Stand By Me: Deep Thoughts About Nostalgia, Mental Health, and Cherry-Flavored Pez

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

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Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?

Emily and Tracie always assumed their father loved the 1986 Rob Reiner film Stand By Me because the music and pop culture references were a delightful reminder of his childhood. Reiner’s period masterpiece features incredible performances from its child actors–a rarity in movies about childhood–and offers a sometimes-idyllic portrayal of the freedom enjoyed by kids in the 1950s.

But as Emily discovered this week, Stand By Me is not nostalgic for the toxic masculinity, mental health struggles, abuse, and neglect that were normal for a mid-century boyhood. This coming-of-age story is clear-eyed about what was harmful in the late 1950s while celebrating the joy and unintentional comedy of adolescent friendships.

If you have also wondered what the hell Goofy is, throw on your headphones and take a listen.

CW: Discussions of parental abuse and neglect, fatphobia, violence against children

Mentioned in this episode:

‘Stand by Me’ Oral History: Rob Reiner and Cast on River Phoenix and How Coming-of-Age Classic Almost Didn’t Happen

Everything There and Around Us

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 episodes, video versions, 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 Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.

Chapters

1. Revisiting Stand By Me Through Adult Eyes (00:00:00)

2. The Plot: Four Boys and a Dead Body (00:05:13)

3. Gordy, The Invisible Boy After Denny's Death (00:11:21)

4. The Journey Begins: Train Tracks and Junkyard (00:20:42)

5. Leeches and Facing Mortality (00:30:27)

6. Toxic Masculinity and Breaking Cycles (00:40:13)

7. Child Actors and Their Real Lives (00:51:32)

8. Clear-Eyed Nostalgia: Reflecting on the Past (00:57:51)