Episode 215 - The Country Bears (w/ Kulap Vilaysack)

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Kulap Vilaysack (Origin Story) joins Paul, June, and Jason to discuss the 2002 family musical comedy The Country Bears. They talk about the scale of the bears, Queen Latifah appearing as herself and a character, why Trixie wasn’t one of the Country Bears, honey being booze for bears, and much more. Plus, June shares advice on what to do if you encounter a bear.

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[i'll hold the mike 165]

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

[Crummy Scrimmage 188]

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.

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

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.

[Mister Card 23]

 So I think the easiest way to explain how this universe works, is that it’s much like a Looney Tunes universe. Elmer Fudd does go around hunting a sentient rabbit and duck and doesn’t seem to be particularly bothered by their existence. I think stuff like that it’s just easier to except a cartoon versus a live action movie

[Mister Card 23]

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.

[Wil Dride 121]

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.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

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 .

[JaguarScribbles 4]

Kumite!

Ok, take this with a grain of salt (or a fifth of whiskey), but this film was aimed at kids (unfortunately). 

That being said, if you look at it with a pre-teen mentality, not to be confused with Paul's and Jason's kid brains, it isn't horrible. It's just not HDTGM bad.  It makes sense from my standpoint, that the world is shared by talking bears. You really didn't see that many in the movie cuz... they already pushed their budget with the existing costumes. 

Why no bears in the lounge? Could all of the bear patrons have already left, or are they more civilized and not getting shit-faced during the week, unlike humans?

Plus there is little recognition from those in that world, because they have lived with bears so long... admitting Beary was a bear would be like us recognizing we had kids that looked different.

NO RACISM AGAINST BEARS ALLOWED!

Would I watch this movie? Maybe if it came on tv, and I had nothing else better to do (or wanted to do)

Anyway, that's my thinking.

GEOSTORM!!!!!

[gigi-tastic 2322]

3 hours ago, Crummy Scrimmage said:

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 -- Biana'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.

She has mentioned being at the Factory as a kid.... 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

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!

[PollyDarton 1807]

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

[Crummy Scrimmage 188]

1 hour ago, gigi-tastic said:

She has mentioned being at the Factory as a kid.... 

There ya go. The 70s.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

2 hours ago, PollyDarton said:

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

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

[Cameron H. 23786]

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. 

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

5 hours ago, Mister Card said:

 So I think the easiest way to explain how this universe works, is that it’s much like a Looney Tunes universe. Elmer Fudd does go around hunting a sentient rabbit and duck and doesn’t seem to be particularly bothered by their existence. I think stuff like that it’s just easier to except a cartoon versus a live action movie

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.

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

3 hours ago, gigi-tastic said:

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 .

 

3 hours ago, Wil Dride said:

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.

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?

[Cameron H. 23786]

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.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

34 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

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. 

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?

[Cameron H. 23786]

6 minutes ago, gigi-tastic said:

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?

“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!”

[The_Triple_Lindy 2482]

18 minutes ago, gigi-tastic said:

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?

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. 

[Elektra Boogaloo 3371]

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.

[TheJaguarOfMyGroup 18]

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?

[Cameron H. 23786]

37 minutes ago, TheJaguarOfMyGroup said:

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?

Yes, I believe that was Diedrich Bader.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

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