Planes, Trains & Automobiles: Deep Thoughts About the Role of Pathos in Broad Comedy

Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Those aren’t two pillows…Just in time for Thanksgiving, Emily finally watches one of the most beloved buddy comedy movies of the 1980s: Planes, Trains & Automobiles this week. After intentionally skipping this film when it was first released (because it appeared to feature gross-out and cringe humor), Emily is surprised and delighted to find the John Candy and Steve Martin comedy offers a nuanced look at how to see past our class-based differences.While John Hughes’ script provides a lot of the movie’s warm heart, it’s Candy’s performance that makes this comedy more than just a series of silly hijinks. Candy brings an impressive level of emotion and pathos to his larger-than-life character of Del Griffith. And though the film trades in some period-typical fatphobia as part of its visual storytelling, viewers are ultimately given a clear sense of Del’s dignity and grief along with the belly laughs.It’s two days to Thanksgiving, making it the perfect time to throw on your headphones and listen–even if your flight gets rerouted to Wichita!CW: FatphobiaMentioned in this episodeRoger Ebert’s 2000 retrospective reviewOur theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirlsWe are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find. We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!