Contextual Deviants
by Contextual Deviants
We talk about movies like no one else talks about movies.Award-wanting host Christian Hagen, along with co-hosts David Gutsche and Matthew Bahn (and guests!), examine popular films, prompted by several randomly-generated critical contexts. We answer questions like: What is the true meaning of Christmas in The Matrix? What does Kung Fu Panda say about Marxist economics? Is Eighth Grade secretly Die Hard? We can guarantee we‘ll say something about no one has ever said about these movies before!Our theme song is “Gun Tonic” from The Bad Man. You can find more of their music here: www.thebadmanusa.com. And you should, because they’re awesome.
Episodes
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82 - Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Roll for initiative, it's time for Contextual Deviants! This ep, we're covering 2023's action-adventure hit Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, with special returning guest Kady Jaspersen! Highlights include: Jarnathan, Horns Up Horde, the Red Scare, enemies-to-lovers, a wet goof, and much...
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81 - Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
It's not metaphorical, rhetorical, poetical, or theoretical. It's Contextual Deviants. Straight up. This ep, we're joined by special guest Kady Jaspersen to talk about 2022's Academy Award-nominated animated film, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. It starts with a howl, and ends with us howling! For...
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80 - The One
Everything Everywhere All At Once broke new ground at the Oscars, but it wasn't the first sci-fi martial arts multiverse movie to hit American cinemas. To prove it, we watched 2001's edgy Jet Li action flick The One! A movie that everyone definitely remembers with all the fondness and reverence…
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79 - Prey
Your podcast hunt is over! Join us as we catch Prey, the groundbreaking 2022 prequel to Predator starring Amber Midthunder. Also, to be clear, the dog's name is Sarii. We're Sarii not Sarii to tell you that. Highlights include: Predator's Got Mail, quicksand's back, remembering the creature,...
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78 - RRR
Ba-da-dum, ba-da-dum-dum-DUM-DUM, it's Contextual Deviants! We watched the Indian action epic that's burning down the internet, RRR, and just had to do an episode about it. It's wild. Spoilers: It's wild. Highlights include: Sheamommydom, the best thing since sliced butt, wet wet flags, a brand…
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77 - The Quick and The Dead
DRAW! In honor of director Sam Raimi's latest film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we're taking a trip back to 1995 and covering his previous work, and our first western(!), The Quick and The Dead. Come for a stellar cast featuring Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe, and a...
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76 - Porco Rosso
Fire up your seaplanes! Contextual Deviants is talking about an anime for the first time, and we've chosen the strange Studio Ghibli classic Porco Rosso! A movie that preaches the always-relevant point: It's better to be a pig than a fascist. Highlights Include: Lie Daddy, John McPlane, he flies…
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75 - The Lego Batman Movie
The Batman is back! And so are we! To celebrate the latest dark and intense and dark and dark new Bat-flick, we wanted to take a look back at the much lighter 2017 entry in the Bat-legacy, The Lego Batman Movie! Highlights Include: Our origin story, too many Os, "Nobody wants to work anymore (as...
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74 - Jack Frost
Hey, snow holidays are better than no holidays. We're talking about everyone's favorite Christmas classic, Jack Frost, aka the movie where Michael Keaton turns into a talking snowman! Holly-jolly highlights include: Bahn's sleepytime routine, snow-blank is better than no-blank, the driver's…
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73 - Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Ride your dragons and call your Klev, it's Contextual Deviants time! This ep, we're tackling Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which was recently added to Disney+. We apologize in advance for our sloppy American pronunciation! Highlights include: Klump It Up Awkwafina-Style, the...
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72 - Nightmare on Elm St 3: Dream Warriors
Lock your door and grab your crucifix, Contextual Deviants is summoning Freddy for this year's Halloween Spooptacular! 1987's Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors packs a lot of weird into 96 minutes, and we're happy to slice it up and examine its bloody insides like no one has before....
