Episode 198 - Look Who’s Talking Too: LIVE!

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I have to touch on a couple of things that Jason brought up, first up the notion that Travolta as a pilot isn't making enough and has to drive a taxi as a second job is firmly rooted in reality. Most starting pilots make less than $20,000 a year, so thats perfectly believable to me. 

The other is him noticing how macabre the cartoon that Mikey is watching and being confused as to how a parent could let a kid watch that. Growing up, one of my parents bought a Tex Avery collection of cartoons on VHS that I watched endlessly. You want to talk about some questionable shit, you should try watching Screwball Classics sometime and see how not well thats aged.  

The cartoon in question is actually an old school Betty Boop from the 30's. And the art style of the cartoon should be familiar to anyone who's played the absurdly difficult Cuphead. They were directly inspired by the old cartoons from Max Fleischer. The full cartoon is below, which is actually really interesting, especially how well they animated Cab Calloways dance moves. 

 

 

 

[What Were They Thinking 4]

This part definitely stood out to me...

Before Julie is even born and when Mikey has his dream sequence about how he's going to be a good big brother to her, how in the world does he know what Julie will look like? Unless Mikey is sneaking up into the womb and taking a gander at the baby, I doubt he would know exactly what she looks like...

[Smigg. 509]

21 hours ago, gigitastic said:

I don't know how to process this information.  Why???

I wish I could tell you.

I've always been the kind of person who just leaves people do to as they wish with their lives.  But one of the biggest things that winds me up more than anything are kids being dressed like adults, especially girls, because I always think that's way worse, because I know what some people are like. It just makes me want to grab the parents by the scruff of the neck and berate them in public and just say "What the fuck doing you think you're doing with this kid?!"

[grudlian. 4725]

14 hours ago, The_Triple_Lindy said:

When June mentioned that "no penis" might be a problematic way of describing women, she neglected to connect that to the moment when in-utero Julie discovers herself and says, "two eyes, two ears ... two mouths?!"

Also, since the father decides whether the child is male or female, at least half of John Travolta's sperm should have sounded like Rosanne. 

Also also, those sperm not only got through the diaphragm, but James was on top of the covers and they were both clothed when they started fucking. I'd kind of like to thing those little gamete guys and gals overcame some serious adversity. 

Also, unless I'm wrong, isn't it virtually impossible for one sperm to break down the wall of the egg? Don't multiple sperms normally need to hit the wall trying to fuse before a sperm could actually get inside to fertilize? So, even if one lone sperm made it passed the diaphragm, went to the correct fallopian tube, and survived the journey to reach the egg, it probably couldn't fertilize the egg anyway. That really is some serious adversity to overcome.

[Mistweave 15]

Did anyone notice in one scene there’s a maid folding laundry? (How do they afford a maid on an accountant and taxi driver/pilot salary?) Or maybe she’s the babysitter because the parents are leaving for work. And when they leave and Julie starts crying no one is there to comfort her! Seriously these are neglectful parents that never seem to be around their kids. Almost missing Julie’s first step, not noticing the sibling rivalry at all, etc. Mikey destroys his youngest sisters favorite toy and the head is still there weeks? Months? later...if that is the maid she’s doing a bad job! 

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

2 hours ago, grudlian. said:

Also, unless I'm wrong, isn't it virtually impossible for one sperm to break down the wall of the egg? Don't multiple sperms normally need to hit the wall trying to fuse before a sperm could actually get inside to fertilize? So, even if one lone sperm made it passed the diaphragm, went to the correct fallopian tube, and survived the journey to reach the egg, it probably couldn't fertilize the egg anyway. That really is some serious adversity to overcome.

Then again, these are John Travolta's sperm. Who knows what thetan-clear OT 8 swimmers are capable of. 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

7 hours ago, Smigg. said:

I wish I could tell you.

I've always been the kind of person who just leaves people do to as they wish with their lives.  But one of the biggest things that winds me up more than anything are kids being dressed like adults, especially girls, because I always think that's way worse, because I know what some people are like. It just makes me want to grab the parents by the scruff of the neck and berate them in public and just say "What the fuck doing you think you're doing with this kid?!"

