When Heroes Fall: Childhood Icons Gone Bad

What happens when the stars who shaped our childhoods turn out to be deeply flawed, problematic, or even criminal? Megan and Lesley dive deep into the emotional complexity of reconciling nostalgic memories with disturbing revelations about our once-beloved celebrities.

Fresh from their summer break, they tackle this thorny subject through the lens of recent celebrity deaths – particularly Hulk Hogan, whose passing stirred up complicated feelings given his history of racist comments. This kicks off a fascinating exploration of how we process disappointment when our heroes fall from grace.

The hosts compile an eye-opening list of over 40 celebrities from the 70s, 80s and 90s who've been "canceled" or revealed to have committed harmful acts – from Bill Cosby to JK Rowling, Michael Jackson to Johnny Depp. Some made offensive comments, others faced serious criminal allegations, and many simply couldn't adapt to changing social standards. The question isn't just whether these figures deserve forgiveness, but how we as fans reconcile our emotional connections to their work.

"You can have this complexity of thought," Lesley notes, offering a path forward that acknowledges both our cherished memories and the disappointing reality. This isn't about making excuses for bad behavior, but rather developing the emotional maturity to hold contradictory truths simultaneously – a skill that serves us well beyond just processing celebrity scandals.

Have your own 5 Minutes of Fame story to share? Call 1-888-GEN-X-POD to leave us a message we'll play in a future episode!

Transcript

Welcome Back After Summer Break

Speaker 1 0:00

Hi friends, leslie here, megan and I are back with a brand new episode and we are excited. Fair warning, it's a bit of a long one and our topic for the pod touches on a difficult topic Stars from the 80s who went on to make bad choices. Though we try to keep it light, there are serious themes. So we wanted to give you fair warning before you jump into the episode.

Speaker 2 0:21

I'm Megan Bennett, I'm Leslie Meyer and this is Gen X. Women Are Sick of this.

Speaker 3 0:26

Shit.

Speaker 1 0:30

Hi Leslie, hi Megan, I know, my God, it's been a very long time. It's been so long, so long. It's probably been six weeks since we have sat in this room together. I believe that is accurate. That's crazy, because we recorded and then we published and then everything happened, and then we had enough like kind of fun stuff to do something in the middle, yeah. We released our little YouTube short and we had I don't know what else we did. We had something else in there.

Speaker 1 1:00

And then we did a rewind Hot Summer Soaps Yep, Because you were gone.

Speaker 3 1:05

Because I was gone.

Speaker 1 1:05

You were gone, and then we were gone and this is the summer. Here we are Summer, and I don't really have any guilt about it. Oh hell, no, this is ours. We're hobby podcasters. We can do whatever the fuck we need to do. This is not a like Somebody wants to sponsor us and make us stick around and not, like you know, and plan our vacations around this. We will right ish that they have to pay for that shit, I don't.

Speaker 1 1:29

I'm too old to do anything I don't want to do. We're we're just gonna say that's I think that's fine we're the bosses of us and we both have full-time. We're doing jobs outside of this. Yes, so we get to be the we deboss. How was your summer? I mean, it's august 1st right now it's still fucking summer. White rabbit, white rabbit, white rabbit oh, I forgot about that you explained that all to me and I don't remember a bit of it.

Speaker 3 1:57

You're just supposed to do that the first thing when you get up in the morning on a the first day of a month.

Speaker 1 2:04

Okay, and it's for good luck, good luck. So there you go. That's it, we're done. Good luck y'all. So, we're back here.

Speaker 2 2:12

I know it's nice, it's nice to see you and we're going to talk about some things.

Speaker 1 2:16

It's good to see you as well. Good to see you, good to see Tim, right now in Indianapolis Gen Con weekend. If you listen to this tomorrow when it drops or Sunday, you know that Indianapolis is being inundated by gamers. It's like I'm a nerd shirt on Geeky nerds.

Speaker 1 2:35

Fabulous geeky nerds. Somebody at work today was mentioning Gen Con and they walked through and they were like I think Gen Con's cool because people are authentically themselves and they just go have a good damn time. That is the truth. It's so nice. Absolutely the truth. This is like the first year I'm not doing the whole thing Are you sad, are you sad?

Speaker 1 2:58

I'm really okay with it. Okay, and I think it's because I'm tired and I had come to it internally like a while ago. I was just like okay, I knew the week we were taking off we're doing like a home construction project. I know we have some stuff to look forward to. We're taking a trip with our adult children in October. I'm doing a training in September and I was like you know what it's? Okay, I have done it hard for like six years I think, and we're just going to have a light year. Yeah, it's so much fun it really is. We're just going to do tomorrow and we'll probably do a little bit on Sunday, but probably not a whole lot, because that's also the family day and the littles will be out.

Speaker 2 3:41

Yes.

Speaker 1 3:41

And that's really hard. Like those little little kids yeah will be out and that's really hard. Like those little little kids. I feel like I'm going to step on them and I'm trying to avoid the unbathed gamer boys with their backpacks and they spin around and like knock me into me. So that, plus little children, it's a lot for me to be able to navigate.

Speaker 3 4:00

It is a lot.

Speaker 1 4:01

It's usually and I, when we do the whole thing, I like to go early and you can get through a lot on Thursday when it's not crazy busy, and then you kind of know where you're going and we're doing events. And we played a ton of games last year. We did a ton of events. We did sword fighting, we did, I made some, I made chain mail, I did all kinds of last year. We were in last year and this year I was like it's okay, I'll come back around. Well, just know, indianapolis is full of games.

Speaker 3 4:31

Oh, my goodness yeah.

Speaker 1 4:33

If you are in Indy and hearing this and you don't know that and you're wondering what the hell's going on downtown.

Speaker 2 4:39

Can't help you 70,000 people. Yes.

Speaker 1 4:43

Sold the fuck out, yeah, quickly. So anyway, that's what's going on right now in town. We've got that, we've got. The state fair has started. I'm going. Sunday oh my gosh, I'm so excited I can give you my. This is my fair job. I go to the fair. I want to see the bunnies, the ducks and the chickens. I want to go to the home arts where all the sewing and needle craft.

Speaker 3 5:07

I like the woodworking stuff, the photography and the art.

Speaker 1 5:10

Yep, I want to do that. We're going to go get a big fucking gyro. We're going to eat that, I don't know. We'll probably get a couple of fried things, maybe some corn.

Speaker 2 5:19

I like those potatoes, like the potato chip things. Those are good.

Speaker 1 5:26

And like leave them in the oil a little bit longer, if you don't mind.

Speaker 3 5:29

A lot of crispy ones.

Speaker 1 5:31

And then we're going to go to the wine garden and sit outside and drink. That sounds fun. That sounds very good. There's a couple of them we hop around. Last year we had some entertainment at one of them. We were at this like area. They have a bunch of Adirondack chairs. It's just a big bar area. There's furniture and we were watching a set of parents and their youngish child and bloody mayhem occurred. The chair flipped, kids face hit chair we didn't even really know exactly what happened.

Speaker 1 6:01

All we saw was a river of blood. We were casually sitting in our adirondack chairs this is probably a third cocktail at the very hot fair and so we were both like do we need to do something?

Speaker 3 6:13

you know, right like, I feel like I should jump in and help like parents of we've raised children to be still alive post 20.

Speaker 1 6:20

So we thought, well, we could probably help. But then they once. They stopped panicking, they got the right amount of tissues and the right amount of ice, and then paramedics showed up. And but it was. You would have bloody shot, gut spattered everywhere is what it looks like it was welcome to the indiana state fair there's more than corn in indiana. That is the truth. I used to work on the state fair.