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71 - Plan B
Enjoy a quirky coming-of-age road-trip comedy about two teen best friends, and then donate to pro-choice causes fighting to overturn anti-abortion legislation across the US! Yes, we are making a political statement in an episode description for our silly movie podcast. We will probably do so…
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70 - Pan's Labyrinth
Hola, fantastic folks! We're talking about Guillermo Del Toro's 2006 dark fairy tale classic Pan's Labyrinth in ways we guarantee no one's ever talked about it before. Highlights include: A good intro idea, Interrobang and The Schwa, it's in the text, the Dark Knight connection, David Hasselhoff,...
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69 - Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Yeah baby. Yeah. We're doing it. It's Austin Powers! David had never seen it before! We had to. We just had to. Highlights include: Crap and suck etc, Shallow Teeth, Lil Bryan Cranston, steamrolling the working class, Do Die Make You Horny, The Rise of Shagwalker, and more!
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68 - Wanderlust
After a year of separation, the Contextual Deviants crew is back in the studio! We reunited, fully vaxxed, to talk about the 2012 absurdist comedy Wanderlust, starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston and a banger supporting cast. And wow, what a difference being in the same room makes! Highlights...
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67 - The Mitchells vs The Machines
We complete our quartet of 2021 releases with the Netflix Original animated film, The Mitchells vs. The Machines! From the studio that brought you Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse comes a harrowing tale of robot uprisings, family drama, and dogs/pigs/loaves of bread. We promise our podcast won't...
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66 - Space Sweepers
Yee-haw, it's time for some space cowboys! Following the tradition of stories like Cowboy Bebop, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Firefly, we watched 2021's Netflix Original film Space Sweepers! Join us as we take on space capitalism with space goofs and some fun space contexts. Highlights include: A...
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65 - Godzilla vs. Kong
ANCIENT ENEMIES! Take a little jaunt down to the Hollow Earth with your good buddies Contextual Deviants, as we examine 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong! Highlights include: Rev rev, un-kong-scious, Denzella vs. Kong, the five or six different types of animals, a dangerous Angelfire page, dubstep...
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64 - Flora and Ulysses
It's okay to hope with Contextual Deviants! We're talking about our first new movie of 2021, the Disney+ original super-squirrel family film, Flora and Ulysses. So dump your cynicism, drop your Jack and Rose Award, and lift an Animal Control van if you have to so you can join us! Highlights...
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63 - Coming To America
In honor of the latest in a long line of "sequels to comedies that are over 20 years old," Coming 2 America, we are coming back to where it all started with Coming TO America! As much as people have talked about this movie, we guarantee you'll hear something new about it on our podcast.…
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62 - Hunt For The Wilderpeople
Grab some scroggin and get ready to live that skux life as Contextual Deviants covers Taika Waititi's majestical buddy comedy Hunt For the Wilderpeople! Highlights include: Is that Satan?, Hidalgo 2: 2 Hidalgos, the Mother of Ticks, punish the pig, BigHotSac.com, Skexy and I know it, and much more!
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61- Birds of Prey
We made it to 2021! Let's see, how's the world doing? ...Oh....Hey, who wants to listen to a podcast about a fun-violent lady clown movie? That sounds like a good distraction right now. It's 2020's Birds of Prey, or The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn! Highlights include:...
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60 - Happiest Season
Merry Cringemas, everybody! This holiday season, we watched the movie that finally dared to ask the question: What if Kristen Stewart was more relatable than Mary Steenburgen? It's the 2020 Hulu original romcom Happiest Season! Gather your cheer and join us right here on Contextual Deviants....
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Best of Contextual Deviants: Episodes 41-50!
Journey with us to the time before. You know. BEFORE! Contained within this compilation are some of the best clips from ten of our best episodes (top 50, for sure), from Taxi Driver to Midsommar (and several movies which are not haunting stories of mental illness and gruesome murder)! It's been...
