Episode 140 - Mannequin Two: On the Move (w/ Steve Agee)

[Magicktown 6]

Correction and Omissions:

Very simple and it applies to both Mannequin films. How are these wooden mannequins still existing after a thousand years? Like someone dug up a relic of from the middle ages, realized it was a wooden lady, and just thought, "oh I'll donate this to a mannequin supplier"? Seriously, who was passing down these mannequins over the years???

[Shannon 2953]

In all the time I've worked in the LA office, this recording was the most scream laughing I've ever heard through the studio door so I knew this was going to be a good one.

 

And it was.

[EllenM 943]

Why has no one addressed the mannequins perfect understanding and speaking of modern american english though she was supposed to be German. I think it would have been funny for her to come alive confused and screaming in german, but maybe thats just me. And the lack of accents in the first scene.

I have a theory about this but it's kinda messed up. What if Jessie could still hear what's going on around her?

 

It's been 1000 years so where has she been? Being carted all around the world to different stores/museums. I think she's gained her knowledge of English through osmosis. Does this mean she had some sort of sentience while in mannequin mode? Possibly. Does that mean she could have sensed every time a guy kissed her or a dresser touched her while using her for a display? Maybe.

 

She could gain the knowledge of the language around her and still be either scared of stuff (fire extinguisher) or cool with stuff (electricity, cars). The shock of going back and forth from human to mannequin could explain her "daftness" in June's words.

 

On the plus side, Jessie could be a polyglot for all we know!

[FrancisRizzo3 212]

I have a theory about this but it's kinda messed up. What if Jessie could still hear what's going on around her?

...

She could gain the knowledge of the language around her and still be either scared of stuff (fire extinguisher) or cool with stuff (electricity, cars).

 

I thought this same thing, but the statue/whatever would still have been in Hauptmann-Koenig, so English likely wouldn't have been spoken much. Though it could explain her inconsistent understanding of the modern world (if you accept that H-K wouldn't be on the cutting edge of technology.)

[Cameron H. 23786]

Late in the movie, as Low Rent Mr. Tuttle and the police confront and arrest Jason over the theft of "The Peasant Girl," the Count descends the stairs carrying Jessie in his arms and makes it clear to all his intention of reclaiming his "property" and heading on down to Bermuda. Unfortunately for the Count, he is forced to hand Jessie over to the store manager when he is sternly reminded that they have a "contract." And while I don't know the exact details of said contract, it is a point I would like to explore...

 

Based on what the movie shows us, the deal is that the Count provides his country's most precious artifact to be displayed at Prince & CO, which will attract the Philadelphia elite and help drive sales. In return, Prince & CO will put on a presentation that will help elavate Hauptmann-Koenig's status on the World stage. The two parties each have their responsibilities: HK will provide the mannequin, P&C will put on a " dignified" show, and provide a secure place to keep HB's priceless relic. However, let's look at this from an objective perspective.

 

In the 48-72 hours "The Peasant Girl" has been in Prince & CO's care, it has already gone missing twice! They are currently in the process of arresting an employee of the store who has stolen this statue and taken it to his bedroom to do God knows what with it. This is the same employee who made off with her earlier only to return her after removing all her clothes (artifacts that I'm sure were just as valuable as the mannequin itself--if not more) and dressing her up in some skanked out garb he grabbed off the rack. To use an analogy from the episode, this would be like if King Tut were to be presented at a Pacific Sunwear and an employee removed all his wrappings and dressed him in some Speedos and a fluorescent Ocean Pacific tank top.

 

So, considering Prince & CO really monkey fucked their end of the bargain, I believe the Count would be well within his rights to consider their contract null and void. If anything, P&C should be apologizing to him for their inexcusable ineptitude and be thankful as shit that the government of HK hasn't threatened to litigate.

[Auden 1809]

The names Jessie and Jason are too similar. They're like names you give to siblings.

 

June said a very June thing, "This is not about a mannequin doing what a mannequin should be doing."

 

June thought that the movie will end in a joint suicide. That's hilariously dark.

 

Congrats, Taylor Anne for being the first forum poster to make the jump from mini-episode to main!

Yeah! Go Taylor Anne!

 

Off topic and bringing up a Mini-Thread discussion but someone in my office just talked about Pokemon as the new "zeitgeist" that people will get tired of and he has definitely used it before this during discussion of other topics. I think that's officially the word/phrase that I can no longer stand because the person is just trying to make themselves seem above whatever the topic is. We get it, you hipster, you don't enjoy popular things.

