Last Looks: The Christmas Tree

0:00Miss Mavilda's first name, Devin Bryant returns, and Jason has got a recommendation that's going to knock your socks off. All this and more on today's Last Looks. Hit the theme!

0:41Your eyes need to see it. Your eyes need to see it. How did this get made? Hello, all you gamblers with chainsaws and kids named Pappy. It's me, Paul Scheer, a.k.a. Mr. Mavilda. And welcome to How Did This Get Made? Last Looks, where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on The Christmas Tree, a movie that PNW Paloma thinks should have had the tagline, A Christmas Tree, Joyless Recollections of Childhood Trauma. I love it. Oh, man. I'm wondering if you could morph my book cover and the Christmas tree poster together. I don't know. Now, we'll save that for late night when I'm playing with Canva because I love to get all freaky late at night with my Canva.

1:29A big shout out to our pal Rob from Long Island. uh great opening theme song rob killed it live in new york you're gonna hear that in a couple episodes uh i just gotta say we had such a great time on tour thank you for coming out we had some special guests because uh you know the government shutdown prevented june from actually being there but guess what you got some good special guests coming up and i want to just take a moment to say that at the end of the last episode, I said everyone should see this film. And that was met with a lot of disdain from Jason and June. But here's what I'm going to tell you.

2:07In the past week or so, I've been talking to people out in the streets because I'm out there talking to the listeners. And I feel like this movie unlocked a core memory that people had. They didn't know where it was from, but they had seen it. This movie is important to be seen. Not since Peanut butter solution have we untapped something that has disturbed us all so deeply. So for that reason and that reason alone, I still demand that you see the Christmas tree. By the way, people, if you want to be a part of the show, you can be. You can submit an alt movie tagline by going to our discord. You can also upload a song for this very episode.

2:48Just go to hdtgm.com. There's a button right on the front page. It says submit a song. That's what you do. You hit that button, you upload your song. If it's 15 to 20 seconds, we're going to love it, and we'll play it here on the show. Now, we have a big show, okay? We're going to be hearing all your corrections and omissions on the Christmas tree, and there are good ones in this week's episode. Not that there aren't always good ones, but this week in particular, there are some really good ones. Then Jason and I, we're going to chat. We haven't chatted for a very long time, just about movies, TV, what we're into.

3:23And we're going to be joined by our former audio engineer, Devin Torrey Bryant. We love Devin. He is going to talk about his new album called Blame It on My Zodiac, which is great. So a little walk down memory lane, plus things that you can be watching throughout the entire holiday season. And let me tell you, people, I want to talk to somebody about Landman. I watched the entire run of Landman. Season one and most of season two, I mean, I'm caught up in the course of 72 hours and I need to discuss it. Should I just do a Landman podcast? I might have to. Anyway, what else do I want to tell you?

4:09Oh, guess what? Very big news. We are doing a live stream show. It's going to be around the world. You have seven days to watch it so you can watch it live or watch it later. It's me, Jess, June, and Jason. We're all going to be in studio, so it's not over Zoom, so high-quality stuff there. And if you love the live-streaming Christmas events, you've got to check out the Deep Dive. The Deep Dive, by the time you're hearing this, will have already recorded their episode on December 5th, but it is also available after the fact. So check out veeps.com and you can watch both shows whenever you damn well please.

4:50Also, I want to tell you all the movie that we'll be watching for the How Did This Get Made Christmas special. It is the 2015 rom-com Merry Kissmas. And wow, it's available around the world. And by around the world, I mean Canada and the UK, because that's where a majority of our international audience comes from. So you can definitely make sure that you can watch this before the show. Merry Christmas. And people, that's all I got. Those are all the plugs that we have because now we are getting into the Christmas tree. We had questions. You have answers. And you know what? We might have even missed a few things.

5:33And you're going to make us all smarter by proving that you saw something that we didn't. So now it's time for Corrections and Omissions. You said everything you think that needs to be said. But all the things that you forgot have got me seeing red. So open up the Discord and the telephone line. It's Corrections and Omissions time. Rob from Long Island, two for two. That's like an earworm. I love it. I want to go back to that. Okay, old man Pappy writes, The crew wondered a couple times why the orphans never look towards each other for community or support. And the clear answer is they share one consciousness.

