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Bros!
18 Plays6 hours ago
Emmas & Katie go on a Gay Trauma Rollercoaster and watch the 2022 gay romcom Bros, but also discuss reverse harems, group sex, The Red Shoe Diaries, Tom Cruise, compromising artistic values in the non-profit sector, and of course, Hillary Duff
Also the hosting site said the word "Bros" was one character too short to be a title of an episode, thus the exclamation point
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Pop Socket Chat
00:00:00
Speaker
To make you a little happy, do you want to see my adorable new pop socket? Sure. Like, look at how precious that is. There's a little dragon. It's little dragon on a bunch of books, surrounded by flowers. Oh, yeah, i could i can't I couldn't tell. yeah they are books. Yeah, I can see the books.
00:00:15
Speaker
They're little books. It's a little dragon. It's real cute. It's my little, you know, i like fantasy books, but like, in a cool way.
00:00:29
Speaker
No, you don't.
00:00:33
Speaker
No,
Comedy & Rom-Com Plot Twists
00:00:34
Speaker
you don't. I did see a really funny sketch that was from UCB the other day that was on Instagram or TikTok. And it was...
00:00:43
Speaker
It reminded me a lot of my serial killer boy band sketch that I had written for my musical improv conservatory final show, which I thought was brilliant.
00:00:55
Speaker
Not a lot of people got it, but I think it's because I really lent into the true crime nature of it all. Sure. Misunderstand as always. It got real graphic about how they would murder or how one guy would murder.
00:01:11
Speaker
them. I'm not surprised to hear that about your writing. Yeah. yeah Yeah. um It was very funny, but this was two women um pitching their latest rom-com book and the cover and the cover art was, you know, that like cutesy, adorable, like um two people at a strawberry patch.
Defining Reverse Harem & Explicit Rom-Coms
00:01:34
Speaker
Are they, is it friends to lovers? um they Do they fall in love at the strawberry patch? And so don't have any examples i was gonna hold one but i think i've put i either like sold them all or put them in storage ah but it's like one of those like cutesy covers and they go oh is that what the book's about it's like a like cutesy friends to lovers like rom-com and they go kind of
00:02:01
Speaker
It's about, it's a polyamorous um reverse harem um bang fest where she goes and lives with this guy and bangs her way through all the roommates.
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah. ah huh It's mostly about pegging, but you know, you can't see that from the cover. Can't see that from the cover there.
00:02:23
Speaker
um yeah the the the reverse harem thing i i don't get into caitlin has read some of the um like threesome and foursome um hockey uh romance thing one think one literally called like what pucking around pucking around um isn't there one that's literally called why not both or something like that Or maybe I've just seen that um on the, like, in the ah Kindle store or something. Yeah. um ah Which, ah but yeah, I haven't really gotten in into any of those. Neither have I. but you know, group sex heavily featured in today's movie. Heavily featured in today's film.
00:03:02
Speaker
um Before we do get into it, can I admit something to you? Yes. I don't really know exactly what reverse harem means. So a harem would be a man with a bunch of women.
00:03:13
Speaker
Oh, so it's so a chick with a bunch of dudes. Correct. Yes. Yes. ah Oh, okay. Okay. i I saw that like constantly. i was like, I don't know what that means. What is that? It's it's a polite way of saying gang bang.
00:03:28
Speaker
A gang bang. Cool. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I haven't read them. I think i it's mostly about, like, um, it Reverse Harem is about the relationship between the two of them, not specifically just sexual, Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:03:42
Speaker
More, like, polyamorous than... Yeah, yeah, but, like, yeah all at the same time. Ha!
00:03:52
Speaker
Ha! Ha! But again, polyamory and group sex heavily featured in today's film. and what is going to... would I mean, for...
00:04:04
Speaker
at least for now, is the the most sexually explicit rom-com we've watched. um Oh, yeah. and this On this podcast. i I mean, probably not forever. I'm sure we'll watch something.
Podcast 'Go Get Your Girl' Introduction
00:04:17
Speaker
No. I can't think of any off the top of my head. I mean, there might be one month that we just decide to, you know, jump the shark and just watch a bunch of softcore porn as if they're rom-coms.
00:04:30
Speaker
Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. um Yeah, yeah, yeah. red The Red Shoe Diaries. What's the one with David Duchovny? Oh, I have no idea. it's this It's from the 90s and it was on Showtime and it would um it was like, he wasn't involved in any of the softcore stuff. He was like, I've never, okay, I've never seen it.
00:04:48
Speaker
We didn't have Showtime when I was a kid, but I just know about it culturally. He was like a detective or something. This was like pre-X-Files. Yeah. And he would, like um like, tell a story or something or, like, interview somebody, and they would tell them about this, like, and they'd be, like, a softcore porn, like, story. Oh, it's kind of like like a penthouse, sort of. Yeah, I think so. But, like, visual. Okay, okay.
00:05:13
Speaker
Gotcha. Well, anyways, guys. That could be wrong. I don't know. You guessed it. This is Go Get Your Girl. This is the podcast where Emma and Katie...
00:05:25
Speaker
I can't wait to hear. This is the podcast where Emma and Katie do what? Emma and Katie are both relationship phobes. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. And we have a podcast.
00:05:37
Speaker
Uh-uh. That's true. Uh-uh. And we have a meet cute at a club and...
00:05:51
Speaker
We bang our way into falling in love with this guy. I don't know. I don't know how else to describe it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Analysis of 'Bros' & Queer Representation
00:06:00
Speaker
um ah This is the this so Bros, the 2022 movie directed by Nicholas Stoller, who is straight.
00:06:10
Speaker
ah um And written by Billy Eichner and nicholastoler Nicholas Stoller. Nicholas Stoller directed Forgetting Sarah Marshall. oh Oh, nice. Oh, it does have some Forgetting Sarah Marshall, like, vibes.
00:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, and ah he also, he's directed a bunch of stuff. He directed the Neighbors movies. He directed, most recently, he directed the Will Ferrell um Reese Witherspoon rom-com. youre oh Oh, you're courtually invited. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:06:37
Speaker
much i please he's like a rom-com or comedy film like that late 2000s comedy he's like an apatow guy yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um ah and billy eichner uh was famous for billy on the street billy on the street i think he's a ucb guy yeah he is a ucb guy either ucb or groundlings but i think he was new york yeah yeah so ucb um And appearing on a bunch of shows and guest roles. He was on the last season of Parks and Recreation. He was in a lot of stuff.
00:07:07
Speaker
And he's mostly famous for being ah annoying. ah He's mostly famous for being gay and loud. And strident, yes.
00:07:17
Speaker
um Which is sort of what this movie is about. And like behind the scenes is kind of like the problem with this movie. um Or at least how it hid. Yeah.
00:07:28
Speaker
um Yeah, so ah this is a, it's a gay rom-com. yeah And the entire primary and secondary cast is how they've described it are queer. So everyone who has a speaking role who isn't a celebrity cameo.
00:07:50
Speaker
Who isn't Debra Messing. Is queer. Well, Debra Messing, Kenan Thompson. oh yeah. Amy Schumer. Amy Schumer. And Seth Meyers. yeah Oh, not and not just Seth Meyers. um Ben Stiller.
00:08:05
Speaker
And Ben Stiller. Yes. all of them All of them appear at the end in like a cameo thing. And they're not queer as far as I know. No, but they do portray queer historical figures.
00:08:16
Speaker
Which is like an in-joke about straight people playing gay people. You seem exhausted by this film. It's a little exhausting. um the Mostly, like I think he's exhausting. like Everybody loved Billy on the Street. Everybody was obsessed with him.
00:08:35
Speaker
And then he kind of wore out his welcome, mostly with this film and d like um the press tour on this movie and and the the reaction to it. like this was This movie was marketed as the first gay rom-com ever. And then people were like,
00:08:53
Speaker
but there's lots of gay rom-coms like what talking about it's the first gay rom-com from a major studio uh release release like no yeah it's not gay rom-com released theatrically and they're like first gay rom-com released theatrically from a major studio featuring an all queer cast and they're like all right sort of yeah you did it there um uh He is really, and I think in the script of this too, he's really hyped up himself being like a gay icon.
00:09:31
Speaker
um Yeah. And sir, you were not a gay icon. I'm sorry. ah Okay. The movie came out. It didn't do very well. And did i he would not shut up. He had a Zachary Levi-esque meltdown.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah. blaming people for not going to see it and saying that you didn't cozy this movie you're homophobic and like you're the problem with the world that you didn't come see my rom-com and basic like kind of ruined his career i mean he's done nothing since um but he's had like a couple of voice roles yeah um and Like, because when this movie was announced, they immediately started, like, new projects. There were, like, he said he had another, like, rom-com, and there was another, um, there's some, it's still on his IMDb, but it's, like, you know, it's, it's a dead project, I think.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah. There's a remake of something he's doing, I don't remember. It's, you know, what people do when they have a ah big movie coming out. Attach themselves to a bunch of projects that a lot of times don't get made, especially if the movie is a flop in which this was.
