Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast

Sister podcasters raised by 80s and 90s movies: Tracie Guy-Decker, lover of animation, Muppets, comedy, and feminism & Emily Guy Birken, storytelling nerd, mental health advocate, and pop culture aficionado

80s and 90s movies and early 2000s tv may be called stupid shit by some, but you know it matters. So do we. We're Tracie and Emily, sister podcasters who love well-crafted fiction and one another. In this comedy podcast, we look at the classic movies of our Gen X childhood and adolescence, analyzing film tropes to uncover the cultural commentary on romance, money, religion, mental health, and more. From Twilight to Ghostbusters, Harry Potter to the Muppets, comedy to drama to horror, we use feminism, our super smart brains, and each other to uncover the lessons lurking behind the nostalgia of pop culture. Come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit. 

  1. 2d ago

    Cheers: Deep Thoughts About Womanizing Men, Ambitious Women, and Pop Culture's Most Famous Bar

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Sometimes you wanna go Where everybody knows your name This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie revisits the must-see-TV comedy that was always on at the Guy Sisters' house: Cheers. This powerhouse of 80s and 90s pop culture, created by the Charles brothers and the late James Burrows, is genuinely funny: the pilot episode is used by TV writers to teach efficient storytelling to establish a new sitcom. And while the ensemble cast offers great physical and verbal comedy, some of the cultural commentary from the 1980s doesn't pass the sniff test in 2026. While pop culture back then could accept that a womanizing ex-baseball player (as played by Ted Danson) was still a great guy at heart despite how he harassed women, it gives both Tracie and Emily the ICK in the modern era. Similarly, pop culture's insistence on taking strong women down a peg, just for the audacity of having ambition or thinking they are smart, seems like a terrible expectation with hindsight. Our troubles may not all be the same--but throw on your headphones, and you can take a break from all your worries! Tags deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, pop culture, women, comedy, storytelling, cultural commentary, feminism, romance, gen x childhood, gen x nostalgia, sitcom, cheers, james burrows, ted danson, shelley long, kirstie alley Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://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/guygirls We 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!

    Cheers: Deep Thoughts About Womanizing Men, Ambitious Women, and Pop Culture's Most Famous Bar

  2. Jul 14

    Grease: Deep Thoughts About Summer Nights, Performing Gender, and the Romance of Leather Pants and Letterman Sweaters

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion Grease is the way we are feeling This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily revisits one of the classic movies of her Gen X childhood: Grease. This musical comedy was set in high school, but all of the lead actors were in their 20s and 30s, which may help explain why much of the lessons about romance, performing adulthood, and gender expression sailed over her head as a child.  The lyrics in many of the songs were unapologetically ugly--the Greasers actually ask Danny if Sandy put up a fight!--but the actual characterization of the young men and women show that they are adolescents flailing their way through what they think masculinity, femininity, sexuality, adulthood, and romance are supposed to look like. Even the ick factor of Sandy changing into a leather-clad Greaser girl for Danny at the end is a little more nuanced than the Guy sisters remembered, since all she did was change her clothes, while Danny actually ran track for the entire school year. Talk about romance--maybe? We'll be hopelessly devoted to you--if you listen to this episode! Mentioned in this episode: Grease: Performing Gender Yes, Grease was deeply problematic – but it was ahead of its time, too Tags deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, romance, women, feminism, classic movies, film, gen x childhood, film analysis, nostalgia, cultural commentary, analyzing film tropes, comedy, movie reviews, storytelling, comedy podcast, pop culture, musical comedy, grease, john travolta, olivia newton john Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://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/guygirls We 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!

    Grease: Deep Thoughts About Summer Nights, Performing Gender, and the Romance of Leather Pants and Letterman Sweaters

  3. Jul 7

    Short Circuit: Deep Thoughts About Robots, Romance, and "Acceptable" Racism in 80s Movies

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. I am standing here beside myself. For this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie returns to one of the beloved movies from her and Emily's shared Gen X childhood: Short Circuit. The sisters remembered the charming robot Number 5 who gained sentience, the romance between Newton (Steve Guttenberg) and Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), and the funny malapropisms from Ben, the Indian character played by Fisher Stevens--a white actor in brown face. Even though brown face in pop culture was never "okay," for some reason it was "acceptable" in 1980s-era movies. In Short Circuit, the racism puts a pall over this otherwise life-affirming comedy. While the comedy of Stevens' Ben is mostly based on his humorous misuse of the English language, Tracie discovered that Ben was originally written as an Eastern European character. Which means making the white actor into an Indian caricature for both Short Circuit movies--Ben returned as the hero of the sequel--was entirely superfluous. You need input. Throw on your headphones to input this episode! Tags deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, movies, pop culture, romance, 80s and 90s movies, sci fi, storytelling, comedy, women, feminism, psychology, mental health, film, cultural commentary, analyzing film tropes, steve guttenberg, ally sheedy, fisher stevens, aziz ansari, gen x nostalgia Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://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/guygirls We 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!

