BONUS The Friday Show - Can't Unring That Bell
Guest:This water is making me thirsty.
Guest:Yeah, no, it doesn't do that to me.
Marc:It makes me hate it.
Guest:I can't stand water.
Guest:Like, I hate all water.
Guest:I'm just like, it's like my mortal enemy now.
Marc:Yeah, where you have to do like the 64 ounces a day?
Marc:Yeah, me too.
Marc:Although this thing...
Marc:They didn't think this out well.
Guest:Why?
Marc:It's got little lines, right?
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So check this out.
Marc:All right, right?
Marc:Full.
Marc:Right?
Marc:So that's where you're supposed to fill it to.
Marc:And then that says 8 a.m.
Marc:Right.
Guest:So what's that?
Guest:That's 7 a.m.?
Marc:It's supposed to be 7.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:But look, it gets down to here.
Marc:Noon?
Marc:Oh, that's noon.
Marc:And then the bottom here says refill.
Marc:Refill.
Marc:Oh, but then.
Marc:What the fuck's supposed to happen here?
Marc:Like you just leave it in there?
Marc:There's a missing hour there?
Marc:I just got to chug this when it says it's all full.
Marc:Chug.
Guest:That's all backwash.
Guest:So it doesn't count.
Guest:It's all.
Marc:It doesn't count.
Guest:It's my back.
Guest:I'm not sharing this with two other people.
Guest:It's like, nah, it doesn't count.
Guest:It's all after.
Guest:It's all just diseased.
Marc:But then also, if that's true, if they're saying that doesn't count, then it's not 64 ounces of water.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So where am I supposed to get that extra, you know, eight ounces or whatever, guy?
Guest:Well, you know, this is like Die Hard with a Vengeance.
Guest:You have to like weigh the thing to see what the ounces are.
Guest:That's who made this.
Marc:Jeremy Irons.
Marc:He's got so many ways that he can get extra income these days for his castles.
Marc:He's going to do the Dungeons and Dragons movie.
Marc:He's going to do the beekeeper.
Marc:He's going to make bottles with stupid fucking lines on them.
Marc:Simon says, drink 64 ounces of water.
Marc:You and me are Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson.
Marc:We're like, how are we supposed to do this?
Marc:There's a line at the bottom.
Marc:It says refill.
Marc:Also, I have watched that scene.
Marc:30,000 times.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:It never makes sense.
Guest:I was going to ask, have you made sense of it?
Guest:Because I cannot make sense of it.
Guest:And I feel like I'm somewhat a smart person.
Marc:No, I legit think there is a missing scene.
Marc:Like, I think they cut a section because it was playing too long.
Marc:And they cut a vital part of the water displacement method.
Marc:And so they just jumped to Bruce Willis being like,
Marc:No, you do this, then you do this and it's good.
Marc:And you're like, fine, whatever.
Guest:I think Samuel Jackson's the one that comes up with the eureka idea.
Guest:But yeah, like I never made sense to me as a kid.
Guest:And I'm just like, I'm like rewinding.
Guest:I'm like, am I missing something?
Marc:Also, we saw that movie when we were of the age where like that was stuff we had to solve in school.
Marc:yeah yeah so you're watching you're like oh okay hang on john mcclain i got this right train going this amount of miles exactly i'm your man john mcclain i'm gonna shout at the screen the answer to this and you're gonna be okay no bombs will go off and then you're just like oh fuck right i don't know how to do this
Guest:Hey, Chris.
Guest:Hey, Brendan.
Guest:I got some good news for you.
Guest:What's that good news?
Guest:I need some good news.
Guest:Oh, this is very good then.
Guest:Oh, what do you got?
Guest:Racism is over.
Marc:Come again?
Marc:Well, you should know this.
Marc:You sent me an article that says the NFL to remove end racism messaging in the end zone ahead of Super Bowl.
Marc:Mission accomplished.
Marc:We did it.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:I think it's the reverse.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:It's to say it's back on?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It's like Willy Wonka.
Guest:Like, scratch that, reverse it.
Guest:Racism's back, baby.
Guest:Oh, no.
Marc:Have you heard the update to this story?
Marc:Because that was just like, that was like the, they were saying, you know, this was what sources were telling them that they're going to scrub this end racism messaging that's been in the back of the end zone since I think 2021.
Marc:And so this was just sources, but they have confirmed that they are, they are removing it, but they didn't, they said they're not removing anything.
Marc:They're just changing the wording.
Right.
Marc:So, so they're changing the wording from end racism.
Guest:Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Guest:Let's see.
Guest:What could it be to stop racism?
Guest:Stop being a racist?
