A Geek History of Time - Episode 32- Screwball Comedy and World War II

Episode Date: October 19, 2019

Damian describes the roots of the Screwball Comedy genre and its gender politics dynamics. Ed has an epiphany about screwball relating to the roots of the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope. Damian then describes how World War II affected the genre. Spoiler- it's not a happy story.

I said good day sir. You don't ever plan anything around the Eagles because the Eagles represent the grace of God. You heathen bastards. One of vanilla nabish name. Well, your orcs are people too. I'm thinking of that one called they got taken out with one punch. So he's got a wall, a gall, a gall, and a wall. Every time you mention the Eagles, I think done Henley.

Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha.

This is a geek history of time. Where we connect nursery to the real world. I'm Ed Blaylock. I'm a seventh grade world history teacher with a side of English here in northern California and the father of a twig up to the math in my head a 21 month old now and how about you? I'm Damien Harmony, I'm a Latin teacher with a side of world history up here in northern California. I am the father of children who are more than two years old so I don't have to count months anymore. My son is...

I cannot wait. You're almost there. My son is nine and some change. Gonna be 10 this year, and my daughter is seven. Nice. Yeah, no, it's a good time. What are you reading right now? Right now, I'm reading the National Wrestling Alliance, which is, it's a book that I used as a source

for one of the previous episodes, but it just was. I think you mean several of the previous episodes in the whole chain of previous episodes. Yeah, and it, but I found out that that same author, Tim Hornbaker or Hornbacker, has written a number of books, which are all going to be on my Amazon wish list for my birthday.

Oh, very cool. Yeah, how about you? I am recommending. I'm not reading it at the moment because we're in the middle of a grading period and I have no time to read anything other than student work right now. God help me, but I want to recommend a history of war in 100 battles by Richard Overy. Oh, he does good work. Yeah, yeah. It's a really good, I kind of want to call it a digest history, but I feel like that's kind of praising it too faintly. Okay. Essentially, there's 100 battles out of world history

where he finds something in each one of them that makes it particularly significant to either warfare and on a large scale, or it is a battle that is somehow emblematic of some kind of a huge change. So essentially, linch pens and emblems. Yeah, basically. Yeah. So it's a very good read, very fast read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I highly recommend it. I imagine it's fairly episodic, and there's a hundred bells, so you get a three-page digest. Yeah, yeah, it's somewhere between three and five, depending on the battle. Second car gets about three,

there's a couple of others that get a little bit more. Sure, I've made a way, it would probably get more just because it's a sprawling. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's my recommendation for this week, even though right now, as I said, I'm in grading hell. But it's a nice little eye break. Yeah, just read one little battle.

Yeah, you could be, yeah, you can go away for a couple of minutes. That's a nice thing about the what I'm reading is the chapters are their modular. So I mean, it is a history, but at the same time, if you want to learn about the bosses in the Missouri territory, you can skip ahead to that. And there's an 18-20 chapter of something like that. Nice. Very cool.

Yeah, very cool. So, hey, have you ever heard of a screw ball? Yes, I mean, you're talking about the pitch or are you talking about the genre? Both. Yes. So, do you know what a screw ball pitch is? I'm guessing it is a relative of a knuckleball or a knuckleball is going to float in there. Okay. And so the thing that a knuckleball

does is it doesn't you throw it like with your knuckles and you're pushing it. So there's no no top spin, way slow and very radical. So yeah, it'll float. Yeah, actually in volleyball when you hit the ball dead on it floats and it shifts because the air currents Yeah, a curve ball would be actually the screw balls More better trained cousin. Okay, so a screw ball is a ball that goes against the natural curve So if I'm a left-handed pitcher and I throw, it's going to curve in going from my left to my right as it goes through off the plate. This one will curve back out to the left still. Okay.

And it's very hard to hit them. And it involved twerking your arm, twerking your arm. Tweaking your arm? Tweaking. Twerking with your arm. Twisting. Some, okay. To the point where there were some pictures,

you could tell that they were school ball specialists because after their career was over, their arm was permanently lodged outward. Really? Yeah, because you were, because the way they were doing that to the joints, really good. Well, because, I mean, baseball pitching

is terrible for the shoulder. Oh, it's destructive. Yeah. So doing that and then having to come back against the curve. Before release. You are straining and curve, yeah. Painful. Yeah, even thinking about that, with the kind of force

that you got to put behind a major league pitch. Oh my God. Yeah, all right. So they're all arthritic, is what we're saying. All these movies. More arthritic. Yeah, and this movie genre is essentially about arthritis. Okay. Yeah, no. or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our

or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our

or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our or a lot of our Yeah, there's a genre. It's called Screwball Comedy. Yeah, and it was very popular for a very brief time Shortly after talkies came out and then it utterly disappeared until Steve Martin and Queen Latifa kind of picked it up He tried with Goldie Hawn, but he actually got commercial success with with Queen Latifa for like two movies And then went away again. Yeah for similar reasons. So this episode is titled World War II Screwed Up Comedy by Unscrewing Comedy. All right. So we'll start in 1934. Actually, to start in 1934, we'll go back a little bit. Prior to 1934, movies had just started talking.

Yes. It was the death of a number of careers. Yes. Absolutely. And the birth of a number of careers. Yes. Absolutely. And the birth of a number of careers however. Yeah, this is true. So in 1934, because you can now have talking, you have people writing dialogue. So the loss of careers is far outstripped by the amount of people

who actually could be living now. A guy named Frank Capra, the one who made the World War II propaganda films. Yeah. He directed a movie called... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yes. Okay. I'm glad at Colbert. Yeah, which is an important thing to know too because she was in one of the first Possession movies that we discussed. Right. I knew I'd heard that name before. Yeah. Okay. So by many measures a lot of people consider this to be the first of the genre. Okay, and very often when you have a prototypical thing it has the elements that are put together loosely or the elements that are put together, but out of sequence. Or they haven't quite completely jelled.

Right. This is the reason on TV tropes, I keep telling you, you know, this will make your life so much simpler if you go take a look at it, but it will also ruin your life. But, you know, you talk about the trope originator and then you talk about the trope codifier. Yes. The very first thing of something is where, okay, this is the very first time we see this being done. Then the codifier is, this is the one everybody thinks of. Right.

