Magic Mike

It was a blast. It really was. What you're I mean, something that you're missing is Yeah, Caitlin gave me a lap dance. I had cramps that day, so I didn't do much dancing, but I really I tried to enjoy the lap dance as best I could. Thank you, I felt, I felt, I felt great about it. You were. That's no reflection on your skill. You were incredible. Oh my goodness,

thank you so much. Because the movie was magic Mike, and you clicked on it, you you know, come on, and we did this whole funny little bit at the beginning of the show where you were you came out, you were like, oh my gosh, where's Caitlin. When's the show going to start smash cut to Pony by genuine playing. I come out on stage, I start taking my clothes off, I give you a lap dance and I'm like, everyone

loved it. I mean, I'm I'm I'm giving who with my face and my body language, and yeah, it was pretty. I mean it was it was electric And that's why this is kind of more for for our matrons. But that's that's what qualifies us. I think you know, that kind of energy and talent is what qualifies us to make a Roku original. Uh, this is what's going to get us on the slate Roku Original slate because because normally, I mean, podcasts are an audio medium, you don't really

think of any visual thing that's happening. But when you come to our live shows, what if the podcasters are hot, we're hot, and and we can dance and we give a good visual performance, a visual perform. Yeah, of visual. Um, it was a really fun show. We hope you enjoy the episode. Uh, we had. We had a good time visually performing it for you. Yes, but you know, I think it will come through on on audio as well, and we're hoping to do more live shows in in

the near future. This was an experiment that I think was a huge success, major success. So here's the episode. Hope you enjoy. Thank you. I think that was exciting. Usually I get naked, right, I know we're doing kinky switch, A kinky switch. I'm sorry, emin insult. I don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm a virgin. I don't know. We're both virgins. So this movie was really confusing. Welcome to the back, felt guys, Get up, welcome back. Sorry

for spilling Mike's heart immediately. That's how you know that we're back, because I can't even manage my MIC's heart. Um yeah, okay, well, um here we are. Yeah, welcome back, Welcome back at the Sunday afternoon. Um, how's everybody doing? Does everyone have a drink? Does everyone have peanut eminem's? Are we all safe or we all feel like good? Awesome? Awesome? I thought someone was holding up peanut eminem so I was like, all right, that's about the energy we're gonna

be bringing to the show. Thanks for coming. My name is Caitlin Durante. Yeah, my name is Jamie Loftus and uh, this is our this is our podcast. This time you're looking at us and we haven't done this in a while. We even't what was the last show that we did live? Would have been like Valentine's Day, right, I don't even remember what it was, Black Swan, New York City. Wow, you know it feels like ages ago. Uh. I think really has happened since some times not just sort of

kind of fell off, got pretty lazy. I don't really know. I feel very out of practice. I'm stressed out about various articles of my clothes being scattered about the audience. Everyone they're not gonna steal it. I yeah, we were really stressing about Okay, So the whole thing here is that we were really stressing about the opening. We changed the idea for the opening of this a million times. We went to the mall last night looking for taraway

pants that did not materialize. We don't exist anymore. Oh my god. The woman at Dick's Sporting Goods looked at me like I had four hundred heads. I was like, at Kayleen, you'd had not come to my rescue at all. I was like, um, so we're looking for pants that have the buttons and you can pull them off and she and she was like what And I was like, you know, like the and she's like, I know you're talking about, but this isn't the right store. I thought

I could have been the right store. So then we just went to the food court and went home and so and then we figured this out. And then I had these pants but they don't they don't even work. They don't work. Before I'm wearing two pairs of underwear right now. One of them is a song. I feel so uncomfortable. You were, I mean, Caitlin, you you were like, maybe I'll wear the song. I was like, I don't even want to show my arms, but I did. But

I did. I wore my Shrek bra. So there's a version of this episode where we came out so confident that Caitlin was wearing a thong and I took my shirt off and was wearing it. It's two pm. It wasn't gonna but you know, I was like, everyone's gonna be sucked up. You're not fucked up. I've had three steps with my car Harden lemonade, and I'm ready to pass away. But you know, there's also if anyone at any point, I brought one can for the audience, So

if anyone's like, you know, like vibing. They're like, wait, this would be so much better if I felt like I had a migraine. Um, that's there, got that. I think that's truly my hero's journey is when this podcast started, I could drink Mike's hard whatever I want, And now it makes me feel like I died six weeks ago. I'm impressed with your character arc. Thank you, thank you. It is the greatest story of UM, well, welcome, thank

you for being here. We're happy to be back, you know, and we wanted to let you know that we really we're gonna do something horny and then we're cowards. Um, I beg to differently. That was beautiful. That was to fall. Thank you, And that's what you get if you don't come to our live shows. And you don't know that anyone who's listening at home right now, Sorry you missed out. You're just gonna have to imagine it. But don't send us any emails about it, because that's it's wild that

you have to say that, but you really do. Well. Okay. Has anyone ever here ever seen the movie Magical Michael? Really, that's his Christian stripper name, Magical Michael. I was calling this movie so many things in my head. I was calling it magical, Michael, I was calling it himbo, billy elegy, calling it all sorts of that's the two things. No, I love it. Has anyone not seen magic? Mike magic Michel? Oh? Wow? Wow? Everyone did start, Oh I miss bullying. The audience was on,

this is exciting. Um. Has anyone been to a live Bectel cash show before? Wow? Oh my gosh, welcome back. Has anyone not been? So many newcomers you get to see us in the raw, like those little brown sugar packets, just so you know, I come out and do a strip tease before every live show. Yeah. She did that before our Nightmare before Christmas episode, and I was like, it doesn't seem she did. She did. She grinded on me for all of What's this? And I was like hell?

And then I was wearing these same pants. The context made no sense, but everyone was getting pretty fucking horn I think, and so forth. In my defense, we were all asking of that performance of mine, what is this? What's this? And answer us Christmas Town. When Caitlin grinds on me, which she does all the time, it evokes Christmas morning? Sorry, where are we? I? Feel sick. I like, don't. I can't believe I spilled Mike's spirit. I haven't done that since I was like twenty two. Um, you made

the hilarious joke backstage, Magic Mike's Hard. I think we should just Mike's Hard movie and then an extremely magical Michael's Hard movie. Did you? Did you know that there's a third movie in development as we speak? No? What is it? Is it an all girl reboot, which would make magical michaela magical Michelle. I let me check to see what it's called. Old. It is called Sorry I am dB dot com scholarly journal. I ever heard of it? Magic Mike's Last Dance? Does he die? Holy sh it?

That would actually be so amazing if they killed I have all like they do, like a Season one Throne Game situation where they're like, we all love Magic Mike, but what if he just dropped dead on stage? I have dreams like that sometimes, where you're like, you're having a heart attack on stage and everyone's like this is such an abstract bit, and and then you die and everyone's like, oh, well, I guess I got my eleven dollars worth. Well, I doubt he's going to die, but

we don't know. Um, should we tell the audience what the show is? Yeah? Has anyone here ever not listened to the by steal cast before I have a I have a harpoon gun with me, But feel free to let us know if you haven't listened to our little podcast on more Wow, listeners, no one raised their hands. Wow, that's exciting. We are so popular, So we have to

tell them. I mean, I guess we do well. The listeners at home again, the losers who couldn't be bothered to jack asses who didn't have the time to take a first class flight to watch me spill Mike's hard lemonade while Caitlin grinds on me at two pm. So the show is an examination of movies through an intersectional feminist lens, using the Bechdel Test as a jumping off point. Jamie, tell me what it is well. The Bechdel Test is a media metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdels, sometimes

called the Bechtel Wallace Test. Lots of versions of this test. Our version of the Bechtel test requires that there be two characters of a marginalized gender with names who speak to each other about something other than a man for two lines of dialogue. This movie is complicated in that regarded. It's not a perfect metric. Um. But you know, I could have had a second female character, you know, but you know, you know what, you know what when we did the live shows, we want to choose fun movies

that we don't have a ton of criticisms of. And then backstage I was like, but what if we talked about semiotics? You know? Um, anyways, it's complicated. That's what the show is is that. Okay, uh, thank you. This is a hostage situation. So uh, Caitlin, yes, to get us started. What is your experience with the film Magical

