Pop Culture Boner

This week on Pop Culture we’re getting a little gloomy. We’re talking celebrity deaths, the phenomenon of public grieving and the surreal nature of fame and immortality. Why does it feel so strange when famous people die? Why don’t friends and family get it? How are you supposed to grieve? It’s much less depressing than it sounds, we promise. Visit the website for episode notes and a full transcri...

This week on Pop Culture Boner we’re taking a look at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. Specifically, we’re looking at its looking-standing, oft-discussed, never-rectified racism probem. When your race-related scandals are so well-known they have their own Wikipedia page, you know it’s a problem. We’re looking at the Awards’ checkered past, their ongoing issues with race and why we’re so invested in...

This week’s episode of Pop Culture Boner features our very own producer, Wes Fahey. Because it’s their birthday! Everyone say, “Happy Birthday Wes!” Today we’re talking RuPaul’s Drag Race, mainstream success and whether or not RuPaul should be allowed to frack. It’s great because one of us has seen three episodes and one of us has seen every season so our opinions are wildly different. Visit the w...

This week on Pop Culture Boner we’re picking apart Charlie’s Angels. The franchise has been rebooted roughly once every 20 years since its inception in 1976, so we’re taking a look at what each iteration says about women and popular feminism. What changes? What stays the same? Why is it so hard to find a good female action hero? Why is the cast of Charlie’s Angels (2000) so unreasonably good? Answ...

On this week’s episode of Pop Culture Boner we’re exploring the rise and fall and potential rise again of Matthew McConaughey. We love to give actors a second chance, sometimes even a third. So what was it about the McConaissance that whipped us up into such a frenzy? Roguish charm, his very short arms or something else? Visit the website for episode notes and a full transcript: www.popculturebone...

This week on Pop Culture Boner we're revisiting the life and times of Paris Hilton. She was in every magazine and on every gossip site for most of the 2000s - she might have been paid a mint to make a scene but she was also called a signal of the end times and a bad influence on young girls. On this episode, we’re looking at the kind of misogyny that defined her early career, why it happened...

Happy Valentines Day! Here at Pop Culture Boner , we are celebrating by taking a deep dive on celebrity sex scandals through the lens Armie Hammer’s weird cannibal DMs. We cover off all the important stuff - why we’re so fixated on celebrity sex scandals, what’s changed about the way we view the private lives of big stars, and whether or not we should let Armie Hammer anywhere near our toes. (In s...

Welcome back! We’re kicking off season two of Pop Culture Boner with a bang! In light of a recent attempted coup in Washington, D.C. we’ve decided to look at American presidents on film. We’re looking at what it takes to be a good fictional president and what the Hollywood propaganda machine is doing to our collective brains. Visit the website for episode notes and a full transcript: www.popcultur...

After a much-needed break, Pop Culture Boner will be back on 3rd February 2021. We had so much fun last season that we’re aiming to put out even more episodes this year.  Make sure you’re subscribed on your favourite platform so you don’t miss out. You can also follow us on Instagram , Twitter and YouTube , if you’re into that.  Visit the website for episode notes and a full transcript: www.popcul...

It’s almost Christmas, which means we’re doing a seasonal bonus episode. Lucky you! This week on Pop Culture Boner we’re looking at the discourse surrounding lesbian Christmas flick The Happiest Season . What are some of the pressures of a queer Christmas movie and what would a successful queer Christmas movie look like? And most importantly… where can I purchase Kristen Stewart’s collection of bl...

If you believed the conservative media hype, 2000’s MTV phenomenon Jackass was a symbol of the moral bankruptcy of America and the easy corruptibility of youth. In the season finale of Pop Culture Boner , we’re digging deep in the vault to examine our feelings about  Jackass. Why was it so popular? Was it about watching dudes get hit in the nuts or was it something deeper? Perhaps most importantly...

After an inordinately long time spent waiting and wishing, fans of Supernatural finally got their wish when popular ship ‘Destial’ was made canon and Castiel confessed his love to Dean Winchester. Except they didn’t really get their wish and everyone complained about it. This week’s Pop Culture Boner takes a look at Supernatural , queerness and what changing representation on the silver screen rea...

