EPISODE 116 — Top Dog: LIVE!

[Ghandi 10]

I really related to Jason's thoughts on Clowns kidnapping children.

 

When I was in elementary school there was a yearly event for 1st or 2nd graders (can't remember) where some clowns, The Safety Clowns, would make a visit to teach kids about the dangers of talking to strangers. There would be a video of clowns teaching kids not to go into a strangers van, not to take candy from strangers, not to help people look for their lost puppy, etc. Between short videos the clowns would perform songs along the same theme.

 

The weirdest part of this was the end when the clowns would ask each kid for a hug. Who wants to hug a strange clown immediately after learning about how strangers are lurking out there to kidnap you? Especially when the urban legend of clowns luring children into vans was also present in the area. Fuck clowns.

[PapeleradeReciklaje 3]

How about a canine version of Face-Off where the fur, ears, snout of Reno are exchanged by the dog of Sam Fuller's White Dog?

[KeelanDElliott 13]

Does it bother anyone else how Chuck Norris finds the supremacists' list of targets? Reno is sniffing in a drawer and Chuck opens it to pull out a donut bag, drops the classic line "I should have known" and proceeds to search other parts of the desk. But Reno keeps whining to direct Norris' attention back to the aforementioned drawer, wherein Chuck finds a secret button that opens up the top of the desk. How the hell did Reno know that was in there? He didn't stick his head in and see it, so can he smell secret buttons?

[McSmashington 521]

 

Oh, thank God! Another excuse to post this...

 

This might have been covered before, but is that an unconscious dog being thrown into water? If so, that is the single most upsetting thing in a movie about racially motivated acts of domestic terrorism.

 

There is no fucking way this is a kids movie right?

[McSmashington 521]

 

Oh, thank God! Another excuse to post this...

 

After watching this, about 30 times, it looks more like they put a couple of bricks inside a stuffed sheep and then threw a grenade in after it.

[Auden 1809]

This might have been covered before, but is that an unconscious dog being thrown into water? If so, that is the single most upsetting thing in a movie about racially motivated acts of domestic terrorism.

The neo-Nazis thought Reno was dead (at the beginning of the movie we saw Reno do the play dead trick with the grandson). That's not to say they wouldn't have thrown a dog that's still alive overboard. They really have it in for the dog. The only movies I've seen where dogs were killed for no readily discernible reason were the first two Terminator.

 

There is no fucking way this is a kids movie right?

What? It's totally normal for a kids' movie to have animal cruelty and racist screeds that contain the line, "Black men are raping and murdering our women."

[FisterRoboto 7499]

This might have been covered before, but is that an unconscious dog being thrown into water? If so, that is the single most upsetting thing in a movie about racially motivated acts of domestic terrorism.

 

There is no fucking way this is a kids movie right?

 

From the oral history over at Slashfilm (it's the Animal Trainer speaking here):

Boone: The other thing is we always have a member of the Humane Society on set. Always. I have that in my contract. We don’t want to harm the dog and we don’t want anyone to have the perception. So like, in the movie, when we threw the dog in the water, we don’t want anyone to think we’re mistreating the dog…though, in that case, it was a fake dog. But you still get letters. How could you let them throw that dog in the water? When I did the [/color]Green Mile and we stomped the mouse, I got thousands of letters. How could you let them stomp the mouse? But we didn’t! I mean, come on people, we created the illusion. It’s a movie! But people believe it. Which, actually, I like. It means that we’re doing a good job. I like it when I get angry letters like that. I’m like a magician and those letters mean that I pulled it off. I want you to get upset. I want you to feel that emotion, because that’s what I’m there to do; make you think I did it.

 

And I think they set out to make a kids' movie, but they really didn't know wtf they were doing. In that same article, the movie's Editor says something about how they were basically trying to build off of the success off Sidekicks and to take Norris' career in a different direction.

 

And I guess you could say they were successful in at least one of those goals.

[Cam Bert 8145]

Okay so I manged to make some screen grabs.

 

Notice the clearly rewritten ARYAN. Also I love the the lack on capitalization on the Es (and the G in Hells Angles Bangers) but if we look at the first chalkboard all the Es are capitalized!

[Cam Bert 8145]

As I was going back through the scene to get the pictures, I was actually enjoying the inter-cutting of the two meetings. This got me thinking though. So Koller, who apparently is a known white supremest , owns a fleet of fishing boats and a manufacturing plant which is the known headquarters and meeting place of his hate group. While I could quibble that most groups meet at their headquarters that's not that part that bothered me. When we see Koller's meeting everybody is sitting in plush green velvet chairs. The giant board room table appears to be made of a fine oak. There is a green mat running down the middle with all these gold lamps atop it. However, this is a giant open space in the middle of a manufacturing plant. There are no doors just entrance ways to other parts of the plants. There are valves and scaffolding around them. We see the guide lines on the floor for assisting in moving objects around. All of this means that this area clearly is in an active part of the plant. Therefore my question is do they move the table and chairs in and out of this space for meetings or did they just pick a random part of the plant and were all "Hey guys, this space looks boardroom-esque don't you think?" It seems really fancy to get such fine table and chairs and put them in the middle of a working plant. Or is the plant not even operational? Does his fortune come from illegal activities and fishing alone? I could see this as the case because who would want to work at a factory that is the known headquarters and meeting place of a hate group.

