National Lampoon's European Vacation with Jon Gabrus

Congratulations! You’ve won an all-expenses-paid vacation with Griffin, David, Ben, and Jon Gabrus to Europe! Only downside is…well, you have to watch this movie. From the strange cultural stereotypes to the unfortunate lack of jokes, Amy Heckerling’s sequel to National Lampoon’s Vacation isn’t the smoothest trip. But, it certainly gives us an excuse to talk about one of the most beloved franchises of the 1980s! Join us for Stonehenge stories, a deep dive into Beverly D’Angelo’s incredible biography, travel talk, and a whole lot of Chevy chat. Listen to Action Boyz https://www.patreon.com/ActionBoyz and Staying Alive https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/staying-alive-with-jon-gabrus-adam-pally/id1807624961 Sign up for Check Book https://blankcheckpod.substack.com/welcome, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. http://www.patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter https://x.com/blankcheckpod?lang=en, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/blankcheckpod/?hl=en, Threads https://www.threads.net/@blankcheckpod?xmt=AQGzctAh4mbWTwYzCV1pzNT6AMV9o99EOfymi8TLR5mTde0 and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/blankcheckpodcast/! Buy some real nerdy merch https://kinshipgoods.com/blankcheck Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/blankies/s/gpcOkQr8Sv or Discord https://discord.gg/Q6YGSR3JrA For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com https://www.blankcheckpod.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Griffin Newman?

  David. Yep. We did a live show. Yeah, remember? Ranking Scorsese at the Bell House in Brooklyn. We did the definitive power ranking of Martin Scorsese things. Uh, it was so fun. Uh, it was very silly. Ben and Marie were with us and they're with us right now. Yeah, hey.

• 0:18Speaker 01

  Hey, everyone, or should I say, oh? Oh.

• 0:22Griffin Newman?

  And thanks to our friends at Dynasty Typewriter. It was livestreamed for the first time ever. But also, the replay is still up there, but only until October 30th. So just a few more days. Yes. You can get it at dynasty.tv. Dynasty.tv. It's $20. We had a blast and the Spreadmaster really got to work. Oh, yeah. I was moving things around. Laptop was on.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  I don't know if I'd have seen you that happy.

• 0:48Griffin Newman?

  You were thrilled. You were like a pick and share. I was locked in. Yeah, very locked in and you were funny. Thank you. You were funny. You were also funny. Oh, thank you. And if you want to see like, you know, Griffin's shine box on camera, it's the only way to see it. You might see me shine Marie's shoes. Exactly.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, if you're into that sort of content.

• 1:07Griffin Newman?

  If that gets you off.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:10Griffin Newman?

  So once again, that's at dynasty.tv.

• 1:39Griffin Newman?

  Hey, look, kids, there's Big Ben. There's a podcast again. He's going in circles. He keeps having to point out the. He's in the roundabout. Podcast. Here's the thing. This movie has a great, a great kind of golden age of poster taglines tagline. But there was no way to do justice to it without using the exact words they use. So I want to just read the tagline.

• 2:06David Sims?

  Go ahead.

• 2:06Griffin Newman?

  We love a good multi-sentence tagline.

• 2:08David Sims?

  I mean, I saw it and I was just like, this tagline is appropriate. It describes the film. It's not that funny.

• 2:14Griffin Newman?

  For over 2,000 years, Europe has survived many great disasters. Now for the real test. Chevy Chase and his family are coming from America.

• 2:24David Sims?

  Oh, I mean, you know, just electrifying.

• 2:27Speaker 04

  And using Chevy and not Clark Griswold is of the time, too.

• 2:29David Sims?

  I do think that's a little rude.

• 2:31Griffin Newman?

  We noticed this as well on, spoiler alert, next week's episode.

• 2:37David Sims?

  Next week's episode of It's About Look Who's Talking?

• 2:39Griffin Newman?

  That poster similarly has a tagline that name checks Travolta and Kirstie Alley, rather than putting them above the title as like star billing. Not characters, but it's like, this was an era of like you sneak.

• 2:52David Sims?

  This is weirder because don't you think, isn't Clark Griswold?

• 2:55Speaker 04

  He's established as well. He's totally.

• 2:57David Sims?

  But you know what? The tagline for the first vacation is, every summer Chevy Chase takes his family on a little trip. This year, he went too far. So they're going with the same format.

• 3:07Griffin Newman?

  And the poster is very similar, let's say. It's a flipped mirror image of him in a sort of Conan the Barbarian.

• 3:12David Sims?

  Right, him in the, you.

• 3:13Griffin Newman?

  Frozzetta style.

• 3:14Speaker 04

  Familiar.

• 3:15David Sims?

  Yes.

• 3:15Speaker 04

  Oh, you mean my Frank Frozzetta calendar that I have actually have?

• 3:19Griffin Newman?

  Do you really?

• 3:20Speaker 04

  Yes, of course.

• 3:21David Sims?

  Which they, they abandon it for Christmas Vacation. They abandon the.

• 3:26Griffin Newman?

  It's still a poster, but it's him being electrocuted. It's still a painting, I was gonna say.

• 3:29Speaker 04

  I can close my eyes and see all four, even Vegas.

• 3:32Griffin Newman?

  Right. And then Vegas is kind of riffing on the Christmas one where he's in a similar kind of exposition, right?

• 3:38David Sims?

  A Christ post, in a way.

• 3:40Griffin Newman?

  But on the roulette?

• 3:42David Sims?

  On a roulette, and to me, actually, the Vegas Vacation poster is iconic because it looks so exciting.

• 3:50Griffin Newman?

  It does. It looks thrilling.

• 3:51David Sims?

  You know, you're like, my God, what is this? He's in Vegas and doing this? Ah, there's money everywhere.

• 3:56Griffin Newman?

  And yet, you're like, there's something missing. There's some weird absence. What's the void on this poster? Oh, National Lampoon has removed their name from this movie?

• 4:05David Sims?

  Yeah, they sure did.

• 4:06Griffin Newman?

  In like 1998?

• 4:08David Sims?

  Seven.

• 4:09Griffin Newman?

  That's, that's a rough year for National Lampoon to be starting to go like, we actually don't think this is up to our standards.

• 4:15David Sims?

  Aye, fuck.

• 4:17Griffin Newman?

  This might damage.

• 4:20Griffin Newman?

  Um, no, I agree with you. Like, in a modern era, right? If like, the first Vacation's a hit, which it was, and you're making Vacation 2, the tagline would be, "Now for the real test, the Griswolds are coming from America." And then right below that, Chevy Chase in the biggest fucking letters you've ever seen.

• 4:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:39Griffin Newman?

  And they're flexing like, "You now know both the name of our star and the name of the fictional family."

• 4:45Speaker 04

  Right, and the Griswolds is like, they, they say that shit, they say it so much.

• 4:50Griffin Newman?

  They're not the Johnsons, right? Like, they get to be like, "We are the definitive Griswolds in cinema history."

• 4:55Speaker 04

  Right.

• 4:55Griffin Newman?

  There's no mistaking them, the name is said constantly.

• 4:58Speaker 04

  It's a good name.

• 4:59Griffin Newman?

  It is, I'm throwing it on the fucking poster.

• 5:01Speaker 04

  Clark Griswold is a fucking amazing name, yeah.

• 5:05Griffin Newman?

  It's a prize-winning name.

• 5:06Speaker 04

  Chevy Chase is an insane name.

• 5:08Griffin Newman?

  That's another thing, it's just like, Chevy Chase for, for a fake movie star name.

• 5:13Speaker 04

  When was the first time you drove through Maryland as a kid and saw that there was Chevy Chase, Maryland? And had a fucking meltdown?

• 5:19David Sims?

  I definitely had that realization, and I was like, it's not-

• 5:22Speaker 04

  Daddy, this is Chevy Chase, what the fuck is he?

• 5:25David Sims?

  It's named for him, right? No, no. No, no, I know, Griff, I know it's not named for him. But I mean, like, as a kid, I'm like, he's, I know he was famous, but he wasn't getting big cities named after him.

• 5:36Speaker 04

  And then I was like, "Oh, was he named after the city?" And I had no fucking, and I was just like-

• 5:41David Sims?

  I think the answer is yes and no.

• 5:43Griffin Newman?

  Well, the infamous-

• 5:44David Sims?

  It's sort of a joke, right?

• 5:45Griffin Newman?

  He, at the peak of his, like, immediate rocket ship fame, right? Like, five episodes into SNL.

• 5:51David Sims?

  His name is Cornelius Chase.

• 5:53Griffin Newman?

  Cornelius Crane Chase? Like, the fourth? The third?

• 5:57David Sims?

  Uh, I'm not, I'm not seeing, I'm not seeing an addendum.

• 6:00Speaker 04

  That's a moneyed name, that's a Plymouth Rock name.

• 6:03Griffin Newman?

  He's from a real fucking Plymouth Rock, like, ivory tower, first settlers family.

• 6:09David Sims?

  His grandfather was Rear Admiral Miles Browning of the, of the, uh, United States Navy.

• 6:13Griffin Newman?

  Like, his family is the exact parody, the worst version of what you think.

• 6:18Speaker 04

  They call me the rear admiral, sweetheart.

• 6:19David Sims?

  His nickname for his adopted grandfather Cornelius, while the nickname Chevy was bestowed by his grandmother from the medieval English ballad, The Ballad of Chevy Chase, which is an English ballad from long ago.

• 6:33Griffin Newman?

  So is the town named after the ballad?

• 6:35David Sims?

  It must be.

• 6:36Griffin Newman?

  I was gonna say.

• 6:36Speaker 04

  That's fucking awesome.

• 6:38Griffin Newman?

  Season one of SNL.

• 6:39Speaker 04

  The Ballad of Chevy Chase, by the way, is the documentary about his downfall.

• 6:42Griffin Newman?

  And that's for sure, yeah.

• 6:43David Sims?

  Yeah, seriously.

• 6:44Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 6:45Griffin Newman?

  We are producing.

• 6:46David Sims?

  Yes, the affluent, the affluent area in Maryland is indeed also named for this ballad. Okay.

• 6:52Griffin Newman?

  Season one of the show, when he's blowing up, and I think there's like a very early Time Magazine cover that's like, this is the new face of comedy.

• 7:00Speaker 04

  Understandable.

• 7:01Griffin Newman?

  Chevy Chase looking handsome as shit, wearing a T-shirt that says, yes, it's my real name.

• 7:07David Sims?

  Right.

• 7:07Griffin Newman?

  And he was like, from the moment he got famous.

• 7:10Speaker 04

  We learned.

• 7:10Griffin Newman?

  Wait. From the moment he got famous, he was playing this bit of like, oh, I'm tired of answering this question. I know it's unbelievable, but yes, it's my real name, which he maintained for like 15 years. Which maybe tells us a lot about Chevy Chase.

• 7:24David Sims?

  But here's my question. So as you may or may not know, a landmark decision of the Supreme Court in 1965 is called Griswold versus Connecticut, which protected the liberty of married people to use contraception.

• 7:36Griffin Newman?

  Interesting.

• 7:36David Sims?

  Uh, it's a, it's a classic right to privacy about birth control, you know, a liberal Supreme Court decision.

• 7:41Griffin Newman?

  67, you said?

• 7:42David Sims?

  65.

• 7:43Griffin Newman?

  65.

• 7:44David Sims?

  So are the Griswolds, is that a clever John Hughesy joke? Right? You know, about that.

• 7:49Griffin Newman?

  That is, that is absolutely the kind of thing Grannis and Hughes would do intentionally.

• 7:53David Sims?

  Yes. Okay. I didn't, I couldn't, I can't find, but I bet you that's true.

• 7:57Griffin Newman?

  I think it has to be. Yeah.

• 8:00David Sims?

  Wow. We really covered a lot of ground about preppy, New England-y or northeastern shit.

• 8:06Speaker 04

  Yeah. Imagine trying to talk about a, one of these vacation movies without getting into Chevy.

• 8:10David Sims?

  Like it's, oh, we don't, we don't acknowledge him at all. We're like, yeah, the actor's good. I don't know. He seems to have a handle on the role.

• 8:15Griffin Newman?

  We've, we've talked Chevy a couple of times on this show.

• 8:17David Sims?

  So we've talked about Chevy Chase. So who's our, who's our, who, what's the show and who's our guys?

• 8:20Griffin Newman?

  This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin.

• 8:22David Sims?

  I'm David.

• 8:24Griffin Newman?

  It's a podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and have given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce to Europe, baby. This is a mini-series on the films. Traveler's checks. Sometimes traveler's checks clear. Uh, and sometimes they're actually part of some complicated heist.

• 8:46Griffin Newman?

  Involving a guy in a trunk?

• 8:48David Sims?

  Not, not the cleanest of plot element of this film, I guess.

• 8:52Speaker 04

  Well, Ben, if you want to just clip that, we can drop that in about 25 more times when we talk about this movie. There's so many plot elements that are not the clearest.

• 9:02Griffin Newman?

  I like that this movie just kind of feels like watching like four random Three Stooges shorts tied together.

• 9:07David Sims?

  That's, that's, that's, yes.

• 9:10Griffin Newman?

  Like, I've heard people throw this out as a complaint about this movie, and I actually think it's kind of the movie's secret sauce. It's like, it just doesn't even care about, like, every 20 minutes, we're gonna go to a different country and there'll be internal conflicts.

• 9:23David Sims?

  Eric Idle will be our three line, and apart from that.

• 9:25Griffin Newman?

  And Rusty being so fucking horny.

• 9:27Speaker 04

  Who's our, well.

• 9:29Griffin Newman?

  It's a mini-series on the films of Amy Heckerling.

• 9:31Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 9:32Griffin Newman?

  Called Pod Times at Ridgemont Cast.

• 9:34Speaker 04

  I love this.

• 9:35Griffin Newman?

  Today, we're talking about her third film. Meant as sort of a rebound move after the failure of Johnny Dangerously. Why don't I sign on to a big Hollywood sequel? This is can't-miss proposition, but one could argue it actually kind of dinged her career further. I think it stuck to her where they were like, she's the person who fucked up the Vacation franchise. That was always the legacy I had heard.

• 9:56David Sims?

  Okay.

• 9:56Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Also, she made a terrible mistake, which was choosing to work with Chevy Chase for months.

• 10:01David Sims?

  Oops.

• 10:02Griffin Newman?

  Something that always causes damage on people's psyches. Today, we're talking about National Lampoon.

• 10:10David Sims?

  Jesus Christ.

• 10:11Griffin Newman?

  National Lampoon's European Vacation.

• 10:16David Sims?

  That's right.

• 10:16Griffin Newman?

  With our dear friend returning to the show, sixth time, holy shit, Sean Gabrus. Let's count him off.

• 10:22Speaker 04

  I believe so.

• 10:23David Sims?

  Sounds right.

• 10:23Speaker 04

  Heat, Heat, Full Metal Jacket, ding.

• 10:26David Sims?

  Oh, yeah.

• 10:27Speaker 04

  Mad Max, I forget which one.

• 10:28Griffin Newman?

  Road Warrior.

• 10:29Speaker 04

  Road Warrior.

• 10:29Griffin Newman?

  Too Fast.

• 10:31Speaker 04

  Too Fast and Predator.

• 10:33David Sims?

  Wow, you've had, you've had a bit of a lean with us. This is new for you.

• 10:37Speaker 04

  It's such vibes.

• 10:38Griffin Newman?

  It's perfect.

• 10:38David Sims?

  It is vibes.

• 10:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:40David Sims?

  But you've done five?

• 10:41Speaker 04

  That's what I'd grab from the Criterion closet, those exact five. I wanted to give like a little front porch that. So frequently, and you know, we've had a couple of very long episodes together and you guys are,

• 10:53David Sims?

  Yes.

• 10:54Speaker 04

  You guys are, well Griffin, most of all, is a length queen. I, we know, he's constantly talking about how long his Doughboys episodes are and then we get, uh, we got, uh, Adam Perry in here fucking letting it rip, you know, like, and you guys, and I, but I, heat, of course, you could talk about heat for four hours. Of course, I could talk about-

• 11:10David Sims?

  Justifiably long, yes.

• 11:12Speaker 04

  But this is the first time I ever felt like, when, you know, like, David's like, I have a hard out. I'm like, I think we'll be fine. I think we'll be fine.

• 11:18David Sims?

  This is also one of these, I'm like, I think if we went, if, we'll see what happens, but if we went long on this, it still wouldn't be that long.

• 11:23Speaker 04

  I agree.

• 11:24Griffin Newman?

  It's like, you know, there's only so much here. You asked to push back, right?

• 11:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:29David Sims?

  Yeah, like, a little later in the day.

• 11:31Griffin Newman?

  Right. David was like, I have a hard out. We're fine starting at two, as long as we're done by this time, right?

• 11:37David Sims?

  Right.

• 11:37Griffin Newman?

  And then you responded, need time to talk about breasts. And David responded, let's make it 1:30, actually. The one push was, we might need the extra half an hour if we're committing to tit.

• 11:47Speaker 04

  I mean, 10 minutes per rack.

• 11:51Griffin Newman?

  It's one sequence.

• 11:52David Sims?

  So, to, wait, to follow Griff.

• 11:54Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 11:54David Sims?

  We've discussed Flatch, obviously, a choice by Ben. Benjamin Hozley, our producer, chose this film.

• 11:59Speaker 04

  Every once in a while, the dude shows up with good taste. It's nice.

• 12:02David Sims?

  100%. We've discussed the film Memoirs of an Invisible Man.

• 12:05Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 12:06David Sims?

  A Low Point For All.

• 12:07Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 12:07David Sims?

  Not really, uh, yeah, no one's covering themselves in glory.

• 12:10Griffin Newman?

  Aren't those the only two we've done?

• 12:11David Sims?

  I believe that's it.

• 12:13Griffin Newman?

  I feel like on that episode in particular, we talked a lot about, because Carpenter cites that as like a moment that kind of like, killed his spirits. There is kind of a before and after in his career of like post memoirs, he seems a little heartbroken. In a way that happens to a lot of popular artists, right? Like, there's some failure or setback they experience that they never totally get over. And some of our very kind, very normal redditors, I saw in the comments of that episode being like, what is their source for this? What is all this weird negativity they're throwing at Chevy Chase?

• 12:44David Sims?

  Oh, that's bizarre.

• 12:45Griffin Newman?

  And I just want to say, our source for this is everyone who has ever had any interaction with Chevy Chase.

• 12:50David Sims?

  Any written reporting on Chevy Chase.

• 12:54Griffin Newman?

  A famous before and after person in people's careers when they work with him, and-

• 12:59Speaker 04

  He breaks people.

• 13:00Griffin Newman?

  He does. And we were talking about this, David, as we were prepping to do this episode a couple of days ago. You were like, here's a question. Has anyone ever stepped away and gone, you know what? I actually had a really good experience with him.

• 13:12David Sims?

  Or who's the guy who has the anecdote? My, my point was like- Of like, you know, when my daughter got married, Chevy called me and was like, I'm so happy to hear about it. You know what I mean? Like the guy who's like, you know, Chevy's always been a mensch to me.

• 13:23Griffin Newman?

  And my counterpoint to you was in one of like a vodka fueled Harman Town seven hour run ons. Where Dan Harmon like played voicemails of Chevy saying the N word. He also was like, and by the way, here are three very nice things that Chevy's done.

• 13:37David Sims?

  Right.

• 13:37Griffin Newman?

  In the framework of it was genuinely nice and it's hard for me to like make sense of that.

• 13:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, it doesn't fit into the fucking.

• 13:44Griffin Newman?

  But there's like no one in a way that's even like.

• 13:47David Sims?

  Well, who worked?

• 13:48Griffin Newman?

  Bill Murray can be temperamental, but like Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola know how to work with him. And they're like, he's always great with me. There's no one who's like Chevy and I always get along.

• 13:57David Sims?

  So, okay, so Landis, well, Landis, John Landis, hate to bring him up early, but he worked with him multiple times. Uh, Spies Like Us, Three Amigos, there might be more, right?

• 14:07Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 14:08David Sims?

  I'm trying to think, like, who's worked with Chevy multiple, made multiple movies with Chevy?

• 14:13Griffin Newman?

  We can do some.

• 14:13Speaker 04

  Besides an entity of national importance.

• 14:16Griffin Newman?

  Well, Ramis did it twice. Ramis did it twice.

• 14:18David Sims?

  But like even shit like Vacation for different directors. Caddyshack, the sequel had a different director. You know what I mean? Like, uh, Fletch Lives, different director.

• 14:25Griffin Newman?

  But even then, and we can do some digging here and I invite our listeners to do some digging. I don't remember ever seeing a quote from Ramis or Landis.

• 14:32David Sims?

  Fletch Lives had the same director.

• 14:33Griffin Newman?

  Okay, Richie did both, yeah. I don't remember ever seeing a quote from any director who's like, I know he's had trouble with other people, but we get on really well.

• 14:41Speaker 04

  Right.

• 14:41Griffin Newman?

  I think the best case scenario is people being like, I'm fairly good at handling him. Well, also he like, I'm good at like, my house is stormproofed.

• 14:52Speaker 04

  He ends up, he ends up not being worth it either, which, you know what I mean?

• 14:55David Sims?

  Like, well, that's the other thing.

• 14:56Speaker 04

  There are people who are equally pricky, but insane, you know, levels above talented. And so you're like, fuck, all right, strap that strap in, we're doing this.

• 15:04David Sims?

  You know what, man? Richie worked with him three times.

• 15:07Griffin Newman?

  What's the third one?

• 15:08David Sims?

  Cops and Robersons with, uh, Jack Palance.

• 15:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:11David Sims?

  So maybe Richie's the guy who's like, I always, I always had a fine time with Chevy. Like, I, I get Chevy.

• 15:17Griffin Newman?

  But also maybe.

• 15:18Speaker 04

  Could be also a guy that Chevy dominates and gets hired.

• 15:21David Sims?

  Possibly, but also never know because he's dead, dead to the ground.

• 15:24Speaker 04

  Well, I tell you, I tell you how.

• 15:26Speaker 05

  Okay, I just found a Guardian article that says that Sylvester Stallone and Chevy Chase are good friends.

• 15:33David Sims?

  Oh, those two guys, those normal guys.

• 15:35Griffin Newman?

  I believe it.

• 15:36David Sims?

  Small personalities. We call those small personalities.

• 15:38Griffin Newman?

  Little.

• 15:38Speaker 05

  But in Philly, they opened a Rocky memorabilia shop and Chevy Chase showed up for the opening with Sly.

• 15:45Speaker 04

  Great. Well, Sly is my ambassador to Hollywood, so I'm able to deal with, like, I'm interacting with him a lot.

• 15:52Griffin Newman?

  I'm really, I gotta say, I'm now disappointed that Chevy never made it into an Expendables.

• 15:58David Sims?

  That would have been fun. That would have been fun. He's tall.

• 16:01Griffin Newman?

  He's very tall. He's good at falling down.

• 16:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:03David Sims?

  Exactly.

• 16:03Speaker 04

  It's a bummer that he was such an asshole, because he really can carry a comedy.

• 16:09David Sims?

  This is what we're gonna talk about, because, all right, so Fletch, all right, okay. Number one question, I'm posing it to everybody. What is the best Chevy Chase movie? Is it Fletch? Is it Caddyshack? Is it Vacation? Christmas Vacation?

• 16:21Speaker 04

  To me, it's a toss-up. It's difficult to choose between Fletch and Christmas Vacation.

• 16:28David Sims?

  And those are the two sides of Chevy. Smarm versus affable.

• 16:32Griffin Newman?

  Bumbling. Now, I want to unpack this a little bit right off the bat.

• 16:35David Sims?

  I know, that's why I'm putting it out there.

• 16:36Griffin Newman?

  Because in our Memoirs of Invisible Man episode, I talked about how he basically has this unbreakable persona of smartest guy in the room, like, smarming circles around everyone, making the jokes under his breath, kind of being gross with women, but everyone's sort of charmed by it, right?

• 16:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:53Griffin Newman?

  And then people responded, like, you're excluding Clark Griswold, which is his kind of one-

• 16:57David Sims?

  Which is not your thing.

• 16:58Griffin Newman?

  Low-status role. It's just, like, hapless, this guy kind of gets made to look a fool over and over again.

• 17:03Speaker 04

  I think he gets to play both sides as Clark Griswold, which is the best part, is that he gets to be, like, a smarmy wise-ass-

• 17:09Griffin Newman?

  Totally.

• 17:10Speaker 04

  Who then is the butt of the joke, and then is also randomly the heartfelt dad.

• 17:13Griffin Newman?

  It is the balance.

• 17:15David Sims?

  But sort of successfully.

• 17:16Griffin Newman?

  Quentin Tarantino, who is, like, the biggest fan of the cinema of Chevy Chase, and has always talked about-

• 17:20Speaker 04

  That guy I can't believe hasn't brought Chevy into a movie.

• 17:23Griffin Newman?

  Insane, right. But even he is-

• 17:25David Sims?

  Because that's the thing, Tarantino-

• 17:26Speaker 04

  Psycho, and I don't want to work with him.

• 17:27David Sims?

  He's savvy, exactly.

• 17:28Griffin Newman?

  He's savvy.

• 17:29David Sims?

  He's savvy.

• 17:30Griffin Newman?

  But Tarantino loves Chevy and has talked about him at length, and is like, the thing I love about Chevy movies, and he'll go to bat by, like- Funny Farm is a flat out five star masterpiece.

• 17:39Speaker 04

  I like Funny Farm.

• 17:40Griffin Newman?

  The whole canon of Chevy.

• 17:41Speaker 04

  I like Funny Farm.

• 17:42Griffin Newman?

  Through like 99, he's like all in the tank for it, right? His big defenses like in that era of the sort of like postmodern version of the Groucho Marx cool wise guy, like snob versus slob comedy that comes out of National Lampoon and SNL and whatever. All the other guys needed to go soft at some point and learn a lesson or show they really cared or that they were tender. And like Chevy movies, he never stops being an asshole.

• 18:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:10Griffin Newman?

  He like Quentin Tarantino really stands for the commitment to the smarm from Chevy. Whereas like the the Vacation movies are the only ones where there's a bit of balance without it feeling like he's selling out, which is an interesting tension. It is like just through quantity, you have to say his definitive movie character.

• 18:31Speaker 04

  Right.

• 18:32Griffin Newman?

  It is his one franchise, but like outside of that, every other Chevy performance is this is Griswold without any balance.

• 18:40Speaker 04

  Right.

• 18:40Griffin Newman?

  Kind of winning more often.

• 18:43David Sims?

  But Ben, what's your, is your answer Fletch? It was your OG pick.

• 18:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, and I love, I adore Fletch. I can, it's so rewatchable. I feel like though I have such a soft spot for Christmas.

• 18:57Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 18:57David Sims?

  Right. Which is just such a family classic for many, not for me.

• 19:01Griffin Newman?

  Not for me either.

• 19:02David Sims?

  I had never seen it until this year.

• 19:03Speaker 04

  You mentioned this off mic earlier.

• 19:05David Sims?

  What did I say?

• 19:06Speaker 04

  You said you were Jewish.

• 19:07David Sims?

  I did say that and Gabrus threatened to leave immediately. I said, let's get that on mic.

• 19:11Speaker 04

  I asked Griffin before I came in here, I'm like, you don't have any Jewish people recording. You're like, we actually have several.

• 19:16Griffin Newman?

  I have to make, I have to make the confession Gabrus.

• 19:19Speaker 04

  No, no, no.

• 19:20Griffin Newman?

  I too am Jewish.

• 19:20Speaker 04

  No, come on. I'm trying to do comedy in New York and I'm finding all these Jewish guys.

• 19:26Griffin Newman?

  Button in the wall.

• 19:27David Sims?

  But obviously there are.

• 19:28Speaker 04

  All these movie fans and movie critics are all these intellectual funny Jewish guys.

• 19:32David Sims?

  There are many Jews who grew up with the beloved Christmas comedies.

• 19:36Speaker 04

  I mean, we.

• 19:36David Sims?

  I just did not grow up with the Vacation movies at all.

• 19:39Griffin Newman?

  We were, we were a big Christmas movie family despite being a Jewish New York family. And yet my parents had a real allergy to Chevy Chase. We were a Bill Murray household. That was the flavor of smarm that was accepted in our household.

• 19:52David Sims?

  Were you watching Scrooged?

• 19:54Griffin Newman?

  Not as much.

• 19:55Speaker 04

  Great movie.

• 19:56Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 19:56Speaker 04

  Great fucking movie.

• 19:57Griffin Newman?

  We were like certainly, we were watching like Christmas Story every year on, on TNT and shit.

• 20:01David Sims?

  Movie I'd never seen famously.

• 20:02Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, a very good film. But yeah, I remember one year, family, friends gifting us a DVD of Christmas Vacation. And my parents being like, really? And their friends who were adults, the woman was like, yeah, we watched it all the time when I was growing up. And they were like, really? You watched this? We had it in the house. And they were just kind of like, I kind of hate we have a Chevy movie on the shelf.

• 20:27Speaker 04

  Christmas Vacation is enormous in my family. It looms insanely large. I have an uncle, Uncle Mike, he has no idea how podcasts work at all, so, but he'll appreciate the shout out. He's one of the most generous laughers in my life. And he always said like, I, and he looked, he looks a little bit like Michael McDonald. He was a postal worker, he's a mailman. He had like tinted glasses and gray long hair. And he would always be like, I want to be your sidekick when you're a talk show host, because I'll just cackle. Because he thought I was so funny.

• 20:56Griffin Newman?

  Hey.

• 20:56Speaker 04

  He, he would, it would be like the summer, it would be a 4th of July barbecue and we'd be standing around.

• 21:02David Sims?

  Throwing Christmas.

• 21:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, he, he would, no, he would say shit like, don't worry, he's just yakking on a bone. Or like, got a little bit of that Mississippi Leg Hound in him, you gotta let him finish. Like, he knew the whole movie by heart.

• 21:11Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 21:12Speaker 04

  He was obsessed with it. He would laugh so hard just talking to us about it. He would have tears pouring down his face just remembering scenes. My aunt instilled a rule that he wasn't allowed to start watching Christmas Vacation.

• 21:23Griffin Newman?

  Wow.

• 21:24Speaker 04

  Until Thanksgiving.

• 21:25Griffin Newman?

  Because otherwise he'd be watching it every weekend.

• 21:26Speaker 04

  He'd watch it every fucking weekend.

• 21:28Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 21:28Speaker 04

  And it, and he was, he also famously, there's a famous family story that they almost had to, they threatened to turn a plane around. He was on because he was laughing so loud, he was ruining everyone's time.

• 21:37Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 21:38Speaker 04

  And when I said, Uncle Mike, why were you laughing so loud? He's like, my buddy was telling me about Monty Python's The Holy Grail.

• 21:43Griffin Newman?

  Oh.

• 21:44Speaker 04

  He was just hearing about the movie and cackling. I'm like, oh, it's awesome.

