High Low Brow
We’re carving out space in the airwaves for deep dives and thoughtful convos about our beloved pop culture that is often overlooked, laughed at, trashed, and brushed aside. Join us (and some of our internet pals!) for hot, juicy, maybe controversh opinions and a few rounds of games inspired by the stuff you watched when you were home sick with an anxiety-induced stomachache in your formative years.
High Low Brow
Why the U.S Election is a Fever Dream and the Delight of Deadpool & Wolverine
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In this week's episode, we discuss everything from Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior on the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign trail to Walz becoming the Midwest Princess. We talk about our favourite Internet moments from the week, including the "very demure, very mindful" TikTok trend and the incredible breakdancing skills of 36-year-old Ray Gunn at the Olympics.
Then we talk about our surprising love for "Deadpool and Wolverine," a film packed with playful vibes and star-studded cameos from Chris Evans as Johnny Storm to Wesley Snipes as Blade. We gush over the chemistry between Deadpool and Wolverine, especially during the hilarious Honda Odyssey scene, and obsess over the clever music choices.
Remember to tune in next week. Until then, feel free to leave us a voicemail or send us some fan mail to let us know what you thought of this week's episode.
Pop Culture Banter and Reviews
Speaker 1Welcome to High Low Brow , the show with highbrow takes on lowbrow culture . I'm your one host , Amanda Scriver .
Speaker 2And I've got your nose River Gilbert Aww .
Speaker 1Are you trying to be the new Midwestern princess ?
Speaker 2Oh , because .
Speaker 1Tim .
Speaker 2Walsh is everybody's dad . Yeah , no , I'm just . I just got your nose , I just have it . No , that's not what I'm doing , but you know it's mine Alright , well , it's , I just have it .
Speaker 1No , that's not what I'm doing , but you know it's mine All right .
Speaker 2Well work . It's the number one rule of comedy Shut down anything and everything , yeah , no not that , no , but .
Speaker 1No and Not yes and no and .
Speaker 2Yeah , exactly , you got it .
Speaker 1Well , I'm glad it has been a very walls week , it ? And yeah , exactly , you got it . Well , I'm glad it has been a very walls week .
Speaker 2It has been off the walls . Vans off the walls , yeah .
Speaker 1I mean we are not in the US .
Speaker 2We are not .
Speaker 1We are in Canada , but I feel like the full news cycle is just going to be this for the next . What four months , three months , two months , however long it is to the US election ?
Speaker 2I feel like people are going to get bored of it because , like the thing is , trump is fully off the rails at this point .
Speaker 1Yeah , I remember I was scrolling through TikTok and I was like why is Trump having a press conference right now ? Tiktok , and I was like why is Trump having a press conference right now and then answer the reason why he was having a press conference was because he was spiraling more than he normally does .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah , and you know this . This is what he does , and yeah , it's , uh , it's fine .
Speaker 1That didn't . That didn't give me any vote of confidence .
Speaker 2I mean we all know that Trump is insane . The issue is what happens around like transfer of power .
Speaker 1Yeah , of course and I mean I there's been some scary things that have been reported and discussed discussed . I think I remember that you sent me a tiktok about how the trump administration , the republicans they're just planning to sort of contest whatever outcome happens yeah , well he's , he's going on record being like we don't need your votes and it's like , oh , he's planning on contesting , like .
Speaker 2So I mean , you know , january 6th is just sort of I it's not good , it's bad , things are bad , things are bad even even if we have , you know , america , dad and mamala harris who's is ? A cop who is a cop and district attorney and she's got some bad takes that have been really highlighted this past week .
Speaker 1But hey , on a plus side . Hey , emma , what's making your brain go burr ?
Speaker 2What is making my brain go burr ?
