Newcomers: Sports, with Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus - Spaceballs (w/ Mary Holland and Ahmed Best)

Episode Date: June 30, 2020

To celebrate our Star Wars finale, we're joined by Ahmed Best (voice of Jar Jar Binks) and Mary Holland (voice of AD-3 droid) to talk about your top movie suggestion - the 1987 Mel Brooks satire film Spaceballs. Mary and Ahmed also discuss what it's like hosting the new children's Star Wars game show series, Jedi Temple Challenge. Plus, Ahmed shares the incredible audition process behind Jar Jar, how it caused a rift between him and Michael Jackson, and what it's like working with George Lucas.Sources for this episode:Bob It! Baby YodaSpaceballs Trivia from IMDBAlso, we announce what we're covering for season two! So stay subscribed to this same feed, we'll have new episodes releasing later this summer. Thanks for listening!Advertise on Newcomers via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. What's going on? It's either the Fourth of July, or someone's trying to kill us! Now we will show her who is in charge of this galaxy. If you do not give me the combination to the air shield, Dr. Slotkin will give your daughter back her old nose! No! No! Only one man and his trusted companion can save planet Druidia from disaster. Okay, Eagle 5, coming in.

Lone Star. First, they must learn the secrets of yogurt. Yogurt? I am the keeper of a greater magic. The Force? No, the Schwartz. Avoid capture on a distant planet. Tell them to comb the desert, do you hear me?

Comb the desert! Found anything yet? We ain't found... Battled the entire Spaceball Army. My hair! He shoved my hair! Holy! And escape the clutches of Dark Helmet.

I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. Abandon ship! Proceed to escape pods! What the hell's the matter with this sea fella? When does this happen in the movie? Give me Bob. Space Balls. The movie. How do I know you're not making faces at me under that thing?

And may the Schwartz be with you! It's another episode of Newcomers. We've come to the end. Thank God. Oh, thank God. We did it. We've consumed so much Star Wars to the point where, like, I'm upset about it. And we watched, what did we watch? Everything.

Everything. We've seen everything. I'm Lauren Lapkus. Oh, yes. I'm Nicole Byer, and I'm exhausted. Me too. what do we want everything everything we've seen everything um i'm lauren lapkus oh yes i'm nicole byer and i'm exhausted me too i i mean the amount of hours we've put in but we have called we are we have been heading towards this moment yes our most exciting episode i have to say i'm i'm very very excited about our guests today um but yeah we watched space balls it's our season finale and so everyone's been saying from the start of this

that we have to watch Spaceballs. We've been getting tweets nonstop that everyone's like, well, you'll like Spaceballs. Watch Spaceballs. And I mean, I have opinions on Spaceballs. I have opinions as well. And if you don't know,

Spaceballs is the 1987 parody film kind of sending up Star wars uh and we're we have a little hoth goss segment here there is a bop it baby yoda which to me is like i love bop it i love baby yoda but i'm not trying to bop baby yoda i agree i feel like this is kind of hard to to play with it looks like it's right it looks like a baby yoda but you're supposed to like what pull its arms and stuff like you would with the bop it yeah i guess you pull his arms and its head which is honestly teaching kids to be mean to aliens like what if a little alien comes down you're gonna bop it because that's what you've been doing i would be so excited if baby yoda just walks down my driveway and I have to give a little bit of a spoiler

because Nicole, I sent you a present in the mail and I'm, I'm, I don't want to tell you what it is, but I just want everyone to know that something is coming to you. And I think you're going to like it. It's a baby Yoda. I know it is. It is. Oh, then I got to send you, did you buy yourself baby Yoda? No, they only let you buy one, but I was to send you. Did you buy yourself Baby Yoda? No, they only let you buy one. But I was going to make Mike buy it for me. You don't have to buy it for me. I'm not buying it for you. No, I'm going to buy you Baby Yoda.

It's only proper that I send you Baby Yoda because you sent me Baby Yoda. Well, that is exciting. I mean, I'm just really excited for you to get it. And I was going to have it be a total surprise. And then I thought, well, we're not going to record again. So you won't know that you're getting it. So it kind of ruined it. I just get this baby Yoda and I'm like, who did it?

Who sent this to me? And then you just never talk to me ever again. Should we introduce our guests? Yes. Okay, we're very excited about our guests. One is an actress and improviser who is part of my improv group, Wild Horses. Yes.

And the other is an actor producer who voices Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars series. And in Star Wars Jedi Temple Challenge, they play a Jedi and a droid hosting a game show, putting contestants through a series of obstacles in the attempt to gain the rank of Jedi Knight. Welcome to the show. Oh, we know we can't say it in sync. We couldn't clap in sync. We can't clap? We certainly can't speak in sync.

Welcome to the show, Mary Holland and Ahmed Best. Yay! Thank you for having us on the show. Yes, thank you. This is amazing. We're so excited to have you. I don't know if you know this, Ahmed, but Nicole's favorite character is Jar Jar Binks.

Stop it. I love Jar Jar Binks. Really? People were so mean about Jar Jar, but I was like, Jar Jar is comedic relief. Jar Jar is a great, well, you are a very good physical comedian and i just i thought it was so much fun i agree and we had so much fun watching that movie when we finally got there because we there was a lot of build-up to that since we had heard about that before um and we don't know much about we didn't know much about star wars going into this

so anything we knew we were like holding on to but it was it was so fun it's like such a fun character yeah we were so excited that you agreed to do this yeah he's a good he's a good guy our jar jar you know he was always pointed at children you know he was always a kid's character and um george really george lucas really had this idea of being able to capture the minds and the imaginations of kids when he came up with Jar Jar and then um you know that was the first time anyone had ever done a CGI live action character in movie history so wait really yeah we didn't know that yeah I didn't know that either yeah yeah that was before Lord of the Rings and and Avengers and all this stuff. So Jar Jar was first. And so it was a very huge collaborative experiment between me, George Lucas, Industrial Lights and Magic.

And just like we were there was a lot of days that we were just fighting science. Like it was really difficult to bring Jar Jar to life because all of these elements hadn't been tried before. So there was a lot of trial and error. There was a lot of error into error. And, you know, we really at the end of the day, we made it work. You know, George watched Jurassic Park or George co-produced Jurassic Park. And that's when he kind of had the idea that this character, a character could live because the dinosaurs were so successful. Yeah.

Wow. And then he came up with this idea of Jar Jar, and he was like the first CGI character in movie history. I'm blown away that more people don't talk about that. I agree. And it makes me more mad that people complained about it at the time because you're like, wait, you've never even seen something like this. Yeah.

