Today’s Flop Story!

See the email headline! We’re coming back, baby! FlopTV will return on its now-regular schedule of 9pm ET/6pm pt on the first Saturday of every month, September thru February! More details and a ticket link still to come, but we CAN tell you that the theme this year will be Worst of the Best! We’ll be discussing some of the less critically beloved Best Picture Winners in Academy Awards history! We hope you’ll join us for another season of dumb hijinks!

Last Chance Mailbag

We get a lot of letters! And we appreciate that you care enough to write in, but there’s only space for a fraction of them on the show. So every so often, I pick one out of the bursting virtual mailbag to answer here. If you happen to know someone who wrote in who doesn’t subscribe to Flop Secrets, be sure to let them know!

On to a letter!

Dear Floppers,

On your suggestion, my husband and I decided to watch Gold Diggers of 1933. Since we don't have Criterion, I checked our local library, and luckily they had it! We walked over, grabbed Gold Diggers off the shelf: Dick Powell? Perfect. Lullaby of Broadway? How fun! We settled in to watch some pre-code shenanigans. Twenty minutes in, and there were no show girls, but the hotel is putting on a show so maybe they're on their way. Twenty more minutes and we double check the box. Yep, we've picked up Gold Diggers of 1935, which is not the same movie, and not pre-code. We were already in it so we finished right through the titular baby of Broadway plummeting to her death from her high rise, presumably leaving her kitten to starve. That will teach women not to be hussys. The next day we were able to exchange 1935 for 1933 and enjoyed a much better movie.

My question is this. Have you ever started watching a movie and realized a long way in you were watching the completely wrong movie? 

Yours in flopitude,

Heather lastnamewithheld

I believe I (Dan) mentioned on the podcast that, when we watched the most recent Jurassic World for the show, I accidentally clicked the wrong icon on Peacock and spent the whole opening scene marveling at how well Gareth Edwards was aping Steven Spielberg’s style, until Sam Neil (RIP to a lovely gentleman) showed up and I realized I was just watching Jurassic Park.

More recently — my wife was out of town for a work trip this past weekend, and I went on a bit of a movie watching bender. There was some raunchy comedy about female friends going on a trip that I’d heard was good, but couldn’t quite recall where it was on my various watchlists. At first I thought maybe it was Buffaloed, starring Zoey Deutch, but then I read the description, which said it was a comedic crime drama about a debt collector, so that wasn’t it. I decided I must’ve been thinking of Never Goin’ Back, which was described as a stoner comedy about girls getting into trouble trying to fund a beach trip. I watched it and mostly enjoyed it (although it’s a lot sadder in its depiction of living just one step from poverty than the wacky elements might suggest), but was still perplexed — the movie I was thinking of involved going on a road trip to get a morning after pill?

Turns out the movie I was trying to remember was Plan B, directed by the wonderful comic actor Natalie Morales. It also turns out, I’d already watched it. Apparently I gave it four stars on Letterboxd back in 2021. I remember nothing about it.

I guess I’m starring in my own little stoner comedy.

Answers from the Peach Gallery:

Elliott: “I’ve realized that the movie I was watching wasn’t going to behave in the way I thought it would, but I don’t think I’ve ever set out to watch a specific movie, started watching it, and then realized it wasn’t the movie I had intended to watch. Sorry I don’t have a more interesting answer!”

Stuart: “Back in 2005, I went to a screening of WAR OF THE WORLDS, and it took the entire audience at least 5 to 10 minutes to realize that the projector was showing SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS instead. They moved us all to a different theater so i’ll never know how far those pants travelled.”

Next on the Podcast

7/25 - We release our live show from SF Sketchfest, where we discussed the monumentally misbegotten Dana Carvey “comedy” THE MASTER OF DISGUISE. Come hear the tale of Pistachio Disguisey, and find out if you’re turtley enough for the turtle club.

8/1 - Elliott takes us on a tour of summer movies — specifically, movies with “summer” in the title — and asks us whether they were representative of our own summers growing up, and how much we wish they had been.

Plugging Away

NEW PLUGS!

Come see us LIVE at Whirling Tiger in Louisville, KY on Friday, September 18, when we’ll be discussing the Mariah Carey bomb GLITTER, with a special opening treat from Howell Dawdy. Doors open at 7pm, and you can get tickets now!

Those of you who’ve always dreamed of sleeping with Elliott can finally make their wish come true. No, he’s not become a sex worker (yet!) — he’s on a recent episode of Max Fun’s own Sleeping With Celebrities, the show where famous (or “famous”) people discuss their boring fascinations to put you to sleep! Listen to him discuss the book Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials. And if your hunger for Peachy sleep still isn’t sated, you can check the back catalog for the episode where Dan talked about Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge comics.

Dan recently plugged the Flop House Discord without remembering the link, so he continues his penance by posting it here! Go hang out with fellow listeners and have fun with like-minded weirdos!

PLUGS CLASSIQUE:

Stuart paints Warhammer models/chats with viewers most Fridays on his Twitch channel.

Elliott’s book, Joke Farming, is now available in audiobook form, read by the author! Hey, that’s him! The author is him!

You Made it to the End!

After claiming that we never remember to post any of the FH mini visual aids online, we actually did it for once. Here’s a slide from the presentation Dan did for the episode explaining Jem. Head to our Instagram feed to see more!