Movie Time: Two On a Guillotine

 Last weekend, the number one movie in America was Avengers: Endgame.  A nifty trick for a movie that came out 7 years ago.  

To solidify connections to the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday, the re-release contains about 5 minutes of extra footage.

I'm not really sure how I feel about the return of the Avengers to the MCU.  I kind of think the bloom is off that particular rose.

I gave Captain America: Brave New World a miss last year and despite it's resounding success with critics and the box office this year, missing Spider-Man: Brand New Day has not particularly hurt my feelings. 

I don't feel much anticipation for Avengers: Doomsday.  Still, can I resist a Marvel movie that features everyone who was ever in a Marvel movie?  

I will know more about how I feel come December.  

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After watching Supergirl the week before, Andrea and I decided to re-watch the 2025 Superman film.  It was a delight to see this film again, even without any extra footage.

Watching these two movies back to back does really highlight the shortfalls of Supergirl compared to Superman.  

Maybe the best idea for a sequel to Superman would've been a spotlight on Mr. Terrific.  I'm down for a movie or TV series project starring Edi Gathegi as the world's smartest annoyed person.

Now it's on to this week's movie post.

It's... Movie Time!   

It's October now which means we're on a countdown to Halloween.  

We're on a countdown of Andrea bugging me on when I'm going to put up the Halloween decorations. (Which will be followed in short order by pressure to put up Christmas stuff.) 

The horror! The horror! 

So as we face down the cold clammy embrace of Halloween, I'm going to dedicate this Movie Time space to some older horror films of questionable quality and taste.

Today we're going back to 1965 and Two On a Guillotine, an American horror film produced and directed by William Conrad and starring Connie Stevens, Dean Jones and Cesar Romero. 

The movie opens on a scene of torment, terror and torture.

A blonde woman in a diaphonous gown, her hands bound over her head, watches in helpless horror as a man with sinister eyes and a learing expression approaches with a sword. 

With a sudden thrust, he pushes the blade into her stomach, as blood gushes from the wound.  Struggling and screaming in pain and terror, she is subject to another lunge of the sword and she slumps against her bonds as death claims her.

Then a curtain falls in front of our dead damsel as her assailant turns to face the applause of his theater audience.

Yep, this was all a magic trick and the woman enters the stage, totally unharmed saved for the patches of blood on her gown where she was impaled by the sword.

OK, I will grant this is a really good trick.  

But how the hell was any of that entertaining?  

Behold John Harley Duquesne, magician extraordinaire, and his lovely wife and stage assistant, Melinda.  Apparently his particular schtick is putting Melinda in various death traps and pretending to kill her.   

His latest scenarios of lethal legerdemain involves a guillotine. Duquesne demonstrates the lethality of the device by cutting of the head of their daughter's favorite doll.  

Daddy will just buy her another one.  

So the blade is super sharp but it is all still just a magic trick and Melinda will not be in any real danger.

No fair, all of you out there guessing where this is gonna go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah! The trick will go awry and John Harley Duquesne will behead his beloved Melinda and go koo-koo for Cocoa Puffs until he dies, a broken and tortured man.  

But you're really not supposed to know that because the movie jumps from Duquesne demonstrating the device on the daughter's doll to 20 years later and we're at his funeral.

The funeral is a weird deal.  Duquesne's coffin has windows on the top and sides so you can see his head. Apparently it's part of some insane bet he made that after he died, he would pull off the ultimate trick and escape from the grave. Hence the windows, to prove he's in there and he's dead.

Showing up at the funeral is ... Melinda?

Nope, it's Duquesne's daughter, Cassie.

(Connie Stevens plays both roles.) 

Cassie has been on the outs with dear old dad since her mom "mysteriously disappeared" years before and was  quite surprised to get the call that her father was dead and she was in his will.  

Congratulations, Cassie! Your psychotic magician dad has left you a haunted mansion and all you have to do to own it forever is stay in the damn thing for seven nights.

Reporters come sniffing around, thinking there's a story in all these shenanigans but Cassie wants nothing to do with these vultures.  

Val Henderson thinks he has a shot at charming his way into Cassie's good graces and getting a really big scoop as long as he doesn't let her know he's a reporter.  

What follows is a serious of weird occurences in the  Duquesne mansion, some of which are clearly cheap parlor tricks.  The screaming skeleton on a rope pulley is a nice touch.

