EP. 334.5 — Last Looks: A Beauty and the Beast Christmas

Paul Scheer [00:00:00] Paul’s Picks are back. What’s up with that Dungeons Dragons episode? And what is the moral of a Beauty and the Beast? All this and more on today’s Last Looks. Hit the theme.

Music [00:00:19] [Intro Song]

Paul Scheer [00:00:50] What’s up, all my bad boys and bad girls of Baltimore? I’m your host, Paul Scheer, and welcome to How Did This Get Made Last Looks. This is an Ion Original podcast presented, of course, by Ben Cannon. This is the show where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on A Beauty and the Beast Christmas, plus, I will tell you all the things I’m currently loving and that I want to recommend to you in a classic Paul’s Picks segment. That’s right. It’s back because I couldn’t get anyone else to jump in and do this with me in a holiday week. That’s right. My life is spent in a recording booth in my house at weird hours of the day because of you. And I love being here instead of being with my family during the holidays. Anyway, just a little bit, I am going to share with you a exclusive deleted scene from our Beauty and the Beast Christmas show. And as always, I am going to reveal next week’s movie. But first things first, a big giant shout out to Rob from Long Island for another great opening theme song. Rob, I thought you were in New York when we did The Bam show and I wanted to give you some special shout outs, but you didn’t get up and I don’t know why, but let me know. No, you don’t have to get up. I don’t want anyone to be embarrassed. But, Rob, we love you. I want to just give you your due. Anyway, we love these songs and if you have a Last Looks song you send them to HowDidThisGetMade@Earwolf.com, but keep them short. 15 to 20 seconds is best. You know the drill. Also just a heads up. You probably have heard that we are going to the UK and Ireland. That’s right. But did you know that we added a second date in London? That’s right. We’ll be doing two shows in London on March 28th and 29th. Before heading to– now, I am going to get yelled at for mispronouncing this– Glasgow. On March 31st, Belfast on April 2nd, and Dublin on April 3rd. Tickets are now available. HDTGM.com. Also we have shows coming up at Largo and Netflix is a Joke festival. So many shows. Not to mention and I guess I’ll talk about this later, but my book is available for preorder right now. It’s called Joyful Recollections of Trauma. I’m going to get into all the special things we’re going to do for that as that book release comes a lot closer. But it’s a lot of stories of my life. And I want to talk to my librarians because I want to make sure that libraries have this book and want to figure out fun ways that I can incorporate libraries. Because, you know, I love the library, so you can always hit me up at Paul@PaulScheer.com, but also in a couple of weeks will have a way for librarians to reach out to me so we can figure out something fun for all the librarians and library staff in helping promote this book. If you’d like to, I think you’d like to. I hope you like to anyway. Also, just, you know, right now, Family Switch is on Netflix. Great Christmas movie. I’m also in Disturbance in the Force, which is a documentary about the Star Wars holiday special, which we actually did here on this podcast. And if you’re still looking for things to watch, check out Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a brand new Disney Plus series that Jason Mantzoukas is in. And the show is absolutely great. All right, let’s get into it. Last week, we talked at length about a Beauty and the Beast Christmas movie that discord user Steve Buscemi Eyes thinks should have had the tagline “A Beauty and the Beast. Christmas: The Beast is the movie and the beauty is when it ends.” Oh, really? Come on. This movie was great. I won’t hear another word about it. Anyway, there are still some lingering questions out there about Beauty and the Beast, Christmas, and maybe we even missed a few things. Here is your chance to set us straight. Fact check us, if you will. It is now time for corrections and omissions. Hit the theme.