Marc:That's close.
Marc:That's a good, more direct way to get the message across.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like don't be hateful.
Marc:That's another good one.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So what do they, what do they got then?
Marc:They are going with choose, love, love.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:The NFL is saying that the guys getting head injuries, every possession.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Choose love.
Marc:I just, I can't wait until there's like a fucking skirmish in the end zone, like right by the choose love sign.
Marc:And they got the cameras down there and the guy's like, you motherfucker.
Guest:I'm going to fucking kill you.
Guest:I also love that you kind of did the Ralph Wiggum.
Guest:I choo choo choos, love.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:You know what's so funny about this, though?
Marc:It's like I gave up football in like 2014.
Marc:And it was really because of the concussions and the way they were handling the domestic abuse situations that kept cropping.
Marc:I was like...
Marc:10 of them.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And there was horrible... The one on video with who was that?
Marc:Ray Rice, where he just punched his wife out cold.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And it became impossible for me to justify having it on in the house with a two-year-old kid.
Marc:I was like, can't do it.
Marc:It's just no way.
Marc:I got to cut it cold turkey.
Marc:But I had...
Marc:Previous to that, I remember speaking to my boss at work at the time saying, you know what would get me to quit the NFL permanently was if I ever found out they blackballed a player for like, you know, some personal reason, like a gay player or something.
Marc:And they...
Marc:Because I remember there was like questions at that time.
Marc:There was that young guy, I forget what his name was, but he was the, he never had much of a career and he was a low level draftee, but he was the first like openly gay college athlete who got drafted to the NFL.
Marc:And I remember at the time being like, if he ever, if I ever found out that like a team blocked that guy from joining, because like,
Marc:They had like a silent mutiny or something.
Marc:That would be enough for me to cut out the NFL permanently.
Marc:So then I do cut it out.
Marc:And then like three years later, they blackball a guy for kneeling down.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Like, that was, I couldn't believe that, like, man, if I had stuck around, this would have been, like, an easy slammer, right?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, man, so much, like, they made such a meal out of that.
Guest:Like, the right wing.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Basically, where we are right now, you can almost link it to the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Guest:100%.
Guest:And that kneeling down, it's fucking nuts, man.
Guest:Goddamn, the domino effect.
Marc:Yeah, well, I always remember Obama saying that about his approval rating, that his first several months approval rating, it was like sky high.
Marc:like and you know you have to go back to that time it's like we were coming out of the economic collapse which everyone blamed on the republicans like that was under bush's watch uh the people hated the iraq war by that point that was under bush's watch so and then obama was you know a once in a generation politician he just you know had a charisma and a connection and knew how to communicate to people and people it was like that was that guy was in right
Marc:And he had like a 60 plus percent approval rating months after inauguration when Henry Louis Gates got arrested on his own porch.
Marc:Do you remember that story?
Marc:You know, he's the guy who hosts Finding Your Roots.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:He was going into his house or something and like was jimmying in the door because it was...
Marc:He didn't have his key or something.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And he got the cops called on him and they arrested him at his own house.
Marc:And he like cursed them out and they were like, oh, you're cursing us out now.
Marc:Now you're going to jail or whatever.
Marc:And it became a big thing because you were like, they arrested fucking Henry Louis Gates.
Marc:Are you crazy?
Marc:And someone asked Obama about this during a press conference.
Marc:And he was like, well...
Marc:First of all, these cops need to get a grip or something like that was the language he used.
Marc:I can't remember the exact, it's a paraphrase, but like he was like, they should really, you know, be aware of what they're doing when they're going to go arrest Skip Gates.
Marc:You know, like this is crazy.
Marc:That's crazy.
Marc:His approval dropped like 10 points immediately.
Yeah.
Marc:And he talks about this.
Marc:He's like, oh, that was the moment I realized, like, we're not out of, I'm not in the clear.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You got to walk that line, that thin line.
Marc:Which is fucking crazy.
Marc:But yeah, that was the kneeling too.
Marc:That kneeling was like...
Marc:All these MAGA people are like, give me something to do because I'm so fucking furious about this.
Marc:And what the thing to do became was go vote for Trump.
Guest:I can't believe these people were so offended by that.
Guest:Like, it's so true.
Guest:It was so trivial at the time.
Guest:And it's so trivial now.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:He didn't burn the flag.
Guest:Right, that's the thing.
Marc:He didn't do thumbs down.
Marc:No, he didn't go inside.
Marc:He's like, while I'm out here, I'm going to go down.
Marc:Like, that's it.
Marc:Like, it's a kneel.
Marc:That's a reverent move, right?
Marc:Like, that's something you do at church.