• 21:47Griffin Newman?

  I just think there's basically a, like a grouping of like, a Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation.

• 21:54Speaker 04

  Elf.

• 21:54David Sims?

  We're talking about cable classics.

• 21:56Speaker 04

  Right.

• 21:56David Sims?

  But especially the first, you know, like, it's just like cable TV is invented and they're like, when? What shall we put on it? And they're like, well, Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation.

• 22:03Speaker 04

  Right. Well, we know in a month that this will play well.

• 22:05David Sims?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 22:06Speaker 04

  But those are, those are in there. Vacation movies in general, I felt like were on cable all the time. Yes.

• 22:10David Sims?

  They're, they're just, they're just what America wanted in the eighties. This kind of like just ribbled enough, right? Like family friendly, but also like a little.

• 22:19Speaker 04

  A little spicy, a little, yeah.

• 22:21Griffin Newman?

  Here's a confession that might surprise you, Gabrus, and David and I have been comparing notes on this. I had seen National Lampoon's Vacation and Christmas Vacation. I, I feel like Cloverfield style, as I like to call it.

• 22:34David Sims?

  Yeah, like you've bits and pieces over the years.

• 22:36Griffin Newman?

  Like I, in the last thirty six hours, watched both of them intentionally sitting down from beginning to end for the first time in my life.

• 22:43Speaker 04

  Whoa.

• 22:43Griffin Newman?

  But I was like, yeah, I've seen every scene of this.

• 22:46Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 22:46Griffin Newman?

  But just in like jumping in, popping in here and out.

• 22:49Speaker 04

  Poor guy probably kept up for the first few miles.

• 22:51Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 22:52David Sims?

  Did you go to?

• 22:52Griffin Newman?

  European, I basically, I put on, I was like, I don't think I've seen any of this.

• 22:56David Sims?

  Did you go to Vegas?

• 22:57Griffin Newman?

  Have I in my life? Oh, I haven't yet in my watch through. You did all five.

• 23:02David Sims?

  I did all of them. I even watched the, right, the remake or a continuation.

• 23:06Griffin Newman?

  The continuation.

• 23:06David Sims?

  I should say.

• 23:07Griffin Newman?

  The Legacy.

• 23:08Speaker 04

  I've never seen that one. How is it?

• 23:09David Sims?

  Have you seen it? The John Francis Daly, Jonathan Goldstein at Homes?

• 23:12Speaker 04

  At Homes, yeah. I haven't watched.

• 23:14David Sims?

  The first twenty minutes of it, you're like, this is cooking. This is funny. And then it, I don't know. It, it's biggest set pieces did nothing for me.

• 23:21Griffin Newman?

  But also like.

• 23:22David Sims?

  It has a little bit of stuff.

• 23:23Griffin Newman?

  Goldstein and Daly, right after that, go on to do Date Night and Dungeons and Dragons. So it's, I'm sorry, Game Night. They didn't do Date Night mercifully.

• 23:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, they did the Better Night movie.

• 23:32Griffin Newman?

  They did Game Night and Dungeons and Dragons. So you want to go back and be like, was this a secret masterpiece? Cause these guys seem to be on here.

• 23:38David Sims?

  But it's got a couple clever, like, things.

• 23:41Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 23:42Speaker 04

  It's better.

• 23:42David Sims?

  It's okay.

• 23:43Speaker 04

  The era that it came out in is like, I mean, it was the beginning of the dearth of comedies.

• 23:47Griffin Newman?

  I was gonna say.

• 23:48David Sims?

  And it's so of that peak, it's peak like the Hangover era.

• 23:52Griffin Newman?

  Where the miller's at.

• 23:53David Sims?

  It's so nasty and like, uh, just kind of puerile and gross in a way where you're kind of like, it's kind of funny. And then again, you just kind of get sick of it after pretty quickly.

• 24:02Griffin Newman?

  I have a very distinct memory of that movie. Movie, if not bombing, at least significantly underperforming.

• 24:07Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 24:07Griffin Newman?

  And thinking, feeling a shiver in my body and going, oh, fucking theatrical comedies might be a little doomed. Because I was like, well, it's gonna do well.

• 24:16Speaker 04

  Well, you were wrong.

• 24:17Griffin Newman?

  Right. Bigger and better than ever. I remember logic-ing out, that movie came out in August and like one or two other big comedies had flopped already that year. And I was like, that's gonna do well just because there has to be one comedy hit every summer.

• 24:32Speaker 04

  Right. Something, something's gotta give.

• 24:34Griffin Newman?

  And Where the Millers was kind of an example of like, a couple other things that underperformed and then that weirdly overperformed in August. People are just like, I wanna laugh one time.

• 24:42David Sims?

  Right. Your horrible bosses are doing well for this reason.

• 24:44Griffin Newman?

  Right. And it was like Vacation didn't do well. And I was like, huh, there were no comedy hits this year? What does that mean?

• 24:50David Sims?

  Yeah, wait, what was the biggest comedy hit of 2015? I'm about to find out. I'm going.

• 24:55Griffin Newman?

  Daddy's Home.

• 24:56David Sims?

  It's perfect, too, doesn't count.

• 24:56Griffin Newman?

  Daddy's Home comes out that Christmas.

• 24:58Speaker 04

  Oof.

• 24:59Griffin Newman?

  That's the one.

• 25:00David Sims?

  Wait, you're saying Daddy's Home, that's 30th. We can't do better than that? Spy is above it. Do we count Spy?

• 25:06Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, okay.

• 25:07David Sims?

  Spy's a comedy.

• 25:07Speaker 04

  Well, I like Spy.

• 25:08Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 25:09David Sims?

  Spy's good.

• 25:09Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, Spy is quite good. Yeah.

• 25:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 25:11David Sims?

  I, looks like Spy is the top comedy on this list that isn't like a cartoon.

• 25:16Speaker 04

  And no one's talking about it, but it, I enjoyed it. It was good, but no one's like, oh, you know what? Let's get, let's rip the bomb and throw on Spy.

• 25:23David Sims?

  Trainwreck is above.

• 25:24Griffin Newman?

  Oh, sure.

• 25:25David Sims?

  Those movies.

• 25:25Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 25:26Griffin Newman?

  But Daddy's Home does come out in Christmas?

• 25:27David Sims?

  Uh, yeah, sure.

• 25:28Griffin Newman?

  You know what? There had been comedy hits that year. I don't know what the fuck I was talking about, but certainly Vacation didn't do well.

• 25:32David Sims?

  And comedy's doing fine.

• 25:33Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, I'm sorry. Comedy's doing fine.

• 25:34David Sims?

  I mean, the things that did badly that maybe you're thinking about is that.

• 25:37Speaker 04

  Comedy is legal again. I, I, I have made, I have made comedy legal again.

• 25:41David Sims?

  By the, when they say they made comedy legal again, they mean made it not funny at all. That seems to be what they mean.

• 25:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, they mean slurs are legal.

• 25:48Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 25:49David Sims?

  Uh, Ted.

• 25:50Speaker 04

  And slurs are comedy also.

• 25:52Griffin Newman?

  And some people are laughing.

• 25:53Speaker 04

  They're saying three things at once.

• 25:54Griffin Newman?

  Some very specific people are laughing in specific rooms.

• 25:56David Sims?

  Ted 2, Pixels.

• 25:59Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 25:59David Sims?

  You know, like there's movies on this.

• 26:00Griffin Newman?

  Those are a couple big budget bombs.

• 26:02David Sims?

  Paul Blart Mall Cop 2. All movies where, I defend Pixels, but movies where it's like, what are we doing, guys?

• 26:06Griffin Newman?

  I defend as well.

• 26:07Speaker 04

  I defend Pixels.

• 26:08Griffin Newman?

  But those are still good.

• 26:08Speaker 04

  Whatever, what, you said I defend and whatever movie you chose after those three, I was gonna give you this same look of disgust.

• 26:15David Sims?

  But like. You know, there's nothing wrong with doing Paul Blart Mall Cop 2. The first one did well. We make sequels to successful movies. But at the same time, I think America's like, guys, we gave you a pass on Paul Blart Mall Cop.

• 26:26Speaker 04

  I think it was also- That was like a proto meme where it's like, wouldn't it be funny if we just saw this movie?

• 26:31David Sims?

  Sure, fucking-

• 26:32Griffin Newman?

  But also, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, in my memory, was a bit of another stakeout where I'm like, you waited six years to do this?

• 26:38David Sims?

  Yeah, they waited a little too long.

• 26:39Griffin Newman?

  Like, he hit the, like, iron a couple times, had a couple other hits, then bombs, then was like, I guess I gotta go back to the safety net of Blart. And people were like, okay.

• 26:50Speaker 04

  We miss Blart. Stop doing MMA guys and guys who work in zoos.

• 26:55David Sims?

  Yeah. Yeah, that was what it was. It was Kevin James going like, fine, I'll fucking do Blart 2.

• 26:58Speaker 04

  So the King of Queens bought a zoo.

• 27:00Griffin Newman?

  Right. Yes.

• 27:02David Sims?

  Um, I had never seen any of these movies.

• 27:06Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 27:06David Sims?

  And when Heckling got picked, I was like, alright, I'm gonna fucking watch them.

• 27:09Speaker 04

  Are you a fan of vacation as a concept? You don't, you don't have like a lot of vacation vibes?

• 27:14Griffin Newman?

  This is a rich conversational thread. Thank you for opening this door.

• 27:17David Sims?

  I'll say this.

• 27:18Griffin Newman?

  You don't like traveling as an act.

• 27:19David Sims?

  Well, not right now, because I have all these children.

• 27:23Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 27:23David Sims?

  And there are some people with, who I know with young children, who are just like, I don't give a shit.

• 27:29Griffin Newman?

  I have to do it.

• 27:29David Sims?

  I gotta go.

• 27:30Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 27:31David Sims?

  You know, for some people, obviously, they gotta go see their family, right? You know, I get that very much. But like, some people are just like, I gotta go on vacation. I'll just bring the kids. You tough out the hard parts, you do the easy part, you know, whatever. I'm just like, no, man, bringing kids on vacation is a huge hassle. You don't have any fun. So far, is my experience.

• 27:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, and they, and they get not much out of it.

• 27:48David Sims?

  Right.

• 27:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 27:49David Sims?

  And so I think, you know, we're getting close to, now my daughter would probably enjoy a vacation, but now I have two extra kids.

• 27:54Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 27:55David Sims?

  Uh, great, great.

• 27:56Griffin Newman?

  I mean, famously-

• 27:56Speaker 04

  That's a great way to phrase that.

• 27:57Griffin Newman?

  An anecdote I love to repeat on-

• 27:59Speaker 04

  Buy one, get two free.

• 28:00David Sims?

  That's what happened.

• 28:02Griffin Newman?

  In early 2020, we were planning to go to Orlando to do an episode about Galaxy's Edge when that was about to open. And there were two windows where it made sense to do it, February 2020 or June 2020.

• 28:15David Sims?

  He's so worked up about that.

• 28:16Griffin Newman?

  And we were close to pulling the trigger on February, and then I was like, fuck, the Ratatouille ride doesn't open until June. Let's wait for June. And then the world ends, right? And David and his wife have their first child. And then like when things reopened, we sort of like started the conversation again about like, is it worth trying to talk about doing this? And David's response was, I can't go to Disney World now, I have a child.

• 28:39David Sims?

  Correct.

• 28:40Speaker 04

  Which is a very funny phrase because that's when you're supposed to go. Not when, not when you have a zero year old, obviously.

• 28:45David Sims?

  Exactly.

• 28:45Speaker 04

  Not wait for them.

• 28:46Griffin Newman?

  I'm just, I'm, I'm not calling out.

• 28:47Speaker 04

  Disney fucking, I'm so sorry. I'm just not one of these guys. I fucking hate Disney.

• 28:51David Sims?

  Yes, someone says it.

• 28:53Speaker 04

  Disney, like almost everything else I like in life is ruined by the other people who like it. And I go to Disney, everyone there drives me fucking crazy.

• 29:00Griffin Newman?

  I don't disagree with this. I don't disagree with this.

• 29:02David Sims?

  Even this is what I hear from everyone, where everyone who likes Disney World and shit is like, it's kind of getting ruined, both by the super fans and by the evil company that runs it. You know, squeezing every last drop of money out of it.

• 29:13Griffin Newman?

  But I think a lot of your frustration with traveling as a concept, which has obviously gotten more complicated as you now have one million children, is the like, hell is other people part of it? Like, you don't like dealing with the systems and crowds.

• 29:28David Sims?

  I don't know if that's true. I don't mind a system.

• 29:31Speaker 04

  You are in one of the weirdest postures I've ever seen in my entire life.

• 29:35David Sims?

  Gabrus is pointing out.

• 29:36Griffin Newman?

  I don't even know how to explain it.

• 29:38David Sims?

  I am double jointed.

• 29:39Speaker 04

  Yes, you are.

• 29:40David Sims?

  So I can bend my arms behind my back in a really weird way.

• 29:42Speaker 04

  He created his own, I could describe it. He created his own gargoyle wings using his arms.

• 29:48David Sims?

  That is right. I do it sometimes and it alarms people. I'm sorry.

• 29:51Speaker 04

  But it helps you get out of handcuffs frequently.

• 29:54David Sims?

  When I was nine years old, we moved, yes, we moved to England. It's just a known fact on this podcast.

• 30:00Speaker 04

  Been listening to the pod for a long time. I wish you guys did some bits about it as well.

• 30:04David Sims?

  Yeah, my mom did not want to move to England. Like, my dad got a job and it was, you know, we had to move, but my mom was very, but she was like, look, if we're gonna fucking move to Europe, we are going like on vacation to Europe, right? Like, if I'm gonna be this close to it.

• 30:16Speaker 04

  Take advantage of being a train ride away from 11 countries.

• 30:18David Sims?

  And so we went on vacation like chiefly.

• 30:20Speaker 04

  And you're a train boy, we know that.

• 30:22Griffin Newman?

  You love trains.

• 30:23Speaker 04

  We have that in common.

• 30:23Griffin Newman?

  But your mom was kind of the Audrey Gerswald of the family.

• 30:26David Sims?

  Yeah, she's like, Jesus. Wait, oh.

• 30:29Griffin Newman?

  Audrey wants to stay home, kiss boyfriends and eat food.

• 30:31David Sims?

  Oh, she's the daughter?

• 30:32Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 30:32David Sims?

  Sorry, I, I, to me, they're just dad, mom, daughter, son. To me, they're Chase Beverley, daughter, son.

• 30:39Griffin Newman?

  Blank, blank. Fill here, fill here.

• 30:42David Sims?

  You can't name them by the actors, because they're different every time.

• 30:44Griffin Newman?

  No, and we'll talk about it, but it's funny how much the ages change.

• 30:48David Sims?

  They just morph.

• 30:49Griffin Newman?

  They morph.

• 30:49David Sims?

  Like, it's, anyway, by Vegas Vacation, it's weird, because Chevy's getting a little old, and like, they haven't really aged.

• 30:54Griffin Newman?

  But like, Galloki's younger than Rusty in this, the following movie, when Chase is like, four years older.

• 31:01David Sims?

  I don't know, you guys hear me out, Griffin hasn't seen it, but Vegas Vacation, Ethan Embry is funny in Vegas Vacation. He's the best part, Nick Papa George. He's really good. That whole plot is. Have you seen Vegas Vacation?

• 31:10Griffin Newman?

  Oh, of course. Ben's seen Vegas Vacation.

• 31:12David Sims?

  That was really funny, I was laughing.

• 31:15Griffin Newman?

  I gotta watch it.

• 31:15David Sims?

  It's all funny.

• 31:17Griffin Newman?

  I really, I.

• 31:18David Sims?

  David? I didn't hate Vegas Vacation, I was sort of surprised, but I was like, this is competent, it's okay.

• 31:23Griffin Newman?

  Because it has a bad reputation.

• 31:24David Sims?

  It's the third best. So you think it's better than European? Yes. Wow. I think European is the worst, I think. But I agree, I'll hear it out, I'll hear it out.

• 31:33Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, I feel like that's a consensus.

• 31:34David Sims?

  Vegas Vacation just has this vibe of like, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce paid for a movie. You know, a little bit, like, it's got the most like, look at all this shit you could do in Las Vegas. Yeah, there's also a desert, you know? Wayne Newton's here, like, it's got a little bit more of that going on.

• 31:48Griffin Newman?

  But wait, when you lived in Britain, your family would do European?

• 31:51David Sims?

  Like, some of the happiest fucking shit I ever did was all those vacations.

• 31:55Griffin Newman?

  But you were Rusty in that situation. The pressure wasn't on you.

• 31:58David Sims?

  Pressure wasn't on me, but I, I mean, like, I went backpacking in Europe with my friends, I was, I was the clerk there.

• 32:05Griffin Newman?

  Well, that sounds like American Werewolf in London.

• 32:07David Sims?

  And that was great, and I like vacation, I like, my, I'm more of a, let me go to a place and sit on a beach, I like to relax.

• 32:15Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, yeah, and we know that.

• 32:17David Sims?

  Whereas, like, I feel like a lot of the vacations that went on, when you're a kid, these is the kind of vacations you go on, where it's like, all right, kids, we're, you know, going to every fucking museum, we're going to every church we can find, you know? This movie captures that pretty well, too, yeah.

• 32:28Griffin Newman?

  That's what I like about this one. Yeah.

• 32:31David Sims?

  Like, I like, like, I, it's good that I did that.

• 32:34Griffin Newman?

  I need to watch Vegas and the Goldstein. But much to my surprise, knowing this movie's reputation, this is kind of my favorite of the first three. I would never argue it's the best, and I think a lot of it's-

• 32:48David Sims?

  That seems like, Ben looks concerned.

• 32:50Griffin Newman?

  My weird sensibility, but like, I like how angry this movie is. I like that this movie is like, the most invested in the like, the hell of the trip. Yes. Where it's like, the multi-leg, that it's like, kind of, almost every character in this movie seems a little bit like, cosmically tortured and rotten. And I like that they're ugly Americans, but also- That's what I like about the movie, is that it's anti-American and anti-European at the same time.

• 33:18David Sims?

  I do think, it finds that balance well, right? Everyone is a fool.

• 33:22Griffin Newman?

  Which I feel like, to a lot of people, they're just like, this movie is just like, kind of like, toxic from the beginning. Like, it just seems sort of mean, in a way that's a little like, extreme on the dial. It's just a touch more boring than you want it to be. Sure, it's also, I mean, it's like, highly episodic. Yes, it's like- It has like, no drive. No, and you, and you do not give a fuck about anything. No, no. Like, it's hard to care about anything in the movie. It is chaos, and it's, it feels borderline nihilistic. On this viewing, the only thing I cared about was Rusty getting pussy, for some reason, like, I got into it a little bit. I mean, he cares a lot about that. He's such a strange-looking actor, I'm so sorry to the kid. Do you know who he is? No. He is Blake Lively's brother. What?

• 34:05Griffin Newman?

  They come from like, an acting dynasty family, where there are- He's not bad at all. No, I think there are like, eight kids, and he's the oldest and she's the youngest? Like, there's a big gap between them in age?

• 34:15David Sims?

  Certainly, he was born in 68, and Blake Lively was born in 87, so yeah.

• 34:20Griffin Newman?

  Huge, 19-year age difference, yeah. Like, it's fun, funny to think about this movie in 86? What year did this movie come out?

• 34:28David Sims?

  Uh, this movie came out in 1985.

• 34:32Griffin Newman?

  85, and then like, 20 years later, his sister is playing a high schooler on TV. Oh, that's great. Right?

• 34:38David Sims?

  That's so crazy.

• 34:40Griffin Newman?

  His sister?

• 34:41Speaker 05

  Um, can I say this about Chevy Chase in this movie?

• 34:44David Sims?

  Yes, you can.

• 34:45Speaker 05

  When- The business is good. Like, the situational fiscal comedy stuff. When it's good, it's so good.

• 34:53Griffin Newman?

  When Chevy is good, he's so good that it's frustrating.

• 34:56Speaker 05

  Yes. This movie, it just falls so flat.

• 35:00Speaker 04

  Yeah. You only see like, you only see like a flash of it. But you're like, you know he can do better.

• 35:06Speaker 05

  Totally.

• 35:06Speaker 04

  And he's just not given the opportunity. Also, and I'll go as far to say, why pack, uh, tubes? What's in tubes that you need to bring with you on vacation? I do not understand.

• 35:17Griffin Newman?

  I mean, this is a big tip.

• 35:18Speaker 04

  I get it, it's for the physical gag of hitting the guy in the nuts.

• 35:20Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 35:20Speaker 04

  But why is that in the car? What? They brought posters from America? Would they intend to bring home canvas art? Like, like, what do they have all those little tubes for? Is he doing architecture work, like drafting? Like, no. It's fucking crazy.

• 35:34Griffin Newman?

  Well, here's like, David's getting ready to clap his hands. I feel like you had a thing to say.

• 35:38Speaker 05

  No, you make a point, and then I want to-

• 35:40Griffin Newman?

  To circle back to your, like, what's the best Chevy, right? For me, the revelation of Fletch and a movie that I've grown to appreciate more and more on repeat viewings, being educated properly to its importance by Ben Hozley.

• 35:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:52Griffin Newman?

  Right? I'd seen it once before. Ben helped me place it in a context. I revisit it now. I like it a lot. I think that's the only movie that gets at, that starts to gnaw at the core of, Chevy Chase is clearly really unhappy. Right?

• 36:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:09Griffin Newman?

  There's some element of like, the whole weird, like, Fletch just lives under the docks and like, hangs out with drug dealers, but it feels like that's where he's most comfortable.

• 36:20Speaker 04

  Fletch is one of the most aspirational movies in my life.

• 36:23Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 36:24Speaker 04

  Like, I watch Fletch, and I'm like, that-

• 36:26Speaker 05

  I want to be this suave.

• 36:27Speaker 04

  I want to be this suave. I want to live like this specifically, because I love like, the Beach Bum lifestyle and all that shit. Speaking of which, Beach Bum, another aspirational movie, uh, shout out. When you guys do Harmony Creed, and I call dibs on that.

• 36:38Speaker 05

  I love that you're, you're throwing that in the mix.

• 36:41Speaker 04

  Yes, yes, yes. When Harmony Corinne wins next year's March Madness.

• 36:45Griffin Newman?

  I want to say.

• 36:46David Sims?

  He's definitely building up the case with his recent output, yes.

• 36:49Griffin Newman?

  I want to say.

• 36:50Speaker 04

  Aggro drift. You don't like, you don't like how that looks, Stephen? We got, we got David Lowery doing aggro drift.

• 36:56David Sims?

  I love to have a migraine.

• 36:57Griffin Newman?

  Well, there's the new one, where it was baby fighters, baby invasion. Have you seen this one?

• 37:01Speaker 04

  It's like in a first person shooter game.

• 37:04Griffin Newman?

  But the new one is, it's like a first person shooter game where everyone has like AI baby heads.

• 37:09Speaker 04

  I can't wait.

• 37:09Griffin Newman?

  It's a follow up.

• 37:10Speaker 04

  I haven't even seen aggro drift. I don't want to.

• 37:13Griffin Newman?

  He hasn't seen aggro drift.

• 37:14Speaker 04

  It's only playing at, it's only playing at the Body Shop Strip Club on Sunset. Like you're gonna.

• 37:20Griffin Newman?

  I think like the Michael Ritchie, who was more of a like dramedy filmmaker, right? And made these films that had like an interesting mash of tones. Uh, and, and could capture some like actual darkness and pathos in a broader comedy. There's just like the subtle, like some of the scenes, the way he captures just like Chevy walking through spaces. It's not like texturally overstated, but you're like, there's some darkness going on in this guy.

• 37:45Speaker 04

  Also Chevy knows how to walk through a room and be funny, but not too much. Like he could just, he just makes funny physical choices, the way he moves or looks or like reacts like.

• 37:56Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 37:56Speaker 04

  And that's like a superpower.

• 37:58Griffin Newman?

  Right. But there's like a little bit like there, there's something behind this guy's defensive armor of like the witty one liners.

• 38:05Speaker 04

  Cause he's funny and good looking, tan and rich. He should be like happy.

• 38:09Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 38:10Speaker 04

  And he just can't be.

• 38:11Griffin Newman?

  Right. And I feel like Fletch interrogates that a little bit, right? And then the first three vacation movies are kind of interesting, prismatic views of like, what is Chevy's power as a movie star? Cause I was sort of watching the first one and trying to contextualize like, huh, it feels like National Lampoon's vacation is early for Chevy to try to make the I'm a dad.

• 38:35Speaker 04

  Right.

• 38:36Griffin Newman?

  Switch, right? Like it feels like he was doing that.

• 38:39Speaker 04

  It's not a new dad comedy. It's like, I'm a full blown family. I'm a suburban dad.

• 38:43Griffin Newman?

  And I think there's now more of a pipeline of like that being a stage that like comedy stars need to have in their career. At least when comedy movies still existed of like. You make the family comedy switch really quickly. Whereas back then, I think it was like, family comedies are like fucking, like Million Dollar Duck.

• 39:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:01Griffin Newman?

  Or you make like cool, R-rated, transgressive comedies. And Chevy's like straddling this line. What's interesting about the Vacation franchise is that's like, kind of for grownups and kids at the same time. They're weirdly horny and angry.

• 39:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's the, it's like the four con- four quadrant movie of our cha- now they are, now the four quadrant movies are like American Bollywood films, more or less. Where it's like, it's got a dance number, it's got a fight, it's got romance, it's got a, you know, it's got a song, it's IP, it's like all this shit.

• 39:28Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 39:28Speaker 04

  And back then, a four quadrant movie was like, there's some stuff for kids, and if I can quote the great Andy Daly, a little something for daddy.

• 39:34Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 39:35Speaker 04

  Something for daddy. A little something for daddy.

• 39:38Griffin Newman?

  He, he was the oldest, or, or, he wasn't the oldest, Guillermo was the oldest, but he was older going into SNL than a lot of the other guys who were in their early twenties. He is like in his late thirties by the time of the third, of, of the first Vacation. Which like, in the nineteen eighties in America isn't-

• 39:55Speaker 04

  You have a twelve year old at-

• 39:56Griffin Newman?

  Right, it's like totally possible. Maybe not Hollywood stars do, but like, it's not-

• 40:00Speaker 04

  A majority of Americans, yeah.

• 40:02Griffin Newman?

  Yes. But his persona had still so recently been, this guy is cool and gets chicks. And I was astonished in watching the movie straight through for the first time, how much the first Vacation plays like a proto-American beauty. Where it's like this guy having some early crisis-

• 40:20Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 40:20Griffin Newman?

  Of like, I have an incredibly comfortable, middle-class existence with a beautiful wife and children, and I seem so fucking angry and unhappy, and all I do is fantasize about fucking other women.

• 40:30Speaker 04

  That's lost in this movie.

• 40:31Griffin Newman?

  Totally.

• 40:32Speaker 04

  There's not, there's not, there's no, the Christine Brinkley role is not in this movie.

• 40:35Griffin Newman?

  So the first movie has like a lot of hapless dad stuff, and it obviously builds to the idea of like, he's gonna hit a breaking point. And what we really wanna see is Chevy getting so angry that he's holding John Kennedy at gunpoint.

• 40:46Speaker 04

  Right.

• 40:46Griffin Newman?

  But you also have this running thread of just like, this guy seems frustrated with his like very idyllic little life.

• 40:53Speaker 04

  That's why, so I, yeah, it's a, it's a perfect like Reagan era movie.

• 40:57Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 40:57Speaker 04

  It's so good, for exactly the reason, I was very impressed with it.

• 41:00Griffin Newman?

  Same.

• 41:00Speaker 04

  famous as a good director.

• 41:01Griffin Newman?

  I was like, but like some-

• 41:02Griffin Newman?

  Dramatically, there's something interesting going on here in terms of like what it's saying about the culture.

• 41:06David Sims?

  The goal of the movie is nothing.

• 41:08Griffin Newman?

  Nothing, right.

• 41:08David Sims?

  His goal is to get his family to an amusement park. You know what I mean? Like, that's it.

• 41:12Griffin Newman?

  And it basically, the goal is him over and over again saying, "We're going to have fun."

• 41:16David Sims?

  Yes.

• 41:16Griffin Newman?

  And the more he insists upon it, the more everyone has a terrible time.

• 41:19David Sims?

  More difficult it is, yeah.

• 41:20Griffin Newman?

  And he's like, "I want you to think back to your childhood fondly. I'm forcing good memories."

• 41:24David Sims?

  Which this movie, European Vacation, has that too, I suppose.

• 41:33Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 41:33David Sims?

  Yes.

• 41:34Griffin Newman?

  Mmm.

• 41:37David Sims?

  Is that the city's cow?

• 41:38Griffin Newman?

  The city's cow is back.

• 41:39David Sims?

  Haven't heard from her in a while.

• 41:41Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, she's reactivated because she's horny for chicken fingers.

• 41:46David Sims?

  Okay.

• 41:46Griffin Newman?

  And she's excited for the streaming debut of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

• 41:51David Sims?

  Wow.

• 41:51Griffin Newman?

  The cow likes chicken.

• 41:54David Sims?

  Remember cow and chicken? Let's look it up while you tell the great listeners about the great stuff on movie.

• 42:00Griffin Newman?

  Well, MUBI is a global film company bringing great cinema to the world and to you, curating and elevating visionary filmmaking, all handpicked, always. That's what MUBI does. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, one of my favorite movies of the year.

• 42:13David Sims?

  Absolutely.

• 42:15Griffin Newman?

  You can feel the rush now at home. There's a hole at the bottom of the lake where the movies come from.

• 42:20David Sims?

  That is a line in the movie.

• 42:22Griffin Newman?

  In the new movie from Jane Schomburn, Past and Future Guest.

• 42:24David Sims?

  Past and Future Guest, a great filmmaker, a great podcast guest, great friend.

• 42:29Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 42:30David Sims?

  This movie rocks. It's got, of course, it stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.

• 42:35Griffin Newman?

  Uh huh.

• 42:36David Sims?

  Legends, and I tip my cap, but Zach Cherry.

• 42:38Griffin Newman?

  Performances, friend of the show.

• 42:39David Sims?

  Friend of the show, Zach Cherry.

• 42:41Griffin Newman?

  Zach Cherry.

• 42:41David Sims?

  Also in it.

• 42:42Griffin Newman?

  This is true.

• 42:44David Sims?

  Such a cool movie. It won the Queer Palmitcan. If you haven't heard about this movie, I don't know what's going on with you, but like, it obviously has, it was out in theaters this summer and now it's on MUBI.

• 42:54Griffin Newman?

  Hannah Einbinder plays a filmmaker attempting to reboot the Camp Miasma franchise, trying to track down the original final girl from the first movie to make some sort of legacy sequel, who's played by Gillian Anderson, who lives at the summer camp.

• 43:08David Sims?

  Yes. And you know, and then they hang out and it's regular.

• 43:12Griffin Newman?

