How Did This Get Made? — "Monkeybone" (LIVE! with Rob Huebel)

Episode Date: Jan 16, 2026
Location: New York Comedy Festival, Town Hall
Hosts: Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas
Guest: Rob Huebel (plus audience guests & Griffin Newman)

Episode Overview

In this signature How Did This Get Made? live episode, Paul, June, Jason, and special guest Rob Huebel tackle the bizarre 2001 film "Monkeybone"—a fever-dream mishmash of stop-motion, live action, sexual innuendo, and jokes about comas and boners. The movie, starring Brendan Fraser and directed by animation legend Henry Selick, is examined in excruciating (and hilarious) detail by the panel, joined by an enthusiastic audience and superfan guest Griffin Newman. Together, they try to answer not just "How did this get made?", but also "For whom was it made, and what the hell is it even about?"

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. "What Even Is 'Monkeybone'?" — The Premise

• Confusion Reigns: The IMDb summary fails spectacularly to capture what the movie is (03:46).
• Jason: "Having watched it, I still don’t know if I’ve seen it. I was flummoxed and confounded by it on almost every level." (06:03)
• June: "I literally wrote down in my notes, 'How did this get made?' Completely boggled me." (04:41)

2. Tone, Target Audience, and Initial Reactions

• Not for kids—or is it?
  June: "Is this movie supposed to be like South Park to me?" (13:02)
  Jason: "This is for kids whose parents have recently died." (26:52)
• Sexual Undertones:
  The panel relentlessly jokes about the film's rampant and strange sexual innuendo.
  • Jason: “It is an erection that has become loose, right?” (08:22)
  • June: “No kids fucking. But what’s the relationship between the boy and the boner?” (16:09)

3. The Monkeybone Origin: Psyche, Boners, and Animation

• The team attempt to deconstruct Monkeybone as either an embodiment of the main character's id, a literal boner, or a cartoon chaos agent.
  • Jason: "The monkey is a very like, id. It's just his unchecked id.” (17:36)
  • June: "It’s not even interesting at all. Like, it’s not like I’m the buttoned-up guy." (17:47)

4. Downtown: World-Building and Logic Black Holes

• Downtown is the underworld/purgatory—part personal subconscious, part collective nightmare, populated by everything from Joe Camel to Picasso’s bull.
• Jason: “This is an Abe Lincoln Zardoz head. Incredible stuff.” (22:38)
• General confusion about who the various denizens are and if they’re all coma victims, dead, or what.
• Rob: “I don’t know who this movie is for, but there’s a lot of Rose McGowan’s boobs in this movie.” (23:40)

5. Casting, Behind-the-Scenes, and Production Chaos

• Star-studded cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Megan Mullally, Bob Odenkirk, Thomas Haden Church, Giancarlo Esposito, Rose McGowan, Dave Foley—and more.
  • June: “The only person who does not get to be funny aggressively is Bridget Fonda.” (33:07)
  • Rob: “I think they sold her—do you want to kiss Chris Kattan and Brendan Fraser?” (33:26)
• Ben Stiller & Paul Reubens almost cast:
  • Griffin Newman: “Ben Stiller was supposed to be Brendan Fraser. ... Paul Reubens was supposed to be the voice of Monkeybone.” (69:54)
• Production troubles: Henry Selick was reportedly fired, Chris Columbus brought in to “fix it,” and the tone radically shifted as a result (11:33).

6. Bizarre Setpieces, Sex Scenes & Violent Gags

• Panel marvels at the surreal, inappropriate sex scene between Stu/Monkeybone and Julie.
  • Rob: “My wife and I make love like that. Just don’t look at my robe...” (41:55)
  • Jason: “It’s like he’s gonna teabag her or something in a way that I was like, she should dump him now.” (43:18)
• The Chris Kattan/Zombie Gymnast Finale:
  • Jason: “Chris Kattan ... comes in and single-handedly is electric. ... The broken neck stuff was killing me.” (30:23)
• "Nightmare Juice":
  A nonsensical MacGuffin—a literal psychoactive fluid developed by Bridget Fonda’s character... for reasons never explained.
  • Jason: “Why in her sleep study has she created nightmare juice? ... What is the possible use for nightmare juice?” (25:31)
• Animals seem to understand the body-swap:
  • Jason: “All the animals know what’s going on. So the orangutan is like, I’m going to fuck you.” (49:40)

7. The Movie’s Real Meaning? Griffin Newman's Defense

• Griffin Newman, Monkeybone superfan, reframes the movie:
  • "The movie is a comment on crass commercialization. Stu Miley is a pure Gen X artist. ... accidentally created these things that captured the public id." (73:19)
  • "Downtown is the collective subconscious... populated with pop culture figures, mascots, and nightmarish concepts." (77:13)
  • "His repressed sexual awakening, as a child in a puritanical society, became Monkeybone—his id." (74:57)
• The rest of the panel is (hilariously) both impressed and bewildered by his comprehensive, Carl Jung-esque reading.
  • Jason: “The version of the movie you’re giving us is more like a Drop Dead Fred in which I’m 100% on board.” (80:36)