00:10:36
Speaker
Um, in terms of the actual movie like i don't think it's that bad i think there are some things that are really like about it um there's definitely a lot of like it's like this thing where like so much queer media has like it can't just be one thing like we have yeah to get this other Like, it's it is. it's it It has this sense of importance ah that it's not. Like, you can just make a gay rom-com, dude. You don't have to, like, celebrate yourself.
00:11:11
Speaker
You don't have to also battle LGBT history and how it's all depressing and all of that. All of that to be said, though, I really like this movie.
Cinema Shifts: Pre & Post-COVID
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the thing is, like, like when we, like, went to see this movie in the theater and...
00:11:27
Speaker
like had the backlash had already started when we went to see it. And I was like, despite all of this, I mean, but lint you want to hear my letterbox review? Yeah.
00:11:38
Speaker
This is Katie's letterbox corner. Katie's letterbox corner. Katie's letterbox corner. Katie's letterbox corner.
00:11:50
Speaker
Oh, great. Okay. Yeah. So this is actually, and so I was worried it was only going to be like one line after all of that, but it's not. three Three and a half stars, honestly, which is, I would say, hi i would give it half a star less now.
00:12:05
Speaker
Oh, really? um Yeah. It's a rom-com and it's about something and it's actually funny. So um blah blah, blah, blah, blah. The problem with this marketing is that it was some kind of important film that would change everything and it's nothing of the kind.
00:12:20
Speaker
um There have been and will continue to be queer rom-coms and it's a shame that it may impact, this this failure of this may impact studios' willingness to invest in them. um we don't need the approval of fucking universal studios to make queer art or rom-coms and then like there's a there's a lot more i don't want to read the whole thing but happy pride my my my thoughts are pretty much exactly the same as that um yeah yeah i mean i agree i think that like they didn't need to i honestly don't remember the marketing as much i when i pitched this i'm gonna be completely honest i thought it was an amazon original
00:12:57
Speaker
It's got that vibe. yeah does it's not a about It does not feel like... I mean, partially just because it's this... It's a its a rom-com with no like celebrities in it. With no big stars.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. mean, Billy Eichner is C-list at best. And Luke McCarlin is a Hallmark movie. Yeah! Which is the first of... Oh, wait. Shoot. I haven't done... need a pitch pipe?
00:13:21
Speaker
I haven't done an Emma's Fun Facts. Emma's Fun Facts! Yeah. Emma's fun facts. Emma's fun facts. There we go. um I just haven't done an Emma's fun facts in so long. I forgot what it sounded like.
00:13:34
Speaker
um But that's the beginning of Emma's fun facts, which is so the romantic um lead to Billy Eichner's character, the like um love interest is played by Luke McFarlane, ah who has starred in 14 Hallmark movies.
00:13:49
Speaker
14 is a lot. 14 Hallmark movies. I didn't realize it was that many, yeah. And ah they make a very big point of making fun of Hallmark Christmas movies in this movie, which I thought was hilarious.
00:14:01
Speaker
They do. call it like Hall... Hallheart. Hallheart. Hallheart. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, and and there, I mean, like, there's so many moments where they're just like, yeah, you know, because they're trying to, like, reach the queer audience and, like, get the LGBT people. And so there's the polyamorous um Christmas. Is it called a Holly Polly Christmas? Is that what it's called?
00:14:26
Speaker
yeah Yeah. The snow is falling on all seven of us.
00:14:36
Speaker
It's just so great. It's so That is funny. Yeah, there are there are there are a lot of, there's some legitimately funny stuff in this. um Yeah. so um So, yeah, we'll get into it. Yeah. um So, like, that didn't even, like, register to me. I remember watching this in 2022 when it came to streaming. I didn't see it in theaters.
00:14:55
Speaker
um But Charlie and watched it. Well, you're part of the problem then, Emma. I know. Well, I wasn't going to movies in the theater. The only movie I saw in theaters, 2022 and Cruella.
00:15:06
Speaker
And end of list. Yeah. In 2022, we were going back to the movies. I don't remember what the first movie we saw back in theaters was. I remember the last movie we saw in theaters before the pandemic was ah Birds of Prey, which fucking rules.
00:15:23
Speaker
That's a lot better than mine. you want to know what is? What's Cats? Yeah, a lot of people's was cats. Yeah. um Because there are really like five movies that came out before the pandemic in 2020. Have you seen Birds of Prey, by the way?
00:15:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Birds of Prey rules. I love fucking um the direction that they're taking Margot Robbie and Harley Quinn. But like, um
00:15:48
Speaker
I went and I saw Cats and it was honestly like one of the best cinema going experiences I've ever been to because everyone knew in the audience knew what they were in for and it was not a fun time.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But they made it fun. Yeah. I never saw Cats. um I am in fact some friend of some friends of ours had a Cats viewing party where everyone took edibles and wore cat ears and watched Cats and I had to work and I missed it.
Childhood Influences & Character Setup in 'Bros'
00:16:15
Speaker
So I've seen never still never seen Cats. Yeah.
00:16:17
Speaker
One day. One day, Kate. I don't need to see it. We'll do it. We'll do it on the pod. No. not rom-com. We'll do it on the pod. I mean, you can make anything a rom-com. and It's Andrew Lloyd Webber's love letter to cats.
00:16:31
Speaker
That's true. Yeah. um And I like one of those things. ah Cats. it's not Andrew Lloyd Webber, baby. I mean, here's the thing. like i like I love Evita.
00:16:41
Speaker
um yeah I love Jesus Christ Superstar. And...
00:16:47
Speaker
I think that's it. I loved Andrew Lloyd Webber as a kid. Like he was, cause of course I was a theater kid. And, um, so like my, my favorite celebrities growing up.
00:16:58
Speaker
Oh God. This is going to speak like volumes. Oh my God. My favorite celebrities. Uh, Andrew Lloyd Webber. Uh huh. Not a celebrity. Okay.
00:17:09
Speaker
Um, Judy Garland. Sure. Yeah.
00:17:14
Speaker
Um, Louisa May Alcott. Um,
00:17:18
Speaker
was to say, are you a 50-year-old gay man when you were 10 years old?
00:17:24
Speaker
Louisa May Alcott, definitely not a, dead as fuck, not a celebrity. I dressed up as Louisa May Alcott for a celebrity day. As Louisa Alcott. Not even, not even Joe March.
00:17:36
Speaker
I think it was like either dressed like a, it was dressed like someone who's like a famous person that's dead. And it was like, it was like third grade. And I decided on, I really loved Little Women.
00:17:48
Speaker
And so like, I'm going to go as Louisa May Alcott. And so I did. That's very cute. I had a big Little House on the Prairie phase in like second and third grade. i think it was third grade. Third grade. Yeah, it was where we read Little House the Prairie. And then I got the box set and I read every single one of those books. i was I was really into it. I was watching the old TV show.
00:18:08
Speaker
Yeah. With my mom in the afternoons on like We or whatever it came on. We, the women's channel. Yeah. um And, but no, I didn't, I mean, I read Little Women when I was a kid and I, I mean, I think I like Little Women a lot more now.
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, it's two different, there's there's two alternate paths. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's my, it's my Pride and Prejudice, I feel, ah because Little Women.
00:18:38
Speaker
I um will make us watch it because it can be classified as rock. um I love Little Women so much. I do too. The Gerwig movie and the 90s movie is good too, but I think yeah the Gerwig movie is the best adaptation of it. yeah I love both of them equally.
00:18:55
Speaker
So I'll spread it out over a course of years. um i the we'll we'll have uh we'll have a full 15 minutes on the strand of spit between uh christian bale and yes yes uh christian bale anyways none of those people are featured in this film nope nope nope um so this stars billy eichner as what's his character's name robbie bobby biken or something like that yeah
00:19:28
Speaker
Very. It's, it's, it is Bobby. It's Bobby something. I don't remember. Yeah. Bobby Bikner. It's Bobby. Yeah. And he is a podcaster. He sure is.
00:19:41
Speaker
And that's my first note was a movie about podcasts! Exclamation point.
Media Representation & Gay Culture
00:19:47
Speaker
Podcasting is the new magazine job ah yeah for rom-coms because um the the Kristen Bell, um ah what's his name? um so Oh, Kristen Bell. I keep saying Seth Cohen.
00:20:01
Speaker
Seth Cohen! Adam Brody! Seth Cohen! She's a podcaster in that as well. There's another rom-com I've seen where their person is a podcast. Yeah, it's totally the kind of job where like, you know, you don't have to do anything most of the day. So gives you free time to be in a rom-com and stuff. So it's the perfect job. you can figure out how to make money it.
00:20:21
Speaker
Well, I mean, that's the thing. It just makes them super successful at it. Like, the number of podcasters who, like, support themselves financially is something like, you know, 3% of all podcasters, so... um One day that's gonna be four.
00:20:35
Speaker
He says he has a million subscribers, which is... That's a lot. That's yeah one of the most, that would make him one of the most successful podcast podcasts in the country. He's like the gay Joe Rogan.
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. mean, Joe Rogan has a lot more than a million subscribers, but there's not a ton of podcasts, especially niche podcasts that have, I bet there's not a gay podcast in America that has, ah well, worldwide um that has a million subscribers.