  What happened? It's, it's one of those Hollywood's out of ideas. No, it's very much a movie about Hollywood being out of ideas while being an example of there still being new stories to tell.

• 43:24David Sims?

  It's now streaming exclusively on MUBI and you can try MUBI free for 30 days at MUBI.com slash blank check. That's M U B I dot com slash blank check for a whole month of great cinema for free.

• 43:37Griffin Newman?

  They got so many great movies on there to watch, but worth it for 30 days for Miasma.

• 43:42David Sims?

  Damn right.

• 43:47Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 43:47David Sims?

  Yes?

• 43:48Griffin Newman?

  He lurks in shadow. He slips into dreams. He casts no reflection. Audible presents Bram Stoker's Dracula, a new full cast audio thriller starring Ella Purnell as Mina Harker, Jonathan Bailey as Dracula, and an A-list cast, including Maggie Gyllenhaal as Van Helsing, Amy Lou Wood as Lucy, David Johnson as Dr. Seward, and many more. That is an all-star cast.

• 44:09David Sims?

  Yeah, this new full cast thriller locks Mina Harker in a battle of minds with the Count. When Mina's fiance Jonathan Harker, Louis Partridge, vanishes in Transylvania, Mina pieces together letters, diary entries, and chilling testimony to hunt the predator stalking those she loves, only to discover Dracula's already hunting her.

• 44:28Griffin Newman?

  Joined by the enigmatic Van Helsing, Mina and a small fearless band race against time to stop this ancient terror. Using her intellect, her resolve, and a gift for drawing the unseen lines between clues, Mina may just hold the key to bring down the Count if he hasn't already found his way inside her mind.

• 44:44David Sims?

  Featuring a haunting original score by Elon Eschery and a spatial dolby Atmos sound design, Audible's Dracula invites you to welcome literature's most shadowy figure into your home. Feel the terror of being hunted and the thrill of the hunt. Don't miss this year's best new audio thriller, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Audible's new full cast original adaptation. Written by Robin Ahern, now on Audible. Listen to the darkness. Go to audible.com slash listen to Dracula.

• 45:19Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 45:20David Sims?

  Yes?

• 45:20Griffin Newman?

  Ugh.

• 45:21David Sims?

  Uh oh.

• 45:22Griffin Newman?

  It's November.

• 45:23David Sims?

  Ah!

• 45:24Griffin Newman?

  And you know what that means? The old stereotype about November.

• 45:27David Sims?

  Turkeys?

• 45:28Griffin Newman?

  One long sprint to the finish line.

• 45:30David Sims?

  Oh, of course.

• 45:31Griffin Newman?

  Packed schedule, questionable food choices, and somehow a social calendar that got way fuller than you planned. And I ain't talking about Sam Fuller. We're not covering him yet in the podcast.

• 45:40David Sims?

  No, though, maybe we should.

• 45:41Griffin Newman?

  We might get there eventually.

• 45:42David Sims?

  I can't remember. Big red one. We could call it the Big Red Podcast.

• 45:45Griffin Newman?

  Listen, when things get complicated, not when life is easy and when you got time for a whole routine, right now, when everything is full and something has to give one scoop cold water every morning before anything else, as I like to say, scoop there it is.

• 45:59David Sims?

  You do like to say that every morning. You text me, scoop there it is. And that means I now know that you had your AG1.

• 46:05Griffin Newman?

  And I'm awake.

• 46:06David Sims?

  Uh, but yeah, you're, I know you're, you're a daily AG1 user, and it's basically the, uh, the glue that holds your internal organs together at this point.

• 46:15Griffin Newman?

  It's not just marketing. AG1 Next Gen is backed by four separate gold standard clinical trials, not weekend of study.

• 46:22David Sims?

  Thank you for that.

• 46:23Griffin Newman?

  Four independent studies with key nutrient levels improved within three months of consistent use. This is the thing I like about AG1. They're not resting on their laurels. They constantly work to better themselves.

• 46:34David Sims?

  Um, yes, AG1, they've got now AG1 Pro.

• 46:39Griffin Newman?

  For the professionals.

• 46:40David Sims?

  Same daily drink now with a performance and recovery layer built in. So you got five grams of Kri vitalis, a premium German-made creatine monohydrate, and one of the most studied compounds in sports science, plus CAHMB for muscle production and zinc carnosine for gut support.

• 46:58Griffin Newman?

  Thank God.

• 46:58David Sims?

  Next Gen is the foundation. Pro adds what your body needs to recover.

• 47:02Griffin Newman?

  You might be having some big meals this November. AG1 is what you need to keep your gut in check. Keep things, as I like to put it, regular.

• 47:10David Sims?

  Yes, so for a limited time, visit drinkag1.com/chek and get a free immune support bundle, including omega-3 fish oil and vitamin D3 plus K2 with your first subscription of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro. That's drinkag1.com/chek. And after checkout, be sure to let them know that Belank Check sent you.

• 47:41David Sims?

  But, um, yeah, and so I think what's good about these movies is that his relationship with Beverly DeAngelo has a spark of realism to it.

• 47:52Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 47:53David Sims?

  Their chemistry is existent.

• 47:56Speaker 04

  Forget that Richie guy. I think Beverly DeAngelo is the Chevy whisperer.

• 47:59Griffin Newman?

  I was gonna say, she is the one person who always talks fondly about working with him, still does like fucking conventions and screenings with him.

• 48:07David Sims?

  That's a good point. Good for her.

• 48:08Griffin Newman?

  Ten years ago, ABC did a pilot for a new show with the two of them. Like, she seems to have only ever had good experiences with Chevy.

• 48:16David Sims?

  So I thought Vacation was funny. The Randy Quaid stuff is, is interesting.

• 48:23Griffin Newman?

  It's interesting.

• 48:23Speaker 04

  In Christmas?

• 48:24David Sims?

  In both.

• 48:25Griffin Newman?

  In the first one.

• 48:26Speaker 04

  In Christmas, I think he's singing.

• 48:28David Sims?

  Yeah, in Christmas, that's true, because they make him even more ridiculous.

• 48:32Speaker 04

  Totally, yeah.

• 48:32David Sims?

  The more they dial him up, the less it's like, let's make fun of this poor guy.

• 48:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, he's not just white trash.

• 48:39David Sims?

  Vacation, right.

• 48:40Speaker 04

  He's just white trash in the Vacation.

• 48:41David Sims?

  Right, Vacation, it's not that, uh, over the top.

• 48:44Griffin Newman?

  The first one, they also make the incest joke where you're like, now this is too dark.

• 48:47David Sims?

  Right, right.

• 48:48Griffin Newman?

  It's too dark for me to find this funny if he's actually doing shit with his daughter.

• 48:52Speaker 04

  Right.

• 48:52Griffin Newman?

  Versus the second one, he seems very well-intentioned and loves his kids and everything.

• 48:56Speaker 04

  Well, that's just the great, great writing, great casting in that second one. When you put, when you put fucking a big, bulging man in a leisure suit, you know, like, all those specifics, and that characterization of, like, and there's my brother, emptying a shitter, you know, like, all that stuff just fucking hits.

• 49:12Griffin Newman?

  It's good.

• 49:12Speaker 04

  And they make him get all these amazing big choices, and you're so happy to have that character because you're, you're trying not to hate Chevy Chase watching Christmas Vacation. Then Randy Quaid comes in, and you love him, but then you can ride with Chevy in hating him.

• 49:26Griffin Newman?

  Yes, right.

• 49:27David Sims?

  It's a classic. It's a great way to bond with people.

• 49:29Griffin Newman?

  He's so sincere.

• 49:30David Sims?

  This guy.

• 49:31Griffin Newman?

  But it's so funny, the, one of those SNL 50 documentaries on Peacock, the one about The Weird Year.

• 49:37David Sims?

  Yes.

• 49:37Griffin Newman?

  Where it was so strange that Randy Quaid is part of that cast because he was already an Academy Award nominated actor, and for The Last Tale.

• 49:46David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 49:46Griffin Newman?

  Where you're like, this guy was framed as like a serious actor. Like, he was playing like funny-ish parts in like The Last Tale and Last Picture Show and like legit movies. And it was like, why was he part of this cast? And one of the talking heads just says, Lauren just thought he was so good in Vacation.

• 50:03David Sims?

  Which is, I mean, good call.

• 50:05Speaker 04

  Wow, a flash of Lorne having good taste. You see it every once in a while.

• 50:10David Sims?

  I mean, the thing that's interesting about season 11 of SNL that that thing points out is that Lorne's instincts on who he hired were broadly right. It's a very, very talented cast. Right, they all worked out. But he learns the lesson of like, no, the way I do SNL kind of has to be, I create chemistry with a bunch of unknowns.

• 50:30Speaker 04

  Not ready for primetime players.

• 50:31David Sims?

  Yes, because then they're all better together. Instead, I just had a bunch of guys who had no connection to each other, so there's no chemistry, even if they're individually talented.

• 50:40Griffin Newman?

  Like, he was like, who are people who are funny? And it was like, that's different than doing sketch comedy every week.

• 50:45David Sims?

  He's also so funny, which I did not know until I watched that, that in the final sketch where they kill everyone.

• 50:51Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 50:52David Sims?

  They pretend there's like a fire and everyone's, and then, and Lorne comes and he's like, takes Lovitz, and he's like, come with me, Lorne. Like, they acknowledge, like, Lovitz works, everyone else doesn't.

• 51:00Griffin Newman?

  And then they cut to...

• 51:01Speaker 04

  He's gone mad.

• 51:02Griffin Newman?

  Right, they cut to Smigel, and he's like, I guess I didn't realize in the moment that the cast would be offended by that sketch. That all of them, like, just went to the table read and saw this sketch where it's like, and he saves Lovitz and no one else from the fire.

• 51:17David Sims?

  You do have to rehearse these things.

• 51:18Griffin Newman?

  That final episode, when they run the cast list at the end, they all have question marks of their names.

• 51:22David Sims?

  It's a good bit!

• 51:23Griffin Newman?

  That's Randy Quaid, who's already been in movies!

• 51:25David Sims?

  Fuck Randy Quaid, he's an asshole.

• 51:28Griffin Newman?

  Well, he's not in this movie. He's not an asshole, he's just the world's most insane man.

• 51:31David Sims?

  Well, I would say he's an asshole.

• 51:33Griffin Newman?

  Uh, maybe he's an asshole.

• 51:34David Sims?

  Yeah, he's a huge asshole.

• 51:34Speaker 04

  He put out a video of fucking a woman doggy style with her...

• 51:38Griffin Newman?

  He did do that.

• 51:38Speaker 04

  Where she's wearing a Rupert Murdoch mask, because he said he was being deprived of Independence Day residuals.

• 51:43David Sims?

  Um, but he's also become a huge Trump supporter.

• 51:46Griffin Newman?

  Oh, yeah.

• 51:46David Sims?

  Like, I'm saying, like, it's not just that he called out the Hollywood Bushwhackers. Right, it wasn't just that.

• 51:52Speaker 04

  Well, he also, like, was like, maybe handsy as a theater, like, he ran a theater company with his...

• 51:57Griffin Newman?

  Oh, I forgot that fucking part of it, too, when he was playing Falstaff.

• 51:59David Sims?

  I mean, I think this is where the Starwhackers...

• 52:01Griffin Newman?

  And he was like, I'm method, and Falstaff would do that.

• 52:03David Sims?

  The Starwhackers had a doth protest too much thing, right? Where he's like, they're after me, and I'm like, after you for what, Randy?

• 52:09Griffin Newman?

  What exactly?

• 52:10Speaker 04

  Oh, it's just like pedo hunters, like, why are you thinking about pedophiles so much?

• 52:14Griffin Newman?

  You go around the camera waiting for an excuse to punch people in the face and claim that you're on the right side of the law. Um, no, but it is like watching the his sequence in the first vacation. I was like, this is one of those examples of like a performance that kind of breaks an actor.

• 52:31Speaker 04

  He's missed in this movie.

• 52:32Griffin Newman?

  He's missed in this, which you can tell.

• 52:34Speaker 04

  You can tell when they bring him back for Christmas.

• 52:35Griffin Newman?

  They know, they need him, but then you're also like, this becomes his persona for the rest of time.

• 52:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 52:40Griffin Newman?

  Like, he basically becomes riffs on Cousin Eddie.

• 52:43David Sims?

  Yeah, I, um, I wonder, how do you get him in this movie? Obviously, you could just be like, they're on vacation. Like, there's a way.

• 52:53Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 52:53David Sims?

  But I guess I can see how they naturally were like, well, there's not room for Randy Quaid here. But where, what, well, you know what? I'm gonna open the dossier, although the dossier begins with, well, this is gonna be a short one, folks. So I don't know how much there is on the, uh, the genesis of this film beyond, of course, that Vacation had been a hit.

• 53:12Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 53:12David Sims?

  And so.

• 53:13Speaker 04

  We must do it again.

• 53:15David Sims?

  Vacation 2 has to happen.

• 53:16Griffin Newman?

  He's basically coming off of all hits at this point. The Benji movie wasn't a hit, and Over the Rainbow or Under the Rainbow wasn't a hit, but like Foul Play seems like old times. Caddyshack is obviously a smaller part. He was like, pretty consistently hitting at the box office.

• 53:33David Sims?

  Um, yeah, um, John Hughes has credit for the story and screenplay. Robert Klein, uh, who wrote Weekend at Bernie's, Ben, uh, gets the other credit, but Hughes says he had very, nothing, nothing to do with this movie.

• 53:46Griffin Newman?

  He both wrote the original.

• 53:47David Sims?

  He's working on The Breakfast Club.

• 53:48Griffin Newman?

  Story for National Lampoon and actually wrote the first script, but basically got a like weirdly, uh, steroided story by and script credit on this, even though it was just for creating characters.

• 54:00Speaker 04

  Because they pulled so much, but they pulled so much deleted shit from, yeah, and that they, or not used in the first movie kind of bits and stuff like that. So I think that he, they just had to give it.

• 54:09Griffin Newman?

  But basically didn't consciously do any work on this movie. Yes.

• 54:13Speaker 04

  Obviously.

• 54:14Griffin Newman?

  Yes, yes. It has a different tongue.

• 54:17David Sims?

  So, and Hughes, of course, does have a much more Ranger role in Christmas.

• 54:21Griffin Newman?

  He comes back to sort of right the ship.

• 54:22David Sims?

  Right, a lot of people thus see his influences being crucial.

• 54:26Griffin Newman?

  And Christmas is based on a different unrelated National Lampoon story.

• 54:31David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 54:31Griffin Newman?

  They were like, we gotta get back to the Hughes well, so like, oh, you wrote the story about a family Christmas, let's retrofit that into the Vacation franchise.

• 54:39Speaker 04

  Now, you're at a point where you can just make one of these movies a year, you know what I mean? And like, they, like, it's just like, pick a fucking location, bring them there, it's like Tin Tin in blank, you know what I mean? Just fucking take the family wherever, it's, the idea of like Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Vegas Vacation, it's like unstoppable.

• 54:56Griffin Newman?

  It's almost a sounding they only made for.

• 54:59Speaker 04

  That's, I guess that's kind of what I'm saying, is that you would think that there are the eight of those.

• 55:03Griffin Newman?

  Because of Chevy probably, but like, I think the first one, Chevy's weirdly detailed Wikipedia about the ups and downs of his career, that seems to have been written by maybe someone related to him. But like, they said that like, the first Vacation was his highest grossing solo star movie at the time. Then like Europeans down a little bit, but not a flop, right?

• 55:23David Sims?

  No, it still made forty.

• 55:24Griffin Newman?

  Then Christmas Vacation is his biggest movie.

• 55:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 55:27Griffin Newman?

  So then like, the third one's the biggest, I would just be like, let's keep fucking pumping these.

• 55:32David Sims?

  Where do you want him to go? I'm just saying.

• 55:35Griffin Newman?

  It's, I mean, that's a good question.

• 55:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, you want, it's gotta be like.

• 55:38David Sims?

  Obviously, they settled on Vegas, but that really does have the energy of Vegas was like, hey, we paid you to make this movie. Right, but where else could he go?

• 55:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 55:46Griffin Newman?

  I don't know.

• 55:46David Sims?

  Because in Christmas Vacation, they don't even go anywhere, it is, of course.

• 55:50Griffin Newman?

  They stay home.

• 55:51David Sims?

  One's Christmas vacation, there's no school, but they don't travel.

• 55:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, I guess.

• 55:55David Sims?

  Set it as fucking out.

• 55:56Griffin Newman?

  Maybe they made a mistake biting off.

• 55:57Speaker 04

  Spring break, where they go to like San Padre Island and don't realize that it's gonna be like that horny and rusty.

• 56:02Griffin Newman?

  There might have been a franchise mistake in biting off all of Europe in one go.

• 56:06David Sims?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 56:07Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 56:09Speaker 04

  And like, Australian Vacation.

• 56:10David Sims?

  Yeah, I don't want like an African safari.

• 56:12Griffin Newman?

  I was gonna say, I don't want the grizzlies in Africa.

• 56:14Speaker 04

  But Australian Vacation with how much we were obsessed with Australia in the eighties and nineties, that would have done beaucoup bucks, yeah.

• 56:20David Sims?

  Get Hogan on board.

• 56:21Griffin Newman?

  That's the move.

• 56:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 56:23David Sims?

  As like, Hogan is like the Australian grizzler, say, hey mate, I've never met you before. Now, of course, there is a strange little irony to the fact that Vacation was directed by Harold Ramis. This is directed by Amy Heckerling. Harold Ramis and Amy Heckerling had a child together, had a secret affair. We're gonna talk about that much more on our Look Who's Talking episode.

• 56:43Griffin Newman?

  A movie that's basically about that.

• 56:45David Sims?

  Yes. And she was not that enthused about this project because of Ramis. Like, you know, like, what am I, following him up? But she says she liked the concept of American idiots running around destroying Europe.

• 57:00Griffin Newman?

  It definitely feels like that's the part she's in on.

• 57:02David Sims?

  Yes. And Johnny Dangerously is clearly in trouble. It's testing poorly. So she has that sense of like, oh, boy, I need something that's, you know, reliable.

• 57:13Griffin Newman?

  And she's made this very strong decision to not try to repeat Fast Times. Like, she's talked about that she immediately got 20 scripts like that. She's at the tip of the spear of like the teen movie explosion of the 80s.

• 57:24Speaker 04

  Do you remember when you first watched Fast Times? I have a distinct memory of like, hearing about this legendary teen comedy and then watching it and being like, was that funny?

• 57:32Griffin Newman?

  We talk about it.

• 57:34David Sims?

  It's a big, it's a big part of our discussion. Well, great movie.

• 57:38Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, great movie.

• 57:38Speaker 04

  A wonderful movie. Don't know if it's an elite comedy.

• 57:41Griffin Newman?

  But when I was like 12, that really confused me. And when I watch it now, I'm like, this is a masterpiece. I can't believe it can hold both tones.

• 57:49Speaker 04

  Yes. Well, it's like, you forget, like, it's, I said this on the Full Metal Jacket episode. You forget that Arlie Ermy's only in it for like 15 minutes. And then the Fast Times about that is that Spicoli is a side character.

• 57:59Griffin Newman?

  But like, it is funny that that movie has such a complicated balance of things that are able to coexist. And then she follows it up with two movies that are just like, this is silly chaos. Right? Like, she's just making kind of like goofball madness movies.

• 58:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 58:15Griffin Newman?

  Which I think part of that is her being like, I'm trying to avoid the like pigeonholing that happens to women in their careers. And there's so few female directors and I don't want to get stuck in like one corridor. And can I make boys movies, quote unquote?

• 58:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 58:28Griffin Newman?

  But the other part is that like her influences are like, I love the Marx Brothers and I love these things. And can I like, try to expand?

• 58:35Speaker 04

  She comes back hard after this with Clueless, correct?

• 58:37Griffin Newman?

  She does. Look Who's Talking, which is- So fucking successful.

• 58:40Speaker 04

  I love that movie as a kid. I, I, I can't, I, on a re, I'm curious. I can't wait to listen to your episode.

• 58:45Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 58:46Speaker 04

  But I, I'm very curious on a rewatch, how I'd feel about it.

• 58:48David Sims?

  Very fun and watchable movie.

• 58:50Griffin Newman?

  She does, she does look, she does look.

• 58:52Speaker 04

  Kirstie Alley's purple bra is like an image that I will never forget.

• 58:55Griffin Newman?

  Her hair. We talk a lot about her hair.

• 58:56Speaker 04

  She's so hot.

• 58:57Griffin Newman?

  Um, she does look, she does look two. She doesn't direct look three. She does clueless. So she does three hits in a row that are like her totally birthing something.

• 59:06Speaker 04

  And Clueless, recently Rogan said in an interview, it's the best high school movie ever made. And it could, it could easily be. Like, that movie changed me.

• 59:15Griffin Newman?

  But Johnny Dangerously and European Vacation are both her coming on to pre-existing developments.

• 59:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 59:21Griffin Newman?

  The difference is that Johnny Dangerously, is her being like, I love fucking gangster movies. This is the kind of dream movie for me. And European Vacation is a little more like, I guess that's a career move?

• 59:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 59:32Griffin Newman?

  That makes sense, right?

• 59:33Speaker 04

  Let me rinse, let me rinse this one out of my mouth. Yeah.

• 59:36David Sims?

  This might shock you, but Chevy Chase was not very kind about Amy Heckerling in the press after, in his biography, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not. He said, uh, "I had problems with the director Amy Heckerling, a lovely person, but I didn't think her direction smacked of energy and humor. I don't, he doesn't think the movie is funny." Uh, Beverly D'Angelo, uh, also doesn't think the movie is funny. She thinks it's not saucy enough. Like she was sort of like, the script is a little too G rated. No one had figured out what the formula was.

• 1:00:03Griffin Newman?

  She was angry that she didn't show her rack two times in this one.

• 1:00:06David Sims?

  God bless that rack. Great rack.

• 1:00:08Griffin Newman?

  I mean.

• 1:00:08Speaker 04

  Uh, as she said. Voice, uh, uh, the sexiest voice and an insane body. I being a kid and just being like, I fuck Christie Brinkley. Like I love when you're a kid and you're like siding. You're like, dude, your wife is so hot. Don't blow it.

• 1:00:22Griffin Newman?

  I do think that is a key part of the cultural stickiness of children who grew up watching these movies is like the weird complications of like.

• 1:00:30David Sims?

  R rated, but family friendly. I mean, the first one.

• 1:00:31Griffin Newman?

  But also being like, the mom is really hot and she's sexualized in it. And where in these types of movies, those roles are like.

• 1:00:38David Sims?

  She's a sexy lady. She likes to have sex.

• 1:00:39Griffin Newman?

  And she has agency and their relationship is like sexually charged.

• 1:00:42David Sims?

  Versus, right. Like the sort of so much boring American humor about like frigid wives who like make you dinner and like whatever.

• 1:00:47Griffin Newman?

  That's what I was gonna say. Right. Where those characters are so sinless.

• 1:00:50David Sims?

  The stores close. Or the Rodney Dangerfield, God bless Rodney. I love him. Stereotype of like, my wife is fucking everyone else in town but me.

• 1:01:00Speaker 04

  Is Beverly, is Audrey Griswold, wait, that's not her name.

• 1:01:06Griffin Newman?

  Uh, she's, uh, no, Audrey's the daughter.

• 1:01:09Speaker 04

  She's mom. She's mom Griswold.

• 1:01:11David Sims?

  Ellen Griswold.

• 1:01:12Speaker 04

  Ellen, yeah. Is Ellen Griswold the fucking tabula rasa for MILF porn?

• 1:01:17Griffin Newman?

  I, I kind, you know what, John?

• 1:01:19David Sims?

  Just gotta go.

• 1:01:20Griffin Newman?

  John?

• 1:01:21David Sims?

  Ben, you wanna leave?

• 1:01:22Griffin Newman?

  John, I-

• 1:01:22Speaker 05

  I don't think so.

• 1:01:23David Sims?

  I'm gonna stick around.

• 1:01:26David Sims?

  I, I, I, I wanna say something about-

• 1:01:28Speaker 04

  Ben's Alienware laptop is open.

• 1:01:33David Sims?

  Ben just swung his monitor away from us.

• 1:01:35Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:35David Sims?

  Beverly D'Angelo, just-

• 1:01:37Griffin Newman?

  I think you're on to something there, though.

• 1:01:38David Sims?

  This is her biography, though.

• 1:01:39Griffin Newman?

  I think she is the archetype that most of those videos are riffing on.

• 1:01:42David Sims?

  Oh, no, I'm sorry, this is from the Chevy biography.

• 1:01:44Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 1:01:45David Sims?

  This is just a quote from her, I'm gonna read the quote and then I'm gonna talk about it.

• 1:01:48Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 1:01:49David Sims?

  "I was living in Europe with my husband, the Duke, so I'm glad the second one was in Europe, but I know Chevy missed being home. Janey was pregnant, it was cold, the script wasn't that funny."

• 1:01:58Griffin Newman?

  That was his wife, yeah.

• 1:01:59David Sims?

  "At one point, my husband had a birthday party for me and Keith Richards was there. Everyone was singing all night and Eric Idle was so hoarse that he had to ADR all his scenes in the movie." Now, I don't know about you guys-

• 1:02:10Speaker 04

  That's a fucking movie I wanna see made, I was like-

• 1:02:12Griffin Newman?

  A hundred percent. Beverly D'Angelo was married to an Italian duke.

• 1:02:15David Sims?

  There you go, where I was like, who's the duke?

• 1:02:16Griffin Newman?

  Yep.

• 1:02:17David Sims?

  So I looked that up, and that is, of course, Don, sorry, sorry, Don Lorenzo Salvati, uh, one of the fucking, you know, dukes of Sicily or whatever the hell. She also, her romantic history, she dated Milos Forman-

• 1:02:30Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:31David Sims?

  -around when he was directing her in the movie Hair.

• 1:02:33Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 1:02:33David Sims?

  Then she marries the duke, she's with him for a good fifteen years.

• 1:02:36Griffin Newman?

  She leaves him for Anton first-

• 1:02:37David Sims?

  Leaves him for Anton first, the brilliant designer who created Batman's look-

• 1:02:42Griffin Newman?

  Production designer of the first Batman-

• 1:02:43David Sims?

  Tragically died by suicide.

• 1:02:45Griffin Newman?

  But I believe they're together at the time of his death.

• 1:02:47David Sims?

  Uh, yes, and then she, uh- Hitched her star who, uh, Al Pacino and had a kid with him.

• 1:02:53Griffin Newman?

  Which I also believe she left John Patrick Shanley for Pacino.

• 1:02:58David Sims?

  Basically, Beverly D'Angelo is like the queen of all babes, is what I'm saying.

• 1:03:02Griffin Newman?

  She had twins with Pacino in her late 40s.

• 1:03:05David Sims?

  Pacino, everyone's like, I, please, my love, what can I do? How do I get you?

• 1:03:09Speaker 04

  I get it. I, I, I totally get it. She's like this weird Hollywood muse who's talented in her own right, but then she's just dipped around to like.

• 1:03:17Griffin Newman?

  You know what? I saw, like, she has one of those weird, like, oh, I never considered acting. And someone was like, you should try this. And then she was naturally good at it.

• 1:03:24David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:03:24Griffin Newman?

  She worked as an animator.

• 1:03:25David Sims?

  Yeah, she worked at Hanna-Barbera.

• 1:03:27Speaker 04

  She's so everything about it.

• 1:03:29Griffin Newman?

  She was fucking painting cells.

• 1:03:30David Sims?

  She was also a backup singer for the Hawks, uh, which were a rockabilly band that turned into The Band.

• 1:03:37Speaker 04

  Oh, shit.

• 1:03:38David Sims?

  Isn't that crazy?

• 1:03:38Speaker 04

  That's so crazy.

• 1:03:40David Sims?

  Uh, and then, right, eventually, she's like, eh, I'll do like some acting and she's like in Annie Hall.

• 1:03:46Speaker 04

  Fucking busty Zelig.

• 1:03:50Griffin Newman?

  And she invented MILF porn unconsciously.

• 1:03:53Speaker 04

  Forrest lumps.

• 1:03:56David Sims?

  She's still.

• 1:03:57Griffin Newman?

  Five comedy points.

• 1:03:58David Sims?

  That was good. She's still with us.

• 1:04:01Griffin Newman?

  She is, thank God.

• 1:04:02David Sims?

  She mostly, it seems like, yeah, she, you know, some TV stuff. She hasn't been doing much in the last 10 years.

• 1:04:09Griffin Newman?

  I saw her.

• 1:04:09Speaker 04

  She's still Ryan Hyatt of Duke Money.

• 1:04:11Griffin Newman?

  Isn't she in one of the Harold Kumar movies? Am I wrong in thinking that she plays like a southern brothel madam?

• 1:04:18David Sims?

  She's in, uh, Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

• 1:04:20Griffin Newman?

  Thank you.

• 1:04:20David Sims?

  To me, the, uh, not the best.

• 1:04:22Griffin Newman?

  That's my favorite one.

• 1:04:23David Sims?

  Kumar.

• 1:04:24Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:24David Sims?

  Although, but the Harold Kumar franchise is also one in general where I'm like, how is that gonna work for me on rewatch? I really liked the first one a lot.

• 1:04:33Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 1:04:33David Sims?

  And I've seen it many times.

• 1:04:34Griffin Newman?

  I'm, I'm a big Guantanamo Bay defender.

• 1:04:37David Sims?

  That movie sucks.

• 1:04:38Speaker 04

  We're talking, sorry, we're talking about the movie Harold Kumar, not the concept of the guy.

• 1:04:41Griffin Newman?

  I've never seen the film. I like the place.

• 1:04:43David Sims?

  I love America owning land in other countries that it uses to torture people.

• 1:04:46Speaker 04

  Enhanced interrogation.

• 1:04:47Griffin Newman?

  Even talking about vacation spots.

• 1:04:50David Sims?

  Um, so Chevy and Bev both down on this movie. Anthony Michael Hall, of course, who plays the son in the first film declines, doesn't want to come back.

• 1:05:01Griffin Newman?

  Why? Because Hughes has already plugged him. He's, but he's also-

• 1:05:05David Sims?

  Oh, that's also true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's right. He's doing Breakfast Club this year, probably.

• 1:05:09Griffin Newman?

  And I think Weird Science, both are in the same year, maybe?

• 1:05:11David Sims?

  Right, that's what it is.

• 1:05:12Griffin Newman?

  But Hughes is like, you're a leading man now.

• 1:05:14David Sims?

  Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:05:15Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:05:16David Sims?

  Uh, because there's some other movie he was gonna be in that he's-

• 1:05:18Speaker 04

  Full Metal Jacket, right?

• 1:05:19David Sims?

  Yeah, that's, that's-

• 1:05:21Griffin Newman?

  He was supposed to be the Modine role in Full Metal Jacket.

• 1:05:23David Sims?

  That's what it is.

