Flubber

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the beck Del Cast. The questions asked if movies
have women and um are all their discussions just boyfriends
and husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy zef
invest start changing it with the beck Del Cast. Caitlin, Yes, Jamie,
we started this podcast many moons ago. I feel like

(00:23):
we weren't really honest with our listeners who we were
doing this podcast for, really, and so I just want
to take this opportunity right here, right now to say
we're doing it for wee bow Welcome to the back
dol cast. Um, yes, welcome. My intro was gonna be

(00:52):
something like, um, hey, Jamie, I invented some green flying rubber.
Do you want to come try it with me? I
hope it doesn't hit me in the head with a
bowling ball, and I go ALLEI there there the bowling ballsy.
I mean, this is the flabber episode of the Betel Cast,

(01:14):
So get ready for some serious discorse the bowling balls.
I thought it would have been so much funnier if
the spy like guy if his head just like exploded,
Like what is that movie where the head like fully explode,
Well that's what would happen if a ball you're just
pulverized skull would be all over the pavement. Yeah, that

(01:36):
is I'm trying to think of that. Do you know,
like the gift I'm talking about where someone's head Just
I don't, I mean probably I've probably seen that. I'll
think of it. Anyways. This is the Flabber episode of
the Betel Cast. This. I don't know if this has
really been a request. I feel like it's been like
a joke request. I don't think anyone's ever wanted this

(02:00):
to happen. Also, we should stay right at the top here.
So this is the episode that is being released the
week of the US election, and the reason if if
you don't know the read if you're if you don't
know the reason because you're like, what do you mean?
I love elections? They're so fun, you know, it's just

(02:22):
no matter the outcome. And that really didn't feel good
to say everyone's fucking exhausted and upset, and so we figured,
you know, why not when not released an episode on
the Flubber. We're not trying to make you like, well, see,
this is where it gets complicated. We were saying, you know,

(02:43):
let's not make you be strenuous with anyone's brain this week,
because we're usually geniuses, but like, let's not like choose
any material that is like really dense. But then it
turns out we for got so much of a flubber

(03:04):
and there's actually quite a bit to talk about. Well,
there's a bit to talk about, but it's I think
totally upset you. It's not gonna upset you totally. This
episode will still be light either. And we are recording
this well before the election, so we do not know
two weeks the outcome. So this is either going to
be a we just don't know, I guess celebration or

(03:28):
away for listeners to escape the tragic result of the election.
We don't know. But here, but here's flubber. We don't
know what's going on. Here's flubber. And so here's so
the backtel cast. If this is your first episode, change that, No,

(03:54):
listen to this and only this episode. Oh that's really
fun that, I mean, it would be kind of mean
to us. But if like, you know, when someone's like, oh,
I want to try this podcast, but it's been on
for a long time, what episodes should they start with?
And they're like the flubber episode changed with the way
I watched movies u um. The Bechtel Cast is our

(04:16):
podcast where we take a look at some of the
movies of the world that I've had a cultural impact,
and we look at it using an intersexual feminist lens,
and we use the Bechdel Test as a jumping off
point for discussion. And I'm spoiling it. I can't believe

(04:36):
this movie passes the Bechdel Test. I'm actively upset by it.
It's like, may I enter, Yes, you may like okay.
I was like, I'm aware of a couple of different conversations,
but I forgot to pay close enough attention. As per usual,
there's a conversation between feminist icon we and feminist icon

(04:59):
Dr Sarah where she's like, hey Sarah, let me in.
I'm a robot I can't use and Dr Sarah's like, okay,
DOAK come in? And you're like, well, god damn it.
Well if it doesn't pass the damn test, well I'll
be gosh darn't. Wait, Kayla. What is the test? It's

(05:22):
a media metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechtel, sometimes
called the Bechtel Wallace Test. It requires for our purposes,
our version of the test. Two people of any marginalized
gender must have names, they must speak to each other,
and their conversation has to be about something other than
a man, and that conversation must last at least two

(05:46):
lines of dialogue. Hey, Dr Sarah, let me in the window.
I'm a robot. Okay, come in. Now back to talking
about Robin Williams and what a talks life partner he
is in this movie. I don't know what's going on
in this movie, but it's the Flabber episode Flabber directed

(06:10):
by Les Mayfield, produced by John Hughes, and it's We've
talked about John Hughes a few times on this show, right,
I mean, we definitely get the Breakfast Club. But he's
come up quite a bit. He has a couple of
good movies and then it's really like deadlock between a
lot of movies for worst. And this is by no

(06:31):
means his worst, but it's since it's not very good.
I think other of his movies are more competently written.
I think this might be the least competently written movie
he's ever worked on. Right, he has movies that are
more problematic. Do adhere to store story structure a little better,

(06:55):
whereas Flubber has third act problems the problems first act problem.
The movie ends in the middle of the second act
and then it just kind of starts again. I was genuinely,
I mean, you have a master's in the damn thing.

(07:18):
This is sud film, But where is it from. I
would never bring this up on my own, so thank
you for doing it for Meg. You on a little yeah, yeah, yeah,
it is a master's degree in screenwriting from Boston University,
not Medfield or whatever. This is only because it's not real. Also, okay,
this is fun. Uh. Friend of the cast Slash, one

(07:41):
of the closest people in my whole life, Julia Claire
is from Medfield, Medfield, Massachusetts. Medfield College does not exist.
But I guess the reason this movie takes place in Medfield,
Massachusetts is because Walt Disney's best friend is from there,
and their use to be a like special tiny airport

(08:05):
in Medfield, so Walt Disney could visit his friend. And
that's the fun fact I learned. So to all our Medfield,
Massachusetts listeners, they don't need to hear about Flubber from us.
It's Medfield Cannon. Well, may I share my fun fact
yes please. So towards the end of the movie, Philip

(08:26):
and Sarah are trying to pitch Flubber to Ford Motor Company,
and she holds up a sign with Philip's email address
on it, p Brainard at Medfield dot e du. Now,
I took it upon myself to email you did that
email address? Did anything happen? I said, Hi, Phil, I

(08:49):
would like to buy some flubber please. He in response,
I got this address not found peperin Ard at Medfield
dot e d U. The message was not delivered because
Medfield dot e du could not be found. There's no
such thing. It turns out that's a really hard way

(09:11):
to find out that they made up of college for
the movie. Like usually I forget who I was talking about?
Was it? Were we talking about this on a different
episode where it's like usually when there's like fake phone
numbers and emails, they lead some somewhere and it's usually
like donate here or like, ha ha, here's the movie's website.

(09:31):
They couldn't even bothered, They couldn't even be bothered to
make up Medfield dot e d you for this movie.
I can't believe this. Yeah, I think we talked about
we talked about that on an episode that is coming
out in the future post this episode. What if we
were like, what if everyone was like, wait, they don't
record live, Um, so you'll hear us talk about that

(09:54):
and you'll be like, oh my god, wow, there it is.
So we don't have a guest today. We know we
don't have a guest. We just thought we would goof
around today because it's a tough week here in the US,
and so you know, we wanted to speak to none
of it and hopefully offer you a little bit of escapism. Yes,

(10:16):
so actually Flubber Flubber is our guest, and here in
spirit we have here with this flubber. Do you think
there's are flubber toys? It's so weird. There's like there
was a lot of I remember I had a Flubber
Happy Meal toy for sure. Yeah, that sounds familiar. They
had these like Disney Happy Meal toys where it would
be like the base of the toy was like a

(10:36):
va a fake v A just tape, and then on
top would be a little flubber wearing sunglasses. Oh I've
got oh Jamie, you're a little memory. Wow. I'm so
proud of myself. That's literally what it is. It's wearing sunglasses.
I love when Flubber wears sunglasses. I will say the
dance scene in Flubber Necessary is iconic. And there we're

(11:02):
big fans of super Flubber here and Flubber, and you
know how Superocky will do shirts that are like credits
in movies. I want a shirt that says Flubber Mambo
by Danny elf Danny Elfman. That was such a good credit.
I like, is there it says like score by Danny Elfman,

(11:27):
and then there's a separate title card that says Flubber
Mambo by Danny Elfman. Why is that its own thing?
I I wondered that too, and then I came up
with a theory, which is I feel like, if you
really make a point to single out a song, it
says to me, you're trying to get trophies for that song.

(11:49):
Do you think they submitted Flubber Mambo for Best Original?
I mean it definitely wasn't nominated, but I wouldn't rule
it out. I like that theory. Yeah, I think that
they were like flabber Mom was gonna sweep it is
good that whole like, I love the Flabber dance sequence.

(12:11):
I was still like, you know, we are like weirdly
gendering the flabber at one point, but but outside of that,
it's a great dance sequence. The flabber turns into drums,
the flabber turns into the horns the flabber. What can't
the flabber do? And that's the question we never really
get answered. No, you're right. I thought there was going

(12:33):
to be a lot of gender issues with the Flabber, right,
but it's really the Flabber ends up kind of being
genderless icon, genderless icon at one point where the skirt,
but we don't really I mean, that could mean anything
that's true. So we're doing what's your history with Flabber?

(12:56):
My history with Flabber. It came out when I was
I guess eleven, so I was like pretty much the
target demo more or less. I was like getting to
an age where I mean, this was the same year
that Titanic came out as well. This movie comes out
mere weeks before before Titanic. Yes, and as soon as

(13:16):
Titanic came out, that was it for me. I watched
nothing for an entire year besides Titanic. But I got
a few weeks worth of a flubbering, so I seen it.
Do you think Flabber was like the last movie you
saw before titan Like in theaters? I don't even know
if I saw Flubber in theaters. We didn't. We definitely

(13:38):
rented it. We never owned it on VHS, but I've
I'm so sorry. Yeah, I think we must have just
rented it a couple of times because my sister was
like eight at the time, and she would have been
I think, a little closer to the target demo. So
I had seen it a couple of times as a

(14:00):
probably like and I have not. I had not seen
it since then, so it was a pretty big cultural
staple in the late nineties. But yeah, I just I
never bothered with it again as soon as I discovered Titanic.
Most people know about Flabber, but no one remembers what
happened in Flabber. It's very much like a Wes Anderson

(14:21):
movie in that way where you know what it is,
and you remember three things that happened in the trailer,
but you really are not able to answer any further questions. True, Yeah, well,
what's your history with it? We definitely owned this NBA.
But I have a very early formative memory of seeing
Flabber in theaters because I was my my brother, my baby.