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah. does Oh, you're right. Las Culturistas probably. but But that's not about being gay. That's a celebrity interview podcast. This is a solo a solo podcast about gay history.
00:21:17
Speaker
Not in a million years would it have a million subscribers. My favorite thing is that they only show that he's successful at it by at having one person interrupt him at dinner to take a selfie. but and then um there And then just the fact that he's constantly given awards.
00:21:34
Speaker
It's not mentioned the rest of the movie. Yeah, it's not mentioned. the Like, we forget. His job is that he's the curator of this LGBTQ plus history museum. Like, why couldn't we just have one job? The podcasting has nothing to do with it. The podcasting is literally just a way to have a prologue to this movie to insert these little sketches that had that came from something else.
00:21:55
Speaker
You know, it's very Garden State where there's all these little things in this movie, which are clearly like a little thing he wanted to to put in, you know, where it's like. yeah, yeah. ah A studio pitches him to write a rom-com and he has like a couple of lines about it, like has nothing to do with the movie, just a little joke he wanted to to put in, which is, I mean, he's not wrong, right? like And there's several of these in the movie, but they very much kind of stick out a la Garden State where it's like, well, this is just a little story he wanted to put in the movie. Yeah. know Yeah.
00:22:26
Speaker
It's not that relevant. Yeah. No, it's not at all. um And his podcasting, after the first seven minutes of the movie, it's never even mentioned again.
00:22:37
Speaker
like Right? It's not. After he gets recognized at that restaurant and someone takes a picture with him, it's never brought up. It's never mentioned again. Yeah. Well, and he's given an award for um best cis gay man of the year.
00:22:52
Speaker
i mean it remind it Do you watch The Righteous Gemstones? No, I don't. no There's a bit in the most recent season, Top Christ Following Man. It reminded me of that. yeah Oh, nice. Righteous Gemstones Rules. You should totally watch it. I love that show.
00:23:05
Speaker
i Putting on my list after I finish Department Q. Don't know what that is. It's on Netflix. It's great. Okay. The name of his podcast is The 11th Brick at Stonewall.
00:23:19
Speaker
Yep. It shows like a photograph of his shelf. And I have a queer shelf that looks very similar to it. Except I have more than one trans author on mine. Thank you very much, Billy. Nice.
00:23:32
Speaker
Snap, snap, snap. i mean He has a Gender Outlaw by ah Kate Bornstein. That's the only um trans book he has on his ah shelf. so The four trans listeners of this podcast.
00:23:46
Speaker
um
00:23:49
Speaker
There you go. We don't know. There could be more than four. There could be five. That would be that would that would be an outlier considering the number of listeners that we
Gay Dating & Cultural Reflections
00:23:58
Speaker
have. If five of them were trans, that would be wild.
00:24:02
Speaker
But we have to assume that 100% of the listeners are allies. Well, that's true.
00:24:17
Speaker
The fact that this isn't a visual medium really deprives you of the expression on Emma's face when she said that. So for all the queer people who are listening to this podcast, she's joking and she's okay. She's one of the good ones. That's not, yeah.
00:24:31
Speaker
Um...
00:24:34
Speaker
I had to. i had to. i had to. Yeah. Yeah. um One time I asked Emma if she was bisexual and she said, maybe. So. No, no.
00:24:46
Speaker
Could be. Yeah. That's what we like to hear. That's the correct answer. Right? Well, I have to assume as someone who is a millennial who is raised by 1999's The Mummy.
00:25:01
Speaker
Everyone and of that generation, of our generation, is a little bit bisexual. um Yeah, I think so. I don't understand how you cannot be, but that's because I'm bisexual, so who knows?
00:25:14
Speaker
Um...
00:25:17
Speaker
um
00:25:20
Speaker
Where were we? So Bobby. Bobby, we get his little opening monologue. That's okay. He says, I just wanted one more thing I just wanted to say. I might dominate this one. I'm sorry. yeah um But queer media is going be like that. yeah You probably have way more insight.
00:25:36
Speaker
My one piece, in fact, i'll just I'll do the Robert's Corner. Because as I'm watching this, I was like, you know, I should probably get a um ah gay man's take.
00:25:50
Speaker
on bros seeing as like as a cis white woman and a uh trans bisexual lady um neither of us can really speak to dating as a gay man um so where do we have the right to talk about that so i was like i texted my best friend robert who's a gay man and i said humble brag Humble brag, humble brag.
00:26:17
Speaker
I was like, Robert, have you watched Bros? We're doing it for the pod, and I don't feel a cis white lady and a trans lady can really speak to its portrayal of dating as a gay man. Dot, dot, dot. How much of it holds up?
00:26:29
Speaker
Also, happy almost pride, because it was still May.
00:26:35
Speaker
To which he went, ah, I have opinions. Fire Island is a better representation. And then he does not give any of those opinions. and then And then the conversation moves elsewhere.
00:26:47
Speaker
And then my friend Kelsey chimed in and she went, I like booing. i have to always assume she meant bowing. What is bowing? balt Bowen. Sorry, Bowen. Oh, Bowen Yang. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah Yeah. She said, I like booing.
00:27:00
Speaker
And I was like. He does have a cameo in this movie. He does. he's also the star of Fire Island, which we have covered on this podcast before. And that movie came out before this movie. It did. It did. That's another one of Emma's fun facts, Emma's fun facts.
00:27:15
Speaker
So part of the sort of mess, as you explained, of the press surrounding the release of this movie was the fact that they were trying to market it as the first gay rom-com released by a major studio.
00:27:28
Speaker
But like Fire Island came out like same year, but earlier, i think a few months earlier. um the spring or early summer and bros came out in like august or something and also bros got like oh let me see what because bros got because august is a dump month um yeah nobody's going to the movies in august let me see bros released oh september 30th so actually that's not true september 30th is the better than august but it's still i don't understand why they wouldn't do it in june um i my guess is covid my guess is they wanted to release it later um because um i mean because everybody thought that the movies were over and then top gun maverick saved cinema in 2022 fucking tom cruise man i mean here's the thing about top gun maverick um it's fucking great um
00:28:22
Speaker
It's an incredible movie. um It's so good. Never seen it. Never seen it. Glenn Powell is in it, Emma. I know Glenn Powell's in it. i its i' I've been meaning to see it. But again, i have sort of like. got a Cruise thing. We've had this conversation about Mission Impossible.
00:28:40
Speaker
I got Tom Cruise thing. I got a Woody Allen thing. It's easy to ignore. Well, a Woody Allen thing is so good.
00:28:49
Speaker
I feel like it's, we don't need to compare the two. I got a Tom Cruise thing. I got a Woody Allen thing. I've got a, oh, who's ah Kevin Spacey, Kevin Spacey thing, Bill Cosby, a Bill Cosby thing.
00:29:04
Speaker
i I think that, ah listen, I know that Scientology is bad and I, I, I'm sure that, you know, Tom Cruise, I know that he's, you know, probably done some bad things.
00:29:16
Speaker
Yeah. I, Don't think we can classify him as a Woody Allen, Bill Cosby monster. I really i don't. know Have you watched the Leah Ramsey Scientology show that she did? Remini?
00:29:31
Speaker
Yeah, Leah Remini show that she did i did on Scientology. watched some of it at the dentist.
00:29:42
Speaker
Said that like a brag. At the dentist. Heard of it?
00:29:51
Speaker
Mic drop, baby. Boom! My God. um ah let's Let's get out of this. Let's move let's move on. So anyways, oh, yeah, that's pretty much end of the fun fact.
00:30:06
Speaker
So here we are with and that's the only gay That's the only gay man we know. ah Yeah, Bobby. Well, he goes to a club with a famous comedian.
00:30:17
Speaker
I think it's Guy Brenham. famous if you don't know his name. Guy Brenham. Okay. Okay. He looks familiar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's in like a lot of stuff. He does a lot of stand up.
00:30:29
Speaker
I know him through um because he's mentioned a lot on My Favorite Murder because he's friends with one of the podcast hosts. yeah And anytime I see him now, I'm like, oh, Guy Brenham.
00:30:41
Speaker
Oh, there he is. um and he's one of bobby's friends and uh they go to a club and he makes eye contact with this hot guy who's uh just dancing with a guy dressed up like a baseball player he's not dancing with him he's standing there yeah he doesn't dance yeah Oh, yeah, he doesn't dance. That's a big thing.
00:31:05
Speaker
Sorry, he's just standing there. Right. And they make eye contact. And then the next thing you know, he's suddenly next to Bobby. and he goes, hey, sup? What's up?
00:31:17
Speaker
What's up? Which is a thing they do, like, repeatedly in this movie. he Bobby goes on a Grindr date ah earlier where are they just, like, hey, what's up? And then, hey, what's up? um It's like...
00:31:30
Speaker
um it's It's a whole other world, um yeah gay men. i don't Which is why I had to ask Robert. But yeah, it is it is it is a um it's ah it's ah it's a whole culture. It's a whole yeah you know separate ah world, really. And yeah especially especially since the advent of Grindr, which, um I mean, like like let's get into it, okay? Like hookup culture is part of gay culture. And because gay men specifically were so...