• 1:05:23Speaker 04

  But he was kind of like, he turned Kubrick off with like some attitude.

• 1:05:25Griffin Newman?

  I don't want to play like a pencil neck again.

• 1:05:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, or he didn't read the script too, for the movie.

• 1:05:29David Sims?

  And then he became a gym bro.

• 1:05:30Speaker 04

  I think we talk about this on the Full Metal Jacket.

• 1:05:32Griffin Newman?

  Yes, we definitely do.

• 1:05:33David Sims?

  Uh, Dana, and so Dana Baron, uh, who is the daughter in the first one, I think was down to come back, but Hecarion was like-

• 1:05:39Griffin Newman?

  If we have to lose one of the kids, let's hard reset.

• 1:05:41David Sims?

  Right, let's just recast both.

• 1:05:42Griffin Newman?

  But you end up with Blake Lively's brother, and then Dana Hill is her name?

• 1:05:45David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:05:46Griffin Newman?

  Who was an actress who had like a series of health conditions. She died weirdly young.

• 1:05:50David Sims?

  She died young, although I'm not sure. She, she had like diabetes and that was what she died of, but she also had conditions that made her small.

• 1:05:58Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 1:05:58David Sims?

  And so she played kids.

• 1:05:58Speaker 04

  So she's like 22 in this movie.

• 1:06:00David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:06:01Griffin Newman?

  And then years after this-

• 1:06:02David Sims?

  She also played Max.

• 1:06:03Griffin Newman?

  She is the voice of Max Goof in Goof Troop.

• 1:06:06Speaker 04

  Oh shit. By the way, Goof Troop and slash a goofy movie, I, when I first saw PJ on screen, I was like, oh my god, that this, that looks like me.

• 1:06:16Griffin Newman?

  Representation matters.

• 1:06:18Speaker 04

  I was like, that cartoon character, the most recent one for me was Spike in the new Mario Brothers movie. I was like, oh yeah, that's my new version with the fucking aviators.

• 1:06:25David Sims?

  Can we talk about Bulk and Skull?

• 1:06:28Speaker 04

  Of course, David. We've been waiting years to talk about Bulk and Skull.

• 1:06:31David Sims?

  I recently, you know, I'm sitting at work, I need to be writing for The Atlantic, which is my job, and I'm like, she looks like a half hour supercut of every single Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, uh, opening theme credits, right?

• 1:06:43Griffin Newman?

  Really burning them in that hole there.

• 1:06:44David Sims?

  You know what I mean? Where I'm like, gotta get cracking on that lead.

• 1:06:47Griffin Newman?

  Nothing big happening at the Atlantic.

• 1:06:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, just deleting my Pete Hegseth texts.

• 1:06:50David Sims?

  It is, it is hilarious to me that Jeff, like, as this was all, like, came by, like, he's always, and I, and I was like, Jeff, what do you think about Borat on P- Pizza and he stopped, he was like, what? And I was like, I just think it's bullshit. Like, don't put burrata on pizza. Like, it doesn't belong. Like, it's just, you know, you're just eating like it's separate.

• 1:07:08Speaker 04

  Does it make it too wet?

• 1:07:10David Sims?

  Yeah, this, but this is all these fucking new pizza places where they're like, and we put a big glob of burrata on top. And I'm like, that's just like putting a cookie on top.

• 1:07:17Griffin Newman?

  This is the conversation you're having with him while he's checking his phone and like nuke plans.

• 1:07:21David Sims?

  But to his credit, he's like, yeah, I mean, I can see where, you know, like, and then he said, do you think Prince Street Pizza is good? I'm like, no, like, you know, and start going off about that.

• 1:07:28Griffin Newman?

  He throws that question out to the signal group, guys, why do you think a burrata on pizza?

• 1:07:33Speaker 04

  Hegseth's a stracciatelli fan.

• 1:07:35David Sims?

  Anyway, um, uh, Bulk and Skull, a similar, you know?

• 1:07:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:07:40David Sims?

  What's the vibe? What, what's, why?

• 1:07:43Speaker 04

  Please remind the listeners.

• 1:07:44David Sims?

  So Power Rangers, the, the, the cast of Power Rangers are of course the five Power Rangers, six once Tommy gets added, right? And they're power, they're, to their teens with attitude who can morph into martial artists who command dinosaur robots.

• 1:07:57Griffin Newman?

  Recut from a Japanese.

• 1:07:58David Sims?

  We don't need to get into that. I don't know, we're just talking about the text.

• 1:08:01Griffin Newman?

  But what, what I'm saying is that you're building a show off of this martial arts footage and then casting American kids. You'll have, the villains are set already and the American producers, Saban and co. are like, we need to add more proprietary elements. What if we have like two dumb bullies with nothing to do with the main plotline?

• 1:08:18David Sims?

  But are kind of their friends?

• 1:08:19Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:20Speaker 04

  They're like in their mid 30s also maybe.

• 1:08:22David Sims?

  Exactly. And they, it's one of those things where they're like, they cycle through Power Rangers every couple of seasons, right? We're gonna, let's get these kids out of here. They're asking for us to like pay them and shit. Like, they gotta go. Let's get a bunch of new teens. Bulk and Skull, always involved. Like, all these new teens always know Bulk and Skull.

• 1:08:40Griffin Newman?

  I'm just saying, they're inheriting.

• 1:08:41David Sims?

  Like, as a kid, I'm like, oh, sorry. My nostalgia, I'm like, right, do Bulk and Skull, they're kind of like, they're like Bebop and Rocksteady, they're bad guys? So I'm like, wait, no, they're not. They're not the bad guys.

• 1:08:51Speaker 04

  They just live in the town.

• 1:08:52David Sims?

  They're just there.

• 1:08:53Speaker 04

  They happen to live in the same town as the Power Rangers and dress crazy. They, they dress just crazy enough that they should be on a TV show.

• 1:09:01Griffin Newman?

  But this is why I'm bringing up the heritage because I'm like, they can never overlap with the villains because they're inheriting villain footage that was shot in Japan 15 years earlier. They'll sometimes shoot secondary stuff with a different actress playing Rita Repulsa. I know.

• 1:09:15David Sims?

  Well, no, the recast Rita Repulsa and she becomes American, but like also they would have the kids fight the putty patrol in non, you know, they, it's weird, it's weird what they would do.

• 1:09:25Griffin Newman?

  They would do both.

• 1:09:25David Sims?

  It's just weird. What do you think of Bulk and Skull?

• 1:09:28Speaker 05

  I mean, I love that they're just basically personified fingerless gloves.

• 1:09:31David Sims?

  Exactly.

• 1:09:32Speaker 05

  You know?

• 1:09:33Speaker 04

  They are leather vests as people.

• 1:09:35David Sims?

  But why doesn't like Tommy Oliver ever go like, hey, we're gonna stop hanging out with you. We're like superheroes.

• 1:09:40Speaker 04

  I'm gonna cut your fucking head off with a magical space sword.

• 1:09:43David Sims?

  I can command a robot dragon.

• 1:09:45Griffin Newman?

  Or a musical instrument.

• 1:09:47David Sims?

  That lives in the city.

• 1:09:49Speaker 05

  But meanwhile, they're like, don't give me a noogie, Bulk and Skull.

• 1:09:53David Sims?

  That's what I don't understand.

• 1:09:54Griffin Newman?

  But David, in the later seasons, cause it sounds like what you're saying is they start to occupy a Jim's dad role, which is like, what connection do they have to the current cast? Why is Jason Biggs's dad still hanging out with different high schoolers?

• 1:10:06David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:10:06Griffin Newman?

  They don't like, start to like, they don't buy the restaurant or anything, right? They just continue to hang around.

• 1:10:11David Sims?

  I can't speak to that and obviously fans weigh in. What do Bulk and Skull do later? Uh, of course, I do love that Wikipedia specifies that, um, they came with their own theme, a quote fat guy tuba sound. Like that is the classic Bulk and Skull.

• 1:10:25Griffin Newman?

  We've been calling your twin boys Bebop and Rock Day, but should we start calling them Bulk and Skull?

• 1:10:29David Sims?

  It's kinda, kinda works for them a little bit, I will say. One's a little bulkier. I mean, both, all babies kind of are very skull-y.

• 1:10:36Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, a lot of skull.

• 1:10:38Speaker 05

  Uh, skull forward.

• 1:10:40David Sims?

  Anyway, um, but they're just, it's just, it's just crazy. Anyway, that's, uh, not important. Uh, what is important, of course, is that this film was shot in England at Twickenham Film Studios.

• 1:10:51Griffin Newman?

  I like that they actually went.

• 1:10:52David Sims?

  And they started off with Stonehenge. That was their first sequence.

• 1:10:55Griffin Newman?

  But I like, it's a major feather in the cap for this movie, in my opinion. You look at the end credits.

• 1:11:00David Sims?

  Location.

• 1:11:00Griffin Newman?

  Different units.

• 1:11:01David Sims?

  Paris, Rome.

• 1:11:02Griffin Newman?

  They actually went to the places. Obviously some of it's faked, but they made sure that they spent some time on the ground in four different countries.

• 1:11:09Speaker 04

  I've been thinking about stuff like this so much when I watch movies now. Cause I randomly I wa, we watched an episode of 21 Jump Street for Action Boyz. And that's all shot in like Canada and shit, obviously, but there's a one scene where they go to an ice skating rink in the This episode we watch and I'm like, no show would say like, we're not shooting one scene at an ice rink.

• 1:11:26Griffin Newman?

  Right, right.

• 1:11:27Speaker 04

  We will stand behind glass and pretend like we're pointing at ice or whatever, but we will

• 1:11:33Speaker 04

  put in post cold breath or something like that, but they would, and I was just like, you used to just go to places. You used to make a case to want to go to places.

• 1:11:41Griffin Newman?

  Like, here's just some microcosm, right? This movie has an establishing shot that they probably bought from some bulk like footage lot.

• 1:11:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:11:48Griffin Newman?

  Of the Eiffel Tower. Then you have a sequence atop the Eiffel Tower where they're clearly on a sound staged Eiffel Tower balcony, right? And then I feel like the following scene after that, the Griswolds are eating outdoors at a cafe and the Eiffel Tower is in the background of the shot. And you can tell it is not rear projection.

• 1:12:08Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:12:09Griffin Newman?

  Or like a map.

• 1:12:10Speaker 04

  They stop and shot a scene in Paris.

• 1:12:11Griffin Newman?

  Right, and I'm just like, it's not even the central focus of this. They are just sort of knowing it is actually worth the production value of having a shot where the Eiffel Tower looks real and Chevy Chase is also in the frame.

• 1:12:24Speaker 04

  Like, if you pitched this movie now, they'd be like, we'll shoot it at Epcot.

• 1:12:27David Sims?

  Yeah, right. We'll shoot, we'll fucking shoot the entire thing in Bulgaria and like, uh, it'll just be Paris, it'll be Rome, it'll be, but.

• 1:12:35Speaker 04

  I heard the reason that Bulgaria is like one of the number one film locations is because there's, it's the permitting process to build structures is insanely easy.

• 1:12:44Griffin Newman?

  Oh, you can.

• 1:12:45Speaker 04

  So you can just like slap up houses and castles or enemy bases, like whatever you need. You could just put shit up. That's probably like a high risk.

• 1:12:53David Sims?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:12:54Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Well, same with Hungary. They'll let Lazlo Toff build anything there.

• 1:13:00Speaker 04

  They won't let him talk in his real accent though. They'll have to bring the fucking computers in. Everything's computed.

• 1:13:05David Sims?

  Brody was way more Austrian. They had to Hungary it up, just little sliders.

• 1:13:10Griffin Newman?

  He was off base.

• 1:13:11Speaker 04

  Can we up to Hungarian? Lower the luffs. I played an engineer for a podcast for 30 episodes and I still don't know anything about it.

• 1:13:20David Sims?

  You don't know any of the lingo?

• 1:13:21Speaker 04

  I only know luffs and I'm not even positive what it means. I just, I'm obsessed with that phrase.

• 1:13:25Griffin Newman?

  What's a luff? One of the all time great characters.

• 1:13:29David Sims?

  Heckling.

• 1:13:30Griffin Newman?

  Heckling.

• 1:13:31David Sims?

  Uh, she hated making this movie.

• 1:13:32Griffin Newman?

  Great. I wonder why.

• 1:13:34David Sims?

  I was extremely miserable working on it. Uh, I figured they'd make market and put money into it and try and make it do well. Here's another quote from her. Oh my God, I despise that movie. I felt like I never wanted to do it ever again. Heckling, here's another quote from her. These are all different interviews. Feel like you're not supposed to bad mouth your own stuff because you're the director. Uh, you should take the blame for everything. So I take the blame for Chevy Chase and everything else. Feels like she's a.

• 1:13:54Speaker 04

  Take the blame for Chevy Chase is a very, that is one of the best Hollywood answers I've ever heard. Look, I'm a director and I'm supposed to take all the crap. I'm supposed to, you know, take the blame. So I take the blame for Chevy Chase. My lead, who's a piece of shit.

• 1:14:07Griffin Newman?

  I'll take responsibility for, I don't know, how poorly Chevy Chase was raised or something.

• 1:14:13David Sims?

  Uh, final quote. It was a train wreck. It was impossible. Some of the people I had to work with were impossible.

• 1:14:18Griffin Newman?

  Wonder who.

• 1:14:18David Sims?

  Interesting. Uh, I called the studio ahead and say, I want to come home. You should find someone else to do this. A monkey could direct this better than I could. So.

• 1:14:25Griffin Newman?

  Before we dig into the meat of it, I just want to throw it as an anecdote. Christopher Columbus was hired to direct Christmas Vacation, right? He talked about this recently when he was doing interviews, I feel like for no.

• 1:14:34David Sims?

  Christopher Columbus, who is by the way, the most affable person in Hollywood.

• 1:14:38Griffin Newman?

  I feel like is basically commonly accepted as there is no one more genuine than Chris Columbus, right? Like that is just a genuine mensch, sweet, smart guy. And, uh, John Hughes was like one of his mentors along with Spielberg and was like.

• 1:14:55David Sims?

  He made Home Alone.

• 1:14:56Griffin Newman?

  I'm coming back. I'm writing the next vacation movie. I think you should direct it. Gets him hired for the job. He meets with Chevy Chase. He talks to him for like, this is his recounting recently. For like 30 minutes through like his vision for the film of what he wants to do. Chevy just sits there silently and at the end of it goes, I don't get it. So you're like the director?

• 1:15:17David Sims?

  Not a great guy.

• 1:15:18Griffin Newman?

  And he calls up John Hughes and he's like, I know I'm torpedoing my career, but I need to quit this. I cannot explain. The way he like looked through me with disdain.

• 1:15:28Speaker 04

  Ugh.

• 1:15:28Griffin Newman?

  This guy's gonna torture me.

• 1:15:30Speaker 04

  Who directed Christmas?

• 1:15:31David Sims?

  Jeremiah.

• 1:15:32Griffin Newman?

  Like they got some guy, like Columbus had been prepping it and everything and he basically was like, I'm sorry. I know. Put your neck out for me, but I just can't do this. And John Hughes went, not only do I totally understand, but I'm gonna write another movie for you to help you get over this. And he gifts him Home Alone.

• 1:15:51Speaker 04

  Jesus Christ.

• 1:15:52David Sims?

  Which, to, to be clear, Columbus knocks out of the park. It's not just, right, like, cause like, Home Alone is a script. I can see someone like really fucking that up. That is a, a tight tonal thing of like, this movie's about this six year old fucking laying waste to Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. But it has to like evoke the lovely spirit of Christmas, right? Like, it's gotta make you feel warm and happy inside.

• 1:16:14Speaker 04

  We were just like spitballing Christmas movies, like, at the beginning of the episode, we didn't even bring up Home Alone.

• 1:16:19Griffin Newman?

  But that's like a perfect example of him being like, okay, I just worked on Uncle Buck. This eight year old's on fire. I owe Columbus a movie. He's got a good take on Christmas. Give me six hours, I'll shit out some fucking screenplay.

• 1:16:34Speaker 04

  What a bullet dodge for Chris Columbus. That's so fucking odd.

• 1:16:38David Sims?

  Although, of course, maybe Christmas Vacation would have been a hit with him too. It was a hit for Jeremiah Chechik, who goes on the McBenney in June. Just sort of an interesting movie. And the, the Avengers with Sean Connery.

• 1:16:50Griffin Newman?

  Oh, that is, that's a real career.

• 1:16:52David Sims?

  The Avengers, the, oh, with Iron Man, oh, I don't see Iron Man's name on this one. Interesting.

• 1:16:56Griffin Newman?

  I liked that this movie just starts right out with the game show, which is so bizarre.

• 1:17:00David Sims?

  Pig in a Poke?

• 1:17:01Griffin Newman?

  Pig in a Poke, hosted by John Aston, playing like Richard Dawson from Family Feud times a trillion.

• 1:17:06David Sims?

  John Aston, really funny.

• 1:17:07Speaker 04

  Really funny, a little upsetting when he kisses Audrey.

• 1:17:10Griffin Newman?

  It's immediately, I'm like.

• 1:17:11Speaker 04

  You feel better now that I know.

• 1:17:12David Sims?

  He's an asshole, I mean, the character.

• 1:17:14Griffin Newman?

  You feel better once you know that the actor playing the daughter is in her twenties.

• 1:17:17Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:17:17Griffin Newman?

  But you're like, right, this is a weird thing that was culturally going on where everyone was like, yeah, the host of Family Feud's a little handsy and loves kissing women. And everyone watches this show. And then this movie heightens in a way that feels menacing and it's the opening scene.

• 1:17:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:17:31Griffin Newman?

  You start with this weird cartoon, them in these ridiculous costumes.

• 1:17:34Speaker 05

  Well, and I just wanna say, Gabrus, thank you for being down with wearing the pig costume. I'm a little disappointed that Sims wouldn't put it on.

• 1:17:42Speaker 04

  It's fine, I get it. I'm glad Griffin's wearing the German, the Lederhosen, but like, I thought we'd all be in the pig.

• 1:17:49Griffin Newman?

  Just because I it's laundry deck.

• 1:17:50David Sims?

  So was was Richard Dawson the handsy the handsy host?

• 1:17:53Griffin Newman?

  Richard Dawson would always kiss.

• 1:17:54Speaker 04

  Kiss on the lips.

• 1:17:55David Sims?

  Right, okay.

• 1:17:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, come on, little kiss for me here.

• 1:17:58David Sims?

  For me, it was it was I grew up watching.

• 1:18:01Griffin Newman?

  You're gonna have to say it.

• 1:18:02Speaker 04

  Ray Combs.

• 1:18:02David Sims?

  Family Fortunes.

• 1:18:03Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 1:18:04David Sims?

  Which is the British version of Family Feud, which was hosted.

• 1:18:08Speaker 04

  Hosted by Jeffrey Epstein. And he was he was kissing these kids.

• 1:18:13David Sims?

  Hosted by the great Les Dennis, who's one of those guys where I'm like, any British person's like, I know Les Dennis. No American has ever heard of him.

• 1:18:20Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, but also you had Jimmy Savile.

• 1:18:23David Sims?

  Why are you saying?

• 1:18:24Griffin Newman?

  I'm not blaming you. I'm just saying there was like the ultimate creep on British television hosting panel shows and things.

• 1:18:30David Sims?

  Creeps on British television. What are you talking about?

• 1:18:32Griffin Newman?

  I was talking about creepy guys.

• 1:18:34David Sims?

  What the fuck? Yes, we all know about Jimmy Savile.

• 1:18:36Speaker 04

  Let's break down and talk about creeps in Hollywood. I mean, there's only a couple.

• 1:18:39Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, Ben, can you put five hours on this?

• 1:18:41David Sims?

  But here's the thing about Family Feud that's I'm sorry that I'm taking us on tangents again.

• 1:18:45Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:45David Sims?

  It's fine.

• 1:18:46Griffin Newman?

  We're doing great.

• 1:18:47David Sims?

  Steve Harvey just kind of took that show.

• 1:18:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:51David Sims?

  Like, and turned it into something else. And now no one remembers like Louis Anderson or whatever, you know, right? Like, everyone else is gone.

• 1:18:57Speaker 04

  We had Louis, you had Ray Combs, you had.

• 1:18:59David Sims?

  Yeah, you had Richard Karn from Home Improvement.

• 1:19:03Griffin Newman?

  Didn't you have also, what's his name, from Seinfeld?

• 1:19:07David Sims?

  John O'Hurley.

• 1:19:08Griffin Newman?

  John O'Hurley.

• 1:19:09David Sims?

  You know, J. Peterman.

• 1:19:10Speaker 04

  Oh, right.

• 1:19:10David Sims?

  And like, that's the thing, and that now everyone's just like, no, Family Feud has been hosted by Steve Harvey since 1900. Like, what are you talking about?

• 1:19:17Griffin Newman?

  He made it his own. He was hosted by a baby with a mustache in 1970.

• 1:19:19David Sims?

  And like, the answer is always like, badonkadonk. Like, they've always like engineered it, so.

• 1:19:23Speaker 04

  They came over with a pepper grinder full of horniness and were just like, crank, crank, crank, crank, crank. And Steve Harvey's like, what thing do you want to put on your face at night? And it's like, my wife's pussy?

• 1:19:34David Sims?

  And he's like, oh, man, that's crazy. Like, they're always so cute. He sells it so well every time that he's scandalized.

• 1:19:41Speaker 04

  What's something men have in the morning? And it's like, morning.

• 1:19:43David Sims?

  Pussy.

• 1:19:44Speaker 04

  Oh, you are disgusting, brother. It's the number one answer.

• 1:19:48David Sims?

  It takes about 30 seconds for him to say anything.

• 1:19:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:19:51David Sims?

  He just he does a little walk. He'll do like a circle.

• 1:19:54Griffin Newman?

  Yep.

• 1:19:54David Sims?

  He'll be like, I don't know what the world is coming to. He does it so well every time.

• 1:19:58Speaker 04

  He's a fucking machine. He is so awesome to watch.

• 1:20:01Griffin Newman?

  As long as you no pop-ins. But it also feels like. That show used to be like, uh, top five answers thing you put in your coffee.

• 1:20:12David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:20:12Griffin Newman?

  And they'd be like, uh, Richard, I'm gonna say, uh, sugar. And he'd be like, okay, now how about you give me a tongue kiss? And now the show is like, top five ways you love to eat ass.

• 1:20:22David Sims?

  And Steve Harvey's like, here we love family. Like, this is this in this on this network.

• 1:20:26Griffin Newman?

  The bit now, it used to be like innocuous questions, horny host, right?

• 1:20:31David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:20:31Griffin Newman?

  Now it's horniest questions, hornier answers, and the host is like, oh my goodness. Like, he just looks at the audience like, I can't believe they're saying these things.

• 1:20:39Speaker 04

  The questions are horny in a way that are pretending like, like you're a little kid and you're like, this is how you get away with bringing.

• 1:20:44Griffin Newman?

  But the dynamic has shifted to Harvey being like, I can't believe they're saying this.

• 1:20:47David Sims?

  But Harvey, it's not like Harvey's, I wouldn't call him horny, but he respects a beautiful woman, you know, like he's got kind of that vibe to him. Exactly.

• 1:20:56Speaker 04

  So your beautiful woman comes home from work, you know, like he's that kind of guy.

• 1:20:59David Sims?

  Right. I just, I, you know, when America finds people like this, they should.

• 1:21:02Griffin Newman?

  He calls women queen.

• 1:21:03David Sims?

  Yeah, exactly, right. Uh, I know he wrote all the Think Like a Man, uh, whatever, books or whatever.

• 1:21:08Griffin Newman?

  That's how a queen serves a king.

• 1:21:10David Sims?

  Exactly. And I'm sure there's a couple of things in them that are probably a little regressive if I had to look.

• 1:21:15Speaker 04

  That's always the interesting thing for those guys who refer to women as queens. It's like, but I am the king.

• 1:21:19Griffin Newman?

  You know I am the king.

• 1:21:20David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:21:20Griffin Newman?

  Like, I'm not your subject. It's the, it's the Prince Callan.

• 1:21:24David Sims?

  It is also so funny, whenever a stand-up comedian is like, I wanna write like kind of a romance book. And I'm like, aren't you a club comedian? What the fuck do you know about like regular romance?

• 1:21:35Speaker 04

  Here's how you fuck women out of town.

• 1:21:38Griffin Newman?

  Right. His book wasn't even like, here's how you find a wife. It's like, here's how you keep a marriage fresh 40 years in.

• 1:21:43David Sims?

  Right, cuz.

• 1:21:44Griffin Newman?

  Women do what men like. That's his big take.

• 1:21:48David Sims?

  Anyway, Game Show. Funny, Astin, I think, right, has good menacing kind of sneery energy.

• 1:21:54Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:21:55David Sims?

  The joke of them accidentally like beating the stupid Princeton family is funny.

• 1:21:59Griffin Newman?

  Paul Bartel was like one of the best smarmy like elitists.

• 1:22:03David Sims?

  I love him. Eating Rowl, one of my favorite TV movies.

• 1:22:06Speaker 04

  The game of The Game Show makes no sense.

• 1:22:08Griffin Newman?

  No sense.

• 1:22:09Speaker 04

  Now, you wanna go?

• 1:22:09David Sims?

  Not understand it.

• 1:22:11Speaker 04

  I didn't understand, like, they don't even know that the prize is European vacation, but they're willing to give up the motorcycle and. Something and then they do that and then it's like and great we'll be bringing in the previous champions who haven't been on the show yet.

• 1:22:22Griffin Newman?

  He was like you've won.

• 1:22:23David Sims?

  Now they've been waiting for you to defeat them.

• 1:22:27Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it's very bizarre. I do.

• 1:22:29Speaker 04

  I love that they all have glasses. What a shorthand for like, these are four smart people. Yeah.

• 1:22:33Griffin Newman?

  It is. My favorite running bit in the movie is Clark constantly saying to people, we are, we were the big champions on picking a poke. That he starts using it when they're checking into hotels, but he starts doing it everywhere. Like he assumes in every country they'll know them by reputation.

• 1:22:49Speaker 04

  And then only Moon Zappa does that. That's such a funny moment.

• 1:22:52Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, I love that. But you're like, it's such a good, like ugly American show.

• 1:22:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:22:57Griffin Newman?

  Where you're like, they go to Europe thinking they're such hot shit because they won this big prize.

• 1:23:02Speaker 04

  And the game is literally like, do you want more money, you greedy pigs? And they're like, oink, oink, oink, more money, more money.

• 1:23:08Griffin Newman?

  Dress up like a cartoon and then make sounds. Yeah.

• 1:23:11David Sims?

  Ben, any thoughts on the game show? I just feel like these movies are so important to you.

• 1:23:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:23:17David Sims?

  I want to breeze by anything.

• 1:23:18Speaker 05

  I mean, I don't think I have much more to add other than it's just, it's, it's so unclear of how it works.

• 1:23:24Speaker 04

  Well, I, I'll throw something your way that you might, I like, and movies used to have full blown animated opening credits. I'm happy that the in movie game show has an animated opening credit.

• 1:23:35Griffin Newman?

  It's a way they snuck it in there.

• 1:23:36David Sims?

  They, they leave Holiday Road for later in the movie because of this, right? Holiday Road comes over some car driving action.

• 1:23:42Speaker 04

  Yes, I think so.

• 1:23:43David Sims?

  Holiday Road. We like Holiday Road.

• 1:23:45Speaker 04

  An absolute fucking banger.

• 1:23:47David Sims?

  The vacation song.

• 1:23:48Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:23:49David Sims?

  Holiday Road.

• 1:23:51Speaker 04

  I love that.

• 1:23:52David Sims?

  Lindsey fucking.

• 1:23:52Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, that's good.

• 1:23:53Speaker 04

  This movie has a couple of bangers because I love that song. And then like the weird America song at the end is like really fun.

• 1:23:59Griffin Newman?

  Rules and the end credits are really funny.

• 1:24:01Speaker 05

  Network. It's the French song when they're doing the, the louvre really fast.

• 1:24:06Speaker 04

  Yes, that's a good one.

• 1:24:08David Sims?

  La place pour moi, I believe that.

• 1:24:09Speaker 04

  Yes, that's a great one.

• 1:24:11Griffin Newman?

  Feels like heckling influence too.

• 1:24:12Speaker 04

  Cause she's hip.

• 1:24:13David Sims?

  Yeah, it's got cool.

• 1:24:14Speaker 04

  She's cool.

• 1:24:14David Sims?

  She's got the jam on there and stuff.

• 1:24:16Griffin Newman?

  And like Fast Times is one of the best soundtracks in history.

• 1:24:18David Sims?

  But I just would like to say, I'm not tuning in for the songs in this movie. I watch, I throw on fucking National Lampoon's Vacation and that song starts playing over the credits. And I'm like, oh, I know this song. Like, I've heard this song before. I didn't realize this is from this movie.

• 1:24:33Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 1:24:34David Sims?

  Which it is.

• 1:24:34Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:24:35Speaker 04

  It was made for this movie.

• 1:24:37David Sims?

  No, it's that Lindsey Buckingham just had it and he was like, I've got this song. And they were like, well, that's like, can we have that song? That's perfect. Like, it was just like.

• 1:24:43Griffin Newman?

  It was leftover.

• 1:24:44David Sims?

  Rattling around.

• 1:24:45Griffin Newman?

  A pile. Yeah.

• 1:24:46Speaker 04

  I feel like Kilgore, the crazy bloody musical we used to do at UCB.

• 1:24:49Griffin Newman?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:24:50Speaker 04

  Ended with that song where our curtain call, the whole thing is so morbid and like gross and violent. And then at the end, it's like, we take the curtain to Holiday. And like, it's a Halloween weekend and shit.

• 1:24:59David Sims?

  When Daley and Goldstein do the sequel thing.

• 1:25:01Griffin Newman?

  Uh huh.

• 1:25:02David Sims?

  The, the things they are like bringing in is like the car from the first movie.

• 1:25:06Griffin Newman?

  Yep.

• 1:25:06David Sims?

  Like Chevy Chase is like, we've still got it and the fucking song. That's all I've got.

• 1:25:11Griffin Newman?

  Well, that's what's also interesting is like, the Vacation franchise has spawned a bunch of like unofficial remakes and sequels. Like, it's such a basic template that you're like, Little Miss Sunshine is like Fox Searchlight.

• 1:25:24David Sims?

  Yeah, it's kind of indie vacation.

• 1:25:26Griffin Newman?

  Right. Then there's like the Cedric the Entertainer, uh, Johnson family vacation.

• 1:25:30David Sims?

  Sure.

• 1:25:30Griffin Newman?

  That very much feels like him walking into Fox and being like, I just want to do my own vacation.

• 1:25:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, they wanted to call it National Lampoon's Black Family Vacation, but they went with Johnson instead.

• 1:25:40Griffin Newman?

  But there's a lot of like.

• 1:25:41David Sims?

