BONUS The Friday Show - Thunder Struck, Part 1

00:02:22Marc:no he's never listened to a podcast in his life are you crazy well can't he just announce that mark maron is hosting snl october 4th with musical guest taylor swift wouldn't that be fucking great can i get a prayer circle that would that would also like i mean it's like first of all if taylor swift is ever is going to be the musical guest with her new album coming out do you know who's going to be the host taylor swift

00:02:47Guest:Correct.

00:02:48Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:02:49Marc:Yeah, they're not going to have a split host.

00:02:52Marc:I'm just saying it would be perfect, man.

00:02:54Marc:It would just be fucking perfect because he is just at the top of his game, dude.

00:02:59Marc:Like, I mean, you have listened to all these fucking comedy albums of his.

00:03:03Marc:Like, what do you think?

00:03:04Marc:Do you think he's never been better with comedy?

00:03:08Marc:Oh, I mean, for sure.

00:03:09Guest:But that's like, I think...

00:03:12Guest:He he better be, you know, it's like the the trajectory his career and life has taken in the last 16 years means that if he's not better today than he was 16 years ago, something went terribly wrong.

00:03:28Guest:Yeah.

00:03:28Guest:You know, like.

00:03:29Guest:I wasn't kidding when I said on that bonus episode about his his final pre podcast comedy album, that one final engagement, which is the double CD of him just being completely insane in the wake of his divorce.

00:03:45Guest:And I wasn't kidding when I said that would have been what he was remembered by.

00:03:48Guest:Right.

00:03:49Guest:And I was extreme about it.

00:03:50Guest:I said, like, if he had died, but I honestly think if it was the case where he just kind of stopped being a headlining comedian or whatever, he's just like kind of kind of what he thought was going to happen to him without the podcast.

00:04:02Guest:He'd just be a guy who did like road gigs and that just like one of these warriors that he knows that he sees around, you know, maybe you get a little bit part here and there in something somebody get doing a favor for him.

00:04:16Guest:But it was like not going to be like a tremendously happy ending.

00:04:19Guest:And even if that was the case, I think he would have people would have been like, oh, yeah, that guy, he doesn't do a lot anymore.

00:04:26Guest:But you got to listen to that crazy fucking album.

00:04:28Guest:Right.

00:04:28Guest:Yeah.

00:04:29Guest:So if that's like the top level of what that part of his career was, like he could only get better than that.

00:04:37Guest:Right.

00:04:37Guest:Like, and that's not to, to, to downplay what I think is pretty significant and important comedy album that, that final engagement.

00:04:45Guest:Like I, I used to just go see him when he was in clubs and I would just get angry that people weren't hearing these things.

00:04:53Guest:Right.

00:04:53Guest:I think that's,

00:04:55Guest:a large motivator to doing the podcast was like, why does, why don't people know these jokes?

00:05:03Guest:Right?

00:05:03Guest:Like that, that joke about it only takes one Brown load to make white Brown.

00:05:08Guest:It's one of, it's one of my favorite things a person has ever said.

00:05:12Marc:Like dude, bitter Jesus.

00:05:14Marc:Like just, just mentioning it makes me laugh.

00:05:16Marc:Like I used to be able to do this.

00:05:18Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:05:18Guest:Jesus, Jesus, why don't you come in?

00:05:21Guest:People are gathering for the wrong reasons.

00:05:23Guest:It's so fucking good.

00:05:24Guest:Like, so many of those things, like, I would sit there, like, either in clubs or when we were on the air on Morning Sedition, like, I'd be like, God damn, like, how?

00:05:33Guest:how is it that we just had that very funny thing go out over the airwaves and like, no one's going to hear it or care about it.

00:05:41Guest:Like that, that is the kind of thing where then you think back to like, well, Chris Rock, he had a special and he said something that now people quote forever, you know, like I would have those same thoughts about the guy, like the people need to be hearing this stuff.

00:05:54Guest:And so by that measure, I always thought that stuff was, was high level, smart, smart,

00:06:00Guest:provocative, meaningful comedy.

00:06:03Guest:I did not think he was not good and he needed to get better.

00:06:07Guest:But I do think that because of the whole trajectory of the last almost two decades, he has gotten better in however you want to define that.

00:06:15Guest:Is it better?

00:06:16Guest:Is it like more accessible, more mainstream?

00:06:19Guest:No, it's just better.

00:06:20Guest:He's better at it.

00:06:21Guest:That's what happens.

00:06:22Marc:Yeah.

00:06:22Marc:But it must be cool for you, a guy who saw this talent.

00:06:27Marc:It must be like what baseball scouts, like when they see like Albert Pujols as like a teenager and like, nope, that kid got it, you know, or like, you know, one of those music executives who like see Pearl Jam, you know, and see.

00:06:40Marc:Yeah.

00:06:41Guest:But I wasn't that right.

00:06:42Guest:I was the guy who sees the reclamation project.

00:06:45Guest:Right.

00:06:46Guest:I was the guy who saw the dude who's like, you know, 35 in the minors.

00:06:50Guest:Right.

00:06:51Guest:Like R.A.

00:06:51Guest:Dickey.

00:06:52Guest:I discovered R.A.

00:06:53Guest:Dickey.

00:06:54Guest:Right.

00:06:55Guest:Like, it's like, why the fuck isn't this guy throwing these in the majors?

00:06:58Guest:Like, that's a crazy knuckleball.

00:07:00Guest:No one can hit it.

00:07:01Guest:That was that was me with Marin.

00:07:03Marc:Yeah.

00:07:03Marc:And it was kind of cool to hear Mark give Bibiglia some credit for tightening up like his act.

00:07:10Marc:Like, like he's out of spite.

00:07:12Marc:I like that he did it out of spite.

00:07:14Marc:Yeah.

00:07:14Marc:Yes.

00:07:14Guest:Although Mark is, is very much like, uh, uh, you know, like the idea that he gave Eddie Brill from Letterman credit for telling him to change that joke.

00:07:26Guest:Like how he was like, I was a jerk at the time saying, you know, I didn't want to change it, but he was right.

00:07:31Guest:You know, like there's just that, that again, 16 years ago, Mark would not have said that 16 years ago.

00:07:38Guest:Mark would have been like, well, I tried to do that joke on Letterman and they were fucking pussies.

00:07:42Guest:Right.

00:07:43Right.

00:07:43Marc:And like, I went back and listened to that Ben Stiller episode, which by the way, I did it late at night and scrolling through your episodes.

00:07:52Marc:I felt like I was on the Price is Right with that wheel just spinning.

00:07:55Marc:We go to go to 79.

00:07:57Guest:Anyway, it was the 10 hour long one of the one that just looped over and over again.

00:08:02Guest:Yes.

00:08:03Marc:But I finally got there.

00:08:05Marc:I must say, Mark talking to Ben about Reality Bites defying a generation.

00:08:11Marc:And it's funny because you could say Mark in this podcast has defined a generation in that same way.

00:08:19Guest:Well, the only difference is millions of more people saw Reality Bites than listened to this show.

00:08:25Marc:Except millions of people are podcasters now.

00:08:28Guest:Well, that's right.

00:08:31Guest:But here's what I would say in that regard.

00:08:33Guest:If you're talking about influence like that and Ben Stiller, something that's way more influential than Reality Bites by the measure of other people doing the similar thing is the Ben Stiller show.

00:08:46Guest:Like his sketch show, I was thinking of watching Tropic Thunder again.

