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

Deep Thoughts About Shrek TEASER

• Tracie Guy-Decker & Emily Guy Birken

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Podcasts are like onions…they’ve got layers. 

In this patron-exclusive bonus episode, Emily takes a look back at Shrek, the charming ogre who entertained her young son. Though the movie is still laugh-out-loud funny at times, those guffaws come with unfortunate sides of fat-phobia, misogyny, and bio-essential transphobia that is truly ugly (unlike Fiona the ogress who is merely green). More than two decades after its initial release, the Disney diss track that launched a franchise is responsible for some of the hilarious, the recognizable, and the shoddily-built furniture in our minds. 

Once upon a time, two sisters gave a whole new perspective on a beloved, twisted fairytale film. But only for patrons. Really, really.

(Psst! You can be a patron, too! It's easy.)

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/

Speaker 2:

The ogre's scary, but this you know, 105-pound redhead is even more terrifying because emotions have you ever had something you love dismissed because it's just pop culture, what others might deem stupid shit? You know matters, you know it's worth talking and thinking about, and so do we. So come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit.

Speaker 1:

I'm Emily Guy-Burken and you're listening to Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, because pop culture is still culture, and shouldn't you know what's in your head? In today's patron-exclusive bonus episode, I will be sharing my deep thoughts about the 2001 movie Shrek with my sister, Tracy Guy-Decker, and with you. Let's dive in. All right, Trace, tell me what you remember about Shrek.

Speaker 2:

Shrek is in my head. Man, I know Shrek is in my head. Mike Myers, eddie Murphy, like such a so much chemistry in that comedic duo. I kind of love donkeys, just in general, and so I really love donkey, and there's something. So I I find it truly delightful to have these sort of like the mashup and the retelling of the fairy tales like all mashed up together and retold. It appeals to me in a deep, deep way and so I really love Shrek.

Speaker 2:

Like there are some analyses that I could probably share, but I'll wait till we get into it. But let's just say like I'm a big fan of the Ogres and the Donkey and Gingy and Pinocchio and like the whole crew, they live in my head rent-free, even though I mean like when did Shrek come out? The first one, 2001. Oh, okay, so it's, it is pretty old. So I was in my, you know, mid twenties, I guess, when it came out, and then it became very important to my kid. It was one of the one of the movies that she watched on repeat actually later, later versions.

Speaker 2:

I'm not sure it was actually struck. I think it was like but the franchise so yeah, anyway, I actually don't want to spend more, any more time here. Tell me why we're talking about it. Why is it important to you so?

Speaker 1:

I saw it, I believe, in the theater, and loved it, didn't really spend a whole heck of a lot of time thinking about it. It wasn't like, yes, it was furniture of my mind, but it wasn't something I really wrapped around myself. But my first child was born in 2010. And from the time he was about 15 months old, maybe a little bit older, it was his favorite movie, like he absolutely loved it to the point where, in 2012, my husband and I went to a wedding out of state and the another couple, who had a child who was about the same age as ours, hired a babysitter to watch our kids while we went to the wedding. So their, their son and our son and my eldest was very connected to me so, like he, he was a little bit tough to uh to to deal with separation anxiety, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So we had told the babysitter, like you, put on Shrek and he'll be fine. And we came back and they told the babysitter like you, put on Shrek and he'll be fine. And we came back and they it was on its second and a half rotation. She just put it on immediately as soon as we left and he was fine. And so to the point where this kid doesn't really remember the movie. But I was watching it last night and laughing at a couple of things and in the middle we had dinner. So I paused it. We had dinner and my husband said to me some of you may die. And my son said but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Speaker 2:

He's like how do I?

Speaker 1:

know that. What is that from? What is that from? So I feel very nostalgic and fond of this movie because it reminds me of my child's babyhood, but I also am a little concerned about what messages he was imbibing as such a tiny child. It's not that I regret it, but there are things that I think could have been better, so that's why it's important to me to talk about it.

Speaker 2:

Oh cool, all right. Well, remind me the characters live rent free, but remind me of the plot that brings them together.

