EP. 344.5 — Last Looks: The Beekeeper

Paul Scheer Don’t be a sucker. Learn about meat bees, and a real life beekeeper. All happening today on How Did This Get Made? Last Looks. Hit the theme.

Music [Intro Song]

Paul Scheer Beeoswarm! What’s up, all you members of the How Did This Get Made beehive? I am your ceiling leak repair guy, Paul Scheer. And welcome to How Did This Get Made Last Looks where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on The Beekeeper and later in the show, I am going to recommend to you things that I’m currently loving and want to recommend in a classic Paul’s Pick segment. I’m also going to share an exclusive deleted scene from our Beekeeper live show. And as always, we are going to reveal next week’s film. Now, before we get any further in the show, I must give a big shout out. A huge thank you to Matthew Fountain for that amazing opening theme. You are outdoing yourselves with this opening theme work. I mean truly every week we are loving it. And if you have a Last Look’s theme that you want to send in, send it to HowDidThisGetMade@Earwolf.com. But keep them short. 15 seconds is perfect. 20s is just a bit too long. I know that sounds crazy, but trust me, it is true. Jason and I just got back from Chicago. We did sold out shows at the Den Theater and we are going to continue our Dinosaur Improv live show tour in Seattle and Portland on May 31st and June 1st. Now here is, the bummer. Only standing room only seats are left in Seattle and Portland is sold out. So why am I advertising it? I don’t know, but I wanted to let you know that we will continue this tour. We’re going to go to New York. We might go to some other fun places as well, because the response has been, frankly, amazing. Secondly, I’m going on my book tour. That’s right. My book is coming out on May 21st, and I’m going to be in Brooklyn with the editor of The New Yorker. That’s right. A Pulitzer Prize winner is coming to Brooklyn to talk to me about Joyful Recollections of Trauma. That is going to be on May 21st. Tickets are only ten bucks. Plus, I’m going to be in San Francisco on June 2nd with the Mythbuster himself, Adam Savage. That show is free. New York is already sold out. Chicago with Adam Pally is close to selling out and LA. Sorry it’s gone. Joel Kim Booster and June Diane Raphael are joining me there, there are a ton of shows, but here is the best part. If you live in Australia, if you live in the UK, wherever you live, I am doing a virtual live signing, which means you can get a signed book from me. Ask me a question. It’s a virtual live signing. You’ll get it. It ships anywhere in the world and Jason Mantzoukas and Rob Hubel are going to join me in that for a little bit of fun. And here’s the best part it’s not super expensive. The book retails for like 29 bucks. And to do that, 35, 35 bucks and you get an autograph book. Not bad. Anyway, check out my website for more information. I’d love to see you out there on the road. And I’ll sign any book if you’ve preordered it, bring it to the events. It will be fun. Now let’s get into it. Oh, by the way, any of you like Nantucket? Well, we’ll be there on June 20th. That’s right. How Did This Get Made will be at the Nantucket Film Festival on June 20th. And, the movie we got picked out is a doozy. All right, let’s get into it. Last week, we talked at length about The Beekeeper movie. The discord user, Johnny Unusual thinks should have had the tagline “The Beekeeper: strangely, fewer bees than The Wicker Man.” You know what? That is strange. There aren’t that many bees. There’s talk of bees. He is a beekeeper. We don’t see bees attack. I would have liked one bee attack. I mean, unless Jason Statham is the bee, then we see a lot of attacks. Anyway, we had questions about The Beekeeper and we might have even missed a few things. Here’s your chance to set a straight fact. Check us if you will. It is now time for corrections and omissions.