Speaker 1It's been a hard week to make your brain go burr , hasn't it ? I mean it has . It has been a hard week to make your brain go burr , hasn't it ? I mean it , it has it has been a hard week . I would have to say something that I just discovered and probably that has stuck with me , is that new tiktok , uh , demure oh very demure yeah , very demure I . It's so random , it's so good though . Yeah , it's very good . If you don't know it , you should go and look . Yeah , it's good , we'll link .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's good . I almost didn't have one this week . I'm just like things are bad . But thankfully , from the depth of my despair emerged 36-year-old brink dancing icon , ray Gunn .
Speaker 1Yeah , I was like are you not going to say Ray Gunn ? Of course I'm going to say Ray . Gunn Okay , Cause I was like wait a minute .
Speaker 2No , ray Gunn is wonderful . Like we we'd seen clips of her performance , but we actually sat down and watched her whole routine .
Speaker 1Versus , uh , sissy from France , yes , and I think the first thing I said is because , like , sissy is like 16 and Raygun is like 36 . Yeah , and I'm like this whole grown-ass adult going up against a teenager .
Speaker 2Yeah , well , I mean , like that's been happening with the new sports , like there was that a 51 year old who was in Vert yeah , yeah who did not place .
Speaker 1But you know , father vert yeah , and I think he came 18th .
Speaker 2Yeah , but it was doubles partner with tony hawk previously like he's I'm sure he's been at the x games , like vert was , so underground until tony hawk yes , although the kid that did win oh , fucking unreal . From uh , was it australia , australia , 21 year old . The air that he got on his like 93 plus first run unreal yeah , I think we were both like holy shit yeah , it was wild yeah , so like no disrespect to the 51 year old .
Speaker 2No like ray gun , I think I was like it feels like she teaches like intro to b-boy breakdancing okay , so we we saw the clips yeah , and I remember you were I I like I had seen the clips and I was like , okay , yeah .
Speaker 1and then you told me that you watched the full performance and they got zeros on everything . And I was like , oh , it must have been really bad . And I've seen everyone on the internet talking about it . I watched it with you and I was like I mean , this isn't good , but it's also not like the worst I've ever seen .
Speaker 2So things we've learned about breakdancing because this is new this year is it's scored , it's like 1v1 , and then it's scored by a panel of judges to like general vibes . So it was less that she got zero and more that nobody thought she did a better job than Sissy .
Speaker 1Which obviously yeah which I was like 100% , was like 100 . Agree , yeah , like there is no question about that . However , I do think the vibe it was giving . The vibe I got was that ray gun was more of like I just started learning to break dance . I have only been doing this for like a year or two , whereas sissy is like I'm 16 and I did this out of the womb yeah , well , I thought it was very funny , like , do you remember the episode of bob's burgers where bob and teddy attend a hip-hop dance class ?
Speaker 2no , it was like very the instructor of like see how I'm dragging one of my feet . That's hip hop . So yeah , no , I love Ray Gunn . I love all the memes that have come out of this performance . I love how baby girl she was while Sissy was doing hers , With the yawning and the shaking the finger .
Speaker 1Which is very like 80s .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1Like be boy , be girl .
Speaker 2I love that they call it b-girl because they be girl . Yeah , yeah , no , I . I had a lot of fun with ray gun , and do you know ? What ray gun's performance reminded me of what the it's tricky video oh , hell yeah yeah , which like it's tricky yeah yeah , yeah , the song that is about how hard it is to rap . Yeah , no , no , I remember .
Speaker 1I remember it was also the theme song to ssx tricky yeah , and they and they have a little break dance like yeah , yeah well , the one of the comments I saw was australia .
Speaker 2It has a short , one of the victims of the shortage of cardboard and I'm like , yeah , it's rough . Oh shout , gunn , if you want to join us on the podcast we'd love to have you ?
Speaker 1I mean I'm sure Ray Gunn would come on what else ?
Speaker 2Oh my God , she's a professor , she's got a PhD , yeah , but like that's Pretty huge dick .
