January 2, 2017

EP. 159 — The 80s: Our Most Bizarre Decade (Is Happening Again)

Name the year: a new Star War is killing it at the box office, Russia and the US are having a staring contest and a madman driven by the power of celebrity is elected President. Yes, it’s looking very much like we’re living in the year 1980 right now and we want it to stop. I mean, if this is 1980, that means we’re only three years away from more Ewoks. Although what is a Minion but yellow Ewok?

But in all seriousness, the world has taken a turn for the conservative as it did in the early 80s. Free love and long hair were gone and replaced by shoulder pads, cocaine and rich white kids who thought the stock market was dope. So is there anything redeemable about this situation other than the prospect of getting some cool movies and punk music?

Jack O’Brien and Daniel O’Brien are joined by comedian, podcast host and ‘Saved by the Bell’ historian April Richardson for a conversation about how 80s pop-culture perfectly represented those regressive times and how some of the patterns we saw then are starting to appear now in our modern pop-culture. They also talk about ‘Saved by the Bell’ a lot. Like, a whole bunch.

Our next live podcast is on Saturday, January 14th at 7pm at the UCB Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark from ‘My Favorite Murder’ are back for another hour of creepy unsolved murders and even creepier solved ones. Tickets are $7 and on sale  here: https://goo.gl/5eew6F

Footnotes:

April Richardson: https://goo.gl/uPOCwn

Go Bayside! Podcast: https://goo.gl/FuWvyL

Article: Cracked: Why ‘Saved by the Bell’ is All a Dream: https://goo.gl/J9ujG

Article: Cracked: 6 Ways You Didn’t Realize Ronald Reagan Ruined the Country: https://goo.gl/55AJy2

Article: Cracked: 5 Baffling 80s Trends Explained by Rare Mental Disorders : https://goo.gl/XW6Y6

This episode is brought to you by Lifeafter podcast, Squarespace (www.squarespace.com code: CRACKED), and Harry’s.

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