Crocodile Dundee

Episode 253: Crocodile Dundee (1986)

Theme: Rep-Title Month

Hosts: Oz & Curtis

This week, Oz and Curtis wrap up Rep-Title Month with the vast, alligator-infested Australian Outback in the 1986 global phenomenon, Crocodile Dundee. It’s an Oscar-nominated, sleeper-hit fish-out-of-water comedy that proves a water buffalo can be tamed with a simple wave of a hand, a subway station is an ideal venue for a game of crowd-surfing telephone, and you should never—under any circumstances—bring a three-inch switchblade to a bowie knife fight. Grab your canteen, mind the quote marks around the title, and remember: that's a knife.

The hosts break down:

• Mick "Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan): An intensely charismatic, hyper-honest bushman whose mythos involves surviving a crocodile attack, wrestling wild animals, and navigating New York City using the exact same naive, spiritual logic he uses in the bush.

• Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski): An ambitious, nepotistic Newsday reporter who heads out to the Northern Territory to cover a regional legend, only to find herself falling in love with a man who sleeps on floors and talks to stray dogs.

• Bert the Saltwater Crocodile: The ultimate 90-year-old Australian cinema veteran whose main role is to attack a canteen, provide an Oscar-nominated romantic catalyst, and grin for his official Wikipedia portrait.

• The "That's Not a Knife" Moment: A legendary, street-level confrontation where a three-inch switchblade is instantly rendered irrelevant by an 18-inch custom Bowie knife with a buffalo horn handle.

• The Subway Finale: A high-intensity, crowd-surfing romantic rescue that relies entirely on a game of crowd-amplified telephone across a packed New York subway platform.

Final Verdict:

Oz — 75 Stereotypical New Yorkers

Curtis — A 12-Inch Bowie Knife