Magic Eye and The Muppet Christmas Carol

Joanna explains the key role a '90s mime played in the creation of Magic Eye. Drew shares how "The Muppet Christmas Carol" shaped his life and influenced tenant rights.

Follow the show on Instagram @mywholepersonalitypod
Produced and edited by Joanna Clark
Theme music by Rebecca Jaffe
Podcast art by Michelle Hong (michelleyhong.com)

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

But you know, I guess if you're trying to sculpt teeth out of felt they're gonna look a little weird. Because there's not many Muppets that have teeth.

SPEAKER_03 0:10

No muppets have teeth.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Yeah, no, so I think that that was I think that horse teeth are such a defining feature of horse facial recognition that you have to give them the teeth. But the felt teeth did look um concerning.

SPEAKER_05 0:24

It was horrific.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

I like this one thing, so I made it my whole thing. Now no one wants to talk to me at parties. Please listen to my spiel, because I made it my whole deal. I made it my whole personality.

SPEAKER_05 0:43

Yeah. Hey everyone, welcome to the official first episode of My Whole Personality. I just wanted to come up top really quickly and introduced to my guest because I forgot to do it when we were recording. And um, he's one of my best friends, so it was kind of rude of me, actually. But this is an episode with Drew. He is so funny. As soon as I decided to do a podcast, he was the first person I reached out to because we find the same things very funny, and he is also somebody who is incredibly opinionated, um, super passionate about things, and just a natural fit for this first episode. Um just we have so much fun together. One of my favorite things he ever did was um we were sharing a hotel room for a wedding, and I came into the hotel room and found he was just kind of like cowering on the floor between the bed and the wall, ranting, raving, uh kind of getting up and getting back down. And I asked what was going on, and he said that he had been humiliated at Longhorn Steakhouse. So I actually have a clip of him that I will play right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Hey, excuse me, the lady, the lady at Longhorn. Longhorn.

SPEAKER_05 1:56

But um, I hope you all like this first episode. He is a scholar of the topic that he chose. It's um, I actually truly did learn a lot, and I I'm just I hope you all like it. Okay, bye.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Can I vape on here?

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Maybe I won't. No, you can. Well, I'll vape on here, but if we're in the middle of like a heated discussion, I don't want to be like Oh, okay. Um I do need I need more wine.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

Okay. Um, vape, when you vape, it makes spores grow in your lungs.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

And I know that for So here's the thing. Here's the thing about smoking, vaping, all the things.

SPEAKER_05 2:38

Okay. I don't have asthma, I don't support this.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Well, I don't do a lot of no, I'm not gonna I'm not about to say that I'm like pro anything that's like obviously bad for your body. I'm just saying that there's you pour it's like ASMR with the bottom.

SPEAKER_05 2:52

Okay, the first thing that I'm gonna talk about, just like briefly, is um when I think of class, when I think of art, when I think of money having having it.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Things are coming to mind, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

I think of magic eye posters.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 3:10

I was obsessed with magic eye posters as a kid.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Where were you?

SPEAKER_05 3:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Really? Yeah, we didn't. Did you have well okay? Well, no, tell me more. No, it's okay. My experience with them.

SPEAKER_05 3:20

Not good.

unknown 3:21

I can't do them.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I cannot do them. It has plagued me my whole life.

SPEAKER_05 3:26

Um, I feel so bad for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Well, me too. Because every time I was at the doctor's office, they would have like a book of them and stuff. Did you have books at home?

SPEAKER_05 3:34

I think we had a couple prints, but I remember specifically I would go to Home Depot with my dad a lot, and I think they sold them there, and we would get them. But I remember Home Depot? Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Um my art. Wait, why don't you have any framed magic eye posters? This is a teaser.