Music [Corrections and Omissions Theme]

Paul Scheer Thank you, Randy Smith. Wow, Johnny Unusual back again says “Paul stated bees don’t kill with fire. And that’s true. But the Asian honeybee can kill with heat. When a hornet enters their hive looking for food, the Asian honey bees surround the hornet, generating so much heat that the hornet is cooked to death.” Oh, Johnny Unusual with his Asian honeybee knowledge. And he actually posted, a clip of it on YouTube. All right, so, Johnny Unusual, I stand corrected. I mean, although I don’t think that Jason Statham was being an Asian honeybee in that moment, but maybe he was. Maybe he represents all bees, John, not Connor. I love John Not Connor says “You guys neglected to mention how the phishing scam started. They don’t call Phylicia Rashad. They send a pop up to her computer telling her to call them at 1-800-SUCKER because her data is compromised. This plays into the poetic justice of Statham’s first act of vengeance. The bomb that level’s the first call center is rigged to that telephone line. See? We see the phishing pop up appear on the screen of an elderly immigrant looking couple, and their call to the 800 number triggers the explosion. The number you dialed has bee-n disconnected.” Oh, I like it, John. And speaking of, the phishing scam, lovely. Lisette writes in to say, “I don’t know the Friendly friends dot net website that the scammer gives to Phylicia Rashad seems pretty legit to me.” Now here’s the thing. When you click on this, it’s pretty great. Just click on the Friendly Friends dot net, website. Someone worked very quickly. It’s not weird. It’s not dirty. It’s not even NSFW. It is just fully safe for work. Anyway, Fun Facts 47 writes that “One of my favorite pieces of music from John Wick is its modern take on Vivaldi from the John Wick Chapter three film. Since The Beekeeper has so many similarities to John Wick, I thought it was a real missed opportunity that they didn’t do an action sequence set to a modern rendition of flight of the Bumblebee.” Oh wow. Fun facts 47. Imagine Trent Reznor doing that. Aces that would be. Anyway, Doctor Guts 1003 writes “United data Group has a call center in Boston that is part of a large office building that likely holds other tenants and has a bright pink neon sign in their lobby that says United Data Group. How has the FBI been investigating him for two years and have no clue where they are located?” Hmm Doctor Guts, you ask a pretty fucking good question. Maybe they don’t know where the queen bee is, and if they go in there, they’re not. Well, I guess they would be finding criminal activity. I don’t know, doctor guts. Good observation. CYU writes “When I first saw The Beekeeper trailer, I immediately remembered this news story from 2022 that also took place in Massachusetts, which apparently is, you guessed it, the bee Capital of America. So basically, the story begins with the police trying to serve an eviction. And when they’re met by protesters from a local organization supporting black homeowners, one of the protesters who knew the pain of getting evicted herself took matters into her own hands and, well, take a listen.

News Audio A woman is accused of trying to attack deputies with a swarm of bees. Officers in Massachusetts say the woman tried to release the bees during an eviction she had on a beekeeper suit and brought boxes of the insects to the home. Officers say at one point she was agitating the bees. She is charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Paul Scheer When she was handcuffed and told several officers were allergic to bees, she even gave a Statham like quote, replying “Oh you’re allergic? Good.” That’s right. Oh well. She was charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, aka the bees protecting the beehive. All right, we’re going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we will hit the phone lines for more corrections and omissions. And of course, we will announce our next movie, Rob from Long Island. Please play us out to commercial.

Music [Music]

Paul Scheer Welcome back to Last Looks. We still have some very important corrections and omissions to go through from The Beekeeper. So let’s go to the phones. First up, Meg from Arlington, Virginia.

Listener Hi, Paul. First time, long time. The one thing you were talking about where there somebody working on the, the ceiling at the FBI’s Hoover building. I wanted to call in and let you know it’s well known inside the beltway that the Hoover building is falling apart. If you Google J. Edgar Hoover building falling apart, there’s a bunch of articles about how there are nets outside of the building to catch chunks of the building falling off that inside the building. Things are falling. There was an article from December of 2023 talking about how, water systems fail regularly and plumbing is a problem. So, just point about, the FBI, being underfunded. I’m not sure it’s quite that, but there’s a lot of politics involved in it, but, it is true that the Hoover Building is falling apart. Thanks.