Because this is when all of the cylinders were clicking, this is when it all fits together and this is what defined it going forward. So this would be the original origin. Yeah. This is our example. This is the incredible Hulk movie. Yeah. And later on, you'll have the Avengers. Okay. You know, yeah, of this. This is Edison's light bulb. Yeah. And then when you get about four years on, you get Westinghouse creating a power plant that actually gets money. Yeah, it'll actually be profitable.

Right. So, some people are going to argue that it's not the first of its kind and they're actually, they've got some merit to those arguments. There's a movie called Bomshell that came out of your earlier. Okay. So, that's 33. Yeah. Okay. And it had a lot of the same elements that make Scruball comedy a Scruball comedy. Okay. By 1934, and I'll get into what Scruball comedy, a Scruball comedy. Okay. By 1934, and I'll get into what the Scruball is. But by 1934, the haze code is in full effect.

Yeah. You got talking, you've got censorship. Yeah. And remember, the haze code was a self-imposed thing to keep the government off their back. This should sound familiar to anybody who remembers the comic code. Comic code authority and our first episode.

Yeah. And talking about the first episode, sort of, of this, or last episode, or last season, first episode of this season, talking about the Jedi being counter-cultural. Yes. You know, the fact that, you know, the haze code had fallen apart by the 70s, we mentioned. Right.

So this is a code that shows up a lot. Yeah, yeah. If there are certain through lines. It's gonna be a thing, yeah. This is one of through lines, one of them is authorial intent doesn't exist. Yes. That's the most common one. Yeah, or it exists despite the author. Yeah. Well, no, it exists, but the reader viewer, whatever the audience gets to get to nullify it. Yeah, that will. Yeah, audience fiat. Yeah, audience fiat. I think we've coined a term for us to use the audience. Well, we are marketing that for you. Yeah, when we talk about hind line that'll have to come up all along.

I'm sure. Yeah, but anyway. Yeah. Sorry. We're getting off the subject. So romance movies couldn't do much that was entertaining. So romance movies couldn't do much that was entertaining Well, you can't get naked there's not a whole lot and well they can do very much that's entertaining to most Sis head male viewers Which is most of what everybody was thinking of what they were aiming at when they were aiming at because that's who had the money and the free time And everything watch movies at that time So, yeah, so if you want to do a romance, how do you do that without having an actress get her kid off? You don't have any heavy petting, you don't have any foreplay, you don't have any sex, they have instead quick witty banter back and forth and dialogue. So the sex is now coated into the language. Verboe, it's very sexy. Oh, okay. And it's a given take and it's a back and forth.

And it's an interplay and all that comes up like a really good first date. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So they coated the sex into the language in this very quick, pitter-patter, pitter-p, that got past the sensors because the sensors are looking for flesh. They're looking for visual. They're looking for what do you see, as opposed to what are you hearing. Now interestingly, Shakespeare didn't have to deal with sensors, but this immediately makes me think

of the taming of the shrew. And Petrucchio and Kate in their first, I mean that's gotta be the ear, that's the ear example of that kind of dialogue. Yes. You know what, with my tongue in your tail, calm Kate. Yes. Calm. Yes.

And of course, you know, and everybody in the upper seats is laughing because, oh, there's a pun. Everybody in lower seats is like because, oh, there's a pun, everybody in lower seats is like, you said, come, you know, hitting every socioeconomic level in the audience at least, and mostly playing to the ground links. Absolutely. Okay, so I can, this makes sense to me.

Yeah. And the thing is that a thing is starting to be known. And while there's something shakes for you too, anticipation of a thing keeps an audience way more interested than the payoff of the thing. It's not like in that point, right? So it's, you don't just fast forward to, it's not like click to the ground parts.

It's not like a kung fu movie where you just fast forward to the action. Where's the fight? Where's the fight? Come on. It's about that build up and the tension that's carried in that build up and that got past the sensors because they were old. And. I love how you put that stuff on because they were old.

They were. And dried up. And the juices of life left them long before the time they were watching the film. And came. never came. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Or she had years before. Yeah.

And it was a shame to have it immediately. And it was all a sense at that point. Yeah. So the Hayes Code was ridiculously strict in what they deemed improper. And had a disproportionate impact on romantic movies. Yeah. So especially comedy. OK, so, okay. Especially comedy.

Okay, well, yeah. So here's, talking about the Hayes Code being disproportionately strict. Oh, and I've got examples. Okay, well, this just occurred to me though, do you think because this was a self-imposed system that over-strictness was, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we don't wanna give the government any way to get this.

Like, nothing. Okay. Absolutely, because that's what happened with the CCA. I mean, we see this with self-regulatory bodies. Self-sensorship is the worst censorship. Yeah. It really is. It's the worst conceptually.

It's the worst ethically, and it's the worst in terms of like, how much shit it takes up. Yeah, okay. So, now the Hays Code starts in 1930. Yes. But it really gets going, now the haze code starts in 1930. Yes. But it really gets going right at the time that screw ball. It really hits the ground running by 34. Okay, so 34 happens and screw balls come to the four

at the same time. Here's some of the more ridiculous parts. Okay. A woman involved in a romantic scene had to have at least one of her feet on the floor. This is why you have that trope of woman's leg going up when she kisses. Okay.

No nudity, in fact, or in silhouette. Wow. No white slavery. Wow. You remember there's the man act? Oh, right, right, right. White people were scared of death and being sold into slavery, which is weird.

Yeah. No mixed coupling. Oh, yeah. Even had a movie called Shobo? Steamboat. Steam. Shobo. Shobo.

It was Shobo. And they kind of talked about that a little bit. And they essentially, he was in love with a black woman, or a woman who had African American heritage. I believe she was one-eighth and on June was the term. And so he had her prick her finger and he put it in his mouth. And then he could say that I have a drop of black blood in me. So this is not miscegenation.

Wow. That was a plot point for that movie. Hold on. Now that was a little while later. Yeah, but still. Good. Lord. No ridicule of the clergy Okay Be careful don't have too much lustful kissing don't have surgical operations what

Okay, don't have sympathy toward criminals Okay now think about Charlie Chaplin in modern times. Yeah. He goes to jail. He does. No arson. Oh, what? Okay, that's a 1934.

