The Steves discuss the 2005 campy movie, Reefer Madness, along with what's making them happy in pop culture today!
What's Making Us Happy?
Topics Discussed Include
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
The Steves discuss the 2005 campy movie, Reefer Madness, along with what's making them happy in pop culture today!
What's Making Us Happy?
Topics Discussed Include
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
Hello, returning happys and new listeners. This is Steve Bennet-Martin,
Stephen:and this is Stephen Martin-Bennet. And welcome to a lifetime
Steve:of happiness. The podcast where we take you on our journey through some of the movies shows and other bits of pop culture that are helping to keep us happy while hopefully bringing a smile to your face along the way. And
Stephen:today we're celebrating the summer by going to. And watching the very campy 2005 movie reefer madness be warn, tell your
Steve:children. Yes. But before we get into that, my love what's been making you happy.
Stephen:Well, it also would not be summer if it wasn't big brother season mm-hmm and the season started off pretty rough. But it's gotten really, really good. And one of the things. you know, sometimes there are characters we really dislike and they somehow make it all the way to the end. Yeah. But it's almost like this season. Everyone's like, you know what? Let's just get rid of the assholes. Yes. And I'm all for that. Yes. Like good
Steve:guys are winning right now.
Stephen:Yeah. Like I'm all for, you know, playing the game and backstabbing people, but there's a difference between being competitive and backstabbing in a game. And being racist or just awful to someone and making someone cry on purpose. And so I'm glad they're getting rid of just the pure, awful
Steve:people. Yes. You're, you're rooting for the leftovers. Most of them. Right.
Stephen:I am rooting for the leftovers. We'll see what happens with them as you know, the game narrows to them. But yes, that's who I'm rooting for. What's been making you happy. My darling, I
Steve:recently, during my one week off, I enjoyed the bliss of doing nothing but watching TV and playing video games. And one of the shows that I watched was Marriot for sight, season 11 on Netflix. I watched season 11. Yes. It's only the second season I've watched cuz the fir like I don't go onto like Hulu and watch all the old ones Uhhuh with commercials I watched on. And it is about people who get married at first sight by matchmakers. They don't know each other. Mm-hmm and it's a wild concept. But then again, I mean, arranged marriages are still a thing. Yes. And have a great success rate almost in some cases more than traditional marriages. Well,
Stephen:and the difference between this and arranged marriage. Is that this, they use scientific methods to try to match people where arranged marriages are just like, who, you know, who you know exactly. Yes.
Steve:And spoiler alert, but like only I think three of the five or six couples made it. And one of them, I was surprised made it cuz I don't see it working. But the two that did work out I was rooting for. Yeah. And it was fun watching the other ones fall apart.
Stephen:So. summer camp and campy movies and reefer madness.
Steve:Yes. How is reefer madness, campy?
Stephen:An easier question to be, how is it not campy? Yes. Like
Steve:for those who didn't listen last week, campus is as described as like that overt extraness.
Stephen:Yes. And this movie is almost from the go like. Turned up to an 11,
Steve:like yeah. Is that why you love it so much too? I,
Stephen:I think I do like the more campy movies we watch for this month, the more that I'm like, maybe camp is one of my top favorite genres, because there's truly something magical and escape worthy about a movie and actors and things that are just going for it. And. Willing to be that extra. Yes.
Steve:And that means that it makes me feel comfortable. How much you love me cuz I'm extra
Stephen:and the, the songs are just too much as we'll get into with some of the lyrics from them. Later on, but the performances are all spot on. Like nobody is a bad actor in this, like everything is pitch. Perfect. Yeah.
Steve:And I'm surprised to how well it was is done because it is a made for TV, musical comedy film. That premiered on Showtime on April 16th, 2005. Yep. It was directed by Andy Figman written by Kevin Murphy, who we know from desper house fives. Yep. And Dan Stuy and it was produced by all three.
Stephen:Yep. And it's stars, Kristin bell, Christian Campbell, and John Kasier reprising their stage roles from the off Broadway reefer
Steve:madness. Yes. And it has the notable additions of Alan Cummings and a.
