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PODCAST

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

Sister podcasters raised by 80s and 90s movies: Tracie Guy-Decker, lover of animation, Muppets, comedy, and feminism & Emily Guy Birken, storytelling nerd, mental health advocate, and pop culture aficionado

80s and 90s movies and early 2000s tv may be called stupid shit by some, but you know it matters. So do we. We"re Tracie and Emily, sister podcasters who love well-crafted fiction and one another. In this comedy podcast, we look at the classic movies of our Gen X childhood and adolescence, analyzing film tropes to uncover the cultural commentary on romance, money, religion, mental health, and more. From Twilight to Ghostbusters, Harry Potter to the Muppets, comedy to drama to horror, we use

tv & film

All Episodes

54:40

Weird Science: Deep Thoughts on Pygmalion, Women's...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/07/08

Send us a text So, what would you little maniacs like to do first? This week, Tracie takes a deep dive into Weird Science: yet another of the John Hughes movies that helped to define Gen X pop culture. This 1985 teen comedy is a modern retelling of Pygmalion, the Greek myth that finds a sculptor falling in love with his artwork that comes to life. Except in this version, Anthony Michael Hall's Gary and Ilan Mitchell-Smith's Wyatt create Lisa (played by Kelly LeBrock) via Memotech MTX 512 micr...

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50:59

Independence Day: Deep Thoughts About American...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/07/01

Send us a text Welcome to Earth. The 1996 Roland Emmerich-helmed film Independence Day was one of the touchstone movies for Emily's generation, so her flabber was absolutely gasted to learn Tracie had never seen it until a few years ago. Just in time for the 4th of July, Emily walks Tracie through what made this movie such a monumental hit in the U.S. and abroad, despite its jingoistic American exceptionalism and skin-deep application of science fiction storytelling tropes. Both in 1996...

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52:09

Encyclopedia Brown with Adam Gwon: Deep Thoughts...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/06/24

Send us a text 25 cents per day, plus expenses. No case too small! Adam Gwon, Emily's childhood friend and award-winning musical theater writer, joins the Guy sisters today to share how Donald Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown had an outsize influence on his understanding of storytelling. The delightful format of each short Encyclopedia Brown mystery--which gave the reader all the same information the boy detective had and invited you to test your wits against that of the sleuth before checking the ...

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79:35

Rosemary's Baby with Ryan Cunningham: Deep Thoughts...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/06/17

Send us a text This is no dream! This is really happening! On this week's episode, Tracie and Emily are delighted to welcome award-winning writer/director and producer Ryan Cunningham to talk about Rosemary's Baby, the film that most influenced her own filmmaking and storytelling--but also made her wonder if she was a bad feminist considering the terrible deeds Roman Polanski later went to commit. The conversation covers the absurdity of two Jewish men shaping the idea of Satanism in pop cult...

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52:40

Poltergeist: Deep Thoughts About the Feminine...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/06/10

Send us a text They're heeeeere! In a moment that would echo through the 42 years that followed, Tracie and Emily's father let the girls watch the 1982 film Poltergeist on TV sometime in 1983, when the sisters were only 7 and 4 years old. This classic of pop culture horror drew the Guy girls in because of 5-year-old Heather O'Rourke, the adorable blonde-and-blue-eyed actress who played Carol Ann, who is sucked into the TV by the poltergeists. By the time the truly terrifying stuff appeared--i...

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54:15

Firefly and Serenity: Deep Thoughts About...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/06/03

Send us a text May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one. When Tracie first encountered the fan-favorite Western-in-space television show Firefly 20 years ago, she was delighted by Joss Whedon's subversion of tropes, his mastery of the written word, and his commitment to excellent storytelling. At the time, Whedon was heralded as a modern feminist and Firefly (and its follow up film Serenity) were presented as proof of his feminism bona fides. This franchise gave...

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50:09

The Dark Crystal: Deep Thoughts About False Binaries,...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/05/27

Send us a text What was sundered and undone shall be whole–the two made one. On today's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t, Emily returns to a beloved film from the Guy girls' childhood: Jim Henson's 1982 epic fantasy The Dark Crystal. Though the film's main character Jen the Gelfling follows the familiar beats of the hero's journey, baby Emily didn't understand the allegory of divine beings that are incomplete as Mystics and Skeksis without each other–and for good reason. Jim Henson ...

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52:53

Splash: Deep Thoughts About Mermaids, Male...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/05/20

Send us a text All my life I've been waiting for someone and when I find her, she's... she's a fish. When Tracie and Emily saw the 1984 Ron Howard film Splash as little girls, they fell in love with the badass mermaid played by Daryl Hannah. She was smart, determined, and romantic--and she had a gorgeous tail she could unfurl in Tom Hanks' bathtub. But on revisiting the movie this week, Tracie found some rather ugly and sexist assumptions bundled together with the romantic notions. Madison th...

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60:41

Stand By Me: Deep Thoughts About Nostalgia, Mental...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/05/13

Send us a text Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy? Emily and Tracie always assumed their father loved the 1986 Rob Reiner film Stand By Me because the music and pop culture references were a delightful reminder of his childhood. Reiner’s period masterpiece features incredible performances from its child actors–a rarity in movies about childhood–and offers a sometimes-idyllic portrayal of the freedom enjoyed by kids in the 1950s. But as Emily discovered this week, S...

