Home Page
cover of Pop Culture Power 2-1-2024
Pop Culture Power 2-1-2024

Pop Culture Power 2-1-2024

jshock

0 followers

00:00-36:35

Nothing to say, yet

1
Plays
0
Downloads
0
Shares

Audio hosting, extended storage and much more

AI Mastering

Transcription

In this episode of Pop Culture Power, the host discusses various pop culture news. They mention the release of the video game Tekken 8 and the new Mr. and Mrs. Smith TV show on Amazon Prime. They also talk about Larry David assaulting Elmo on the Today Show, the 25th anniversary of Family Guy, and the passing of actor Carl Weathers. The host then gives their thoughts on the Mr. and Mrs. Smith TV show, describing it as a spy action comedy drama with a slow build-up and intriguing questions. They also mention another show called Love and WWE, which follows the lives of married pro wrestlers Bianca Belair and Montez Ford. The host praises their entertaining personalities and the show's appeal to both wrestling fans and non-fans. Welcome, everybody, boys, girls, children of all ages. How y'all doing today? Welcome to another episode of Pop Culture Power, y'all. So hold on, let me adjust this volume a bit. There you go. Y'all should be able to hear me a little bit better now. But anyways, how y'all doing? Unfortunately, Eric will not be able to join me today. He's busy putting in that work, just trying to study for an exam or get some homework done, one of those two things. He's busy doing something. Whatever he's doing right now, it's very important. But let's just get into the headlines, y'all, dig into that. So first up, the video game, the fighting video game Tekken 8 was just dropped a couple days ago. I don't have any, I don't think there's any numbers out right now about, you know, what kind of sales they got going on. But I assume, you know, it's going to sell pretty well considering the fact, I mean, Tekken is a, it's a very big time fighting game. I mean, it's one of the most, I think it's the highest selling fighting game, one of the highest selling fighting games in the world, so, you know, sales are good there. The Mr. and Mrs. Amazon Prime TV show, the Mr. and Mrs. Smith reboot TV show was just dropped today on Amazon Prime. I actually watched the first episode of it, so I'll give you my first reactions for the next segment. You know, but to be clear, of course, I did like it, of course. It's starring Donald Glover, and I forget the other actress's name, I think, or it's like Maya something, hold on, apologies. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine are the stars of it, and yeah, we'll talk about it in the next segment. Let's see, also as well, you know, Pop Culture News, Larry David assaults Elmo on the Today Show. So, for those who don't know, Elmo, I think about a week ago, you know, he sent a tweet, you know, asking, hey, how's everybody doing? And you know, so many different people were like, nah, it's not good, people, you know, almost as a joke, people are saying, yeah, nah, I'm not doing okay, and he was talking about that on the Today Show. And then after his segment's over, Larry David just, you know, the comedian Larry David just pops out of nowhere, and just starts punching the Elmo puppet, just for absolutely no reason. It's the funniest thing ever, you gotta check it out yourself, but yeah, so he did that on the Today Show. Also, too, Family Guy is celebrating its 25th anniversary, it's celebrated this week, 25 years of some of the craziest jokes we've ever heard, shout out Family Guy, big fan here. I think The Simpsons is better, but Family Guy's cool, too, I respect it. And it's a bit sadder news, Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies, passed away today. Yep. So, Carl, he's played Apollo Creed, he's played in the Predator movies, he, you know, of course, he's an important actor, and we're gonna miss him, you know? So, don't go away, coming up right next, coming up next is the song Churches by Over, so stick around, and we'll talk about the newest Mr. and Mrs. Smith TV show on Amazon Prime. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to Pop Culture Power, y'all. For those of you who didn't hear it in the beginning, my name is Brandon Houser, normally across from me right now, and I have my best friend, Eric Busman, you know, helping me out here, but he's busy right now, it's okay, it's my ship anyways, I got it. So, let's get to it. So, today they just dropped the first episode to a reboot called Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Now, for those of you who don't know, the original Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a movie made in 2004, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Ironically enough, I mean, it's a good movie, you know, but I think the part that kind of overshadows the movie itself is the fact that that movie actually, I'm pretty sure they started an affair on the set of that movie, and I guess then started a 10-year marriage, you know? It's crazy how love works that way, I guess, in Hollywood, but anyways, so Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the Amazon Prime version that just came out today, is basically, it's about two spies who pretend