Red hot comic book movie news, shootin' up your butthoooooole...
James: So Mason, what do you think the story was?
Mason: Oh nooooooooo...
The Weekly Planet is a weekly podcast that's part of the Planet Broadcasting Network * . Each week, James "Mr. Sunday Movies" Clement and "Internet Celebrity" Nick Mason sit down in James's mancave— er, regular room and discuss movies, comic books, TV shows, and anything else that comes to mind. The feel of the podcast is very loose and more often than not engages in rambling, humorous banter.
This podcast provides examples of:
- Artifact Title: "Caravan of Garbage" often results in the podcast
becoming the subject of ire when they cover properties that are generally widely-loved under the "Caravan of Garbage" banner. On numerous occasions James and Mason have had to interrupt the opening spiel to assure viewers that the title doesn't necessarily mean they're watching a garbage movie and that they aren't hating on a beloved classic. - Bait-and-Switch: During the episode on The Predator:
- James: Ask me what I thought of it.Mason: What'd you think of it?James: I thought it was pretty good!Mason: Did you?James: No, it was fucking terrible! It was a really bad movie!Mason: I knew it! I knew it!James: It was really bad! Like it started off okay, and then it was horrible! It blew my mind how bad it was! It really threw me!Mason: Yeah, right?James: What the fuck! What did you think?Mason: Yeah, I thought it was pretty bad also!
- The video for Twilight was originally uploaded with a thumbnail and title for Batman Begins, and the first minute or so seems like they're going to review the latter, but they smash cut to the former, complete with a "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer from Ben The Editor. One comment said they got duped so badly they paused the video thirty seconds in to rewatch Begins, before returning to the video to be hoodwinked.
- Beat Without a "But": The Caravan of Garbage episode on Transformers: The Last Knight ends on this:
- Mason: At the end of the day [The Michael Bay Transformers films] may not be the most intelligently written movies, they may not be the cleverest movies, they may not be the most fun movies... anyway that is the end of that sentence.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: During the Best & Worst of 2018, when Mason decides that The Predator should just sweep any negative awards it may be eligible for:Mason: It's not a good movie, it's gotten worse the more I've thought about it, and they hired a pedophile.
- Catchphrase:
- Mason's sign-off phrase is "grab dat gem you guys."
- James has a Forced Meme catchphrase of "where's my pisketti?" which Mason and others try to force upon him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Both of the lads are fond of getting their snark on.
- Dolled-Up Installment: As far as Mason is concerned, the script for Transformers: The Last Knight was originally a fantasy movie about King Arthur that had nothing to do with Transformers, which were only added in after the fact. He believes this is the case because of how easily the Transformers can be removed from the plot without altering it too much.
- Establishing Series Moment: The first lines of Episode 1 set the tone for the whole show, that of a loose, improvisational, non-serious style.James: Fuckin' Hell.
- Informed Ability: One of their marks against Entourage and its movie is that Vincent Chase is neither likable nor charismatic to watch in the least, yet the audience is led to believe his In-Universe films rake in dough and awards like mad.Mason It's an award-winning sci-fi drama...what?
- Locked in a Freezer: Parodied in the second clip show, with the framing device of James and Mason reminiscing while stuck in an air vent. Somehow.
- Muggle Power: A 2020 discussion about the Harry Potter works revolves around how a determined muggle with half a brick could probably wreak havoc against Death Eaters. Maso doesn't think he'd win but is pretty sure that he'd be able to do enough damage to make the Death Eaters regret dealing with a dude who has half a brick.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In the review for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, James fears that his video on the number of people Batman has killed in his movies inspired Zack Snyder to make the character openly kill in the movie, even though the point of the video was to indicate that the character shouldn't kill.
- Named After the Injury: In discussing how the Fantastic Four immediately nicknamed Ben Grimm "The Thing" after he was transformed into a rock man, the two host likened it to renaming someone who recently lost their legs to "Stumpy."
- Non-Indicative Name: The segment "H8 Mail but the H8 has an Eight in it" never contains eight pieces of hate.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mason hated Justice League (2017) so much that he subverted the Running Gag of James asking Mason the plot of the movie, that he asked James about the plot just so that he could complain about it.
- Perverse Sexual Lust: The boys fight over which of them is attracted to Maid Marian the fox from Robin Hood (1973), both of them claiming the other is attracted to her.
- Quote Mine: Mason invokes this in the episode where they discuss Suicide Squad (2016), giving some praise that WB can use in their advertising:Mason: The best DC movie yet! Asterisk.note Suicide Squad exceeded my expectations! Asterisk.note DC has done it again! Asterisk.note
- Running Gag: Many.
- "Is it pronounced Dune or Dune?"
- "Mason, what did you think the story was?"
- "Defenders of the Earth!"note
- The "recurring" "segment" Ring a Ding Ding! Let's Predict a Thing.
