Hi folks, Happy Saturday. I hope you're enjoying your weekend. I hope you're with your friends, your family, your loved one. If you don't like anybody at all, hope you're by yourself and you're having a good time. I just hope you're well in general. This episode is from May fifteenth, twenty eighteen, and it's called What's a Kintanira? Anyway, I didn't know until we did this episode, so listen and find out.
If you don't know, Welcome to stuff you should know. A production of iHeartRadio.
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles w. Ch'bryant. There's Jerry, and this is a very special day for us.
It's a very special day for Jerry because she's celebrating her her very special day because today Jerry turns sweet fifteen.
Right, well, technically it's her chiple Kintigne.
No.
Jerry started producing the show when she was five. Oh yeah, he was wonderin.
She's a child prodigy three, A lot of temper tantrums. Yeah, but we got through that time, we did the Terrible fives.
And now she's just a pretty little lady in her pink, lacy, satiny dress.
Yeah, that dress is a lot, even for a King Signora dress. Jerry agreed. I can I go ahead and say I don't do the R role very well, So I'm just gonna say Keen Sognia okay instead of Kingsanna.
Yeah, that wasn't very good either, right. I used to do a good R role because of German, but I feel like I've lost it a bit.
And I guess it's actually an n roll King Signetta. It's those good right, yeah, but if I try to keep it up, it's it's I think it's gonna fatigue everybody pretty quick. So Keen Sannira.
Well, and the last thing we want to be here to jackass white dudes. Well, that's how we do it, laying it on too thick, too forty something white dudes are about to talk about. Keintignertis like, we know what we're talking about. Well, we did the research, and I think it's uh. I think it's good to cover stuff like this.
I did too. I had very little understanding about this, just from what I've seen on like MTV or whatever, you know, did they have a show they have one called like my sweet sixteen or whatever that I might be conflating with. But I swear I've seen Keinton like I knew some of this stuff somewhere. I don't know where, though, somewhere just in the just being plugged into culture, I knew it, I guess. Yeah.
Well, I lived in Los Angeles, as you know, and they have obviously quite a Latin population, and I looked up Hispanic and Latino.
I wanted to get it all right, good, good, let's hear what you got.
Well, it says that they can generally be used interchangeably these days. But I think Latino can like I think Hispanic refers to whether or not you actually have Spanish speaking roots.
Oh is that right?
But Latino can be like Brazil and places in South America as well, if I'm not mistaken.
I heard once that Ronald Reagan was the person who coined the term Hispanic, or at least popularized it.
Really Yeah, well it was that tattoo across his upper back Hispanic for life.
For life, yep, with the number four.
But at any rate, you know, lived in LA and there's you know, a large Mexican population, So I would see kingtonettas going on all the time. When you're just driving around on a weekend. I would see stuff and I was like, wait a minute, it's not prom it's summer, Like what's going on.
It's like Prom times ten.
And then some somebody hit me in the head and they're like, you dummy, dumb white guy from the South. It's a king signettas right, And so I was like, well, you know what, one day, I'm gonna do a podcast about that.
They said, what is a podcast to make up for all this? You said, just watch that's right. So one thing I saw was with Latin, you know, like with Latino or Latina, there's that ingrained masculine. But something I saw pop up in a couple of sites is they would replace the O or the A with an X just to make it the word gender neutral, like Latin X.
Oh yeah, I don't know how you pronounced it. I didn't get that far, but I saw it imprinting a couple of different sites, so where they were trying to remove the gender from you know, Latino or Latina and just make it gen gender neutral. Because there's there's a I haven't seen it, but there's an HBO documentary about KINGTONIERZ and one of them is for a trans girl. Okay, would it be pronounced LATINX? Maybe? I mean I have to see it written down. How is the X in
like wahaka? Isn't it like hot? Whaha? So maybe Latin woa? I have no idea. That's where I'm going with here we go.
I didn't want to be too dumb dumbs and we're so far down dumb dumb lane.
