Episode 126.5 - Minisode 126.5

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Happy 2016! Our next movie will follow an earthly genie who just wants to rap. This week Paul goes through Corrections and Omissions for The Star Wars Holiday Special and gives listeners a great documentary recommendation in another edition Paul's Pick of the Week. Plus, Paul shares which movie made him cry most recently and more as he answers your Qs!

 

Don’t forget to check out Blake Harris’ Oral History of The Star Wars Holiday Special over at www.slashfilm.com!

 

Get yourself a BB-8 “What Is Its Mission?” T-shirt or Tote Bag over at http://howdidthisgetmade.bigcartel.com/!

 

People of the internet: Watch Paul in Fresh off the Boat on ABC and a while ago, Paul and Rob Huebel did a comedy special on a 60 foot glass bus that traveled around LA and now you’ll be able to see it. Go to https://itun.es/us/3M4J9 now to buy it! You can also see Jason in Transparent on Amazon and in Sleeping With Other People on iTunes! Also, check out June in Grace and Frankie available on Netflix, and in all the episodes of NTSF:SD:SUV:: on HULU for free, and Jason in The Dictator (he’s still in it!).

[taylor anne photo 11311]

[RyanSz 3140]

Is the proper response for me having seen both this and Steel in theaters, to feel confused, angry, or both?

[jarrycanada 2483]

[Lando 2019]

Well, if you speak Spanish, French or German, Kazaam is up on youtube for free. However what you do not get is Shaq's impeccable comedic timing.

[Lando 2019]

Oh and since Kazaam was directed by the guy who played Starsky on Starsky and Hutch, gifs from S&H are open season in any gif battles that may break out in this thread.

 

[Cam Bert 8145]

Is the proper response for me having seen both this and Steel in theaters, to feel confused, angry, or both?

I think that depends on how old you would have been at the time.

Did you enjoy this at the time?

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Paul called me out by name in this ep. But Wookieepedia agrees with me:

Note that Life Day most likely was originally intended as a stand-in for the American holiday of Thanksgiving, as The Holiday Special was originally aired on November 17, the Friday before Thanksgiving that year.

 

In the Mental Floss interview, Leonard Ripps said:

He (Lucas) had at least a dozen stories he had already written, so we were just helping to fill in a world he knew everything about. His idea was basically for a Wookiee Rosh Hashanah. A furry Earth Day.

 

To me, that sounds like Ripps' interpretation of the idea more than saying, "It was based on Rosh Hashanah." (Also, neither Rosh Hashanah nor Earth Day would have occurred near the time of the holiday special).

[Joe Lerini 7329]

Paul butchered my last name. Does this make me on the same level of coolness as Princess Leia?

[RyanSz 3140]

I think that depends on how old you would have been at the time.

Did you enjoy this at the time?

I was 9 when this came out, and didn't like it as much as I did Steel, which wasn't that much. I think because I wasn't so much into rap then as I was now, and was not expecting it to play such a huge part of the story, just thought it would be an urban genie story.

[seancarroll 26]

I really hope the gang dives a little into Shaq's rap career, including this gem from his debut album "Shaq Diesel."

 

 

My favorite verse: "I get dirty after dark. I treat you like Spielberg. You'll get jurass kicked in the park."

[seancarroll 26]

Even more Shaq rap goodness. Check out 0:46-1:23. I regret not posting this in the Steel thread.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENSp3MkJ_-I

[Cameron H. 23786]

"Not, Shazam--even though Shazam should have been the title. It's much easier: Shaq, Shazam. I guess there's a Marvel character...Oh brother. I guess that would have been a big problem..."

 

 

He can blame it all on "mis-speaking" all he wants, but I'm starting to think the "Paul Scheer" we all know and love may just be a character a much cooler person is playing to fool us. Kind of how "Jason Mantzoukas" is actually Jeffrey Characterwheaties and "June" is actually Cillian Murphy.

 

We're on to you, Mr. Hollywood!

[Cameron H. 23786]

Even more Shaq rap goodness. Check out 0:46-1:23. I regret not posting this in the Steel thread.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENSp3MkJ_-I

 

Ha! That video has a typo. It says "feat. B-Real," when we all know it's actually "B-Roll."

 

Dummies.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Is liking "Wolf of Wall Street" really the least bit controversial? I understand some people didn't care for it , but a lot of the ones that outright hated it didn't seem to know what they were getting into and blamed the movie for their lack of knowledge instead of themselves for not making an educated decision. I get that at work alllllll the time. What? You based your moviegoing decision on what you were LEAST late for and were surprised that it wasn't something you liked? That happens more than it should.

[Lando 2019]

I really hope the gang dives a little into Shaq's rap career, including this gem from his debut album "Shaq Diesel."

 

I tried to get a discussion going in the Steel mini, but alas no luck. My brother and I have had a long running inside joke about Shaq and his various careers. This includes owning the SNES version of Shaq Fu (when SNES and Genesis were the dominant consoles), owning a tape of the best of Shaq's rap (which was made after only 2 or 3 albums), purchasing his candy bar the Mr. Big Bar, purchasing a TWIsM jacket off of ebay and probably a few other odd products.

 

 

My favorite line is "it's like the hot dog without the bun"

[Lando 2019]

Is liking "Wolf of Wall Street" really the least bit controversial? I understand some people didn't care for it , but a lot of the ones that outright hated it didn't seem to know what they were getting into and blamed the movie for their lack of knowledge instead of themselves for not making an educated decision. I get that at work alllllll the time. What? You based your moviegoing decision on what you were LEAST late for and were surprised that it wasn't something you liked? That happens more than it should.

