Speaker 1: On the beck Dol Cast, the questions asked if movies
Speaker 1: have women in um, are all their discussions just boyfriends
Speaker 1: and husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef
Speaker 1: invest start changing it with the Bechdel Cast. Oh yeah, baby, groovy?
Speaker 1: Do I make you Horney? I'm the girl that gets horny? Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the Bechtel Cast. My name is Caitlin Darante.
Speaker 1: My name is Jamie loft Tost, and we have a
Speaker 1: podcast about the representation of women in movies, and we
Speaker 1: use the Bechdel test as a jumping off point. And that,
Speaker 1: of course, is a media metric created by cartoonist Alison Bechtel,
Speaker 1: sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace test, and it requires that
Speaker 1: two female identifying characters with names talk to each other
Speaker 1: about something other than a man. Can we test it
Speaker 1: really quick? Yeah? Baby? Okay, this question will maybe not
Speaker 1: seem immediately relevant, but maybe we'll a little later in
Speaker 1: the show. Okay, Hey, Caitlin, Yeah, Jamie, have you seen Bombshell? Yes?
Speaker 1: I have seen Bombshell and I know what the connection is,
Speaker 1: but I won't spoil it. Stan passes yes, Yes, so
Speaker 1: today this movie is not about bombshell. Today's movie is
Speaker 1: about a man, an international man of mystery. If you will. Um,
Speaker 1: we're covering the Austin Powers movie, focusing on the first one.
Speaker 1: Although I embarrassingly watched the entire trilogy and have some
Speaker 1: things to say. But why we're in a quarantine. We
Speaker 1: I have What else am I gonna do? Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I feel like bad movies in the quarantine. We still
Speaker 1: we don't have to watch them. That's true, I do.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm excited to talk about it though, because
Speaker 1: I I it's my general understanding and vague knowledge that
Speaker 1: they get worse as they go on. Is that true? Yes,
Speaker 1: I definitely think the third one is the worst one.
Speaker 1: Although none of them are good now, I mean, none
Speaker 1: of them are well, especially especially for our purposes. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're bad, bad, bad, bad bad bad bad spoiler alert.
Speaker 1: But as I was doing some reading, I was reading
Speaker 1: through the plots, I was like, oh, these do see
Speaker 1: them too? Uh to slip from a slippery place in
Speaker 1: the first place. Oh? Yes, indeed. Well, we've got a guest.
Speaker 1: You know where your lover quarantine guest. She's all cord out.
Speaker 1: She is a comedian. She's the host of Let's go
Speaker 1: ots Go, which is a weekly podcast and also sometimes
Speaker 1: a live show when we're not in a quarantine and
Speaker 1: you remember her from our Shrek episode, Never forget Shrek.
Speaker 1: It's Otsko Okotska. Hi, why do you keep giving me
Speaker 1: Mike Myers? Isn't it fun? It's we just did Wayne's World,
Speaker 1: or we would have brought you on to do that
Speaker 1: one next. Dang, well, we're not doing love Gurus so hard,
Speaker 1: too hard to know what else we're gonna do. Thanks
Speaker 1: for letting me miss out on that one. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't get it. I thought it was me for
Speaker 1: the longest time with Mike Myers. For the longest time
Speaker 1: it was I was like, it's me, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: because I didn't grow up here. It's because I don't
Speaker 1: get American humor. You know, something's wrong with me. But no, no,
Speaker 1: it's something's wrong with Mike Myers, and something's wrong with
Speaker 1: the culture. Yeah, because there's just so many movies. There's
Speaker 1: so many pop culture things that you just grow up
Speaker 1: with like an elementary school, like everyone doing at one point,
Speaker 1: like so good, you know, from wrestling, or like everyone
Speaker 1: doing you know, like a Jim carey voice, everyone doing
Speaker 1: sucking baby from you know, uh what we're about to
Speaker 1: talk about? What's that movie called Austin Powers and me
Speaker 1: being like I never laughed, I never even gave like
Speaker 1: a nice you know, being being polite kind of laughed
Speaker 1: to it. So I'm glad you made you had me
Speaker 1: rewatch it. Yes, sorry, I think you bring the freshest
Speaker 1: possible perspective. And also we're so sorry, no, no problem.
Speaker 1: It's good to review what you know, human beings were
Speaker 1: capable of doing and the progress that we've made. Exactly.
Speaker 1: What's your experience with the Austin Powers, I mean this movie,
Speaker 1: but the fran tries in general. I think I watched
Speaker 1: it once, like a long time ago. I remember seeing
Speaker 1: vague like I remember seeing clips of like the one
Speaker 1: Beyonce was in which everyone that was gold member gold member. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Kitten's like, I watched it yesterday, that's right. Caitlin also
Speaker 1: recently watched both National Treasures, which actually sounds like it
Speaker 1: was a more fun task than this, right it was
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, well, God bless National Treasure. I'm going
Speaker 1: to need to see that map. That's That's my only
Speaker 1: impression of Nicolas Cage spot on. But yeah, back to
Speaker 1: Austin Powers, Jamie, what's your relationship with the franchise. I
Speaker 1: have not really much of a relationship with this franchise.
Speaker 1: I'd never seen this first movie. I have no love
Speaker 1: or attachment to not to Brat, I have no lover
Speaker 1: attachment to this era of SNL and like all the
Speaker 1: over the top nineties guys, I just it's never I
Speaker 1: wasn't there really for it or was like too young
Speaker 1: for it, and then it just has never done anything
Speaker 1: for me. I did see gold Member at a drive
Speaker 1: through with my cousins because I really liked Beyonce, and
Speaker 1: I remember it being one of the first movies I've
Speaker 1: ever seen that like as a kid, you're like, this
Speaker 1: movie is not good, you know, which is kind of
Speaker 1: like a jarring you feel like of like an intellectual
Speaker 1: master because you're like, wait, every it's like that John
Speaker 1: mulaney sketch where it's like every movie is the best
Speaker 1: movie it kid has ever seen. This was maybe my
Speaker 1: first movie where I'm like, this was not my favorite movie,
Speaker 1: and just like the first time, I actively remember like
Speaker 1: recognizing that Beyonce deserved better. Um. So I have no
Speaker 1: attachment to this franchise. I don't really give a funk
Speaker 1: about Mike Myers outside of Shrek, and that's on me.
Speaker 1: So Caitlyn, what's your history with this franchise? I embarrassingly
Speaker 1: used to love these movies, No shame, thank you. I
Speaker 1: saw the first two when they came out. So when
Speaker 1: I was eleven in and the first Austin Powers movie
Speaker 1: came out like the demo, like I was the and
Speaker 1: then the second one came out two years later, I
Speaker 1: was thirteen. I still did not have very refined taste
Speaker 1: in cinema, so I also loved that movie. By the
Speaker 1: time the third one came out, I feel like I
Speaker 1: had outgrown the franchise. And I did not see that
Speaker 1: one ever until I watched it like two days ago.
Speaker 1: But I saw the first two multiple times. I used
Speaker 1: to quote them constantly. My mom and I to each
Speaker 1: other would say, um, how about no Scott, like times
Speaker 1: a day. These were a big part of my you know,
Speaker 1: tween years. I guess, yeah, I didn't even realize that
Speaker 1: Green is in this movie. I didn't. He's every like
Speaker 1: he's my boss, and I was like, oh, he's every
Speaker 1: movie that came out in this span of five years.
Speaker 1: And it's so funny, Like there the doctor Evil Scott scenes.
Speaker 1: They work for me still for the most part. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there there's some funny stuff there. And ultimately, I mean
Speaker 1: and that for me like ticks the box of all movies,
Speaker 1: which is that ultimately this is a movie about fathers
Speaker 1: and sons, and so this movie is no exception. He
Speaker 1: might have been the only one that was close to
Speaker 1: how the viewers are feeling. Yea, his character, his character
Speaker 1: being like the outside voice being like you suck, I
Speaker 1: hate you. You know. I do love that scene where
Speaker 1: he's like, why don't you just shoot him? Like like
Speaker 1: that's pretty funny. Yeah, I resented this movie for making
Speaker 1: me laugh a little bit. I did an l O
Speaker 1: L once. I I was, I just I still didn't
Speaker 1: get it. I was just like why and why three?
Speaker 1: Why three is a good question, you know what I
Speaker 1: mean that that's so much money. It's so so so
Speaker 1: much money, and I know I get it. It's very quotable.
Speaker 1: I can see it. It's very catchy. You know, it's
Speaker 1: very like the brand. They know the brand very well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I wasn't I wasn't mad. I was more
Speaker 1: just like I don't get it. I didn't and I
Speaker 1: didn't get like the ace venturas and stuff. So again
Speaker 1: maybe it's me. I don't get it. I don't get masked.
