Baby Mama and the Massive Raw Food Fail
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Baby Mama Movie and Raw Food?
Justin and I don’t go to movies very often, but we do rent DVDs frequently. What can we say, we love movies! Especially comedies.
We were really busy when Baby Mama was out in theaters and we didn’t get a chance to see it then. We have been looking forward for Baby Mama to come out on DVD, and we rented it from Redbox as soon as it came out at midnight last night.
Baby Mama is a hilarious comedy with the comedy tag team of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. If you are not familiar with the film, here’s the plot in a nutshell: Tina Fey’s character, Kate, is 37 and wants to have a baby……BAD. Unfortunately she doesn’t know about Maca, and is told she is infertile. She decides to find a surrogate mother and chooses Amy Poehler’s character to have her baby. And the rest is a roller coaster ride of slapstick and funny jokes.
What does Baby Mama have to do with raw food?!
Everything. Baby Mama is the first film that we know of that has really tried to put a direct jab at raw food and raw food restaurants. This is as blatant poking fun at raw foodists in the media as we have ever seen.
About 3/4 through the film, Kate goes on a date with a guy named Rob who owns a local juice and smoothie bar. He is all about small business, and there are shots of his store highlighting two very pretty Vita-Mix 5200s! On their date, Rob (played by Greg Kinnear) takes Kate to what is supposed to be a raw food restaurant.
Their waiter, “Chet”, (a reference to Chet Day, perhaps?) asks to take their order. Chet asks them if they “are familiar with the Raw Food Vegan Movement”. Literally, that is a quote from the movie. And both of them awkwardly say yes.
As soon as Justin and I heard this, we had to stop the DVD and freak out with laughter!
This is where everything goes wrong.
1) Sea Kelp Pizza. Rob asks about the “Sea Kelp Pizza”. Chet the waiter explains the flavors of Sea Kelp Pizza to have a somewhat “dirt taste…but very nice.”
DIRT TASTE? ARE THEY SAYING THAT RAW FOOD TASTES LIKE DIRT?!
Oh, Hollywood. We thought you were so hip. We thought you’ve been to a raw food restaurant. Obviously you’ve never been. Haven’t you been to Pure Food and Wine? Or somewhere out in L.A.?
2) Blue Green Algae. Kate and Rob somehow decide on the “Blue Green Algae”…and we asked ourselves…how are they going to show blue-green algae?
- Is it going to be in a drink?
- Is it going to be in a smoothie?
- Are they making it into a soup?
- Are they actually going to eat it plain?
- Who comes up with this stuff for movies?
From what little we could see of the mysterious Blue Green Algae, it seemed to be a salad on a plate.
Obviously whoever came up with this reference had never experienced blue-green algae themselves. They thought it must have been a funny joke to put in a movie.
Yeah. It’s hilarious…hilarious at how inaccurate this is!
Here’s where it gets strange….
3) As Chet the waiter places the blue-green algae on the table, he also gives Kate and Rob the supposed raw food equivalent of the bread basket: a yeast ball.
Let me repeat this: a yeast ball.
I think I am going to spontaneously combust from the mixture of emotions when I saw this “Yeast Ball”. Apparently it is a ball of yeast. Laughter, sadness, frustration, absurdity, all rolled into my own emotional yeast ball.
You are probably reading this and not believing us when we say they actually think that raw foodists eat mushy balls of yeast.
We have photographic evidence:
This is very gross. Nuff said.
Greg Kinnear’s expression is priceless. That’s what I looked like when I first saw it too.
This is not a seed cheese pate’. This is a big ball of yeast. 99.9% of raw foodists tend to avoid yeast due to candida and other issues. Some individuals use nutritional yeast occasionally which is very different from bread dough yeast. Whoever was a consultant to this movie on providing jokes on the raw food movement completely got it wrong.
The references to raw food is this film is Massive FAIL.
After the yeast ball incident there is this banter between Kate and Rob mistaking each other to be vegan. They both admit that they love meat, and they leave the restaurant.
Whoa. We want to let people know right now that you don’t have to be a vegan or never eat meat in order to eat at a raw food restaurant. We just want to let you know that there are lots of people who eat at raw food restaurants who are carnivores at home. We don’t eat meat, but we welcome you to try raw food even if you’re not a raw foodist! And we promise that ZERO raw food restaurants serve yeast balls!
This whole “raw food restaurant” part of the story is a bit confusing because Rob seems so unaware as to what raw food is…but he runs a juice and smoothie bar that looks to be a very hip raw friendly place. Get your storyline right!
The other mini fail? If they wanted to use a raw food restaurant, why not pretend it was in one of the actual raw food restaurants in Philadelphia where the story is set. Kind Cafe’ comes to mind, among other raw food and raw friendly choices. We used to live in Philly, and I bet some of you Philly peeps could come up with some suggestions. The set design for the restaurant didn’t look “raw” enough to me. Could have had more wheatgrass in the background. It looked really plain. Maybe that was what they were going for - raw food is plain and boring and full of yeast.
And if this isn’t enough for you to see the film, you should see Steve Martin in one of his best character roles as he plays the CEO of a company strongly resembling Whole Foods. Steve’s character in the film is there to make fun of “us types” who are into health and nutrition and organics and spirituality and vibes and Oprah…but I think it is in all good fun, and I hope that those involved in the film actually enjoy us healthy people.
Attention Hollywood: If you want to make fun of the raw food movement, we’ll help you do it right! Justin and I are here to offer consulting for your next project. We know what is truly funny about raw food, and what props and sets will guarantee laughs for both raw foodists and the rest of the world. You don’t want to do it wrong! We are completely serious in our offer to help you make your project realistic yet humorous to a wide audience. Contact us today and we will show you what is truly funny about raw food.
OK, here’s your mission for this week:
Your Mission:
A) See Baby Mama. See the yeast ball for yourself. Then leave a comment and tell us your thoughts.
B) If you have ever made a sea kelp pizza, you need to send us a photo of this pizza. Contact us and send us a link to your pizza and we’ll post it in a follow-up post. A recipe would be helpful for future movie-makers so they can make their own sea kelp pizza.
~ Heidi
Raw Food Right Now!