Other strange happenings are not as easy to explain, things appearing and disappearing, the whispering voices, the disturbing cries and mysterious moans.  

Is the mansion really haunted?

Is it in fact haunted by John Harley Duquesne?

Has he kept his vow to escape the grave?

SPOILER:  John Harley Duquesne ain't dead! 

This very much still alive delusional dad has been sneaking about the house, pyschologically torturing his daughter who is the spitting image of his beloved Melinda.  

And he's ready to perform the guillotine trick one more time because he's worked out what went wrong last time and he's intends to star Melinda Cassie in the performance.   

Cassie is laid out on the guillotine, her neck in the path of the threatening blade.  Oh, one more point of order: Duquesne has changed an unconscious Cassie out of her clothes into one of Melinda's dresses.  

So THAT creepy factor is cranked up pretty damn high.

Henderson barges into to save Cassie but gets into a fight with Duquesne. In the course of the fight, they bump into the guillotine and hit the lever holding up the blade.

Oh shit! The blade comes down and a head falls into the basket!

Fuck no! Cassie's dead?!?!

SPOILER: No! 

He may be a crazy crackpot but John Harley Duquesne has successfully pulled off his great guillotine trick.  

Cassie is all right, no thanks to Henderson but the two of them kiss as the police arrive to arrest Duquesne for crimes.

And we have mercifully reached the end.  

Connie Stevens thought the script was stupid but hey, what's a girl with a contract with Warner Bros. supposed to do? 

The score was Max Steiner's last film score. Here are some much better movies that featured Steiner compositions.

• Gone With the Wind 
• Casablance
• Now Voyager
• King Kong

As for the film that would serve as Max Steiner's swan song, he was less than magnanimous towards Two On a Guillotine.  "It wasn't a picture, it was an abortion ... The guillotine was placed in the wrong place ... they should have cut off William Conrad's head for producing the thing."

William Conrad would only direct two more feature films after Two On a Guillotine. He mostly directed for television and also worked as an actor on crimes shows such as Cannon and Jake & the Fatman.  BONUS: Conrad was also the voice of the narrator on Rocky & Bullwinkle. 

The role of reporter Val Henderson was played by Dean Jones, an affable actor known for more family friendly features. After  Two On a Guillotine, Dean Jones' next movie was That Darn Cat for Disney.  In 1995, he was inducted as a Disney Legend for his film work.

In the role of John Harley Duquesne was Cesar Romero.  With dozens of film and TV roles on his resume, Romero's greatest notoriety came from playing the Joker of the Batman TV series in the 1960's.   

Romero refused to shave his signature mustache to play the Joker so white make up was applied over the mustache.

Speaking of a TV show based on a comic book... 

Dell Comics published a comic book adaption of Two On a Guillotine.  

cover by Dick Giordano
& Vince Colletta

Two On a Guillotine is a bit of a rote by the numbers thriller saved by a winking self awareness of it's goofy haunted house setting and some pleasant romantic chemistry between Connie Stevens and Dean Jones.  

While it is by far so not a great movie, Two On a Guillotine may well be the best one I'm going to writing about in this space for October. 

Next week: a movie the producers described as "The Maddest Story Ever Told" as a family of genetic mutants terrorize guests in their strange and dangerous home.

From 1967, it's Spider-Baby.

We've got that to look forward to next week. 

Your Friday Video Link Goes To the Dogs!

Like it says in the title:

Your Friday Video Link goes to the dogs! 

First up is Pop-Tart who finds a safe and loving forever home but it takes awhile for her to believe she's gonna be OK.

Your next video is a shelter dog going through a gamut of emotions realizing he's being adopted.  

Finally, a little kitten meets a Labrador puppy and it's TOO CUTE!   

That is that for this week's Your Friday Video Link.

Over the weekend, we've got Movie Time and Star Trekking.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.

Especially be good to dogs.  

Comic Book Retro Spotlight: Shazam#15

Over the last three months in Comic Book Retro 50, I chronicled my purchase of Justice League of America#135-#137 which featured the annual Justice League/Justice Society team up and introduced these heroes of Earth 1 and Earth 2 to a 3rd Earth, designated Earth S...."S" as in Shazam.

Earth S is the home of the original Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Family as well as various other super heroes formerly published by Fawcett Comics.  

