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Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
VGW Group void.
Clay Travis
We're prohibited by law 21 plus.
Buck Sexton
Terms and conditions apply.
Nate Silver
I'm Nate Silver.
Maria Konnikova
And I'm Maria Konnikova. On our podcast Risky Business, we talk everything from politics to poker and from.
Nate Silver
Betting on elections to betting on your favorite basketball team. Sports bettors need a bit more street smarts because there's this whole second side to sports betting of how do you actually, how do you get your money down good if people think that you're a winning bettor. And now that March Madness is upon us, we're talking bracket strategies, odds, how to maybe actually win your office pool. You can listen to Risky business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Buck Sexton
All right, third hour of Clay and Buck kicks off right now. Thanks for being here with us, everybody. I'm sitting here drinking my Crockett coffee, by the way, I got some in the break. Crockettcoffee.com go subscribe. In honor of Davy Crockett. That's why we founded this company. A great American, a frontiersman, a patriot, a warrior. And we give 10 for. Speaking of worries, we give 10% of the profits to talent, the COP Foundation. You get a signed copy of American Playbook if you use code book. So please go to crockettcoffee.com subscribe today we got K cups, whole bean, ground bean, all that good stuff, and an exciting new product coming out in just the next couple of weeks. We'll tell you more about, maybe even change the way you drink coffee altogether. So we got some fun stuff in the mix. Go check that out. And I sit here and I think that the cultural shift, we've been talking a lot about the political shift, and the numbers speak to that with tremendous clarity. There's never been a worse time for the Democrat Party in our lifetime. And Republicans are probably in the strongest position they've ever been in our lifetime. Thank you, Trump, Trump's team, the people around him, the Republicans who have rallied towards sanity, those of us who stood strong during COVID I mean, you know, there are a lot of hands, all of you supporting this show and supporting the show for 30 plus years before that by being a part of the army of patriots that Rush Limbaugh created and brought together. So, you know, there's, there's a lot that's gone into this, but we are at a peak moment right now and we are even seeing it reflected not just in the fortunes of the Republican Party and of the downfall of what used to be called by many the mainstream media. I agree with those who say we shouldn't call them that. Why are they mainstream, the Democrat corporate media, but also in the cultural side of things. There are changes happening. We will not get into White Lotus right now because I don't think that many of you watch it. And I don't want to argue with Clay about whether it's worth continuing to watch White Lotus. After the most recent episode, I was pretty horrified. I'm just going to say, I looked at Carrie. I'm like, I don't think I can do this anymore.
Clay Travis
It is clear that I have a darker sensibility when it comes to television. Like I can put up with more than you or producer Ali can when it comes to, to down the rabbit hole. Crazy.
Buck Sexton
I do not do well with, you know, maybe my mind is more like a delicate flower these days when it comes to my content and entertainment. I don't like things that are too violent. I don't like things that are too bawdy, perhaps. Is that the right word? I got him to choke on his Crockett. I got him to choke on his Crockett coffee. Look at that. That was awesome.
Clay Travis
I almost spit my Crockett coffee out everywhere. Go body. Were you, were you born in 1924?
Buck Sexton
You know, I'm just saying sometimes, you know, some of us are more comfortable.
Clay Travis
Seeing sometimes there's too many. There's too many bucks in the television shows of late that you're watching.
Buck Sexton
Yeah. Bunch of, bunch of ladies out there being a little too, A little too frisky on the television. My liking. So, you know, it's a little, little too.
Clay Travis
My wife, I will say this, my wife has had to deal with for the past 20 years. Every time there's an HBO show, every time, you know, they give a content warning before the show and it'll say, like, there's nudity. And I'll be like, yes. Because it used to be. I literally pumped my fist like, yes, this is going to be a good show. My wife's had to Deal with this for 20 years of late. All of the nudity I see in my shows is male. I don't know when they flip when they. It's not. Not anywhere near as enjoyable. I will say. Used to be almost all nudity was female. The last like have you noticed this like the last three or four years in quote unquote, Prestige Television, it's always naked guys now. And a lot of it is not very enjoyable. So I'm not the first 15 years of HBO shows it was like, okay, probably going to be some good looking naked girls in this show. I'm excited. Even more now. Not a lot more nude guys. Not as enjoyable for me.
Buck Sexton
So let's talk Snow White. Snow White was at one point the first, I believe the first full length animated feature released in theaters back in 1937. Am I. If I get any of these wrong team, let me know. It was wildly popular and the, you know, the Disney so much of. I think like the Disney really had two things going for it for a long time. People love the parks, fine. I know the parks have become very expensive now, but people love the parks and they love the animated, those, those animated features. I mean I grew up and we've all seen I think 90. What do you think 95% of our listeners have seen the original Snow White, the original cartoon.
