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“Hello, this is Sy Greenblum, president of Spatula City. I like the spatulas so much, I bought the company.”

This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie and Emily welcome Justin Kramm, founder of Shitshow Creative, to talk about the cult classic comedy UHF. This 1989 film, written and starring Weird Al Yankovic, was a box-office failure, but a major pop culture success. Justin shares with the Guy sisters how the off-the-wall comedy encouraged him to embrace his weirdness and take creative risks.

But UHF also serves as a time capsule for a specific type of Gen X nostalgia–how cable access television used to be the only way we encountered truly authentic weirdos in media. The inherent comedy of parodying this lost form of media offers a retrospective cultural commentary on the value of truly bizarre art. Justin, Emily, and Tracie also enjoy the way Weird Al turns many media expectations on their head, from the fact that the women in the film aren’t humorless scolds who hate fun to the way his storytelling lets many characters–and not just the hero–enjoy the spotlight.

Throw on some headphones, imagine you’re Indiana Jones, and take a listen!

Links:

Find Justin:

justinkramm.com/news
https://www.instagram.com/krammstagram/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinkramm/

Stephen Colbert on cable access: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DlF5Cf4VLM

Weird Al on 30 Rock: Weird Al Parodies Jenna
Jenna Creates a Song That Can’t Be Parodied
He Reverses the Parody and Normal-Al’s Jenna’s Song

tags:
Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, pop culture, nostalgia, classic movies, film, comedy, women, storytelling, weird al, weird al yankovic, spoof, parody, MTV, justin kramm, feminism, genx nostalgia, movies, movie reviews, cultural commentary, analyzing film tropes, film analysis

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com

We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!