JLA#135-#137 was NOT the first crossover of Earth S with the another Earth in the DC Multiverse.

Back in 1974, I purchased Shazam#15 which featured a visit from Earth 1 by Superman's arch nemesis, Lex Luthor. 

Worlds collide in a mash up of mystery and mayhem when "Captain Marvel Meets Lex Luthor!?!"   

In this tale from writer Denny O'Neil and illustrated by Bob Oksner and Tex Blaisdell, Lex Luthor is working on his latest device that will help him defeat his hated foe, Superman, once and more all.

Luthor will use science to gather the forces of magic to which Superman is vulnerable and blast him to smithereens! 

Luthor decides to test the device on an errant issue of Shazam one of his minions left lying around with unusual results.

So Lex is a bit wobbly from meeting a talking tiger?

Wait til he meets the talking worm! 

Mr. Mind is perhaps Captain Marvel's most sinister enemy.

Yeah, he's a worm. But he's an EVIL worm.

A worm of EVIL.

Who also reads comic books. 

So here's the deal, Sparky! 

Mr. Mind and Lex Luthor create a situation where Billy Batson needs to change into Captain Marvel. Lex uses his doohickey to siphon off part of the magic lightning.

Then they lure Captain Marvel into an aquarium and then....

Billy uses his wits and his ever present red sweater to secure an escape from this water death trap.  

Which is more than enough for Lex Luthor.

It's time to git! 

Boy, Denny O'Neil does love that "sealed in a pool with a shark" death trap.  He had the Joker seal Batman in one in Batman#251, "The Joker's Five Way Revenge". 

Art by Neal Adams 

The rest of Shazam#15 features a collection of reprints.

Art by Pete Costanza

Art by Kut Shaffenberger

Art by CC Beck 

The issue wraps up with a NEW Captain Marvel Jr. story by E. Nelson Bridwell  with art by Kurt Shaffenberger.  These two will become the principal  creative team on Shazam in 1976 starting with issue #25.

FUN FACT:  Freddy Freeman's magic word is not Shazam but Captain Marvel.  Which means Captain Marvel Jr cannot say his own name.  

Going back to the issue's lead story, ever since DC got the rights to publish the new adventures of Captain Marvel and friends, fans were anxious to see Cap meet up with Superman.

Shazam#15 brought those two worlds together in a very wacky Shazam-like fashion but DC's still tap dancing around bringing together the World's Mightest Mortal and the Man of Steel.

It looked like fans might get their long desired Superman/Captain Marvel encounter in Superman#276.  

But play close attention to this cover by Nick Cardy and that guy speeding towards Superman ain't who you think it is.

Written by Elliott S! Maggin and drawn by Curt Swan & Bob Oksner, "Make Way For Captain Thunder" tells the tale of young Willie Fawcett who can magically transform into a super powered adult, Captain Thunder.  

Willie is from an Earth in a different dimension and for reasons of plot has crossed over to Superman's Earth where, for more reasons of plot, Captain Thunder is evil.  

Superman and Captain Thunder go at it 'round and 'round until Superman is able to force his opponetn to see reason and...

It may not have been the Superman/Captain Marvel encounter that fans wanted or expected, "Make Way For Captain Thunder" is a pretty solid story in it's own right.

Since the title's launch, Shazam struggled to find an audience by focusing too much on a whimsical aesthetic that was not appealing to audiences accustomed to slightly more mature fare from Marvel Comics or DC books like Batman or Green Lantern/Green Arrow.

If Shazam had adapted the look and syle employed by Maggin, Swan and Oksner in Superman#276, perhaps Shazam would've had a better chance at success.  

As for a real meet up between Superman and Captain Marvel, that would have to wait until 1976 and JLA#137 as we chronicled last week.  

And even then, we were still left wanting.

It would not be until 1978 before we got a full on encounter in the oversized pages of All New Collectors’ Edition #C-58.

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Thanks to the Tom Breevort Experience for the images from Shazam#15 and Superman#276.

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Next week's comic book post tracks some of my most recent purchases from Acme Comics! 

Schmitt Up A Creek

 On Monday, I wrote a post about Tommy Tuberville (R-Al) being the dumbest person in the U.S. Senate.

Yesterday, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said "hold my beer" and made his own pass at the title.

Sen. Schmitt had some urgent business to take care of.