Ugh same. I just was scarred because Kim Zolciak got caught Photoshoping her FOUR YEAR OLD daughter to have a bigger butt in a picture. Because of course a fucking child needs a bigger ass!

[RyanHorn 31]

I just finished watching Brian De Palma’s Blow Out on Amazon Prime

*spoilers if you haven’t seen Blow Out*

Travolta crashes a Jeep into a store window and is knocked unconscious. He wakes up in the back of an ambulance with a small thin bandage wrapped around his head.

I couldn’t help but see the parallels between this scene and the birth of Julie where Travolta injures himself and wakes up with a small thin bandage. 

Does Look Who’s Talking Too contain an homage to Blow Out?! 

[JammerLea 2070]

Appropriately I listened to this episode while doing basic accounting work at my store.

I didn't watch the film before listening. I do clearly remember renting all three of the movies on VHS as a kid. I recall feeling uncomfortable at fertilization stuff, but otherwise I remember nothing about any of them. I feel like that might not be unfortunate though.

[phyzzi 28]

So, this  doesn't directly relate to this movie, and maybe this has been covered already...  But has it  been discussed  that there  is an HDTGM reference in  Batman #55? Paul has shouted out  Tom King's Mister Miracle several times. Looks like he's reciprocating  some of the love.

 

[grudlian. 4725]

4 hours ago, JammerLea said:

Appropriately I listened to this episode while doing basic accounting work at my store.

What accounting magazines do you subscribe to?

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

On 9/28/2018 at 6:41 PM, muttnik said:

I believe you are 100% remembering the first movie right. Now I also haven't seen any of these movies in a long time, but I believe I remember Travolta taking flying lessons in the first movie. He brings Mikey along to one and they have a "moment" over some woman's big boobs (gross) and then he takes the baby on his flying lesson. He takes a child who is not his on a flying lesson without telling the mother beforehand.

I think there's also potential Travolta cheating bullshit in the third movie when the family gets dogs at Christmas. These movies are just terrible.

It's funny how I always manage to repress the fraud in 80s and 90s movies. 

I guess I am worried that Mikey has all these thoughts and he's never able to actually express them. Like there is some kind of block between his mind and, well, the actor playing the rest of him. It's a hellscape nightmare. 

[iamSGA 21]

I forgot how creepy the intro to this movie was. This is straight insane. 

Also, the guy who played Casey Jones in TMNT is in this--prob riding that wave (since this was made in 1990). 

[DannytheWall 196]

Does anyone know the approach the director/actors used to make this movie? Surely there can't be a shooting script with Bruce and Roseanne's lines typed out for them to read? I mean, I can only guess based on the looks of things, but it seems like they just shot a bunch of footage all at once, then edited it in some vague sense of through-line, and finally had the actors improv during a dubbing session. And they just went with the first take of the reading. Clearly, Look What's Talking Too is what happens when you get actors by name and not by reputation of improv comedy or voice-over. 

It also follows a general trend at the time if I remember right. A lot of comedies in the late 80s/early 90s found a successful formula relying on actors just free-forming it while cameras rolled, especially with actors like Robin Williams and Jim Carrey. Sketch comedy seemed to be a trend with a new generation of SNL, In Living Color, etc. I wonder if the rise of video and digital contributed, since you didn't have to restrain your actors because of pesky things like expensive film stock more and more.

Then again, maybe my timeline is off, since it would take another 10 years or so for our technology to produce Baby Geniuses. 

 

[DannytheWall 196]

On 9/29/2018 at 11:18 AM, Ofcoursemyhorse said:

 

The cartoon in question is actually an old school Betty Boop from the 30's. And the art style of the cartoon should be familiar to anyone who's played the absurdly difficult Cuphead. They were directly inspired by the old cartoons from Max Fleischer. The full cartoon is below, which is actually really interesting, especially how well they animated Cab Calloways dance moves. 

\

 

LOL you beat me to the footnote about the animated cartoon.  (Although technically the Cab Calloway stuff is very much rotoscoped, which makes it look so different to the bouncey animation of the other characters.) 

The reason we all got so many VHS compilations of toons like these is due to some copyright issues that let a lot of these things slip into public domain or otherwise be adapted freely into the new medium of home video. Like the hosts said, the media budget got blown on all the big-name songs, so they had to throw in a free public domain Betty Boop for some reason. 

