The Road to Wellville: Deep Thoughts About Scatalogical Comedy, Health Crazes, and What Films You Should Never Watch With Your Dad

Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. With friends like these, who needs enemas?This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie revisits the star-studded yet mostly forgotten 1994 comedy The Road to Wellville. Set at the turn of the 20th century, this film offers cultural commentary on the bonkers health crazes that gave us breakfast cereal as health food, opium as an all-purpose panacea, and the idea that an erection was a flagpole on the grave. And yet, the psychology of John Harvey Kellogg, as played by Anthony Hopkins with prosthetic teeth, shows that he was no snake-oil salesman, even if he was overly invested in his patients' bowels and genitals. He truly believed that his regimen of roughage, calisthenics, enemas, and never ever ever touching yourself would improve your physical and mental health. And there's a great deal of comedy to be found in the bodily functions that result from his methods, if farts, poop, and masturbation are your sort of humor. (Emily feels no nostalgia for the experience of watching this comedy with her father and hoping for a sinkhole to release her from her nearly fatal level of embarrassment.)That said, the Guy sisters enjoy a fascinating conversation about women and sex, health as a business, neurodivergence, and whether it's pronounced sanitAIRium or santORium.We promise that no one has ever died listening to our podcast. So you can feel confident about throwing on your headphones to listen in!Tags:deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, comedy, pop culture, movies, film, psychology, mental health, women, nostalgia, 80s and 90s movies, cultural commentary, analyzing film tropes, comedy podcast, cult classic, feminism, film analysis, storytelling, matthew broderick, anthony hopkins, bridget fondaThis episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.Our 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 content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, 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!