00:08:50Guest:I'm like, man, it was like that was similar to like how I felt about being able to do this podcast after having done Morning Sedition was like...

00:09:00Guest:we have a leg up right we can we are at an advantage a silent advantage that people don't know because we have that experience right and like that's the case with with that going forward but then also that ben stiller show was not successful it was like seven o'clock on sunday nights on fox yeah

00:09:18Guest:Right.

00:09:19Guest:It was like, be like the very last thing in the ratings.

00:09:21Guest:Nobody watched it, but it has a long tail and it has some of the funniest people you've ever known wrote for it or on it.

00:09:31Guest:Odenkirk at Judd Apatow.

00:09:33Guest:Like, I mean, there were, you know, Janine was in the cast and, and like just, it was just a massive comedy epicenter, just like Mr. Show was right.

00:09:43Guest:And that was before Mr. Show.

00:09:44Guest:So I kind of look at it the same way.

00:09:46Guest:Like the, you know, it,

00:09:48Guest:If you want to talk about did Ben Stiller define the generation with something and was it Reality Bites?

00:09:53Guest:It's like, well, yeah, Reality Bites has like a good imprint on Gen Xers.

00:09:58Guest:But like defining comedy, Ben Stiller did it with that show.

00:10:02Guest:And it's a lasting impact.

00:10:04Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:10:05Marc:Yeah, true.

00:10:06Marc:I really loved the Bowen Yang episode.

00:10:09Marc:Fuck Brisbane, by the way.

00:10:10Marc:Oh yeah, you too?

00:10:12Marc:You're not on board?

00:10:13Marc:No, I hate that fucking place.

00:10:14Guest:Apologies to anyone listening from Brisbane, but- Nah, nah, no, I'm not apologizing.

00:10:20Marc:Fuck that place.

00:10:21Marc:I went, I was backpacking through Australia and that was the one place we couldn't find a hostel or a hotel with a room.

00:10:29Marc:So I had to sleep on like a bus bench for the night.

00:10:32Marc:Yeah, it was the worst.

00:10:34Guest:anyway well was that brisbane's fault or is that your planning fault no fuck brisbane man it sucked it sucked okay screw you i mean i will i will say you you say this also about where you grew up so it's not like it's not like you have some kind of bias toward like your own hometown or whatever that's true that's true

00:10:52Marc:Also, Nico Case, I was expecting like a music, you know, heavy episode.

00:10:57Marc:It was just very like a deep, you know, philosophical, like beautiful conversation.

00:11:03Guest:Well, I think that's probably because he read that book.

00:11:06Guest:And, you know, like he said, he doesn't tend to want to read the whole book.

00:11:09Guest:But I think he just like it got its hooks in him and he just plowed through it.

00:11:13Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:11:14Marc:And I got to say, his monologue on Thursday was great.

00:11:18Marc:Like, he's doing the real work in these monologues, man.

00:11:21Marc:Like, I don't know, what am I supposed to do when this podcast is over?

00:11:25Marc:I have to do this work?

00:11:27Marc:Well, no, you just have to listen to his Thursday monologue.

00:11:30Yeah.

00:11:30Guest:Serious.

00:11:31Guest:Like I even just said that to him.

00:11:33Guest:We were talking about something and I was like, well, buddy, this is where you have to, you know, put the, put your money where your mouth is that like, you don't have to worry about what's next.

00:11:43Guest:If you're cool with the idea that being a person in the world means experiencing things and, you know, engaging with art and with culture and like, that's enough.

00:11:55Guest:Yeah.

00:11:55Guest:You don't have to immediately just jump for the next thing.

00:11:58Guest:So like, I don't know, use that as a blueprint.

00:12:01Guest:I thought that was a great like bit of advice.

00:12:03Guest:He made a joke about it, about it.

00:12:05Guest:He's being like a self-help guy now, but I do think it's true.

00:12:07Guest:If you listen to that and you take that to heart and,

00:12:10Guest:All this shit that we do on this show Friday is valid.

00:12:15Guest:Like he's basically saying like, yeah, talk about movies a lot.

00:12:18Guest:Talk about like music.

00:12:20Guest:Talk about the things that you find inspiring or that make you make up who you are.

00:12:25Guest:Why did you think that was good?

00:12:26Guest:Why did you think that was enriching?

00:12:28Guest:Those are good things to help you identify you.

00:12:31Marc:Yeah.

00:12:32Marc:Yeah, man, I needed it on Thursday because I wake up most mornings like Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction after he crashes his car into Marcellus Wallace and his head is just filled with glass and blood for some reason.

00:12:47Marc:Yeah, he's putting ice cubes on his nose.

00:12:49Marc:I, I, I, yeah.

00:12:50Marc:Anyway, that's me every morning.

00:12:52Marc:So I needed that little shot of like that Marin juice.

00:12:57Marc:So yeah.

00:12:57Guest:You're like, you're like a, when the dude is like in the backseat of the guy, the limo driver.

00:13:02Guest:And he's like, you know what?

00:13:04Guest:I was feeling real down before this, but man now fuck it.

00:13:09Guest:Right.

00:13:10Yeah.

00:13:10Marc:100 percent oh my god oh yeah but yeah it was it was so good like the act of reintroducing yourself to who you are and what made you like yeah dude that was fucking some deep beautiful stuff man like good i'm glad he's getting around to it i'm glad he's not like the fear is that he just gets that he falls into himself and then this just becomes like a pity fest right right yeah

00:13:35Marc:Also, that Nico Case episode turned into a backdoor wrestling podcast.

00:13:42Marc:I didn't know about that.

00:13:44Marc:That was crazy.

00:13:45Marc:You didn't fucking do the research and see that?

00:13:48Guest:It's not like a super known thing.

00:13:50Guest:I mean, I looked up plenty about Nico Case.

00:13:53Guest:I did not know that thing about her.

00:13:54Guest:And mostly because she only found out about it in the last couple of years.

00:13:57Marc:Oh, my God.

00:13:58Marc:Dude, that was insane.

00:13:59Guest:Because I remember that documentary, too.

00:14:01Guest:The one weird thing that I can't pinpoint is like...

00:14:05Guest:What was the – look, what a coincidence that she was just working on the documentary.

00:14:10Marc:Right.

00:14:10Marc:Like, how was that even possible?

00:14:12Marc:Yeah.

00:14:12Marc:Like, it just seemed bizarre.

00:14:14Marc:Yeah.

00:14:15Marc:And, like, the fact that she – like, I'm going to watch that documentary now.

00:14:19Marc:I want to see the – I hope they have, like, the – you know, not the TikTok, but, like, I can't believe they killed a woman.

00:14:26Marc:Like, that's crazy.

00:14:27Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:14:27Guest:I mean, I'm not sure exactly what that story is, but I think that was a lot more common back in the day.

00:14:32Marc:Was it?

00:14:33Guest:Yeah, just because, like, you know, it was this fake sport, so they didn't have, like, medical staff on hand and that.

00:14:39Guest:And so if somebody had, like, a heart attack in the ring, they were probably a goner.

00:14:43Marc:Crazy.

00:14:44Marc:Also, Mark watches sumo wrestling.

00:14:46Marc:That was news today.

00:14:48Marc:Me too.

00:14:50Guest:I have a feeling that's just, like, something that gets caught up in his algorithm, you know?

00:14:54Marc:Yes, probably.

00:14:54Marc:Probably.

00:14:55Marc:Oh, man.

00:14:57Marc:But yeah, really good episodes this week.