SPEAKER_05 3:55

I know, I gave up on my dream. But when I was little, I was like, I'm gonna have them all over my house. I remember the first time I saw one, we my dad used to go over to this one of his friends' house and they would play Magic the Gathering, and my sister and I would like fuck off in the in the living room. And I remember just like seeing these magic eye posters and being like, this is it.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

So wait, is that how he kept you entertained for hours? He was just like go in the basement and watch stare at this piece of paper?

SPEAKER_05 4:20

Yeah. Okay, so these things have been around forever. They're not magic eye paintings, they're called auto stereograms. Uh auto? Auto stereograms, or just stereograms. But so in the early 90s, this man named Tom, he was working at a tech company in Boston, uh-huh, and he had to like put out an ad or something for one of their products. Hold for bark. Somebody's barking.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Where is there even a dog in the same adjacency to us?

SPEAKER_05 4:46

Well, there's one below us, but she doesn't bark, she screams. Okay, so he was gonna take an ad out in a trade publication, and he was like, I need to make an ad, I need to make an interesting thing, so he's like, so he hired a mime. He was gonna photograph a mime for the ad. And then the mime was really into 3D printing. And the guy Tom was like, I'm I could be into 3D print. Yeah, 3D photography, excuse me.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 5:12

The mime and him got to talking. What year was this? This was the 90s.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

A nineties mime?

SPEAKER_05 5:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

When you said mime, I was like, so we're in the 30s or something. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 5:22

Oh no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I didn't know. Is Mime Marie is it is it my Marie?

SPEAKER_05 5:26

Anybody can. Allie saw a mime when she was driving to tennis the other morning.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Just on the side of the road.

SPEAKER_05 5:33

She said it was like, I think it was probably like 8 a.m. and these women were trying to have their coffee. And the mime was costing them.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Was he like stealing their coffee?

SPEAKER_05 5:46

Well, he can't I don't think you can touch anything.

unknown 5:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

What is the 3D photography?

SPEAKER_05 5:51

Okay, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Okay, so the a mime, he was like who who specializes in not touching making sure or creating space within space that is invisible. Yeah. Okay, and his specialty was thank you. He was just like I hope that all the mimes out there agree with that definition of their artwork. But and and he special the mime himself the mime was the specialist in the photography.

SPEAKER_05 6:16

I think he just liked it.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Okay, got it.

SPEAKER_05 6:18

Okay, yeah, he he was into 3D photography, and um, maybe he had a camera or something, and so this guy, Tom, was like, Where did you get that camera? And the mime was like, I got it in this magazine, and then the guy looked at the magazine like Skymail? Uh that comes into play.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 6:36

So the guy looked at the magazine, and there was uh one of those auto stereograms in there, and he was like, This is the coolest thing I've ever seen.

unknown 6:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 6:43

Because back then they were I don't know what they were. So, anyways, okay it took them all. It a guy hired a mime. The mime was into 3D photography. The guy who hired the mime was like, I want to get into that. The mime directed him to this magazine that happened to have an auto stereogram in it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Okay. So they neither of these two people, the mime nor him, he invented the medium.

SPEAKER_05 7:16

No. Um so the guy, Tom, he saw that audio stereogram. He's like, I'm obsessed with this. This is so cool. So he started using them in ads. He did one for American Airlines in their In Flight magazine, and he said that flight attendants were calling him mid-flight and being like, You have to tell us what this puzzle is. People are losing it on the plane.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_05 7:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

I love this.

SPEAKER_05 7:42

I know. So then um he we met this artist, Sherry Smith, and she was like, These could be beautiful, and we could make them into art. And so then they started Magic Eye, and they sold all these books, and then I stopped reading.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

What I mean, you don't need to know anymore.

SPEAKER_05 7:59

Isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

But okay. How how do they arrange it in a way that it does that?

SPEAKER_05 8:07

Um, I forget. Yeah, there's a lot of information about how to do it. I don't want to read it because it's That's okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I mean, I'm not that interested, but I just I just link to Magic, I read it. Sure. Oh god.