Michael two thousand twelve. My history with Magical Michael is that it came out the year that I started graduate school, where I did go to earn a master's degree in screenwriting from Boston University, which absolutely hate to mention, I didn't know that you didn't because I'd never talked about it. But I didn't see movies that entire two year period in the theaters because I just didn't have time so busy getting a master's degree. God, what were you you

were doing? What homework? And classes. Yeah, and a job and job and stand up comedy. That's how we metto uh love you? Should you like? Okay? Yeah? Are you a cocker spaniel? Go nuts? So I didn't see the movie in theaters, which is what all this prelude was. Is that the right word anyway? Um? So I didn't see the movie in theaters, but I saw it like a year after, and I saw the sequel as well. But I had confused the two and I thought the scene where Channing Tatum has sex with a work bench

was in the first movie. I was wrong. That was just a call back to the first movie. It takes place in the second movie. So I'm all out of sorts. But the point is, I've your humping cannon is all fuck up? True truly. But I've seen both movies, but they weren't really in my rotation. I don't know why. Because Magic Michael Magical Michael is a good movie. It's a really good movie. I do understand why it may

not be in anyone's regular rotation. If it is, that's great, But if it isn't, it's like more of a bummer than you are thinking it's going to be right, Like I under because I was like, this is gonna be a horny fun and I was like, wow, this is actually a deep interrogation of the financial crisis, you know, like I get why it's like not a movie that I would It's interesting because I feel it looks like a movie you would want to watch every single day, but it's actually like maybe a once a year kind

of like Wow, yeah, that was a rough point in history. It's too bad that they don't know it gets so much worse, right, So uh that and I already I already had a movie about male strippers in my rotation, the Full Monty, So I was like, there can only be one. There can be only one, and you know that slot had been prejudice against men. But yes, which is there should be more of We've been criticized for that before and some really carefully. Where did iTunes reviews? Jamie,

What is your relationship with Magical Michael? I did not have a relationship with Magical Michael. This movie came out at some point when I was in college. I didn't see it, and then I continued to not see it. I feel like there is uh I was aware of, like there's like a faction of women comics who regularly go to see Magic Mike in Vegas. Has anyone ever seen Magic Mike in Vegas. It's like there's a live male strip show based on this movie, which is kind

of fucking incredible. It's supposed to be really really fun. I know, like that it's a very popular pilgrimage I guess to make um but no, I had never seen the movie before. I was very excited to see it. I thought it was going to really like lift my

spirits and make me horny, and it did. But then immediately after it reminded me that all the Glitters is not gold and that Channing Tatum did not get that bank loan and right, so it's I I mean, I ended up like really loving and appreciating the movie when I was getting ready for this episode, in like ways I was not expecting to. I thought I was gonna be like uplifted by horny fun, which I us, but then I was immediately taken back down by serious problems

and like I just I really liked this movie. I'm very excited to talk about it. At the end, I haven't seen the sequel. Sorry, okay, well we'll I didn't even rewatch it. For this because I knew, I know that we're just going to do a separate episode on it. So did they get Okay, no spoilers, but do they get hornier or less horny in the second one? I truly don't remember what's the hump to come ratio in the two who Who's Who's come? Are you like, audience, do you say hump to come? Oh? I just been

strictly on screen. I feel like we can't know off screen anyone could be coming. I don't know, it's not my business. People come to kind of sucking whatever, you know. I misunderstood the question. Um like I'm sitting with like a beaker measure belcome when they watch Magic Mike xxel I'm a scientist. Um No, I just I just mean on screen. I again, I only remember the scene where Channing Tatum, the titular magical Magical Michael has sex with

a workbench too. Does the workbench come? The work bench obviously comes, and but that scene pales in comparison to the awesome dance I did earlier today. Wow. And then for all of your listeners, that's the thing is like for the listeners, they could be coming right now, and we wouldn't know true. And again I feel the need to say, if you are coming, please don't tell us. Oh okay, So yeah, I don't know who's coming off screen. I don't want to know who's coming off screen, and

that is a universally a applicable law. I will Okay. Last thing I'll say before we get into the recap is Okay, there's a lot of men in this movie, which normally sounds like an accusation, but there is. But the two main mikes are Magical Michael and then there's Magic Michael Jr. Yes, yes, the Magical Michael Jr. A k Adam which every time someone people can't name characters Adam anymore because I'm like it was taken by Frankenstein

and the Bible, but mostly I Frankens. Mostly the Bible was actually adapted from my frankenste Oh god, that parton I Frankenstein, where the the what is it? Like the goblin Queen is talking to Aaron at Cart playing horny Frankenstein. No one knows what I'm talking about. Okay. There. What I was saying is I wasn't expecting Magical Michael Jr. To be in my head. The guy from Beastly right, which if you okay, and then I have to unpack

that now. Beastly was a eleven adaptation of Beauty and the Beast starring Vanessa Hudgens and This Guy, in which Vanessa Hudgens plays uh, fourteen year old at age fifty and uh, this guy who's also five hundred uh plays the beast. But he's just like a hot topic, like right, I feel like he just has some like facial scarring and they're like he's hideous. It's again I party facial

scarring and he's like, don't look at me. And Vanessa is like okay, Like I don't, okay, I have to return to something from earlier, the hump to come ratio. Are you serious? I was confused by the question because to my knowledge, who even comes in the movie? Well, the hump toicum ratio can be zero to a hundred. I don't think. I don't. I don't know if we see anyone I see. Okay. The other thing is in movies, I feel like equals come right. I don't think we

actually I mean, and I don't think. I mean, this is like what a PG thirteen movie. I'm not expecting to see fucking ejaculate. Well, like, that's caught. But who even goes I don't think Michael j He goes, that's that's mail. There's and then there's like, you know, there's a whole spectrum of sounds you can make. I'm familiar and there's two. All right, we just we have to move on. Should I do the recap? Yeah? All right, everyway, give it up for Caitlin's famous recap. Yeah. Oh, we've

already gone way off the rails. What if I was like, I don't even remember what happens in this movie because I was too busy watching Channing Tatum's arms. Oh my god, then we would be like, there's a funny parallel universe where this is like this same podcast, but it's really girl Boss vibes, where we're like, I don't know, I couldn't pay attention due to the pecks, you know, and it's like to be I am paying attention to them, but but academically, yeah, we have to talk about the

female scholarly way. I'm looking at his pecks for my job. Alright, So here we go. We meet Dallas played by Matthew mcconne. Hey, who I'll just interrupt myself right now. I hate him so much. This movie would be like better without Dallas Ak Matthew McConaughey. Okay, So he is the owner of a male strip club in Tampa, Florida. Ever heard of it? Uh? We Dampa as a character in the movie, it is Do we ever learn the name of the strip club? I don't think So they keep like panning up to

the someone's nodding, Wait, what's the name of the club? Exquisite? Yes, exquisite? Sorry we were hitting the emphasis wrong. Thank you so much? Would you like some Mike's Hard? I love someone's helping me out and I'm punishing them. Um, if anyone does that? Does anyone want a small glass of Mike's Hard? I have a mango? Wait? I have Okay, Caitlin, you keep recapping, I'm gonna I have to do something. Okay. So he's going over the ground rules of the club and we

meet Magical Michael. That's Channing Tatum. He has just had a threesome with Joanna played by Olivia Munn and some other lady whose name they don't remember. So this movie was like deliberately like We're not even going to try to pass the Bechtel test because we hate giving women names. Um. And just in case you had any shred of doubt about whether a Channing Tatum character fox he fus uh,

the movie wants you to know that right away. We learned that Magical Michael makes artisanal furniture that um looks like shit. Honestly, I'm so ugly, but you know, good for his artistic vision or whatever. Um. His dream is to sell his pieces for money and for that to be his full time job until then he does. He has a several other jobs, such as a roofing job where he meets Adam played by Alex Adam Frankenstein a k a. Magical Michael Jr. A k a. Alex Petty

for the kid from Beastley. He is nineteen years old. He's kind of a mess. He does not have his ship together. He's kind of a fun like combination of Florida man tropes with angry teenager tropes where they're like, he beat up his football coach here, like okay, yeah, I think I understand whose character is. Yes, he lives with his sister Brooke played by Cody Horn, and she is trying to help him get some steady work. That night, Adam Frankenstein bumps into Mike, who's outside of a dan club.