    Short Circuit: Deep Thoughts About Robots, Romance, and "Acceptable" Racism in 80s Movies

  4. Jun 30

    You’ve Got Mail: Deep Thoughts About Tom Hanks’ Charm, New York City’s Coziness, and the Merits of a Two-Hour RomCom / Commercial for AOL

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. “…all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings.” This week, Emily revisited everyone and their aunt’s favorite late-90s advertisement, er, romcom, You’ve Got Mail. The film was a feature-length commercial for America Online starring two of the biggest names in romcom, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. With the biting interactions that lead to romance between Kathleen Kelly (Ryan) and Joe Fox (Hanks), this Nora Ephron-written and -directed film showed us something so true about what life was like for women in the late 20th century, it took decades before we realized just how infuriating it was. In the sisters’ conversation they unpack the sins Hanks’ charm manages to cover, the irony-not-irony in a romcom about the destruction of a small business being bankrolled by brands like AOL and Starbucks, and what ingredients made this film so beloved (comedy, pacing, chemistry, and dramatic irony). And in what may be a first, the sisters note how this movie makes New York City feel cozy.  Emily and Tracie may not be Hanks and Ryan, but we have our charms. Throw on your headphones and be charmed! Tags: deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, romcom, comedy, film, storytelling, cultural commentary, 80s and 90s movies, movies, psychology, movie reviews, women, classic movies, romance, analyzing film tropes, millennial nostalgia, nostalgia, film analysis, tom hanks, meg ryan, nora ephron Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://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/guygirls We 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!

    You’ve Got Mail: Deep Thoughts About Tom Hanks’ Charm, New York City’s Coziness, and the Merits of a Two-Hour RomCom / Commercial for AOL

  5. Jun 23

    The Full Monty: Deep Thoughts About Masculinity, Fatherhood, and Using Comedy to Make a Political Point

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. No-one said anything to me about the full monty! For this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie returns to the 1997 British comedy The Full Monty. The film is a meditation on masculinity from multiple angles, including economic, sexual, psychological, physical, parental, and societal, as well as a treatise on the political aftermath of Thatcherism that left an entire generation of British men without jobs. But instead of a snooze-fest of dry cultural commentary on these issues, writer Simon Beaufoy and director Peter Cattaneo wisely wrapped these important social issues in comedy storytelling with hilarious results. Through comedy, the audience gets to see how the mental health of these men was affected by Thatcher's policies and how they get through the tough times by leaning on each other--and putting together a truly ridiculous strip show. It's the spoonful of sugar that lets the political messaging go down. You don't have to take your kit off. Just put your headphones on and listen in! Content warning: Brief discussion of suicide ideation/attempt. tags: deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, comedy, film, storytelling, mental health, cultural commentary, 80s and 90s movies, movies, psychology, movie reviews, women, classic movies, romance, analyzing film tropes, millennial nostalgia, nostalgia, film analysis, simon beaufoy, the full monty, british film Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://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/guygirls We 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!

    The Full Monty: Deep Thoughts About Masculinity, Fatherhood, and Using Comedy to Make a Political Point

  6. Jun 16

    He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Deep Thoughts About the Pop Culture Endurance of the Fantasy Barbarian Soldier from SPACE!

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. By the Power of Grayskull! On Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit this week, Emily returns to her first pop culture crush: He-Man, aka, Adam, prince of Eternia. As a very small child, she loved the cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and she was somewhat disheartened to learn that this beloved staple of her Gen X childhood was created specifically to sell He-Man toys. The animation, storytelling, and even the cultural commentary (via little public service announcements at the end of each episode) were all in service of Mattel convincing children to bug their parents to buy action figures. But something funny happened on the way to the cash grab. Mattel created a pop culture phenomenon, in part because they created a cult classic cartoon by catering to the exact interests of their target audience of five-to-ten year old boys. The toy company's market research determined that demographic was most interested in soldiers, space technology, and fantasy barbarians--so Mattel shrugged and gave it to them, thereby creating an enduring pop culture franchise that remains beloved 40-some years later. (Mattel also created a queer icon with some serious homoerotic subtext, but that flew right over baby Emily's head at the time). You have the POWER! To listen to this episode… Mentioned in this episode: How He-Man Changed the World & How It All Fell Apart: The Story of The Masters of the Universe Tags deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, pop culture, animation, storytelling, cultural commentary, cult classic, sci fi, gen x childhood, nostalgia, gen x nostalgia, he-man, skeletor, mattel, social, television, masters of the universe, nicholas galitzine This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings. Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://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/guygirls We 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!