Stephen:Yep. And nev Campbell was at the time, one of the most recognizable actresses in the film, you know, this is before frozen mm-hmm and Anna goti was in SNL, but I mean, nev Campbell was Sydney Prescott. Yes. Yeah. And but despite the fact that NE's role was relatively.
Steve:Yeah. And I think that reading the other actor's last names that I can see that there's a tie between her and Christian Campbell. Yeah.
Stephen:So they needed a character that could perform this. Tango nev had just spent a year learning how to dance professionally for a movie. I mean, if you've already got the in might as well.
Steve:Yes, exactly. And they wanted her to have a bigger role mm-hmm but the other two leading women in the movie have relat. With Christian, who is her brother. So that would be a no go. Yep.
Stephen:And it is a film adaptation in the 1998 musical of the same name, which itself is based on the 1936 exploitation film also of the same title. Ooh, big
Steve:word. What's an exploitation
Stephen:film. So an exploitation film, according to Dr. Internet. Is a film that tries to succeed by exploiting current trends, niche, genres, or lurid content exploitation films are generate low quality B movies though. Sunset trends attract critical attention, become historically important, or even gain a call following like this one, there have been some exploitation films recently that were more political propaganda films. Mm-hmm that? Tried to gain traction on Twitter. But everyone pardon me, was very click quick to actually label them as exploitation films. So it's interesting that in the past mm-hmm when like things like refer madness, tell your children came out, that people didn't know that. And because it was put out by agencies associated with the government, they were thought to be. like almost documentaries. Yes.
Steve:And the original stage musical was choreographed by your girl, Paula Abul. Yes. And the choreography for this film was inspired by her
Stephen:choreography. Yeah. And you can definitely see it, especially in the first song, reefer madness, where the zombie teenagers are coming down the stairs. I was like, oh, that's definitely some Paula
Steve:moves. Yes. And let's get into the beginning of the movie. My love. In a small middle America town in 1936, a group of parents have been gathered by mysterious lecturer for an assembly about America's new drug menace. Ooh, the ominous lecturer informs the parents that he has come to warn them about the evils of marijuana on their youth, through the song reefer madness, using the tragic tale of the Harper affair. One boy's struggle with the Demonn weed in a title film, tell your children, tell your children. and it starts with an example of refer, just seeing, seeing the guy like take the big hit before it even
Stephen:starts. Yeah. So it comes up and you see who we later know is Ralph. Yes. On screen, take one hit. And then he does the whole
Steve:Yes. I have never seen someone smoke pot laugh like that after one or two hits, but this is
Stephen:camp. Yeah. And that's one of my favorite things about this movie is that especially the people that the characters that are doing it for the first time immediately go insane from one inhale and that makes it even funnier. And it just plays on
Steve:to all of it. Yes. In my experience, it's a. Longer slower, painful decline. but yes, the lecture is playing on people's fears and their love for their children to convince them of the hazards of marijuana saying that the targets of a deadly assassin, but he also, at the same time is giving little to no facts about the drug itself it's effects how it works. Yeah. Where it's from, what it does to you, you know, is, is that similar to reality today with the way that people play on fears without fact?
Stephen:Yes. Without going into details, we've all seen. Especially well, a good example would be the vaccinations. Yes. That a lot of people receive for COVID where we were all told that you will die. If you get the vaccination. Yes. We're still alive. Yep. And I love that the lecturer was like, you know, children smoke a reefer stick thinking it to be a perfectly harmless cigarette. The kind we all used to enjoy as teenager. Yes.
Steve:You know, cuz that's no problem at all and
Stephen:totally fine. Still. I know. And that made me laugh watching it for the first time. I was like, yeah. And nowadays like teenagers, no one should be smoking cigarettes, especially teenagers. Yes.
Steve:And the high school that they're at is named after Harry J Anslinger, the first commissioner of the us bureau of narcotic. Known as the father of the drug war. Mm. And we know the war on drugs actually doesn't do anything to stop drugs.