(14:44):
My brother was born shortly before this movie came out.
I remember this was like he was, well, act, he's
born in April seven, so he would have been like
an infant, but not like the tiniest infant, like not
completely ridiculous to bring an infant to Flubber, but like,
I see where this is going. So your mom brought

(15:05):
a baby to my guess is that me and my
cousins really wanted to see Flubber and my mom brought
a tiny baby and was like, let's see how it goes.
But I was like, yeah, I was, I was four
and my brother was baby, and I just remember he
kind of wrecked the Flubber experience what with being allowed baby,

(15:28):
and so I just when I it's this movie. And
then weirdly Eddie Murphy Doctor Doolittle, which I think comes
out in the ninety eight. I'd have to check that,
but those were two movies about wacky professors that I
was really excited about. That my brother cried as a
little baby head off the whole time and ruined it,

(15:51):
and so Ben ruined Flabber the first time, but then
we did get the VHS tape and I saw it
many times after, but I haven't seen it for uh
twenty years at least, Like I think that probably we
got Flabber n VHS. I watched it fifty times and
then I haven't watched it since. Sure, so there was

(16:13):
a lot I didn't remember about it, but I yeah,
early early memory, me and me and Flubber and uh, Ben,
if you're listening, he fucked Flabber all the way up
for the whole family been. Honestly, it's on my mom.
She shouldn't have brought a baby to Flabber, but it
was worth a try. Maybe he would have slept through Flabber,

(16:33):
but it's too compelling. He just couldn't get see, I mean,
the bouncy, the flying rubber, he's Flabber. I think I
remember the trailer for this movie more clearly than the
movie itself, because there were a few moments that I
was like, oh, that's a trailer moment, such as when
he says it's Flabber. That's definitely in the trailer, or

(16:57):
when he says what a bang, that's definitely in the trailer.
I didn't watch the trailer, but I'm pretty sure. And
then and then when what's his name Christopher McDonald is
dancing with the flubber, that's definitely in the trailer. And
then when the basketball player jumps with the flubber. There's
no women in the trailer, is what I'm saying. There's well,

(17:20):
there's barely women in the movie. So poor Marshall Ghart.
I didn't know who Marsha gay Harden was the last
time I watched this movie me either, And now that
I watched it, it was like in her career wise,
it was a pretty early role for her, and uh,
we gotta get her out of this movie. Good Escaping.

(17:41):
I know, by the way, Dr Doolittle did come out
in and it was directed by a woman, Betty Thomas. Wow,
so I guess we have to cover it. I bet
that movie sucks, but I remember really, really liking I
have two formative memories that d do little, which is
first that my brother cried the whole time, and second

(18:04):
that because I would always go to movies with all
like ten of my cousins because my mom ran like
a fake daycare out of our house and so we
would all go together, and I remember someone got like
a roll of Starbursts and they were like just past
the starburst down the row, and for some reason, I
thought my cousins were unwrapping my starburst and I had

(18:24):
like four starbursts that with the full story before. But
I didn't realize it was that movie. It was any
Murphy talking to and it was so embarrassing because I
was like, ha ha, what a crunchy starbirsts my cousins. Yeah,

(18:45):
clearly it hasn't effected me at all because I don't
even remember it happened. Oh my god. Okay, alright, so
should should I just do the recap and good luck? Yeah,
I'll try to come in on the assist where I
can thank you so much. All right, First of all,

(19:06):
there's an opening sequence that is very similar to the
opening sequence of Back to the Future, and we're like, oh,
I guess you know lest Mayfield watched Back to the
Future and just copied it. I had not connected that. Okay,
I do enjoy the opening of the movie, and a
Danny Elfman score cannot be denied. Unfortunately, Um so I

(19:29):
was you know, there are moments when on the rewatch
of this where I was kind of like dancing with
my dog. Let's say, I mean, there's a mambo, the
Flower Mambo snubbed the snub of the Century, but just
that that part where like you see all the robots
like making breakfast and stuff like that, something very similar

(19:51):
happens in Back to the Future. I wrote that down
is I think that that is safe to say a
full on movie troupe because I thought of two other
movies that happen and in that are not Back to
the Future. Oh wait, what also happens in Pee's Big
Adventure at the very beginning, and it also happens at
the beginning of Wallace and Grommet in a lot of

(20:11):
the shorts. And then I think also in the movie
where I don't I don't know what it says about
the movie other than like there's an inventor in this movie.
That and the lengths that men will go to to
not do household chores. But it's like breakfast breakfast machine
is definitely some sort of movie length something something something

(20:39):
semiotics is breakfast machine semiotics. We don't know anyways, Um, yeah,
he does have a breakfast machine. And then I immediately
tried to think of all the other breakfast machines that
I've seen, Well, we've got four. Four that's too many.
That's a lot. Listeners. If you can think of any others,
please in like a twenty years fan to too many? Yeah,

(21:00):
that's true. Okay, So, um, it's two movies with a
Danny Elfman score. Sorry, what was the other one? Peewee?
I think so it was the Tim Burton movie Safe
to Assume, right, Yeah, anyways, continue, this is not important.
So this breakfast machine belongs to Philip Brainard. That's Robin

(21:21):
Williams brain get it right. And yeah, if you're like, oh,
is this movie subtle? His last name is brain This
movie is adapted from another Disney movie. I think when
like every live action Disney movie that came out in
the nineties sixties except Mary Poppins, I was like, no,
thank you. Um, but it's one of those. So there

(21:44):
is a precedent for this character, right, but that doesn't
make his name less really bashing you over the head
of a mallet. So this movie, so the property is
based on a short story by Samuel W. Taylor and
it's also by st On the movie The Absent Minded Professor,

(22:04):
which I did you We talked about this a little
bit before, and as soon as you mentioned it, I
was like, oh, maybe it's like right there on my
Disney Plus I'll hit play. So I watched like of
it just to like see if there's anything worth talking about.
I watched clips and I was just like, m my takeaway,

(22:24):
I don't like it, but it definitely had I was
active the only thing I found in my research, and like,
I watched a few clips of it that I didn't
realize that there was. I thought that flubber wasn't a
nineties naming convention, but flubber it's been with us as

(22:44):
a culture. It's been there. Flubber has been there for
for you know, almost sixty years at this point. So
that's the thing about that, which means we're do We're
about due for another Flubber the thirty If the thirty
years cycle is true, gird your loins. We're getting Flubber
in the next couple of years. Honestly, it would be

(23:07):
an honor to be involved. You will be the most embarrassing,
like classically, this this moment in time mistake to be
Do you see where I'm going with this all female
rebit of Flabber. Okay, Okay, I don't hate it was
a woman in step. You're just like, please just let

(23:29):
a woman direct a movie. That's literally we didn't ask
for girl Flubber. Um. But would I watch it? Yes,
I would watch. But now that you mentioned it, we're
getting it. But hold on, hold girl Flubber, Girl Flabber. Okay,
I'll watch it. Okay. So anyway, so this is an adaptation,

(23:51):
which I didn't realize until I went on Wikipedia. Yeah,
I didn't know that before like researching for this right. Yeah.
The one thing I'll say about up amount of Professor
is that there is another female character who they eliminate
in Flubber because the Professor has like a housekeeper that
I think they replace with we Bow. I think they

(24:11):
combine a housekeeper and a dog into that was read.
I was like wow ee, wowee wow, where to where
to even begin? Or I think they turned the housekeeper
into Webber the other robot, and then the dog Charlie
in the first movie gets turned into we Bow. So

(24:33):
for everyone listening, if you I remembered there was a
robot assistant, I did not remember the extent that she
is involved in the movie. Then that how much she
wants to have sex with him. I do not remember
how horny, horny horny she was. I yeah, I remembered

(24:54):
that I did. Two things I remembered about her was
that she was a robot assistant and that she some
times played I remember that she played a clip from
Dumbo on her screen at one point, because she communicates
only in Disney owned clips, yes, which is like, uh,
fun as a kid, but as an adult kind of
embarrassing to watch. Yeah, exactly. So okay, let's sorry, where

(25:20):
are we know? It's it's it's no one's fault. It's
clubber's fault, all right. So um Philip Brainerd. He is
a science professor at Midfield College, which is at risk
of closing down because it owes a lot of money
or something. There's it's there in dire financial streets. And

(25:41):
then we learn by Philip telling his robot wi bow oh,
if he could just discover this new source of energy,
he could save the college. And once you listen, if
you're if you've gotten this far in the episode, you
gotta watch flubber. Um. I didn't really lies until I
looked at the I had like scholarly journal Wikipedia up

(26:04):
as I was watching the movie and it said Jody
Benson as we Bow, I was like, wait a second,
Jodie Benson is Ariel. And then once you find out
that the voice of Weibo is the voice of Ariel,
you cannot unhear it, and you're just like, why does
Ariel want to have sex with the professor so bad? Anyways,

(26:25):
it's her, and I'm pretty sure that the later video
you see is also her. I'm pretty sure. I was
curious about that if it was. I don't know exactly
how Jody Benson looked in but it looks like her
with nineties hair, so I'm assuming, right, okay, And then
we expect her to break it out in song and
be like you want singabout bops? I got twenty. She

(26:46):
just wants to be where the people are, but she
didn't understand that once she was there where the people were,
that if she wasn't a people, she's not gonna be
able to see. She kind of has had the same
problem in two movies. And The Fun she's a mermaid
and she can't attain the arbitrary love interest, and the
next one, this is basically The Little Mermaid too. She

(27:09):
wants the arbitrary love interest who would not be nice
to her. But she's a robot this time it's complicated.
Wow makes you think. Alright, So Phillips his future wife
Sarah played by Marcia gay Harden. They're supposed to be
getting married that evening, but he keeps forgetting about it

(27:32):
because he's so absent minded. He's the absent minded professor.
We know? Did you catch? I want this movie twice
and I kept forgetting to check. She works at the
college as well. Her door says doctor Sarah. Does it
say what she teaches? Do we know what she's like
a professor of I was under the impression that she

(27:54):
was like the dean or the president, I thought, But
I don't remember how I got that information. This poor
woman does not have a true friend in her entire
life because she is being stood up by this man
at the altar for the repeatedly. This is the third time,

(28:15):
and her friends aren't like, maybe dump him. Yeah, she's
got one friend, Martha, who's just like who's too supportive?
Like Martha, you really need to step it up as
a friend, because Marcia gay Harden is humiliating herself over
and over for this loser. Yeah, he's he's missed two

(28:35):
other wedding dates of theirs, but he's like, don't worry, Sarah,
I will not miss our wedding this time, because she's
all like, if you miss it this time, we are
through no Before the wedding, though, Philip's rival Wilson shows
up to his classroom and he openly admits to the

(28:55):
following stealing Philip's ideas being petty, being corrupt, and wanting
to steal his bride to be Okay, honestly, we have
no choice but to stand. He is the most expository
character I've seen in a movie in a really long time.