SPEAKER_05 8:23

When I told you about this podcast, I was like, I know Drew has a lot of things that he's obsessed with, and I'm pretty sure that you actually brought this to the table.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Oh, I'll bring it to the table every time. I talk about this, I don't know, once a week.

SPEAKER_05 8:36

I didn't know how obsessed you were until New Year's Eve when it came on and you stomped on the couch and knew every word.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Okay, should I should we divulge?

SPEAKER_05 8:46

Oh yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Okay. So in a lot of ways, not only is it my whole personality, but my personality was shaped by the Muppets. I feel as though the Muppets are one of the most important cultural uh paragons of our lifetime. Paragon. And I think that they peaked at Muppets Christmas Carol. It is the best. Okay, I have three movies that are my favorite movies. And this really tells you everything you need to know about me. Child Children of Men-mm. And Drop Dead Gorgeous.

SPEAKER_05 9:21

Okay, we've talked about this because I've never seen it, which I know is a problem.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

That's a big problem. You should watch both of those and a Muppet's Christmas Carol. And when people ask me what my favorite movie is, I really depends on the day. Sometimes I'll say Muppets Christmas Carol, but because I think I've probably watched it more than any other movie.

SPEAKER_05 9:36

That was my question is how many times have you watched it?

SPEAKER_01 9:39

I okay. I would I would venture to guess 500. But I know for a fact that it's the only movie my I've watched every single year of my entire life. We would watch it every single year at Christmas. I would put it in the VHS and I would watch the first sequence on repeat.

SPEAKER_05 9:58

It's the one you performed at New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Scrooge from A Muppets Christmas Carol. It's the opening sequence. It is everything.

SPEAKER_05 10:06

It's really good.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

It intros the story so well. And do you know what's an interesting fact about that? What? Okay, so Scrooge, the the premise of this song and the sequence of this movie is that Scrooge is Ebenezer Scrooge from a Christmas Carol. The you know, what is it, Charles Dickens, the story, the classic story that everybody knows, right? And so he's walking through the village, and it's the village people talking about him, like being like, He's such a bad guy, we hate him, he's the worst, he's so mean to us. And it literally is the exact same thing as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, which is also the perfect way to intro a movie. It's the same, but like opposite. Because in Bell, they're like, She's so weird, what's wrong with her? She's so beautiful, she's odd. Yeah, and this one's literally like he's the son of a bitch, we hate him. And what it does very effectively is sets up the character and like the story. You know so much within three minutes.

SPEAKER_05 11:02

It's a great song.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

One of the best things about it, and this is also one of the best things about the Muppet Cinematic Universe that I will keep referring to. Sure, sure, is the way that they do voices. Because my favorite thing to mimic about it is like when a cold wind blows, it kills you, chills you to the bone. And then it and then it cuts immediately to this like shrill woman who they have never backed down from like really showing shrill women, and she goes, but there's nothing in nature that freezes you hard like here's being alone. You know, it's so good. And then every single character that you're gonna see the rest of the movie is there talking shit about him, and he's walking through, and it's Michael Cain playing it serious as a car accident. He's like, he literally, I don't even know, I don't think he knew he was in a mode.

SPEAKER_05 11:54

Okay, I have information about this.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_05 11:56

So I didn't want to tell you this last night, but I actually got the bonus extended version. Okay, oh so there were interviews with Brian Henson, and he was like, We cast Michael Cain in this, and we had no idea how straight he was gonna play it. They're like, we were blown away.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

It's I mean, because it's incredible- They literally cast like one of the best actors.

SPEAKER_05 12:20

His performance in that is so good when he's in the graveyard.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

He's crying?

SPEAKER_05 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

It's I like where's the Oscar? And also, another thing that they set up in the first scene is um it's a real step forward for rat culture.

