♪ Entertain me, entertain me right now ♪
Congratulations, you found the pop culture junkie podcast.
I'm Olivia here with Shauna.
And Shauna, you know, you've had quite the week.
I have lost my girl to much bigger publications.
- Yes. - She is going big leagues.
So tell the listeners a little bit
about what you have been up to, Shauna.
I've been working my ass on all women everywhere.
- Yes, okay, we're getting a little political.
- Yeah, I think so. - Yeah, I think so.
We live in Arizona and abortion is on the ballot
this year in Arizona. - Yes.
- So it is Proposition 139.
And I work full time for the Yes on 139 campaign,
which would solidify abortion rights
in the state of Arizona.
So it has been crazy busy leading up to Election Day.
But it's always very fulfilling and amazing
and I've been loving it.
So we've been doing some press interviews
and I've been interviewed by the New York Times
a couple of times.
- Oh, yes.
- Yes, including for their podcast, The Daily.
- Yes, guys. - You're here first.
If you're a pop culture junkie listener,
you saw her here before The Daily Day.
- Before The Daily, I was a Pop Culture Junkie.
Always and forever.
And then The New Yorker.
So once all these come out,
I'll make sure to send them your way.
- Yeah, absolutely.
But yeah, so we've just been working really hard
on solidifying abortion rights in Arizona
and we're gonna have a postcard party here coming up.
And speaking of abortion rights in Arizona,
the Pop Culture Junkie podcast are going to be
the masters of ceremonies.
- Sounds so serious.
- It does, doesn't it?
- For Zombie Prom 2024, for all of our Arizona listeners,
still, we love you out of Arizona listeners.
- Yes. - Come visit us.
- Yes, yeah, come if you want,
but if you want to meet your Junkies in person,
we're actually gonna be fundraising for Planned Parenthood.
And it'll be at the Casual Pint.
- Would you ever think of the Casual Pint?
- Yeah, they love us.
We love them.
We really can't be working with them.
They're such a great bar and organization.
- Oh, absolutely.
They're so supportive of everything that we do.
So it's gonna be October 11th from 7 to 11 PM
at the Casual Pint, Central Phoenix.
We will be our hostesses with the most.
- And most is the years of the ghouls and shows.
- Yeah, and it's $5 if you ticket.
- It's $5 a ticket.
- And that $5 a go right to Planned Parenthood.
- Yeah, so all that goes directly to it.
There's some fun things that we're gonna be doing,
like a brain eating, a competition.
- Yeah, our friend Stephanie's making the brain.
- Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- She's practicing.
- Last year we had a last minute brain for paw
and it did not turn into brain.
- We ran out of brain.
- Yeah, we ran out of brain.
- It's been a fresh brain.
- If you've listened to this podcast,
you already know that.
(laughing)
- We haven't had brains in 35 years.
- No, but it's been really cool.
And I think for me, I'm just so proud of you
for all the work that you've been doing.
- Thank you.
- It's not easy to knock on a door every single day
and in the great state of Arizona,
we do not know what door you are knocking on.
- We've got some interesting interactions.
One dude just opened his door shirtless,
which is rubbing his belly.
(laughing)
And I was like, "Hey, I'm gonna talk about Prop 139."
He's like, "Yeah, so, right."
And just kind of like going around the belly button
a little too aggressively.
And I was like,
"You just built, yes, here's the floor."
- He took it back.
- He was gonna vote for abortion, though.
- He did, he's like, "All right."
He was feeling his umbilical cord.
And he was like, "Yeah, yeah."
- I got a little...
(laughing)
- He didn't earn acid deep.
So he's voting yes, though.
- Yeah, so...
- So I love that.
So yes, but I'm not serving beer as Salil Nasex.
I am walking door to door for abortion rights.
- Or I'm listening to a podcast with you.
- Or speaking to a New York Times reporter.
- You know, you know.
- Yeah, yeah.
So, and that's been pretty cool to see, you know,
just your journey with it.
So I'm proud of you.
- I need it so much to be proud of you.
(laughing)
- And, you know, no matter your affiliation,
we want to fight for woman's rights to choose.
- Absolutely.
- That's where we are.
- 100%.
- What have you been up to?
- I haven't seen you in ages.
I know you were like, "Gravely ill."
- Oh, well, you were not going to talk to me.
- Well, you were not going to talk to me.
So I was hospitalized and I lost 20 pounds.
- You look incredible.
- You look like you didn't before.
- Thank you, no, I've been quite sick.
So. - We do not endorse you.
- You see 20 pounds from sickness and just really that.
(laughing)
- But in my very sickness, I have been watching a ton of movies,
a ton of shows, some nostalgia.
Like every time I get really sick,
I have to rewatch the vampire diaries.