This is amazing. Yeah. Well, you know, I kind of attribute it to me doing a good job because if you're mad at this character, that means you don't see me. You don't see, you know, all all the intricacies and work. You actually believe what you are seeing on screen. So I thought Jar Jar was extremely successful because of that. Yes, that's such a good point. But there was a bit of an erasure of the work and especially my work.

my work and you know i i often get forgotten about when we talk about this conversation of actors being able to do this work and what what really hasn't been talked about so much is the fact that the software for every cgi character from then to now is pretty much the same. And the scripts, the code for that software was written on me. So I'm in every CGI character from Phantom Menace to the present. That's incredible. You're a living legend. Can you even? That's amazing.

I mean, it's crazy. But I really I really you know the big deal about it was just like we we did something that had never been done before and it really was a fun experience it was an education and it really made this idea of pioneering and taking a risk and taking a chance interwoven into who I am as a as an artist and a performer wow I have a question was it a hard learning curve for the other actors to interact with you since you yeah how did that go you know at first it was challenging because you know Jar Jar was taller than me and so I was wearing these like six. We have seen some behind the scenes stuff a little bit. Yeah. So I was wearing six inch lifts and I was wearing this like Jar Jar helmet.

Right. Where there's like this band. I look like Joy Lee LaForge from the forehead down. And then Jar Jar was like sitting on top of my head. And so the eyeline, everyone had to focus on this eyeline. Right. And so the eyeline, everyone had to focus on this eyeline, right? And imagine that Jar Jar was talking, you know, about six inches off the top of my head.

But like my mouth is moving. So everybody would like do a lot of look down, look up, look down, look up, like look down, look up. And I'm just like, eyeline, don't look at me, don't look at me. don't look at me but um what what i felt was um interesting about it for me as an actor was it felt a lot like not just like physical comedy but also like puppeteering and um you know i had done a little puppeteering back in the day um but you know with puppeteering your hand is in the puppet and you have sticks and everything like that. So I get to be the puppet. And I get to move as if like my head is my neck. So I was just thinking like, as far as like puppeteering goes,

I was thinking like, all right, this is the neck part of the animal and this is the head part of the animal. And that influenced all my movement. And, you know, it's funny because Frank Oz who plays Yoda Yoda, was on set, Phantom Menace. And, you know, he did Yoda with the puppet, you know, and he was like underneath the floor. They built a floor for him and he would walk. And so there are like scenes where I walk out as Jar Jar and Yoda walks in as Frank Oz.

Right. I mean, Frank Oz walks in as Yoda the other way around. Yoda walks in as Frank Oz, right? I mean, Frank Oz walks in as Yoda, other way around. And we're both doing like 20th and 21st century puppeteering, like crossing each other. Wow. That's so cool. Yeah, it was pretty dope.

And were you a fan of the movies before you were cast? Yeah, I grew up. Star Wars A New Hope was my first movie ever. That was the first movie I ever saw. Wow. Dang. That's cool. That must have been amazing to get that role. It was a little bit unbelievable.

You know, I actually like didn't believe it until like the first day shooting because I was like, oh, my God, we're here. We're doing it. It was just really weird. You know, I was like, how? You know, I'm from the South Bronx, New York City. Right. So I had never thought the trajectory of my career would be in Star Wars at all. Like there was it was always this thing that was, you know, a part of mythology, a part of fantasy.

And, you know, I didn't grow up with very much. So, you know, I couldn't really afford all the star Wars stuff. And I tell this story often, like we went to see star Wars. I have a twin brother and an older sister. And the three of us, we all go see stars with my parents and we're all just like bouncing off the walls.

Right. But we couldn't afford any of the stuff. So we're just like all talking about imagination, who we'd be. Right. And so my mom goes to the fabric store in the bronx and sees like a roll of fabric that has like star wars stuff all on it it's like luke and princess leia han solo and all that stuff right and so she buys like 10 yards of this fabric and then makes us like sheets, pillowcases, curtains. She makes pajamas for us.

And like we got to live in all of that stuff. That is so sweet. That's how much we loved it. And she saw how much we loved it. So she like made all this stuff for us. So it's really, you know, star wars has always been very close to me you know personally and then you know empire is my favorite movie of all time so yeah i mean i had always been a giant star wars fan and when i just auditioned for it you know when you audition for

things you try not to like you try to like it off. Oh, it's no big deal. If I get it, I don't get it. I don't care about this. Actually, I hate this. When I drive home and I'm like, I hate myself. Right? You're like, you walk into the room. You know what? They're better for me being in here.

That's what I think. That's what it's about. That's what this whole thing is about. i'm not an auditioner i'm an actor every audition is a performance and you should be paying me you're lucky that i'm here right the level of delusion that it takes to be an actor is so astounding you're just like i I'm actually amazing. So, and I don't even need this. I actually am fine with everything I have.

And this is, ah. Right. And then you get Star Wars. So did you know what it was when you're auditioning? Did they have you like, did you know that? I knew it was Star Wars. I just didn't, they couldn't tell me anything. Like everything was so hush hush on the raps in DA.

And I had no idea it's just it's crazy how i even got the audition i i was i used to be in this show this broadway show called stomp which is like body percussion and physical so good yeah i was in stomp for years and we were doing a tour in san francisco And long story short, because this is a very crazy long story, but long story short, I had no idea that someone in our cast was friends with the casting director for Star Wars. And I had just done probably the most self-centered, arrogant, 24-year-old egotistical show that i had ever done and it was it was because i was i was upset at a cast member right for good reason i was upset for good reason but he wasn't as good as me in stomp and you know i'm a drummer so i just decided to And, you know, I'm a drummer, so I just decided to destroy him, like just absolutely just demolish.

And, you know, in a very like arrogant, ridiculous 24 year old asshole way, like I just crushed him, you know, and, you know, stop was always about this ensemble. Like we're all playing together. And I had the role that night of like setting the tempos. Right? Right. And I had been working with that cast for like months. And this guy just came in from New York and was just like, I was the lead of the show. But he came in and he was just like, I'm going to lead the show tonight because I have friends in San Francisco. And he had tenure over me.

So I was like, what? You can't come in and just take my cast but my cast knew me right they knew what I could do and they knew how fast so all it took was like a look and I was like here we go and they were just like oh Ahmed's on one tonight and I'm just blasting him like a out of the war like he couldn't keep up he was like dropping stuff oh no it was awful it was so bad i think back on it i'm just like oh my god how what what an asshole but i was like really disappointed in myself after the show and then the casting director for Star Wars is in the audience. Wow.