00:32:02
Speaker
um we're were such a um ah figure of fear and a such a um and such a vulnerable community, you know, hooking up anonymously was a main reason how a lot of them were able to to have relationships at all.
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah. Especially people who were were married or had, you know, other things in their life that would be ruined yeah by people finding out that they were gay. ah And after the i mean we're not in a post-aids society but we're in a post-aids as a death sentence society for sure yeah so post prep and post that grinder comes along to kind of not like revitalize like uh down low hooking up but i mean it is it is absolutely it's it's not a dating app it's a hookup app yeah um did it come out before tinder
00:32:57
Speaker
I don't know if Grindr came out before Tinder. I doubt it. Yeah. i'm Because, like, I think that would be revolutionary if it, like, came out before Tinder. um March 2009.
00:33:10
Speaker
So now let's find out when Tinder came out. feel like Tinder came out after that September 2012 wow yeah because I remember I remember Grindr in college and I do not remember anyone using Tinder in college like I mean like there were i have a lot of gay friends there were other straight dating apps before Tinder obviously yeah but it was taboo to use them in before like 2012 yeah for sure it definitely like dating online became the main way most people date
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah. In the past 10 years or so, I would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. um But I mean, Craigslist existed for hookups and stuff. like um Yeah, but that's that's also like how you get murdered, Katie.
00:33:54
Speaker
It is how you get murdered. Yes, I know. There's the Craigslist killer. I know.
00:34:03
Speaker
yeah it's a whole other beast with a whole other set of vocabulary and um he just walks into this guy's apartment the guy takes his shirt off he takes his shirt off they make out a little bit and then they start like masturbating together and then he like like comes on his stomach and billy eichner goes thank you yeah
00:34:28
Speaker
So it's just this, like, I mean, and then and it's like it's like, yeah, men, you know? like Yeah. I mean, Billy Eichner has a really great role, a really great line later on in the movie that he says, you know, um I'm going to paraphrase because I don't remember the direct quote, but he says, you know, we're guys. We're we're guys. we're We're, like, horny and selfish and um such and such.
00:34:48
Speaker
You know, it's not like a, like, traditional, like, rom-com-y sort of, like, relationship. Yeah. We're both stubborn and horny and selfish because we're guys.
00:35:02
Speaker
Yeah. And that is part of like the, the, the point of this movie. I mean, the, the very beginning that like little sketch scene he does with somebody who's trying like a Hollywood guy, who's trying to get him to make a gay rom-com. He's like, just make like a fun gay rom-com.
00:35:16
Speaker
And he's like, what am I supposed to do? Like get butt fucked by, um, uh, Jason Momoa. Yeah. Um, And he says like five minutes of jokes.
00:35:27
Speaker
Yeah, and he goes, ah the guy's like, well, no, we just want like something that's just like a straight rom-com, gay. But gay. He's like, but that's not how gay like sex works. That's not how gay relationships work. He says, love is not love.
00:35:40
Speaker
ah Yeah. yeah Love is not love. Which comes up later in the movie. um And like that is kind of, and which which ties into his character as well, because he the whole thing about him is that he's this very stubborn character person who is extremely unwilling to what he considers to concede his ethics in this.
00:36:06
Speaker
So he gets the... um So his like career... trajectory is he has been ah announced to head the lgbtq plus history museum in new york the a national museum which can you even imagine some such a thing in a post 2024 world like this is such a um interregnum uh um This is such a Biden era.
00:36:36
Speaker
yeah such a It's almost Obama level, honestly. right There's like one allusion to Trump. Oh, and it's so funny. and We thought it was over. You know, in 2022, we thought it was over. um We thought, um I think Charlie and i even make that reference when we hear this sort of allusion because it's during the... um um card holster yeah the gay trauma roller coaster and it's bow and yang's like giant head going oh you think we're over we've landed in 2015 but don't look now the election's up next yeah right around the corner yeah um but it's very much uh it's very much like that and so like yeah
00:37:26
Speaker
it it does seem, uh, there's a quaintness to it. That is like, this did seem like the trajectory queer culture and queer mainstream media was on in 2022 before everything changed and yeah everything. Like I watched this movie.
00:37:44
Speaker
Um, I watched, um, part of it, uh, several days ago when we were supposed to record this movie and then I wasn't feeling well, so I stopped watching it. And then I watched the rest of it last night. And last night, um,
00:37:57
Speaker
You know, they had announced that the Secretary of Defense has ordered the Navy to remove Harvey Milk's name from the ship that is called the, you know, USS Harvey Milk.
00:38:08
Speaker
And ah Jonathan Joss, the voice actor from King of the Hill, was murdered in a homophobic hate crime. And a ah trans woman was attacked at a storage unit in Nashville.
00:38:22
Speaker
um yeah And that is... just the the united states that we're living in all of the the major corporations have pulled their support for pride parades like yeah um home depot merch at any stores all the all the gay capitalism stuff is not worth it anymore it's all canceled um
00:38:45
Speaker
so ah So, yeah, that's depressing. Yeah, so so, like, that's unfortunately, like, it's depressing to see sort of, like, this was the trajectory that we were on just a few years ago. And then now our reality is so much grimmer
Art Integrity vs. Audience Engagement
00:39:02
Speaker
and so much more different. Like, can you imagine an LGBT plus museum today in New York? Like, it now would be shut down. They would have had their funding pull. Well, it's a privately funded museum.
00:39:14
Speaker
I should say, because that's part of the story. Part of the plot line is that they're trying to get. Well, all museums are, but you know, the, but a lot of them are, I'm i'm sure there were federal grants involved. They do call it ah the national LGBTQ plus museum. So my, that assumption would be that it's partially federally funded.
00:39:31
Speaker
um All museums are and you know all nonprofits are dependent on private donors, as well as corporate donors and federal funding. But like, that's part of the thing about like, you know, the National Endowment of the Arts stated that they're going to pull funding from every theater that does productions by trans playwrights or featuring, you know, gender ideology in any way. So yeah.
00:39:53
Speaker
you know they're They're being sued, of course, but it's the same thing. like They get sued. The court says, you're right, that's unconstitutional. And then Trump just does what he wants anyway, and nobody stops him, which is the- the world that we're in right now. If you didn't expect this movie episode to get political, I don't know what to tell you.
00:40:13
Speaker
don't know what to tell you. a movie where they, um it is talking about the depressing reality of LGBT history and why can't it be more positive? That's sort of like the whole...
00:40:26
Speaker
thing that Billy Eichner's fighting against. And like, I'm of two minds about that because I do think there is and an opportunity for for positivity. Like, I think that positivity is important. And I think that... Oh, absolutely. lee i think that the... I mean, he's wrong about the museum.
00:40:43
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, he is absolutely wrong. And the movie knows that. The screen... Yeah. Like, he knows that. Like, that's part of the the conflict of the movie. Like, he is unwilling to... unwilling to bend on these things but you have to have both like one of the things that it reminds me the most of is I don't know if I've talked about this on this podcast I think I've talked to you about it um this theater i used to work at in um in Virginia uh in a you know relatively like mid-sized town like um not a not a small a town you know that's uh gosh I don't I don't know the population but it's you know it's not a small town it's a small city
00:41:21
Speaker
In Virginia, um but there was the this theater there, um which I won't name, and the artistic director, who I won't name, so this might get complicated. yeah But he had this very uncompromising vision. Like, this theater in this city will only do original plays, and we're only going to do, like, edgy stuff that's going to challenge the audiences.
00:41:43
Speaker
Like, that is great. And that is – there are lots of theaters – off-off-broadway that do that sort of thing. yeah um Or like storefront theater in Chicago or exactly Seattle or other big cities that have theater communities. Not you, Los Angeles. yeah ah can support That can support that sort of thing. But a small town, but and even them, even storefront theater in in and a big city can't only do that.
00:42:15
Speaker
And you especially can't do that in ah in a town of, you know, a couple hundred thousand people. Yeah. It's just not- have to do something that people will come and see. You have to make the audience happy some of the time in order for you to produce things that challenge the audience.
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah. It's a give and take. you If you challenge the audience constantly, they get exhausted. second And his absolutely absolute refusal to do that- bankrupted the theater um yeah people didn't come see it like i yeah i directed a show there that um we had to cancel a production because literally no one showed up jesus fucking christ um and uh you gotta make compromises you unfortunately do and being uncompromising can be seen as a um as a as a positive trait but it it's
00:43:10
Speaker
It's a privilege to be uncompromising. Yeah. Yeah. um So, you know, a museum and a theater are not that dissimilar. Like they're both nonprofits that require um that require money to to to run. yeah So you have to have you have to have something fun for people to do at a museum.
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. and I mean, like... Museums aren't supposed to be fun. i'm like, well, of course they are. Of course they are. But, like, that's the whole thing that they're, like, trying to find the final exhibit for this museum. And he desperately... wants it to be these love letters about abraham lincoln to the most boring thing in the world yeah exactly and there's no direct proof showing that abraham lincoln's gay but he like won't let up on the lincoln exhibit and um and yeah and so that's sort of like the b plot of it is him trying to get like the last five million dollars so that they can open the museum because it's been mentioned several times
00:44:04
Speaker
But the museum has been opening has been pushed back several times because they don't have the funds. So he's got these yeah board meetings with other people. um He's the first thing. he One of my favorite jokes in the movie is he says, yeah, Pier One Imports was supposed to make a donation, but they went bankrupt and have been bought by the Taliban.