Stephen:It does not. Yeah. So as he's singing the song, reefer madness, one of my favorite lines and is creeping like a communist, it's knocking out our doors, turning all our children into hooligans and. Yes, it makes me smile.
Steve:I know it does and in this film, we meet Jimmy Harper and Mary Lane, a joyful teen couple blissfully enjoy each other's company while studying Romeo and Juliet unaware of the CD goings ons in the reefer, Dan across
Stephen:town, and the lecturer who is also kind of narrating the film within a film, tells us that Mary and Jimmy were destined to share a love that would last a life. Tragically. It would be the lifetime of a fruit fly.
Steve:Yes. And I love the way that as we did, they say Romeo and Julie
Stephen:and Juliet. And when she's like, you know, in the beginning, the prologue, yes. That's prologue. And like, and he hands her fair. Fair Juliet would like some yawn hot chocolate. Oh, Jimmy, where did you ever learn to speak like that? It's fancy talk from Romeo and Juliet because when a guy wants to wool girl, he needs the right kind of language.
Steve:Are you trying to woo me Jimmy Harper.
Stephen:And this is where I learned that the movie was intentionally campy because then the music for the song, Romeo and Juliet starts and Christian Campbell's, Jimmy starts moving his arms and bouncing. And I was like, They know what I get it. They know what they're doing. Yes. They know what they're doing. This is meant to be far, far over the top because this movie was my first experience with the play or the musical. Yeah. So I wa didn't know what I was getting into. I was more used to your traditional Broadway musicals. None that really go full camp. They may be comedies like hairspray. Yeah. But none go camp camp like
Steve:this. Yes. And they sing about Romeo and Juliet, even though they haven't finished reading it yet. And they're like, assuming it's gonna, they were gonna live happily ever after and have lots of kids. Oh, we
Stephen:are just like Romeo and Julie yet where you have be young and bubbling with. I can't wait to read the ending. I can't either, but I'm sure it turns out real swell. Abbe Romeo marries his ju the end. And they have a baby and make lots of friends. That's probably the way the play ends and
Steve:Shakespeare spoiler alert. No, it doesn't end that way. Yeah.
Stephen:And Shakespeare is like marrying them in their fantasy thing and he's sitting there like, no, and he's holding out the book, like pointing to the things of like, No you die?
Steve:Yes. Now, have you ever been reading a book when all of a sudden it's not the book that you thought you read, gone,
Stephen:girl, gone, girl, gone, girl. Like you're reading for, if you have not read gone, girl, skip ahead. About a minute in this podcast. If you have read gone, girl, you know what we're talking about? You get to the halfway point and you're like, oh shit. Yes,
Steve:mine. It's not about a missing person anymore. It's about. Manipulative lover. Yep.
Stephen:Yeah. What about you?
Steve:When I was in high school, I was an angsty team. I'm sure that's a surprise to you. Total shock. And I loved reading random books that I would get at the bookstore. and one of which was this book that was like a thick red cover and it was called trick and I was reading the beginning of it and it looked good enough. So I bought it and I took it home and it's like a whole bunch of different, like five or sixteens, like writing angsty poetry, and then like a. Journal entry almost about what's going on. And I was like, oh, it's all about teen S and that's fine. Mm-hmm I didn't realize that like, as the move, as the book is going on and they all turned to different forms of prostitution. Oh, trick trick. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I was like, I was like young. I was before I was really out or like, knew. Things like that. And so I was like, wow, it's going rough for this girl. I hope it goes better for the next chapter for the next guy. and it took me a while before I was, it was like, no, it was about how teenagers can get lured into prostitution. Oh, it happens all the time. I know. And it didn't end well for most of them. I'm sure now throughout the film, the lecturer stops any audience member who questions, his credibility and tears them to pieces on a personal and political level. Like the poor little Polish guy who believes heroin is worse.
Stephen:Kuski Russian, right. I applaud your brave unwillingness to believe something because it's printed in a magazine with the word American in the title, you stand as a shining example to your comrades and the rest of us would that it were me
Steve:heroin mere heroin. Yeah.