And one of my castmates who invited her was just like, the casting director for Star Wars was here and she wants you to audition. And I was like, who, me? You know, she's like, yeah. Wow. And so like the next, it'll take a couple days. I was driving up to Skywalker Ranch and I was just like. You auditioned at Skywalker Ranch? it's in marin county wow in norcal right it's like half hour outside of san francisco right it's disney's now george doesn't own it but back in the day it was george's property and i just remember like

driving the skywalker just like what is going on right now like what am i doing and so when i drive up i drive up to the ranch you know they have this huge gate and they're like before you even say your name they know it's you and like your name pops up on the thing and the thing opens so you drive in the gate and then they have like this greeting house right it's you and like your name pops up on the thing and the thing opens so you drive in the gate and then they have like this greeting house right it's like a little small it's like what you see at most studios right before you get to the greeting house there's a a firehouse like skywalker ranch has its own fire brigade like they have like firemen and fire engines and fire stuff and like every time there's a fire in like marin county the skywalker ranch firemen go to they're just like oh let's go help out right so i drive up

to the thing and i was like they got legit firemen on sky and the thing that was like the most exciting about it is like every fireman on the skywalker ranch they have uh fireman uniforms and the patches are x-wing fighters wow that's that's fun so i was like this is ridiculous cool so already i'm already my mind is like oh my god yeah i can't believe that and then i have to audition for this movie and not be freaked out not be like blown away and i'm just trying to play it cool like oh yeah i talk to personal fire brigades all the time yeah yeah who cares i go to the main house which is this huge beautiful victorian mansion and i audition there and you know robin girlin who was the casting director at the time she was just like i can't tell you anything i can't give you a script i can't tell you what

the story is i can't tell you what you're auditioning for i'm just like okay well what do you want me to do and she was like okay we're just gonna do some improv stuff and i had done a lot of improv in new york and and when i first moved to la you know i'm saying so i was cool with improv but it was like all physical improv there was no words and she was like well crawl on the ground and i'll stand up and now'll, you know, do, and I'm a martial artist. So I just started doing like kicks and flips and all this kind of stuff in a small space because I knew it was like a physical role.

And she was like, okay, thanks. And then I go back on tour and like a month and a half later, they call me back for a screen test. And so I fly back. I think I was in DC and I fly back from DC to do a screen test at ILM and this was like the mocap screen test which everybody's used to now you know I'm saying like the cat suit and the ping pong balls on the cat suit like everything that people in video games and all that everybody's cool with that nobody had really seen that before and i had never seen it before either so i go to this room and

just like put this on and i was like are you serious like i gotta put on this right now like and you have to feel confident it's saying of like the balls on the outside i was like am i bloated like what am i covered in ping pong balls it's so awkward it's like all these and then they gave me like six inch converse platforms so i was ready for whatever drag show that they would set me up for i was like i don't know what i'm about to do but i'm gonna turn this out nice and then they were just like all right uh we're just waiting for george to show up and i was like what i didn't know that george was going to be at the screen test nobody was telling me anything i was just like i was just looking around like what's going on and there were all these

computers in the room and you know back then that was like 96, you know, back then computers were machines. Like the monitors were three feet thick. Like none of this newfangled flat screen, nothing. You know, it was just like people were like, like there was hard labor on computers, you know, shoveling coal inside hard drive computers or machines so it's like this room full of computers ping pong balls and stuff and then these cameras that are shooting infrared film at the time because digital photography wasn't a thing yet in motion pictures like you had digital cameras but it was like infrared film that picked up the light shining on the ping pong ball right and george walks in and he's like you know central

casting george lucas like the flannel joint the hair the horn rims the jeans i was like oh yeah man you are on brand right now that's you you know that's who you are and he was like mad cool and he was just like yeah you know just walk up and down a little bit and then i started doing some stuff that i did at the audition which was like lower to the ground because at first jar jar was supposed to be like this salamander kind of creature like he was supposed to be like kind of low and slinky and I was like oh that's gonna be a long six months I better do some push-ups do something else but I work on this core if I'm gonna do that right so he was just like no I want you to stand up and walk and then start walking then he was like okay do whatever you want I was like all right cool so i started doing

the same thing kicks and back flips and all stuff and then he was like yeah okay and then leaves and i was like did i do too much did i not man i messed up it's so crazy being just so left in the dark about anything that's happening and also any kind of feedback of like is this right is this not do you not like that like am i going in the right direction yeah can i get some notes like tell me something nothing oh okay right and you know george is kind of even emotionally but everybody was just like oh yeah you did really good i was like okay and then they were like let me show you what you did and so i walked behind the gigantic 10 foot thick monitors and i watch what the film picked up and it was this what they call a point clap but it was this ping pong ball skeletal outline of me and it looked like that

me like i was just bugging at at how the representation of it was just like i was like i can recognize myself in this point cloud yeah and all the engineers were looking at each other like we could do this this is good we can do it that's gonna work wow that's so exciting before i walked in the room they were just like we're just a bunch of guys who can punch in code in a computer then when i walked when they saw me actually working they were just like oh yeah this is gonna work this is you think they had like put on the suit themselves and just like tried it?

And they were like, I don't know, man. They did. Yeah, they did. Wait, really? Yeah. Yeah. They were like a couple of people. That's so funny that they were like, this is bad.

We have to find someone who's good at this to be good at this. Yeah. Because shit doesn't come to life until someone actually does it. Yeah. Because George had an idea of how this character was going to move, right? And he was like, I need an actor, which to his credit, I think set the stage for Andy Serkis

and his wonderful performances because now directors recognize that you just can't get a body. You need an actor, right right yeah you see it in the games as well like when you play nba 2k20 it has to look like the nba player that you're playing because we believe the movements right we believe that that's how you know lebron james dunks we believe that that's how Steph Curry shoots a three. Like we're so in tune to our physicalities as human beings.

When we see something that doesn't feel right, we know, right? We know inherently. We're just like, no, that's not. And even if we can't articulate it, our brains go, I don't believe that. And that pulls us out of the story and that's like that's that phenomenon lauren i feel like we've talked about in wild horses but the uncanny valley thing which is like things that are almost human but not quite oh yeah yeah like the polar express movie people really were upset because they looked like people but not and it was like really weird like it's very realistic but wrong

yeah yeah i mean we as human beings you know computers and artificial intelligence are nowhere near our brains at all like they have a very very long way to go before they can do what we do just by being human beings so when we see stuff that doesn't feel human, we're immediately, our brains recognize it and go, nope, I don't believe it. Yeah, reject it. I don't believe it. I don't want it.