Music [00:04:30] [Corrections and Omissions Song]

Paul Scheer [00:04:53] Thank you. Action Jackson 5. That’s a great theme song. I really like that. And I love that name, too. Let’s go to the Discord. It’s Cameron H. “While this movie obviously isn’t a very faithful adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, the core lesson of that story, and I would argue it is the lesson of the movie that it is important to look beyond the superficial and appreciate a person for who they are on the inside. Where this movie really fucks up for me is at the end of the movie when the manager’s shirt gets ripped off at the wedding, revealing a large discolored birthmark on his chest that the guests then proceed to openly mock. I don’t care how big of a piece of shit he is. A movie predicated on the importance of inner beauty should shouldn’t end with a villain being ridiculed for a perceived flaw in their physical appearance. That should never have been the lesson.” Cameron, I couldn’t agree with you more, but I’d argue that one of the core principles of Beauty and the Beast is that the beast is ugly on the outside, but has a personality. Like there’s there’s a a core underneath him that the audience, I believe, understands to be good. But he projects to the outside world. I don’t think that we ever really feel that in this movie. I don’t feel like either one of those characters. Well, I guess I mean, because I would argue that she’s the beast. Anyway. I feel like we don’t really see these people as real people until the very end of the film. But yes, your point ultimately is the bigger point I believe we talked about in the podcast, but we didn’t. Maybe we edited it out. I don’t know. Johnny Unusual writes, “I don’t work in entertainment, so maybe this is dumb, but why was her manager Derek, also her videographer? Seems like that’s not his job. Doesn’t Ginger have a crew for this? I mean, he’s a manager and she’s only his client.” Johnny Unusual. This is not a dumb question. He should never have been her videographer, nor should he have just shot on his iPhone. I mean, it makes no sense considering her videos is very well produced. There are so many things that make sense. But guess what? This is what you didn’t know because you don’t work in the entertainment business. Every time you put someone else on screen, it costs you money. And this movie wanted to keep the price down. So they figured, let’s not add another person to this scene because even as an extra, it would cost them money. Or background player. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean an extra, background player. GT75 writes, “In the food fight scene. The scene ends with the manager running in and asking, ‘Have you two lost your minds?’ Before pointing out that there a live feed recording. Does that mean that Ginger set up a live video for their dinner date? But they didn’t put on their acts since they seem to hate being there before the food fight. Or is the manager posting creepier videos of his clients?” That is a fantastic point. I don’t know. Were they just was that pre going live? Maybe they had it set to a stream and it went live midway? I don’t know. But I would say that that was great videotape footage. But maybe he was coming in, maybe was at a distance, just saw the beginning of it and was reacting to that and didn’t see the cuteness of the food fight. I don’t know. I’m lost. Let’s go to Taft. “At the end, when they have their post ceremony interview, it’s revealed that they have a new show called Home with the Holidays, which to me suggests that maybe Bo takes Ginger’s last name. Pretty progressive for the bad boy from Baltimore.” Well, huh. Yeah. I feel like he might have taken her last name, but she took his love of other holidays. So kind of a 50-50 split. So many great corrections and omissions this week. We have a few more to go before I crown a winner. But first, let’s take a quick break and stick around because we got some phone calls coming up.

Paul Scheer [00:08:22] Welcome back. We got some more corrections and omissions from a Beauty and the Beast Christmas. But you already know that because you listen to this podcast. Not like you just tuned in. Anyway, let’s go to the phones. Ethan from Saint Paul.

Listener [00:08:34] Hey, Paul. My question is about what did the bad boy of Baltimore get from that arrangement? Him and Ginger have a scene where he reveals that he has a kid, but he couldn’t mention it because he would lose followers. So isn’t dating Ginger the Queen of Christmas as detrimental to his images as revealing he has a kid? And yeah. What was he getting from his management? I love the show. Bye.

Paul Scheer [00:09:15] Followers, Ethan. He got followers. His site was dwindling. He got more audience, which is interesting because he didn’t seem to be making his own content throughout this. So I am confused. I also feel like his content with her would be very different audiences anyway. I get it, though. I get that, you know, look, you mix and match. You know, I’m sure that Travis Kelsey got some bumps from dating Taylor Swift and maybe even vice versa. Who knows? I’m sure that that actually did happen. I think his podcast became the most successful podcast in America. And his jersey was like the best selling NFL jersey this season. So, yeah, I have a feeling followers and maybe some he could sell some more Bad Boy from Baltimore merch. All right, Bill from Kingston, what do you got?