Speaker 1: I don't know. But well, like I grew up on
Speaker 1: a lot of slapstick, you know, but it was when
Speaker 1: it came to like Western slapstick, it was like I
Speaker 1: love Lucy, you know, Charlie Chaplin, like you know, things
Speaker 1: that were like a hundred years old. But even with
Speaker 1: like Japanese comedy, you know, the slapstick, I feel like
Speaker 1: it was still like sticking to the old formula. So
Speaker 1: it was more reminiscent of like Charlie Chaplin type or
Speaker 1: Buster Keaton instead of you know whatever, like like wacky
Speaker 1: for wacky sake, Do I make you honey baby? Yeah?
Speaker 1: A lot of me two situations, you know. It was
Speaker 1: also like I don't know, It's like even if like
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen this movie, but as I was watching it,
Speaker 1: like I just it was so huge that like I
Speaker 1: feel like I had taken up a lot of it
Speaker 1: through cultural osmosis, and then most of the details that
Speaker 1: I didn't know were um, you know, horrifying. Ye can't
Speaker 1: wait to talk about it. I do remember I wonder
Speaker 1: if any listeners will remember there was an a I
Speaker 1: M chat bot that was Austin Powers themed that I
Speaker 1: think it was released as a promotion for the third movie.
Speaker 1: But I was in like I don't know, like maybe
Speaker 1: fourth or fifth grade, and I was at a sleepover
Speaker 1: all night where like me and the other girls at
Speaker 1: the sleepover would write like dirty things to the Austin
Speaker 1: Powers and his it would just auto reply yeah baby,
Speaker 1: and we'd be like, Ah'd be like, You'd be like,
Speaker 1: my mom is a beach and it would be like
Speaker 1: shag Adelic class remember that right? It was. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: liked chat bots. They always knew their character. It was
Speaker 1: always consistent. It was the only consistent thing about the
Speaker 1: Internet at that time, you know, was chat bots would
Speaker 1: always like say three things invitation. Everything else was scary.
Speaker 1: You didn't even know when you would connect to the internet,
Speaker 1: you know, Oh yeah, I could take hours, you don't know. Yeah, yeah, totally,
Speaker 1: but that you could count on. Speaking of Austin Powers
Speaker 1: themed things, have either of you been to that Austin
Speaker 1: Power's theme pop up bar in Glendale that is still there,
Speaker 1: like over a year later. No, I've I've almost gone
Speaker 1: a couple of times and then I'm like, wait, I
Speaker 1: don't know what that is. I'm not going to go
Speaker 1: what Austin Power was themed bar in Glendale. What I've
Speaker 1: never heard this. This is a real thing. It was
Speaker 1: supposed to be a pop up but it I guess
Speaker 1: it was popular enough that people just kept going and
Speaker 1: that it stayed around. Obviously, it's closed now because of
Speaker 1: all the lockdowns and everything. But it's called like the
Speaker 1: Electric Pussycat or something, and it's themed after the club
Speaker 1: in the first movie called the Electric Psychedelic Pussycat Swingers Club.
Speaker 1: And I went to it, and they have various Austin
Speaker 1: Powers like actors dressed up as Austin Powers characters. They
Speaker 1: have a bunch of Austin Powers themed cocktails. Um, I
Speaker 1: think I drank one called like Horny something something Horny,
Speaker 1: I don't know, shag something. But apparently Austin Powers is
Speaker 1: still relevant enough that people were like, yeah, let's make
Speaker 1: a pop up bar in twenty nineteen for sure. I
Speaker 1: mean it's like all the movies I've been to, I
Speaker 1: guess the embarrassing pop up bars I've been to, or
Speaker 1: beetlejuice them. Because I wanted to see what the Scabs.
Speaker 1: Sitch was Yeah, that's fun. That that was fun. And
Speaker 1: then I went to a Big Lebowski themed bar many
Speaker 1: years ago where they only served white Russians, which is
Speaker 1: a funny idea but in practice very gross. R They
Speaker 1: have one in Iceland for Big Lebowski they do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my friend went to in Rakovic and it was like
Speaker 1: white Russians too. Um it's so funny to see like
Speaker 1: what other cultures like really like about, like you know,
Speaker 1: which movies really spoke to them or whatever, to the
Speaker 1: point they make whole themed bar like that. Um. I Okay.
Speaker 1: One time I did have to do like a benefit
Speaker 1: where they hired a bunch of like actors who could dance,
Speaker 1: so like we had to dress up in like groovy
Speaker 1: ware or whatever sixties like we were like, what does
Speaker 1: that go go? Girls? We had to learn dance moves
Speaker 1: and it was like rich people that we were performing
Speaker 1: for two it was like Austin Powers theme and uh
Speaker 1: so in Austin Powers and impersonator kind of led us
Speaker 1: the whole time. And I remember at the end of
Speaker 1: the gig we got like twenty bucks for doing it.
Speaker 1: I remember at the end of the gig, I was
Speaker 1: like talking to the impersonator and he was like, okay,
Speaker 1: well I gotta go, and he valid his car but
Speaker 1: he had the same exact car as Austin powers to
Speaker 1: oh my god and my mind being blown, and yeah,
Speaker 1: his license plate was off. It was like swingers, like
Speaker 1: twelve or something, you know what I mean. But yeah,
Speaker 1: not all spelled out. Yeah, but I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god. The level of commitment as an impersonator, you know, like,
Speaker 1: how far does it go? I love a good committed impersonator.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like him in the world. Yeah. And how
Speaker 1: do you feel as an personator about other impersonators you know,
Speaker 1: of like the character that you do? How Yeah, how
Speaker 1: intense is the competition? How intense is the demand? I
Speaker 1: mean you don't really know. Yeah, I don't know. Well,
Speaker 1: should we get into the recap and go from there?
Speaker 1: I suppose ha ha, let's do it. Okay. So the
Speaker 1: film opens, It's nineteen sixty seven. We meet Dr Evil.
Speaker 1: He has a very cute cat named Mr Bigglesworth and
Speaker 1: that cat, of course, has eight nipples, and that's cafex
Speaker 1: with Caitlin. He is trying to have a Dr Evil,
Speaker 1: not Mr Bigglesworth. Dr Evil is trying to have Britain's
Speaker 1: top secret agent assassinated. And this man is Austin Powers.
Speaker 1: And Austin is groovy. He's Randy. All the women love him,
Speaker 1: keep keep going. He's horny, baby, and he and Randy. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's horny, and he makes everyone else horny. I guess, um,
Speaker 1: all the women love him. He meets up with Mrs Kensington,
Speaker 1: his like spy partner, and they receive a message from
Speaker 1: Basil exposition. Um hilarious. I guess that is pretty I mean,
Speaker 1: that's pretty funny. The message says that Dr Evil plans
Speaker 1: to go after Austin Powers at the club tonight. So
Speaker 1: Austin and Mrs Kensington try to stop Dr Evil there,
Speaker 1: but he gets away and then cryogenically freezes himself and
Speaker 1: shoots himself into space. Right. We cut to thirty years
Speaker 1: later and Dr Evil returns, and Austin Powers had also
Speaker 1: offered to freeze himself if Dr Evil should ever return,
Speaker 1: so they thought out Austin Powers and partner him up
Speaker 1: with Mrs Kensington's daughter, Miss Kensington a k a Vanessa
Speaker 1: a k a. Elizabeth Hurley. Right, he proceeds to sexually
Speaker 1: harass her relentlessly and almost Yes, it's cute, it's hilarious.
Speaker 1: You can tell that sexual harassment is actually really awesome
Speaker 1: when he does it for two straight minutes and then
Speaker 1: she turns around. It's like me right, She's like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I do like that. He's wearing me down. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Dr Evil and his cronies, including this guy named Number
Speaker 1: two who And then this is the point in the
Speaker 1: movie where you're like, what happened to Natalie would? Wait?
Speaker 1: What why was he? Yes, he was Natalie Wood's husband
Speaker 1: and he was on the boat and he knows more
Speaker 1: than he's saying, even more than Christopher Walkin does. Interesting,
Speaker 1: every movie to me is ultimately about what happened to
Speaker 1: Natalie Wood. This is why you all have this podcast.
Speaker 1: This is why you do so good. That's what we've
Speaker 1: been trying to figure out. That's all time, and we
Speaker 1: have not gotten any closer. Um, so that's what I
Speaker 1: But yes, he plays Number two, but also he's he's
Speaker 1: you know, you can see in his eyes he's got
Speaker 1: a secret or want his one eye right. So his
Speaker 1: character Number two and Dr Evil, they all are forming
Speaker 1: a plan to hijack some nuclear weapons and hold the
Speaker 1: world ransom for one hundred billion dollar. I'm so sorry
Speaker 1: for that. Then Dr Evil is introduced to his son
Speaker 1: that was made from the sperm sample that he had
Speaker 1: left behind before he cried genically freezes himself, and this
Speaker 1: son is Scott Uh and that's Seth Green's character, of course.
