Josie and the Pussycats - My Personal Destiny

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Josie and the Pussycats is the best movie ever… no just kidding, in a clever reference to the film itself. But the 2001 musical comedy film Josie and the Pussycats is absolutely a cult classic and worth a watch if you haven’t seen it. But what I’m writing about today is not just a great film, which Josie and the Pussycats inarguably is, but I am setting out to answer this particular question: Josie and the Pussycats – Just a Great Film? Or the Film That Determined the Course of My Life Up Until Now?!?

A poster for Josie and the Pussycats, just to give you an idea of what you're getting into here.

I first saw the film Josie and the Pussycats somewhere around 2002. At this time in my life I was in Primary School, in Year 6 or possibly still in Year 5. There’s a few particular memories that place my viewing of the film in this time period. The first is that the film was released in April 2001, but I remember that I watched it at home on DVD and the DVD wasn’t released until August 2001. Additionally, I know that my friend Helen, who I met just before starting Year 6 in 2002, also watched the film at around the same time and that it was a common interest between us. Furthermore, I own the soundtrack to the film and I was only just beginning to grow my music collection at this time, owning such CDs as the single of “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus (a 2000 release) and the album of Whole Again by Atomic Kitten (a 2003 release), placing my purchase of Music from the Motion Picture Josie and the Pussycats somewhere in the 2001-2003 range after its release in March 2001.

 

The album cover for Music From the Motion Picture: Josie and the Pussycats.

Having been at the tender age of 11-ish when I first saw it, Josie and the Pussycats is a film that came into my life in my formative years. And since one of the major themes of the film is subliminal messaging through popular media, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to hypothesise that my interest in Josie and the Pussycats at that time was more than a coincidence – I was preordained to like the film, and viewing it changed my fate forever from an early and impressionable age. Was I subliminally tricked into loving the film and basing all my future entertainment media preferences around this 2001 musical comedy? I think that is absolutely the case.

Not familiar with Josie and the Pussycats? Let me use quote formatting to give you a quick recap:

Wyatt [Alan Cumming] and Fiona [Parker Posey] run a record company where they inset subliminal messages into their music so that teenagers continue buying their albums. Josie [Rachel Leigh Cook] and her band [Rosario Dawson & Tara Reid] learn about this and plan to expose them.

There are some big names in there, and others not listed in the synopsis include the hilarious Missy Pyle – in a self-aware comedic role - and the always-brilliant Donald Faison, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and (the less well known) Alex Martin as boy-band Du Jour.

You might be thinking to yourself, Nancy this sounds like a fantastic movie that I would definitely like to watch (you should!) but I’m not convinced that it has had any impact on your life, let alone setting you on a path to become the person you are today with your particular interests and preferences when it comes to entertainment media and both the consumption and analysis thereof. 

 

Easter string art: an example of something productive that I could have been doing with my time instead of writing this blog post.

Well, let me start to stick pins into a metaphorical pinboard and explain all the red-string connections between my life and Josie and the Pussycats, and you will see the threads of destiny begin to reveal themselves, much like the chicken in this Easter string-art that I just googled to visually represent my mixed metaphor.

To quote a meme: “in this essay, I will…” explore my personal connection to Josie and the Pussycats, starting with an exploration of the major theme of the film, the features of its niche genre from two angles and its place in the cinematic canon in light of its box office performance (or lack thereof), followed by a discussion of the twisted web that is the collective oeuvres of the writer and actors of the film and finally an explanation of the impact of the music of the film and the particular impact that one of the songwriters has had on my life.

On one hand, this could be the Greek fates weaving the tapestry of my life. One the other hand, is it literally Josie and the Pussycats weaving the tapestry of my life?!?!?

So, the major theme of Josie and the Pussycats: product placement – or subliminal advertising as it’s specifically called in the film, but product placement more generally. And in fact, showing me this film was my dad’s way of teaching me about the existence of and, I can only assume, the dangers of product placement. And thank goodness that I was provided with this indirect education! Because I am a total sucker for product placement, and was both before and after watching Josie and the Pussycats for the first time.

So, subliminal advertising? Product placement? What’s that all about? Well, let’s start with product placement or “embedded marketing”, which is where a form of media will reference a particular brand or product. That could be a visual reference, such as showing the badge on a car or verbal such as having a character say “Wow I really love my [Name-Brand Product].” Some examples? I’d recommend TV Tropes’ lists here and here but some notable examples from films you’ve probably seen include Tony Stark’s Audi car in Iron Man and the Hostess snacks Twinkies and Snowballs in Zombieland. On television, you might remember the iPhone 3GS being featured in Dollhouse and multiple examples including Hershey’s and Coca Cola in Stranger Things - which makes perfect sense for establishing setting and capturing the feel of the 80s, but it's still product placement.

Product placement can be poorly done and when it is, it’s really jarring and damages the trust between the show creators and their audience. For example, in Smallville, a character actually says aloud the line, “Look, Clark, my Yaris gets awesome mileage, but I seriously doubt it will get us all the way to the North Pole.” Yep, shoehorned in there for sure. But it can be done in subtler ways too, such as characters using particular brands of phone but not necessarily telling the camera what model they’re using.

