MADONNA IN PAJAMAS: KURT LODER ON EMPTY

Kurt Loder is still outside.

Kurt Loder: i need a distraction. or to distract myself. wait, is that a cannon i see over that bush? that's MY lucky star!!! i see a lot of people in line wearing one-piece bodysuits with glitter on the collar, cuffs, and belt and tassels on the kneepads.........oh i see, it's not Elvis, it's Evel Knievel...

Jen and i are still at the Bedtime Stories release slumber party. with Madonna. inside.

me: my sleep is tricky now. what if you're not a night person but also not a day person?

Jen R: you're an afternoon person who can only have sex in afternoon delights.

Madonna: that was me before i started doing music to channel it, you know?

Super Mario: it's a very BOUTIQUE thing to have a gardener come to your place on a Monday...

archived tennis messageboard: that thing you wrote about Bud Collins in 2007, no one has ever read it...

Victoria Ruffo: if there's ever a Destinos reboot...

Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman: the one show that made you long for how the world was back then. adults helping kids with their science. no politics, just human kindness. a world where the aim was to be Shel Silverstein.

Ruff Ruffman: 2024 was so long ago, that's wild.

top o' the muffin: the Irish good morning.

Vincent van Gogh manifesting his own bedroom from that famous painting of his: i almost got it. just need to manifest that blue ceramic waterbowl and water pitcher to wash one's ear. the bed somehow fits two!!!

Van Gogh's dog: a water bowl for humans? my favorite sport is baseball, i like the ball...

cops on Pluto: no, Cops on Pluto.

Molly Qerim: why did i finally relent and marry Stephen A. Smith? is it because the man has $100 million? no, it's because he's a big nerd. he's my favorite soap-opera actor...

Carrie: the most visceral movie of all time.

Alfred Hitchcock: i appreciated all the references to my work.

Stephen King: that was De Palma, not me!!!

Betty Buckley: you'll never forget your senior prom. those that go to their senior prom become well-adjusted adults because they experienced magic that night.

Carrie with her first relaxed smile: this prom will be memorable in other ways...

Betty with tears in her eyes: Carrie, you're the daughter i never had.

Vanilla Ice: what i did wasn't rap, it was salsa.

Lee Thompson Young: why'd i do it? all i'm saying is an interracial relationship with Lindy Booth would have been revolutionary at the time, Disney...

Julius Caesar at Orange Julius: do i get a discount? when i think of frothy i think of the sea and my helmeted horses!!! what's an orange? i only know apples. malls unnerve me, they're staid. 

Antony: seizure salad.

Cleopatra: you know oranges, baby, you gave me an orange as an engagement ring. i put the orange on my little finger...

Julius Caesar: ah yes, by the olive tree. olive juice, i love you. 

Kurt Loder skulks to the site of the cannonball shoot. all the '70s Match Game people are there in Evel Knievel flysuits: Betty White, Charles Nelson Reilly, Steve Allen.

Kurt Loder: Steve Allen, you look like my father!!!

Steve Allen: i'm everyone's dad who went to Princeton.

Charles Nelson Reilly: know how you know it's Match Game 1982 with the BLUE background but Gene Rayburn still hosting? because i'm crabby on the show.

Kurt Loder: how was it playing Llort?

Charles Nelson Reilly: oh Don Bluth was a pansy. just go back to Disney, Don!!! his animation is sublime but the man can't write a story to save his life.

Kurt: Cannonball Run. well, Cannonball Run II.

Charles: i fucked Sally Field, Burt Reynolds never did.

Sally Field: i fell in love with Charles's '70s acid he took for that kid's show.

Charles: fuck Rin Tin Tin, my dog will always be Benji. 

Kurt Loder: hey Betty, can i get in the cannon before you?

Betty White: why do you want to leave so badly?

Kurt: why did you marry Allen Ludden?

Betty: everyone keeps saying that to my face!!! why? 

Kurt: a woman of your gravitas deserved Robert Redford.

Betty: is it working?

Kurt: no, i can still hear Madonna calling my name, Madonna calling me back to the sleepover...

 

 

MADONNA IN PAJAMAS: SLUMBERED

 

Kurt Loder and his sad eyes are getting ready for Madonna's release party of her latest album Bedtime Stories which is taking place in a HUGE warehouse made up to look like a giant slumber party. he arrives in a suit and tie and MTV mic.

Madonna in pajamas: come on, Kurt, you gotta loosen up, everyone says you're creepy.

Kurt Loder: i've got a lot of problems. but they belong to me.