Mike brings him into a strip club, where Adam is surprised to learn that Mike is a male stripper, but not just a male stripper, the king of the male stripper. He like the male stripper. It's really it's kind of an exciting reveal where he's like, I'm Jesus. Like, he's like, I'm not Batman, I'm the Batman starring. I would say, I haven't seen it yet? Does he say that? In the he points out a picture of Christian Bale and he's like, I'm not Batman. He's like, Michael Katon No, no, no, no, no,

I'm not those Batman's I'm the bad anyway. So, um, Adam learns that Mike is a male stripper. Dallas gives Adam, who everyone starts calling the kid, so he gives the kid a k Adam a job doing props for the night. At the club, Adam meet the other male strippers, whose names are Big Dick, Ritchie, Ken, Tito, and Tarzan. So I feel like that is first of all, in every friend group, there is one Big Dick Richie, one can, one Tito, one Tarzan, and which one are well? Which

which are you of that? Oh my gosh, um round of applause. If you think I'm the big dick Richie all right, well that's that. That settles it. So I'm big dick Richie, all right. And one of my I'm Jamie's obviously Tarzan. Tarzan's Wow, we're kind of like fucking hunks. Yeah, like a big, hulking, hunky kind of Okay, Well, it's nice to you know, it's nice to know every once in a while. This show has been on for a long time. It's just nice to know, like how we're

perceived by our audience. And so big dick Ritchie Tarzan it sounds good. Yes. Yeah. There's also Tobias the DJ, who I guess is are like Aristotle. Don't put him into the corner. That's not fair. Yeah, I'm kidding obviously. Um, but there is a Tobias the DJ, played by Gabriel Iglesias, and they're all goofing with Adam. Mike shows him the ropes. Then it's time for the show. Okay, So it's pretty exciting.

It's exciting. They dance, they hump, there's a little bit of and then there's a little bit of I kept thinking about the chairs in that club and how they just like probably have to, like I put the foam off the chairs. Every name is that? How come works? Sorry, I'm a very yes, understandably, someone from the audience said foam and they you were right. Um, I'm okay, We're gonna sidebar after this? Is that not healthy? No, you're

you're You're fine, James, Okay. So the whole the whole thing is a site to behold, which is what I wrote in my notes. Um, very very boomer mom of you. That's a boomer mom at any strip club what a site to behold. Mike is usually front and center in all of this, although we do see different dancers individual acts, and then when it's time for Tarzan's act Jamie's act, he turns out to be passed out backstage oh so

well that it feels like targeted and aggressive. So Mike throws Adam on stage to fill the spot, and Adam sucks at dancing, but Dallas and Mike see his potential, so they decide to bring him into the group. The next morning, Mike drives Adam home and Mike meets Adam's sister, Brooke,

and we're like, oh, love interest alert. She's she's doing this thing that and I really liked her performance and I like this actor, but she's doing this thing where it's like very of like I'm awkward, and you're like, I know, like, but she's kind of she keeps being like, um, I like you know, you're like, okay, I get I get it. But she's in like a bikini. She's the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen in my life, but she's like, I'm awkward. Like, okay, hey we exist. I'm

kidding in defense of my community. Okay. So Mike has met Brooke, and Mike reassures Brook that he will take care of Adam. So then Mike takes Adam shopping for some stripper apparel, which is also a very boomer mom way to stripper. Wow. Okay. Um. I was hoping that we would get a shopping montage from men, because we always get so many shopping montages from from the gals, but um, we never get I would have loved to see the kid from Beastley try on a bunch of

outfits that looked not good. And then Jan channing tatums there with like thumbs upper right. Meanwhile, like girls just want to have fun is playing. It's like Lizzie McGuire s because what I was hoping for. Similarly, I thought he was going to get a like haircut type makeover too, because he has like a scruffy scruff. He has like a haircut that's like a little unkempt. I thought they

were going to like clean him up. But they're like, no, you're you look perfect actually, and they're in they're in Tampa, so but yeah, I was the same thing, by the way, um, but you can have you know, the facial hair is not an issue in that region. Okay. So Adam now has all this stripper parel and Brooke discovers it and she's like, what the hell is this brother, and he's like, it's for work. Um. We cut to Brooke at the club where she is watching her brother do a sexy dance,

looking so contemplative. She's looking at him like do I like this? I'm like, right, it's she is watching very attentively, and we're like, I I guess there are so many ways to support your brother, horny dancing and staring at him really hard, just like doesn't feel like the best way you can be present without staring at him really hard. Right, And also so at this point, Adam has gotten much better at dancing. Then she sticks around for Mike's act.

To be fair, Mike is always popping up around Brooke me and like, you should stick around, Like that's kind of is thing, Like he's like pratt food. At one point, he tells her to stick around her own home. I'm like, I think she will, like she lives here, I think she will stick around. Um, But when they're at the club, he specifically says you should stick around because he knows he's about to do the sexy worm how I refer

to all the Channing Tatum's dancing. Right, So she watches him dance to pony By genuine Again, that performance pales in comparison to the one I did just a half hour ago. But you know, let's round of applause for her. Channing Tatum's effort is what you're applauding. But again, it sucks compared to mine. Star bage. Yeah, yeah, Zoe Kravitt should be dating you are they dating? And Brooks sees this and she's like, wow, not as good as Caitlin,

but I'm pretty impressed still. Then we see Mike try to get a loan from a bank to start his furniture business, and even though he has cash for a down payment, he has bad credit, so they won't give him the loan. Then Mike, Adam, and Brooke all go to a Fourth of July party. They're becoming such good friends.

I also wrote that also notes that's also Mike bursts into their home at sunrise and it's like, we're going to a party, and then you know, she's like it's seven am, and he's like, do you want to stick around? Like you just climbed through her fucking window? Dude, Like yeah. But then she's like, okay, maybe there's something here, you know. So they test that saying Steve Bushy burst into your house. I mean, like Steve Bushey broke into my home, I would let him do anything to me. But I mean

the idea in general, yeah, yeah, fair. So they go to this Fourth July party and Mike and Brooke are kind of vibing, but Mike is still he's still fucking Joanna here and there, but she's kind of aloof, so that doesn't really seem like it's going anywhere. I and she also like she's working on her masters, and I was like, wow, it's Caitlin. It is me. Caitlin's fucking Channing Tatum and she have it either way. That's where yes, okay.

Dallas then announces that he has bought a club in Miami and he's moving the whole operation there from Tampa. He says that Mike will make seven and a half percent of the profits from this new venture, although Dallas originally had promised ten percent. So Mike is like, what

the fuck? Yeah, Mike is very Cheryl sandberging on his own behalf for much of this movie, where he is and I and and usually when I say Cheryl Sandberg, I mean it as a pejorative, but in this case, like he's repeatedly trying to be like, no, I want the correct amount of money, and no one ever gives Mike the correct amount of money. What is true partially

why this is kind of a tragic move. Anyways, Well, we're getting to the part where it gets even sadder, right, So, things from this point on start to go down hill for pretty much all the characters, starting with at because he starts doing drugs which drugs. I don't know, the ones that come in party packs there. No, he's doing ecstasy. But then they're also like, oh, I don't know. He was probably on G, and I was like, what's G? Oh, you don't know what G is? Everyone play a longer.

