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Mark Lee, Matt Wrather, and Pete Fenzel whoop whoop (that’s the sound of the police!) for Liam Neeson’s arrival on streaming as Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr. of Police Squad in The Naked Gun. The overthinkers welcome this successor to the legacy of spoof, tracing the broader historical journey of latter-day parody from the alpine peaks of inflatable pilots and Reggie Jackson, to the dark forest of Poe’s Law and reality more absurd than fiction.

Is The Naked Gun more than the sum of its naked parts, in either its current of previous incarnations? The three parse the themes of the latest film, as well as its predecessors, and the different contexts and relationships with hyperbolic performance that they represent. They chart styles and exemplars of parody, comedic microstructure and macrostructure, and just how surprisingly funny and excellent Pamela Anderson is.

Plus, if you’ve saw the snowman scene, you knew we’d overthink it, as both revellers in madness and aging adolescents of the late 90s, the two creative energies that perhaps more than any others underpin the latest entry in the storied franchise.

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Episode 901: J. K. r-OWL-ing originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]