AV Club – I Know It Sounds Crazy by AV Club

Hosted by The Onion A.V. Club editors Sean O’Neal and Erik Adams, “I Know It Sounds Crazy” delves into the remarkably complex world of fan theory. This mostly online school of criticism casts off the tyranny of directorial intention, and instead looks beyond a film’s surface in search of all the secret symbolism, shared universes, and hidden messages encoded within the frame. Was Ferris Bueller a figment of Cameron’s imagination? Is Toy Story 3 a Marxist allegory? Was Bane the secret hero of The Dark Knight Rises? Sean & Erik will take a second look at movies you thought you understood the first time, and uncover all the reasons why you were–according to some die-hard fans–wrong.

EPISODE ONE

It’s one of the most common of all fan theories: a character—or even an entire movie—only exists in another character’s head. This idea’s recent popularity could be blamed on Fight Club, and in this episode Sean and Erik look at how fans have ascribed it to other movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Big Lebowski. And speaking of bizarre theories, they’ll also explore the idea that Fight Club itself is just a sequel to Calvin And Hobbes!

EPISODE TWO

From the idea that Walt was secretly a Nazi sympathizer to the legend that his cryogenically frozen head is buried somewhere in Disneyland, the wonderful world of Disney has long been said to hide subterranean secrets. Sean and Erik look at how all that digging for dirt has unearthed the theories that Aladdin is actually set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and that Monsters Inc. is really about the bubonic plague. They’ll also get to the real reason Donald Duck is a pants-less crazy person.

EPISODE THREE

Fan theory turns to fan faith in this episode, as I Know It Sounds Crazy… delves into the belief that some movies are actually allegories on the life, death, and resurrection of popular character Jesus Christ. Among those films that are revealed to be secret Christian propaganda, Sean and Erik learn that you can find the face of Jesus hiding in everything from RoboCop to Prometheus to Seth MacFarlane’s Ted. Will they become true believers? Or will they reject this dangerous heresy?

EPISODE FOUR

Through decades of obsession, and over the countless pages that have been expended on even the most fleetingly glimpsed characters, the Star Wars universe has lent itself to more fan theories than any story since the Bible. Sean and Erik will look at some of the craziest speculation out there, such as: the real reason Qui-Gon Jinn was so terrible at his job; the secret relationship between R2-D2 and Chewbacca; and who really killed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. You’ll also hear the “scientific” explanation for why Star Wars has so few women.

EPISODE FIVE

It’s playtime on I Know It Sounds Crazy…, as Pixar’s Toy Story movies are picked up by the grubby hands of fan theorists and forced to act out their bidding. Sean and Erik learn the secret origins of Jessie, the real explanation for the absence of Andy’s father, and the ultimate fate of the bully Sid, then look at how everything that happens in Toy Story was already spelled out in Stanley Kubricks’ A.I.—and repeated all over again in The Walking Dead. And naturally, they look at how Toy Story 3 is really a Marxist allegory of Obama’s America that’s also full of Illuminati symbolism and about the Holocaust. Today we put away childish things and learn to speak as a (crazy) man.

EPISODE SIX

The line between hero and villain is rarely black and white, and that gray area is where fan theory thrives—particularly when it comes to movies like Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. That movie openly invites the viewer to wonder who’s really evil. Sean and Erik look at one of the more extreme versions of this recurring moral quandary, asking whether Bane was actually the secret good guy of The Dark Knight Rises. They’re joined by screenwriter Eric Haywood, who harbors a pet theory about the true villain of Blade Runner, and they wonder whether Glinda The Good Witch is ironically named.

EPISODE SEVEN

“They were dead the whole time.” It’s a theory that has its roots in the stories of 19th-century writer Ambrose Bierce and, more popularly, in The Sixth Sense. Now, the idea that a seemingly living character is actually dead or dying has been applied to almost every work of fiction. Sean and Erik look at some of the most famous examples, including what really happened to Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle, the suspiciously fairy-tale ending of Minority Report, and at how the Ghostbusters supposedly got away with crossing those colorful streams. Here, they’re joined by The A.V. Club’s Katie Rife, who shares what is possibly the only fan theory in the world about Rodney Dangerfield’s Back To School.

EPISODE EIGHT

Everything comes full circle, as Sean and Erik take a look at shared universes—those hidden lines that connect seemingly disparate movies, and prove that they’re all part of the same crazy, mixed-up world. They are joined by Jon Negroni, architect of the grand unifying statement known as The Pixar Theory, who will attempt to place Toy Story, Cars, and A Bug’s Life on the same evolutionary ladder. They’ll also take a look at the strange, Russian nesting doll of allusions [is this right? allusion?] that is Quentin Tarantino’s movie universe–parts of which almost feel like fan theory versions of themselves.

Total Running Time: 3h21m