Caitlin doesn't even know what G is. Loser, We're all funked up on G right now. I don't I can't wake up without a couple of Stevie hot G. Yeah. They have various units of G lying around and G units yeah, wow, wow wow, feeling like it's two thousand six. Okay, so he starts doing drugs. He also starts selling drugs with tobias. Meanwhile, Mike and Brooke continue to vibe. Every time you say tobias, I think it's arrested developments tobiasph

and he's yeah. So Mike and Brooke are vibing still more, and he asks if she wants to go get some food sometime, and she's like, oh, like on a date and he's like, no, I don't know. Well, usually she's also dating tall paul Um who sucks and we get I thought it was a very fun effective use of dialogue. How you find out Tall Paul sucks in a single line of dialogue, like he's just sounding like a fucking door,

Like what does he say? Like he's like he's talking about whatever the equivalent of crypto is, and you're just like, all right, I'm asleep, Like break up with Tall Paul, right, Yeah, he gets dumped. I don't even you know, poor tall Paul. Maybe he's a great guy, he's not so. Mike and Adam then do a gig at a sorority. Adam gives one of the girls an ecstasy pill or maybe it's like a unit of g you know, and all of the bros at the sorority are like, oh my god,

did you give my girl ecstasy? And they're like no, And then there's like this huge fight. It escalates quickly and Mike and Adam have to like get the funk out of there, and Adam leaves behind his backpack, which is full of the units of drugs that he has been selling with Tobias. Nothing gets between a nineteen year old boy and his backpack. And that's just a fact. Anything that's in the backpack, if it's a nineteen year

old boy, is not good. It's not good. True. Yeah, things continue to spiral out of control, like Mike gets in an argument with Dallas, Mike learns that Joanna is engaged. Then one night Mike and Adam get all fucked up, and then the next morning, Adam is passed out in his own vomit. Brooke comes in and freaks out and she's like, what did you do to my brother? You were supposed to take care of him? And We're like, wow, she's being so shrill. That's certainly how much everyone hand there,

Like why is she's she's being so ridiculous. I'm like, her brother is like almost dead, and he's like, chill, Chill. I'm like, I'm maybe not advocating for magical Michael as much as the movie wants me to write, Yes, if my little brother was. I just god, I kept connecting really hard with Brooke in this movie because I have a little brother, and I was like, if my brother was passed out in a pile of his own vomit and some himbo told me to chill, I would fucking

murder him. I was like, that's my fucking brother. Like there's okay. So then some dudes come in and trash Mike's place because they're looking for Adam, who turns out to have lost way more units of drugs than he had said. He of what drugs? What is g don't tell her it's great, it's it's wine. I'll figure it out by the end. Okay. So Adam owes to Bias like ten grand, so Mike, yes, Mike pays off Adam's debt with the money he had been saving for his

furniture business. So we're like, oh no, we can't have those ugly ass tables made out of bottles washed up on the shore of the fucking ocean. But good for him, Good for him. Mike goes to talk to Adam and he runs into Brook. They have a very tense conversation and she's like, you know what, Miami is just gonna be a bigger, batter version of this and I don't really believe in you. So nothing gets resolved here yet.

Then Adam and Mike kind of reconcile. Adam tells Mike that he'll pay him back for all of those ten geez. That scene is I mean, we'll get back to that. That scene was so frustrating to me because that was like, Adam is such a I feel I feel for Adam, but he's such a fucking mess. In that scene where he's like talking to Mike, he's like, yeah, it's all good. We're gonna go to Miami and everything's gonna be great. And you're like, it's not going to be great. You're

so fucked my man. But but like, hang on to this moment, I guess. And then it's the last show in Tampa before the big move to Miami, and Mike ends up bailing on this show and he goes to Brooke and she's like, wow, I heard what you did from my brother. And he's like, yeah, I'm not going to go to Miami after all. She's like, well for She's like, let's smooch and then we'll get breakfast together and then he's like oh right, and then they go and then they go, and then sorry reversion and uh

that's the end of the movies. Oh boy, where do we want to start with this movie? Do you want to start by? Should we paletate clean? Should you grind hip me again? Before we kind of get into it, Yeah, we should do like a little intermission and then everyone how is everyone doing with their mikes? Is everyone good? Is everyone good? That they're the people who I gave mikes are have passed out, Like I feel sick. Everyone's good for all, for all the listener. Everyone I gave

mix hard Lemonade too is alive. And where should we start with the discussion of this movie. I think there's there's so much more going on in this movie than I mean this is. I feel like it's an interesting case of because I went back because I didn't see this movie when it came out. I was very curious about how this movie was marketed because I vaguely remembered how it was marketed, and it is marketed not for

what the movie is. It is not marketed as like, uh movie that is like eight about the interpersonal struggles of mail strippers. It's marketed as ninety minutes of mail strippers dancing, which is kind of I feel like, been the legacy of the movie because there's the Vegas Show, there's all this stuff, and that's like neither a good

nor a bad thing. But I just think it's an interesting case of like it was very much marketed as like horny, horny, horny, fun, fun fun, where the movie is like doing doing horny fun but also doing all this other stuff that wasn't present in the trailer or the marketing or like the magazine covers or anything like that. Like you think you're getting ninety minutes of himbos, but you're getting himbos and pathos, right, which is the formula for any good movie. Yeah, So, I mean, yeah, I

appreciate the movie for what it is. I think if it was just like Himbo's you're saying you wouldn't like it. If it was just Himbo's Get a Grip, It would have been fun if it was just himbos. But I liked that it wasn't right. I mean, well, what the what would the plot have been? I mean, you can just go to a male strip show if you just want to see ninety minutes of himbos, which I have, and it costs a lot more than it does to

see Magic Mike. And that's a good thing because you if you're going to a strip show, you're not tipping. Well that's not good. Um okay, So what were we talking about? Yeah, the marketing, I will say, I think there's something to be said for so. I know a lot of men have seen this movie, Brave of you, um, but I think there is something to be said for a movie that has almost an entirely like, I guess straight women fan base, because I don't leave bisexual because

we're a you're absolutely right for it. Sorry, no, no, no, that was by eraser on my part, and I apologize. Um, I guess any gender who likes Channing Tatum, which actually really broadens the right. And now we're back to a circle any gender and any sexuality who likes Channing Tatum. This is the target demo for this movie. So um, but you know, in kind of a narrower scope, it's like a lot of horny women who are into this movie.

And uh, I think that's cool. The end of my awesome thought awesome thoughts with Caitlin, No, I I think I agree. I feel like there's not a lot of movies that are catered to corny women who want dick like that. That's great. I I love that, and I include myself there. Um, brave, thank you so much. You know, not a lot of I'm kidding, but I really liked um,

I mean magical. Michael himself a complex character. I feel like there's there's so much going on with him where you even before you see him strip I liked how I sort of expected him to be stripping right away and then it just to be a ninety minute MP four Channing Tam stripping. But the context for this movie is it's Channing st Channing Stadium. I was Jason Statham

Channing Tatum. I was making Himbos into one person. Um. No, Channing Tatum was a stripper in Florida and was trying to make a movie about that experience and was looking for a director to shape that with him. He originally wanted the director from Drive, Nicholas winding Refn, which would have been like a very different movie with way more bisexual lighting. Yeah, but ended up like he happened to

be working with Steven Soderberg at the time. Steven Soderberg was like, I could make a movie about Himbos, and Channing Tatum, who seems like a very affable person, Like was like, yeah, make a movie about Himbo's like and um sort of like built out this world that it is not like directly autobiographical, because it sounds like the men who were in this movie got like a lot of say and who their characters were and like building out their individual routines and like I guess that the

guys who play the strippers in the movie got to figure out like what their individual act was, which gives me a lot of questions about who chose to be the Kendall Sure. I mean, I have a lot of questions about Tarzan tar I mean, ask me, but I like that in that. But most of the movie is

about kind of like magical Michael's struggle outside of sex work. Um, which is interesting, right, I think this movie does because we've talked, We've had a number of conversations about sex work and specifically stripping on the show with various movies we've covered like Hustlers, Zola, even like Coyote, Ugly and uh,

Full Monty and The Full Monty. Right, So a lot of these movies focus on women who are doing sex work and stripping, and I feel like, I mean, the issues and the scrutiny the sex workers face, I feel like disproportionately affect women and non binary Uh sex workers, especially those of color and male sex workers often get left out of the conversation, but you know, they deserve to have their lives be represented on screen. To wow, m R A. I would like to distance myself from