I don't want it. Oh my God. Oh, that's so interesting. That's such a crazy story. I love that. And I'm so excited to know that new information that that was like the first CGI character played by an actor. That's like amazing. I can't wait to tell that new information that that was like the first cgi character played by an actor

that's like amazing i can't wait to tell people that information and then parrot back your story incorrectly to people like did you know this and this and this yeah man and then there was this incident with michael jackson which was i'll tell you about we're listening wait yes i truly i like leaned in because i was like i must know this i had this weird moment with michael jackson that i don't know if you could have a normal one with him if you ever if you've ever met anybody who you've idolized as a child you hold them in this like really really high regard right yeah and you don't want to do anything you know it's that adage that says never meet your heroes you know what i'm saying because you don't want to do

anything that either makes them hate you or you you meet them and you're just like, oh, man, you're a jerk. I don't even want to be near you. Well, me and George and Natalie Portman and George's kids, we all went to see Michael Jackson at Wembley while we were shooting Phantom Menace. You know, Michael Jackson showed up at Don. And George did Captain EO. And George did Captain EO. And I don't know if I'm dating myself, but Captain EO was this like 3D experience at Epcot in Florida at Disney World. Yeah, I went when I was a kid and I remember it very clearly. And it was really cool because they would like blow like air on you if something happened. Yeah. They did like sensory sort of things.

Yeah. And, you know, he sang songs and it was all about the environment and it was these weird Muppets. Yeah. And, you know, he sang songs and it was all about the environment and it was these weird Muppets. Yeah. But George had like stayed in touch with Michael Jackson for a lot of years. Right. Michael was a huge fan of Star Wars and, you know, he knew George's kids.

So we were in the Royal Box at Wembley. And this is such a strange day. We went in the box and we were watching Michael Jackson. And he was incredible. Right. So, but before like the end of the show. Right. So we're sitting in Wembley and behind us is a wall. And I'm sitting like there.

And George is next to me. And Natalie is on to the left. And me and Natalie were like huge Michael Jackson fans. And so we're just tripping over it. George's kids are there. We're just tripping, bugging out, singing everything. And Michael Jackson's like And so we're just tripping over it. George's kids are there. We're just tripping, bugging out, singing everything to Michael Jackson.

Beat it! Right? And then this dude comes out from the wall behind us. Like, would you follow me, please? Right? And I'm like,

what? Who is this guy? Right? And where did he come from? So he opens the wall and there's a secret passageway stairs behind wembley arena boom we're backstage there's this triage of people who um have passed out because apparently like there's some kind of a hospital bed situation for people who get so excited about michael jackson like they're ready for it right so it was like it was a bunch of like british

people completely unconscious because they're like for the michael jackson uh that's and they passed out insane so i'm walking through this like makeshift hospital of michael jackson excited and we go backstage and um the creepy guy points to this like curtain creepy guy creepy british man he points to this curtained off area and he's like back there and so we go through the creepy area and it's michael jackson like putting on a shirt now i don't know why my brain did this but there had been stories about michael jackson bleaching his skin right and it was all of these things about michael jackson like wanting to be white and not loving being black and all of this stuff and then michael jackson came out and was just like nah i got a skin condition called

vitiligo and then people were just like no you don't michael jackson you don't want to be black right and he was like no like i have a skin condition and so there was this rumors like this is a skin condition or does he hate his blackness what is it right my brain immediately goes to that i'm just like i'm gonna find the black on you i want i'm gonna look for it like you're in here you're vulnerable i'm looking for the black i will find the black on you. Putting on a shirt, right? Hyper focused vision all of a sudden I have. I'm like Superman x-ray vision,

like looking for the blackness, right? And I'm just like, can't find it. Michael reaches out his hand to shake my hand and on his fingertips, yeah, it was right here, on on his fingertips little brown splotches of vitiligo right and i was like it's true you have vitiligo wow and what he did was the glove i was gonna say was covering the vitiligo that he had. Right. So that's why the glove.

This is like breaking news. Yeah. Yeah. Truly. Right. Breaking news. And while I saw the fingers. Right.

Shook his hands. Saw the fingers on his body. And then he taped his fingers. Right. To cover the scratches. And I was like. Wow. That's why he wore like the tape on his

fingers like all the stuff if you watch michael jackson videos you'll see like he always has some stuff on his hands right and it's covering the brown splotches because he was embarrassed at a villa like oh i was like oh it's so interesting that is really so michael goes out finishes the show he does heal the world his mama's there there's a whole bunch of random children and So interesting. That is really wild. So Michael goes out, finishes the show. He does Heal the World. His mom is there. There's a whole bunch of random children. And then just like, oh, right. And then he disappears into the floor.

And I was like, that was great. That was fantastic. My condescension. That's amazing. Creepy guy shows up again. Right? I'm like, what? where do you come from yeah he's like oh did you follow me he's always like we're always following him like somewhere like who is this guy right creepy guy shows up follow me please we all go outside and we go to the driveway outside of Wembley. There's like a caravan of Toyota minivans.

Right. Michael Jackson pops out on one of the Toyota minivans and he's wearing the fedora, the epaulets, the captain joint. And, you know, the mask. Right. He's in Michael Jackson wear. Right. I'm like, oh, snap. There he's in michael jackson wear right i'm like oh snap there he is in full regalia right and inside the truck is lisa marie presley which i was just like scandal because they just got divorced right lisa marie presley and like 10 15 kids right and so michael gets out and he's like yo thank you for coming to my show and then so Michael gets out and he's like, yo, thank you for coming to my show. And then George steps up and he's like, you remember my kids? And Michael's like, oh my God, I remember you guys when you were babies. That was cool.

And he's like, this is Natalie Portman. Hey, Natalie, I'm a fan of your work, blah, blah, blah. Right. And then he goes, this is Jar Jar Binks. And Michael goes like this. Oh. Oh no. goes this is jar jar binks and michael goes like this oh straight up like you know he's like oh michael jackson and oh this is so high voice this is jar jar binks oh like a dude like he got like what he got gary indiana that's so rude wow that is so rude he's like oh and i was like

that's weird what do you even say to that like well nice to meet you i mean okay yeah all right so he was like okay thanks guys we're back to the high voice thanks for coming to the show gets in the minivan they all drive off we go up to the bar voice. Thanks for coming to the show. Gets in the minivan. They all drive off. We go up to the bar, have a drink. And I'm like, hey, George, can I ask you a question? Why did you introduce me as Jar Jar Binks? And why all of a sudden is Michael Jackson like masculine voiced?

