A Fish Called Wanda: Deep Thoughts About Comedy, Cultural Commentary, and Cartoonish Con Artists

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

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You're the vulgarian, you fuck!
Tracie expected to enjoy revisiting the classic comedy A Fish Called Wanda, but she forgot just how much of this film's humor was derived from cringe comedy (John Cleese speaking Russian in his underwear when a large family stumbles upon him) and punching down (the dubious "comedy" of making fun of Michael Palin's stutter), both of which made the film painful to rewatch.

Wanda has some truly interesting cultural commentary about the differences between Americans and Britons, and Cleese's screenplay offers some brilliantly funny wordplay and storytelling that allowed Kevin Kline to ham up his role as Otto, the ridiculous epitome of American masculinity, all the way to an Oscar. But the well-crafted fiction comes with a side of homophobia and ableism that's just hard to watch in 2025--although the comedy beats are just as masterful as they were originally.

Throw on some headphones, make sure you're on the correct side of the road, and take a listen!

This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.

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 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!

Fejezetek

1. Setting The Stage: Wanda Revisited (00:00:00)

2. First Impressions: What Still Lands (00:03:10)

3. Plot Bones: Heist, Double-Crosses, Diamonds (00:07:25)

4. Dog Deaths, Stutter, And Cruel Gags (00:14:30)

5. Archie And Wanda: Is It Love Or Con (00:19:45)

6. Britain vs. America: Manners And Violence (00:25:10)

7. Sex, Power, And The “Professional” Femme Fatale (00:31:20)

8. Ableism And Homophobia: What The Jokes Cost (00:36:40)

9. Fake Intellectuals, Real Insecurity (00:43:00)

10. Cartoon Logic, Cinematic Choices (00:48:20)

11. What’s Funny, What’s Not, And Why (00:53:30)