Caitlin at this time as she bravely defends men. But I will say though that this movie, unlike others that we've covered on the podcast that focus on women in sex work, presents the sex work is like far more glitzy and glamorous in the way that women don't have that same luxury of being presented their work. If that makes sense. Yeah, No, I mean, I I mean, we can't speak on behalf of men, even though we have

many times. But I I do think that the way that sex work is presented in this movie, it's it's complicated, right, because it's not presented as like fully, like this is the answer and like this is an extremely empowering is presented as a means to an end, which I feel like has a lot to do with the time period that this movie was made in and takes place in, which introduces this like bizarre sub genre that we now have,

which is like recession sex work. Uh. But this, like this and Hustlers very much belong in that like expanded universe of like late two thousand's recession um sex work, like because that's when Magic Mike was developed, and that's I mean, by the time Hustlers came out. It was a period piece in that which I hope everyone feels

elderly hearing that. Um. But in any case, I mean, I think it's really interesting the way that male sex works are presented in this movie versus women sex workers strictly because it's like it's not presented as like it's the exact opposite, but it's just like a separate set of issues, right, because it's like they are performing masculinity for an audience that is foaming at the loins for it,

and that's great. They're not. There's a lot of issues that are shared where it's like the financial issues and like, I mean you can almost argue like a gig economy style issue of like they're dependent on tips, um and other Outside of that, fucking McConaughey has given them fifty bucks a night, which is ridiculous, Um in any year for someone supporting your in like making your entire business is fifty plus tips is just bullshit, right, And so

there's there are some shared issues, and then there's also issues that kind of separate performers where it doesn't seem like you don't really get the feeling that the the magical Michaels this world like, they are not made to feel unsafe in the way that we see women. Sex workers and marginalized sex workers in general are generally made to feel they have problems that are independent of that.

They're like performing masculinity to this wild extent. And I always thought it was like, I don't know, I like watch this movie three times to get ready because I like to be horny and I like to think about class issues. So this movie is like uniquely tuned to

my interests. UM. But stuff where it's like Channing Tatum cannot uh, I can't get it out of the danger field zone here, he can't get no respect when but like in certain settings where he's like performing manual labor, which is like when he's roofing, when he's doing construction work, when he's doing all these other side gigs that he's doing, which also very much puts him in you know, like this age and in the recession specifically, um, he is

not compensated correctly. He's always having to advocate for himself to be compensated well. But when he performs those tasks on stage, when he performs as a construction worker, like he gets a ton of money, and it's just I don't I mean, I don't have a finishing thought. But you're just like, maybe we should just all strip our job instead of doing them. Yeah, let's strip podcasting. Podcasting should be um, eradicated, eradicate should be lal, we do

have the most embarrassing job, hell show to a screeching halt. Um. Well, that and he's unable to get that bank loan, so like the man or like you know, the banks and that whole those like financial institutions don't respect him or and that that's like true for I think sex workers across the gender spectrum, where um, he has a stack of so much money and they're just like, well, um, your credit score sucks because we rely like what even

is credit? I don't know, but uh, he can't get any respect because of that because he says like his businesses deal exclusively in cash and right, and then it's like he's immediately judged on the hearing of that because that has like an implication that the bank loan persons is like, well, you're not going to get alone, which I feel like the movie plays that off very very well, Like that scene with the bank employee, I really like I had to watch it back a couple of times

because it's this combination of like he is being actively discriminated against for you know, even implying like that he is a sex worker, and then on the other end, he also kind of gets like injured by the rejection, where where the bank loan person is like, well, there's a program that we can help you out with, and then I feel like it was like a kind of a very masculine response to be like I don't need help, No, it's fine, I'm gonna go, and you're like, no, he

caused her, sweetheart, but your ugly furniture. I like to think that he like gives her his business plan or whatever, and she was like maybe considering giving him alone, but then when she sees his furniture, she's like, um, sorry, I cannot give you this loan and has nothing to do with a big bank. It's just I don't want

to support whatever this is. I also, I was like, imagine someone who is not to keep dunking on Channing Tatum's fictional furniture, but imagine someone who makes furniture that looks like that coming into your house and being like is this true? From Ikea, and it's like, go funk yourself. Man, you're making a fucking like table out of like a pane of glass and and five of these, you know, like five Mike's hard camps. I'm sorry, yes then audio yeah yeah, so um anyways, im Yeah, she is so

horny for him. At the beginning of that scene though, she's like, but that's another I feel like that was another thing though. It's like that is like what magical Michael Uh kind of reverts to is like I'm very charming, Like I can pull people into my gravitational Channing Tatum Field very easily. But even that isn't enough to get past the discrimination of giving bank loans to someone who

is giving you all the money that is necessary. But because it's all the money that's necessary as a sex worker, it's a problem. Right. Yeah. It's also not enough to reel in Brooke right or way either. A little bit of pride and prejudice energy going on here. She's got some prid Do we wanna transition to talking about Brooke? Let's do it. Okay, here's my first thought. Okay, ready, yeah, I should get in the receiving position. I'm gonna straddle

you again, are you gonna strab Okay? So, I feel like a lot of movies do this where there are a number of female characters. There's one main one, and then there are a few secondary or tertiary characters, and most of the female characters in the movie are presented

in a way that's not especially empathetic. So take this movie, for example, the Olivium one character is you know, aloof she's standoffish, she's unavailable, and then she turns out to be deceitful because she didn't let him know that she was engaged. You have your kind of like quote unquote did see women like the two year old to like go to the club at the beginning? You have various women, but none of them are presented as being like viable

options for our hero except for one. So I feel like that's like a very like screenwriterie like show don't tell kind of way of just like flat out saying she's not like the other girls. She is better because all these other girls kind of suck, right, And and that is like, I mean, that fits very cleanly into like the Steven Soderberg expanded universe. Also, it's i it is kind of like a writing shortcut for a male screenwriter that's like, I don't know why this woman is

a character. They're like, oh, what if she like nags him a little bit at the beginning, and instead of that playing out as it would in the real world, which is him not talking to her anymore, it ends up being romantic. I that's I like Brooke as a character. I do. I do like her, but there are moments in the movie where I wasn't totally sure how we were supposed to feel about her, right and especially because

like Mike mistreats her for different child keeps breaking. I will say he's like almost every time they meet, he's like kicking the door down, fucking kool aid Man style, being like we're going to a party like there, which I know, like I think the in the in the world of the movie, it's like she needs to get out of her show a little bit. She's like, seems like she really isolates herself. It's he calls her uptight. He's like, she's up to she can't hang She's so

freaking uptight. It's it's weird to me because it's like, I feel like this movie is like a weird situation where it's like halfway there where like I like Brooklyn, I feel like I understand why she's doing the things she's doing, where she's kind of in this bizarre care like middling caretaker position for a young adult sibling who she can't technically say no to, but who is still

not mature enough to do fucking anything. The beastly kid can't do ship, you know, and like, so she has to be his mom, but she can't be his mom because he can legally do whatever he wants, and she has to support both of them because she has to.

We don't really know what the situation is with their parents, but like it seems like she is kind of his primary caretaker and that he certainly can't take care of himself, and so you understand like why It's like, yeah, she doesn't have time to go out a lot, like, but it seems it seems like the movie understands that in some scenes, and then in other scenes that kind of like paints her as like a character who is uptight, where it's like, well, when is she going to find

the fucking time to be a horny little slut? You know, there's only so many hours in the day if there were more hours in the day, maybe more of us would be horni or little or sluts. I don't know. Profound wow, thank you March forth coming. So yeah, he