00:14:59Marc:I'm looking forward to the Ben Stiller episode because I'm excited to see their dynamic because Mark was real reverential.

00:15:07Marc:That's right.

00:15:07Marc:You know, like during that episode where like, ah, I want to talk to Will Ferrell.

00:15:11Marc:I don't know what I would say.

00:15:13Marc:And like, just like all this stuff.

00:15:14Marc:And like, dude, you're now Pierce.

00:15:16Marc:Yeah.

00:15:16Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:15:17Guest:Well, he was, and he was like all nervous about Ben coming over.

00:15:20Guest:I remember that at the time.

00:15:22Guest:Like he was, well, first he was like, he thought it was very weird.

00:15:25Guest:Like it became this thing.

00:15:27Guest:Like Mark would like, especially once we had Obama in the garage, it was like,

00:15:32Guest:I do not go to people.

00:15:34Guest:They come to the garage.

00:15:35Guest:Right.

00:15:35Guest:And it's like, if he ever went somewhere else, it had to be because he was traveling.

00:15:39Guest:Right.

00:15:40Guest:Or it was like Carol Burnett, who's elderly.

00:15:43Guest:And he was like, I will pay my respects and go up to Santa Barbara.

00:15:46Guest:Right.

00:15:47Guest:But like,

00:15:48Guest:Otherwise, like we had plenty of people that were like, could he come to this person's office?

00:15:52Guest:And he was like, nope.

00:15:53Guest:People he wanted.

00:15:54Guest:And he was just like, nope, not going to do it.

00:15:56Guest:And it never happened, you know?

00:15:59Guest:And that Ben Stiller one, he was all insecure that Ben was coming over and not that he was going to Ben.

00:16:07Marc:Oh, interesting.

00:16:08Guest:He was like, you know, what am I?

00:16:10Guest:Am I not good enough to be in his house?

00:16:13Guest:Like, is that?

00:16:14Marc:He's so insane.

00:16:15Guest:Yeah.

00:16:16Guest:Yeah.

00:16:16Guest:And then he's like, so Ben, so what?

00:16:18Guest:He's going to come over here and see my shitty little house.

00:16:20Guest:Like it was all reversed.

00:16:22Guest:And, and I think it was because Ben was probably at that point, you know, we had done the Robin Williams episode, but that was at Robbins.

00:16:29Guest:Right.

00:16:30Guest:Yeah.

00:16:30Guest:And so Ben was probably the most famous person to have come over to the garage at that time.

00:16:35Guest:And that was, that was early on.

00:16:36Guest:We had not even been doing the podcast a year.

00:16:38Guest:It's like episode 80 something.

00:16:40Marc:79.

00:16:40Guest:79.

00:16:42Guest:Right.

00:16:42Guest:So like it's, it's in the springtime of 2010 and he was, you know, very gracious and he was happy to do it.

00:16:53Guest:And, you know, you can hear it from that interview.

00:16:55Guest:There was no, there was no like, what am I getting myself into or anything like that?

00:17:00Guest:It was just, it was cool.

00:17:01Guest:Yeah.

00:17:01Guest:And I think that was probably a turning point for Mark because he had to be like, oh, people want to do this.

00:17:11Guest:It changed something.

00:17:13Guest:I don't know if it was conscious that it changed it, but it changed it.

00:17:16Marc:Oh, wow.

00:17:17Marc:That's interesting to know.

00:17:18Marc:And yeah, I'm really excited about this upcoming episode.

00:17:23Marc:I can't wait because Ben Stiller...

00:17:25Marc:Is still like one of my favorite, you know, like actors, like comedians.

00:17:31Marc:And it's funny that he tells a story about him and Judd Apatow.

00:17:37Marc:Like they had to like talk because, oh, we have movies that are that are too close to one another.

00:17:42Guest:It was Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder.

00:17:45Guest:Yeah.

00:17:45Guest:Oh, my gosh.

00:17:46Guest:Was it?

00:17:46Guest:Yeah.

00:17:47Guest:And they were like out within a week of each other.

00:17:48Guest:I think at one point they were scheduled to come out the same week.

00:17:51Guest:And I think they, they think, you know, cause studios don't care that you're fucking friends with these people.

00:17:56Guest:They're like, no, this is a business.

00:17:57Guest:We're like trying to, to win.

00:17:59Marc:Fast forward to this year and there are barely any comedies ever put in theaters.

00:18:04Marc:No.

00:18:04Guest:In fact, that's like central to the naked gun marketing is that they're like, there are no comedies.

00:18:10Guest:Please give, give to a comment.

00:18:12Guest:Like they're doing like a save the children ad, but it's, it's about going to see the naked gun.

00:18:16Marc:Pass the bucket around for Nicky Gunn.

00:18:19Marc:Yeah.

00:18:20Guest:Yeah.

00:18:20Guest:Well, it's funny you bring that up because, yeah, I saw that last week.

00:18:24Guest:You just saw it as well.

00:18:26Guest:And I could say we both enjoyed it.

00:18:29Guest:I think that's about as far as you can go with talking about it, especially with people who haven't seen it.

00:18:33Guest:Because otherwise all you're going to do is then just tell jokes, you know, like you're just going to recount the things that are funny in the movie and then ruin it for anyone else.

00:18:42Guest:So, so all I'll say, if you're interested about the new naked gun, it is very funny.

00:18:46Guest:It's very stupid.

00:18:47Guest:And that's exactly what you want it to be.

00:18:49Guest:And they got the tone, right?

00:18:51Guest:So just go enjoy it and preferably go to a movie theater to see it with people where you can laugh with them.

00:18:58Marc:I started with teens.

00:18:59Marc:Yeah.

00:19:00Marc:Like a whole row of teens.

00:19:02Marc:I was so excited.

00:19:03Marc:The target audience.

00:19:05Marc:Actually, like the target audience is us.

00:19:07Marc:Let's be honest.

00:19:08Marc:But teens, that's great.

00:19:09Marc:Get them in the front door.

00:19:11Marc:Yeah.

00:19:12Marc:I was the loser all alone.

00:19:13Marc:Thanks for that Onion article that you sent me.

00:19:17Guest:But so that brings us to what we were going to talk about today.

00:19:23Guest:And I have a feeling that we will talk about it for enough time that this will carry over to next week's episode.

00:19:29Guest:Because 17 years ago this week...

00:19:33Guest:Ben Stiller, next week's WTF guest, released the film Tropic Thunder in theaters August 13th, 2008.

00:19:42Guest:Ben Stiller is the director, written by Stiller, Justin Theroux, and Etan Cohen, who also co-wrote Idiocracy, another movie that still seems very relevant and is also still very funny.

00:19:54Guest:But thinking about that idea of like movies that you see and are hilarious in the theater, that was absolutely true of Tropic Thunder.

00:20:03Guest:I saw it in the theater.

00:20:04Guest:I know you saw it in the theater.

00:20:06Guest:And it was great.

00:20:07Guest:A great thing to see with a crowd.

00:20:09Guest:But here's the difference between this and the naked gun.

00:20:13Guest:I'm sure I'll revisit that naked gun at some point too, right?

00:20:15Guest:It's funny.

00:20:16Guest:It's got a lot of jokes that I don't even remember right now.

00:20:19Guest:So that then I'll go back to it and it'll be funny again.

00:20:22Yeah.

00:20:23Guest:The thing about something like Tropic Thunder is the rare movie that is funny every single time you watch it for both the reasons that it was funny the first time and new reasons that get funnier each time you see it.