  Without, without a paddle is like Vacation meets Kettishack.

• 1:25:44Griffin Newman?

  But I think like RV is like very much a vacation.

• 1:25:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're the Millers.

• 1:25:48Griffin Newman?

  We're the Millers.

• 1:25:49David Sims?

  Is had in RV.

• 1:25:51Griffin Newman?

  Like a five inch summer.

• 1:25:52David Sims?

  Okay.

• 1:25:52Griffin Newman?

  This is one of my favorite things to reference is in, uh, RV, Joss Hutcherson as Robin Williams' son.

• 1:25:59David Sims?

  Who is of course a borrower.

• 1:26:00Griffin Newman?

  Yes, it's very sad that all the other kids make fun of him for being so short. And Robin Williams tells me an endearing story about how he used to be short. And then one year he had a five inch summer. And when he came back to school, they couldn't pick him on him anymore. And I'm like, Robin Williams is five, six on a good day.

• 1:26:17Speaker 04

  That's, yeah, he was.

• 1:26:18David Sims?

  Yeah, Robin Williams isn't exactly towering over anybody.

• 1:26:21Griffin Newman?

  It's a five inch summer?

• 1:26:22Speaker 04

  I had. I had, I had like a three and a half, four inch summer and it was the summer before freshman year of college. I got it in between high school and college. Some kids grew up really, yeah. My dad was six five and he said his. My dad was six five and his spurt, he said, was when he was nineteen and I was like, you know, I was like five nine or five ten in, in junior year of high school. I'm like, I would love if I got, and then all of a sudden I went away to fucking college and I was six two and I was like, yes.

• 1:26:49Griffin Newman?

  I remember, I remember.

• 1:26:50Speaker 04

  I, so I went from like short and fat to tall and not fat and then now I have the frame to just keep adding fat to it. I put on the freshman fifteen, every fifteen, every year for fucking twenty years, I'm like.

• 1:27:04Griffin Newman?

  Sorry, I just Googled it. In, in RV, he claims that he had a nine inch summer.

• 1:27:10David Sims?

  So I thought it was even bigger than five.

• 1:27:12Speaker 04

  So. I had, that's what, that's what I, I had on Confess Fletch with Jon Hamm.

• 1:27:18David Sims?

  Hell yeah. He got it out. You were like, come on, Jon. Come on.

• 1:27:24Speaker 04

  I hit a water buffalo on the ride over. Uh, great movie.

• 1:27:32Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 1:27:33David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:33Griffin Newman?

  This episode is brought to you by XYZ Films and the acclaimed new documentary Capturing Bigfoot. On October twentieth, nineteen sixty-seven, Roger Patterson captured fifty-nine seconds of film showing a creature walking through the northern California woods. I wonder if you can log that on Letterboxd?

• 1:27:50David Sims?

  It is an iconic video.

• 1:27:52Griffin Newman?

  Footage that became the most analyzed and debated in history. Fifty-nine years later, a reel of sixteen millimeter film discovered in a safe changes everything. Capturing Bigfoot reveals the untold story behind the world's greatest mystery, told for the first time by Patterson's own son and the people who were there. This is a story about family legacy, broken friendships, and how far people will go to protect a secret.

• 1:28:14David Sims?

  Of course, you got the classic, what they call Patterson Gimlin film, everyone knows of Bigfoot out in the woods, like the famous Bigfoot picture. This has other stuff shot by him that no one's ever seen. That's what makes this movie different.

• 1:28:26Griffin Newman?

  But we're also talking brand new four K scans of the original film taken from the Patterson family archives that some historians. Have called the best rendering of the footage ever seen.

• 1:28:35David Sims?

  I feel like we've all seen that footage is like grainy.

• 1:28:38Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:28:38David Sims?

  You know, that you see, you know, whatever you see it in a documentary for two seconds. But this is restoring it and making it look much more clear.

• 1:28:45Griffin Newman?

  There's also a companion podcast, the Capturing Bigfoot Podcast, which goes deeper into the legend and lore of Bigfoot and the Patterson Gimlin film, featuring weekly episodes with experts in cryptozoology, urban legends, and filmmaking.

• 1:28:59David Sims?

  I'm something of an expert in cryptozoology.

• 1:29:01Griffin Newman?

  Well, of course. Yes, but that's more of a hobby.

• 1:29:04David Sims?

  Yeah, this podcast, Capturing Bigfoot Podcast is hosted by the director of the film, Mark Evans, and it's available for free on YouTube and Spotify with exclusive episodes and content available on Patreon to members of the Capturing Bigfoot Society.

• 1:29:19Griffin Newman?

  Uh, Capturing Bigfoot is now available to rent or own on Amazon Prime Video. Learn more about Capturing Bigfoot at capturingbigfoot.com.

• 1:29:35Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 1:29:36David Sims?

  Yes?

• 1:29:36Griffin Newman?

  Uh, uh, who are you wearing?

• 1:29:38David Sims?

  Uh, who am I wearing?

• 1:29:39Griffin Newman?

  I'm doing like an impression of a red carpet correspondent, asking who you're wearing right now.

• 1:29:43David Sims?

  Well, I am wearing Quince.

• 1:29:46Griffin Newman?

  Well, well, wow, what a coincidence.

• 1:29:51David Sims?

  It's a Mongolian cashmere zip sweater.

• 1:29:55Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 1:29:55David Sims?

  It's a sort of a brown. Would you agree?

• 1:29:58Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it's like maybe like a, what would you, a chocolate?

• 1:30:01David Sims?

  Sure, I have been seated next to people wearing this item of clothing, and they have brushed against me, not to brag, and gone like, so soft.

• 1:30:08Griffin Newman?

  Oh, a soft boy. But listen, the best pieces in your closet are the ones that you can count on, whether you're heading to work, going out, or keeping things casual. And this time of year, Quince makes finding something great for everyone else just as easy. This holiday season, it's where I'm shopping for myself and everyone on my list.

• 1:30:25David Sims?

  Quince does rock. It's got high-quality staples made with these premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere. 14 karat gold?

• 1:30:35David Sims?

  Italian leather.

• 1:30:36Griffin Newman?

  Mamma mia.

• 1:30:37David Sims?

  All timeless, versatile pieces that feel special to unwrap and become everyday favorites long after the holidays. These cashmere sweaters, like the one I'm wearing, start at just $60. Lineup doesn't stop there. You've got premium down jackets, wool outerwear, cashmere accessories, everything your loved ones need to stay warm and look put together all season long.

• 1:30:56Griffin Newman?

  And everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen so you can give luxury quality pieces without the luxury price tag.

• 1:31:09David Sims?

  So yeah, obviously I'm wearing Quince sweater right now. I've got Quince bedding at home. Ooh, they've got Christmas stockings.

• 1:31:16Griffin Newman?

  Oh, well, well, well.

• 1:31:17David Sims?

  They got tree skirts. Garlands, if you want to go Christmas mode.

• 1:31:21Griffin Newman?

  Your tree deserves to be dressed in Quince as well. And when it comes to gifting, Quince has a lot more than clothing. Think fine jewelry, leather bags, the aforementioned hotel quality bedding, chef-grade cookware, and five-star luggage. Basically, plenty of ways to find something special for everyone on your list. If you want to give the gift of quality this holiday season, download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's a year. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. Ding dong. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was blank check. It's the best way to support the show.

• 1:32:08Speaker 06

  Some travelers want the charm of an independent hotel. Others want the confidence of a trusted global brand. With Series by Marriott, you get both. Each property is uniquely connected to its destination, delivering local experiences and memorable stays while being backed by the quality, reliability, and Marriott Bonvoy benefits travelers know and trust. Experience the destination without the compromise. Series by Marriott is part of Marriott Bonvoy. Book direct at marriott.com or on the Marriott Bonvoy app.

• 1:32:42David Sims?

  The first chunk of it is set in jolly London.

• 1:32:46Griffin Newman?

  Well, first, we set up, of course, that Rusty is horny as hell and the only thing he cares about is figuring out how to get laid in some capacity.

• 1:32:54Speaker 04

  And he kinda wants to be a pop star, but he doesn't wanna sing. He just wants to like walk through a music video.

• 1:32:58Griffin Newman?

  Wants to act like a shit. He loves MTV.

• 1:33:01David Sims?

  Meanwhile, Audrey's thing is that she has a boyfriend, so she wants to stay skinny for the boyfriend. It's pretty thin.

• 1:33:06Griffin Newman?

  And her boyfriend is the bully from Karate Kid.

• 1:33:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, sure. Or the bully from Just One of the Guys, or the bully from Cobra Kai.

• 1:33:13Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:33:14Speaker 04

  Or the redemptive bully from Cobra Kai, yeah.

• 1:33:16Griffin Newman?

  Like the, the preeminent bully of the 1980s in American cinema.

• 1:33:19Speaker 04

  Great fucking guy, like just like-

• 1:33:21Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it's like a mensch, right?

• 1:33:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, he was a great person by all accounts.

• 1:33:25Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:26Speaker 04

  But at this time, he was such a good shorthand for like, cuz he's just fucking toe head kinda smarmy looking face.

• 1:33:33David Sims?

  Like he's gonna be true.

• 1:33:34Speaker 04

  He looks like the kinda guy you don't want your daughter kissing at dinner.

• 1:33:38Griffin Newman?

  But I feel like a lot of guys like this would play this part one time and being like, "I refuse to play it again." And this guy was like, "Look, I'm in movies. You wanna keep paying me to do this, I'll do this."

• 1:33:47Speaker 04

  I look a specific way, you know what I mean?

• 1:33:50Griffin Newman?

  I get it.

• 1:33:50Speaker 04

  I look like a bad guy, yeah.

• 1:33:51Griffin Newman?

  And it's had his like, you know, full arc now, coming back with Cobra Kai. But yes, all she wants to do is kiss. She hates the idea of going to Europe and being away from the kissing. And everyone makes fun of her for eating too much. A very sensitive plotline.

• 1:34:03David Sims?

  Yeah, exactly, very, very.

• 1:34:04Speaker 04

  The actor is like suffering from diabetes and they have to like force feeds.

• 1:34:08Griffin Newman?

  Funneling cake down her mouth.

• 1:34:09Speaker 04

  I know. It's fucking weird. I do like this lighter fluid gag. I think that's like, this is like kind of, it's not very funny, but it is exactly like Vegas vacation, uh, sorry, vacation movie specific.

• 1:34:20Griffin Newman?

  Oh, you're saying with the grill?

• 1:34:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, they don't realize that both of them have been putting it on the whole time. Like while he's looking at the instructions, she's putting it on, when she's not paying attention, he's spraying it on.

• 1:34:29Griffin Newman?

  And like, it's little shit, but I love the commitment to like Chevy having to remain on screen for five minutes with the ash outline around the goggles.

• 1:34:37David Sims?

  Yeah, that's, look, I just like, so this movie has four sections, London, Paris, Germany, Rome, right? Like those are the four. And it feels like they spent a good half hour on each figuring out what stereotypes they should do.

• 1:34:50Speaker 04

  Uh huh, for sure.

• 1:34:51David Sims?

  An easy like 20 minutes on like, okay. It's just interesting to me that for London, they more pick up on like dirt bags.

• 1:35:01Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:35:01David Sims?

  Versus like, it's not what you think maybe of like the most obvious stereotype of like, oh, like posh people drinking tea and shit. They do a queen bit.

• 1:35:10Speaker 04

  They do a queen bit, they do a people in England are weirdly nice.

• 1:35:13Griffin Newman?

  That's the interesting zag.

• 1:35:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:35:16Griffin Newman?

  Like you expect that they'll be big timing the Griswolds and looking their nose down at them.

• 1:35:20David Sims?

  Right. And instead they're excessively polite. Like, none of them are not, you know, like they are existent stereotypes.

• 1:35:26Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 1:35:26David Sims?

  They're just not quite the ones you would have figured.

• 1:35:28Speaker 04

  Especially of the time.

• 1:35:29Griffin Newman?

  But it might be my favorite bit in the movie is him continually damaging people's cars and then being like, oh, don't worry about it.

• 1:35:35Speaker 04

  Please, take this back to New York with you.

• 1:35:37David Sims?

  And they give him, they gives him the bumper, they put it in the car.

• 1:35:40Speaker 04

  Add it to the collection.

• 1:35:41David Sims?

  And Mel Smith.

• 1:35:43Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:35:43David Sims?

  Who is a.

• 1:35:44Speaker 04

  Legendary sketch guy.

• 1:35:45David Sims?

  Brilliant British comedian. He died a while ago, but you know.

• 1:35:48Speaker 04

  Great look on him.

• 1:35:49David Sims?

  Right. Very funny as the hotel manager, but right, they're not doing the, oh, like, you know, do behave like far too fancy thing. No, instead he's this like Cockney sort of cheat.

• 1:36:00Griffin Newman?

  They're not doing the well I never, which is the most obvious thing to go to, which I give them credit for doing. I'm like, they're doing kind of weird zags.

• 1:36:05David Sims?

  This is not sensitive or right.

• 1:36:08Griffin Newman?

  But they're avoiding the most overplayed version of the bit, which is they walk in and they don't know how to hold the teacup and everyone's like, ew.

• 1:36:16David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:36:17Speaker 04

  I don't want to be already jumping back, but the four dreams on the plane.

• 1:36:22David Sims?

  Okay, actually I forgot about the dreams. What are the dreams? Okay, okay.

• 1:36:25Speaker 04

  They are very like, it's a very, it's a very funny, simple, hamfisted way to just establish your character's interior.

• 1:36:32Griffin Newman?

  You notice like, this is a runner in Heckerland. She's really good at these dream sequences. You have Spicoli on the beach.

• 1:36:38Speaker 04

  Sure. Right.

• 1:36:38Griffin Newman?

  You have, look who's talking has incredible dream sequences.

• 1:36:41Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:36:41Griffin Newman?

  Her like projecting.

• 1:36:43David Sims?

  Images. Right. Yeah.

• 1:36:45Speaker 04

  And then so in this one, it's. Beverly D'Angelo dreams of meeting the queen, but in her dream, Princess Di wants to fuck Chevy Chase.

• 1:36:54Griffin Newman?

  And that's exciting to her.

• 1:36:55Speaker 04

  Such a funny specific, and she's into it. In Rusty's dream, he's a pop star on the Rusty World Tour and kind of just walking around like sexy dancers. And it's very, this also feels like Heckerling because it's a very specific, it's almost like

• 1:37:09Griffin Newman?

  Kind of new wavy.

• 1:37:10Speaker 04

  Ballroom.

• 1:37:11Griffin Newman?

  Right, yes.

• 1:37:12Speaker 04

  You know, it's very progressively seeming. And then Audrey is, wants to be in the fucking Homer Simpson hell feeding machine kind of thing. And then, what was Chevy's dream?

• 1:37:22Griffin Newman?

  Chevy's dream, oh Chevy's dream is Sound of Music.

• 1:37:25Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:37:26Griffin Newman?

  That he wants to go back to his German family.

• 1:37:28Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:37:29Griffin Newman?

  And he's in full lederhosen.

• 1:37:30David Sims?

  Which is maybe a joke they need to hit more.

• 1:37:32Griffin Newman?

  Yes, it's a little

• 1:37:33Speaker 04

  I also think Chevy's dream should have a European woman in it.

• 1:37:38Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:37:39David Sims?

  Right, but he's not as horny in this.

• 1:37:40Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:37:41Griffin Newman?

  He's only horny, and not to move backwards again.

• 1:37:43Speaker 04

  But for his wife.

• 1:37:44Griffin Newman?

  He fucking makes his wife do

• 1:37:46David Sims?

  Do a sex tape.

• 1:37:47Griffin Newman?

  Uh, but what, she does Let's Misbehave?

• 1:37:49David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:37:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, right. And then he fucks her on camera.

• 1:37:52David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:53Griffin Newman?

  And then it gets distributed in theaters.

• 1:37:56David Sims?

  This is a plot of the film. This is undeniable. What I like about Vacation is

• 1:38:00Griffin Newman?

  He's so horny for her.

• 1:38:02David Sims?

  What I like about Vacation is their relationship is genuinely sexual and she's hot and he's, I mean Chevy Chase is hot.

• 1:38:09Speaker 04

  Yeah. You understand why they're both with each other.

• 1:38:12David Sims?

  Right, he's still, yes, he still has the flirty fantasy, he has the dream of the dalliance with Christie Brinkley.

• 1:38:18Griffin Newman?

  He takes her to the Moulin Rouge.

• 1:38:19David Sims?

  Right. Well, no, no, that's in this one, I'm just saying in the first movie, right.

• 1:38:23Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:38:24David Sims?

  But then like his wife takes him back without too much fuss, there's just this stability to it that actually kind of feels realistic to me.

• 1:38:29Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:38:30David Sims?

  She's like, you fucking asshole.

• 1:38:31Griffin Newman?

  You idiot.

• 1:38:32David Sims?

  Like, it's sort of like, right. This one, it's a little off. I think it's truly, it's what Heckerling and Beverly D'Angelo, you know, in between like having dinner with the duke or whatever are saying of like, no one figured out what the formula was. They just had to do another one.

• 1:38:47Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:48David Sims?

  And so obviously you have the general formula of like, look, funny things will happen to them on vacation, but it's been downgraded from R to PG-13 and everyone's lost a little bit of like what their bit is.

• 1:38:58Griffin Newman?

  But the first one is such a straight line of, they're just trying to get to Wally World. It's a road trip to a, to a theme park and the worse things get, the more insistent he is that they need to get there and have fun.

• 1:39:08Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:39:09Griffin Newman?

  Whereas this, it's just like

• 1:39:10Speaker 04

  They try that with this.

• 1:39:11Griffin Newman?

  We want a trip. Which I like that it's like they're being given something, so you're not like, how the fuck can they afford this?

• 1:39:17Speaker 04

  Well, it's also like they get to be poor.

• 1:39:18Griffin Newman?

  They get to be poor and they get to constantly be disappointed by their treatment for a grand prize winners.

• 1:39:23Speaker 04

  Right, and that's kind of, that's a fun kind of inside baseball thing of like.

• 1:39:27Griffin Newman?

  It's like a good setup of dynamics in my opinion, but it is a nasty one.

• 1:39:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:39:31Griffin Newman?

  Right? Uh, I just want to quickly call out a woman named Jeanette Charles, who is the actress who plays Queen Elizabeth in Beverly D'Angelo's fantasy sequence.

• 1:39:40Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:39:40Griffin Newman?

  She just left us.

• 1:39:41Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 1:39:42Griffin Newman?

  Last June.

• 1:39:42Speaker 04

  At the age of 96.

• 1:39:43Griffin Newman?

  At the age of 96, and I want to list some of her credits.

• 1:39:46Speaker 04

  Right, she played the queen a lot, right?

• 1:39:47Griffin Newman?

  In The Naked Gun from the Files of the Police Squad, she plays Queen Elizabeth the Second.

• 1:39:52Speaker 04

  A big role.

• 1:39:53Griffin Newman?

  In Austin Powers and Goldmember, she plays Queen Elizabeth the Second.

• 1:39:57Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:39:58Griffin Newman?

  In Nancy Meyers, The Parent Trap, she played Queen Elizabeth the Second, deleted scene. She was often referred to as, quote, "The Queen's most famous look-alike." What a life. We have talked about in the past, I think especially during the Indiana Jones episodes recently, certain character actors who have the misfortune of looking like Adolf Hitler. And talk about a Williams Zabka analog, they're like, "Look, you can work forever."

• 1:40:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, here's your fucking monkey's paw.

• 1:40:25Griffin Newman?

  But your monkey's paw is, you're gonna be gluing on that mustache a lot.

• 1:40:29Speaker 04

  We, on Action Boyz, we all stumble across a character actor that we're like, "This guy is in everything, let's look at his resume," and then when you read his IMDb, it's like, "He plays like Big Dale, Beef, Chunk, Bar Tough, Bouncer." You know, and it's just like this big, heavyset guy who's in like, got to be in 50 movies as assorted bikers, you know? And you're like, "Oh, hell of a career."

• 1:40:49Griffin Newman?

  What a fucking life Jeanette Charles got to have of just like, jumping into comedies and being like, "Oh, hello," and just like, hitting them with the sword on the shoulders.

• 1:40:59Speaker 04

  These are my favorite careers to like, wrap my head around. Like, when you find someone's like, "Yeah, I stand in for so-and-so in all their commercials and I make residuals," and you're like, "What?" You're like, "You make six figures a year without ever being seen on camera? And you just have to have the same haircut as the lady whose commercial it is?"

• 1:41:16Griffin Newman?

  Nice work if you can get it.

• 1:41:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:41:18Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, your fake flow.

• 1:41:19Speaker 04

  Yes, dude.

• 1:41:20Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, yeah. Your overflow?

• 1:41:23Speaker 04

  Faux flow.

• 1:41:24Griffin Newman?

  Faux flow, so.

• 1:41:24Speaker 04

  We're both good, we're both good, we both got there. It's good alts, we have options.

• 1:41:29Griffin Newman?

  Um.

• 1:41:30Speaker 04

  Ben, you can use these in the edit however you need, we'll do a little linearama in honor of Abbot.

• 1:41:36Griffin Newman?

  Okay, so first proper stop. Yes, is Jolly Old England.

• 1:41:40David Sims?

  Is England, so right, so the gags are, as we say, there's the Queen gag, which they get in via fantasy. The, that the hotel is shitty, which I'm sure in England in the eighties, by the way, yes. Like, I'm sure any, like, regular ass hotel would have been so rundown.

• 1:41:54Speaker 04

  Part of that fun gag is that the name is like the Westminster Arms Luxury Suite Resort or whatever, and it's just like a hostel.

• 1:42:00David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:42:00Speaker 04

  Where they have to share a fucking hallway bathroom and shit.

• 1:42:02Griffin Newman?

  You get into full cartoon shit in Christmas Vacation, I feel, which like starts to have like Looney Tunes logic of like who can survive what level of physical mishap.

• 1:42:11David Sims?

  The name gets extreme.

• 1:42:12Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, right. And I think like the first one is a little more grounded in physicality. And this one, like Heckling's sort of building a bridge that maybe pays off better in Christmas Vacation of like Chevy getting into the bed and the bed immediately collapsing like he's in a Looney Tune.

• 1:42:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, very funny moment.

• 1:42:28Griffin Newman?

  I do like, I like Robbie Coltrane, R.I.P.

• 1:42:32David Sims?

  Uh, Robbie Coltrane is great. Uh, I mean, again, playing a big old galoot, you know, who's causing trouble.

• 1:42:37Griffin Newman?

  Walking in on Bev in the, in the bath, yeah.

• 1:42:40David Sims?

  Um, but the other gags are, uh, hard to get out of a roundabout. These feel like American impressions of England.

• 1:42:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, driving, driving.

• 1:42:47Griffin Newman?

  Driving on the wrong side is so hard.

• 1:42:49David Sims?

  Not getting out of the roundabout.

• 1:42:51Speaker 04

  It's a crazy, like, it, it must have been to try to map the first movie on it so much. The fact that it's driving through Europe is like less of a vacation than you think to win a prize.

• 1:42:59Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:43:00Speaker 04

  Like, and, and you get to rent a car and drive through Europe.

• 1:43:03Griffin Newman?

  No, but you're right.

• 1:43:04Speaker 04

  That's frustrating.

• 1:43:05Griffin Newman?

  They must have locked in, like, this is one of the four cornerstones of the franchise. They have to be in a car.

• 1:43:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:43:11Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:43:11Speaker 04

  There are not a lot of shots of them in the car, though. It's weird. You would think you would have like some of those, like, like, I love that, like, in, uh, the Wally World one where it's like the direct on and Chevy's driving and it's like clearly he's just trying to hold it all together.

• 1:43:23Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:43:24Speaker 04

  We don't get any of that.

• 1:43:25Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:25Speaker 04

  Uh, we get, we, we establish Eric Idle in this as the guy who's.

• 1:43:29David Sims?

  He's a good runner.

• 1:43:30Griffin Newman?

  I love him in this.

• 1:43:31David Sims?

  Yeah, he's funny. They, they, right, he's like a biker they keep knocking over.

• 1:43:34Speaker 04

  He says Fleshwound, uh, you know, he quotes his own, uh, his own gag, which is always fun.

• 1:43:39David Sims?

  Eric Idle, I think, has always been the member of Monty Python the most, just kind of like, you want me to do something? I'll, I'll fucking do it. Like, he's pretty ego.

• 1:43:45Speaker 04

  Name drop time. I went to a party at Drew Carey's house once as a friend of a friend and Eric Idle was there. And I was like, man, I thought Drew Carey was gonna be the most interesting famous person here at Drew Carey's house. And it's not. Eric Idle hanging by the bonfire, cracking like eight people up. Like just truly just fucking bidding.

• 1:44:05Griffin Newman?

  It is. It is one of those things that's so fascinating within the structure of Monty Python. When those guys talk about how they came together and they were like, oh, there were like a couple overlapping circles of like two different university sketch groups. And then this and that. And then like the time we went in to pitch the show to the BBC was the first time we had ever presented ourselves as like that specific group.

• 1:44:28David Sims?

  Yeah, it's like Jones and Terry Jones and Michael Palin are one thing and Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle are.

• 1:44:35Griffin Newman?

  No, but the fascinating thing, yes, correct. But also when they talk about it, they're like, well, like Palin and Jones would write together. And Chapman and Cleese would write together.

• 1:44:46David Sims?

  Palin and Jones are Oxford, Chapman and Cleese are Cambridge, not to be.

• 1:44:49Griffin Newman?

  And Idle would just write by himself.

• 1:44:51David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:51Griffin Newman?

  He was always like, I just did stuff solo. I basically was.

• 1:44:54Speaker 04

  I know this one basement psycho named Terry who I think should join us too.

• 1:44:58David Sims?

  I mean, honestly, yes.

• 1:44:59Speaker 04

  He's making fucking cutouts of feet that stomp on people.

• 1:45:02Griffin Newman?

  Right. And we'll let him stay next to us sometimes.

• 1:45:06David Sims?

  That's, that shit's funny though, I'll say it. It's really Monty Python, still pretty good.

• 1:45:10Speaker 04

  Holy Grail is like one of the funniest movies of all time. And I, even the later ones are bangers, but Holy Grail is.

• 1:45:17Griffin Newman?

  I love.

• 1:45:17Speaker 04

  And I love her Thuringian legend, so it's like one of the, yeah.

• 1:45:19David Sims?

  I'm with you that I think Holy Grail is the best because I just like them more in pure joke mode than like. I love Life of Brian, but like I honestly don't need any plot.

• 1:45:30Griffin Newman?

  Sure, but Meaning of Life is like a sketch movie.

• 1:45:32David Sims?

  Yeah, Meaning of Life is weird. I don't love that movie, but I love things in it.

• 1:45:36Griffin Newman?

  I think I like the weirdness. It's also, I think.

• 1:45:37Speaker 04

  I love it now for something completely different, which is a true sketch movie.

• 1:45:41David Sims?

  Well, that's, that's just fun. Monty Python sketches, right? What could be wrong with that, really?

• 1:45:46Griffin Newman?

  But Idle's gotten, because you've already set up the bit of, oh, the British men are being weirdly polite and nice about their cars getting fucked up.

• 1:45:54Speaker 04

  The third beat of that.

• 1:45:55Griffin Newman?

  But then he's doing this really good job of like not being passive aggressive, but seeming not okay.

• 1:46:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:46:02Griffin Newman?

  Like he keeps assuring him, like, I'm fine, I'm fine.

• 1:46:05Speaker 04

  And when he picks his arm up and the blood comes gushing out is very fucking.

• 1:46:08Griffin Newman?

  But there's something like a little damaged in him.

• 1:46:10Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:46:11Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:46:13David Sims?

  The big sat piece is them knocking over Stonehenge, like Domino's.

• 1:46:18Griffin Newman?

  Obvious, but like.

• 1:46:20David Sims?

  It's right there.

• 1:46:21Griffin Newman?

  It's satisfying.

• 1:46:21David Sims?

  Have any of you been to Stonehenge?

• 1:46:23Speaker 05

  I just went last year.

• 1:46:24David Sims?

  Did you?

• 1:46:25Speaker 05

  Whoa. It was a little underwhelming.

• 1:46:28David Sims?

  Stonehenge is one of those things that's a little underwhelming.

• 1:46:30Speaker 05

  But here's the thing that was crazier is that they, when I went, it was barricaded.

• 1:46:37Griffin Newman?

  It was Ted Lasso's wedding, right?

• 1:46:38David Sims?

  You, when I, so I still, I went when you still could go near it, but now.

• 1:46:43Griffin Newman?

  That's why the effects, the episode was dropped late because they had to comp Ben in at the last second.

• 1:46:47Speaker 05

  Truly, though, they used to just let people drive up to the fucking thing.

• 1:46:51David Sims?

  That's what we did. I mean.

• 1:46:53Speaker 05

  And like hang out and smoke cigarettes, like underneath the fucking Stonehenge.

• 1:46:57Griffin Newman?

  Griswold fucking back his car and knock him down like fucking Domino's.

• 1:47:01Speaker 04

  I would love to fucking candy flip at Stonehenge.

• 1:47:06Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:47:07Speaker 04

  Just lie in the middle on a fucking heroic dose of mushrooms and fucking channel druidic powers.

• 1:47:13Speaker 05

  God.

• 1:47:14Speaker 04

  As you.

• 1:47:14Speaker 05

  And you know, the fucking sun lines up.

• 1:47:17Speaker 04

  Dude, we've got to time that with the peak. Let's go. Let's go back.

• 1:47:20Speaker 05

  All right, fuck yeah.

• 1:47:22David Sims?

  Um, the thing with Stonehenge that you, I'm sure realize is like, it's like an hour and a half from London. It feels like it should be like, you know, you have to go through an ancient portal to get there and instead you're like, oh, it's like in the suburbs.

• 1:47:33Speaker 05

  Just off the fucking highway.

• 1:47:34David Sims?

  Yeah. And so you go there and you're like.

• 1:47:37Speaker 04

  Like in England, they get Stonehenge. Here we have like the world's largest cow or whatever.

• 1:47:41Griffin Newman?

  I was gonna say, it's basically the distance from like Times Square to medieval Times New Jersey.

• 1:47:47David Sims?

  Like, you go there and you're like, look, I get it. These are very old and it's crazy that they're here and lord knows what they were for. That's cool. But then you're kind of like, okay, so I looked at them, I pick up Don, like you don't feel like you're communing with nature.

• 1:48:00Griffin Newman?

  Let's call out, they're very old, but I think they've had some work done. It's good work. It's classy work.

• 1:48:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's Wegovy.

• 1:48:06Griffin Newman?

  It's a Paul Rudd work, but it's a little touch up here in the.

• 1:48:10Speaker 05

  The one thing I did learn from going there that I had never heard before is that what you're seeing on the surface, there is so much more underground.

• 1:48:22Speaker 04

  Whoa.

• 1:48:22Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Like an iceberg.