Mike's flirtation tactic is just to be very pushy. Um. I don't hate all of their interactions, but he is not being very cool to her a lot of the time, especially in that scene where we already referenced this, but Adam is like passed out face first in his own vomit. A pig is eating and so gross. I was like, Wow, a woman with a little pig before Ariana Grande, I didn't know what happened. I thought Ariana Grande invented having a little pig as a personality. But there was this

character in Magic Mike. Yes, uh Nora is that her name doesn't seem like the name of a young character, but yes, right anyway, so yeah, and she's another female character who were like, oh no, she's almost like a fem fatalel for a Adam because she's giving him g units every day. I can't hear you say gee, and it's it's so funny. So anyway, Um, there's a scene

where Brooke comes in. She's very reasonably upset, especially after Mike had promised to take care of her brother, especially after he had like kind of roped him into this job that she and there's a whole other conversation to be had about her views on sex work, but um, the point is Adam is like, maybe oh deed and dead, and she's upset about it, and he's like, why are you so upset? Why why don't he say? He tells her, but he says, calm down, you need to relax, and

then he says, you're acting crazy right now. And then he's also kind of like man handling her throughout this scene because she's trying to help her brother and he keeps pulling her off of him. And then there's the her being like disapproving of his lifestyle a k. She's not very tolerant of the sex work that he's doing. To the movie's credit, he does, you know, try to explain, like there are other facets of my person. Uh there, yeah, no, no, no, I know what you're saying, Like, I mean this this

all feels done for me. It was done pretty self like in a in a self aware way by the movie of like this is a like because there are I'm sure, especially you know, ten years ago, like there, I'm sure we're a lot of people in the audience who would connect with like, I don't understand sex work or sex workers, and I'm like, passing this judgment that is not necessary, and to see a character go from point A to point Z on that subject may have been helpful because it feels like the movie, at least

going in, is aware of that. And I like, I caught this movie a lot of slack in that it was conceived and made as a way of helping people who do not understand sex work or respect it for the work that it very much is and should be respected as to recognize that, and I feel like that is like it feels like kind of the mission of the movie to humanize sex workers while also like making it clear that like this is fucking work, you know. Yes.

But the thing with Brooke is that she doesn't agree to be with him and smooch him until he's like, I'm actually not going to go to Miami after all, and she's like, so it's not totally clear the extent of her disapproval, like the extent to which that affects Mike's decision to not go, but it seems like he really wants to be with her, especially after she's like, oh, you're such a loser because you're a thirty year old stripper, and then he's like, oh my god, I don't want

to be a thirty year old stripper. Oh, no, strippers are like cool. So it feels as though that affects his decision to not go to Miami and basically not pursue stripping anymore, because she's like, well, what are you gonna do then, and she's like, well, I don't know, I'll just go eat some breakfast or something, And well, I think that that is though that is like complicated by the other stuff going on in Mike's life, which is like why this movie is like, it's tricky. You

don't know exactly. It's a combination of factors because I agree with what you're saying of I don't think that the trajectory of her understanding and respecting sex work gets where it needs to be, and it feels like dated

in that aspect. And then you also see this like it feels like this very like recession based issue of another like there are a couple of different reasons why Mike leaves the club, and I'm not even convinced, and if I don't know what happens in the second Magic Mike, I wasn't even convinced that he was going to leave

sex Work entirely. My understanding was, like, he's leaving this club because Matthew McConaughey is a fucking asshole who won't pay him what he's worth, and like there's this whole whatever like mirror aspect where he's looking at the kid from Beastly and the kid for Beastly as a younger

version of himself. That's kind of like self destructing. And in spite of the fact that I think Brooke naively said, like this one guy is going to that I don't really know is going to protect my brother from all of this ship, all the units of G, every single G in the world. Like you can't just be like, oh, I met a hot guy, so my brother is safe forever. Like that's kind of on her for assuming that that

would be true. But there's a number of factors that gets Mike out of this club specifically, And I guess I didn't view it as like he was leaving sex Work forever. I viewed it as like he's leaving this toxic situation because Matthew McConaughey and his ridiculous fucking hat won't give him ten percent, and like he's ever going to get the equity he's been promised in the situation that he's in, and even like his protege is kind of turning his back on him, and so it's kind

of like, fuck it. I thought it was like empowering that Mike left that toxic situation, but also that can be read as he's leaving sex work because he wants to be with this girl. So it's like it's a

it's a I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of ways too ambiguous on something that needs to be pretty explicitly clear, especially because like he even says during one of the scenes at the end, he's like, yeah, you're right, I don't want to be a forty year old stripper in Miami, as if like being a four

year old stripper would be pathetic for him. So I think that we're supposed to believe that he's like in the process of coming around on sex work and he's going to really make this ugly as furniture, and that's what Brooke would approve of, so and I um bravely did some research and found some accounts from real life mail strippers who did criticize the end of this movie because they interpret it as Mike giving up stripping because

his new girlfriend didn't approve of it. And they were like, a lot of mail strippers have families, and they do it well into their forties and later, and it's not shameful for me, or it's not embarrassing. They said that they do it because they love entertaining and they love

dancing so well. They were not pleased with how this the end of this movie pans out, because it does seem to kind of come down on the side of like, sex work is something that you can do for a little while while you're young, but it's just sort of

a stepping stone to quote unquote more serious work. And that kind of like gets into another thing that I think we need to talk about for this movie, which is that I feel like that issue could have been more clearly addressed outside of Mike's character if we knew the other dancers a little better, because I thought it was kind of bizarre where I don't know where I got this notion from but I sort of came in with the notion that we were going to get the

entire cast story kind of kind of like in the full Monty right like it was. It was just like I thought we were going to kind of get to know everybody, which the movie kind of vaguely tries to do, but in a very unsatisfactory way where sometimes you'll learn, like you learn one or two things about every stripper that isn't Mike or Adam, but it's mostly in passing

lines of dialogue. The strippers are majority white. The strippers who aren't white, it's repeatedly pointed out that they aren't white, and and it's like you don't get like, I feel like there is an opportunity to represent a wider spectrum of male strippers through the six or seven or eight guys that are on the poster of the movie, but you really only get to know two of them, and they fall into this very narrow like I only want to be a stripper for a certain amount of time,

which is okay, but it's like there is such like you're saying, like there's such a wide variety of experience in stripping an insects work in general that it's like, well, you need to show more if you're trying to make the male stripper movie, which was already done in the full monty So but but but I mean I I I was kind of frustrated with how the rest of the cast was like kind of neglected in the process of how this movie went, because you found out certain

things about them, but they're all very vague. It's like, oh, this guy's a little spiritual, this guy like sewing, and it all feels like, oh, this is like sure, like that's that's fun character stuff. But like do I remember what their name is? Do I really know anything about them? Like, no, you don't. I think you only the only thing you learned about Ken is that his wife's breasts, his wife's his wife's are really cool, which is a fine fact, but maybe not the first and only one to know,

Like that's correct, it's yeah. So I feel like there was a missed opportunity to represent a wider spectrum of experience in the cast of the movie that's already there and like played by like very popular, like well regarded. When I saw some of the actors that were cast as the other male strippers, I was like, Oh, everyone's gonna get a story. These are all pretty famous actors, and like it was just magical Michael. Yeah, if you if you thought you were gonna get any information about

Joe Mangeliollo, what is his name do Maginello? Oh my god, I know he's in things that is matt. Uh. Someone isn't watching procedurals, She's or soap operas fifteen years ago. It's true. Tito is played by Adam Rodriguez. Tarzan is played by Kevin Nash. Yeah, we really learned nothing about

any of those characters. But it would have been a nice opportunity to for a movie that seems to want to characterize and humanize sex workers, especially because there's such a problem with sex workers in media not being humanized. Uh that this would have been a nice opportunity to give us information about more than Magical Michael and Magical Michael Jr. But the movie opts not to do that. Yeah,

which side? And it is, like, like you were saying earlier, centering this very I feel like more marketable view of stripping in general, but but male strippers and specific of like, well, this is temporary and I actually want to do something else. Like there's no character that's presented. Is like, this is my chosen career and I'm very happy doing it, which should be a perspective that is presented because it, like, like you're saying, like it, it is very much something

that exists and isn't represented. And speaking of one of my main complaints about the movie is that there's not enough nudity. Anyone else agree? You have to see butt entities right away? Yes, however, okay, but I'm an insult. I feel like we see more female nudity in this be about male strippers, which is confusing. You basically see a few bare asses of men and you see a silhouette. Oh no, you do see big Dick Ritchie's penis in a penis enlarging device. What are those called? I would

say that's pretty nude, that's pretty dude. Um, it's kind of like a disembodied penis. You know. This is a very specific complaint, but I was just I was kind of curious about this, and it turns out that the shows that you see in this movie are closer to male reviews than male strip shows, right. I for one, did not really know about this distinction until I was researching this for this episode, I just outed myself as very much knowing that distinction, but for anyone else who