(29:16):
Like he's so and he's played by Christopher McDonald, who
is a well respected, like a good character actor who
also has like resting nineties villain face, like he literally
they're like typecasting him as Mr Steel your girl. Uh.
And then there's that one what is that line read
he does where you're like, oh my goodness, like can

(29:38):
you be serious? He like he like walks out after
he's been wooing her and he's like, I can't lose
the girl is mine, and you're like, did you just
say that out loud? Like it's so I feel. My
read was that Christopher McDonald fully knew what movie he
was in, and he was just like, all right, I'll

(29:59):
read a line. I'll dance with the flubber. You might
not like what you see, but that's on you. He
also at one point ships the flubber out of his
butt hole. Does so let's not forget that that is
actually a really good point and I should have made
it sooner. We can't forget that he does ship the

(30:22):
flabber out his butt hole, and that's after he's been defeated,
because you can argue that that is that scene takes
place after the movie should have ended, right, there's a
whole point where the movie ends, but then it keeps
going anyways. Yeah, so Wilson shows up and then okay,
so then later that day, as Philip is getting ready

(30:44):
for his wedding, he figures out the final piece of
the puzzle for this new energy source that he's been
working on, and then he like does some science stuff.
He accidentally blows up his lab, but it ends up
working because emerges. But Flubber, it's not a scary movie.

(31:08):
October over, It's November. No more scares. Flubber is a
blob of green gelatinous balncy goo that also seems to
be sentient. That was a question I had. Yes, there's
a question. When Flubber starts wilding out, bursting through glass,

(31:30):
harassing the neighborhood, we both flies up to. Also the
science of this movie, I'll say it as a scientist,
it makes no sense because he's because Robin Williams, Dr
Flabber or Professor Flabber whatever. Professor Fluber is like, I
need to make things fly, but his robot can already fly.

(31:51):
How is she flying? Great question? Could that technology be applied?
But anyways, we both flies because she can. She flies
up to Professor Flabber and says, oh, no, you gave
Flabber too much free will? And you're like, is that
a chemical composition? Like? And also, even if let's go

(32:13):
a step further, even if free will can be put
in a little test tube, why would you then give
it to Flubber. You would think that Flabber having free
will would only cause problems. There's no practical use for
Flubber having free will and a personality. Here's my theory

(32:36):
as also a scientist, I have your science scientific theories.
I think that that line is meant to be a joke,
and it just so happens that it's not funny. It's
not funny. But then, how do you explain Flabber having
having Yes, I don't think he deliberately gave Flubber free will.

(33:00):
That might just be a byproduct of the very complicated
formula he was working on. I'm guessing I was trying
to read this movie like a few movies. I think
there's a few influential movies you can kind of map
this movie on, and one of them is I Frankenstein.

(33:23):
I think that Flupper and and and Adam Frankenstein have
more in common than we ever could have met. But
they just kind of they have free will, but they
just kind of take it in different directions. I don't know.
I mean, I guess Victor Frankenstein didn't necessarily want his
creature to have free will, but then it just kind

(33:45):
of did. That was kind And that's kind of a
question that comes up later of like do robots have souls?
That's brought up in exactly one line of dialogue and
then they're like, we're actually not equipped to handle that,
and they're right, Um, the robots have soul? Does flab
have a soul? No one asks that and not the

(34:05):
problem except for us. So we're out here doing the
important cinematic discourse that is absent. This is the world.
Yeah exactly, Okay, exactly exactly. Anyway, so, uh, Philip inventing

(34:27):
this substance makes him miss his wedding. So now Wilson,
the rival man, is there to make a move on
Sarah because she's like, I'm through with Philip and he
gives her a ride home and we're like, oh no,
Marcia gay Harden already has no self esteem. Let's not

(34:48):
make this worse. I can't wait to talk about that.
I'm just like, does she have like a sibling? Does
she have like a friend? Like? Is there anyone in
her life? Like we've all been at a low po wine.
Sure in terms of like I'm not asking for what
I need in a relationship, but this is just egregious.
She needs someone in her life to intervene. I know

(35:11):
it's not funny. You know what slubber is sentient slubber
should should intervene. Should have been like Dr Sarah, you
know you're a brilliant woman with your life ahead of you.
Why are you settling for someone who keeps I'm just imagining,
like Oprah, Why is an Oprah in this movie? Does it? Also?

(35:31):
I feel like if Dr Sarah watched a single episode
of Oprah, she would be like, WHOA, I need to
I need to stop accepting less than what I deserve.
You know who would have been a perfect already character
in the movie. Who would have talked her out of
marrying Philip is wee Bow. She would have done it
for selfish purposes. But we Bow should have been there

(35:54):
being like Sarah, you can do better. Yeah, I work
for the guy, but he's not a good romantic partner.
But someone else, we both goes a very different way.
We've said I've got to ruin your marriage. I feel like,
is it implied that she just never reminds him that
at his wedding? And also that's on the assumption that
someone needs to be reminded that they're getting married, which

(36:16):
means they're not invested enough in their relationship. But like,
I'm sorry, I'm just like he's just so absent minded.
Though he's absent minded, I feel like he just maybe
as a lifelong bachelor, it's all good. Like if you're
not wanting or if you were like work over relationship

(36:38):
every time, then maybe just you need a certain kind
of a relationship or no relationship. But I'm not seeing
the compatibility. I'm Dr phil I'm not seeing the compatibility.
She seems like she really like wants an engaging relationship.
You're not wrong. I just I tried to view her

(36:59):
as like if you were my friend, what would I do?
And you would simply be like, don't marry him. Stop
trying to marry this person. They're not they're ill equipped.
You've tried twice already. It's it's failed both times. Don't
keep trying. You're so sad, like like you're so sad
about him. Let's just like he's ill equipped. We've got
to move on. We're in Medfields. The city's swarming with

(37:23):
romantic prospects in Medfield, Massachusetts. Maybe I don't know. I've
never been. Um, So, okay, let's take a break before
we go any further, because this is going to be
an episode where the episode is recap. So let's take
a break and then we'll come right back to keep recapping.

(37:49):
And we're back. We're back. So where so Philip has
missed his wedding. So he goes to Sarah and he's like,
I'm so sorry, but I was just too busy inventing
Flubber to be at our wedding. And then he shows
her Flubber and she's like, I honestly don't give a

(38:11):
ship about Flubber. We're through now. Meanwhile, how many I mean,
we've all been there, We've all we've all been stood
up for Flubber. I do love his angle coming into
this scene and his angle is like no, no, no, no no, no, no,
no no no. I know I stood you up at

(38:32):
the alder for the third time, but it's because and
she's supposed to be like, oh okay, So she does
stand up for herself here. And then there's another trailer
moment which is Robin Williams throwing himself directly into his
spine from a third story window. I was just gonna

(38:52):
say he that would have broken his spine, would have
been a fatal accident. But there's a I mean, that's
part of I feel like, that's a that's kind of
a part of like the like sixties movie, nineties movie dissonance,
where in the sixties, I'm sure it looked so cartoony
goofy that you're like, oh, this is a cartoon basically,

(39:15):
but when you see it with like more updated effects,
you're like, oh, that he would have died. Well, unless
I will say I did have difficulty paying attention to
the absent minded professor when I was watching it, But
I'm pretty sure that moment doesn't even happen. Not that specific,
but the stunt, that's like the stunts to me, the

(39:36):
stunts I saw like looked faker, I guess because it
was just like an older movie but in the nineties.
I mean, maybe this is controversial, but I feel like
for the most part, the effects, while there's too many
of them, they mostly held like flubber I have no notes,
that's Lord of the Rings. That's my Lord of the

(39:56):
Rings for seven Like the c g I. The practical
effects yeah, pretty decent. The only thing that really like
bumped me as like whoa those effects like old were
some like c g I geese flying in the sky. Yeah, yes,
those looked really fake. But the flubber I'm the flubber dancing.

(40:18):
I was like, well, color me and press. Who am
I to say how flubber dances? This is the only
way I've seen it. Yeah, well, they did have an
eighty million dollar budget, and I think like seventy million
of that went to animating Flabber in seven money. Like,
hold on, I'm gonna crunch some numbers, you please. I

(40:40):
feel that I'm slowing down the recap so much today. Um,
I'm going to convert flubber money. Now, this is important.
We need we need the adjusted for inflation. Oh okay, wait,
wait there, I got a website that's like you do
the map? Who are we? Professor Brainerd? And I'm like,

(41:02):
you think I am? Do we get a first name
for him? Yeah? Philip? Philip? Oh yeah, who am I
phil Brainard? I think so okay, one point six too.
I'm doing a math problem. It would be million dollars
in today money. Embarrassing. That's such a big budget for

(41:24):
for flubber animation. Flubber well, you know the scene is iconic. Alright.
So meanwhile, Will Wheaton is suddenly in the movie and
you're like, sure, sure, he's twenty five, but he's fifteen. Um,

(41:46):
he's a student of Phillips at the university. Yeah, he's
like probably twenty, but he is flunking his chemistry class.
So his rich dad, Chester Honecker sends his goons to
Philip's house to kick his ass. We're not really sure,
but they don't get a chance to do anything. Another

(42:10):
pre was like, what were they going to do when
they arrived at Professor Flabber's house. They're wearing dark clothing
that made them seem like they're going to try to
rob him for grades. I didn't know what their angle was,
but yeah, Well the scene right before that is like, well,
he has principles, but anyone can be bought for the

(42:32):
right price. Basically, so, okay, are you going to go
bribe him? Doesn't seem like it. It seems like you're
going to go try to beat the ship out of him, right.
But whatever they intended to do, they don't get to
do because this is when Philip is doing more experiments
with Flubber, and he's rubbing Flubber all over golf balls

(42:53):
and bowling balls, which end up hitting the goons balls
for his experiments at his house. Uh, it's like, you're
the worst scientist ever. Why aren't you in like a
legitimate lab. You're not measuring anything, You're not like everything
every experiment he does, he's like not using this scientific

(43:16):
method at all. Well, it fully applies that whatever he's
doing with Flubber, the university does not have any interest
in funding because he would like that was another question
that I had about story logic. Where is he like
doing the first draft of Flubber at his house, then

(43:37):
he has to apply for grant to do like is
it an academia issue or like? But he already works there,
and apparently he's going to get married to someone who's
like higher up, Like couldn't he ask the president? He could?
He could ask her, like who shouldn't ask for funding
about Flubber? Maybe? But well, Jamie, they're not on speaking

(43:59):
terms because he forgot to go to their wedding for
a third time. But this is my other question, Like,
so he it seems like he's been working on flabber
for maybe a little while, like he like. That's what
Phil and Weebo have led me to believe is that
he's been working on it for a bit. So word

(44:21):
to believe that his work he doesn't discuss with his
fiance at all, even though it would actually be really
helpful because she could probably help him secure funding to
do what he's doing, which then led me to this theory,
which is every time this is okay, every time Professor
Flabber doesn't marry Marcia Gayharden, does she just say I'm

(44:44):
not speaking to you. Here's the next wedding, Like, does
she just not speak to him between weddings? He doesn't
show up that because I don't understand why he wouldn't
tell her about Flabber until after he missed the third wedding. Right,
it seems like she would be interested in it, which
we which is later confirmed when she's interested in it. Yes,

