Top Plug of the Week

For all you TL:DR folks out there, it’s the one thing we’d love you to know about!

We’ve talked about it a lot, so we won’t belabor it here — just a reminder for interested listeners that THREE MEN AND A HALLIE debuts this Sunday, August 4 at 8pm Eastern Time (5 PT)! Watch the three of us plus fan favorite Hallie Haglund discuss Three Men and a Baby! We’ll be in the live ch

at with viewers for the premiere, but if you can’t make it then, check it out (or rewatch) any time until midnight on 8/18.

Last Chance Mailbag

We get a lot of letters at the Flop House. A surprising number, considering we don’t make it easy to find our email address. We’re not complaining! Answering listener mail is a whole segment on our show, and if we didn’t get a ton of letters, that airtime would have to be filled with SOMETHING, like more Elliott singing, or maybe just listening to the audio of Stu’s weightlifting TikToks. So: thanks for writing in! The point is just that there’s no way we can respond to all of the letters we get, so consider this a chance to try to address at least some of the rest.

Hey Floparinos,

I was just thinking, as I often do, about how the billion dollar Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise started, as I'm sure you know, as a parody of Frank Miller's run on Daredevil and his general ninja fetish. (A pretty useful party anecdote to help find dorks of a similar mindset, I've found.) And that got me wondering about other times a parody and/or satire became far more famous than the original subject. Airplane! springs to mind immediately - who remembers Zero Hour these days - and I suppose Dr. Strangelove counts, but are there more? Maybe even a blindingly obvious one that will make me feel dumb for not coming up with myself? Sounds like a job for the Peaches!

Flopabunga dudes,
Evan Lastnamewithheld

A great question! One that’s so great I would totally save it for the show, except we’re actually better at answering dumb questions on the podcast than things that require considered thought or research!

Honestly, you probably came up with the most significant instances of a full parody movie being more remembered than the entire source (you didn’t actually claim this, but for the pedants out there [aka Elliott] Dr. Strangelove isn’t a parody of Fail-Safe, as many assume, but it IS a parodic reframing of the novel Red Alert). So, with the best options off the table, I’ll toss out a few film-related scraps.

• I am told, by people nerdier than myself (I, of course, am a sophisticated man-about-town) that Deadpool, of the currently in-theaters Deadpool Meets Wolverine and Then They Make a Lot of Jokes is at least to some degree an homage/parody of the Teen Titans’ “Deathstroke.”

• Few recall (or probably even knew at the time) that the character of “Mini-Me,” debuting in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, was a parody of Marlon Brando’s inexplicable insistence that his Dr. Moreau character should have a little person double, in 1996’s misbegotten The Island of Dr. Moreau. If you’re looking for a wild bad movie experience, check it out.

• It’s more homage than parody, but much of Quentin Tarantino’s output is filled with elements stolen (he, himself, prefers that to “borrowed”) from other films — many more people remember Daryl Hannah’s one-eyed assassin from Kill Bill than have seen or recall Thriller — A Cruel Picture.

• And the last thing that springs to mind is how much Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a riff on Chinatown — not a direct parody (WFRR is blessedly free of any incest plotting), but the way both noir narratives hinge on a plot to control Los Angeles’ infrastructure and future is an entirely intentional steal on behalf of Roger Rabbit. In this case, both are extremely well-remembered movies, but I’m sure there’s a contingent of more modern viewers who never make the connection.

Thanks for writing in!

Next on The Flop House

Here ye on main!

8/3 - The long-awaited release of our live Garbage Pail Kids episode, with very special guest star Griffin Newman, of Blank Check, the very best film podcast out there that’s not entirely about bad movies.

8/10 - For his turn in the FH mini driver’s seat, Elliott explores the best of meat in film, with an episode of his new podcast-within-the-podcast The Chop House.

Extra Credit

I’ve been informed that my episode of Talking Simpsons, was only a patrons’ bonus episode for a week or two, and now it’s available on their main feed. There’s only one thing to say when you’ve made an error of that magnitude — “D’oh.” Anyway, it’s now free for all, so if you want to hear me (Dan) discuss “Whacking Day,” now’s your chance!

Thanks to everyone who came to our sold out show at WBUR CitySpace in Boston just recently. We all had a wonderful time doing the show and being in the same space together (we miss Elliott on the other coast!), AND while we were together we filmed a bunch of funny/dumb openings for this coming season of FLOP TV — official lineup, schedule, and ticket link coming soon!

Boys on the Side

Keep checking out Elliott’s Hercules series from Dynamite Comics!

Dan’s about to kick off his own personal newsletter — Dan McCoy’s Special Interests! The name comes from his relatively late-in-life diagnosis with ADHD, and the tendency for neurodivergent people to have quirky fixations on “special interests.” Follow for comedy writing about pop culture and the sort of personal musings about feelings Dan used to eschew, as a stoic Midwesterner. Look for the first installment next week, after (hopefully) folks sign up so it’s not just writing into a void. An ad in a newsletter about another newsletter?!? There’s nothing in the rule book that says we can’t do it!

Stuart recently trekked to Montreal, all the way across the border, for the premiere of friend of the show Steve Kostanski’s new movie Frankie Freako! But it wasn’t just for funzos! It was because Stuart provides the voice for one of the many puppet characters in the film (as do Dan and Elliott in slightly smaller roles)! Only Stu has seen it so far, but from what we understand, it’s a throwback to the “little monsters create havoc” joy of movies like Gremlins/Critters/Munchies/Ghoulies with plenty of Psycho Goreman-style nostalgia for the video store nonsense of the past. Stuart said it was a total blast, and if Steve’s previous work is any indication, it HAS to be. Wide release info for Frankie Freako hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ll keep you posted!

You Made it to the End!

Congratulations! You read it all! As a reward, here’s a context-free slide from Dan’s infamous (and now retired) presentation about cartoon-human sex in the movies! Dan’s parents were in the audience while he did this presentation. Imagine THAT!