And that's why it's my comfort show.
- Mine used to be the OC when I got really sick.
I would have to rewatch the OC.
- Oh, it's so good.
I also, another one that I've started to put into the mix
is Desperate Housewives.
- I was thinking about starting that
because I've been seeing a lot of clips
on Instagram reels and it looks really funny.
- It's, you've never seen it.
Oh my gosh, okay, it gets a little cookie towards the end.
Like all TV shows that should have ended.
- But the first couple of seasons are so good.
You should watch it.
- And it's quite the time capsule of the 2000s.
- Of like, okay, what was it like to be
or a publican before MAGA?
- Ooh, are they all republicans?
- And like rich ladies.
- There's one who's free, who's like an NRA,
like perfect mother, like a republican.
And so it's kind of interesting to like look
at those archetypes of mothers and women.
And I think during its time,
it was such an influential show
because they were never showing women of that age.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- They're all one of their cities.
- Yeah, they're all housewives.
- Are they desperate?
- Yeah, they are desperate.
And of course it created the iconic
real housewives.
- I always get them mixed up.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, so it created a lot of iconic pop culture
that we see today.
But one movie that I really wanted to talk about
that is incredibly pertinent to everything going on
in pop culture that I know you and I both saw.
- Oh my gosh.
- Blink twice.
- So, and so I'm gonna try not to spoil it.
This is Zoe Kravitz, directorial debut
and screenplay writing debut.
- She killed it.
- And I, like, of course, so Zoe Kravitz has been
a NEPO baby her entire life.
- She's in your NEPO baby car.
- She's in my NEPO baby car.
I love that woman so much.
But obviously she has been in pop culture
and has clearly been to a lot of ditty parties
within her life.
- And you can tell from this movie.
- Yeah, and so Blink twice is incredibly good.
Chaining Tatum is in it and plays a very unconventional role.
He is this wealthy billionaire and it kind of starts out
with him like doing your standard YouTuber apology.
- Yeah, I'm taking time to work on my mental health.
- Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, kind of Jeff Bezos type character.
- And so I watched the movie and I can't even begin to tell.
It's so good.
Like go see it in theaters, pay the $20 on Amazon Prime
to actually rent and watch it.
- I saw in theaters for the first time
and then when I was over at your house
and you wanted to rewatch it the next day.
- Yeah, I watched it.
I was like, it's so good.
I had to rewatch it again.
- Watch because you catch things
that you didn't the first time around.
And then you talked to me about the color theory.
- Yes.
- And again, we don't want to spoil it because it's so good.
But like different colors throughout the movie.
- Represent different things.
- Represent different things that are going on
in the character's lives.
And it is so feminist.
- It's the most feminist movie.
It's so good.
So he craves did amazing.
Channing Tatum takes on a very different role
than you've ever seen him in.
- Yeah, he absolutely crushes it.
- He's so good.
- Lots of actors in that movie where they pop up
and you're like, oh shit, they're in this?
Oh wow, look at that.
- Yeah, you're like, oh my gosh.
And with everything going on with Diddy,
all the comporter, now Eric Adams being indicted,
it is really, really, really relevant.
- Very timely.
- It's crazy that Zoe Kravitz released this movie.
Right as all this was happening with her history.
And it really does feel like a kind of a glimp,
like an artistic glimpse into what the hell is going on.
- Yeah, and she made it seem
like she's seen some shit.
And you could watch this movie and think,
oh this is just fiction, but it's, oh god.
- Oh no, oh god.
- This is a glimpsum.
- Into what's going down.
- Yeah, and I have always kind of been this
conspiratorial crazy, like a podcast.
- And I'm right out of this side of the podcast
where I'm like, there's some weird stuff going on.
- I'm doing a Hollywood shit.
- Like I remember talking about Justin Bieber and Diddy,
like months and months and months ago.
And then now all this stuff is coming up.
And so I watched that movie and with all the Diddy stuff
going on right now, like I have not stopped thinking about.
- It's one of those movies that stick with you
and you keep thinking of other little things that happen
in the movie that you're like, oh gosh,
I wonder what that meant.
Or like you didn't realize it until you were laying
in bed or brushing your teeth.
And you're like, oh my god,
I didn't even think about it that way.
- Yeah, and we haven't done a Diddy Jeep dive
in all the allegations just because there is
so much coming out.
- Yeah.
- And it's been really, really hard today
as of where we're recording.
120 additional allegations have been filed against him.
There's a cross-action lawsuit.
- Oh my gosh.
- That got filed today.
I mean, I think we're gonna continue to see more
and more and more clear about it.
- Oh my gosh, but I think people fall down.
But there are a lot of great YouTubers and podcasters
covering the topic.
- You've never heard the name Jaguar, right?
