Ruh-roh. Suzanne is plotting again – this time roping Anthony into impersonating Consuela who is on the brink of being deported. What could possibly go wrong?? We’re not sure, but we absolutely know we won’t be putting on a wig, a bra, or hose anytime soon. That. Is. Final.
Come back later this week if you want to learn how to achieve the American dream in just…10…simple…steps.
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Transcript
Salina: Hey, Nikki.
Nikki: Hey, Selena.
Salina: And hello, everyone, and welcome to Sweet Tea and TV.
Salina: Hey, y'all.
Salina: So before we jump into the episode today, I have something on my mind that I wanted to talk to you about.
Nikki: Okay.
Nikki: It's a family heart to heart.
Salina: Sounds like I'm about to go down that path, but not really.
Salina: I mean, it can be a family heart to heart, but it's not necessarily that serious.
Nikki: Oh, well, thank God.
Nikki: Go for it, then.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: And it might be a little late for this by the time this one actually airs, although we're much closer now than we used to be.
Salina: Boy, are we just really squealing in on two wheels some weeks, eh?
Salina: All of us.
Salina: We posted something to social media, and we posted it on everything facebook, Instagram, TikTok.
Salina: I think I even put it on YouTube, I think.
Salina: But anyways, this is the scene.
Salina: It's a couple of episodes back.
Salina: It's called the mistress.
Salina: We renamed it rude, lazy, H**** and dumb.
Salina: This is where Suzanne starts her dieting, and she's eating rice cakes, and her and Mary Joe have this exchange about the rice cakes, and Suzanne's like, yes, I'm cranky after 12 hours, and yes, I will ride through a Taco Bell and just drive into it with my car.
Salina: Like, all this mess and talks about Mary Joe.
Salina: Of course, you wouldn't understand.
Salina: You're little and tiny and cute.
Salina: Not that I've heard it a time or two lately, but anyways, so I just have to say that if you don't already know this, Nikki, from popping in and taking a look at things, it is now our most popular post on all three of those platforms.
Salina: Probably the most relatable, and that's what I really wanted to get your take on.
Salina: I was just curious if you had thought about it, because it's not necessarily, like, the most in depth content that we've ever done.
Salina: I mean, I like to take those clips and tailor them a little bit to us and put some gifs on them.
Salina: Gift gifs, Gify, gifs.
Salina: Wherever your comfort is on the pronunciation of that.
Nikki: I'm a GIF gal myself.
Salina: I know you are.
Salina: And that's why I like to be inclusive.
Salina: I like to set the table for everyone, if you will, gifts and gifs alike.
Salina: But I like to do that to tailor the content a little bit.
Salina: But it's just like let's just put it this way.
Salina: There are definitely pieces of social media content that I've spent more time on and gotten less engagement with.
Salina: So I've been thinking a lot lately about how interesting it is that something that like, 30 years old, 30 plus years old is still resonating that much with people.
Nikki: I think that's why they say that there are, like, tenets of marketing or business that if you go into those businesses, unless you screw up badly, you will have success.
Nikki: And weight loss is one of them.
Nikki: And body image is one.
Nikki: I think sex is another one.
Nikki: Sometimes religion can be, I think, depending on all the things you really shouldn't talk about at the dinner table happen to be the things that people love to read about and hear about.
Nikki: So I think when you can boil any one of those down into a really funny, quick little snippet, I think that's going to resonate with people.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: And I think most people can relate to Suzanne at some point in their lives.
Salina: I do think this is her most relatable season, and I've called her the most unrelatable relatable character.
Salina: And that's how she's in furs, and she talks about all her money a lot.
Salina: And I don't know that all of that's relatable, but she's got an air about her in some ways, and I think this is just really one of those.
Salina: Also, I guess a couple of other thoughts I had was, like, there is a Designing Women's side of TikTok, and we found it.
Nikki: We're finally there.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Designing women talk.
Salina: I don't know, DW talk.
Salina: Whatever it is, I wasn't expecting it.
Salina: But I think I will say that it feels more exciting to talk about something that people are excited about.
Salina: And it has been very gratifying to see how many people love this show.
Salina: I will tell you that one thing I'm not very good at is, like, jumping in and being like, have you checked out our podcast?
Nikki: That feels awkward.
Nikki: Self promotional, right?
Salina: But I have tried to jump in and engage with people and do it in a way that's, like, lower key.
Salina: But I think it also really resonated with people because of what you mentioned, which is, like the body image stuff.
Salina: And one thing we've talked this season a lot about Delta Burke and how she reportedly asked for these scenes because the way the media was treating her and because of their obsession with her body and all of this.
Salina: And she's just gotten so much love on these posts.
Salina: And I was like, I wish she could see that.
Salina: And I just wanted to share that with you because you and I haven't really had time to talk about this.
Salina: We have one or two other things going on.
Salina: But I wonder how that will make her feel to see people just give her so much love to talk.
Salina: I really do think that Suzanne might be the most favorite character.
Salina: Like, if I was just taking a temperature read on these the emotionality of these posts, it would be that she's a favorite character.
Salina: People really love her.