00:20:38Guest:And it's...

00:20:39Guest:We talked about the list that went along with that New York Times thing, best movies of this 21st century so far.

00:20:46Guest:We both had Tropic Thunder on our list.

00:20:49Guest:And I rank it as not just the best comedy, one of the best movies of the last 20 years, 25 years.

00:20:56Guest:And...

00:20:57Guest:I always rewatch it, wondering if it's going to fall off.

00:21:02Guest:Right.

00:21:03Guest:Wondering if is this the time it goes soft?

00:21:06Guest:And I don't know.

00:21:07Guest:I guess we can do our like little spoiler right here.

00:21:10Guest:It didn't do that for me.

00:21:12Marc:How about for you?

00:21:13Marc:It is still one of the best movies.

00:21:16Marc:Like, hands down, one of the best movies.

00:21:18Marc:Like, what a great time.

00:21:19Marc:And you know what's great about it?

00:21:20Marc:Like you said, you can watch it whenever, you know, again and again.

00:21:24Marc:You can watch it and just focus in on one character that you haven't been focusing on, and it's hilarious.

00:21:32Guest:Well, that's the thing.

00:21:33Guest:It's like, you can enjoy it like on a granular level.

00:21:35Guest:Like you can be like, you know, like, Oh, I'd like to, it's, it's like how, um, people who love like Steely Dan will go sit in front of speakers and like only play like the one track where they're like, Oh, I'm just, I just want to hear the, like, uh, you know, the baseline or whatever.

00:21:50Guest:Like it's the same thing.

00:21:52Marc:Oh man, dude, like this time around, I saw the Simple Jack like movie poster, like the animatronic movie poster.

00:22:01Guest:I noticed that too.

00:22:02Marc:It's Simple Jack waving a mallet or a, and he's chasing butterflies.

00:22:08Marc:Right.

00:22:09Guest:It's on like a motor.

00:22:10Guest:It's like what you would see for like, you know, you know, if it was like the Winnie the Pooh.

00:22:16Guest:Right.

00:22:17Guest:And you went through the lobby of the movie theater and there's a Winnie the Pooh stand up and Winnie the Pooh is like jumping in a honeypot and it goes back and forth, you know.

00:22:25Guest:But this is simple, Jack.

00:22:27Guest:It definitely then makes me wonder, like, okay, because we're going to talk about this whole movie.

00:22:33Guest:And there's so much stuff in the movie.

00:22:35Guest:And now that it's 17 years old, they've told lots of stories about it.

00:22:38Guest:You know what certain things are based on.

00:22:41Guest:I don't think anybody's ever said, like, what exactly are you going for with the idea of Simple Jacket?

00:22:45Guest:Obviously, like, they do the whole full R-word scene to point out that a lot of it is about, like...

00:22:53Guest:you know actors thinking that by being a person that's mentally challenged in a film it elevates them somehow right so there's the parody of that which is totally clear in that scene but i don't know i also think that it was like it it's like it's not rain man it's not i am sam it's almost like in the world in the universe of tropic thunder simple jack was like a family film

00:23:18Guest:Like that's what that communicated to me.

00:23:21Guest:And I registered it for the first time, seeing that standup that, that, that McConaughey has in his office still for this movie.

00:23:29Guest:That was a huge bomb.

00:23:31Guest:Like I was like, wait a minute.

00:23:32Guest:Simple Jack was supposed to be like for kids.

00:23:35Guest:Like it's like Jack Frost, right?

00:23:37Guest:Like, like this stillborn misbegotten travesty, but that they were like, kids are going to love this.

00:23:44Marc:This, that's still,

00:23:45Marc:And if you take it one step further, that's why the kid in this movie loved Simple Jack.

00:23:51Marc:Because it's a kid's movie.

00:23:53Marc:Yeah, for sure.

00:23:55Guest:All right.

00:23:56Guest:Well, so that just goes to show just a little taste of how Chris and I can still, you know, process Tropic Thunder anew.

00:24:03Guest:But why?

00:24:04Guest:Why is it so special?

00:24:05Guest:I bet you, I bet you there are people listening to this who either saw the movie once or maybe they've heard about it or whatever.

00:24:11Guest:And they're like...

00:24:12Guest:it's whatever is this this dumb comedy with ben stiller and i okay i get that i kind of remember thinking that before i saw it when it when it was coming out like i was like all right well this will be kind of like zoolander you know like i didn't i wasn't like ready yeah for how amazing it was yeah it definitely catches you off guard

00:24:33Guest:Well, the other thing is that now, too, there's this refrain, and it doesn't just happen to Tropic Thunder.

00:24:40Guest:It happens a lot, that people try to inject this into like a culture war term where they're like, you can't make that movie today, right?

00:24:49Guest:Oh, you can never get away with Tropic Thunder.

00:24:52Guest:And people say this about other movies, too, and it drives me crazy.

00:24:56Guest:TV shows.

00:24:57Guest:Oh, you could never make all in the family today.

00:24:59Guest:Yeah, you couldn't.

00:25:01Guest:You're correct because it wouldn't make sense.

00:25:04Guest:Right.

00:25:04Guest:Like we are not living in the like immediate aftermath of the civil rights era.

00:25:09Guest:Right.

00:25:10Guest:Dealing with the strife that went on in households there.

00:25:13Guest:And you could do it in a way that would satirize it and made it funny.

00:25:17Guest:In fact, if you got to a point where you could make it today, that would mean something went terribly wrong.

00:25:25Right.

00:25:25Marc:Right.

00:25:26Guest:We went back.

00:25:28Guest:Right.

00:25:28Guest:Like the point of a satire is is supposed to be to explode the ridiculousness of something so that hopefully if you've done your job, it will then be identifiable to people as ridiculous.

00:25:42Guest:Right.

00:25:43Guest:Right.

00:25:43Guest:Like the best version I can give of this.

00:25:45Guest:And it's a much, much lower stakes version is walk hard.

00:25:49Guest:now every single time it does i i like the bob dylan movie but it doesn't matter when that bob dylan movie came out the trailer for it i looked at it and i was like what is this walk hard piece of shit like it just looked like walk hard because of all the cliches that they that they laid bare in that movie because it's done so well if you do it well you make it identifiable now in the future and

00:26:16Marc:Yeah.

00:26:17Marc:Just like Austin Powers.

00:26:18Marc:Austin Powers did that and they couldn't make a James Bond movie for years.

00:26:23Marc:Literally, James Bond was afraid to make it.

00:26:25Guest:Yes.

00:26:25Guest:Daniel Craig was like, I don't know about this.

00:26:28Marc:Yes.

00:26:29Marc:All because of Austin Powers, because it was a perfect satire on that.

00:26:33Guest:Right.

00:26:34Guest:Well, now the one that this gets used.

00:26:36Guest:all the time people say it could never get made today is blazing saddles right and that used to be the thing where i would say that spiel that i just went on yes you can't make blazing saddles today because it would make no sense because we don't say the n-word in public anymore right right like that's that is known as a bad thing all universally yeah

00:26:58Guest:well i thought we had moved past that but now i'm not so sure this goes to the heart of mark's comedy right of the of of his last special that it's like the idea that like you have to that that it's no fair that you don't have these words anymore and that it's like well you can put them back into the bloodstream you can make it back as a part of the culture that doesn't get called out and then you know what you get you get stupid fucking people who dehumanize others

00:27:28Guest:Just like what they're trying to show you in Blazing Saddles.