Oddly specific. They're okay, so, but in the 20s, there was the red scare. Oh, yeah. There was the fear of anarchism. Oh, all throwing. Exactly. Now that's off cocktail. Union's, a market affair. A market, yeah. Exactly. Now that. All the top cocktail. Union.

Union. A market affair. A market, yeah. The police going on rampages against workers. Yeah. And in 34, the Wagner Act gets passed and legitimizes unions. But. But all of the prior.

We got to make sure, right? Fear mongering. OK. And I literally have a note here saying, this should sound familiar to the CCA. Yes. Because it does. Because it's the same stuff, different medium. So essentially what you have is uptightness being allowed on the big screen. And in many ways, the screwball

comedy is responding to that uptightness and they're ridiculing it by playing at all the things they were forbidden to do. It's kind of like what South Park did in 98, where it's like, you mean I can't say shit? No, I can't say fuck, no. I can't and he just goes on and on, saying all the things he can't say. Yeah. So they had to do it.

Yeah. You can't say, I'm a fucking bread of Jesus. Sorry. It's fine. You're the Catholic, you can do that. Yeah, well. But so you have. Oh, okay, I can do that. Yeah, well. But so you have...

Oh, okay, I can do it in the contest. Anyway. You can do it and clean your soul. There you go. I just scrub my feet. Okay. Let's speak in a Jesus. That's why you draw the fish.

Yeah, yeah. It's the play of soul. Yeah, oh. Well played. Thank you. Well played, nicely done. All right. Oh. God. Well played. Thank you. Well played, nicely done. All right. So, yeah, so they ridicule it by playing it all these things, but they're gonna do it in a much more creative way

because you can't be left with it. They have to, at the very least, you gotta be backhand. Right. And if you can find a way to be, you know, make it backhand the more hand reach Make make it a triple on tonera that you're even better off. Yeah, so Here are some pairings that are pretty iconic that absolutely pull on this genre

So I want you to tell me after I tell you all these pairings What's really going on what what makes a screwball just based on the parents? Okay, okay. Did you ever see Stranger than Fiction? No. Oh, Will Ferrell and Maggie Gillen Hall. They're in Stranger than Fiction. Okay. Did you ever see friends? Yeah, yeah.

Ross and Rachel. Oh, yeah. Okay. Did you ever see House sitter? Yes, Steve Martin and Goldie Hahn. Yeah. Okay. Did you ever see Married With Children?

Oh, yeah. Edo Neel and Katie's to go. Yeah. Did you ever see bringing down the? Oh, yeah. Edo Neel and Katie's to go. Yeah. Did you ever see bringing down the house? Who is Steve Martin and Queen Latifa? I did. Okay, did you ever see moon lighting? Yes.

This is an inversion of it, but Bruce Willis and Sidle Shepherd. Okay. Did you ever see Mork and Mindy? Oh, yeah. This is also an inversion of it. Yeah, Robin Williams and Pam Dobber. Okay.

Overboard. Never saw the whole movie, but yeah. Also an inversion, Kurt Russell and Goldie Han. Kurt Russell and Goldie Han, yeah. And then my favorite, bringing up baby. Seen parts of it, haven't seen the whole movie. Kare Grant and Captain Hepburn, this would be the Avengers of Scruball Comedy, I think.

Okay. It was a box office flop, by the way. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Because people weren't used to seeing Captain Hepburn being... I don't know why.

I think there were other movies that came out at the same time. And it was just the just sucked the air out of the box office. Could have been. It was also 1938. So, you know, but it's not like there weren't other good movies coming out at that same time. I do believe a little thing called Gone With The Wind was in that same era.

Are we calling that a good movie? I'm calling that a very highly successful commercial movie, yes. Okay, yeah. And a beautiful movie. Oh, historically. Not cinematics or graphically. Yes. It's a work of high art.

Yeah. In a whole lot of other ways. So tell me what they all had in common. You have one character who is the Super Ego, the buttoned up, straightlaced, straight man. And then you had a foil who was either Ditzi or kind of a prototypical manic pixie dream girl. Yes.

Which is a trope that comes later, I mean gets codified later. It gets called the thing that it is Yeah, it's called the thing that is So you have either either manic manic pixie dream slash nightmare girl Mm-hmm depending on the film and you have straight-laced buttoned up yep Serious looking like Clark Gable. Yeah, you know think think about Clark Gable carry Grant Carrie Grant, who I know also did a bunch of these kind of films. Yeah. They're very matinee idle looking, very, you know, to look at them and it's like that is a serious guy.

Yep. And then they'd be playing off against Carol Lombard as the bubbly, kind of not all there blonde. Good. So in terms that you've used before, have a lony and versus dynisium. Yeah, okay. Yes. This is true.

Another through line that we do quite often. Yes, frequently. So again, go to Ross and Rachel because I really want to go back to a bringing up baby of a paleontologist whose job is to order specimens and like put them in order. And Rachel is chaos incarnate. Ha, ha, ha, ha. specimens, and like put them in order, and Rachel is chaos incarnate.

She's, she's, let's not put too fine to point on it. She's a dumpster fire. Yes, yes, yes. You have to be getting in the series. And who outed it? I mean, she writes his second wedding. Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah, but yeah, yes, particularly in the first I mean because my wife watched all the way through the series Yeah last year and and you know the her very introduction is she is a complete wreck. Yes, and yeah, okay

So I bring that up because I'm bringing up baby What's his face carry grand is a paleontologist? Really and Catherine Hepburn is a rich daddy's girl socially. Yeah What's his face? Cari Grant. Cari Grant. Is it paleontologists? Really? And Catherine Hepburn is a rich daddy's girl. Socialite. Yeah. Okay. So, same zz.

Huh. Yeah. So, scribble comedy. Okay. It gets named this because there was a review of a Carol Lombard movie called My Man God Free in 1936. Okay. Originally, it was a term used to describe, I said the type of bouncing cricket that had an odd trajectory that didn't allow the

person wielding the cricket bat to make contact with the ball American baseball it's the pitch that goes against a central curve giving it a less predictable trajectory further to have a screw loose is to act in eccentric ways right to be an odd ball yes to act screwy ways, right? To be an odd ball. Yes, to act screwy, which is- Oh, it also means drunk. Okay. Which in the 19- Really?