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

Jason requests stats on the effectiveness of diaphragms. Planned Parenthood says they are about 88% effective. 

But what I am curious about now is why the diaphragm has Kirstie Alley's voice. It is not a part of her or from her. The egg should have her voice. The diaphragm should be, like, Dr. Ruth or someone.

[JammerLea 2070]

2 hours ago, grudlian. said:

What accounting magazines do you subscribe to?

If it existed, it would be "I Hate Math Monthly". (I'm not an actual accountant.)

[DannytheWall 196]

Although I said that Roseanne wasn't an accomplished voice-over artist, this film wouldn't be Roseanne's only voice acting work. 

About the same time she must have been working on Look Who's Talking Too, Roseanne helped produce an animated children's cartoon called "Little Rosey."  The main character was based on a semi-autobiographical version of her 8 year-old self, but it only lasted one season, before Roseanne could voice a character. A year later, a prime time special version of the cartoon *did* feature Roseanne's voice. The storyline of that, called The Rosey and Buddy Show, featured the main characters battling some meddling cartoon studio executives (in the form of weasels) that want to stop them from doing their tv show. Hmm. 

Years later, of course, it's 2004 with Walt Disney Animation's Home on the Range, where Roseanne voiced the lead role of a cow with plenty of opportunity for frequent udder jokes. It basically coincided with the shut down of the 2D animation unit at Disney for pretty much forever (with the attempts at only a couple of exceptions.)     

Ok, so maybe "accomplished" voice-over artist isn't the right term. 

PS-- Home on the Range should probably be on the recommendation list if it isn't already

 

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

8 hours ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

Jason requests stats on the effectiveness of diaphragms. Planned Parenthood says they are about 88% effective. 

Note that these effectiveness numbers are *almost always* based on self-reporting.

Meaning when barrier methods (condoms and diaphragms, etc.) fail it's usually because people are lying about using them.

[hotironskillet 137]

On 9/29/2018 at 1:03 PM, Mistweave said:

Did anyone notice in one scene there’s a maid folding laundry? (How do they afford a maid on an accountant and taxi driver/pilot salary?) Or maybe she’s the babysitter because the parents are leaving for work. And when they leave and Julie starts crying no one is there to comfort her! Seriously these are neglectful parents that never seem to be around their kids. Almost missing Julie’s first step, not noticing the sibling rivalry at all, etc. Mikey destroys his youngest sisters favorite toy and the head is still there weeks? Months? later...if that is the maid she’s doing a bad job! 

I assumed that was the nanny since they were leaving for work. But if John Travolta has such a low paying job, I think they'd be better off having him be a stay at home dad and not bother with a nanny.

[hotironskillet 137]

13 hours ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

Jason requests stats on the effectiveness of diaphragms. Planned Parenthood says they are about 88% effective. 

But what I am curious about now is why the diaphragm has Kirstie Alley's voice. It is not a part of her or from her. The egg should have her voice. The diaphragm should be, like, Dr. Ruth or someone.

Is that with spermicide? The spermicide is supposed to kill any of those little fuckers that make it past the diaphragm.

[hotironskillet 137]

What I really want to know is why those people didn't let Jason hold their baby? Just for a little while.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

14 hours ago, Elektra Boogaloo said:

It's funny how I always manage to repress the fraud in 80s and 90s movies. 

I guess I am worried that Mikey has all these thoughts and he's never able to actually express them. Like there is some kind of block between his mind and, well, the actor playing the rest of him. It's a hellscape nightmare. 

It's a Get Out scenario. Poor Mikey is in the Sunken Place while Bruce Willis drives his body around.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

3 minutes ago, hotironskillet said:

What I really want to know is why those people didn't let Jason hold their baby? Just for a little while.

If Jason asked, "May I hold that baby?" I might let him. But instead, he says, "Give me that baby," and that sentence has never been uttered with wholesome intentions.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 hour ago, hotironskillet said:

What I really want to know is why those people didn't let Jason hold their baby? Just for a little while.

I haven’t listened to the episode yet so I’m not sure if the context, but I know my baby is *really* bad around people he doesn’t know. It could be that they were afraid the baby would freak out, which would force them to leave or for HDTGM to put the show on hold while they calmed their child.