Paul Scheer Okay, this is interesting. So, this is a quote from the article that Meg references. Oh, my God, I can’t believe that you guys went into this amount of detail, I love it. That’s why I love this show. Anyway, the article quotes it, saying the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover Building is showing its age as it sports nets around its perimeter to keep chunks of concrete from falling off and hitting pedestrians. But parts of the building are also dropping on to employee workspaces and equipment. Nick DeMoss, an assistant director of the FBI’s finance and faculties division, said the agency has spent 75 million since 2011 to avoid a catastrophic breakdown of its water systems. Pipe bursts and plumbing challenges are commonplace, leading to the damage of the FBI’s space, IT and records. Wow. So this movie was researched. Holy shit. Shawna from Santa Clara. What do you got?

Listener Hi, Paul, I loved The Beekeeper episode and wanted to share an omission. My favorite part was the huge guy who Jason said look like an X-man. I didn’t hear it mentioned on the podcast, but that guy was wearing a yellow jacket. Yellow jackets are sometimes called meat bees because they’re the same size and color as honeybees, but yellow jackets are actually wasps. So the meat head character, who was one of the bigger threats to The Beekeeper was dressed to symbolize a meat bee. I thought that was a great detail. Thank you so much and good luck at the book launch this month. Bye.

Paul Scheer What?! Are you telling me this movie makes more sense than we thought? I didn’t even know that yellow jackets are meat bees. I like a meat head. This is great. All right, let’s go to the phones for Adam from Seattle.

Listener Hey, Paul. I’ve got a correction omission on The Beekeeper. After Phylicia Rashad gets her bank account emptied out, her cell phone lights up with fraud alerts from the various banks. But if they’re aware the fraud happened, you’d think they’d take steps to do something to correct it and give her her money back. That’s why these fraud departments exist. Apparently there was no need for her to commit suicide. Just thought I’d mention it. Thanks. Bye

Paul Scheer You know what? I’m just going to say, we might have a deleted scene here that, you know, talks about the fraud alerts in the film, so stay tuned, Adam. Stay tuned. You know, this week truly was, eye opening for me. Corrections and omissions. Often we’re getting, you know, distances or obscure facts. But you proved to me that this movie is smarter than we originally thought. But I have to tell you, while I love the website, while I love the story of the woman attacking the police with bees, I have to say that John, not Connor, explaining a part of the movie that we all completely missed really does take the cake because I feel like you know what, the rest of you all researched and I’m impressed by. But that, I thought, was a really smart, observation. Why? I don’t know. I think I like it because now I’m like, maybe it should be the woman who stung everyone with bees, because I don’t know. It’s not actually the woman who stung everyone with bees. It’s. It’s the person who brought the to our attention. Anyway, John Not Connor, you’re the winner. It’s contested, but who cares? So many great corrections and omissions. So now you get this theme from Chris Thinky.

Music [Winner’s Song]

Paul Scheer Thank you. Chris. Thank you for that winner theme and apologies that we forgot to credit you when we last played it. That was me, I forgot. I’m sorry, Chris, but you know what? Better to be like. Oh, who is that? And that’s a mystery. Now we solve the mystery. That’s what people like. People like mystery, aka the Jinx. All right, remember, if you want to submit a alt movie tagline or chime in with your own thoughts about the latest episode, hit up the discord at discord.gg/HDTGM, or call us at 619-PAUL-ASK. That’s right. 619-PAUL_ASK. Coming up after one final break, I will recommend the things I’m currently enjoying and then I will announce next week’s movie. But first, listen to this bonus deleted scene from our beekeeper show where June gives her take on those fraud alert notifications. I told you it’s coming up that Adam from Seattle called us about.

June Diane Raphael One other thing. One other thing. She gets multiple fraud alert messages on her phone after this all goes down and the 2 million is wiped out from the charity. When those fraud alerts come up, they’ve usually actually stopped the transaction. So I don’t understand.

Paul Scheer Like the bank was a second behind like shit. Fuck.

Jason Mantzoukas You think if she refreshed that money would have come back in?

