Fright-con #40: Count Dracula

0:00This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast. Here's what you missed. People wake up and go, oh, damn, wait and hold up. They changed all of that? Yes. It's real. This is a wholesale attack. It is targeting black people in every federal agency. It's raw. White folks have never allowed that reckoning to last more than a decade. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, to my home. Enter freely of your own feeling, leave some of the happiness you bring. I am Dra. Hello, the internet. That's right. Welcome to this spin-off episode of Dead Ali's Ikeys.

1:00Yeah. Which we're calling the iconograph for the fright-conograph. Oh. Instead of looking at the zeitgeist through current events on Monday morning, we're looking at the zeitgeist through the powerful pop culture deities that are our icons. Or now that it's spooky season, now that it's October, the powerful pop cultural demons who are our fright-cons. Oh. And we're kicking our October zeitgeist, fright-cons season off with a character who I feel like is the main character of spooky season. Like I feel like he's as close to Santa Claus as we got for Halloween. That's a good character. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's the first one you go to for Halloween. We're talking about the most depicted literary character in the history of film and TV. An allegory for the evils of capitalism that has gone on to make billions and billions of dollars.

2:00The original Batman, probably not our scariest icon of horror, but with apologies to the Wolfman, he's probably the horniest. I think he might have been the thing who like discovered... The fear of bone is connected to our horny bone. But yeah, he's evolved over time from an unkempt Jerry Garcia looking old guy to a swav fuck boy rocking a cape, slick back hair, sloppy stakes, sloppy because they've been stabbed through his heart. It's Dracula! Dracula! My name is Count Dracula, Brian. I'm one of the founders of Crack, and I want to suck your blood. Wow. I'm a need me. I need it. Oh man, yeah, this is... I gotta say, I think when I was thinking about the how common this is, let's... Well, I introduced it, guys, but were you Dracula ever for Halloween? We were all in the same place.

3:02I was just... I was just... I was just... I was just... I was just... Were you Dracula ever for Halloween? Were you ever... I've been Dracula recently. Dracula is an easy one because we had to go to a Halloween party with fancy people one time. Was that mean? Like not the medians they work with. Right. The Transylvania royal family. Yeah, it's like these British people we know through our kids school, and they... The royal family. You're like describing these British people. Yeah, they have the last name. So, I thought it was a Halloween. It was a mini-bobbadook situation where I thought it was gonna be... Full Halloween costumes. And I like had Dracula make up, Dracula things, blood coming out of my mouth. And everybody else was just in a tuxedo with an arrow through their head or something like that.

4:07You know what I mean? And I was like in a Halloween store costume. Yeah, you still understood the assignment. Anyways, in our third seat, a brilliant comedian writer, actor, special daddy long legs, very spooky, spider. That's a damn spider. And also reference to his amazing legs. You must go watch a special right now. He's one of your favorite guests. On the other hand, he is the pointer of the disgusting phrase plumper to describe his own thighs. He's fine with garlic, but when he sees a crucifix or a lowercase tea, he bursts into flames. It's Blake Waxler! Hey, this is Blake Waxler, aka Blakeyla. And it's great to be on a show with two other guys that you don't want to invite in your home under any circumstances. I can't believe you invited me. Yeah, you can't. You love me. Yeah. Well, you ran out of food. You should have had more food if you didn't want to eat all of it.

5:07That's funny, yeah, because when I was in like visiting you and I kept saying, yeah, we can stop by your place. Like, no, no, we'll go to this bar. We'll go to the bar. No, no, no, no. But his bar is inches away from your home. Yeah, but it's, you know, separate, separate. Also, like I'm really close to your place, and I can just walk. No, no, no, no, no, we'll go to the bar. I don't want you in my home, if I can make that. 45 minutes in the opposite direction. I think it's maybe the better way to go. Yeah, Dracula always inviting people to his house though. He's like, yeah, come through. It's like the ultimate Hollywood power move, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Even though people keep disappearing, he makes you come to him. That's true. I would just throw this stuff. I'm laughing at what Jack O'Brien considers to be a fancy person. You know, like that's what we're at. Yeah, just English. Yeah, just an accent. Yeah. We went to there with one fancy people. State. I do just want to talk about the horniness of vampires. Yeah, our horniness for vampires, the horniness that emanates off of vampires.

6:13Like horses. In what way? Because it's just for me. No, everyone, you know, they make them all horny. Like make it just horses make everybody horny, you know, vampires and everybody horny. Let me blow up my therapist, notebook, notebook. And what was your first encounter with the horse? I feel like we'd only be talking about that if we kept going in that direction. So we're just going to we're just going to. That's good hosting. Pretends that that's a thing that everybody gets. Is horny four horses. Yeah, that's a blank. Mike. Mike never gets turned by a vampire because it creeps him out. Oh, come on. Oh, yeah, it's kind of like horny horses in here. What? He like starts doing the mind thing where he like controls you into coming to his housing. You're already behind him. How'd you get here already? Hey, man. Have you ever seen a horse? What? Without any clothes on? No, bro. Yeah, they're always they need like clothes on. What are you talking about? Yeah, bro. I know I said come over tonight, but I'm actually thinking of having like a quiet one tonight.

7:15That's cool. No, no, no, no. Come on in. Bring whatever you want. I feel like quiet if you don't mind the sound of me breathing. But it's so the vampires got horny here and hornyer. I knew that, but like I will say like I went back and watched the end of not most for out to the 1920s like a silent film. And that shit is horny as hell. Like the climax has he travels a lot via shadow like his shadow can like open doors. That's the special effect they did is they used the shadow of his hand and then had somebody on the other side open the door of that. But at one point he does grab a boob and really the woman like with his shadow hand and the woman reacts in like I can he slash it to see it. Shadow doesn't even count. Yeah, but I haven't bring it up. I will say like just I.

8:16This research allowed me to step back and see the vampire that defined like I feel like the past couple decades in with new eyes. 2004, a woman has a dream about a vampire who wants to fuck a teenage girl. She wakes up and even though she's not a writer, she writes a novel based on that dream called Twilight. And people were so horny for that movie. It made like that book that the resulting movies made $3.3 billion. Launch the careers of two of the most important actors of their generation. And then it like spawned an entire second fan fiction book like 50 Shades of Grey is just Twilight fan fiction that it was just like starting from the premise of what if they just fucked each other on every page. And wait, is he a vampire? It's like a spiritual. It's like they this is a thing that happened throughout the history of Dracula's that like

9:19they will do a rip off and then like erase the things that make it clear that it's a rip off and it like still does well. It's identical. Yeah, but yeah, they were just like I guess he's not a vampire. That one still that movie franchise made $1.3 billion 50 Shades of Grey. So I just feel like we're so deeply horny for vampires that like I don't know it like that the Twilight books just to put this in perspective that this book that like launched this massive movie franchise. I'm going to read you a passage from that book. Aren't you hungry? He asked distracted. No, I didn't feel like mentioning that my stomach was already full of butterflies. Jesus Christ. So that's the level of it's it's evident that she's not a writer throughout the novel. And yet people are like, yeah, oh man. If only yeah.

10:20Yeah. So I'm writing sorry, I'm not a writer. This was the best I could do under the circumstances. The circumstances being I was so horny when I woke up from this dream. I changed careers. Well, yeah, what was she doing before that? Was she just some this was like she was young and just kind of had this vision came to her and just like I'm not sure what she was doing. I just know like they people are like she didn't have much experience writing. But this dream was so profound that she's like a fanny mind. Banged out a entire novel. All right. I do just want to stop. Dracula is a lore queen. So I just want to talk about like the things we know about Dracula. We've already talked about one need to be invited in. I feel like this one is among the most consistent. Right. Every every Dracula needs you know, you need to actually ask them to come in otherwise. Otherwise there. It's pretty pretty big easy way to get around them.

