Strange Ride

4.7 (12)
HISTORY
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A pop culture nerd teaches her college professor the weirdest things she knows about theme parks, Broadway, video games, TV, and music. Episodes post on Thursdays.

12/24/2024

2.11: The Star Wars Holiday Special

There is so much Star Wars content out in the wide world. Some of it is loved, some of it hated, but there is one piece of Star Wars media that is so hated by its creator that it was almost lost media. If it wasn’t for fans making bootleg VCR copies during its one and only broadcast it would be lost to time. I’m talking about of course the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. A variety show set in the Star Wars universe that was also meant to sort of celebrate Thanksgiving/Christmas. George Lucas was so mortified by how this special turned out that he has tried to remove any trace of its existence from the earth, and because of that resistance it has since become a cult classic amongst Star Wars fans. But how did the Star Wars Holiday special end up so bad? Today, Savannah will be going over how the special was made and its content, so you can be spared from having to watch it yourself.
12/19/2024

2.10: Sponge Bob Squarepants the Musical (Part Two)

The Broadway Musical, Part Two: The Review In today's episode of Strange Ride Savannah finally digs deeper into the set, costumes, design elements, and the plot of The SpongeBob SquarePants Broadway Musical.

1h 2m
11/28/2024

2.9: SpongeBob Squarepants the Musical (Part One)

The Broadway Musical, Part One: An Introduction SpongeBob Squarepants is a character that I’m sure needs no introduction. Even if you haven’t seen the show you have at least heard of him, but did you know that he had a Broadway Musical back in 2017? Today, Savannah goes over the history of the popular tv show and the musical itself.

1h 3m
10/31/2024

2.8: The SCP Foundation

Secure. Contain. Protect. These are the core tenants of the SCP Foundation. But just what is this secret organization? Find out here on Strange Ride!

45 min
10/03/2024

2.7: Seeing the Saw Franchise, Part Two

Where we last left off we learned of the notorious Jigsaw killer who doesn’t actually kill people, but tests them to see if they have the will to live. He has kidnapped and tested a lot of people with not very many of them proving they “had the will to live”. Jigsaw, or his real name, John Kramer is a cancer patient who doesn’t have much longer to live. He takes on an apprentice by the name of Amanda Young, a young used to be drug addict who survived one of his games, and believes that Jigsaw saved her life. She will take on the mantle of Jigsaw once John passes away. That is until she loses faith in Jigsaw’s teachings and starts to make his traps inescapable. John tries to test Amanda one more time to see if she can truly be a worthy successor to him. With two or three games depending on how you look at it combined he put his theory to the test. Unfortunately for John he misjudged Amanda and she failed sealing all of their fates. John Kramer the infamous Jigsaw Killer, and his apprentice Amanda Young both died at the end of the third movie, but the story keeps moving forward with and without them. Today, we will be finishing (hopefully) going over the plot of the Saw Franchise.

1h 46m
09/26/2024

2.6: Seeing the Saw Franchise

The Saw franchise is one of the most iconic and successful horror franchises of all time, and arguably the bloodiest. Believe it or not there are many things that make Saw an interesting topic, from its humble beginnings to the fact that it helped create and popularize the term “Torture Porn”. But Savannah’s favorite thing about the Saw series is just how much content there is, and just how convoluted that story has become in their quest to continue making movies. There is no understating just how convoluted and insane the full plot to the Saw franchise is, and on top of being convoluted its contradictory, self righteous, and honestly just plain stupid… But that's part of its charm. Today, we will be going over some of the history of the Saw franchise as Savannah tries her hardest to make sense of the story.

1h 25m
09/05/2024

My Little Goddess, Part Two

In the second part of our My Little Pony series, Rob discusses how the series draws on themes of occult practice to explore the nature of the self and the relationship between ego and sacrifice.

1h 27m
08/29/2024

2.4: My Little Goddess, Part One

For parents like me who chose to share 2010’s revival of My Little Pony with my children, the animated series’ emphasis on social-emotional learning is the primary draw; however, these lessons are framed in distinctly occult terms. The series is subtitled “friendship is magic” and while this may suggest that friendship is awesome, in the context of the show it often means that it is literally a matter of spells, potions, and esoteric books. The show’s association with real-world occultism in the form of pony-inspired tulpas shows the degree to which it has successfully tapped into a New Age spirituality that also appeals to adult fans. The protagonist, Twilight Sparkle, descends according to the theosophical paradigm from the palace of Princess Celestia to Ponyville in order to learn, grow, and ultimately metamorphose into the show’s version of the divine feminine—a princess with both secular and spiritual power. At the end of the third season, she achieves an incomplete apotheosis and the audience learns the degree to which her friendships are, like Aleister Crowley’s goetian demons, actually external manifestations of her own consciousness in need of harmonizing. In Crowleyite fashion, the show celebrates the ponies’ individuality, but, after Twlight Sparkle’s initiation, it troubles personal identity by requiring the ponies to surrender a significant aspect of their ego-based power. In this paper, I analyze the show’s psycho-spiritual occultism in order to explore what it means to embody the divine feminine in postmodern popular culture.

43 min

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4.7

out of 5

12 Ratings

A++

10/17/2023

james06824

Great addition to the OC universe.

A pop culture nerd teaches her college professor the weirdest things she knows about theme parks, Broadway, video games, TV, and music. Episodes post on Thursdays.