Episode 162 - My Stepmother Is An Alien: LIVE!

[JulyDiaz 2796]

Stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings (The Female Brain) joins Paul, June, and Jason to discuss the 1988 comedy science fiction film My Stepmother Is an Alien. Recorded live from Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles, they’ll talk about the horny adults party with kid waiters, Kim Basinger having conversations with the purse worm, Jon Lovitz improvising, and where Dan Aykroyd falls on the sex chart. Put her in a brar!

 

 

Check out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepublic.com/user/howdidthisgetmade

Where to Find Jason, June & Paul:

Paul’s new comedy Drive Share is available on Go90. You can see June and Paul on NTSF:SD:SUV:: on HULU. June stars in Grace and Frankie on Netflix, as well as Lady Dynamite alongside with Jason.

Jason can be seen in The Lego Batman Movie, How to Be Single, Sleeping with Other People, and is still indeed in The Dictator.

[Bumpy 1672]

Put 'er in a bra!

[Omaxem 112]

I'm totally in with Whitney on the " why are you doing this movie, this movie is awesome " thing, but this was magnificent, start to finish.

 

Put'er in a brar indeed.

[RichSmith 1488]

I'm going to say this in defence of Jon Lovitz.

 

Jon Lovitz might not have been funny in this movie, but the guy gets a permanent pass from me to be as hacky and unfunny as he deems fit, because he kicked Andy Dick's ass. Anybody who kicks Andy Dick's ass is alright by me.

[JoelSchlosberg 347]

Siskel and Ebert disagreed on whether or not Lovitz is funny in the movie, in fact that makes up most of their debate in their review:

[ZARATHUSTRA 244]

I think Jerico is straightup just Miller from Repo Man

 

 

 

 

I'm glad I opted not to watch this one.

 

I'm so happy June is back live.

 

Put em' in a bra.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3132]

Unlike Whitney, I was not raised by this movie, but it DID at least teach me how to drive stick. It stepped in and helped in times when my parents were of no use.

[Geans 193]

[FisterRoboto 7495]

I only got to listen to the first couple minutes on my ride into work, but I would totally listen to an entire podcast dedicated to Paul and Jason riffing about being a couple. (I would also totally watch a tv series about them as a couple - but only if Jason was in a blonde pixie wig)

[Cakebug Tranch 6826]

So who's actively working on the 'put 'er in a brar' supercut right now? The most inevitable segment of the next Howdies, right there.

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3578]

I didn't know alot about this movie before watching it. I thought it was a kiddy/family movie so I was confused as it progressed. It's really not a family movie. I think it would have made for an awkward viewing with my parents.

 

But I enjoyed the movie and I laughed a few times but when baby Seth Green burst through the door I was on the floor. He stole the whole movie for me but I have a question. Seth was something like the 3rd/4th billed in the opening credits even though he was only in it for a couple of minutes. Was he well known when this came out? I only knew him from Buffy onwards.

 

I think "put 'er in a brah!" is one of those "you had to be there" things but let's hope Blake has an interview with Jerico lined up. It could be epic but I'll be honest with you, I'm a little afraid to google him

[CPiz 231]

OMISSION: There was a key part of the L.A. Times article that you left out: When he was a child, Jerico Stone had a young, black friend in Brooklyn who also suffered suffered from child abuse. Jerico, who also was beaten, bonded with this friend over their shared abuse, and the two created superhero alteregos for themselves called the Black Jacks, in order to cope with their abuse. One day, Jerico's friend showed up beaten up by his father and said, I can't stop it because my father is an alien. Jerico never saw the boy again.

 

THAT is why Jerico was so struck by the boy in L.A. years later--who looked like his friend, also showed up beaten up, and said the same line as his childhood friend--and followed him to the abandoned car. It is also why is was so astounding that the alien called Jerico "Black Jack" since that is what he and his childhood friend had called each other.

 

Here is the link to the original article. That part about his time in Brooklyn starts about 10 paragraphs down.

 

http://articles.lati...close-encounter

 

Thank you for the great episode and for including this interesting twist at the end.

[JoelSchlosberg 347]

The thing that gets me about the movie not being from the POV of the stepdaughter is that there was a childen's book published the next year (so written around the same time) which not only has a nearly identical title, but which famously takes the child's-eye perspective (both figuratively and literally) on its cover:

 

In contrast, both this movie and its poster most definitely do not:

[taylorannephoto 10819]

My God, I didn't even watch this movie and I feel like I need to do a "This Week in Feminism" just on that tagline alone.

[Cam Bert 6823]

I want us all to take a moment to appreciate how high waisted Dan Aykroyd's pants are.

[tomspanks 8556]

"put 'er in a bra" is catchy, but my new go-to insult will be "you have a body of a scallop."

[Cakebug Tranch 6826]

My God, I didn't even watch this movie and I feel like I need to do a "This Week in Feminism" just on that tagline alone.

Yes! I was just coming to post about the slut-shaming of this tag. Terrible.

[JoelSchlosberg 347]

I want us all to take a moment to appreciate how high waisted Dan Aykroyd's pants are.

 

The pants need to have lots of room for the part where Basinger notes, when she kissed him, that "suddenly there was a lot more of him down there."

[taylorannephoto 10819]

Yes! I was just coming to post about the slut-shaming of this tag. Terrible.

Also simultaneous virgin shaming??? Like beautiful women HAVE to have sex y'all. It's required to have sex if you're gorgeous and from this planet. No choice just do it or you're clearly an alien!

[joel_rosenbaum 1234]

[JoelSchlosberg 347]

As per The Breakfast Club, we could call it prude-shaming:

It somehow both reinforces the madonna-whore dichotomy, and looks down at both extremes.

[Wil Dride 97]

Problem with mocking a comedy: You're never gonna describe anything that's funnier than just watching it.

[JoelSchlosberg 347]

^ Unless the comedy is not funny. But then the unfunniness has a way of leeching in to attempts to make fun of it! There's a reason why stuff like MST3K steers clear of bad comedies.

 

It occurs to me that this particular comedy is oddly un-self-aware. In the decade between Flash Gordon and Total Recall, sci-fi movies increasingly tended to acknowledge and play with their own ridiculousness, but the playing-out of its far-fetched premise (as opposed to humor in the comedic situations it sets up) is surprisingly straightforward, without winking at the audience.

[JoelSchlosberg 347]

BTW, why isn't Lovitz on the poster? He's listed in the credits on the bottom (and Hannigan is not), and was well known from SNL at the time. If anything, he'd better fit the "OMG look at Basinger!" role than Hannigan does.

[Wil Dride 97]

"Why would she knows when he last kissed a woman?"

"Yeah, how weird that a girl would be aware of the year her mom died. Totally unrealistic."