She is spitting truth.
- I have not really.
- Jaguar, right? Like W.I. are.
- Yeah, yes.
- Okay.
- So she's actually got kind of sounding
the alarm on Diddy four years and years and years.
And everyone was like, oh, she's kooky.
Like no one believes her.
'Cause she just didn't make it.
- Women are hysterical for things.
I was just talking about this today at the other job.
The day job.
People, women are always accused of being hysterical
about things and then we end up being right.
- And then it takes 200 people to say,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- But like over and over again with its stuff like this
when they're saying, no, this guy's a creep, listen to us
or no like, rovy way, it's gonna be over turned.
Please listen to us.
Oh, no, you're overreacting.
You're just being hysterical, right?
And that's kind of this movie.
It's, I mean, I, again, no spoilers,
but it's a lot of, oh, you're just overreacting.
- Yeah, I mean, it's fun.
- Gaslighting.
- Yes, yes, yes.
If you haven't seen it, yeah, go watch it.
It's so good.
And it's a great piece of media and original media,
which I think we're really have been missing
within this world quite a bit.
But yeah, those, definitely say I started
Desperate Housewives.
- Where can you watch Desperate Housewives?
- It's on Hulu.
- It's, yeah.
- So.
- I'm gonna do it.
- Yeah, I'm gonna show it.
It's worth it.
- I'll take a break from my disaster movies
that I watch every Thursday.
- Yeah, the disaster movie is canvassing.
I think you need like a little happy.
- No, I can't miss all day and talk to people
about trying to restore bodily autonomy to women.
And then I go home and I'm like,
what's the most violent tragic movie I could watch?
- Have I watched a day after tomorrow?
- That is my comfort movie though.
I love that movie so much.
- It is, but yeah, and we're--
- There are acutubates of Catholicism
and I have to like it.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- That's the reason you like the movie.
- I was an acutococaptain.
- Okay.
- We never got to go to New York though.
- Oh, I was a math lead.
- Okay.
- Sure.
- What's 300 plus, or should I give a round number?
- 300 plus four.
- 300 times 1,475.
- Let me just say that math was my worst subject.
- Okay, but then how are you a math lead?
- Because that's what they call it in Mean Girls.
That was a joke.
- Okay.
- That's what the kids at the bus stop used to call me.
- You know, fake news.
(laughing)
Fake news.
- No, I was good at speech.
I was great at speeches 'cause I'd be talking.
- Go figure.
- Bitch, be talking.
- Go figure.
- I love that.
I love that.
Okay, let's go into our topic somehow from there.
- Well, as we begin our favorite month of the year,
we wanted to talk about a little thing
that causes spooky feelings in us
that might not just be horror.
And we wanted to talk about this thing called
uncanny valley.
So, Sean, do you know what uncanny valley is?
- Uncanny valley is a theory proposed in 1970
by Japanese robot assist Masihiro Mori.
The term uncanny valley is a translation
from the Japanese phrase,
"Wukimi no tani," which was later translated into English
by a British person.
We're not gonna say that name.
- Yeah.
- The Japanese name, Chihizo Rikari in 1978.
- So the theory is that as an object becomes more human
like an appearance, people's affinity towards it increases.
But at a certain point, the object is almost human,
but not quite there.
It evokes feelings of like ayriness or like a brother ew
like something is off.
It's just not right in uncannyness.
The sudden drop in affinity creates that valley.
So when we're like, "Oh, it looks like a person."
I like that oh god, it looks too much like a person,
but something's off, something's off.
Then it's the valley.
- Yeah, and it's very scientific.
Again, we're not gonna, you know,
explain the theory of Masihiro,
but really it becomes this common occurrence
within humans where if something looks human like,
but isn't quite there,
creates a sense of deep unsettling within us.
So it's always, things that don't create
on Canny Valley from here like the Avatar movie, right?
Because they're humanoid.
- Yeah, they're human, yeah, they're blue.
They're humanoid, but you know they're not supposed
to be humans, right?
Or like Sanos, he's humanoid.
But it doesn't create that Iqfactor in me
because he's so far removed still from being human.
- I think it's just called that.
- Every example you get was like,
- Sanos has purple.
- The weird chin and there's different things
that don't create on Canny Valley.
It's when they are so close to having it down,
but there's still that one thing off
that you're like, this isn't quite right for me.
Like Princess Leia and Rogue One, right?
So she shows up at the end and it's supposed
to be a D.H. Carrie Fisher and they do such a good job,
and it's almost there, but there's something
a little too waxy about her face.
She's a little dead behind the eyes,
and so it creates that unease because you know
that they're trying to convince you
that that's really Carrie Fisher and that's a human,
but it's definitely not.