8. Audience Interactivity: "Monkeybone" and Actual Comas

• Multiple audience members reveal they’ve been in comas, leading to unique perspectives on the film’s coma logic (54:29, 62:45).
  • Emily: “As someone who’s never had a boner, I can’t confirm if I would have had a Monkeybone...” (56:12)
  • Another audience member details DMT-like coma hallucinations about people trying to cut his dick off (63:00).
• Fun banter and follow-up from the hosts, who riff on everyone having Miami Monkeybone-style trauma.

9. Encore: Second Opinions

• Audience and special musical guests perform comedic musical summaries of the film (83:01–85:26).
• "Rob from Long Island" delivers a plot song:
  "Stu is a cartoonist in a coma and then he's not. The monkey had sex with his wife, Chris Kattan came back to life..." (83:23)
• June reads five-star Amazon reviews:
  "Just like Beetlejuice, but better.” (87:03)
  “Severely underrated Tim Burton comedy horror film from the early 2000s.” (87:45)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Jason Mantzoukas ([06:03]): "Having watched it, I still don’t know if I’ve seen it."
• June Diane Raphael ([08:22]): "It is an erection that has become loose, right?"
• Rob Huebel ([17:02]): "I'll just explain it to you. What happens is your body becomes engorged with blood, right? And it rushes down to your penis..."
• Jason Mantzoukas ([13:10]): "It felt to me like the Monkeybone cartoon ... is very Ren & Stimpy-coded."
• Griffin Newman ([74:57]): "His repressed sexual awakening as a child in a puritanical society ... was most pushed down. He was comfortable with the inherent darkness in his brain. What he wasn't comfortable with was who he actually is. His primal urges."
• June Diane Raphael ([91:53]): "I would recommend this movie because ... I was gobsmacked by it. It's a must-watch."
• Jason Mantzoukas ([92:16]): "... I was never bored. No, I wasn’t like, this is a slog. I was like, what the fuck? And if that’s the response, then I think it’s working."
• Rob Huebel ([91:44]): "I would recommend this movie to people in a coma. People in a coma and kids that love drugs."

Essential Segments (w/ Timestamps)

• Introduction of the Panel & Guest: 03:39–07:12
• Breakdown of the "Monkeybone" premise & confusion: 06:01–09:30
• Discussion of the sexual undertones and id/boner allegory: 08:22–17:46
• Downtown World Logic, Joe Camel, and Purgatory Mechanics: 18:08–25:10
• Ben Stiller & Paul Reubens casting trivia: 69:54–70:02
• Griffin Newman's Jungian defense: 73:19–79:29
• Audience Coma Stories: 54:29–66:04
• Second Opinions – audience songs & 5-star reviews: 83:01–88:19
• Recommendation Roundtable: 91:13–92:50

Noteworthy Trivia & Discussion Threads

• Chris Kattan's Gymnast Zombie: Praised for physical comedy (30:23–30:55)
• Nightmare Juice: Film’s most nonsensical plot device (25:32–27:24)
• Casting Chaos: Ben Stiller & Paul Reubens nearly starred
• Henry Selick fired, Chris Columbus retooled movie (11:33)
• Metaphor for commercialization, artistic trauma, and repressed sexuality (Griffin Newman, 74:57–78:17)
• Running Jokes: 9/11-era pop culture, monkeys and butts, medical malpractice, who's been in a coma.

Closing Thoughts & Panel Recommendations

All panelists ultimately recommend "Monkeybone" to varying degrees:

• Jason: "This is a real fever dream... I enjoyed the hell out of it, even though it was deeply frustrating... Absolutely watch Monkeybone." (91:18)
• Rob: "I would recommend this movie to people in a coma. People in a coma and kids that love drugs." (91:44)
• June: "...I was gobsmacked by it. So I’m putting it in a category of a must watch." (91:53)

Summary

This episode of HDTGM provides a hilarious, sprawling, surprisingly insightful dissection of "Monkeybone," one of Hollywood’s most confusing cult oddities. Through vulgar jokes, genuine befuddlement, audience wildcards, and an enthusiastic film scholar’s defense, the crew determines Monkeybone is deeply broken, weirdly fascinating, and—if nothing else—a film you’ll never forget you watched.

Listen if:
You love chaotic comedies, enjoy comedians riffing on the surreal, want to know why "Monkeybone" is a case study in studio meddling, or just want Paul, June, and Jason’s incredulous therapy session as they try to make sense of the senseless.

Related Recommendation:
Check out Griffin Newman’s companion episode on the Blank Check podcast for a superfan's deep dive into the "genius" of Monkeybone.