Speaker 1: Then Austin Powers and Vanessa go to Vegas to try
Speaker 1: to get some intel on Dr Evil and whatever scheme
Speaker 1: he's cooking up, and they play blackjack with Number two,
Speaker 1: And then there's a scene in the bathroom where we
Speaker 1: realized that the character was named number two to set
Speaker 1: up a very long, extended poop joke with um, what's
Speaker 1: his name, Tom Arnold? Yes, he is in the stall
Speaker 1: next to him, and we're like, al right, well, I
Speaker 1: guess you can't say they didn't think about things when
Speaker 1: they were making the movie. There's actually quite a bit
Speaker 1: of thought. It's actually all very clever and good wink wink,
Speaker 1: nudge nudge to it. The jokes had to come first.
Speaker 1: They were like, okay, poop joke, how do we make
Speaker 1: this work with the rest of the plot, you know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: then they like reverse engineer it totally, totally, this is
Speaker 1: what I want a poop joke and okay, well his
Speaker 1: name is number two. That's it. We solved it. I
Speaker 1: guess it wasn't a lot of thinking. Possibly it was
Speaker 1: cut it printed, I mean, screenwriting at its best. So
Speaker 1: then nothing happens for a while except that Austin Powers
Speaker 1: relentlessly and repeatedly sexually harasses Vanessa, which she seems to
Speaker 1: become more and more receptive to. And then Austin Powers
Speaker 1: is tasked with getting information about something called Project Vulcan
Speaker 1: from a character named A Lot of China. And now
Speaker 1: we're like, now this, Now that's why I call feminism.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, there for I mean this, I don't. This
Speaker 1: isn't a compliment. It's just an observation. There's far more
Speaker 1: women in this movie than I expected there to be.
Speaker 1: But that is where that's where it's just, that's where
Speaker 1: it ends. It's not like and the representation is incredible.
Speaker 1: There's more female characters than I thought there'd be. Well,
Speaker 1: and we're we're coming to some of them, including one
Speaker 1: of the Dr Evil's Hench people, Hench. Women. Women can
Speaker 1: be Hench. Now, yes, women can be Hench. And that's feminism. Yes, Hench.
Speaker 1: She's so evil she could hang out with the boys. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's from a big Sheryl Samberg energy. And this is
Speaker 1: of course Frau Forbissena, played by Mindy Sterling, is amazing.
Speaker 1: She's been in like everything ever. She's like one of
Speaker 1: the great character actors. I am indeed, I wonder I
Speaker 1: bet you. I bet I would bet five Quarantine bucks
Speaker 1: five hundred one dollars Squaringen bucks that Mindy Sterling and
Speaker 1: Alfred Molina know each other. Oh. I thought the all
Speaker 1: care directors know each other and they're all friends, and
Speaker 1: this is maybe just my fantasy world, but I feel
Speaker 1: like they know each other. No, I think that's true.
Speaker 1: I I want to believe that as well. Yeah. So anyway,
Speaker 1: feminist icon Fraul Farbissona unveils her latest weapon because she's
Speaker 1: a woman in stem and she developed the fembots. They
Speaker 1: are these killer robots who look like hot women. So
Speaker 1: even more women introduced into the narratiora. This is I
Speaker 1: feel like that was a pretty to me. It was
Speaker 1: like a very cut and dry, like Barbararella parody reference
Speaker 1: which I have not seen. But is it just bos
Speaker 1: and they attack Barbara Ella somehow portrays women even worse,
Speaker 1: it's like one of Jane Fonda's earliest movies, Jane Fonda,
Speaker 1: who who truly is a feminist icon. But she, you know,
Speaker 1: she she really grew into it. And maybe it wasn't
Speaker 1: all the way there at Barbaralla, but like, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a movie about like a sexy space android lady. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not satire, but it looks like it. Sure, sure,
Speaker 1: and at least we can give credit to Austin Powers
Speaker 1: for that is that they are satire. I think I
Speaker 1: don't know, I can't tell it's definitely satire, but I
Speaker 1: feel like it makes that like the thing that some
Speaker 1: like satires do where they just are like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna say it's satire, and then we're going
Speaker 1: to assume that we're absolved of anything even to the
Speaker 1: term of like satire theoretically is supposed to make commentary,
Speaker 1: which for As and Powers, that's shaky. Well, that's why
Speaker 1: I don't think it is satire. I think it just
Speaker 1: as closer to parody, which is not making any sort
Speaker 1: of commentary. There's like one angle that I feel like
Speaker 1: it could be considered satire. And then but as as
Speaker 1: it pretends to its treatment of women. I think it's
Speaker 1: like total parody, oh for sure. So what happens next
Speaker 1: is Austin and Vanessa sneak into Virticon, which is Dr
Speaker 1: Evil's company or something, and they but they are captured
Speaker 1: and brought to Dr Evil's secret layer, and he's about
Speaker 1: to use this giant drill to burrow to the Earth's
Speaker 1: center and release his nuclear weapons. He's fracking, He's like, RuPaul,
Speaker 1: he's fracking. Wait is RuPaul pro fracking? RuPaul literally? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just breaking all sorts of news. RuPaul and his
Speaker 1: husband own a large ranch in Wyoming where there is
Speaker 1: active fracking, and he just like said it recently out
Speaker 1: of nowhere on fucking fresh air. He was just like
Speaker 1: he described fracking in the longest way. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: we contract out so of the land for purposes related
Speaker 1: to PETRELLI embased so and You're like, it's fracking. We
Speaker 1: can't have anything in this world. RuPaul's literally fracking. He's
Speaker 1: like a Republican, isn't he. I feel like all rich
Speaker 1: people just are chaotic evil and like we can't have anything. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of evil, Dr Evil, thank you, thank you, Caitlin
Speaker 1: Hey anytime he tries to kill Austin and Vanessa with
Speaker 1: mutated sea bass, but it doesn't work and they escape
Speaker 1: and Vanessa goes to find help and Austin stays behind
Speaker 1: to go find Dr Evil and he comes across this
Speaker 1: group of fembots who try to seduce and kill him,
Speaker 1: but he starts dancing around and making them so horny
Speaker 1: that they all malfunction and explode. Meanwhile, Dr Evil starts
Speaker 1: his drill up and Austin and Vanessa burst in and
Speaker 1: they stop him, but Dr Evil gets away shoots himself
Speaker 1: back out into space, and then Austin and Vanessa have
Speaker 1: to escape the layer right before it self destructs. And
Speaker 1: then we cut to three months later. Austin and Vanessa
Speaker 1: have gotten married, and Dr Evil and his cat are
Speaker 1: in space and they're all cold, and he's like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get to Austin Powers. And then they're like, all right,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a sequel. I guess, I guess no
Speaker 1: way around it. So that's the end of the movie.
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break and then we'll come right back,
Speaker 1: and we're back. Uh feminism in Austin Powers. Where do
Speaker 1: we begin? I mean, just some quick observations off the
Speaker 1: off the top. We've got Will Farrell in brown face
Speaker 1: in the first several minutes of this movie, and I
Speaker 1: believe that this is not the only time that Will
Speaker 1: Farrell has seen in brown face. I think that there's
Speaker 1: also an SNL sketch where he uh did that again,
Speaker 1: which is like, you're not talking about the Native American one,
Speaker 1: the Thanksgiving one recently or no? I oh no, there's more. No,
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking of that one. Wait, let me pull
Speaker 1: up the one I was thinking of, Well, the one
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. They are they tried, they acknowledge it,
Speaker 1: they try to be like different about it. It was
Speaker 1: just this past Thanksgiving. Okay. Then I then that's probably
Speaker 1: what that was a response to, was the fact that
Speaker 1: he had done brown face, um in like the early
Speaker 1: two thousand's, like probably around or after this movie came out,
Speaker 1: makes sense? Makes sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah, so there was
Speaker 1: you know, there's self awareness going on. That's the thing about,
Speaker 1: you know, self awareness and fear of canceled cancelations. I
Speaker 1: was like, is it is it growth or is it fear?