Stephen:And then the ginske is like, yeah, yeah. I think my wife was wrong. It, it was the re the marijuana it's bad. It's bad
Steve:stuff. Yes. certainly. And we then travel to the reefer den, which we know, because the address is four 20. Yep. And it's May's residence where she is living with her abused. Abusive. Yeah. boyfriend Jack. Yeah. A street thug who supplies her and others with.
Stephen:Yep. And living with him as Sally and her baby, who we see is not very well taken care of and all the people there are quote unquote, physically addicted to weed. yes.
Steve:Which is interesting, cuz I definitely believe it's an addictive substance. I mean, I was addicted to it as well before I got sober. But at the same time it was more of a psychological addiction and a habit, right. Like when I stopped drinking alcohol, It was a rough week on my body. Mm-hmm and on, you know, even for months I just needed more sleep and, you know, definitely was going through physical symptoms, but the marijuana was definitely more of just a psychological, like you get into the habit of doing it. Mm-hmm and it's hard to break it for sure. But I didn't have any physical withdrawal symptoms, the way that I did with
Stephen:alcohol. Like these people do. Yes. And Sally's job at the reefer den is to seduce the new men and she tells. I was in more laps than a napkin
Steve:yes. Ralph got high and never
Stephen:left. Yep. And you know that it's camp when songs like the stuff? Yeah. Sometimes he's rough. He throws me down the stairs, but deep inside, he cares. He buys me lingerie. And
Steve:the stuff. Yes. And we're allowed to laugh at camp no matter how horrible it is. And that's part of the reason why they go to these extremes in the movie yeah. Is to make you laugh and you made like the
Stephen:next line.
Steve:Exactly. Which I'll let you sing as well. But I wanted to give a warning to people that out of context, this is bad. Yeah. In context of high camp drama, this is gold, right?
Stephen:I like to have my fun, no harm to anyone though. The fun sometimes escapes me when Jack gets stoned and rapes me.
Steve:Yes. And the only people who are more horrified than the audience conservatives in the audience were the people in the street who she yelled out
Stephen:to. Yeah. And so usually in musicals, either everyone is in on the song or no one else hears you singing it, but here she sings the line of rapes me, throws open the window as she does it and just screams it out to the end. You. A car crash into another car. The milkman drops his milk. The woman lets go with a baby carriage and it just goes down the street. There's a guy that lets loose his dog on a leash and it's like, rape is not funny. I wanna make very, very clear. But that line with that delivery and that follow up is fine
Steve:is hysterical. Yes, it certainly is. Meanwhile, Mary Jimmy and their school friends, head to miss Poppy's five and dime. Ooh. Down at the old five and dime they sing. And it's a milkshake dance club. I wanna go Yes. Jimmy's about to give his ring to Mary Lane who asks him to join her in a dance competition, which scares Jimmy since he can't dance. Ugh.
Stephen:But Jack appears at the hangout offering Jimmy swing lessons to impress Mary, which includes a tango duet with miss poppy.
Steve:Yes. The lecturer then takes a moment to tell us of how jazz players are some of the worst reefers with their wild magical sexual
Stephen:prowess. Reefers slows down the musician since a time, allowing him to squeeze in unnecessary grace notes. It gives this voodoo music, the power to hypnotize white women into acts of unspeakable degradation. yes. Where we see a woman that had been carrying home, her grocer. When the grace nodes happen in the jazz musician, saxophone, that's playing out there, she drops her groceries and then throws open her blouse at the musician.
Steve:Yeah. And as you mentioned, this was nev doing her own dance. Yeah. Cause of the experience from another movie. And
Stephen:it's, she's quite impressive with this tango. Yes
Steve:she is. And Jimmy's taken to the reef for den for his swing lessons. Where Jack May college dropout Ralph and educt Sally pressure, him to smoking his first joint, leading him to a hallucination of an insidious Bacca.