Listener [00:10:05] Hey, Paul. I’m surprised you guys hadn’t addressed the fact that she’s been 20 years, 20 years of Christmas, and she’s never encountered mistletoe. Obviously she would have seen mistletoe or been trapped under the mistletoe and gotten a kiss. No?

Paul Scheer [00:10:27] Yes. How could she not know mistletoe? It feels like at least 25 to 40 videos might have been made just for that. I mean, she’s does Christmas every day of the year, that is. Maybe she didn’t know about the mistletoe tradition, but that seems odd too. Again, this is a movie that was improvised in the moment and shit went by and no one cared to correct it. Finally, let’s go to Sarah from New England.

Listener [00:10:56] Hi, Paul. I am just in the middle of listening to the Last Looks for Munchies and Dog Who Saved Christmas. And you mentioned gingerbread houses and that we got from Target and it was like not working out. No offense to Target, I’m sure, but here is what I think the secret is to making a good gingerbread house. Is you. It has to be inedible. So what my family does is bakes gingerbread, but for longer. So it’s like you wouldn’t be able to eat it and you put it together with hot glue and then the structural integrity is there. You can put the candy on it and then eat the candy off that later. And that part is fine. But just the gingerbread itself, you can’t eat. So that’s what I think the secret is to to a successful gingerbread houses. You can’t you can’t have it be two things. It can’t be structurally sound and have good tasting gingerbread. Anyway, this is probably too long and you probably won’t play it. Love the show. Bye.

Paul Scheer [00:12:03] Thank you, Sarah. I appreciate this. You are right. Make the thing inedible. It’s it’s pretty to look at. We don’t have to worry about eating it. Go get your candy elsewhere. I love that. Thank you, Sarah. Now, let’s go back to the Discord. Dr. Gut’s 1003 writes, “I learned after the fact that Kensington was played by a woman who goes by the name GloZell Green and was apparently a very popular YouTube influencer who even got to interview President Obama. Green is her whole esthetic. So maybe that’s why she wore the same green blouse in every scene in this movie.” Oh, okay. Thank you, Dr. Guts. But guess what? Ron BCT says “GloZell is most famous for her 2012 Cinnamon Challenge video that has 60 million views. With her following, kensington could have single handedly saved Gingers orphanage without needing to involve Bo at all. That means that Ginger’s manager isn’t just a bad guy. He’s a bad manager for not recognizing who had the real talent in the house.” Now, first of all, GloZell wasn’t playing GloZell. GloZell was acting. Okay, So I’m going to take I’m going to take a little bit of offense that you would suggest that. Now, you know, like all I’m going to say is, yes, that would have made some sense, but it’s not really. The cinnamon challenge video, by the way. If you’ve not watched it, it’s pretty good. You got to check it out. I like it. GloZell, you’re great. And you should have been the star of this movie. Richard Ball Shaft writes in to correct us on referring to kids in foster care as orphans. He says, “Hi, foster parent here. There’s a period between a child coming into state custody and the potential for adoption where the biological parents still have parental rights. The primary goal for the foster system is reunification. Children in foster care are not necessarily orphans.” And I appreciate that, Richard Ball Shaft. I, you know, sometimes we just go with a jokey term that is used in the film, and I know that very intimately, and I appreciate you correcting it. Thank you. Mitch Kappa Chung Star writes, “Okay. So what cleared up the rash? Was it the chlorine from the pool, as Bijou says, or the power of love? It was the chlorine. That doctor looks like a real asshole because she specifically said, Stay out of the pool.” Well, Mitch, now, where’s the second half of that? I mean, have we heard of anyone being cured by the power of love? We need to get the research done. And I know that people on second opinions do the research. Let me find out if the power of love has cured anything besides bringing Marty McFly back to 1985. Because I believe the power of love is what he used in and some plutonium. All right. So many great corrections and omissions this week. You know, and I have to say, I feel like my life got better from seeing the Cinnamon Challenge video. So I would like to give this winner to the person who brought it into my life. Ron BCT, You are this week’s winner and you get this amazing song from Bombay Beach Revival. Hit it.