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51:14

Avalon: Deep Thoughts About Family, Money Psychology,...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/05/06

Send us a text "Where are the people who know where the people are?" On today's episode, Tracie introduces Emily to the 1990 Barry Levinson film Avalon, the director's love letter to Baltimore and his own Jewish immigrant family. The movie follows the Krichinskys from 1914 through to the 1960s as the large, tight-knit, extended family moves, changes, assimilates, and fractures. As a lifelong Baltimorean and the great-great-granddaughter of a Jewish immigrant from Europe, Tracie feels se...

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55:04

Pretty Woman: Deep Thoughts About Bodily Autonomy,...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/04/29

Send us a text “We say who; we say when; we say how much.” This week, Emily takes a deep dive into Pretty Woman, the 1990 blockbuster romantic comedy that catapulted Julia Roberts to stardom. The film was originally written as a tragic story about awful characters, and many people (including those close to the Guy sisters) lamented the Hollywood happy ending as “unrealistic”–but Emily argues that by giving Vivian and Edward the fairy tale ending, the film offers a feminist blueprint for knowi...

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53:44

Galaxy Quest: Deep Thoughts About Fandom, Tropes, and...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/04/22

Send us a text By Grabthar’s hammer, you shall be avenged! The 1999 film Galaxy Quest was almost tailor made for the Guy sisters and their dad–all lifelong Trekkers. The sci-fi satire pokes gentle fun at Star Trek, lightly skewering everything from the story tropes to the actors to the fans, all while offering a lovely tribute to folks who get really enthusiastic about their favorite media. The film also does one of our favorite things: it takes the craft of sci-fi storytelling seriously with...

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49:46

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Deep Thoughts About...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/04/15

Send us a text Strange things are afoot at the Circle K. In 1989, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure introduced Emily to a baby-faced Keanu Reeves–and to the idea that two easy-going dopes could change the world by encouraging us all to be excellent to each other. In this episode, Emily shares how this surprisingly well-crafted comedy teaches us that destiny can’t be achieved without putting in the work and why it’s important to look at history from the perspective of average people, not ju...

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53:24

Lilo & Stitch: Deep Thoughts About Animation, Found...

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/04/08

Send us a text Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten. In addition to dazzling her with its old-school hand-drawn animation and delighting her with its sweet and funny story, the 2002 Disney film Lilo & Stitch introduced Tracie to indigenous Hawaiʻian culture. The writing and directing team of Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois traveled to Hawaiʻi for extensive artistic and cultural research and sought the input of native Hawaiʻians, including voice actor and f...

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52:39

Deep Thoughts About In & Out

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/04/02

Send us a text Does anybody here know how many times I had to watch Funny Lady? The 1997 film In & Out, directed by Frank Oz (yes, the one who voices Miss Piggy) and starring Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, and Tom Selleck, has mostly been forgotten–but this feel-good comedy had a lasting impact on Emily. When she saw it in the theater as an undiagnosed neurodivergent 18-year-old, she was confused as all hell when Kline’s character comes out at his wedding (to a woman) about three-quarters of t...

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59:36

Deep Thoughts About Ladyhawke

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/03/25

Send us a text I talk to God all the time, and no offense, but He never mentioned you. On this week’s episode, Tracie traces some of her earliest ideas about romance to the 1985 Richard Donner film Ladyhawke. Although both contemporary and retrospective reviews are scornful of the anachronistic, Alan Parsons-produced, synthesizer-heavy soundtrack (so unrealistic in a film about a woman cursed to live as a hawk during the day!), Tracie and Emily are more interested in why the film takes away t...

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56:33

Deep Thoughts About the Mummy

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/03/18

Send us a text What is a place like me doing in a girl like this? The 1999 Brendan Fraser film The Mummy has an extraordinarily beautiful cast, a delightfully bonkers plot, and a whole heap of unexamined colonialism, racism, and othering. Emily shares with Tracie the historical background of the West’s fascination with Egypt–which led to little Emily’s own interest and delight in all things Egyptological. But the Egypt we encounter in films like The Mummy has little to do with the real histor...

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52:49

Deep Thoughts About SpongeBob Squarepants

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/03/11

Send us a text Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? When SpongeBob SquarePants debuted in 1999, 23-year-old Tracie was not the intended audience for everyone’s favorite absorbent and yellow and porous hero–but she was charmed and entertained by the show that became a Millennial and Gen Z touchstone. This week, Tracie talks about how SpongeBob gave a generation a framework for understanding capitalism, motivation, community, and absurdist humor. She also explains how challenging the medium ...

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64:15

Deep Thoughts About Silence of the Lambs

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/03/04

Send us a text I do wish we could chat longer, but... I'm having an old friend for dinner. On today’s episode of Deep Thoughts, Emily revisits what is arguably the most influential film of our lifetime: The Silence of the Lambs. Although director Jonathan Demme and lead actor Jodie Foster illuminate the spectrum of misogyny women experience, from casual workplace putdowns to the violent treatment of women as objects, the film does this at the expense of our trans siblings. To its credit...

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54:36

Deep Thoughts About Dead Again

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy... ·

2025/02/25

Send us a text It's the karmic credit plan: buy now, pay forever. Tracie shares her deep thoughts about the 1991 Kenneth Branagh film Dead Again on this week’s episode. Branagh brought intelligence, style, and some pretension to this noir homage that tells the tragic love story of Roman and Margaret Strauss–who have apparently been reincarnated as Mike Church and the amnesiac Jane Doe he calls Grace. While the movie hits all the right mystery beats while you’re watching, Branagh’s story insis...

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