Stephen:Yeah. And one of the dancers is
Steve:who. In reality, it's director Andy Flaman's wi or Hickman's wife. Yeah. And another dancer is Christian Campbell's real life girlfriend at the time. Mm-hmm since the film was shot in Canada, the remaining dancers were actually Canadian strippers hired to do the dance
Stephen:sequence. And it that's one of the best dance week sequences in the entire movie. So it's very impressive. Yeah. And I love as they're trying to entice Jimmy to take a hit, you've got a, it goes, Sally Jack. May. Ralph. And then the people at the PTA meeting where Sally's like, come on, Jimmy, come on, Jimmy, suck it down for Sally. Come on, Jimmy, come on, Jimmy. Suck it down for Sally. Take a Toka tea. Tick, take a Toka tea, stick, smoke it. You may choke it first, but then the worst is over. Don't be a chick. Don't be a chick and don't Jimmy don't do it. Don't be a fool. And they're all saying this, like on top of each other and it just builds and builds and builds and builds until they put the reefer in his mouth and one hit
Steve:and he's immediately
Stephen:addicted. Yep. And you, we go to the BA Andal and Sally's kind of leading it and she's singing smoke the marijuana. sail the sea of sea. Hans Niana trim from, with again. Yes. And the devil shows up or the horned God shows
Steve:up. Yeah. Important. God, Jimmy and Sally, Sally have a threesome basically. Yeah. Yeah. Jimmy then immediately turns into a Christ addict in a matter of days. See seeing his mother's marinara clam sauce come alive. which he,
Stephen:he takes a fireplace poker too. And like, then you see his family and they're all covered in the sauce as he's had this paranoia thing that the clams were trying to eat him.
Steve:Yes. And also showering with his mom. Yep. And neglecting Mary leading her to pray for him in lonely pew. And
Stephen:this is, this was another example. Me learning about camp songs, because you would normally with her singing at this vibratto and stuff, you're like, Ooh, maybe not mm-hmm but the song also funny because she's singing it in a Catholic church and she's there with there's him and roll, but they don't keep me calm. Bernie, the waves now don't taste. So. They won't trans without you near the gospel choir. Sounds aqui Jimmy, come back and fill my pew. Yes. Try substantiate your cat. Like, do you know what that means?
Steve:Turning like water into
Stephen:wine. So, it's Catholic people believe that the wafers you eat yeah. Trans substantiate change themselves actually into the body of Christ during communion. Sure. And the, the grape or you guys actually use wine. Yes. But, yeah. So I love that they found a way to use the word trans substantiate in a song.
Steve:Yes. And now when it's time for sexy time, I'll ask you to film my lonely pew
Stephen:above.
Steve:I know that got you. Good.
Stephen:Yes, it did above Alan Cummings while he's playing the piano like churches they'll list the hymns that you're gonna sing that week. So you have them in advance. All the hymns are four 20. Yeah,
Steve:of course. So you see that throughout the film? Yeah. Now while breaking into church to steal collection money, Jimmy has a vision of Jesus Christ in Avega esque, heaven, heaven telling him to change his ways or be sent to eternal damnation and the song listened to Jesus, Jimmy. Yep.
Stephen:Jimmy refuses to hear the word of God and continues to spiral and sin. But the show opener at club celestial is Joan of
Steve:Ark. No Christian martyr works at
Stephen:harder. The voices in my head are telling me that we have a special guest with us tonight.
Steve:Yeah. Now, would you listen to Jesus in this situation? Cuz he was quite convincing. Like if I had a, when I was drinking and smoking, if I had a Jesus appeared to me like this and tell me to stop, I would stop. Yeah.