    He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Deep Thoughts About the Pop Culture Endurance of the Fantasy Barbarian Soldier from SPACE!

  7. Jun 9

    E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: Deep Thoughts About Impeccable Storytelling, the Power of Connection, and Reese's Pieces

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. "E.T. phone home!" On this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie revisits one of the classic movies of her Gen X childhood: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Director Steven Spielberg is at the top of his storytelling game with this sci fi film that introduces E.T., a gentle alien botanist who is accidentally stranded on Earth and taken in by 10-year-old Elliott, the middle child of divorced parents. Not only does Spielberg use every visual tool available to show his storytelling rather than drown the audience in exposition, but he also makes it clear that he truly understands the psychology of children.  The film doesn't condescend to children in its audience and it recognizes how kids see the world. And because Spielberg relies on visual storytelling rather than exposition, he ensured that baby Emily and Tracie, aged 3 and 6 when the film debuted, understood what was happening on screen. This movie deserves every bit of your nostalgia. Beeee goooood, and listen to this episode! Tags deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, storytelling, classic movies, gen x childhood, film, movies, psychology, 80s and 90s movies, pop culture, movie reviews, women, sci fi, gen x nostalgia, nostalgia, film analysis, steven spielberg This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings. Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://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/guygirls We 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!

    E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: Deep Thoughts About Impeccable Storytelling, the Power of Connection, and Reese's Pieces

  8. Jun 2

    The Sixth Sense: Deep Thoughts About Ghosts, Plot Twists, and Taking the Wrong Lesson from Pop Culture

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. "I see dead people..." This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily returns to M. Night Shyamalan's 1999 masterpiece The Sixth Sense. The film was a pop culture phenomenon when it debuted, and all everyone could talk about was the last ten minutes of the plot, when Bruce Willis's Malcolm Crowe (and the audience) realizes that his situation is much different from what he had believed. And to give Shyamalan his due, this plot twist uses masterful storytelling, playing by the rules and giving the audience all the clues necessary to connect the dots. The problem is that pop culture as a whole and Shyamalan in particular grabbed onto the idea that the twist is what made the film great, rather than the storytelling, psychology, relationships, and acting. As Emily remarks to Tracie, The Sixth Sense is a remarkable film that happens to have a twist ending, not a remarkable film because of its twist ending. The result is that a promising young director became a bit of a pop culture punchline as Shyamalan kept trying to recreate the twist rather than leaning into his remarkable storytelling and directorial abilities. Which is a damn shame. Throw on your headphones to hear two live sister podcasters making each other laugh over this film! Mentioned in this episode: Roger Ebert’s review of The Sixth Sense Tags: deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, pop culture, storytelling, psychology, mental health, film, classic movies, bruce willis, m night shyamalan, 80s and 90s movies, movies, movie reviews, haley joel osment, toni colette, analyzing film tropes, millennial nostalgia, film analysis, cultural commentary, ghost story, plot twist This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings. Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://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/guygirls We 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!

    The Sixth Sense: Deep Thoughts About Ghosts, Plot Twists, and Taking the Wrong Lesson from Pop Culture
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4.7
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

80s and 90s movies and early 2000s tv may be called stupid shit by some, but you know it matters. So do we. We're Tracie and Emily, sister podcasters who love well-crafted fiction and one another. In this comedy podcast, we look at the classic movies of our Gen X childhood and adolescence, analyzing film tropes to uncover the cultural commentary on romance, money, religion, mental health, and more. From Twilight to Ghostbusters, Harry Potter to the Muppets, comedy to drama to horror, we use feminism, our super smart brains, and each other to uncover the lessons lurking behind the nostalgia of pop culture. Come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit. 

Information

  • Creator
    Sister podcasters raised by 80s and 90s movies: Tracie Guy-Decker, lover of animation, Muppets, comedy, and feminism & Emily Guy Birken, storytelling nerd, mental health advocate, and pop culture aficionado
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    154
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast
  • Show Website
    Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast

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