11:21Right. Yeah. And original that's that's that's can't like that's OG can in vampire stuff or is that like an add on because I know the stories morphed over years. Yeah. I think that one has it was added as we'll get to a bunch of these were like patchworked together. Right. Vagley euro accent that is from the start. Vagley euro horniness that is also there from the start. Don't appear in mirrors. I'm not sure if that's in the original. Dinos that can freelance. No spare two shadow can open doors in Francis for Coplas Dracula. His shadow just starts like doing its own thing in Dracula dead and loving it Leslie Nielsen's shadow starts fucking someone while they're dancing. That's such a good title for a movie. Everything. It's always so loving it. I'm going to watch that again.

12:25Sleep in coffin. I feel like that pretty core right. And I also have to have incredible core strength the way that they rise up out of the car. You know what I'm saying. They're just like who's holding their feet that's not focused enough. Thank you. Thank you. Dude that's that's just all core dude. They're just working that core human body can't do that. Do you remember that clip of Adam Archuleta like being on his back and just using his hamstrings to lift himself up? I remember that thing's working with you. Do you know that clip of the thing? I've been doing exactly. That's when I realized that my body will never work the way I wanted to. Yeah. I saw someone do that. Yeah. Be that strong now. You become a vampire by being turned by other vampires. Some like Hills or Harms or makes sparkle in the case of Twilight. That one started with Nosferatu I think. Need to drink blood to survive. They're immortal but I feel like it's the immortality has the biggest asterisk of all

13:26time. There's so many ways to kill them. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's like we're immortal except for heart disease. Yeah exactly. I feel like they're immortal. It's just like yeah they can't die of cancer or old age. Like I was right there. Pretty vulnerable. Yeah. I feel like they have floating abilities of varying levels in my experience. Right. Sometimes they'll float up to a window or just like kind of go down a hallway like they're on those shoes that have little wheels in it. You know, geolies. Yes. Yeah. Geolies. Their kryptonite is cross or garlic or yeah I think those are the main ones right. Silver bullet or is that just? No. That's where it is. Where was that? Fuck me. Stick through the heart. Stick through the heart and you're too blame. You give love a bad name. I love me summers. Sometimes it used to need to be wooden but now I don't think it does. Yeah.

14:26Yeah. I feel like the enemy, their enemy being werewolves is one that has just been. Become canon that I, I'm not sure where that one came from. That is not one that I grew up with. Um, almost a default where who else would it be? Like ghosts. No. Yeah. Right. Like what other evil beast? Yeah. It does kind of make the most sense and they are both kind of horny. You know, true. Can talk to you through in your mind and get you to sleepwalk. This is the one where it's like starting to verge on too many powers for me. Like when you hear kids playing and they're like I have ice powers and I'm also invincible and my arms are machine guns. I can fly. Yeah. I can fly and it like starts getting boring. But I will say, I think the main core piece of iconography is the fangs. And this is something that I feel like we talked about a lot on the early episodes of the Daily Zeke guys. My fascination with this idea that their fangs are hollow.

15:29Yep. Which like did you guys have, do you guys have that belief? Blake did you have that that that are as fascinated by it? Did their fangs can suck blood through the fangs? Did you have that belief? Yeah. Wait, are you saying it? Like now that, okay, so this is one of those things where you think something and then someone starts talking like, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no, I didn't. So in my mind, they would suck it like a straw, like they were straws. Yeah. But now for the first time I'm thinking maybe they just bite you and then suck, suck, suck you off through your neck? Yeah. Because of the wound. I mean, that's, yes. So many people. Yeah. I think I came up because of the Reese's peanut buttercup commercial, too, because I think when we first started talking about that, we were like, well, the, the way that the vampire bites the Reese's peanut buttercup would imply that he just put his fangs in to get all the peanut butter out. Yeah. The peanut butter traveled up through his fangs. Yeah.

16:29That's why when you made that joke, I was like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, it's not a joke. That's not a joke. That's a thing that a vampire did. Yeah. I will say based on the Reese's commercial, that's what it has to be. Although, I don't think there's anything else to support. Well, so I was having this conversation with my friend this morning, with my son, who is my best friend. He's my best friend. He, and he was like, yeah, no, like that is the thing. Everyone thought when they were a child and now we all know it's not true. But I never went through that process until like we mentioned it on the show. And I realized how dumb it is. Fuck. He was saying that like even the Reese's one, you could theoretically have the vampire sucking through the two little puncture holes and sucking the peanut butter up. But I don't think like that's going to, that implies a level of structural integrity of the chocolate that just seems impossible to make. Sure. Sure.

17:30Sure. So I think it's like we all see the two little puncture wounds on the vampire victim's neck. Assume that it's just teeth go in and they're like, like, like, Sipping, Yeah, blood through the puncture holes. Um, I think it did lead me because I thought well, like, are what about like venomous snakes? Like they kind of have that, but it's really it's buzzed out. That is exactly what was in my brain was that snakes have poison that comes out through the bank. So that's our hollow, hollow fang tea, but not for something in. It doesn't go that direction yet. It never goes that direction. It's only like truly like mosquitoes. It's like certain bugs that have that whole ability to use teeth. They have a, they got a lot of mosquitoes. A per bus. A per bus kiss. Yeah. Per bus. Yeah. Elephants, you know, they suck in things through their nose. Mm-hmm. That's how they eat. I'm an idiot. He says, do they?

18:30Yeah. I know that they can suck up water through their nose and then spray that shit out. So, okay. All right. That's not how they, yeah, they would eat, but they would need a bowl of spaghetti over their nose. Hey, give them a couple watermelons right there. I did find a, there's a movie called Sundown, the vampire in retreat, um, where vampires from around the world have come together to form their own town in the US Southwest and agreed to no longer prey on humans. As part of that deal, they're manufacturing a synthetic blood substitute, which we see them drinking at various points using forked straws that their fangs plug into. That's interesting. That's a lot of movie. That's a one Bruce Campbell. Yeah. That's a Bruce Campbell. Exactly. I don't remember. Man, I remember seeing that when I was a kid. Wait, so they were drinking, so they, oh, interesting. They give credence to, they give something like that. Some people like that. Some, yeah. I also went and this is not something I'm proud of. I went and Googled like, oh, yeah. Well, how do vampire bats?

19:31Yeah, I bet they, they suck your blood through hollow little straws in their teeth. And the way they do it is actually really gross. They shave your skin a little bit, so it starts bleeding. And then they lap the blood up. We should so fucking gross. And it has like a numbing agent, right? And there's a lot of, or something, or even notice it. How do you know that? That's a, that's such a weird fat. I know a lot about animal. But animals believe you're not. I know three things. I know animals. Philadelphia sports. The two things. I know animals. Philadelphia sports. Philadelphia sports. Yeah. And Philadelphia sports animals. It's Philadelphia sports animals and safeties from the early two. It's because you have like those like animal facts, notebooks from like the 90s. I have so many animals. Like all animal facts, like Nat Geo subscription. And also why, and they like in my mind of vampire bad would bite your neck. But I think they just go after your feet, like your ankles, you know?