Speaker 1: You know? Sometimes totally fin line, you saying brown face
Speaker 1: made me think about also the U N characters which
Speaker 1: were just like very it's a small world type like that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, right, the German guy literally I think had
Speaker 1: a kill on and maybe a bagpipe. Oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: Scottish guy. And then they're yeah, there's Scottish. I'm so sorry,
Speaker 1: not Germany. I'm getting here. I am being racist. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of broad stereotypes in every possible way in
Speaker 1: this movie, where like, I think that Frau what's her name,
Speaker 1: Mindy Sterling is almost supposed to be like this stern
Speaker 1: like Nazish German woman. Right, So there's definitely a lot
Speaker 1: of broad stereotypes that play. But like and then in
Speaker 1: the u N scene that you're talking about Otsco, when
Speaker 1: they cut to like the group of people and there's
Speaker 1: I mean there's only like it seems like twenty different
Speaker 1: countries represented, but one of them. Did you notice the
Speaker 1: people that they have there to represent Japan? She's like
Speaker 1: they sent a geisha, Yes, there's a geisha. And then
Speaker 1: as sumo wrestler, and those are like that trend continues,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, into the sequels, where it seems
Speaker 1: like Japan specifically. I don't know if Mike Myers or
Speaker 1: the director or someone has a fixation on Japanese culture,
Speaker 1: and it gets referred to more and more and increasingly
Speaker 1: more racist jokes are made in the sequels. There's one
Speaker 1: in particular about Japanese twin sisters in the third movie
Speaker 1: that is just excruciating to watch. I mean, and like this,
Speaker 1: I mean, this entire generation of SNL men are guilty
Speaker 1: of this thing. I mean, we see Will Farrell in
Speaker 1: this movie, Mike Myers, the Love Guru, I mean, say
Speaker 1: no more that whole the promises, Dana Carvey is in
Speaker 1: brown Face and The Master of Disguise five years after this,
Speaker 1: Like it's bigger than Mike Myers, but he's a big
Speaker 1: offender of it too, especially in a movie that is
Speaker 1: like so painfully white that it's like you really had
Speaker 1: to put Will Ferrell in brown face, like it just yeah,
Speaker 1: it couldn't be. But but no one thought anything of it.
Speaker 1: And I like to the point where Will Ferrell did
Speaker 1: brown face again, No totally, yeah, I mean I did
Speaker 1: laugh for a second when you mentioned the sumo wrestler again,
Speaker 1: and I had to track the laugh like in my
Speaker 1: laughing because it was funny or was it because I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, I think you have to take
Speaker 1: a step further if it's like parody or satire or whatever.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know the difference between the language. Um well,
Speaker 1: actually parody is more like if you don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: a comment, right, it's more like I'm doing a similar version,
Speaker 1: doesn't remind you of that thing? Uh. And the satire
Speaker 1: is like actual, like possible social commentary behind way of
Speaker 1: making okay cool. So I do know the definitions. Um,
Speaker 1: sometimes I don't know. I mean, this isn't my first language. Um,
Speaker 1: but like if they took it a step further and
Speaker 1: like the people representing the u N was like I
Speaker 1: don't know, like a literal like sushi fish or something,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And like, uh, maybe that's
Speaker 1: not funny that that's why I would never be hired
Speaker 1: in the writing room for you know, Austin Powers. But
Speaker 1: well that's a compliment to you as well. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what if it was just a little little bagpipe, you know,
Speaker 1: and that was Scotland's leader. I don't know, this is bad,
Speaker 1: so anyway, there's no way I can fix the movie either.
Speaker 1: So what am I talking about? Well, speaking of the
Speaker 1: whole satire and parody thing, so obviously the Austin Powers
Speaker 1: trilogy is a parody of a few different things, that seems,
Speaker 1: but it seems to be merrily the James Bond franchise,
Speaker 1: especially the earlier ones from the sixties and seventies, and
Speaker 1: this is a franchise that is ripe for satire and parody.
Speaker 1: But Austin Powers is not really doing anything to meaningfully
Speaker 1: comment or critique this franchise. It's really just portraying a
Speaker 1: lot of the same problematic tropes that the Bond franchise does,
Speaker 1: especially as we already hinted at it, when it comes
Speaker 1: to female characters. There's no you know, intelligent commentary happening.
Speaker 1: There's no meaningful subversions of of anything. It's just like,
Speaker 1: and hey, remember how horribly the Bond films treated women.
Speaker 1: Let's do the same exact thing thirty years later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Well that's the thing is that. Yeah. I think that
Speaker 1: the one point that I could see this movie attempting
Speaker 1: parody on is the masculinity aspect of these characters that
Speaker 1: I feel like Austin Powers himself, in some ways is
Speaker 1: somewhat satirical with and it's not like smart satire or
Speaker 1: even good satire, but I think that the fact that
Speaker 1: like they make references to like, oh, he's this like
Speaker 1: ladies man that you would see in the seventies, and
Speaker 1: we didn't. None of us grew up with this, so
Speaker 1: it's kind of like we're basing this on sort of
Speaker 1: secondhand knowledge, but that's who he's based on, like a
Speaker 1: James Bond type of like a character like that. And
Speaker 1: then to give him like, oh, he he uses a
Speaker 1: penis pump or like somehow sexually like quote unquote impotent. Um.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's at least an attempt at some
Speaker 1: satire of saying like, oh, well, maybe these hyper masculine
Speaker 1: characters were not as like that's an unrealistic standard. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's done smartly, but that's that was the
Speaker 1: place where I saw like an attempt. But then but
Speaker 1: even so, a lot of the out of the movie
Speaker 1: undermines that were it's hard to make the argument that like, oh,
Speaker 1: like Austin Powers is this like unconventional looking sex icon,
Speaker 1: but he still only surrounds himself with like young, conventionally
Speaker 1: hot white girls. So like you can't really give the
Speaker 1: movie any credit for that because it doesn't extend the
Speaker 1: same the same for women in any way where even
Speaker 1: like it's so it is wildly ridiculous to be and
Speaker 1: doesn't seem based and satire at all. Just like what
Speaker 1: the writing is that we only see like Austin Powers
Speaker 1: is partner originally in the seventies, is Vanessa's mother, And theoretically,
Speaker 1: like I have, like a better version of this movie
Speaker 1: is to like see her come back and them have
Speaker 1: to like reconnect as she has like age, she's had
Speaker 1: a family, she's done all this stuff, and then she
Speaker 1: has to like reconnect with this guy she used to
Speaker 1: work with in the seventies, Like that is more interesting
Speaker 1: to me than like, and now she's got a hot
Speaker 1: daughter and her mother and daughter are going to bond
Speaker 1: over both inexplicably liking this guy. Like I just I was,
Speaker 1: I thought it really sucked at that they just completely
Speaker 1: wrote Vanessa's mother out immediately like that just the only
Speaker 1: the only three line was that Austin possibly sucked her too.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you definitely did, and that he loved her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he like really loved her. It was like a weird
Speaker 1: it's like a weird Mrs Robinson kind of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I loved her, but she's not available anymore. But then
Speaker 1: they dropped that entirely, and he's like, well, I guess
Speaker 1: I'm just in love with her daughter. Now you're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're different like they I mean, I feel like that
Speaker 1: the logic of the movie extends as far as like
Speaker 1: mothers and daughters are pretty much the same person, which
Speaker 1: is fun, which is like, Okay, that's a new level
Speaker 1: of not writing a female character has just been well,
Speaker 1: they're related, so like you can actually have sex with either,
Speaker 1: and it's basically the same thing. And they have the
Speaker 1: same jobs, and they have the same spy partner, like
Speaker 1: they you know, they do everything the same. The only
Speaker 1: thing was different was I guess that you know, the
Speaker 1: mom was married to someone else. It's it's just so
Speaker 1: like lazy and just bizarre, I mean, and that like
Speaker 1: reinforces the whole like the way that this movie views women,
Speaker 1: which is that if they're over a certain age or
Speaker 1: they don't look a certain way, then there's no point
Speaker 1: in having them on screen. Yeah, but the guy got
Speaker 1: to keep his hots because he was frozen or whatever.
Speaker 1: But he's not even hot. Like it's just like like men,
Speaker 1: men are allowed to look a lot like it's It
Speaker 1: almost reminds me of like what we see an animation
Speaker 1: a lot, because this is a very cartoony movie of
Speaker 1: like male characters are allowed to look a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways, and there's different body types, and there's like
Speaker 1: Mike Myers has more body diversity in this movie all
Speaker 1: of the female characters. Like, it's just it's very true
Speaker 1: that well, the only thing he was body shamed about
Speaker 1: was his teeth, and he got to fix that at
Speaker 1: the end, he and and he still got the girl.
Speaker 1: So like, I don't feel bad. It's he felt bad
Speaker 1: about his teeth one time, ye, but I do you also,
Speaker 1: I also don't remember, and correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: But the moment where Vanessa did flip and she's like,
Speaker 1: I do like him what happened? That was confusing to
Speaker 1: me as well. Okay, yeah, I have this whole thing
Speaker 1: beat by beat kind of mapped out because it barely
Speaker 1: makes sense. But here's very good. Yeah, the story beats
Speaker 1: as they relate to Miss Kensington. So she's introduced with
Speaker 1: a very male gaze panning shot starting at her feet,
Speaker 1: slow pan up her entire figure, objectifying to the extreme.
Speaker 1: Austin powers then sexual harasses her for a few minutes,
Speaker 1: she finally says, like, do me a favor and stop
Speaker 1: calling me baby. You can address me as Agent Kensington.