• 1:48:24Speaker 04

  Well, that just means that they're like, that all adds layers of complication to how did they do this?

• 1:48:28Speaker 05

  Exactly, because they dragged it from fucking Wales. And so what you're seeing is actually almost twice as big.

• 1:48:36Speaker 04

  That's fucking crazy. Well, now there's like the new meme that the pyramids go down like a thousand meters below the surface now too. People believe like.

• 1:48:44David Sims?

  Oh, this is just something people are saying on TikTok and people like, must be true.

• 1:48:47Speaker 04

  Yes. Yeah. That's like a thing that will have to be debunked or someone will bring a gun to the pyramid and be like, where are the children?

• 1:48:54Speaker 05

  I have the kids in here.

• 1:48:56Griffin Newman?

  God, basement of the pyramid shit is gonna be so exhausting.

• 1:48:59Speaker 04

  P. Diddy finds out, there is no basement in the pyramid.

• 1:49:02Speaker 05

  That's.

• 1:49:03David Sims?

  Hey, good. That actually, I think we should encourage this. I think we should get the pedo hunters to go to the pyramids because they'll just get like lost in there and die, right? Like this is good.

• 1:49:12Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:13David Sims?

  No one's in there. Just put a funnel, funnel them in there.

• 1:49:15Speaker 04

  This guy was buried with his child bride. It's time.

• 1:49:19David Sims?

  Toot and Common, you are cancelled.

• 1:49:21Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:49:22David Sims?

  You had like 18 wives.

• 1:49:24Griffin Newman?

  Right. Was he himself a child? Yeah.

• 1:49:26Speaker 04

  We're gonna have to unpack all this.

• 1:49:28David Sims?

  So are there other London things we need to address?

• 1:49:32Speaker 04

  No, I think we basically.

• 1:49:33David Sims?

  There's not a lot of meat on these bones, okay? Paris.

• 1:49:36Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:49:37David Sims?

  Begins with them losing.

• 1:49:40Griffin Newman?

  I like the small bit of them being like, no one helps us carry our bags and Mel Stuart just going like, mom. I also think all of, there's, there's, I'm sorry, there's the polite people in the scumbags, as you said, right? Every British scumbag in this section, their accent is like when I do a British accent and you go, what is that? No one sounds like that. When I do my like.

• 1:50:01Speaker 04

  Hey, say, boss, what kind of guys are boys on here? Is it for balls? Need help with your bags, you know?

• 1:50:09Griffin Newman?

  My BFG voice.

• 1:50:11Speaker 04

  Is it fuzzy wimpers?

• 1:50:13David Sims?

  Now, my favorite gag in Paris, well, hmm, it's a good question. I like the rude waiter. Again, route one, very obvious.

• 1:50:22Griffin Newman?

  But, look, it's route one because everyone wants to stop there.

• 1:50:25David Sims?

  Yeah, like subtitled insults to a, like Chevy going like, uh huh, smiling, that's funny.

• 1:50:32Speaker 04

  Is that, is it England or here that has the horny couple that is kissing?

• 1:50:35David Sims?

  That's Paris, where Rusty is like, his hands are boobs, right? Like, you're like, that he's.

• 1:50:42Speaker 04

  Which is another kind of Parisian stereotype.

• 1:50:44David Sims?

  Right, and Chevy's like, yeah, standards are different here.

• 1:50:47Speaker 04

  Does he say, he's gonna pork her? Yeah, he's not gonna pork her, Russ.

• 1:50:51Griffin Newman?

  I like that bit of him being like, they're gonna go all the way here at the table.

• 1:50:55David Sims?

  Chevy is always good when he's trying to even things out, right? Where he's trying to be like, well, that's just how they do it here. Like, that's usually funny.

• 1:51:04Speaker 04

  One of my, my favorite Chevy line deliveries in the Vacation movies that I think is kind of like a archetype of his delivery is in Christmas Vacation when the woman's like, and you see the line goes all the way up the stocking? And he's like, salivating, and he's like, you see the line goes all the way up the stocking? Russ, hi, Russ, like, you know, like, he has like those two levels of awareness that he can play with.

• 1:51:24Griffin Newman?

  He's got an interesting relationship with Rusty in terms of being like, is it time for me to like, teach my son how to be a man?

• 1:51:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:51:30Griffin Newman?

  Where you have the like, sharing a beer moment in the first one.

• 1:51:33Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:51:33Griffin Newman?

  Where Rusty like, downs the beer too fast. In this one, Rusty's like, I get it, I'm a grown up, I have a job, let me fuck.

• 1:51:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:51:40Griffin Newman?

  And he's like, cool it. And then Galecki in Christmas seems like seven years younger.

• 1:51:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, he's like a child.

• 1:51:47Griffin Newman?

  He is definitely younger than Hall and Lively, but also looks even younger than he is.

• 1:51:54Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:51:54Griffin Newman?

  And is played like a little boy.

• 1:51:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:51:56Griffin Newman?

  And he's just like, dad, don't be horny around me.

• 1:51:58David Sims?

  Again, in Vegas, the joke by Ethan Embry becomes mistaken for a Greek millionaire and basically like, has his own side movie where he's having a venture.

• 1:52:07Speaker 04

  He uses a fake ID to gamble and then wins a jackpot and becomes like, a whale, but his name is Nick Papa Giorgio. So like, Mr. Papa Giorgio, the usual, and he's like, you got it. He's got a yellow suit.

• 1:52:18David Sims?

  By far the best shit in the movie.

• 1:52:19Speaker 04

  Like he's hanging with all old guys the whole time. They're getting back. It's all like they, he gets to have old timey Vegas.

• 1:52:25Griffin Newman?

  It is a bit I basically always find funny, which is like guy gets too deep into a character.

• 1:52:31David Sims?

  Into a bit, right.

• 1:52:32Speaker 04

  By mistake, yes, yes, exactly.

• 1:52:34David Sims?

  That's always funny, but then Vegas Vacation also has Beverly D'Angelo is romanced by Wayne Newton, which is deadly.

• 1:52:40Speaker 04

  Yeah, sure. It's so bad. I, I will, I will give the Clint Howard dealer that absolutely ruined.

• 1:52:47David Sims?

  It's Wallace Shawn.

• 1:52:48Speaker 04

  Oh, Wallace Shawn. I get those two.

• 1:52:49David Sims?

  And it is so funny.

• 1:52:50Speaker 04

  I flip those two guys so frequently. I'm so sorry to my bald little freak.

• 1:52:55David Sims?

  Bingo, yeah.

• 1:52:56Speaker 04

  He's like, there's a line in, there's a line in Vegas Vacation where Wallace Shawn says, why don't you just give me half your money? I'll take you out back, kick you in the nuts and we'll call it a day. Cause Chevy just keeps losing money to them.

• 1:53:07David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:53:08Speaker 04

  And they keep playing dumber and dumber games.

• 1:53:10Griffin Newman?

  That's kind of a good line. Yeah.

• 1:53:11David Sims?

  Um, so France, what else happens? Uh, the dog going off the Eiffel Tower is pretty funny.

• 1:53:18Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Another like, you know, it's gonna happen, but it still hits.

• 1:53:21David Sims?

  Ben seems a little dispirited though. You're kind of like, yeah.

• 1:53:23Speaker 04

  Yeah. The camcorders.

• 1:53:25David Sims?

  Getting stolen.

• 1:53:27Speaker 04

  Like flame.

• 1:53:28David Sims?

  Gotta get that ball rolling. Right.

• 1:53:29Griffin Newman?

  I do like the, right. How slow the build is on like the French guy saying like, take off your shoes. Get in the fountain. And then running off.

• 1:53:40David Sims?

  Oh, when in France.

• 1:53:42Griffin Newman?

  Right. Waiting like 40 minutes until you pay it off with the poster of like, this thing is in theaters already.

• 1:53:48Speaker 04

  The wet woman or whatever.

• 1:53:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. You have like Rusty getting like embarrassed by the, the embroidered beret.

• 1:53:57Speaker 04

  Oh, yes, yes.

• 1:53:59Speaker 05

  I mean, anytime you would go on vacation with your parents, it was always that thing of when you hit that certain age where you're like, can I hook up with the girl on this trip?

• 1:54:07Griffin Newman?

  The P T R guys talk about this all the time and I relate to it so hard is like being awkward guys, right? And then going on a vacation with your family and being like, no one knows me here. What if I catch the glance of the most beautiful woman in the world and I'm starting from nothing?

• 1:54:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, there's no baggage. You know, nothing about me.

• 1:54:25Griffin Newman?

  And we just have some like doomed romance over two days. Like I, I do think it's like a good setup to have Rusty on the movie where they're gonna be making the most stops.

• 1:54:35Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:54:36Griffin Newman?

  To just be losing his fucking mind with horniness.

• 1:54:39Speaker 04

  It's hyper realistic.

• 1:54:41Griffin Newman?

  Totally.

• 1:54:41Speaker 04

  Like, it's just like, you know, I mean, like. That vibe is so real.

• 1:54:46Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:54:47Speaker 04

  It doesn't happen as well for, it happens better for Rusty than it ever did for me.

• 1:54:51Griffin Newman?

  Absolute.

• 1:54:52Speaker 04

  But I've definitely been on like a family vacation where another family that my mom's friends with, they come and one of the daughters who's kind of like a cousin to me, so we can never hook up, but she brings a friend from school.

• 1:55:04Griffin Newman?

  The possibilities.

• 1:55:05Speaker 04

  I'm like, okay, okay, anything can fucking happen. And then I just spend six days standing near her in the pool, like not saying anything.

• 1:55:12Griffin Newman?

  Your mind is-

• 1:55:13Speaker 04

  And then going home and being like, furiously masturbating while my parents are asleep in like the bathroom or something.

• 1:55:18Griffin Newman?

  Your mind is suddenly reeling with the possibilities of how you can fuck this up by doing nothing.

• 1:55:23Speaker 04

  Right. The frequency in which I would be like, I think, I, I, I think I'm attracted to this girl. I think she might even be into me.

• 1:55:31Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:55:31Speaker 04

  What I should do is absolutely nothing for the entire week.

• 1:55:34Griffin Newman?

  Say two words to her over the next five days and shake.

• 1:55:37Speaker 04

  Famously a gapper.

• 1:55:38Griffin Newman?

  Physically vibrate.

• 1:55:39Speaker 04

  Famously talkative, very funny. And I am, even as a kid and I just, a woman will come over and I'll be like,

• 1:55:47Speaker 04

  and just stand there, just pissing in the pool, looking at her.

• 1:55:50Griffin Newman?

  But like, I like, first of all, like Beverly D'Angelo making the big plea to like, wouldn't it be nice if we just stayed in and had like a private night? And Chevy's like, no, I gotta show you a night out in the town. Hard cut to like Moulin Rouge show.

• 1:56:02Speaker 04

  Ah.

• 1:56:03Griffin Newman?

  This like bad flash dance riff and he's trying to frame it as like, this is this country's legacy.

• 1:56:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's art.

• 1:56:09Griffin Newman?

  The worst modern striptease. And being like, here, this is culturally important. And then Rusty in the corner, like being like, I have money, I can pretend to be an American playboy.

• 1:56:19Speaker 04

  Yeah. The, uh, there's that vacation vibe of like, when you go someplace where the, like, when you're in your twenties, you get wasted on every vacation.

• 1:56:28Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 1:56:29Speaker 04

  But then for me, like I went to Munich and we'll get to this when we talk about Germany. I went to Munich Oktoberfest for my bachelor party. And now getting wasted is, is you're participating in culture.

• 1:56:39Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:56:39Speaker 04

  It's like going to Amsterdam, like, yeah, I love smoking weed. It's like, well, I went in Amsterdam, you know, you gotta smoke weed.

• 1:56:43Griffin Newman?

  When in Rome.

• 1:56:44Speaker 04

  You gotta go to the red light district.

• 1:56:45Griffin Newman?

  Get wasted as the Romans.

• 1:56:47Speaker 04

  Right, exactly.

• 1:56:47Griffin Newman?

  You've literally also made a career, I guess, like you-

• 1:56:50Speaker 04

  You did a show that is that premise.

• 1:56:53David Sims?

  That is true.

• 1:56:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, oh man.

• 1:56:54David Sims?

  Great show. Check it out.

• 1:56:55Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 1:56:55David Sims?

  Where's, where's it now? Streaming on Max?

• 1:56:57Speaker 04

  Still on Max. Yeah, we don't, we, we are not, uh, making a, we, we don't cost enough to get cancelled.

• 1:57:03David Sims?

  Okay, good, good, good, good.

• 1:57:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, we can't get zazzed, yeah.

• 1:57:05David Sims?

  Uh, yeah. Um, let's get them successful enough that Zazz lives, like, get this off my fucking platform.

• 1:57:10Speaker 04

  Sell it to ketchup. Dream come true. I got ketchup entertainment come through.

• 1:57:13Griffin Newman?

  It's streaming on ketchup minus.

• 1:57:15David Sims?

  Some CinemaCon news?

• 1:57:16Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:17David Sims?

  Number one, this will depress you a little bit. John Wick 5.

• 1:57:19Griffin Newman?

  I've, I've gotten seven texts about this. I could tell that's what people were responding to.

• 1:57:23David Sims?

  Number two, Donnie Yen will be directing a spinoff about his character.

• 1:57:26Griffin Newman?

  Okay, that was previously announced, but he's now directing it.

• 1:57:28Speaker 04

  I like that.

• 1:57:29Griffin Newman?

  I'm like, any excuse for Donnie Yen to get to make a big American movie.

• 1:57:32David Sims?

  Like a Hong Kong style American action movie. Number three, Now You See Me 3 has been officially titled, Now You See Me, Now You Don't.

• 1:57:40Speaker 04

  Not Now You Three Me?

• 1:57:41David Sims?

  Not Now You Three Me.

• 1:57:42Griffin Newman?

  They fucked this up so hard.

• 1:57:44David Sims?

  Exactly. Obviously 2 should have been Now You Don't. They're scrambling to fix their mistake.

• 1:57:49Speaker 04

  But it's the same, it's the same, uh, what other movie, uh, Bad Boys fucked up there.

• 1:57:53David Sims?

  Bad Boys fucked this up, yes.

• 1:57:54Griffin Newman?

  But in, in fucking up last time, they're now correcting and missing a new opportunity that won't exist for the fourth one.

• 1:58:01Speaker 04

  Now you can't be Now You Three Me, yeah.

• 1:58:03Griffin Newman?

  They can't be Now You Four Me.

• 1:58:04David Sims?

  Oh, anything is possible.

• 1:58:06Griffin Newman?

  Anything, you know what you're right, anything is possible.

• 1:58:07Speaker 04

  I went to Italy to shoot the movie Little Hours that my friend, R.I.P. Jeff Bena, directed. And while there, me, Pally, and Nick Offerman had a day off, Bena knew the area so well because they were shooting there for so long. He's like, you gotta go to this little restaurant. It's like a, more or less a deli. And it was like one of the best meals I've ever had. We were there for like three hours. We're eating, guy, guy comes up on a, eighty year old guy comes up on a Vespa with a prosciutto leg, takes it. The guy cuts it off and hands it to us. We're just eating out of his dirty hands. We're eating this prosciutto. It's so good. But this guy, his favorite movie was Now You See Me 2.

• 1:58:46David Sims?

  Hell yeah.

• 1:58:47Speaker 04

  And Dave Franco is in the Little Hours. Oh, so this guy had been, and I was like, it's so funny, and he's like, my favorite American movie, and he's telling, and he's in broken English talking about Now You See Me. He's like, they are magicians and thieves. And I'm like, I do actually like these movies. And I, and I go like... You know, Dave, this guy is, he's, cause he's showing me clips from the movie on his iPad like a child. Like, isn't this cool? I'm like, okay. I go, you know this guy's in this movie? He's like, I know. He came into the restaurant and I brought it up to Dave. Dave's like, yeah, no, he's a big fan. I was like, that's such a funny thing to travel overseas is now you see me. Now you oversees me.

• 1:59:22Griffin Newman?

  We-

• 1:59:22Speaker 04

  They should do that.

• 1:59:23Griffin Newman?

  We, we had a little, uh, we, we did a Blank Check anniversary, uh, art show recently for our 10th anniversary. And we, a bunch of the people work on the show with us. We went out and got dinner and then we were like, let's come back here to the office and like get some beer and like, project shit on the wall and watch music videos and do karaoke and whatever. So we went to the bodega around the corner to get beer and- The one on, um, yeah, yeah. And like a bunch of us walk in and the guy behind the counter is like, are you guys like a family or something? Cause there was like, our editors' kids were with us, but it was like a weird combination of people, right? All in sick. And Marie was like- And this isn't a busy area at night too, where we are. Yeah. And Marie was like, uh, we, we work together.

• 2:00:07Griffin Newman?

  And he was like, oh, all in the same office? And she was like, we do a podcast. And he goes, oh, what's the podcast? He goes, it's about movies. And he goes, oh, you know what movie you should do an episode on? Do you remember what the first two were, Ben? No. I can't remember what they were, but it was like a thing where- This is the worst tangent of all time. I'm telling you it's gonna pay off. Okay. It's like this, okay? He goes like, you should do an episode on like Shawshank Redemption or something. Sure. And what she was like, oh yeah, we might do that someday, you know? And then he was like, you should do an episode on like Unforgiven. And she was like, or he was like, have you done that? We were like, no. And he's like, come on, you haven't done Unforgiven, you haven't done Shawshank Redemption, you haven't done any movies. I think Usual Suspects. Usual Suspects was one. And then one of them was something like Shawshank or whatever. And he was so frustrated. He was like, what movies have you done?

• 2:00:50Griffin Newman?

  And they turned around. He went, oh, I know which one you should do. Tokyo Godfathers. Hey, the Satoshi Kon. And we were like, we have done this.

• 2:01:00Speaker 04

  Wow. He takes a fucking, he, he goes, all right, I, I missed these two over the plate pitches. Let me fucking swing way the fuck out here.

• 2:01:07Griffin Newman?

  Throw an Eiffel pitch. He did like three IMDB top 10s and he was like, I don't understand what show could exist for this long and not cover those two movies. And then his third was Tokyo Godfathers. That's like being in a small Italian, um, and the guy who carries the leg. Now you see me. Do. Right. Do. That's my number one favorite.

• 2:01:28David Sims?

  Speaking of, uh, no, let's do Germany first.

• 2:01:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:01:33David Sims?

  Oh, well, of course, they go to the Moulin Rouge and there's lots of boobs.

• 2:01:36Speaker 04

  Ah, yeah.

• 2:01:36David Sims?

  Right. Boob chat, uh, is, the, the table's open for boob chat.

• 2:01:40Speaker 04

  I will say, uh, as the, the aerobics aesthetic, I am of the age that.

• 2:01:46David Sims?

  That works for you.

• 2:01:47Speaker 04

  It still works and, uh.

• 2:01:49David Sims?

  Whereas I, it feels dated to me. It feels like some vintage, yeah, Ben's making the same face.

• 2:01:54Speaker 04

  But I like that throw, I love that, and, uh, whatchamacallit, um, the substance. I was like, I'm, I'm back. Yeah, I'm so back.

• 2:02:01Griffin Newman?

  Yes. It felt very substance.

• 2:02:04David Sims?

  The buns of steel imagery. Yes, right.

• 2:02:06Speaker 04

  I was so into it when it came, when that, I was like, uh, the, the movie is absolutely disgusting and I was like, kinda hot though, right? And everyone's like, really? And I was like, yeah, Timmy Moore and Qualley are beautiful women in this very fun aesthetic that I like. Uh, so it's fun to see that at Moulin Rouge. Also, it is funny because that feels so American, like that exercise tape thing. And that's like what they're doing at Moulin Rouge.

• 2:02:30Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:02:30Speaker 04

  And Rusty's in the back with fucking.

• 2:02:32Griffin Newman?

  Well, that's a good bit.

• 2:02:33Speaker 04

  A prostitute. That's what happens here.

• 2:02:35Griffin Newman?

  That it like starts with like a seedier riff on like French can-can girls and then it goes to something that is so clearly like tacky eighties, modern American and he's still trying to claim it's like culturally important.

• 2:02:45David Sims?

  This is French theater essentially.

• 2:02:47Griffin Newman?

  That's a good bit. And also.

• 2:02:48David Sims?

  It's okay.

• 2:02:48Griffin Newman?

  It allows like seven or eight pairs of breasts to appear on screen.

• 2:02:52David Sims?

  In a PG 13 movie.

• 2:02:53Griffin Newman?

  In a PG 13 movie.

• 2:02:54David Sims?

  Yeah, I thought it was whatever. Uh, but in, in Germany, West Germany, the Berlin Wall has yet to fall.

• 2:03:01Speaker 04

  Oh, my God.

• 2:03:01David Sims?

  Just FYI.

• 2:03:02Griffin Newman?

  I just got from Marie. The two other movies were Goodfellas and Eternal Sunshine.

• 2:03:06Speaker 04

  Oh, okay.

• 2:03:06David Sims?

  So at least Eternal Sunshine is drifting towards indie.

• 2:03:10Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:03:10David Sims?

  Yeah, it's a good pick.

• 2:03:11Griffin Newman?

  But then Tokyo Godfathers 3 was interesting.

• 2:03:12David Sims?

  And you know what? We're never gonna fucking do Eternal Sunshine. Probably.

• 2:03:16Griffin Newman?

  Well, yeah, I mean.

• 2:03:18David Sims?

  I don't think so. Gontri's made too much like irrelevant shit.

• 2:03:21Griffin Newman?

  Un-releasable doesn't help matters.

• 2:03:23David Sims?

  Yeah. I mean, it's just like.

• 2:03:25Griffin Newman?

  The rare film to get Zaslav'd by someone other than Zaslav. His Pharrell musical.

• 2:03:30David Sims?

  It's like, they just all, they just made it and watched it and we're like.

• 2:03:33Griffin Newman?

  Never mind.

• 2:03:34David Sims?

  Forget it.

• 2:03:34Griffin Newman?

  It's finished.

• 2:03:35Speaker 04

  Whoops.

• 2:03:36David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:37Griffin Newman?

  And they were like, are you writing off for tax purposes? Nah, we're just taking a loss.

• 2:03:40Speaker 04

  Now, I love, I love when Chevy shows up in the leader hosen. There's such an attention to detail that he has his clothes folded up and he gives them to Beverly D'Angelo and she puts them in a bag. I'm like, that is so unnecessary in this movie, which has zero continuity, zero thought. And it's like, they have to do this elaborate moment where he presses, that's like, what? The kids aren't even the same from the first movie. We don't give a fuck about the, what happened to his outfit, you know?

• 2:04:06Griffin Newman?

  Yes. It's also a funny bit that he's so excited about like connecting with his heritage and his family and everything and they misread the door. This German family is just really fucking nice.

• 2:04:17Speaker 04

  We're looking for sex.

• 2:04:18Griffin Newman?

  Yes. And then you just, he never connects with the real relatives that they clearly have been

• 2:04:23David Sims?

  That gag is great. Cause what's, what does the lady say on the way out?

• 2:04:27Speaker 04

  Who the hell are these people?

• 2:04:28David Sims?

  And she's like, fucked if I know, but it's not fucked, but it's something like that. It was, that's funny.

• 2:04:32Griffin Newman?

  They just continue to have this conversation in languages that they don't understand.

• 2:04:35Speaker 04

  And they're just being funny.

• 2:04:36Griffin Newman?

  And when you come to the States, you have to stay with us.

• 2:04:38Speaker 04

  Yes. And then like Audrey's even like, it's just so nice to have someone who can listen, like a family member who will listen to me. And it's like, she's just nodding, handing off fucking phallic ass sausage.

• 2:04:48Speaker 05

  Well, I was gonna say a really funny gag is when she sees the sausage, she's like, I miss my boyfriend.

• 2:04:53Speaker 04

  Huge albino curved sausage. Yeah. It's like, it's so, couldn't look more like Zapka's pale ass dick.

• 2:05:05Speaker 06

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• 2:05:39Speaker 04

  I have a quick Oktoberfest story that involves breasts as well, so I think it fits perfectly.

• 2:05:45David Sims?

  Young, um, young Rusty hooks up with a lady at Oktoberfest.

• 2:05:49Griffin Newman?

  Who opens her shirt, then he hears the German police raid sound?

• 2:05:54Speaker 04

  And they go, someone's gonna get hung, and he goes, oh no, dad.

• 2:05:57Griffin Newman?

  Right, which he's correct about.

• 2:05:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, he's not wrong.

• 2:05:59Griffin Newman?

  Chevy has, has done, uh...

• 2:06:01David Sims?

  He's caused a trouble at Oktoberfest.

• 2:06:03Griffin Newman?

  A traditional German dance so poorly.

• 2:06:05David Sims?

  Yes, he's knocking everything over.

• 2:06:07Speaker 04

  It got into like slapstick, fistfight, and then it turns into like, I love them when a movie fight just escalates and it's like, we just gotta punch. Someone else has gotta, an arbitrary, someone stands up and decks someone in a crowd, like, I'm always here for that.

• 2:06:19Griffin Newman?

  I don't say this as a criticism, it is the number one element in this movie that feels like a Chevy pitch.

• 2:06:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:06:25Griffin Newman?

  Where he's like, here's my idea, I wear Lederhosen, do like five minutes of comically bad dancing and then start fist fighting people.

• 2:06:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, and it's, his pitch was probably for 11 minutes, and they had to cut it down, it's so long.

• 2:06:37Griffin Newman?

  It's very long.

• 2:06:38Speaker 04

  And it doesn't like, it doesn't heighten in any interesting way. The game makes no sense, too, why would they invite a bystander to participate in a complicated... In a choreo, yeah, without teaching it to him or anything, and then kind of being mad that he's not good at it, it's like crazy.

• 2:06:52Griffin Newman?

  Cause it's also like...

• 2:06:53Speaker 04

  And then they're speaking English, too, they're like, we need a volunteer from the crowd, it's like, this is getting crazy.

• 2:06:58Griffin Newman?

  It's not like the bit is like, oh, he dances poorly and knocks over a fire pit and he sets their church on fire and that's why they're angry? They're like, you have done such disrespect to our culture by dancing poorly, and I'm like, maybe on you to invite a fucking noob on stage?

• 2:07:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, right, you brought this upon yourself. I, I went to Munich Oktoberfest for my bachelor party. This was the first time me and my brothers ever went to Europe, because my dad had died with only ever having gone to Germany where his stepfather was from and did a trip with him, so we were like, when our dad died, we were like... All of us have to leave the country for our bachelor party. Let's shake on this right now. That'll be a thing that will at least have three brothers trips out of the country. Mm-hmm. And my younger brother, we did Amsterdam for his bachelor party. Uh, but we go to Munich Oktoberfest, day one. Six guys buy Lederhosen, buy leather. I still have it, like leather, straight up, real Lederhosen. You wear it every single day you're there. It's awesome. My youngest brother was like 26. He's like, I can't pay 200 euros for this. And me and my buddy, my, one of my other buddies were like, fuck it, you're not gonna be one,

• 2:07:58Speaker 04

  you're not gonna be not in Lederhosen. So we just laid out like another 200 euros for him. Is it comfy? It is a little comfy. Interesting. It is a little comfy. Yeah. It's airy to have like just the straps and shorts. And, uh, we go to, so you go to these tents and you party in these tents. You drink beer all day long. And not just like a little mo. No, you get a liter of beer, a full 40 ounces. Yeah, exactly. You get a 40 ounce, that's a, a liter is about 36 ounces. You get a giant fucking Stein. Now Fest beer is a little lower alcohol content because they know people are fucking jamming them down. Oh, sure. So like what in America we have Oktoberfest, it's like Marzoni. Their Fest beer is more like light, smashable, crushable beer. Got it.

• 2:08:40Speaker 04

  And the big thing you do in these tents is you stand up on a table with a full beer and hold it up and the entire crowd shuts down and looks at you while you go to chin a beer. And if you chin it, everyone is happy. If you fail, they freak out. They throw pretzels, shoes, like you, they boo you. Yeah, I love it. They scream at you. So on the, on day one, and each tent is- Cause it's like you're wasting their time if you, if you don't do it. And you demanded our attention. Yes, and, uh, based on your guy's knowledge of me as a person, do you think I might? I'm a consummate performer, an insane consumer. I think this is a space in which you would really excel. And I go, and so each tent is like a brewery's tent. So we're in like the Augustiner tent.

• 2:09:23Speaker 04

  I stand up and do this. I fucking chin a full beer. It's 36 ounces. It's, and the crowd is going ape shit. I'm able to do it. I get off the table and my knees buckle. Like I'm like so, cause there's so much fucking like adrenaline and alcohol at the same time. I was like, oh no. cheering the adoration. I'm like, this is, this is better than improv. I can't believe I found something better than improv. So that, that's day one and we're like, the rest of the time, we're just fully participating in this thing. We go to the Hofbrot tent, which is the crazy tent. That one has the most security. It's the one where people get the most fucked up. It's sort of for the younger, less cultural, more bachelor party, lots of Australians who managed to travel wherever there's alcohol.

• 2:10:06Speaker 04

  And first up, a fucking, like a guy who looks like Jason Statham, but with more blood vessels pop. Stands up with two liters on the table and everyone's like, oh my fucking god, oh my fucking god. And he chins them back to back. That's like drinking a six pack of beer in like 11 seconds. The crowd goes fucking ape shit. I could not believe it. It was insane. So I'm like, there's no way, no one to top that. Yeah. Next thing you know, you start hearing quiet and people start clapping and you look over and two fat, bespectacled twins are standing up on a table with liters and they are identical chunky twins with little glasses and they, they look like fucking cenobites. They like, they like.

• 2:10:51David Sims?

  Butterballs.

• 2:10:53Speaker 04

  They cheers each other and then fucking chin it and the crowd erupts. And then we're sitting at the table and every, you know, Justin Tyler is a good friend of mine, also a comedy nerd. We're like, what's the third beat? Right, right. How do you heighten this? How do you heighten this? Cause it's heightened perfectly so far. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, the crowd starts getting quiet and starts chanting and we look over and it's like a five foot 10 beautiful blonde woman in a jindle, like that things that hoist your titties up like to a shelf.

• 2:11:19David Sims?

  They're lady leader hosen.

• 2:11:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, the lady leader hosen is called a jindle. She's a St. Pauli girl is that famous. And she stands up there with a liter of beer and everyone is like, it's just hetero normativity is everyone's like.

• 2:11:31Speaker 04

  Text Avery cartoons like, this is gonna. This is the third beat.

• 2:11:34Griffin Newman?

  Wolf whistles, right.

• 2:11:35Speaker 04

  She starts chugging it, the crowd starts going ape shit, but then she starts slowing down. And we're like, will the crowd turn on a beautiful woman? Short answer, yes. Pretzels start fucking flying. Everyone is like, boo, you fucking, you know, like.

• 2:11:49Griffin Newman?

  Does she just like quit and put it down on the table?