30s we just got back on the sauce. Right. Well, we just got- Yeah, we just got legally back on the sauce. Right, all right. Let's be honest. In later Bugs Bunny cartoons of characters acting crazy, he would often hold up a sign with a screw next to a ball.

Right, okay. Even in the early 2000s, the mayor held up just up a sign with a screw next to a ball. Right. Okay. Even in the early 2000s, the mayor held up just such a sign in South Park. Oh right. Right. Yeah. So let's see how well you did on the test. The basic formula is this. A man is typically very uptight in some way. Okay. He represents order, doing things the right way, a polo. He meets a woman. She's usually smart, but goofy is all hell. Okay. She lives in her own little world and draws him out of his and into hers. So she doesn't infect his world. She drags him out of his. Okay. She's zany and she can give better than she gets. Okay, so far I'm in love Really okay, let's let's be honest as as somebody with a Y chromosome who is attracted to women yes

It would really be hard for you not to I you know, I have I have I've known people who Who prefer people dumber than them. Okay. And who prefer quiescence or testing. All right, every dude I've ever known, like, or hung out with, like all of my, certainly my circle of friends, that archetype is one that like, that lights a lot of stuff up. That's a thing.

So she's diadmitted. I guess. She's OK. Obviously. Through her whacking-ass, he learns to let go, and she ends up turning his world upside down. There's your manic pixie dream girl. Exactly.

Much through the detriment of his plans and his life. Yeah. But it's also to the betterment of his life. And they end up romantically linked at the end, despite his persistent frustration and his resistance through the whole the whole movie yeah often he's in a higher social class than she is to keep coming back to russian Rachel yeah uh... and she humbles him and his stodgy ass assumptions

okay so just throwing a title out sure subrina would be a qualify i think so accept that the younger brother is also kind of the Dinyai scene agent. Okay.

But yes, I think there are aspects of it. And that's the thing is that you can take this and then it's a part of the act. Well, there's variations like with any kind of genre, there's there's sub examples. Yeah, so she's Manipixie Dreamgirl dialed up to 11, right? Okay. Yeah.

The main attraction to screwball comedy is that it makes a farce of the boy meets girl love story. Okay. So the boy and screwball comedy is usually rich, has tons of leisure time, no political motivations, that's important. He's in a stage of suspended adolescence. Okay. Often he's just enjoying himself, he rarely has an

on-screen job and if he does, it's an elite job job it's not one where his hours are even going to get counted yeah uh... key to screw ball the boy is easily frustrated without fail okay he he he was reactive one percent line and anything beyond that one percent he's fine uh... okay uh... his in his frustration is the impetus of screwball comedy as a genre. So screwball comedy is about male frustration at female agency. Wow. We did, we did take this and and make it. Yeah, patriarchal and yeah, kind of unpleasant. Okay. Yep. Uh, so Wow. We're having such a good night. Everyone was having such a lovely night. So, and interestingly enough, that agency comes in play

almost right away. His frustration is usually the girl, and she wants him, and initially he doesn't want her. He's either already engaged, he's focused on his career. He's something else. Okay. She's often very smart and typically mischievous, putting him into very embarrassing and frustrating

situations throughout the movie. I don't know if you remember House Sitter, but Goldie Hahn made Steve Martin sing to Ralu Ralu in front of everyone and he hated singing. Mm-hmm. And it was a big emotional moment for him too. She's nothing if not persistent though. And coincidentally, she usually has just as much leisure time

lacking any on-screen job. Part of it's the time, but also part of it is, this is a class thing. Now without, there are but into leader time, neither of them would have time to take part in this farcical courtship. Yeah, they just got shit to do. Yeah. Like I would love to have a screw ball relationship in my life.

I ain't got time for that shit. I guess it makes me more susceptible, except that nobody else has time for that shit to get the give, it can't make any more. It's just that. The cool thing is the story can take place anywhere. It doesn't have to be location specific. The variables in the story change with relatively ease. It could be urban, it could be rural, it could be, you know, in Martha's Vineyard, like

you said, with Sabrina. It would really rich people out in the country. It could be any number of places. Just as long as his and her main attributes remain in some way, as I previously mentioned, right? Okay. So just about any... As long as the archetype is in place, you don't, yeah.

You can fiddle with details. Anywhere. Okay. Just about anything can happen with the story as well, as long as the focus remains on her pursuit of him and his frustration with the whole situation. Okay. In the end, like all happy romances,

the boy and the girl finally wind up together, right? Yeah. Though there is frequently something that frustrates him making the audience laugh right before the credits start rolling. Screwball to the very end. These films keep the male frustrated throughout the entire picture.

The female is completely at ease in such a screwy world. Again, think about what that means sexually. Okay. Hey, Geek Nation, it's Damien. And Ed, and we're here to pitch a book at you. It's from a good friend of mine and a good friend of the show, Bishop O'Connell.

The books are the American Fairytale trilogy, The Stolen, The Forgotten, The Return. If you're a fan of urban fantasy, you're gonna The Return. If you're a fan of urban fantasy, you're going to love these. If you're a fan of Celtic folklore, you're going to love these. Even more, they're very well researched in terms of the stories and everything that they tie into. And he's a very good guy. And like I said, a good friend in the show. So go out, pick them up, read them, and now back to us being smart Alex. And we're back. God, that was a fun ad. That was so fun. I couldn't even get into the introduction. Yeah, and I had to jump right to it. I had to jump right to it. It's the haze code. I've

been looking at haze code. There's no core play allowed. You can kind of blame the haze code for everything and we do. Yes. One thing you can't blame the haze code for however is our love of shilling just about anything. Anybody wants us to pitch for them here on the show. We really like making a living. Yeah. It would be nice. I could feed my kids meat. Oh my god. Yeah, wow. Yeah

So back to the show in the 1930s comedy shifts from a certain kind called crackle cracker barrel It's never word I've been able to say cracker barrel comedy to screwball comedy. So Cracker barrel comedy had been the ascended form as talkies came up. It's will Comedy. So, Cracker Barrel Comedy had been the ascended form as Taukes came up. It's Will Rogers. Okay. And, and taken from the idea of, you know, cracking jokes out on the, on the front stoop of the general store. Uh-huh.