Salina: They relate to her, and I think they can just see themselves in her a little bit.
Salina: I also wanted to share something that's been nagging me a little bit, though, about these posts.
Salina: A lot of people, well intentioned, okay, have jumped in to say that she's not even overweight or she's not even fat, or she's not even this or she's skinny.
Salina: This is social media.
Salina: It's first blush reaction.
Salina: These aren't dissertations and I get that, but I just wanted to say it's not really the point.
Nikki: Right?
Salina: And not that there's only one point about this, but I think it's more like this incessant need we have as women, as humans, to live up to society's expectations of who we are and it just makes you flip and miserable.
Nikki: I think that one's complicated because on the one hand she's talking about losing weight and not wanting to be the size she is.
Nikki: So on the one hand I think it's an instinct to be self affirming or something.
Nikki: Like you're not even that big.
Nikki: That thing you do with your friends sometimes or with other women where you're like no, what are you talking about?
Nikki: You're perfect just the way you are.
Nikki: So on the one hand I think people are trying to do that.
Nikki: I think the flip, unfortunately of it is it's inherently a comment on someone's body, even a positive one, is a comment on something that probably should just be neutral.
Nikki: It's just a neutral topic.
Nikki: The size of your body, it doesn't need to be.
Nikki: And this is a pep talk to myself also as well, but it doesn't need to be this laden conversation where you're gauging or judging your self worth against the size of your body.
Nikki: Size of your body is totally irrelevant.
Nikki: But I think we are so conditioned to do it that now we're trying to retrain our brains and the positive.
Nikki: If we're positive about it, then it's not a big deal.
Salina: Right?
Nikki: But it's the same thing, right?
Salina: And this is like again, like I said, I think these are well intentioned kind, for sure.
Salina: I think I have seen people are mean on social media awful.
Salina: I've only seen a couple of comments that I was like dang, that's rude.
Salina: Literally like a couple out of many comments.
Salina: That is not for me to be like a b******* towards them.
Salina: It is really more of this thing that we've evolved this far from where we were then and I'm very excited to see us keep evolving.
Nikki: That's the next great frontier, right?
Nikki: Is the body neutral?
Nikki: Yeah, I think it's the thing I always say about social media which is like you're allowed to have thoughts.
Nikki: I certainly have thoughts when I see something pop up in my feed.
Nikki: I don't ever want to sound like I'm holier than thou or above everybody else.
Nikki: I definitely have thoughts where I have to check myself sometimes and say you don't need to think that that's not your body.
Nikki: You don't need to think that that's not your voice, that's not your personality.
Nikki: You let them live their lives.
Nikki: You're allowed to have those thoughts.
Nikki: We have this constant running commentary.
Nikki: I think the point is catching yourself and correcting it if it needs to be corrected.
Nikki: And then also you just don't have to share it.
Nikki: I have so many thoughts I just don't share.
Salina: And that is not even really relative to this.
Salina: Oh, for sure.
Salina: Social media in general, I find that fascinating.
Salina: And you know me, I can't keep my mouth shut.
Salina: But even in a social, you just know I can't add to this.
Salina: This is not going to help.
Salina: It's sort of like that family member that you just know you're not going to politically bring them around, so just stop.
Salina: That's how I feel on social media.
Nikki: I told you a couple of episodes back when we were talking about me going to Key West that I joined a Facebook group and had to venture back into Facebook.
Nikki: Facebook is like the wild, wild west.
Nikki: Like, it is the most opinionated, most vocal group of people of any of the social media platforms.
Nikki: And in that group, I told Kyle the amount of Key West gatekeeping.
Nikki: So the amount of people who are like, this is our place.
Nikki: Why are you coming here?
Nikki: Is alarming.
Nikki: One, yeah, strange.
Nikki: And then two, presumption that vacationers are stupid or something.
Nikki: So fortunately, I wasn't on the receiving end of it when I posted in this group.
Nikki: But I had anxiety about posting in this group based on things that I had seen because, like, one person last week posted or earlier this week posted.
Nikki: I finally unfollowed the group because I realized I don't need to be in this group anymore.
Nikki: But I hadn't been following it for the drama because it is dramatic.
Nikki: But she posted like, we're coming down to Key West.
Nikki: We haven't decided where we're going to stay yet.
Nikki: We're coming in three weeks.
Nikki: Does anyone have a recommendation on a company that we should use for Snorkeling?
Nikki: The very first comment is, don't you people ever Google before you post?
Nikki: The next comment is, you're coming down here and you don't even have a place to stay.
Nikki: What are you going to do?
Nikki: Just join this group and beg for places to stay?
Nikki: Which was not what she was doing.
Nikki: She was asking for recommendations on a Snorkeling company.
Nikki: The next comment was like there might have been some not so mean comments sprinkled in between, but then the next one was like, don't you dare come down here and stay on this half of the island, because we already have too many tourists.
Nikki: And we don't need people like you who can't even plan your vacation more than two weeks in advance.
Nikki: And this poor woman was just trying to get Snorkel place recommendations.
Nikki: It was the most obscene, like, I would be embarrassed to be and one other lady one time there were people so angry.