And he goes, well, Michael wanted to be Jar Jar. And he goes, well, Michael wanted to be Jar Jar. And he wanted to do it with prosthetics and makeup like he did Thriller. That is not where I thought that was going. Me either. Also, George, how mean. Why would you do it? Just introduce me by your name.

I said to him, I was like, you're telling him now? Like, I'm there and you're breaking the news that he ain't get the part and I'm the guy? Now? Michael Jackson for the, Michael Jackson? That's Michael Jackson for the Jackson 5. That's old George. That's old George. I was like, what are you doing? Why would you do that to me?

That was his moment as an actor, finding out he didn't get the part, which feels bad and you have to pretend it's fine. And then he's looking at the person who took the role and he just and he's in front of George. He just go. I mean, that's that's amazing. The fact that I was like this. I was like, what? Bro, why would you

do that to me? I love it. I love Michael Jackson. He just threw you under the bus. He's like, let's see what happens. He's like, what's Michael Jackson gonna do to me? That's right. George Lucas.

Wow. Mary, what happened when you met Michael Jackson? Well, when I met Michael Jackson, it was crazy. Mary, I want to ask you about your connection to Star Wars, like from growing up. Oh, yeah. Tell us a little bit about what it's meant to you and what your connection is.

I remember we owned the VHS's. The VHS's? VHSI. Thank you. The VHSI. VHS of episode four five and six and i didn't i didn't like see it in the theater or anything but my brother i think did and my parents definitely did and so it wasn't like fully uh it wasn't something that i came up knowing about but i remember at a certain point

i came across those vhsi and i was like well this looks interesting and i started watching a new hope and i got so into it and around that time too i was like playing a flute in band and so you know i joined a group of people who were also really into star wars um and so uh i became a big fan through that and then it that was uh getting close to the time i think when uh phantom menace was coming out so we all went to the theater together to see it. And yeah, it was like a big topic of fandom in my friend group, I remember. And then my fiance, Matt, is a massive Star Wars fan. So it was very much a part of our lives together now.

So that must have been really exciting when you got this role on the Jedi Temple Challenge. So exciting, yes. Because now you're part of the canon. Yeah, I think so. I think that's how it works. on the Jedi. So exciting. That's now you're part of the, you're part of the canon. Canon. Yeah. I think, I think so.

I think that's how it works. I mean, it's on Disney, right? He's questioning. I don't know. I'm wondering that too. Everyone keeps asking me that. Is this canon?

And I'm just like, yeah, I hope we have had this debate. Yeah. We've had this debate about so many different things. People come on and tell us something is canon and something is legend. And I feel like we've been taught a bunch of times and we can't retain it. Correct.

So we can't really answer. We don't know. Yeah. It's a strong maybe. Yeah. It's canon. It's a really, really strong maybe. It's still really cool.

You get to have Star Wars on your resume. So how did it work with you shooting? You were a droid in this. So is there like a suit or is it, do you interact with people? Like how does it work? It was really interesting. The man who designed and built the,

who built 83 was also inside the suit. So he had built it to fit his body. And he's done like, he's played C-3PO at conventions and things. So he's very much in the droid world and knows those movements. And so we talked a lot about 83 and how I was envisioning her movements.

And then I also like, I had this whole system of communication in front of me. I sat in the control room with the producers where we had the monitors and I watched Ahmed on screen. And I had a mic that was like a God mic kind of where I would talk into and the sound so Ahmed and I could banter. and then I had a separate mic that would go to the headset to Gordon inside the suit and so that's hard yeah yeah we tried this a few times where I was like okay okay put your hands up in the air uh I'm having fun trying to like vote but eventually I I sort of gave up on the talking in the headset then talking because we kind of figured out he sort

of got to know my um the rhythm of my voice and how he can like animate that so so yeah there was uh it was it was wild but it was so interesting like playing with Ahmed and we had so many instances where we needed to riff and like banter with each other. And I, it was wild to do it with someone I'm watching on TV and not someone I'm actually physically standing next to, but I feel like I got so used to it pretty early on it. It felt really natural. Yeah. It was really good.

You made it really easy. You really did because it's weird. Like standing next to the droid with no expressions. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, Gordon, who played the droid, he would, like, turn to me and he'd be like. And then you hear Mary say something hysterical. That must have been so strange. I didn't even think about it from that, from your perspective.

I'm like, there's this body and then a weird voice coming from somewhere else that's so weird and Mary did you feel like you had to like study up to be able to like banter within this world or did you feel like it's all stuff that you're really familiar with no there there are a lot of like droid specifics that I didn't know, like audio receptors or ears. And even like I made some joke about, look, I went there are a lot of bathroom jokes I made. And so I love them here. We love them. So I had to there were standards and practices and people who were in the control room with me being like, Mary,

I remember I tried to do a joke where I said okay I said to Gordon I was like okay instead of I'm gonna be like instead of using the force I'm gonna use the floss and then I want you to floss and Gordon was like got it and then so I said it and then they were like okay so Mary flossing doesn't exist in the Star Wars so we we can't use that joke so there were like very specific things like okay you can do this but you can't do that

why wouldn't a dance exist in the Star Wars that's so weird that's arbitrary I feel like that's interesting because it kind of like there are so many things and actually Spaceballs is kind of a good example of this but where everything is just like a hair off of what it really is right right so like you'd have to be call it something else but you know what i mean like that's that's an interesting problem to face when you're improvising in that setting because you want to just be able to say whatever you want

and then you're like oh this doesn't this thing doesn't exist there okay yeah but like maybe the word helmet does like i don't know like there are probably things that do so that's yeah that's weird it was interesting so yeah i had like notes on my on my that i kept of like refresher is the word for bathroom audio receptor is a word for ears like i should joke about being dunked in oil and all this droid specifics uh but i feel like ahmed you were super comfortable like but you have much more knowledge of the universe than i do but you seem very comfortable with it yeah i was really like you know i've been a part of this thing for a long time and i was there pre disney so there's a there's a lot that i could get away with right because i i was directly you know with george creating this thing so you know

anytime like there was a question about it i'd be like well i said it in you know attack of the clone so what are you what are you gonna do yeah what are you gonna undo that like yeah you can't can't take that movie away you know and then they would go through their disney you know s&p like can it is it possible is it possible can we do it can we do it i was just like guys come on let's just just do it if it's not gonna work and we'll do something else like that's the magic of digital photography that's right all we gotta deal with is hard drives right but yeah i mean what made it really easy was just mary was just so smart and fast. So most of my stuff is just reacting from her.

You know what I'm saying? She's the funniest. I just was so happy to go wherever she went. And, you know, I just listened and responded. You know, she made me look great. I feel the same way about you, Ahmed. Thank you. Oh, I love it.