It's not even funny. No, so let's try to get this back on the rail, shall we. I think what we just did was great because we explored some questions we had. But now we can talk about everything we know about kingsing gartis.
Right, which is we've been dancing around this thing. This is the fifteenth birthday celebration for young ladies young women in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba and the United States kind of all.
Over the world. This can take place. Yeah, and it seems to be so it's a it's actually a very traditional thing to where Catholic, like the catholicness of the girl and her even pre Catholic origins fine together with what I guess you would call like is a universal coming of age celebration that also focuses on the individuality and tastes of the girl. You put all those things together, you have a King Signeta, which is a fifteenth birthday party, which is a coming out party for a girl as
she transitions from girlhood into womanhood. It happens on this day and they throw a huge celebration, and there's a lot of really cool traditions that you're going to find at like every King Singetta that have some a neat origin story to them or a neat symbolism to them.
And also some great music, some delicious food, and family coming together for an important day.
It's really great. Not just family, the whole community is meant to, you know, like extended family, people in the community that have had an impact on the girl's life, like a teacher, people been for the expense of this. It's like a real communal thing. Should we go back in time? Okay, let's or did you want to go to the future? No, No, we'll go back in time all right.
So the origins of this they date back all the way to the Aztec Indians. Obviously in the fourteen hundreds and fifteen hundreds they were performing these festivals because girls back then were marriage ready at the age of fifteen.
That's kind of what it symbolized, right, And like it wasn't just the Aztecs, like around the world and cultures around the world, like you would find some sort of coming of age or rights of passage into womanhood. And yeah, when you came out the other end, it was like you were on the market then from that point on, that's right.
And they had ceremonies, they had speeches talking about how important it is to become a wise, upstanding member of society as a young woman. Then the Spanish come along. Of course, they invade what we now call Mexico over through the Aztecs, and that brought in a European influence to this whole experience. And this is where things got a little more, a little more like debutante.
Yeah, it's actually I looked into this a little further, Chuck. And they can't say for certain where keinsignetaz came from, but they think the Aztecs. But their source comes from a single nun working in Mexico who wrote an account that had been given to a priest forty years earlier. Wow, from another priest who had supposedly in the fifteen twenties interviewed some Aztec high priests about their culture. So that's where the whole idea that there was a rite of
passage at age fifteen comes from kind of shaky. And then other people say, well, no, this is obviously a Spanish colonial influence, like being presented at court. But the idea that it's a rite of passage in womanhood is so universal that it probably is a combination of the two of them. No one can just say for certain though, what the origin is specifically.
Yeah, and apparently until the nineteen sixties it was really kind of an upper class thing. But then in the nineteen sixties, as Latinos immigrated to the United States and they became more part of American fabric, they really kind of really kind of spread throughout the US and Latin America as becoming across all socioeconomic classes. And we'll get
to this a little more later. But wonderfully, like you said, in poorer communities, you see entire communities chipping in some money many times, or the godmothers and godfathers of padernos and madarinas like that.
Yeah, that's good to help pay for this stuff.
I saw this photographer did a really great photos series of Quintinetas celebrations in poor neighborhoods in Mexico and photograph these really beautiful photographs of these these young women in their dresses sort of in the middle of a very depressed neighborhood and just showing how important it was that they still had this celebration.
Even though they it was a burden financially on their families. Right. Yeah, I think Mexico City got together in two thousand and seven and some of the businesses, some of the some nonprofit groups held like a big mass kinsingerra and now they do it every year for girls who wouldn't otherwise be able to have one. Yeah.