After last week’s Chris-based silliness, we haven’t quite recovered - so, we’re looking at the Marvel movies. Did you know there were 20 of them? Because that seems like a lot. This week’s episode of Pop Culture Boner explores the prevalence of Marvel movies, what that means for mid-sized films, and whether Martin Scorsese gets to decide if they’re art or not. Visit the website for episode notes a...

Following a turbulent week for handsome white guys named Chris in Hollywood, the internet was all a flutter trying to determine whether Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine or Chris Pratt were the superior Chris. When there are just so many guys named Chris, and so many different opinions flying around, who can you trust? Who is there for you in your time of need? Pop Culture Boner , obviously...

It’s almost Halloween! Which means this episode of Pop Culture Boner has to be about something spooky. This episode, we’re looking at 1994 film Interview with the Vampire, the origins of vampire mythology and what vampires mean to us now. What is it about bloodsucking, sexually ambiguous monsters that drives us wild? Are we obsessed with sex and death? Or is it Brad Pitt?  Visit the website for ep...

Pop Culture Boner has reached 20 episodes! Very silly! We thought what better way to celebrate out 20th episode than to look at something that’s also experiencing a 20th anniversary - Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory . How does this angsty masterpiece hold up 20 years later? Does it still bang? And perhaps most importantly, is it Nu Metal? Alright, we do spend a lot of time talking about Nu Metal. We p...

Like yourselves, we here at Pop Culture Boner , have been fascinated by the recent career choices of Robert Pattinson. Specifically, we’ve been very impressed by his successful navigation from teen Twilight heartthrob to Very Serious Actor. This week, we’re going to be looking at the trajectory from teen heartthrob to beautiful genius, how Robert Pattinson got there and why so many others have fai...

Everyone has some sort of guilty pleasure - something in their browser history they won’t share. What if your guilty pleasure was bearing witness to the career of child star and olive oil magnate, Frankie Muniz? This week on Pop Culture Boner , our special guest is dreamboat Zoe Lane, of Sydney band Sports Bra. We’re talking modern renaissance men, olive oil, bad tweets and Chumbawamba. It’s a dee...

This week on Pop Culture Boner we’re thinking about the 1995 classic Hackers , starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Lee Miller. Exactly why does this psychedelic, technicolour techno-fest hold up as a film about hacking, when so many newer films with bigger budgets and better technology fail? And 25 years on, how do our attitudes to technology compare? Visit the website for episode notes and a full...

On this week’s episode of Pop Culture Boner we’re trying to find some joy by looking over cinematic experiences that make us happy. We’re looking at action movies, the cool guys who star in them, and thinking about why we should feel comfortable loving deeply average movies. Visit the website for episode notes and a full transcript: www.popcultureboner.com Visit the website for episode notes and a...

BOOM! Studios is an enormous comic book publisher, with a huge range of cool and progressive titles in their ranks and a first look deal with Netflix. They’ve also recently signed on to produce internet darling Keanu Reeves’ first comic book. So if there’s all this money flying around, why the hell are they on Kickstarter? This week on Pop Culture Boner , we’re taking a look at the BOOM! Studios,...

You’ve probably seen those weird ads for mobile games give you an insane scenario and ask you to make a choice. Like a pregnant woman sitting at a red light, and a man smiles at her and then your options are like “Smile back” or “Challenge him to a drag race for the chance to win your firstborn”. Well, did you know that people download those games. Because we didn’t. On this week’s episode of Pop...

Pop Culture Boner has hit lucky episode 13! What better way to celebrate than by talking about 2009 box-office flop turned cult classic, Jennifer’s Body . We’re thinking about why it failed so hard the first time around and why it’s finally getting the loving treatment it deserves in 2020. And also why Megan Fox as a flesh eating succubus was extremely my jam in 2009. Visit the website for episode...

Everyone has some sort of guilty pleasure - something in their browser history they won’t share. What if your guilty pleasure was a movie about gigantic genius sharks systematically destroying a science outpost? This week on Pop Culture Boner , our special guest is Zoheb Ali, host of the Midnight Double Feature podcast. We’re talking all things shark attacks, B-movies and glorious death scenes.  Y...

The Fifty Shades of Grey films were an enormous commercial success but a critical disaster. And on the first watch, it looks like that might be the case. But, if you consider the story’s origins - in the corners of the internet that cater directly to the wants and needs of Twilight superfans, it all starts to make a little more sense. This week’s Pop Culture Boner mounts a defence of the Fifty Sha...