June Diane Raphael Right on back. If she had just turned her computer on.

Jason Mantzoukas That’s heartbreaking.

June Diane Raphael She has fraud alerts, on which I’m sure she does, especially in the $2 million account. They would have stopped the transaction. They would not have let that money go through.

Paul Scheer I agree with you. But look, this movie like, well, I don’t know, this is a very sophisticated system. This is the same money that got the president elected president Mom.

Jason Mantzoukas This is a CIA bit of tech that has been repurposed to pilfer millions from the from the elderly. This scam is getting it from the elderly.

June Diane Raphael But but Jason, what is the tech exactly?

Jason Mantzoukas I’m so glad you asked.

June Diane Raphael The tech to me, as far as my little eyes can see.

Jason Mantzoukas I’d love to read you the code.

June Diane Raphael Is simply like when you’re sharing your zoom with another person there. There are. You can also give control of your computer screen to another person. That seems to be the tech that this is all based on.

Jason Mantzoukas Well, the tech also seems to be a. I think what the tech is doing is finding because they say it at one point, finding people who don’t have close relations, who have money in the bank, who are susceptibility to this kind of scam.

June Diane Raphael Jen Shah from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City was able to do that. There are those that data has been out there for years.

Jason Mantzoukas Okay, so these guys are like her. Full stop. These guys are like Jen Shah, except they’re getting the president elected.

Paul Scheer Then my question is simply this, if their technology is so sophisticated, why is The Beekeeper’s technology like from 1975?

Jason Mantzoukas I loved it. Well, just.

Paul Scheer Like Montezuma’s Revenge.

Jason Mantzoukas Just like John Wick. Like the The Beekeeper office has to be pretty weird. Like they are in jumpsuits and they’re using, like a Commodore 64 computer to like, enter codes in. I was like.

Paul Scheer First you must play this game of pitfall, then you bloop bloop bloop.

Jason Mantzoukas There’s like inky and blinky are coming after you. You’ve got ghosts on your tail, Beekeeper. That’s a Pac-Man reference.

Paul Scheer People. I know that you’ve noticed that every Monday we do something called Matinee Monday, where we pull an old episode out of the vault. This week’s matinee Monday was Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers. And next week’s will be Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Sixth Day. So keep on checking out those replay of classic episodes and try to figure out how they tie together with the movie that we just did. We try to do it. Maybe sometimes it works better than others, but if you could tell us how, then that means you’re paying attention. And honestly, I’m asking that because I don’t know how the sixth day ties into any of this. Anyway, we have spent a lot of time hearing from you, but no one has asked me about me. That’s right. What am I up to? And I know, well Paul. You talk about your book all the time. Well, yes, I do, because, I want you to buy it. And when you do buy it, you’ll get fun stuff on the website, but I’m not going to talk about that. Now it’s time for me to talk about other things other than me, just things that I love. And it’s now time for Paul’s picks of the week. Go Home Gary, play me in.

Music [Paul’s Picks Theme]