So what’s subliminal advertising? Well, let’s start with the concept of subliminal messaging, which is where a message is somehow “hidden” inside another form of media. Check out the capitalisation in this sentence:

A subliminal message is a technique used in marKEting and other media to influencE People without theiR bEing Aware of what the messenger is DoING.

Yep, it says “KEEP READING,” giving you a hidden message to continue reading the article. Other examples include flashes of text on screen, a really great example of this is College Humor’s marketing campaign for their Dropout subscription service, with the first example in this video. You can probably join the dots on this one: subliminal advertising is the use of subliminal messaging to advertise something.

In Josie and the Pussycats, both subliminal advertising and product placement form both a critical element of the main plot and also, ironically, a major part of the film itself. (This particularly form of irony is something I’ll discuss in greater depth later on.) The film is absolutely jam-packed with product placement, none of which was actually paid for! In pretty much every scene, there’s a product on display. One of my favourite examples is when we see the boyband Du Jour on their private aeroplane, which is decorated with the Target logo. And the greatest example of subliminal advertising in the film? It’s not in the plot at all, it’s a hilarious fourth-wall break where text on screen and a super-speed voice inform you, the viewer, that:

Josie and the Pussycats
is
The Best Movie Ever
JOIN THE ARMY

Let me tell you, as an 11-ish year-old viewing this film, the revelation that popular media is full of product placement was eye opening to me. Sadly, it didn’t change the fact that I am highly suggestible and completely prone to falling for product placement. If my favourite character mentions a product, you’re damn right that I’m interested in that product! Here’s a specific personal example: in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (you knew it was coming – and I’m just getting started) season 1 episode 2 we see Valencia drinking “Boxed Water”. I was so curious about this product that I just had to look it up… I haven’t bought Boxed Water yet, but I’m pretty convinced that Boxed Water Is Better. And you bet I’ve looked up all of Rebecca’s clothes on Worn on TV. And if anyone knows where I can buy a cherry necklace like the one that Paula wears while she sings “Face Your Fears,” let me know ASAP please and thank you.

OMG I want her necklace so much...

Josie and the Pussycats may not have saved me from the dangers of product placement. But it certainly made me aware of its influence on me and made me keenly aware of it. I now, as I’m sure many of us do, notice product placement more in movies and television. And when I do notice it, I think of Josie and the Pussycats. And then I go and buy the product.

If you’re fascinated by this whole concept, I really recommend this article here, which dives much deeper into the film’s commentary on capitalism and its well-deserved place as a cult classic film.

I mentioned earlier that Josie and the Pussycats uses product placement ironically. The plot of the film is about product placement and subliminal messaging, and appears to be criticising these things, but the film is also full of product placement. What we have here is a Parody and a Deconstruction or, in fact, a Deconstructive Parody. Josie and the Pussycats piqued my interest in parody and deconstruction, which wove an interesting thread into the tapestry of my life that had an impact not just on my media preferences but on the direction of my academic career as well.

I love a good deconstruction. I quite enjoy deconstructing texts myself, which is why I enjoyed English Literature in High School, why I majored in English in my undergraduate degree and, to a certain extent, why I also majored in Linguistics, which gave me the opportunity to deconstruct languages and do a deep dive into their inner workings.

And I also love parody. I love song parodies, like the work of Tom Lehrer and Weird Al Yankovic. I love movie parodies like Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Charlie’s Angels, Shrek, Enchanted and more. And I love parody in television shows, including SNL, The Simpsons, Community and more. 

 

Shrek: an example of a film that parodies a number of fairytales and fairytale characters, some of whom are pictured here.

The way that this has all come to a head, from its early beginnings when I first watched Josie and the Pussycats to today, is that I absolutely love and can’t get enough of media that is at once deconstructing and/or parodying a particular genre and is, at the same time, an excellent example of that genre. Let me give you four specific examples:

1. Josie and the Pussycats – obviously. Josie and the Pussycats uses subliminal messaging and product placement as a major plot point, deconstructing the entire music industry on its way, whilst also containing more product placement than any other text I have ever experienced that is not literally an advertising catalogue.
2. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – TV Tropes describes Crazy Ex-Girlfriend as a “Deconstructor Fleet”, wrecking “every romcom trope, and then some.” It breaks down every character trope from a romcom (the hot girl, the nice guy, the high-achieving protagonist, etc.) but in order to do this it has to first construct these characters to portray them as the trope character. So while it does deconstruct the romcom characters, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is also, at least in some ways and especially in its first season, a romcom itself.
3. Cabin in the Woods – I’m actually not a fan of the horror genre and this particular horror flick is not an exception, I don’t really love it. But I’m putting it on this list because it has some interesting connections with other media that I really love (its star-studded cast includes Chris Hemsworth who plays Thor in the MCU, my superhero franchise of choice, and Jesse Williams who plays Jackson Avery in Grey’s Anatomy, my favourite medical drama/next favourite show after Crazy Ex-Girlfriend). For those who haven’t seen it, Cabin in the Woods is a horror film filled with horror movie tropes, much like Josie and the Pussycats is filled with product placement. Where Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a Deconstructor Fleet of romcoms, Cabin in the Woods is a Deconstructor Fleet of horror.