- Yeah, and it's so interesting to me
because when I think about the uncanny Valley theory,
to me, it's like I always wanna go back to
what in human evolution made us feel that way.
For it to be such a human experience
and a natural thing for us to do,
like we're just unsettling.
Like what is it about that came from human evolution
for us to get there?
And that's where we put on our tinfoil hat
in this little theory here is you know,
the further that you go down, you know,
you say like, oh, I don't like going to Madame Tussos
because it really creeps me out.
And you know, they're just waxy and like there's something wrong,
like those don't creep me out as much
because I know their wax and like they're not moving
and no one's trying to convince me that they're real.
But I could see how that would give other people in here.
- Oh, it gives me such a meaning.
- I can see that.
- Especially if they're bad.
Like if they're really good, then I'm like,
oh shit, that really looks like Lady Gaga.
- Yeah.
- And I realize it's like,
- Don't you think Lady Gaga's not look like Lady Gaga?
- It's at different museums.
- Okay, different.
We got the very big grade Madame Tussos.
- I think you go to like the dollar store
and like the Uma is, I wanna look at it.
- Okay, 'cause I feel like I've seen
the really bad Madame Tussos.
- The really bad Madame Tussos.
- If they're really bad, then it gives me that unease
'cause it's not even close to human like,
but if it looks good, then I'm like,
then I just appreciate for the art that it is.
But I could see how it could give other people
like they're too dead behind the eyes.
There's something creepy about it.
- Yeah, yeah.
And there's like a lot of psychological studies
that people have gone through to say like, okay,
what is it?
And they haven't necessarily like nailed down
why they think it is that this phenomenon
happens within us.
Some some sign to say,
hey, we're its pathogen avoidance.
So it's our body's trying to say like, okay, don't get sick.
Or you know, if it's a kind of a mismatch theory,
it's a threat avoidance and it's all a meat selection.
- The meat selection one is my favorite one
because if you see something that's not quite humanoid,
you're like, they can't have my babies.
- Yeah.
- I can't insuminate that thing.
- Yeah, where it's like, is it just that, you know,
we, because we've seen it where attractive people
are more than likely to get away with crimes
just because they are attractive.
We're more trusting of people who are attractive.
- We were just talking about this study
that they show kids like a picture of a
conventionally attractive person
and then a conventionally unattractive person,
I guess by whatever societal standards you want to say that.
And the kid, they're like, which one is nicer
and the kid always points to the pretty person?
Which one do you trust more?
Which one's evil?
And it's always, yeah.
- Yeah, and it's really, really interesting just to look at it.
And then my and a lot of the darker side
of the internet ones, is species recognition.
And so this kind of comes by, if you've heard of
on Cani Valley and you're on the wrong side of the internet,
this is where you get into the lizard people,
the skin walkers, your form, your story, the story.
- I know, I keep bringing it up.
(laughing)
But, you know, I think that it is such an interesting question
of why does it create this feeling of unsettlingness
where we've evolved to feel about way.
- I think we've just all day, every day,
it's impossible to avoid seeing another human.
Even if you don't leave your house,
you're likely to look in the mirror, right?
You are, unless you've got all the mirrors in your house.
- What are we going to swine?
We're going to get full plastic surgery.
- Yeah, right.
Where you're divergent.
Where you're like, I don't remember that.
In that book series, she can't look at herself in the mirror.
And then she finally does.
And it's like, wow, I'm hot.
(laughing)
But you can't avoid seeing another human.
So I think even from when we are first born
and we imprint on our mother's faces
and we finally start making eye contact
with our mothers and fathers,
like we realize what a human face is supposed to look like.
What life behind the eyes looks like.
I mean, this is dark too,
but if you see like a dead body,
like it gives kind of that uncanny value
because you know it's a human,
but there's just something missing.
It's that spark of life and you're like, yeah.
- Yeah, I mean, it's a dead body.
- I mean, it's a dead body.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- But it also, you're like,
there's just something off about that.
- Yeah.
- You could tell the difference
between dead and sleeping.
- Yeah, yeah, definitely.
- Yeah, definitely.
- So there are so many instances
within pop culture that we feel this
and we remember.
And so the phenomenon, although it is quite complex
and we did not explain it to you in the best,
I guess if you wanna really go into
all of the different representations of it,
we see it all the time and like Elon Musk
was just pictured with this.
- He really must give me like,
- Yeah, yeah.
- And Sam is a person.
- Yeah, Sam, he does give on candy valley.
- But did you see him with that robot lady,
humanoid thing that he was with?
- Like a sex robot?
- Yeah, well, I don't know if that's what I was for,
but he was at a party.
- I mean, yeah, that's obvious what it was for.
- Girl, but.
- Grimes dumped him.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- It was step one, danger grime.
- Step two.
