maturely articulate that and lovingly do that he shared that with mythical kitchen so I think what no I know mythical kitchen now I think I think it's generally

he was feeling quite guilty about leading that breakup, especially when it's your family and it wasn't probably the easiest conversation. But I agree with you. It's also really confusing because that is kind of the storyline of the film. Yeah. And then over the next six years, I think. If I'm to psychoanalyse the JoBros, I think they were going back and forth over what they wanted to be and how they wanted to be positioned publicly. Obviously, they were off doing their own things.

Joe Jonas was off doing dance, which was that like, there's something on the beach. You mean dance? Dance without the A, because that was the era where vowels were just removed. I think it's actually just DNCE. Oh, okay. Sorry. DNCE. I mean, we would be... Wait, you pronounce it DNCE? Yeah. Oh, sorry. No, do not be. Sorry. We should be apologizing. I apologize to all the diehard DNCE fans. So how do I, hang on, I'm on the DNCE.

Do you remember when Joe Jonas did that Reddit AMA at that time and he kind of identified himself in his own bio but took the Jonas out of it? Yeah. He was like, I'm from DNCE. Yeah. And they had that song, Something by the Ocean. Yeah. Cake by the Ocean. Of course. Here's the thing. By 2019 when they came back together, they came back with a bang and that bang was called Sucker. I love that song. I know. That's a really good song. Yeah, yeah, it was. Where to go now?

You're the one whose phone keeps going off to interrupt our flow. Sorry. Would you like to know what's happening? No, it's just my family group. It's all good. Yeah. So then they've been pretty like on it ever since. I feel like they're constantly touring. constantly putting stuff out. But the new iteration of the Jonas Brothers is, yeah, this is who we are. We're the Disney Channel guys.

We're going to be that forever. Well, here's the thing. It's like they started the Disney Channel, guys. They went through an iteration. They tried to work out if they could be something else. They tried to work out if they could be something else separately. I think in many ways they tried to work out if they could be any cooler. They decided actually...

Maybe the thing that worked from us at the start is going to be the thing that works for us forever. Distinct lack of coolness. Let's actually lean into the anti-cool. Let's do the Christmas movie. Let's do Camp Rock 3. And we're going to talk about it still. We're not stopping. More Jonas Brothers.

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Okay, so this last part of the chat is going to take us in a few different directions, as has the whole episode. I think we start off with the question that we launched the episode with, which is, are the JoBros in financial trouble? What evidence do we have for that? That there's a storyline in the film that Kepton sort of is. Like he's on FaceTime again with his real life wife and their kids and the wife and kids are saying that they've only got.

Christmas ornaments with bespoke custom outfits and diamonds and jewels on them. Here's the thing. Kevin's spoken about money. in the past. In an interview that he did with Lewis Howes for the School of Greatness, he said, I've seen the beginning of the success to financial success, not knowing what money really was and understanding it to not having it and losing almost all of it.

When asked if he really did lose all of his money, he clarified, yeah, most of it, like down to 10% left. I invested in a bunch of property and doing other things and I was building at the time. Sadly, it wasn't the right partnership, if you know what I'm saying. So did they do this film because Kevin needs money? What do I think? No, I think they have enough money. I just think if they want a career, this is the only way a career will have longevity. And so they're like, just lean in.

okay fair someone also this has obviously been like a strong rhetoric online that they're going broke and that's why this is all happening because someone also asked like are these guys in series dead or something and joe jonas replied to it he said god forbid connect three go back to where connect three connected which is a in joke for anyone who's watched cam

Camp Rock. Connect Three was the name of the band they played in. Obviously. Everyone knows that. You don't know that. Have you ever watched Camp Rock? I didn't know that. I had to ask you both what that meant yesterday. Do you know if I was to do like the Camp Rock? I've only seen that one thing on TikTok. They better recreate that in camp rock. But no, I've never seen camp rock. I didn't have foxtail. You guys don't understand. I think you can also give this one a miss.

I don't think you need to watch Camp Rock. I think the only people that watched Camp Rock were people that had Foxtel. If we ever drive for content in 2026, would the people like a Camp Rock review? Let us know. We can make you Zara McDonald watch it. Watch all three? No, no, no. The first one, I reckon. Okay. Camp Rock 1.

That's totally fine. They're not with Hollywood Records anymore, right? But they clearly have some sort of contract with Disney. And I suspect they should stay with Disney forever. Do you think that the Jonas Brothers could do this at 60?

Because I think they could. Yeah, I think it would be fucking hilarious. I think it would be really funny. And I think after the Christmas film, I will keep watching. Like I think I will actually genuinely watch Camp Rock 3 now because I think they're really funny. Well, I think what defines them at the moment is that distinct lack of ego.

as well. And I do think, for example, I know we've spoken a little bit in the past about Joe Jonas. being able to rebuild his reputation after the absolute train wreck that was the public fallout of his divorce from Sophie Turner. And I remember at the time saying and thinking, I genuinely think he has one of the worst publicity teams in Hollywood that I've ever seen.