Speaker 3 6:46

It was one of my clients so I used to have to do ad campaigns for them.

Speaker 1 6:50

Oh so fun, yeah. So then did you come up with a like. The tagline for the like, whatever the feature, is it a corn year or soybean year, mine was pig year mine was the one that I worked on that I remember was awestruck alice and it was like a fairy book, like a storybook kind of. It was animation and there was awestruck alice and she was so excited about.

Speaker 1 7:14

You know, that was back when it was only like 12 days, 12 full days, and if you are in the fairgrounds you can still see there's giant wooden cutouts of Alice and like of one of the other characters and they just, I swear they must just pull them out of storage every year and I'm sure they're like oh no one knows what the fuck it's from.

Speaker 2 7:37

Right.

Speaker 1 7:37

They're like well, this is old state fair shit, we got to pull it out.

Speaker 2 7:40

We're going to do this every year.

Speaker 1 7:50

I'm literally the only person that walks by and goes australia.

Speaker 3 7:52

Where are they? They're normally on the back, like back by the um, like on the very back end by the cool barn.

Speaker 1 7:54

Oh okay, old like yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, we go to the pioneer village?

Speaker 3 7:55

I don't know. So anyway, a good part if you see.

Speaker 1 7:57

If you see alice, I'll take a photo tell her I also created benny the bean, which is like the soybean, like the giant cut out of the soybean benny the bean that's me. Oh my gosh, we should have talked about that when we did where's the bean? Which bean? Benny benny the bean benny is a soybean, yeah that's so crazy but, now in hindsight, it could have worked when you were working there. It would not have been okay. I would not have put those things together back then you can.

Speaker 2 8:31

I'm older and wiser now, that's miraculous.

Speaker 1 8:35

Yes, so fair is happening. It's just busy. This is the height of summer and the poor fuckers are going back to school, I know, and by fuckers I mean small children.

Speaker 2 8:47

Small children. I'm so sorry y'all.

Summer Updates and Gen Con Weekend

Speaker 1 8:48

One of my besties is a school teacher. She's already back. Oh no, it's torturous. I know, I know we had to work our vacation around her going back to school super early. Oh, bullshit, I'm so sad. Oh, I'm so sad. Yeah, that's tragedy. So here we are and we're going to, we're going to hit it, we're going to go back through the things. Do you remember what we do here? Well, you tell me, we do. We catch up. That's what we just did.

Speaker 3 9:13

That was on the agenda.

Speaker 1 9:15

We talk about the shit that we're sick of. We talk about I have so many Bullshit and Scott Goss aka, who Died this Weeks and then we go into our main conversation of the day, and today that main conversation is when the heroes of our childhood go bad, when they turn into shitheads. Basically, how do we handle that? How do we handle that? So we could start with oh, we had a couple of little tidbits, oh, information, you were sharing information about MTV today. Mtv is 44 years old today. Fuck you very much. Yes, it's been 14 years of great music. There we go. And how old is Kurt Loder? Now 81, probably. Yeah, he's as old as my dad or a little bit older. No, younger, he's like two years younger than my dad. Thank you, kurt Loder. 44 years ago, we watched that rocket blast off and listened to the buggles. We were the demographic that was going to be marketed to 44 years ago. No longer, nobody gives a shit about us. Well, that's probably not true. Just not on MTV, like nobody gives a shit about us Fair point.

Speaker 1 10:21

Now on MTV, fair point, I can't tell you, the last time I watched MTV, I bet you the Lifetime channel and whatever channel. It is that Hallmark that does all those movies, tv shows, whatever Hallmark at the holidays. I can't even tell you, I watch so much trash holiday TV Last holiday season. Oh my God.

Speaker 3 10:39

I don't know why, but we got on it. We've got a whole episode worth of conversation, Maybe for like our holiday episode.

Speaker 1 10:46

Oh, wow, we'll just move forward. Because I didn't know this about you, we got started First time, first time caller. We got started because of the Carrie Elwes, brooke Shields holiday movie that they put out last year, so there are stars who are of our era.

Speaker 3 11:04

Sure.

Speaker 1 11:04

Who are now doing Hallmark holiday films for the monies right. So that's why we.

Speaker 2 11:12

And I don't blame them Watch it, go for it.

Speaker 1 11:15

And then we just went down a rabbit hole. We were like, well, what else? Because everything works out, the endings are all happy. And what was happening last December, megan, oh, my goodness. Yeah, the world was melting.

Speaker 2 11:27

I mean it still is.

Speaker 3 11:28

I can't believe it.

Speaker 1 11:29

We were anticipating January, and so I had to find some dependable stupid joy I completely understand that. If it wasn't for oh shit, what was the name of the TV show the Good Place? If it wasn't for, um, oh shit, what was the name of the tv show?

Speaker 2 11:45

uh, the good place if it wasn't for the good place, I would not have survived covid.

Speaker 1 11:49

So I understand right. It was hilarious, so we'll just, we'll come up with something interesting for our holiday episode. Okay, I love it. We can't revisit all of our children's holiday shows again. No, we'll have to talk about something else. It's fine, it's's August. My mom loves those Hallmark movies.

Speaker 3 12:05

She does, she does, she loves them, and there's different.

Speaker 1 12:08

You know it's right up there with Murder. She Wrote in a way. I have no negative about that either. See, maybe we just who knows? Jessica.

Speaker 3 12:16

How do we?

Speaker 2 12:16

find joy during the holidays, Jessica.

Speaker 3 12:18

Jessica, what was?

Speaker 1 12:20

Jessica's last name. Oh, geez, Pete. I just looked at some pictures of her because she was like my age when she was Fletcher, jessica Fletcher. Angela Lansbury, I just won. I won a moment by remembering Thank you. Thank you, you're welcome. I remembered something. Yeah, you did A name without having to like leave and come back. I know with that fall you'll sleep, waking up at three o'clock in the morning and going jessica flitcher and your spouse is like what the fuck is happening right now.

Speaker 1 12:54

My sweet, sweet husband would probably wake up and go murder. She wrote. Do you remember the episode? Oh lord, come back. We're gonna pull ourselves back up from that rabbit hole and now we're gonna go down the. What shit are we sick of now? Rabbit hole now, not even just today, but like now, what's kind of just I don't know bubbling I don't even know where to start.

Speaker 1 13:18

It's just so much. It's so much. I have specifics. Well, okay, release the fucking Epstein tapes right, or we want the files right, we just want them. Such a low-hanging fruit.

Speaker 3 13:29

I know right, Such a softball. I didn't even have to think about that.

Speaker 1 13:32

Except it's not. It's so easy, but it's really difficult I guess Because they don't exist, or do they?

Speaker 2 13:46

Or don't they, or do they? It depends on what DJT says. The last time I looked at them on my desk.

Speaker 3 13:48

They didn't exist.

Speaker 1 13:49

Right, right Now. Here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking if you buy, if you create conspiracy theories and you nurture those conspiracy theories for a long time and maybe you run oh I don't know a political campaign on said conspiracy theories who would time and maybe run oh, I don't know a political campaign on said conspiracy theories, who would do that only? At not smart person at some point, uh-huh said, conspiracy theory might bite you in the ass. Do you think they might catch up? Maybe I do think they exist.

Speaker 1 14:19

Of course they fucking do I think his name is all over it. Yeah, of course it is. I think he's distracting with tariffs and the presidential physical fitness award that he has decided he wants to put back into holy jesus when I read that I was just like what the fuck are we doing? Yeah, because kids need to be shamed just a little bit more. Let's do so. We've learned nothing at all. It's not about learning right now, though. It's actually about dumbing.