I also read a New York Times article where there's a lot of bias, like when it comes to things like this and bar and bought Mitzvah's and debutante balls, where it's very easy for someone to say, like, you know, if you're poor living in Mexico City, why are you wasting And that's an air quo quotes your money on this celebration when your family doesn't have much money, and they say, you know, you never hear this kind of criticism for bar mitzvahs and bot mitzvahs or debutantes, regardless
of socioeconomic status. So it's just a very important, important part of their culture that should be shouldn't be looked down upon just because they may not have the kind of money to throw a big one, you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I'm sure. One of the things, though, you just kind of hit on the head is that it's a it's a it's a part of latinix culture, which is one reason why it's become so big in America. It's a way of people of Latino heritage to say, you know, this is my heritage too, and this is
how I'm going to come of age in America. But because it's also in America and these are American born girls of Latina heritage, they they have come over time to kind of meld together with what Americans look at and say, that's just one enormous sweet sixteen party, right, But there's there's some details in there that you'll find out at Kinsonnira that you won't at a sweet sixteen party, and we'll talk about those right after this. Well done, all right, Charles, So we are going to start the day.
It's a frantic day, It's a hectic day. From everything I understand from what I've read, this is a and actually like a cool day for a girl, but also very stressful. All right.
It's like a it's like a wedding or a prom or anything where there's a lot of pressure on this one, you know, six hour experience.
But think about this. With a wedding, you've got your s O to plan the wedding with. With prom, you've got a handful of other girls to plan. You know what you're doing with prom, and plus proms already being planned for you by your school or whatever. This is like your day, and part of your responsibility is the King Signeta, which by the way, King Signeta literally translates to the girl who is fifteen. Yeah, so this is technically your Fiesta de kin Signetta or something like that. Right.
Part of your responsibility as King Signetta is to show that you can take part in this planning. On the one hand, it's to allow it to reflect your personality and your taste, so you're the one who needs to choose all this stuff. But it also shows that you can be a grown up too, and undertake months of
planning leading up to this thing and basically pull it off. Correct, you are right, Okay, So the whole thing starts with a trip to church, which is not right, which is not what you're going to find a normal American like say sweet sixteen party.
No, And it depends on the church where you're going to have and you know, sometimes the celebration also occurs at the church. Sometimes that occurs at a different spot, kind of like a wedding, you know, sometimes you'll have the reception somewhere else.
Right, that's not how it started, which we'll talk about that in a minute, but go ahead.
But it depends on the church where you're a member or where you're having this initial ceremony. But the girl before this all happens for weeks ahead of time, may actually be required to attend classes in advance of this, so they're prepared.
They know what to expect, right they well, yeah, that's about it, as far as the weeks ahead part, well as far as the church and all the planning, yeah, of course. Right. So on the day they arrive at the church, and you were saying, like, you know, now it's kind of evolved to where you have like like a wedding, you have the ceremony of the church and then the event elsewhere, well you can, right, and that's
becoming more and more the way. But one of the reasons that is becoming the way is because in nineteen ninety in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Archdiocese issued like a set of guidelines that basically put the kibosh on this idea of the kingsonira as a big lavish affair, and it really dampened this burgeoning I guess industry or tradition or whatever. It put a damper on it for a little while because families didn't want to go against the Church, so they kind of toned down the kings andiras.
But the reason the Church was doing this is because there were too many kingsoniras, not enough Spanish speaking priests. And then also the Catholic Church has always had an awkward position in this tradition. It's not a Catholic tradition. It's a cultural tradition by a group of people who are predominantly Catholic and involve the Church as part of this tradition. But this tradition, if anything, is a syncretized tradition,
remember when we were in Guatemala. The melding of Catholic beliefs and pagan pre colonial beliefs indigenous beliefs is syncretism. This is an example of that. There's like as tech rituals supposedly mixed with this. The whole thing starts at a Catholic church with a mass, so the church has kind of had alternately hands on and hands off view of this whole thing, and in nineteen ninety the almost put a complete damper on it. But since then it's just kind of said, Okay, we'll just start off at
the church and we'll have the party afterward elsewhere. Yeah.
And I've also seen that a lot of churches now are straying away from me is because they feel like there's just a lot of disrespectful behavior, like you know, people partying on the pews and taking pictures with their phone and texting, and.
Like they kind of forget that they're in a church, right, which I mean if you step back and think about it, having a girl's fifteen year birthday party in an actual church, Yeah, that's a terrible idea to begin with, probably about yes, so it makes sense to do this kind of solemn ceremony at the church and then party elsewhere, which I think is pretty much par for the course these days.