Nikki: There was a post where this woman was like, I'm looking for a new church in Key West.
Nikki: Can anybody suggest something not my Jesus.
Nikki: The first comment said, why are you going to church?
Nikki: You're on vacation.
Nikki: And she was like, because I live here.
Nikki: It is the wildest.
Nikki: And that to me was a cross section of Facebook and a reminder for why I left.
Nikki: Because people are absolutely out of pocket on that platform.
Nikki: People are just incapable of editing their thoughts in their minds.
Nikki: They just can't do it.
Nikki: They cannot have a thought that they do not broadcast to the world.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: And it's like at some point the whole world could use some etiquette classes, I think, anyway.
Salina: But if we could tack on a social media class to that, that'd be great.
Salina: Honestly.
Nikki: It's just not that hard if you wouldn't say it to someone's face standing in line at the grocery store.
Nikki: Don't post it online.
Salina: Right?
Nikki: It's going to inflame the issue.
Nikki: It's going to now that said, I.
Salina: Wouldn'T make peach cobbler in front of them either.
Nikki: I wouldn't make peach cobbler if they were in my house.
Nikki: I'm not trying to give it to them.
Nikki: It's mine.
Salina: Yeah, well, so that was my stuff.
Salina: I just needed to get that off my chest and see what you thought.
Nikki: Thanks for sharing and thanks for handling social media.
Salina: Like I said, for the most part it's been really great.
Salina: In fact, I had a friend who reached out and she was like, I couldn't help myself.
Salina: And I was just so interested that this one, she was like, I noticed that it got a lot of attention.
Salina: And she was like so I started reading down through the comments and she was like, I couldn't believe how much of it was positive because, you know, social media.
Salina: And I was like, I know it's crazy because I'm just like sort of always waiting for the other shoe to drop because again, people are mean.
Nikki: It's why I'm so afraid to do posts where we put our faces out there.
Nikki: Or like, I'm nervous when we do the podcast that there's always just going to be that one comment that sticks in your head.
Nikki: That's something you totally can't change.
Nikki: Like, god, her voice is annoying.
Nikki: I have a couple of podcasts that I follow on Reddit and also on social media.
Nikki: And the things people post in the subreddit about these podcasts are just like, she can't do anything about her voice.
Nikki: And they'll be like, she doesn't look anything like I thought she would.
Nikki: I thought she'd be prettier.
Nikki: And you're like, why would you say not necessary, it's not necessary, it's not relevant.
Salina: And that's a great example of something that you can't control thinking, right?
Nikki: Exactly.
Salina: You can control your mouth.
Nikki: You can control where you say it out.
Nikki: And most importantly, I mean, it has to go from here to your fingers to the screen to the submit button.
Nikki: There are like three intervention opportunities there.
Nikki: Some people just run their mouth a little too much sometimes.
Nikki: And things as I'm guilty of this, sometimes things come out before I have a chance to filter them.
Nikki: And they might like to save that for work.
Nikki: They might come out inarticulately.
Nikki: And so sometimes I say things and then immediately have to walk it back.
Nikki: Like, that is not how I meant for that to sound.
Nikki: I just want to be clear.
Nikki: You know that and I know that.
Nikki: So I understand that to an extent.
Nikki: But there's like three opportunities to change your mind and be a better person and not ruin somebody's day who's just going about their life.
Salina: Honestly, goodness.
Salina: There's this whole thing just turn it off.
Salina: If you can't stand someone's voice, turn it off.
Nikki: I mean, that's the thing.
Nikki: I finally unfollowed that Key West group because it was overwhelming to me.
Nikki: Like, on the one hand, it was glorious to watch some of this happen because it's just a nice reminder that people can be really crappy.
Nikki: If I needed that reminder, that reminds me.
Nikki: But also I just didn't need to see it anymore.
Nikki: I unfollowed someone on Instagram this week who just got to the point where it was annoying.
Nikki: They were just annoying me and instead of telling them, I can just leave, just go, yeah, I have to exist in the world with them whether I've told them they're annoying or not.
Salina: Was it me?
Nikki: I unfollowed you this week.
Salina: This may not be the best time.
Nikki: To tell you I didn't want this to happen on air, but yes, I followed you and the podcast.
Nikki: That's right.
Salina: Please be better.
Nikki: I can't think of a good transition.
Salina: No, it's all right.
Salina: Let's talk about the episode.
Nikki: All right.
Nikki: Designing Women season four, episode 24.
Nikki: I'm going to forever pause for a second and just make sure that I'm on the right number.
Salina: Oh, you are 24?
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: Foreign affairs.
Nikki: We've had some numbering issues this year.
Nikki: By we, I mean me.
Nikki: And I get it in my head and I get confused.
Salina: It's been hard.
Nikki: So this one is Foreign Affairs.
Nikki: Suzanne persuades Anthony to impersonate consuela to apply for citizenship so that she isn't deported.
Nikki: Air Date April 30, 1990 we're calling this one Suzanne and Anthony Defraud the United States Government.
Nikki: Written by Cheryl Bascom and Selena I would love to turn this week's trivia over to you because it felt very personal.