00:44:29
Speaker
love that And we've got all thes all the flavors of queer represented at the board meeting. um We have Eve Lindley, who's a Gen Z trans woman. Actually, i think she's I think she might be a millennial. I'm not sure how old she is.
00:44:44
Speaker
ah Jim Rash, who is, i think he I think he's gay in real life, but he's representing bisexuals in this movie. He won't shut up about bisexual awareness. And it's so fucking funny. Yes. It's so good.
00:44:57
Speaker
It's very funny. it's very accurate to like queer like rivalry and like the yeah your self-identification and everything um we've got Dot Marie Jones as a butch lesbian yep T.S. Madison who's a black trans woman and Miss Lawrence who's a non-binary person um and all of these all of these scenes are are ah honestly the the highlight of the movie I think yeah um all of their their interactions and the way that
00:45:29
Speaker
they're so fucking exhausted by this guy. Yeah. And I think that it's like a really nice balance of, um, you know, being able to poke fun at yourself in terms of yeah like, I, yeah, that's it. Just like being able to like make fun of yourself with levity and like the whole like, I see you, I feel you, I'm holding space for you.
00:45:54
Speaker
And lesbians assemble. Yes, lesbian system. And like, you know, Abraham Lincoln wasn't gay. He was bi, though. might have been bi. Yeah. um I love Jim Rash.
00:46:08
Speaker
I love him so much. Meanwhile, Aaron's job is he's a probate lawyer. So mostly he deals with dying people and their wills. And it's a huge downer. It's a huge downer. The first scene that you see with him talking to um ah one of his clients is his client's dying. He's got like five months or something left to live. He has no family.
00:46:29
Speaker
He has um no spouse. He has no one to give his money to um when he dies. And so he's like, well what do you want to do with your estate when you die? Yeah.
00:46:41
Speaker
And the guy goes, I don't, he was like, well, you know, is there like a cause that you feel very passionate about? he goes, I don't know, Cher?
00:46:51
Speaker
He's like, do you think Cher needs the money? Have you seen all of her outfits? She needs support. Yeah.
00:47:04
Speaker
He has started, um he's texting with Aaron um and he says, you know, do you want to hang out? And he tells him that he's been hooking up with the guy dressed like a baseball player and his husband a lot.
00:47:19
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. and There's kind of an undercurrent. There's also like Billy Eichner's friends that they meet at ah at a bar and one of them have, a couple has started dating a third person. So there's a lot of like,
00:47:31
Speaker
polyamory and stuff like on the outskirts of this that he, yeah you know, ah comments on, of course. Yeah. Comments on, but like still trying to keep it like, not a big deal.
00:47:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. And they go on a date um where he yells a lot. And then he's like, oh, hey, these guys texted me. And he's like, okay, well, we'll have fun. He's like, no, do you want to come? He's like,
00:48:01
Speaker
Do you want to come to a foursome? And he's like, yeah And he's like, well, we could just go upstairs to my place And so this like is part of like the insecurity thing So Billy Eichner's character is very insecure about his looks And yeah thinks that Aaron Thinks that he's not attractive enough for for Aaron And because Aaron is you is really hot and is always looking with like super hot guys. yeah Super buff guy.
00:48:28
Speaker
Very fit.
Character Dynamics & Growth in 'Bros'
00:48:29
Speaker
Yeah. um And they have this kind of a cute little talk and he's like, and he fakes out going leaving and it comes back and he's like, okay. And then it cuts to the two of them making out and then slowly pulls back to two guys blowing Aaron while they're talking.
00:48:49
Speaker
So we did go to the foursome with him. um He did. And he's like, hey, I'm going to go I had a really great time. And he's like leaving it like it's a dinner party. and It's funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He says goodbye to everyone. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:00
Speaker
Yeah. It's great. um But the whole idea is that like Aaron is like a commitment phobe who's not completely like... um i don't want to say he's not not comfortable with his sexuality he's very comfortable with his sexuality but it's sort of like hinted at that he's hiding it at some times but i kept thinking i i kept thinking that's the direction they were going and that would have been much worse because that's what every gay comedy comedy is about um every gay romance
00:49:30
Speaker
But that's not what hat what it is. It's just that he's like a chill kind of guy. ah Yeah. And Billy Eichner is the opposite of that. He's the least chill person in the world. Exactly.
00:49:43
Speaker
And it's that mean it's the same thing about the the the museum thing. like Yeah. He has to, he's got to chill out a little bit. Yeah. the we you know skipping we can we don't have to go through this beat yeah but we don't have enough time at this point anyway yeah but it's this so like they start dating um at provincetown they go to provincetown and aaron helps him get a donor which is bow and yeah yeah bow and yang who plays an insane rich gay man
00:50:17
Speaker
His name is um Larry Grape, which is... Larry Grape! He's supposed to be... so like, Larry Grape is a play on Mark Cherry, who's a create who like ah created Desperate Housewives and other shows, and is a very successful ah gay man. But it seems like... Gay man and in television, specifically. and his But it seems like his character is closer to, like, supposed like, Ryan Murphy.
00:50:40
Speaker
um Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The most powerful man in Hollywood. Yes, Ryan Murphy. he so he gets the So Aaron helps him get that because, again, why would you send Billy Eichner to do this? like Yeah, that's the worst.
00:50:53
Speaker
First of all, he's terrible at his job. like yeah he has like he's He's the wrong person to do this. Any of the other members of that group of people at the museum should be the one going to do this. And it's very evident- Debra Messing. It's very evident with Debra Messing. So there's a scene where they're just like, guys, guys, Debra Messing is thinking that she's going to get canceled because she said something about something that could be portrayed as anti-LGBT,
00:51:27
Speaker
you know, homophobic. And they go, and so she wants to give a huge donation to the museum to sort of counterbalance that. And so Debra Messing literally comes to the museum to like get a tour.
00:51:39
Speaker
But Billy Eichner is so in his head about his relationship with Aaron that he can't like, he can't focus. And he keeps trying to talk to Debra Messing about his own personal troubles, his boy troubles.
00:51:51
Speaker
And Debra Messing is like, I am not Grace. I am not Grace from Well and Grace. And she gets very upset and everybody else comes and they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's happening here? And like it,
00:52:02
Speaker
Yeah. They obviously are much better suited to take care of Debra Messing than Billy Eichner, who just ruins it. He puts his foot in his mouth.
00:52:14
Speaker
He's bad at all at his job. um He shouldn't be running this museum.
00:52:22
Speaker
So, but Aaron helps him um get the the money from this guy who want bonyang who wants to make a gay trauma rollercoaster, which is the kind of compromise that you know billy eckner needs to make like yeah have this like insane weird thing that you know seems scary but also with is like kind of fun i suppose exactly like how fun would it be to go on a roller coaster in a museum um i do a gay trauma one especially i know
00:52:56
Speaker
and But he gets the money and then they kind of start a relationship after that. We get like a montage and he's hang hanging out with their friends and stuff. And yeah then Aaron's friend from high school who they had met at a movie theater.
00:53:13
Speaker
Yeah. They went to see a very depressing movie. Yeah. Gay cowboy movie. Yeah. Yeah. he He comes out on Instagram as gay.
00:53:26
Speaker
And he says, like if you like that I'm gay. Hashtag like if you like that I'm gay.
00:53:36
Speaker
And he kind of like enters the orbit. And they have another awkward foursome where he wants to hook He says, like, are we polyamorous? Are we like into monogamy? And he's like, well, I don't know. And like, so.
00:53:48
Speaker
do you want have sex with Aaron and me? And he's like, okay, sure. And then this other fourth guy just randomly there. Yeah, this other fourth guy. who Steve, who just ruins it all. Mm-hmm.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yeah. um Which, I mean, like, four people, like, that's a lot of people to, like, manage sexually, um I think. um
00:54:11
Speaker
I've never had a foursome. I don't know. um The... they... so they That starts to become another, like, issue for Billy Eichner, right? Yes. He yeah has this insecurity. He's jealous.
00:54:25
Speaker
And also very insecure about himself physically. Yeah. Yeah. And whenever he's super insecure, he lashes out, which is the biggest problem. And so, like, this sort of, like, leads up to sort of Christmas, where Billy Eichner is Jewish, but Aaron is, um, celebrates Christmas. And so he's like, do you want to celebrate Christmas with my family? My family's coming to town.
00:54:45
Speaker
Um, from... I assume upstate New York or New Jersey or wherever. he says upstate New York. yeah Upstate New York. And, um, and he's like, yeah, sure. Why not? Um, and he's like, just to that, you know, I want to give my parents the traditional,
00:54:59
Speaker
big New York Christmas touristy experience. And he's like, yeah, you know, I've lived in New York my whole life. Like I can definitely, um, I can come up with tons of fun things to do. And he goes, okay, let me reiterate fun, touristy things to do.