[Bumpy 1674]

True story: I got home from work today, and my asshole dog managed to get my refrigerator open using the towel I keep on the door handle. He even ate the food I had sitting in the fridge to cook tonight, which was....yeah, chicken. I guess I'm changing his name to Reno now.

 

You know what you really have to do.

 

[Wien 401]

I'm sorry, I'm still not over White Dog yet.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

 

You know what you really have to do.

 

God, I wish there was a way for gifs to translate in an auditory medium because this gif is my favorite thing to have come out of a HDTGM thread pretty much ever, and I wish the non-forum people could enjoy it as much as we have.

 

And, given how I love these threads almost as much as I love the show:

 

[Castor Troy 0]

First time poster here, can anyone educate me on how to pose a question for the minisode? Got a burning question going around the office (many of us follow the podcast) concerning a possible face waterfall at the end of Skyline. Wondering if it was a callback to Travolta in Face Off.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

First time poster here, can anyone educate me on how to pose a question for the minisode? Got a burning question going around the office (many of us follow the podcast) concerning a possible face waterfall at the end of Skyline. Wondering if it was a callback to Travolta in Face Off.

Paul posts on Facebook on Thursdays asking for questions for the Q&A portion.

[Auden 1809]

Okay so I manged to make some screen grabs.

"KKK -- White Power" is funny. It's like it has to be explained to the cops what KKK is. "KKK is a white supremacist group, it's not Krispy Kreme!"

As I was going back through the scene to get the pictures, I was actually enjoying the inter-cutting of the two meetings. This got me thinking though. So Koller, who apparently is a known white supremest , owns a fleet of fishing boats and a manufacturing plant which is the known headquarters and meeting place of his hate group. While I could quibble that most groups meet at their headquarters that's not that part that bothered me. When we see Koller's meeting everybody is sitting in plush green velvet chairs. The giant board room table appears to be made of a fine oak. There is a green mat running down the middle with all these gold lamps atop it. However, this is a giant open space in the middle of a manufacturing plant. There are no doors just entrance ways to other parts of the plants. There are valves and scaffolding around them. We see the guide lines on the floor for assisting in moving objects around. All of this means that this area clearly is in an active part of the plant. Therefore my question is do they move the table and chairs in and out of this space for meetings or did they just pick a random part of the plant and were all "Hey guys, this space looks boardroom-esque don't you think?" It seems really fancy to get such fine table and chairs and put them in the middle of a working plant. Or is the plant not even operational? Does his fortune come from illegal activities and fishing alone? I could see this as the case because who would want to work at a factory that is the known headquarters and meeting place of a hate group.

I think the filmmakers want an action sequence in an industrial setting and they also want to show the wealth of the white supremacists and so we ended up with a set design that makes no sense. Meeting tables don't usually have lamps on them, and not only do lamps line the table, but they are those banker's lamps that you see in libraries. For a bar cart, they use a wire utility cart.

 

This is from the "Gatsby" line of wire carts made by Industrial Steel, Inc

[AllJokingASalad 0]

Pretty sure Chuck's mom was a stoner and not a racist. Hitler's birthday isn't exactly covered in all the history books and the only people other than neo-nazis that know his birthday are stoners because it's 4/20 (thank you Doug Benson for reminding his audience of this every year). What else was she planting in her garden??

[ParrotTalkBack 110]

In the first scene featuring Chuck Norris he hilariously drags the ringing telephone through his entire messy house to answer it. Why does he have the phone plugged in right next to his bed, and why is the cord long enough that it stretches from his bedroom to seemingly several rooms away?

 

Sounds like the same phone used by Baldwin's scientist cousin in "Fair Game"

[ParrotTalkBack 110]

CORRECTION:

 

Guys, the most important revelation to come out of the oral history by Blake Harris is that Reno was played by TWO DOGS:

 

Since the dog playing Reno would have such a big workload, two dogs were actually cast to fulfill the role: Digby and Betty.

 

Boone Narr (animal trainer): Digby was our face dog; he just had a gorgeous-looking face. In fact, in every PR shot you see of Chuck and the dog, that’s Digby. So he was our lead dog. But Betty did a lot of shots in the movie too. She was real mellow and she was a good dog. Except the problem with Betty was that she had had puppies earlier that year. So she had this one breast that would hang down. And every time, before we shot with her, we’d have to tape it up. We had to give her a boob job every time before we did a shot! So Aaron would be looking through the camera and he’d go “Betty’s boob is hanging out.” And then I’d go up there and tape it up. Poor thing, she just needed some cosmetic surgery that we couldn’t afford at the time.

