Pop Culture Madness .. Inside the Mind of Dee .. Goodbye Earl & More!

I had way too much time on my hands as a youngster, and I think it shows, don't you?

Figured I'd post a few captions here for the weekend that I made that probably aren't "headliners" on their own and are tied together thematically by my love of pop culture in its many forms. And by "pop culture" I mean cheesy, overlooked guilty pleasures or things that make me smile to myself.

• Its all things that come with a wink and a nod for those that understand them. 


• Its being able to quote most of the dialog from "Fletch" with your friends or bringing up the Star Wars Holiday Special as the best performance by Bea Arthur. 


• Celebrating the Marshmallow Fluff entertainment that was supposed to be ephemeral but ended up making a huge impact on your personality. 


• Its "Match Game '78" . "Reading Rainbow" , and the first few Kevin Smith movies.

SO anyway, I am a big pop culture junkie. I actually got excited when someone gifted me a "Lenny and the Squigtones" live album since it contains the first appearance of, "Nigel Tufnel" who of course is the guitar playing, alter ego of Christopher Guest, most famously played in Spinal Tap.

So for the first caption, I was inspired by the lyrics to a song by The Dixie Chicks called, "Goodbye Earl" which is a delightful tale of an abusive man who gets his comeuppance by his wife and her best friend. Such a wonderful idea for a song and its so catchy that its infectious. I pictured that perhaps they didn't have the heart to "kill" the guy, but just rearrange him a bit so he wouldn't be such a dick, and perhaps understand why needed to be changed. Speaking of, I don't believe I changed a word of the lyrics, although I didn't include them all.

Now for the second, I called upon a horrible movie made in the 1990's called, "Final Sacrifice" about some devil worshiping cult out in Western Canada and how they are trying to kill this young boy seven years after they killed his father. Several of the characters have to be seen to be believed, and for a low budget film (reportedly shot for 1500 dollars Canadian!) it actually looks more like a real film that something like Birdemic ever could. It was shown on MST3k and riffed mercilessly and that is how the movie became famous. See below where I will embed the entire MST3K version for your viewing entertainment!

I made this mostly because she is dressed like the bad guy in the film, and even has the same styled chin. I know she's from the Galaxy Quest movie, so she's somewhat famous, but not enough that most people would say, "OMIGOD, that's Missi Pyle!" which is something that *I* would most likely say!

I guess it goes without saying that I HAVE to post a picture of Zap Rowsdower, who is technically one of the heroes of the film, helping Troy escape the clutches of the cult he used to belong to. I guess if you need to name your hero something, Zap Rowsdower just rolls off the tongue, right?

Finally, a repeat I believe from a few years ago, based off of Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster" starring Bela Legosi .. and also riffed by MST3K .. along with being a featured story line in the Tim Burton movie, "Ed Wood". The caption pretty much follows the story, and includes a famous line at the end, where people try to make it sound like Bela said, "He's as gentle as a kitchen!" because of his accent and Ed Wood didn't bother to do a retake as he loved his energy.

Here's the video from the Dixie Chicks, and a good cover by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes!

Here's the entire episode of MST3k doing, "Final Sacrifice" !!! and below, "Bride of the Monster" !!!

How's that? 3+ hours of fun to kill your chilly weekend and fill the void of professional football!