00:55:17
Speaker
Yeah. which is not what Billy Eichner does. He takes them on a gay trauma tour. hey does. um ah And this is the second time he has like very specific i lines about, um or no, no, it's at the museum late, I guess. yeah There's a scene later, ah earlier where he takes Aaron to the museum and he tells him that it's depressing. And he's like,
00:55:43
Speaker
You know, why can't you have, like, people, like, talk like it's Night at the Museum, right? Like, why can't you have actors play some of these people and, like, tell have them tell it instead of just be, like, this very sad experience of reading these things about all these, like, dead gay people?
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah. And that's when he says a museum isn't supposed to be fun. Mm-hmm. So... pocket And that's the second time where he also, in the introduction of his po of his podcast, The 11th Brick at Stonewall, he's like, obviously, um you know, butch lesbians and and ah um trans women of color threw the first bricks at Stonewall, but I think the 11th brick of Stonewall was probably thrown by a cis white gay male.
00:56:23
Speaker
Yes, he takes them on this tour of New York. ah Aaron's mother is played by... um The, uh, she's the the female lead in Fright Night. Um.
00:56:36
Speaker
Oh! shit! Amanda Bierce is her name, who plays Aaron's mom. Yeah, who's ah ah ah a lesbian. Just, like, every every character who has, like, a a real speaking role in this movie is is queer.
00:56:47
Speaker
Oh! the who play straight people, yeah. I had no idea. Yeah, and then Jay Rodriguez from Queer Eye, the original Queer Eye, plays his brother, who's straight also in this movie. Yeah. yeah Oh, my gosh.
00:57:00
Speaker
There you go. Huh. Yeah, then, so he tells him, like, can you keep it down? Like, can you, like, be a little out? Yeah, can you just chill out?
00:57:15
Speaker
can you chill out a little bit? Which yeah he needs to do. Like he does need to chill out. But he also says like, I'm just being myself. And he says, can you be a little bit less like yourself because I want my parents to like you?
00:57:26
Speaker
Which is not what you should say. Exactly. Exactly. And I mean, like to be fair, Billy Eichner goes on this whole speech because Aaron's mom, they're at basically a, ah what's that? It's a combo of Sardi's and the like Starlight. Moonlight daylight moonlight moonstru Diner. Moonstruck Diner.
00:57:45
Speaker
Moonstruck. Well, yeah. Where they. stream that Whatever it's called. The server scene. They sing on the tables. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so it's like, you know, play for comedy. They're having this very serious conversation about how the reason why Billy feels so comfortable with his sexual identity is because his parents exposed him to that like healthy, ah well, they took him to a Broadway play where there was a lot of gay sex on stage when he was nine.
00:58:13
Speaker
And he's describing it in detail. He's describing love, valor, compassion, but that's not, that that he be changes it a little bit. like he yeah I think he calls it love and compassion instead of love, valor, compassion. And that's not how, it's a yeah it's a little bit um obscured what the actual show is, yeah.
00:58:29
Speaker
Yeah. um And so he's describing like how, um you know, important it was to him. And the mom is a teacher and he goes, oh, thank you. You know, we need more teachers. And she goes, agree.
00:58:40
Speaker
And um and then he's like telling the story and she goes, and well, you know, it's a little young. They're seven years old. Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:51
Speaker
Yeah. And then her, cause she teaches third grade, second grade. Second grade. Second grade. And so Billy Eichner's like, well, of course, I'm sure you expose your,
00:59:03
Speaker
your students do positive gay um role models and like positive gay um like culture. And she goes, it's a bit young.
00:59:14
Speaker
And that's the whole like conversation back and forth. And he goes, I don't, I disagree. And they sort of like get into it. And he ends up exploding saying that like,
00:59:27
Speaker
Aaron was sort of like, he's so shy about his sexuality and like sort of tries to like tamper it down because he had to his entire life.
00:59:40
Speaker
Yeah, and he says that he hates his life, which is what- is upsetting to Aaron because previously in, uh, Provincetown, Aaron had told him that he wants to, his dream is to make little chocolate, little tiny chocolates, little chocolates, little tiny chocolates.
00:59:55
Speaker
It's very, which is like almost a parody of like the dream of someone in a rom-com. Like it's especially no there the way that he performs it. Yeah. It's so absurd. Yeah. He said, I was making little tiny chocolates and, uh, my brother walked in on me.
01:00:11
Speaker
ah Oh, man. ah so that And he's like, you should quit. You should become a chocolatier. And he's like, that's ridiculous. I'm not going to be a chocolatier.
01:00:22
Speaker
Yeah. And so that's what Billy Eichner is referencing. But like Aaron didn't want his parents to know that. And like yeah it's it's also, he's not you know miserable all the time. But it's like, yeah he the reason he didn't pursue being a chocolatier is because he you know said it was um you know too gay, right?
01:00:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And he didn't want to, like, expose himself in that in that way. And he's like, it's okay. You're gay. You can do gay things. ah Yeah.
Conclusion of 'Bros' & LGBT Representation
01:00:50
Speaker
And, ah yes. So he explodes at them on dinner. And then they kind of break up. um Yeah. We did gloss over the Hal Hart Christmas Village, which I just want to talk about quick.
01:01:00
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Where they go to, there's a couple of like parodies of Hallmark ah Christmas movies. They're like, Hallmark made a gay Christmas movie. Ooh la la. Yeah. which Which happened in real life.
01:01:12
Speaker
And so they're at this Hal Hart Christmas village in like 30 Rock or something. Yeah. And there's posters and he's like, Miracle on 34th Street, but with one gay guy. And the title of the movie is Miracle on 34th Street, but with one gay guy. And it's got Leslie Jordan going,
01:01:30
Speaker
then he says, Home Alone with Sarah Paulson. I'm like, but watch home I would watch Home Alone Sarah Paulson. That sounds great. I absolutely would. And it's just a picture of Sarah Paulson, like, doing the scream face.
01:01:41
Speaker
Implying that she's Macaulay Culkin's character in Home Alone. As a full-grown adult. Yes. Wouldn't that just be um ah Escape Room?
01:01:56
Speaker
um I haven't seen Escape Room. the The one with Jodie Foster and Kirsten Stewart? Oh, Panic Room. Sorry, Panic Room. Yes, that is also a very gay movie, yeah. It is a very gay movie.
01:02:08
Speaker
Um, yes.
01:02:13
Speaker
And Aaron leaves him to go meet Josh. And yeah they start making out in the alley and he finds them. And this is after they had the set the the conversation that they were going to be monogamous, by the way.
01:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And so, like, Billy's just like, I get it. You're not attracted to me. He, like, has this whole explosion. He's like, that's not the fucking point, dude. Like, he just can't accept that it's...
01:02:36
Speaker
That it's because of other things. Like he za is ah obsessed with like him not being attractive enough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is not it. It's not it at all.
01:02:48
Speaker
um And so they do, they break up for a little bit and um Billy Eichner goes on this sort of like, you know, third act of I got to get hot. So I'm going to take steroids.
01:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And he has to go to work. And then he has roid rage. yeah About the Lincoln exhibit getting canceled. Because the Lincoln exhibit is canceled because it's stupid and bad. um Yeah.
01:03:15
Speaker
And everybody... um everybody is like trying to like he starts ah trying to attack Pete Buttigieg a bust of Pete Buttigieg with a with a pride flag and they have to rip the pride flag out of him and yeah not Marie Jones calls the lesbian that's when she says lesbian's a symbol to hold him down um he keeps going on have i'm I'm having I'm having roid rage roid rage so um and uh
01:03:46
Speaker
Oh, I didn't write... They talk about... Oh, that's also when they have the meeting um where they're talking about, like, post-gay. Like, what is the thing? Which is, like... I get, like, his anti-assimilation thing. Like, because you you don't want to like a lot of the cis white gay men, especially rich ones. Like that's the whole thing. Like he says, he says earlier, he's like, love is not love. It's just something we told you. So you would let us have rights.
01:04:21
Speaker
There is there is a ah problem with, you know, assimilationism with like, just, you know, becoming, you know, just like everybody, um just like everybody else.
01:04:32
Speaker
And, you know, a safe sanitized version of, of queer culture, which is why like the kink at pride stuff is, is such a big deal. Like, you know, that is part of, that is part of queer culture. And if you yeah pretend that it's not, and you pretend that you're somebody else, you're just, you're, you're kind of abandoning your, your queerness in a way, which is,
01:04:55
Speaker
something I understand, but also like he's, he's, he's hardlining this way too much. Yeah. Yeah. Um, He's going a little too hard. Yeah. Which is like, what is it? That's his whole deal. He's too intense.
01:05:08
Speaker
Yeah. He's too intense. Which he's been told his entire life is that he's too intense. And that's just sort of like, you know, i mean, relatable as a theater kid. Relatable. Yeah. I mean, that's, but that's any theater kid. You're constantly told that you're too intense.
01:05:23
Speaker
Even with other theater kids, you're constantly told that you're too loud. You're too intense. You're too X, Y, and Z. Yeah. um Which is why you find your other theater friends.
