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Rob Long and John Podhoretz man the good ship GLoP themselves this week (Jonah will return for next week’s show) as Rob confesses he did not actually know the etymology of the word (OK, it’s not actually a word) GLoP. He also tells a story about that time at French wedding, the punchline of which is not to be missed. Then, a discussion of Blazing Saddles, a French author who would have been mercilessly teased in grade school, the trials and tribulations of Steve Bannon, what it’s like to talk to really rich guys, and of course….LIZA. With A Z.
Update: As some of you pointed out in the comments, we had a technical error with the version of this show posted earlier today. OK, it wasn’t technical — it was a stupid mistake made very late last night after a very long day. Regardless, we regret the error and it has now been fixed. To get the new version, delete the one on your device and re-download this episode. It’s worth it — we promise.
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Is is just me, or is there ~2 minutes of dead air in the middle of this episode?
Are you sure you don’t mean Balzer?
No. Honoré de Balzac. He was a French author and is probably best remembered as being the punchline in Meredith Willson’s “Pickalittle (Talk-a-Little)” from The Music Man.
But he’s not a Ricochet member like @mattbalzer.
Balzac would be so much better known if he had been a Ricochet member.
See my note in the show description. Thanks for the heads up.
The town of Balzac Alberta was named in honor of Honore de Balzac. The small town is best known for its malls. Including the “Calgary Ghost Mall”.
OH my God stop talking about Parisian neighborhoods.
Except I assume he went to school in France, where the name wouldn’t mean what it kinda does here.
Rob’s idea for the Liza Minelli show might have been feasible when he first thought of it, but she’s getting close to 80 now.
Absolutely. If he had lived long enough to be a member of Ricochet, his age would bring great fame.
I don’t know about that, seems like he’s been pitching it since she could have actually been capable of doing it.
Granted it’s always been a “jape” but not due to her age, until just recently.
The two hander versions of glop are great. I am kind of annoyed trying to guess what Long’s purchase was (purchase-able, but unstatable? (what happens if you get hit by a bus, and when family goes through your stuff, this discovery of the object changes their whole view of you?)). Current working hypothesis is that Billy Clinton was inspired by George W’s taking up painting and produced some soul chilling monstrosity that drove a family mad in the mid-west and somehow popped up in Paris.
The Picture Of Hillary Clinton?
The now required screen shot taken during the recording of this episode:
West Covina huh?
Blazing Saddles is lame, John confirming the line that JPod is always wrong.
My favorite Blazing Saddles anecdote is the schnitzengruben scene, Richard Pryor had written a line after the “it’s twew it’s twew” where Cleavon Little says “stop sucking on my arm”
Some great POD there! Oooh, la la! Parisian neighborhoods! Tell me, is it 2:00 o’clock from La Tour Eiffel, or 3:00 o’clock?
Maybe the transcript of the conversations Clinton had on Epstein’s Lolita express?
I don’t know why he would paint that, but okay.
Whew! Arrondissements, the novels of Anthony Trollope and Honore de Balzac, plus screenplay ideas for Liza Minelli! You gents sure have your fingers on the pulse of America! 😂😂😂
(Loved it, by the way!)
Non, Non, it’s what he painted with.
I remember I liked Anthony Trollope’s Framley Parsonage, when I read it many years ago, though I no longer remember what it’s about.
Trollope was the conservative realist to Dickens’ social reformer.
Dr. Thorne, which is Trollope’s Pride and Prejudice (so to speak), was recently adapted for the small screen by Julian “Downton Abbey” Fellowes; though the adaptation, at only four hours, was much too short to do the book justice.
Mel Brooks. Anyone who steals from F.W. Murnau for mid-50s TV is a sophisticate. (The Last Laugh inspired “The German General” on Your Show of Shows.) He not only doesn’t advertise his learning, but, unlike Woody Allen, gives some indication of understanding the source to a depth greater than a thin coat of paint. He could probably even explain the connection of the Balzac lift to the Murnau without much trouble.
I get the criticisms of Blazing Saddles, but I’d push back on the lack of the visually compelling. For a parody, what do you want? Take the opening sequence. It’s not John Ford, but it is Budd Boetticher (a great director on a budget) in a few strokes.
It serves its purpose. I saw the movie first-run in a mall theater on a hot afternoon with 3 people in the audience (only one of whom I knew). My friend and I were laughing the second the music came up and we recognized Frankie Laine’s voice (which took about 2 notes). Which carried on (painfully) pretty much throughout the picture. When the Gene Wilder/Cleavon Little relationship gets really mawkish at the end, that was more welcome relief than irritation.
Mel Brooks vs Woody Allen. My first image was of the two Dads in the Marvelous Mrs. Maizel. Abe Weisman, the well read professor living on the upper West Side. Moishe Maizel, of the garment district. I’m not Jewish but is seems this trope has been around for a long time. I think of the German intellectual reformed Jew vs the Polish shtetl Jew.
I wonder if Bob Einstein (“Super Dave”) vs Jerry Seinfeld is more recent example.
PS I too like the duo. Pod and Rob riff off each other well.
PPS Thank you for once and for all explaining “GLoP”. Only now got it.
Our betters know Paris.
You’ll never hear intellectuals discuss the grid street layout of Phoenix, Arizona.
One more thought on Allen vs Brooks. How much of that contrast also taps into the New York vs LA contrast? And as a follow up, is NYC still the Capitol of American Jewry or has it shifted westward?