- To get stuffy to make you the humanoid.
- Grimes is about as close to dating a robot as you can.
- I would agree with that.
- I love her.
- I would agree with that.
- She's definitely got robot parts to do with that.
- Keep going.
- And, you know, I think there should
just so many different areas and ways that our brains
are kind of working with us evolutionary to try to save us.
But I wanna talk a little bit about
some uncommon spooky movies right after this break.
(dramatic music)
- One of my favorite instances of Uncanny Valley
that kinda comes to mind when I think of the concept
is that movie Polar Express from 2004 with Tom Hanks.
Why didn't they just make it live action?
- I don't know.
- Because the character, it's Tom Hanks.
They make like a CG Tom Hanks.
- Yeah.
- They could easily have made this a live action movie
and I think it would have been a lot better,
but it's just, they're trying so hard to make them
look human like that it's so Uncanny and uncomfortable.
Either make it totally live action
or make it a part to-- - Or make it more part to me.
- Exactly.
That right there in the middle is just,
see what, sometimes I think it's so interesting
'cause my brother and I grew up, same life, obviously.
We moved all the same places.
We went to all the same schools, even the same college.
- Date of the same guys.
- Yeah, totally.
And so my brother freaking loves this film.
- We love to put it on every Christmas.
- Yeah, it makes me feel like Crampus is coming into the home.
Every time you do this, why are we watching this?
And so it does depend.
I think a lot of people are impacted very differently.
I think one of the ones that really freaks me out
but it does not fit with the Avatar is Cats.
- Oh my God, Cats is so Uncanny Valley.
Because they have human faces.
- Yes.
- It's the actual faces of the actors and actresses,
but then the rest of them is not human.
- Yeah.
- I watched this with my friends a couple years ago
for one of our friends birthday parties made like a sleepover.
- Did you dress up like the Cats to Cats?
- We all had to work cat ears.
- Okay.
- So we all work cat ears.
- Did you feel your face to make sure you weren't
more fit and more?
- We had a drinking game.
So every time they said gelical cats, we had to drink.
- Oh, how fucked up were you?
- So drunk.
- Yeah.
- So I've no idea what a gelical cat is in this day.
- I don't know, I don't think I ever actually saw
the Cats music.
- And whenever the actress Elba appears nude on film.
- Ooh.
- I mean, I wish.
- I would've watched it for that.
- But he's not, but he's a cat.
- He's a cat.
- He's just a cat.
- So he's not quite naked.
It's just, it's not appropriate.
- Okay, so we were very drunk.
- If it was the wire, each of us Elba.
- Ooh.
- Or the Luther each of us Elba.
- Okay.
Well, that took me away from my cat.
- Not cats, not cats.
- Not cats.
- No, but literally if you could probably convince me
Taylor Swift is evil, if the only image I ever saw of her
was hers that cat.
- With her cat boobs.
- Yeah.
(laughs)
- I also hated it.
- We would take away my love of hers.
- And just go for a photography.
If that was the only image I ever saw of her.
- Just in your head.
- I also hate when they give female cartoon characters
breasts.
- Okay.
- This is a total different tangent.
- Yeah.
- But like if you watch old Hannah Barbra cartoon,
it's like the girl chicken comes up.
She's got like chicken tints.
(laughs)
It makes no sense.
And the guy chicken just looks like a chicken.
And she walks up and she's got like a D cup
and like big lips.
- And she's like, "You're doing Danny chicken tints."
- Yes, and like, dude, like we talked about the fish
from Charles Taylor.
- Okay, that's a fuck up old fish.
- Why does she have to be fuckable
and the other fish is just like,
but she's the Angelina Jolie fish.
- It says she but don't give animals tits.
- Yeah, okay.
- That's it.
- That's the end of the episode.
- So tune in next week for another episode.
- Yeah, the other example of
Candy Valley that I really like.
And the fans made this one better.
So when the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog kind of,
he looked too human like.
- Okay.
- He had like human teeth like chompers.
- I remember the outrage, but I don't remember the image.
- It was awful.
I'll show it to you after this.
- Maybe it's because of my fear of Uncanny Valley.
- Yeah. - But like, I just hate it so much.
- The internet freaked out because
it didn't look like Sonic from the cartoon,
the video game, his eyes were far apart like a humans.
So he had like a bridge between his eyes, he had teeth.
And everyone was like, that's not Sonic the Hedgehog.
I don't know what the fuck that thing is,
but get it away from me.
Kill it with fire.
So because the internet freaked out so much,
the changed the movie and replaced him
and made him look like the Sonic that we know and love.
And then it's going on to have,
it's the third movie for some reason.
I don't know, I've been seen in movies.
Hey, the fans got that Uncanny Valley change.
- Right.
