General Snobbery | Film and Philosophy

“Something wrong with his medulla oblongata!” yells Colonel Sanders at Bobby Boucher. Rage fills the innocent Waterboy, and he crushes the fear-stricken Colonel with no restraint. After this, Colonel Sanders respects Boucher and eventually becomes one of his biggest fans. Then he is trampled by a celebrating crowd. This is one of the reasons Colonel Sanders is the best of all side characters in Th...

Good snobs! How delighted we are to bring you this new episode on the hit TV show,  Rick and Morty . Specifically, we focus on Episode 204, "Total Rickall", which Matt and Sean believe is one of the greatest episodes of television of all time. The reason? Partly because of "Pencil-vester". Partly due to Mr. Beauregard ("Marmelade is seeeerved "). But credit shall be given where credit is due:...

Hello Listener! We’re so glad to have you around. Have you ever had green milk? Well Luke has. Not long after drinking green milk, Luke blew up. Please don’t blow up.    Sean and Matt kick it into hyperdrive on this extensive episode that begins in a state of mystery and ends in a state of clarity. That is the miracle that is, Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Rian Johnson throws all of Star Wars fan...

Sean and Matt discovered something of the highest form of Snob during this one. A new mission! It is time to write Forrest Gump Fan Fiction.  Gump is a wonderful Hanks film directed by Bob, Steve’s friend. It covers thousands of years of world history, revealing that Forrest is the most important person in the world.  Sean and Matt are a bit baffled by this movie. They particularly wonde...

Whether it's rediscovering the beauty of childish mystery or buying into the paradigm that salvation is through material possessions alone, one thing is for sure, 90s fathers really suck at Christmas!   In today's special, two-film Snob, Sean and Matt enlist the help of a third Snob, a Snob ye astute listener know!  Amanda Pumpkins is back and what a treat it is for her to join us once again!...

Rocky Balboa is a guy who is Sylvester Stallone. When we watch Rocky progress over the course of many movies, we watch a man undergoing the effects of increasing steroid use. That all culminates in Creed , where Balboa's head has become the shape of a square. But let's not overlook the skull-shaping effects of fifteen rounds of Ivan Drago punches. Ivan Drago is a man who is Dolph Lundgren, a certi...

Hello Snobs, how are you? Are you sad? Maybe not all of your dreams have come true. Don’t worry, Samwise is here.  Rudy  (1993) is a heartwarming story about The University of Notre Dame, a school so holy that it’s basically God. Aside from Notre Dame, Rudy is about football, middle class America, and having a lot of heart. Rudy (Shawn Ass-Tin) has so much heart.  He has all th...

Have you ever felt your oats? Have you ever gotten your JUSH? Well buckle up, Mama, because this episode is about to serve you all of the above, okkkkkurrrrr? Resident Snobbers Matt and Sean welcome back Adam, guest Snob and super fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race , to laugh and kiki while we discuss the notorious 1990 documentary film Paris Is Burning  alongside an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race . Jo...

Into the Wild is an award-winning autobiography of a man named Sean Penn, who is an actor, a writer, a much-lauded grump, and a carrier of rifles through post-Katrina New Orleans. Sean Penn is also a man who really hates people who believe Americans have the right not to vote, such as General Snobbery mentors Trey Parker and Matt Stone. In fact, we have heard *rumors* that those who promote non-vo...

DAAAAAAAMMMMNNN, Sean and Matt had quite the adventure with this Snob. Three Snobs, two movies, one incredible theme about the hopes, triumphs, and tragedies of the intercity. O yea, and how Ronald Reagan was a very racist person.  At the suggestion of fellow Snob and guest for the day, Greg Buckman--a man wise in the way of race relations and the untold narratives of American history--Sean and Ma...

Back in the summer of 2015, as Matt and Sean traveled through Cincinnati on an unconscious vision quest, they were greeted with an image: the image of Newman, dying in Jurassic Park. As they recounted this image in detail, they found that the laughter erupting between them was as infinite as is John Hammond's inability to face reality. Next thing they knew, they poured some whiskey beneath the sta...

From the director of Interstellar, Inception, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and some other movies about time, comes a war movie with enough noises to blow your ears off. Dear listener, we hope you will see Dunkirk, and when you are done(kirk), we hope you will listen to this episode. Dunkirk is a movie about noise, not people. Well yes, there are people, almost 400,000 in fact. But the real story of th...

