Leaderboard

“And, uh, at Country Bear Hall you could be different and still fit in. Yup. Different. Mm-hmm...Unless of course your one of them filthy, no-good, bamboo pooping Panda Bears! They want our jobs and our women! No Bears but Country Bears! MCBGA!”

I realized at some point that MC Gainey is kind of the Country Bear’s Chewbacca.

I remember going to it the first couple times I went to Disneyland, the first time I was in awe basically because I was 4-5, the second time I thought it was okay, but realized it was more for younger kids. Also, I remember when this came out my younger cousins fucking LOVED this movie, to where it became their temporary new favorite that they would watch on constant loop, just after Shrek 2 and just before The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl. Interestingly, when I was looking up info on this movie I saw that it was the third Disney film based on one of their attractions, behind the TV movie Tower of Terror and the horrible Gary Sinise/Don Cheadle film Red Planet, which I didn't even realize was somehow connected to anything Disney.

Yes, I believe that was Diedrich Bader.

Thank you! I thought maybe I misheard it at first but I guess I didn't. it was such a bizarre line. The only explanation I can think of is that pandas are really popular? That still doesn't excuse bear racism though. Which makes me wonder about if the bear community deals with racism and did they have their own civil rights movement inside the community? Did they have one to be recognized as citizens?

Something that I’ve always found perplexing is when movies written with a specific audience in mind go out of their way to disrespect that very audience. For example, in Country Bears when they discover that Ted Bedderhead (that name!) is a wedding singer, one of the Bears remarks: “at least you’re not doing children’s birthday parties.” So, let me get this straight: in a G-rated movie filmed and marketed exclusively for children, there’s a joke about how children’s entertainment is demeaning and shameful? What the fuck is that even about? That would be like if in The Avengers: Endgame, Captain America and Iron Man took a moment to snatch a comic book out of some poor kid’s hands and called him a fucking dork.

I dig this as an explanation ... WB's is the main universe where sentient animals are still sometimes forced into their animal roles. Bugs Bunny is intelligent and capable and holds down jobs in the human world and has conversations and relationships with humans, yet still lives in the woods and has to deal with being hunted. These bears are chart topping celebrities, and the world around them is built to accommodate them, yet somehow you can still trap and domesticate them, just like Elmer sometimes mounts a talking Daffy Duck head on his wall.

While it doesn’t make a case for a thriving population of sentient bears, it’s worth noting that the reason given for Trixie leaving Tennessee was that she ran off with a panda bear who is described as being a “rich, millionaire, real estate guy.” It’s also worth pointing out that the Country Bears’ response to this is this derisive exchange: “What's with the pandas? They get everything.” ”You're telling me...” It’s incredibly depressing to me that even in such a small community, the Bears aren’t immune to the corrosive specter of racism.

Since he's the drummer, he's more like their Animal.

So this movie means that we get to talk about my favorite week of the year! FAT BEAR WEEK!!! Every year in the fall Katmai National Park in Alaska holds a March Madness style competition online to see which of their Brown Bears is going to be the reigning champion and be the fattest, most chonkiest, Absolute Unit of a bear they can possibly become before hibernate kicks in. It's truly an amazing time. Last year's winner was the magnificently corpulent BEADNOSE! I can't wait for this year's event!

So while you can't get drunk off honey you CAN get high.There's a form of honey from the black sea region of eastern Turkey and parts of Nepal that has hallucinogens in it from the natural neurotoxin grayanotoxin in some rhododendrons nector. It's know as "Mad Honey". It's been around for millennia and has even been used as a tool of war. In B.C.E. 67 Pompey the Great lost over a 1,000 men in a battle with the Persian King Mithridates after they were tricked by the pots of honey the Persians had left out for them to eat . The men were too sick and weak to fight back . In parts of Turkey and Nepal mad honey is used as a form of traditional medicine. It's used as a way to get a boost of energy, relive hypertension,and is seen as a form of natural Viagra. Mad honey gives you a sense of euphoria, lightheadedness, and sometimes hallucinations . However the honey can have unfortunate side effects like vomiting, diarrhea, loss of consciousness, seizures and although rare, it can be fatal if you eat too much. It's also one of the most expensive honeys in the world at $60 to $80+ a pound .

Much like Paul I also enjoy the Country Bear Jamboree, It is still very much active in Disney World. I recommend anyone to go see it if only for the voice acting alone. It’s filled with voice actors from cartoons past and it’s a real nostalgia trip to just sit there and listen to them.

Okay so I went to rent this and I said to myself, "Self, I like you more than this." And I didn't watch it. So I found this podcast very surreal. Besides Paul, did anyone ever go to see the Country Bears Jamboree on purpose? I remember seeing it as a kid, and my entire group being like "this sucks. Can we go on Thunder Mountain again?" Also, are we told the names of the bears in the ride? Because I did not know who they were. And I reluctantly googled it just now and it doesn't seem like they are the same as the characters in the movie. I mean there is a Trixie but no Beary? Also, I would really like a Funny or Die Short, directed by Kulap, about Jason and Paul hunting Country Bears in their natural habitat, ie Disney.

In regards to the Studio 54 reference, I think Jason's brain creatively combined Jaid Barrymore and Bianca Jagger. While Jade Jagger is indeed a real person -- Bianca's and Mick's daughter -- she would've been in grade school during the Studio 54 heyday...and hopefully was not doing blow with Andy Warhol. But hey, the 70s were a different time, so who knows.

This movie is 88 minutes long. You know how long 88 minutes can be, don't you?

Apparently Krystal Harris is a real person. She is a singer but her credits seem to be like “the Legally Blonde” soundtrack and the “Princess Diaries” soundtrack. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krystal_Harris

Shit you're right, though they are pretty interchangeable with how they came out around the same time and both are god awful.

Obviously Beary and the Bears are "bears", right? Clearly this movie is a gay acceptance allegory. Happy Pride Month Everyone!

Ok so my inner June is a little confused and worried that MC Gainly said he raised his children in the tour van. Do you think he thinks of that chicken as his child? Did he possibly have more than one? Or were actual human children raised in this van and I'm having a spaghetti robot moment? Either way I have questions and am UPSET

I don't know if they mentioned this and I missed it, but the "Ted" bear is definitely voiced by the Officer Cheets actor, right?

I think June is the little girl and Paul is the boy, but I kind of want Zouks to be the baby so I guess that makes Kulap the dad? Can someone put faces on them? Obviously I don’t have great photoshop skills.

I think it's more like, they realize that the humans in a panda's life tend to be conservationists who spend all their time trying to get the pandas to mate. So the Country Bears are just hella jealous of how laid pandas are getting. And I think some sort of bear rights activism must've taken place for doors to be built bear-sized and bars to have back-scratching posts installed.

Robert Evans (from Behind the Bastards podcast and Cracked, at one point) wrote a book called A Brief History of Vice that talks about "The Drunken Monkey Hypothesis" that suggests alcohol from fermented sugar from old dates helped monkeys evolve because the higher calorie count in the sugar/alcohol combo helped sustain early humans living along the coastlines. Is it possible that the same thing has happened to the bears in this film's universe ... that some kind of meadlike fermented alcoholic honey helped ignite the higher consciousness of bears?

This missed a trick in that the honey bar could've just served mead. Avoids the problem of implying honey is alcohol but having a honey based alcohol.

the grass is greener