Clay Travis
Because if you have, I don't know how you wouldn't have seen.
Buck Sexton
Right. I mean, and if you didn't see it when you were a kid, you have kids, you've seen it, right? So one. And it's really an iconic, it's an iconic animated film. And I think Disney had a number of these over the years. You know, Sleeping Beauty. I actually really like. Some of you are going to laugh, but I really like the Robin Hood with Robin Hood as a fox. Do you know what I'm talking about as a cartoon?
Clay Travis
I love that. Growing up, Peter Pan was my favorite along with Robin Hood.
Buck Sexton
Great animation, great music, great stories. This is stuff that everyone really celebrates. Is a really amazing part of American culture.
Clay Travis
Let me hit you with a detail that will bring home how profitable Snow White was. And you may have had. I was reading because I wanted to do my research on this too. Snow White, adjusted for inflation dollars basically made the Walt Disney Company Disney. Walt Disney mortgaged his own home to be able to finish producing Snow White because it was so expensive at that point in time to make an animated film. It made $4 billion. Okay, let me repeat that because with a B, $4 billion in modern American money So this thing was so outrageously popular that it basically funded Disneyland, eventually Disney World. This was what put Disney on the map as a global corporation that was capable of churning out incredible content. This was what they created the animation studios, everything. So it is not only beloved Buck, it is one of the greatest, most successful commercial art products in the history of the United States.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, that puts it into context very well. And I remember I saw with my parents in the theaters, Lion King. Oh yeah, Laddin. Beauty and the Beast. Beauty the Beast is a great movie. It's a great. The animated. It was actually nominated for best picture, not best animated feature, Best movie the year that it came out. The music is excellent. Look, I know some people, cartoons aren't their thing, but I think cartoons, I actually think cartoons can be really impressive and amazing if they're done well. I like the old cartoons, even with Bugs Bunnies, but Bugs Bunny put that aside. Clay, this new Disney. If you and I sat here scripting out a way to ruin Disney to do a, like a farce or a, a send up, if you will, of wokeness. I don't know if we could have done better than this. They have, they have changed. There's a whole listing of all these things they've changed. They have the dwarves. And this is. Okay, I think this is my favorite part of this. First of all, it made $40 million opening weekend, which is an absolute abject disaster. As we've talked about here, all the movies, money comes in the first month and a lot of it needs to come in the first weekend for momentum. Remember, people haven't seen it now. People have seen it. They say it stinks. They say it's trash. They. So next weekend's gonna be worse and the weekend after that's gonna be worse. This is gonna cost Disney hundreds of millions of dollars. Yes, when all said, hundreds of millions of dollars of pure loss on this. But the fun. What is your favorite thing about the change they made? That they wouldn't use actual dwarf actors because Peter Dinklage, who had probably the greatest dwarf role of all time in Game of Thrones, but I think, you know, a little too, A little too high on his own stuff here. A little too big for. Big for his britches.
Clay Travis
Literally.
Buck Sexton
He. Yeah, he decided, he decided that it was weird and out of date to have actual dwarves play dwarves. So they replaced them with CGI dwarves and dwarf actors out there. And there are dwarf actors out there, are.
Clay Travis
We're.
Buck Sexton
And I totally agree with them, furious about this because this is like the chance of a lifetime to be in a globally, you know, resonating film as a dwarf actor. It's like they, this is wokeness just eating itself.
Clay Travis
They could have made a movie that was a 90 years basically later a nostalgic recreation of the spirit that imbued the original Snow White which made the Disney Corporation possible. But because they have decided that they need to be woke Disney, they created an awful version of a movie that many people would have loved of all races and all backgrounds. And I think this is going to be saying, I think you said it well at the end of the last hour. I think this is going to be seen as a cultural signpost of what woke can do to great Americana. And Disney has to a large extent destroyed Star wars by trying to woke ify it as. Look, I don't begrudge any story that is like Lost. Lost was a great television show back in the day. It also happened to have a diverse set of characters, but it fit the story. Right. It's an airplane that crashes on an island. It would make sense that the airplane would be filled with a cross section of American life. Right?
Buck Sexton
Yeah. The airplane wasn't coming from Finland. Like, yes, there would be lots of different kinds of people on the plane.
Clay Travis
So the idea that Snow White needs to be replaced with a Latina actress or that Captain America needs to be replaced with a black actor or that you need to somehow decide that you are going to change the historic relevancy of a show because it doesn't meet modern day standards of diversity, I think is going up in smoke. And the example I'll give of this that I think is actually the worst two of them. Hamilton. All right. I, I, I, I've made it clear that I'm not a huge fan of musicals. Okay. But I don't like the idea of, hey, we're going to make American historical figures different races because races are so inconsequential. Okay, when is the country and western version of the Obama administration going to occur With Blake Shelton playing Barack Obama? Right.