20:31Like I think they used to. Yeah, I don't like that either. Yeah, no, get them out. Yeah, the idea of like just not realizing that something is lapping the blood out of your out of a little. I mean, if I think it's, you see animals, right? It's like a guy who's like, hey, Rick, you got a bat on your figure arm, dude. Oh, god. Oh shit. I need to pay more attention to my wife's. I need to pay more attention to this. Still hasn't, still hasn't pushed the battle. Yeah, it turns around like six on his back. Jesus, that's a fucking mess. Fucking Rick. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back and we will get into the history of Dracula. Where this fucking crazy guy came from. We'll be right back. You know those pieces in your closet that you find yourself wearing so much your wife has to tell you to stop because they're quote, turning yellow and developing holes like a treasure map. Is that just me? Well, you know the clothes that make getting dressed easy. You like how they look and how they feel.

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22:38worlds. Yes, sometimes we even talk about just everyday mundane situations in our lives like the cool Uber driver we just had or the food we just say that is surprisingly delicious. Or we'll talk about the Med Gala and the looks that they wore. Are they awesome? Are they trendy? Come find out. Because our opinion matters and so does yours. And this is a place where all of our minds can come together and connect. So what are you waiting for? Come connect with us. Listen Out of Character from Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Pods or wherever you get your podcasts. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast. Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power. It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interests and they complained about the very thing they were seeing. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men.

23:39Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off. I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. We all go scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same bank. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the black information network. 12 seats. Those are moving south. So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030. You better be hitting the ground, going to heart in the south now. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Let's talk Bram Stoker because that's where we first get the name Dracula, the character Dracula, uh, Bram Stoker. What a name, guys, holy shit. He wrote this book that was not that successful as we'll get to and it's time.

24:40When he died, he was like a well-known enough person to get obituaries. A Dracula was not mentioned in his obituaries. That's how I'm not big a deal it was in his time. What was he known? What was it? What else is there? He was a publisher and like a literary manager and was like friends with Oscar Wilde and like, just kind of friends with famous people and like the assistant to an actor. Like that's the weird. When he wrote the book, the thing he was known for was being an assistant to an actor, which is not a thing anyone's known for these days. So I feel like it must have had some different connotation back then. Probably just like people knew him because he had the coolest name of anybody ever. Yeah. There goes that guy, Bram Stoker. The ball player? Yeah. No, he sounds like a ball player, but Bram Stoker doesn't matter what's how. He at the time also seemed to be a little ashamed of the book. He was like, I had a two generous helping of dressed crab before going to bed at night.

25:44And it's some terrible dreams. Was that the boot poisoning? Yeah, basically. Which, and then everybody, like he said that and then all the scholars are like, it's a bit of blony that he likes to dish out when asked. Like nobody, well, no one takes it seriously. People seem like to really hate that explanation. But I will say, like I've had some fucked up dreams from after eating something weird. Yeah, after dressed crab, dress crab is hollowed out crab where like they've taken the meat out and put it back in like without all the annoying shit. Oh, it's not where I'm going. It's not where I'm going, unfortunately. That's what I was looking for. But I've had like crazy cheese dreams and beef mayors and stuff like that. You know, beef mayors. You've never had beef mayors. You've never eaten beef and then just had like a fucking strong horse. This is what I'm talking about. Oh God. Sexy horse is a strong lady horse. It's a beef mayor right there.

26:45Damn it. Beef mayor. Beef mayor. Wait, okay. No, I've never, I had a friend who would have nightmares, like not nightmares, but I have some wild dreams when they had like spicy food. Like usually if that had spicy Thai, it was like, it wasn't it. It was like those levels of spice like completely destroyed his like white guy brain. He's like dude out of fucking spice stream again. And I see what is going on, dude. I'm fine, but okay. I was like what the best. He's in his dreams. He's in a jungle. People like blowing fire in his face. He's like a little mask. Because he has the hot salsa from from from from from Chipotle. He's like ground pepper. That's why too much black pepper I guess. Just a full nightmare. Shout out to beef mayor though. I will just say, you know, I this seems to be another one of these characters that like

27:50made its way into our world from the uncut like from the dream world. Stephanie Meyer got Twilight from dreams. David Lynch got a lot of his ideas from the unconscious world. Garfield needless to say him fucking some crazy LSD nightmares. But one thing that a lot of people believe is that the original Dracula was based on Vlad the impaler and that is not true. It's just yeah, like you're like, yep. Yeah, I'm not. And I know that actually bull shit. Yep. Yes. Yes. Say that to say more. But yeah, the people who first popularized the idea that Vlad the impaler was the basis for Dracula like wrote a book saying that and then like found his notes and we're like, yeah, we were wrong about that. But everyone was just like, I don't know. I just found out about this Vlad the impaler guy. That's a cool story. So we just stuck with that.

28:51And that is kind of how the character comes together is just like an idea will be presented in, you know, either a play adaptation or in this case, like some work of literary criticism. And people just like grab the stuff that works and remove the stuff that doesn't work. I will say Bram Stoker's Dracula, the Francis Ford Coppola movie is like, none of it is really based on the original novel like the it's got the Vlad the impaler thing, which is not in the original novel. It's also like based on this idea that Dracula is like trying to reincarnate his like dead wife, which is not in. It would be like naming your movie Michael Criton's Jurassic Park and it's like a Godzilla movie. It doesn't have anything like really to do with it. I guess there's a big reptile lizard that's kind of where it begins and ends.

29:53One big bonus that I think Dracula has and had at that time is that he represents a lot of like disease stuff. Like at the time, cholera, there was a big cholera outbreak and people were being buried alive. And so that kind of came into it. People sphere being buried alive or fear of people coming back from the dead. There was a theory that it came in via like me asthma like mists and Dracula is always like traveling on mists and so that's where like some of that shit comes from. But then he's able to adapt to whatever, like the, uh, Fransfort couple of one is very bloody and like the blood spewing all over the place. And that's like happening during the height of the AIDS panic. And so there's, you know, like whatever the scary illnesses at the time, Dracula is usually able to kind of plug into that, which I think is a powerful part of his appeal.

30:56Remember how that new Dracula he refused to wear a mask a couple years ago? Like, right. You refused to wear a 95 on a plane. But the whole story was about like, yeah, lockdown and how vampires will appear in lockdowns particularly when Dracula did his own research. Dracula did his own research then died of COVID. That is why things they're actually not immune to. They want to take our freedoms. Like is there any way you can get me packs low, please? Let me into her email. For Chandracular, like what happened? You brought back. The 19th century version of the vampire myth also had evolved from a real blood disorder called porphyria, which causes extreme sensitivity to some like receding gums, which makes

32:01your teeth look like fangs. And I've heard into the sulfur content and garlic avoidance of mirrors due to looking like absolute shit and blood drinking. Or at least people thought they were drinking blood. Their urine had turned into dark red. And so people assumed people with porphyria were drinking blood. Oh, and it's like terrible kid need dysfunction or something. Like, yeah. And then all those doctors, doctors being terrible at the time were like, you should drink blood. That would actually help you out. Okay. So then the people who couldn't look in the mirror were afraid of gar, didn't like garlic had like kind of messed up teeth, vampire-esque teeth. Yeah. We're being blood and we're drinking blood and everyone knew that about them. And they're like, yeah, I think we've seen, I think we have a character on our hands. Here. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like just generally like disease is like having a monster that kind of represents

33:02disease is pretty load bearing because that is the thing that kills most people. Sure. And so it's like, it's a pretty big one to have. And like history is like life used to just be full of horrors. Right. And so like see people with like their faces caved in by syphilis walking down the street and or like porphyria. And then like when if you got sick, like the people who had porphyria, like hundreds of them were burned at the stake by the Catholic church, just like they died for grossing, for grossing out the Catholic church essentially. Oh, they're like, what was Burmese? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Do you think mummies was like that whole concept is from the same thing where there was some sort of illness where you had to be wrapped in gauze or something? Mummies, I think came a lot from them, the British, you know, calling the same, colonial

34:02power, trying to say mother. And yeah, just I think Egypt, like seeing how Egypt preserved their dead and then like that spooked them out. Well, we'll get to how Dracula, when he initially came around was like killed by like in terms of sales was like got his ass beat by this like Egyptian based monster. Damn, damn Dracula. The other thing, it was Dracula was kind of the original Blair Witch because the book was written as like, this shit actually happened. There are a series of letters from people who this happened to actually know all those people and they like they had to take it back a step essentially because the publisher was like, this is actually too fucking scary, bro. Like the Jack the Ripper murders just happened. We can't we can't be having this book tell people that vampires are real.

