“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!
We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.
We both have super-serious personas in our "day jobs." No, really. Emily is a Finance writer who used to be a classroom teacher. Tracie writes and consults on social justice and mindfulness and works as a copywriter and project manager for non-profits. If you really need to see the bona fides, please visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com
For our work together, what you need to know is that Tracie is older (3 years), Emily is funnier (by at least 3 percent), and we're both hella smart, often over-literal, and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction and murder mysteries, good storytelling with liberal amounts of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find there.
Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video version, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon.
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