Buck Sexton
When. Why is it that in Hamilton the one bad guy is the only white guy? The king of. Why can't the king of England be black? What am I missing? And this whole shot, what's the messaging there? Everybody, you know, I do look at these things. Well, what's the message they're telling people with this?
Clay Travis
And then what is the Pride and Prejudice or what's the Bridgerton, I think is the show that's on Netflix and it's about 17th and 18th century England except There are all these different races that are playing the British actors. I'm sorry, I can't. I can't even pay attention to that show because I'm like, well, it's set in 1780s England. These are white people, right? Like, in the same way, if you give me a story about Nigeria in 1640 and there's a bunch of white people playing black people, I'd be like, I. I don't. I can't really get into this story. It's so flagrantly historically inaccurate.
Buck Sexton
You know, I was trying to watch on that. I love historical. My brothers make fun of me. They always say, if there's like, beard swords and me drinking, I like it. You know, which is pretty much true. Like, I like anything that's, you know, historical peace, European history. I love Gladiator. I love Braveheart. I love those kinds of things. And I tried to watch on Netflix, this show, the Viking show, and there is a jarl, which is like an earl or a prince or whatever in Vikings, in the. I guess it was the 9, you know, 9th century, the 800s. It's a black woman who's the. Who's cast as the head of this. And it's supposed to be like a historic. These are real people's names.
Clay Travis
Is she supposed to be black, or are you not supposed to notice that she's black?
Buck Sexton
I think I only watched the first episode. I think you're just not supposed to notice. Like, it's just, oh, like, we've made her a black female. And you made him. It was actually a guy, obviously, who was the jarl. So you make it a female and you make it a black female because you think, Clay, people are so sick of this. To the point you're making Game of Thrones, another show, very diverse. Nobody has a problem with diverse characters in. In whether it's fiction or even fantasy genre, that's fine. But when you're setting something in a historical context, you know, you would think that there are some basic authenticity components of it that you would likely. If you're setting a show in Iceland in, you know, the year 1000, you're not going to have a lot of Latinos. You're just not going to have them. Like, it's not a. It's not a knock on Latinos. They liked being warm. They were not in Iceland.
Clay Travis
If we watched a story about the Civil War, my favorite part in history, and there was a character playing Frederick Douglass and it was a white woman, I would be like, you know, this has taken me a Little outside of the story because Frederick Douglass was a black guy. Right. Like some level of historical accuracy for historic facts seems necessary to me. And this is an example of what Disney has done. I think they have taken something that people loved and decided that they needed to make it more expansive when everybody already loved it.
Buck Sexton
Right. Well, also they. And the way we didn't even get into all the different ways. So first, the dwarves are cgi, which is. I also think CGI in general ruins movies. I think it should be used very sparingly. To me, it's like drops on a radio show. Like you can use them here and there, but it can't be, you know, like, like if you have, you know, you know what I'm talking about. If you have a radio show, that's all just sound effects all the time, you start to be like that, you know, that Kramer guy on the, with the, you know, the finance show. Whatever's like Hong Kong, Hong Kong. I mean, it's just too much. You gotta be very sparing with your cgi. So that's what CGI dwarf is. Horrible idea. They changed the music. They've changed the musical numbers from the. Basically the most successful on screen musical of all time. Close to maybe, maybe like the Sound of Music or you know, Gone with the Wind, but they changed the music, which is, which is madness. And I must just say this. This woman is playing the Disney princess. She just doesn't look like it. She's just not that pretty. She doesn't look like a Disney princess. I don't know. You know, am I, am I alone in this one? I don't.
Clay Travis
I think if they had put Sydney Sweeney in as Snow White, it would have made a billion dollars.
Buck Sexton
Yes.
Clay Travis
I mean, just give me a really pretty white chick and let her actually play the role of Snow White. I mean, the crazy thing with a.
Buck Sexton
Really pretty, A really pretty chick, like, I just don' this woman is Disney princess material. I'm sorry, I'm just.
Clay Travis
How about the fact that Gal Gadot is way better looking and way more looks like Snow White, but she's the evil princess.
Buck Sexton
Yes, yes.
Clay Travis
That's a weird decision too. Right?
Buck Sexton
She's Disney princess kind of material. And, and you, you know, if you're just.
Clay Travis
She was Wonder Woman. Okay?
Buck Sexton
You're allowed to want pretty people to play the Disney princess or, or the queen or whatever. So let's take some, take some Snow White calls here. I'm sure people will be fired up about this.