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59 - House Party
We all miss the spooky fun Halloween party atmosphere this year, so why not bring all the fun of talking about watching someone else have a house party into your own home this holiday season? Contextual Deviants dives into the 1990 cult comedy classic House Party! Highlights include: Half a loin…
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58 - The Old Guard
Grab your axes and watch out for Dudley, it's 2020's The Old Guard on this episode of Contextual Deviants! There is some real goofy biz in this one, so we hope you can just sit back and enjoy it. After all, unless you're an immortal warrior, you only live once! Highlights include: Moose tongue,...
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57 - Parasite
Let's grift some rich people! We're talking about the first non-English film to win Best Picture, Parasite! Bong Joon-Ho's metaphorical masterpiece about class, family, rocks, and basements has been analyzed a million times. But we guarantee no one has ever talked about it like us! Highlights...
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56 - Inside Man
To support the Twin Cities Mutual Aid Project, visit TCMAP.org --- WE'RE BACK! It's been four months since our last episode, and all that's happened in the meantime is that our city's police committed a murder, the president's a fascist, and the world is on fire. Perfect time to talk about 2006's...
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55 - Portrait of a Lady On Fire
As the late great Orson Welles once said, "Ahaaaah, the French!" This episode is all about the 2019 French romantic period drama Portrait of a Lady On Fire, a movie that has everything: Proper social distancing, forbidden romance, an art class, armpit drugs, and an old-fashioned abortion. We love...
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54 - Sleeping With Other People
The title of this film is definitely not something people should be doing right now. But, in lieu of that, you can enjoy us talking about it! And, uh, simulating it...just a little...we're so sorry. Highlights include: The most uncomfortable we've ever felt while recording an intro, Lovenomics, a...
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53 - Onward
We're back, and we're bustin' outta quarantine! Well, not really. We're still social distancing. In fact, this is the first episode we recorded remotely! As such, there are some technical hiccups, the most obvious being that the episode basically got cut in half. But what's left is half of a…
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52 - Fast Five
This podcast is not family-friendly, but we're adult-friend-family friendly, especially on this episode about Fast Five! Join hosts Christian Hagen, David Gutsche, and Matthew Bahn on a furious ride through the mean streets of the internet, and hear us talk about this movie like no one has ever...
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51 - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
What's up, Danger? Oh, sorry, I thought you were my friend Danger. My mistake. But do you want to listen to this episode of Contextual Deviants about the Academy Award-winning animated superhero film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse? Because it's pretty great, IMO. Highlights Include: Helpless...
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50 - Midsommar
CONTENT WARNING - This film, and by extension this episode, contains themes which may be distressing to some viewers, including suicide, emotional abuse, and murder. For those who want to listen to the episode without watching the film, we provide a brief synopsis early on so you can follow…
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Best Of Contextual Deviants: Episodes 31-40!
It's honestly baffling that we're coming up on our 50th episode. Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday we were talking about the first miniseries we ever covered (Russian Doll), or the first movie we ever talked about that was still in theaters (Booksmart), or when we figured out…
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The Texties! 2019
2019 was a big year for movies, and a big year for Contextual Deviants, so we wanted to ring in 2020 with a look back at some of the only good things to come out of 2019: The films! Join us on a randomized adventure full of superlatives, gushing about movies we loved, complimenting movies we...
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49 - It's A Wonderful Life
Happy Holidays, everybody! To ring in this festive time of year, Contextual Deviants is talking about the 1946 Frank Capra classic, It's A Wonderful Life. We had some spiked hot cocoa for this one, so forgive us our stumbles. It's a party! Highlights Include: The sweatiest crack, the first cult...
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48 - Toy Story
Reach for the sky! It's a brand new episode of Contextual Deviants...and it's...robbing you? I didn't think about this. Yes, this week we're covering the 1995 classic that launched 3D animation and Pixar Studios into the forefront of the industry, Toy Story. Highlights Include: Randy needs…
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47 - Rebel Without A Cause
Get your kicks on a chicky run with Contextual Deviants! After all, you've gotta do something, right? This week, we're digging back to an old-school James Dean teen drama, 1955's Rebel Without A Cause. It's...weirder than we expected. Highlights Include: Einstein's BDE equation, Frumpster Wars,...
