The World's Only Podcast™ about bizarre, overlooked, and misbegotten media
Jen and Tim just can’t figure out why audiences were so lukewarm about this fun pulp adventure, The Phantom from 1996.
Phantom creator Lee Falk enthused about the movie in a 1996 interview, singling out Billy Zane for particular praise.
As Tim mentioned, The Phantom struck a chord with the people of Papua New Guinea. See examples of war shields of the PNG highlands featuring the character.
Tim and Jen welcome Rifftrax stalwarts Bill Corbett and Sean Thomason to discuss a cheapie high fantasy film that thinks it’s a spaghetti western, Hawk the Slayer!
Bill and Sean have brought their Ringheads podcast to a close, but if you crave some Silmarillon chat, find it on Apple Podcasts or your preferred podcast platform.
The Rifftrax version of Hawk the Slayer is free with ads on Tubi, or you can secure your very own copy at the Rifftrax website!
In the Realms of the Unreal does not appear to be streaming as of this writing, but you can find out more about outsider artist Henry Darger at the documentary’s official website.
Also, don’t miss Bill’s previous appearance on our show to chat about the 1979 TV movie version of Captain America, starring Big McLargehuge aka Reb Brown.
Jen and Tim journey to Gumbasia to experience the vision of a lovable madman, The Gumby Movie, aka Gumby 1!
The story of Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cell line that bears her name is a remarkable one, encompassing topics of institutionalized racism, scientific ethics, and medical marvels. Adam Curtis made a fine documentary about Lacks and the HeLa line of cells in 1997 for the BBC.
The video for “All The Things She Said” by Simple Minds presents a fine example of the then-cutting-edge video work of filmmaker Zbigniew Rybczyński.
And after you’ve seen that, really blow your mind with Charles and Ray Eames’s head-spinning 1977 short, Powers of Ten!
Tim and Jen spice up their lives with a fluffy little movie about five assertive young women, Spice World!
Read a contemporaneous account from Rolling Stone of the Spice Girls at the height of their global fame, in which they pick their noses, pee on things, and generally lark about.
The VH1 commercial slamming ELO that Jen mentioned is the first one in this compilation.
Yeah, what was the real Fox Force Five? Since there’s a wiki for everything, check the one for Pulp Fiction:
‘This premise inspired the theme for the Spice Girls’ 1996 music video for their song “Say You’ll Be There” in which the girls adopt similar fictional identities.’
🤯
In true user-edited wiki fashion, this one is incorrect about the Code Name: Foxfire series mentioned. There were actually eight episodes that aired from January to April 1985, not just a pilot.
Jen and Tim mildly disagree on a Sam Raimi film that didn’t quite hit with audiences the first time around, the gender-swapped revenge tale The Quick and the Dead.
You can watch some deleted scenes from the film, including the love scene between Sharon Stone and Russell Crowe (or “liebesszene,” as it’s described here, because it’s dubbed in German. A couple of the non-sexy scenes are missing audio, probably because those elements were lost after the theatrical edit was finalized.
Jen raised the notion that women are better shots than men, but there’s no real consensus. This study indicates that men and women are equally good at sharpshooting, apart from a slight advantage displayed by men with pistols. Well there goes the whole premise of the movie!!
Yes, Sam Raimi did credit Joss Whedon with helping him on the ending of The Quick and the Dead, but we won’t hold that against him.
Tim and Jen invite the world’s greatest Garfield scholar, Bitter Karella, to chat about a TV special inspired by a comic that traumatized a generation, Garfield: His 9 Lives.
Read Misunderstanding Comics, the funniest comic Scott McCloud never wrote, written by Tim and illustrated by Bitter Karella! Make Tim get those copies out of storage!
Have You Seen This…Dirty Cartoon? In case you missed our hilarious riff of Eveready Harton and you’re a patron, you can watch it here!
See some pages from the story Tim enthused about, the 1984 G.I. Joe comic issue #21 “Silent Interlude.”
Jen and Tim swab the deck with a hygiene film straight from the U.S. Navy, The Story of D.E. 733: Ship of Shame. Actually, turns out it’s pretty good, even with all the sores!
See the film in two parts (first reel and second reel) over at the Periscope Film YouTube channel, but be warned that it contains insert shots of male genitalia with symptoms of sexually transmitted infections. Wrap it before you tap it!
Jen says Mike Pence was governor of Iowa when she should have said Indiana. As she is a lifelong coastal elite, the states in the middle of the country just merge into a big blur when she looks at them. Anyway, the HIV outbreak started when Pence balked at funding needle exchanges for injection drug users.
See photos from the wartime U.S. Naval Photographic Services Depot, which produced The Story of D.E. 733.
The song the sailors are singing at the beginning of the film is “Bell Bottom Trousers,” which was adapted from an extremely saucy folk ballad called “Rosemary Lane.” Wikipedia has the original spicy lyrics.
Tim and Jen brave the crowdfunded sequel to Showgirls, a mindbogglingly lengthy auteur statement called Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven.
The entire thing is the work of bit-part Showgirls (the original) actress Rena Riffel, who wrote, directed, edited, and starred in…this. Please don’t be mad at us Rena we love you.
See Rena’s pivotal appearance in Tim’s beloved Fishmasters, the low-budget but charming San Luis Obispo-area TV show mentioned in the episode.
Geeks of Doom had some hilariously wrong information about the film when the first trailer and crowdfunding appeal droppped:
[T]he film is “about stripper who died from a dose of contaminated cocaine. Her brother comes to Frankfurt to find the responsible and revenge.”
We’ve seen it, and it’s not that. Luna Guthrie at Collider treats the movie much more kindly than we do, if you want a different take.
Finally, please watch Jen’s video mashing up R.O.T.O.R. with Midi, Maxi, and Efti, and follow us on YouTube if you’re not sick of us already!
Jen and Tim contextualize the band that ruled Nixon’s America, The Carpenters, for Todd Haynes’s early dollhouse biopic, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.
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Watch the film on the Internet Archive, but don’t tell Richard Carpenter you did!
Entertainment Weekly took a look back at the film in the aftermath of the unstoppable cultural juggernaut that was the Barbie movie.
Friend of Todd Haynes and producer Christine Vachon spilled some info on the restoration of Superstar in 2023.
Tim wisely stays far away while Jen hosts the lovable Worst of All Possible Worlds boys to chat about the worst of all possible musicals, Aladdin from 1990. Yes, it’s not the animated version, but it does involve Disney. Listen if you don’t believe us!
The moribund website of the Prince Street Players remains online, in case you want to do a deeper dive on the organization responsible for this mess.
Behold the “I Want to be Ninja” lady, but be prepared to apologize to your Asian friends. And yes, she does appear to be milking her dubious viral fame.
Regarding the Barry Bostwick-featuring commercial Jen mentioned, Brian made up a Pepsi product, and Jen believed him! The commercial actually presented Pepsi Twist, with lemon.
Check out Tim’s Myst linking book set, and follow him on Instagram to see more of his amazing Lego creations!