Salina: Oh, it does, doesn't it?
Salina: I forgot that I had written this.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: So I looked her up and when I did she doesn't have that many credits, but it turns out she was the casting director for a cartoon I watched no fewer than like 3000 times when I was a kid.
Salina: It's called happily ever after.
Salina: This is like a Snow White Continuation story where Snow White gets to be the hero and she saves the prince.
Salina: I barely even remembered the plot until I was looking into it.
Salina: Although I do remember a couple of the songs, which is kind of weird.
Salina: I remember the songs but not the plot.
Salina: But she's helped by the seven dwarfets.
Salina: The bad guy is a man instead of being a woman and the queen, like in the original movie, it all feels very and I think this came out in 89, and it's also very 89.
Salina: Like, this is the 89 version of, like, let's Give Women a solid.
Nikki: All right?
Salina: Yeah, I can get behind that.
Salina: Anyways, I love this movie.
Salina: When I was little, and I think it was like, maybe the people who broke off from Disney and made a series of cartoons, it's like in the Line of Secret and NIM and some other cartoons we've talked about at another point this year.
Nikki: There's so many people in this.
Salina: Yes.
Nikki: Big Name ed Asner carol Channing phyllis Diller dom Del louise Jaja Gabor tracy Olman I'm sure I've seen this.
Nikki: I'm going to admit to you, this is the first time I've pulled it up because I thought it was a TV show and I was like, yeah, I never watched this TV show.
Salina: Oh, the one that was like, in the line of Married with Children, there was like an unhappy oh, no, I love that show.
Nikki: I've definitely seen that.
Nikki: I know it was a cartoon.
Nikki: I thought it was like a weird, obscure Disney daytime cartoon or something.
Nikki: Yeah, I've probably seen this not as many times as you have.
Nikki: No, I'm glad I could give you the gift of delivering that information to us today.
Salina: Well, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did as a child.
Nikki: So this episode was directed, again, by David Trainer.
Nikki: This is a series of David Trainer episodes.
Nikki: All right.
Nikki: General reactions and stray observations.
Nikki: My first general being that most of my reactions are stray.
Salina: Okay, perfect.
Salina: I guess you could maybe label my first general reaction as a stray as well.
Salina: Maybe I just had this feeling in this one that maybe I've had it before, but not as strongly as this time.
Salina: I could really feel how gelled the cast was at the beginning of the episode with the bed scene.
Salina: They felt natural.
Salina: They felt, like friendly.
Salina: It didn't feel like a play scene.
Salina: It didn't feel like anything like that.
Salina: It felt more like moving towards modern comedy in those small moments, but doing it well.
Salina: Because I think the mileage varies sometimes on the small moments in sugar makers.
Salina: I think some of that is just time.
Salina: Like, some things are not going to age as funny as other things will.
Salina: And so that kind of comfort and closeness, it's important because I think it's what makes you care about the show, it's what makes you care about the characters, and it's what makes you keep coming back.
Salina: And I just really enjoyed that about this one.
Nikki: It's a really good point.
Nikki: I hadn't really thought about it, but when I stop and sit in the moment for a second, it really does feel like we're observing friends week after week.
Nikki: We are observing people who genuinely enjoy being around each other.
Nikki: They're not delivering a script.
Nikki: They're like having fun and I hadn't thought about that.
Salina: I don't mean this in a sexual way.
Salina: They're literally in bed together.
Salina: Yeah, because for those who you may have not seen the episode in a while, a bed gets delivered there and it's just trapped there all week.
Salina: And it's basically it's a gel bed or whatever.
Nikki: Arabian Nights.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: Sexy Arabian Nights.
Salina: And just Mary Joe like doing that somersault onto the bed.
Nikki: That was really cute.
Salina: It felt like we were bringing out personalities and I just really enjoyed all that.
Nikki: Well, you really see people's personalities in bed.
Nikki: That's what I've heard.
Salina: That's okay.
Nikki: Generally speaking, I'd say I thought this was a clever episode and it was silly and I liked it.
Nikki: That was my only general reaction.
Salina: I figured you did because it's one of the absurd ones.
Nikki: Peak absurdity.
Salina: I know.
Nikki: I enjoy that comedy.
Salina: I'll go ahead and spoil and say I really like this one as well.
Salina: Another general reaction.
Nikki: Welcome to the podcast, Salina.
Salina: Thank you.
Salina: It's so nice to be here.
Salina: Julia's role in this episode is annoyed bystander the whole episode.
Nikki: She's just mad annoyed bystander and then also at times incensed and like a model American.
Nikki: She just all those things wrapped into one.
Salina: When Charlene and Mary Joe told that hot tub story and Julia perfectly paused and it said charming story.
Salina: I don't know, it's pretty great.
Salina: But if I was them, I would roll the tape on her sweet Georgia Brown routine every time she tried to get uppity.
Salina: For sure, I'd be like, here, you see this?
Salina: Why don't you calm down?
Salina: So I don't know, what else did you have in general?
Salina: Anything your general strays?
Salina: I just have one more.
Nikki: Got the strace.
Salina: Selena.
Salina: I just have one more.