All right, so before the mass takes place, this young woman has and Kristen Conger, remember Kristen.
Of course, what's the name of their podcast, Unladylike, unlady Like?
That's right, yeah, Kristen Caroline formerly of stuff Mom never told you Now with Unladylike, she wrote this article and she said that custom calls for fourteen damas or maiden attendance, to represent the fourteen years of her life up into that point. I saw elsewhere seven. That's what I saw too, to be paired with seven young men. You want to pronounce that shambalons.
Yeah, that's how I took it, shambalans, but chambalon.
I read in another place. I was like, well, wait a minute, which is it? And it apparently can be seven to fifteen. So yeah, depending on I guess how many really close friends you have, kind of like picking out your bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Yeah, and I saw plenty of videos of kinsigners where like there were three girls, there's a four. Yeah, but I think under strict tradition of the King Signetta. You would have fourteen girls and fifteen dudes. You got fourteen damas, fifteen Chambalains and then one I got it, and then one Chambalaine day on air, which I totally missed up. But it's it's basically the escort of honor. Who is the King Signetta's date? That's right.
And again I'm sure that there's some leeway. The Kingsiannetta cops aren't gonna come by because you don't have enough friends helping you. They have larger fish to fry on Kingsannetta Day.
Right, although the whoever is helping you plan this, it would probably love it if you had fourteen guys and fourteen girls because they all have to be outfitted. Oh yeah, in exactly what you want them to wear, because it's your party. That's right.
And I don't think we mentioned, but the dress is a very big part of the celebration. Traditionally it's either pink or white, very satane. I mean it looks kind of like a prom dress, a big frilly, floor length gown.
But that also is eight feet wide, yeah, exactly at the waist like out it's extraordinary. It's like a princess dress. Yeah, like I want to Kenzannira, Well we can throw you on, buddy, Okay, don't do that. Sure you don't get all pretty for the camera. I definitely would find a nice stress, all right.
So the first stop, though, like you said, is the church, and this is where a lot of the ceremony takes place. They receive a blessing from a priest, the young woman commits herself to her, protecting her virginity and her spiritual devotion, and then they leave a bouquet of flowers near the Virgin Mary statue. And then traditionally they would give away a porcelain doll, one of their childhood dolls, or again,
tradition varies. These days, it might be a step teddy bear or something else that just meant something to the girl.
One thing I saw was a ki Signetta barbie.
Oh yeah, all right, Well they'll pass that along to a younger sister or another relative, another female relative, to basically say again symbolic of I'm entering young adulthood and I'm passing on this silly barbie to you.
What's the name of that the ultima Muneka? Oh, I don't know. I didn't see that ultima muneka. It means the last doll, and it shows that she's leaving girlhood behind. And you can guess which which one of those, the ceramic doll or the old toy or the brand new barbie the younger female relative wants these days. Sure, yeah, yeah, So so that may or may not happen at the church.
The thing that seems to be what definitely happens at the church is the girl is presented with a rosary, a prayer book or a Bible and leaves flowers at the altar and or the statue of the Virgin Mary, and then receives a blessing. Right, so let's say that all that happened at the church and the girl has been blessed. Sometimes it's part of a regular mass, like she may stand up and come up to the altar
and get a special blessing. If her parents are pulling all the right strings, maybe she can get her own mass for it. But she may also be sharing that mask with other quin sigietas. There's a bunch of different ways to do it. But once the mass is done, once she said like I am committing myself to the Catholic Church and I'm a very spiritual girl, and thanks for the blessing. I'm out e five thousand. She's heading off to the party. That's right. Get that just like a good wedding.
Get that part over with quickly so you can get your party on right.
So whilst she's getting into the limo, we'll take another break. Okay, all right, look at her trying to stuff that dressing. Then okay, chuck. So she has gotten in the limo, she's driven off, and now they're going to the venue, which is basically anywhere that you would also hold like a wedding reception, you could hold a King Signira party.