Some really popular culture, Uncanny Valley examples include
on top of, you know, polar express.
That's probably the most renowned.
- Yeah.
- Red House.
- As a monster house.
I don't think I ever saw that one.
- Never seen that one.
- Beowulf.
- Which, yeah, it, you've got to say.
- Again, another movie.
Like why?
- Make your life action.
- Yeah, and I think this goes into the AI argument
of selling digital likeness.
- Yeah.
- Now I think it really does become like,
because sometimes when you do look at these AI
created images, like people who make their AI
LinkedIn like headshot or whatever.
- Oh gosh.
- You did.
- They did me Uncanny Valley because the eyes.
- I miss the eyes.
- The eyes.
- It's the eyes, yeah.
- I think that's it.
- It's the window to the human soul and life,
whatever you believe.
But like it's always in the eyes that you can tell
that something is not real.
- Yeah.
- Another one that I like is Tron Legacy.
I really like that movie, but they de-age Jeff Bridges
and de-aged characters have gotten so much better
over the years.
- Yeah.
- Now it's just a filter, baby.
- Right, literally.
- I'm moving it to my self-on-chat,
- Yeah, this is what we look like.
(laughing)
- Yeah, well that's actually a really interesting point.
Like are we going to lose that the more and more we get
a part of filters in filter face?
- Right, and I think so.
I mean, you can tell for the most part still.
Okay, that person filtered their face.
That person used face to the extreme.
- Like seven times.
- Yeah, but seven times?
- Seven times.
- It's a part to tell.
- It is, it's getting better, but yeah.
It is kind of interesting to think about that.
And as we move into a filter world on social media,
- In plastic surgery.
I mean, have you, okay, two people who I maybe real people,
I don't know.
- I don't know.
JD Vance and Mad Gates.
- Okay.
- Laura.
- Mad Gates is plastic surgery.
- Oh my God.
- That is so much.
- Is literally the villain from Incredible.
- Okay, will you see him recently?
- Not recently.
- Is it eyebrows or what?
- Yes, it's scary.
- You know what's so funny is we're like,
we're not gonna, we're not gonna body shape anymore.
- I'm like, I'm gonna fucking out of my pants.
- They're my sad, shunistic, fascist,
- Yeah.
- That we will body shape.
- You deserve it.
You deserve all the shape.
- Yeah.
- Yes, it's like at what point do plastic surgery trends
take over and go so far that people don't look humanoid anymore?
They don't look like humans anymore.
- So yeah.
- If you remove all of your buccal fat
in your eyebrows or to your hairline and like,
at what point do you see someone go,
that's not quite a human anymore.
- Yeah, no, Google Mac Gates is new face.
- It's unsettling.
It's the scariest thing in the world.
Right before I came here, I was watching the VP debate.
- And it's my gaze at the VP debate.
- I'm a big fan.
- A bunch of fans.
- I don't know if it's the eyeliner.
I don't know if it's his inability
to have a normal human conversation.
- Say any just a terrible person.
- Coming from child freak.
- No freak at, ladies.
- He just can't, like he doesn't speak
at a rhythmic pace of a human being.
Like, we're two people who speak for a living.
- We do.
- And for better words.
- Yeah, for better words.
And like, I, I, I, it freaks me out.
Like I don't, I don't know.
- His voice gives you uncanny down.
- Just know all of it.
All of it, like literally.
- I've never believed in a lizard person till then, you know?
Like, oh my God.
- We're getting deep in the kids' work in so far.
- I love it so much.
- Maybe I'll watch it tonight when I get home.
I don't know.
I need a glass of wine in a nap.
- I don't think you need more politics.
- I'm so exhausted.
(laughing)
- Another really one that I think is kind of
a newer reference is Megan.
- And I, that one was okay for me because she's supposed
to be a doll.
- Yeah.
- So that one, I think she looks doll enough.
- Exactly.
- Where it's not so creepy.
- I totally agree.
But I can see how it could give other people the ilk.
Like, but I thought it was, I thought it was well done.
- Yeah.
- Justice League 2017, they digitally removed
Henry Cavill's mustache.
I mean, one of the scenes when he's Superman.
And it's so obvious.
And this is a delicious man.
This is maybe one of the most handsome men I've ever seen.
- I would agree about that.
- He's insanely good looking.
But his upper lip is just so smooth and large.
And like, and we know that's not what he looks like
because our brains can recover.
Looks like, I don't know.
- I'm pretty good at that one.
- My dreams know what Henry Cavill looks like.
- Yeah.
Anyway.
- Sorry, if we lost her there for a second.
- Come back.
- So it's just, his upper lip gave everybody a candy valley.
Okay, I was, I saw, like, I knew that this was a popular one
on the list, but I was like, how is Henry Cavill?