didn't know. So, Basically, male review shows or male reviews have the more kind of like choreographed dancing than a mail strip show. There's a lot more like costume changes like we see in this movie. There's also like a show that starts at a specific time and then ends ninety minutes later, much like a live episode of the Bechtel Cast. We're running out of time, we actually are,

we do need to wrap up soon. But um, there's all these and then also the big thing is that the lack of right, there's a there's a noticeable lack of bare pieces. Okay, but that opens a whole Pandora's box of Like I I don't think we can like pin this on the movie in particular, because that is the rating system that is like and that's why I feel like the only way you can see Baar Dick is if you've got an HBO Max subscription when you're

watching the Kids that eu Fouria high. Why are there Alblemre's plenty of places see dicks in this world, but I wouldn't say in a movie aspect, I don't think we can like put that on Magic Mike specifically. I would hope that they would have showed us dick if they could have, but because they like you can only that's like a general issue with movie ratings. It's like you can show way more of a woman's body than you can. It's just like a problem that existed for

a very long time. And so that's I feel like why TV has sort of taken taken the lead on showing dick. Um And that's my that's my s in this essay, I will tell you why there's so much more dick on it and at Euphoria High School than there isn't Magic Mike, because you would think and it should be the opposite. Uh But but yeah, I mean I think that it's like, even if a major movie wanted to show dick, there's like not a lot of ways to do it because of how that very antiquated

structure is made. For sure, yes, so I withdraw my complaint, But wouldn't it be great to see like the dick cut kind of like the sorry sorry, there had to have been a better way. Someone's gonna pull that out of context, and my life's going to be fucking over. There's so many ways to interpret it too. It's like we're talking about circumcision. Um yes, and that. Yeah, correct,

that's what I was saying. No, but like the the butthole cut of Cats, the dick cut of Magical, you wouldn't have been able to release the throbbing butthole cut of Cats in theaters to general audiences in the same way that you wouldn't have been able to But but then there there is a lot of like gendered implications there because there are I mean, and we've had this talk on the show before, how the rating system is generally like you can show brutalization towards women the entire

fucking movie and get a PG thirteen rating, but dare we showed just the tip and and we cannot know. Yeah, so it is like a big systemic movie problem. Yes, Indeed, the things that I actually have complaints about are these. Uh so, there are some very like twenty twelve things that are said or done in the movie that go

completely unchallenged by the movie. I think one of the most egregious ones is a few moments of like quote unquote no homo where there's a scene where Dallas is teaching Adam how to dance and he makes a like no homo comment, using a slur in. He's like, I'm not trying to fuck you or anything. This is just what I'm teaching how to dance so you can make money. UM, I think what's your boss? Should never have to say to you for anyone listening. He was like, my boss

and stuff like that. To me? Is that okay? No? Probably not right? Um. The thing is that, like, I believe that character of Dallas would have said something like that, but again, the movie nor any of the other characters challenges that attitude. There's another scene where Brooke finds all of Adam's thongs and she very abrasively is like, what the funk is going on? Get out here, I need to talk to you. He's in the bathroom. He might be taking a poo, but she's like, get out here

right now. I have to talk to you about your thongs. And then she's like stop taking stop that ship right now. You better cut that log boy because I hate that. And now she's like, you can't do that with your ass. Though she's like she's like, I don't care what your preferences are but also get the funk out here, because it's gross that you I think you might be gay. And then he's like, no, it's just for work, and

she's like I never followed up. Like that's the thing where it's like that it's frustrating because it's like, I don't think it's like the worst thing in the world to present that someone in his life would feel that way. But you have to come full circle on that narrative of like she was explicitly wrong to have made that judgment and bear that out. But instead it's like she makes the judgment, it's kind of played for laughs, and

then it's like not really referenced explicitly. Again, there's no apology, there's no like, there's no you know, it all becomes this kind of murky mess. And then at the end of the movie, she still does not approve of the work they're doing. And then Mike Michael Magic, Michael Common, Michael come a magical Uh quits his job basically because of it. And again, like I imagine that that is like common for like the scrutiny that male strippers and

sex workers and sex workers of all gender's face. But again the movie doesn't actually really comment on it. Um there's a quick conversation between Mike and Adam where they're in the club early on they clock these two young women, one of them is just turned twenty one, and Mike is like, go talk to that girl, and Adam says, she doesn't look like she wants to be bothered. And then Mike is like, look at what she's wearing. She

came here tonight to be bothered. Mike does it like that, Like there, I know that we're supposed to be like Michael, he's so magical, but like he does do some misogynist ship. He's bursting into your house like the cool man he's He's saying like, well, she's wearing a dress, she probably wants to be harassed. And then and then the way that the script plays out is like it endorses magical

Michael's p o v of like the women. That was always kind of frustrating where it seemed like in some areas of the script, Mike's perspective was kind of challenged and moved forward. But in Whenever, he's like judging a woman based on what he thinks he's observing from a distance.

In the script, it always bears out that he was right, with the exception of Brooke, which falls into the not like the other girls saying you were talking about earlier, where it's like with this girl who's turning, he's like, oh no, she wants to be harassed. She came here

to be harassed. And then when the kid from Beastly goes up and it's like, like, like whatever he says to her, she's like wow, oh my god, Like you know, like in a way that it's like if someone came up to me when I was twenty one and said I was in Beastly, yeah, I would be like, I haven't seen that. Cool. Yeah, I'm not like other girls.

I didn't see Beastly in theaters. Um. The last thing here is that there's an instance of body shaming where there's a part of the movie where Big Dick Ritchie me is that how we decided I was, I can't remember, so, but this behavior does not exemplify anything I would ever do. He picks up a fuller figured woman and then immediately his back is injured and he has to walk off stage, and it's like also played for laughs, and the movie doesn't challenge that in any way. And it just shames

this nameless woman. So yeah, it did come out in is the conclusion that I would like to draw very much. Did did you have anything else you wanted to talk about? Um? I think in general, I mean I think, going off the stuff, it just seems like there were some missed opportunities in this movie that maybe we're addressed in the sequel. I don't know, Magic Mike's Last Dance. It might just be a really long funeral movie. I don't know, or

maybe it's a resurrection story. It starts at Magical Michael's funeral and then he's like whoa, and he's like, I've last dance. I'm available to direct that. But anyways, it

just felt like this this movie was it. We talked about this all the time, but like movies of this era specifically, it feels like a stepping stone towards more inclusive, better movies, where this movie I think does show a lot of empathy towards its characters in a way that sex workers in general and and male sex workers are not generally shown. UM. I wish that there were more

movies about women sex workers and marginalized sex workers. Who are you know, dealing with ship that is much more immediately dangerous than what Magical Michael is dealing with, which

also is really difficult. Like there's just there's not enough movies about sex work in general that present sex workers as people, you know, and this movie I think is definitely a stepping stone towards that and also doesn't get into the realm of tragedy porn where I feel like that's another risk that you run um where it's like it is still a fun movie. It's all I mean, there's such a horny legacy with this horn what is that we should enter that into our vocabulary horny legacy, tone, poem,

what else? This movie has a lot of horny death, horny depths, horny and but then a horny depth can

turn into a horny legacy over time. True, it feels like a step in the right direction, but ultimately, like we've been talking about, like it does calm down on this bizarrely conservative end of like, well, only by you know, giving up sex work was he able to find true happiness And and also in that way, even like the way that we haven't really talked about how Adam's storyline ends, but the storyline with Adam ends where he's completely had his ass saved by Magical Michael, who's given up his

life savings to save his ass, and then responds by being like thanks Mike, that was really cool, and then immediately taking Mike's job and then being like, well, I guess I'm Mike now. Like again, it's like a Santa Claus situation, almost like he killed Magic Mike and now he's Magic Mike. He right, He like took all of

Magic Mike's money and now he's Magic Mike. I feel like that way maybe a little undersavened by the story, but like even even that, I've like the way that his arc ends ends up kind of depicting his profession in a bad light of like by him staying in stripping in sex work that makes him a bad person, where it's like, no, what makes him a shitty person is that he took all of Magic Mike's money and

then Santa claused him, Like that's the bad thing. But I don't know how much this movie is interested in the kind of like making that separation right. I will say though, that I did appreciate that this movie largely centered a male friendship, even though every movie ever made is about men, so few of them actually like explore in an interesting way. Yes, Jamie, I'm just saying it does kind of fall into the fathers and sons troup where there's so many father's son but but but in

this movie it does work there. Yeah, I mean we have sort of like a mentor daddy figure. There's so many daddies in this movie. Come on and like Matthew McConaughey is Channing Tatum's daddy. But he's a grand bad dad Daddy. He's a bad daddy. We don't like him. This daddy has too much money. We gotta get this daddy out of here. And then Channing Tatum good daddy kid from beastly. We don't not not a daddy yet, aspiring daddy. He's he's not yet a daddy still a son.

