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127: Enemy Mine: Deep Thoughts About Subverting Sci Fi Tropes, Prescient Gender Discussions in 80s Pop Culture, and Brilliant Practical Effects
Earthman, your Mickey Mouse is one big stupid dope! This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie delves into a forgotten sci fi gem from her Gen X childhood: Wolfgang Petersen's 1985 film Enemy Mine. A commercial flop when it debuted, Enemy Mine never quite reached cult classic status, in part because it is a sci fi film that's remarkably light on space battles and much more interested in theology, interpersonal relationships, dignity, and parenting. This film is also
Tracie Guy-Decker
3 days ago2 min read


126: What Dreams May Come: Deep Thoughts About the Cosmology of a Painted Afterlife, Misogynistic Romance Tropes, and 90s Era Casual Racism
March 3, 2026 Thought is real. Physical is the illusion. Ironic, huh ? The thoughts are deeper (and potentially more upsetting, so mind the CWs) than usual on this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, where Emily shares her film analysis of the 1998 cult classic What Dreams May Come. Based on the novel by Richard Matheson (who had some truly fucked up views of women, romance, and gender dynamics), director Vincent Ward and leads Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Tracie Guy-Decker
Mar 32 min read


125: The Nanny with Zina Kumok: Deep Thoughts About Yiddish, Subverting Jewish Stereotypes in Pop Culture, and Elevated Mob Wife Fashion
February 24, 2026 "But I've got style, I've got flair. How did I become the nanny?" On this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, the Guy sisters welcome Emily's colleague Zina Kumok to share her analysis of the 1990s-era sitcom The Nanny, starring Fran Drescher. All three women appreciated the pop culture representation of a beautiful and funny working class Jewish woman on this TV show, since Drescher's portrayal of the titular nanny subverted many stereotypes
Tracie Guy-Decker
Feb 242 min read


124: The Road to Wellville: Deep Thoughts About Scatological Comedy, Health Crazes, and What Films You Should Never Watch With Your Dad
February 17, 2025 With friends like these, who needs enemas? This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t, Tracie revisits the star-studded yet mostly forgotten 1994 comedy The Road to Wellville. Set at the turn of the 20th century, this film offers cultural commentary on the bonkers health crazes that gave us breakfast cereal as health food, opium as an all-purpose panacea, and the idea that an erection was a flagpole on the grave. And yet, the psychology of John Harvey Kell
Tracie Guy-Decker
Feb 172 min read


123: Say Anything: Deep Thoughts About Romance, Masculinity, and Gen X Nostalgia for Boom Boxes
February 10, 2026 I'm incarcerated, Lloyd!! This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily shares her analysis of one of the classic movies that happened to miss the Guy girls the first time around: Say Anything. Cameron Crowe's 1989 romance/comedy created some iconic moments in our collective Gen X childhood--notably the scene of John Cusack's Lloyd Dobler holding the boom box playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" over his head. Crowe's storytelling also turned a curi
Tracie Guy-Decker
Feb 102 min read


122: Daria: Deep Thoughts About 90s Feminism, "Misery Chick" Animation, and Who Gets the Privilege of Being Cynical
February 3, 2026 I don't have low self-esteem. I have low esteem for everyone else. On this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie returns to an icon of 90s era feminism, the animated MTV television show Daria. Just like the eponymous Daria Morgendorffer, the people around Tracie thought she was a "misery chick" who wore her feminism, sarcasm, and impatience with the idiocy of the rest of the world on her sleeve (although Emily objects to that characterizat
Tracie Guy-Decker
Feb 32 min read


121: Roxanne: Deep Thoughts About Big Noses, Smart Women, and the Delicious Comedy of 20 Perfectly Worded Insults
January 27, 2026 Earn more sessions by sleeving! This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily enjoys analyzing film tropes in the 1987 Steve Martin comedy Roxanne, based on the Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac. As a romance loving child, Emily adored the updated storytelling of the remarkable man with a big nose who falls in love with a beautiful woman and helps his handsome but shy lieutenant woo her in his stead. While much of the comedy from the original Frenc
Tracie Guy-Decker
Jan 272 min read