Oh, sweet. Well, on that nice note, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back with more. Woo! And we're back. Yes. Oh, that break was so long. Wow, that was luxurious. I took a nap.

I took a nap. We got to know each other. We took naps. I ran a couple miles. Yeah. I had another kid whoa wow

another kid yeah nine months of a break oh my gosh podcasts all I did was nap I feel terrible you wasted your time

you wasted my time um okay so we watched Spaceballs for this episode and um you know what did you guys think

have you seen this movie before i saw it in the theaters yeah yeah in 87 and what was that did you think it was hilarious like i'm wondering what it was like when it came out you know well i'm a big mel brooks fan yeah like i i just love mel brooks ever since like blazing saddles and Young Frankenstein are just just heavy rotation ever since I was a kid you know my father's a cinematographer so um film is like a huge deal in my house and we would watch everything my father watched everything and he would like like see this is why they did this camera move and look and what's why the light looks like this so you know I was the only kid in the South Bronx who had a book on the coffee table that said Fellini on Fellini.

That's how deep my father was as a cinephile. But he was also really into like comedy and comedy records. So I had like a lot of Woody Allen records. I had Bill Cosby records. See, these things mean they're so different now. Yeah. I was like, ooh. I know.

It's like, ooh. It was painful. Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson. Ooh, Woody Allen. Really? Bill Cosby. Ooh.

Ooh, let's clean up the timeline with Bill Cosby. Oh, yeah. Now all we have to do is watch like louis ck but we also had mel brooks records nothing thank god yeah and like we had every we had all the mel brooks stuff and uh blazing saddles was big which richard pryor was a writer on blazing saddles and we had richard pryor records too and then mel brooks did this movie called history of the world where he was louis the 14th and he had a rap and so he was like one of the first comedians who rapped so i was always huge into

mel brooks so when Spaceballs came out, I was just like, oh, I'm in. And with Rick Moranis and Bill Pullman. So I really just loved all of those actors and Mel Brooks and Star Wars. So I remember going to see it and going, this is great. And you know, there's a lot of like

East Coast, New York humor in it. You know, so like the whole the schwartz and you know we grew up with a lot of that as as as you know just neighborhood talk just being in this incredibly diverse neighborhood in the bronx you know so i i you know immediately got the humor um and loved it and thought it was really great it was like a lot of toilet humor and a lot of potty humor but i you know the thing i remember as a kid that i that made me laugh so hard was like rick moranis in the in the dark helmet yeah and he was like breathing and and then the thing pops open he's like i can't breathe in this thing the voice change was very funny it's just a great intro to a really really funny character

yeah so i loved it i loved it from jump mary what about you yeah when's the first time you saw it i saw it i feel like it was around it again when i was in marching band um i was i was introduced to most. It's a very formative period for you. In more ways than one. Oh. Kaboom. Yes, but I was introduced, I feel like, to a lot of Star Wars films and Spaceballs. I remember being one of them. I saw it middle school, early high school for the first time.

I haven't seen it in so long, so re-watching it was a real trip. That's funny. Yeah. All right, well, let's walk you all through the synopsis, everyone out there. It's pretty quick.

Mm-hmm. It's pretty quick. We usually read long synopses of these movies, but this one's real quick. In a distant galaxy, planet Spaceball has depleted its air supply, leaving its citizens reliant on a product called PeriAir. In desperation, Spaceball'sballs leader President Scrooge

orders the evil Dark Helmet to kidnap Princess Vespa of oxygen-rich Druidia and hold her hostage in exchange for air. Help arrives for the princess in the form of renegade space pilot Lone Star and his half-man, half-dog partner, Barf. Barf. Candy.

I love John Candy. My husband and I were just re-watching uncle buck and that he is so funny and brilliant brilliant he is amazing john candy man rest rest easy yes nicole what was your opinion on this uh film okay i i mean people were like you're gonna love it like my roommate john millhiser was like you're gonna lovehee, you're going to love it. Like my roommate, John Milhiser, was like, you're going to love it. He was so excited to watch it with me. And he would just be teeheehing. And I would be like stone silent because I was like, this isn't funny to me. I agree.

I agree. And I was so excited to talk to you because I was like, I'm sitting here and I get why it is funny. But I'm going, aha. I'm like, I funny yes but I'm going like I'm like I don't I'm just not but I did feel like if this came out right when Star Wars was happening and like for sure this humor is very like airplane style it's exactly like yes yeah totally so that was like a trend and it felt like if you were really into Star Wars it would be so fun to go to the theater and like laugh at this movie and make fun of it because you don't have a lot of outlets for that at that point. It's like this is a whole big movie making fun of it. That's great.

But I did find myself thinking like, oh, I'm not finding parts where I'm. My favorite part, I'll tell you my favorite part, was when that little thing that sort of like alien reference, like whatever it was from, pops out of the gun and then does the dance along the counter. I was laughing at that. I laughed at that.

I laughed a little bit at Joan Rivers. I thought she was very funny. Yeah. But yeah, the more I thought about it, I was like, we've consumed like 20 some odd years of Star Wars in a couple of months. These people had a

huge break in between one of the movies and then this movie coming out so it was like a nice little um what is it a moosh boosh is that a palate cleanser oh yeah and a moose a moose a moose boosh a moose boosh i like a moose oh boy just a moosh boosh a moosh moosh i can't believe i've been saying it wrong for so long but yeah i don't it was not for me also there was no luke no that was like bill palman was supposed to be like both yeah yeah yeah you know i like that it ended with a wedding yes because we always want them to kiss more in these movies. And that was nice. Do you? We didn't.

We're always like, oh, we're excited when they kiss. We always want them to kiss more. It's our biggest complaint. Yeah, we will say like. That's your biggest complaint for Star Wars in general? Yes. They don't kiss enough? Not enough kissing.

Nobody's kissing. Ugh. And I also was really, one thing I did say after was like, this is the best length of Star Wars. It's an hour and a half. Yeah. Every other Star Wars movie is like two and a half hours. And it's real dedication of your time to watch it.

This was gone in a minute. But Nicole, this you made a good point that like we've been watching this all compacted in this time that like if you get 10 years between a movie a two and a half hour movie probably feels great. Yes. But we're like I just watched a two and a half hour one of that one.

So we feel like everything could be faster. Sure. But we found a lot to like. Yeah. Do you want to read some of this trivia? Sure.

Can I also just say I really hated Pizza the Hut. Pizza the Hut. He was so disgusting to look at. There was a lot of food stuff that I was like, oh boy. And then he ate himself at the end. That was upsetting. Okay, so trivia.