01:05:35
Speaker
um That's true. And that's, I mean, but but there' it's also about like, um you know and i don't want to try to say that like theater kids and being gay is the same
01:05:48
Speaker
it's not it's not it's a large overlap but there's there there is a um i don't want to say the message of this is that you gotta like you gotta chill out and tamp it down um because that's also kind of not what happens but you have to be be willing to like be around other people and think about other people's like feelings.
01:06:10
Speaker
Yeah. you know? Oh, for sure. um and so, um, so that's really what it's about. This is also where, um, I think it's T.S. Madison says that she hates storytelling and everyone gets.
01:06:23
Speaker
Yes! They go, what?
01:06:26
Speaker
Which is very funny. It's like storytelling is such like a, um, like a cliche around like, especially, uh, non-profit like stuff it's like this is about telling the story this is about like yeah yeah um he tries hooking up with a gym bro um and does a fake voice uh but then after they have sex he accidentally talks in his regular voice and it freaks the guy out he's like are you gonna kill me i'm not gonna kill you it's like it's do you need to leave and as he's leaving like among all of the sports posters and stuff on this guy's wall there's a poster of barbara streisand and he's like streisand And he's like, yeah, she's the best.
01:07:06
Speaker
Yeah. And like, nobody is just one thing. Like, that's kind of what the movie is about. Like, you yeah can have all of this, but you can still have, like, you can still, like, be a part of multiple cultures at the same time.
01:07:22
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. Like, you can be a Jim bro and love Barbra Streisand. Yes. Yes. And you can be a gay history um obsessive and also like put a fun thing in your museum, you know? like Exactly.
01:07:36
Speaker
And put a fun thing at the museum. And it all sort of like cumulates. Cumulates? Cumulates? Is that word? Cumulates? Cumulates. is that a word no
01:07:48
Speaker
you um no Ah, man. ah um Are you trying to say it all comes together? yeah yeah At the opening night of the museum.
01:08:02
Speaker
um Where um Billy Eichner, of course, is going to give like a little speech. Because they're having that like third act breakup montage where Aaron's making chocolates.
01:08:16
Speaker
And Billy Eichner is writing a song. Because early on, he asked Aaron what his favorite band was. And he goes, does it say Kenny Chesney? He says Garth Brooks.
01:08:29
Speaker
Garth Brooks. He says that he likes country music like Garth Brooks. and But yeah, the the he's what he's not watching Garth Brooks. He's watching Kenny Chesney, which I think is a subtle nod to the heavily publicized rumor that Kenny Chesney is gay.
01:08:45
Speaker
Oh, okay. Cool. Unsubstantiated. Unsubstantiated rumor that Kenny Chesney is Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Allegedly. Yes. Kenny Chesney is, is, is gay in the way that John Travolta is gay, right? Like it's this thing where everybody kind of says that this guy is gay, but like they always deny it, you know?
01:09:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. um Gotcha. And so you have that like third act montage of them, like sort of pining for each other and like trying to fix themselves in other ways.
01:09:17
Speaker
um And then they have, they apologize. Well, long before the the opening night of the history museum, they have the scene where they apologize to each other. And you think that this is going to be like the, like the end, right? He's like, I'm sorry, you're right. You know, and he's like, I'm sorry, you're right, which is true. And like, we talked about this before, like,
01:09:34
Speaker
it's good that they're both wrong like that is an important part of of it's it's not contrived it's it comes from their actual characters and they are real they're both wrong which is like yeah almost every relationship you know argument that that you have if you're in a good relationship exactly um you're both wrong and you're both right yeah yeah yeah and they have this this this this apology to one another. And then like, you look at the time code. It's like, there's 30 minutes left of this movie. Yeah. It is also two hours long. And I, so it's too long.
01:10:05
Speaker
The movie is 20 minutes too long. Yeah. They could have. And he tells him that he doesn't trust him. um Bobby tells Aaron that I just don't trust you.
01:10:16
Speaker
Yeah. And he says, yeah, but you also don't trust that you're lovable enough for me. And that, and I can promise you that you're wrong about that. um and then there's still more where they're broken yeah yeah um but then we get to the museum uh opening i thought you're gonna but wait there's more but wait there is more yeah that also apologizes to the museum group which is important and um tamara eve linley's character it was was
01:10:48
Speaker
live streaming his apology uh and he says did you post this and he goes no you're right everything should be posted thank you for teaching me that love um and they're playing orville peck um the great orville peck over the montage of him making chocolates um And um they, which is a, who's a ah gay cowboy country singer, yes which is kind of a um um ah a reference point for for the the climax of this movie. um
01:11:25
Speaker
And Aaron sends him a message saying for the night of the the ah gala saying he made some chocolates for the museum. He's got Harvey Milk duds. ah All the proceeds go to the museum.
01:11:39
Speaker
Um, that's the only one I wrote down, but there were some other, like, gay pun, um, uh, candies that he made. They were great. Um, and Aaron is with his brother playing video games the night of the, um, the night of the, um, gala. The museum gala. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:11:57
Speaker
Yeah. And, and he gets a text from Billy Eichner. Um, well, first he's talking to his brother about how much he misses... billy and his brother's like well why don't you just you know i don't know like talk to him and he goes no it's not that it's not that's not how it works like i can't just like talk to him it's just like i don't i don't know it seems like you just talk to him and he goes yeah i don't oh god you don't understand and then billy eichner texts him i forget why he texts him
01:12:30
Speaker
He texts him because he misses him. Because he misses him. Because he misses him. Because the candy at the gala. And he says, hey, what's up? Yeah, and he says, hey, what's up? And then um Aaron gets really excited. And he goes, he texted.
01:12:41
Speaker
He texted. And him and his brother get so excited. And they hug about it And they're screaming, hey, what's up? Hey, what's Hey, what's up? what's up? what's up? And so instead of, um and then. he does the thing. His initial instinct is to not text him back immediately.
01:12:57
Speaker
it's just sort of like play it cool. And his brother goes, dude, come on. Yeah. And he sort of gives him the go get your girl speech. He does. Yeah. Yeah. He much does. Yeah. He's like, you need to go get your boy, get your bro, go get your bro.
01:13:12
Speaker
And so Aaron takes off to the museum and, uh, it, And it cuts to Billy Eichner giving a speech about the opening of the museum.
01:13:25
Speaker
And he's with the whole board on the stage. And as he's giving the speech, he's sort of like alluding to his relationship on a little bit. And he sees Aaron, walks in, they make eye contact and he goes, screw it.
01:13:40
Speaker
Let's do it. We're doing this. We're doing this. And apparently this was a whole B plan that everybody knew about. Yeah. Dot Marie Jones gets out of guitar. Yeah.
01:13:50
Speaker
Right. um And ah everyone plays an instrument and he he sings ah gay cowboy love song to his gay cowboy.
01:14:01
Speaker
And it's pretty good. and It's called Love is Not Love. yeah and And of course, there's a montage of of the two of them. yeah He does have this like genuinely inspiring speech, which brought tears to my eyes, about you know gay history and yeah um mike there um the... There's a lot of sincerity about um about gay history and AIDS history and and stuff like that in this movie, which works.
01:14:34
Speaker
yeah When I would complain about like the movie trying to do like a lot of different things, that's... I don't think... I don't think that that's part of the thing that doesn't work in that. No.
01:14:44
Speaker
No. Yeah. No. um And his speech is really lovely. And there is like a really... like sad heartbreaking moment earlier whenever they're in Provincetown at their Airbnb Harvey uh Harvey Fierstein's house Harvey Fierstein's house and he's like talking about how he's like showing them old pictures of him in Provincetown back in like the 80s um with his friends and he goes oh where are all these people and he goes oh well I'm the only one that's left um uh sort of alluding that they've all died
01:15:16
Speaker
All the people in that photo died by 96, he says. Yeah, yeah. um Which is really heartbreaking. So there's these like really lovely sort of like moments like that.
01:15:27
Speaker
um
01:15:30
Speaker
But yeah, so he sings the song. It's very heartwarming. It's very moving. Everyone's like super excited. And um they're all crying and loving it. And he gets a standing ovation. And then he does the rom-com thing where he walks down the stage.
01:15:44
Speaker
gets stopped by Debra Messing. And he goes, I never thought in my life I would say this, but I think he says, shove it, Debra Messing. He says, Debra Messing, it'll have to wait. That's what he says.
01:15:55
Speaker
Debra Messing, it'll have to wait. And he goes, and they have a collide kiss, and it's great, and it's grand, and they're going to make it all work, and um everybody's happy.
01:16:07
Speaker
But first, we have to have, we have to show what the final exhibit is. Well, gets on and the movie gets on one knee. Oh, yeah. everyone gasps, but everyone's like, oh, no, this is a bad idea. And he says, oh well you know says will you date me for three months and then we'll reassess?
01:16:23
Speaker
And he goes, I would love to date you for three months and then we'll reassess. Yeah. but yes, the final exhibit. Yeah. So then he shows Aaron the final exhibit, which is he took Aaron's idea and he made it reality. He made night at the gay museum.