35:05So they had to like take it take it a step back. I mean, that must have been like seeing video for people of that time when they're like, these are letters that are real. Yes, this is what you're saying. So you know, so is people. Yeah, we know that because he said that right, right, right, he said that and we don't have this in us is and built up from modernity yet. So we're like, wow, he's a woman of good character. How can't lie about that? Bram Stoker wouldn't lie about something like that. So yeah, the book drops and it's a moderate success. It's it was a outsold six to one by a book called The Beetle about a shapeshifting gender swapping beetle monster seeking revenge on its former sex slave. And this like is based in like scarabs, I think are associated with Egypt and the original. It's like Paul Lessingham has been a vacationer in Egypt and the beetle in her woman form

36:09hypnotizes him and forces him to live as her sex slave and then he runs away and runs back to London and the beetle follows it. That was like the blockbuster at the time. Dracula was just like, yeah, I've heard of Dracula. It's kind of a thing. Yeah, people are running. Yeah, I want to see sexy xenophobia. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So what happened to the guy left? Oh, I got seduced by one of those weird exotic ladies in the room. Those are the ladies. Yeah. I mean, they all had their own message, right? Like that one was clear. Clearly some kind of like hypersexualized xenophobicly sort of, yeah, aligned sort of messaging. There's a lot of hypersexualized xenophobia in the Dracula one. Like a lot of people point to the fact that this is around the time that, you know, Jewish people are being run out of certain countries in Europe and like appearing in London. And so that this like Eastern European character who comes to London via ship is like probably

37:14not completely free of, you know, exploiting xenophobia and anti-Semitism at that time. And if you look at like people have also been like, no, Sforat too is the most anti-Semitic character design that you could possibly come up with. But like the, I don't like the one of the writers was a Jewish guy. And so I don't know how intentional that was. Sometimes I feel like when people are like, that's so anti-Semitic. It's like what, like that, that feels like you're being anti-Semitic by saying that that looks like a Jewish person. That's weird. I don't think I was thinking that. I don't think anybody who is like, that's scary. It looks Jewish. It's like, no one was thinking about the scarab. Yeah, there's a, I forget, there's a stand up who has a bit like that. He's a Jewish stand up. And he's like, can we use Jewish people like stop being like, that's supposed to be me. Let's not do that anymore. Right. You don't need to keep reinforcing it like that too, but I get it.

38:18But I do think like this is, the fangs are such a crucial thing. Like I think that's probably the thing that makes Dracula's like one of the most common Halloween costumes is like you just get some teeth in and you're doing some good tooth acting, you know? Yeah. It's like such a subtle but powerful thing. I think we all like learn to subtly like pay attention to people's teeth in some ways. And so like to have teeth like it's very dramatic for somebody to like open their mouth and have thanked teeth and so, right. You know, as we'll see like it cut, it starts become, Dracula becomes more and more popular in plays and movies. And those are also like you can't do a good version of the beetle, the sexy woman who turns into a giant beetle. Like that's a tough one. I beg to differ. Jack, you have no imagination.

39:19It's your problem. Those beetle hips. They don't lie. They don't. They won't. But like that's a tough one to pull off whereas you get a good set of fangs and you're like, yeah, just like that hair back. I mean, yeah, there's just like I think there's also the like the loner is him. It's kind of cool about that makes Dracula kind of cool too. Kind of a dad boy. Well, because it also like it appeals to people's sense of like individualism because like this guy's all along. Like he's out there fucking, you know, just being the coolest guy that never dies. So I think there's also something that makes it feel kind of like, how can you not be a main character if you're immortal? Right. Yeah. But I think also like hangs out at night. You know, it's like it's way cooler than like, yeah, he gets a sense. He's a sensible lunch. He's like, you know, like, he's like, yeah, in most movies, he's not like, he's not going after like, he's going after pretty attractive people. You're like, I don't know. I do. Like he's got good taste in his victim. He seems like a chill guy. Yeah. Why not?

40:20Yeah. One thing that I, so no, for our two was like just a straight up Dracula rip off. They tried to get the rights to Dracula and Bram Stoker's widow. He had died from people think Sifilis. They tried to get the rights and she was like, no, you can't have them. So they just like made the movie anyway and like changed the title slightly, but everything else is exactly the same. A judge was like, no, you like stole that. We have to destroy every copy of the movie like a court run by children. Like you have to have to break every single one. And like the only reason we have no Swarati, which is like respected as like one of the best silent films and like, you know, depictions of vampire of all time, like one of the most iconic movies of all time, the only like it just happened like somebody happened to find one like hiding away somewhere. They they were like trying to destroy it. But yeah, it's like a patchwork of adaptations.

41:20So no Swarati gave us the sunlight thing. That wasn't in any of the previous stuff. And then they were like, how do we end this? I see we'll open a window and because he's like shadow guy that'll that'll make him die quickly. And then they take they take Dracula to the stage and the stage they need to like simplify it a little bit more. And up to this point, Dracula has usually looked like shit and Bromstonecars Dracula. He had I'm just going to read the description. In the original novel, Dracula is described as unkempt with bushy eyebrows, a giant stash and hair on the palms of his hands. This is jacking off. Jacking off in that a creep grave. That's like what he's doing in there. The words right out of my mouth. Hey, what are you up to in this jacket? He's jacking off in that coffin. I'm always accusing him of doing that.

42:24What is the question? What did Dracula come about before the concept of vampires or was he the first vampire? Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. No, they were like vampires before, but this is like the first iconic one. The headliner. Yeah, exactly. They're vampire short stories. Also like they're generally Irish. So like the whole center's thing about vampires being Irish like Bromstonecars Irish. The person he ripped it off from was Irish. So shout out to the Irish for being fucking vampires, I guess. Hell yeah. Also a weird thing from the original Dracula. When Dracula is introduced, he immediately asks the Jonathan Harker, the character who's like visiting his castle. If he needs to take a shit, he says, you will need after your journey to refresh yourself by making your toilet. I trust you will find all you wish when you're ready. Come into the other room where you will find your supper prepared. The light and the warmth of the counts courteous welcomes seem to have dissipated all my doubts

43:27and fears. Having then reached my normal state, I discovered that I was half famished with hunger. So making a hasty toilet, I went into the room. They're like, so people are going to want to know what the shit situation is after this guy being on a long journey. That's like, what the fuck did you do with it? You ruined my bite. Oh my guy, please give a courtesy flush. If you try to do a nice thing, make your toilet. I love that old timey way of saying taking a dump is like, make your toilet. Make your toilet. I will. Thank you. You're right. So when they put him on the stage, they're like, we need to do something that looks a little cooler than like bushy eyebrow guy or, you know, no sparrot too. And so this is when we first get a tux and a cape. And it's actually like the actor just like brought his own costume from home.