George Lucas got a chance to read the screenplay before production began and loved it so much that he decided to have his special effects company help with the movie. An example. Yeah, isn't that wild? Well, it makes me like it more actually. Same. before production began and loved it so much that he decided to have his special effects company help with the movie. Oh! Yeah, isn't that wild? Well, it makes me like it more, actually. Same. Because it's fun when someone can just poke fun at themselves. Yes, yes.

He's really good at that. That's cool. He's really good at that. That's cool. An example of this is the Millennium Falcon's cameo appearance in the movie can be spotted parked at the space diner among the other space vehicles. I did not clock that.

Fun. I didn't clock that. Fun. I didn't clock that either. Oh, no, me either. I also really liked the joke where they were talking about the merch and it was like everything was labeled like Spaceballs, the placemats, Spaceballs, the sheet. And I actually wanted the Spaceballs merch. I mean, I'm such a sucker for the merch for Star Wars. It's so funny how easily swayed into buying merch you are.

It's all I want. I was like, I saw the Spaceballs, the t-shirt, and I was like, I want that. Like, I don't even like this movie. I want this. They're very good. You know what I did like? I liked when they broke the fourth wall

and they were like, well, we're going to try to watch the Spaceballs movie to find where they are. And then they were turning back around. That was actually very funny. Very funny. I agree. That was cute. Mel Brooks is the master of spoofs.

He does spoofs so well, but the humor is so different than what a spoof would look like now. Yes, totally. And I think him as yogurt was funny too. Yes. What a world. What a world.

What a world. What a world. According to Mel Brooks, George Lucas loved this movie so much, he wrote him a letter after its premiere saying he thought he was going to bust something from laughing so hard. So that's really nice.

That is nice. The escape pod launch sequence is an unused clip from Star Wars Episode IV, a new help provided to Mel Brooks by Lucasfilm. That's nice. Whoa. But also, how are there so many unused clips from these movies? These movies are two and a half hours long. Didn't you

use all of the footage? How about the part at the beginning? Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say, you're shooting for like six months, right? I guess, yeah. You have so much footage. Yeah, there's a lot that's left. That's so crazy to shoot for six months and then not all of it makes

it into the movie i shot for two years what did you this is nuts yeah yeah i shot for two years because it was like for me it was i had to do all the principal photography with everybody else and then i had to go do all the cg stuff with ilm so i did like two movies yeah that's amazing that final battle scene in phantom menace is me by myself running around industrial lights and magic jumping on things and throwing things you know for like i want to rewatch parts of this to think about you doing it now like that's me too this is what i was saying when we were talking about phantom menace i was like

if people knew the work that went into this they would be saying other things i know like that final battle scene is like an entire buster keaton movie if you watch I was like, if people knew the work that went into this, they would be saying other things. I know. Like that final battle scene is like an entire Buster Keaton movie. If you watch if there's a there's a Buster Keaton movie where he's like running away from barrels rolling down hills. Yeah. That's exactly what that final battle scene with George wanted it to be a big battle scene. But he wanted it to feel like a Buster Keaton movie. So we would watch like Buster Keaton and analyze the film.

Like George is a really great, he's a wonderful filmmaker, like really intricate, really into detail, really knows what he's talking about. So we would like sit and watch Buster Keaton movies for hours. And then he would just like point out what he liked, what he didn't want,

what he wanted, how he wanted me to move, how he wanted it to feel. And then I would just do it. I would just do my best in doing it if you could you could watch like the buster keaton movie and that final battle scene like side by side you'll see a lot of the similarities that's cool that is yeah um one last little bit of trivia about this movie the barf costume was operated by three people which which surprises me. John Candy operated barf's tail using a hidden control in his paw. Well, two assistants each controlled an ear.

An ear. And his costume was powered by a 30-pound battery that he wore on his back. Oh, that's uncomfortable. Nice. Ooh. Jeez.

Yeesh. That's wrong. It's too heavy. And the baseballs has a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, but an 83% audience score. Yeah. It was big with the people.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm glad we watched it because I feel like I was waiting for this moment for so long. It's fun because Star Wars is such a weight wars is such a weighty universe like there's there's so much built around it and it's decades long and so expansive and has there's it's so serious um i mean there are aspects of it that are are lighter and um funny but the space balls just undercuts all of that and just makes fun of every single aspect,

which is, it's nice. It's sort of like, ah, you get to like have a deep breath after consuming so much. Yeah, absolutely. And you know,

George has such a great sense of humor and he likes poking fun at his universe at the world. You know, Seth green and Matt Sinreich who do robot chicken when they did the robot chicken star wars special like george was 100 on board with that and then they did uh an animated series that i hope will come out one of these days um that george was involved with called detours and's like, it's the same robot chicken writers. And,

um, George like collaborated on this thing. And it's all about the opening of the death star. And they treated the death star. Like it was like opening a shopping mall. That's funny. It's so funny. It was like one of the funniest shows that I've done with seth green and matt and george

and loved it and right before it came out the disney sale went through so it never saw the light of day man i hope it does someday i hope so too because that like the spirit of star wars has always been the ability for it to like really make fun of itself and be self-deprecating on the outside like george is cool with that you know he's not into like insulting it but he really is into like poking fun at all the little things and the holes and finding the levity in it so i hope that tradition continues you know and mel brooks is just like such a master. Yeah. I think that though, that's also Jedi temple challenge to me feels like an instance of like leaning into the side of the universe that is,

uh, has more levity and, you know, is for kids and for kids and adults, but, but is, has a, a brightness to it and,

uh, um, a humor that I think it's, it's cool to explore that aspect of the yeah there's a hope to it you know at at the end of the at the end of the day star wars is all about that hope it's that belief in that universal connection it's that we can overcome you know the the darkest part of us if we stay true and stay loyal and stay hopeful you know luke skywalker's journey is all about the hope of redeeming his father anakin skywalker's story is the hope of redeeming himself and with jedi temple challenge like we're all sitting there

hoping these kids win like we're all boy are we hoping they win we're just like please you know just in the control room like come on how old are they they're between 11 and 14 okay and there are these moments where we're in the control and the final challenge as that's the only kind of timed challenge and it's time is ticking down and they're getting close to like maybe not being able to finish everybody in the control room was like pins and needles like are they gonna and we're like yelling at the screen like come on get it because we just really want them to succeed you know we really want them to be something and then the message is like even if you don't succeed all you got to do is go back and

get some more training it's not like all right sorry padawan but that was it that was your one chance don't give up your day job see ya yeah but no it's just like you know what go back again get some training and then come back and do this again and then madeline even has a joke which like she was like hey uh master beck how long did it take you to finish the trials and i was like i'd like to not talk about that right now yeah so it is about it is about embracing the the possibilities of failing upward and and trying and and keeping the hope alive to succeed in time in your time you know i like that that's nice yeah and i think with our experience like the watching all these movies that is something that has stuck out to me that made has given me like you know chills or made me want to cry at certain points

in these movies where like they they are have the really hopeful of. Or just the feeling of being good versus evil. It's really nice. But yeah, we've learned a lot, haven't we, Nicole? We've learned so much and so little all at the same time. Really? Oh, my God. We're going to wrap it up in a second. We didn't talk enough space balls.