   

   A list on a whiteboard from Cabin in the Woods of the many horror movie creatures/tropes featured in the film itself.

4. Sharknado – yes, finally, Sharknado, which many people would argue is not in fact a parody or a deconstruction. But those people are wrong. Anyone who has seen a few killer shark films in their time – which I have - would tell you definitively that Sharknado is an affectionate parody of the killer shark movie genre, whilst also being one of the absolute best killer shark movies.

There are, of course, other examples, but I thought that these four were particularly notable. As I wrote earlier, Josie and the Pussycats wove a thread into the tapestry of my life, and that thread was a love for the genre of media that “does the thing that it is deconstructing” which is my favourite way to describe the phenomenon even though calling the genre “parody” probably sums it up pretty well. 

Josie and the Pussycats is a musical and, in fact, is one of the earliest musicals that I was exposed to – along with Cats and the Monty Python’s Holy Grail and Meaning of Life films. Josie and the Pussycats set in place a really specific preference of mine. I love musicals, absolutely. But the types of musicals that I seek out and prefer aren’t your typical musicals where the songs are inextricable from the plot and often don’t stand alone particularly well. My preferred musicals are those where the songs can be extracted and appreciated completely free of the context of the musical.

You might be saying, “Nancy it sounds like you just love jukebox musicals, I bet you watched all of Glee and love the Pitch Perfect film franchise.” And while you’re correct that I watched all of Glee and love the Pitch Perfect film franchise (I mean, it stars Anna Kendrick and Skylar Astin, so what’s not to love?) the truth is that jukebox musicals aren’t my preference. No, the types of musicals that I prefer are those with original songs that stand alone as great songs.

Josie and the Pussycats is maybe the best example of this in any existing media to date. Some examples of Disney movies check the box for me. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which as you know I am unhealthily interested in, succeeds at this for the most part but not all of its songs meet this particular criterion because some of them don’t make any sense if you’re not directly following the plot (c.f. “Where Is the Rock?”). La La Land absolutely fits the bill although I didn’t actually enjoy that one and was sadly disappointed. The Greatest Showman is another good example, as is Galavant. And this even applies to other media: I was greatly impressed by some of the songs in 36 Questions the podcast musical.

 

La La Land, a musical featuring original songs that you could listen to outside of the context of the film itself, and they would still make sense and be enjoyable.

A niche genre, perhaps. But a preference that was instilled in me by the top-quality offering that is Josie and the Pussycats and that I continue to search for. (Although sadly I’m now watching another jukebox musical – Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist – but I’ve got to get my musical fix somehow!)

But musicals often don’t always do well at the box office. Josie and the Pussycats was a box office bomb, grossing less than $15 million with a production budget around $39 million – not good. Despite it being a total flop, I loved and still love Josie and the Pussycats. And eventually, people woke up to the fact that it’s a truly excellent and clever film and it is now considered a cult classic. Furthermore, despite the film bombing, the soundtrack to the film did very well, going to certified Gold Album status. 

Josie and the Pussycats might be the first commercial failure that I’ve absolutely loved, but it wasn’t the last. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is famously one of the lowest-rated shows in history to have been renewed for four seasons. A commercial failure, maybe, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a truly excellent show and, of course, it happens to be a critical darling and was an important work when it came to contributing to growing the brand of the CW network as a progressive, feminist network.

It remains to be seen how strong this trend is for me. Will I continue to enjoy media that is a commercial failure? Possibly. More than the financial success or failure of these texts, their “cult” followings are probably more relevant. It took people a long time to come around to Josie and the Pussycats, but people are seeing it as being increasingly politically relevant. It remains to be seen which is the next “cult following” that I will find myself a part of. I am, after all, undeniably a cult follower of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. 

Artist's impression of me right now.

Get out your pins and red string, because it’s time to trace the threads of fate from Josie and the Pussycats’ release in 2001 through to the special place it holds in my heart today, all through the lens of “what other stuff have those actors done?” and how is that relevant to me in any way. Or, if you like, time for a game of “hey, it’s that guy!”

The stunningly beautiful Rachael Leigh Cook as Josie, in Josie and the Pussycats.

