It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome to the next picture show, a movie the week podcast devoted to a classic film and how it shaped our thoughts on a recent release.

I'm Scott Tobias here with...

Genevieve Kosky.

And Keith Phipps.

Tasha Robinson is at our rival camp across the lake this week, but she'll paddle back for the next episode.

Here on the next picture show, we believe that no film exists in a vacuum and that all culture is more interesting in context. So every other week, we get together

to talk over a classic film and consider how it relates to a current movie. This week,

we're deconstructing the deconstructive comedies of David Wayne. Genevieve, what do we have

for our waniacs out there? Late last month, Netflix released Wayne's new movie, a futile and stupid gesture,

a biopic about the late Doug Kenny and the rise and fall of National Lampoon,

the magazine and brand that launched the careers of an entire generation of comedy writers and performers.

Wayne seems like the ideal person to bring Kenny's story to the screen,

given his own experience working with a troop of performers dating back to Stella and the MTV sketch comedy series

The State. Wayne's talent for upending convention and allowing for moments of silliness or

absurdity was on full display in his debut feature, Wet Hot American Summer, a cult favorite

that spoofs the summer camp comedies of the 80s. It was also a who's who of funny people, including state alumni like Michael Ian Black, Joe LaTrulyo, Ken Marino, and Michael Showalter, as well as ringers like Paul Rudd, Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler, and Janine Garofalo. On today's episode, we'll break down Wet Hot American Summer, a movie that itself breaks down 80 standards like meatballs,

but also goes to work on narrative cliches, like the coach getting his rag-tag

baseball team ready for the big game, or the cheesy montage that can turn a loser into a champion.

Then later in the week, we'll bring in a futile and stupid gesture, and see how Wayne

...