I felt like we kind of just... Do we talk enough space balls? Do we get enough space balls i didn't i feel like we talked enough space balls i'm much more interested in you meeting michael jackson well is there anything you two would like to promote let's talk about where we can watch uh the jedi temple challenge Where is that available for everyone? Yeah, where is that, Mary? Where is that? You could go to the Star Wars Kids website. You can watch the videos there.

Or you can go on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel, and the episodes are there. And they're totally free, and they're up on YouTube and on the website, so they would be accessible to more kids. That's great. I love that. No paywall. Yeah, no paywall. That's so awesome. Kids all around the world can watch it now. And if you go to my IG page, I usually link

to it through my stories and through my profile. So all you gotta do is go to the stories and swipe up and you'll find the link. Amazing. And is there anything else you guys would like to promote either of you? While we're.

What, Mary, what are you doing? What's, what's happening? Oh my gosh. Well, I'm,

I'm on another show. That's actually also up on YouTube for free. It's on the comedy central channel called Robbie. All eight episodes of the first season of Robbie are up and it's really fun. It's a fun watch. And and that is great. Great. Mary is so funny in it. Like Mary, you were so good in Robbie. I texted you late at night and I was like, I like you and Robbie. So yes, people should watch it because you're so good on it. Thank you. I haven't gotten to watch it yet

and now I'm going to watch it all. I'm going to watch it all too. Yeah, watch it all. I'm going to consume it. I'm going to consume it. Yes, I'm going to consume it as well. We are going to read a five-star review. Five Star Wars review segment.

Okay. What have you done to me? This is from Liz Wather. Wazer? I don't know. Hating Star Wars has always been a part of my identity.

My friends and I famously had a screaming match over how bad the franchise is in a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day right after seeing Force Awakens in theaters. The other nice Jewish family

next to us asked to be moved. Now somehow I'm 10 movies deep in the series because of how obsessed I am with this podcast. Nicole and Lauren regularly reduce me to hysterical laughter and tears and occasional shouts of answers to their questions as if they could actually hear me.

This podcast has been a true gift and a real treat in quarantine. If you ever do another season, I beg of you to watch Lord of the Rings. Well, yes! That's great. Well well thank you liz this is the perfect time to announce then that we will be covering lord of the rings for season two oh no that's great i am already devastated i'm scared i'm scared i'm so excited i'm scared i feel um overwhelmed at the amount of stuff we have to watch.

Speaking of long movies, those are like three and a half hours. They're very long. They go by so fast. You guys are going to love it. I have a couple of Hobbit stories too. Oh my God. You should come back. Yeah.

I had a couple of nights with the Hobbits that ended really interesting. Wow. Very intrigued. They came over from New Zealand to Australia while we were shooting Attack of the Clones and we all hung out. And it was interesting. Oh my gosh.

It was like the hobbits, a couple elves. Have you written a book? This is wild. People need to hear these stories yeah it was crazy it was me and natalie and a couple hobbits and um orlando bloom that is such a funny way to start a story so it was me natalie portland portland uh orlando bloom some hobbits and elves and the hobbits and elf or two yeah yeah we had some nights the ewok game really fascinating it was weird so enjoy those movies ladies

and we'll be back with new episodes later this summer on the same feed so you can just stay subscribed right where you are and you'll find us yeah so that's a wrap on this season of newcomers we want to thank all of our amazing guests who came on. And we also want to thank Marissa Melnick, Claire Slaughter, Ferris Monshi, and Ryan Radersma. This is honestly what has been what has happened the end to every single episode

when Nicole has to say any name. We've been Ahmed Burles. And Mary Homer. It's because it was written out phonetically. I knew you were looking at the phonetically going, what? As opposed to just reading the names I know. Those are way more consonants than names. I knew you were looking at the phonetics and going, what? As opposed to just reading the names I know. Yeah. Those are way more consonants than names.

Claire Slaughter, Ferris Bonshi, and Ryan Radersma, who helped this season and helped make it come to life. Ryan Murski, dude. There was a moment when I saw that Nicole was going to read that paragraph, and I went, ooh, I should have just kept going. I think you threw like a cue in there i appreciate i appreciate the thought that went into i should keep going and then me just real just going for it hard and wrong you went in oh my god my drum teacher used to say

if you're gonna be wrong be loud and wrong that's my mantra in life i love that very loud and wrong well i just want to say thank you to everyone who's been a guest on this show and thank you nicole for um doing this with me because i think it's been it's been so fun and eye-opening we finally got to watch these movies that we've been hearing about our whole lives and it was it couldn't have been a better way to do it than to do it with you so i'm so so glad. I agree. Lauren, thank you. I think you're a real treat and it's been so nice getting to spend time with you, even though it's not in person anymore.

I know it's been really nice. So do you have anything you want to plug on our final episode before we, um, I think you should watch Lauren on good girls. I tried to get a picture of your billboard of the wrong Missy on vine, but I looped around and then looped around again and somehow missed it twice. And I was like, I need to go live my life.

I had already taken it down. They were like next. But yeah, watch Lauren and everything. She's got a Patreon and she's perfect. Oh, and follow Nicole's Patreon and her many other podcasts. So I want you to date me.

Best friends with such years. The meta, um, get her book. Very fat, very brave. Get it from a black owned bookstore we have posted many links to these things on our on our social medias and um do it like get this book it's hilarious I flip through it and just every page is a delight it is amazing and every picture is beautiful it's hilarious everything you've written in there the captions are amazing everyone needs to get this book so

thank you all for following us and we'll see you later this summer with Lord of the Rings and if you've ever seen it then I hope you stick around and see what we think we have said Lord of the Rings Mary has gotten so excited just the same Lord of the Rings oh my god I can't wait

word for word I can say it word for word. Really? Yeah. Wow. All right. Well, thank you two so much for being on and we appreciate it so much. Thank you guys so much.

Thank you for having us. We'll see you guys later this summer. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. That was a hate gun podcast.