It doesn't even sound like office guy is using the word correctly.

[EllenM 943]

 

I thought this same thing, but the statue/whatever would still have been in Hauptmann-Koenig, so English likely wouldn't have been spoken much. Though it could explain her inconsistent understanding of the modern world (if you accept that H-K wouldn't be on the cutting edge of technology.)

Fair enough. (Low) German, along with Danish and Dutch, is still a part of the Frisian language group from which modern English is generally determined to have been derived therefore Jessie could potentially figure out English, using mots amis, throughout the years as language evolved.

 

I really believe in this theory and will defend it staunchly.

[Solarite 1]

I have to put in my two cents on Barbie and Ken underwear.

 

Some of the Barbies I remember from the early 90s did have built-in underwear like Ken. The piece that makes up Barbie's crotch area had a raised pattern on it to make it look like an underwear pattern. Sometimes that piece of the doll was flesh colored but sometimes it was white. This photo is black and white but you get the idea: https://s-media-cach...da895ea1f06.jpg

 

It seemed to vary depending on the specific Barbie, there would be ones without underwear right along with ones with underwear. Also, some Ken dolls did not have underwear, just an extremely vague bulge, probably not unlike a male store mannequin: https://ewgreenlee.f...03/ken-doll.jpg

 

I don't know which version was more common for who, but there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to who had built-in underwear and who didn't.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Yeah! Go Taylor Anne!

 

 

It doesn't even sound like office guy is using the word correctly.

1. I almost didn't recognize this as your post because your avatar is no longer a cat.

2. Thank you!

3. OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT! I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THIS AND I JUST SNORTED I LAUGHED SO HARD. I swear to all that is holy the next time he uses that I'm pointing this out to him. He's just the worst.

[RyanSz 3140]

Question:

 

Haven't listened to the episode yet or read through this thread so apologies if these have been talked about. Does anyone notice when Ragsdale is introduced while driving and brushing his teeth that he washes his mouth out with soda, doesn't that just negate the whole process of brushing? Also, if after 1000 years of being a mannequin, how is it possible Swanson was never used as kindling for some person's fire? I mean a lot of poverty stricken times occurred between the medieval time she was from and the 80s when she was awoken, surely there was someone who needed to keep warm.

[Johnny Unusual 525]

OMISSION

In case no one brought this up:

 

I was curious about the name of the country/state/city/whatever Hauptmann-Koenig, as something about it seemed like an in-joke. I looked it up and the best I could do was find a reference to a character with that name in a passage of a book called Voices of the Wind by Evelyn Anthony, which was set in WWII (Koenig is an SS officer who is caught philandering and demoted in rank) and published in 1985, meaning that the screenwriter may have read it before writing the film. Does anyone else have any other theories?

 

Also, in the scene in which Jessie is watching the tapes, she says "Look, your mother gave me all these people's lives." That's super creepy, but even more if she is being literal. Remember, she also refers to his story ID as a "magic card". Also, remember her reaction to seeing herself on film? Absolute terror. She things these people are taking the souls of people and putting them in the box. But she doesn't mind it happening to other people, apparently. That's Count Terry Kiser level of creepy.

[WalterCreeps 1]

Hey, Paul, long time listener, second time writer. As always, I love the show and the three of you have given me weeks of free entertainment. I promise to donate money whenever I take and pass the bar and get a big boy job.

I believe the curse placed on Jessie was that she was frozen for 1000 years, or until she met her true love from a foreign land. So, either element of the curse could be satisfied to reanimate Jessie. Because her true love must be from a foreign land, the count could not wake Jessie by taking her to a foreign land, as was posited on the show, because even if the count was her true love, he wasn't himself from a foreign land and therefore could not break the curse that way. Now, my theory is that the Count knew that the 1000 years would pass soon. He probably even knew the near exact date of that event since he was a distant relative of the original wizard and seemed very familiar with the legend. Also, clearly the count wanted to escape to Burnuda, but what wasn't mention on your podcast, was that during the telephone conversation between the count and the queen, the queen mentions the theft of the country's Crown Jewels, and that the peasant girl's tour was the count's idea. I think the implication here is that the Count stole the Crown Jewels just prior to taking Jessie on tour knowing that the 1000 year curse would be up soon and Jessie would then reanimate.I think the count planned for Jessie to reanimate with him in burmuda (which is why he suggested the tour) where, by then, he would be living off the profit from the stolen jewels and she would then be forced to marry him. What the count wasn't banking on was that the great x20 grandson of Prince William (I'm assuming Jason was his heir because he looked exactly like William and his last name was Williamson) would cross paths with Jessie and, as her true love from a foreign land, would satisfy the second part of the curse and break it prior to the passing of 1000 years, mucking up the count's plan for Jessie to awaken with him in burmuda.