Speaker 1 14:48

Absolutely, let's get as dumb as humanly possible and you must really think that everyone is a fucking idiot Like, yeah, everyone Holy.

Speaker 2 15:00

Jesus.

Speaker 1 15:01

So I'm sick of the rewriting of history, same the rise of autocracy on my list. Oh, you've got a little profit, profits being more important than people. I'm sick of spending how many hundreds of billions of dollars on a fucking ballroom and an airplane, destroying one billion dollars a fucking rose garden, yeah yeah, bullshit.

Speaker 1 15:22

Yep, trying to name the kennedy center. Change the name of the kennedy center? Can't, motherfucker, can't, legally, can't do it. Gonna try, great. I'm sick of shit like that. There's so much and then there's just the abject cruelty. Oh, that goes along with so much of this shit too that's just infuriating.

Speaker 1 15:39

So, merciful heaven, hang in there everybody. We love ya. We do Try to, you know. Yeah, try to be good to yourself. I keep saying it, I mean it. Do one nice thing every day Take a bath. We do have one. We have a warm, we could transition. Okay, we have some bullshit and hot goss. Okay, that is of the warm and fuzzy variety. Ooh, good, we probably need that. To be fair, let's just take a deep breath, shake it off. We're just going to kind of cleanse, shake it off, cleanse our chakras, our spirits, shake it Like a Polka.

Speaker 2 16:12

Dot picture.

Speaker 1 16:13

We were just talking Like Taylor Swift Shake it, shake it off, shake it off. I don't know any more words to any person.

Speaker 2 16:21

That would piss off trump too you're shaking things up.

Speaker 1 16:28

My producer, tim, and I were talking the other day about he had seen this little article on the internet about liam neeson and pamela anderson and the naked gun remake. Yes, naked gun is of our lifetime yes, it's relevant culturally for us, funny shit. And he goes oh my gosh, I think they're dating. And then he like read the article and he's like, oh no, they just expressed like their sincere admiration and care for one another and that they just have a really companionable friendship and I was like, oh, that would be so sweet.

Speaker 1 16:59

Like didn't his partner die? Like she's wonderful, and just you. His partner die, like she's wonderful, and just you know, they just seem funny. It is partner die because I know his partner died in love actually, but he but she really did in real life, wow, and so he's been a widower for a bit, okay, and all of this. And we were like, oh, no, bummer. And then, within 48 hours, an official announcement had been made okay, they are, that's cute, they are actually like companions.

Speaker 2 17:25

I like it.

Speaker 1 17:26

And I love the idea of just. You know, people struggle with, like, what to call if I'm dating over 50. What do I call?

Speaker 3 17:34

it yes and I love that word.

Speaker 1 17:35

companion Like this, is my companion. That is cute, and then you don't have to put any oh. Are you going to get married? Are you going to move in together?

Speaker 3 17:44

well, what does that mean?

Speaker 1 17:44

we're companions, we're buddies spending time and whatever else is happening is none of your fucking business yeah, I like that that was delightful I saw him on. I want to say it was like the graham norton show and they were asking him questions about yeah asking questions about like is it going to be hard doing comedy? And he was like well, I've done like one-liner stuff you know, and he's like.

Speaker 1 18:07

He was like. I really I really questioned whether I could do an entire movie of slapstick, funny stuff, but he was I mean he clearly he's knocked it out of the park. I think this movie is probably being very well received, and, and and the director said he couldn't think of anybody better than liam neeson to play this role, so I love that that's adorable. So there you go, warm buzzy's heart.

Speaker 3 18:33

I like it. That's good cozy for them.

Speaker 1 18:35

Yeah, there you go. Uh, the next part. Who died this week? Lots of people, so many people this week. Okay, so start. Who died? Where should we? Well, we all know, ozzy Osbourne, yes, died. The Prince of Darkness passed away. All I remember is that he ate the head of a bat. He bit it off, supposedly. I've read the story many times. He did. He didn't mean to, he thought it was fake.

Speaker 1 19:12

Oops, and this is my memory as a child that is factual he did not know that it was real, okay, and yeah, and then that poor thing followed, or that tragedy followed him for his that is shocking I hope did it break his, was he like oh I'm sure, I'm sure like and that's gross. I think he was an animal person, so like the last thing he wants to do is go eating a bat and well and we are no, tim's like hang on now there's a story, please, and it's true how do we know it's true?

Speaker 1 19:44

because he and sharon both have retold it oh okay, so is it not nice, though is it gonna make us sad how do you feel are we gonna? Have the bat, like society, coming after us no, okay, how do you feel about dubs? I don't like that, I don't want we'll just stop there that's fine. Okay, let's leave that alone. I thought that was alice cooper, yeah oh oh, that's sad. Oh, stop. Okay, dear rock stars, dear rock stars, but it's like asking human beings not to have lives stop eating animal live animals on stage fair.

Speaker 1 20:20

The 80s were a different time, if we promise you, it was definitely a shock thing going on with the heavy metal stuff 70s I guess, more late 70s I think we've moved away from that. I don't know. Guars still exist, but they don't bless their hearts. They still exist. I don't think they eat animals. I don't think they eat animals. I don't think they do either. But they will spray your ass with fake blood, lots of it and more than just your ass they will yes, you will.

Speaker 1 20:46

I believe I was somewhere in the middle of a crowd one time at a go at a guar show and not a, not an inch square inch of my body wasn't covered it was goo Better than a watermelon comedian guy.

Speaker 3 20:59

I can't remember his name.

Speaker 1 21:00

He needs to go on the list of people that we probably should talk about what was his name Gallagher. Gallagher watermelon guy. It was a shtick, not that funny. Okay, watermelons blood, we're going to mix it all together, so infinitely cooler than Gallagher Ozzy died. We grew up with Ozzy, we've been cool when we were children and we were part of the generation who experienced the Osbournes on MTV, which I did actually watch.

Speaker 1 21:25

That I watched a little bit, I didn't Because it was the first, I think, wasn't it like the first of those types of shows? Because it happened, it came along way before, uh, gene simmons did his kiss, his like family show, which I thought was really good. Um, that came out 2002, okay okay, so that's, that's old school. That makes sense. I was pregnant, so I had babies too. I was at home, I had had time you're looking for something to watch tv.

Speaker 1 21:56

So I do remember that being like a thing, uh, and think, yeah, 2002, do that. Yeah, prime babylandia for me. So that explains why I watched all of that. Um, so that's pretty cool, I think, if you can take your career from being, you know, the prince of darkness and then flip it around to like this somewhat like Flanderer yeah, struggling with addiction. Now you're a dad in a fancy house Absolutely Trying to raise kids. Smart ass kids Reality TV show.

Speaker 3 22:29

Uh-huh, making tons of money.

Speaker 1 22:31

Yeah, they figured it out. They did figure it out. It is interesting. So he will be dearly missed because I think his popularity didn't it never waned, like he was always Aussie. You know, it was kind of a big damn deal and I know that his, his funeral was viewed. Yeah, Like by you know, millions and millions of people. It was sad. Oh, I just like pulled him up. And Google has this thing it says thanks for the mayhem Prince of Darkness and it's a little train.

Speaker 1 23:02

Is that a crazy train? It is a crazy train. There was a. There's a kid at work that works with me, who when. Ozzy died.

Speaker 3 23:10

When you say kid, do you mean in their forties or?