to be a couple for their missions, you know? Now, this is an action spy show, but it's not action 100% of the time, you know what I'm saying? I guess the best way to put it, you know, it's not, it's foot isn't always on the gas, you know what I'm saying? This show definitely is, like, it takes a little bit to build up, not only its premise, but also to just the relationship between the two main characters. Because what I do like is, you know, the two main characters, their codenames are John and Jane Smith. I don't think I caught their actual names, I don't remember, but either way, you know, the female and the male spy, you know, I really think that, like, the part of, like, the first, like, I only saw one episode, so this is all my just reactions from episode one, and also no spoilers, too, before I get deeper into it. I'm gonna do my best not to spoil it, you know, but I think what's really interesting about this show is the fact that it takes its time, like, you know, it gives you a lot of questions to ask, you know what I'm saying? Who are they working for, how are they gonna react to each other, like, what's their relationship gonna be like, you know, the mission, what is even the purpose of their mission, you know what I'm saying? Like, I love a show that leaves you asking questions, that, you know, keeps you hooked in for, you know, for the next episode. And this show does a really, really good job of that. As far as spy shows, I guess I haven't watched a ton of spy media, but, I mean, this is pretty good. So, I guess, you know, although it's a bit quieter, once, like, you know, the more, once it builds up, basically, to the climax, you know, it becomes quite a wild ride. I'll admit, there were parts where I was like, eh, this is kind of quiet, this is, you know, a little bit boring, you know, should I turn it off, but it managed to always keep me, like, you know, always watching, eventually, you know what I mean? And I just, I mean, I guess the best way to describe it, it's an action, action comedy drama. I mean, it's an action comedy drama, but the ratio of action, comedy, and drama, you know, I predict it's gonna, like, depend on the episode, but at least on the first episode, what I got from it, it's very much dramatic, some action, a little bit of comedy in there, too, you know? So, I like that. Um, yeah, that was really all the thoughts I have on it, you know? Like I said, I keep calling it a reboot, this is a reboot of, uh, the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie, which, of course, started, that caused, um, that caused those, uh, two, you know, actors to date in real life, which is interesting. Um, what, did it come out in 2004? Let me double-check that. That sounds about right, I know it came out in the early, 2005, I'm sorry, I got it all wrong, but yeah. Yeah, you know, like, it's a great movie, uh, I'm sure Brad Pitt's first wife, um, what's her name? Yeah, Jennifer Aniston probably friggin' hates this movie, but, hey, you know, that's the way the turkey rolls, I guess. Also, dude, if you've seen the original, this is, like, the, um, from what I can tell, the reboot also is definitely very different from the original as well, because the original movie was more, um, the concept was a little bit different. The original was about a married couple who neither, um, neither person knew about the other's job as, like, assassins, and this one, they're spies, you know, they're spies and they, you know, they know what they're getting to up front, so. I kinda like that a little bit, I like, I like, honestly, the newer versions, it's twist a little bit more, you know, but seeing two strangers fall in love, pretending to be in love, it's kind of an interesting concept to me, but I will be watching the original soon, maybe I'll talk about it on the show, I'll try to watch the original movie as well, but I think that concept sounds kind of cool as well, so yeah. The other show I want to talk about too, um, on the air, was, and I haven't gotten to see this one yet, but I, you know, I knew a lot about the concept and the topic of it, Hulu's Love and WWE, so, again, today, Hulu, I guess, you know, to celebrate Valentine's Day, Love and WWE is about this, uh, it's about this married couple, Bianca Belair and Montez Ford, who are, uh, you know, they're two pro wrestlers for the WWE, and, um, just what I've seen from trailers and whatnot, just seeing, you know, seeing the, uh, not just seeing their, like, personalities, because, you know, that thing about the pro wrestling world, if you don't have a good personality, you, you know, you're not gonna make it very far, and so just seeing two entertaining personalities, seeing them in this, you know, crazy world of wrestling, that, you know, it's a good 30 minutes, I think, you know what I'm saying? It fits a good amount of 30 minutes, and I think this is the kind of show, too, I think it's really smart for the WWE to do this, not only because they need some good PR, seeing as they're, you know, they're, um, the founder, who's no longer with the company, there's been any cues of every horrible thing under the sun, but also, as well, I mean, it's also cool to show, um, it's