Clay Travis
No doubt. In the meantime, I want to tell you guys all about our friends at Hillsdale. Maybe they need to start doing some historic pop culture classes. Because my thing, Buck is if everybody already loves something, maybe do something similar to that again, right? Like, hey, it's pretty successful. We built the most successful animated film of all time. Maybe people are just actually very fond of what already has happened. But what Hillsdale will do is they'll take you into the history of World War I, World War II, Mark Twain, the rise of pop culture, the Constitution, and let you get hooked up with better learning without the pressure of grades or a set schedule on your time. Learning for learning sake. I love Dr. Larry Arnett Hillsdale and everything that Hillsdale has done. I was there keynote speaker last year about this time out in Seattle Hillsdale Colleges professors have created and released dozens of online video courses, variety of subjects. You can get hooked up today by going to clayandbuck4hillsdale.com super easy to get started. Clay and Buck F O R hillsdale.com Go check them out. Roughly 40 different incredible. Trust me, courses that you're going to love. Check it out today. Clay and Buck4hillsdale.com News you can count.
Buck Sexton
On and some laughs too. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.
Clay Travis
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Clay Travis
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Nate Silver
I'm Nate Silver.
Maria Konnikova
And I'm Maria Konnikova. We're both journalists and professional poker players, and on our podcast Risky Business, we talk about taking risks in everything from poker to politics.
Nate Silver
And we talk about betting. From betting on elections to betting on your favorite basketball team, we've learned a lot about taking risks through our own research and sometimes even our own bets. And we share what we've learned with you.
Maria Konnikova
Are you still doing sports betting? I had no idea that you'd wagered over a million dollars for your research.
Nate Silver
I bet almost the entirety of the 2022, 23 NBA season, all the regular season and about half the playoffs. And I learned that, I mean, it's probably what I should have expected, but I learned that it's pretty hard. I went on a huge heater at the start of the NBA season where it was up like 70,000 bucks. I'm like, man, I'm really good at the sports betting stuff. But then, but then, things change.
Maria Konnikova
Now that March Madness is upon us, we're talking bracket strategies and a whole lot more. Join us and listen to Risky business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Buck Sexton
All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck. We got a quick turn here. We'll come back, talk more about how the culture is trending. Trump and maga and the snow white box office bomb is yet more proof of that. Won't take your calls on this. We'll talk box office bombs, how the culture is moving our way. Great things like that. Also talk backs, my friends. Remember, go to the iHeartRadio app, go to the Clay and Buck page, press that microphone and get that talk back going. You can take this to the bank. You'll save money every month on your cell phone service bill when you switch to Pure Talk without sacrificing any quality. If you're with Verizon, AT&T or T Mobile, make the switch and immediately save 50 bucks or more. For just $25 a month, you can get a limited Talk text and 5 gigs of data on America's most dependable 5G network. Give you some perspective, the average sized family of four saves more than a thousand dollars a year. That's right. A family of four on average saves over a thousand bucks a year when they switch to PureTalk. PureTalk is my primary cell phone. It says PureTalk right on the top right of my phone right now. I've been trusting them for years. You can too. Clay's got his boys on the PureTalk Network. It works. Plus it saves you so much money. America's most dependable 5G network. PureTalk's US customer service team can help you make the switch hassle free in as little as 10 minutes. You can even keep your phone and your number using your cell phone. Dial pound250, say the keywords clay and bok to make the switch and you'll save an additional 50% off your first month. Again, dial pound250, say clay and buck. To start saving today. Dial pound250, say clay and Buck. Switch to Pure Talk. Welcome back into Clay and Buck. We're just having some fun here going over before we get to your calls, your emails and your Talkbacks biggest box office bombs in history. Stealth 2005, adjusted for inflation, lost $155 million. That was when Jessica Biel was really at her, at her absolute peak. And that did not help. She ended up marrying Justin Timberlake. So I guess she did okay, but that did not help her career. I'm trying to see who else is on this list of notable. There's. So there's. There's a lot of them. And the thing is, I think all of the movies that are on the bomb list are, are terrible. So that's the thing. It's not there. The Adventures of Pluto Nash, 2002, Eddie Murphy, $168 million loss, adjusted for inflation. That may. That's like a top contender for all time losses. Clay. Heaven's Gate 1980. I've never seen that. I don't even know who's. I think it's a western kind of. Some kind of like a western on the prairies pioneer movie or something. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Clay Travis
Yeah, I've heard the name of the title, but I didn't know.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, there's. There's a bunch of these. A lot of them I've never even really heard of.
Clay Travis
I'll tell you one. And again, I think it's important to adjust these things for inflation. If you're wondering, it's because Indiana Jones.
Buck Sexton
And the dial of destiny, $150 million loss. I didn't know that.