Speaker 1 23:12

thirties or twenties, twenties, okay, in their 40s or 30s or 20s, 20s Okay, he was in his 20s, so truly A kid. I can say kid Like I got 30 years on, this kid, he. We were sitting in a conference room when we learned that Ozzy died.

Speaker 3 23:25

And I was like oh no.

Speaker 1 23:27

And he was like I don't know who that is, oh no.

Bullshit & Hot Goss: Celebrity Updates

Speaker 3 23:30

And I was like, even with the giant fucking fundraising concert that just happened yeah, he's like I don't know who that is and I was like well, it's time to be educated so I whipped out my phone and put on crazy train and he's like okay, I've heard the intro to this before yeah, because it's been sampled in other things and stuff. So did you ever play guitar hero, uh you're right, there you go.

Speaker 1 23:49

Yeah, like you need to know how to play crazy train there we go so 76 ozzy passed away, and this is Malcolm Jovan Warner from the Cosby Show so we lost Theo Huxtable, which was really sad Because he had kind of like come full circle, I think, career-wise. I'm remembering only rumors and gossip, but I think he like kind of crashed pretty hard in his career. I don't remember that, but I, arguably I can say I did not pay that much of attention and regardless, he was obviously in a good place, he's on vacation with his family and he fucking drowned yeah, yeah, costa rica drowned while you were with your family, that's water is a harsh mistress, but that's tragic and really sad and yeah, I agree, um, and then finally, because I think, wasn't he he's doing?

Speaker 1 24:36

he was doing something else too.

Speaker 3 24:37

He was like he had probably a current show that he was working on oh, probably like I don't know he pretty consistently worked in the arts, not just acting, he like maybe I'm remembering somebody else I thought there was like somebody who had like not a descent but loss of career, and was like working in fast food for a while, oh, no, no, that was

Speaker 3 24:59

who was that. That was the guy who played sandra's husband in the cosby show it was like we had some conversation related to the cosby show it came around that he worked at a uh trader, joe's that's right, we were talking about that. Because suspiciously all the residuals dried up Don't know why.

Speaker 1 25:19

What can I say? Well, that's going to roll us into our topic for the day, malcolm.

Speaker 3 25:25

Jamal.

Speaker 1 25:25

Warner cutie, though that smile. What a adorable guy.

Speaker 3 25:29

He always was working. It was either acting. If it was acting, roles His eight-year-old daughter. Oh my goodness, he did some music for a while.

Speaker 2 25:40

He did some poetry.

Speaker 3 25:42

I think he became kind of a renaissance man in the world of arts.

Speaker 1 25:47

I love it. I mean I don't because he's gone, Right.

Speaker 3 25:53

But what a?

Speaker 1 25:53

cutie, I'm not going to go down all this, because I'm just quickly reading an article and there's conflicting reports and yada, yada, yada. We don't need to spurn any more gossip than we already do because, we're going to do a lot of that Trust, but verify.

Speaker 3 26:07

Exactly.

Speaker 1 26:12

And then finally, hulk Hogan yeah, 71 years old. I don't know why he died, but he's dead. And this is where we start talking about how we feel about that. Certainly because there are. You know, we are older ladies now. We've been around for a half century, and so people have had 50 years to fuck shit up, from the day that we were born until now, and he did some good fucking up, fucking shit up.

Speaker 1 26:37

And there are people and I don't mean that in a rasslin kind of way, I mean that in a he was not fucking shit up?

Speaker 1 26:42

no, not like that. He was fucking shit up in making people's lives more miserable kind of way, right. So there are people who are iconic parts of like the 70s, 80s, 90s parts of our childhood, who then grew up to maybe be not the best humans or maybe weren't making very good choices. As gentle parenting would say Are you making a good choice today? Is this a good choice? Hulk Hogan did not make a good choice, absolutely. And how do we reconcile that without sort of turning our memories into like idols you know, like that we can't discuss as full, complex human beings who make bad choices I think that this sort of stems from.

Speaker 1 27:28

well, I know that this stems from a conversation I posted on the Facebook group by the same name of this podcast and and I posted in there and said Megan and Leslie Ramble.

Speaker 2 27:42

Exactly, that's the group. Exactly, join that group. We do a great job.

Speaker 1 27:46

But we, I posted in there about him dying and I did that on purpose. Sure it's relevant. Because it was relevant. Also, I wanted to be the one to control the story and not have like 5,000 other people post about him Miserable.

Speaker 1 28:01

Because he doesn't really, frankly, deserve 5,000 people talking about him really, and so I posted about it. I said I didn't agree with his politics, I didn't agree with him professionally or socially or whatever, but yes, or socially or whatever, but and you can still have an emotional connection to a time and place when he was relevant to us. Like World Wildlife Federation, it is now WWF the. World Wrestling Federation. When that was a thing I remember as a kid, thinking it was really fun, did I watch a whole wrestling match?

Speaker 2 28:44

Maybe one, maybe two. Thought the Ultimate Warrior was really cool. He was kind of a dude. Thought Andre the Giant was cool, yeah.

Speaker 1 28:54

But didn't do lickety shits about hulk hogan necessarily, other than that he was just one of those right characters. Yes, pop culture references. There was a cartoon yeah, yeah for sure like, maybe like movie, cameos or tv show you had macho man, randy savage, snapping into a slim gym.

Speaker 1 29:11

You know like so, but like wrestling was kind of it had this heyday and while it wasn't like front and center in my life, it was sort of out there on the outskirts of my life and and hulk hogan was sort of a part of that. So, like, how do you, how do you square up the fact that he was a terrible person right with like this warm fuzzy that you have about that point in your childhood? Yes, we have to have complex thought then. I know, like emotions and thoughts. Yes, is this a? Should we pause now?

Speaker 1 29:49

We probably should, then we can get into it, we'll take a little break and then we'll kind of come back. And oh, I have a list for you Start.

Speaker 3 29:57

I'm so glad you have a list I have a list of other people I am excited, have broken our hearts. Who may have broken our hearts.

Speaker 1 30:05

That sounds great. Uh, we'll be back in just a little bit gen x women are sick of.

Speaker 2 30:10

The shit is supported by lilas. Love you like a sis, a gen x women's, X Women's Social Club.

Speaker 1 30:15

What's Lilas Megan?

Speaker 2 30:17

Lilas is our off platform, off the books of faces, off all of the other traditional social media. It is our space and place for Gen X women to come together, have conversations, meet each other.

Speaker 1 30:32

It's a social club. It is a social club. It's a membership-based club. Memberships are $10 a month. That does help support us in growing the platform. We purchased a platform that would host a network of women so that you could come together and meet each other in real time In a safer space than a traditional social media platform and a much more personal space.

Speaker 1 31:01

So what do we do there, leslie? We host movie nights where we live stream some of our favorites as they are available to us for group watches of films from the 70s, 80s and 90s. We host a space for a monthly book club. We host trivia nights once a month. We have a live text chat.

Speaker 2 31:26

Four prizes even.

Speaker 1 31:27

Four prizes. That's true. The space is able to host weekly text chats so that you can kind of check in in real time with people. I would say the critical difference between post like weekly text chats so that you can kind of check in in real time with people, I would say the critical difference between kind of what this space is and any other social media space that I've experienced, is that it is active. You will have to engage in it or be engaged in it by other people. So it's not like a passive consumption thing, it's like making connections, yep. And if that's what you're looking for the opportunity to meet other people, to find people who are maybe in the same similar spaces as you are Like-minded, same time, phase of life, navigating all of those transitions Then this might be the right place for you.