Speaker 1: Except she's going to backtrack on it in two seconds
Speaker 1: exactly because he's like, oh, come on, and she's like,
Speaker 1: all right, then, Vanessa, you can call me Vanessa. So
Speaker 1: then we cut to a scene on Austin's private jet,
Speaker 1: and this conversation is very frustrating, and it goes like this.
Speaker 1: Austin says, how does a hot chick like you end
Speaker 1: up working at the Ministry of Defense? And she's like, well,
Speaker 1: I went to Oxford and I excelled in several subjects.
Speaker 1: I ended up specializing in foreign languages. I really wanted
Speaker 1: to travel, you know, see the world. He interrupts her,
Speaker 1: and he says, that's fascinating, Vanessa, listen, why don't we
Speaker 1: go in the back and shag amazing hilarious. She says, no,
Speaker 1: please concentrate on the mission, like give your libido arrest.
Speaker 1: And then he's like, okay, well let me show you
Speaker 1: something and he beckons her over to his head. Then
Speaker 1: he kind of springs this whole thing on her where
Speaker 1: he's like, do I make you honey, baby? Do I
Speaker 1: make you randy blah blah blah um. He pretends to
Speaker 1: fall on top of her. She's like screaming and being like,
Speaker 1: get off me, get away. She then jumps up and says,
Speaker 1: I will never have sex with you, Mr. Powers. Ever,
Speaker 1: if you were the last man on earth and I
Speaker 1: was the last woman on Earth and the future of
Speaker 1: the human race depended on our having sex simply for procreation,
Speaker 1: I would still not have sex with you. And he's
Speaker 1: like but then the scene ends with her like kind
Speaker 1: of giggling at him and his antics, and it's it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess foreshadowing of what's to come, which is him
Speaker 1: wearing her down and her changing her mind. So a
Speaker 1: little bit later, they arrive at a hotel in Vegas
Speaker 1: and again Austin Powers is like, when are you going
Speaker 1: to have sex with me? And she's like stop it,
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh, I was just kidding. I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to get a rise out of you. Then she's
Speaker 1: like oh you and it's like no, he is like
Speaker 1: sexually harassing you within an inch of your life right now,
Speaker 1: Like well, that was yeah, that was like something that
Speaker 1: really stood out to me of like a major failing
Speaker 1: of the movie. Where I read UM was it was
Speaker 1: a g Q piece that came out on the twentieth anniversary,
Speaker 1: so like three years ago it came out and the
Speaker 1: um let me see the author of the piece made
Speaker 1: I think a pretty like smart comparison writer named Tom
Speaker 1: Philip who's great um. He draws a line from Austin
Speaker 1: Powers to mcgrouper and basically says that mcgrouber succeeds as
Speaker 1: a satire where Austin Powers failed because mcgrouber, if I mean,
Speaker 1: I like that movie a lot, it's like at least
Speaker 1: holds the character accountable for fucking up at least some
Speaker 1: of the time. Where Austin Powers, it's almost like a
Speaker 1: boomer uncle attitude towards him, where they're like, well, he
Speaker 1: doesn't understand, so it's fine. He can't be held accountable
Speaker 1: for his actions because he doesn't understand what things are
Speaker 1: like and and and that like the movie does not
Speaker 1: extend the logic any further where like Vanessa has to
Speaker 1: forgive him for these things because he doesn't get it,
Speaker 1: and like there's no onus on Awesome Powers to have
Speaker 1: to grow as a person, right exactly except to accept
Speaker 1: monogamy into his life. That's the one thing he has
Speaker 1: to do right, and that comes pretty much next where
Speaker 1: the next major thing that happens between them is um,
Speaker 1: we see Vanessa on the phone with her mom, who
Speaker 1: also does not seem to have really aged at all
Speaker 1: in thirty years, so like even though she would be
Speaker 1: thirty years older, like she's not visibly thirty years older,
Speaker 1: because heaven forbid we have a woman like in her
Speaker 1: sixties on screen. Um. And when we do have a
Speaker 1: woman in her sixties on screen, it's basil expositions mother
Speaker 1: and she gets the face, gets called a man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's so much. God, I'm just being reminded of so much.
Speaker 1: That was so upsetting because, just to sidetrack a little bit,
Speaker 1: there's that moment in the beginning of the movie where
Speaker 1: like they're still in like sixty seven, they're in that
Speaker 1: club and there's a woman who approaches Austin Powers and
Speaker 1: he punches her in the face and everyone's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, what just happened? And then it cuts to
Speaker 1: this woman is now suddenly a man, and you know,
Speaker 1: Austin Powers pulls the wig off and it's like, see
Speaker 1: he was a man. He's trying to kill me, which is,
Speaker 1: I mean, what the like, that's horrible obviously, and then
Speaker 1: the same thing happens later in the movie, except this
Speaker 1: time he just thought that an older woman was a man,
Speaker 1: punches this woman in the face and then everyone's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, why did you punch Basil's mother And
Speaker 1: he's like, ah, I thought she was a man. That's
Speaker 1: the worst part is it's a callback. It's uh. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So Vanessa is talking to her mother. She says something like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, I can't believe you were able to resist
Speaker 1: Austin Powers charms like you should want to have sex
Speaker 1: with him because he's the most charming man alive, and
Speaker 1: Vanessa is like, um, I don't see it. I don't
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. Blah blah blah. Then there's
Speaker 1: a very quick scene where they're actually doing some work.
Speaker 1: They're trying to find dr evil, but it lasts for
Speaker 1: like thirty seconds, and then suddenly Austin Powers is like, Wow,
Speaker 1: you're so beautiful. I'm going to take you out for
Speaker 1: a night on the town. And then we cut to
Speaker 1: this like romantic date that they're on. They're drinking champagne
Speaker 1: bert back Iraq is serenading them, they're dancing, cut to
Speaker 1: them playing twister in their hotel room, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, she's like, t he Austin, you're awesome,
Speaker 1: You're so funny, Come have champagne with me. And then
Speaker 1: there's this scene where, like the moment where she's trying
Speaker 1: to come onto him because I guess her mother convinced
Speaker 1: her that she should like him, Like that's my best
Speaker 1: guess for why she has suddenly made this shift, because
Speaker 1: she's she's like, kiss me, blah blah blah, and he's like, no,
Speaker 1: you're you're smashed. It wouldn't be right. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to kiss you when you're drunk. Why that he became
Speaker 1: a gentleman right there, all of a sudden, right even
Speaker 1: though he's been sexually harassing her NonStop for every moment
Speaker 1: up till this point. And she's like, no, I finally
Speaker 1: see what my mom was talking about. You're so funny,
Speaker 1: you're so charming. And it's like, where is this coming from?
Speaker 1: Like the choice to make her make this shift after
Speaker 1: he's sexually harassed her NonStop, it's so frustrating. It's almost
Speaker 1: like oh maybe, It's like, oh maybe she needed to
Speaker 1: be told she was beautiful, because that's what set it off.
Speaker 1: It was so weird, you know, in broad daylights, Like
Speaker 1: he saw her in broad daylight for once outside and
Speaker 1: he was just like, oh my god, you're so beautiful,
Speaker 1: and she was like, yes, nine out on town. I
Speaker 1: don't care. Can't make sense of it. And there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of time where like Austin has sex with
Speaker 1: a lot of vagina, which how could we not have
Speaker 1: brought that up? I mean, that's an obvious like parody
Speaker 1: for the pussy Galore character from whatever bad film that is.
Speaker 1: But like, but again it's like, what is the commentary
Speaker 1: I think it's just kind of doing it again. She's
Speaker 1: like the she's the fem fatale, but her name is
Speaker 1: even somehow goofier than pussy Galore. Like they're just there's
Speaker 1: no commentary there. It just is you've got to be
Speaker 1: smarter than what you're trying to make fun of exactly,
Speaker 1: and this movie is not. But you know, he has
Speaker 1: sex with her and then Vanessa's like, well, gee whiz,
Speaker 1: if you want us to have a relationship, you gotta
Speaker 1: get it through your head at the times have change.