Let’s start with the lead actress, Rachael Leigh Cook, who plays Josie. While you might recognise Rachael Leigh Cook from She’s All That, or the video for “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer (great song!), it’s her later work and her husband (sorry, feminism) that are more interesting and relevant to today’s particular walk through the actors of Josie and the Pussycats. Rachael Leigh Cook was a regular on Robot Chicken, a show that will come up again and again in this essay and hit peek relevance when we get to Seth Green. But what is also interesting is that Rachael Leigh Cook was married (until June 2019) to Daniel Gillies. Daniel Gillies, who most famously played vampire Elijah in The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, which my best friend Aimee put me on to and which I am a fan of. Daniel Gillies who was in True Blood (typecast as a vampire? Perhaps!), my favourite of all vampire television shows. Daniel Gillies who played a major role in Saving Hope, which is a medical drama – immediately relevant because medical dramas are my most-watched genre. And finally, the same Daniel Gillies who stars in Bride and Prejudice, a truly excellent Bollywood version of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (relevance: English major) including some brilliantly catchy original songs (relevance: musicals), which I once made Adamo and Mike sit through a very low-quality version of. So, okay, the red string has to stretch quite a way to make the point about Rachael Leigh Cook. But nevertheless ~connections~.

"No Life Without Wife" from Bride and Prejudice.

On to the ditzy character of Melody, played by Tara Reid, well before she fell off the rails. Check out this quality clip from the film, laden with McDonald’s product placement.

Such a great video clip, honestly. What a fun character.

Tara Reid is a prolific actress but the reason she’s relevant and forms a thread in my destiny is that her most important role to date, in my opinion if not anyone else’s, was playing April Wexler in the Sharknado franchise. I’ve written, above, about Sharknado and how it is the most self-aware of the killer shark films and yet simultaneously a quintessential example of the killer shark film genre, of which I am famously a huge fan. Although, to be fair and honest the Sharknado franchise really jumped the shark (pun fully intended) sometime around the 3rd movie. Come to me if you need recommendations of killer shark films though.

Tara Reid in Sharknado 5.

Next up, the gorgeous Rosario Dawson who plays Valerie in Josie and the Pussycats.

Rosario Dawson as Valerie in Josie and the Pussycats.

To start with a weak connection, Rosario Dawson plays Claire Temple in a number of Marvel’s Defenders shows, all set in the cinematic universe. She’s a really cool character and actually I think she deserves her own television show, although maybe part of that is because she’s a nurse so it would have to be a medical drama. As I’ve mentioned earlier, when it comes to superheroes I’m a Marvel girl through-and-through (no DC for me thanks!) and I especially love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so there’s a little connection there. But the connection that really “warps my loom” – to coin a new turn of phrase – and demonstrates the how Josie and the Pussycats was a pivotal turning point in my media preferences and consumption and interest from an analytical perspective, is that Rosario Dawson also plays the character Jane Ramos (aka J.R.) on Jane the Virgin. Why is that relevant? I’m so glad you asked! Jane the Virgin is another television show from the CW network, which screened alongside Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and has some striking similarities to it (and actually is probably worthy of its own blog post from me, but that’s a project for another day). Most notable and relevant here is that Jane the Virgin falls firmly into the genre of “does the thing that it is deconstructing”. In this case, it deconstructs and parodies telenovelas, whilst also being a truly fantastic telenovela full of twists and turns. It’s very well done and I really recommend it if you’re looking for a new television program to watch, with the additional note that it’s probably more accessible for most people than Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is. So, isn’t it interesting that fate would introduce me to Rosario Dawson as Valerie in Josie in the Pussycats way back in 2002-ish, and then throw her back at me in a 2014 television show that falls into the same niche genre?! Just one more example of how Josie and the Pussycats is, in terms of impact upon my life, literally the maker of my film and television destiny!

 

Rosario Dawson as J.R. in Jane the Virgin. Also, that's what she said.

I thought I would briefly mention Missy Pyle, who you’ll recognise from literally everything because honestly what hasn’t she been in? She plays Alexandra Cabot in Josie and the Pussycats. I’m not going to do a deep dive in Missy Pyle’s oeuvre but instead I just want to point out Alexandra Cabot as one of the most self-aware characters in the film and gets a quality “Mythology Gag” pointing out that she’s only there because she was in the comics, in a reference to the Josie and the Pussycats comics that are part of the Archie comics universe.

 

Missy Pyle as Alexandra in Josie and the Pussycats.

Let’s talk for a moment about the writer of Josie and the Pussycats (the film, not the comics, obviously), Deborah Kaplan. Not much to say about Deborah Kaplan, except that she also wrote Made of Honour, which stars Patrick Dempsey who most famously played Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd in Grey’s Anatomy (my favourite medical drama and second-favourite television show of all time) for 11 seasons. A little red thread, there.

Donald Faison shows up in Josie and the Pussycats in a fairly small role as DJ, one of the members of boyband Du Jour. Donald Faison most famously starred in Scrubs as Dr. Turk (relevance: medical drama). But he also played Dashiell in the Sabrina the Teenage Witch television series. Sabrina the Teenage Witch is another franchise that deserves its own blog post from me to discuss its relevance to and impact upon my life, because boy-howdy was I into it! I owned nearly 50 of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch books. I watched the entire series. I owned both computer games (well, maybe there are more than two available these days but at the time there were two and I owned them both). Donald Faison shows up in Robot Chicken, which I mentioned earlier and, trust me, we’re getting to it because it’s a critical connection point for a number of reasons. And as if all of that weren’t enough, Donald Faison also has a cameo as an acapella singer in Pitch Perfect, which I mentioned above as a movie that a) I enjoyed and b) is a musical.