120: Dick Tracy: Deep Thoughts About the Comic Strip Villains, Overusing Montages, and What We Accepted As "Romance" in 80s and 90s Movies
January 20, 2026 "I know how you feel. You don't know if you want to hit me or kiss me. I get a lot of that." On this week's episode of Deep Thoughts, Tracie revisits the 1990 film Dick Tracy, the big budget Oscar winner that pop culture forgot. Director and star Warren Beatty wanted to recreate the comic strip detective as a live action hero, complete with all the weird villains that populate the funny papers, as well as the romance Tracy enjoyed with both his loving girlfri
Tracie Guy-Decker
Jan 202 min read


119: Tim Burton's Batman: Deep Thoughts About Pop Culture Gatekeeping, Clown Mafia, and the Psychology of Billionaire Vigilantes Dressed as Bats
January 13, 2026 You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight? On today's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily delves into Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman. This pop culture phenomenon was controversial prior to its release, as comic book purists objected to the casting of Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman. They assumed his acting would make the film a comedy rather than gritty storytelling. While Emily agrees that Keaton brings a level of gravitas and pat
Tracie Guy-Decker
Jan 132 min read


118: Deep Thoughts About Brassed Off
January 06, 2026 Apologies for the SNAFU beautiful patrons! Here is this week's episode with sub-optimized show notes (Emily always writes the shownotes, but she had her own version of Planes, Trains & Automobiles getting home from our NYC adventure). AND Somehow when I did this on Wednesday, it didn't take. Thanks to the eagle-eyed patron who let me know only the Sh*t We Forgot to Say was available for this movie! ~Tracie The truth is, I thought it mattered. I thought that m
Tracie Guy-Decker
Jan 62 min read


117: Grosse Pointe Blank: Deep Thoughts About Dark Comedy, Going Home Again, and If Killing the President of Paraguay with a Fork is Forgivable
December 30, 2025 Yes, I did go to my high school reunion. It was just as if everyone had swelled. On this week's episode, Emily revisits the ultimate high school reunion film, Grosse Pointe Blank. Rewatching John Cusack's charming and hilarious performance of professional killer Martin Blank made it clear to her that this is one of the movies that you can either enjoy as a dark comedy with a second chance romance and a happy ending, or you can dig into the moral, ethical, an
Tracie Guy-Decker
Jan 62 min read


116: Gremlins: Deep Thoughts About Great Movies, Genre Mashups, and Where Gremlin Marauders Get Their Tiny Little Clothes
December 23, 2025 ...And that's how I found out there was no Santa Claus. Today, Tracie returns to another one of the movies that traumatized her and Emily in early childhood: the 1984 film Gremlins. Written by Chris Columbus and directed by Joe Dante, the film was advertised as a fun family fantasy, with the adorable mogwai Gizmo (described by Roger Ebert as a cross between a Pekingese, Yoda, the Ewoks, and a kitten) as too cute for little kids to pass up. What the 1980s mov
Tracie Guy-Decker
Dec 23, 20252 min read


115: Love, Actually: Deep Thoughts About Christmas Movies We Hate to Love, Creepy Cue Card Romance, and Early 2000s Fat Shaming
December 16, 2025 If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around. This week, Emily brings her deep thoughts about the first of two Christmas movies the Guy Girls will be covering for the 2025 holiday season: Richard Curtis's 2003 romcom Love, Actually. While both sisters thoroughly enjoyed the 10 interlocking stories of romance, parental love, heartbreak, dubious comedy, and even dubiouser feminism when the film debuted, Curtis's st
Tracie Guy-Decker
Dec 16, 20252 min read


114: The Land Before Time: Deep Thoughts About Grief, Animation, and How Much Scientific Verisimilitude We Require From Talking Dinosaur Cartoons
December 09, 2025 Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely. This week, Tracie brings her deep thoughts about the 1988 Don Bluth animated film The Land Before Time. Although both Guy girls were a little too old to appreciate this staple of Millennial nostalgia when it originally came out, Tracie loved the hand-drawn animation, the way Bluth's storytelling offered a kid-friendly meditation on grief, and the pop culture trope of found family when she watched the
Tracie Guy-Decker
Dec 9, 20252 min read