• 2:11:52Speaker 04

  No, she wins. She is slowing down. She pulls her tits out and drops, pulls her top down, breasts out. That's why this iconic scene with Moon opening her shirt is like, I remembered this. She drops her wonderful big naturals out. The crowd goes all the way back. She chins the, finishes ching the beer, does like the curtsy and then puts her breasts away. And we're like, ah, like the crowd, like the vibe shifted everywhere.

• 2:12:20Griffin Newman?

  This crowd is so rabid.

• 2:12:21David Sims?

  Germany's no good, guys.

• 2:12:22Griffin Newman?

  They start pretzeling her when she's slowing down, not when she was like, I quit, I'm sorry, I give up.

• 2:12:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, when she's like, she might not do it.

• 2:12:30Griffin Newman?

  When she was on track to not finish, they started throwing food at her.

• 2:12:34Speaker 04

  And the craziest, the craziest thing I remember about this table, that this tend to is that the tables were for seven people.

• 2:12:40Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:40Speaker 04

  And to get a table is like ideal, cause then you can like have a server.

• 2:12:43Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:44Speaker 04

  So you gotta get there super early. We were six people. One random Brazilian guy lands up at our table with us. And he shows up and he has like a tucked in shirt and we have a picture of the beginning and the end. He has like a hat that's a huge fake keg with like a tap on it. His eyes are crossed, his shirt is ripped and he has like blood and food all over himself. And it's like, this is what happens when you hang out with the Gabrus family for like fucking seven hours.

• 2:13:07Griffin Newman?

  And then anyone else you've ever met in your life.

• 2:13:09David Sims?

  So obvious that the good European countries, like where Italy, France, but you know, where they like, they just know how to drink.

• 2:13:16Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:13:16David Sims?

  And then like all the bad ones, like England, Germany, people are just like, ah, like they're just maniacs.

• 2:13:21Griffin Newman?

  In England, they're like.

• 2:13:22Speaker 04

  Only go too far, right? I only had a hundred beers last night. Is there a way we can make them colder and flat, warmer and flatter so they go down smoother? The first time I had a cask ale, I'm like, why the fuck does this exist? Then you drink it and you're like, oh, I could have a hundred of these. And it's like, of course, mate.

• 2:13:37David Sims?

  Yeah, exactly. We're not, we're here from four to 1 a.m.

• 2:13:41Griffin Newman?

  The London thing of like, almost all bars close at 10 p.m. But also, okay, I'm sorry. But also, like, please drink outside.

• 2:13:49David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:13:49Griffin Newman?

  Like, a recipe for people to be like, I gotta keep, like, loading now because the cutoff's coming earlier than I wanted. And also, I'm already in the streets stumbling around.

• 2:13:58David Sims?

  The thing about the economy of drinking in England is, it's like, you, like, see, right, you get off work, you go to the pub, you start chugging beers.

• 2:14:05Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 2:14:05David Sims?

  And, like, might be outside if you wanna smoke especially, right? You do that until closing time. Then you are, as the Brits would say, pissed.

• 2:14:12Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:14:12Speaker 04

  On the piss, mate.

• 2:14:13David Sims?

  You are fucking on the lash. And then you're like, let's get a fucking kebab! You know, like, you just stumble into-

• 2:14:20Speaker 05

  Nando's!

• 2:14:21David Sims?

  The only- no, Nando's is closed. You stumble into the only businesses that are open, which are kebab shops. And so you're like, pile meat into a bowl for me.

• 2:14:29Griffin Newman?

  But, like, 11:45 PM in London is, like, Night of the Living Dead. Like, it's something the streets are overrun with people who've been kicked out of bars.

• 2:14:36David Sims?

  You go to a club, because clubs are allowed to be open, and those, believe me, are not very cool. Like, trust me.

• 2:14:42Griffin Newman?

  But last night in Soho made them seem really nice and trendy.

• 2:14:45David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:45Speaker 05

  I went out drinking in Scotland by myself on a Saturday night.

• 2:14:50David Sims?

  Sounds fun.

• 2:14:50Speaker 05

  I was in Glasgow.

• 2:14:53Griffin Newman?

  No.

• 2:14:53Speaker 04

  I'm sorry, what?

• 2:14:56David Sims?

  Carry on.

• 2:14:56Speaker 05

  I was in a bar, and I've experienced, like, being in a bar with, like, a lot, a lot of drunk people. But it's like, you know, like, a trashy bar in midtown with, like, a lot of underage people. I have never been in a crowded bar where every single person has been drinking since-

• 2:15:16David Sims?

  Like-

• 2:15:16Speaker 05

  Fucking 8:00 in the morning.

• 2:15:17Griffin Newman?

  Career drink.

• 2:15:18Speaker 05

  I, I- From, from, like, 6'5" fucking oak men to, like, 5'1" women in, like, mega mini skirts are fucking, like, cross-eyed.

• 2:15:28Griffin Newman?

  Mega minis.

• 2:15:29Speaker 05

  There had been, you know that sport, I think it's called hurling?

• 2:15:32David Sims?

  Sure.

• 2:15:32Speaker 05

  They just basically whip a wood, like, lacrosse ball at each other.

• 2:15:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, and they use, like, a cane. Like, it's not, like, they use, like-

• 2:15:40David Sims?

  It's like drunk high-alive for, like, you know, Highlanders, you know?

• 2:15:44Speaker 04

  Scotland's a cra- Scotland's a crazy fucking place for that shit. Like, when I was in Glasgow, I went to go get drinks, and I was like, this is fucking terrifying.

• 2:15:50Speaker 05

  Well, I truly was a little scared by the end of the night and had to get out of there.

• 2:15:54David Sims?

  I'm referencing that I famously in Newcastle, where I went to college, which is not Scotland, but it's the English city closest to the Scottish border, got called a puff, for which is a slur for gay people.

• 2:16:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:16:04David Sims?

  Uh, for wearing a coat. It was, like, 22 degrees Fahrenheit outside. It was not warm.

• 2:16:09Griffin Newman?

  Let's make it clear, let's make it clear.

• 2:16:11David Sims?

  A guy I did not know was, like- You know, hitting me on the shoulder. I'm like, what? And he was like, you puff, you're wearing a coat. And I was like, should I not? What is the plan here?

• 2:16:19Griffin Newman?

  I just want to clarify, it is both a slur for gay people and the last name of a very respected long-necked Jedi.

• 2:16:27David Sims?

  Oh, of course. Gariel Puff.

• 2:16:28Griffin Newman?

  The Phantom.

• 2:16:29David Sims?

  I'm glad we brought that. But I maybe should not show this.

• 2:16:32Griffin Newman?

  Just has two meanings. The word has two meanings.

• 2:16:34David Sims?

  My father was a working-class Englishman. He was raised in South London and his brother, his older brother, my father was the fourth, so the third son, was such an veteran alcoholic that his mail was delivered to the pub, which is the thing that was one of those things that I was told as a kid. And I was like, that can't be like.

• 2:16:54Griffin Newman?

  What does that mean?

• 2:16:54David Sims?

  A grown-up, I checked and I was like, you know, I feel like I remember that uncle.

• 2:16:58Griffin Newman?

  I have this bad memory, this false memory.

• 2:17:01David Sims?

  Had his mail delivered to the pub. That's like not true.

• 2:17:02Griffin Newman?

  That's a family bed, right?

• 2:17:03David Sims?

  A hundred percent.

• 2:17:04Griffin Newman?

  They carved a mailbox.

• 2:17:05David Sims?

  No, it's true. I think it was truly the postman was like, well, I know where I'll find him. Like, you know, here's your fucking mail.

• 2:17:11Speaker 04

  The one thing I like, I mean, I like a lot of stuff about drinking culture. And because, because I've played rugby my whole life in, in, in America. I hang out with a lot of Brits and Aussies and stuff. But I like the pub.

• 2:17:22David Sims?

  You like rugby.

• 2:17:22Speaker 04

  I love rugby and I love the pub culture of loyalty to a pub.

• 2:17:27David Sims?

  Yes.

• 2:17:28Speaker 04

  That's what I like a lot, too, is that it's like.

• 2:17:30Griffin Newman?

  Like a home team pub.

• 2:17:30Speaker 04

  You just make a fucking spot your public house. And that's where you go. And that's like, you're like, oh, I, I can go there alone and I'll probably run it. You know, it's like McManus was for like a decade where I'd be like, okay, I'm out, I'm getting out of something else. I bet you I know someone at McManus.

• 2:17:45Griffin Newman?

  Right. You know, there's a community there.

• 2:17:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:17:47Griffin Newman?

  Uh, listeners might be noticing that we're avoiding talking about the Italy section of the movie, which becomes weirdly plotty.

• 2:17:54David Sims?

  Yeah, the Italy section of the movie stinks. I really, I was losing interest in the movie.

• 2:17:59Griffin Newman?

  I just like don't care about this movie trying to put actual stakes on.

• 2:18:02David Sims?

  This is where the sex tape thing like gets resolved too. Like, and there's a lot of, but there's a lot of business with.

• 2:18:09Griffin Newman?

  Seeing the poster, storming off, Clark getting stuck in the business end of this weird, complicated travelers' check scam. That also involves a hostage in the trunk and then DeAngelo has to come back and save him.

• 2:18:20Speaker 04

  I, the guy who plays the thief who like. Tries to flirt with Beverly. This guy is doing work. Victor Lanu. He is very enjoyable. Yes. But I, I just, I could not give a fuck. I didn't. And again, I don't, I'm not this guy always, but like, just like Pig in a Poke. What the fuck is, I, I, this is what I say on Action Boyz all the time. If the, if the robbery went well, what was the plan? Why do they need that guy?

• 2:18:44Griffin Newman?

  Understand their scam.

• 2:18:45Speaker 04

  They seem to have the money and the guy, and the guy, they know who he is. They could just leave with the money. Give the Griswolds five cheese on the walkout and everything is fine.

• 2:18:53Griffin Newman?

  But they're basically like robbing this traveler's checks place while he walks in, but have already said, it's the perfect crime if we can figure out someone else to pin it on. You're like, pin what? Leave. The guy's tied up. And instead they're like, we're gonna give him too much money. So it looks like he stole everything. And then put the guy who works here tied up in his trunk. And give him the car so that people blame him for the crime.

• 2:19:17Speaker 04

  I hate that we're talking about. But then they get back, they go back to try and get the car. Yeah, the Beetle or whatever it is. Because, why do the bad guys follow them?

• 2:19:25Griffin Newman?

  Because they're like, go to the hotel and we'll get the car back from you because I guess they want the car back. That they're just using it to help, so he can transport the body, but then they fuck up by going shopping.

• 2:19:37Speaker 04

  Oh, the shopping sequence, fucking rules. That's the best part of Italy. Yes.

• 2:19:41Griffin Newman?

  It's the one good part. The outfits are great.

• 2:19:43Speaker 04

  They all look fucking incredible.

• 2:19:45Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:19:46Speaker 04

  I love when, because Chevy has it on the plane ride home too. He has like that like weird.

• 2:19:49Griffin Newman?

  Oh, you know what? I like that bit too. I guess it's at the very end.

• 2:19:53Speaker 04

  The Statue of Liberty?

• 2:19:54Griffin Newman?

  Well, that, we'll talk about that.

• 2:19:55Speaker 04

  Yikes.

• 2:19:56Griffin Newman?

  But the, the sped up Chevy trying to have multiple meals on the plane and they keep on taking it away before he gets to start eating it.

• 2:20:03Speaker 04

  That's, that's solid travel humor. Nothing wrong with that. Oh, we, we skipped over in France, but the sped up Louve thing is a lot of fun.

• 2:20:09Griffin Newman?

  A lot of fun. And that, like, that's a, a semi-relatable human element that they're putting in, which is this like notion of the dad, like, viewing tourism as a competitive sport. When he's like shitting on the young honeymooning couple.

• 2:20:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:20:24Griffin Newman?

  And he's like, we saw like 40 things today. They haven't seen anything.

• 2:20:28Speaker 04

  And Beverly's like, I would love to just stay in this hotel and fuck.

• 2:20:31Griffin Newman?

  And we're exhausted.

• 2:20:32Speaker 04

  Yeah. Even, even there's that moment too when they're like, wow dad, look, ancient ruins. He's like, keep moving. And it's like, the kids are even enjoying sightseeing and he won't let it happen.

• 2:20:41Griffin Newman?

  He's like checklist things over actually absorbing anything.

• 2:20:46David Sims?

  What was I gonna say? Vacation and these movies do not naturally have a way to end, right?

• 2:20:51Griffin Newman?

  No.

• 2:20:51David Sims?

  Vacation kind of cleverly builds up to while the world is closed.

• 2:20:55Griffin Newman?

  There's a destination.

• 2:20:56David Sims?

  Chevy has the nervous breakdown. It goes on a little long, in my opinion, but it's a, it's a, you know, it's a clever sequence.

• 2:21:02Griffin Newman?

  That movie, it's helped by the fact that they're going to one place and they come up with a kind of funny twist on what happens as they get to that place.

• 2:21:08David Sims?

  Christmas has the big explosion and shit, you know, that, that, again, like they, they do a good job figuring out a punchy ending.

• 2:21:16Griffin Newman?

  Right, this one sucks.

• 2:21:18David Sims?

  This movie doesn't know how to do that apart from Statue of Liberty.

• 2:21:20Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:21:21David Sims?

  Getting knocked over.

• 2:21:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think that's what they thought their big moment was.

• 2:21:24David Sims?

  Right, which you're like, okay.

• 2:21:25Griffin Newman?

  But it is such a wild moment. To clarify, at the very end of this film, Clark is looking for the bathroom on the plane. He accidentally opens the door to the cockpit, gets tangled in the steering gear.

• 2:21:37David Sims?

  Yes.

• 2:21:38Griffin Newman?

  And then-

• 2:21:38Speaker 04

  Causes the plane to nosedive right as it's flying over Ellis Island.

• 2:21:42Griffin Newman?

  Into the Statue of Liberty, which then like its arm gets turned upside down and the movie basically ends with Clark's going, oopsie.

• 2:21:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's so, and then I do think the montage of photos over the credits is very funny.

• 2:21:55Griffin Newman?

  This is the thing, like that ending is so insane because you're just like, well, wait a second. If that happens, he's getting dragged to Guantanamo Bay.

• 2:22:03Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 2:22:04Griffin Newman?

  Right? Like, he's not getting out of this. You could just have the ending of like Clark out the window going like, look Statue of Liberty. Aren't you folks happy to be back in America again? And then cutting to images of like gross American shit.

• 2:22:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, which I thought was funny.

• 2:22:19Griffin Newman?

  American shit, which is really funny. The Statue of Liberty thing happens so fast and is so extreme. And it's like, feels frightening.

• 2:22:27David Sims?

  It's out of, right, it's out of reality with everything else.

• 2:22:30Speaker 04

  Even though like the gag itself doesn't look great.

• 2:22:32David Sims?

  It doesn't also, right, look that good. I will just want to shout out that the, my local, my pub, was the Lonsdale in, in, in Newcastle.

• 2:22:40Speaker 04

  Hell, yeah.

• 2:22:40David Sims?

  And I just looked it up and- This is the fate of so many English pubs. It's something that the movie.

• 2:22:46Griffin Newman?

  World's End.

• 2:22:46David Sims?

  World's End is about. It's been bought by Green King, which is one of the many pub chains. And I assume is still basically fine inside, but they ruin these places by kind of.

• 2:22:54Griffin Newman?

  Pub chain thing.

• 2:22:55Speaker 04

  You were telling me about this.

• 2:22:56Griffin Newman?

  Interesting and so unique to the UK. Like it's not really a thing here.

• 2:23:01David Sims?

  Of course not, but like in England, it's like there are pubs everywhere.

• 2:23:05Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 2:23:05David Sims?

  You know, as there have been since like the 10th century or whatever. And like, right, you know, like everything else is just getting like gobbled up.

• 2:23:12Griffin Newman?

  Like tacky corporate pubs in New York.

• 2:23:14David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:23:15Griffin Newman?

  That are just called like.

• 2:23:16Speaker 04

  The, the point on the right or whatever.

• 2:23:19David Sims?

  Oh, oh, Shaughnessy's, oh, Rana's.

• 2:23:21Griffin Newman?

  This isn't owned by like real Irish people, but you're also like, it's not part of a like Mick pub chain that is literally like a corporate logo stomped onto 40 locations.

• 2:23:30David Sims?

  I want to look up my London local, The Pineapple, seems to be still, right, still doing fine.

• 2:23:37Speaker 04

  I might see you down at The Pineapple.

• 2:23:39David Sims?

  But the thing with The Pineapple.

• 2:23:40Speaker 04

  Welcome to The Pineapple.

• 2:23:41David Sims?

  And the Dartmouth Arms, which is my other favorite pub where I live near, is like, they got a little gastropubby because like, that's what happened in North London. It's like pubs started to have good food, but there wasn't really anything wrong with that because you were like, well, the food's good.

• 2:23:52Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, right.

• 2:23:53David Sims?

  You know, and like, they're still serving beer and it's still a good vibe in here. It's just like they fucking hired a chef.

• 2:23:59Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, I'm not going to bitch that the food got better here.

• 2:24:01David Sims?

  Well, some people do, but yes.

• 2:24:03Griffin Newman?

  Well, in England, that would like, you know, someone might have like a flavor that would fucking shut their body down.

• 2:24:08David Sims?

  What is this garlic? I once introduced Ben to Peter Kay's legendary garlic bread bit, which is one of the most famous like comedy routines in England. Which is him making fun of his family, his parents, his northern Bolton parents, eating garlic bread for the first time. We were like garlic and bread, garlic bread. If I do it, it's not funny at all, but everyone in Britain knows it. But yeah, Britain only discovered garlic in like 1997 or something.

• 2:24:32Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, me, I, yeah, it's crazy. They were like going all over the world, killing people for spice and never got garlic.

• 2:24:38David Sims?

  Right, they just sold it to other people, I guess. Um, should we do the box office game?

• 2:24:42Griffin Newman?

  We should. Yeah, I mean, we should say this movie did okay, but was definitely seen as like a disappointment.

• 2:24:47David Sims?

  Especially since it's going PG 13, you'd think they might be like growing their audience. Instead, they're losing it significantly. Now, sequels used to. Be more, kind of were expected to do worse.

• 2:24:57Griffin Newman?

  Right, but like Christmas grows is the biggest.

• 2:24:59David Sims?

  Yes, it does.

• 2:25:00Griffin Newman?

  Of them. I, I do think it was seen as like, this succeeded based on love of the first one, rather than anything Heckerling did.

• 2:25:08David Sims?

  It's also, it's July, it's July 26, 1985, there's a comedy in theaters with Chevy Chase.

• 2:25:13Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 2:25:13David Sims?

  You're gonna get people to show up.

• 2:25:15Griffin Newman?

  Chase comes out of this with another win under his belt. It's almost kind of held against Heckerling that like, she misunderstood the assignment and the movie worked in spite of her. Which I just think all of it's interesting in building up like the psychology of her going into Look Who's Talking, which is like, do I want to make a talking baby movie? Eh, I do want to make something that's a hit that I own that's undeniable.

• 2:25:35David Sims?

  I'm gonna dispute you on that. Now, Fletch is the same year, right?

• 2:25:39Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:25:39David Sims?

  And so Fletch is kind of, it's a solid hit, but also well received. So a month ago, Fletch has come out. Fletch is in fact, uh, wears it in the box stuff. It's 14, but you know, it's been out for a couple of months. Post this, Spies Like Us, uh, which does pretty good, but like is not as well remembered as some.

• 2:25:55Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:25:56David Sims?

  Three Amigos, which is now liked, but was a bomb.

• 2:25:59Griffin Newman?

  Was, yes.

• 2:26:00David Sims?

  Uh, Funny Farm, you guys are sick enough for it, but also underperformed. Right, but like, you know, and then post that, Chevy starts to scramble. Caddyshack 2, which is disaster.

• 2:26:09Griffin Newman?

  Although tiny part, but yes, disaster.

• 2:26:11David Sims?

  Fletch Lives, which is also a disaster. And then Christmas Vacation is the sequel he makes where it's like, well, that, that worked.

• 2:26:17Griffin Newman?

  Right, he's back on.

• 2:26:18David Sims?

  But that's also his last hit, probably like ever.

• 2:26:21Griffin Newman?

  Right, and it is one of those.

• 2:26:23David Sims?

  Like his 90s output is obviously really terrible.

• 2:26:25Griffin Newman?

  I, I feel like for a guy who had such a bad reputation, but a good number of hits and had flops as well, like was up and down. Even when I earlier said like, all of his movies were basically hits until Vacation.

• 2:26:36David Sims?

  No, he had flops.

• 2:26:37Griffin Newman?

  He had ups and downs.

• 2:26:38David Sims?

  Under the Rainbow and shit.

• 2:26:39Griffin Newman?

  Right, exactly. His like, his average was strong enough that in this era of like, he is a $6 million movie star. He doesn't command $20 million. He costs six to make a movie that costs 20.

• 2:26:51David Sims?

  That makes 60 or whatever.

• 2:26:53Griffin Newman?

  Right, that's worth it. That's like on base and maybe he's tough to deal with, but who gives a shit? Um, I do feel like when the talk show happens.

• 2:27:01David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:27:02Griffin Newman?

  And like, people are watching-

• 2:27:03David Sims?

  The bubble is burst with the talk show. Everyone's like, this guy sucks.

• 2:27:05Griffin Newman?

  It's wild.

• 2:27:06Speaker 04

  Well, there's something, there's something about a guy who's an asshole-

• 2:27:10Griffin Newman?

  That's the big thing.

• 2:27:10Speaker 04

  Who's always playing an asshole.

• 2:27:12Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:27:12Speaker 04

  You can do as a little suspension of disbelief that, wow, Chevy's really good at playing an asshole.

• 2:27:17Griffin Newman?

  You watch-

• 2:27:18Speaker 04

  Then when he plays himself in the Chevy Chase show and you're like, oh no, he's not acting at all. Right. He's an asshole.

• 2:27:26David Sims?

  Oh, this guy can't hide it.

• 2:27:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I like fucking whatever's Ty Webb less. I like Clark Griswold less now.

• 2:27:34Griffin Newman?

  Interesting, two-pronged thing of, you're watching him without the distance of a character and being like, this isn't so charming if it's real.

• 2:27:41Speaker 04

  Right. If a guy's an actual prick, it's not fun.

• 2:27:43Griffin Newman?

  The second part of it is part of the fun of Chevy Chase is his so confidently going through these things. And watching the talk show, he's so quickly dying inside and unhappy that you're like, this isn't fun if he's not even having fun doing it.

• 2:27:57Speaker 04

  Right, right.

• 2:27:57Griffin Newman?

  And it's starting to make him look pathetic.

• 2:27:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:27:59Griffin Newman?

  But also, the first episode is Goldie Hawn, who he had done two movies with. And it's like, great, pair him up. His first guest, a big comedy movie star who's one of his like scene partners. And they just have no chemistry together. And you're like, oh, none of these people like him. None of the other people in Hollywood like him.

• 2:28:17David Sims?

  It's a forgotten thing that about Conan.

• 2:28:20Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:20David Sims?

  When everyone zooms in on how bad, you know, Conan did in the first year, not the show, but the ratings or whatever. Well, one reason he survived was the Chevy Chase had bombed so hard that it was like, eh, maybe we need to give the youngsters a shot.

• 2:28:31Griffin Newman?

  And here's another thing that was quietly working for Conan. Guests he had on, who had hosted SNL, were like, I remember you. You were great.

• 2:28:41Speaker 04

  Sure, right.

• 2:28:41Griffin Newman?

  I liked you when you were the writer in the background.

• 2:28:44David Sims?

  Going for him is he's like, one of the great comic presences and is so funny.

• 2:28:48Speaker 04

  One of the funniest human beings alive.

• 2:28:49David Sims?

  Genuine, and right, you know.

• 2:28:51Griffin Newman?

  Like imbalance of like-

• 2:28:52Speaker 04

  The best. He's-

• 2:28:53David Sims?

  He's the best.

• 2:28:53Speaker 04

  He's the fucking best.

• 2:28:55Griffin Newman?

  He's the best.

• 2:28:55Speaker 04

  I hate that, I hate that he's doing a travel show that's on Max.

• 2:28:59David Sims?

  How dare he?

• 2:28:59Speaker 04

  That's really good.

• 2:29:00David Sims?

  But him just like windmill dunking at the Oscars after like 30 years of like being available for that job is just like, great.

• 2:29:07Speaker 04

  And him doing it at the-

• 2:29:08Griffin Newman?

  The Kennedy Center.

• 2:29:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:29:09David Sims?

  Yeah, well, he did that so perfectly.

• 2:29:11Speaker 04

  Genius.

• 2:29:12David Sims?

  The way he like threaded the needle of like, how do I do this in what is probably the last Mark Twain Awards.

• 2:29:18Griffin Newman?

  Right. But I'm like, I was, you know, my teen years-

• 2:29:21David Sims?

  Before it goes to Matt Rife or whatever.

• 2:29:23Speaker 04

  Jon Voight.

• 2:29:25David Sims?

  So funny.

• 2:29:26Griffin Newman?

  He's so funny.

• 2:29:28David Sims?

  On Twitter, like he's getting it for his tweets.

• 2:29:30Griffin Newman?

  My like teen years, I was like, why won't they let Conan host the Oscars?

• 2:29:34David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:29:34Griffin Newman?

  Why, why won't they let the weird guy host? It's so much better to have him host at the point in his life where he has nothing to prove. And now also seemingly might just be the de facto host for the next five years.

• 2:29:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, he might have accidentally did it like.

• 2:29:47Griffin Newman?

  He would have nailed it.

• 2:29:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, you know.

• 2:29:49Griffin Newman?

  It was fantastic.

• 2:29:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:29:50David Sims?

  He kind of did.

• 2:29:51Griffin Newman?

  But I just think there's.

• 2:29:52Speaker 04

  And in the Oscar presentation that the movies didn't fucking get me going, having Conan there was a fucking victory.

• 2:29:59Griffin Newman?

  I just think it's an interesting flip that like you have Chevy and Conan at the same time. And you're like, oh my God, like ABC has hired a movie star for 20 years to host a talk show. This is humongous and NBC responded with a fucking comedy writer.

• 2:30:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:30:16Griffin Newman?

  The discrepancy is so great. And then like any celebrity who has dealt with Conan prior to him getting the show through SNL is like, I always liked you.

• 2:30:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:30:24Griffin Newman?

  And you're like, huh, America doesn't know this guy, but people with stature are approving him. Meanwhile, Chevy is interviewing people he starred in movies with.

• 2:30:32Speaker 04

  And has zero chemistry.

• 2:30:33Griffin Newman?

  And you're just like, huh, he's kind of just tolerated.

• 2:30:37David Sims?

  So this film opens number one, $12 million. It got very bad reviews, to be clear.

• 2:30:42Griffin Newman?

  It makes 40.

• 2:30:44David Sims?

  It ends up at a domestic total of 49 million dollars. Not bad.

• 2:30:48Griffin Newman?

  Not bad.

• 2:30:49David Sims?

  Number two, The Box Office is one of the big hits of the summer. We've covered it on this podcast.

• 2:30:54Griffin Newman?

  In 1985.

• 2:30:56David Sims?

  It's been out for a month.

• 2:30:56Griffin Newman?

  Is it Back to the Future?

• 2:30:58David Sims?

  There you go.

• 2:30:58Griffin Newman?

  There we go. It's the biggest hit of the year.

• 2:31:00David Sims?

  Good movie.

• 2:31:01Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, excellent film.

• 2:31:02David Sims?

  You like it?

• 2:31:03Speaker 04

  I haven't seen it.

• 2:31:04David Sims?

  What about this kid?

• 2:31:06Speaker 04

  I've only seen three.

• 2:31:07Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:31:08Speaker 04

  I've only seen The Broadway Show and Three.

• 2:31:12David Sims?

  Number three, The Box Office is a legendary flop on animated film.

• 2:31:17Griffin Newman?

  Is it The Black Cauldron?

• 2:31:18David Sims?

  Disney's The Black Cauldron.

• 2:31:19Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:31:20David Sims?

  Have you ever seen it?

• 2:31:21Griffin Newman?

  Uh.

• 2:31:21David Sims?

  I never have.

• 2:31:22Speaker 04

  I'm almost, I'm, I gotta safely say, I don't think I've ever even heard of it.

• 2:31:25David Sims?

  It is probably the nadir of Disney, sort of like in terms of cultural impact.

• 2:31:30Griffin Newman?

  What's wild about it, Gabrus, is it is like an adaptation of a fairly recent expansive fantasy novel series.

• 2:31:38David Sims?

  Yes.

• 2:31:38Griffin Newman?

  That Disney bought and we're sort of like, we're gonna do our like Middle Earth.

• 2:31:43David Sims?

  And then we're gonna try to appeal to boys, which is always the Disney thing of like, can we get boys?

• 2:31:48Griffin Newman?

  What was the book called though?

• 2:31:49David Sims?

  Called The Book of Three, uh, the, the whole group of it is called The Chronicles of Prydain.

• 2:31:55Griffin Newman?

  I remember, uh.

• 2:31:56David Sims?

  It's like, it's like young adult high fantasy.

• 2:31:58Griffin Newman?

  I've never seen the movie when it, uh, not when it came out, but watching on VHS when I was young, being like, this doesn't work. And then years later, in my like school library, finding the Book of Three, going, this looks fun. And 60 pages in being like, this is The Black Cauldron.

• 2:32:11David Sims?

  It's.

• 2:32:12Griffin Newman?

  That's so weird that it's based off of this.

• 2:32:14Speaker 04

  I'm so embarrassed to say that I am such a fucking, any port in the storm for high fantasy.

• 2:32:20David Sims?

  Sure.

• 2:32:20Speaker 04

  That I'm going to seek out.

• 2:32:21Griffin Newman?

  You need to watch this.

• 2:32:22Speaker 04

  I'm gonna seek out.

• 2:32:22Griffin Newman?

  I'd be very curious to hear your opinion.

• 2:32:24David Sims?

  Wanted to watch it. I've always heard that it's kind of also like weirdly scary, right? Like it's got kind of a little too intense for.

• 2:32:29Griffin Newman?

  One of the famous anecdotes about it is it's the movie that they're working on at Disney when Tim Burton gets hired out of Cal Arts. And they're like, perfect, we got this weird creepy guy, he can do some of the monsters. And he submits the stuff and they were like, Tim, fucking cool.

• 2:32:42David Sims?

  Do you like, um, what's it called? I just read it, uh, last year, cause Sean Clemens told me to read it, The Blade itself, the first Law book.

• 2:32:49Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 2:32:49David Sims?

  You're into those.

• 2:32:50Speaker 04

  Clemens got me into those years ago too. That trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, and then the three that take place in the same world, so awesome.

• 2:32:57David Sims?

  Standalone or whatever.

• 2:32:58Speaker 04

  Uh, and if you're an audiobook guy, the guy who reads those, reads those books, Stephen Pacey is fantastic.