Yeah, I mean it could be. It really depends on the budget of the family involved. They could rent out a large hall, or they could it could be in the backyard of their own home or at a friend's house.
Yeah. And again this is not just on the parents shoulders. It's very customary and very traditional for the girl to approach family members. Yeah, members of the business community, just anybody she can think of to say, hey, costs are really adding up and can you, you know, chip in a little bit. And like the King Signira will be sponsored by multiple people besides just her parents. Yeah, and I did.
I also read in that article on that really great photo spread the guy did he interviewed the family members and one of the families he said how long have you you know, they didn't have much money, and he said, how long have you been saving for this?
And they said for fifteen years? Oh.
Man, Like they started socking away money every year because they knew this was coming. That it is so great and it was important. It was very sweet story.
Yeah. I think the aspect that, you know, the community chips in and also comes to like witness this girl's transition to adulthood. I just really appreciate that. I think it's really cool that that's part of it, you know, it makes it rather than it's just the parents are footing the bill for everything. I just think that's cool. Yeah.
Well, and it's a culture where family and community is such a important revered thing and it's something I'm envious of, you know.
Yeah, for sure. So when the girl gets there, the first thing that's going to happen is the music's going to be starting, and her court's going to come in and get introduced. Those are the Damas and the Shamblains. Why is that not sounding right because it sounds French, right, Okay, So that's but am I am I pronouncing it French?
I don't know that's what I'm saying it. It's I'm not sure. I don't know the origins of that word.
Okay. So those two her court, they're going to come in one by one and get announced virtually, just like a wedding when the bride and grooms show up. The grooms maids, no, the bride grooms maids, the grooms men's and the bride'smaids. Yes, come on, man, hanging in there. They get introduced, you know, one by one as they're coming in, and then finally the shambala and the honorary
escort is introduced. And then you finally have the Kinti era come in and the music changes and she's like you like raising the roof, you know, and the parties just everyone erupts into just craziness from that moment on.
Yeah, and again, it could be a DJ. It could be a mariachi band, It could be a rock band.
It could be a DJ playing Mary.
It could be it could be like with my wedding, I had an iPod loaded up with my mix and just hit play nice.
So this is probably a DJ with a light system and a dance floor. All the videos I saw are very much like that. Yeah, So the court's been introduced, and then one of the first things that happens is the girl is presented with a crown tiara. She's presented with a scepter, so for the killing, right for the bashing, Yeah, that comes later, and then right the ritual, the ritual killing of the chipmunk. And she's seated, probably on a throne of some sort or a central chair, maybe one
of those like Wicker remember the Wicker like seventies chair. Yeah, like flared out and up. It looked kind of like, yeah, maybe she's sitting on one of those. But she's she's basically the center of attention right then, and something kind of cool happens. The shoe shoe was wearing that she came in with flat soled sandals or slippers or something like that. Her dad comes over and takes those off, and then he puts on high heels and snaps his fingers, twirls and goes she's a woman.
Yes, And I bet you anything, this young lady has practiced walking in those before, right, I don't think she would want her first experience in high heels to be in that dress on the big day. This is just logical chuck talking.
Although it would be fun to watch, No, come on, you don't think it would be.
No one wants to see what do they? Kristen said, they call her Keen's Girls. Sometimes, Yeah, some one wants to see a Keen skirl fall over.
That's true except you. But you got laughed at while you did the backstroke, so I get it. Yeah, mocked.
They may also get gifts, but not always a lot of times there are symbolic gifts. A lot of times other people will bring gifts, but from the parents. The festival and ceremony itself is the gift. But sometimes if the parents have some dough and a big budget, they may get what's called regalo soorpressa, which is a surprise gift on top of everything else. And this of course is including like you mentioned, the prayer book and the Rosary and the Bible and stuff like that.
Right, and those were probably given to her at the church before. I'm thinking that, depending on the position of her parents socioeconomically, the girls probably getting other presents too. Yeah, but yes, supposedly just the kin Senira party is like this is plenty, don't you think.