 

So not only was Betty uncredited in the movie, but Digby, the LEAD DOG, has never been connected to the movie at all! TWO uncredited dogs playing one role. Now we're getting into "Monkey Shines" territory. Isn't it dangerous to imply that ONE dog could behave in this erratic way? Reno's disjointed behavior (super smart in some scenes and distracted by sunglasses in dog POV) could be explained by there being two dog actors (could also just be shitty writing/directing/editing), but the brothers Norris want us to think it's just one dog (Betty), and they don't even credit her! Poor Betty is put through her paces shortly after giving birth!!? And then gets her body manipulated to make her look male (and dare I say, younger/sexier). "Betty's boob is hanging out." They make her sound like a dried up old porn star!! Come to think of it, maybe Betty and Digby asked their agents to get them off of the credits. Good dogs!

 

Could we get June's take on this??

 

I agree with Jason, we should sue this movie.

[pepperjack 303]

 

You know what you really have to do.

 

 

reminds me of

 

[OoofMaGOOF 348]

I can't seem to quote the actual post, but to reply to:

 

They really have it in for the dog. The only movies I've seen where dogs were killed for no readily discernible reason were the first two Terminator.

 

MINOR SPOILER FOR THE FILM JOHN WICK WHICH IS AWESOME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keanu Reeves is finally pushed to revenge when these Russian mobsters kill his dog. They steal his beloved muscle car, beat the shit out of him...but it's not until they kill his dog that he's like FUCK THESE GUYS.

 

It was upsetting to see, but I loved that it's what spurred him to take these assholes out. By the way, that movie is well worth a watch. It's an amazing action movie.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

I can't seem to quote the actual post, but to reply to:

 

They really have it in for the dog. The only movies I've seen where dogs were killed for no readily discernible reason were the first two Terminator.

 

MINOR SPOILER FOR THE FILM JOHN WICK WHICH IS AWESOME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keanu Reeves is finally pushed to revenge when these Russian mobsters kill his dog. They steal his beloved muscle car, beat the shit out of him...but it's not until they kill his dog that he's like FUCK THESE GUYS.

 

It was upsetting to see, but I loved that it's what spurred him to take these assholes out. By the way, that movie is well worth a watch. It's an amazing action movie.

 

It's a great action movie, but I hated that part so much. Like,

they introduced the dog solely as an excuse to kill it. If they had built any sort of relationship between them, it would have been one thing, but I felt like it was "Oh, here's a dog. Let's kill it. Then he'll go on a rampage."

 

[SalGal12 1]

My take on the wetback comment:

 

If I am correct, wetback usually refers to someone who emigrated to the U.S. on a raft. So perhaps the white supremacist meant that if you use a single bullet to shoot the inflatable raft, you would then be drowning any number of passengers, who are now sinking.

 

It's still a weird comment.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

My take on the wetback comment:

 

If I am correct, wetback usually refers to someone who emigrated to the U.S. on a raft. So perhaps the white supremacist meant that if you use a single bullet to shoot the inflatable raft, you would then be drowning any number of passengers, who are now sinking.

 

It's still a weird comment.

I've always heard it as because they swam across the Rio Grande.

 

Source: I'm a Texan and have a lot of racist relatives.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

CORRECTION:

 

Guys, the most important revelation to come out of the oral history by Blake Harris is that Reno was played by TWO DOGS:

 

Since the dog playing Reno would have such a big workload, two dogs were actually cast to fulfill the role: Digby and Betty.

 

Boone Narr (animal trainer): Digby was our face dog; he just had a gorgeous-looking face. In fact, in every PR shot you see of Chuck and the dog, that’s Digby. So he was our lead dog. But Betty did a lot of shots in the movie too. She was real mellow and she was a good dog. Except the problem with Betty was that she had had puppies earlier that year. So she had this one breast that would hang down. And every time, before we shot with her, we’d have to tape it up. We had to give her a boob job every time before we did a shot! So Aaron would be looking through the camera and he’d go “Betty’s boob is hanging out.” And then I’d go up there and tape it up. Poor thing, she just needed some cosmetic surgery that we couldn’t afford at the time.

 

So not only was Betty uncredited in the movie, but Digby, the LEAD DOG, has never been connected to the movie at all! TWO uncredited dogs playing one role. Now we're getting into "Monkey Shines" territory. Isn't it dangerous to imply that ONE dog could behave in this erratic way? Reno's disjointed behavior (super smart in some scenes and distracted by sunglasses in dog POV) could be explained by there being two dog actors (could also just be shitty writing/directing/editing), but the brothers Norris want us to think it's just one dog (Betty), and they don't even credit her! Poor Betty is put through her paces shortly after giving birth!!? And then gets her body manipulated to make her look male (and dare I say, younger/sexier). "Betty's boob is hanging out." They make her sound like a dried up old porn star!! Come to think of it, maybe Betty and Digby asked their agents to get them off of the credits. Good dogs!

 

Could we get June's take on this??

 

I agree with Jason, we should sue this movie.

 

[OoofMaGOOF 348]

It's a great action movie, but I hated that part so much. Like,

they introduced the dog solely as an excuse to kill it. If they had built any sort of relationship between them, it would have been one thing, but I felt like it was "Oh, here's a dog. Let's kill it. Then he'll go on a rampage."

 

 

 

I definitely get it, it left a lot of people sour. I just took it as "They took his car, whatever. But when they took his connection to his recently deceased wife, that put him over the edge."

 

But yes either way...not pleasant.