Speaker 1:

We we meet shrek, an ogre who lives in a swamp by himself. He scares off any villagers who try to come with uh torches and pitchforks and he's very happy to live alone and he thinks fairy tales are are bullshit. We learn that at the very beginning. We also learn that the local lord, lord of Duloc, lord Farquaad, is rounding up all of the magical fairy tale creatures and evicting them from their homes because he wants this perfect kingdom. So because he evicts them, the only place they can go is Shrek's swamp. One of the first fairy tale characters that Shrek meets is Donkey, who is voiced by Eddie Murphy, who is very funny.

Speaker 2:

So, so funny. In my head I think it's like a Tinkerbell kind of a pixie like gets pixie dust on him and he starts to fly and he's like a talking flying donkey and oh man.

Speaker 1:

Well, and I, anytime we're talking about plans for the next day and I'm like, and in the morning I'm making waffles. So donkey immediately like, wants to be friends with shrek um is ignoring shrek's like very clear boundaries and hints that he does not want him there. Then all the other fairy tale creatures show up and he finds out it's because of lord farquad, and so he and donkey go to confront lord farquad to get him to get rid of these fairy tale creatures from his swamp. When they get there, we learn Farquaad wants to have the most perfect kingdom in the land, and the magic mirror tells him well, you're not technically a king, but he says you can be if you marry a princess. And he lets him know about three potential princesses Snow White, Cinderella and Fiona.

Speaker 1:

Fiona is in a ruined castle that is guarded by a fire-breathing dragon, and so anyone who can rescue her from the castle can marry her and become king. There is an enchantment on Fiona, but Farquaad doesn't pay any attention when the mirror tries to tell him that. So Farquaad is holding a tournament for all the knights to find someone to go on this quest to get Fiona for him. And that's where some of you may die, but that is the sacrifice I'm willing to make comes from. And so Shrek shows up in the midst of this tournament and because Farquaad hates anything fairy tale, he's really nasty to Shrek and says new plan instead of a tournament you're all to kill the. Whoever kills the ogre will get to go on this quest. And Shrek manages to disarm everyone and Farquaad says all right, if you go rescue the princess, I'll give you your swamp back.

Speaker 1:

So he and Donkey make it to Fiona's castle. It's in the midst of a, it's on an island surrounded by lava and there is a dragon there. There's bones everywhere from the previous nights who have attempted to save her. And Shrek manages to save Fiona. Donkey is kind of captured by the dragon who he talks his way out of being eaten, because he realizes it's a female dragon and he is flattering her and she falls in love with him. He charms her into not eating him. Yes, Another, like I know you I'm sure you hear this all the time from your food, but you have just lovely teeth. You bleach or something. It's just a shining white smile.

Speaker 2:

And we know she's female because she has like lipstick on.

Speaker 1:

And eyelashes.

Speaker 2:

And eyelashes and she's purple and pink, because those colors are inherently feminine. Yes, it's biology.

Speaker 1:

They manage to escape the dragon without slaying it. The dragon is actually quite sad when she sees the donkey is leaving. Fiona finally gets a look at Shrek because he was wearing a helmet and she sees that he's an ogre. She believes that she's waiting for true love's first kiss and he's like no, that's not me, I'm here to take you to Farquaad. Another moment where she says will you tell Farquaad he can come get me himself? And he says I'm nobody's messenger boy, I'm a delivery boy. He picks her up and carries her. I don't know why that struck me as so funny. They get like about halfway back and the sun is starting to set and Fiona freaks out and is like no, no, no, we need to camp, we need to find a place to camp overnight. And she's like there are robbers and terrible things in the woods. And he's like I'm scarier than anything else that we would find in the woods. And then she screams in his face I need to find a place to camp now, which I'm going to talk about that. So they find a place to camp now, which I'm going to talk about that. So they find a cave. She grabs some bark for a door and puts it over the cave and we don't see her.

Speaker 1:

That night Donkey and Shrek talk a little bit about the fact that Shrek rejects everyone because they reject him. So it's easier for him to just push everyone away than to wait for them to grab the torches and pitchforks. The next day they're continuing along. Fiona makes breakfast for them, saying like we got off on the wrong foot. I'd like to kind of start again After breakfast. Shrek burps and Donkey like reprimands him. He's like what, it's a compliment. And then fiona burps so we get the. She's not like other girls, uh. And then they run into robin hood and his merry men, who are french for some reason, I don't know, and like know and like exuberantly gay coded.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, maybe that's why they're french because, obviously yeah, it's biology so fiona single-handedly takes out all of robin and his merry men.