a great way to show, like, if you're not into wrestling at all, you know, if you've never watched wrestling before, it's still a good watch, because it's, you know, it's an interesting life situation to be in, and, I mean, they're just, Bianca and Montez are just, they're funny, man, they showed one clip of, on, um, it was the Kelly Clarkson show, where, um, I think Bianca's just like, she came home, buying some, you know, she came home with some baby clothes, I think they have, like, some stepchildren, I don't know, but, I don't think they have a baby of their own, that's the point, she came home with some, you know, baby clothes, and Montez was like, yo, what, what is all that, what's all that for, you trying to tell me something, I was like, no, no, I just bought it because I thought it was cute, like, and he's all confused about it, it's just that whole interaction was just, it's so funny to me, man, but, this is called Loving WWE on Hulu, um, like I said, it looks pretty funny, like, it looks funny, it looks entertaining, all that kind of stuff, you know what I'm saying, um, it just dropped a, like, Hulu, what else, there's something else I was going to say about it, oh, yeah, but, yeah, this is WWE's first time into, um, you know, digging into reality television, you know, I think the, um, their first ever time doing a reality TV show was, uh, Total Divas, yeah, Total, see, as a kid, I detested reality TV, just because, you know, a lot of it looked stupid, but, um, because I was a wrestling fan, I checked that out, and Total Divas, it's a somewhat similar concept to Loving WWE, Total Divas is basically about all the female wrestlers and their lives and what they go through, you know, um, on and off camera, and, um, I remember as a kid, I saw, I definitely saw the entirety of the first season, and I loved the first season, because, you know, it's cool to see what the, wrestlers, they have, I mean, they're just interesting people, man, and it's cool, you know, to see them, uh, interact with each other outside the ring and whatnot, and seeing, you know, just seeing them be themselves. After the first season, it became, like, very, like, reality TV-ish, very, very, almost like a documentary, honestly, like, the first, with a reality show format for the first season. After that, it became very, like, you could feel, like, the phoniness of it, you could feel, season two onwards, you could feel, like, you know, the producers are just, you know, they're pushing drama together, so to speak, you know. Um, I'll tell you one part that I also did feel phony, as well. So, one of the, um, I guess, like, the main stars of the show were the Bella Twins, these two female pro wrestlers. One of them, they're both dating, um, both twins are dating, uh, you know, big star-named pro wrestlers. Nikki Bella, at the time, was dating John Cena, and it seems like every episode, you know, Nikki Bella's like, oh, my gosh, I think he's cheating on me, and then, you know, she would try to investigate it with her sister, Brie, and it turns out, oh, no, actually, John's doing something really nice. Like, if that seemed to happen, like, once in the, or every episode John was available to star in, that would, like, somehow end up being the plot, which is, it gets repetitive and annoying, and it comes off as kind of phony after a while, but, yeah, Total Divas, you know, I think that did, I think that, I heard it did pretty well, and then they did a spinoff of just the Bella Twins after Total Divas, and they've also done other WWE couple reality shows, as well, like, um, The Miz and Maurice was an interesting one, because a lot of times, the reality stuff they do with wrestlers tends to be, it focuses on good guy or baby-faced wrestlers. The Miz is a heel, so seeing, you know, seeing him, like, interact with people, like, inside and outside of the show as, like, kind of this bad guy was kind of cool, and just seeing him, like, out of character was fun, um, but, yeah, yeah. So, Loving WWE, I'm gonna check out myself. I didn't actually get to, I spent so much time watching and researching for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, so I couldn't get a chance to watch Loving WWE, but I'll make sure to report back to you, don't worry, you know. It's a very cool little show, you know, so don't go away. We'll be talking about more here on Pop Culture Power, y'all. So, for our next topic of discussion, I was curious today, I was thinking about it today, I wanted to talk about band music and band music videos, you know what I'm saying? And I guess the reason why I was interested in this topic, because I thought about it, you know. The way music videos used to be distributed back in the day versus now are just, you know, entirely different, man. I mean, back in the day, of course, you know, I guess before the internet was like, really, uh, was a reliable way to, I guess, you know, send video, you would have to watch, you know, you would have to watch, you would have to make sure you had a certain place and time to watch music videos at home on cable TV, like MTV and stuff. Which meant that also, too, because, you know, cable television was pretty much the