The Muppet Christmas Carol with Erika Plank Hagan: Deep Thoughts About Musical Storytelling, Muppet Adaptations, and the Rudeness of Raw Turkey

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Podcast

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Light the lamp, not the rat!

Just in time for Christmas, the Guy Girls welcome Emily’s dear friend Erika Plank Hagan to the show to discuss The Muppet Christmas Carol. There’s a reason this musical (and surprisingly faithful) adaptation of the Dickens morality tale is so beloved: not only does Michael Caine act his face off with his Muppet co-stars, but the storytelling frame of Gonzo playing Charles Dickens allowed Brian Henson to go all-in on the frightening aspects of the narrative without losing the littlest viewers. Erika shares how this film is often included in Episcopal sermons (Dickens was a Church of England guy), how the Disney executive’s decision to remove a song in the middle of the film is a storytelling travesty, and why bringing a raw turkey to someone’s house on Christmas day is just plain rude.

Whether you’re here for the story or for the food, throw on your earbuds and take a listen!

Mentioned in this episode:
Antisemitic trope of Jews as spiders

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

We're having a party, please come! A Zoom happy hour, Tue, 11/18, 7:30 ET / 6:30 CT. (THERE WILL BE PRESENTS!) So get ready to pour your favorite beverage, overthink some Thanksgiving-themed pop culture, laugh, and feel a little bit smarter.

It’s free, but please register at guygirlsmedia.com/happyhour, so we can share the zoom info with you! (Also, who doesn’t like knowing who’s coming to their party?)

We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.

We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

فصول

1. Deep Dive on Muppet Christmas Carol (00:00:00)

2. Journey Through Muppet Christmas Carol (00:11:21)

3. Nostalgia for a Missing Song (00:23:22)

4. Exploring Legacy and Meta Storytelling (00:34:22)

5. Muppet Christmas Carol Religious Redemption (00:46:37)

6. The Muppet Christmas Carol Theological Analysis (00:58:36)