Music [00:15:21] [Winner’s Song]

Paul Scheer [00:15:21] Thank you, Bombay Beach Revival for that song. If you want to submit an alt movie tagline or chime in with your own thoughts about the latest episode. Hit up the discord at Discord.gg/HDTGM or call us at 619-PAUL-ASK. Okay. Coming up after one more break, I will recommend all the things I am currently loving in a Paul Pick segment, and I will also announced next week’s movie. But first, I’ve heard you very loud and clear There wasn’t enough Ben Cannon in last week’s episode, so we’re going to share a deleted scene where we talk a little bit more about Ben Cannon, and we saw how Ben Cannon actually affected our audience, where someone tried to give himself a very cool name, but it didn’t go quite as well. This is a great moment. Take a listen.

Paul Scheer [00:16:08] All right. You believe you could take us home with this question? Your name, your question?

Audience Member [00:16:12] My name is Thomas. My friends call me TomCat.

Jason Mantzoukas [00:16:16] I can’t imagine we should. I can’t imagine we should indulge this. But go ahead. Are you with him, ma’am?

Audience Member 2 [00:16:24] No one has ever called him that.

Jason Mantzoukas [00:16:27] No one has ever called him that?

Audience Member 2 [00:16:30] Not a single time. Not even once.

Jason Mantzoukas [00:16:33] Not a single time?

Audience Member 2 [00:16:35] No.

Jason Mantzoukas [00:16:36] And you’re with this? You choose this?

Audience Member 2 [00:16:39] That might change just right now.

Jason Mantzoukas [00:16:41] Okay, Tomcat, you’re about to be dumped. Hard.

Paul Scheer [00:16:46] All right, Tomcat.

Jason Mantzoukas [00:16:47] She’s already. I could see her phone texting Ben Cannon.

Paul Scheer [00:16:53] All right, Tomcat, what do you got?

Audience Member [00:16:56] Well, Ben Cannon’s followers are going to be about 20 million by the end of the show. But if if she’s never drank alcohol, what were they drinking at dinner?

Jason Mantzoukas [00:17:08] Cocoa. I think they’re always drinking Cocoa. I mean, like, I agree. I don’t know. But there is like. Yes, it does. There is. I feel like this movie wants to have some sort of puritanical approach to any and all vices, like she has to somehow be purer in some way or I don’t know, there’s a weird conservative bent in this. You can put your entire phone down because guess what, dum dum. I can fucking see you. Jesus. I’m trying to talk to Tomcat and his future ex-girlfriend.

Paul Scheer [00:17:55] Welcome back, everybody. You know about Matinee Monday. Matinee Monday is a chance for us to rerelease our older episodes since there’s no more Stitcher Premium. We are trying to get old episodes back into the rotation, and we have been pulling old holiday episodes out and giving them to you. Last Monday was Snow Man, a movie featuring you, an ordinary girl who meets a snowman who comes to life. It’s a love story. It’s beautiful. And next week, we will be bringing back Joe Mandy to talk about the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sid Ben Classic Jingle All the Way. So keep on checking out these replays of classic episodes every Monday. All you have to do is subscribe to How Did This Get Made. I also do a little video version of them on my YouTube page. Anyway, there’s plenty of ways for you to enjoy some classic HDTGM. We’re giving you double holiday movies for this month with these Monday matinees. Now I spend a lot of time here in front of you and I loved it. I think you’re all great. You’re wonderful people, but no one has asked me about me. What am I up to? It is now time for Paul’s– that’s me– picks of the week.