Stephen:Because, and it's also a catchy, like this is also one of my three favorite songs in the show. But because they're singing, listen to Jesus, Jimmy. Just say no to the marijuana. Listen to Jesus. Jimmy, this comes straight from the Madonna. Listen to Jesus. Jimmy, trust the man with the stigma. Yes. And at the end Jesus says, so what do you say, Jimmy? Are you ready to have a different type of high. And Jimmy goes, I have a new God now and Jesus is not
Steve:pleased. No, not at all. now Sally ends up selling her baby to a Chinese couple to keep up her habit at Chinese restaurant or, yeah, saying it's okay, because she's got another one on the way, just as she lights
Stephen:a cigarette. Yep. And that night, Jimmy and Sally take a joy ride and Mary stolen car while buzzed, and they end up running over an old man. Jimmy runs to Mary debating, whether to continue being under the influence or repent his ways as he's singing about Mary Jane and Mary Lane. Yes.
Steve:What are you doing out here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9:00 PM. I felt that deeply.
Stephen:that's I mean, Kristen bell is an amazing actress and her. line delivery in all of Mary's stuff. Yeah. Is so good.
Steve:Yes. And you can tell that this is the end of the act one number and everybody that everybody sings in at the end. Yep.
Stephen:And I love that. Like, Jimmy's really trying to change his ways. And he's saying that, you know, Mary's Swedish, Shirley temple dipped in. Or softer than a pillow stuffed with bunnies. And Mary says bunnies. I don't know what you're talking about, but I like the sound of it.
Steve:I feel that deeply as well. A lot of the times
Stephen:now we come back in the beginning of act two and the lecturer you know, who is pretty much teaching a propaganda class to the parents. Yeah. Who can name for me? The one, all powerful, all abiding force in the world. What is the human condition that can stave off all that is black and evil in these confusing times. Love, love. In a time in which our children are subjected to a daily diet of depravity in their film and popular music in a time when the entire world is aligned against the American way. I'm so relieved to hear that our friend is so confident that love will carry the day. correct. Of course. Answer of course, is vigilance.
Steve:I don't know. I like
Stephen:love better. I do too. But Alan Cumming is so good in this role. Yes. Like, I, I am so impressed with all the casting and all the performances in this movie. And, you know, we're 17 years later and all of this holds up so well. Yes
Steve:it does. And then Jimmy realizes he's putting Mary in danger and tells her he must leave town without. But she said, she'll run away with him while he is packing Jack. He's ready. Like while she's packing, he's getting ready to leave. And Jack shows up and brings him back to the reefer. Then with a pot brownie, putting him into a cartoonized trip, the brownie song and edibles don't work that way. Warning to someone I don't believe in doing edibles anymore, but the number one mistake a first time resists that. Eat it and don't feel anything in time. So you eat more, so they eat more of it. And next thing you know, because it takes about like half an hour to 45 minutes, depending on the edible to kick in usually. And you find yourself like waiting 15, 20 minutes taking another one. And then next thing you know, you're, you're tripping balls
Stephen:was it ever cartoonized I'm kidding.
Steve:It was not cartoonized nor did I ever fuck the cartoon brownie.
Stephen:Yeah, because Jimmy does. Yes. And. Just like, we also know that won't puff one puff. Won't make you go crazy
Steve:either. Yes. Mary follows Jimmy to the den where after Jimmy sells the school ring to get a weekend's worth of pot and heads upstairs with Sally, Ralph seduces her by convincing her that Jimmy has joined a fraternity. And he
Stephen:suggests that celebrate with a smoke, which turns out to be a to, but he says it's a special cigarette. That is all the rage with the college girls.
Steve:in Paris. Well, I mean, I guess if he's pledging a fraternity.
Stephen:Yeah. And this intro and reefer immediately turns Mary into a sadistic dominatrix who terrorizes Ralph for pleasure in the song. Little Mary sunshine.
Steve:Yes. Do you wanna sing a lyric or two from that? That you love? Yeah.
Stephen:Just call me Mary one and Mary's got some scary little games to play. I'll lather you up, give you a shave, a paddling while straddling my little slave down on your knees. It's pointless to fight. Save you strength. It's gonna be a
Steve:lengthy night. Yes. Now, as we mentioned, this is very trauma dramatized with the way that marijuana works. Yeah. But you know, while it doesn't sound right, I mean, like smoking pot turns her into a Dori. Do you think that that part of her was always in there just for press. And the marijuana, let it go. Or do you think that the drugs would actually change someone to do something they normally wouldn't do?