00:27:30Guest:So it's like if we get to a point where you can say the N-word in public with impunity, then you're going to be able to make a movie like that again.

00:27:38Marc:Exactly.

00:27:38Marc:Make Blazing Saddles again.

00:27:39Guest:It won't be a good thing, but I'd be glad to have some funny person make a thing that takes the piss out of those people.

00:27:45Guest:Yeah.

00:27:46Guest:Which brings me to Tropic Thunder and why I take issue.

00:27:51Guest:With this idea that you can't make it again today.

00:27:55Guest:Because there is plenty in it that is still very relevant.

00:28:01Guest:Oh, God, yeah.

00:28:02Guest:And I think what's interesting is the thing that's like the least relevant is...

00:28:07Guest:robert downey jr's character like we actually have moved past that yes we have moved past the idea that you just cast the most famous actor in any role regardless of the representation we it is that movie has contributed to the awareness of like hey guess what find a black actor

00:28:26Marc:Right.

00:28:27Marc:Right.

00:28:27Marc:Like, like I remember Emma Stone was in a movie where she was supposed to be Asian.

00:28:32Marc:Hawaiian.

00:28:32Marc:Right.

00:28:33Marc:Or Hawaiian.

00:28:33Guest:You never hear about that movie anymore either because that was just a total misfire.

00:28:38Guest:Yeah.

00:28:40Guest:So it's interesting though.

00:28:43Guest:I don't know how much you like did researching Tropic Thunder.

00:28:46Guest:Were you, were you, were reading anything about it?

00:28:48Guest:Did you see where Ben Stiller came up with the idea for this movie?

00:28:52Marc:Yeah.

00:28:53Marc:Uh, yes, I did.

00:28:54Marc:It was, uh, so I read the Grantland oral history.

00:28:57Marc:Did you read that?

00:28:58Marc:Yes.

00:28:59Guest:That was primarily about the, the creation of, of Tom Cruise's character.

00:29:03Guest:Yes.

00:29:04Marc:Yeah.

00:29:04Marc:But, but this was, um, it came from auditioning for war movies and, uh, being in Empire of the Sun.

00:29:11Marc:Exactly.

00:29:12Marc:Right.

00:29:12Guest:I'm going to actually read the quote that he says right here.

00:29:16Guest:He says, it came out of the idea I had for a sketch about actors.

00:29:20Guest:Put a pin in that.

00:29:22Guest:An idea for a sketch who come home from making a Vietnam War movie and no one cares about them.

00:29:29Guest:It came from auditioning for so many war movies and being in Empire of the Sun and seeing how seriously actors took the mini fake boot camp that they all went on.

00:29:40Guest:It just seemed so funny to me.

00:29:42Guest:That us actors took our little two weeks with a real drill sergeant so seriously when it was obviously nothing like the real experience of war.

00:29:52Guest:You don't say.

00:29:54Marc:Is Adrian Brody's ears ringing?

00:29:57Guest:He's on fire.

00:30:00Yeah.

00:30:00Marc:Holy shit.

00:30:02Marc:I thought that was a direct hit for him.

00:30:04Guest:I mean, and that quote comes from well before Adrian Brody did his interview with Mark where he said that exact thing.

00:30:12Guest:He was like, I tell you what, it was like me getting cut out of the thin red line was like these guys coming home without limbs.

00:30:21Guest:unironically not that as a joke and this dude just won the oscar for best actor right for the second time it's yes raising so so so this movie has not diminished no and you could make it today you wouldn't make all the same choices because you wouldn't need to right but you you'd make different ones that were worse right or that you know

00:30:47Guest:Stood out to people as, you know, volatile or offensive or like, you know, a provocation.

00:30:54Guest:And that would be a good thing because like when this movie came out, people were like on the edge about something.

00:31:02Guest:Interestingly enough, do you remember like what the most controversy was?

00:31:06Guest:No, it was the full R word thing.

00:31:09Guest:Oh, really?

00:31:10Guest:That it got like, that was the one thing that got like people, like news segments about people outside the theaters with placards and stuff like, don't, you know, get rid of the R word.

00:31:21Guest:Right.

00:31:21Guest:Like, and what is interesting about that is really that the,

00:31:26Guest:element of this movie is no different than the, the black face, right?

00:31:32Guest:It's, it's a, the point it's making is how these actors who are so full of themselves are using something totally offensive to do what they think is express exposing like the truth of something and everyone celebrates them for it.

00:31:48Guest:Right.

00:31:49And,

00:31:49Guest:And I, it's interesting.

00:31:51Guest:Why did everybody seem to get that about the blackface?

00:31:56Guest:You go back, go do like a search of things written about Tropic Thunder at the time.

00:32:02Guest:Nobody cared about that.

00:32:04Guest:I mean, I say nobody, I'm sure there were people who objected, but they were not heard.

00:32:08Guest:In fact, the NAACP said, we are cool with this.

00:32:11Guest:It's a good idea.

00:32:13Guest:Like the joke is good and it makes a good point.

00:32:15Guest:Like they were on board.

00:32:17Guest:So like,

00:32:18Guest:every now and then somebody like will find this movie and like some 15 year old that never heard of it before and is like oh my god iron man was in blackface this he should get canceled for this and then like they have to explain to them like no no everyone was cool with this because it like made fun of racism you know yeah or at the very least it's not racism it's making fun of like the disregard of

00:32:41Guest:You know, people's abilities throughout through the lack of representation, which is, I guess, racism or a microaggression, if you want to call it that.

00:32:50Guest:But like, it's something that had to change.

00:32:52Guest:There was there needed to be a push toward addressing that.

00:32:56Marc:Yeah.

00:32:57Marc:And the same with the R word, you know, like and honestly, the same with Harvey Weinstein.

00:33:02Marc:Like they were they were sending signals there.

00:33:04Marc:They were lampooning a person without saying his name.

00:33:08Guest:Although I do think that it was probably more likely Scott Rudin.

00:33:11Guest:Which same thing, right?

00:33:13Guest:Two guys who were, you know, used their power in Hollywood and their aggressive natures to get what they wanted through coercion and violence, right?

00:33:23Guest:Like both of them.

00:33:24Guest:It doesn't matter that one was predominantly sexual violence and one was physical violence.

00:33:29Guest:It's still the same thing.

00:33:30Marc:Yeah.

00:33:31Marc:Although, you know, when Tom Cruise in this Grantland article said, Tom said, I think you need another villain other than just the 12 year old drug king.

00:33:40Marc:What about some greedy pig studio executive who really represents the gross part of Hollywood?

00:33:46Marc:Like British art, like they had a target in mind.

00:33:50Guest:Also, I'll tell you what, dude.

00:33:54Guest:You want to talk about things that are permitted to be offensive.

00:33:58Guest:This guy is like a super offensive Jewish stereotype.

00:34:03Guest:Yeah.

00:34:03Guest:Like that, like everything about him, less Grossman and like all his, his appearance, the nose, everything.

00:34:09Guest:There's literally a line where he's, when he talks about Tug Speedman and he goes, nobody's dressing up like scorcher for Purim anymore.

00:34:17Guest:I was like, Holy shit.

00:34:21Yeah.

00:34:21Guest:And it's just like, I don't remember one person being like, Tom Cruise should not be playing a Jewish stereotype.

00:34:31Guest:Again, maybe there was, but they were not heard as a movement, right?

00:34:35Guest:So, yeah, it's interesting the things that break through as offensive and not.

00:34:42Guest:Totally.

