Saturday School Podcast

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Season 1, Ep. 6: Fruit Fly Oct 15, 2016

Show notes

This week, we're talking about 2009's Fruit Fly, a comedy musical by H.P. Mendoza starring L.A. Renigan as Maribel, a performance artist living in San Francisco, making new friends and finding her way.

Brian learns that H.P. Mendoza comedies can make you laugh one minute and want to drink your sorrows away the next. Ada looks back nostalgically on her gay clubbing days and appreciates that no one lined up in a circle accusing her of being a fag hag (as they do to L.A. Renigen's character in the movie), but imagines she would have been okay with it if they had done it through song. They'll both always remember that magical Fruit Fly premiere night at The Castro Theatre in San Francisco, surrounded by Colma: The Musical fans, anticipating what delights the team would bring us next.

Saturday School is a podcast where we teach your unwilling children about Asian American pop culture history. First season will be about Asian American film comedies. 10 episodes will be released every Saturday at 8am, which is when we were forced to go to Chinese school as kids.

Season 1, Ep. 5: They Call Me Bruce? (with Michael Kang + Klee & Ryatt) Oct 08, 2016

Show notes

We have a very special episode of Saturday School this week, where we have guests! We recorded LIVE at the Comedy Comedy Festival earlier this year, and we invited director Michael Kang and his daughters Klee and Ryatt to talk about 1982's action comedy They Call Me Bruce? -- which was a pivotal film for the older Kang, who first saw the film when he was 12 and said it "changed his life." Kang remembers what it meant to see the Korean American Johnny Yune performing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and talks about what it was like showing the film to his daughters, knowing they wouldn't get many of the decades-old pop culture references.

Not-so-spoiler alert: Klee and Ryatt got bored really fast and started messing around on the side, and we thought it was quite fitting that we forced the next generation to come to Saturday School and they didn't listen or learn anything. We, on the other hand, learned about the YouTube channel Klee is planning on starting!

Season 1, Ep. 4: Loins of Punjab Oct 01, 2016

Show notes

Episode 4 of Saturday School is about a special film called Loins of Punjab Presents, a mockumentary about a Bollywood Idol singing competition in New Jersey. Ada learns that Brian likes any film with the word "loins" in it. (You're welcome, aspiring filmmakers submitting to the San Diego Asian Film Festival, for the free advice.)

Brian throws his full support behind the gay bhangra singer who goes by Turbanotorious B.D.G., played by Ajay Naidu of Office Space fame. But really, this is an example of a film that we especially wanted to bring out of the vault. Especially because the late director was never able to make any more films, it's gems like these that can be easily forgotten about if we're not reminded to look back.

Season 1, Ep. 3: The Wedding Banquet Sep 24, 2016

Show notes

In this week's episode of Saturday School, we go back a little further in time: to 1993 and Ang Lee's second film, The Wedding Banquet. It's a comedy of misunderstandings that lead to a fake wedding to placate Taiwanese parents who desperately want their (closeted gay) son to get married. Brian provides important historical context about how this film influenced not only Asian American cinema, but American independent cinema and Taiwanese cinema. Ada accidentally laughs too hard at Brian's parents' concerns about his love life.

Season 1, Ep. 2: Ping Pong Playa Sep 17, 2016

Show notes

Get ready for Episode 2! You better have done your homework, which was to watch Jessica Yu's Ping Pong Playa from 2007, starring Jimmy Tsai. This week, Ada learns that Ping Pong Playa is about more than the comedy of grown men wearing short shorts, but also the humor of Asian American men who overcompensate in attempts to prove their masculinity in a society that often desexualizes them. Brian learns that when Ada says she related to the scenes with the immigrant parents, it's partially about the sonic authenticity of the Chinese American accents (which generally gets messed up a lot), but mostly about that familiar tone of voice when you get yelled in Mandarin for being ridiculous. Ada also learns who Manu Ginóbili is.

Season 1, Ep. 1: Randall Park Shorts Sep 08, 2016

Show notes

This is the official launch of our new podcast Saturday School, where we teach your unwilling children about Asian American pop culture history. First season will be about Asian American film comedies, and starting today, 10 episodes will be released every Saturday at 8am, which is when we were forced to go to Chinese school as kids.

There are so many cultural classics worth bringing out of the vault, but for our very first episode, we thought it was important to start with a selection of Randall Park comedy shorts circa 2006-2009. AKA rich narratives about dragons of love, cooking with cocaine, magical semen, getting kicked out of IKEA, and what happens if you wake up conjoined to your father. So clearly, you can trust us with the next generation. (No promises on whether you can trust Randall Park circa 2006-2009 with your kids though.)

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