SPEAKER_05 12:38

Yeah, because and I know that you I identify, and I love the rat. Although I don't like Rizzo.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Well, Rizzo the Rat is the narrator's sidekick, right? So Gonzo the Great is Charles Dickens in this case, and Rizzo is his little sidekick, but they also have multiple mice characters and rat characters that are like representing, you know, the common folk, if you will, and like the people that tr that Scrooge is mistreating, and he's not giving them cheeses for the Mises, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 13:07

Oh my god, I forgot about that line. It's so good. Yeah, they do mice different than rats.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Well, they do, yeah. The mice are much more feeble. Rizzo's pretty like hard, gritty. Rosie O'Donnell-esque.

unknown 13:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

I feel like if there was a live action where they made the Muppets into people, I feel like Rizzo would be really good.

SPEAKER_05 13:30

Oh my god. Um, I in the bonus version, I learned that Michael Cain was like, they the first scenes they shot, he was with the rats a lot. So he was like really comfortable with them and filming with them, and he's like, this is great because they're all small muppets. And then when he had to interact with Beaker and Benson, he was freaked out.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Because they're like more human-sized.

SPEAKER_05 13:48

Yeah. Oh. And so he really had to adapt to that.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

No, I would have loved to have been on scene or on site for that filming because how do you interact with like a Muppet?

SPEAKER_05 13:58

Michael Cain said that when he was looking, when he was like acting with one of them or something, the puppeteer. Sorry to break the fourth wall here.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

They're not real creatures.

SPEAKER_05 14:09

The puppeteer was like really uncomfortable and had to stop. And Michael Cain was like, What's going on? And he was like, I've never had to look an actor in the eye and say this before. Because the puppet, like, the puppeteers aren't used to making eye contact with humans and like having a scene.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Like a lot of the subject matter of that movie is quite serious. It's very serious. It's about it's about morality, it's about your choices and looking back on your life and like understanding that you did this and you've you're a bad person. So that would be fucking weird to be like, well, I'm looking Kermit in the face and I'm telling him that I regret all the things I've done to him.

SPEAKER_05 14:46

Or that he's like a piece of shit and his son deserves to die.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Right.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

Do you think that landlords like this movie?

SPEAKER_01 14:51

I think that this movie was also a big step forward for tenant rights. I wonder if there has been any research done for like 1993 probably was the turning point. I don't know, because I think the landlords are still pretty awful. Yeah. But I think that they probably um, you know, if there was a list of you know how there's banned books? This is on the list of banned films. Yeah, for landlord for landlord.

SPEAKER_05 15:20

Can you imagine being a little kid and being like, Daddy, daddy, I want to watch my Christmas Carol, and then watching it and being like So you're a bad guy. What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

So my dad's kind of a bad yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I feel like it probably did that for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_05 15:42

Did you know? Okay, and maybe this is just like my ignorance on Muppet culture. The Swedish chef, he had human hands in this.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

He always does.

SPEAKER_05 15:50

Okay. I was shocked by that.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

I do think that's one of the only. I think it's the only character that has any human appendages, but um it's because for the dexterity.

SPEAKER_05 16:00

Yeah, because you're with knife work. Okay, wait, uh, the horse's teeth, so fucked up.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

The horses, okay, so fucked up. But also one of my favorite things is the voice they give the horses. I think it's it's like goofy-esque. It's like and like they'll do like, what is their line even in that song? Because they're part of the beginning song, and they're like, um, oh, I can't remember, but they're like their voice is very like, oh, and I love them, but their horses are weird.

SPEAKER_05 16:28

They're really bad.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

But you know, I guess if you're trying to sculpt teeth out of felt they're gonna look a little weird because there's not many Muppets that have teeth.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

No muppets have teeth.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah, no, so I think that that was I think that horse teeth are such a defining feature of horse facial recognition that you have to give them the teeth. But the felt teeth did look um It was horrific. Sure.

unknown 16:58

Oh no.

SPEAKER_05 16:59

I hate the ghost of Christmas present. I've always hated him. I think that he's like just awful.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

I know I I well, hot take. I don't like any of the ghosts. I really don't like porcelain child.