00:34:43Guest:Yeah.

00:34:43Guest:All right.

00:34:44Guest:Well, let's talk about this movie from the start, because the way this movie starts is, I'm willing to say, unlike any other movie ever made.

00:34:55Marc:I'm curious, why haven't more movies like borrowed from this?

00:34:59Guest:But I mean, can you think of another movie that not only does not start with the studio logo, right?

00:35:08Guest:It starts cold with footage, right?

00:35:10Guest:You find it's a, it's a commercial, but you quickly learn it's fake.

00:35:14Guest:So it is not a commercial.

00:35:16Guest:I remember going to see this in the movie theater.

00:35:18Guest:This was the pavilion in Park Slope, which is now the Nighthawk.

00:35:22Guest:And I remember that they did not have their, you know, feature presentation in,

00:35:29Guest:Oh, no kidding.

00:35:30Guest:Before this started.

00:35:32Guest:And I have to wonder if that happened everywhere, right?

00:35:36Guest:Did that come as instructions with running the movie?

00:35:39Guest:Do not run your feature presentation card.

00:35:42Guest:This should happen right in the middle of your trailers and ads.

00:35:45Marc:Yeah.

00:35:46Marc:Now that you think of it, now that I think of it, since you said it, I remember seeing it at the AMC.

00:35:51Marc:Oh, no, no.

00:35:52Marc:The United Artists on 14th Street with our buddy, Chris Rosen.

00:35:57Marc:And I remember the lights still being on for half of booty sweat.

00:36:03Marc:And then only then do they dim it halfway through.

00:36:06Marc:Right.

00:36:06Guest:Right, because I also knew going in.

00:36:09Guest:I knew a decent amount about the movie.

00:36:11Guest:Like, I read about it.

00:36:12Guest:I was into seeing it.

00:36:15Guest:And I knew there were going to be fake trailers for the main characters.

00:36:19Guest:Yeah, because that was kind of part of the marketing.

00:36:22Guest:Oh, was it?

00:36:23Guest:They made a bunch of fake websites for each of the actors.

00:36:27Guest:You could go find the Fatty's Fart 2 website.

00:36:31Guest:So I remember seeing this stuff before.

00:36:33Guest:Can you still crack an ass open?

00:36:35Yeah.

00:36:35Guest:You could get booty sweat, but I didn't know that at the time, but they did sell booty sweat.

00:36:40Guest:I think what I read was that it was primarily like on college campuses, which of course, but holy shit, I would love to get a can of that.

00:36:48Marc:A can of booty sweat, yes.

00:36:50Guest:i but i i went in knowing okay there's gonna be fake trailers i didn't tell my wife who i was seeing it oh my gosh but joke was on me because like i did not know that the very first thing you're gonna see was a guy strapping as the top of his lungs about how he loves pussy like it was it's the most insane thing to say out loud that that's how the movie starts

00:37:15Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:37:16Marc:It was the, like, it's the marker in the sand, man.

00:37:21Marc:Exactly.

00:37:22Marc:They fucking threw it out there.

00:37:23Marc:Like, this movie is going to be insane.

00:37:26Guest:And it's like, it looks like those Hype Williams things looked at the time.

00:37:31Guest:Fish eye lens.

00:37:33Guest:The only thing is like the, the, the word pussy was like a giveaway, right?

00:37:38Guest:Yeah.

00:37:38Guest:Like if they had not been, if it had not been so crazy over the top, you might've actually just thought it was real.

00:37:45Guest:It was like some commercial, like some Red Bull.

00:37:47Marc:Yeah.

00:37:48Guest:Yeah.

00:37:48Guest:But also that he's screaming that his name is Al Pacino is the other tell.

00:37:55Guest:So insane.

00:37:55Guest:So you get Al Pacino's commercial at the base.

00:37:58Guest:So that's the introduce that character.

00:37:59Guest:This is just, this is all genius.

00:38:02Guest:And the roots of this is all sketch comedy, right?

00:38:06Guest:Yeah.

00:38:06Guest:So you introduce this character through his commercial where he's hawking booty sweat and busted nut bars.

00:38:12Guest:And I, I think one of the best performances in this movie is the voiceover guy for this commercial.

00:38:21Guest:The way he says, pop an ass open.

00:38:24Yeah.

00:38:24Guest:is fucking genius.

00:38:27Guest:It's never, it's never going to be bad.

00:38:31Guest:So that's your first, like, what is it?

00:38:34Guest:It's not, is it even a full 30 seconds?

00:38:36Guest:It's probably like 20 seconds.

00:38:38Marc:Yeah, it's probably like, yeah, more 15 or so.

00:38:40Marc:But yeah, that was the opening salvo, the amuse-bouche of this movie.

00:38:45Guest:Right.

00:38:45Guest:So then you get a green following preview has been approved for all audiences trailer card, right?

00:38:51Guest:And it's Universal Pictures.

00:38:54Guest:Yeah.

00:38:55Marc:They did not make this movie.

00:38:57Marc:Yeah.

00:38:58Marc:How did that happen?

00:39:00Marc:How did they get that?

00:39:01Marc:Okay.

00:39:02Marc:They get it three more times too.

00:39:04Guest:Like it's like, it's not just them.

00:39:06Guest:It's also so perfect.

00:39:07Guest:They make these things line up so perfectly with the movies that they're doing.

00:39:11Guest:So universal, they make Jurassic park.

00:39:14Guest:They make the fast and furious movies.

00:39:15Guest:Like this is big blockbuster stuff.

00:39:18Guest:So they make the scorcher series.

00:39:21Guest:Yes.

00:39:21Guest:with tug speedman and you see that is ben stiller and now you're seeing the trailer after you see the trailers for scorchers one through five briefly recapped you see the trailer for scorcher six and scorcher six is the only one that takes place in ice

00:39:40Guest:which is called Scorger Six Global Meltdown.

00:39:44Guest:And the tagline that Ben Stiller utters is, who left the fridge open?

00:39:50Marc:Chef's kiss.

00:39:50Marc:No notes.

00:39:51Guest:Actually, I don't know that that's the tagline.

00:39:53Guest:I think the tagline is, here we go again.

00:39:55Guest:Again.

00:39:58Marc:By the way, Ben Stiller in the commentary, the DVD commentary, had said that he has later watched a trailer where they did that same joke.

00:40:09Marc:Except it's not a joke.

00:40:10Marc:They did it for real.

00:40:11Marc:Here we go again, again.

00:40:12Marc:Again.

00:40:16Guest:So already, now you get this guy who is essentially, by the sight of him, Tom Cruise, right?

00:40:24Guest:That's who he comes across as.

00:40:26Guest:And...

00:40:28Guest:You know, it's a perfect send up of very tired franchises.

00:40:32Guest:It's on number six and it looks like all the previous five were exactly the same.

00:40:37Guest:And now their idea to change it up for the sixth one is to instead of it being a planet on fire, it's a planet of ice.

00:40:45Guest:And then we go to another logo.

00:40:49Guest:It's New Line Pictures.

00:40:51Guest:the makers of like the Austin powers movie.

00:40:54Guest:So perfect.

00:40:55Guest:Right.

00:40:56Guest:And you hear like classical music and there's a snooty waiter.

00:41:01Guest:Will there be anything else?

00:41:03Marc:I'll take the beans.

00:41:06Guest:Jack Black in a weapons level makeup job.

00:41:11Guest:Like just a horror show of a human grotesque suit that, you know, obviously from the time was, you know, supposed to be inspired of like the Nutty Professor type movies, right?