Paul Scheer All right. So let’s do it quick. I have been touring around. I have been seeing, hearing, doing a bunch of different stuff. I’ve been watching a lot of NBA playoff basketball, so I haven’t been able to dig in to things that I normally dig into. But I’m going to tell you. Summer House on Bravo. I always go back to Summer House on Bravo. I love Summer house. If you’re not watching Summer House. I think it is one of my favorite Bravo shows, simply because the premise is kind of perfect. It’s just, New York City people who go to the Hamptons on the weekend and get totally wasted and reveal things that they should never reveal to each other. I love the show. I don’t think you need to start at the beginning. I think you can start right now and you’ll enjoy it. You’ll love it as a matter of fact. I also have been enjoying The Jinx Season two. I talked about this on my Substack a little while ago. Yeah, I have a Substack and it’s free. I love Baby Reindeer, but everyone loves Baby Reindeer, so I’m not going to promote that. But I will tell you that Knuckles, which is a show that I have a small part in, is hilariously funny. Knuckles is a new show on Paramount Plus. Adam Pally stars in it with Kid Cudi and Edi Patterson from The Righteous Gemstones. It’s legit hilarious. I love it, and my kids love it. It’s one of those rare shows that kind of cross, the boundaries of parents and kids. And it is a great. So I highly recommend that. I also want to recommend this movie, and I don’t want to say anything more about it than it’s unlike anything that you’ve ever seen in your life. But it’s called Hundreds of Beavers. Hundreds of Beavers is about a drunken Applejack salesman who, who has to become North America’s greatest fur trapper. It is slapstick. It is insane. It is truly unlike anything that you will ever see. There’s a 95% Rotten Tomatoes rating. I think it’s maybe one of the best movies ever. It’s just simple. It’s silly and it is great. It’s it. You’re going to love Hundreds of Beavers. I don’t want to tell you more. I think more will wreck it. Well, you know, podcasts. What am I listen to in podcast? The Three was a podcast, a murder podcast. I don’t do murder podcasts, but I listened do this murder podcast, called The Three. And it is about three girls, that one of them is killed and, you know, by by the other two, it’s dark, but it’s interesting because, the killing is so random because one day in. Well, I don’t tell you what happens. Just The Three is pretty addictive. And, if you’re not listening to JJ Redick and, LeBron James’ podcast, I find this podcast amazing. It is just two basketball players talking about the sport but really getting into it. The nitty gritty. The X’s in the O’s. It’s called Mind the Game Pod. Mind the Game Pod. And if you have any interest in basketball it is so much fun. I love these two guys. All right. That is all I got. And now it is time to announce our next movie. We are going from an English beekeeper to a Scottish butler. That’s right. Next week’s episode we will be watching the 2009 R-rated rom com The Ugly Truth, starring Katherine Heigl. And How Did This Get Made all star Gerard Butler. Here’s a breakdown of the plot. An uptight television producer takes control of a morning show segment on modern relationships, hosted by a misogynistic man. You know what? That’s not it at all, but kind of is. Anyway, Rotten tomatoes gives this film a 14%, which is rotten on the Tomatometer, and Alonzo Daralde from MSNBC writes “By the time they have their big showdown in a hot air balloon, a sequence, incidentally, featuring some of the fakest green screen work in recent memory, you’ll be pleading for an Oh the humanity ending. That’s a Zeppelin reference to this. Oh, cinematic Hindenburg.” I’ve wrecked it. Oh, I wrecked it. I’m not going to go back and retake it, though. Let’s listen to the trailer for The Ugly Truth.

Trailer Audio On July 24th. The battle of the sexes is on. I Like a woman on top. It’s Heigl versus Butler. You’re telling me you’ve never slept with the Fun bag twins? Who am I to kill their dream? You’re such a man whore. Put the hot dog in slowly. The ugly truth. May the best sex win. Oh! Would you stop doing that? I think I kind of like it? Really? Rated R.

Paul Scheer You can currently stream The Ugly Truth on TBS, TNT, and truTV, or you can rent it on Apple TV, Amazon, YouTube, and Google Play separately. I also encourage you to check out Hoopla and Kanopy, which are digital media services offered by your local public library that allow you to consume movies, TV, music, audiobooks, e-books, and comics for free. And if you don’t have enough money to buy my book Joyful Recollections of Trauma, request it from Your library. Paul, how do I do it? Put your zip code in, put library in, and then go to your library website and request my book. Request the book from any of your local stores. I want to support indie bookstores, and, that’s why I’m also listening to a lot of audiobooks on libro. Yeah, check it out, libro. Anyway, people, that is it for the show. Please remember to rate and review. It helps. And if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, make sure you are following us and have automatic downloads turned on. Visit us on social media @HDTGM. A big thanks to our producers, Scott Sonne and Molly Reynolds and our movie picking producer Avril Halley, our associate producer Jess Cisneros, and our engineers Casey Alford and Rich Garcia. We will see you next week for The Ugly Truth.