Speaker 2 32:14

So check out, lylas. You can learn more about it at genxwomenpodcom.

Speaker 1 32:29

Hey, so we're back. We are back, which is cool, all right, so I'm going to preface this. I've got a list. Oh yeah, you have a big disclaimer. I've cool, all right, so I'm going to preface this I've got a list.

Speaker 3 32:36

Oh yeah, you have a big disclaimer I've got a canceled list.

Speaker 1 32:40

I'm going to preface this by saying this was all done on a Google of people, yes, and you know kind of stuff that I sort of remembered. Then I'd look it up and I'd be like, oh okay, I'm remembering this, maybe correctly, and some lists that were online of people who you know, celebrities who maybe had gone awry, made not good choices made not good potentially made, not good choices right so some of these confirm or deny some of these we can, because we know that we've caught them on.

Speaker 1 33:10

They were caught on tape saying things, or video or they went to trial and they were convicted or whatever, but oh, convicted or whatever you know uh, you know, back when convictions mattered, um, and then in the olden days, back in the we old age days 2024. Good, jesus, anyway. So, uh, my, my like disclaimer is if you are one of these people who I name, off and uh, I said bad about you blame the Internet, don't blame me.

Speaker 1 33:41

Yeah, right, yeah, if somebody on this list is listening to our podcast, we might be Thank you, and if they're mad about it, then I guess we've made it. I don't know, like that's a whole new level. I guess we'll I guess I guess, but none of this, none of what I'm about to like say about any of these people, is secret, like I don't have the inside scoop on.

Speaker 1 34:08

No, actually only one that I kind of have the inside scoop on you have a mini inside, mini inside scoop, which yeah, just a, and it's not really that big anyway, but we're gonna hype it up and make it like it's a big fucking deal.

Speaker 1 34:21

It's so not. It was pretty much. You know exactly what happened to marilyn monroe. Like you know, you have all the inside info. I know who killed jfk. Yeah, you did. I really don't. Um, okay, so I'm just going to rattle these people off. This, literally, was just me like brainstorming, and it is, and the purpose of this list, this is like talking about all of the celebrities and people from our past that I could remember right.

Speaker 1 34:48

Right, and there are, I'm sure, an infinite amount more than I'm listing here. Absolutely, but I ran out of you know, my hand started cramping and all the things.

Speaker 3 34:58

Room time.

Speaker 1 34:59

Time room, all the things. So this is just like an idea of the sheer number of people that have been sort of canceled or caught doing shitty things or whatever that of names of people that we would recognize. And then now we got to figure out how we come to grips with all of these artists of various types and dealing with that sort of like emotional what the fuck? Reconciling the feelings of your child self with, hopefully, the rational thought not even rational thought, the what's it called?

Speaker 3 35:34

Oh man, this is a terrible one to lose the word on, not criticism.

When Childhood Heroes Go Bad

Speaker 1 35:40

It's totally gone. It's fine, you'll find it it'll come back. I'm just gonna keep thinking about it all right, so here we go. So, uh, I just don't think there's anything wrong with him, but like people totally have canceled tom cruise, from time to time it comes and goes comes and waves.

Speaker 1 35:56

Maybe he was kind of a douchebag I think he's been a dick. Every once in a while. There is that recording of like flipping out on his crew during covid yeah, okay, yeah but like it was also like kind of a reasonable thing to flip out about okay like you just need to scream.

Speaker 2 36:13

He, he jumped up and down on the sofa with with oprah, you know, like I don't, is that like a bat I?

Speaker 1 36:19

don't know. Anyway, well it used to be. Remember it got howard dean out of the election and if only that was the. That was really fucking magical. I just want to honor. It was like your enthusiasm surprised you. You were like what happened?

Speaker 2 36:38

Howard Dean just entered your body Just came in and out of my body. That got him knocked out of the election. Isn't that insane?

Speaker 1 36:47

Yes, yes, right. And then there are actual things that should get you knocked out of the election Back in the way old ancient times, olden days.

Speaker 3 36:58

The olden days In the 1900s. When you could not do shit when sanity and reason existed.

Speaker 1 37:07

Okay, so Tom Cruise Along that same line, although she has apparently said some racist things in the past. Gwyneth Paltrow oh, she's a mess, I mean, we don't even have to talk about that but like fucking goop, goop and the there's a lot of goop hate, like snake woman, salesman nonsense. Snake oil style Things that are actually going to harm you. Do not put a fucking egg in your vagina ever. Did she?

Speaker 2 37:40

say that the yoni eggs. Oh, that's right. Oh, holy Jesus, don't do that. Please don't put that up in your hoo-hoo.

Speaker 1 37:45

My God, there are great sex toys that you can buy. You don't need that. All right, jerry Seinfeld he has apparently dated a teenager while he was in his 30s oh yeah.

Speaker 2 37:58

Creepy yeah.

Speaker 1 38:01

Bill Murray apparently has had some bad behavior on set to women in the past. Well being of our you know generations. Yep, I can imagine that. We know that. Jim Carrey got a little anti-vaxy oh okay, he got a little wackadoo on that. He also told margot robbie that the only reason that she was ever cast or anything was because she's pretty. Oh, it's kind of bullshit. Well, all right I mean are you gonna pay me a bunch of money.

Speaker 2 38:32

That's kind of bullshit yeah, I mean okay, don't care for that pretty great, and that's like a backhanded compliment.

Speaker 1 38:39

Yeah, right, uh, jenny mccarthy along the same anti-vax line uh, john schneider. So this one, oh, dukes of hazard, dukes of hazard. Okay, won't surprise me. Throw it at me. No, he's just, he's super Trumpy and he was very much like anti-vax and he got super grumpy about the fact that we shut down businesses, you know, to keep people from dying, and he mouthed off, I think about like Obama and all kinds of stuff. So super bummer because I was a huge Dukes fan.

Speaker 3 39:10

They were the hotties, I know.

Speaker 1 39:12

Yes, I really liked him. I mean, if we all could have jumped in the windows of our cars at 16, we would have. Yes, because if I looked like Daisy Duke in those shorts, I probably would have worn those shorts and jumped in the window of my car. Mm-hmm, amazing, yeah. But notwithstanding the fact that the Dukes of Hazzard was the Dukes of Hazzard Right, all the things, the rebel flag, all the stuff. The car let's go with the name for just a second right we're just going to like really hype up the South and the Confederacy.

Speaker 1 39:46

It's great yeah.

Speaker 2 39:47

Amazing it's so, rosy.

Speaker 1 39:49

Let's hope not.

Speaker 2 39:51

Okay.

Speaker 1 39:58

Leonardo DiCap? Great yeah, let's hope not.

Speaker 3 39:59

Uh, okay, leonardo dicaprio yes, I'm sorry to my sweet, sweet daughter who is 25 years old, you have aged out of dating oh, you're too fucking old.

Speaker 1 40:03

Yes, he like he dumps girls when they're 25. Uh, johnny depp, there's a lot there right I'm not gonna go into all that, but he's. He's had his drama, drew Barrymore. She crossed the picket line during the writer's strike. Oh, kind of bullshit, right.

Speaker 2 40:18

Yeah, like not cool. Christian Bale there's a lot there too.

Speaker 1 40:25

Charlie Sheen kind of went off on Twitter with a little racism here and there.

Speaker 3 40:31

A little casual racism, just a little Dropped a little bit of that.