Madonna: see what i mean? i toned it down for you, i'm not wearing nothing to bed, i'm wearing teddy bear pajamas, not a teddy. and non-Playboy bunny slippers.

Kurt: you know you're right.

Kurt comes back in a red Playboy smoking jacket and adds to the throw-pillow collection by tossing a pillow with tassels to the pile.

Kurt: so what's the deal with your lyrics? they make no sense. rain? what is rain?

Madonna: the lyrics aren't important to me, it's the primal feel of the music. the drumbeat in your cunt or cock. everything is sex, don't you know me by now?

Madonna: i thought we were friends.

Kurt: this is my job. it's my job to be your friend.

Madonna: do i ask about your wife again?

i spot Jen sinking in a pit of pillows in the corner.

Jen R: quick!!! quicksand!!! grab an outdoor-bazaar flying carpet and pull me outta this soft sinkhole!!! how are you enjoying the sleepover?

me: why'd you have to wear a negligee?!!! you're the only one at this party who's sexy. it's gonna be uncomfortable looking at you all night.

Jen: oh get some punch. as in my punch to your face. this negligee's blue, it's not your color, you won't get the tingle.

Jen: Madonna was something special in the '90s. something sumptuous.

Madonna: you know i'm genuinely sorry that Britney Spears took over from me in 2000 to the present year, i really hated that. i apologize in advance to all the people of the future: it really sucked that it went from grunge to bubblegum pop...

Super Mario: see Memorial Day just doesn't do it for me and my garbage men. it just means we have to collect trash on a Saturday. who wants to collect trash on a Saturday?!!!

Jeff Teague naked in bed with a woman: mama i ain't got no clothes on.

Jeff Teague's mama: i pulled up to the driveway, i saw 2 cars in the driveway, and i came into the house. who's this bitch? are you eating your oatmeal, Jeff-poo?

Pope Bob: there is nothing better than two old gay men.

Vicious: right?

Mason: i was the Kramer of Vicious. 

Penelope: i'm not like this at home...

Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen: it was chocolate on the bedsheets, we swear!!!

Vanilla Ice: take it from me, if you're having a conversation in a dark room, everything's not okay.

Kristin Minter: in the '90s we ran around unfinished wood house foundations for fun.

Dr. Robbins: a therapist is no fun. tell your problems to a friend...

Sonoko from Sailor Moon Sailor Stars: my massive mane of green hair is actually Cringer from He-Man hiding on my head. Japanese girls play softball wearing casino card-dealer visors instead of helmets...

Bert & Ernie in the Red Baron's plane upside down.

Ernie: it's an upside-down world, Bert *Ernie hissing laugh*

Bert: i've always been jealous of your shirt, Ernie, it's more '70s than mine.

Ernie: hey Bert, when you build a house, don't put nails in your mouth, you'll get tetanus.

Bert: don't say that, Ernie, tetanus can't be the word of the day!!! you'll scare the kids, Ernie!!! this isn't Wonder Showzen. nobody had a bottlecap collection when the '80s ended...

goth man with the white pallid makeup: why are we depicted in the media as always being UNUSUALLY HAPPY? it's creepy. pass the Coke.

Melissa Gilbert: Andrew McCarthy made out with Liza Minnelli in the '80s.

Andrew McCarthy: i made out with Rob Lowe in the '80s!!!

Gilbert Arenas: Shai Butter, take Chet Holmgren's watch!!!

Chet Holmgren: come on, holmes, i liked that Sesame Street watches-in-the trenchcoat skit.

Gilbert Arenas: remember Swatch watches? mine was waterproof for shark tanks...

i bump into Kurt Loder in the parking lot. seems Kurt was running away from something.

Kurt Loder: damn, kid, why'd you have to get me right on the forehead bone?

me: sorry. i was distracted by my own thoughts.

Kurt: i know the feeling. oh fuck it's night outside!!! i forgot about that, this is trippy.

me: my friend Cindy, she invited me to The Greene Turtle over Instagram. right there, then at that moment, 4PM on a Wednesday, all i had to do was GO to her!!! she was so close, i was tasting the nachos we'd split as we watched World Cup soccer.........me and my future wife.........*daydreaming*

me: problem was, that sports bar is in Baltimore...

Kurt: bicoastal love, it's a motherfucker. the cruelty of distance. speaking of, i can already hear Madonna calling me back to the slumber party, do you know any place around here where i can get a wife?  