6:17Look at how they're constantly standing in a grouping or acting in unison. The orphans are a part of a single hive mind and see themselves as one entity. Are they aliens? Possessed? Under some sort of hypnosis? All possible. but I think the key to their strange connection is Miss Hopewell. I believe the tree is the matriarch of this hive and through parasitic spores or some ancient magic has turned the orphans into thralls. Oh, I love that you've casually just dropped thralls. Ironically, Miss Mavilda cutting down the tree would have been the only thing that freed the kids from its hold on them.

6:58Whoa. Old man Pappy ain't fucking around. You came in hot. And this is possibly the best theory I've ever heard on any movie that we have ever done. The kids are Borg. And I love it. I'm just going to say they're Borg because I would love that's how the Borg came to Earth originally. Maybe they're here. Picard. Get them Borgs. Joe Tangello writes, it was really weird that Mrs. Mavilda specifically said, go get your electric chainsaw. But then the guy had a gas powered chainsaw. Why was she so specific and so wrong? Here's what I think about that. Mrs. Mavilda is not into specifics, you know, or that guy's kind of a drunk, you know, she's like, go get your electric one.

7:46And he's like, I'll get my gas powered one. It's worse for the environment, right? I kind of feel like that's what he was doing. Some people may say, oh, the animators weren't communicated to, they didn't do ADR. No, no, no, no. That's a choice of a drunken person and Miss Mavilda not really paying attention to stuff that doesn't involve her. I mean, how would you even know that he has a specific chainsaw? I mean, I have neighbors, I see that they have tools. I don't know if it's gas powered. I don't know if it's like, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not asking those questions. Anyway, Sean McBee puts an image, An image up of the home that Judy was being sent to so she could be framed for theft.

8:23Now, the man is sitting amongst empty beer cans with his stained area rug and his cracked plaster wall. So if he was to slip something valuable into Judy's purse, I think I might just see a few small flaws in this Mavilda's plan. Yeah, I mean, look, I guess you could say the cops are on Mavilda's side. She's going to frame her. This guy's got friends on the force. We know it doesn't always have to make, you know, sense. But you know what Sean McBee goes on to say? Another example of even more egregious animation choices is in the shot of Judy when the camera rig appears to have been knocked off kilter.

9:05So you can see the top of the animation cell and some of the stand is revealed. It seems to be like no one involved in this movie gave half a shit about it. You know, I did notice that. And I thought that was just something like an artifact on YouTube. I didn't realize that the animation was truly off. And this still is cracking me up. You can see the stand. It's like that new 4K thing that they did for Mad Men where you see the guy pumping the oyster rig. Or like when Roger Sterling vomits oysters, there's a guy off camera like with the rig. Oh, man. But this is not about 4K upgrade. No, no, no.

9:44This is just about. You know what? I actually believe that the guy whose house that Judy was supposed to go to probably ran the animation rig. Anyway, Frosted Nebula writes regarding June asking if Mrs. Mavilda is having to report what's happening with the money. As far as reporting requirements go for publicly funded service organizations, dear God, I am a nerd. If the orphanage is in the U.S., they would presumably be receiving some sort of community development block grant funding, which is a CDBG, which has very specific reporting metrics. So, theoretically, if the bags of money from the mayor are CDBG grant funds, Ms.

10:23Mavilda would be required to follow specific reporting metrics about how the money is being used, and those reports would be reviewed by the city or county and the federal government. Many people not doing their jobs here. Well, here's the thing, Frosted Nebula. I appreciate your specificity, but I don't think this is an American tale. This is no fievel. No, no, no. This is somewhere where you can walk to Alaska, which I guess, I mean, it might be, well, Alaska, North Pole, not Alaska. Huh. Maybe it is Alaska. Doesn't feel like Alaska. Not sure. All right. Frosted Numbula, you're right. All right.

11:09Let's go to the phones. Ben from Virginia. What do you got? Hi, everybody. This is Ben. And my buddy Paul and I love to watch these movies in advance. We caught something that I think made us laugh so hard that we had to stop the movie, go back, and even record a clip of it from the movie. A line you didn't point out, there's so many things from the Christmas tree that are worth discussing. But our favorite line is after the little girl prays to, I guess, Santa to change her wish a second time. And the little boy behind her says, let me see if I can get this right. Santa's not going to hear you.