I could not believe how poorly they played it and how poorly they misread the room. Taking the kids out for ice cream. Just the leaking. I don't know if it was him or his team, but like the leaking that was happening wherever it was happening from. It was just, it didn't work for his image. of it did really bad and i think given his audience has always been women that our age it was women our age that were writing

for Sophie. And they just totally misread that. What's been fascinating to me is how he's been able to turn it around. We spoke about it on the show. He's deep in the comment section of TikTok. And I find that fascinating. I remember there was this woman who posted about her cafe going under and she needed people to... turn up so he turned up and made a video and everyone's like oh he's a man of the people just last week I'm so sure our listeners saw that video of him

Some random person filmed him trying to parallel park in New York. This was so funny. The caption was, I love New York City because I've been watching Joe Jonas parallel park for the last seven minutes. He jumped into the comments straight away. He wrote, and I saw you watch and not help once. top comment i think the next top comment was something to the effect of the best part about this video is when i clicked into the comments i knew joe jonas would be here yes that's the sentiment of

Joe is here and he is talking to us. We were kind of joking. He's like, he's got like that D2C brand of celebrity. Anyone in marketing? He kind of bypasses all gatekeepers at the moment and wants to talk to people directly and have like this almost even relationship with his audience. Yeah, the one of us thing is so interesting. And I know the people I'm about to speak to are not Hollywood celebs in the same way the Jonas Brothers are.

But obviously I watch a lot of reality TV and it's been really interesting watching how the villains on Secret Lives of Mormon Wives have been able to recalibrate their image and actually save themselves by being really witty and down to earth and one of us on TikTok.

So there's a couple of villains, I would say Whitney and Chase. I love them now, despite them coming across a certain way on the show. Because I see them come across, I expect to see them in TikTok comments. I expect to see them be witty. I expect to see them make fun of themselves.

I like them again. And I think it's Joe Jonas's ability to be quick, to be on it and to not take himself too seriously. That's incredibly likable. Well, none of this is, he's not too cool for any of this. He's not too. call for TikTok comment sections or he doesn't appear to think he is at the moment, whether it's a strategy or not.

I find it really interesting because this has been one of the great 180s over the last two years, watching him do that. And I genuinely do think the smartest thing that all of them have done is said, all right, away with the ego. What is actually the thing that's going to make us sticky in the public eye and what's actually going to happen? have longevity it's just going back to their roots yeah I

I've been really surprised to see how he's done it. I was sitting on this show being like, he's fucked his reputation. I do not see how he comes back from the Sophie Turner stuff. And don't get me wrong, I do not endorse what I suspect was going on. I'm never going to know.

I'm never going to know what was happening behind the scenes with Joe Jonas's team and Sophie Turner's team and all that stuff. I did not like the way Sophie Turner was kind of hung out to dry, particularly when it came to her parenting.

I don't endorse any of it. But the way he's been able to flip it around has been really impressive purely from a PR standpoint. Yeah, I also think it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge that Sophie Turner herself has had an impact on Joe's ability to turn his brand around. She posted publicly about his...

album and said like, congratulations. She's spoken about him very highly in interviews. Endorsed him, like really spoken glowingly of him as a dad. As a dad. And I think her doing that has given the public the green light to say, okay, well, if Sophie has decided.

that this is a very mature, functioning, co-parenting relationship, then we can get behind him too, which I think is very big of someone like her. And I think her graciousness rubs off on him. I think so. And I think in the interviews that she's done, she said, look, we had our... we've had our conflict and we've really been disagreeing on certain things, but I want to eventually be able to do Christmas all together with both of our families. I think having that kind of approach is very elegant.

and wise somehow. Like I really appreciate when two people can do that, particularly in the public eye with all the pressure of everyone watching on.

Yeah, I think that might be all we have time for. Watch this movie, guys. I'm not kidding. If you want a Christmas film and you're so sick of watching Love Actually and you're so sick of watching The Holiday. Sorry, I know we need to finish, but can I have one very brief thing about The Holiday? Yeah. Can I quickly say something too? Yeah.

we have hyped this movie up, but the reason that we found it good because no one hyped it up for us. So maybe let's try and like swing their expectations to like kill the expectations so that then they enjoy it again. The movie's terrible. Don't watch it. There we go. That's all I needed. Now on the holiday. Okay. And I'm sorry, I promised my siblings I'd bring this to the...

show. We can cut this if we think it's way too niche. Have you guys seen the rhetoric around the holiday for the last like 10 years that the timeline's wrong and the days don't add up? Yes. Okay, that's wrong. My sister Evelyn did a fact check. We watched the holiday together. And as we were watching, we were all talking about, oh, remember those viral articles that, you know, the days don't add up and this should be Christmas Eve, but actually they've shoved.

10 days in that doesn't make sense. Wrong. All of those viral articles completely misrepresented the holiday. We went through and we tracked it. And we observed the date on the email that is sent on the plane scene where Kate Winslet's character is going to America. And I need everyone to know the creators of that film did not get the dates wrong.

would have. I know. She says probably having written one of those articles 10 years ago in women's media. This is why we need women in STEM and we need doctors on pop culture cases too. Thank you, Evelyn Andrews. Evelyn Andrews was outraged and she's like, I cannot imagine being the film.

film director or screenwriter and having to deal with this false news for 10 years. But why didn't anyone try and combat it? Well, no one watched it. Everyone did write-a-rounds. Cosmopolitan ran a story. No, I don't mean the journalists. I mean the directors. Put out a statement. Well, here's Evelyn Andrews' work coming to Shameless. The holiday was right all along. We were wrong. And by we, I mean society. I so bet you and I wrote an article about that back in the day. I suspect we may have.

Bye! That's all we've got time for. See you on Thursday. This podcast was recorded on Wurundjeri land. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.