Clay Travis
I went and saw it. It was not great. Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor. Fox lost. 20th Century Fox lost so much money on that movie that they had to sell off part of the movie lot. If you're in LA right now and you wonder like the whole Century City development, the Westfield Mall, all of that area, they lost so much money making the Cleopatra movie that they had to sell off acres of the studio.
Buck Sexton
Cutthroat Island 1995, which is, I think Matthew Modine and Gina Davis lost $217 million and goes down with the ignominious distinction of being the only movie in history that it is believed to have brought down the studio. Bankrupted the studio, that is.
Clay Travis
That's when you're. That's when you got a lot of money at stake. Couple of ones that I remember. And we're talking about this in the context of the Disney Snow White disaster, Waterworld. Remember Kevin Costner? That was like one of the all time losers.
Buck Sexton
That's an asterisk though. Because my understanding is that they made the sets for real out on the water and there was a big storm and destroyed everything that they had made. So that was a rough one. And I don't know if they really had the insurance they needed for it. So. Because that movie is not good. Have you seen it? Yeah, it is not good, but it is not awful. I would say it is like. It is almost watchable. Not quite watchable.
Clay Travis
Wild Wild West. Will Smith movie was a. Supposedly an unmitigated disaster. But a lot of these have two things in common. One is they're big risks. Like Kevin Costner, I'm gonna build a water world. Frankly, James Cameron has. Has panned out with a lot of what he has done. But you know, when you do the Titanic, it's not exactly a cheap thing to make. When you make. What's the movies that have made so much money. The Avatars, billions of dollars on those big swings. Okay. You shouldn't lose massive amounts of money remaking something that everyone loves. Like that's the entire purpose of the remake is you can't lose that. The way you have a template on this. You can't lose money.
Buck Sexton
They think west side story in 2021 lost $120 million, adjusted for inflation. The bot.
Clay Travis
How do you.
Buck Sexton
How do you make a West side Story remake that totally bombs?
Clay Travis
That's.
Buck Sexton
I don't even know that's possible.
Clay Travis
Well, I would have told you a musical on television. Now, they did make a lot of money on Wicked, but.
Buck Sexton
And Chicago. Chicago was a big hit.
Clay Travis
West side story is what, 60, 70 years old? Are there tons of people out there clamoring to go see that? I would have called that into question. The Snow White failure is to me again, why I think it's so fascinating is I think it represents an era. Everybody loved Snow White. You find a pretty girl, you cast her as Snow White. If you're deciding to do remakes, live action, which I think is, you know, it's lazy, right? Like, do we really need to see a live action remake of the Lion King, which is mostly CGI because it's got animals in it. But you create this disaster and it's so foreseeable. And it follows Buck in. Everybody loves Star Wars. Let's light Star wars on fire, everybody. They built the Marvel franchise up and then they lit it on fire. It's like they can't figure out how to go. Once the Infinity War Avengers endgame thing ended, it's like everything has been on the backside of that a disaster. I just. And the newest. The newest Indiana Jones people had issues with. I went and watched it but you took what made Indiana Jones great, his rugged individuality, and you instead brought in a girl boss who was like leading Indiana Jones around. And a lot of people said, I watch Indiana Jones because he's the badass. I don't need like a new character to be the leader here.
Buck Sexton
James in Texas wants to weigh in about Disney. James, welcome.
F
You know, and the thing about it is is Disney would have already known that the projected opening weekend for Snow White was going to be bad because they based it off of pre ticket sales. So they already knew this as of a couple of weeks ago. And I believe I saw on the news as of last week that it was put before the Disney board to slow down or make changes to their DEI woke program and the board turned that down. They said keep it the same.
Clay Travis
Yeah, thank you for the call. I'm not sure about that. I will tell you, Buck, this ties in pretty well with what I've seen. With the rise of outkick, everybody loves sports. How about just show sports? You know, like let's just have sports highlights and debate who the best is or whatever else. Let's not have arguments about politics on espn would be an easy fix, I think. Yeah.
Buck Sexton
Disney. Share this is Fox Business a few days ago or a caller I think is referring to. This is correct. Disney shareholders widely voted against a proposal to reconsider participation in the corporate Equality index. So this is an anti DEI proposal that came up and they didn't. Now we can get into some of the details about this but.
Clay Travis
Well, a lot of times with those proposals, the reality is the, and this is like diving into.
Buck Sexton
We're getting into proxy voting now and everything. Yeah, yeah.
Clay Travis
It's not most individuals voting. It's the large, often left wing. This is where Vivek has gone. Black street, blackrock, all this different black rock.
Buck Sexton
Sorry. Yeah.
Clay Travis
Allen in South Carolina you went and saw the new Snow White. What do you think?
Buck Sexton
Oh boy, here we go.