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46 - Over the Garden Wall
Take a journey into the Unknown as Contextual Deviants looks at the animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall! The perfect autumnal treat for the whole family (the show, not this episode, which, you know, does have an Explicit tag). Highlights include: Hercule Poirot, That Darn Game, master...
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45 - Happy Death Day
Deja vu? Weird, because this is DEFINITELY a brand-new episode of Contextual Deviants. Specifically, it's our second spooky Halloween episode, this time looking at 2017's time loop horror comedy Happy Death Day! Highlights include: Complaint edging, Denzel Car-Washington, archetypes, whispering...
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44 - Juno
This is one doodle that can't be undid, homeskillet. We did an episode on 2007's Academy Award-nominated teen pregnancy comedy Juno! So shake your hamburger phones if you're getting bad reception, because you won't want to miss this one. Highlights Include: I, Liberty Bell, a doctor from 1800s,...
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43 - Spider-Man 3
We know. We're sorry. Highlights Include: David's sick hops, diametrically opposed tones, the evolution of serialized film sequels, Dying Next To Friends On Rooftops, a lightning round, and much more! Again, we're so sorry. We promise the episode is better than the movie it's about.
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42 - The Favourite
Rise above your station and race some ducks with your distant cousins from Contextual Deviants! This episode, we dive deep into 2018's Academy Award Nominated royal dark comedy The Favourite. Who will be betrayed? Who will fall ill with gout? Will the mud baths get on the microphones? Find out…
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41 - Taxi Driver
We're talking to YOU this week on Contextual Deviants as we take on 1976's Taxi Driver! Join us on a journey through psychological horror, political strife, and Peter Boyle as Wizard. It's one of the most discussed movies in the history of film, and yet we can GUARANTEE that there is at least one...
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Best of Contextual Deviants: Episodes 21-30!
40 episodes down, 40 more to go! Until we hit 80...which is not actually significant, it's just how math works. But to celebrate our 40th episode, we'd like to take a look back at some of the funniest, weirdest, dumbest, smartest, and most grin-widening moments from episodes 21 through 30! Thank...
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40 - Mary Poppins Returns
Trip a little light fantastic with Contextual Deviants' first musical episode! (Well, the movie's a musical. We don't sing.) 2018's charming magical romp Mary Poppins Returns takes center stage this week for your listening pleasure. Highlights include: The Resident The Giver The Film The Thief…
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39 - Logan Lucky
Rev up your engines, deviants, it's time for another romp around the Context track! Our hosts take on 2017's Southern-fried heist comedy Logan Lucky, starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Katie Holmes, and America's Stepdad, Roy from The Office. Highlights include: The Stealth…
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38 - The Dark Knight
This movie deserves a better class of podcast...end of thought. BUT, in lieu of that, Contextual Deviants, along with very special guest Stuart Wiberg, present a fresh take on 2008's blockbuster The Dark Knight, exploring questions about one of the most popular films of all time that we're pretty...
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37 - Sorry To Bother You
Apologies for the interruption, but Contextual Deviants is just calling to let you know that this week we’re covering 2018’s subversive surrealist comedy Sorry To Bother You. Hosts Christian Hagen, David Gutsche, and Matthew Bahn explore the myriad oddities of this very strange but highly…
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About this show
We talk about movies like no one else talks about movies.Award-wanting host Christian Hagen, along with co-hosts David Gutsche and Matthew Bahn (and guests!), examine popular films, prompted by several randomly-generated critical contexts. We answer questions like: What is the true meaning of Christmas in The Matrix? What does Kung Fu Panda say about Marxist economics? Is Eighth Grade secretly Die Hard? We can guarantee we‘ll say something about no one has ever said about these movies before!Our theme song is “Gun Tonic” from The Bad Man. You can find more of their music here: www.thebadmanusa.com. And you should, because they’re awesome.
Hosted by
Contextual Deviants