gatekeeper of music videos and music as a whole like that, you know, there was a lot of censorship going on, man. And so today I'll talk about a few interesting cases of censorship, you know, with music and music videos. And I guess first we'll start off with some of the ways MTV had to censor music videos, you know. So, you know, for those who, I guess all those young people out there, you don't know what it is. MTV, of course, is music television. Their main thing used to be showing music videos, but nowadays their main thing is showing ridiculousness. That's literally a show about, that's not an insult, that's literally a show of ridiculousness. It's like they show that on, you know, MTV like 24-7 these days, it's kind of insane at this point, you know. But, um, I guess we'll start off with, let's see here, how about Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston? This one I did not know. So apparently, um, I guess the song first came out, the song has the chorus, you know, um, you'll have me suicidal, suicidal when you say it's over. Because Beautiful Girls is basically a song, you know, about, um, I think it's kind of like, like getting broken up with, over getting a broken up, a beautiful girl breaking up with you. You know, and they had to change the word suicidal to in denial, which, that's not as bad censorship as some of the other things we talked about today, but I mean, and it still rhymes, hey. Let's see, oh, they also had to remove a few, uh, different slurs from, um, Michael Jackson's They Don't Care About Us video. Um, and you know, it wasn't like, he wasn't using them as genuine insults, I guess he was just talking about racism and they like, eh, it's a little bit far, can't say those on TV. So that's cool. Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot was, um, was only allowed to be edited after 9pm, um, that music video because, uh, MTV had a policy against showing female body parts without reference to a face. You know, I guess they considered it to be too, you know, sexual and whatnot. I think the interesting thing about that video is, I mean, if you watch, for people watching today, it seems like nothing, like now, compared to some of the stuff that's out there today, bro. That's just funny to me, man. Let's see, what else have we got here? Oh, also as well, oh, let's see, political content. Let's see here. Now, Wikipedia's my source, you shouldn't use Wikipedia as a source, yadda yadda yadda, no. My source is the New York Times. Hey, but in 2004, because I just found Wikipedia's source for what I'm saying, in 2004, uh, MTV basically accused Jay-Z's 99 Problems video of glorifying gun violence, and so as a result of that, they played an edited version of, there's a part in the video where Jay-Z, um, you know, Jay-Z in the video is getting shot outside of a, like a building in New York in black and white, and, uh, because of that, you know, they cut that part out of the video for the MTV playing of it, and it can only show on television between 6 and, 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Let's see, now, what else we got here? Oh, also as well, uh, in 2004, MTV was allowed to direct the Super Bowl halftime show, you know, which the Super Bowl has coming up in about two weeks, in about two weeks, you know what I'm saying, and the interesting thing about this, um, I guess this, uh, and for those who know what happened in the Super Bowl halftime show 2004, you know, uh, Janet Jackson accidentally got exposed by Justin Timberlake, uh, part of her body exposed, you know, which caused a real big stink around the world. It hurt her career. It didn't hurt Justin, not that it's hurt anybody's career for, you know, a mistake, but it's kind of wild people on her for what is really a harmless mistake at the end of the day, but, um, after that MTV, you know, on their own channel, um, because of the whole Janet Jackson thing, basically videos that were considered too racy, um, you know, to avoid SEC fines, they said, yeah, let's clamp down on these videos such as I Miss You by Blink-182, huh? Okay, that's weird. I don't, there's not anything like sexual about that song that I can think of. Let's see the Jump Off by Lil' Kim, Toxic by Britney Spears, and Dirty with Two R's by Christina Aguilera as well. Now let's talk about the videos that MTV as a whole banned, like they did not want to show. So let's see here, do-do-do. We have, where is it? What's the first one I want to talk about? Lost it. Oh, here we go. Try That in a Small Town by Jason Aldean. I was thinking about this song a couple of days ago, but, um, this one actually is fairly recent. Try That in a Small Town, this song came out about a month ago, and it was banned for, this is the term Wikipedia uses, oh, I'm sorry, MTV's, I guess their sister station, CMT, country music channel, pulled this, but this was banned for criticisms of select organizations. To get more, to add more detail to that, basically the video was accused of being somewhat racist because, you know, basically it is, basically the video, the song in the video said that, you know, doing things like flag burnings or protest at attacking police officers would not, you