• The high price of groceries? 
• High gas prices?
• The cost of healthcare?
• The war with Iran? 

NO! Really! What is wrong with you people? Don't you know the most urgent business for the Senate is to get former special counsel Jack Smith to answer this pressing question?   
“Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 3, 2024?”
Jack Smith said no and Schmitt was all giddy with a big ol' gotcha! "A-HA! You just committed perjury!"  
And he whipped out a poster board display as evidence of Jack Smith's perfidy.  
Including in the display are text messages from Smith about attending a Hawks game.  

Now you might wonder what the fuck is going on here?

So was Jack Smith and every other person in America with two working brains cells to rub together. 

It turns out that the day before Feb. 3, 2024, Fulton County prosecutor Fran Willis who was working on a case against against Donald Trump admitted to having an affair with Nathan Wade, another prosecutor.  

Jack Smith was persuing his own case against Donald Trump (for election interference, instigating the January 6th insurrection and illegally holding on to classified documents). 

Apparently (and do try to keep up), Smith's presence in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024 is PROOF of his collusion with Willis and Wade in their conspiracy to bring specious unfounded charges against poor widdle Donnie Trump.  

Now I am not sure how Schmitt thinks Smith's mere presence at an Atlanta Hawks game in Atlanta is proof of some deep seeded conspiracy against the der Führer.  But Schmitt thought it did and he was so damned proud of his legal gymnastics that could put Jack Smith behind bars for his treacherous temerity to dare sully the reputation of Schmitt's lord and savior. 

“You have weaponized the Department of Justice against political enemies to an extent that has never happened in the history of this country. You will go down as a total dirtbag.”

Except...

Jack Smith was NOT in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024.

He was in College Park, MD attending the Maryland women's basketball game, playing the visiting Iowa Hawkeyes.  

Now there is so much to unpack here.

Sen. Eric Schmitt was so determined to catch Jack Smith in something, anything that would support the delusions of Donald Trump that he was the target of a partisan and unjustified investigation, he pounced on the most tenuous "evidence".  

Assuming the texts had been about the Atlanta Hawks, all it would have done was place Jack Smith at an Atlanta Hawks game and proves nothing about any alleged conspiratorial collusion with Willis or Wade.  

And the texts were NOT about the Atlanta Hawks but the Iowa Hawkeyes.  

You would think such a fuck up would be a source of embarrassment for Sen. Schmitt.

He still insists Jack Smith is lying about something, that "dirtbag".

Well, this will play well with Li'l Donnie when he's watching this on Fox News.  

And it will play well with the MAGA faithful who are still devoted to der Führer despite all the 

• high price of groceries
• high gas prices
• high cost of healthcare
• war with Iran

All problems with direct lines to Donald Trump's policies fueled by hate and ignorance.  

The unmitigated gall of Sen. Schmitt to accuse Jack Smith of employing a "weaponized the Department of Justice against political enemies" is reprehensible and despicable.

Especially in light of what Trump's DOJ is so obviously doing at Trump's explicit direction against his political enemies.  

Jack Smith is by all accounts as straight arrow as they come in the pursuit of law and justice.   

Fuck you, Schmitt, for daring to attack a good and honorable man in supplication to a lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, narcissistic, small-minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit!

And all that can be said of Sen. Eric Schmitt as well.

______________________________

Sorry for the surprise political post. We'll deal with real important work tomorrow:  comic books! 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Stuart Fails To Save The Universe

Last week Andrea and I caught up to the season 1 finale of Stuart Fails To Save The Universe.  

How you feel about this show probably depends on your opinion of it's progenitor, Big Bang Theory.

If you hated BBT (and I know you're out there, Dean!), well, I may as well be Sisyphus rolling a rock up a mountain when it comes to the futility of making an appeal for Stuart Fails To Save The Universe.  

I will say that while having a working knowledge of BBT provides a level of (dare I say it) nuance and (I can't be serious) depth to the proceedings, I think it is possible to (let's say) "enjoy" SFTSTU without the BBT connection.  

The universe, nay the multiverse, is in danger and the 4 people least qualified to save it need to save it.  

Stuart, Denise, Bert & Kripke have travelled from universe to universe in a desperate quest to save a broken reality. 