Music [00:19:00] [Paul Picks Intro Song]

Paul Scheer [00:19:18] Thank you, Brooke Opie. Haven’t used a Paul’s pick theme in a long time, and I liked it. All right. There’s a lot of things going on. I’m often called by my friends at Add to Cart to come on and give them a Christmas list of things that I love that I think that you will love to. I come on that show with a list and I am ready to give you Christmas ideas. But you know what the truth is? It’s probably too close for you to get anything really good. So maybe these can be gifts that when you return the gift that you don’t like, you get something new. Does that sound good? I feel like that might be good. Because truthfully, the best part of the holidays is returning things that you got for things that you actually want. One of the books that I love that came out this year is for all the Marvel fans out there, Joanna Robinson, who is just a great writer, she wrote for Vanity Fair. She has a great podcast, recap podcast about Game of Thrones. She, along with Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards, wrote a book about the MCU. It’s called The Reign of Marvel Studios. It is a great book. It’s about 500 pages, and it’s a full blown story of how Marvel came to be. I think it’s a really interesting book to read. Obviously, right now, Marvel is in a moment, a new moment, and this kind of captures the first ten plus years. And I think you will really like it if you are a marvel fan. This is for you. I also want to keep on talking about books now. I am about 15 hours into a 48 hour audiobook. That’s right. I got the Barbara Streisand audiobook and it is fucking fantastic. It is 48 hours, so I’ll be listening to it for a very long time. But if that’s not your speed and by the way, it should be your speed, because I love Barbra Streisand. I mean, like I. I’m a Barbra Streisand fan, but I’m not a super fan. Like, I’m interested, but I don’t know everything about her, and I’m loving it. Like, so you don’t have to be a super fan to love it. Like, I just think it’s worthy of checking out. It’s a great. She reads it, she goes off book. It’s very funny. It’s very personal, it’s perfect. And if that’s not your cup of tea, then let me bring you over to Alan Partridge. Alan Partridge, hilarious, been doing this character, Steve Coogan has been doing this character for years. I won’t even get to the full backstory. But his book, Big Beacon, is also out on audiobook and it is a wonderful book that talks about him getting fired from the BBC and restoring a lighthouse. It’s hilarious. It’s so funny. Both books I listen to off and on because I don’t want to get through the entire thing. I want to just enjoy it for as long as possible. If you’re looking for movie recommendations, these are not things you can return for, but if you’re looking for a movie recommendation, let me recommend to you The Holdovers, which I love. Alexander Payne’s new film with Paul Giamatti. I was watching it and I was like, This is good. And then it just flipped on me. I loved it. It was, it’s a movie that we’ve you’ve probably seen a bunch but never done this well, I don’t know. I really I don’t want to tell you too much about it, but it’s about like a professor at a all boys academy in the seventies who is forced to stay there over winter break or to chaperon the boys that can’t go home over winter break. And it’s just it’s great. It’s really it’s such a special a wonderful movie. I love it so, so much. I also want to talk a little bit about things that I’m into that you might be into, too. Now, again, I’m going off gifts at this point. I’m just talking about things that are important or good or fun. My kids, I do carpool all the time with my kids. There’s a great podcast called Kid Nuz. N-U-Z, I know that probably doesn’t make too much sense when you’re trying to teach kids about how to spell the word news. But it’s a daily podcast about like 5 to 7 minutes every day. It has become the hit of our car, the hit of our carpool, because it’s short, funny stories with a quiz at the end. And my kids are always arguing about who got the most points. And we all play along. Kid Nuz, a daily podcast that I think you will absolutely love. And finally, people have been asking me a lot during the holiday season. Paul, what is your thought on cold plunges? Well, I got a lot of them. If you got the big bucks, if you want the Cadillac of cold plunges, check out Renew Therapy. It’s it’s truly I mean it is it’s the escalate of cold plunges. It’s the Ferrari of cold plunges. It’s unbelievable. But if you are more into the Toyota of cold plunges. Reliable, stable, good. Cryospring Cold plunges. I’ve been giving this out to a lot of people. I’ve been using cold plunge since last March. I love it. It’s fantastic. I feel like it’s changed my life. I don’t want to get too big about it, but I think it’s been a fantastic addition. This thing. The Cryospring, you can actually blow up. That’s right. You can inflate it, I should say, not blow it up. You can inflate it. You could put it on the outside, but on the inside, very easy to deal with. I love my Cryospring. You might, too. And finally, people, I want to remind you, I need librarians because my book is coming out on May 21st. You can preorder it now. It’s called Joyful Recollections of Trauma. But we’re going to be doing some special stuff. I’m going to give my official full announcement of this in a little bit. But librarians, I need your help, because I met a handful of librarians over the last couple of months and they’ve all asked me about my book and now I have real information. So if anyone that’s a librarian wants to help me figure out ways that we can kind of work together in the libraries, I’d love to do that with you all. You can get to me on my discord at Discord.gg/PaulScheer or I’ll give out an email in little bit so we can actually start a bigger conversation. All right, people, that is it for Paul’s picks. I gave you a lot. I mean, I busted through a lot of different stuff. I didn’t even get to talk about my Clippers, who have been on an amazing tear right now. And I’m so thrilled about that. Oh, my gosh. What a what a blast. You know, as a basketball fan and love seeing those Lakers hang up that banner and then lose on that same night. Oh, terrible. Anyway, that is my picks. Those are my things that I’m into. And now let’s announce next week’s movie. But before we do that, let’s hear a phone call from Jessica from Philly.