 

Fictional boyband Du Jour, from Josie and the Pussycats, featuring from left to right: Alex Martin, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison.

Get your red string ready because while we’re talking about members of boyband Du Jour, we also need to talk about actor Seth Green who plays Travis. Adamo’s opinion was that any connections with Seth Green shouldn’t count because he’s just that prolific, but I disagree. Because yes, Seth Green is a prolific actor/producer/etc. but he has been showing up in countless examples of media that I truly love or that have had some kind of impact on my life or myself as a person, ever since his appearance in Josie and the Pussycats, which is where I first saw him, again proving that Josie and the Pussycats has been more than “just a movie” for me, and instead determined the course of my life up until now. A few small connections: Seth Green played Oz the werewolf in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is another show that might need its own blogpost because although in some ways it made perfect sense for me to watch and enjoy Buffy, I do think that it had a significant impact on the direction my television viewing tastes went after that. And Seth Green had a two episode role on Grey’s Anatomy, which I have mentioned before as a television show that has great personal importance to me.

But now we get to Robot Chicken. Robot Chicken is a television show created, written and produced by Seth Green that uses stop motion animation to portray black comedy shorts. Basically. Now, I’ve actually not watched Robot Chicken all the way through from start to finish, which might seem weird given a) the amount of television media that I watch in general and b) the way the rest of this essay has gone. But I am fairly familiar with Robot Chicken as a body of work, mostly from watching clips of it on YouTube, and it’s a show that I have a growing interest in as I discover more and more connections between Robot Chicken and other visual media that I enjoy. Robot Chicken connects to Josie and the Pussycats in that it is created by Seth Green and has featured, at various times, other actors from Josie and the Pussycats such as Donald Faison and Rachael Leigh Cook. But where the connections become more interesting is when you look at other actors who have featured on Robot Chicken, most notably Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Rachel Bloom, as both a voice actor and writer. Yes, Robot Chicken is one way in which Josie and the Pussycats and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend are connected. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is at times a very dark show for a comedy and Robot Chicken makes no pretence at being a regular comedy – it’s very much a surreal, black comedy. No wonder Rachel Bloom shows up on it – some of her older work is also extremely dark and disturbing black comedy. For examples, I recommend “Die When I’m Young”, the “Historically Accurate Disney Princess Song” and “The OCDance!”. And we can’t mention Robot Chicken and the links between Seth Green and Rachel Bloom without also directing you to “Jazz Fever” my personal favourite of Rachel Bloom’s pre-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend work.

Rachel Bloom provides the voice of Ariel in this particular episode of Robot Chicken.

And while I’ve been connecting Josie and the Pussycats and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend with a stop-off at Robot Chicken, we actually don’t need to stop at Robot Chicken because… Seth Green is in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend! And here is where it ties together even tighter because the particular episode, character and song in which Seth Green appears in is one that I found deeply, personally, strongly ~relatable~. Seth Green appears in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season 2 episode 12 “Is Josh Free in Two Weeks?” as the character of Patrick, a package delivery guy. There’s so much I could say about the character of Patrick and his function in the episode, but instead I’m just going to link you to the song and quote the lines that I find most relatable and relevant – I find myself saying some of these lines often. (Remember to watch the whole video for a top-quality visual gag with the package that Patrick is delivering.)

"Tell me I'm okay, Patrick" or honestly anyone at this point. Global pandemic, amiright?!

Seriously, Patrick,

Was I sick the day in school they

Taught you how to be a normal person?

It just feels like there's something fundamental I'm missing out on.

Like, is there an instruction manual?

You get what I'm saying, Patrick?

It just - it just feels like everyone is in this cabal of normal

People, and they're all laughing at me,

Like I'm the jester in my own Truman Show.

Patrick, tell me what the secret is. Just tell me what the secret is.

Is there a manual? Do you have the manual?

I know you have the manual,

Patrick. I know it's in your truck, Patrick!

A couple of final links: Seth Green’s animation company Stoopid Buddy Stoodios did the animation for the season 1 opening theme of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. And here’s a little preview of a skit that Rachel Bloom wrote for Robot Chicken, which as The Solute points out here has clear shades of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to it, including the upbeat melody and the vast amount of information shared in the one song.

But back to Josie and the Pussycats. And if you thought I had a lot to say about Seth Green, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Because the next actor I need to tell you about is the incredible Alan Cumming, who plays Wyatt in Josie and the Pussycats. On one hand, this is a man whose filmography doesn’t fit on his main Wikipedia page, so you have to click a link to find his full filmography because he’s just that prolific. On the other hand, isn’t it weird how he shows up in stuff that is meaningful to my life all the time?!?!?

 

Alan Cumming as Wyatt in Josie and the Pussycats.