(45:07):
because yeah, right, this, yes, this all tracks because he
already has most of the formula. The only thing that
he needed to figure out was like, oh, I need
to introduce heat into the equation to like whatever to
have have some reaction, and that's what ultimately invents Flabber.
So he'd been working on this for who knows how

(45:30):
long he had never told her about this. Ridiculous. Again,
this is another red flag for Dr Sarah being like,
you were working on like sentient goo and you didn't
even tell me. If if a romantic partner of mine
was like by the way I made Flabber, I I

(45:50):
my reply would be, what do you mean by the way,
is there no transparent Yeah, why were you keeping that
whole process is secret? I thought you were gene being
on me. I mean, while you're at home making flabber
with your robot and then I would dump them, which
they also don't cohabitate, which I think sometimes happens. Maybe

(46:11):
that was more of a thing in the nineties where
you wouldn't already be living with I feel like that's
almost a carryover from the sixties probably of like, yeah,
I guess you get married and then you move out
of your house you grew up in, or I don't know.
I was, yeah, I was like, that's like kind of
unusual by today's standards, But I don't I don't remember.
Maybe that was something that happened. But even so, it

(46:34):
seems like they weren't on speaking terms before the wedding
and then and this is like getting nitpicky, I'll admit.
But they both go to work the day of their wedding,
don't you. People usually take the day off. And it
also implies that they're getting married on a weekday, which
also really happens. They're getting married on a Friday evening

(46:54):
at six thirty pm. I don't know that much about
wedding culture, granted, but what I do know is that
you usually get married on a weekend day, a Saturday,
maybe a Sunday, so people can come, so they don't
have two people can come work right, and that you
can just have the day off and enjoy the festivities

(47:15):
that the Friday at six thirty. I I first was
thought that was a writing mistake, but then I thought
about it, and I think it's not a writing mistake.
And it makes me really sad. I feel like that's
third scheduled wedding logic where you're like, I don't care
when it is, I just want it to happen. And

(47:37):
you can see there's like fourteen people there. It's a
very small wedding, and it makes you wonder how many
people were invited to the first wedding versus the third,
which makes you wonder how many tens of thousands of
dollars has been wasted on all of the like deposits
and all the people you have to book, the caterers,
the flower people, the everything. I just have to repeat.

(48:01):
John Hughes wrote this movie like and he adapted and
in the so neither of us have watched the original.
All the way through. But based on everything I know
about the nineteen sixties version, it's less of a movie
and more of a series of episodes of like, here's

(48:22):
what happens with the absent minded professor. He does this,
and then it kind of ends, and then this happens,
and then that kind of ends, and then it's this
and then, like I don't think so, at least from
what I the chunk that I watched, or like the
three quarters I watched, it was like a fluid like movie. Yeah, God,
I mean the clips I saw, I was like, these
assume like three different movies. I mean, but I guess

(48:44):
that that's what movie is too. It takes a slight
like act three of the movie. Like, well, first of all,
I think maybe the sixties version is better written because
like the whole basketball game, the whole like villain with
the rich guy, that all gets introduced almost immediately, which
does need to happen story logic wise. Well, and also

(49:07):
there's no like robot. It's just it's simply a dog,
and you're like, well that makes that's a movie. That's
a kids movie. It's someone and as the dog instead
of someone, and it's there tortured robot assistant that's in
love with them like that change, Yeah, was the change.

(49:32):
The big difference with the the I keep wanting to
call it the nutty Professor. That's not the same thing.
The absent minded professor is that later in that movie,
he's trying he tries to sell the Flubber technology to
the government. Yes, so a bunch of stuff happens there,
and then meanwhile the bad guy, the rich guy who's

(49:53):
evil like tries to trick him and like, so there's
slightly different plot points there, but generally it's like, yeah,
it's like a pretty standard, cohesive movie that doesn't feel
that episodic. Uh. And that is probably again better written
than Flabber because that script is a mess. It's not good,

(50:13):
but it's structure like right, that's I don't yeah, I
don't know. And John Hughes took the original Like by
all accounts from the like context, I was able to
find there's not that much written about You know what's
bad when you can google the name of a movie
and then the word BuzzFeed and there are no results.

(50:34):
That's how you know you are. You were you were
addressing lost media. But Bill Walsh randomized name for me.
But he he co wrote Mary Poppins. He did like
the sixties live action Disney movies basically is what he
was famous for writing. And so he wrote the original script,
and I guess that John Hughes like officially took his

(50:56):
script and they were like John Hughes rewriting Bill all script, Wow,
this is going to be so good. And then I
just like got hornier and it wasn't good. What I
will say the absent minded professor, Well, the collective fifteen
minutes I watched board Me out of my skull and

(51:16):
you want to leave this earth. It at least like
wasn't horny. There's a noticeable absence of horny. Why is
the children's movie so horny? So horny? Like that? For me,
I just don't understand. Yes, yeah, we'll talk about that
as soon as we somehow. This is the recap. Is

(51:39):
the episode in a way? In a way? Um okay,
So the goons show up, they get fought off by
the flubber balls, get hit by the bowling ball. Would
have been if you're watching the movie, tell me like,
it wouldn't be funnier if his head exploded and one
of the goons simply died of flubber related causes. That's

(52:00):
the goons are played by. And I didn't bother even
to look up the actor's names either. I didn't know
it's Buffalo Bill from the Silence of the Lamb. Yes,
is one of them, and then the main prison guard
from Shawshank Redemption is the other one. Unbelievable, How yeah,

(52:25):
I mean, I guess they're like John Hughes movie eighty
million dollar budget, Robin Williams Disney. You're like, this all
sounds like things that people like, but then unfortunately it
is flubber, and then it's that's so cruel. Also, I
wanted to shout out the character actor who plays Martha
in exactly two scenes, who is apparently Martha gay Harden's

(52:47):
only friend in the world and is too afraid to
tell her that she's in the most toxic relationship of
all time. But it is iconic character actor Edie mcclerk,
who is in everything. If you feel like recognize her
from something, it's because you probably do. She was I
remember her in I remember her in Ferris Feeler's Day Off.

(53:08):
She's in that. I remember her, and I think, yes,
she's in Carrie oh, I remember her from Plane Strings
and Automobiles. She's in a scene where Steve Martin says
fuck like a hundred times in a row because she's
like playing this customer service role. So that's also a
John Hughes movie. So she's in a bunch of John
Hughes Okay, so she's John Hughes canon, so he brought

(53:32):
her in for. But she's first of all classic stock
best friend character where the only thing we know about
her is that she is the leading lady's best friend.
But unfortunately, the second thing we know about her is
that she's the worst good friend. The first thing we know,
she's a friend. The second thing we know, she's a
bad friend, and that's all we know. Also, I'm sorry,

(53:57):
like Dr Sarah if in if I'm putting myself in
Dr Sarah's shoes. If my triple fiance who keeps not
not being my fiance because he won't show up to
a wedding, If my triple fiance can't remember my only
friend's name, I'm not going to marry that. Like I'm
just not. You know, he doesn't even remember her name,

(54:20):
and it's supposed to be like ha ha, he doesn't
even know her name. He's so absent minded and you're like,
this is not We're just like, no, this is a
bad person. Don't marry. I need to get like Marshak
heard and out of here. We got to get her out,
I know, alright, So actually we kept so Philip an hour. Um,

(54:45):
Philip figures out how to make his car fly using flubber,
and then he flies it over to Sarah's house to
win her back, but she is already canoodling with Wilson,
which really upset it's Philip, he throws an apple at
his head. Yes. Meanwhile, back at Philip's house, Wiebo creates

(55:07):
a hologram image of a woman I think, with the
sole purpose of seducing Philip. But the twist is I
think it's actually Jody Benson's body, which is like, doesn't
make it better, it makes it I think even weirder.
I know. But yes, she goes on some it looks
like the it looks like the thing that Share has

(55:29):
at the beginning of Yeah, I thought that too. She
creates this all hologram image of this woman and she's
about to like surprise, kiss Philip in his sleep, but
before she can, he wakes up and he's like, wait
a minute, I got it. I can use flubber to
influence the results of the basketball game. Because there's this

(55:52):
basketball game that's happening surprise, between Medfield and Rutland where
Will works, and he wants to do this because Wilson
was like, if my team wins the game, then you
we have to go away for a weekend together, Sarah.
So Phillips like, well, I can't let that happen. I

(56:13):
can't let the other team win. I have to use
flabbers so that Medfield wins. This seat is so pointless
that it like makes your body hurt. Yeah. It's also
a huge component of the The Absent Minded Professor sixties movie, Yes, right,
And it was like a big thing in both of them.

(56:34):
But in both of them you're just like, you're just
like why, I think it has a purpose in the
first one, but in this one it's just like a
really long scene. Yes. So then Philip goes and sprays
liquid flubber on the team's basketball gear, and then he
goes to watch the game. While the game is happening,

(56:54):
Weibo is back at home and let's flubber out of
its container. Que flubber mambo. That's when that scene happens,
and then we cut back to the basketball game where
Medfield College wins, right, but Sarah is still like, no, Philip,
I'm hanging out with Wilson. So he goes home and

(57:16):
confides in weibo about how much he loves Sarah, which
weebow records, and then she goes over to Sarah's house
to show her all of the gushy stuff that Philip
was saying, and Sarah is touched, so she goes back
to Philip and she's like, I'll take you back, and
then he's like, look, here's my flubber car, and she's like,

(57:39):
this is how we can save the school. So then
they go we should say the movie that is set
up for us should end when they get back together.
That's where the movie for me, I'm like, okay, so
at the beginning of the movie, oh no, I keep
forgetting about the wedding. At the end, she forgives him says, Okay,

(58:02):
we'll get married again. I it's a bad plot, but
with the plot we're given at the beginning, it's like
I had no more questions after that, there's no more there.
I mean the loose end. Tying up is like the
fact that you included a robot and made them horny,
But that's kind of on you the whole, Like, but

(58:24):
what's going to happen to the school. It's like, oh wait,
I never fully understood that mistake. Uh, and I don't
care and I don't care about like it seems like
the That's the other thing is like the like goons
that are sent to the house are taken out by Flubber,
and then it was for me, it's sort of like alright, cool, yeah,

(58:47):
they're the like guess what they're back? You're like, why
that the Third Actors Show was so rough it was
really hard to pay attention. Here's why. It's because and
they don't do enough to properly set this up or
explain it. But the evil rich guy has loaned the
school money so that he's like, I'm going to collect

(59:09):
on my loan by stealing Flubber. So then that's why
we still have this like tension of him trying to
like take the flubber and like all those steaks. But
that should have played out before Philip and Sarah got
back together. I feel like, yeah, because you're right, because
once that tension is resolved. We're just like, okay, cool,

(59:30):
the movie should be over. The only thing that was
unresolved for me that the movie doesn't even resolve. They
instead murder the character. H is that like, oh, you know,
like Wee Bow is the driving force that gets Professor
Flabber and Dr Sarah back together. But doesn't that you know,

(59:52):
hurt for her because she has these strong feelings for
for Professor Flabber. So what I I thought might happen
because I don't remember how this fucking movie ends. I'm like, oh,
like Wee Bo is gonna have to have this personal
reckoning of like, well, how where do I go from here?
As as a as a robot? Where do I go?