 

 

  

MAINE CABIN ON STILTS: CANCER IN THE FINGERS

 

i'm inside the cabin, where i'm immediately accosted by grandma. who wants me to spill my day.

me: well i talked to my friend Cindy, she has a way about her. i told her all my friends are Cobaining themselves left and right and she texts me a pic of her plate of nachos from The Greene Turtle.

grandma: what the fuck is a text? well it's a nice big plate. full of guac. that's what you needed to see at that moment, she's very intuitive.

me: she's a good listener. i told her the story of how i was in line at Safeway and a kindly old woman dropped the soap off the conveyor belt at checkout. as i picked the wrapped bar of soap up for her she says, "it's the cancer in my fingers, i can't pick up things anymore."

Jen R: did she pick YOU up? not over her head, to go on a date.

grandma: and what did Cindy say?

me: she texted me very cautiously with "I don't want to see that old woman go."

grandma: aw, that old woman was cute. which makes her all the more devastating.

grandma: are you here for the show?

Jen and me: we're scared.

Jen: i'm starved, ma'am.

grandma: we wait for grandpa in this house, young lady who's not that young!!!

Jen: old ma'am do you have any Italian pesto salad? oh my GOD i fucking love pesto salad!!! that needs to be my ONLY salad.

Pope Bob: i'm genuinely scared of the New World Order.

Catalina: i mean damn. FINALLY!!! what took you so long?

Pope Bob: but i still want John Lennon "Imagine" played at my funeral...

Billie from Green Day: Journey "Who's Crying Now," we wanted that to be our song, so we made "Longview" instead...

Vincent Price: i'm your Friendly Neighborhood Dracula.

Pope Bob: the first electric Ferrari? sure. i don't care anymore. about any of this. just get me a Ferrari poster from that Scholastic Book Fair i missed in 1984 because i was home with the mumps...

Vanilla Ice: see i was a fly dancer, then a rapper. in case you weren't down with my dope rhymes. i was made to be on roller skates with Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles, not sucka MCs. 

Maiara Walsh: is that MY house or Pee-wee's Playhouse? it's my house, has ee cummings graffiti on the walls...

Kristin Minter: send me to the ER, stat!!!

Vanilla Ice: if you were an 11-year-old fan, you watched Cool as Ice as a SERIOUS enterprise.

Michael Weiss: this always happens to me, i fall in love with a woman on Instagram based on her profile pic, but that was her 20 years ago!!! i want the YOUNG you!!! not the NOW you!!!

Dolly Parton: "9 to 5," men had to use a yellow legal pad with the lyrics written down, because women in this movie are becoming the lawyers, not the secretaries...

Larry David: you're realizing only now that i wear the SAME clothes everywhere i go...

Spielberg: running in the rain is VISUALLY cool. but you get wet.

Lucas: running in a lightning storm is VISUALLY cool. but you get electrocuted.

Jim Cantore: i'll do it. has there ever been an uncool white bald Jedi?

Darth Vader: just me...

Jimmy Kimmel: Adam Carolla is like a life partner to me. we have different politics.

Adam Carolla: listen just give me Romney and i'm cool. we can come together on one thing: Dr. Drew and Ben Stein are brothers.

Jimmy: i see it now!!!

Adam: remember the water-displacement as a way to measure your dick?

3 body problem: not a devil's threesome...

Gayle King: that was a very painful time for me. when i found my husband in bed with my best friend.

Oprah: especially since i was that best friend. come on, it was the '80s, everyone was doing it.

funeral: you don't need a limo...

Follow That Bird: all the Sesame Street humans were obviously in Godspell...

Jim Henson: it's cool to see Sesame Street and Bert & Ernie's loveshack apartment as 3D spaces.

Les Claypool: the country hick in the "My Name Is Mud" music video is one of the Sleaze Brothers!!!

Diane Venora: i participated in the hottest sex scene in cinematic history. i was an accomplished criminologist in Wolfen, profiling the best left-wing anarchist Palestinian activists out there, the ones who were gonna actually bring about the Palestinian state and end things. end hostilities. i took up with a strange tubby police man Albert Finney who was a Brit masquerading as a Yank with a bad accent and fro, i can spot fakers a mile away. our lovemaking was squishy and BLURRED by the werewolf's point of view, it's a whole complicated thing. i moaned DEW which has a double meaning: Dewey and female cum. me a fresh-faced PhD was left completely naked in a strange bed the next morning like a cheap whore, with a bewildered cat on the bed with me, this was so '80s.

grandpa is sitting on a sofa as old as he is watching the bulky TV box in front of him. grandma wheels the tray on the hard lime-green shag carpet up to his bony chin. on the tray is a small pizza.

me: watching golf is the show?