44:31So this guy just like brought shit from his house that now everybody dresses as for all the costume that people dress as is like based on what the actor had in his house. That's amazing. He's like, yeah, I don't know if you've got ward your own wardrobe. Yeah. Yeah. And the cape was added to the stage version because it enabled the actor to like perform disappearing tricks in front of an audience. Like nice. Yeah. Which is such a great touch because we all love a fucking cape. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? I think it's funny that there's so many of these things that are just essential to Dracula that either appeal to your child brain or like your adult fear of death and warning this. There's something for everybody because I remember when I was Dracula, I got like I was fucking around with the cape so much. Like just trying to do shit with it that I remember very vividly my mom being like, I will take the cape off if like you can't just kind of sit still and I was like, okay, we can't do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's so fun to just like sweep it over your face and yeah, allows you to have like

45:34a little dramatic baby gives you a little business, you know, gives you a little business to do on stage or on Halloween. But yeah, I do think so this is like I have been really interested in this question of like because Dracula, the most depicted literary character of all time is Dracula. The second most depicted is Sherlock and they came out like when we were doing research for the Sherlock episode, like at one point Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is like, yeah, and I got this letter from this guy who had just published a novel, a Brown Stoker. Like they were like in the same literary circle. So I was like, why did this literary circle produce these two characters? And in both cases, it's like this patchwork thing like coming from that point in history just allowed them to then like hit America as like movies are becoming a thing and a stage productions are, you know, in a certain stage where it's just like ping pong back and forth

46:38between all these different versions and each different version is like taking another crack at it and being like, what if we gave him a pipe and a deer stalker and they're like, no, that doesn't work for Dracula. Maybe try it for Sherlock Holmes, but you know, they're like adding, it's like having a writer's room for both of these characters and the stuff that works just sticks, you know, and the stuff that doesn't just like goes away and nobody really remembers that shit at all. So I feel like that's, you know, why, like the mystery of like how did this one literary scene create these two characters that are still resonating with people over a hundred years later is just like it's actually the process that happened afterwards that they were then like went into this washing machine of, you know, writing and rewriting and designing and redesigning until you created like the platonic ideal of a detective or of a vampire,

47:44you know. Right. I do think Dracula could use a Watson, you know, like an assistant, like I feel like he could benefit from a little slug. I mean, they have familiars, right? Like that's right. Yes. Yes. When he's bringing the guy in and asking him to go take a shit and then come eat with him, I think he's kind of auditioning him to be his familiar. That's a big thing. And what we do in the shadows too is that like they, you always need basically an assistant, which is funny because that's what Brahms Stoker was was an actor's assistant. Yeah. So it's like he knows about hangers on doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's take one more break. We'll come back and we'll explain how Dracula captured this like guy. We'll be right back. I'm Hamza and I'm Martin and we're the hosts of Out of Character. It's a podcast.

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50:48We're back. We're back. All right. A couple other things I feel like Dracula had going for him at the start and continues to have going for him. One interesting point is that this was at a time when Darwin was first becoming popular in his observations were becoming popular. And the idea of this human that can take animal form, which obviously is not the most popular version of grown up vampires. They don't poof and turn into bats quite as much anymore. But also the fangs are an animalistic feature that comes out of the vampires. People think that there is probably some aspect of the vampires that was people's anxiety about finding out that we're animals. We came from the animal kingdom.

51:50Right. There's what. I hate to bring up young twice in a week. But there's also there's so much mention of shadow stuff too that I'm like, this feels very like the shadow self or also the appeal of like a vampire to like our own innate darkness that they're like, man, if like if I wasn't bound by society's rules, like, would I do whatever to like keep living or whatever? It's just very just some thoughts. I've seen about your shadow over and over again. I was like, is this like our shadow self too that we're kind of reckoning with in these characters or appealing it? What we do in the shadows could be like the name of a very dark book about human behavior or the funniest show of all time about the Joe Rogan experience. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, throughout it's like, there's racism tied in there. There's like anti-immigrant hysteria. There's the fear of like the Darwin stuff, a public fear of infectious disease.

52:51It's also like when they're first starting to understand how diseases are transmitted, like they're first starting to understand what like rabies is. And you know, even the bubonic plague is like transferred from fleas and flea bites and stuff like that. And this is the first monster that transmits its monstrosity through biting. So it's kind of getting in on the ground floor of like all sorts of different shit. And it's just again, like very malleable. It's kind of hogging all the good. It's like the Superman of monsters where it's just like it got all the superpowers right away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Things that can like tap into people's fears and the things that creep us out about reality and our death, you know, like he sleeps in a coffin, the thing that where everybody inevitably goes to die, you know, the scariest place I know.

53:51This is my favorite place in the world actually. And again, I think that's what's interesting because I remember being like the thing you think about Dracula or vampires is like the immortality aspect of it. And I remember as a kid, like all I was so obsessed with death that like I could not get over the fact that I'm like, we die. And I'm like, I don't want that ever. And there was something about like the vampire thing that I'm like, that's cool. But also as you really engage with those characters, like this is actually terrifying to never die. Also, that yeah, there's I don't know, like it works on just so many levels because also the appeal to like versus like being like a Frankenstein or whatever. It's like a vampire or a Dracula still is like a person. Yeah. I mean, so it's like easy to kind of be like, it's kind of like a, it's like being yourself, but like with some good add-ons of like the things that I'm afraid of. I can actually shield myself. Like I'll never be, you know, I'll never die or be alone because I'll be a little forever and I'll turn people into familiars.

54:53Yeah. Kind of all just like of like, I don't know, it feels like the dumbest solution to all of your like human fears. Yeah. The living forever thing is also painted as bad in different ways. Like you were saying, it's like all my friends have died over it. You know, I've had multiple friends. My and it's like, oh, the love of my life. And then they show the love of it. It's like this crusted over skeleton of like a woman from like 400 years ago. It's like, I can't eat food. Like they can eat food. If they eat food, they puke. They can only have blood or whatever. It's like, oh, I'm so scared of death. But if I live forever, I can't eat delicious food and my wife will die so long ago. You know, so you're right. It is like a contradiction, but it does work for a while. Yeah. The wishful film, like I've talked before about my theory that we're obsessed with post-apocalyptic movies because it allows us to have like walkable cities again. And like there's like some wishful film in an era of just being and like live in community.

55:53And you can just go to LA during Thanksgiving. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. I'm on the east side of the west side in 20 minutes. But the, I do think yeah, there's like some of the appeal is like, oh, wow. Like immortality. Like you get like to just live forever. You get to something you said really like about how like they're not going to like going to have a sensible lunch. Like they get to like sleep all day, which is like, right, right. That's fun. Yeah. Like they, you know, everybody, nobody wants to wake up in the morning and go to work. These fuckers are not doing that. They're sleeping. They just like get out and party at night. Like that is one of the fun things about what we do in the shadows is that it's, yeah. They're not going to work. They're just like hanging out all night with each other. You know, I saw this clip from what we do in the shadows the other day where it was Nandor being interviewed on the street by a news van. And they were like, yes, in a way, there's your name and goes Nandor, they're relentless.