 

Yeah, I didn't know it was controversial either. It's been added to my list of movies that I will turn to at any point and just watch. The scene where the Quaaludes kick in where he is on the phone with his lawyer kills me every time.

[Cameron H. 23786]

What? You based your moviegoing decision on what you were LEAST late for and were surprised that it wasn't something you liked? That happens more than it should.

 

Back in college, I used to go to the movies like this all the time. My friends and I would say, "Let's go to the theater, and whatever happens to be playing next is what we'll go see." If you have the right attitude about it, it can be very rewarding since you end up seeing movies you might otherwise not see. I kind of wish still I had the time to do that...

 

However, I will never understand the attitude of a person who would complain about a movie to the people who work at the theater. That makes absolutely no sense. Unless your issue is either with the theater itself (e.g. bad sound quality) or the employees being rude or something, shut your stupid mouth. Caveat emptor, motherfucker!

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Paul, it definitely could be just the awful quality of the video we all were watching. I also respect that you took the time to really do research about this and really study wtf was going on there. The choice to paint his face at all if he was supposed to be representing Julia Child is still so next level bonkers to me, but if it's silver then I concede my point haha. It just looks soooo bad if you've never seen it before and suddenly this dude has dark makeup on his face.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

The only controversy for Wolf of Wall Street is that it portrays Jordan Belfort as a kind of hero, when he's really a despicable piece of shit. But, since I'm an adult who can enjoy a piece of film as entertainment, I don't really see a problem with liking the movie and being able to separate that from the real Jordan Belfort, who defrauded a shitload of people.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Okay so I did a bit of research for the last 20 minutes or so (I hope my job appreciates how much I really put into my work...) and I'm still not sure what in the holy hell is going on with that makeup. There's a possibility that they were just trying to severely contour his face to make him appear more feminine because that blush they used really really makes his cheeks darker than the rest of his face.

 

Either way that whole makeup job was horrendous and upsetting no matter what colors they actually used and what their intent with it was supposed to be.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Paul, it definitely could be just the awful quality of the video we all were watching. I also respect that you took the time to really do research about this and really study wtf was going on there. The choice to paint his face at all if he was supposed to be representing Julia Child is still so next level bonkers to me, but if it's silver then I concede my point haha. It just looks soooo bad if you've never seen it before and suddenly this dude has dark makeup on his face.

 

Frankly, I'm still dubious. I just Googled, "Harvey Korman. Holiday Special. Black Face" and I turned up a number of articles and blogs that seem to agree with you. Also, I did an image search, and anything that looked remotely "silver" looked to be of worse quality, lighting or otherwise, than the special itself. Perhaps Paul didn't want to get into that controversy? Or perhaps he didn't want the people involved to be called out as or thought of as racist when it was just a stupid and ignorant mistake--which is what I think it was. I certainly don't think the makers were thinking, "Let's do Blackface."

 

I think what most likely happened was they were going for something that looked "Alien" and settled on this weird brownish, reddish, shimmering color, when they should have just gone green, blue, purple or some other color, and when they were done didn't stop to think--perhaps due to the era in which it was filmed--"Wait a minute.. Do you think that this might come off as offensive?"

 

I don't know, that's the way I see it.

 

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

Okay so I did a bit of research for the last 20 minutes or so (I hope my job appreciates how much I really put into my work...) and I'm still not sure what in the holy hell is going on with that makeup.

 

Ha! I'm waiting on my car to get fixed--so I've got nothing but time!

[taylor anne photo 11311]

 

Frankly, I'm still dubious. I just Googled, "Harvey Korman. Holiday Special. Black Face" and I turned up a number of articles and blogs that seem to agree with you. Also, I did an image search, and anything that looked remotely "silver" looked to be of worse quality, lighting or otherwise, than the special itself. Perhaps Paul didn't want to get into that controversy? Or perhaps he didn't want the people involved to be called out as or thought of as racist when it was just a stupid and ignorant mistake--which is what I think it was. I certainly don't think the makers were thinking, "Let's do Blackface."

 

I think what most likely happened was they were going for something that looked "Alien" and settled on this weird brownish, reddish, shimmering color, when they should have just gone green, blue, purple or some other color, and when they were done didn't stop to think--perhaps due to the era in which it was filmed--"Wait a minute.. Do you think that this might come off as offensive?"

 

I don't know, that's the way I see it.

 

 

Yes! Those images were really the two I compared to each other and it's just really so hard to tell considering there isn't a high quality version of this anywhere. But, Cameron, I completely agree with you that I don't think that being offensive was a conscious decision on the makers' part. Again I just have to think that no matter what they were trying to do there it's so awful to look at and I hate everything about this special lol.

 

I also wanted to say that I was in no way trying to make it seem like I was calling out the HDTGM gang as racist for not touching on this during the episode. It was just something that completely shocked me when viewing it and I was rather surprised that I was the first person to bring the subject up.

[Lando 2019]

Personally I think it looks bronze, which is a darker metal. But I think that is still much less of an issue than some of the quasi-racial-sterotyping-aliens that Lucas did in Phantom Menace. I think had Corman said "ya dig?" and done a stereotypical 70s African American impression in that character I think it would have been a problem.