Matthew Wrather hosts with Peter Fenzel and Mark Lee. They totally had a plan when they started this one. They swear. They do manage to touch on Twilight: New Moon, Thanksgiving pop culture revelations, Christian Reality Shows, and Ninja Assasin. Along the way, some other stuff comes up, like how to market amateur theatricals and whether eating less makes you live longer.
For extra fun, play the Overthinking It Podcast drinking game.
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Download Episode 74 (MP3)
On the same night that MTV unleashed The City upon the world, the network also premiered Bromance, a reality competition show in which 9 dudes vie to be the new best friend of Olympian offspring/former Hillster Brody Jenner. The ostensible motivation for the show is the increasing visibility of bromances- male homosocial relationships characterized by reasonably high levels of physical and emotional closeness. Although the concept of homosociality itself doesn’t imply anything other than a social relationship between two members of the same sex, a number of gender/queer studies theorists have argued that muted sexual desire has long been an intrinsic component of homosociality in Western culture, and that shifts in what kind of behavior society defines as “gay and therefore bad” have historically driven changes in the prevalence of homosocial romantic friendships.
Indeed, a number of mass media trend pieces have postulated that the recent surge in the amount of bromantic behavior depicted in film and television has been driven in large parts by the integration of a number of aspects of gay subculture into the mainstream, which in turn has lead to more widespread social acceptance of man-on-man affection.
Is the cultural moment of the bromance really indicative of increased mainstream acceptance of homosexual norms and behavior, or is it just the status quo in new, more homoerotic clothes?
Matthew Wrather hosts a panel including Matthew Belinkie, Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, Jordan Stokes, and David Schechner to Overthink™:
- Our New Theme Song
- New Year’s Resolutions
- Reality Television
- Quantum Mechanics (including a pretty detailed explanation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle)
- Oscar® Contenders
- and, the return of…
Overthink This
Our occasional listing of things you should buy. And if you use these links, we’ll even make a few pennies off you.
As always, email us at podcast AT overthinkingit DOT com with your comments, or call 20-EAT-LOG-01 (that’s (203) 285-6401) to leave a voicemail.
Download Episode 27 (MP3)
9:58 – Disclaimer. Even though I photoshopped this, I’m not a Hills fan. But my roommate Dan is. Dan not only watches The Hills, he watches The Hills Aftershow, where a panel dissects the episode that just aired as if it’s a Thomas Pynchon novel. And now he’s watching the new Hills spinoff, The City, popcorn and all, so here we go.
Matthew Wrather is joined by Matthew Belinkie and Mark Lee to overthink:
- What constitutes a hotline
- Why nobody cares about Synecdoche, New York
- Our status as high priests of popular culture and the moral imperatives of same
- Absence of odor
- Kinds of Season Finales and TV Shows
- The Baroque in Reality Television
- Halloween
- Museums and Orientalism
Overthink This
Our weekly selections from the popular culture for your amusement and edification.
- Lee: World War Z (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307346617?tag=overtit-20)
- Belinkie: Robocop Unicorn (http://www.flickr.com/photos/87258185@N00/sets/72157603724213121/)
- Wrather: Lisa Loeb Jill Sobule Halloween Song (http://www.npr.org/blogs/bryantpark/2007/10/jill_sobule_sings_no_to_grownu.html)
UPDATE: Oops. It’s Jill Sobule, not Lisa Loeb. My bad. —mw
Download Episode 17 (MP3)