Among the worlds they've encountered:

• A pleasant world of peace and tranquility if you don't mind the electric shock nodules implanted in your neck by our A.I. overlords. Acclaimed film/TV/stage actor Christine Baranski explains everything.   
• Another pleasant world of peace and tranquility free from technology. It's a nice place until Kripke introduces the concept of capitalism.  
• A world where science is a myth and magic is real.
• A world where humans descended from cows. It's like our world but with more eating grass, corn and cud. 
• A world where everyone is a centaur.
• A world where everyone is telepathic.  
• A world inhabited by DC Comics' super heroes and villains. At last, a world that Stuart finally understands. 

And the world they encounter in the season finale:

Where Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is a multi-cam sitcom on CBS where Stuart, Denise, Bert and Kripke discover they are fictional characters.....

....portrayed by Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lupkus, Brian Poeshn and John Ross Bowie.

It's a bit of a mind fuck.

The season ends with Stuart, Denise, Bert and Kripke leaving the studio where Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is shot and wandering outside into the dark, towards Burbank and an uncertain future.  

What the who where when now? 

Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is admittedly an absurdist mess, one weird ass logic defying Earth after another, a random journey guided by the over riding principle that Stuart somehow started this mess of a fractured and dying reality and it's somehow his responsibility to fix it.   

In addition to Stuart having NO idea how to accomplish any of this, he now has a nemesis, The Adversary, aka "the swirling ball of cosmic shit".   

Is Stuart Fails To Save The Universe a good show? I really don't know.  I like it well enough and it makes me laugh. But I can't help feeling like something crucial is missing, something to bridge the absurdist comedy and the high concept sci-fi.  

After Chuck Lorre, Bill Brady and Zak Penn spent a season throwing stuff at the walls to see what sticks in season 1, maybe season 2 will have a bit more purpose and structure to make some sense of what they built.

SPOILER: the only people from The Big Bang Theory who do not appear in SFTSTU are Howard, Leonard and Sheldon. Otherwise, we do get alternate versions of Raj, Penny, Amy and Bernadette. 

If it's the end of the season for Stuart Fails To Save The Universe, it's also the end of the season for the Official Stuart Fails To Save The Universe Podcast.  For some reason, Andrea insisted we make watching the podcast part of our viewing schedule.

The podcast hosted by Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton actual runs longer than the episodes it covers.  Each nearly hour long podcast has 2 sections, an interview with one or more of the actors from the show and the other half speaking with the production staff who work on the show's costumes, sets and scripts.  

I will say the production staff does deserve kudos for having to create a new set each week for a different universe.  Also commendable is the work they do on the one recurring set in the series, Stuart's comic book shop.  The shop has to be adjusted in ways both subtle and obvious to reflect the particular quirks of a specific universe.

For example, in the centaur world, all the super hero action figures have be transformed into half-horse.  Except Aquaman who is a seahorse. 

Wil and Felicia interviewed Chuck, Bill and Zak a few times where the writing/producing trio make it very obvious their making up shit as they go along.   

Which may explain my issues with the lack of purpose and structure I had with Stuart Fails To Save The Universe.  We'll see if season 2 can remedy that.  

Side note: I recently re-discovered a webseries from Funny Or Die from about 10 years or so back called The Earliest Show starring Lauren Lupkus (Denise from SFTSTU).  Lauren and co-star Ben Schwartz play a pair of TV talk show hosts who anchor a show that broadcasts at 3:00 A.M. The two hosts are way too damn happy to be hosting a show at this ungodly hour.

I had watched this series back in 2016. I was reminded to seek it out again when it came up during an interview with Lauren. 

    

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Coming up on future editions of the touch base:

• Scrubs
• Lanterns
• Abbott Elementary 
• Blue Skies 
• Batman: Caped Crusader

And more! So much TV, so little time! 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Full Of Sound and Furry

Normally my Monday blog post about politics usually focuses on whatever dumb fuckery that goddam motherfucker Donald Trump did in the last few weeks/days/minutes/right now.
I'm gonna let Dave Columbo do the heavy lifting on that one.

But I couldn't let the moment pass without comment on another goddam motherfucker who stumbled into the spotlight last week with what may well be the MOST dumbass thing ever said on the U.S. Senate floor.
I miss the days when I could get through a political themed blog post without saying "goddam motherfucker" but there are so many of them and so intent on being goddam motherfuckers.
Let's deal with this piece of shit, Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
Sen. Tuberville took to the Senate floor to address the greatest problem facing our country.