Also, the white stuff on the truck driver's lips was gum from a bubble she blew when she saw the dancing Germans and I'm pretty sure michash Taylor wasn't gay in designing women... My mom watched it a lot when I was a kid.

[WalterCreeps 1]

Oh! I thought this was true at the time, but just looked it up now. Michash Taylor wasn't the only person from the first movie to appear in the sequel. Andy, the security guard was the janitor in the first movie, So, he must have moved from ny to philly with Hollywood. I only remembered Andy from the first because at the end he started kissing all the chopped up mannequin parts at the end hoping to bring one to life the way Andrew McCarthy had reanimated Kim Catrall. I thought this was creepy because at the end of that movie James Spader started tossing mannequin's in this grinder and chopping them up, so if Andy brought one to life she would be a horrifically mauled, multiple amputee. Why bother, he could find one of those to make out with without magic?

[PenniPiper 15]

Fair enough. (Low) German, along with Danish and Dutch, is still a part of the Frisian language group from which modern English is generally determined to have been derived therefore Jessie could potentially figure out English, using mots amis, throughout the years as language evolved.

 

I really believe in this theory and will defend it staunchly.

 

 

Reading English from 200 years ago is nearly impossible and modern American English also has lots of borrowed words from other languages and words with Latin roots. The term Jester would not have existed in her time nor would conjunctions. I was going to go into a whole thing about this but then I remembered that Jason made orange juice in the microwave and used a strainer to make eggs. I have a feeling the writers didn't really give a shit about realism or continuity.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

This one was great. Just a couple of notes from me on this one. I found this movie to be a bit odd in terms of a romantic comedy in that Jason had to put zero effort to attract Jesse. She was just out of the gate in love with him. Which made the later scenes of them going on a date just seem pointless. At least in the first one the similar scenes between Andrew and Kim were at least setting up them getting to know each other and falling in love.

 

But when Jesse's first words to Jason are that she loves him more than anyone will ever love him. And he never manages to make that love falter for even a second. Despite microwaving orange juice concentrate and attempting to serve it to her. Luckily she'd already mannequined herself.

 

Also why the fuck did she put the necklack on herself again in the morning, like she didnt know it was going to turn her into a statue?

 

I can see how some people could be offended by how other characters treat Hollywood Montrose throughout the two movies. I'm forgiving of it just for the fact that not only is his character easily the glue that holds both movies together, he's also as Cameron pointed out, the true hero of this franchise. I think the writers were just more than a bit lazy in thinking up ways to show the villains as shitty people other than having them treat Hollywood like garbage.

 

Also, I'd forgotten that Kim Cattrall was supposed to be Egyptian in the first movie. And people complain about Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange.

[Cameron H. 23786]

3. OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT! I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THIS AND I JUST SNORTED I LAUGHED SO HARD. I swear to all that is holy the next time he uses that I'm pointing this out to him. He's just the worst.

 

[topher_j_hay 0]

No slit, no lips, and no nips. If there were the movie would revolve around mannequin bangin'.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

This is a very important topic that has yet to be discussed, but isn't it possible that Pretzie from Hercules in New York traveled back in time, with the help of his buddies in Mount Olympus, to medieval Hauptmann-Koenig, joined up with Medieval Sorcerer Count Spretzle, and invented the PRETZEL. This would give Future Pretzie the career that enables him to meet Hercules in the first place and thereby, I dunno, save Future New York and Philadelphia simultaneously? Perhaps this refocusing of Sorcerer Spretzle's energies on delicious snack-making softened his evil ways, enabling him to ensure Mannequin Jessie's safety for future generations? Maybe this is why Jessie has remained in such pristine condition over a thousand years and why, just at the time Modern Spretzle is ready to bring her back to life, she is magically saved by the very person she is destined to fall in love with, thereby breaking the very curse Sorcerer Spretzle is responsible for?