F
So. So my wife and I were screening the film before we showed it to our children. And the best way I can summarize the way I feel about it is, you know, it felt like I was watching the end of Planet of the Apes over and over and over again. Just this gut wrenching awful feeling.
Clay Travis
So you and how old are you, Alan?
F
I'm 37.
Clay Travis
So you and how many kids do you have?
F
Two.
Clay Travis
Okay, so you and your wife on a date night were like, hey, we're going to go watch Snow White before we take our kids to see it. Which is interesting.
Buck Sexton
This was A reconnaissance. Reconnaissance mission.
Clay Travis
But the fact that you would feel compelled to go to a Disney movie to see it first, to see whether or not you could take your kids, probably not a great branding side for Disney. Did your wife feel the same way as you? What was her take?
F
She did. I fortunately married a very conservative woman. But it's, it is really sad. We almost have to go on and collect intel from the movie prior to, you know, exposing it to our children.
Clay Travis
Yeah, it's crazy. Thank you. I mean, in 1937, do you think anybody was out there, like, hey, I don't know if we can trust Disney to go watch Snow White. To your point, Buck. Hey, Robin Hood, is this going to be too salacious? Is this going to be too political for me to take my kid, Peter Pan, like dumbo, whatever you want to point to. Do you think that in the 1950s and 60s and even when we were growing up in the 80s and 90s with beauty and the Beast and Aladdin and all those movies that there were any, you might have been concerned, are they a little bit too scary for young kids? Those kind of things. But nobody was like, hey, I got to worry about what the messaging is.
Buck Sexton
But, you know, there's, there's also something that's been lost here in, in the creative industries, notably what we see in movies, but also tv. And, and it's that a great story. There's something universal in the humanity of a great story. People just want great stories. They want, they want good guys and bad guys. They want, you know, heroes and princesses. They want triumph, they want trials and tribulation. You know, they want the, the, the, you know, right hand, best friend of the hero to come through in the moment. I mean, these things.
Clay Travis
Yeah.
Buck Sexton
Whether you set the story in medieval Europe or you set the story in, you know, Southeast Asia or Central Africa, if it's a great story, it's a great story. And we don't, you know, that's, that's what I find so, so annoying about this. I mean, you see, they have something that should be viewed as. What I'm trying to say is Snow White should be you. As something that is a universal cultural phenomenon. That's why that's what this, Everyone can enjoy. Mozart is for everybody. That's the great. It doesn't matter where Mozart was from. Ultimately, the music is for everybody and for all perpetuity, the human race. And we should all enjoy it. We should all. Don't get me started about how incredible Mozart is. Point is they, they do this thing now where it's like they're keeping score of, oh, we've had too many, you know, there have been too many musicians or too many authors from this place or that country or of this skin color or that gender. And so we have to do other things now. They don't actually. That doesn't work. And they don't have to do that because we can all appreciate the art for what it is. And that's where I think, I think so much of this falls apart.
Clay Travis
That's why, that's why for me, Star wars and now the Disney movies are perfect examples of this. You had one of the most successful movies in the history of the world in Snow White. To your point, buck, at least 95% of this audience have seen it, either as kids yourselves or as parents or as grandparents. You had a built in audience that loved it and then you're trying to make it for a new generation. Well, wait a minute, it's already been made and everybody loves it. The remake idea in general doesn't make sense. But if you're going to remake something, then remake it basically the exact same story. Because Snow White is transcendent in many ways as a story. And the same thing is true of Star Wars. I understand characters age out, but the idea that Star wars wasn't expansive enough in its audience. It's the most expansive successful series in the history of the world, probably. Is there anything that's made more money than Star wars from a movie perspective? A series? Maybe James Bond, just because they've made way more of them. But basically Star wars is the most lucrative movie franchise of all time. That's a sign that it's working really well and that you don't need to reinvent the wheel would be my suggestion.
Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
Isn'T just one man, it's many. The Team 47 podcast Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Nate Silver
I'm Nate Silver.
Maria Konnikova
And I'm Maria Konnikova. We're both journalists and professional poker players. And on our podcast, Risky Business, we talk about taking risks in everything from poker to politics.
Nate Silver
And we talk about betting. From betting on elections to betting on your favorite basketball team, we've learned a lot about taking risks through our own research and sometimes even our own bets. And we share what we've learned with you.
Maria Konnikova
Are you still doing sports betting? I had no idea that you'd wagered over a million dollars for your research.
Nate Silver
I bet almost the entirety of the 2022, 23 NBA season, all the regular season and about half the playoffs. And I learned that, I mean, it's probably what I should have expected, but I learned that it's pretty hard. I went on a huge heater at the start of the NBA season where it was up like 70,000 bucks. I'm like, man, I'm really good at the sports betting stuff. But then, but then things change.
