Phil and Jake are joined by friend-of-the-pod and fellow 'caster Tiffa (from the great bad-movie podcast Intermission) to expand the cosmos of the List of Every Damn Thing by ranking the 1986 film flop Howard the Duck.
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If you have something to add to the list, let us know by sending an email to list@everydamnthing.net (or get at us on Twitter and Instagram).
SHOW NOTES:
- We talk a little bit about Delirious, Eddie Murphy’s first stand-up special. He says some pretty insensitive stuff in it but at least dresses real cool.
- In this week’s Intellectual Property Legal Jamboree… Phil notes that Steve Gerber-- who created the Howard the Duck character for Marvel Comics-- might have owned the rights to the character. The full story is complicated, but the short of it is that Gerber sued Marvel to regain rights for the character (which he created under work-for-hire), and the lawsuit was eventually settled out of court with Marvel retaining full ownership. Gerber did, however, continue to have a lot of control over character, which was a big deal for comics writers at the time. He actively consulted on the Howard the Duck movie script, was on-set for some of the shooting, and apparently had a financial interest in the film (which probably didn’t amount to much since it was a box office bomb). Here’s a very, very detailed history of Steve Gerber and Howard the Duck.
- IPLJ Bonus: In researching this subject, we learned that in most non-English countries the word “duck” is synonymous with Donald Duck. Seems kind of obvious that other languages would have a different word for the actual waterfowl, but we never really thought about it and were surprised to learn this.
- Other than Back to the Future sequels, the post-HtD career of Lea Thompson is somewhat unremarkable, though she’s continued to get consistent work.
- Ishtar was also synonymous with failure but unlike Howard the Duck it's stature has grown over the years.
- There were already six Police Academy movies by the end of the 80s! Police Academy 6 is neither the one in Miami (as Phil guessed) nor the one in Russia (as Tiffa guessed). Also, the first Police Academy movie doesn’t take place in New York City (as Jake surmised), but rather in an unnamed American city.
- The Arizona Cardinals logo was once a pleasant-looking bird perched on a football. It gradually became angrier and scowlier.
- Don’t google “duck penises”.
- According to IMDB’s fun Parents Guide for Sixteen Candles, it does have a nude shower scene but only shows breasts and butt (not “full bush” as Tiffa thought). It oddly got a PG rating (PG-13 hadn’t been instituted yet).
- Phil mentioned PG swearing, radio edits of rap songs, and taboo avoidance in general. The Geto Boys for example did really good radio edits where instead of just taking the cursing out, they changed the lyrics so "dropping those motherfucking B's on him" was changed to "dropping those 5th Ward B's on him" which is a better line.
- Wikipedia has a section about Jeffrey Jones’ criminal offenses. In short, he pleaded no contest in charges for soliciting a teenage boy to pose for nude photos, and is now a registered sex offender.
- It’s easy to get the “Howard the Duck” song stuck in your head. If Howard is so surprised to end up in the performance, how come he’s so good with all the choreography? That scene, by the way, was shot at The Warfield in San Francisco.
- Ed Gale, the main guy in the Howard the Duck costume, was also the main guy in the Chucky costume. And he was in Spaceballs.
- Here’s an oral history of Trump’s love of Bloodsport. The original account of him fast-forwarding through all the non-fight scenes is from a 1997 New Yorker article, but that’s behind a paywall.
ALSO DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
Coming 2 America * Wesley Snipes * Dolemite Is My Name * Nutty 2: The Klumps * smoking weed while watching movies * MaCaulay Culkin’s animatronic acting * Bruce Willis * Weird Science * Raiders of the Lost Ark * jizz-mopping * duck tits * the MPAA film rating system * evil punks * Yuppies and sushi in the 80s * The Breakfast Club * Ferris Bueller’s Day Off * Tim Robbins * Thomas Dolby * ducks * Petaluma, California * The California Academy of Sciences * Gambit of the X-Men * Poochie from the Simpsons * Tom & Jerry: The Movie * Some Kind of Wonderful * Marvel movies *