Speaker 1: This is the nineties because I guess now she wants
Speaker 1: a relationship. But it's like, Okay, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: they're in a relationship. That wasn't I thought I had
Speaker 1: missed something too. I was like, because she didn't, I
Speaker 1: was like, wait, did I like black? Like what? And
Speaker 1: then she it's that classic move that movies do, and
Speaker 1: by classic I mean bad where they're they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's at the top of her field. She's really good
Speaker 1: at her job. And then we kind of see that
Speaker 1: happen like one time. But then for the most part,
Speaker 1: she just becomes the love interest and she is like
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit jealous, and you're like, oh, my
Speaker 1: fucking guy, like the bad look for everyone, like she
Speaker 1: they're not in a relationship, but then when she says
Speaker 1: that they are, he's like, oh, we are. And then
Speaker 1: it just gets confusing. You almost feel like there's like
Speaker 1: a missing scene there or something totally where like she
Speaker 1: has completely come around, which like why would she? But
Speaker 1: of course the movie makes her make the choice to
Speaker 1: come around, and then suddenly they're in a relationship, and
Speaker 1: then cut to the end and they are married. Um,
Speaker 1: and then cut to the following movie, The Spy Who
Speaker 1: Shagged me. That movie opens with Austin Powers discovering that
Speaker 1: his his wife Vanessa, was a fembot the whole time,
Speaker 1: who tries to kill him and then she explodes. You know,
Speaker 1: it's this whole thing where he's like, oh wow, I
Speaker 1: can't believe my beautiful wife, the love of my life,
Speaker 1: was a fembott all along. And then he's like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, that means I'm single again. Yaya what that's
Speaker 1: how they saw That's how they solve getting rid of her, Yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: which okay, So I was like, maybe again it's I
Speaker 1: guess it's sort of parody in terms of maybe it's satire.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's I think the acknowledgement that, like
Speaker 1: the Bond franchise and similar like action spy franchises, treat
Speaker 1: women as though they are expendable and disposable, because at
Speaker 1: the beginning of this movie, the main female character from
Speaker 1: the first movie is made to be evil for no
Speaker 1: reason and then killed off immediately. But again, there's no
Speaker 1: commentary being offered here. It's just again participating in the
Speaker 1: same sex as trope. I have. I have a question
Speaker 1: about that. Does that mean that Mrs Kensington is also
Speaker 1: an evil person. She was in on it, and that's
Speaker 1: not really her daughter that was. It makes no sense
Speaker 1: that wasn't. And then I'm also like, why wouldn't they
Speaker 1: have frozen Mrs Kensington Like, yeah, it doesn't make sense
Speaker 1: to me because she was like in theory Austin Powers
Speaker 1: is equal. I don't get it that. And after this
Speaker 1: happens in the sequel, basil exposition is like, yeah, we
Speaker 1: knew she was a fembot the whole time, and then
Speaker 1: like Austin Powers gives this weird look and I guess
Speaker 1: that excuses the lack of narrative justification for why they
Speaker 1: killed her off. But it's just like, are you fucking
Speaker 1: kidding me? Right right? You're just like what? Um? But anyway,
Speaker 1: so back to the first movie, Um, yes, the way
Speaker 1: that she is, I mean, it was just deplorable to
Speaker 1: see her be sexually harassed by him NonStop, but then
Speaker 1: to also see her like secretly be like t he
Speaker 1: I actually kind of like this, right, I mean, it
Speaker 1: just sets up every bad precedent that like movies, especially
Speaker 1: especially at a movie that like realistically was targeted at
Speaker 1: young men, Like that is just every irresponsible thing you
Speaker 1: can do with the movie for young men is like
Speaker 1: tell them it's okay to sectually her ask people that
Speaker 1: this is what women actually want, that women are to
Speaker 1: be viewed a certain way, like like it's it comes
Speaker 1: down again to like the responsibility of like I think
Speaker 1: Mike Myers thinks this is satire for them. I think, like,
Speaker 1: and if that's the case, then it's like you carry
Speaker 1: your responsibility with that you have, like you. It drives
Speaker 1: me like up a wall when people suggest like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't actually need to take my audience into account
Speaker 1: when I make things. I make whatever I want and
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, where it's like Mike Myers, you know,
Speaker 1: your audience is like preteen, Like it's kids and like
Speaker 1: and young people and like, you know, movies like this
Speaker 1: definitely have like a lasting impact, even though it seems
Speaker 1: goofy and stupid and mostly just something that annoying people
Speaker 1: quote still for some reason, but it does have elastic
Speaker 1: effect on people. And it's like, yeah, if you that
Speaker 1: was so that little giggle shot really killed me. I
Speaker 1: hate you know it has it has a lasting effect
Speaker 1: on people because there are people out there who go,
Speaker 1: I am going to make money dressing up like him,
Speaker 1: driving a car just like him and doing and doing
Speaker 1: weird dinner parties because I mean, I guess you kind
Speaker 1: of have to look like the person. You have to
Speaker 1: be practical about that too. You can't just want to
Speaker 1: impersonate anybody, right, You have to have at least similar features.
Speaker 1: So maybe you don't have a choice, but you know, maybe, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe he was just he just looked already exactly like
Speaker 1: Austin Powers, and he's like, well, I can make a
Speaker 1: career out of this. And for the people who don't
Speaker 1: look like him, they set up a pop up bar
Speaker 1: in Glendale, California. I liked seeing Carrie Fisher. I she's
Speaker 1: deserved so much better. But it was like a bright spot.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, there's someone here. I like, this is good. Uh,
Speaker 1: We've got to take a groovy little break, but we'll
Speaker 1: be right back, baby. There is a chunk at the
Speaker 1: end that went a little better than I expected. It's
Speaker 1: not to say that it's good at all, but I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this isn't as horrible as I was
Speaker 1: expecting it to be, considering everything that's happened up till
Speaker 1: this point. But um, at the end, both Vanessa and
Speaker 1: Austin are there like near dr evils secret layer, and
Speaker 1: they get captured and they are largely able to escape.
Speaker 1: This is when they're like surrounded by the like mutated
Speaker 1: sea bass or whatever. They're able to escape largely because
Speaker 1: of all the dental equipment that she brought with her.
Speaker 1: Then she goes and gets help and brings back an army,
Speaker 1: so she was more active than I was thinking. I
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, she's probably just gonna get like tied
Speaker 1: up and damseled and infringed, and that does happen a
Speaker 1: moment later, when um a lot of vagina is holding
Speaker 1: her hostage, but then Vanessa chops her and escapes on
Speaker 1: her own. She does not need to be saved by
Speaker 1: Austin powers. So I was like, Okay, that's a little
Speaker 1: better than what I was expecting. I was, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was like. The other thing I noticed about that scene too,
Speaker 1: is like it was almost I don't know how intentional
Speaker 1: it was, but it was a bit of an inversion
Speaker 1: of like how you would normally expect this seems to
Speaker 1: go because she was actively the action hero of the
Speaker 1: scene while Austin is trying to use his sexual whiles
Speaker 1: to get out of a situation and I feel like
Speaker 1: normally you would see that dynamic in the reverse where
Speaker 1: like a woman has to seduce someone to get out
Speaker 1: of a compromising situation. We've seen that a billion, a
Speaker 1: hundred billion times one hundred billion. I mean, in that scene,
Speaker 1: at least Austin is the person that has to use
Speaker 1: his like sexual whiles to get out of a compromising situation.
Speaker 1: So it's not much, but it was better than like
Speaker 1: you're saying, it was like slightly better than what I
Speaker 1: was expected for it. But then that just means that
Speaker 1: all those fembots have to die. We see like, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: we love to see a woman get punched or explode
Speaker 1: in this yes, because they couldn't handle a man, you know,
Speaker 1: being so sexy. And with the fembots, it's like, I mean, honestly,
Speaker 1: like I still think the aesthetic of the fembots is
Speaker 1: like kind of iconic, but that's just because that it's
Speaker 1: barbarella um and I you can draw a direct line
Speaker 1: from do you remember that Katy Perry music video where
Speaker 1: she shoots out of her booth? Thought of that, Well,
Speaker 1: that's a brilliant commentary anyway, the but the fem bats
Speaker 1: are ultimately like this, um you know, they're they're carrying
Speaker 1: out I mean, I guess that Frau far Bisina did
Speaker 1: invent them, but they're ultimately like these sexy ladies that
Speaker 1: don't have names, who are meant to carry out the
Speaker 1: wishes of Doctor Evil. So not feminist icons. Fraul far Bisina,
Speaker 1: I think is the best female character of the franchise.
Speaker 1: She's pretty much the only consistent one. She and all
Speaker 1: of them. She's in all of them. Oh that's fine,
Speaker 1: but she's not necessarily you know, treated I think the
Speaker 1: second movie a joke has made at her expense. Where
Speaker 1: so Dr Evil and Austin Powers go back in time too,
Speaker 1: I think nineteen sixty nine, and that's where most of
Speaker 1: the movie takes place. So Dr Evil he's like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: number two, you look so young and handsome in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty nine. And he's literally played by Rob Low, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the handsomest mental A deleted scene from the
Speaker 1: first movie too, I saw really interested. So I guess
Speaker 1: he was there from the jump, I guess. I mean,
Speaker 1: but he was in Wayne's world too, So maybe him
Speaker 1: and Mike Myers are just like they're best friends. Maybe,
Speaker 1: but anyway, so he so number two gets to be
Speaker 1: played like the young version of number two gets to
Speaker 1: be played by a very handsome actor. Whereas the joke
Speaker 1: is made that she looks the same, exact same, she
Speaker 1: doesn't get to be I guess the joke is like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's you know, pretty average looking, no matter what decade
Speaker 1: it is. I mean, there is the good thing there,
Speaker 1: which is that Mindy Sterling is getting paid. Yes, there's
Speaker 1: no one in the second movie. It sounds like that
Speaker 1: knows what happened to Natalie Wood. That's true, that's true.