Maria Konnikova
Now that March Madness is upon us. We're talking bracket strategies and a whole lot more. Join us and listen to Risky business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Clay Travis
Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton SHOW Finishing the show off here, we've got a bunch of talkbacks, people who want to weigh in on a variety of different topics. You can get the app. You can just grab the app, you can download it, and we can hear from you. Staff Listens to all of them. Let's go to CECE in Youngstown, Ohio. That's News Radio 570 wanting to talk about the 18 year olds breaking conservative.
F
CECE, I can offer some confirmation of 17 year olds and 18 year old boys breaking for Trump. I have a senior in High School, 18 years old. He and his friends, most of his friends broke really hard for Trump and were big Trump supporters even if they couldn't vote. And they are going to be a force in these next couple of elections.
Clay Travis
That's what I see, Buck. That's what I've seen with my own boys. 17 year old, 14 year old, all the friends that are around them. These young boys growing into men are fed up with the era that they have been raised in. This girl boss Covid woke era. They're just over it. Maricopa, Arizona Holly, KFYI listener wants to weigh in as well.
Buck Sexton
DD hey, Clay. Holly from Maricopa, Arizona, the whole reason.
Clay Travis
That Tim Walls is talking about being.
Buck Sexton
Masculine is attributed to you. You're the one that said there were no masculine men left in the Democrat party. So they listen to you. They're coming out and trying to prove themselves. Way to go, Clay.
Clay Travis
I like the laugh there at the end. That did go mega viral. And I do think there's some element there potentially of truth that they're responding to that because they talked about it on CNN and that echoed, I think, or resonated in Democrat circles.
Buck Sexton
And it does take a man who is particularly comfortable in his masculinity to be all over the Internet playing the flute shirtless, which is pretty astonishing. You know, I mean, you know, that's, that's high level stuff.
Clay Travis
A lot of you did amazing memes of me and Trump on Air Force One involving me playing the flute. Gayan in New York City W o r talked about west side Story. I didn't realize this. Did you know this, Buck?
Buck Sexton
Ee hey, it's gay in Manhattan. You just trashed a West side Story which lost a lot of money. News flash. It starred Rachel Zegler. Wait, hold on, hold on. Point. But, but I want. We did not trash west side Story. I just said that it bombed. I didn't see the west side Story. I think the west side Story musical is great for. I'm not a big musical guy. But, you know, point being, I did not know Rachel. Rachel Ziegler was in that as well. That is a pretty remarkable resume she's building up. You know, she's somebody's niece. Like, how is she getting these gigs?
Clay Travis
Great Question. Great question. And I have no idea. But again, this movie is potentially based on the numbers going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. So I do think it's a sort of a cardinal signpost from making 4 billion to losing hundreds of millions. The Snow White story.
Buck Sexton
What changes the dynamic inside of this? Disney is still a cultural phenomenon in this country. Disney is a holdout here. If they lose enough money on this, will it change? Or what has to change? For Disney to stop the woke garbage.
Clay Travis
I think they have to stand up to their employees because I think this is a lot of it's coming internal Buck. You remember when they started bragging about how they needed to have trans influence stories and everything else? This is internal and the internal Disney employees do not reflect what the external marketplace wants. And at some point in time, that becomes unholy. Purely from a business perspective, and I think you're seeing it with Snow White.
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Nate Silver
I'm Nate Silver.
Maria Konnikova
And I'm Maria Konnikova. On our podcast Risky Business. We talk everything from politics to poker.
Nate Silver
And from betting on elections to betting on your favorite basketball team. Sports bettors need a bit more street smarts because there's this whole second side to sports betting of how do you actually. How do you get your money down? Good if people think that you're a winning bettor. And now that March Madness is upon us, we're talking bracket strategies, odds, how to maybe actually win your office pool. You can listen to Risky business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Release Date: March 24, 2025
Hosts: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Episode Title: Hour 3 - Bawdy Buck and the Culture Shift
In the third hour of their show, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton delve into the significant cultural and political transformations currently shaping the United States. They highlight the unprecedented strength of the Republican Party juxtaposed against the declining fortunes of the Democratic Party. Buck Sexton commends Trump's leadership and the Republican base's resilience, stating, "There's never been a worse time for the Democrat Party in our lifetime. And Republicans are probably in the strongest position they've ever been in our lifetime" (01:00).
A substantial portion of the discussion centers around Disney's live-action remake of "Snow White," which the hosts argue epitomizes the pitfalls of modern "wokeness" in American media.