Yeah, But I think the gifts too also are always represent that transition into adulthood. So she's not getting the dolls anymore. She gets maybe some jewelry or ear rings and stuff like that.
Right, and deliver her into womanhood. And then guests are also giving gifts as well, and your party favors the way that the whole thing's set up, even though the community like might have people that chip in or family members or whatever. The parents are saying like come help celebrate our daughter's transition into womanhood. Right, So the party is men is like a gift for the guests, right, and so the thing is kind of meant to be like come and get your eat on and your drink
on and just have a lot of fun. The thing is part of that welcomeness and that inclusiveness and that you know, please come and be a part of this. That backfired really hard for this one couple. Have you heard about Ruby Obara Garcia? No? Oh my, so Ruby Abara Garcia turned fifteen on December twenty sixth, nineteen year
twoenty sixteen. Okay, okay, just like a year or so ago, and she is from La Joya, which is in San Luis, Potosi, Mexico, and it's a little tiny town two hundred, and her parents decided to get with the times and make like a YouTube invitation, a video invitation to come to Ruby's Kinsenera. But they posted on on YouTube and they didn't put any privacy settings on and it went viral and twenty thousand people from around the world showed up to Ruby's
Kinsigneta party in this little town of two hundred. That's kind of great, though, right, it was great on the one hand, but if you look at the photos from it, she was very much overwhelming the entire time. Was not
expecting it. Apparently, like like on Facebook, like over a million people said they were coming, but even still twenty thousand, and if you look, there's like all these stands set up, and like people from all over the country and the world shipped in to like fee everybody and make sure everybody had teas or whatever. So the parents said, okay, we're we're doing this, and they they did it. They they stepped up and met there there there, or they
kept their welcome to everybody. I guess there is a way to put it. That's kind of great.
But I can definitely see on the day that the girl might have been overwhelmed. But I bet she also in retrospect, is like, hey, I've got one cool story for my life now.
Oh yeah, she's got a big old story and she got a Chevy Vault.
Oh serious, Yeah, I couldn't tell. I literally couldn't tell if you were just being joky, Josh.
There, No, that was I didn't even need to be that time. So Chevy got involved, of course. I think her parents gave her that. Oh I figured Chevy was like, hey, no, I think that was I think that was her regalo, her surprise gift. Yes. Wow. And speaking of so praises, the uh that was uman Spanish name, by the way,
But speaking of so Praises, there's also Chuck. Go on to YouTube and type in bay A s Praisa b A I l E sor Praiser and just start watching these videos because the bay A sor Praisa is one of the hallmarks of the Kings and Era party and they are about as adorable and embarrassing as you can imagine. What does that mean though? What is it? Oh? It's
a surprise dance. So it's like for months ahead of time, the King Signia and her court will practice a dance that they make up or that they hire like a choreographer, and they will like perform this dance for the guests. It's a surprise dance. It's like part of the Kingsenira and they're they're very cute to watch, especially they do, but they also are really they're very earnest about it too, like they like they practice this dance and they they're doing it and it's it's very cute. You can also
hire am Balayne's professional ones. They're all like dancers by trade, so they'll like really knock your socks off of your guests. But it's, you know, it's lacking that heart of something you and your friends came up with yourself.
Or you could if you had a lot of dough, you could hire a choreographer like Paula Abdul or something.
Yeah. Yeah, like her, she's.
Still choreographing, right, yeah, choreographing, choreographing.
Something bad wrong with us today? I know, man, you got anything else I do? This is a little suppressive for you.
My friend there was a father in Texas a couple of years ago that spent six million dollars on his fifteen year old daughter. Oh my, he uh, what's his name here? He's an attorney named Thomas J. Henry of San Antonio. They're very kind of well known family. His daughter Maya is big on Instagram and social media, and she's big into activism. So she's like, you know, she's not just your ordinary teen.
Although that is kind of ordinary these days, thankfully.
To be a well known teen activist, well to be active, sure. But at her Kintanetta, she had Nick Jonas perform, Pitbull performed.