I'm Candy Valley.
- It's the mustache removal.
- Okay.
- I think that's it.
It's because we know what he's supposed to look like.
- Okay.
- And the film is trying to convince us
that this is what he looks like.
- Okay.
- I think that's a lot of it too.
It's like, when you know you're trying,
they're trying to get away with it.
They can't keep getting away with this.
They're trying to convince us these are humans
and we know they're not humans.
(laughing)
- And I know I mentioned Rogue One earlier,
but like Grand Moft Harkin was also a complete CG character.
- Okay.
- And it looked almost exactly like the actor,
but just smooth enough that it wasn't quite right.
- It was too soft.
- He was too soft.
- He was too soft for us.
- Too soft, blah, blah.
- He's too soft for us.
- And no life behind those eyeballs.
- Well, you know what's interesting is,
did you ever watch Usworld?
- The first two seasons that were amazing.
All of a sudden it went down.
- Then I got a little cookie at the sea.
- Usworld didn't give me Uncanny Valley.
- No.
- Like it is kind of unsettling to think,
like, oh, those are robots.
And that's where the Uncanny Valley theory comes from.
But of course they are played by real actors.
- And I think that's the thing is,
they don't add anything to them to make them look
not human or not human.
Until obviously their faces open up.
But then that's just a robot.
- Yeah, but even when I just see them with just the face skin on
and then the body,
it does give me that feeling.
But like certain things like where it's like,
I don't know.
- It's really so close.
- It's so close and it's not right.
That's when our brain can pick it apart.
Because we know in that show,
like you said, if it's just a robot with like a face on it,
we know no one's trying to convince us that's a human.
We're like, oh, that's a fine robot.
I know a robot when I see one, that's a robot.
- Wait till Elon gets that final skin on that girl.
- That's sex robot.
- Sex robots, like that definitely give me Uncanny Valley.
Like if you see like in Japan,
there's a lot of Tynashidolls.
I don't know what they're called.
- Oh gosh, I don't know the exact name for it.
But like they're really human-like.
- We went to a sex shop and we saw some of these,
at least Andrew did, I wasn't allowed on that floor.
- No, there's no women allowed.
- Yes.
- But he said they looked pretty realistic,
like not quite there.
- Yeah, I could see that.
- So I could see that.
- Now a robot film that really does,
kind of give me Uncanny Valley is I Robot.
- Because their faces are too human-like.
- Yeah, but they're, yeah, they're like in that dip of it.
- But again, they're small.
They're small.
- They're too small.
- Smooth, I don't know, I don't know.
I think it's a really interesting breakdown of it.
- Yeah.
- Of what does and what doesn't.
I would love to hear the fans if there's something
that we said that does.
- Yeah, better work.
- No, that's fine.
- We're totally missing it.
- Yeah.
- All of those Claymation movies with the Jack Frost
in the little Santa.
- Those do it for me.
The Beetlejuice Far, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
with the Claymation.
- I think that you might just be afraid of Claymation.
- I am.
And it's Uncanny Valley.
- I really hope someone listening understands it, but.
- Never get Olivia Plato.
- I like to play with Plato.
- But I was an artistic enough to make them look real.
- It looks like shit, I like it.
(laughing)
- That looks nothing like a human.
- That's great.
- It's not a horse.
- That's great.
- What if I was a master at Clay sculptures,
but they just freaked me out so much
in the child that I destroyed them all?
- And I never knew it.
- Or every time you make one, you're like, it's too good.
It must be true.
(laughing)
- Rip it's head off.
- You can't exist in this world.
- I love the kid from my toy store.
- I love the evil one.
- I cut it in your house and you're just surrounded
by perfectly molded clay heads.
And you're like, they're too good shot,
but I can't stop.
- It can't stop.
- It's actually what I was in the hospital, guys.
- I don't like how many Claymations.
(laughing)
- I believe these hands.
- These dirty, dirty hands.
(laughing)
- Did you ever see us, the film with Jordan Peel?
- Yeah, that one didn't get me on Candymalley,
but also I saw that movie drunk.
- Oh, okay.
- I don't know why.
- I do have this theory that, okay,
there's a delicate balance of seeing a horror movie drunk.
- And if you're a little bit tipsy,
it is so much scarier.
- Yeah, I agree.
- Like if you watched the strangers,
like one or two beers deep.
- We should do that.
I haven't seen that movie years.
- Oh, ooh.
- And I remember it made me really sad.
- Apparently the new one is so bad.
- Really.
- It's so bad, but if you guys want us to,
we will watch it for you because
there's so much we love you.
- Let's watch, yeah, for a related horror movies.
Let's, okay, let's watch the strangers
after we both get like slightly tipsy next time we know.