Salina: Which is anthony is definitely me every day in my 30s with this line.
Salina: Well, I'm not going and that's final.
Salina: I'm not wearing a wig, I'm not wearing a bra and I'm not wearing any hose.
Salina: I'm not going and that's final.
Salina: And then he goes, that's me.
Salina: Right?
Salina: And the wig is particularly she's going.
Nikki: That seems complicated with the amount of hair you've got.
Nikki: Does not seem easy.
Salina: It can happen, though, as I learned from dressing up like daria.
Salina: There you go.
Salina: What you got?
Nikki: Did you notice we got a Mary Joe breast comment when she was talking about the gel bed?
Salina: So my like feels like a big old breast.
Nikki: It's just her every time.
Nikki: We should be back on the bingo game.
Salina: I know.
Nikki: That would be a good one.
Nikki: So we talked about this off mic because embarrassingly, last episode I thought I had written in my notes that Anthony stabbed himself in the eye in that episode.
Nikki: It's actually this one when we have that random line where they're like, what's up with your eye?
Nikki: And he's like, stab myself with a pencil.
Nikki: So Selena's theory is that it's to do with the cut lines that I'm about to mention.
Nikki: So Anthony falls asleep on Charlene, which also feels kind of random.
Nikki: Well, it feels random because they cut a bunch of lines saying that he had been up studying all night and he was really tired.
Nikki: So it's possible while studying, he stabbed himself in the eye, I think was the theory.
Nikki: We also learned that Charlene knows all of the world capitals and their number one exports from every country because she quote, yearns for knowledge, which is also something we've heard before.
Salina: Are you just guessing that's her?
Nikki: I did guess that was her, yeah.
Salina: Same.
Salina: I just think that's funny because we don't really know.
Salina: But when I not 100%, but you 100% know.
Salina: And I think that actually that's been kind of an exercise with this whole show, is that those cut lines?
Salina: Because we don't see who says it is a testament to well drawn characters.
Nikki: I think that's true.
Nikki: There was another cut line when Julia said she's pretty sure Suzanne acting as consuela.
Nikki: It's probably a federal offense.
Nikki: And the only reason I bring it up is because Suzanne pointed out that tearing the tag off of pillows is too, which, given more time, I probably should have fact checked that.
Nikki: It definitely says it on the pillow, but it's a federal offense.
Nikki: What does that mean, though?
Nikki: I don't know anyhow don't go tearing your tags off your pillows.
Salina: Yeah, don't go breaking my heart.
Salina: And don't go tearing tags off pillows.
Salina: Although I do, just to be clear.
Nikki: Or tearing up my heart.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Don't quit playing games with my heart.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: I was trying so bad song heart to Heart.
Nikki: That's a song, right?
Salina: Two of hearts.
Salina: That one.
Nikki: That one.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: I need you.
Salina: I need you.
Salina: Copyright violation.
Salina: Jail.
Salina: They're going to come get me for my beautiful singing voice and tearing tags on the pillows.
Salina: I had the return of Tony and Cassandra Hall.
Salina: That's the ones with the pillows.
Salina: This is the Beverly Hills couple.
Salina: Mary Joe went off back in episode she goes off on back in episode seven, which is Bernice's sanity hearing.
Salina: Did they seem, like, oddly obsessed with their sex life to you?
Salina: It feels like it came up in every scene.
Salina: But they did have their bed in.
Nikki: The they had their bed, yeah, I think that's probably why.
Salina: Yeah, but I just noticed it like every time it came up, it was like, we're laying in the bed where they're going to perform hundreds of sex acts.
Salina: And then the next one, it was like, I bet you they're out there making love outdoors right now, or whatever it was.
Salina: I was like, we just keep doing it over and over again.
Nikki: What you're watching happen with my glazed eyes and looking off into the distance is because yes.
Nikki: One of the things one of the things I liked was Charlene's quote where she said, we do seem to tell a lot of tacky stories and I don't understand it.
Nikki: Basically, we're very nice girls.
Nikki: For whatever reason, that line hit me so hard, I laughed every single time she said it.
Nikki: And I think that while you were saying that, I was like, because they tell a bunch of tacky stories.
Nikki: So they just keep going to the tackiest of tacky.
Nikki: They've gotten too comfortable with one another is what's happened.
Salina: I guess.
Salina: I think that line hit me, too, but it was like, it's okay to be sex positive, too.
Nikki: Is it also possible, though, that Cassandra and Tony talk a lot about sex?
Nikki: So then when you talk about them, that's really the only thing you say?
Salina: I will tell you that I would not be very comfortable, like if I went over to your house and you and Kyle were like just going on and on about it.
Salina: I would be like, I'm good.
Salina: But that is what I would consider maybe a slight overshare, unless someone is very interested, whereas two friends gabbing about something feels different to me and like a fun time.
Salina: I also wanted to tack on to this whole Tony and Cassandra.
Salina: Maybe it was Cassandra anyway thing.
Salina: I think that this should have run much earlier in the season, which we've seen before.
Salina: In addition to these airing out of order, it feels like a really big gap from seven to 24 for them to come up again as a client.