Take, for example, his role as Floop in Spy Kids. Have you ever seen me with my sister? Especially around a dinner table? Have you ever seen us play Articulate together? Eileen and I have weird sister mind-meld powers and in-jokes that could keep us entertained for years. And I bet you a million dollars that if I walked up to Eileen (I can’t right now, she’s in England) and said “Floop is a mad man” she would follow up with “help us! Save us!” which is, of course, the only correct answer.

 

Eileen and I dressed for a 00's themed party only a few years ago - observe the purple leopard print top I have chosen, very reminiscent of the outfits worn by Josie and the Pussycats on their album cover.

As another example, direct your attention towards Reefer Madness, a recommendation from my excellent musical-loving friend Erin. Reefer Madness is an interesting example of how Alan Cumming has made an impact on my life through his work because a) it’s a narrative film with original songs, putting it into that same delightfully niche genre that I mentioned earlier and b) it also stars Kristen Bell and there’s a whole Veronica Mars tangent that we could go on here but, for now, let’s leave it at that for Reefer Madness. 

Next up, turn your eyes to Doctor Who, a program with which I have a significant history – a poster of the tenth Doctor hung on my bedroom wall for ~some time~. In 2018, we see Alan Cumming show up on Doctor Who to play King James. Which, as if Alan Cumming on Doctor Who wasn’t exciting and significant enough by itself, how amazing that they had him playing King James, who was King of Scotland within the medieval period which I now recreate in my hobby of the Society for Creative Anachronism?!?!? Although to argue against myself somewhat, I don’t actually do that particular period. 

 

Alan Cumming as King James in Doctor Who.

And next, Alan Cumming was in X2 in 2003, playing Nightcrawler. This film is significant because a) it’s a film trilogy that I loved despite not many other people really loving it, especially in comparison to the later X-Men films and b) it also featured Aaron Stanford as Pyro, who I was a bit in love with at the time. Not to mention it also starred Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, which don’t even get me started on Shawn and Aaron Ashmore because they could also have a whole tangent.

And right now you’re probably thinking, “we get it, Nancy, you’ve seen a few movies and television shows starring Alan Cumming. But so what, it’s not like he was in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend so where’s the link here?”

Great question! The link is that I went to see Alan Cumming live, at the Astor Theatre with Erin and Adamo. And he was totally brilliant, of course, and I really recommend going to see him live if you ever have the opportunity. Everything he did and said was amazing and he shared so many beautiful stories and it was at times funny and at other times sensitive and touching. But the way that this connection comes back around full circle and links Josie and the Pussycats to my destiny, securing it irrevocably as the determiner of my fate from the time I first watched the film, is that Alan Cumming live at the Astor Theatre sang the song “Somewhere Only We Know”, originally by English band Keane. How does this link in with my fate? The song “Somewhere Only We Know” takes us out of fate in terms of my visual media consumption and takes us straight back to reality, because “Somewhere Only We Know” is the song to which I walked down the aisle at my wedding to Adamo. 

And if right now you’re asking a question like, “but Nancy there are so many versions of “Somewhere Only We Know”, did you walk down the aisle to the Alan Cumming version? The Keane version?” The answer is no, neither of those, I walked down the aisle to the Lily Allen cover of “Somewhere Only We Know”, which bizzarely (get your red string out here people because I am tying off an end of this twisted web of fate) was recorded in 2013 for a John Lewis Christmas Advert which red-strings together the individual pins of:

•           Lily Allen’s cover of “Somewhere Only We Know” to which I walked down the aisle at my wedding

•           Alan Cumming’s cover of “Somewhere Only We Know” which I saw live at the Astor Theatre with Erin and Adamo

•           Alan Cumming starring as Wyatt in Josie and the Pussycats, and…

•           Josie and the Pussycats’ theme of product placement and subliminal advertising, because if you didn’t know that Lily Allen’s cover was specifically for an advertising campaign then you might not notice it at all.

A very beautiful song which is why I chose it to be in my wedding even though it's an advertising campaign.

BAM.

And now, my friends/crazy stalker because honestly who else would have read all of this drivel (no offence) (although some offence if you actually are a stalker), we come to the music. I’ve mentioned the music of Josie and the Pussycats a few times already. I’ve pointed out that I own the soundtrack album and that it is one of the earliest CDs in my music collection. I’ve mentioned that Josie and the Pussycats is a musical and that it really checks the box for me in that it fits into a particular musical niche. (For another truly amazing example of this niche genre, see Music and Lyrics, starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore.)

But what I haven’t mentioned yet is that one of the producers and contributors to the soundtrack to Josie and the Pussycats was Adam Schlesinger, a songwriter who has recently passed away from COVID-19. I am deeply saddened by his death and I can’t imagine how sad those close to him must be if this is how I’m feeling as just a fan of his work. So let me start stringing up the red string board about Adam Schlesinger and his impact on my life, which is really what inspired me to write this post and what first made me think that Josie and the Pussycats, by virtue of featuring music produced and written by Adam Schlesinger, is a film that determined the course of my personal destiny as a media consumer and the person I am today. 