Okay. Playing checkers on top of the Cracker Barrel. Yeah. Okay. He's the pilot of it. Okay. Forgive the pun. Okay, forgive the pun essentially He's he's a good humor and simple buccolic fellow

Punn laden yep kindly clever and I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat right Most importantly, he's ordinary yeah, you laugh. laugh. You laugh at those who take themselves too seriously, but never with any malice. Down home, salt to the earth, Oklahoma, and always with a southern accent. So think Andy Griffith. That's true. Okay. The one I think of all the time is he-ha. Oh, yeah.

Where he's sitting there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn. Yeah. That was one of the first genres to take advantage of the talkie Yeah, the crackerbroom comedy, but Rogers dies in 1935 in an aviation accent. Yeah, and the genre pretty much dies with him So okay, yeah really? Yeah, it's kind of like he was he was that central to the form. Yeah, yeah, I don't think anybody else had gotten their feet under them to do it better or nuance it.

And when he died it went away. All right. Now it might have already been on its way out to be perfectly honest, because Scruball Comedy is ascendant at this time. It's the mid 1930s. So I don't know if you know what's going on, historically in the mid 1930s.

Well, I know we're in the middle of the Great Depression. Europe is starting to fall into an economic pit at that point, runaway inflation. So the worldwide situation is going down the crapper. Yeah, and people being clever is just kind of out of touch, quite honestly. Yeah. And people's problems are complex, and not simple anymore. You know, their needs are basic, but also unmet, and their suffering is not particularly funny. Crackle Barrel comedy doesn't relieve tension for them. Scrawal comedy does.

Okay, because it's about a protagonist who is continually and constantly frustrated, but it all turns out well in the end. Right. So it gives you that release and that... And that reassurance. Exactly. And he's trying to make order out of chaos.

Yes. Which is what everybody was trying to do. That was the hustle everybody was trying to do. Yeah, and it made fun of rich people. That's a nice deal. Good point. Yeah, all right. It also came in comforting.

Hinted at sex, which was largely a free activity. Good point, all right. It was also a way for people to laugh at the frustration without feeling the frustration. Okay. Yeah, and it was a way to do so relatively cheaply, because movies were still very affordable even though they're going in the depression. Yeah.

Movie genres by and large have relatively short life spans as it is actually. But they also are cyclical. They will reappear after a genre or two. Yeah. There's a few exceptions that stand out. Westerns and war movies. Okay. They had much larger, longer, first ones. Longer, longer. Yeah. So from the 30s through the 60s for both of them. They had much larger, longer, first ones. Longer, yeah. So, from the 30s through the 60s for both of them. Yeah.

And it's probably due to the fact that America is involved in at least one major armed conflict or more, roughly from 41 to the mid 90s. Yeah. And then again, we have since 2002. Yeah. And we're seeing resurgence of war movies now that we've been adding for. But with a current era stamp on it., but with a current era stamp on it. With a current era stamp on it.

Yeah. So in the mid 1990s, and to the world movies got very popular, all of a sudden. Yeah. In 2008, super hero movies have been all the rage, and each one of those has its own 9-11 moment. That's a good point. Every single one has a 9-11 in it.

Wow. Yeah. Son of a...-11 in it. Wow. Yeah. Son of a... All right. Yeah. But that's what's... Yeah.

The airway makes... Yeah. Well, that's the stamp on the national nervous system. So, all right. It makes sense. So prior to the talky comedy, it previously been silent pictures. Yeah. Obviously, by necessity, most of it's site gags, right?

Slipping on banana peel, standing up in a carriage while going under a bridge Having a wall fall over on top of you, but you're standing where the windows located. So it just falls around you leaving you bewildered mm-hmm Buster Keaton. Yeah, those were what were those called? I think those were called coffin takes oh Because if they didn't get it right the first time Yeah, man. Yeah. Interestingly, that one was fine. He did it by sight.

Yeah. He just kind of looked, triangulated with his eyeball. Wow. I'm pretty sure it's right here. He broke his neck in a different scene in the general. Oh, yeah. It is where the water rushes down. Yeah.

And just knocks him to the ground. And that broke the neck. Someone's pants seems splitting. All of these are, you know. So movie goaters are watching humor and seeing that easily in pratfalls and other examples. But if you notice, most of those are also frustrating events.

Yeah. And that's the extent of comedy and silent pictures because it has to be, right? So the talkie, heightened expectations of plot and humor Acting for movies was no longer just a purely physical talent like you said people now had to have talent with their voice as well as their bodies Humor becomes more vocal plots become more sophisticated Commensurate with that was the haze code restricting all the speech Okay, yeah on top of of that, the Great Depression also sucked.

So there's a huge cultural shift. I love the way you managed to boil that down to just one word, the Great Depression sucked. Yeah, there's really no arguing with that particular point. There's a huge cultural shift happening in the 30s. Stock market crash didn't just hurt the traders. No, okay. Well, it wound up having knock on effects

that wound up shuddering plants, closing companies down leading to a massive widespread unemployment. And then there were the panics and the runs on the banks, which meant that more banks are shuddering. And people were when a bank shudders, everybody who didn't get all their money out before it did, loom, they lose everything that was in it when it happens.

I mean, it's just, yeah. It's awful. It's a mess. Now, nowadays we monitor the banks much more closer and we just give them all the money. Yeah. A lot of innocent people, like you said, lost money through no fault to their own.

Yeah, just because they picked a bad bank or the only bank in town was a bad bank. Yeah. At the same time, there was an emphasis on self-reliance and hard work. Which is frankly toxic as shit because if someone loses all their money and can't find a job, you're still not allowed to blame the people who did it. It's bootstrap time, which is just terrible. That's the excuse of the lazy man to blame the bank, even though the bank's totally did it. Even though, yeah.

So the hard-working man trudges on and finds himself a job, no excuses, and if you can't find a job or you need to go on the dole, then that's a reflection of your character. That's what was going on. So there's a high degree of background noise of frustration. And at the same time, there were these class issues that were at stake. For instance, never more than a third of all Americans

were out of a job. Okay. These two thirds of the people were working, but they were at risk of losing their job. Yeah. Which means they now disdain and suspect those who don't have jobs, because you're gonna undercut me,

and those who don't have jobs can see these people as a class enemy. Okay. And if nothing else, they can see them as someone to resent or make fun of, right? Yeah. So the screwball comedy shown in movies allows all these anxieties a little bit of release and for a couple hours at a time. Yeah.