Salina: So that just was something that hit me.
Salina: Suzanne says she doesn't know where consuela is from, but in earlier episodes, we learned she's from San Salvador.
Salina: It's a little bit of a runner that she doesn't know.
Salina: I think.
Salina: I think that it's supposed to be funny.
Salina: She just doesn't care.
Salina: So she doesn't know.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: And no way I'm impersonating someone for $1,000 or whatever.
Salina: She maxed out at 2500.
Nikki: There's a lot more than 1000 today.
Salina: It would be $2,321 or 5800.
Salina: And got to tell you, I'm still not going to defraud the US.
Salina: Government for that.
Nikki: That's not enough to do.
Salina: That not enough.
Salina: And if I was him, I would.
Nikki: Especially as a former felon, if I.
Salina: Was him, I would be like, no, you need to pay him off.
Salina: Because he was like, this could go towards my loans.
Salina: I'm like, no, you can pay off all my loans.
Salina: And then maybe we can talk, maybe.
Salina: Just in case anybody's trying to figure out what does it cost to bribe what's Selena's bribe.
Salina: But here's the thing.
Salina: My college loans are paid off, so we'd have to start somewhere else.
Nikki: Jokes on you suckas.
Nikki: My last stray is that they doubled down on sugar Baker's.
Nikki: Address 1521 Sycamore.
Nikki: So we heard this in season three, the Reggie Mac Dawson Bellboy episode.
Salina: That's right.
Nikki: I looked at notes, so there's consistency.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: Check mark there.
Salina: Oh, good job.
Nikki: That's it.
Salina: How about things we liked?
Nikki: Told you about my.
Nikki: Line about the tacky stories.
Nikki: I really liked that line.
Nikki: And I loved Charlene's comeback about reading everyone's mail that comes across her desk.
Nikki: After Suzanne's comment about reading all the mail that comes into her house.
Nikki: You don't like it, get your own house.
Nikki: And so then Charlene says, you don't like it, get your own desk.
Nikki: I thought that was glorious.
Nikki: And then my other favorite part of the episode was Anthony taking the oath at the end and Mr.
Nikki: Tremaine winking at him.
Nikki: Oh, yes, it laughed so hard.
Nikki: That was funny.
Salina: I think we've covered all of mine because everything in the beginning was definitely a big like for me, just like from the moment they start talking about that bed, everything that happens when they're kind of cuddled up in it, just making jokes being besties.
Salina: One thing we didn't talk about is Julia asks if Mary Joe talking about sex in front of Anthony was appropriate.
Salina: Mary Joe says, sure, he's got to learn what it is sometimes.
Salina: And it did feel like to me, they almost feel like siblings, like all of them, except for Julia.
Salina: Julia is the mom.
Salina: I always like it when we get snippets about console.
Salina: Well, I don't always sometimes they're kind of mean.
Salina: But I did like this one.
Salina: She says, this is Suzanne.
Salina: I know she's into voodoo and she's temperamental, but we understand each other.
Salina: If I want her to make me a peach pie in the middle of the night, she doesn't.
Salina: If she gets upset and throws a knife, I overlook it.
Salina: Is that how you feel about me and you?
Salina: You'll overlook my knife throwing?
Salina: Because occasionally I'll make a big pie.
Nikki: Now I will.
Nikki: Now I'll be thinking that I hadn't before, but you're right.
Salina: So good.
Nikki: Their dynamic is so funny.
Nikki: Going back to that thing we've talked about before, it would never translate in real time.
Nikki: Like, if we watched it, it would never be as funny as the thought of that is.
Salina: And it's so perfect because Suzanne would want a peach pie in the middle of the night, as would we all.
Salina: And if you don't, then you haven't had a good peach pie.
Salina: And just the fact that she found.
Nikki: Her, like, soulmate house worker in the person that throws knives at her that she can't understand, that's glorious.
Nikki: To me, that's peak, Suzanne, it's just really good.
Salina: Just good.
Salina: What about dislikes?
Salina: I have nothing either, which means we got to go ahead and rate this.
Salina: And would you give it would you.
Nikki: Believe coming in close to tell you would you believe I originally only gave it four?
Salina: Yes.
Nikki: So I just I backed out.
Nikki: So my rating scale is Arabian Nights gel beds.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: And by I backed out, I mean, that's not clear.
Nikki: I brought the score up.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: I gave it a 4.75 out of five.
Salina: I knew you weren't going to give it a five.
Salina: You had zero dislikes.
Salina: I know, you put that sucker in a five.
Nikki: Such a wimp.
Salina: At least a 4.99.
Nikki: Okay, for the record, Nikki is changing the score to a 4.99.
Salina: I won't be happy unless when you make me crunch these numbers at the end of the season for 17,000 episodes, if I can have some decimal points.
Nikki: In there, I'll be using Excel to do the work for me.
Nikki: But yeah, I thought this episode was silly and it had plenty of anthony Consuela came out on top.
Nikki: In the end of everything, Consuela wins.
Salina: It's true.
Nikki: Because she is now a citizen and she didn't have to do crap.
Salina: She didn't do anything.
Nikki: So what's not to like about that?