Stephen:Oh, I think it's the drugs for sure.
Steve:I think she's a little dominatrix on the inside. Well, I
Stephen:think, you know, because she's fully repressed and good little Catholic girl. Yeah. And everything that, this is probably the repression coming out.
Steve:Yes. Jimmy enters to find her dry humping. Ralph Ralph. Yep. And a fight in sues. Jack stops the fight struggles with Jimmy over the gun. And Jack accidentally shoots Mary and knocks out. Jimmy. He frames. She fell down. I know he frames an unconscious Jimmy for the crime. Jimmy gives Mary his class ring and comforts her as she dies in his arms. They end up just like Romeo and Juliet after
Stephen:all we're happy, young and hemorrhaging blood. It makes me happy knowing that we loved like Romeo and Julie
Steve:mm-hmm and she dies. Yes. Janie's taken away by the police and goes to prison, sentenced to death, where he becomes quite popular with the inmates, because as they
Stephen:tell us, marijuana and prisons can take, can make male inmates fall madly in love with each other. Oh, no.
Steve:Sounds good to me. racked with guilt. Ralph has pot induced hallucinations of Jimmy as a ghost, Mary Satan's sodomy Powell, and the children who got hooked on were the reefer gangs dope as the living dead
Stephen:opened the gates in abandoned hope where the ghost of the kids you got hooked on dope. Yes. And, and that's
Steve:another great song. Yes it is. And then he gets an extreme case of the munchies may and Jack ran out to get food,
Stephen:shake a leg with that grub. Leg
Steve:gr they don't get back quick enough though, because Ralph cannibalizes, Sally.
Stephen:Yep. And when they do get back, Ralph makes out with Sally severed head and smears her head blood on Jack's new Persian rug. Jack
Steve:shoots Ralph to stop him as he falls onto a scarecrow steak during the song murder. Yes. What would lead you to cannibalism? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I guess that's the right answer. Not like, oh, well, if we were like lost in the Canadian wilderness
Stephen:after like, well, I, I guess, yeah, like if yellow jackets, right. But I wouldn't. I, I would like to think it would be more like the Donner party where the people froze to death and then they decided to eat them to keep themselves alive instead of, well, I guess we're gonna have to eat somebody and then they kill somebody, then eat them. Okay. Yeah. But don't do it in Canada. Cause then you become a win Togo. You become a win to go look it up. It's on Google. Yes.
Steve:Thanks. Xmen yep. Now seeing similar visions may realizes the error of her ways and tells Jack to do the same. He rejects her please. And she bludgeons him to a death with a garden hoe gaining her much needed empowerment with the stuff reprise. Yeah.
Stephen:And when he says, say goodnight, Gracie, and he's about to shoot her in the gun's empty. And that's when she's. Goodnight
Steve:Gracie. And she turns into some gardening, ho ninja after like beating him to death. She pulls out is still being heart from his chest cavity.
Stephen:And she gets to saying, I should show him the door. He treats me like a whore. I don't need Jack no more or the stuff good for her. Yep. Now the lecturer in his group send out. Send out someone, a man's wife on a gurney and the guy's like, look what your film did to my wife. Your wife's lack of fortitude is no fault of this presentation. I dare say our Hardy pioneer woman would share a good laugh at her expense.
Steve:Yes. now may pleads to the visiting president about Jimmy's case. Hold on
Stephen:boys. I, for one would like to hear what the blood spatted woman has to say.
Steve:Yes. It's a good thing that he went to visit a sick child that day and that she was able to get there without letting a little blood slaughtered all over her to stop her from putting on a fresh coat of lipstick before she went out.
Stephen:Yep. And he's there to do a pardon and the president makes a jab at little war. a little orphan girl once told me that the son would come out tomorrow. Her adoptive father was a powerful billionaire. So I suppressed the urge to laugh in her face. But now by gum, I think she might have met on to something.