And then people aren't killing the rich and eating them. Yeah. If someone could laugh at their own frustrations or possibly at the people that they secretly hold responsible for all their problems, they would jump at the chance to do this. Yeah, yeah. It rings especially true in comfortable rooms

where they could also get the news for a fairly cheap price. You get to escape. Yeah. Since the characters are rich in the common movie goers, not, it's easy to slip into this Escape his fantasy for a couple hours frustration is is the foot in the door for this kind of fantasy if someone could feel frustrated like the person on the screen Then they could also feel leisurely and rich like the person on the screen and if not they could laugh at the person who had a lot of money

And still couldn't keep his life in order. See, money won't solve at all. It just makes it all worse. So the great depression is screwball all day every day. Yeah. Hundreds of movies for that genre. There's lots of farcical romance that breaks down social order, laughter is at the heart of screwball comedy, right? Ultimately people want to laugh and frustration is getting easier and easier to laugh at as

a result. Yes. Everyone gets it. Everyone has it. Everyone understands it. Your new comic hero is in a position where the audience can laugh at him and he stuck there. It's a very shrewd way to keep people from centering too much on their own anxieties.

And it enables them to laugh at the frustrations of the upper class too. It's this kind of, Saturnalia. Okay. The thing. Critics love them. Really? Yeah, I remember when I talked about it happen one night.

Yeah. It won all five of the major Oscars that year. Picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay. Really? Yeah. It managed to beat the comedy ghetto rap. Mm-hmm. Really? Mm-hmm. Okay. Now, the only other movies that ever did that? Yeah. It managed to beat the comedy ghetto rap. Mm-hmm. Really?

Mm-hmm. Okay. Now, the only other movies that ever did that? Yeah. Got a guess? No. One flew over the kook who's nest. Oh.

You shh. And silence of the lambs. Which itself is a scribble comedy? You know, yeah, I mean, clearly. I mean, roles are inverted. Yeah, exactly. It's inverted. It's like, you see, moderately, it's an inversion. It's Yeah, I mean, clearly, I mean, roles are, roles are inverted. Yeah, exactly. It's like you see moderately. It's an inversion. It's really it's because he's, he's the source of chaos coming back to her way to uptight life. Exactly. Yeah. And you know, oh my god, it could be a rom

com. Yeah. Well, it's, it's just an updated version of overboard. Yeah, it really, really ugly, dark. There's got to be a trailer out there where somebody turned it into a rom-com. Somewhere. There's gotta be. I don't know if I wanna find it. I wanna know right now. So I typed in silence of the lambs. He searched it and it got in auto-hulled Romantic comedy.

Is that a good job, FBI agent? Get the trailer in and stuff. Sometimes you do. The impersonation of the usual voiceover. Oh, yeah. Good, too. Jobs come up and have thought about you. Not a job, really, but interesting. Who is the subject? Psychiatrist Hannibal Wector.

Now, her newest assignment might be biting off more than she could chew. Oh, my God. Dr. Wector, my name is Chloe Storley. I speak with you. You know what you're looking for me with your good bag and your cheap shoes. Oh my god He was looking for a way out She was looking for way in tail just from memories, sir. Memory ancient style is what I have instead of a view. She was looking for a way in. I don't know anything about this case, but I just... Are you hitting on me, Doctor?

Bars couldn't keep them apart. I think it's coming into my hospital. It's a good luck to interview her. If you're using the share information, it'll take you for the third time. People will say where. I mean, you can decide for yourself whether or not I'm qualified enough to do that. Just do your job. I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to not. Maybe you can decide for yourself whether or not I'm qualified enough to do that.

Just do your job and never forget what he is. And what is that? From celebrated author Thomas Ferris. There's nothing else to worry about, isn't he? Apparently he likes you and you like him, too. I never thought about it. You're a fast- first lie to make Larry. Jody Foster, you fly back to school now that it was time. And Anthony Hopkins, in the most romantic movie of the year. How Larry's your problem is you need to get more fun out of mine.

The silence of the length. This silence of the length. You know this is like a clue from a real murder case? Cool. It's big noir and it's not a piece. Come in soon. That's that. Alright. Somebody had an awful lot of time on their hands.

But they did a good job. They put that together brilliantly now just because they could. Does that mean they should have well you know as a romcom it won all five of the main there yeah thanks as a rom so on surface they seem pretty far apart I wonder if you could do that for kukus nest it'd be a lot tougher yeah

it'd be you'd have to a lot more cherry pick it'd be a lot more cuts but But, you know, honestly, they all do deal with the same thing. That is true. Orders of chaos, it is malignant fucking outcrofters. Yes. So prior to 1942, all the reviews of screw wall comedies are very complimentary.

Really? Yeah, they regularly would forgive directors and writers, they're would forgive directors and writers they're farcical and nonsensical movies, right? So in 1934 variety, okay, looked at it happened one night. Okay. Here's what they said. One of those stories is that without a particular strong, I'm going to start that one again. Okay. One of those stories that without a particularly strong plot manages to come through in a big way due to the acting dialogue situations and directing. In other words, the story has that intangible

quality of charm which arises from a smooth blending of the various ingredients, difficult to analyze and possible to designately reproduce just to happy accident. The story is thin and frequently illogical, but the action carries it along so fluently and amusingly that there's a small chance to take time out to argue with the plausibility. But the author would have been nowhere without the deaf direction of Frank Capra and the spirited good humor acting of the stars and practically most of their support. Tonight proves two things. It happens one night, right?

It proves two things. A clean story can be funnier than a dirty one and the best way to do a bus story is Tonight proves two things. It happened one night, right? Proves two things. A clean story can be funnier than a dirty one and the best way to do a bus story is to make them get out and walk. She. Okay. All right.

So, a clean story, what was that about a clean story? Is a clean story can be funnier than a dirty one. Okay. And the best way to do a bus story is to make them get out and walk. All right. In 1938. It's a take. Yeah.

All right. 38. And 38, bringing up baby. Yes, I said, age better than it started. Yeah, yeah. Bringing up baby is constructed for maximum of laughs with ruggles and catlet adding to the starring team's zine antics. There's a little rhyme or reason to most of the action, but it's all highly palatable. Developments are placed by sizzling dialogue.