• So he's gonna take on the high price of groceries? 
• High gas prices?
• The cost of healthcare?
• The war with Iran? 

Really, people! You think those things are real problems?!?
How can you not see the threat that Sen. Tuberville so clearly perceives?
That the pilot on your airline flight could be dressed as a squirrel?

Here we see Staci Lydic and The Daily Show having some fun with Sen. Tuberville bringing this threat to our attention.

Chris Hayes tries to make sense of this odd obsession Tommy has.

OK, I've listened to this a few times now: Is he pronouncing "fetish" as "fetis"?
Notice that Tuberville is delivering his remarks in front of a visual aid that reads  "Transgenderism Is A Mental Disease".
What does being trans-gender have to do with being a furry? Does he think the LGBTQ+ community considers "squirrel" a gender? Who knows with this goddam motherfucker!
And as for this "Transgenderism Is A Mental Disease" nonsense on this sign....
Really?  Let's see what the experts have to say about that.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) clarifies that the term "transgender" is not a psychiatric diagnosis. The diagnostic manual (DSM-5) separates identity from pathology, though it includes gender dysphoria—which defines the psychological distress an individual may experience due to an incongruence between their gender identity and their sex assigned at birth.  
Also weighing in on this topic?
 The World Health Organization (WHO) removed gender identity-related categories from its mental and behavioral disorders chapter in the ICD-11, reclassifying gender incongruence under conditions related to sexual health to reduce stigma and reflect that gender diversity is not a mental illness.
There is a link of mental health issues associated with the transgender community as noted on TransHub.Org.
Research shows that a disproportionate number of trans people experience worse mental health than the general population, including higher rates of suicidality (12 times more likely), diagnosis with a mental disorder (3 times more likely), and experiences of psychological distress.
We also have found that this is not because these problems are innate for trans people, but because of what we call social determinants of health, which use the conditions in which people live to understand their health experiences, among others.
But the condition of being transgender itself is NOT a mental health defect. 
I will caution that I am looking at this issue from the outside in as a hopefully supportive ally of the LGBTQ+ community and I trust I'm expressing myself correctly. 
But this I have NO doubt I am saying this correctly: This right here is a tale told by an IDIOT, full of sound and furry, signifying nothing. 

(See what I did there with the Shakespeare quote, changing "fury" to "furry"?  I don't mean to brag but damn, I think that's clever.)   
Tommy Tuberville is a profoundly stupid man.
He thinks the three branches of the United States government are “the House, the Senate and executive,” rather than the legislative, the judicial, and the executive.
He once said he doesn't like to read things, preferring to make up his own mind.  
While ranting about the transgender community, he decides to attack "furries" with the completely unsubstantiated claim they're flying airplanes?  
Since he does not read things, I wonder where the hell did he hear about this "problem"?   
If you wonder why the legislative branch is doing fuck all the rein in Donald Trump's worse impulses, it's because Congress is littered with stupid people like this goddam motherfucker, Tommy Tuberville.
Although soon Tommy Tuberville may not be the stupidest person in the U.S. Senate.  He may well become the stupidest person in a governor's office.  
Tuberville is running for Governor of Alabama as the Republican nominee. 
Doug Jones, the Democratic opponent, is by every measure a better qualified and certainly smarter candidate.  
Since Alabama is a deep red state that consistently votes against it's own self interests, Tuberville is leading in the polls by a margin of 49% to 41%.  Which leaves about 10% of the electorate unaccounted for and uh oh! What if they vote for Jones? 
So it doesn't hurt to gild the lilly with a little culture war woo-woo and hence Tuberville's Senate floor uninformed appeal against the evils of furries and transgenderism.
It's the kind of bullshit that pushed Donald Trump over the top here in North Carolina in 2024 and it'll probably do the trick for Tuberville in Alabama as well.      
To understand the voters of Alabama that keep the state firmly in the red, let me paraphrase Gene Wilder from Blazing Saddles:  
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the South. You know. Morons!"
And who better to lead them that the biggest moron of all, Tommy Tuberville.
Let him tell his tales told by an idiot and while he may well win his election as Governor of Alabama, in the larger tapestry of history, he will signify nothing. 
Which is a nicer way of saying: Fuck you, Tommy Tuberville, you (say it with me one more time!) goddam motherfucker!