SPEAKER_05 17:11

Okay, do you want to know how she was made? They put a Muppet in a bucket of oil.

unknown 17:14

Ugh.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

What? Are you saying she's a Muppet? Yes, she's a puppet. She has like CGI. I know.

SPEAKER_05 17:19

So they put a puppet in a bucket of oil, and then they were like, that didn't give it as much like movement as we wanted. So then they put her in a bucket of water, and then they like filmed her skirts, her body, like moving in water.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

The ghost of Christmas past is terrifying. Yeah, she's more so than the future.

SPEAKER_05 17:35

I didn't like her. But I I think honestly, my least favorite is the ghost of Christmas past.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Well, I don't like any of them, but I don't think we're supposed to like them, they're supposed to teach you lessons.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

They're scary. That was one of my questions. Where do you think that your ghost of Christmas past would take you to show you where you fucked up?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Okay, so one time my parents, okay, so I don't know how everybody, because I feel like everybody does Christmas like different in terms of like the present display or the present like giving or whatever. But what we did in my house was my parents would um have everything be from Santa, and so we would wake up in the morning, and me and my sister would like go into each other's rooms and like wake each other up, and it was like cute, and then we would like collectively go in and see all of the presents, and my parents didn't wrap them, so they were on display, and um we would go down there and like see it all, and it was like this big like oh, I'm so excited, this is so fun. And one year I went down early, not early per se, even it was sneaky. I knew that they were out, and I went in and I looked at everything, and then I went back to bed and acted like I didn't. Since that moment, I do not ever, ever, ever like to know a surprise.

SPEAKER_05 18:51

I don't like to know because I don't like to know anything like spoilers and you hate spoilers.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

I feel like I spoiled that Christmas morning for myself, and I think that what I robbed myself of for the rest of my life, honestly, is like that feeling of like getting up and going down and being like so surprised. So if my ghost of Christmas past, specifically Christmas, were to take me back to something, I feel like I would go back and watch myself doing that and feel shame about it.

SPEAKER_05 19:18

That's so sad. I don't know what my because I was trying to answer that for myself. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Ghost of Christmas past.

SPEAKER_05 19:26

What my ghost of Christmas past, like specifically Christmas related. I remember one I feel really bad, but it's like this didn't change the trajectory of my life. But I remember one time I got back from like a Christmas Eve party and I was like on chat like 8 a.m. and I was like messaging with somebody I was trying to impress, and I was like, my parents are being like really weird, they're like hiding a surprise from me, and they're like, What do you think it is? And I was like 14, and I was like, I think they got me a car.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

You were 14?

SPEAKER_05 19:59

Yeah, I was like, I think my parents like totally got me a car. It was a cow two years early, which was amazing, but they were like being really weird, like, don't come downstairs, like we gotta like- You thought there was a car in the basement? Yeah, but I like feel really bad about that because I was like, What a little bitch.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

I just am confused why 14-year-old you thought that you were gonna get a car.

SPEAKER_05 20:21

I don't know. I think that you didn't know the rules of the I didn't know the rules, and I just was like, I was going to I was living above my means in my head.

unknown 20:29

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 20:35

Okay, um, who's your favorite Muppet?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

In terms of favorite Muppet, I think that there is there's truly only one correct answer, but I'm going to give you several.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Do you understand? So the the answer that everybody should have Janice is Miss Pig. Oh, excuse me. Because she is a feminist icon, she is a gay icon, she is a powerful woman who has a very clear idea of what she wants, needs, and expects from people. And I think that she is such an important, like, cultural icon. I really think that Miss Piggy is like very cool and important. I think it's really wild that she has such an unapologetic way about being so lovable. Like everybody loves her, but she's a bitch, but we love her.

SPEAKER_05 21:24

Yeah, is definitely Kermit. She does, but he loves him, but she wants him so bad.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Oh, and he could care less. Take me or leave me.

