It will be to your advantage to listen to the newest episode of our podcast—because it’s our highest rated movie yet! We covered 1985’s cult classic Clue and talked about the brilliance of the ensemble cast, the clever script and hilarious line readings, how the mix of highbrow and lowbrow humor was super enjoyable, and how they totally bungled the “three endings” gimmick from a marketing standpoint. We discuss why so many people growing up in the '90s found this movie on cable but also how we never picked up on the super casual sexual harassment done by pretty much every man. Katy said “well, actually” within the first ten minutes and would like to apologize, Carrie divulges her emo attitude, Maddy tells a story about scaring her roommates with two surprising accomplices, and Mack is very cool in his regular life. We share the O’Brien method of winning the board game (apparently cheating is wrong? but we’re very good at it), decide Miss Scarlet would be a murderino and Mrs. Peacock is totally bi, learn about two dogs named Mack, talk about how much we love Madeline Kahn multiple times, and try to figure out where you would source monkey brains in 1950’s New England. Be warned you will want to watch this movie twice - because each ending is supported by the action AND it is just that fun!
TW: Murder as comedy, casual treatment of dead bodies
CORRECTIONS:
-Clue the game was invented by British musician Anthony Pratt during WWII while he was bored at night during air raids. He would reminisce about murder mystery dinner parties from the 1920s–30s and came up with the game based on those. His wife designed the board. He sold it in 1947 and it came out in both the US and UK in 1949, and the victim Mr. Boddy has been there since the beginning. See this fascinating article about the origins from History.com or this one from The Independent.
- “Murderino” term probably came from The Simpsons, although finding the exact quote has been difficult. From a BTW interview with Karen and Georgia of My Favorite Murder:
BTW: Tell us about the ever-loyal community of fans called “murderinos.” How did that develop, and how have you cultivated it?
Karen & Georgia: The term “murderino” is from a Ned Flanders line in a Halloween episode of The Simpsons. A listener used it in a thread on our old Facebook page and everyone just ran with it.