11:48Nobody's going to hear you. Miracles don't happen. Thank you for bringing this ridiculous movie to our attention. It was a challenge to watch, like an actual physical pain, all of the little cells and eyes and things jotting and bumping around. But what a joy to know that this exists. Thank you all for all you do. Saw The Dinosaur Show in D.C. Fantastic. Cheers. First of all, Ben, thank you so much for coming out to D.C. That was a blast. I love going out with Dinosaur. We have such a killer group of people out there. It's the best. It's the absolute best. If you're ever in L.A., come see Dinosaur.

12:24We'll be live at Largo on the 24th of January. I know that's far away. But yes, that line, Santa's not going to hear you. Nobody's going to hear you. Miracles don't happen. Sounds to me like the sentiments of a very depressed animator who forgot to center the animation cells while transferring it to Betamax. Wow, Ben, thank you for that. This is a movie where you should have your phone out so you can tape moments and show them to people like I have been doing with Landman. Oh, man, there's some lines in Landman. Some lines in Landman that will just knock your fucking teeth out. Is that a phrase?

13:07No, it's not. All right, let's go to the phone now and hear from Steve. Hi, Paul. This is Steve with an omission for the Christmas tree, or maybe an explanation for the cryptic ending, the way that it ends with that line that Mrs. Mivalda learned that you only win if you're good. What does this mean? Well, I think that it means it is a reference back to her gambling addiction. June pointed out that the movie doesn't end actually saying that she has stopped gambling. Perhaps she has. But, of course, we also know that she was terrible at gambling. She was always losing. So maybe through, I don't know, Santa's Christmas magic or whatever, Mrs.

13:45Mivalda found a loophole and learned that if you are good or fame being good, that you can start winning. So maybe the movie actually ends kind of ambiguously with her laying in wait and growing in power and so on until she can finally unmask herself and her evil upon the world. I don't know. Okay. I like it. I like it that you are a Christmas tree truther. You believe it all makes sense and you have a beautiful perspective on this. You know what? I actually believe that that is the spirit of the film, to find the truth, whatever truth is true to you. so thank you thank you Steve for showing us that this is a metaphor about gambling all right back to the discord uh dove uh writes something that we knew when recording this episode is nearly twice the length of the movie they're discussing with the movie lasting 42 minutes the episode being about 80 how many episodes have they done that were longer than the source movie itself let alone twice as long i'm betting it's none now our producer scott always on target always up for a challenge says we've never had another episode be almost twice as long as the movie uh that this isn't the first episode that is longer than the movie in general to name a couple our episodes on superman 4 the quest for peace and uh 2 2 2 were both longer than the films now here's the thing.

15:15Our discussions frequently go much longer than the movie, but we edit them down. For example, the Morbius live show was three hours long unedited, but we know that that's a special thing for the audience. So whenever you come see how did this get made live, you're going to get a longer, more special show. And also we understand no one wants to hear three hours of Morbius. And I know you're like, yes, we do. No, you don't. SS Lizard writes, I don't think the mayor is a good guy. He sees one kid dressed in the same clothes every time he drops off money and that's it. He doesn't look around or talk to the kids or ask for any receipts.

15:50He just drops off money like, yep, I've done my job. I'm such a good mayor. Here's the thing, SS Lizard, hire good people and then let them do their job. And I think the mayor was doing that. And yes, he got a little complacent, but there seems to be a lot of things this mayor is responsible for, primarily employing every individual person in this town. He has to size them up, find them not only a job, but then take care of their lodging as well. This mayor is doing the Lord's work. And yes, he may get confused. He may have thought there's different kids coming in and out. And sure, you can attack them all you want, but this guy is doing more than most mayors, okay?

16:30John Steele writes, Hey, Paul, my wife and I watched this movie with our kids, and we all had a good laugh at this Bizarre Movie, we had a thought on Mrs. Mavilda. We noticed that during the first card game, some of the other degenerates were calling her Bavilda, so we thought maybe her full name is Bavilda Mavilda. John Steele, this is the logic. This is the logic that we need, and you know what? I'm doing it two last looks in a row. You are our winner. That's right, John Steele. For naming Mrs. Mavilda Bavilda Mavilda, yeah, you're going to win. And you get this amazing song from Homonym.