know, basically, oh, try that in a small town, see how far you make it down the road. And, you know, of course the attack of police officers isn't really the controversial part, that's not really tolerated anywhere, but the flag burning and the protest, you know, those are the legal, unharmful ways of protesting something. And a lot of people say, yeah, you know, that comes off as a little, and also too, another part of the issue as well, they weren't just like, the video and the song, the video in particular didn't seem to be against just protesting in general, it showed a lot of people of color protesting, which, you know, seemed like people said, it seemed like it was giving off the wrong idea, you know what I mean? So, of course, that one was banned. I can't find more information for this one, but the song Sun Showers by M.I.A. was banned for questionable lyrics. Let's see here, I Want to Break Free by Queen was banned for cross-dressing because it was the 80s, and I think that wasn't quite as tolerated. A couple of Madonnas seem to be banned quite a bit. I'm seeing multiple Madonna songs here, I'm seeing American Life by Madonna. Oh, that has a swear word in it, I can't say that. I'll say the part I can't say, Tika, that's part of a word, Tika. See, that was banned from MTV as well, but Beefs and Butthead got to show it, I guess, that's okay, that's different. Let's see. Also, this isn't music-related technically, but other like non-music shows on MTV did get censored as well, such as the show, I can't say this on the radio either, but it's a show starring Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O, it's another word for donkey, where they would basically, the show was about Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and a bunch of their cast and crewmates doing crazy stunts and pranks, like I think one prank involved Johnny Knoxville having a boxing match in a mall with this boxer, Butterbean, and a lot of these pranks and stunts, there was concern that some of the viewers were trying to imitate this, or they were trying to recreate the stunts and try to submit tapes to be cast members on TV. And this got so much to a concern that a point that politician Joe Lieberman actually asked Viacom to take more responsibility for the program's content, quote-unquote. And so because of this, that show could only be aired after 10 p.m. Another interesting show that got censored was Beefs and Butthead. Beefs and Butthead, it's a pretty straightforward cartoon, it's about two really stupid teenage kids reacting to music videos and doing dumb things on a regular basis. They would do really over-the-top crazy cartoony stuff, I think the episode in question that got concerned from people was called Comedians, where they accidentally burned down a comic club, and I think later on there's this child that accidentally burnt down his house, and Beefs and Butthead got blamed for that. And as a result of that whole controversy, the kid allegedly copying Beefs and Butthead, the show was – it was put at a 7 p.m. time slot. No, I'm sorry. It was removed from 7 p.m. It got put on an 11 a.m. time slot, so I guess just try and make sure less kids watch it. But that case is really interesting, so we're going to talk about that more in the next segment, and as well we'll talk about our Black History segment starring Denzel Washington, y'all, so stick around. Tune on in, y'all. It's Pop Culture Power Minute. Hey, welcome back, you. Still listening to me? Aw, thank you. I appreciate that. Shout out to everybody listening to the show right now. Shout out to my mom, my dad, my brothers and sisters, Cassidy, Jackson, and Bryant. Shout out to my grandma. Shout out to everybody listening to the show, bro. But previously on the last segment, we were talking about censorship with music and music videos, in particular with MTV, and then I found this case of Beefs and Butthead getting censored, and I want to talk about that a little bit as well because it's a really interesting case, in my opinion, so check this out. So Beefs and Butthead, again, was this cartoon in the 90s that was a bit controversial. It was about basically these two dim-witted teenage boys who basically kind of caused trouble and acts of stupidity wherever they went. For example, I think they caused a fire in a nightclub while trying to juggle flaming newspapers. I guess they deep-fried a rat in this restaurant they were working at. They do all sorts of crazy, stupid stuff. It's an animated little cartoon, and it really – it was like one of the MTV's biggest shows, I think, of all – maybe not of all time, but it was one of their biggest shows at the time. And unfortunately, there was a controversy with the show that involved basically there's this child that burned his house down after allegedly watching an episode of Beefs and Butthead, which caused the show to be moved from its normal 7 p.m. time slot to its 11 p.m. time slot. And this caused a lot of changes to the show. One of the title characters, Beavis, he was the one who caused the fires. He had this whole kind of, I guess, gag where he would flick a lighter and chant the word, fire, fire, fire, fire. Couldn't do that