(01:00:13):
You know, like that I've accepted that this is not
a relationship that's going to happen for me, but instead
that doesn't happen. She seems to immediately be like, oh, well,
I know it was killing me before and I canceled
multiple weddings on purpose, but I'm over it. And then
she's killed another example of a woman who's in love

(01:00:37):
with this mediocre man and then just like it's literally
her for two year old, like it's her movie her
if it was for someone who was zero years old,
if they were like, okay, so computers and humans could
they fuck let's discuss And then like Flubber Flubber arrives

(01:01:01):
at no, they can't. But just in this case, I mean,
it's possible. Again, You're like, maybe I knew this didn't
happen because I was, like, I would have remembered. But
if we Bo, like maybe we Bow could go dad
another guy, a human guy you don't know. But obviously
she doesn't do that. Instead, she's killed. Instead, she is killed.

(01:01:23):
I just can't get over the fact that we've always
murdered murdered, and then we're supposed to care about it.
But I could not even begin to make myself care
about that moment because we both like we're still kind
of mad at we Bow, right, because we Bow has
been a lot of fucked up stuff, and I'm rooting

(01:01:44):
for no one right except for kind of doctor Sarah,
who I'm like, I just need her to, like, you know,
get a therapist or like talk to someone who's going
to be like act with some self esteem. But I
don't feel anything for Professor Flubber because he's like a
narcissistic jerk who doesn't care about anything except Flubber. That's

(01:02:11):
who I'm rooting for. I'm rooting for Flubber. I don't
know what Flubber wants. I want. They're trying to get
whatever they want. Uh. I'm not rooting for we Bow
because we Bow is like also very selfish and doesn't
care what it's going to make Professor Flubber happy. She
just wants what's going to make her happy. And then
she's surprised kisses him via astral projection and I don't

(01:02:34):
like that, and like, so I'm not rooting for wee Bo.
Dr Sarah has is kind of like too big a
project to take on. So yeah, it's you're just kind
of rooting for Flubber. I feel for Dr Sarah, but
I'm rooting for Flubber. It's just the whole wee Bow
thing is so it just like made my head hurt.

(01:02:57):
I totally forgot about the whole webo of story and
the fact that it is not just unresolved but killed.
It's such a John Hughes thing for me to be like,
I don't know what to do with this female character.
Let's get rid of her, Like let's see. Ah, you know,
I don't know. Well, why don't we take another break

(01:03:18):
and then come back to finish the reekend and we're
back all right? Where were we? Um the disaster of
a third act of this movie? Oh? Yes, So Sarah

(01:03:38):
and Philip get back together, and then they go to
Ford to sell the Flubber technology weird spawn in the movie.
You're like, really, but that was the first movie too.
It's also a forward car. You're like, what American industry
is dead? Get over it. But Chester, the rich bad guy,

(01:04:03):
he's mad at Philip again because the whole Lone thing
or something again, it's not clear, but he sends his
goons to Philip's house to steal the Flubber and in
so doing that when they kill Webow. But Weibo has
uploaded her consciousness onto the computer, and then a daughter

(01:04:23):
of Weibow is created we Bet or something. I feel
like we are in this episode. We are kind of
analyzing things in real time. Wow. I mean the Weibow death.
I was like, wow, the wee Bow will I did

(01:04:44):
not remember and I was like, wow, that video. She's
so horny. She's like, oh, Professor Brainer Ariel the Mermaid,
she and again I'm like, Dr Sarah, are you really
like yeah, seems cool to me, Like I get like, oh,

(01:05:07):
your robot was murdered, and but it was so horry
and he's like crying. Also, there is that, okay, one
of my favorite bad line exchanges in this movie. And
again it's like, no, just I love Robin Williams, no
disrespect to him. It's not his fault that this movie sucks.
He's doing everything he can. But there is that there's

(01:05:30):
that line where after it seems like Dr Sarah has
dumped him for good, Eddie comes home. He's like me, me, me,
and then he says, I guess it's just you and
me now we both it's just us and she's like
and then he says, and Flabber makes three. And then

(01:05:54):
I just was like I watched that exchange so many
times because and Flabber makes three. I'm like, I can't
write like that. That's genius. That's and Flobber makes three.
That's incredible. Back to the Will, the will is so
horny and again the story logical. She's like, okay, So
first of all, it's another example of like professor, Professor

(01:06:19):
Flobber only has toxic relationships in his life. He has
a toxic relationship where he's like mistreating his triple fiance
Dr Sarah, and then he has a toxic relationship with
with we Bow. But it's kind of like more on
both ends there because we Bow is also like deceiving
him and hiding from him and ever return and You're like,

(01:06:40):
this is double this is you know, there's it's there's
two parties in this situation where I feel like Dr
Sarah is kind of more squarely a victim of the relationship,
but we Bow is like, oh yeah, I copied all
my data and I never told you. And you're like,
who programs are robot to do that? Like I can't

(01:07:01):
think of it? But again, okay, Professor flaps. Big problem
is he gives He gives all of his creations too
much free will, too much free will, which also begs
the question if he has invented a robot with like
he she's a I, he has invented artificial intelligence, how

(01:07:21):
has he not sold that technology to save the school?
How has that not been something The only thing he
put in it was Google calendar and Disney Plus that's
the only thing that's in the robot has two absides
Calendar and Disney Plus and neither of them work. Uh,
it can fly, but it can fly, and it has

(01:07:42):
its own thoughts and feeling. It experiences human emotion. It
falls in love with a person that they can play
clips of dumbbo like it's so confusing that but like, yeah, no,
we Bow is shady as hell, like she's she's like, oh,

(01:08:03):
by the way, I copied all of my data and
I never told you. Also, I've been this, I've been
I've been Jody Benson the whole time, but you just
didn't know. And like she's and I'm so horny and
I'm wearing she looks like, um she looks like a
Cape Bush music video is what she looks like in
that um oh, with the outfit she puts on with

(01:08:23):
with the flowy I'm like just like full wuthering heights,
Like what is this? But but what she says is,
first of all, I never told you I copied my brain,
which is something as the creator that you would want
to know. She copied her brain on an emergency disc,

(01:08:45):
a sloppy disk, a floppy disk. Yeah, And and she
implies that she's had like digital zero and one sex
with his consciousness because she's like, I made a copy
of my brain, but I took out all the parts
that are like weird in random and I replace them
with parts of you, which to me says it's their baby.

(01:09:07):
She made a baby, right, which they do refer to
her like the new Webow, the little red we Bow
as their daughter. So they raise her. I'm like, I'm
I don't know, I don't know. I was just like
I was. Maybe I'm being a little harder on Weibow,

(01:09:28):
but I'm like we Bow deceitful to the very end,
like by the way, I'm pregnant and you sure I'm dead,
but I'm pregnant and you have to raise it with
Marcia gay Harden, I'm like, what, And now Flubber makes
Fourber makes four because now and then they like gender

(01:09:52):
Flubber at the end, because they make Flubber like the
brother kind of there, like I'm not sharing a room
with Flubber. He's spinky. You're like what, I just can't believe.
I just can't believe. Like from that on, I'm like,
I don't even know where we are. So so she

(01:10:12):
dies but she's pregnant to raise the baby and here's
the schematics for the baby, right. He also just happens
to have an updated, newer looking little red wee bow
robot that that consciousness gets uploaded into. I guess I

(01:10:33):
can't even handle it. Yeah, it's it's no good. Okay.
So we're almost done with the recap. We're at the
climactic sequence. So Philip and Sarah go to Chester to
get the flubber back, and Wilson is also there, and
some for some reason, Sarah is surprised that he's a

(01:10:54):
bad guy, and it's like, do you not have any
judge of character at all? Sarah? I'm just like what, yeah, poor,
I mean, I'm like, I just wish I could talk
to Sarah, I know you were real. And then all
the goons are there, so this big fight breaks out,
but Sarah and Philip have put flubber all over their

(01:11:16):
hands and feet, so they're you know, bouncing all around.
They're punching the bad guys. Flubber goes through Wilson's digestive
system out of his butt hole, and that's the final like, woo,
we won. That's iconic. And then they're like, yeah, the enemy.
Once the enemy poops flubber out his butt hole. That's

(01:11:37):
how you know you won. The battle has been fought
and you lost. They win and they saved the college.
And then Philip and Sarah finally get married, but they
get married remotely because he's still can't be bothered to
show up for the wedding. I had to rewind. I'm like,

(01:12:00):
there's no way he didn't show up. And he's in
his basement like a miga away. He's right there. It's oh,
and she has to kiss her daughter. She's to kiss
her daughter, who's the who's the baby of a robot
that was murdered, And you just want better for her.