Historical Significance of the Original "Snow White": Buck Sexton underscores the monumental impact of Disney's 1937 animated "Snow White," noting, "Snow White... made the Walt Disney Company Disney. Walt Disney mortgaged his own home to be able to finish producing Snow White because it was so expensive at that point in time to make an animated film. It made $4 billion in modern American money" (06:29). This film not only established Disney as a powerhouse in animation but also funded the creation of Disneyland and Disney World.
Criticisms of the Remake: Both hosts express strong dissatisfaction with the remake. Key criticisms include:
Casting Choices: They lament the decision to cast a Latina actress as Snow White, arguing it strays from historical and cultural authenticity. Clay remarks, "If you're setting a story in 1780s England... it’s not, it is so flagrantly historically inaccurate" (14:35).
Use of CGI for Dwarves: Buck criticizes Disney's choice to replace dwarf actors with CGI representations, stating, "They replaced them with CGI dwarves and dwarf actors out there... This is wokeness just eating itself" (09:56).
Musical Changes: Both hosts are displeased with alterations to the original score. Buck mentions, "They changed the music, which is madness" (15:05).
Aesthetic and Character Portrayal: Clay questions the casting of Gal Gadot in a non-traditional role, saying, "Gal Gadot is way better looking and way more looks like Snow White, but she's the evil princess. That's a weird decision too" (16:23).
Impact on Disney and Broader Culture: The hosts argue that these changes undermine Disney’s legacy and alienate long-time fans. Clay states, "I think this is going to be seen as a cultural signpost of what woke can do to great Americana" (15:00). They further draw parallels to other franchises like Star Wars, suggesting that Disney's overemphasis on diversity and political correctness has diluted the essence of beloved narratives.
Transitioning from Disney, Clay and Buck analyze some of the most notable box office failures in history, adjusted for inflation. They discuss films like "Stealth" (2005) with a $155 million loss (22:35), "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" (2002) losing $168 million (22:43), and "Cutthroat Island" (1995) resulting in a $217 million loss (23:47). These examples serve to illustrate how even high-budget projects with significant expectations can fail spectacularly, especially when they deviate from what audiences love.
The episode features several listener interactions that reinforce the show's central themes:
Youth Support for Conservatism: A caller from Youngstown, Ohio, confirms a growing trend of 17 and 18-year-olds supporting conservative values and backing Trump, reflecting a promising shift in the political landscape. Clay observes, "That's what I've seen with my own boys... They're just over it. Maricopa, Arizona, a listener wants to weigh in as well" (36:24).
Reactions to the "Snow White" Remake: A 37-year-old listener from South Carolina shares his dismay after previewing the remake alongside his wife, describing it as "a gut-wrenching awful feeling" comparable to watching "the end of Planet of the Apes" (28:54). This feedback underscores the broader audience dissatisfaction with Disney's current creative direction.
Clay and Buck discuss the broader implications of such cultural shifts within the entertainment industry. They argue that the focus on diversity and political correctness often comes at the expense of storytelling and authenticity. Clay emphasizes the importance of historical accuracy in media, stating, "Some level of historical accuracy for historic facts seems necessary to me" (14:35). Buck adds, "There's something universal in the humanity of a great story. People just want great stories" (31:07).
Furthermore, they critique the necessity of remaking classics like "Snow White" and "Star Wars," suggesting that the original narratives' enduring popularity negates the need for substantial alterations. Clay asserts, "Star wars is the most lucrative movie franchise of all time. That's a sign that it's working really well and that you don't need to reinvent the wheel" (32:18).
The episode culminates with Clay and Buck reinforcing the notion that embracing cultural integrity and respecting the essence of beloved stories are paramount. They warn against the overreach of "wokeness," which, in their view, threatens to erode foundational aspects of American cultural heritage. Clay concludes, "We can all appreciate the art for what it is. And that's where I think, I think so much of this falls apart" (32:18).
Notable Quotes:
Buck Sexton: "There's never been a worse time for the Democrat Party in our lifetime. And Republicans are probably in the strongest position they've ever been in our lifetime." (01:00)
Clay Travis: "If you're setting a story in 1780s England... it’s so flagrantly historically inaccurate." (14:35)
Buck Sexton: "This is wokeness just eating itself." (09:56)
Clay Travis: "I think this is going to be seen as a cultural signpost of what woke can do to great Americana." (15:00)
Clay Travis: "Star wars is the most lucrative movie franchise of all time. That's a sign that it's working really well and that you don't need to reinvent the wheel." (32:18)
Final Thoughts:
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton's discussion in "Hour 3 - Bawdy Buck and the Culture Shift" provides a critical examination of the current trends in American culture and politics, especially within the entertainment industry. By juxtaposing historical successes with contemporary failures, they argue for a return to authenticity and respect for original narratives. The episode serves as a reflection on how cultural shifts can impact political landscapes and beloved cultural institutions alike.