17:15Yes. Great job to everyone who came correct. And you did. You came very correct. By the way, how did this get made merch? We have re-released our original shirts. The first two designs we ever made are now up in our merch store. You could just go to hdtgm.com and get a link to go right there. You can also get our shirts for our Philadelphia and New York shows. They're great holiday gifts. You can make them into coffee mugs. You can make them into stickers. You can make them into hoodies. You can make them into onesies. People give. How did this get made for the holidays? And if you want those amazing hats, that's available too.

17:51You just have to go to our Pod swag store. Okay. Now, if you want to chime in with your thoughts about what we're always talking about here on the show, you can. It's very easy. You listen to the show, you go to our Discord, or you call me at 619-P-A-U-L-A-S-K. Then I'll read your thing. I'll determine if you have what it takes to be like John Steele. And you know what? Most of you do. I believe in you. Like Tony Robbins. You can do anything you set your mind to. Take it from me, Paul Robbins. All right, coming up next, you don't want to miss my chat with Jason, where we recap our recent New York and Philadelphia live shows and talk movies, TV, music, and more.

18:30So stick around after the break. People, I hope you're checking out our amazing matinee episodes. That's right. Every Tuesday, we re-release an old episode into the feed, and we are talking Christmas movies this year. We are talking about Ben Affleck in the holiday crime flick Reindeer Games with Howard Kramer. We had some very big revelations on this one. And next week, we're going to go not just fully down a Christmas path. We're going to go a little adjacent by talking about the 1991 Robin Williams surreal comedy Toys. Because Christmas and toys. You see how we made that connection? Anyway, keep on checking out all of our replays of classic episodes every Tuesday.

19:12And now, without any further ado, it is time to welcome Jason to Last Looks for a little Just Chat. Ad Noisium, play us in.

19:35Five days away, Jason, from our live event streaming around the world. I'm in training now. I'm working out two times a day. I'm doing cardio just to get ready for the live stream. We are going to do it in a different and fun way this year, which is we're all in the same location, which will be fun because that will mean Jess won't have to do any tech. But she will have to arrive there, which will be a whole other. Very difficult. Maybe tell her it's going a little bit early. You should give her a different time. and I fully expect simply her presence will somehow cause tech problems. This story that I heard, and I won't reveal all the facts, but I think it's a good one, which was there was a table read that was going on for a project and they wanted to make sure that every actor got there on time.

20:31So they told all the actors like two hours ahead of time to get there because a giant movie star was going to be at this table read. And the giant movie star got there two hours early as well, just because the giant movie star was like, I just want to be there. I want to make sure that I am there. So then they had this, this weight because not everyone showed up. Everybody was there. Oh, so just not every, just not quite everybody. Not quite everyone, because the one person that they were also trying to like gauge against didn't show up until two hours and 30 minutes. So we came 30 minutes late, but they had to entertain like the biggest star.

21:09And I was like, oh, this is really like no one knew what to do. I love that. I can't wait to hear who it is. Yeah, it's a good one. All right. So, Jason, we have been on tour. We've been moving around. We've been grooving around. We had some great shows in Philly. We had some great filling guests. You and I. Morgan was in Philly. Shouts to Morgan, who came who moved away from Philly, but came back just for the show. And I feel like we didn't give him enough due out there, but you know what? I'm giving it to him now. Great work, Morgan. Great work, Morgan. Now, I will say. I mean, how many people, sorry.

21:42Yeah, no. How many people genuinely in the 15 years of this podcast from the audience, can you name single name? You know, can you count it on one hand? Refer to by name. You know what I mean? Count it on one hand. There's Tim at Largo. There's Morgan. Like, Morgan was like an absolute superstar. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I mean, there's only the Pete the S man. You know, there's a couple of people that come to mind. Ben Cannon. I think of Ben Cannon. What a great name. Jafar. Leah from Chicago. Oh, Leah from Chicago. We had some fun times in New York because we actually got to lay down a very long episode of Blank Check, which I've been loving watching people's reactions to.

22:26Oh, yeah? The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. People were like. By the way, Geek Squad came up in it. Yes, they did. And as you know, we are waging this war with Vanity Fair and Hollywood at large. Now we're waging war? I'm just going to say it. We are waging war. Wait a minute. We're bringing back wars. We're bringing back like when Howard Stern would go to war with like a radio DJ in another city. Yeah, like the Philadelphia dudes. Yeah, exactly. Here's what I will say. Some people lamented that three hours and 41 minutes, not enough time for us to break down. I mean, I could have kept going. Me too.