Sure. Let me see what else here?
A fifty five thousand square foot space.
That they built.
I don't think they built it from scratch, but it does say that it was built purpose built venue.
How many guests? Six hundred guests?
Man a thirty foot tall cherry trees, a thirty foot tall cherry cheese in full blossom, walls of roses, a garden room, the ballroom with butterflies suspended from the ceiling. She wore a Rolando Santana dress, which means nothing to me either, but I assume that means it's something. She had her makeup done by Patrick Ta who does the Kardashians. Her photographer was Michelle Obamas photographer, and Thomas Henry and his wife whose name is Azteca, beautiful name. They hired
a New York social event planner named David Monne. He had one hundred and fifty person team to plan out this party and finally they arrived by police escort in nine rolls Royces.
Well, because why not, why not get the police involved.
And not to feel too bad for her little brother or I guess maybe it was a big brother. He spent four million dollars on that kid's eighteenth birthday. I believe case a praisa, So they have they dropped ten million bucks on a couple of parties for their kids.
Man, and those the girls in Mexico City are happy to be part of the city wide annual one.
Yeah.
I wonder what Pitbull got paid for that? A mill Maybe? I bet Nick Jonas got more than Pipple, did you think? Yeah?
And of course she had her pictures with both of them, and.
Well I'm sure that was part of it. It's like uh yeah, man, all right, well that is something. What's her name? Maya? Yeah? Wait, Henry, Oh, I got to look that up. If you want to know more about Kinsgieta as well, just show up to one uninvited. Yeah, see how that goes. You know what, you'd probably be welcomed probably chuck probably, And since I said probably a couple of times, it's time for listener mail.
Hey guys, A long time listener, A card carrying member of the Stuff you should know Army. I've always want to write in but just hadn't found the right topic until the It Stranger Things script retooling debate those during emojis. Stephen King is by far my favorite author, and it is my absolute favorite of his novels. Highly recommend. Also a huge Stranger Things fan. Though I have no media experience, I do have an MBA and know a thing or
two about marketing. But it's worth I sided with Josh, with the studio definitely retooling the script to create synergies between It and Stranger Things. Aside from casting the Stranger Things kid, which to me is a smoking gun, they changed the setting in the film to take place in the eighties.
Like Stranger Things.
The novel the story follows the main characters is in the fifties, and then again as adults in the eighties. There are elements of the story that didn't translate as well into the eighties in my opinion, but it was a small price to pay in order to captivate that Stranger Things audience. Just one guy's opinion, but I'd like to say one guy's informed opinion.
Sorry, Chuck, for what it's worth.
As a movie crush or as a movie buff, I always catch movie crush. Keep it up, Mike Sanders and Mike. I did a very simple Google search and found that Stranger Things was released in July twenty sixteen, and principal photography of it began about a week before that. Okay, so that's therefore rendering that impossible.
Here's the thing. Movies have been known to change horses mid stream, right. I don't think that that settles it if you ask me, so.
You think they shot a bunch of the movie in the nineteen fifties and said, wait a minute, this TV show we're here doing.
No, no, no, no, no, no, let's go make it the eighties.
No.
I don't think let's recast this kid that we've already cast.
I think I think that they're I think that they did retool I do. I don't think. Yeah, I don't think they did. They. I don't think they were shooting in the fifties. I think they were probably shooting in the eighties. I think they really. My whole point has been that they played up the same things that Stranger Things was known for and that you wouldn't find in in the book it that, and that they plumped up that stuff because of Stranger Things. That's my assertion.
So as they are shooting the film it they're doing rewrites. The rewrites, yes, because they're like, man, we gotta walk into this TV show.
Yes. And you can also do that in the editing booth as you know as well, which would have happened long after Stranger Things was already a smash cultural phenomenon. All right. That's I don't think it's settled, man, Okay, And it never will be all right until the editor tells me himself or herself that I'm just dead wrong. Okay. If you want to settle a bet, you can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com and is always joined us at our home on the web.
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