Speaker 1With that energy . Yeah , but I mean that's even more reason why Ray Gunn would want to come on the podcast . Energy , yeah , but I mean , that's even more reason why Ray Gunn would want to come on the podcast .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1To share the knowledge of B-Boy Energy and B-Girl .
Speaker 2Yeah , thank you for listening , as always . A fan of the podcast , ray Gunn .
Speaker 1We'll make sure this gets to Paris .
Speaker 2Yeah , absolutely . What are we talking about this week ?
Speaker 1Well , I mean , we went and saw Deadpool versus Wolverine , deadpool and Wolverine uh , what are we talking about this week ? Well , I mean , we went and saw deadpool versus wolverine deadpool and wolverine , not versus whatever they did fight and it was very gay yeah , we went and saw that , which is very funny , because I think we might have even said it on a previous episode last episode that we had no interest no interest .
Speaker 2We were like , yeah , whatever . And the red letter media review came out and they were like it's actually really good .
Speaker 1And then we went and saw it and it was pretty good yeah , it was
Marvel Films Banter and Reviews
Speaker 1. It was a lot of fun yeah , I think this is going to be a controversial , yet brave statement .
Speaker 2I think I enjoyed it more than long legs oh no , I don't think this is controversial , yet brave like it's broken a billion dollars . The box office .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean it's a different kind of film , but I also think that , like , oh , it's orders of magnitude better than Long Legs .
Speaker 2Yeah , if Long Legs is our metric out of six , I think Deadpool and Wolverine was probably an eight , eight and a half .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , I would agree with that . Yeah , Like it just felt like one of those popcorn fun films that you go and watch and you're like this isn't like an exceptional film , but it's a good film . Yeah , it's fun .
Speaker 2Yeah , because you haven't . Neither of us have really kept up with the MCU . Yeah , I haven't seen . Neither of us have seen Logan . Did you watch all the Bryan Singer movies ? No , okay , so I grew up with those .
Speaker 1So I was like very I know that Bryan Singer is very problematic , oh yeah .
Speaker 2Well , I mean Stephen Peck from the Nickelodeon documentary was on the director's commentary of the first X-Men movie , which is If you hang out with convicted child sex abusers , maybe we should do a little bit of digging .
Speaker 1Yeah , wasn't Bryan Singer queer or gay ?
Speaker 2I have no idea .
Speaker 1I thought so . I could be mistaken , but I seem to remember that Bryan Singer's whole thing is that he was queer and that he would have , like there was , these sex parties that you would be involved in at mansions and inviting men and promising them .
Speaker 2Wild . Yeah , okay , no , I have no idea about the person . I just knew that David Hayter , voice of Solid Snake , wrote the first screenplay for the X-Men movies . Got it .
Speaker 1If I recall , I believe that was his . Yeah , he's . He's more akin to what's that guy from house of cards kevin spacey yeah I don't know .
Speaker 2Back to deadpool and wolverine um so you didn't really get a bunch of the references and the cameos . I'm guessing .
Speaker 1I mean , I knew they were from Marvel films , yeah , yeah , yeah yeah . But that's , it . I wasn't like oh , there's a tie-in here .
Speaker 2Yeah , oh my god , they got the guy who actually played Toad in the original movies and the guy who played Blob in the original movies and the guy who played Pyro from the original movies . I thought it was we're going to be spoiling basically everything , but , like I thought it was unbelievably funny that they got what's his name , who played cap in the captain america movies , but they had him as johnny storm chris evans , who's one of the chrises there's so so many chrises , so many chrises , and they're all generic white men , yeah and because he also played johnny storm in the original fantastic four movie .
Speaker 2Yeah , they had him as johnny storm instead of captain america , which was wonderful . Yeah , I thought wolverine and deadpool so flirtatious , the entire movie and the Honda Odyssey scene .
Speaker 1Yeah , you sent me that TikTok afterwards . That was like they were fucking in that Honda Odyssey .
