Episode 214 – Wag the Dog (1997)

Hello again, dear listeners . . . if that really IS your name . . . to another in our “Conspiracy!” series! This week we’re discussing Barry Levinson’s 1997 opus “Wag the Dog” an utterly out-there, absurdist, nonsensical black comedy based on the completely laughable concept that politics is based almost entirely on perception and not on facts. Oh, my sides, they are aching! So much are we laughing! This zany laugh-riot posits the notion that . . . oh man, I can barely type this, I’m laughing so hard . . . politicians might actually spin massive, elaborate lies to distract from actual scandals! Wow, where do these guys come up with this lunacy? This movie has a President involved in a sex scandal (ok, right there we’re veering into science-fiction territory) and his “Mr. Fixit”, played by Robert DeNiro, hits on the idea of getting a Hollywood producer, played by Dustin Hoffman, to “produce” a fake war to distract the public in the run-up to election day! Man, I can’t believe they didn’t just make this an animated feature and throw in some songs and talking animals to highlight the thunderously fantastic nature of this idea! Hoo boy . . . the stuff these movie people come up with. So join us as we giggle, chortle, and guffaw our way through this madcap, never-in-a-million-years romp. Politicians lying . . . where do they GET this stuff?

Poll question: what low-budget or small-scale movie do you think would have been absolutely ruined if it had been given a blockbuster budget?

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Black Lives Matter: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019

Southern Poverty Law Center: https://donate.splcenter.org/

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