Got a fucking human centipede of daddy's Some good, some bad, uh. For some reason in this movie it worked for me. Generally, I'm like enough with the daddies, But in this movie there is a the spectrum of daddy's is on display. There's good daddies, there's bad daddies, there's morally ambiguous daddies. The point is I appreciate that this movie explored male friendship in a way that was fairly nuanced and interesting. I mean, especially because by the end it's like, are

they even going to be friends anymore? I mean, knows him a bunch of money, but it's gonna be a weird Thanksgiving because he's dating his sister. But yes, yeah, anyway, I think that's all I had. Well, then let's get into the reason that people think they listened to this

show sometimes, which is does it pass the bactest? That is again, we've talked about this so many times, but it's my favorite way to find out that someone is lying about listening to the show, where they're like, yeah, I love finding out if it passed the bacon from like do you think? We just go through the script line by line and be like, m does that pass? I guess not not that one. That would be fun, though, turn the page. Let's see if this one does this

movie past test. I don't think so, because Joanna and Brooke do talk to each other about swimsuits and tattoos.

But but magical Michael is right there and like interjecting, yeah, I I saw that as well, and I and and the whole sub text of that conversation is Joanna is trying to get the vibe of like, is she going to fuck me and Magical Michael because they're always looking for a third which I did appreciate that was presented very matter of factually the movie, where like Joanna and Mike have been hooking up for a while, they're always looking for a third and there, and that's just like

who they are. They're very different people. They have the same interest and that's what they want. Magical Michael wants. He wants to be a wife guy. That's his business whatever. But I did like that Joanna was presented as like a fully fleshed out character who just like, this is

something she wants to do. But the subtext of that whole conversation is that she's like Army and Mike gonna fuck this girl, and so yeah, I don't think that is Also a third that they could have brought in is her fiance that she who seems to very much know what's I was so confused about the fiance scene because the fiance was sort of like should I get out of here? I'm like, this guy is so fucking chip right, what is it? He was like, I'm gonna go look at he's he literally just like I'm gonna

go look in the mirror. So it almost implies that they are in an open relationship, which makes it weird that Joanna wouldn't have told Mike that. And I wish we kind of got a landing place there because I didn't dislike the Joanna character. I didn't feel like she was made out to be a villain, except for the fact that her storyline ended so abruptly that you feel like you didn't get closure with her because it was clear that like she was conflicted on how she felt

about Mike. It seems like she and Mike wanted different things. I feel like it was kind of unique and that you usually see, like in big movies, that the woman in a heterosexual relationship really wants something more and that the man doesn't. It was clear in this situation that

Mike wanted more than Joanna was willing to give. But then it was like it just sort of stopped when it was like this random hot guy was like, I better get out of here, and then then that was just kind of that was just kind of the end of the story for him. Um, but I liked her story in general. I like to think that there was a final scene that got cut or something, because it just felt kind of abrupt. Same. Anyways, it doesn't pass

the Bactle test. Sorry, but how about that nipple scale of oursot it zero to five nipples based on an examination of the movie through an intersectional feminist lens M. This movie made me horny. Five nipples and that's our show. Thanks for corret I I would say, like, I don't know. I guess two and a half. I do appreciate that this movie attempts to humanize sex work, even though it is about men boo and uh, predominantly white men. But

I think that there's enough. I don't know, it's it's just one of those like split down the middle things where it is doing some cool, subversive, interesting things and is also adhering to some other problematic tropes of the time. Two and a half nipples. I'll give one two Brooke, I'll give one. No, actually no, I don't take it back hate women. I don't like that she was all like, sex work is gross, uh and you can't kiss me until you quit. I'm gonna give one to the pig

who eats vomit. I'm going to give the other nipple to the vomit. No, I don't know, two and a half nipples to the pig the end I'll do I'll do three. I think I like this movie a lot. It's certainly made me. I didn't even know if it maybe horny. There's something about like there's I this is a personal thing, but like there's a threshold when when someone gets too hot it becomes science to me, where I'm just like, this is really like I put on

a fucking monocle. I'm like interesting, you know, like at some point when a person gets to like traditionally hot, it becomes scary to me. But that's said I this movie is. It's a really horny movie. I like how

it does. I mean, it's like, and we've talked about this a little bit, but it's like, you know, shows really macho, masculine stuff, but then it also shows the other side of it, and it shows like the challenges that are presented by like having to constantly perform this, and it is I think like it was ahead of its time at least for showing sex work in an empathetic way, even though it is certainly not perfect based on what we've discussed, and and it also you know,

just kind of you know, I don't want to use the phrase interrogates masculinity because it makes me feel like I'm a fucking loser. But whatever, Jamie, we're podcasters, were so I'm gonna go walk into traffic. Um, well, anyways, it interrogates my I'll give it three nipples. It's it's it's a good movie. Yeah, it's it's not. Uh. My main issues with it are the way that it ends in a needlessly ambiguous way, given that it seemed like

it was building towards a more decisive conclusion. Um. And then it's sort of like at the end, I didn't like how the women in the movie were. It was like, there's only one female character in the entire movie, and she doesn't really have anyone to talk to, when it was like it would have been interesting to give her more people to talk to, and just more women in general that we're not very background character generalized. Um, it's a really white movie. And and like, especially because they

specifically grounded in Tampa, that also makes no fucking sense. Um. So it's just like it's Steven Soderberg, you know, that's a Steven Soderberg problem, I think. Anyways, Uh, three nipples. I'll give one to Channing Tatum doing the sexy worm. I'll give one to the chair that everyone's coming all over with his zabraprint on it. And I'll give my final nipple to the big dick. Okay, the one that they keep saying swim low that one. Nice. Well, folks,

that's our show. Thank you coming. Uh we don't normally we would have time for questions, but guess what we don't. We talked about too long, but feel free to will be out in the lobby in a few minutes. Feel free to come and say hi. Otherwise, Thank you so much for coming, coming yourself. That was the episode. Thank

you so much for listening. We also want to give a big thanks to the Illusion Theater in Los Angeles where we did the show special thanks to Kate and Mel and Paul at the Allusion three of the greats, and thank you to everyone who came out. We really appreciate it. You've made us feel so welcome and loved, and we we love our l a crew and we hope to see the rest of you soon. Um, but yeah, you shout out to the allusion. If you're ever in l A and want to see a great comedy show,

they're happening there almost every damn day time. Oh why don't you get over there? Um and in regular orders of of business. You can find us on the internet on you know where we normally live on Twitter and Instagram at Bechtel Cast. We also have a Patreon, a gay Matreon where you can get to additional episodes from just Caitlin and myself every single month with a fun theme. Obviously we are currently observing Titanic Month, but we're also doing Romeo plus Juliet, so it's actually kind of a

uh DiCaprio youth theater month. I keep forgetting what it's actually called. It's Leonardo Decape Real Low or Decape really Low and Stitch not a movie or doing this month, but it's five bucks a month and you get to bonus episodes a month with over a hundred episodes in

that feed, so what a bar? Get over there, absolutely, and you can buy our merch which Jamie designed all of it f y I and that can be found at t public dot com, slash the Bectel Cast and um, yeah, you know, rate us on the platforms, the podcast platforms, Give us a like, give us a review, give us a follow, all the other great stuff. Absolutely um and until next time. We'll see you at the same time, same place next week. We love you, thank you for listening,

and we'll talk to you soon. Bye bye, Maye