00:41:24Guest:Or Norbit, you know, if you will.

00:41:27Guest:But here's where this thing is perfect.

00:41:29Guest:there is a record scratch.

00:41:31Guest:And Come On, Feel the Noise by Quiet Riot starts up.

00:41:35Guest:And then you see all these people called the fatties, which I guess is the family name, that are all played by Jack Black, and they all fart.

00:41:43Guest:And that's what they do.

00:41:45Guest:And then it turns into You Can't Touch This, which is another, like...

00:41:49Guest:I remember one time, one of the things, it made me a fan for life of Tom Sharpling and The Best Show, was I remember listening to him one day, and he was talking about something that could be turned into a bad movie.

00:42:06Guest:I don't even remember what it was, but he started acting out what the trailer would be.

00:42:11Guest:Yeah.

00:42:11Guest:And like, he got to some point of like, like, you know, what would be like the, the like catchphrase of the trailer.

00:42:18Guest:And then when like, like singing, like, don't bring me down.

00:42:25Guest:I'm like, Oh my God, that would have been the song that would get used like right there.

00:42:30Guest:Like that is a, that is a very finely tuned comedic impulse to know what is the perfect shitty song for right now for this thing.

00:42:41Guest:Yeah.

00:42:41Guest:yeah so yes you get the fatties fart too that is the the uh jeff portnoy trailer so now you know who that is he's supposed to be a kind of what if chris farley had lived type of guy um also you know highly drug addicted in this movie okay trailer number three from fox searchlight pictures again

00:43:02Guest:Not the studio that made this film, but the perfect choice for what this is.

00:43:07Guest:And this one might be the best one just because of all the things.

00:43:13Guest:So you have that Enigma song that was ubiquitous in all trailers having to do with like...

00:43:20Guest:sexual sexual darkness yeah yeah there was it was probably in like Poison Ivy 2 or something you know yeah something like that yeah and it also kind of tries to communicate like an air of like highbrow right yes and there's blonde Robert Downey Jr.

00:43:35Guest:with his blue eyes in a monk's garb blowing out candles you see another hooded monk lift his head up it's Tobey Maguire or as you soon find out five-time Academy Award winner Kirk Lazarus and MTV Best Kiss winner Tobey Maguire

00:43:50Guest:this movie is also winner of the coveted crying monkey award at the beijing film festival and the two of them in their monk robes fondling each other's rosary beads and the name of this film is satan's alley

00:44:11Marc:The pleasure centers are all activated at this point.

00:44:16Marc:You realize that, right?

00:44:17Marc:They have reached all four quadrants of the comedy of it all, the lampooning of it all.

00:44:25Guest:Right.

00:44:26Guest:So now I will tell you, now the next thing that happens is you get the DreamWorks logo, right?

00:44:31Marc:Yeah.

00:44:32Guest:Which is DreamWorks is who actually made this film.

00:44:35Guest:Yeah.

00:44:37Guest:When I saw this movie, everyone started laughing at the DreamWorks logo.

00:44:43Guest:Oh, really?

00:44:43Guest:Because they're like anticipating, what now?

00:44:46Guest:Like, oh.

00:44:48Guest:That was, yes.

00:44:49Guest:It's like one of those few things where you could be like, well, we fucking did it, guys.

00:44:55Guest:Like, we're not even five minutes in and blast off.

00:44:58Guest:Success.

00:45:00Marc:That's great.

00:45:01Yeah.

00:45:01Guest:Okay, so your opening scene, which is established as a story of an elite force in Vietnam, the opening scene is the actual battle that goes on here.

00:45:12Guest:Now, if you don't know anything about the movie, right, about what you're watching, Tropic Thunder, you then now are seeing the actors that you've just seen in these trailers –

00:45:23Guest:but they look different.

00:45:25Guest:So Jack Black is not in his fatties costume.

00:45:28Guest:He is this cadet from Brooklyn.

00:45:32Guest:I think his name is... Brooklyn.

00:45:34Guest:Jack Black's characterization of this guy is, of all of the guys, including Robert Downey in blackface, is the most over-the-top one.

00:45:43Guest:Yeah.

00:45:44Guest:But he... So you meet him.

00:45:46Guest:You meet... Now you see...

00:45:48Guest:I would hope you saw pictures of this before going into the movie and seeing that Robert Downey Jr.

00:45:55Guest:looks like a black man.

00:45:56Guest:But if not, it must have been quite the shock.

00:45:59Guest:But then not only is he a black man, he is talking like one.

00:46:03Guest:And it is crazy.

00:46:06Guest:In fact, so I don't know.

00:46:08Guest:Did you... I watched this.

00:46:09Guest:This was the first time.

00:46:10Guest:I don't typically do this.

00:46:11Guest:I don't like watching things with subtitles on.

00:46:14Guest:I know a lot of people love doing that now.

00:46:16Guest:I'm not one of them.

00:46:18Guest:But so I did want to watch this with subtitles just to make sure I was aware of all the jokes.

00:46:23Guest:But so when...

00:46:25Guest:Robert Downey Jr.

00:46:27Guest:shows up.

00:46:27Guest:He's just shooting out all this slang, right?

00:46:31Guest:This like jive talk, right?

00:46:32Guest:He's like, get your jerry curl.

00:46:33Guest:We're an ass.

00:46:34Guest:Like, and he's like saying this stuff and getting this chicken shit, chop, chop, ASAFP.

00:46:40Guest:And.

00:46:41Guest:I have always thought he says, cause then, you know, Jack Black is telling him like, no, no, no.

00:46:47Guest:You know, four leaf is still out there who you find out is, is, is Ben Stiller.

00:46:53Guest:And I have always thought he says, miss me with that cracker chump jive.

00:46:57Guest:We DD Mao, we DD now.

00:47:00Guest:And he throws his ass in the, in the helicopter.

00:47:04Guest:The subtitles say, he just says, we DD Mao, we DD Mao twice.

00:47:09Guest:And I'm like,

00:47:10Guest:i'm pretty sure he says the other thing and if he doesn't that's my brain coming up with a better joke than the movie like that's an amazing joke like i've always thought about it and like there's no way to say it and not be offensive so i'd never like say it in real life but we dd now we dd now is a fucking great line that is a great line

00:47:30Marc:And the jokes now are just like flying like bullets.

00:47:35Marc:Like, you know.

00:47:36Guest:Bullets that are whizzing past them in this scene.

00:47:38Marc:Yes.

00:47:39Marc:Like, want some, get some.

00:47:41Marc:And like him running towards Ben Sethler's character, Tug.

00:47:45Marc:And he's like, peekaboo, I see you.

00:47:48Marc:And firing a gun behind his back.

00:47:50Guest:Apparently a fully ad-libbed moment by Robert Downey Jr.

00:47:53Guest:The somersault included.

00:47:56Guest:Like he just decided to do that.

00:47:58Marc:I watched the DVD commentary with the subtitles on.

00:48:04Marc:So I was able to hear all of the inside information as well as, yes, that was improvised.

00:48:12Guest:So part of this is to save Ben Stiller's character who's getting shot up like Tom Berenger in Platoon.

00:48:18Guest:Right.

00:48:19Guest:He gets saved by Osiris, which is the character that the character that Kirk Lazarus is playing.

00:48:26Guest:And Kirk Lazarus is played by Robert Downey Jr.

00:48:30Guest:And Osiris gets him.

00:48:31Guest:But in running away, his hands get blown off.