- Yeah, no, I promise you.
- Next time I have a day that I could exist.
- We do not condone underage drinking.
- No, we are both in our 30s.
- We are.
- Oh, ladies over here.
- But if you are of age covering the grains.
- Yeah, if you are of age,
have one or two beers before you watch a horror movie
and it will scare you more.
I don't know what it is.
You would think that I would like, like.
- Damn, don't you doubt it.
- I wonder if you watch any of these movies
on the uncanny valley list after like one or two drinks,
if they just look perfectly human to you.
(laughing)
- Were they scared me?
- I would love it.
- They might scare me more.
- You watch Polar Express and you're like,
those are real people.
- If the CIA ever watches this there,
then I'm gonna need climations.
And we're gonna torture this woman.
- For signs.
(laughing)
- I don't think you'll ever get tortured.
- Yeah, let's hope so.
- What do you think, are we good here?
(laughing)
- To a toesie.
- This is for the fun one.
- Okay, so on, what about the matrix?
Did the agents ever give you?
- I'm gonna make it a confession here
as a pop culture junkie.
I've seen the first matrix loved it.
- Okay.
- I saw the second one.
Board to tears.
- Okay.
- So I was like, I can't finish this.
We have to find something else to do.
- I thought you were gonna say
you'd never seen the first matrix.
- Oh, I saw the first one.
- Girl, what are we doing here?
- So boring for some reason.
But I know there's that scene where they,
there's a million of the same guy.
Is that on the first one?
- That's on the second one.
- And those gave me on Candy Valley.
- Okay, because there's so many of them.
- Because there's so many people.
- Yeah.
- And they're trying to convince us that like,
yeah, they're real.
- Okay.
- On the note of the matrix two,
I would agree with you, not great.
However, when they're freaking clubbing in the matrix
in that scene, I wanna be there so bad.
- Oh yeah.
- That scene where they're undergrossing.
- Yeah, it's so good.
- But like literally, I think about that all the time.
Like if I could be in like one crazy club scene,
we're gonna do it for Halloween.
- Yeah.
- We're gonna go to a crazy club dressed as bar maidens.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- Unfortunately.
(laughing)
- Olivia and I were trying to make a good Halloween costume
and we really wanted to be characters from Killville,
but our friend and the group costume
is never seen Killville.
- We're working on it.
We're also trying to change her mind on some other things
in our life as well.
- But mostly Killville.
- Okay.
- Let's wrap this shit up.
We're going up in so many tangents today.
- We love that.
Well, you know, while we don't necessarily understand
why uncanny valley happens to us,
my personal belief is aliens.
I wanna hear aliens.
- No, I think the aliens make it absolute.
- Yeah.
- Like at some point in the world,
we encountered aliens and we had to figure out
why the hell this happened.
- Mm-hmm.
- We're like, there's something about them
that I don't like.
(laughing)
- Something about the season.
- Not quite right.
And you know, whether the aliens are the ones
making the Polar Express movie,
the lizard people, the JD Vances of the world,
you know, all we care about is no more climbation.
Seriously, I mean, please stop.
- I like climbation.
(laughing)
- Sean O'Wall would be your one and only.
- Yeah.
- Ticket producer.
- But these examples span across media, films,
TV shows.
We even see it within video games.
And it really demonstrates all these different
psychological effects that we have
that we don't really understand the phenomenons behind.
- The human mind is an enigma.
(laughing)
- It's true.
(laughing)
I don't know why I said it like that, but I did.
(laughing)
- Sorry, my hospital brain is an hour here, I know.
- It's a hospital brain mixed with campaign brain.
- Yeah, I don't know.
- I don't know.
- We're both doing great, sweetie.
- Well, I think that's enough time for us
in this uncanny valley and for us to rejoin the human race
or whatever, hopefully not the aliens or the gay people.
- The gay people.
- Yeah.
And we want you lovely humans to find us on social media,
Shauna, where can they find us?
- You can @shaunatrinidad on Instagram
and we'll just stick with Instagram right now.
- Okay.
S-H-A-U-N-A-T-R-I-N-I-D-A-D.
- Boom.
And you can find me, Olivia, on Instagram,
@livimariez, L-I-V-I-M-A-R-I-E-Z.
And don't forget, you can find the pop culture junkie podcast,
social media links, and more on our website,
popculturejunkie.com.
From there, you can find our podcast on all platforms
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Obviously, do it all.
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silly goofy moods from Sean and I,
and even more giggling and cursing than you could expect.
- That's just, that you just summed up our friendship.
Giggling cursing silly goofy moods.
- So we're in a silly goofy mood.
And really, we love having you,
if this was your first time listening to us,
we hope to have you back soon and long time listeners.
Thanks for joining us again, warm hugs
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