(01:12:24):
You want better for her. She has a pattern where
she is with this toxic person, and this toxic person
just begets toxic robots, toxic everything. I just I couldn't
believe he didn't show up at the wedding. At the end,
it's like furious. I was so mad, and flubber makes
four flubber makes and then and then here's what I wrote,

(01:12:47):
um and then they live flubberly ever after. Sorry, that's
the police coming to arrest you from what you just said.
Uh there, oh, oh a cab. I can't this movie. Okay,

(01:13:07):
we've talked so much already. Some lines that stick out
to me. Flubber could save this college. Okay that I love.
Do it for wee bo. That's great. Uh this line
when after Sarah and Professor Flabbery back together, we're going
to sell you the flubber. Okay, that's a line that

(01:13:29):
they say to the rich guy, Oh what else is there?
And Flubber makes three? Of course, somebody iconic line, I think. Oh,
and I was also going to say that should we
should just try to introduce that into like the lexicon
of this podcast. When the villain is defeated, they have

(01:13:50):
pooped out the flubber. They poop the flubber, and then
the movie is over. They can't. He said something like,
oh mommy, and then he poops it out. He goes,
oh mommy, you know what. That's another iconic quote. He doesn't,
Oh mommy poops out flabber. That is something that happens. Oh,

(01:14:13):
you gave Flubber too much free will. That's another. So
do you have any notes on Flabber? No perfect acts.
I thought I would, but then I didn't. Oh sorry,
I meant like the character Flabber like Flabber I thought
was gonna. I thought that they were like gonna miss

(01:14:35):
pac Man Flubber, and they were gonna put a lot
of gender coating onto Flabber. But the really the only
example of that I could find was when Flubber dances
with Flubber the Flubber mambo. The Flabber I mean Oscar
nominated in a just world, right. I already in the
time we've been recording this have tweeted it at super

(01:14:57):
yucky and I'm getting them to consider it, uh that
that's just called efficiency baby um. But it seems like
they were trying to put on some gender signifiers onto
flubbers flubbers um where they put a kind of a skirt,
a dancing skirt onto Flabber. But I would say even that,

(01:15:19):
you know, Flubber is such a genderless entity that really
any Flabber could be wearing the skirt. And while I
would say that probably whoever wrote it wasn't was probably
in a more gender normative nineties mindset, I don't know
that for sure. So in that way, Flubber is a
gender fluid icon. I agree. I think that they there

(01:15:41):
could have definitely been because a lot of things that
especially of this era and before this, and even there's
you know, residual things after this where something that would
not be gendered at all would never be assigned any
gender will still be given gender signifiers. And this even

(01:16:02):
happens in like a lot of animated movies, where like
animals are the characters and they find ways to be like, well,
the female character even though the female and the male
of this species look exactly alike, you could not distinguish.
The female has long eyelashes and a bow, long eyelashes,
and like a bust and like hips sausage. Pretty yeah, yeah,

(01:16:27):
like like weird animal titties that don't actually exist. There.
There's a great old at this point, but like an
Anya Sarkisian video that like breaks down this whole phenomenon
of just like adding egregious gender signifiers because no reason,
literally just to do it right, which I honestly thought

(01:16:51):
I was going into this with brain thinking for sure
that was going to happen with the actual flabber more
but then it was just done with we bow instead,
but flabber, you know, the flabber itself, iconic, iconic, still
justice for flubber. There, I said it all the Flubber,

(01:17:12):
all of the Flubber. There was one time when Flubber
made a a fat phobic kind of joke, or a
Flubber made fun of a butt, and I didn't like that.
I noticed that as well, and Flubber really needs to
get right in that way. Yeah, so there. I mean,

(01:17:32):
it wasn't it wasn't completely flawless, but it honestly, I
thought that the flo the actual Flabber, not the movie Flabber,
was going to be there was gonna be way more
to talk about, but I kind of don't really have
that much to talk about. I really just have like
Wee Bow and Dr Sarah same. So kudos to Flubber

(01:17:53):
the character. You go, Flubber the Mambo Flubber seems to
be able to reproduce a sexually because Flubber is replicating
itself over and over again. But I wouldn't say that
the Flabber isn't horny. So for me, it got like
the Flubber did seem to be. I'm like, the Flabber

(01:18:16):
reproduced a sexually we saw, but I also feel like
we saw the Flabber kind of getting like, you know,
like stimulated by the other Flabber. So there are true
questions about the reproductive habits of Flubber. But also I'm like,
also it begs the question is Flubber and organic material

(01:18:39):
or is this inorganic chemistry? Is this organic chemistry or
inorganic chemistry? We still don't really know. Yeah, and and
it really you would think, well, I don't know. Does
does too much free will imply sexuality? Maybe? Don't know?
I don't know. I mean because Professor Flabber never made

(01:19:00):
it clear what the ingredients are in too much free will?
We may never know. We will never know. The Flabber
is kind of just like a scientific miracle. And I
hope that the Flabber gets emancipated from Professor Flabber much
like again, and I'll draw that I Frankenstein parallel again,

(01:19:23):
you know, I Frankenstein got away from professoral he killed
Professor killed he did kill him? Uh, he killed him?
And what if Flabber killed Professor and then got away
and then waged the war of gargoyles first demons I

(01:19:44):
love so much. Um, if Flabber did kill Professor Flabber,
that would not be a children's movie, but it would
be a movie I would watch yeah, and maybe he
doesn't deserve to die, but he certainly is not worthy
of a relationship with Dr Sarah. Dr Sarah, I mean,
I don't I've maybe I've already said everything I need

(01:20:05):
to say about Dr Sarah. I just like again, and
it's like we've been having a flubber load of fun
in this episode. But from a writing perspective, this is
like just a really poorly written female character that it
doesn't seem like was written that much better in the
nineteen sixties. But it's just kind of studying how passive

(01:20:29):
she is and outside of like the joke slash point
we've been making of, like she clearly has no support
system to like advocate for her and she's not able
to advocate for herself. But it's like John Hughes is
writing this, This is not a real person, you know,
Like there is even a version of this script that
goes exactly the same way. I still wouldn't like it,

(01:20:52):
but like Dr Sarah doesn't really even stand up for
herself one time. The one time she stands up for herself,
it's to be like I'm breaking up with you enough
with the flubber, But then she just goes back on that,
and and also the way that what's the villain's name,
the guy who ships out the flower Wilson, the way

(01:21:13):
he treats her is also really coercive and gross where
he I mean, where he literally does like a mission
statement was like I'm here to steal your girl and
your flabber and like and your flabber too, and you're
a little flabber too, your little flabber two, He'll get you.

(01:21:35):
And you're a little flaber too. That should be that funny, um,
but he, I mean, the way he treats her and
the way she responds is it's a very coercive situation.
But in a way to me, it was clear that
the writer wasn't really aware, Like he knows that Wilson
is bad, but he doesn't know how to write the response.

(01:21:56):
So I just I ended up like feeling badly for
her in that situation too, because it was hard to
tell is she interested in him but she's not, but
then she has, but then she's It seems like she
was just appeasing him to end the conversation, but it
didn't seem like that was what the movie. I wasn't
sure what the movie I thought here's my read of it, because,

(01:22:19):
like you said, the one moment she stands up for
herself when she likes puts her foot down. She was like,
we are through. You failed to show up for our
third wedding, so I can't do this anymore. It's like, God,
that's already the line. First of all, right, It's like, wow,
that's like after the first wedding he didn't show up.
That's when you draw the line. Maybe, but whatever, your

(01:22:40):
it's your life. So she puts her foot down, she
breaks off the relationship. And then that's when what's his
favor Wilson swoops in. She somehow does not notice that
he is a sleazy piece of ship because she just
does not have any awareness of the world at all.
And this is because of this trope that we see
a lot where I think a lot of male writers

(01:23:02):
of screenplays, I think that women are so just like
desperate for the affection of a man. She will just
get engaged to the first man who pays her any attention.
So when Wilson comes in, he's like, well, I'm here now, yeah,
let's kiss, And she's like, well okay, and then and
then when and then when he turns out to you know,

(01:23:25):
he doesn't show up for the third wedding, Well, three
strikes and you're out, Mr, as far as weddings go.
And and then the first guy that shows her attention
after that she engages and she's like, well, we're in
a relationship now, I guess. And you're like Marcia Gayharden,
you're the president of a fictional college, like you know,
woman in a leadership role, like you're you're a woman

(01:23:47):
in academia. You're like, there's just no reason that her
logical choice would be so like anyone, Like she's a
really smart and I don't know, it's it's I and
I understand, like where there's a lot of women in
leadership roles who still struggle with self esteem. I get that.

(01:24:07):
I just don't think that the writer is thinking that
hard about it. It just seems like a generalization of
like she's a woman over thirty, she's desperate to get married,
Like that was more how I read that choice, Yeah, exactly.
Or there's another reading of that where we're supposed to
think that they're genuinely in love, Which brings me to
a point that we didn't we didn't touch on yet,

(01:24:30):
which was though like most mind numbing character explanation for
me in the whole movie, where I don't even remember
which rejection. Oh. I think it's like after the basketball
game where Professor Flever comes home and he's like, hmm,
she don't love me because I stood her up for

(01:24:51):
a wedding three times. He's like, she doesn't love me,
she likes the guy, and then we bow. Seems like
she's about to confess her love and be like, let's
have sex right now, Professor Flubber take my astral projection body.
But then he says, and I didn't write down the quote.

(01:25:13):
I should have something akin to well, you don't understand weepo.
I am so absent minded because I love Dr Sarah
so much, and you're like, that does not make sense,
that does not make your That is the most gaslighty

(01:25:34):
to your own robot ship I've ever heard. It's like, no,
it's I keep forgetting about our wedding because I'm just
thinking about how much I freaking love you. And it's like, no, dude,
you're thinking about Flubber, Like we see what you're thinking about,
and you're committed relationship with Flubber studies, Like you're not

(01:25:59):
thinking about Sarah. That's the whole problem, the whole infuriating
start seeing where like his Google calendar is like Mary
Sarah and he's like, I don't know, I don't know
haircut flubber, And you're like, oh my god, we know
you can read what's happening. Yeah, I wrote down that
this is a story about a man who loses his

(01:26:22):
fiancee because of flubber and then uses flubber the the
reason he lost his fiance to begin with, to try
to win her back. And it's just like, you're I
don't work. You're supposed to be a genius. How is
this your logic? Right? And then the fact that it
does work is just like this is the worst writing
I've ever seen in my life. It's so frustrating. Yeah,

(01:26:42):
and and then the fact that like he doesn't even
apologize to her, really like wee Bo starts to feel guilty,
which she should by the way she keeps intentionally sabotaging
the wedding, although again, he shouldn't be forgetting the wedding.
He should treat me about to remind him he's getting married.
That said, if he needs we both to remember and

(01:27:03):
she's not doing it, because she wants to have sex
with them. That's not good either way. We both starts
to feel guilt because she has too much free will.
And she goes to a Bechtel cast past Bechtel test,
not cast, no Bechtel test, passing scene with Marcia gay
Harden because she's like, oh, you know whatever, I'm accountable
for this, and she's like no. Look. Also she's like, no, look,

(01:27:26):
I'm secretly filming Professor Flaber at all times from multiple
cinematic angles. And here's him, and here is him saying
this totally irrational explanation of why he keeps missing the wedding,
which is that he's absent minded because he loves you.
And Marcia gay Harden is like, oh, I forgive him,

(01:27:48):
and you're like that is not Not only is that
not just not a good explanation of what's going on,
it's also he never apologizes to her, or like he's
sort of kind of does and passing me like, ah,
I'm so glad we're passed all of that, Like and
now you can really focus on what matters, which is
flabber which was the problem, Like, I just don't get it.