Speaker 1 40:35

I have Robert Downey Jr on my list, but I would like to just say welcome back Robert Downey Jr for bringing it all the way back, for sure. So now he's like Good dude, nobody remembers any of that stuff. Yeah, he's fully back, michael Jackson, of course. How do you feel about that? Well, and so it's so. So I think this one is particularly tricky because like and this comes well, they're all tricky some things are just fucking stupid. Right where you're just like you just did, fucking stupid shit. Yes, don't cross the picket line drew. Don't say racist, say racist shit. You know, keep that on the inside, like we all have to live together.

Speaker 1 41:14

If you have those feelings like you're still a shitty person, but like absolutely Keep it to yourself. Like there's stuff going on with JK Rowling now and yet, harry. Potter still is a magical part of my adulthood and my children's childhood and that world is very important and she wrote those books of a time in that moment that was not a part of her story in that moment. And now her like anti-trans supposed defense of women is insanity it makes her look like she's a fucking terrible person.

Speaker 1 41:50

Yeah, I don't know what's going on in your little cracker noggin, but it's going on and.

Speaker 3 41:55

Harry.

Speaker 1 41:55

Potter's still magical and the book is still important. So how do we have those conversations? And we need to be able to have hard conversations like that and without getting our panties in a twist.

Speaker 2 42:07

And taking it personally.

Speaker 1 42:09

Right, right, without fighting about it.

Speaker 2 42:11

with it, yeah exactly because none of us live with her.

Speaker 1 42:14

No, she's not even I'm not entirely sure I want to live with her like, but I still want to read the books like.

Speaker 2 42:20

I still want to enjoy the movies.

Speaker 1 42:21

I still want you know and I guess, like you do kind of have to have that moment of squaring up. If I go buy a new copy of this book for certain, I am now supporting somebody who I disagree with their you know, with their their thoughts, and so each individual has to kind of like make those choices right, Like if I'm going to enjoy this art, buy it on the secondary market, use copies, whatever. How do you do that? And for some people it might be a hardcore like fuck, no, like it's destroyed. My vision of this, I can't ever engage with it again. It is painful for me to know this about this person. I would imagine there are lots of people from our generation with michael jackson where that was like particularly painful.

Speaker 1 43:03

Right, I can never like it colors everything and it actually makes it like a traumatic experience. Right to go back into those places or listen to that music or whatever. Um, so I think it's also a really individual decision. Well, and I'll throw out this one. This is going to be like the, the cherry on the top but bill cosby. Oh right, like I mean, do I want to have dinner with bill cosby? Fuck, no, I don't. But do I want to get out the old bill cosby albums where he talks about before?

Speaker 3 43:34

we know anything, even pre-cosby show like yes, we loved it. There's the chocolate cake yeah, we love the chocolate cake dad is great, he gives us a chocolate cake.

Speaker 1 43:47

Yeah, we're gonna get there, we'll get there, get there eventually. But yeah, like that is still funny. Yes, like I will go to my grave thinking that is funny. But yes, do I do. I think he's a terrible person, you know? Yeah, and that's where that like money, isolation, a feeling of specialness, exceptionalism- I can do whatever I want power over, like.

Speaker 1 44:13

All of that is incredibly problematic, agreed, um, I yeah, I don't know how much I want to say I just I remember reading some interviews with different cast members who were kind of trying to like in real time reconcile what was happening in the trials with their personal relationships, and I can just only imagine how difficult that was. I mean, this was their.

Speaker 1 44:36

Like Malcolm Jamal Warner right, that was his quote unquote dad for years, years and he may have had a very I can't, I'm projecting, I have no idea. He may have had a very, a very good relationship with him and then had to watch all this unfold in real time, that's and like how do you reconcile that?

Speaker 3 44:56

it's so freaking, what do you?

Speaker 1 44:57

do when he calls you on the phone exactly like do you take that call right and what kind of conversation do you have right? And I think we've seen that play out many times recently because of social media. You know, there have been some high profile things where this is playing out. People are trying to suss out our relationships or their relation. I don't have any relationships with these people.

Speaker 3 45:22

Let me be clear.

Speaker 1 45:24

They're trying to suss out their relationships and what they knew of someone with new information. Yeah, agreed, so other people on this list I was just, oh yeah, the one that I, the one that I have like a not entirely first-hand account, but uh, frank oz, who does the voice of miss piggy, and yeah, yeah and um what did frank?

Speaker 1 45:45

do, and a friend of mine had to drive him around while he was in town. For I don't remember something for years and years and years and years ago okay, and sure, apparently frank was not a very nice guy.

Speaker 3 45:58

Oh, just kind of a bummer snarky like again yeah yeah, just a little like you know and a little misogyny I'm frank, but he probably said it like mr piggy, so um, at least in my head, I hope uh, okay, so jackie chan.

Speaker 1 46:13

Jackie chan disowned his uh daughter for being a lesbian. Oh, like back in the day, wild, I didn't remember this one there's been reconciliation there. I hope so. Madonna sexually assaulted a 17 year old girl on stage.

Speaker 3 46:26

I didn't remember that I found that on the google and I was like I'm sure there had to be video evidence of that.

Speaker 2 46:34

Yeah, I'm pretty sure um mark walberg.

Speaker 1 46:37

You know asian hate crime um silo green. He slipped ecstasy into a woman's drink and then assaulted her.

Speaker 2 46:44

Oh, that's not cool.

Speaker 1 46:47

Uh don, henley, if you want to go in the wayback machine. Apparently there was a 16 year old that overdosed naked in his house so you know, no shit, don henley man, and I'm assuming that's documented yeah, yeah, yeah for sure, um you know, chris brown and rihanna oh yeah jack nicholson beat a sex worker up. I know, right like this is all people isn't that interesting, because surely I heard about this I'm sure it's just like, where did that go in my brain?

Speaker 1 47:17

like it's funny how just time over time they can kind of come back out of the way for sure you know hey suddenly jack's in the second row with the you know oscars again or you know.

Speaker 1 47:28

Whatever you still have your career, yeah, so let's see, uh, and do you change right? Like, how do we right you right? Have you changed? Did you learn from it, grow? Have you, like you know, apologize, it's more than that. Have you made reparations for your behavior then? Like, how did you navigate that? Or did you literally just hide out for long enough until you're? Out of the headlines until somebody else is, you know, right back in the headlines, because that would be like a pretty probably private process.

Speaker 1 47:58

Well, you know that there's apology public relations people who that's their whole job. Right, they're like. They're like the cleaners in sure like gang language like right mafia language. Right, they're the wolf that comes in and like cleans up after somebody who makes like a very poor choice, that would be yeah, did you make a poor choice? Did you do bad? I would almost rather just like literally actually scrub the blood off the floor then be the, then be the pr person having this pr like no, you gotta get your ass out there and mea culpa, buddy like we're not hiding this like god, the stories they must have.

Speaker 1 48:35

I can't even imagine uh, you know, I just think about, like some other people on the list like Don King stomped an employee to death after pistol whipping him, fuck off, and that dude is loose on in the world. Is he still alive? I'm looking at Tim.

Speaker 2 48:54

Producer Tim's like, I think he still is.

Speaker 1 48:57

Who, low-key, was just yawning over there. He's like clearly he's not that interested in what we have to say. I'm like maybe we should go faster. I don't know. I saw Don King in Las Vegas during another person who we should probably talk about, Mike Tyson's fight.

Speaker 3 49:13

Okay, yeah, I was like that sounds right, Absolutely so yeah. Don King, yes, alive. How old he's? 93.

Speaker 1 49:23

Has he apologized In jail, not in jail?

Speaker 3 49:27

I would say at 93, you ain't gonna get Don King to apologize.