Listener [00:26:06] Hi, Paul. I want to know why the Philly episode hasn’t been there yet. I waited. I’ve been waiting. I’m still waiting. And you’ve already moved on to the next tour airing those episodes. So what happened to Philly? Thanks. Let me know.

Paul Scheer [00:26:24] Well, Jessica, I’m glad that you call because we decided that we need to hold on to that episode for a bit because there was a issue with the T-shirt that we made, but that’s now all taken care of. And now we are going from an influencer beast and Santa’s elves to mythical beasts and fantasy elves. Okay, I tried. Anyway, next week we are watching the 2000 film Adventure/Fantasy film, I should say. Dungeons and Dragons, starring Jeremy Irons, Thora Birch, Justin Whalen and Marlon Wayans. Now, please do not mix up this movie with the brand new Dungeons Dragons movie that came out this year. Dungeons Dragons: Honor Among Thieves with Chris Pine and Fast family member Michelle Rodriguez. That movie is great. I love that movie. This movie, on the other hand, less so, I just say that Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 9% score on the tomatometer And Scott Foundes of Variety, says the average episode of Xena or Hercules, offers a more compelling and imaginative photo play. Ouch. Photo play? Anyway, I wouldn’t listen to anybody who says movies are photo play. Let’s listen to the trailer for Dungeons and Dragons.

Trailer Audio [00:27:36] Escape the dungeons. Slay the Dragons.

Trailer Audio [00:27:44] Don’t you think that’s a little bit out of our league?

Trailer Audio [00:27:56] Dungeons and Dragons. Rated PG 13 starts Friday.

Paul Scheer [00:28:01] You can currently stream Dungeons and Dragons for free on Tubi and the Roku Channel. Or you can rent it on Apple TV, Amazon, YouTube and/or Google Play. I also encourage you to check out Hoopla and Kanopy, which are digital media services offered by your local public library. Oh people, what a show. What a holiday show we just did. That’s it. We’re done. Please remember to rate and review the show. It helps. Tell your friends about How Did This Get Made. It makes a difference. And visit us on social media to find out the latest about all of our tour dates. Just go to HDTGM on social media or go to HDTGM.com for everything else. A big thank you to Scott Sonne, Molly Reynolds, our movie picking producer Avril Halley, and our engineers Casey Helford and Rich Garcia, as well as Jess Cisneros, who makes those amazing social media videos. And since this is the final Last Looks of the year. I wanted to give an even bigger thank you to all you listeners who contribute content to these episodes. Your songs, your questions, everything truly. Whether you leave a voicemail, write into the Discord or make a theme song, we appreciate every single one of you. So, Paul, why are you saying it at the end of the episode? Well, I’m just saying because I’m remembering it now. I don’t want to take you for granted. Without you, we would have nothing to talk about on Last Looks, and we would have no show. And I mean this from the bottom, my heart. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We are always grateful for you. And seriously, you know, if it wasn’t for you, Scott and Molly would have to make up all these fake discord comments. And I don’t know how many more accounts that they could create. And, you know, then we have to have them do the character voices to pretend we got phone calls and no one wants to hear that. So thank you again and have a happy holiday season. We will see you next week for Dungeons and Dragons.