(01:28:12):
Not only does he not apologize He never even just
tries to talk to Sarah about what is clearly relationship
problems that they are having. He never Yeah, It's like
if he were an adult, he would be like, look,
I know, like, here's some flaws that I have. I'm
so sorry. I'm gonna work on being better. But the

(01:28:34):
only thing he ever does is just be like, here,
let me show you how much of a geniees I am.
Let me show you how good I am at flubber,
And that's going to save our relationship. I'm so good
at flubber. You don't understand. Maybe, baby baby, you know
what a guy is like flailing and he's like, baby baby,

(01:28:55):
maybe there's a lot of soft bees and you're like, up, um,
he's like that. But with flubber, which has a couple
of soft bees, in't it? It's I felt I felt
so mad when she And then also the like, why

(01:29:16):
does I mean this is a convention we talked about
a million times, but this is just so uniquely bizarre.
Why does everyone want to have a kiss with Professor
Flabber while he's asleep. They're like, you know, it's like
when it's the same, it's the same logic that will
eventually get us an all female reboit of Flubber, which

(01:29:36):
is like, what if we just do the same thing
that we did that everyone hated, but we flipped it
and you're like, no one wants that, Like what if
we kissed an unconscious male? And it's like, that's not
why people were asking for Actually, uh and somebody because
we Bow is always citing Disney movie references. She like

(01:29:57):
to show her intention of what she wants to do
with I think her name is Sylvia, the like hologram
version of her. There's like this little clip of snow
White in the Seven Dwarves that plays where you see
Prince Charming kissing an unconscious snow White and she's like, yeah,
great idea that too, And it's just like and then

(01:30:18):
the only that's what happens been the only thing you
install on your emotionally intelligent robot is Disney Plus it's commentary.
She's gonna start wilding out with some irrational behaviors. Okay, Well,
was that Shirley McClain movie that she kept watching and
then like that was the thing that made her realize that, oh,

(01:30:38):
I if I love him, I need to let him
go kind of thing. I don't know. I was wondering
that too, and then I was like, Wow, we're so young.
We don't even know what this movie is. I don't know.
Let me look up some Shirley McClain performances and see
if we can guess, because there were a few. I'm
guessing that they had to license a few things. I
don't know what Disney owned at this time, because I'm like,
they are only Simpsons now. I don't don't know. If

(01:31:00):
they did then, who know, I don't think so they
used a Mickey Rooney clip, they used a Shirley Temple clip,
they used like a few old Hollywood clips. What do
you think it was? Was it Shirley McClain? Was it
terms of endearment? Maybe she was I think would have
been older by that point, was it? It wasn't the apartment?

(01:31:21):
I think I've seen that one Steel Magnolias. No, she
would have been even older. I don't in terms of
what is terms of endearment? Maybe that is right. Three
Debora Winger, Shirley McClain. Don't you know there's someone out
there screaming at us from home, being like, it's this movie?

(01:31:44):
I don't know, the only thing I know about terms.
I haven't seen terms of endearment, but I know that
Coreina Longworth talked about it on last season of You
Must Remember This, and that's all I know. When you
said terms of endearment, I thought the thing that came
to my mind was Steel Magnolia's So I don't know
the difference between movies. We're so young and that's honestly

(01:32:06):
killing us. Um yeah, I have. I don't know what
that was, but I also that was my first Like
everything I thought was going to happen to the Flubber
in terms of like aggressively forcing gender stereotypes onto a
character that it doesn't really make sense, would be this
heavily gendered happened to Weibo instead, where we had a

(01:32:29):
version of this conversation in our her like thing, where
it's not it's not in a rational writing decision to
make an assistant programmed tool to have a woman's voice.
And I know a lot of the time it seems like, oh, well,
this is a win for women, but it isn't. Because
the reason that that like Siri has a female voice,

(01:32:52):
or like, you know, all the Siri knockoffs is because
we're you know, at a young age formed to think
that women were in service, you know, like care roles, people,
and people are more comfortable telling a woman what to
do than younger man what to do. So that is
why all your robot voices are or most of your

(01:33:13):
robot voices are defaulting to female. And then there's a
bunch of examples of like when it's a science like
when it's a science assistant, you'll hear a male voice
and like why is that? And it isn't like off
the wall that Weibo would have a female voice, because
you would assume Professor Flabber is more comfortable telling a

(01:33:33):
woman what to do than a man, uh, which we
know because he keeps disrespecting women the whole movie. But
then there's the the other robot, Webber, who seems to
be doing only domestic chores. And I feel like that
robot was coded male. I think so, But also you
can't really tell because Weber never really talks. I don't

(01:33:55):
Flebern doesn't really have an arc. Where was Webber's are
where Justice for Webber? Come on? Justice for Webber? Yeah?
I don't really know what's going on with Webber other
than that he was a vacuum cleaner. Um, but but
he was gendered male. I think that they use he
him pronounced towards Webber, who is a vacuum cleaner. Why
did we gender the vacuum cleaner? So many questions? Uh there,

(01:34:19):
um yeah, But like the fact that on top of
like the semi coherent choice, where again, Her is not
a movie I like, I think it's a fucking I
don't like it kind of movie. But at least the
the like assistant was made with a like female coded personality,

(01:34:42):
and it's made clear in the movie why that is happening.
Right in this movie, it just happens. And then she's
also given all these like human female nineties stereotypes. That is,
like did he program the is he doesn't seem to
be emotionally intelligent enough to know what any woman is

(01:35:04):
like literally says, I wish I understood human beings. I
wish I understood women. I wish I understood emotions and passions.
I wish I understood any of that. So how it's
because he just keeps knocking over this like court of
free will, He's gotten his basement. I'm just like, you
know the fact that the fact that the first thing

(01:35:25):
we see, you know, we Bow with I don't know
why I thought her name was Phoebe. Listeners if there's
another robot assistant in a movie called Phoebe. I was
shocked that her name wasn't Phoebe, but maybe my brain
was just like weebo Phoebe. It's the same either way.
The first thing we see where she's on her own,

(01:35:46):
she's like crying at a romance movie, which it's not,
you know, it's just like it's a lot of it's
a lot of coding. And then when you consider who
who programmer is, You're like, how did this happen? Exactly?
How long has she existed for? Like is this anything
she's developed over time? Like does she get smarter as

(01:36:09):
she does she like develop and grow and dependent of
her programming. There's a lot of questions. I don't know.
I feel like they're like, Okay, so the viewers of
this movie are four years old, and there Jamie and
her brother was crying, and they're gonna be like, okay,
so there we don't need to really worry about we
Bow's arc. And they're like, no killer or whatever if
she won't remember, and they were right, And I feel

(01:36:32):
like that is like people will be like, Caitlin, Jamie,
why are you Why are you analyzing Flubber so deeply?
This is a children's movie, you know what first? And
in this case, normally I would say, well, doesn't media
formulate how you view the rest of your life? But
in this case, we did not remember any of the

(01:36:52):
problematic elements. And so the answer is, I don't know, Well,
we didn't remember them consciously, maybe, but maybe we did subconsciously.
What if I have been I'm like, what if I
was watching Okay, Devil's Advocate. Maybe this happened to a listener.
Let us know you're watching Flabber, and then you're like,
oh my gosh, every toxic relationship in my life is

(01:37:17):
because a Flabber. Like I have been stood up at
the altar three times, several times, and I didn't realize
it was because I was just chasing this unrealistic ideal
of Professor Flabber and wee bow and Flabber makes three.
I and Flabber makes three. I'm just never going to

(01:37:38):
get over. That's another shirt I want, just like that
part of the script. And Flubber makes three. I'd buy it,
I'd wear it. I honestly thought that flabber was more
of like a cult movie, but it's kind of not.
I think it's just kind of like people remember Robin
Williams saying it's Flabberber right. Well. My other counter argument
too it's a movie for children, is that there are

(01:38:00):
many movies four children that are a million times less
problematic and better written. And some of my favorite movies
i e. Paddington, Paddington to Mowanna, et cetera. Well there's
even like problematic children's movies that stuck with me more
and I still think are better like we Have whatever.

(01:38:22):
You can listen to the Little Mermaid episode. But even
in terms of like the cannon of Jody bentson children's movies,
would I ever, unless I was like making a joke,
choose Flubber over The Little Mermaid? No, like never, because
the problem is here that more people would be negatively

(01:38:45):
affected by the toxic messages of the movie Flubber if
Flubber was a good movie, But since it's not, I
think that generally the the negative effect was kind of neutral.
But maybe if it was good, like the Little Mermaid
is a good movie with a lot of bad messages,
and that is why so many people carry so many

(01:39:08):
negative messages from it. Flubber is a bad movie that
no one remembers what happens in it, so but a
lot of people did see it grossed enough almost a
hundred and eighty million dollars worldwide at the box office
in nineties seven, money, which adjusted for inflation, is five
billion dollars. It seems like this was a Thanksgiving movie.

(01:39:32):
It was released like around Thanksgiving time, bringing the whole
family to see Flubber, and I guess they did. I did.
I was there. Um, this movie sucks so much, like,
but did I have fun watching it? Yes? Well the
other okay, so the other. Going back to Wei Bow not,

(01:39:56):
one of the weird things about her is that she
is so she's rife with all of these like women
be desperate, women be lying and deceiving women be surely
not claim it all that kind of stuff. But she
is still the more active female character than Sarah. Sarah

(01:40:17):
is so passive. Weibo is far more active, but everything
she's doing is deceitful. So it's just like, what is
the takeaway I'm supposed to be rooting for we like,
I think that we're supposed that I can't suspend, suspend
my belief to be rooting for Professor Flubber or we Bow.
I think that they both need to like work on themselves.

(01:40:41):
And I really need to send a long email and
be like, I can't be your friend anymore because this
is just becoming too much and the way you're treating
Professor Flabber isn't okay, and the way Professor Flubber is
treating the people in his life isn't okay. And I
just need to remove myself from the situation. And Dr
Sarah and I are going to get an Airbnb this
weekend and just talk things out, like that's what Martha

(01:41:04):
should have done, but we don't know anything about Martha. Um. Yeah, no,
I this movie really wants me to empathize with Wee Bow,
but we Bow is acting like a twelve year old,
which maybe she has. I don't know. I'd like it's
a very junior high revenge tactic to me. And Astral

(01:41:25):
projecting to surprise kiss someone that's new for me in
a movie, but that I don't like it. But I've
never seen it before. I've never seen that we've seen
Astral because there's there's moments in like Blade runner. There's
moments in I seen that movie Get a Grip. There's

(01:41:49):
moments like that where they're like, Okay, let's make out
with a hologram, but probably it happened, but there's not.
Most of those hisses seem to be consensual. So yeah,
this is I think maybe a rare instance of a
non consensual hologram kiss. So whoops, So that's not good.

(01:42:12):
And then it happens also in real life, and neither
time is there any consequence. The first time it happens,
he's like, I had a dream about basketball, And the
second time he's like, oh goody, my ex girlfriend broke
into my house and kissed me and now I'm so happy.
And now we're going to get married a fourth time.
And you're just like, I'm not going to show up
to that wedding either. Get me out of this yeah literally,

(01:42:36):
and he isn't. Uh, It's like, get me out of
this movie, get me out of this world? Um, did
she anything else? Two last quick things? Okay, Phil is like, hey,
we bow come into this flying car with me and
she's like, no, flying makes me sick, even though she
is a flying robot. Yeah. I was like, don't you

(01:42:57):
fly all day. We bow and then she's like, I'm sick,
and he's like, you're a robot and she's like, oh yeah. Um.
The other thing I wanted to say was flubber clean
energy question mark. Yeah, oh my god. We that's a
way better application of flubber than a basketball game. Yeah,

(01:43:18):
flubber seems like renewable clean energy. Although we don't we
don't know for sure, We don't really know what went
into the making of Flubber. Literally, like Elon Musk, the
story down to the toxicity and lack of understanding of
how to treat a human being that Professor Flubber has.