01:16:41
Speaker
Ben Stiller pops up and goes, hey, queers, I'm the museum guard.
01:16:48
Speaker
And we've got, uh, and we've got, um, Eleanor Roosevelt. a Amy Schumer is Eleanor Roosevelt. Kenan Thompson is James Baldwin. And Seth Meyers is Harvey Milk.
01:16:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. And they're all like talking like um ah ah projections. ah Yes. They're like holograms on glass. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah.
01:17:10
Speaker
And it's just, it's a nice sort of like little button. um So then we get like sort of the epilogue of the movie, which is three months later. Three months later. Yeah. Um, and Aaron's mom is bringing her kids on a school trip to the museum.
01:17:26
Speaker
Um, which would never get, it would never get approved. It would never get approved. Like, I mean, there's a lot of states in the, in the South where even, even before Trump got elected, where like you weren't allowed to meant to mention being gay in the classroom. Yeah.
01:17:40
Speaker
Yeah. Which is ridiculous because i think that Billy Eichner, I mean, he goes about it in the wrong way, but it is sort of, It is something to be said that talking about positive um representations of LGBT culture two kids when they're young helps to normalize it and like by instead of you know aaron's mom's idea of just like let's just not talk about it like i think that you know there's i hasn't sesame street has like done episodes where it's like you've got like two moms and two dads oh yeah and there's like yeah tons of children's books out there it's
01:18:20
Speaker
ah Most have been banned for stupid reasons because of that. But it's like, you know, I think that it's, it's super important. I mean, that ah one of the first presents that we got my niece and nephew when they were a little.
01:18:34
Speaker
um was the book that um John Oliver wrote ah about the bunny who um discovers that he's not like that he's not like um other bunnies. He's gay.
01:18:47
Speaker
And he wants to get married. But there's this... John Oliver wrote a gay bunny children's book? He did. he wrote a gay bunny children's book. And he had Trump as the villain.
01:18:59
Speaker
course. And it's great. It's a really great book. We bought it for my niece and nephew. They loved it. um But yeah, I think it's super important to have those, to just sort of like be honest with kids. Yeah, because like, I mean, grew when i grew up like I didn't know what being gay was yeah until, um you know, elementary school. And then it was the worst thing you could possibly be. Exactly. it was a negative connotation, which then yeah is a seed that's ingrained in you.
01:19:31
Speaker
And, you know, something that you should be ashamed of, which is not something that you should be ashamed of. And I think that, you know, at least today's kids, like high school kids are a lot more ah accepting and a lot more,
01:19:45
Speaker
you know, well, at least I don't know if we're going to negative backwards, but. I think so. I think so big time. Yeah. Again, like the main thing, the problem with, with this administration is that it allows the, the worst people who are in the minority to become um loudest to, to have this. Well, not not only to be the loudest, but cause they've always been loud, but they have no fear of being ostracized for their beliefs, which they should be.
01:20:14
Speaker
Like all of the anti-immigration, anti-Semitism, anti um all the, all the forms of, of racism and prejudice and everything. All of those people should be ashamed to feel that way. And,
01:20:27
Speaker
in certain places they have been. yeah You know, like there are, there've been, there've been safe spaces for racist and bigots always, and there always will be. um And there, those places are becoming less necessary and people are more, are less afraid to be bigots in public now. And that's, that's the, that's the, that's the scary thing.
01:20:50
Speaker
I mean, there's lots of scary things, but that's, that's a big scary thing. Yeah. It's a big scary thing because then it, takes us back to where it is sort of like teaching kids that it it's shameful to be gay and then you have whole generations of kids who feel this sort of nugget of shame about their identity and feel that they cannot be who they truly are which is in itself just so upsetting and sad um I mean and a lot of times that processes itself into uh into violence against yeah other um queer people yeah
01:21:25
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, what we really need, um what society really needs, is what we had in the late 2000s, early 2010s.
01:21:37
Speaker
um We need Hilary Beth to come back. Oh my god. We need her to come back. knew you were building to a joke. I just wasn't sure where you were going. We need her to come back and make those commercials again, Katie.
01:21:50
Speaker
We need her to come back and go and have two girls talking at a grocery store about how gay it is to do something. And Hilary Duff needs to come up and go, you know, you really shouldn't say that.
01:22:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's what we And they're like, what do you mean? That'll fix it. That'll fix That's the problem. I think what we need to do is just unplug the internet. just Yeah, that too. It had a run. then we can have Hilary Duff telling people that saying gay as a negative thing is bad.
01:22:20
Speaker
It's a net negative. We should just get rid of it. Start over. um If you want to listen to a podcast, we'll mail you a c CD.
01:22:34
Speaker
get on our Get on our podcast mailing list. I mean, that's what people used to do. I mean, they weren't. like Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there were CDs, but like zine culture and all that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. would on a mailing list and
Humor, Nostalgia, & Unsolicited Ads
01:22:44
Speaker
people would send you stuff. Like a podcast is is similar to a zine in a lot of ways. Yeah.
01:22:49
Speaker
I was going to say like a radio show. Like we could just be on a radio. Oh, a terrestrial radio show. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. That. you know, we'd have to get on the radio. Um, but that's all relevant. Anyways, any final thoughts, feelings, opinions about bros?
01:23:04
Speaker
The only other notes that we didn't, notes that we didn't do was, I said, you've got mail. They make a you've got mail reference. They do. Yeah. He watches you've got mail. Um, and he's trying to talk with this guy on Grindr about how Grindr is like, you've got mail.
01:23:19
Speaker
Yeah. And the guy's like, LOL, send ass pic. Send ass pic. Ass pic. Yeah. And then he tries to take a picture of his ass in the mirror, which is hard.
01:23:32
Speaker
It's very hard. It is. And he's like shaving his ass with a razor. You got to get on the on the ah powder stuff. Have I told you? I'm going to do an ad for the magic shave powder. Yeah.
01:23:43
Speaker
Magic shave powder? Yeah. Okay. um ah This is an unsolicited advertisement for magic shave powder. ad. Um... There's this stuff. It's very cheap. It used to be $1.25 on like Amazon. i think it i think it got on I think some TikTok girlies discovered it, and it it's got $4 a can now, but that's still very cheap. Still very cheap.
01:24:08
Speaker
It's over 100 years old. It's called Magic Shave Powder. The kind you want is the gold one for sensitive skin. Okay. On the label, it says formulated for black men, um which, okay.
01:24:20
Speaker
Cool. And it is, it's an, um it's a depilatory cream. It's like Nair, but it doesn't burn. What?
01:24:30
Speaker
You mix it with water and it is the best, what I call going dolphin mode. um Absolutely the best product for that um i've I've ever used I recommend it to everybody it's yeah it's cheap it works it will not burn you it's never burned me and or Caitlin and we both have sensitive skin and like you can use it everywhere yep magic shave powder yeah how much is it right now It is $4 and 27 cents.
01:25:02
Speaker
Yeah. That's still super cheap. One can will last you two or maybe three, depending. um car I don't use it on my legs just because it's messy and it's easier just to shave my legs. Yeah. um But um for the rest, it's great. Yeah.
01:25:19
Speaker
Nice. Those hard to reach places, we'll say. Those hard to reach places. Yeah. Magic shave, magic shave powder. Magic shave powder. Amazing.
01:25:31
Speaker
What else? um Oh, they have a very romantic bit where Aaron tells him he wants to bottom for him. Yeah. Oh, there's a bit where they're talking about like, he says, you know, not all gay people are nice and the gay people can be terrorists. And then Evelyn Lee goes, trans people can be terrorists too. Caitlyn Jenner.
01:25:53
Speaker
Hell yes. Hell yes. Caitlyn fucking Jenner. Guillermo Diaz, who plays his... um Yeah! He has straight friends.
01:26:05
Speaker
yeah Yes, he has ah he has a um yeah token straight couple friend and Guillermo, and again, both of these actors are are gay and in real life. Guillermo Diaz is like this straight guy who they have these two little kids, but he's very comfortable with like gay culture and starts like, he's asking him, he's like, well, is maybe you're both bottoms. Maybe that's the problem. And he's
Preview & Engagement with Listeners
01:26:26
Speaker
like, because gay sex is more fun when straight people were uncomfortable with it.
01:26:32
Speaker
So yeah, that's bros. Yeah. What are we you doing next week, Katie? Let's do, um we'll do Saving Face. Saving Face? Oh, I've never heard of Saving Face.
01:26:44
Speaker
Yeah. Lesbian, Chinese-American rom-com. Yeah. Nice. Nice. Oh, I'm excited. Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you for listening to Go get Your Girl.
01:26:55
Speaker
If you like us, tell your friends, and please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It helps out a lot, and we would really appreciate it. Thanks to Andrew Milliken and Nick Svoboda for our theme music and Elena Henderson for our artwork.
01:27:08
Speaker
You can follow us on Instagram at gogetyourgirlpod or email us at gogetyourgirlpod at gmail.com. You can follow me on social media at emilympizza and me at katieofthelake.
01:27:20
Speaker
Until next time, we're just two girls standing in front of the internet asking it to love us. Good night.