56:53And she's like, all right, Nandor De Laurentis. It's just like such a simple joke with so perfect. He just gives a look like, but not allowed to say the relentless again. Such a great show. There's another theory about how vampires resonate with American culture that I really like that we cover back at crack, which is this idea that vampires are popular. And like you can kind of track this that there are more vampire movies during democratic presidencies. And then there are more zombie movies during Republican presidencies. So far. And the idea is that like Republican, like our fear of Republicans is the zombie thing. It's like that they're like mindless hordes that are just, you know, groaning, unthinking. And then there, you know, the right wing's fear of Democrats is that they're these like

57:54European, metrosexual swath of people who are like coming for your women. Yeah, exactly. They're handsome. They part, they stay up all night. They have weird religious rituals and shit like that. And you can kind of see the case up it. I feel like the Trump administration broke this as it breaks like everything. But, you know, night of the living dead came out just before Nixon took office and then really became popular when Nixon was in office. Dracula movies came out during the Carter years. There were a bunch of popular Dracula movies. The Reagan era featured night of living dead remake, one sequel, two return of the living dead movies and reanimator. The Bill Clinton years gave us interview with a vampire from Duck till Dawn and Blade. And then when Bush came in 2000, there were like so many zombie movies, 28 days later, Sean of the dead, Dawn of the dead, Land of the dead, the first resident evil movies.

59:00And then the bulk of the Twilight movies came out during the Obama administration, which are the most successful of any of these movies that we've mentioned. True blood, I think came out then that he experienced. Which, you know, and these are all sexy vampires. And I feel like Obama was kind of a sexy president, you know? Sexy vampire, yeah. Sexy, he is a bit of a sexy vampire. And then also what like, like Buffy probably too would have been Clinton, Nara stuff, because he came on like 97. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, you know, in the Trump administration, we've gotten like new resident evil movie, two new 28 days later movies. But we've also gotten like multiple Dracula remakes, sinners, which is probably, you know, the most successful non-Twilight vampire movie of all time. Maybe, maybe because both are happening now, it's saying something that we're about to emerge into a new era of politics because we can't figure out.

1:00:01Are we Zambi or are we vampire? You know, what are we in America? Or are we another thing? Is there a third way we can, we can pursue? Yeah, I think everything just broke. And now this is just like where we're at. Right. Finally, just want to close out. What are you guys's most iconic Dracula vampire iterations? You guys have like vampire Brooklyn. Vampire Brooklyn. I love vampire and Brooklyn just because I was like, I love Daddy Murphy the time. And I'm like, this is so, I'm like a black vampire than my dad's like, you know, there's blackula. And I'm like, what? And then I, uh, vampire and Brooklyn and who else? And also just like everything interview with the vampire, uh, yeah, Brian said it. Blade and Gary Oldman probably in brand stokers. Did Gary Oldman, uh, slept, he's one of these like annoying method actors. He slept in a coffin for a month, leading up to the production of that.

1:01:03Do you imagine doing that much preparation for that role and then you like get to the scene and it's Keanu doing, even you nothing, giving literally nothing. Yeah. Like thinking about doing a British accent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Deciding against it. Could you sleep in a coffin? Did I could you? I'm not claustrophobic. Brian Edder in the chat was like, I've always wanted to sleep in a coffin. And I was like, yeah, Loki, me too. I would always try and sleep in boxes when I was like a kid. Yeah, I like, I move around way too much at night. Yeah. I don't know. I love a constricted space. So reason I was like, yeah, baby, get me in that coffin alive. A lot. Of course, of course, of course with air. Because I'm afraid I'm fear of ever. Yeah. I used to sleep in a bunk bed. That's two severely fucked up things. I'm about to say in a row about my childhood where I slept in a bunk bed until like my with no one else there until like my 20s. I think like an empty slip in an empty bunk bed.

1:02:06Yeah. So I was on the bottom bunk. No one to speak of. Nobody ever on the top of it. Are you an only child? You have siblings? No. No. I had a sister who had a different room. So like, she never slept in the bunk bed. It was just the bed I had happened to have an extra bed above it. Did you do that to sort of like facilitate sleepovers? Because I'm an only child and I had a bunk bed for a stretch. Oh, my eyes have a nice personality. So actually I could have as many people over as I want. I don't need a cool bed. Okay. I need a cool bed to get people to hang out of the house. But I needed a bed. Okay. I was like a vampire. I was like, let's go back to my place. I have a bunk bed. I'm lonely. I don't deserve the top bunk. Mario paint on super Nintendo. There is a space in between the bed and the wall. And I would sleep sideways in the space, like in the crack in between the bed. On purpose, like you'd wake up there or you would be like, that's where you would go. You'd be like, are you at time for bed and then just like wedge yourself in there?

1:03:08Yeah. I liked it a lot. Yeah. I did sometimes like when I was really like had a lot of nightmares, I would try and sleep under the bed. And then I would be like, this is uncomfortable and get out and get into the bed. What did you just, did you just like the compression on your body? You were just like, kind of like just like feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I would. I'm telling you all, let's get you on a coffin and let's try it out. Let's get a coffin and we could all sleep in it. No, Blake, you're not going to get. Yes. You and your sad empty bunk coffin. Stacking coffin. So I'm talking about it. I'm a coffin. It feels like a terrible nap. Yeah. What we do in the shadows, there's just like one lonely guy is like, if you guys want, they're like, not dude. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's many rises up like a board. A stiff is a board and just wrex his head. Yeah. Yeah. I do feel like count from Sesame Street also needs to be mentioned.

1:04:09Sure. One of the greats. Also another example of the, there's an episode where he is seen feeding on backpackers and he, I think, has straw fangs. So another, another. The count does. Yeah. Definitely. He's counting backpackers. He's counting the number of packers. The number of packers that he's slaughtered. Yeah. Blake, any any vampires that you want to mention? Yeah. I think just both what we do in the shadows, both the movie and the show, I think it was one of those rare occasions where they're like, we're going to make a spin off of a movie. And it's like, God, I love that movie with like, talk with TT and, and what's in Jameen comments so much. Like, you can't touch this. And then the show was as good. If not better. In my opinion, I just thought those actors were so fucking funny. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, Matthew Barry might be my favorite. He's on Sesame Street Dracula.

1:05:11Yeah. Yeah. What's is yours? Count the count. The count. Yeah. Consistent pure iconic pure iconography. It's got everything that I'm looking for. I think the monocle is an underrated like, give more give more Dracula's monocles, though, yes. Is that so he could see better to count better, do you think or make him look smart? Like, it's actually helpful for spotting jugular. Yeah. I get it. Get in there. Making it real obvious. You're talking to him like, I feel like you're just looking at my neck. Oh, one eye. Yeah. But blade for, I think blade is the top. The more I think of because the thing was he was like, by racial this way that I was like, yes, there I am. I'm a day walker. I remember like Joe right. I'm like, yeah, a day walker too, bro. We got damn day walker. I just put an image in there. This is the first Dracula who kissed like one of his victims.

1:06:131944's House of Frankenstein. I got to say, damn dog, that neck must be making Dracula horny. Look at the neck. That neck, my thing is that's a great dick and shit right there. The longest neck. The problematic vampire chat right now. They're like, damn, bro. Ask her what that neck do, bro. The fuck, bro. Hey, bro, if you ain't having to let me know, bro, let me know, dog. Look at that jug. Unbelievable. I'm going to get the jugs on that one. And apparently that goes to the other layer of it. Gone of the shots. The lowest common denominator you were. Blake. Wonderful having you. You've knocked out two of our most iconic figures with us Dracula and Santa Claus. Dracula and Garth and Gunn Claus. Yeah. And gut felt. Whoever wins, we all lose.