Speaker 2:

With some Matrix-like references.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so Matrix was only two years old at this point, so it was still topical. And Shrek says to Fiona you're not like I was expecting. And she said well, maybe you should get to know people before you make a judgment about them. So there's the thesis and it's underlined.

Speaker 2:

It's so helpful when our culture does that for us.

Speaker 1:

And it's clear that Shrek and Fiona are starting to really like each other. They get to an old windmill that is within sight of Duloc and make camp for the night again so that Fiona can stay in the windmill. They have dinner, they're talking. It's really clear that Shrek likes Fiona, but he's losing his nerve when he wants to ask her, you know, if she wants to go with him or whatever Wants to go with him wants to go with him or whatever Wants to go with him. Shrek goes off after Fiona, goes into the windmill like off by himself, and Donkey goes into the windmill to talk to Fiona to be like, look, shrek likes you. You should, you know, encourage that you should talk to him. And he finds that Fiona is actually an ogre at night because she was enchanted so that she is a human during the day and an ogre at night, and so she experiences a lot of self-loathing and she and Donkey are talking about it and she's saying like princess and ugly don't go together. Shrek overhears that, thinks that she's talking about him, and so he goes to Duloc and gets Farquaad and brings them back in the morning. So she had decided to tell him just as the sun came up and so she's back to her human form and he's so rude to Fiona, thinking that she has rejected him, that she goes off with Farquaad and says let's get married today before sunset, before she turns into an ogre again. Shrek and Donkey get into a fight because Shrek thinks Donkey betrayed him too because he was the one talking to Fiona. Donkey betrayed him too because he was the one talking to Fiona. And then they have kind of a really overwrought scene with Hallelujah playing that I kind of still love, even though it is really overwrought. So you see Shrek and Fiona both being really sad while Fiona is trying on her wedding gown. And then you also see Donkey being really sad and he happens to see the dragon is right there, has escaped from the castle. So Donkey comes back to Shrek's swamp, starts building a wall there and Shrek's like what are you doing? This is my swamp. He's like no, it's our swamp, and I'm building a wall between your half and my half. He's like what do you mean our swamp? He's like well, I did half the work on this quest, so I get half the booty. And so they, they fight. They finally get to a point where Donkey is able to say she wasn't talking about you. She was talking about someone else, and he won't say who, because she made him promise that he wouldn't tell they realize. Oh, my goodness, the wedding, we've got to stop it. And so Donkey whistles for the dragon who comes and gives him a ride to the to-do lock.

Speaker 1:

My another favorite moment is they get off of the dragon and Donkey says to her go on, have some fun, we'll whistle if we need you. So she's about to go like lay siege to the village, but the entire village is in the church watching the wedding. They stop the wedding. Shrek confesses that he loves Fiona. Farquaad makes fun of him and says Fiona, we're but a kiss away from our happily ever after. She sees the sun is going down and she's like all right, I'm going to show my true self. And she steps into where the darkness is so that she becomes an ogre. Shrek says yeah, I love you.

Speaker 1:

And dragon comes in, eats Farquaad and spits out his crown and Shrek and Fiona kiss and then she does. This is like very clearly the transformation scene from Beauty and the Beast, with the light shining out of her, and then she comes back down you can't really see her because of her angle and Shrek helps her up and she's still an ogre and she's like but I was supposed to be beautiful. And he says, but you are beautiful. And she's like but I was supposed to be beautiful. And he says, but you are beautiful. And then cue a wedding scene between Shrek and Fiona and then a dance party for I'm a believer no conversation about the two days and then wedding thing, like let's disrupt our fairy tale expectations. Except for that.

Speaker 2:

Like there are other things.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we will need to talk about as well.

Speaker 2:

There's a bunch. Yeah, podcasts are like onions. They've got layers. But if you want to listen to the rest of these layers, you got to head over to Patreon. Find the link in the show notes and thanks. Do you like stickers? Sure, we all do. If you head over to guygirlsmediacom slash, sign up and share your address with us, we'll send you a sticker. It really is that easy, but don't wait, there's a limited quantity. Thanks for listening. Our theme music is Professor Umlaut by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetechcom. Find full music credits in the show notes. Until next time, remember, pop culture is still culture. And shouldn't you know what's in your head?