Jen: your grandpa looks like the old guy on all fours in the Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" music video looking up at the chandelier with a dazed smile.

grandpa: thank you, that man had some great ear hair. tiny dragons flying around that chandelier, right? my memory's not so good, i only remember dragons. i'm putting not cashews on my pizza but cashaw as a topping, cashaw leaves...

grandma: isn't pizza the perfect tv-dinner food?

MAINE CABIN ON STILTS: STEPHEN KING DOWNTOWN

 

Stephen King: see your grandfolks' one-room house is the suburbs. the downtown of Maine is south of the pond. it's just like any other downtown: one general store, one greasy-spoon diner, one outhouse. 

Kurt Cobain: and there's always a place where you can buy fireworks.

Stephen: i've been having writer's block. i'm in a rut. i'm trying to come up with my next monster but it's too quiet around here. monsters are forged out of the cauldron of CITY NOISE. care to join me downtown?

Jen R: just call us Julie Brown.

we walk there. it takes a while to leave the lake.

Stephen: why is it that whenever i go downtown the sky is always a forlorn shade of cobalt-grey?

the diner is filled with regulars as the jukebox plays Journey "Who's Crying Now": grandma and a newly-coupled Debralee Scott and Jonathan Frakes. Debralee Scott is eating a BIG-ASS pouch of Jack Link's Steak Nuggets, Jonathan is just drinking water.

Debralee Scott: don't be a bitch.

Jonathan Frakes: fine, Sprite Tea. don't call me Nathan, i hate that. 

me: awww, Deb and Jon look like my mom and dad young during the first month of their courtship 

Jen: bring back courting!!!

grandma: i'm having chicken-chow-mein pizza. don't worry, i carry a bottle of Pepto Bismol in my backpocket, this stuff is pink gold. you like my big butt?

me: yes, grandma.

Carrie: the '70s were the last decade women had hairy bushes and people said "service" on the volleyball court instead of "hey you, it's your serve, go."

Kaye Stevens: eat your heart out, Lana from Three's Company!!! i am you in real life!!! i'm the one with the anxiously amorous voice.

Gene Rayburn: for the rest of us, Match Game is a job, for Kaye Stevens, it's her Primal Laugh therapy.

LaToya Jackson: as you can see, i never wanted to be a Jackson.

Randy Jackson: i was the randiest of the Jacksons, i made a pass at Carol Burnett, i told her, "lay it on me, mama!!!"

Carol Burnett: i still have no idea what that means.

Vlasic: that's one CRUNCHY pickle. 

Claussen: but that's just it, your pickles are NOT crunchy, they're SOGGY. your draw is that your pickles are spicy, ours are just cold. 

Melissa Maker: i'm taking notes.

Pope Bob: "Disarm" is my favorite song.

Billy Corgan: i'm honored. everyone hates me. i USED to be a good Catholic Chicago Irish boy...

Pope Bob: and now?

Billy: that bridge was burned when i formed a band.

Pope Bob: AI is scary. i wet my priest pants thinking about it. 

Billy: hey i ain't no robot. you can tell we use a real voice and real guitars, who would want to COPY my awful voice?

Trent Reznor: Billy, can i borrow you for a few samples?

Billy: it's okay, a drum machine is not cheating...

Daniel Stern: do i narrate your dreams?

Alan Watts: or do i narrate your dreams? the two of us can only have a voice-off in my dreamworld...

Shaq: $1 billion isn't enough. i need to marry an Arab princess.

Violetta Laze: i'm a working actor.

Shaq: that's okay, let's do it.

Maiara Walsh: i can play Middle-Eastern...

Shaq: YES YOU CAN!!! you do look good but i'm only attracted to your eyes. your eyes, girl, they're wolf eyes!!! they're like those Darren E. Burrows wolf eyes.

Darren E. Burrows: i turn into a werewolf at night, all Indians do. Edward James Olmos is my father. Edward James Olmos created the entire Native American population by continuously fucking on full moons.

Lauren Shehadi: me?

Shaq: not you, you're too close to work...

Jocelyn Hudon: i'm a Canadian actress. i did a Hallmark movie. now all i need to do is voice an anime and get a picture of my feet taken.

Colonel Sanders sits at the far table of the diner.

Stephen King: Colonel.

Colonel Sanders: Steve. i shoulda called it King Chicken.

Stephen: i pronounce it Colon-el as in eating your chicken gave me colon cancer.

Colonel Sanders: Steve do you want me to spill the beans as it were? you want me to reveal my secret?

Stephen: wait let me get my notebook.

Colonel Sanders: your order of KFC chicken will be RUINED unless you dip it in hot sauce. THAT is the real monster.