1:07:15Where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff. People can find me at Blake Wexler and all social media in November 21st. I do stand up comedy on November 21st. I'll be in Cape Charles, Virginia, the 27th Claude's comedy club in Philly. Get tickets to that January 15th Portland main in January 16th Boston. That's where I'm going to find it. Boys go go home, Avatar. Miles, we're going to be able to find you. You already know if it's not this show, then it's for 20 day fiance or aint it footy aint it though. Yeah, it is. It's a soccer podcast for those that maybe have are listening for the first time. Come around. Come through. Like Dracula inviting. Inviting you to his capsule. Miles, I'm sorry about Manchester City. By the way, you must be completely torn up about all those. The charges. Yeah, against my arch and emissies. An emississ is a team. An emissies are nemesis. I guess a team is a singular thing. Nemesis singular like a, yeah, like a corporation.

1:08:19Yeah. We're going to take a quick break. We'll come back with the no, no, no, no, book, dumb notebook. Um, I'm going to make toilet in the notebook. The notebook. Go, please go make your toilet. I love it. I love it. I'm just like people, people are going to want to know why, like why he's going right to eat without taking a shit. Wow, you must need, in desperate need to make your toilets. After that long journey. It's funny if you say it in like common parlance, it'd be like, damn, dude, you probably need to take a wild shit, right? After that, that trip. So yeah, bro, go take a big shit right now. And when you come out, I'll have to, I'll have the meal ready for you. Yeah. Uh, it's not only probably want to take a shower or take a nap. It's like, no, you're going to want to take a humongous shit as we all do when we travel. Oh, man. What? Yeah. You know how it is, bro? I wonder if Dracula just knows like when people get bit, they just, like, they just

1:09:20evacuate their battles or something where he's like, oh, shit again. Yeah, he's actually a GI doctor. Yeah. Dr. Dracula. The GI doctor. He's always is doing like some kind of colon analysis. Just checking your digestive truck. He's like, this is a, oh, your blood tastes like shit. What have you been doing? You get this checked out, my man. Sorry. All right. I've always wondered if vampires do have like, like a type, like a preference for like, do they like vegans or do they like, like what kind of problem? Oh, yeah. Because I would imagine you'd be able to like, there's just certain types of people you don't want to be sucking on. I don't know. This is a great question. And I want you to jump. I want you to keep this, Brian. I want it because this is like a very real thing in the world of mosquitoes. I've interviewed. I've been talking a lot of mosquitoes. No, like my mosquitoes. I love my ass.

1:10:22My wife has delicious blood, apparently. And I have garbage juice pumping through my veins because they leave me completely alone. Like we sleep next to each other, brag. And she gets, she gets at the death. And I'm just sitting there completely undisturbed. So like, I, yeah, I bet Dracula's would just be like, this guy, this guy's blood fucking sucks. Yeah. He bites. He bites. He bites my neck and then spits it out like he's a suck starting like a gas thing, you know, like trying to siphon. Like I imagine like, I like to imagine that they have like, he's like, oh, I don't, I don't really do owe negative. Like you got any like a beer. Oh, I'm sure. I like it better. They're just like race, I'm not. I ain't got no type. You know, right. I just love that.

1:11:22I was too funny to see a vampire gag on blood because it tastes so terrible to them. Yeah. Oh God. Oh, yeah. Oh, you don't want to keep going? No. Was that enough to turn or just like you were left out? What is this guy? Jesus Christ. He must be shit faced. How much alcohol is in his blood? A lot of blood of Christ jokes. I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Anyways, we'll be right back with the notebook, dumb. Dump. He does love to talk about. Dump. Take a dump now. Welcome to my castle. You must take a dump. You might notice the bathroom is convenient. The right. He has a front door. I know you've probably heard I'm into blood. This has nothing to do with that. It's just my freaky thing. This is an eight bathroom.

1:12:25Fuck the joke up. And while you're in there, I'm going to fix something underneath the house. Just don't find me. I'm just into pipes of all types. Don't worry. Here's some pipes, Ben. It's nothing, nothing untoward. I like how my house is slowly slipping into a BB Netanyah. Don't worry, bro. Yeah. It's slowly morphing into the deal. The little. Honestly, BB would be a fucking fantastic vampire. Holy shit. Already is. I would watch that movie. All right, that was Dracula. This is the no, no, no, no, book, dumb. We do have an unfortunate update to this episode. The second we stopped recording Super producer Catherine was like, you guys were having so much fun.

1:13:27I didn't have the heart to break it to you, but another plane has hit the tower. We're under attack. No, we didn't record this on 9.11. She said, I didn't have the heart to break it to you, but making your toilet probably didn't mean taking a shit when Brom Stoker wrote that, which is equally devastating news. A 9.11 for this episode since we talked for so long. And with such enthusiasm about Dracula, inviting him to take a shit. For it was like 30 minutes of the episode. So, but yeah, apparently make your toilet at the time, meant freshening up. I found a Reddit thread where someone encountered the phrase in an Agatha Christie novel. I'm going to read from it here. It says, hi, I'm reading Agatha Christie's the mysterious affair at styles. And on page 38, it says, I related the whole story. Well, see himself made a careful and deliberate toilet.

1:14:28I'm not certain I understand what making a toilet means in this context. And by way of answer the comments, someone said it was used to describe the process of washing and grooming yourself in the morning. The room used to do this would later be called the toilet. So Dracula was probably just being a good host and allowing his guests to freshen up because presumably the road back then was a dirty, sweaty place, rather than saying, you look and smell like shit. He said, you will of course want to clean the dirt and foul smelling and nastiness off your stuff. Anyways, equally unfortunate that the Agatha Christie character was probably not really relating a story to a man who was taking a careful and deliberate shit as much as that idea fire is my imagination to try and picture what that would even mean. I will say I did further research because I wanted to justify that conversation.

1:15:30I will say one of the explanations that I've heard for why this didn't mean taking a shit is that people didn't have toilets in the house at that time. They were outhouses and then a toilet was a room for freshening. But Dracula wasn't living in a shotgun shack. Okay. He would have had a castle with literal poop shoots built in according to Wikipedia. So it is entirely possible that included in the invitation was an implication of you've been on the road for a long time. The the turtle must be poking his head out the back there. My man, you must be touching cloth. My guy to quote Brian the editor. That's what he said when we stopped recording. Anyways, I choose to believe in both cases. People were describing each other's shits. Also, if we had cut that part, the episode would have been like 15 minutes long. So anyways, all right, on to non toilet making dump related notebook dumps.

1:16:36After talking about the Axial Age theory of how Dracula and Sherlock Holmes came to their moment of maintained cultural relevance all these years later, are two most filmed literary figures kind of coming out of the same period. I think I have my answer. I'm sure people have heard up to this point, but you know, the Axial Age references this theory of history where some of the greatest thinkers, you know, Confucius, Buddha and a bunch of the great Greek philosophers all are kind of generating their big world changing ideas around the same time at different places on the globe. And the Axial Age theory that was fascinating to me is that both Dracula and Sherlock Holmes come out at the same time. And the reason I find it so interesting is that the Axial Age theory suggests a counter to the great man theory.