Chief shortcoming is that it's too much time is consumed with the jail sequence. It diverts interest from the attempt to locate the missing pet, leopard and pet dog. It was a pet- Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby. The first reason for it, of course, is that it gives Miss Hepburn a chance to imitate a gunmole. Both Vernon Walker with his special effects and Russell Medi's photography are well up to the elaborate production given the film. Where? All right.

So Scruple Comedy begins to fall after France falls in 1940. Okay. Reviews become much more critical of Scrooble Comedy. Slowly and gradually shifting Scrooble Comedy into unpopularity. Several of them receive favorable reviews still throughout the year 1941, and again, we're not at war yet, but we're at war.

But the shadows are looming. Oh boy, how do you know? The New York Times, they reviewed The Lady Eve. And it was listed as one of the 10 best films of the year and it received several reviews praising its brilliance. Here's the review. A more charming or distinguished gem of nonsense has not occurred since it happened one night. Superlatives like that are dangerous, but superlatives like Lady Eve are much too rare for

the careful weighing of words, and much too precious a boon in these grim and worthless times. Okay. So, when one managed to rise far enough above the bar to provide that same level of escape from the grimness going on in the world outside. They're still getting the beneficial reviews, but more and more of them, people are now starting to have a more cynical. It's gotta be good.

I don't know if cynical is the right word, but I think it's tired of it. Okay. I think frustration doesn't play the same way that it did. Okay. Because you're not just frustrated with what's going on. It's becoming an existential threat. Okay. In San Francisco Chronicle got similar support, by the way, so it's by coastly, approved of.

Another movie from 1941 prior to Pearl Harbor, that gets good reviews as something called, Here Comes Mr. Jordan. You might remember it. Well, let's see if you remember it. The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle both applaud the film's theme. The film above all others shows best that any story can happen around a screwball theme. It's a dark movie, prima fascia. An angel pulls a guy out of the body he's about to die in a little too early. He actually had the reflexes and ability to not die so they need to give that guy a soul a mulligan. Does this sound familiar? Oh, oh, oh, yeah. Yeah, what if I said the Los Angeles Rams. Yeah, yeah, oh, damn it, Richard Geer. Warren Beatty.

Warren, oh, you're right, Warren Beatty. Oh, I'm forgetting the title, but yeah. 1978? Yeah. Heaven can wait. Heaven can wait, yeah. Now why I mentioned the plot and its praise is because it's released in August of 41, okay?

So even then, the war is on everybody's mind. In newsreels, it's praised is because it's released in August of 41. Okay, so even then the war is on everybody's mind. In newsreels, it's everywhere. It's still this comedy could hold up and be successful and it deals with the themes of death and murder, weird ass romance and frustration. And it's still doing well. Yeah, you can take screwball comedy and plug it into anything that's happening.

Murder mystery. Yeah. You can make a murder's happening. Murder mystery. Yeah. You can make a murder mystery as a group of comedy. Yeah. All right. Now, prior to American involvement in the war, a great deal of pleasure could be found in watching through World Comedy. The depression was winding down.

People could nostalgicly look back on how frustrated they felt while still enjoying the frustrations of the characters on screen. Okay. But at the same time, it's getting harder to do. Maybe it was saturated, maybe it's getting pase, because people are looking to China and they're seeing a Japanese invasion. They're looking to Europe and seeing German aggression.

Scruball comedy ceases to be the outlet that it used to be. Well now it becomes frivolous. Yes. Okay. That's a really good word because of another review we're going to hear later. People are gravitating toward other kinds of comedy and not the least of which is slapstick again. However, slapstick never really went away either. It was just subsumed into screwball as a part of screwball. And as the war is

ramping up, slapstick survives. screwball doesn't. Screwball. Yeah, like any, almost any other genre doesn't die without one last great film, though. After Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, hell's a poppin' debuted on the big screen. Okay. Previously, this film had enjoyed huge success on Broadway as a stage production,

and from the theater reviews, it seems to have been the Rocky Horror Picture Show of its day. Okay. The audience had spider thrown at it. Stooges were planted in there to interact with the play on Q. Frantic Women ran in and out of it, looking for a man named Oscar. Okay, so Dionysian taken to all the way to 11.

Yes. Which I really like that you bring that up because I think to Rocky Horror Picture Show and it's on its surface, Dionysian, but it's entirely Apollonian. The audience interacts with the movie on cue. This is true. And in a scripted fashion, yeah, it's pro wrestling. It's true. Oh my God. Everything's pro wrestling. Rest of the truth. Oh my God.

Everything's pro wrestling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Another guy. So, or it's Japanese deathmatch wrestling. Yes. You know. So metaphor could be applied. So they capitalize on the play.

Three months before the movie was released in San Francisco in New York, the reviewers were divided on the play, three months before the movie was released in San Francisco in New York, the reviewers were divided on the movie, but a majority of them leaned toward negative criticism of it. This is after... Per Harbor. New York Times trashed the film in its review, naming it as one of the year's 10 worst films. Really? Now it's entirely possible it was a genuinely bad movie, having gotten to watch it.

It also may not have translated well to the screen from the stage. That happens sometimes. Definitely happens. The time says so and not so nice way. They may have also been because New York had seen the play going for three years and nobody wants to see it on the screen because they're elitist and purest about it to begin with. Yeah, well, critics. It would be like if they made a movie version of Into the Woods, I would be bitching that

I'm sorry, no, you don't have Bernadette Peters, you don't have my interest. Yeah, Bernadette. Yeah. So, or? Not my life. Yeah. That's Carol Cain. Oh, yeah, good point.

Bernadette Peters, she was in the jerk. Yeah. That's Carol Cain. Oh yeah, good point. Burn it up, Peter's. Burn it up, Peter's. She was in the jerk. Yeah. So. Yeah. All right.

Sorry. So it could be that the Times viewers just might not like the movie too. Yeah. Because here's what they said. Hell's a poppin' is full of sudden noises. It's awesome. Yeah, never want to start that way. Oh, that's not a good sign. Yeah, tapers off from there.

It's also chock full of an anarchic collection of unfunny gags. It's not only insane, it's labored. Theater goers coming out of the Revoli yesterday were startled expressions on their faces. One or twice the film becomes a little less painful. Ooh. Wow.