Speaker 1: And just while we're on the second movie, a couple
Speaker 1: things to say about that real quick that Heather Graham
Speaker 1: Um plays a character named Felicity Shaguell. She is the
Speaker 1: main female character, and like Um ally to Austin Powers,
Speaker 1: she is shown as being extremely horny for Austin right
Speaker 1: from the jump. But the big obstacle of that movie
Speaker 1: is that he can't do anything about it because he's
Speaker 1: lost his mojo, which again might be slight commentary on
Speaker 1: what you were talking about earlier, Jamie, with like the
Speaker 1: masculinity aspect of this type of like you know, British superspy,
Speaker 1: but like again I don't I don't know what they're
Speaker 1: trying to say with this the commentary, it's the audience
Speaker 1: of this movie is like I think a little bit
Speaker 1: jarring and confusing, because it's like most people see this
Speaker 1: movie are and like quoting this movie are kids and
Speaker 1: teenagers who just based on the time the movie came out,
Speaker 1: would have no like life understanding of what the movie
Speaker 1: is parodying. But then it's making all these references that
Speaker 1: seem to be for their parents. But that's not like
Speaker 1: I'm sure parents are watching the movie, but not in
Speaker 1: the same like what. It's just weird. It's just like
Speaker 1: it's just kind of Uncanny Valley, and like I think
Speaker 1: Mike Myers is not making it for kids, but that's
Speaker 1: who's watching it, and so for the intended commentary just
Speaker 1: gets completely lost. If there is any I don't know.
Speaker 1: I wasn't alive in the sixties in England, I was.
Speaker 1: It is so interesting with that said, is that like
Speaker 1: the audience you weren't making it for or the fans,
Speaker 1: and because they don't get the references, that means they're
Speaker 1: taking it at face value and actually liking that. I
Speaker 1: mean no, I mean not as a read at all.
Speaker 1: On people who did watch it as kids and they
Speaker 1: liked it, Caitlin, thank you, you know, but um, it's
Speaker 1: it's so weird to It's kind of like some Sasha
Speaker 1: Bear and Cohen movies where people who he's making fun
Speaker 1: of like it and they have no idea he's making
Speaker 1: fun of them, you know, right right, because they're just like, oh,
Speaker 1: sex jokes, homo jokes or whatever, you know, and so
Speaker 1: they don't get that there he's making fun of homo phobia. Right. Wait,
Speaker 1: so how do he lose his mojo? Is it because
Speaker 1: he lost his wife and he's sad about oh? He Oh,
Speaker 1: I'd love to tell you. Nope, nothing like that. It
Speaker 1: is that the character Fat Bastard steals it from him.
Speaker 1: So of course we have Fat Bastard. This is one
Speaker 1: long fat shaming joke. One of the worst, if not
Speaker 1: the worst offender of a fat joke in movie history,
Speaker 1: is the character Fat Bastard. He shows up again in
Speaker 1: the third movie as well. It is despicable. Similarly, I
Speaker 1: would argue that the mini Me character, many many jokes
Speaker 1: are made at the pens of Verne Troyer and his
Speaker 1: size and his body rest in power. Um so you
Speaker 1: have all these This doesn't happen to a large degree
Speaker 1: in the first movie, but starting with the second movie
Speaker 1: of this trilogy, there is all these jokes made at
Speaker 1: the expense of various people's bodies and and looks and
Speaker 1: things like that, so that is obviously unacceptable. The most
Speaker 1: important thing though about Austin Powers too, is that when
Speaker 1: they're tracking Fat Bastard, at one point Austin's like the
Speaker 1: signals come through. He's at Paddington Station. So it's forgiven
Speaker 1: it's for you. No, but there is the Paddington reference. Um.
Speaker 1: And if only this movie about a British person wearing
Speaker 1: a blue jacket was not about Austin Powers and it
Speaker 1: was instead about Paddington Bear. If I may, I think
Speaker 1: that maybe this I don't know, if this is this
Speaker 1: isn't really an Alpha Molina type movie. No, No, he
Speaker 1: would not set foot on that set. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: And even if he was offered a part um, he
Speaker 1: was probably busy shooting his iconic part in Boogie Nights,
Speaker 1: which comes out the same year. True interesting, y'all know there.
Speaker 1: I just have his Wikipedia page open at all times.
Speaker 1: And then as far as like Austin Powers three, this
Speaker 1: is the one I'm least familiar with. I only saw
Speaker 1: it once, but there's just the Beyonce one. There's a
Speaker 1: whole slew of racist jokes throughout the movie. Is she
Speaker 1: his love interest? Um, she's like his like spy partner.
Speaker 1: I don't think they ever have any sort of I
Speaker 1: don't remember. I think they do kiss at the end.
Speaker 1: I think yeah, but it's not quite it's not quite
Speaker 1: framed the same way as it is in the first
Speaker 1: two movies. I hate that B and I had to
Speaker 1: kiss Mike Myers, But then I would also be pissed
Speaker 1: if he had no interest in Beyonce at all, you
Speaker 1: know right, That would also be racist, right, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: is it because she's black? You know right? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've talked about that a lot in recent episodes of
Speaker 1: like this, especially in this era, like a resistance to
Speaker 1: showing any interracial couples on screen, and how like it
Speaker 1: sometimes gets confused even by us at certain points of like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's cool that they didn't force a love interest, and
Speaker 1: and then like, I mean it was when we were
Speaker 1: talking about bad boys, but it was like, oh, well
Speaker 1: that was because in this time, it wasn't that they
Speaker 1: were doing something feminists, is that they were doing something racist.
Speaker 1: Oh totally yes, if if memory serves, they do share
Speaker 1: They are like flirting a lot throughout the movie, and
Speaker 1: they do share a kiss at the end, but he
Speaker 1: is not trying to shag the time, not trying to
Speaker 1: shag her relentlessly in a harassing way. Again, as far
Speaker 1: as I was like watching like in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. So who knows what my memory is doing.
Speaker 1: But either way, none of these movies are good and
Speaker 1: they're all treat women terribly. Also, I mean, just because
Speaker 1: we referenced it at the top of the episode, this
Speaker 1: movie this true. I mean they are all three directed
Speaker 1: by Jay Roach Caitlin. Oh I believe they are. Yes,
Speaker 1: so j ro okay. So this is like one of
Speaker 1: my least favorite trends in recent movie history. I hate
Speaker 1: it so much. We've talked about it before on the
Speaker 1: Mate Treon, But this whole like trend of men who
Speaker 1: directed incredibly offensive broad nineties and early two thousands comedies
Speaker 1: getting this second act now directing movies that are supposed
Speaker 1: to be feminist or like or I guess progressive in general.
Speaker 1: Where you have the Fairly Brothers with Green Book, which
Speaker 1: is a trash movie that want a ton of oscars,
Speaker 1: Eric you have, I mean for but in Jay Roach
Speaker 1: directed Bombshell, which was supposed to be the feminist movie
Speaker 1: of the movie season. It wasn't. It didn't make any
Speaker 1: fucking sense and it wasn't very good. But this is
Speaker 1: the fact that like these prestige projects that are about
Speaker 1: women and people of color, and they're just being given
Speaker 1: to these guys that did these outwardly, like their whole
Speaker 1: resume is like across the board. J roaches resume is sexist, sexist, sexist.
Speaker 1: What I didn't say that right any of the three
Speaker 1: times understood, but like but but then that they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, he should get an opportunity to direct
Speaker 1: a movie about misogyny in the workplace, Like on what
Speaker 1: fucking grounds? It's just whoa, you're blowing my mind right now.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. That's wow, that this is the
Speaker 1: this is how the system gets recycled over and over.
Speaker 1: Of course it's the people who were here first, and
Speaker 1: it's dudes like him, and of course they wore in
Speaker 1: the times. That was what that's so fucked up. He's
Speaker 1: the one who directed bomb Yeah, I mean, they're not
Speaker 1: getting you talent. No, it's like of all the I mean,
Speaker 1: of all the stories that needed to be directed by
Speaker 1: a woman, and then also like why we are like, oh,
Speaker 1: the first Me Too movie is about like women on
Speaker 1: Fox News, Like all right, but so it's like shitty
Speaker 1: on a number of levels. But if you want to
Speaker 1: tell that story, why hand that to the director of
Speaker 1: all three Austin Powers? Just like, on what fucking grounds
Speaker 1: does that make sense? Well, Jamie, because he also directed
Speaker 1: Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers. I like, I
Speaker 1: don't I've every I mean, I I don't know anything
Speaker 1: about this man personally, but you just like on on
Speaker 1: paper and on like the resume translating to that, it
Speaker 1: just makes no sense. And it just it's like it
Speaker 1: seems like a slap in the face to female filmmakers
Speaker 1: as a whole. Yes, oh my god. I wonder what
Speaker 1: side by side the scenes from Fembots, if there are
Speaker 1: any scenes and bombshell that kind of like side by side.