113: Strictly Ballroom: Deep Thoughts About the Comedy Inherent in Ridiculous Competition and the Dignity of Taking Art Seriously
December 2, 2025 A life lived in fear is a life half lived. On this week's Deep Thoughts, Emily brings her analysis, nostalgia--and quite a bit of drool--to the 1992 Baz Luhrmann comedy Strictly Ballroom. Though this indie film, which was Luhrmann's directorial debut, may have gotten lost among the 80s and 90s movies that were bigger blockbusters, the comedy offers an incisive skewering of the insular world of amateur ballroom dancing in regional Australia. And yet, Luhrmann'
Tracie Guy-Decker
Dec 2, 20252 min read


112: Home for the Holidays: Deep Thoughts About Memory, Cringey Romance, and Why Tracie Can't Be Fooled Into Thinking BWI Looks Like O'Hare
November 25, 2025 Well, that was absurd, let's eat dead bird! Just in time for Thanksgiving, Tracie brings her deep thoughts about the 1995 "romantic" comedy Home for the Holidays. Although the dysfunctional dynamics of the Larson family makes for realistic and funny storytelling, the romance between Holly Hunter's Claudia and Dylan McDermott's Leo seems to imply that women are just lacking a handsome man's tongue down their throat, no matter what they claim. (To be fair, Leo
Tracie Guy-Decker
Nov 25, 20252 min read


111: Wall Street with Joe Saul-Sehy: Deep Thoughts About Mentorship, the Culture of Money, and Just How Many Yachts You Can Water Ski Behind
November 18, 2025 The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. On today's episode, the Guy sisters welcome Emily's friend and co-author Joe Saul-Sehy , co-host of the wildly popular Stacking Benjamins podcast, to talk about the 1987 Oliver Stone film Wall Street. Even though it has had an enormous impact on the culture of finance (and Emily has written in the realm of finance for 15 years), neither of the Guy girls had seen the film, wh
Tracie Guy-Decker
Nov 18, 20252 min read


110: The Jerk: Deep Thoughts About Race, Comedy Genius, and the Unparalleled Thrill of Getting Your Name in the Phone Book
November 11, 2025 You mean I'm gonna STAY this color? On this week's episode, Tracie shares her deep thoughts about the 1979 Steve Martin film The Jerk, a comedy that never failed to delight the Guy sisters' father, no matter how many times he watched it. And for good reason. Martin's broad physical comedy and cultural commentary rooted in racial stereotypes conceals multiple layers of storytelling and humor in the tale of dim-witted Navin R. Johnson. Not only does the film f
Tracie Guy-Decker
Nov 11, 20252 min read


108: Weekend at Bernie's: Deep Thoughts About Exceptional Physical Comedy, Dubious Personal Morality, and Pop Culture Touchstones
October 23, 2025 What kind of a host invites you to his house for the weekend and dies on you? Despite its status as a benchmark of late 80s pop culture, the film Weekend at Bernie's sounds like it should never have been greenlit. Two lowly young insurance employees find their boss dead of an apparent overdose at his beach house--and pretend he is still alive. The mafia boss who ordered Bernie's death sends the enforcer back to kill him again and again, and there's a love int
Tracie Guy-Decker
Nov 4, 20252 min read


109: Scream: Deep Thoughts About Badass Final Girls, Self-Aware Pop Culture, and Why We Expect Morals from Horror but Not Comedy
October 28, 2025 There are certain RULES that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie. In December 1996, teenaged Emily learned to love horror movies when she saw Wes Craven's Scream in the theater. Twice. Unlike most pop culture specifically created for her demographic, Scream offered feminism, cultural commentary, badass women as protagonists and antagonists, a banger of a murder mystery, and plenty of comedy--all while simultaneously analyzing fil
Tracie Guy-Decker
Oct 28, 20252 min read
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