Mortal Kombat is a film about fighters. One of these fighters is Liu Kang, a man Gene Siskel once called the "Asian good guy." Another one of these fighters is Johnny Cage. Another one is Sonya Blade (pronounced "Sonya Bleede" by Shang Tsung). These three fighters become friends, because the movie places them all together, and next thing they know, they're fighting for the fate of the world! Holy...

“People ask me if I know about Tyler Durden.” So begins the film Fight Club, a movie that is about fighting and a few other things. Those other things include masculinity, corporations, and Meat Loaf. And of course Leto. Jared Leto, that is. If you haven’t seen Fight Club, then you haven’t seen Jared Leto get his face pummeled by the fists of Ed Norton. If you really hated him as the Joker in Suic...

Are you a virus? A disease? Then that means you're a human being, at least according to Agent (Weaving) Smith.  Today, dear Snobfriend, join us for revelry and laughs as we Snob deep into the rabbit hole that is, The Matrix. Directed by the Wachowskis, The Matrix is much better than than bad movie, Inception. Perhaps the movie referenced the most on General Snobbery, The Matrix addresses deep ques...

"In Greek Mythology, the Titans were greater even than the gods." The same can be said about Titanic and other films. James Cameron's 1997 opus about a revolutionary road is full of, not only delight, but King Théoden as well. Out in the North Pacific, an iceberg waits to bring down the cultural elites of the English speaking world. Wow! James Cameron understands Marxism almost as well as he under...

In the image you see, John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) has seven faces. Each one is smaller than the one before. This is an image that Matt made, and ever since that moment, it has baffled both of us. It appears boundlessly significant, and yet, time and time again, we are left with the question: what does it mean?  In today's snob, we delve deeply into these many Boyega faces, contempla...

Your daily life is simple.  It is idealistic.  Your values are strong and your morals are sound.  There is no reason, you think, that you and everything you know should be wiped out in a matter of seconds.  Too fucking bad asshole.  You're going to die! UNLESS! Harry Stamper was just a blue-collar oil driller.  He was smart, damn good at his job, and absolutely hated liberals of every kind.  He ha...

Welcome Snobs!  Are you one with the Force?  Is the Force with you?  Speaking of the Force, are your midichlorians high?  Are they through the roof?  Are you a potential Darth?  If you answered Yes to any of these questions, you MUST listen to this Snob. Rogue One is a movie about a space ship. But that's not all! It's also about an orphan girl who dies, her friend (with whom you think she might h...

“Dude, did you see the new Fast and Furious movie?”  “Yeah dude. It was so dope.”  “So dope man. Remember when that car blew up?”  “Oh yeah. I remember that. Remember when the Rock kicked those guys’ asses?” “Yeah dude. Or how about when Vin Diesel growled at that woman?” “Yeah. And those Russian nukes? And that seemingly unconnected submarine?” “That was my favorite part!” “Man. I hope they make...

Long ago, in the early days of General Snobbery, we made extra efforts not to say words that Americans typically regard as "bad". This self-censorship was not always easy, and its breaching resulted in the occasional "bleep". However, at some point, that self-censorship changed, and we began to allow words to flow along with the stream of thought, even if they are bad. In these early days, behind...

Hollywood blockbuster action movies are about beloved protagonists, the overcoming of evil, and plenty of explosions. But sometimes they're about the existential reality that each of us barely teeters on the line of fascism. Yes, that is right. General Snobbery wishes you to know, you might be a fascist! Starship Troopers is the film today! Sean and Matt venture back to 1997 once again to explore...

“I want to take his face… OFF!” screams Sean Archer acting as Caster Troy as portrayed by Nicolas Cage as portrayed by John Travolta. The fact that sentences like this accurately describe scenes from John Woo’s Face/Off indicate the truly special nature of this 1997 Hollywood action film. But do not take this for a standard Hollywood action film, listener. For as we discover in this snob, Face/Off...

The Sandlot. Part baseball love story, part sexist manifesto for young boys. Perhaps even the root of the male perception that has prevented girls from playing ball for years. These hermeneutics are largely accepted as the limits of this 1993 film.  But on today’s episode, we travel beyond the limits of these hermeneutics and unpack just how American this film truly is. From a Mexican kid named Be...

Cue a soft score by John Williams. And now, idyllic shots of the American South. And next comes, almost there, here it comes, Mel Gibson butchering men! All men are created equal, according to the Declaration of Independence (Day). But some men have a Cherokee tomahawk.  Our man with the 'hawk is Benjamin Martin, widowed father of seven, rocking chair enthusiast. All he wants is to live the simple...