anymore. Basically, anything involving fire, that's a no-no. Anything that could potentially be recreated, absolutely no-no after that whole incident. And here's the kicker about the whole kid burning down his house. So it's alleged that this kid burnt down his house after watching the show, but there's been some evidence that come out afterwards that says that might not be true because here's a couple things about it. Number one, okay, and the mom made these claims. That's important for context as well, but number one, the kid, according to the neighbors, did not have cable TV. Actually, later on in a Facebook post made by the kid like 20, 30 years later, he says that, well, yeah, no, we didn't have cable TV because his mom was always – I think his mom had a substance abuse issue, so she was always on drugs and whatnot. She couldn't afford cable television. You got that there. In fact, again, the kid himself said he never watched the show or anything. He never watched that show. And I think the kid also said he didn't cause the fire either. From what the – and again, allegedly, the evidence – because I don't know how many people are watching this show right now, but either way, I ain't getting sued. I barely have money as it is, but the point is a lot of evidence points to, hey, this kid really didn't – this kid both did not watch that show and did not cause this fire, and he was just being used as a scapegoat by his mom, which that's truly the case, and that's really, really sad to hear. And I hope that guy – at this point this guy is like 30, 40 years old, so I hope he's in a much better place than he once was. But it's crazy to me that people blame the show for something an actual person did because actual people were responsible for their actions. Cartoons are not because they're cartoons. If that wasn't obvious enough. So we'll move on from that now for our black history segment. I want to talk about black celebrities and historical figures, and the first person I want to talk about who I think will be a fun discussion, Danzel Washington. In my opinion, one of the greatest actors of all time. Now, you may be familiar with the name Danzel Washington, and really you probably should be familiar with that name because so many classics he's been in. Let me just – off the top of my head, without my phone. My phone is on the desk. I'm not touching it. Check this out. We got Remember the Titans where he played the football coach. Such a great movie. I'll never forget that one line. If you do this, you will run a mile. If you do that, you will run a mile. If you drop my football, I will break my foot off in your John Haynes parts, and you will run a mile. Is that clear? Or the whole thing where he's shouting at the kid. It's like football ain't fun no more, is it? That whole speech, that's a good role. Training Day is another one I really like from him where he plays the corrupt cop. He plays the corrupt cop in L.A., and the rookie cop has to stop him. Everybody knows that King Kong ain't got S word on me speech, man. That's a great one. That's a banger. What else is there? This is a lesser known – I don't know how many people know this movie, but there was another movie where he played basically an airline pilot with an alcohol addiction. And just seeing him get himself in and out of trouble in that movie was just amazing. Malcolm X, that's why he mad at me that I didn't mention that first, but Malcolm X, an American classic movie. I think most people can agree he was robbed because he never got an Oscar nomination for that, and he definitely deserved it in my opinion. Of course, A Spike Lee Joint. I think it's based off his autobiography. I don't know if it's directly based off of it, but that's a classic movie right there, 1992. And of course, Angela Bassett in it as well. That movie just had – it had stars like that, bro. But I guess another film I can think of off the top of my head that he's been in is The Equalizer as well. Basically, I haven't watched them, but from what I can tell, there's movies about him playing this vigilante trying to right wrongs that people have gone through. Let's see, Training Day. I mentioned Training Day. I mentioned Flight. American Gangster, that's another one, where he plays gangster Frank Lucas. Frank Lucas was this gangster in I think the 70s in New York. There we go. And I think there's a scene in that movie where he has basically this issue with one of this – another criminal, and I guess he's not paying – the criminal's not paying his fair share. And so they get into an argument. He casually pulls out his gun in public, shoots the guy, and then puts – basically he puts change in his corpse. Like see, I kept my promise, 20%, just like I said. He does these roles entirely too well, bro. If you told me without context, oh yeah, this guy is a mobster or this guy is that corrupt cop or he is Malcolm X, I'd believe you. He is too good of an actor, man. Maybe he's actually done some of these things in another life. Maybe that's how he does it, bro. I did not know he was in Gladiator. I did not know. Oh, John Q. That's another one I just thought of as well. John Q is this movie where basically he holds a hospital