SPEAKER_05 21:32

He's I mean, call me crazy. I think Kermit's asexual.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

I think that Kermit is on a journey to discover himself, and I don't think he's ever gotten there. But Miss Piggy thinks that she's got it figured out for him. And I'm fine with that. So Miss Piggy is everything. Yeah. But then I also think there's some notable characters that are my favorites. I think Janice is the best Muppet. I love her so much. She's very underutilized. Janice is everything. And then the other character that I really cannot leave here without mentioning is Beaker. That's my favorite! Beaker is everything.

SPEAKER_05 22:10

Beaker's my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Wait, what do you love about Beaker? What's your favorite? Why do you relate?

SPEAKER_05 22:14

I relate because he always looks a little bit like he's confused about where he is.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

No idea.

SPEAKER_05 22:20

To me, that is how I feel whenever I like enter a space where I'm just like, I got so much going on. I don't really I don't know, and I like the way he looks. Um you like the way he looks. I think I like something without a neck.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Yeah, there's no neck.

unknown 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

No definition. Well, really what's happening is there's no chin. Right. Because there is neck, it's all neck. Chin is gone.

SPEAKER_05 22:41

Which Muppet do you trust the least?

SPEAKER_01 22:47

Animal. I don't trust animal as far as I can throw him, and I could probably throw him pretty far. But I think animal is pretty reckless, and I don't I don't agree with that lifestyle. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 22:58

You think he does drugs?

SPEAKER_01 23:00

I think he would encourage you to do drugs. I think he'd I don't think he'd do it to himself. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 23:05

Yeah. That happened to my friend Grace once. I hate Gonzo.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

I don't hate Gonzo.

SPEAKER_05 23:10

I hate Gonzo.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Do you care to elaborate?

SPEAKER_05 23:13

No, he just like rubs me the wrong way.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

But in turn as far as trustworthiness, um, I feel like he will spin a story. He will tell you what you want to hear. In that regard, I think Animal's a little more trustworthy, actually, now that I think about it, because he at least is so kind of dumb.

SPEAKER_05 23:31

He's transparent.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

But Gonzo's pretty manipulative.

SPEAKER_05 23:34

100%. Animal is just like a dumb, chaotic. You can't really expect what he's gonna do or anticipate what he's gonna do, but you know it's never gonna be like super, super calculated. Gonzo is like pulling a lot of strings.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

See, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 23:50

He knows what he's doing, and it's like it's not good.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Yeah, because I don't trust Animal in the fact that he's irresponsible. He's irresponsible. I trust Gonzo in the idea that he is actively working against me. Right? Right.

SPEAKER_05 24:08

What movie do you want to remake with the Muppets?

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Uh honestly, I encourage everybody to have this conversation. Think about movies that could be remade as Muppets. I I do think the most obvious and best one would be Titanic.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

I it's so good.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Can you imagine the entire just shot for shot, change nothing? No dialogue changes. Maybe add some songs if you're feeling crazy.

SPEAKER_05 24:35

Absolutely add songs.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

I also would love Armageddon.

SPEAKER_05 24:40

You know, that's my one of my favorite movies of all time.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

But can you imagine? Like the whole crew drill in on that. The fate of humanity depends on the Muppets. What do you think?

SPEAKER_05 24:53

Well, as my my pics are mostly just like war movies uh behind enemy lines or Blackhawk Down.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Saving Private Ryan.

SPEAKER_05 25:03

That's the one that I wanted to save Private Ryan. Pearl Harbor.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

That would be good. Yeah, I think that could be really good.

SPEAKER_05 25:11

You know, I probably learned about a Christmas Carol from a Muppets Christmas Carol.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Oh, sure. Yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_05 25:16

People could learn about Pearl Harbor from a Muppets Carol.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

So you're saying from an education perspective?

SPEAKER_05 25:21

People could learn about Armageddon from a Muppets Armageddon.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

This is an underserved, like need.