 

Adam Schlesinger

Let’s explore the music of Josie and the Pussycats first, and then come back to Adam Schlesinger’s wider body of work. My favourite song on the album – also, the first song on the album - is actually not one of Adam Schlesinger’s creations, it’s by the writer (Deborah Kaplan), director (Harry Elfont) and Dave Gibbs. It’s “3 Small Words”, which you can listen to here but it sadly does not have an official video.

"I'm a punk rock prom queen."

I’m also going to quote the chorus here, because I think this song really needs to be appreciated as a word of lyrical genius. Read it and observe the way that the chorus of the song counts down from 6 to 1, which is clever in itself but also really appropriate to the theme of the song which is a rejection or a letting go of people who can’t see your value.

It took six whole hours and five long days

For all your lies to come undone

And those three small words, were way too late

'Cause you can't see that I'm the one. 

Next on the album, “Pretend to Be Nice,” which is my other favourite song and was written by Adam Schlesinger. Honestly, so lovely. Watch the video and listen here:

"If you could just pretend to be nice, then everything in my life would be all right."

Don’t worry, I won’t go through the whole album. What I would like to point out is that this pop-rock/pop-punk album has lots to offer including fun upbeat numbers (e.g. “Spin Around”, “Shapeshifter”), a slow and sad number (“You Don’t See Me”), and the hilarious song “Backdoor Lover” by Du Jour.

"This kind of love is wrong but you know it feels so right."

 But remember that you do get to hear all of these songs in the movie itself, so if you’re like, “Nancy I cannot devote this much time to this one movie soundtrack,” then go watch the movie and just pay attention to what you’re hearing as you watch.

Even after all these years, Music from the Motion Picture: Josie and the Pussycats is still one of my absolute favourite albums. And even after all these years, “3 Small Words” is still within my top 25 most played songs (with a play count of 74 according to iTunes). I know 100% of the lyrics to every song on the album. I could probably sing my way through the entire album acapella from start to finish. But don’t worry, I won’t. My point is, I know and love these songs so incredibly well.

And my love for these songs did have an impact on my musical tastes from that point onwards; I am, to this day, a huge fan of female-lead pop-rocßk/pop-punk as a genre. Notable examples include: Avril Lavigne’s first album, Let Go; Paramore; Anastacia, especially “Left Outside Alone”; and also some non-female examples like Fall Out Boy (their later works) and Panic! At the Disco. Are my musical tastes merely just a product of my age and the musical landscape during my teenage years? Maybe. But was my interest in the genre kick-started by Josie and the Pussycats? Absolutely. 

And finally, another nice connection with the music of Josie and the Pussycats is that, while the lead actresses in the film did provide backing vocals for the music, it’s mostly performed by Kay Hanley of the band Letters to Cleo. I’m sure they have their own fascinating music career, but I know of Letters to Cleo because they’re the band featured in Ten Things I Hate About You, a movie that’s notable for being a modern adaption of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew (relevance: English major) (relevance: another genre I love – modern adaptions of classic literature). 

 

Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo in Ten Things I Hate About You.

So moving on, where else do you know Adam Schlesinger from? Where are the pins that I am tying my red string onto? Be prepared for video links and set aside some time here because it’s really worth clicking some of these videos and exploring the absolute talent of the late, great Adam Schlesinger.

Literally a picture of me.

Most famously, you know Adam Schlesinger from the band Fountains of Wayne. And trust me, you definitely know at least one of their songs: “Stacy’s Mom.” I have a particularly vivid memory of this song – actually I’m sure that many people have vivid memories of supermodel Rachel Hunter dancing in the video clip but that’s not what I’m talking about right now – of watching the video clip on Rage on the ABC at my parents’ house. It also happens to fall within my top 25 most-played songs on iTunes, so you can see from that statistic how much I enjoy it as a song.

 "I know that you think it's just a fantasy." Because it is, obviously.

When it comes to the music industry, Adam Schlesinger was in a few bands (including Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, and others) but he’s probably better known for his songwriting. You might remember “High School Never Ends” by Bowling for Soup.

"And you still don't have the right look, and you don't have the right friends." Gee thanks.

You might have heard some of his work as performed by Katy Perry, Emily Osment, Stephen Colbert, or Fever High. One example that I really love is “Text Me Merry Christmas” by Straight No Chaser, featuring Kristen Bell (who has already been mentioned elsewhere in this essay and here she is again!) and product placement (!!) of Bailey’s liqueur.

Such a cute song.

Are you a fan of theatre? If you’ve watched the Tony Awards and if you love Neil Patrick Harris (as I do), then you’ll probably remember the song “It’s Not Just For Gays Anymore”, for which Schlesinger won an Emmy award. He also received two Tony nominations for the musical Cry-Baby.

Winning an Emmy for a song written for the Tony's is pretty meta.