hostage so that they'll save his 9-year-old son's life who needs a transplant. Glory was a movie about the Civil War. That's another one like, yo, if you've attended a public school, then the odds are you've seen Benzo Washington movie because you've seen Remember the Titans, which was a sports movie about this high school football team in the 60s during segregation. I think they were one of the first unsegregated high school teams, something like that. And Glory, which is about the all-black infantry in the Civil War, absolute classics. Let's see here. What else? What other? I think Eric mentioned he liked Great Debaters a lot. He remembers seeing that in class. Oh, He Got Game is an underrated role too. He Got Game is another sports movie. I love sports movies for those who don't know. Basically, it's about this man, Jake Shuttlesworth. He's trying to reconnect with his son after he's coming home from – after spending six years in prison. His son, Jesus Shuttlesworth, he's a star basketball player who's about to go pro to the NBA. I just think that whole thing was great. That whole movie was amazing. Let's see here. Mo' Better Blues. Haven't seen it. I need to. Those are all the big, big names I can think of, but, of course, I just want to pay my respect today to Denzel. I mean, like I said, one of the biggest actors of all time, one of the most, I guess – maybe not the most famous. I guess most famous would go to Will Smith. But I mean one of the most important black Hollywood actors ever. What else you got here? Let's see. Gladiator. Fences. Oh, Fences is another interesting one as well. Fences, where he plays this – I'm trying to think of the right word, but he plays – this movie takes place in the 50s. He plays this guy who had a dream of becoming a pro baseball player, but he basically plays this bitter, broken-down old man in the 50s trying to erase his family and whatnot. That was a good one. Those are all the movies that I've seen of his I can think of. But again, shout-out to Denzel. That's all really I can think of to say. Where's Denzel Washington from? Let me find that information before this segment is over because – let's see. I need to find out. Nine, eight, seven. New York. I thought he would be from the south or something. Interesting. This is the pop culture power, y'all, so we'll be right back. Whoa, y'all. It's almost time for our show to come to a close. Let's see here. I just want to talk a little bit more about Carl Weathers for a minute because I think the news that he passed away just came out about a couple minutes before I was prepared to go on the air. And I didn't know, of course, because of that I didn't have much ahead-of-time plan to talk about him. But I will say, of course, I mentioned – the first one I mentioned that he died, the first one I mentioned of his was Apollo Creed, which just – that role, man. I'll admit when I see that act, when I see Carl Weathers, I think of Apollo Creed every time, bro. I mean just – he did that role perfectly. He's like – I think in my opinion, the whole trope of the antagonist becoming a friend, he's probably the best version of that in my personal opinion, man. Such a great character actor, dude. Besides Apollo Creed, he also played Colonel Dillon in Predator. And apparently I'm seeing here he was also a combat Carl in the Toy Story franchise. I'm guessing that was the name of one of the toy soldiers in the movies. He did that as well. I guess if you're a cartoon fan, if you're a fan of kids cartoons, he played Omnitrix Prime in Star vs. the Force of Evil. And also if you're a Star Wars fan, he played Greef Karga. I hope I pronounced that right, Greef Karga in The Mandalorian. But interesting small fact about him. He actually played – he was a football player before he was an actor. He actually signed with the Oakland Raiders in the 70s, and then he signed with, I think, a Canadian Football League team after being released by the Raiders. But then after that, he went into acting, which is a very interesting pathway into Hollywood, man. He gets a lot of shows. There's more than one way of getting into a dream, I suppose. But let's see, one of his first movies was two blaxploitation films. One was Bucktown, and the other is called Friday Foster, starring Pam Grier. And it was an episode of Goodtimes. Wow, I'll have to find that one because I love the show Goodtimes. Me and all my siblings, we've rewatched that show over and over again, man, especially on DVD. But I did not know he was in that show, so I'll have to find the episode as well because that's interesting to me. But yeah, Rest in Peace of Carl Weathers, man. I mean the Rocky movies are, I'd argue, one of the greatest movie franchises of all time, man. And of course, Michael B. Jordan played this character's son in the Creed movies, playing Adonis Creed, which it's sad that those – I mean because this character died in, I think, Rocky 5 – no, Rocky 4. So of course they couldn't act side by side, and it sucks that that happened, but I say, well, Mr. Weathers, we'll miss you, man. So that's it for the show today. We'll see you – not tomorrow. We'll see you next week. Goodbye, y'all.

Listen Next

Other Creators