1:17:36It's not that the people who invented the characters in the first place were so brilliant or really the original characters themselves were so brilliant. It's it's the process of designing and redesigning them is where is where I've landed at this point. They came up through the writer's room that was a silent film stage plays early talkies, thousands of novelizations, you know, they were initially designed like every other character, but sometimes something about that particular place in time, that particular, you know, Plinko path through pop culture history meant that they were constantly redesigned and improved on. You know, if one person gets one crack at designing Dracula, you get prom Stoker's Dracula, some good scary shit in there, but also he's a nasty old hairy man that nobody wants to fuck this locus of sexual energy that like oozes into your bedroom and nibbles on your neck.

1:18:39They hadn't even thought to make him hot for like the first 40 rewrites. But if 100 people get 100 cracks at designing it and redesigning it, you get sort of a pop culture natural selection, you get the beauty and brilliance of nature in a way. So, you know, if one person designs it one time, you get a character that turns into a giant beetle and is like scary to a lot of people at the time, but not timeless and kind of looks ridiculous to us in retrospect. Anyway, so that's my theory is that Sherlock and Dracula were both characters that got designed and redesigned and, you know, improved and the good ideas stuck to them. And they were the ones who came through the best path, the best patch of pop culture history. All right, a quick word about Romania's relationship to Dracula, which we didn't get to.

1:19:39Transylvania is a region in the middle of Romanian. They have a thriving Dracula tourism industry, but they're conflicted because, and I love this fact about Romania so much, they're conflicted because Vlad, the impaler is a national hero from a history today article called Dracula beats the Communist. Nationalist historians during the 19th and 20th century lauded him, Vlad the impaler, as a strong leader who defended his country against external threats during turbulent times. But you create one forest of the impaled out of the thousands of people that you slaughtered and suddenly you're the bad guy. I don't know. I just, I don't know if he's called Vlad the impaler by people in Romania, but I do just, I want to believe. What, what that says about Romania that one of their national heroes is named Vlad the impaler, like, obviously we have monsters on Mount Rushmore.

1:20:41We just pretend they didn't do that shit. We don't call him George the slave teeth grave robber. We call him, you know, George Washington and make up stories about how honest he is. Anyways, last year was announced that Romania would open a 1 billion euro theme park destination called Dracula land and also a Dracula land metaverse and a cryptocurrency called Dracula coin. And I'm just going to say, I'm a cell on this particular investment opportunity, Jim Kramer. That's for that reason I'm out. We just talked on Fridays episode of the Daily's like ice about an American theme park that was a scam. We've covered an Indiana Garfield theme park and the Garfield iconograph that never went anywhere, but cost millions of dollars. We covered in the main episode an Iowa field of dreams theme park. That was a money suck. I feel like we need to talk to Lacey Mosley about this theme parks that never break ground are a growth industry in our nation of scam artists.

1:21:46And finally, while there was a heavy focus on vampires, who fuck I should note that one of the superpowers of Dracula, I will say is range not just from bat to person form, but also from adult freak for our rated and PG 13 horny films, but also ranging to a children's character. We of course mentioned the count on Sesame Street, but hotel Transylvania was a massive franchise that continues to be. I will just say I once saw Adam Sandler at a pool doing his Dracula voice while playing with his kids, which was cool and a treat and seems like a good dad. Speaking of Dracula's for all ages, I think it's also significant that he is kind of the star of the very first my very first encounter with Halloween culture, which was the monster match. And I want to do a quick monster match power rankings here because yeah, so here let's just go through the characters that it mentions, it mentions ghouls, it mentions my monster.

1:23:01Which is Frankenstein's monster because it's kind of being narrated loosely by Frankenstein, his name is not Frankenstein, it's Boris, but it's Frankenstein he's working in the lab lay one night, they mentioned vampires by name like just vamp or you know vampires as a group. They mentioned the zombies were having fun, then they go individuals, they say the guests included wolf man Dracula and his son and then of course they mentioned Igor on chains backed by his bang hounds and I got to say well it may be narrated by Dr. Frankenstein, I feel like it's clear who the star is here. First of all, inside the world of this party Dracula appears to be the only one who was granted a plus one, he brings the sun only monster who is named not by type. The wolf man is called wolf man Frankenstein's monster is called my monster very dismissive for for being your monster vampires are mentioned, but also so is Dracula.

1:24:09So a individual character as distinguished from type they even go all Hollywood and start calling him track during the course of the song like someone pretending to be friends with Martin Scorsese and calling him Marty and he's also in the text of the song Dracula is the only character who goes on a journey. So in one verse we hear out from his coffin, Draks voice did ring seems he was troubled by just one thing open the lid and shook his fist and said whatever happened to my transylvania twist god damn it. He's furious. I added the god damn it and then that conflict is resolved in the very the very next verse when we learn now everything's cool. Draks a part of the band anyway, I could maybe see an argument for Frankenstein's monster since the story mentions electrodes and as told by Frankenstein's monster's creator and features Igor like it's at his house that's a house party thrown at Frankenstein's monster's house.

1:25:15I think it's just a matter of the fundamentals of the monsters like which monster fundamentally seems cooler and I've always said like Frankenstein's like Dracula's motive attack as we talked about is biting your neck, which is scary. I'm scariest place to get bitten as far as I know zombies will come for any part of you but Dracula's always gone for the jugular which I I don't like Frankenstein's motive attack is bonking I feel like and that's what I picture in my head is a bonk based attack. Yeah, just generally Dracula like he's such a rich character it even comes through in monster like Dracula is a diva and the blood sucking is just generally too rich a metaphor the blood sucking and cannibalism at the heart of the Dracula myth only gets more applicable weird rich guys are always going to try and bleed your dry and sneak into your girlfriends bed.

1:26:16So I'm going to give Dracula the number one spot in my monster match power rankings I'm happy to hear cases for others I do wonder if the thing that broke the vampires are Democrats zombies or Republicans dynamic is not so much like Trump himself but just that all of us have a more proper respect for. The vampiric gullishness of the wealthy at this point we've come to realize that vampires are definitely Republicans and a lot of cases so I will say the other kind of foundational text of my childhood for Halloween culture is thriller and vampires don't even appear in thriller it goes wolf man into a zombie movie it's of course narrated by Vincent Price who himself is an actor. So I'm not a real vampire but nothing textually to do with vampires in the video that I remember so yeah that that could be your argument if you want to argue for zombies or wolf men in the monster match power rankings the phone lines are open let me know what you think that is going to do it thanks to Blake Wexler for joining to miles as always to J.M. McNabb for the research and to Brian the editor for putting it all together next week we are moving on to a more

1:27:36modern monster modern pop culture movie character who I think is the most iconic bad guy kind of spooky bad guy to date partly because of just the flawlessness of the execution of like how he was brought to life partly because of some huge ideas that he represents and partly because he seemed to like crossover into reality it's a real juicy one. Next week one of my favorite iconograph conversations yet with Kim and Kett from Kim and Kett stay alive maybe until then more spooky news and yeah we're back this afternoon to talk about what happened over the weekend until then. The Daily Zeke is executive produced by Catherine Law co-produced by Victor Wright co-written by J.M. McNabb and edited and engineered by Brian Jeffries.

1:28:36Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast here's what you missed people wake up and go don't wait and hold up they changed all of that yes it's real this is a wholesale attack it is targeting black people in every federal agency it's wrong wife folks have never allowed that reckoning to last more than a decade catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the black information network and download Roland Martin unfiltered on the iHot radio app Apple Podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts this is an iHart podcast guaranteed human.