- Mason yelling McG's name any time the latter is mentioned.
- Mason's "If you like it, it's fine but you're wrong but it's cool, like what you like, but you're wrong."
- James repeatedly bringing up his vendettas or Berserk Buttons on the podcast.
- "Fuck art!"
- Mason having to play the letters theme off of his phone every time they have a letters segment.
- Specifically, he plays it off of YouTube instead of downloading it.
- The podcast dog and her moxie/spirit.
- James mentioning being a father and hating other dads.
- James mentioning being a man of the world.
- #MulletforSuperman. A joking demand for the Superman of the DCEU to be resurrected with a mullet, like in the comics.
- In regards to questionable leaks of news, "Hot Scoop or Shot of Poop?" If it turns out to be false, James has to do a shot of poop. Regardless of whether he felt the story was true or not.
- "Books are for nerds."
- "And that's the tooth."
- James and Mason's various "characters", including but not limited to:
- The Man Who Knows Everything About Anime (James)
- The Man Who Has Never Heard Of Star Wars (Mason)
- The Man Who Has No Opinions on Radiohead (James)
- The most famous Spider-Man villain Corn of Coblin.
- James' son repeatedly asking for a big sandwich.
- James' son generally being an excellent source of content. e.g. "different pants", "Mason is a frog", "Mason is a pig rolling down a hill".
- Mason saying "You would" whenever James disagrees with him on something.
- During the run of Westworld Season 3, James would sing "Westworld" over the What Are We Reading What Are We Gonna Read" segment theme. James has continued to do this in virtually every episode since, long after the joke had any relevance or humor. The hosts have discussed that the joke had become burdensome and wondered how and when James will stop doing it.
- Starting with the film's reveal in 2019, James and Mason would come up with increasingly convoluted ways to refer to No Time to Die, which was only extended by the COVID-19 Pandemic, stretching out all the way to November 2021, when they were finally able to see the movie (after lockdowns lifted in their state).
- Within the "Best and Worst of 2020" episode, Mason insists on jokingly giving every category, good or bad, to Bloodshot regardless of how eligible it may be.
Mason: It's bad! It's not a good movie! It's just the last one I saw before we went into a lockdown that time!- Domhnall Gleeson, the British actor.
- "It's the spookiest time of the year, and I'm not just talking about bloody tax time."
- James answering random questions with "The Dark Knight, for Heath Ledger's performance alone" whether or not it makes any sense in context.
- Following Netfilx's claim that Red Notice was the most-watched film in its debut weekend and its debut month, James and Mason occasionally mock it by claiming they're constantly watching it, all the time.
- From Caravan of Garbage, we have James attempting to connect pieces of trivia from various movies to the term "Blue Harvest", which Mason believes is the hardest he works each week.
- The Rodney Supercut from the Caravan of Garbage episode of Man-Thing.
- "Green Trivia," where, during the review of Green Lantern, James, after receiving criticism for his lazy Trivia titles, kept the segment named "Green Trivia." This was paired with The Rodney Supercut for around a year before being simultaneously retired along with the Blue Harvest bit.
- Sarcastic Clapping: Whenever they bring up someone "great" that they don't care for, they often simply clap at them and sarcastically insist it's genuine. One such common target is Elon Musk.
- Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: Mason has a recurring story that he once watched Police Academy 6 24 times in a week. When asked why he just says it's better without context.note
- Small Name, Big Ego:
- Any time Russel Crowe is mentioned, you can bet the guys will sarcastically call him the greatest actor in the world in response to his self-proclaimed status.
- Mason jokingly prefers to be referred to as "Internet Celebrity Nick Mason."
- Stillborn Franchise: An entire episode called Failed Movie Franchises
discusses these. Also the end of every year during their Best & Worst "awards", James and Mason have a category called The Game is On, where they decide which movie of the year had the most hamfisted attempt at failed sequel/franchise building. - Swapped Roles: When it comes time to talk about Geostorm, it's Mason who asks James what the story was. Hilarity Ensues as rather than a general plot summary followed by a review, it's just James tearing into the stupidity and Special Effects Failure of it all.
- Took the Bad Film Seriously: How they feel about Brandon Routh in Superman Returns. James compliments him for having the look and mannerisms down as Superman, and being a bright spot in an otherwise horribly dull, ill-characterized film.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: A regular feature on the podcast is Superhero Showdown, where the boys play out a scenario where two (or more) characters meet in a standard-sized American football field and fight each other.
- Vulgar Humor: Parodied with Deadpool. Whenever the character is mentioned, James talks about his less-favorable opinion of jokes that are just crass for the sake of being crass. Or as he calls them, jokes that just go "Look at my balls/dick!" for two hours.
- Wrong Parachute Gag: Mason's justification for refusing to skydive is because he's certain either the parachute will fail, or it will be filled with wacky items instead.
"That's the show for this week. Grab dat gem, you guys!"