Speaker 1 49:31

No Shit. I hope he had to pay a lot of things. Did he go to jail for a little while?

Speaker 3 49:37

I was told this episode would have no fact checking. This is all hearsay.

Speaker 1 49:44

I mean, we are pretty upfront Like go trust but verify Trust but verify, Like anything that we say go, there's probably some reasonable truth in that he served term for second degree murder. Okay, there we go. Doesn't sound like he'd serve very long. And then he went out and did it again.

Speaker 3 50:03

One to 20 years imprisonment.

Speaker 1 50:06

That was his sentence, one to 20.

Speaker 3 50:09

Yep.

Speaker 1 50:10

How long did he serve?

Speaker 2 50:12

Do you?

Speaker 1 50:12

have Donald Trump's lawyer.

Speaker 2 50:14

Jesus.

Speaker 1 50:15

Christ. Sorry, no, I'm like in support of you.

Speaker 3 50:22

I don't see.

Speaker 1 50:24

Anyway. Anyway, we don't have to dig into it too deep.

Speaker 3 50:27

I mean, this was back in 1966.

Speaker 1 50:30

So you know, True Human life was cheap then Okay, I guess he paid his way out of it. I can, I can keep my mouth shut so you can go through your list. Oh, I won't go through the whole list. Okay, as I'm looking at this, it's, it's very long I mean you've got a list of like probably 40 people there's at least 40 people in here.

Speaker 1 50:48

You know people like Armie Hammer, oh, like, okay, first of all, fucked it up, utterly not related to anything he's done. He's fine. You gotta separate the art from the artist. Do I want to have and I'm quoting here dinner with him? No, I do not, no, no, I do not, not, I do not. I do not wish to be his dinner or have dinner with him.

Speaker 1 51:18

Uh, but he is fine oh, that's funny as shit I mean freaking like chrissy teigen bullying people on social media like she got all canceled and stuff because of that, like yeah during covid. I do have jk rolling on my list. I got faye faye done away for like gay bashing and smash and smacking her crew members like you know place for that in the world? None of that kanye west. I don't even know like the list is, so fucking long with him?

Speaker 2 51:48

I don't even know I can't even tell you what the hell he's done.

The Canceled Celebrity List

Speaker 1 51:50

Rick schroeder, oh that he yeah silver spins lord have mercy got some issues. Uh, paula dean, oh okay, she's a, I mean just not the typical what I might assume. She's peach, oh okay. Uh, big time, you know, racial and sexual harassment. Okay, she's not is she not a good person, louis CK. Yeah, you remember he liked to drop his drawers and Tim is looking at us like I don't know what's wrong with that. He liked to masturbate in front of, like other comedians, just without their consent.

Speaker 3 52:26

Yeah, oh, I mean I guess it's funny Like you're just off stage hanging out or in the audience.

Speaker 1 52:31

I guess, it's funny, or what are we doing? I don't know, but he's sort of back Like he's starting to make, like he's starting to do, like shows and stuff again, Keep it in your pants.

Speaker 1 52:39

Louis, like, come on, louis, roseanne Barr, golly, gee, willikers, she just keeps digging that, digging that, that take that it's. It's that whole cognitive dissonance and the like. If you, you can't come into contact with the truth of what the feedback that people are giving you, yeah, maybe you should keep your mouth shut. No, because if you go, oh, oh, is that am I hurting people? Am I doing something wrong? Yeah, no, your whole fucking ego structure right, shatters right and she could not do that she like tried to destroy multiple people's lives by cannon.

Speaker 1 53:15

Shit, cannon that show or getting that, can't that? Show oh yeah, and like did not ever let up. That's just wild.

Speaker 2 53:22

Just totally wild Get. A hobby.

Speaker 1 53:24

She needs one. Uh, mel Gibson, mel Gibson, crazy Uh just just me saying it, I'm just gonna say it uh Alec Baldwin. He, you know, had some uh issues and then like then there's people like what are the rumored issues? What was Alec? What did he? Do he, uh, he went on a racist rant against a photographer okay, and then wasn't Alec Baldwin also?

Speaker 1 53:50

the. I can't I don't remember if it was Mel Gibson or Alec Baldwin or both that had like the the drinking the night, drinking on video and like being all like disheveled and oh shit.

Speaker 3 54:04

No, I don't know, that's David Hasselhoff.

Speaker 1 54:07

Wait what he did, it too.

Speaker 3 54:09

Shirtless drunk off his ass.

Speaker 1 54:11

I remember that, but I swear to you Eating a cheeseburger that looks like it got dropped.

Speaker 2 54:16

Oh, I do remember that.

Speaker 3 54:17

I do remember that. No, the last thing.

Speaker 1 54:21

Alec Baldwin, david Hasselhoff, drunk cheeseburger, oh wait we can pull it up, oh my God, everybody go to YouTube right now. Look at him. Yeah, he's hammered. He was having a hard day. It for a long period of time.

Speaker 3 54:34

I'm pretty sure chat. He was just sort of laying on the ground no, he's talking to his daughter, who is the one recording it what so?

Speaker 1 54:41

who posted?

Speaker 3 54:42

it pretty mean his daughter why is he a dick?

Speaker 1 54:46

because her dad is drunk well, I would kind of try to keep that in the family and be like dad. What up? Yeah, Can we talk?

Speaker 3 54:54

No, they don't do that anymore.

Speaker 1 54:56

Perhaps you should like.

Speaker 3 54:57

No, that's, that's Gen X. We keep things private in the family.

Speaker 1 55:00

Well, no, I don't mean that I mean like this is a cry for help. Perhaps I need to get you to like a rehab or something. My dad is waste. I mean you don't just out somebody cause they're wasted.

Speaker 3 55:11

I mean, I don't think it was the first time. Oh, okay, I mean I just need some context here.

Speaker 1 55:16

This is all I'm asking.

Speaker 3 55:18

This was a while ago, and not the first time.

Speaker 1 55:20

Oh, fascinating, I had no idea, oh yeah. So like Mel Gibson had some stuff to, like he had a run in with Malibu cops.

Speaker 3 55:32

Oh yes.

Speaker 1 55:33

I do remember it. He loses his shit. I believe you should probably just drink at home by yourselves or with a couple of friends and not leave the house. Maybe ever.

Speaker 3 55:45

Just do that Rough, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 55:47

Rough rough rough.

Speaker 3 55:48

Okay so.

Speaker 1 55:50

We all have peaks and valleys. So much Pe. Peaks and valleys. So much peaks and valleys, friends. And then there's like people like chevy chase, where you know, just generally has a reputation for being not a nice guy. The transitions for actors that we watched in the 70s and 80s so let's say they were probably in their 20s and 30s into the 90s and 2000s were generally difficult because standards of behavior and I'm not talking about like assaulting people or being physically abusive- standards of behavior were different.

Speaker 1 56:25

So I can imagine that you woke up one day and all of your comedy about titties and hot chicks and, like innuendo, could you say titties again, titties.

Speaker 1 56:40

You know, titties, all the titty jokes that we see when we screen some of these 80s movies for fun, we're like damn, there are a lot of just like casual titties here, right, right, and things that you should not and would not say now, absolutely that for you, literally, it's like one day you woke up and somebody, somebody tells you you can't say titties anymore. And they're like what I've been saying titties for like 30 years and it's funny as fuck and everybody's like no, sir, right, because you know if they were saying that there's a whole lot of stuff going on too, for sure.

Speaker 1 57:16

So I can. I can hold that in context, but have you redeemed yourself as a human being?

Speaker 2 57:21

later on.