Speaker 2Of course they were fucking in that Honda Odyssey Like yeah , no , absolutely I have to rewatch it , cause , like it's not a memory that stuck for me , I wasn't like Hmm . Yes , yeah , oh no , that was exactly where my head was at .
Speaker 1Yeah , I did not go there .
Speaker 2I mean , that's fair .
Speaker 1Maybe because I'm not horny for Deadpool and Wolverine . I was just like here I am watching a film . Yeah , I mean yeah , If I get to rewatch that scene , I will be observing it , for through the lens of baby fucking . Yeah , but for now I can't give you a qualified critique on that .
Speaker 2Yep , uh , I thought it was great that they got fucking Wesley Snipes is blade . Yes , and Electra and Channing Tatum as Gambit From the defunct Gambit film .
Speaker 1Yeah , I still remember I leaned over to you and I was like is that Magic Mike ? Is that Magic Mike ? Also , I had no idea that he was playing Gambit . Oh really , yeah , I mean again , I'm just like I figured it had to be someone yeah , yeah didn't catch on at first , and then I got it when they started fighting . I was like , ah , okay , I I know who he is ah , yes , the the louisiana accent it wasn't the louisiana accent that got . It was when he like held up the car oh , that's fair .
Speaker 1Yeah , but the Louisiana accent got me Because I was like what is this ? What is this accent ? It just sounds like he's got marbles in his mouth .
Speaker 2Yeah , I do want to know if he actually got a vocal coach for that or if he just was like . I saw the X-Men cartoon series in the 90s . I know how he kind of talks .
Speaker 1Or because it never happened and he knew it was just going to be for this just kind of riffed it , just went with it . He was just like we're just going to do this on vibes Just ran with it . Yeah , which honestly , I would pay to see that movie .
Speaker 2Yeah , absolutely . I do wonder what they're going to do with it after .
Speaker 1Yeah same . I wonder what they're gonna do with it after . Yeah same , I'm like , I think . I think what I really liked about this is that because it reintroduced some of these characters from the mcu , because a lot of the , a lot of the what , what ? What the story was about was that there was such a long hiatus . Because of what did ? They called it the , the , not the perfect timeline , or oh , the sacred timeline , sacred timeline .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah and so you know they had to preserve it and so they were kind of making a joke , without actually saying it , about how fox and all like that partnership kind of crumbled and now they're all under Disney .
Speaker 2Yeah , exactly yeah , it's together again for the first time . Yeah , I had to dust off all of my boy knowledge where it was like , oh yeah , no , I know all about the licensing rights for Marvel . For some reason .
Speaker 1I feel like that's just a lot of information .
Speaker 2People who are really into the comic book type things knew for whatever reason , yeah , but see , I was a DC girlie , not a Marvel girlie , so like .
Speaker 1And what's weird is that I did read comics , but you were your image like you read spawn , yeah , so like I went for like the most the angsty , yeah and yeah that's very on brand .
Speaker 2For me that's very on brand for you .
Deadpool Film Review and Critique
Speaker 2What did you ? Why wasn't this a 10 for you ?
Speaker 1I mean , I think a film has got to really do something in order to get a 10 . And again , this is just a summer popcorn blockbuster kind of film , which doesn't mean it's not good , it just means it's a different kind of classification of film .
Speaker 1It's not giving me high art it's just giving me like it's giving me what it is . There was good laughs , there was good action , there was good like acting , but it's just it's giving me what it is . Yeah , there was , there was good laughs , there was good action , there was good like acting , but it's like it is what it is that's so fair because , yeah , I was of the same mind .
Speaker 2I was like , if we judge , if we judge this in a vacuum against all the other summer blockbuster movies , I think this is one of the better , possibly best summer blockbuster movies , but at the end of the day , it's still just a summer blockbuster , totally . It's a good summer blockbuster .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's a great summer blockbuster . Like I'm not . I'm not saying that you shouldn't go and see it no . I'm just saying like is this going to win any Oscars ?