Salina: Well, except she does all of Suzanne's.
Nikki: She has to work for Suzanne.
Nikki: That's the thing.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: So I also had zero dislikes, which means I gave it a five out of five, like one properly should.
Salina: And my rating scale was Lucy and Ethel style antics.
Salina: And I just love a Suzanne Anthony team up, especially when they're up to some foolish shenanigans like this one.
Salina: And not only did I like that closeness of the cast that I've already talked about, but the other thing I like about it, in terms of being almost like a really soft, b plot, it was funny, it was realistic for a design firm.
Salina: Like, it makes sense for some sort of furniture to get trapped there.
Salina: And it didn't pull away too much from the main thrust of the episode, but it gave the A plot room to breathe.
Nikki: It was just good.
Nikki: Pitch perfect.
Salina: It was just good.
Nikki: Real good.
Salina: 90S things.
Nikki: So this was a gel bed, apparently.
Nikki: But I'm putting it in the category of a waterbed.
Nikki: And that's a 90s thing.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: It's so funny because I have it as a spillover from the 80s.
Salina: But also have a question.
Salina: Dude, we need to bring this back.
Salina: It seemed comfortable.
Nikki: My parents had one.
Salina: Now, did they have a gel bed or do they have a water bed?
Nikki: So I should have asked them.
Nikki: They had a waterbed.
Nikki: But what I don't know is if there's some sort of additive that you add to it that makes it sort of gel.
Nikki: E.
Nikki: They had to put something in there so that the water didn't go stagnant.
Nikki: So there was some sort of treatment they put in.
Salina: That is a lot of work.
Nikki: It's maintenance, man.
Nikki: It's a swimming pool in your bed.
Nikki: That's right, is what it is.
Salina: Well, my uncle had like, a really fancy one, and that one was closer to, like, a gel.
Salina: There wasn't like a lot of movement.
Salina: So I have one when I was a kid and at my grandparents house.
Nikki: Okay.
Salina: And it was like a waterbed.
Salina: I was on a water balloon.
Nikki: Hot water bottle things.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Just like a lot.
Salina: Like you could get seasick.
Nikki: I don't really understand the appeal.
Nikki: I didn't really care for my parents.
Nikki: Yeah, I think they liked it, though.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Good for the back.
Salina: What?
Salina: I've been told if you've done weightlifting and you've hurt your back, will that.
Nikki: Happens to me all the time.
Salina: Or throwing it out from all the sex.
Salina: Got you that's time too.
Salina: That was all I had on mine.
Salina: Was too.
Salina: Was.
Salina: The Arabian Nights.
Nikki: Best Southern things.
Salina: Then I'm getting cut out of the podcast.
Salina: I had peach pie on here.
Salina: Yes, that seemed obvious enough.
Nikki: Mrs.
Nikki: Alia festival.
Salina: Oh, yeah.
Salina: She wore the wig.
Salina: Oh, is a wig.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: I think more sense, I think.
Salina: I was like how would that that.
Nikki: Also was sitting a super funny how he was sitting this doesn't look good.
Nikki: Or like, oh, no, this is bad.
Nikki: Something like that.
Nikki: The first time I was watching it, I was, like, not watching the screen.
Nikki: I was looking at something on my computer.
Nikki: And then I looked up and he's, like, full on wearing a wig and a dress.
Nikki: So I had to rewind it to see what doesn't look good.
Nikki: And I realized he was looking in.
Salina: A mirror and just sitting so masculine.
Salina: Really kind of put a zing on it.
Salina: And I also think there's something interesting, too, because it almost shows, like, the vulnerability of what we build around womanhood.
Salina: Because the minute he's in that dress and stuff and Charlene says anything about his teeth looking big or his feet looking big, he's like and gets all insecure about it.
Salina: And I'm like, well, welcome to the club, man.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: Have fun.
Salina: Come on in.
Salina: The water is not nice.
Salina: Water is depressing.
Salina: The water is very sad.
Salina: References we need to Talk About I.
Nikki: Wanted to mention one thing that could have potentially inspired this episode.
Nikki: So it's all about citizenship and immigration, and something was just feeling that question of sometimes is it important to back up a little bit and see why we're talking about this right now?
Nikki: So there was the Immigration Act of 1990, which was first introduced into Congress by Ted Kennedy in 1989.
Nikki: So it's feasible that they were having conversations about this act at the time that this episode was written.
Nikki: In very short, it increased the number of immigrants allowed to come to the US.
Nikki: Each year and expanded family immigration numbers wise.
Nikki: So, like, made it possible for more families to come to the US.
Nikki: But it cracked down on what defined, quote, a family.
Nikki: So it was very specific.
Nikki: It was, like, immediate family members or whatever the whole idea being.
Nikki: This is based on remarks I read from the George H.
Nikki: W.
Nikki: Bush administration who was in office at the time.
Nikki: The goals were to reunify more families so there was less one half of a family coming to the US.
Nikki: Being separated from their families.
Nikki: And then the other part of it was to support the economy by allowing more labor to enter the United States.
Nikki: So we wanted to expand immigration and make it possible for more people to come to the US.