• 2:33:04David Sims?

  All right.

• 2:33:04Speaker 04

  The way he does Glotka, who has a speech impediment, cause he has his teeth pulled.

• 2:33:08David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:33:08Speaker 04

  But then he also has internal thought that's better. He does like two different versions of it.

• 2:33:13David Sims?

  Oh, that's clever.

• 2:33:13Speaker 04

  It's so fucking cool. Yeah.

• 2:33:15Griffin Newman?

  I, I'm gonna try to keep this quick. I, I went on a weird rabbit hole. The man who directed The Black Cauldron, I, one of the two directors, I believe his name is literally Richie Rich. He is Richard Rich. And he brags about the first animation director to have no experience in animation. He was like a music guy who then became like a development executive at Disney, who then they let direct and had never animated once. In his life, and I think he co-directed that and Fox and the Hound, which was sort of the nadir for Disney commercially. Yeah. And then, much like Don Bluth, he like spun off and was like, I don't need Disney, I can make my own thing. And he made like The Swan Princess for New Line, which was kind of a mess. Right. He has largely backed into doing like extensive biblical animated adaptations.

• 2:33:59Griffin Newman?

  But I was going through his I N D B and I found that he had made a movie about the Prophet Muhammad. And I'm like, how the fuck did he do this without being arrested? Yeah. And I found a review that our friend, past and future guest Dana Stevens, did of this movie, which I think came out in like 2003. Yeah. He did an animated Prophet Muhammad movie that is animated from the perspective of the Prophet Muhammad, who has no dialogue. It's an animated like fucking Nickel Boys, where it's you seeing other characters talk about Muhammad so that he can tell the story without showing him on screen. Right, because using his image is like.

• 2:34:35David Sims?

  It's prohibited.

• 2:34:35Griffin Newman?

  Just one of the weirdest movies I've ever discovered existing. Put on your 3D Muhammad glasses right now. Yeah, and it's like animated like a shitty Disney movie.

• 2:34:45David Sims?

  Number four at the box office. He also did the King and I animated.

• 2:34:48Griffin Newman?

  Yes, which is also a cursed film.

• 2:34:50David Sims?

  Uh, number four at the box office is a sequel to a film that John covered on our show.

• 2:34:57Griffin Newman?

  Hmm, this is where LA is probably getting hot, huh? Is it Predator 2?

• 2:35:02David Sims?

  No. But that is a fun, of course, movie in which, yes, the Predator comes to LA and gets in the middle of a gang war and Danny Glover's stressed out.

• 2:35:09Griffin Newman?

  Is it beyond Thunder though?

• 2:35:10David Sims?

  It's Mad Max Beyond Thunder.

• 2:35:12Griffin Newman?

  Oh, that's, I love that one.

• 2:35:14David Sims?

  Uh, very fun movie.

• 2:35:15Griffin Newman?

  The only movie that ever had the courage to go beyond.

• 2:35:18David Sims?

  No one's done it since.

• 2:35:20Griffin Newman?

  No.

• 2:35:20David Sims?

  Number five at the box office is a Western that a lot of people really like. I saw it and was underwhelmed.

• 2:35:26Griffin Newman?

  Silverado. I just remember you being underwhelmed.

• 2:35:29David Sims?

  Larry Kasdan's Silverado. I fired that up being like, I'm gonna have the best time. And I was like.

• 2:35:32Griffin Newman?

  Be hoot and holler.

• 2:35:34David Sims?

  Do you like Silverado? You ever seen it?

• 2:35:35Speaker 04

  I saw it when I was a kid and I think I liked it, but I think I would want to, I want to, I'm on a Costner kick right now.

• 2:35:41David Sims?

  We all are.

• 2:35:42Speaker 04

  We just did, we just did No Way Out on Action Boyz.

• 2:35:45Griffin Newman?

  I just watched that after Hackman Pass. I'd never seen it.

• 2:35:47David Sims?

  Very not horny movie about very straightforward people.

• 2:35:50Speaker 04

  It's so, and I'm, I'm listening to The Big Clock now, the book that No Way Out's based on. It's fucking very interesting.

• 2:35:55Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:35:56Speaker 04

  And it's been.

• 2:35:56Griffin Newman?

  Cause the twist, there was a previous movie adaptation as well, right?

• 2:36:00Speaker 04

  There's two.

• 2:36:01Griffin Newman?

  The twist in No Way Out is unique just to that version of the story. Is that correct?

• 2:36:06Speaker 04

  The twist that he's investigating himself?

• 2:36:08Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:36:09Speaker 04

  That's like the whole conceit of the movie is that he, a guy who.

• 2:36:12Griffin Newman?

  Oh no, I'm saying the very end twist of No Way Out.

• 2:36:14Speaker 04

  Oh, the very end of the twist. But yes, which we won't spoil. Yeah, it's crazy. It's unearned. It's bananas. There's no teasing of, yeah.

• 2:36:19Griffin Newman?

  Things I've seen a movie do in the last 90 seconds.

• 2:36:21Speaker 04

  Makes me like it. It's, and again, I keep coming back to improv.

• 2:36:24Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:36:25Speaker 04

  But it really is reminds me of like The Last Beat of a Harold where you're like, ah, we were in space the whole time.

• 2:36:29Griffin Newman?

  Begging for a blackout. It's like, if I do something loud enough, will they have to black us out?

• 2:36:33Speaker 04

  We just have to get out. The red light has been on for like eight minutes. The booth is not, the booth is behind the wheel. Yeah, let's get the fuck out of here.

• 2:36:39Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:36:40Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, I'm on a crazy Costner kick. I loved Horizon and of course, uh, and so I want to re-watch Silverado.

• 2:36:46Griffin Newman?

  You know what movie is good, Gabrus? Horizon, Chapter Two.

• 2:36:49Speaker 04

  I haven't seen it.

• 2:36:50Griffin Newman?

  Saw it at Santa Barbara. They played it at a fucking film festival.

• 2:36:53Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 2:36:53Griffin Newman?

  I made a trip out there.

• 2:36:54Speaker 04

  I'm so jealous.

• 2:36:55Griffin Newman?

  It's really good.

• 2:36:56Speaker 04

  I'm so fucking jealous. I, I enjoyed the first one so much.

• 2:37:00Griffin Newman?

  I think this one's a lot better.

• 2:37:01Speaker 04

  Oh, that is, it has to be.

• 2:37:03Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:03Speaker 04

  Cause I will say this, a movie that is as slow and as long as Horizon that ends with to be continued is bananas. It's like fucking, what's the Miles Morales Spider-Man movie where I was like, when that ended with to be continued, I heard kids in the crowd boo at the AMC.

• 2:37:18Griffin Newman?

  John, don't worry. They announced today that the next movie is coming out in only two years.

• 2:37:23David Sims?

  It's a long strike delay. It's interesting. It was just so funny when they were like, ah, the strike means we're delaying that one.

• 2:37:29Griffin Newman?

  It would be out in six months, our original release date, if not through the strike. You're like, you have a title page and nothing else.

• 2:37:36David Sims?

  Exactly. Spider-Man's gonna be in it. We know that. Also the box office, Cocoon.

• 2:37:40Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 2:37:41David Sims?

  Old guys. Rambo, First Blood, Part Two. I'm sure you've never covered that.

• 2:37:44Griffin Newman?

  That's not a movie you like, right?

• 2:37:45David Sims?

  Not, not really.

• 2:37:46Speaker 04

  Can we win this time? One question. Can we win this time? I love, I could, I could talk for hours about. First Blood and First Blood Part Two being like the dichotomy of like American art. Where it's like, the first movie is like PTSD.

• 2:38:01Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 2:38:01Speaker 04

  Soldier coming home.

• 2:38:03David Sims?

  High drama.

• 2:38:04Speaker 04

  Anti-cop, high drama, like, uh, dealing with like soldiers coming home and bringing the war home with them. All this intense, heavy shit.

• 2:38:11Griffin Newman?

  And the second one's like, they still got soldiers in Vietnam.

• 2:38:14Speaker 04

  Go there with a bow and arrow and kill everybody, Sly.

• 2:38:16Griffin Newman?

  Wouldn't it be great if one of us was so yoked and could take care of all of their problems?

• 2:38:21Speaker 04

  God, he is so fucking diced into.

• 2:38:24David Sims?

  It's insane.

• 2:38:25Speaker 05

  The vein poppage is off the charts.

• 2:38:28Griffin Newman?

  He looks like grilled chicken.

• 2:38:29Speaker 04

  He's so fuck, his hair is bananas, like, it's so crazy. Fires an M60 at, uh, at Sensei Crease.

• 2:38:39Griffin Newman?

  I guess he looks more like rotisserie chicken, cause he's bronze.

• 2:38:41Speaker 04

  He's pretty gla, he's pretty glazed up, yeah. He's balsamic.

• 2:38:45David Sims?

  Have you covered, I have to go in a second.

• 2:38:47Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:38:47David Sims?

  Um, this film, a film I really like, Clint Eastwood's western, Pale Rider. Which is sort of Unforgiven before Unforgiven, like, it's another clever anti-Western, it's just a little less seen.

• 2:38:59Speaker 04

  Is that the one where he is maybe the devil, or that's something else? That's like the man in black or something, what's that one called?

• 2:39:03David Sims?

  No, I, I know what you're going for, yeah, he basically is sort of deaf, like, in that movie.

• 2:39:08Griffin Newman?

  Am I wrong in thinking, no, no, this doesn't make sense, cause this is out at the box office at this point in time?

• 2:39:13David Sims?

  What?

• 2:39:14Griffin Newman?

  Why are you bringing up Pale Rider?

• 2:39:15David Sims?

  It's number eight.

• 2:39:16Griffin Newman?

  Okay, that was my question.

• 2:39:17David Sims?

  That's what I'm saying, it's in the box office game.

• 2:39:19Griffin Newman?

  In the end credits montage, they play, they show an image of some Clint Eastwood western poster.

• 2:39:24David Sims?

  I believe it is Pale Rider.

• 2:39:25Griffin Newman?

  It is.

• 2:39:25David Sims?

  It, it looked like it to me.

• 2:39:26Griffin Newman?

  It did, right?

• 2:39:27David Sims?

  I mean, although it could, there's a lot of Clint Eastwood posters out there, so, right, yeah. No, because Josie Wells has got the two guns, I don't know. Number nine at the box office, St. Elmo's Fire, that's a movie that's bad, in my opinion. Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire.

• 2:39:39Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:39:40David Sims?

  Uh, that's a movie that, that's a bit of a gas leak movie, it has its fans.

• 2:39:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've never, I've never re-watched it.

• 2:39:46David Sims?

  It's fucking stupid.

• 2:39:47Speaker 04

  I've never been inspired to.

• 2:39:48David Sims?

  Number 10 is a movie I don't know, it's a romantic comedy called The Heavenly Kid.

• 2:39:54Griffin Newman?

  Oh.

• 2:39:55David Sims?

  Starring Louis Smith, best known for his role in The Heavenly Kid, Wikipedia tells me.

• 2:40:00Griffin Newman?

  Huh.

• 2:40:01David Sims?

  Uh, about, like, a greaser who dies playing chicken and comes back as an angel.

• 2:40:08Griffin Newman?

  Is Teen Angel, the ABC sitcom, loosely adapted from The Heavenly Kid? Why do I know The Heavenly Kid?

• 2:40:15David Sims?

  I don't know.

• 2:40:16Speaker 04

  I feel like The Heavenly Kid was... It sounds so fuck, the premise sounds so, I mean, I think it's, uh, what's the, uh, fuck, why can't I think of it, the angel movie with-

• 2:40:26David Sims?

  Heaven Can Wait?

• 2:40:27Speaker 04

  Yes, yeah.

• 2:40:27David Sims?

  Yeah, it's kind of, uh, like, yeah, you're not gonna get to go to heaven till you help this other kid-

• 2:40:33Speaker 04

  Right, wrongs.

• 2:40:33David Sims?

  By being his guardian angel, young Jane has merit.

• 2:40:36Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, there was an ABC TGF sitcom with a very similar premise that maybe was just unofficially riffing on this-

• 2:40:42David Sims?

  Fair enough.

• 2:40:43Griffin Newman?

  Called Teen Angel that I was a fan of.

• 2:40:44David Sims?

  That was an Al Jean Mike Rice show, I believe.

• 2:40:46Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:40:47David Sims?

  Um, I don't think it was very good, though, no offense.

• 2:40:49Griffin Newman?

  Well, I disagree with you. I'm sure my opinion as a seven-year-old would hold up perfectly.

• 2:40:54David Sims?

  Uh, looks like that one had the great Ron Glass, though, I love him.

• 2:40:58Griffin Newman?

  He was the big floating head in the sky, I believe.

• 2:40:59David Sims?

  Oh, sort of the Zordon.

• 2:41:01Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, kinda, imagine, but in the sky.

• 2:41:04David Sims?

  Sure, instead of a tube.

• 2:41:06Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, have you ever seen the, uh-

• 2:41:07David Sims?

  Just bringing it back to-

• 2:41:08Griffin Newman?

  The semi-recent, big-budget, American Power Rangers movie, Gabrus?

• 2:41:11Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 2:41:13Griffin Newman?

  David and I will talk about this a lot, Cranston is so fucking good as Zordon.

• 2:41:17David Sims?

  Locked in.

• 2:41:17Speaker 04

  It's so, it's-

• 2:41:18David Sims?

  That movie's good.

• 2:41:19Speaker 04

  Such a better movie than I expected.

• 2:41:20Griffin Newman?

  I like that movie a lot, but like-

• 2:41:21Speaker 04

  I put it on as a bit-

• 2:41:23Griffin Newman?

  Totally.

• 2:41:23Speaker 04

  And, you know, I ate an edible and I'm like, this would be funny, and then by the end of it, I was like, I care a lot about this.

• 2:41:27Griffin Newman?

  It was like this rocks and rolls, yeah, but like Cranston, you're just like, oh my god, he is playing Zordon with like, gravity and grace.

• 2:41:36Speaker 04

  He's good, man.

• 2:41:37Griffin Newman?

  He's good.

• 2:41:37Speaker 04

  What did I just see him in that he really, oh, The Studio?

• 2:41:40Griffin Newman?

  The Studio, yeah.

• 2:41:41David Sims?

  Oh, he's having fun in The Studio.

• 2:41:42Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:41:43David Sims?

  I've only seen the first episode of The Studio, but I enjoyed it.

• 2:41:45Speaker 04

  I also love Han, she's so fucking funny, so hot, and then she's doing this bit where she's a fully different style every-

• 2:41:51David Sims?

  Every time and walking in.

• 2:41:52Griffin Newman?

  She seems a little Pascal-inspired, perhaps, with some of the hairstyles.

• 2:41:56David Sims?

  I mean Cranston is like, so, there's so many guys that Cranston's kinda doing, but I also just love, like, Rogan knows, like, Marty's a good actor. Like, you don't have to just have Marty do one scene where he's just like, I'm Marty, you know, like, you can give him three moods, like, over the course of an episode.

• 2:42:12Speaker 04

  When, when they reveal, like, Marty, he's like, Marty's crying in the background, is so fucking good.

• 2:42:17Griffin Newman?

  I have said this many times, he is, you know, perhaps our finest, kind of like, major film artist within the, like, the studio system, right? Still getting to operate at that level.

• 2:42:29David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:42:30Griffin Newman?

  And he's getting up there in age, and I want as many Marty movies as we can get while he's still around and in good form. I also don't want him slept on as an actor. I'm like, every time he's ever acted in something, he's so fucking good, and I'd love it if he could throw in like, two more supporting performances.

• 2:42:47Speaker 04

  He's great in his fucking like, daughter's TikTok.

• 2:42:50Griffin Newman?

  He's always-

• 2:42:51David Sims?

  He always gets the joke, oh yeah, he's always like-

• 2:42:54Griffin Newman?

  What's the one, Guilty by Association, which is like, a totally mediocre De Niro blacklist movie?

• 2:43:00David Sims?

  Okay.

• 2:43:01Griffin Newman?

  In which he plays like, a blacklisted filmmaker-

• 2:43:03David Sims?

  Guilty by Suspicion.

• 2:43:04Griffin Newman?

  Thank you.

• 2:43:05David Sims?

  Yeah, I've never seen that.

• 2:43:06Griffin Newman?

  He is so fucking good-

• 2:43:07David Sims?

  He's amazing in Quiz Show.

• 2:43:08Speaker 04

  I watched a couple-

• 2:43:09Griffin Newman?

  Amazing in Quiz Show.

• 2:43:10Speaker 04

  I watched a couple-

• 2:43:10Griffin Newman?

  Amazing in Taxi Driver.

• 2:43:11David Sims?

  Yeah, I know.

• 2:43:12Speaker 04

  I watched a couple of Marty's docs, early, uh, his early docs, and he's in them so much.

• 2:43:16Griffin Newman?

  He's good on camera.

• 2:43:17Speaker 04

  So like, Italian American is really good. And I forget the other one that's about-

• 2:43:20Griffin Newman?

  Journeys to-

• 2:43:21Speaker 04

  No, the guy, his friend who's crazy.

• 2:43:23Griffin Newman?

  Oh, yes, yes.

• 2:43:24Speaker 04

  They're just interviewing him in his house. That one is fucking, I wish I could pull the name of it. It's fucking awesome, yeah.

• 2:43:29David Sims?

  Marty.

• 2:43:30Griffin Newman?

  Marty.

• 2:43:30David Sims?

  Let's hang out with Marty.

• 2:43:31Griffin Newman?

  Let's have Marty on the show.

• 2:43:32David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:43:33Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, by the way-

• 2:43:33David Sims?

  He's around.

• 2:43:34Griffin Newman?

  Next week on Blank Check, Look Who's Talking with Martin Scorsese.

• 2:43:37Speaker 04

  The baby talks.

• 2:43:39David Sims?

  Travolta, you know, he's, there's something about him.

• 2:43:41Speaker 04

  Look Who's Talking 2 has a joke that's burned into my head, I can't hear, is Damon Wayans Jr. going, "Oh, that's Mr. Toiletman, eat your doodles and your peepees." I've been saying that, I've been saying that for thirty-five years.

• 2:43:52Griffin Newman?

  John, I am so excited for David to meet Mr. Toilet-

• 2:43:55Speaker 04

  Mr. Toilet. Mr. Toiletman.

• 2:43:57Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:43:57Speaker 04

  Eat your doodles and your peepees.

• 2:43:58Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 2:43:58David Sims?

  And he's scary. Well, I've successfully potty trained a child.

• 2:44:02Speaker 04

  Hell, yeah.

• 2:44:02David Sims?

  Not to, uh-

• 2:44:03Griffin Newman?

  This movie might hit close to home.

• 2:44:05David Sims?

  Pat me on the back.

• 2:44:05Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:44:06David Sims?

  But, uh, but I witnessed the stages of potty training.

• 2:44:09Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:44:09David Sims?

  If that makes sense.

• 2:44:10Griffin Newman?

  In my memory, a film-

• 2:44:11David Sims?

  Nobody told me that that's how it works, that it's sort of like, oh, they get good at one thing and then they get good at the other.

• 2:44:15Griffin Newman?

  A film I have not seen in probably thirty years, if not more.

• 2:44:19David Sims?

  Sure.

• 2:44:20Griffin Newman?

  In my memory, Look Who's Talking 2 is almost a potty training thriller, first and foremost.

• 2:44:24David Sims?

  Well, then I'm, I'm, then it won't be triggering for me, cause I'll kind of be like, okay, I did this.

• 2:44:28Griffin Newman?

  You made it to the other side.

• 2:44:29David Sims?

  Right, I mean, I'm gonna have to do it two more times, but whatever.

• 2:44:30Griffin Newman?

  I rewatched, uh, recently Martin Scorsese's, uh, American Express commercial where he's getting his photos developed.

• 2:44:36David Sims?

  That's so funny.

• 2:44:36Griffin Newman?

  And he's going through them and giving them notes.

• 2:44:38Speaker 04

  I just wanna go back to that era of life.

• 2:44:40David Sims?

  I'm sorry.

• 2:44:40Griffin Newman?

  Everything about it.

• 2:44:41David Sims?

  I want back there.

• 2:44:42Griffin Newman?

  We had it figured out.

• 2:44:43David Sims?

  We did.

• 2:44:44Griffin Newman?

  There's a moment in it where he's, it's photos from his grandchild's birthday party, I think is the bit, or his son's birthday, his nephew, whatever. And he holds it up to the guy behind the counter at like a fucking 7-Eleven. And he goes, see here, he's the antagonist, but where's the, or he goes, see here, he's the protagonist. Where's the antagonist? He's missing from the frame.

• 2:45:02David Sims?

  All, the whole commercial is so funny. His commercial, Wes Anderson's commercial obviously is amazing too. All those, and my, but I just want to go back to an era of, you had to walk around town to get all your shit done.

• 2:45:13Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:45:14David Sims?

  I'm going to the, you know, to the photo place to get my photos that I, from vacation. And then I'm going over to the dry cleaner and then I'm going over to the baker, cause I gotta get a loaf of bread. And then the butcher, you know, I, let's just do that again.

• 2:45:25Speaker 04

  And then, oh shit, I have to get a candle made.

• 2:45:27Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 2:45:27David Sims?

  And then, where's my fucking candlestick baker?

• 2:45:31Griffin Newman?

  I watched a woman walk with a disposable camera in her hand to a Dwayne Reid.

• 2:45:38Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 2:45:38Griffin Newman?

  Walgreens at the desk that says photo center above this and say, do you guys develop this? And the guy behind the counter goes, no.

• 2:45:46David Sims?

  Right. He's like, you, you don't have like a USB drive for me or whatever.

• 2:45:50Speaker 04

  Right. That's so fucking crazy.

• 2:45:51David Sims?

  That's so depressing.

• 2:45:52Griffin Newman?

  And she was just like, that's what I assumed, thought it was worth a shot.

• 2:45:56David Sims?

  Man, she didn't even make a fuss. She's like, yeah.

• 2:45:58Griffin Newman?

  She's like, I just, I had to take the shot.

• 2:46:00Speaker 04

  Young people don't know about getting doubles.

• 2:46:02Griffin Newman?

  Oh.

• 2:46:03David Sims?

  Dude.

• 2:46:04Griffin Newman?

  Hey, in my opinion, triples is best. You got three?

• 2:46:08David Sims?

  Like, it was such a routine in my life that my mom's like, oh, we gotta go to, it was in Britain, the chain's called Snappy Snaps. We gotta go to Snappy Snaps. And you go there and they'll be like, yeah, here are your photos. See you later.

• 2:46:17Speaker 04

  You gotta go twice. You gotta go twice. You gotta drop off and pick up.

• 2:46:21David Sims?

  Yes. Look what the hell, now we just look at these all day. But, holding up my telephone.

• 2:46:26Speaker 04

  He's holding, he just pulled his tits out.

• 2:46:28David Sims?

  Look at it, these beautiful tits of mine all day.

• 2:46:32Speaker 04

  We're all just holding these.

• 2:46:34David Sims?

  You can't keep your eyes off him.

• 2:46:36Speaker 04

  The Sims be cut. With his double jointed, he's able to go around the back of his head and grab his tits in like a Janet Jackson level kind of poster.

• 2:46:43Griffin Newman?

  It's like The Stranger, except his hands are numb.

• 2:46:45David Sims?

  I will never forget when I was about 11 years old, doing this as I've been doing all my life, and the kid sitting next to me, Nikki, I believe his name was, going, "The fuck are you doing?" And I was like, "What?" And he was like, "People can't do what you're doing."

• 2:46:59Speaker 04

  When I just saw it, it was like unsettling. It was like, it was like watching when actors

• 2:47:04David Sims?

  Everyone can do this, and no one can do this.

• 2:47:06Griffin Newman?

  This is what's crazy, though. I've been sitting across from you for 10 years. Until this moment, I never considered, "Oh, you're doing it a weird way."

• 2:47:13David Sims?

  I, it's just-

• 2:47:14Griffin Newman?

  I've watched you do that.

• 2:47:16David Sims?

  I can move from-

• 2:47:16Griffin Newman?

  Over and over.

• 2:47:17David Sims?

  To be clear, for the listener, I'm realizing, we should describe this. I, I put my arms behind my back with my arms behind my head, and I can move them to essentially below my shoulders.

• 2:47:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, and your elbows drop down like behind you.

• 2:47:29David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:47:30Griffin Newman?

  And it's like, it looks like little wings.

• 2:47:31David Sims?

  And both of these are positions people can do, but they can't move between them. They would need to unclasp their hands and like, we do their, you know what I mean?

• 2:47:38Griffin Newman?

  It's one smooth movement. Hey Gabrus, anything you want to plug?

• 2:47:41Speaker 04

  Uh, yeah, actually, several things, if that's cool.

• 2:47:44David Sims?

  Oh, please.

• 2:47:44Speaker 04

  Of course, for movie fans, I got the Action Boyz podcast, actionboys.biz.

• 2:47:48Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:47:48Speaker 04

  Uh, free dot actionboys.biz, so you don't have to pay for Patreon. You just get a sniff and see if you get hooked.

• 2:47:53Griffin Newman?

  I love sniffing.

• 2:47:54Speaker 04

  The aforementioned, the aforementioned ode to engineers of Gino Lombardo. I did a 30-episode series of the Gino, a three, 10-episode, uh, series, and I put it all on, uh, physical media that you could buy as a USB that looks like a cassette.

• 2:48:10Griffin Newman?

  Oh, so you ended up doing this?

• 2:48:10Speaker 04

  I found it out, yeah. Hozley helped me, sent me down a direction. But I got to shout out, uh, Brent Morris and Josh Richman, the two guys who helped me produce it. Josh kind of was the impetus. He goes, "Hey, if this tariff shit hits, getting these things from China is going to cost you a fortune. Order them now."

• 2:48:25Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:48:25Speaker 04

  So I was not prepared. But now I got, I got the, I got the product.

• 2:48:28David Sims?

  Come get them.

• 2:48:28Speaker 04

  So come, come get them at gino.gabris.com.

• 2:48:31Griffin Newman?

  Gino, my all-time favorite CBB character.

• 2:48:33Speaker 04

  Thank you. He's one of my, one of my favorite things to do ever, and he's 5% different than the real me. Uh, and, and finally, uh, this episode's coming out late enough that I can announce, Adam Pally and I are swinging the, the camera in the other direction, or flipping the coin, and we are hosting a wellness podcast called Staying Alive. And it's about us interviewing wellness experts and other comedians and what they do to stay alive.

• 2:48:59Griffin Newman?

  And it's directed by Sylvester Stallone.

• 2:49:01Speaker 04

  Yes, yeah, that's what I really like.

• 2:49:04Griffin Newman?

  He's got a hold on the title.

• 2:49:05David Sims?

  Speaking of Travolta, yeah.

• 2:49:06Speaker 04

  Hey, can we win this time, pal?

• 2:49:10Speaker 04

  My daughter, Sustine's got a podcast. You gotta listen.

• 2:49:12Griffin Newman?

  Uh, I'm glad this timed out well. We've been looking for a while to find a good episode.

• 2:49:16David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:49:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, we didn't, when we didn't this time, but.

• 2:49:19David Sims?

  No, I think we did.

• 2:49:20Speaker 04

  Schedule-wise, this worked out great for everyone. Movie-wise.

• 2:49:23David Sims?

  It was kind of a, hey, you wanna do European Vacation? You were like, sure, I've seen European Vacation.

• 2:49:26Griffin Newman?

  I'm a big fan of the vacation.

• 2:49:28Speaker 04

  I'm a Christmas vacation freak. And then, weirdly enough, like, uh, the first time I really hooked up with my now-wife was during the movie Loser.

• 2:49:36David Sims?

  Okay, go off.

• 2:49:37Griffin Newman?

  Well, wait a second.

• 2:49:38Speaker 04

  Yeah. We were in college. We were friends for a long time.

• 2:49:40Griffin Newman?

  You were a loser?

• 2:49:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was a bit of a loser.

• 2:49:43Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:49:43Speaker 04

  We were friends for a really long time, then we both were single. One night, we have this night where we watch Almost Famous, and it's a beautiful fucking evening. We are next to each other on her bed, and we're like, just trying not to touch each other, like.

• 2:49:58Griffin Newman?

  Still Seymour Hoffman on the phone. You're getting emotional.

• 2:50:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's so, and we're loving this movie, and the movie's so rich, we do not hook up. We just kind of like.

• 2:50:06David Sims?

  The mood's not right.

• 2:50:06Speaker 04

  It's, but it's this powerful moment, and the next night.

• 2:50:11Griffin Newman?

  Something unspoken happens.

• 2:50:12Speaker 04

  Yes, and the next night, we put on Loser and hook up like fucking crazy.

• 2:50:16David Sims?

  You see Biggs, and you're like, let's go!

• 2:50:19Speaker 04

  And we, in hindsight, we like, we were like, should we retcon this, that we just tell the story is only Almost Famous? Cause that's a beautiful, touching thing, but no, of course, we fucking fuck to loser.

• 2:50:29Griffin Newman?

  Wow. Wow.

• 2:50:31David Sims?

  God bless.

• 2:50:32Speaker 04

  So heckling's been a big part of my life. And also, Alicia Silverstone saying Calvin Klein in Clueless gave me like, a teenage erection that has yet to go away.

• 2:50:40Griffin Newman?

  Hey, we'll, we'll get to both of those things.

• 2:50:42Speaker 04

  Calvin Klein.

• 2:50:44David Sims?

  I mean, yes, formative crush.

• 2:50:46Griffin Newman?

  We'll get to both of those, and we'll get to Mr. Potty, but next week first, we must interrogate who is talking.

• 2:50:51David Sims?

  We must look upon.

• 2:50:53Griffin Newman?

  We must look upon.

• 2:50:53David Sims?

  He who speaks.

• 2:50:54Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:50:55Speaker 04

  This is back when Bruce was doing consensual movie roles. It's gonna be fun.

• 2:50:59David Sims?

  Poor Bruce.

• 2:51:00Griffin Newman?

  Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Tune in next week for Look Who's Talking. And as always, I'm so sorry, we have had Lindsay Buckingham here in the studio waiting to do a segment.

• 2:51:12David Sims?

  There you go.

• 2:51:12Griffin Newman?

  Talking about the creation of Holiday Road, and we just don't have time. So instead, a heart out, our apologies to Lindsay Buckingham.

• 2:51:18Speaker 04

  What's up with that?

• 2:51:20Griffin Newman?

  I don't know.

• 2:51:21Speaker 04

  Ooh wee!

• 2:51:32Speaker 01

  Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hostly. Our creative producer is Marie Bardy Salinas, and our associate producer is A.J. McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by A.J. McKeon and Alan Smithy. Research by J.J. Birch. Our theme song is by Lain Montgomery and the Great American Novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Holly Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to BlankCheckPod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon Blank Check special features

• 2:52:14Speaker 01

  for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social @BlankCheckPod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook, on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.