Pop Culture Happy Hour: Revived Properties And Cultural Dichotomies

NPR

We chose not to assign ourselves Dumb And Dumber To this week. Call it the shortness of life, call it the urgency of busy schedules, call it limited tolerance for catheter jokes — we declined. We did, however, get talking about whether this film, and others that come many years later to try to pump life into an aging franchise, are ever simply too late to the party to be successful. Resident Doctor Who person Petra Mayer joins us and adds some perspective on that front, while the rest of us muse on the timing of Star Wars, Guns 'N' Roses, Fargo, Scarlett, and more.

And then we move on to the very nature of cultural nerdery itself, or at least to one of its fundamentals: the divides that really, really divide. Why do people want to identify as Beatles or Stones? Trek or Wars? Are these differences even real? Can Petra and Glen find peace in their discussion of the two Darrin Stephenses? And most importantly, will any of us ever be the same after revealing our peanut butter preferences?

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about this slowed-down performance that he compares to placing druids in the hull of a ship and about an album he's called "bold, dreamy, impeccably rendered music." Glen is sort of happy about his ability to predict the backlash against the internet's latest weird obsession, but he's happier about two films from an actor he particularly enjoys. Petra is happy about a non-terrible finale she enjoyed, and also about the work of an author she's talked about before and another author she hasn't. And I am happy about a solid episode of a show I enjoy, as well as this very strange story.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Glen, Petra, producer Jessica, producer Lauren, and our pal Mike Katzif.