Speaker 1 57:22

That's true. I don't think that is probably true. We were talking about West Wing because Tim was saying that you had that he had watched recently, like rewatched West Wing In my mind because I haven't watched it since the 90s. It's progressive, it's you know, it's President Barton Barton, is that right?

Speaker 1 57:42

Bartlett, bartlett Jed, who is, you know, everybody's president and we all love him, and in my mind it's like super progressive and forward thinking and he's like tim's, like no yeah like it's not nearly as uh progressive as one might think, or certainly not where we are now, for fucking sure yes, everything has to be like on a scale right, but not physical or sexual abuse. That is not on the scale right.

Speaker 2 58:11

Right, I'm not entirely sure you could.

Speaker 1 58:13

Well, maybe you could, I don't know. I'm not sure you could make the movie nine to five now, oh interesting. All I remember is the winning part at the end where they tie up their boss. They're like what I mean, maybe I guess, maybe you could, maybe it'd be even more poignant now if you made it, I guess, maybe you could, maybe it'd be even more poignant.

Speaker 2 58:32

Now, if you made it, I'd be curious about what that would look like. Poor Dabney Coleman, I know.

Speaker 1 58:37

Just cut yeah. I don't remember the beginning of that film, so I don't remember what it would look like. I feel like he was probably hated for ages after that just because of that character.

Speaker 3 58:47

Oh, he was such a shitty terrible boss or whatever, yeah for sure.

Speaker 1 58:55

oh shitty like terrible boss or whatever um so this whole heroes, when heroes of our childhood go bad. Yeah, how do we reconcile that within ourselves? I think is sort of the conversation that we're having today. I think that's right. How do you I mean, do you have any? Do you have any words of wisdom that you would pass?

Speaker 2 59:11

on to people if they were like try and just struggle with this a little bit.

Reconciling Art and Problematic Artists

Speaker 1 59:16

I mean, it would be my preference that we not like idealize people that you hold space for the fact that, indeed, your favorite childhood, whomever, probably made some bad choices Because they human, because they are human beings and they're gonna fuck up, yeah, and like it. You can have this complexity of thought where it's like oh, I still love that. From when?

Speaker 2 59:43

I was eight, I had this great memory of, even if it's your.

Speaker 1 59:46

I had a great memory of meeting hulk hogan as a little kid and he was really nice to me and gave me a t-shirt. Sure, that was important, and I think that that probably happened for many kids. Sure, and and then I found out about bad choices that he made later on and that made me sad but, I can still love that memory and go damn.

Speaker 3 1:00:06

I wish you'd made a better choice later on Right Right, right, you kind of broke my heart a little bit there not lose your shit about it like it's, so it's okay.

Speaker 1 1:00:16

Well, we didn't even get it like neil gaiman gaiman yeah, problematic you know, there's some really icky behaviors. And how do we read? Or do we read those books or comic books or whatever? Because, oh, neil Gaiman, yeah, not Diamond. No, no, no, no, no, gaiman. Yeah, I said Gaiman, I was like Gaiman, gaiman, gaiman.

Speaker 2 1:00:40

Yes, I thought you said Diamond, neil Diamond.

Speaker 3 1:00:42

What happened to Neil Diamond?

Speaker 1 1:00:43

No, Neil Diamond's the best.

Speaker 3 1:00:52

I've seen him in concert like three times so good.

Speaker 2 1:00:53

He's probably done some shitty things, though, like he's probably I don't know, I think dinged a car sometime in a parking lot or whatever, and he didn't bring her flowers no, he didn't, so he fucking dropped that ball fucking love songs.

Speaker 1 1:01:01

Not anymore, we just really would hardly talk to her when she came through the door at the end of the night. No, at the end of the night, no at the end of the day. Um so good, neil gaiman, yes, not guy, yes gaiman coralline, all the things. Yes, how do we do that? Yes, not of the 80s. We can stop talking about it and his story right is still being written like he is. It's can. Shit keeps coming out, happening now.

Speaker 3 1:01:34

In real time.

Speaker 2 1:01:36

On television.

Speaker 1 1:01:38

Oy, so you know both. And If you find yourself going but no, maybe go take your inner child into a corner and have a little chat about how all the grownups don't know everything. And your parents probably made mistakes, and so did your favorite stars, yeah. And then you just have to decide how you want to move forward. Right, right, we can just maybe end on that.

Speaker 1 1:02:01

I think that's awesome. Leslie, Good job. You Whoop whoop, yeah, Because we got a lot of thinking to do and some people to. We're sitting in our thinking corners. I got to sit in my thinking corner Write some notes and listen to Neil Diamond, not read Neil Gaiman.

Speaker 2 1:02:19

There's fucking worse things to do than sit in your corner and listen to Neil.

Speaker 3 1:02:22

Diamond.

Speaker 1 1:02:22

Because you know what we're coming to America Today, not anymore. Uh-huh, I did think it was ironic. We haven't talked since, really, the 4th of July. I do think it was Uh Ironic that the Fireworks that they played Downtown in Indianapolis they used that song.

Speaker 2 1:02:41

Did they really? And I was like Did anybody?

Speaker 1 1:02:44

Listen to the lyrics Of this song Right All about Immigration, meanwhile.

Speaker 3 1:02:48

This is like you know.

Speaker 1 1:02:49

Out there in the crowd picking people off.

Speaker 3 1:02:51

I know.

Speaker 1 1:02:53

Watching the fireworks? No, but it should be our anthem, it should? I got mad support for that. My country disappear, sweet land of liberty, between that and Sweet Caroline. We just need a good round of Sweet Caroline at the end Turn on. Or maybe it's like turn on your heart light, oh a little ET yeah.

Speaker 1 1:03:13

Falling in the middle of a young boy's dream. Don't wake me up too soon. That's all folks Gonna take a ride across the moon. We'll be back in a couple of weeks. You have been listening to Gen X. Women Are Sick of this shit. Hey megan, hey leslie. What do people do if they want to find us?

Speaker 2 1:03:38

well. We have a website that people can find us on, and that is gen x women podcom. We also have a facebook page. We have an instagram account as well. We have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram account as well. We have a YouTube account where we put YouTube shorts and other little tidbits up there. We have a TikTok account. I don't talk the dick or tick the tock. You don't tick the tock, I barely talk the tick, but I did put a TikTok up.

Speaker 1 1:04:07

We're explaining the internet to people. Again, that's okay, though it's great.

Speaker 2 1:04:09

We need to know how the internet to people. That's okay, though it's great.

Speaker 1 1:04:11

We need to know how the internet works.

Speaker 2 1:04:14

Can people buy merch? They absolutely can. We have a merch store on the website itself, and we also have an Etsy store too, so it's just pretty easy to find. It's just Gen X Women on Etsy.

Speaker 1 1:04:27

And if you are listening to this podcast, presumably you found it somewhere. And while you're there, give us a review. Yeah, let us know what you think. Throw some stars at us, that'd be great. We'll take one, two, three, four or five oh, five maybe.

Speaker 2 1:04:43

And and also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode drops. Most important, important we also have a 5 Minutes of Fame that I think we should tell people about too.

Speaker 1 1:04:55

Hell. Yes, we want to know your stories, your 5 Minutes of Fame stories. You can send those stories in on the website or you can call 1-888-GEN-X-POD and leave your story for us and we will play it live in our next episode. Yep.

Speaker 2 1:05:12

We'll listen to it on a little red phone, just like Batman. That'd be cool. Let's get a bad phone, a bad phone. I think that's it.

Speaker 1 1:05:22

I think you're right.