00:48:34Guest:where he tries to save the helicopter by putting his hands in the way of a rocket.

00:48:40Guest:His hands get blown off.

00:48:41Guest:They're laying there.

00:48:43Guest:And this is where he is trying to cry.

00:48:46Guest:And Robert Downey Jr., Osiris, is crying all over him.

00:48:50Guest:And Four Leaf, the Tug Speedman character, played by Ben Stiller,

00:48:57Guest:Calls cut.

00:48:59Guest:And now we see the whole movie set, Jack Black's dangling from the rope on the airplane.

00:49:04Guest:And we see that this is the movie being made.

00:49:06Guest:The director is Damien Cockburn played by Steve Coogan.

00:49:11Guest:And, you know, now everything is coming into focus and you're like, okay, I get what this is.

00:49:17Guest:And I think it's worth thinking about like who all these guys were at the time, right?

00:49:22Guest:Like Robert Downey Jr.,

00:49:26Guest:which he's trying to play like a version of Russell Crowe, Daniel Day-Lewis, like a real method for an actor, right?

00:49:35Guest:Yeah.

00:49:35Guest:Like Downey used to kind of be that himself.

00:49:38Guest:Like before he had his like fall from grace, he was thought of as like a phenomenal actor.

00:49:45Guest:He was, you know, nominated for chaplain.

00:49:48Guest:He was just, he was one of those guys that like, when people talked about him, they were like, oh, what a shame that he fell on such hard times.

00:49:54Guest:He was great.

00:49:56Guest:And he was great, but he's still great in this.

00:50:00Guest:He's just parodying the same thing that makes him great.

00:50:05Guest:Right.

00:50:05Guest:Yeah.

00:50:06Guest:Jack Black is kind of doing the same thing.

00:50:08Guest:Like he was arguably the biggest star of the three at the time.

00:50:13Guest:He's just coming off of Kung Fu Panda, which is, you know, global hit.

00:50:17Guest:Right.

00:50:17Guest:And like, but he's also like starting to make these like fatties movies, basically, you know, like.

00:50:23Guest:Yeah.

00:50:23Guest:All these guys are getting kind of recognized for this, for what it is.

00:50:27Guest:And I think that that lent itself to why this movie worked so well.

00:50:32Guest:Like the casting is perfect.

00:50:35Guest:Casting is also perfect of Damien Cockburn being played by Steve Coogan.

00:50:40Guest:And this guy is essentially the director of The Island of Dr. Moreau.

00:50:45Guest:If you've never seen, there's a documentary called Lost Soul, The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau.

00:50:51Guest:And it is about how that guy was an inexperienced director and it just all completely fell apart on him trying to make that movie.

00:51:00Guest:But you see him in this.

00:51:02Guest:Everything goes to shit.

00:51:03Guest:They mistakenly fire off a napalm run when they shouldn't.

00:51:08Guest:It burns a ton of money.

00:51:10Guest:And now we zoom back to Access Hollywood.

00:51:14Marc:Wait, but I mean, first of all, you're glossing over the introduction of my favorite character.

00:51:21Guest:Yes, well, we can talk about him here.

00:51:22Guest:That's absolutely right.

00:51:23Guest:He gets his big moments, you know, several times in this movie.

00:51:27Guest:But yes, do you want to introduce us to who Danny McBride plays?

00:51:31Marc:Oh, man, Danny McBride.

00:51:33Marc:First of all, this character...

00:51:34Marc:Look, I feel like everyone listening knows me.

00:51:38Marc:Like, I don't think of myself very, you know, highly.

00:51:42Marc:When I see this movie, I'm like Leonardo DiCaprio meme, like, at the screen.

00:51:47Marc:Like, that's me.

00:51:49Marc:Like, he's the guy behind the guy, and he is...

00:51:53Marc:like just screening profanities and just, just doing his job.

00:51:58Marc:Like I love this character.

00:52:01Marc:So Danny McBride plays Cody Underwood, the, the special effects and like, you know, weapons coordinator for this movie.

00:52:10Marc:And he steals every scene.

00:52:14Marc:And that's the thing.

00:52:15Marc:Everyone's kind of steals every scene there.

00:52:17Marc:It's the, they all get their moments.

00:52:19Marc:Yeah.

00:52:19Marc:But but Danny McBride just, you know, on top of a rig, just thrusting at the screen saying that Mother Nature just pissed her pantsuit is just an all time banger of an introduction of a character.

00:52:34Guest:It's also.

00:52:34Guest:like i mean we now know him we know his comic persona you know you've seen him a million times and you he's kind of he's got that drive in all the things he's in right this is an early time to see it like unless you were a fan of the foot fist way which was a very small number of people you didn't really know who this guy was and so like to have him up there

00:52:56Guest:doing this with that like rapid fire way of his diction.

00:53:00Guest:And like, just like the jokes getting tossed off about those guys who are up there in the Kim making a sweater back here.

00:53:08Guest:Yeah.

00:53:08Guest:Like it's just like his effortless way of just throwing those things out there.

00:53:12Guest:Again, it's like, it all adds to the feeling that this movie, it's like, you just, everything's going to top the next thing.

00:53:19Guest:Yeah.

00:53:20Marc:Yeah.

00:53:21Marc:It was just raising the stakes over and over and over again.

00:53:24Guest:Well, so then we, like I said, there's this Access Hollywood framing device that then tells you the story.

00:53:29Guest:This is your exposition dump.

00:53:30Marc:What a great way to exposition dump.

00:53:33Marc:Do Access Hollywood.

00:53:34Marc:Have Maria Menounos, you know, who we probably just- Who's great, by the way.

00:53:38Marc:Yes, she is amazing.

00:53:40Marc:I cannot believe they had her do what she did.

00:53:43Marc:Do Simple Jack.

00:53:44Marc:Holy shit.

00:53:45Guest:But like the way she does it is exactly how that would have happened on a show like that.

00:53:51Guest:Yeah.

00:53:51Guest:You know, reading it off a script, like because like in a punny kind of way, like it's highly inappropriate, but a show like that would not have registered it as inappropriate.

00:54:01Guest:You know?

00:54:02Marc:Yeah.

00:54:03Marc:100%.

00:54:04Guest:I, like I said, I was certain this would bleed into next week and we are only about like 10 minutes into the movie.

00:54:11Guest:So it absolutely will.

00:54:11Guest:We will spend next week's episode talking about the rest of Tropic Thunder.

00:54:15Guest:And I think this is a good place to stop because the next big thing that happens in this movie is worth talking about at length.

00:54:23Guest:And that is the introduction of Les Grossman.

00:54:26Marc:Heck yeah.

00:54:27Yeah.

00:54:27Guest:So that will be next week's show.

00:54:29Guest:And a little secret for you, we are recording that show right now.

00:54:34Guest:So if you do write in to us, we won't read it.

00:54:37Guest:We won't see it.

00:54:38Guest:It's a show that's on tape for over a week.

00:54:41Marc:Watch the movie, though, in between.

00:54:42Marc:Just watch the movie.

00:54:43Marc:It's on Paramount+.

00:54:44Guest:Well, and you'll also have the Ben Stiller episode in between.

00:54:46Guest:So this will serve as a nice sandwich for that.

00:54:50Guest:And we will continue our look at Tropic Thunder next week.

00:54:53Guest:And until then, I am Brendan, and that is Chris.

00:54:56Guest:Peace.

00:54:57Guest:Boy, I should say big ass titties.