Speaker 2Oh no , is this going to win any ?
Speaker 1like awards . No , Does that mean I shouldn't give it a 10 ? I mean , I'm just saying it's on a different scale ?
Speaker 2I think so too . We have to talk about the Mr Paradox performance from Matthew McFadden . Yeah , from Succession , Succession .
Speaker 1Yeah , I was actually very excited to see him because one he doesn't have an American accent .
Speaker 2Yeah , which I didn't know ? Oh , you didn't know Until I saw the commercials where he was doing something for like a luxury car .
Speaker 1I think it was like an Audi or something , something like that , and I was like is he putting on a British accent ?
Speaker 2You're like , no , he's actually British , yeah , yeah . He puts on an American accent , I'm like , oh , he's a Hugh Laurie type .
Speaker 1Yeah , so that was really fun to just see him acting like a shitty British person Spoiler . All British people have a little bit of shit .
Speaker 2All Brits are bastards . My favorite part involving him in the entire film was at the very end , where he's talking to his boss and being like they bravely sacrificed themselves and it's going to be up to me to put everything back together . And deadpool comes out yelling . He is risen , he goes fuck the delivery into the goo goo dolls yeah unreal I mean , that's the one thing , having watched all the other deadpool films .
Speaker 1They do like such a good job with the music and oh yeah the music sort of fits with those moments . It's just like chef's kiss . There's not a lot of films that you see where it's like the music and the scene go so perfectly hand-in-hand well , the throwback to the Honda Odyssey scene they were playing .
Speaker 2You're the one that I want from .
Speaker 1Greece . Yes , like .
Speaker 2it is a . The first one had wham Yep Like . Compared to the first two movies , I think this is the best one . Yeah , I'm worried about what this means for the future , though .
Speaker 1Okay .
Speaker 2Because I feel like this was an undeniable success . This is like the top grossing marvel film . Since what endgame I , which I also have not seen ? But , I feel like the only reason that it worked was because there was so much time between deadpool 2 and this one . Because , like the distance between deadpool 1 and deadpool 2 was like what a year , two years . And like Deadpool 2 did not hit as hard as Deadpool 1 yeah , I still enjoyed it , oh for sure it was fun yeah , but yes , it's been what ?
Speaker 1six years it's been six years yeah , so there's . There's been some time , it's been a minute yeah , which I think you're , you're , I mean , and also kind of like , where do we go from here ?
Speaker 2Kinda because , like they did the dead core in this one , they had the old boy shot where they're like panoramic long form single shot where they're like just killing all the Deadpools . I love that . Speaking of which , I love that Headpool was voiced by I think it was Nathan Fillion , and there was another one . Oh , what was it ?
Speaker 1Well , ladypool was Blake Lively .
Speaker 2Ryan Reynolds' wife .
Speaker 1Yeah , another one . Oh , was it well lady pool was blake lively , yes , ryan reynolds wife . Yeah , apparently blake lively and ryan reynolds . Their kids also played two of the dead really yeah , that's oh probably the kid pool yeah that makes a lot of sense .
Speaker 2Uh , dog pool . We have to talk about dog pool dog pool was great dog pool was my favorite .
Speaker 1Yep .
Speaker 2Of all time .
Speaker 1I liked the Deadpool in the other dimension with the long flowing hair . Nice pool , nice pool , yeah .
Speaker 2Oh no , it was like going in neither of us on top of where they are with the MCU . We still had so much fun with it . Yeah , I really don't think I have much more to say about it besides like it was fun .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean again . I think , coming out of this , I think that they were also testing the waters . Do you know what I mean ?
Speaker 2I agree .
Speaker 1Like what do audience , what was the sort of like temperature for what audience react ? Acted and reacted to like ? I seem to remember people felt that , like the electro films , didn't get the love oh , like it was terrible yeah . So , like you know , maybe there will be a remake of that , and I don't know . Or , like you know , blade has become such an underground classic . Maybe you know they will do something with that or like , maybe they will .