Nikki: But we wanted to do it in a way that kept families together.
Nikki: What's the talking point?
Salina: What a time.
Nikki: What a time, man.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: So I wanted to mention that I.
Salina: Didn'T sit with that one for a minute.
Nikki: Don't look too hard.
Nikki: It happened.
Nikki: It's over.
Nikki: I think it's a nice concept.
Salina: It's a nice concept, Yankee Doodle.
Salina: So Charlene said she didn't know who he was, so I just figured I'd remove the mystery.
Salina: He's not real.
Salina: Just in case anybody doesn't know.
Nikki: Thank you.
Salina: So now you know.
Salina: But did you know that it was a mocking term that was used by the British against Americans, like in the lead up to the Revolutionary War?
Nikki: How'd that work out for them?
Salina: Well, we took it and we used it back against them.
Salina: Suckers.
Salina: Yes.
Salina: America.
Salina: That's actually what they shouted on the battlefield.
Salina: America did her done.
Salina: Although I do think they do go.
Salina: There's a turn.
Salina: And eventually we start using it as the unofficial anthem for the Continental Army.
Nikki: We reclaimed it.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: We reclaimed it.
Salina: Thank you.
Salina: I was trying to think of that word earlier, and then eventually it's a nursery rhyme.
Salina: Isn't time just very interesting?
Nikki: Wild.
Salina: Or the fact that Yankee Doodle went to town and riding on a pony, stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni did not actually come around until 1842.
Salina: That's a long time later.
Nikki: I don't understand what the macaroni is.
Salina: Oh, I do.
Nikki: Good.
Salina: So I looked at that.
Salina: So it's not pasta.
Salina: Macaroni was like a sling term at the time for fashion, like in the fashion or something.
Salina: And so basically they were saying it's like these idiots, they think of feathers being fancy or something.
Nikki: Oh, gosh.
Nikki: They were snarky.
Salina: Wow.
Salina: Holly yeah.
Nikki: That's clever.
Salina: Well, because Doodle, that was like a way of calling us PO dunks.
Nikki: Like hillbilly.
Nikki: I love language.
Nikki: It's very interesting for teaching me that.
Salina: I thought you might like that one more than to learn about Hugh Downs or Little Lulu.
Salina: But those are all other references that were made in the episode.
Salina: I will say, since we talked about cartoons already, I did have a VHS when I was little, 100 years ago.
Salina: And I did like little Lulu.
Salina: It was like throwback cartoons.
Salina: So it was all from the was like Donald Duck and he went off to World War II.
Nikki: That's depressing.
Salina: It really is.
Salina: I'm like, what are we teaching kids?
Salina: But Little Lulu, it's like she is skipping school, and the whole thing is about her realizing that she shouldn't skip school and it's all to, like, a 40s song.
Nikki: That's right.
Nikki: You still have that VHS?
Nikki: I got some kids at home.
Salina: Well, they don't want you to skip school, so they can send you off to war.
Salina: And that's the 1940s.
Salina: Kids, I'm going to say one more thing.
Salina: Jane Wyman I looked her up.
Salina: We've already talked about her on the podcast before.
Nikki: I know.
Salina: I'm not looking to do that.
Salina: But he's right.
Salina: He looked a little bit like her in that wig, like the cut and.
Nikki: Everything on that wig.
Salina: That's what they were talking about.
Salina: It did look very much he could.
Nikki: Have won the Mrs.
Nikki: Alia festival.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: What references do you want to take me through?
Nikki: That was it my immigration one.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: I didn't know if you have more.
Nikki: No, that was my the immigration one's.
Nikki: The one I wanted to mention.
Salina: Okay, that's it.
Salina: Oh, we're done now.
Nikki: I feel like I should have more.
Nikki: And furthermore next episode season four, episode 25.
Salina: It'S just laughable.
Nikki: Have faith.
Nikki: No, what will be laughable is when you go 28.
Nikki: Right, Nikki?
Nikki: We'd love everyone to follow along with us and engage Instagram and Facebook at Sweett and TV.
Nikki: Our TikTok handle is at sweettvpod and you can find us on YouTube by searching sweet.
Nikki: Tea TV.
Nikki: Our email address is sweettvpod@gmail.com and our website is www.sweettv.com.
Nikki: And on the website you can find all of our show notes.
Nikki: You can find some information on how to support the show if you're so inclined.
Nikki: And we'd love for you to rate or review the podcast wherever you listen.
Nikki: And then come back Thursday for extra sugar.
Nikki: We're going to talk about immigration and we're actually going to see, Selena, how well you and I both do on that infamous civics test, this multiple choice test people have to take to become a US citizen.
Salina: Anything could happen.
Salina: What's the stakes that we have to leave if we don't get it right?
Nikki: Honestly, I think at this point, Selena, it's just American pride.
Salina: American pride?
Nikki: Just the American pride that's on the.
Salina: Okay, well, we'll see how it goes.
Nikki: I will be doing my best.
Nikki: So that's it.
Salina: All right.
Salina: Well, you know what that means.
Nikki: What does it mean, Selena?
Salina: It means we'll see around the bend.
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