Steve:I think so, too, Jimmy may and the president and Jimmy's fellow prison. Ralph as well as Ralph Jack and Sally reincarnated, his uncle Sam, George Washington, and labor lady Liberty. Yep. They
Stephen:raised the American justice system and patriotism and like telling the truth, truth, truth, truth, and go, go, go. I mean, tell the Demonn weed, which grows from a Demonn seed indeed. And we haven't talked about it enough. the two best singers in this are may and Sally. Yeah. I believe like Sally's voice is so just amazing. And anybody that watched SNL in the nineties and early two thousands know how good of a singer Angas ire is. Yes. But and even in this final song Sally, with her, gimme your poor, your child, your huddled masses, you yearning two breath, free freedom. Like she's really, really good.
Steve:Yeah. I mean, for a thing that's bad on purpose a movie, the, the quality of the actors and the songs and singing is all still topnotch. Topnotch. Yeah.
Stephen:Jimmy burns down the reefer dens weed garden, freeing Mary from both hell and Satan before everyone's eyes, she grabs, or she grows a pair of wings. And the film ends with Mary entering heaven, greeted by Jesus and Joan of a and all the other
Steve:holy souls. But they'll reunite one day again, because he says one day I'll get cancer or hit by a train, and then we'll be reunited in heaven. and like they're looking forward
Stephen:to it. and the entire audience joins the suddenly real film cast to hold an, an, a huge anti reefer book and reefer burning, pledging to join the fight against marijuana, sex, and ethnic minorities and other things harmful to their dear country.
Steve:Yes. I love how they sneak in that last little bit there. Yeah. and the lecturer drives off drives off, please. To that he's succeeded in exploiting everyone's biases,
Stephen:wind dangers, near exploit, their fear. The end will justify them means
Steve:do you agree?
Stephen:Sometimes the end does justify the means and we also know that in America, exploiting fear, exploiting fear is what everyone does best.
Steve:Yes. Thoughts on the
Stephen:ending? It was done so well, like from the moment they start with the tell'em the truth to the finale song. It's just one thing right after the other. And it's so good. It ends on such a high note. And then the movie goes into, during the credits, they resing reefer madness, but this time it's with the whole cast singing along.
Steve:Yeah. I, I really like the ending. I feel like a lot of times in most musicals, there's kind of like a lull enact to, or like it's the down swing yeah. Of the roller coaster. And I feel like they kept, you know, they had just as good as songs in the second half. It was just as funny in the second half. Yep. And it just really. The entire movie, I just really made me happy. I agree.
Stephen:Like, as I said, 17 years later, it still makes me happy. Whenever this first came out on Showtime I had recorded it on my DVR, of course, and I kept it on my DVR for about three years until my DVR died and I had to get a new one from goodness. I think it was time Warner in Cincinnati and. I like the, the thing that hurt me the most was that I no longer had reefer madness on there, but thankfully shortly thereafter they released it on DVD. Thank
goodness.
Steve:Yes
Stephen:because I always had it queued up to the when Jack gets toed part of the thing, because that was always good for a laugh. Now you, this is your second time seeing it with me or third,
Steve:second or third with you. Yes. Yeah.
Stephen:Still funny for you still holds
Steve:true. I still enjoy it. It's a great example of what camp is. Yes. I
Stephen:mean, this is pure camp through and through between the songs, the writing, the performances, the little Innu windows, the tongue and cheek stuff. Like this is like camp perfection,
Steve:honestly, it certainly is. And you know, what else is camp perfection? our listeners. Well, no next week's episode, our listeners can be campy I'm sure. I don't know. I wasn't sure where you were going with this. Yes, we're gonna continue our summer of camp next week. But in the meantime, we'd love to hear what you thought of this episode. You can do that by reaching out to us directly@happylifepodatgmail.com
Stephen:or you can get in touch with us on all the socials, whether that is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok, happy
Steve:life pod. And until next to. Stay happy and camp be and stay away from
Stephen:the reefer madness. Reefer madness.