As in the scene where the boys suddenly find themselves playing drawing room sequence against the background of whooping red skins. Ooh. It's 1941. Ah. OK. Yeah, the humor in it is noisy,

boredish and often downright sadistic, and they like to apply the slapstick where it will cause someone to yell, ouch, and ouch is the word for hell's a poppin. Wow. Yeah. where it will cause someone to yell out and outch is the word for hell's-a-popping. Wow. Yeah. Someone got paper word. There are not any, well one, somebody got paper word two, there is not a pulled punch anywhere in that. That's that's manful flex. Yes. On that dead equine. I mean like yeah. Wow. Now it's Paul. You get it. I mean like, yeah. Wow. Now it's, we get it.

You didn't like it. I was like, holy cow. Yeah, and the play, remember, had gotten rave views for years. Yeah, I mean, it went on for three years, you know. Now it's equally possible that concern over the war was taking hold of everybody. By the end of December and certainly by the end of January,

Americans are fully committed to avenging Pearl Harbor. Yes. Newspapers had full page ads telling people to do just that. Hell's a pop and could not have come out at a worst time. People were not ready to laugh after such an attack. And you could actually see the same phenomenon after the attacks on the World Trade Center in September of 2001. Yeah, yeah. Most of Sacramento shut down that day. Oh yeah, well, most of the country shut down. I mean, business just was not transacted.

I was living in Seattle. That's right, you were in Seattle. Yeah. And yeah, and you'll remember, I wanna say it was two weeks, like the week after September of the weekend of following September 11th there was not a Saturday night live episode right and when they came back two weeks later They they up front said

You know can can we be funny right and course, turn it into a joke by saying, well, why start now? Right. But it was a legitimate question. It is anybody in a headspace to want to laugh at anything yet. When they started with the musical act of Paul Simon playing the boxer, which is not a happy song. No.

You know, a sack state closed down for the day. Yeah, game shops closed down for the day everybody Nobody nobody focus on getting anything. Yeah, it took about a week or two like you said for SNL to get back up and running and it could be that hell's a pop and suffered from the same combination of Disinterest in laughing and the and the fact that the genre is waning. Yeah. It's not always one fact. A little bit of a one-two. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, the genre's waning was also largely due to the war that was now arising in the American mentality. By this time, war movies and westerns were shooting through the roof in the amount of ad space and the number of movies that were being made. Okay. So, one way to measure a genre's prevalence is look at the ads in the newspaper. Okay.

At least at that time. Yeah, nowadays. It's marketing. Patriotic movies like Yeh-E-Doodle-Dandy and Eagle Squadron were on the rise. The demand for Scruball comedy was declining. It precisely the movement that the demand or the moment that the demand for patriotic and hero movies was rising. Frustration was not appreciated, heroism, courage, and sacrifice were.

A less fun-seeking mood was weaving its way into the American collective psyche. December 9, 1942, Variety reported that, quote, US soldiers disapprove of hilarity at home when they're at the front. Soldiers expressed the hope that there would be a sane observance of this New Year's commensurate with good taste. Now, okay. How much of that is actually soldiers saying

to reporters or writing in letters home that, well, you know, we're out here, you know, suffering, so try to keep it down. And how much of that is propaganda or the publishing class, you know, the literati, intelligentsia, whatever you want to call them, you know, feeling, feeling themselves that when we're in the middle of all this, it is, it is inappropriate, it is gluttonous, it is sinful for those of us who are home to be having a riotous time while our sons, our brothers, and everybody are off, you know and Europe and the Pacific or actually to be North Africa and the Pacific at that point. Something about that and part of it was just the

addiction of a newspaper writer in 1942 is different from modern language. But it feels artificial to me a little bit. I would agree with you, however, this is a trade publication for movies. This is variety talking about it. And on the same exact page, because I do love my research, on the same exact page,

there was another article musing at the likelihood of the federal government declaring movies in a essential business. Oh. Okay. So, they weren't coming down specifically on movies of any kind, but one year into the war, and American soldiers did in fact want people at home to chill out with the fun stuff a bit.

Remember, there's also a lot of rationing going on. So, it is part of that too. And again, I'm not discounting the idea that it is propaganda, but the movies were in on it then. Because they trade pub. Oh yeah. Well, I mean, everybody was in on it. And I'm not even necessarily trying to cast a negative light on the impulse behind it

if it was propaganda. I'm just saying, I don't know. There's, yeah, I think there's room for all of the above to be part of the answer. I agree. So we have gone from the beginning of screwball comedy all the way up until Pearl Harbor essentially. Yeah.

And so what we're seeing is the, essentially the lifespan, and then you've got a few death rattles for the next few years. Yeah. And then it's gone. It's completely gone. Yeah. And so the next episode will be very much about the decline of Scrupal comedies.

All right. But for right now, what do you be gleaned? I think the thing, maybe it's not what I've gleaned, but the thought that sticks out is the trope of manic pixie dream girl, is one that every mention of that trope that I've seen has been very modern. That it has referenced a set of movies since 1990, at least.

And that it's always been characterized as being this thing that's all these young screenwriters and comics from Harvard you know, Harvard and national ampune and all these guys, I'll want to write these movies where this uptight nerdy guy has this, you know, crazy girl show up in his life and, you know, to send them this important life lesson. And it's like, um, no, it's actually turns out it's actually a lot older than that. It just had a different setting. The coding of it was different. And that's something I'm going to ruminate on going forward. How about you at this point?

Well, you know, it's funny. I'm playing with a little bit of home field advantage. I actually, to get my undergrad degree, I had to do a seminar and a writing course, and you had to write a very large research paper, and I chose to research screwball comedy. Okay. And because it was so fascinating to me that something was so hot and it burned out so quick, and I wanted to know why, and of course contextualizing it. I do, as I was going through it,

it was interesting just, you know, in terms of what you and I have discussed before, and how much this does fit with that as well. So I don't know if, you know, it's one of those, I don't know if we're drawn to it because of our personalities, or if our personalities, have some have been shaped

by this being right background. The whole pattern on the wallpaper. Yep, exactly. Another through line. Another through line. Yeah. So I'm not entirely sure, but yeah, I did like that. Now we covered our books before, so yeah, I guess that's it

for the time being for this episode that seems to be it. And for a geek history of time, I'm Ed Blalock. I'm Damien Harmony. And until next time, keep rolling 20s.