SPEAKER_05 25:27

I know. Is there anything else you wanted to add about a Muppets Christmas Carol before we begin to get to the bonus content?

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Um, I don't think so. I mean, let me I I did have a little list of things that I was hoping to make sure that we hit on, but I think I got them all. Oh. Um, on the soundtrack, this isn't that important, but there was one song.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

This is what I was gonna bring up.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

When love is gone? Yeah. Are you kidding?

unknown 25:52

No.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

It's in the bonus content. Is it really? Are you gonna talk about Martina?

SPEAKER_05 25:56

Who's Martina?

unknown 25:57

Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

You you do your thing. I've I do your thing because if it's related to that song, then that is what I was gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_05 26:03

Okay. Well, I was gonna say in the bonus content, I learned a couple things. There was a whole scene cut where Belle is singing with a young Michael Kane, and it's really bad. She's a she's a great singer because I like that.

SPEAKER_04 26:26

Wait, the love is gone. It's so bad. Where how did you see it?

SPEAKER_01 26:31

So my VHS version has the original, but when but every time I've rewatched it on another platform, Netflix, for example, um, they cut that out.

SPEAKER_05 26:40

I really hated it.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

That was one that I would sing a lot.

SPEAKER_05 26:43

I don't like it.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

I mean, it's not great. I genuinely agree with you. Martina McBride sang that song on the soundtrack. There was a a bonus track that was Martina McBride. It's like the Grinch situation with Facebook. Liter very that.

SPEAKER_05 26:57

Okay, and also in the bonus content. Okay, have you seen these carols where all the Muppets do carols? So the Swedish chef does it, and he basically gives a sermon while the chickens are singing.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I really need to see that actually. A sermon on the mount? Oh my god, are you gonna play it for me right now?

SPEAKER_05 27:28

He's reading, he's like reading from a Bible. Okay, so that happened.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Um you watched all the bonus content?

SPEAKER_05 27:35

I was watching for like two hours.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Because it's in trance.

SPEAKER_05 27:38

Okay, fact, Gonzo, they were gonna cast Gonzo as the ghost of Christmas past, but it was too small of a role. Which makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

I guess that does make sense. It would have taken away from Michael Cain being so serious, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:50

Rizzo said he was tortured during filming this.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

The puppeteer?

SPEAKER_05 27:55

No, the rat.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Rizzo literally was tortured. He was made into a rat sickle.

SPEAKER_05 28:00

He was you're right.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Yeah, I know he was treated poorly.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

Ums Piggy was really bitter about her part because she thought that it wasn't um a big enough part.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Well, you know, I do you know what? If I did have to criticize the best film of all time, I would say it should have been more piggy heavy.

SPEAKER_05 28:18

It was very piggy light. And then also in a blooper reel, they do a blooper reel, and Gonzo decapitates himself with a hook.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

His head pops off. But wait, but what happens then? Is there just like a hand? Oh yes, I remember this scene.

SPEAKER_05 28:39

Mavic! And then uh there's a blooper reel where Kermy is giving a speech after Tiny Chim has died. They're at the dinner table and they're like, This is awful. We miss our son. You're sure you all miss your brother. Sure. And then one of Miss Piggy's girls says, Can I have his dinner then?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Classic Piggy content. The apple doesn't fall too far.

SPEAKER_05 29:11

Okay, any final thoughts on uh Muppet's Christmas curl?

SPEAKER_01 29:14

I just feel like if anybody has made it this far and hasn't seen it, you should absolutely go watch it because it is really important to me in my life specifically. But that's it. That's all I have to say.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

Thanks so much for coming on here.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Thank you for having me. This was so fun.

SPEAKER_05 29:29

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Bye.

SPEAKER_05 29:30

Thank you so much for listening to My Whole Personality. This podcast is edited and produced by me, Joanna Clark. Theme music by Rebecca Jaffe. If you like this podcast, please give it some stars, write a review. I don't know. You can also follow on Instagram at my whole personalitypod. Thanks so much.