 

Pretzie in Hauptmann-Koenig: Days of Future Past.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

No one's commented on the store being named Prince & Co. and the story revolves around the great(x infinity)-grandson of the Prince?!? I know the other movie came first but I choose to believe the writers always had this sequel in mind when writing the first movie.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

This is a very important topic that has yet to be discussed, but isn't it possible that Pretzie from Hercules in New York traveled back in time, with the help of his buddies in Mount Olympus, to medieval Hauptmann-Koenig, joined up with Medieval Sorcerer Count Spretzle, and invented the PRETZEL. This would give Future Pretzie the career that enables him to meet Hercules in the first place and thereby, I dunno, save Future New York and Philadelphia simultaneously? Perhaps this refocusing of Sorcerer Spretzle's energies on delicious snack-making softened his evil ways, enabling him to ensure Mannequin Jessie's safety for future generations? Maybe this is why Jessie has remained in such pristine condition over a thousand years and why, just at the time Modern Spretzle is ready to bring her back to life, she is magically saved by the very person she is destined to fall in love with, thereby breaking the very curse Sorcerer Spretzle is responsible for?

 

Pretzie in Hauptmann-Koenig: Days of Future Past.

Mind...blown

 

I would like to also posit that Jessie is who Pretzie's wedding ring is for. Pretzie moved forward to the 80's to make sure Jessie would be OK and then came back to 60's New York to help Herc.

[ChunkStyle 1160]

Late in the movie, as Low Rent Mr. Tuttle and the police confront and arrest Jason over the theft of "The Peasant Girl," the Count descends the stairs carrying Jessie in his arms and makes it clear to all his intention of reclaiming his "property" and heading on down to Bermuda. Unfortunately for the Count, he is forced to hand Jessie over to the store manager when he is sternly reminded that they have a "contract." And while I don't know the exact details of said contract, it is a point I would like to explore...

 

Based on what the movie shows us, the deal is that the Count provides his country's must precious artifact to be displayed at Prince & CO, which will attract the Philadelphia elite and help drive sales. In return, Prince & CO will put on a presentation that will help elavate Hauptmann-Koenig's status on the World stage. The two parties each have their responsibilities: HK will provide the mannequin, P&C will put on a " dignified" show, and provide a secure place to keep HB's priceless relic. However, let's look at this from an objective perspective.

 

In the 48-72 hours "The Peasant Girl" has been in Prince & CO's care, it has already gone missing twice! They are currently in the process of arresting an employee of the store who has stolen this statue and taken it to his bedroom to do God knows what with it. This is the same employee who made off with her earlier only to return her after removing all her clothes (artifacts that I'm sure were just as valuable as the mannequin itself--if not more) and dressing her up in some skanked out garb he grabbed off the rack. To use an analogy from the episode, this would be like if King Tut were to be presented at a Pacific Sunwear and an employee removed all his wrappings and dressed him in some Speedos and a fluorescent Ocean Pacific tank top.

 

So, considering Prince & CO really monkey fucked their end of the bargain, I believe the Count would be well within his rights to consider their contract null and void. If anything, P&C should be apologizing to him for their inexcusable ineptitude and be thankful as shit that the government of HK hasn't threatened to litigate.

 

I was OK with the Count's plotting and multiple attempted murders but when he complained about the quality of The Presentation (it deserves capitalization at this point) that was really too much. He seems like a have his cake and eat it too kind of guy.

[Cameron H. 23786]

This is a very important topic that has yet to be discussed, but isn't it possible that Pretzie from Hercules in New York traveled back in time, with the help of his buddies in Mount Olympus, to medieval Hauptmann-Koenig, joined up with Medieval Sorcerer Count Spretzle, and invented the PRETZEL. This would give Future Pretzie the career that enables him to meet Hercules in the first place and thereby, I dunno, save Future New York and Philadelphia simultaneously? Perhaps this refocusing of Sorcerer Spretzle's energies on delicious snack-making softened his evil ways, enabling him to ensure Mannequin Jessie's safety for future generations? Maybe this is why Jessie has remained in such pristine condition over a thousand years and why, just at the time Modern Spretzle is ready to bring her back to life, she is magically saved by the very person she is destined to fall in love with, thereby breaking the very curse Sorcerer Spretzle is responsible for?

 

Pretzie in Hauptmann-Koenig: Days of Future Past.

 

 

I cannot adequately convey how much I love this post.

 

Mind...blown

 

I would like to also posit that Jessie is who Pretzie's wedding ring is for. Pretzie moved forward to the 80's to make sure Jessie would be OK and then came back to 60's New York to help Herc.

 

And this one just breaks my heart!

 

Well done, both of you!

 

ETA: Can Male-e-quin 3: The Curse of the Front Butt somehow include a Pretzie/Hollywood buddy team-up?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I got public praise from Cameron H.! My day is made!

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

I got public praise from Cameron H.! My day is made!

 

[taylor anne photo 11311]