(01:43:39):
This is the blueprint. Elon Musk sees Flabber in theaters
and it's like, I could do that. I could be
cruel to women and any employee I've ever had. Yeah,
and then and then also make electric cars at his
flubber tesla more like flabber. Let's not do that a flabber.
I wish that there was a flubber toy. Also, this

(01:44:00):
was such a moment for such a moment for like
goop in children's entertainment, you got slime, you got flubber,
you got ghack. Remember Ghack. I remember ghack and it's
a cycle too, because it came back a couple of
years ago as like slime that you would make at
your house, and that like child YouTubers to be like

(01:44:22):
I'm making slime, and it's like, okay, kids love goop.
I get it. I remember getting ghack for my birthday
once and being like, oh my god, a whole egg
full of goop. Now my parents spent eight dollars on
Like that's too much for Goopluber expensive. Do you think
that Gwyneth Paltrow saw flubber and she's like, there are

(01:44:45):
other applications to this. Yeah, the implications of this technology
are just unbelievable. I'm looking up flubber toys because I would.
I would get you buy a flubber. I would buy
a flubber. Don't email p Brainard at Medfield dot et
you ask him to buy some flubber because he won't respond.

(01:45:07):
What an asshole. Honestly talks it to the very end. Uh,
there are flubber bean bags of the Disney Store made,
and there is of course five hundred million people on
eBay trying to get rid of that happy Meal toy
with flabber wearing sunglasses. There's also oh my god, there's
also a what the hell there's a talking wee bow? Wait,

(01:45:29):
that's what's what? There's a talking wee bow. Listen, I
pre quarantine. I would be like I would never get
a flubber toy. But guess what. I bought a Babu
frick and it's in my house and I also tried
to buy I don't know. I don't know if it's
ever coming. It seemed like it was kind of from
a suspicious vendor. But something Kaitlyn you sent it to

(01:45:52):
me is something called green Baby, because I don't think
they can call it baby Grinch without paying royalties. But
I mean, in the way a flubber another green baby.
A listener sent us that link. Actually so and I'm
so sorry. I don't I don't shout remember your handle,
but shout out to the listener who made us aware
of green Baby, a k baby Grinch the toy. And honestly,

(01:46:17):
I have to say, I think I just gave a
random person. I just don't think that my feeling and
the green Baby isn't coming. I will be. It will
be a Christmas miracle and green Baby gets here in
time for me to watch Baby Grinch. But it we'll
see your heart will grow three sizes that day. My

(01:46:39):
heart will explode out of my body and I'll die.
If Green Baby gets here, it would make me so happy.
I don't know well well, and Flubber makes three anyone,
So we the movie does pass the Bechdel test, as
we've discussed between Sarah and we bought that quick exchange
the remainder of that conversation, and as them talking about Phil,

(01:47:03):
so that doesn't pass. And then Sarah and Martha also talk,
but I think they only talk about the impending hetero wedding. Yeah,
that's coming up. So I don't think any of those
exchanges past. Jamie. If we have a nipple scale that
we have to oh no on the five nipples based

(01:47:24):
on how affairs looking at it through an intersectional feminist lens, uh,
you know what? Five flowers? I don't know. I guess
I would give this like nipple, okay, because I don't

(01:47:46):
think the movie. I mean, I guess I appreciate any
story in which a man is largely motivated by a woman.
I feel like, although I mean it annoys is me
when a woman is largely motivated by a man, right
in a movie. But I don't mind the flip of that, right,

(01:48:08):
because I think men normally aren't characterized that way. So
when you do see it, I'm like, Okay, that feels
sort of like a subversion. Um although everything that he
does to try to win her back is ridiculous and
ill informed and he needs to go to several hundred

(01:48:28):
hours worth of therapy to learn how to be a
better partner because he also does like he the one
time he attempts to communicate with her, he just ends
up spying on her instead, Right, So that was that
was a double disappointment. Was like, oh, I was like, oh,
he's going to go try to communicate with her, but
then he instead spies on her and then never talks

(01:48:50):
her and drives away in his flying car. Immature, right,
And just the way that Sarah seems to be characterized
as just being so desperate for the attention of a
man she will just be with any man who is
paying attention to her, and we Bow is characterized as
just being also obsessive with the only man she knows,

(01:49:12):
to the point where she's she's lying to herself, She's
lying to him. She's lying to everybody about it. It
ain't right. But I don't know. I guess one nipple
for reasons I don't even know about know why I
don't even I mean, I'm telling I'm I guess I'm

(01:49:35):
going to say like a half um, but I like,
do have a bizarre unexplained I mean, actually I can't.
You're gonna hate this. I can explain my attachment to
the movie. And you know what it is, the Flubber.

(01:49:58):
I love the Flubber. I love the flubber. I love
when the flubber dances. I love when the flubber bounces
around and breaks things and scares people. I like when
the flubber is caught in the glove. I like when
the flubber dances the flubber mombo. I like when the
flubber lives happily ever after, And I love when Flubber

(01:50:18):
makes three Do you mean flubberly ever after? In a way? Yes,
I so this movie. I mean the redeeming part of
Flubber is the flubber. Um. The story is horrible. The
story is maybe one of the worst. Um it is
at least I mean, I guess the argument that you

(01:50:38):
can make is that it's like not a male protagonist
that is openly disdainful of women, but just kind of
extremely dismissive and careless in I would assume all of
his relationships, but we only see his relationships with women.
I can't imagine that. It's like he would have a
male friend who he would be really attentive towards. That
doesn't really make sense to me, But we only see

(01:51:00):
him miss treating his partner and miss treating what I
don't even I mean, and something something weird robot relationship,
has a toxic relationship with his robot. And then we
also see heavy gender coating on an aerial than mermaid robot,
who is I mean, she's suffering. I feel for her

(01:51:22):
in some ways, but also she's like not nice and
she is not an ally to other women because she
keeps sucking over Dr Sarah, who did nothing, nothing, nothing nothing.
If she's gonna love anyone, she should love Webber, the
other robot. Like he's right there, he's also a robot,
You're probably more compatible. We had nothing nice to say
about Webber, Like we're like, we didn't think, you know,

(01:51:44):
We're just like what, he's just a vacuum cleaner, but
also there was more that I don't know. It's like
she doesn't need to date Weber, but like just yeah,
we only need to take the l or like search
herself and what she really needs to not do is
Diana Blaze of Glory and then tell someone that she's pregnant. Um,

(01:52:05):
so I'm going to give it half of one nipple.
And then also like what happened with Martha, she was
a bad friend and she was disrespected by the plot.
She wasn't even at the wedding when she well, I mean,
to be fair, it's the fourth one. It's true. She's like,
I've been to the first three. I'm not coming to
another one. That's I mean, maybe that's just her establishing
boundaries that are like maybe kind of healthy. Uh true,

(01:52:27):
She's like, listen, I'm not you're wasting my time. I
have an e harmony date. Did that exist? Um? In
any case? In any case or match dot com? I
don't know what with dating say was it was? I
think it was still not very online, was it? I
think it was. But it was like the period of
movies where I wonder when those movies started when it

(01:52:49):
was like if you dated online. Everyone in the movie
would be like, no, no, don't do that, and then
three years later they're like, I get like, I'm taking
three days a week from the internet. Um, in any case,
that was nothing to do with this. I'll give it

(01:53:09):
a half nipple, but I'll give it five flobbers. So
I don't think there is a single person of color
on screen at any point in the entire even in
scenes where there's like there you're on campus and you
see like extras and stuff. I think every person is white,
which we should have mentioned sooner. Um. In our defense,
this is a John Hughes movie, so it almost goes

(01:53:31):
throughout saying this is going to be the very white,
incoherent and toxic. Yeah, this movie isn't good, but uh
it's saving Grace is the one thing that John Hughes
didn't make up, which was Flabber. Uh flabber forever. I
just put a flabber toy in my eBay card and
Flabber will be getting to my house on Tuesday. Incredible.

(01:53:57):
H Well, that's our flabber episode. I think you'll agree
that it was necessary, and I'm like worried for I
hope everyone in the world, everyone in the US is
doing okay this week. I also hope that we're doing
okay this week. I mean, who knows there, you know?

(01:54:21):
We we yeah, we we don't. We again, don't know
what the results of the election are at this time
of this recording. We record like a month in advance.
And that's just um self care. Yes, so that's flabber,
that's flabber. Hey, here's something I would like to plug
of my own. Oh yes, go ahead. I do a

(01:54:44):
new Instagram live show called Movie Talk with Caitlin. It
is derived from a Facebook bit I did for a
while back when I still used Facebook. But it's an
Instagram live show now where me and a guest Jamie.
You've been on it. I've had several friends of the

(01:55:05):
cast on it at this point as well. But it's
just me talking about movies with people. There's no preparation
that I have to do beforehand. There's no uh post
production work I have to do afterward. It's just a
fun little time. So check that out. Follow me on
Instagram to be able to watch the show. You can

(01:55:27):
do that. Follow me at Caitlyn Dronte and I have
a little thing to plug as well. Please I have
a podcast coming out called Lolita Podcast because I couldn't
think of another thing to call the podcast. Um, it's
coming out right here on iHeart Radio. It is a
deep dive into the story of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and

(01:55:51):
it's cultural impact in all the ways it has been
twisted to get a global culture to take every single
wrong message from the original work. So that is going
to start airing on November twenty three, and then there's
going to be episodes airing into the new year. Um.
And it is a project that is very interesting and

(01:56:12):
is actively ruining my mental health. So check it us
sorady to hear that it's fun. It's actually really interesting. Jimmy,
you should watch a movie talk with Caitlin for a
public cleanser. I should I do, I will um. And
then you can follow us all the regular places on
at Bechtel Cast. Uh. Follow us at patreon dot com,

(01:56:34):
slash backtel cast for five dollars a month. All right,
it's our patreon ak Matreon and you get to bonus
episodes a month. And it's Mary Kate nationally November. For
some reason, I insisted let's see how it goes and
You can get our merch at t public dot com,
slash the Bechtel Cast, and most of all, just take

(01:56:58):
care of yourself. Take here, engage in mutual aid. We
will always keep you updated on everything there that we can.
And get yourself a flubber toy. You deserve it. You
deserve it, and also live flubberly ever after and Flabber
makes three. Bye Bye Maye

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