Speaker 1Finally , make the Gambit movie it felt like you know it was Ryan Reynolds created sort of this like a universe within a universe , where it was also like they were just coming together and having fun .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1But it was also like hey , let's , let's test this and sort of like , give back to the fandom who loves and like really sort of supports these characters . Yeah , loves and like really sort of supports these characters yeah , I think the other thing I said to you when we were leaving was uh , hugh jackman is looking old hugh jackman is looking old and like I don't mean that in a bad way it's just like people age and that's fine absolutely , but I also did like the henry cavill as as wolverine .
Speaker 2yeah , I liked the comic book accurate Wolverine . That was like five foot nothing . Yeah , he was my favorite yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah . It was just like oh you're , like you're aging , I don't know . Like this is probably , we should probably just retire Wolverine .
Speaker 2Well , they make a joke about it when they're like you're going to be doing this until you're 90 . Yeah , Also also the fact that they were like we're done with this after Logan . And then the entire first scene is Deadpool literally desecrating the corpse of Logan . Yeah , To the tune of Bye , Bye , Bye .
Speaker 1Yeah Again , music .
Speaker 2Yeah like perfect for a scene yeah , and again I am like they call attention to the fact that it's not like Marvel has had a bad time for these past few years so , yeah , maybe maybe I'm to say something controversial .
Speaker 1Maybe they just need better writers in the room .
Speaker 2Yeah Well , all Disney movies , like all the like franchises for Disney , are all just like . Written by committee . Yeah , they're not good anymore . Well , here's the thing . Okay , here's the thing . Yeah , star Wars is a movie for kids . Yeah , that I loved . But in my 30s I can now be like , yeah , it was a movie for kids . Yeah , and I don't know , maybe nostalgia's done , maybe we're done with nostalgia , it's over , it might be , over . Did you know ? Nostalgia does not mean pain of an old wound .
Speaker 1I didn't know that to begin with .
Speaker 2Yeah , people were like , yeah , that's what it means . And apparently it is not what it means . Well , misinformation .
Speaker 1Am I right , yeah ?
Speaker 2But it would be very nice if it was what it meant .
Speaker 1Well , Do we have anything more to say about Deadpool ? No , I think we should just tell people to go and see it and make their own decisions .
Speaker 2Yeah like let us know what you think of it . I was thinking about like when I asked why isn't it a 10 ? And I'm like thinking about what I gave 10s to being like Exuma . And I saw the TV glue and I'm like , oh , this was like not on the same plane as those .
Speaker 1Yeah , exactly that's what I was kind of trying to say yeah , Like it's good , it's good , it's just not . Yeah , it's not on the same vibe .
Speaker 2And fun's important . It is fun to do fun things .
Speaker 1We need fun in a world right now .
Speaker 2F is for friends that do things together . U is for you and me . N is for anything and anywhere at all down here in the deep blue sea .
Speaker 1Love that .
Speaker 2It's from Spongebob .
Speaker 1Well , there you go . Tell the people where they can find us , you can find us pretty much everywhere at high low brow pod .
Speaker 2That's H I G , hg-h-l-o-w browpod . We're on Instagram threads and TikTok . Please go follow us on there . It's a fun time . You can see our faces .
Speaker 1Yeah , and we talk .
Speaker 2We do talk , we are talking heads .
Speaker 1We are yapping .
Speaker 2Yapping heads the sequel to Talking Heads , Yapping Heads . Yapping Heads the sequel to talking heads yapping heads yapping heads . I think that's it until until next you're not gonna tell the folks about our website . No , you just did I ?
Speaker 1I told them about our social ?
Speaker 2yeah , but it's . We also have a website hi , lowbrowpodcom , it's the same it's the same , yeah you , you should visit it .
Speaker 1Okay , okay , bye , bye .
