Spaceballs: the podcast! with JJ Lang and Julia Rios from Chessfeels
Buckle up, because we're in for a WILD ride with not just one, but TWO Julias Rios! Julia's name twin, Julia Rios (AKA Dr. Chess Julia) and her cohost JJ Lang from the Chessfeels podcast join us to talk about a movie from JJ's childhood: Spaceballs!
Here's JJ's hazy summary:
Spaceballs is a Mel Brooks parody of the Star Wars franchise. I don't think it follows the plot of any particular Star Wars film, but I also haven't seen any of those in a long while. But I think there's some sort of 'rescuing a princess' narrative which I think was in episode 4, and a joke off of 'I am your father('s ... cousin's ... nephew's ... roommate) which I think is episode 6? So yeah, it's more of a play off of the idea of Star Wars.
Was there a 'point' to picking this particular franchise? I mean, they make jokes about the ridiculousness of merchandising, and whatnot. And the absurdity of space/sci-fi ('they've gone plaid!'). But for the most part ... it feels like a really nice and heartwarming reminder that if you're committed enough to your schtick, you can apply it to anything, even if there's no reason to.
And here is what Julia (This Is Why We're Like This Julia, not Dr. Chess Julia) remembered:
I am pretty sure there’s a flying RV and also sexist jokes about a woman having a big hair dryer. 12345 is the combination on Mel Brooks’s luggage and Jabba the Hutt now sentient pizza. I think this may be pretty bad on fat jokes based on that. I think John Candy is like a weird space dog who is not as awesome as Chewbacca. I have no idea how this is gonna go for me tbh. Honestly a little worried. I know my father loved it when it came out though.
We were both right, but also we were both surprised to find this was less offensive than we had feared.
Listen to this episode on Spreaker, or subscribe to have episodes delivered to your podcatcher of choice!
Check out Chessfeels if you want to hear about chess and psychology, Julia was even a guest once, and completely aced the chess terms quiz. Completely. And never forget the MOICHANDIZING! You too can own and wear t-shirts with chess jokes you may not understand!
If you want to improve your chess, you might be interested to hear that JJ is a chess improver! You can learn about their teaching methods and book a lesson here.
Julia read and recommended All About Me! by Mel Brooks.
JJ and Julia asked what our picks for worst movie we had to watch for this podcast were, and we mentioned the following episodes:
The Buttercream Gang Part 1 and Part 2 with Julia's sister Kat. This is a Christian movie from the early 90s, and wow, is it a lot.
The Country Bears, which we talked about with our theme park expert friend, Kelly. Fun fact: Julia referenced this episode in our Spaceballs discussion when they said, "Christopher Walken was right! Bears are funny!"
The Dog Who Stopped the War / La Guerre des Tuques, a Canadian movie about a dog dying.
Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure, which we talked about with horror author, Christa Carmen. We understand why she grew up to write horror.
A full transcript of this episode is available if you need it.