23:02We had a show to do. I could have kept going. And I'm not surprised that people wanted more. You know who didn't want more? David Sims. Oh my gosh. There is nothing more fun, I will say, especially, especially this time when the four of us got to be in the room. I love being in the room. Than watching David get more and more agitated and frustrated in a such delightfully fun and funny way. He is what a great what a great presence inside of the absolute chaos that is you, me and Griffin. Oh, and here's what I love about it is it seems like that anger is misplaced because the show has started, but he does treat it as if the show has not begun.

23:46Right. Like not hit record yet. As if everything, the whole conversation we've been having about the movie, but simply because nobody has said this is the blank checkbox, nobody's done the intro line. He's getting more and, oh, it was so funny, more and more frustrated, you know, because, you know, that's, David is, you know, has three kids, I think, under four. Yeah, he's got, he's in it. He's in it. He's drowning in children. and it is he boy and so I think for him the three of us were just like three unruly kids I mean it was so funny because we should have started at 10 a.m. to finish at six like you know it was really like to me I love being in there I love their space I love talking to them I and so if you have not listened to that episode do yourself a favor if you got about four hours You know, and it's the kind of thing that you can listen to in chunks.

24:43And I will say, if you are a Coen Brothers fan, if you're a Blank Check fan, if you're a movie podcast fan, if you like our show, you should be listening to Blank Check. Absolutely. A lot of our guests are guests on that show. Listen to Gabrus or us. Paul and I have been on it a bunch. Listen to the Doughboys on there if you're looking for an entry point. But then also listen to Ari Aster on there. Listen to Seth Rogen on there. Listen to, you know, all the great past and future guests. It's a fantastic show. And I can't recommend it enough. And this series about the Coen brothers is maybe pound for pound one of the greatest series they've ever done.

25:24The best run that they've had. I mean, in a show that has tremendous runs all the time. I will also say this. I want to shout out our friend who's never actually been on the podcast, but Rob Riggle. uh rob wriggle has a book and an audio book as well uh it's the same book it's you know it's not he has two but it's called uh grit spit and never quit um it's it's his uh story about being a marine and doing comedy and there are some great great stories in there wriggles marine stories are always hilarious and uh and this book is really really fun a really uh if you like rob wriggle and you know him obviously from you know everything from like 21 Jump Street to Daily Show.

26:07Step Brothers, 21 Jump Street, yeah Daily Show, SNL. Great dude. Incredible. Great great dude. So anyway just wanted to shout out our friend and his brand new book but Jason I've been watching stuff and I wanted to get your read. You're gonna have more interesting stuff so I'm gonna just throw one thing at you. What do you got? I went back and watched 21 Jump Street and I was like this movie the entire TV no I wish I watched TV by the way I do own it the entire TV series oh I do I loved it I watched that 21 Jump Street movie and it was like you know it's funny I don't often revisit comedies and I'm like oh yeah it was really funny I really liked it and I don't ever go back I rewatched that movie and I was like this movie is kind of perfect it just is so funny so funny great cast across the board I just was like blown away by I think it's fun to sit back and watch comedies after a long time of not seeing them because it's because then you're surprised by the jokes again.

27:05Yeah, I really, really. Because that's why it works, because it's like it's so surprising and funny. And again, we just don't do these anymore. Wouldn't it be great to make movies with funny people that are funny, you know, nonstop funny with funny people? I would love that. But we don't seem to be interested in that, or the business doesn't seem to be interested in that. And it's such a shame because that's a movie that really you could show is like, oh, well, it's done it all. I mean, you and I also have a soft spot for action comedy, especially cop stuff and funny stuff. For sure. I mean, but I just want to give a shout out to Dave Franco, who I think is so good in that movie.

27:40He's so fucking funny. And that's a run, too, where you've got 21 Jump Street. You've got like the Seth and Evan stuff like this is the end happening around that same time. You've got Neighbors happening right around that. Like you've got a run of movies that is kind of the end. Many of these are not even action comedies. These are just comedies. Yeah. And that run is kind of the end of studio comedies. I know. And they're all successful. Like, I mean, it's so crazy to look at like, you know, like it's an 85 on Rotten Tomatoes, 21 Jump Street. These are not failures. These are not even like niche movies.