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking it's like three three blonde women, you know,
Speaker 1: three blonde women. There were six blond fembots, you know,
Speaker 1: like if if it's like there's some like shot the
Speaker 1: shot storyboard like similar. I don't know, I wonder if
Speaker 1: he used that as a pitch, you know, like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a scene from Austin Powers. Okay, so I'm picturing,
Speaker 1: you know, how the fembots were like this, this is
Speaker 1: how the girls and Bombshell are going to be standing.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this. Yeah, so that's a not
Speaker 1: very fun fact. My, my. The only fun fact I
Speaker 1: could find about this movie that was fun was that scene.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's like those two scenes that have those
Speaker 1: extended visual jokes about dicks and boobies because movies for
Speaker 1: nine year olds, Um, but whatever, And what if they're okay, hilarious?
Speaker 1: Saw Jamie had while watching the movie. What if you
Speaker 1: watched the end and it was like cinematography Roger Deakins.
Speaker 1: Just what if Roger Deakins literally orchestrated those boobies and
Speaker 1: PP shots anyways? Um, well it's not him, but that
Speaker 1: would be really funny if that was Roger Deakins. Anyways, Um,
Speaker 1: that scene, that last scene with all the melons and
Speaker 1: the boobies and all the whole booby thing that was
Speaker 1: shot at the Scientology Celebrity Center, what weird? What? Okay?
Speaker 1: Hold on, there's just too many things. My mind needs
Speaker 1: to calm down. Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna explode like
Speaker 1: like one of the thumbs. Wait okay, wait, everything's wrong
Speaker 1: with everything, Everything's very wrong. Hold on, I need to um,
Speaker 1: I need to calm down. Wait okay, So everything about
Speaker 1: this movie is remind me of just everything wrong with
Speaker 1: like the nineties, not just nineties. It's like very in
Speaker 1: cell from like the Judo Chop to now Scientology. It's
Speaker 1: this is all very like toxic in cell shit, you
Speaker 1: know what. Well, also because for some reason, like every
Speaker 1: guy loser who's like who gets toxic about not getting
Speaker 1: um laid gets really into like martial arts too, and
Speaker 1: so every time no for real, it's like um uh
Speaker 1: you know, Putin is like a black belt, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's always like weird evil people. It's
Speaker 1: always like evil dudes like who are like not getting
Speaker 1: laid and like you know, are angry about it. Um
Speaker 1: that gets really so like the references to Judo freaked
Speaker 1: me out, to like Judo chop, you know, in Awesome Powers,
Speaker 1: because I was like everything like the obsession with Japan,
Speaker 1: you know, obsession with boobies, dumb sex oaks, and poop
Speaker 1: jokes and uh, I mean the scientology I can't explain
Speaker 1: right now, but like did they just offer it? I
Speaker 1: don't know, I guess yeah, it was a free Everything
Speaker 1: else seemed kind of like they could shoot it for
Speaker 1: pretty low budge. I mean the u n was just
Speaker 1: like a dark room, right, Like the background was just
Speaker 1: black right. I think the first movie had a sixteen
Speaker 1: point five million dollar budget, which is yeah, not pretty
Speaker 1: low for a studio comedy at like action comedy. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wonder how much that budget goes up between the
Speaker 1: first and the second one. Oh, I have it right here.
Speaker 1: It uh pretty much doubles for The Spy Who Shagged Me,
Speaker 1: and then that again nearly doubles for the third movie. Um,
Speaker 1: these movies grossed. The first one didn't do super well.
Speaker 1: It was a success, but I read that part of
Speaker 1: the reason it didn't do well is it didn't do
Speaker 1: well in England because it came out right after Prince
Speaker 1: us Die passed away and no one was fucking with
Speaker 1: it at that time, because I think that they were
Speaker 1: really banking on it being very successful in England as well,
Speaker 1: but everyone in England was bummed out. Um, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: two different figures here, and I don't know exactly which
Speaker 1: one is which, so I'll just stay the lower one
Speaker 1: to be safe. But worldwide these movies, the trilogy grossed
Speaker 1: about six hundred and seventy five million dollars um as
Speaker 1: a trilogy across the world. So you're like, You're like,
Speaker 1: the people were sad about Princess Diana's death and they
Speaker 1: knew watching the movie would not make them feel better,
Speaker 1: and so they just avoided it pretty much. I don't know,
Speaker 1: does anyone have any other final thoughts? I can't wait
Speaker 1: to do another Mike Myers movie? Oh yeah, you got
Speaker 1: what do you do? You want to come back for? Um?
Speaker 1: So I marry an axe murderer or whatever the book
Speaker 1: that movie is? Sure? I haven't seen that our our
Speaker 1: number one request. Most people haven't. Um yeah, Well, next
Speaker 1: time we'll have you on for a movie that you
Speaker 1: actually want to talk. We've punished you long enough. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's fine. Look, I have we have time right now.
Speaker 1: I have time right now. It's like, yeah, we visit
Speaker 1: awesome powers, we appreciate it. Yes, Uh, let's figure out
Speaker 1: if the movie passes the Bechtel test. No it doesn't.
Speaker 1: I had my fingers crossed for when Vanessa and her
Speaker 1: mother were talking, but they always talked about fucking Austin Powers.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that's the only time women interact
Speaker 1: in the entire movie, because like frail Farbistina does not
Speaker 1: interact with her femboss. They don't have names and they
Speaker 1: don't have names. Um yeah, maybe a lot of Vagina
Speaker 1: when she's like kidnapping Vanessa, but I don't know if
Speaker 1: they talk either. We didn't see that conversation. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: I don't think this movie passes the Bechtel test, and
Speaker 1: if it does, it shouldn't write unless the sea bass
Speaker 1: the mutated sea beasts were all female fish and they talked,
Speaker 1: but we didn't see it. There better be a deleted
Speaker 1: scene where that happens. And if not pissed, let's rate
Speaker 1: it on our nipple scale zero to five nipples based
Speaker 1: on its representation of women. I think I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: go ahead and give this zero nipples. Give it a
Speaker 1: zero as well. I'm going to give it a concaved nipple. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, everything about it is despicable. It does not
Speaker 1: get any better as the franchise goes forward. There was
Speaker 1: an opportunity to provide meaningful commentary on this type of
Speaker 1: like spy action franchise, because I mean, we talked about
Speaker 1: one of the Bond movies so far on the podcast, um,
Speaker 1: and it was one of the more recent ones, and
Speaker 1: it's still do we have to talk about another one? No? Well,
Speaker 1: so I was like, oh, we can do Austin Powers.
Speaker 1: Because originally, um, the newest Bond installment was supposed to
Speaker 1: come out in early April, but everything, you know, not
Speaker 1: being released in theaters. So that's why I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: let's do an Austin Powers movie instead. So that's why
Speaker 1: we're releasing this episode. Now you know all of our
Speaker 1: plans that fall into ship. But it's actually fine. Mulan
Speaker 1: didn't come out, but our episode did, so basically it
Speaker 1: came out basically Mulan came, yeah and look whatever. Oh
Speaker 1: by the way, I wanted to before we leave, I
Speaker 1: said concave nipple, not to body shame, but because it's
Speaker 1: like a negative nipple. Oh so yeah, what I meant was,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a negative one. Got it. God, I
Speaker 1: think I've lost ability to really like swarm sentences because no, honestly,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen people and I know anyways, thank you
Speaker 1: for having me on that would be that's my last thought. Uh,
Speaker 1: we're we're so glad to have had you. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being here. And a natsco. What would
Speaker 1: you like to plug? And where can people follow you
Speaker 1: online and check out your stuff? You can just define
Speaker 1: me at Outsco Comedy a T s uk O Comedy.
Speaker 1: That's where I'm at. Yeah, and check out let's go
Speaker 1: outs Go the podcast and the live show and the
Speaker 1: future Quimby Show. Yes since the future equip Yes coming
Speaker 1: to your phone so we'll see you know, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens. It's coming, It's coming. Yes, I can't
Speaker 1: wait on. You can follow us on all the places, Twitter, Instagram, Patreon, ak.
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Speaker 1: all of your merch needs and um without much further ado. Yeah,
Speaker 1: baby Shagdelic or something Harney Harney that horny Bye bye