In film, I’d like to draw your attention not just to Josie and the Pussycats but also to the 1996 film That Thing You Do, for which Adam Schlesinger was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for writing the title track of the film.

I don't think it's that special really, but then I haven't seen the film so, maybe in context?

And, bringing it back to my personal interests and media that has been important to me throughout my life, he also produced the music for the film Music and Lyrics (which I mentioned in passing above). It’s a great movie, and one that I have subjected multiple friends to at some point or another – add it to your watch list! It features original songs, including the excellent “Pop! Goes My Heart” (not by Schlesinger), the delightful “Meaningless Kiss” (by Schlesinger, performed by Hugh Grant) and the beautiful “Way Back Into Love” (by Schlesinger, performed twice by Hugh Grant, once with Haley Bennett and once with Drew Barrymore). It’s one of my absolute favourite movies and another example of Adam Schlesinger’s work popping up randomly in my life.

"Meaningless Kiss" - Hugh Grant is so good throughout this song and the whole film.

Beautiful, although I prefer the other song featuring Haley Bennett, "Entering Bootytown".

 This is just gorgeous. Drew Barrymore is so adorable in Music and Lyrics.

By the way, if you’ve got children or you’re just a die-hard fan of Peter Dinklage, you can also hear Adam Schlesinger’s work in Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, because he wrote the song “Master of the Seas.” Not one I was previously familiar with but a bit of fun, anyway.

I can't believe they made a 4th Ice Age movie. Were they any good after the first one?

So, Josie and the Pussycats in 2001. “Stacy’s Mom” in 2003. Music and Lyrics in 2007. “It’s Not Just for Gays Anymore” in 2011. Adam Schlesinger just keeps coming up with musical content that I find super enjoyable and really treasure. And then we get to 2015.

You had to know it was coming. Yes, Adam Schlesinger was the music producer and the main composer & songwriter (along with Rachel Bloom and Jack Dolgen) for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Here's a lovely article remembering him now that he has passed away.

Adam Schlesinger had a hand in every single one of over 150 original songs in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I could write a paragraph – maybe even a whole post – about every one of them. But I have chosen the most notable to write about here, a modest list and the ones that I recommend you check out first if you’re not already familiar with his work. Here’s a list of the 17 best by the way but I’m sticking with 4.

1. “Settle for Me” – one of my favourites from the series, featuring a cute Fred & Ginger-style dance number and the phenomenal voice of Santino Fontana, it was nominated for an Emmy for Best Original Music and Lyrics.
2. “We Tapped That Ass” – another of my favourites, also featuring Santino Fontana’s beautiful voice, full of puns and dirty jokes, a tap-dance number directly parodying “Moses Supposes” from Singin’ in the Rain, and was also nominated for an Emmy for Best Original Music and Lyrics. 
3. “Antidepressants Are So Not a Big Deal” – not one of my favourites, but it won the 2019 Emmy for Best Original Music and Lyrics and I really appreciate the message that it’s sharing; a fun way to destigmatise medication for mental health issues, and it’s also a parody of a song from La La Land.  
4. “You Stupid Bitch” – which I find incredibly cathartic so if I’m ever blasting this one at full volume and crying while I scream out the lyrics, you’ll know it’s been a bad day. Or a good day, either way. One of the absolute best songs in the series; dark, heart-breaking, clever. Brilliant.  

So difficult to stop at 4…

I’m not usually one to mourn celebrities but the loss of Adam Schlesinger, at only 52 years old, taken down by the global pandemic that is stressing me out on a daily basis… well, I’m struggling with it. Going through his body of work and realising the place that it has held in my life since Josie and the Pussycats in 2001 has been comforting and cathartic and surprising in some ways, because until I started this exploration, I didn’t know what an impact Adam Schlesinger had really had on my life. I knew about Josie and the Pussycats and of course I knew about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. But as I read more about Adam Schlesinger and realised how much of his other work I was already a fan of without even noticing it… anyway, that’s how we ended up with this blog post. 

Did you watch Josie and the Pussycats back in 2001? Watch it again. It’s a great movie. Here's a convincing argument on why it needs a rewatch.

Josie and the Pussycats is undeniably a fantastic, hilarious, clever film that I enjoyed when I watched it back at 11-ish years old and still enjoy today, nearly (but not quite) 20 years later. Over the years, I have come back to the genre, to the themes and to the work of deconstruction and parody that is carried out in this film, both through my interests in other entertainment media and through my academic studies doing English at university. Over the years, I have unconsciously followed the work of the talented artists involved in making this film. Sometimes in small ways, like enjoying other work that they have done (or that their husband has done). Sometimes, in very big ways, like realising the immense impact that Adam Schlesinger has had on my life and the important place that his work holds in my heart. 

Josie and the Pussycats was not just a film for me. I was fated to watch it. I was fated to enjoy it. It was my destiny, leading me from one movie in 2001-ish to an obsession with a television show in 2015.

And also, it has cats. And I love cats.

My babies, Sabriel and Lirael.

♥Nancy♬