Marc:So, like, if anything, he was doing a respectful move while also trying to draw attention to something.
Marc:It's, like, literally what protest is.
Guest:Yeah, just bullshit.
Guest:This fucking country.
Marc:Every day.
Marc:Well, I did notice that poor Ki Hui Kwan, I'm sure in the midst of his press tour for his new film, did not want to get dragged into a discussion about how the very refugee program that allowed him to come to America has now been shut down by the new guy.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:He was very, he was like, I'm going to let that one just fly by.
Guest:He's like, yep, that did happen anyway.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Very, very politician-y.
Guest:Like, yep, that happened.
Guest:Anyway, moving on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I love that now marks thing for LA residents who were there during these recent fires is, hey, what'd you pack?
Guest:What'd you pack when you evacuated?
Guest:Like, that's a great question.
Marc:Well, also like the fact that his wife packed was like, wanted those photos, even the ones that were like in the frames, that's such a real thing.
Marc:Like everybody's always said that like, Oh, you gotta go, you gotta take photos.
Marc:And it's like, I do.
Marc:I got like every photo I've ever taken is now on the cloud.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So it's like, what, what do I need to take photos for?
Marc:But no, your brain still goes there.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:What would you pack if you had to evacuate?
Guest:Like, I don't even know what I would pack.
Marc:I have a lockbox, as Al Gore would call it, that has all our important shit in it.
Marc:So I guess I would take that.
Marc:Although, the whole point of getting this box is that it's fireproof.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So maybe just keep it there?
Marc:Yeah, but I don't trust that at all.
Marc:I feel like it's one of those things where...
Marc:You come back to the house, the house is a husk and everything.
Marc:You're like, well, at least we got that fireproof lockbox and you pick it up and it just turns to dust.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Damn it.
Guest:You got to test those things.
Guest:You got to burn it or something.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh man.
Guest:Uh, yeah.
Guest:I, I, I think I would take my cats and,
Guest:And I think that's it.
Guest:Like, I don't even think I have my social security card.
Guest:I think it's so my wife probably knows.
Guest:But yeah, I wouldn't bring much except for my cats, my wife.
Guest:I think I'd be good.
Guest:Can I say the key story about coming to America?
Guest:Like, can you imagine having to do that?
Marc:Like, I mean, no.
Marc:And, and, and that's part of like the problem that we have is that people don't spend enough time trying to imagine other people doing stuff like that.
Marc:Um, but also like the, the real like point to drive home is that that was the case for literally tens of millions of people.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And he just has this miraculous story of like Hollywood success plugged into it.
Marc:But like, yeah.
Marc:Just so many, so many, so many people had to go through such perilous circumstances like that.
Guest:I couldn't believe that his mom went ahead and with part of her family and then her, you know, his dad got, you know, caught and they got, they were in prison.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like this kid was in prison.
Guest:Twice he said.
Guest:Like, for three months.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's honestly so disturbing that that happened.
Marc:I mean, by the way, he was one of the lucky ones to just go into prison and not get executed.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Like, I mean...
Guest:To think of, like, anyone's struggle.
Guest:Like, you just have to, you know, like, what my day-to-day, like, just to think that, like, at least I'm here and I'm not, like, in prison trying to get here.
Guest:Like...
Guest:Man, it just makes me so sad that all the stuff that's happening right now and like – Yeah.
Guest:It just – it was a wonderful story and I'm just flabbergasted.
Guest:I was like floored that this person went through this shit –
Guest:And is able to like talk about it intelligently and like reverently and just like is able, like it had a happy ending, which is so great to see, honestly.
Guest:Also like their entire life savings went to like, okay, here's like, we're going to be on a boat with 3000 people to Hong Kong.
Guest:And like, hopefully this works because if it doesn't, we're now penniless, you know?
Yeah.
Guest:Boy, oh boy, what a story.
Guest:Like what a guy.
Guest:And like, yeah, just incredible.
Marc:Well, also, I don't think he even mentioned this number, but I definitely saw it in the research.
Marc:They auditioned 6,000 kids for a short round.
Guest:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, auditioned in the sense that they probably, you know, went to schools just like they did here.
Marc:And they're like, saw a couple hundred kids at once, you know, and then they were like, you, you and you, can you come meet with someone else?
Marc:Right.
Marc:But still like the grand total of heads they saw was around 6,000.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:And, man, him meeting Harrison Ford, not even knowing who it was, like, that was cool as fuck.
Guest:And I can't imagine anyone else being short round.
Guest:Like, that's the thing.
Guest:Like, he was perfect.
Guest:Oh, my God, he's so perfect.
Guest:Like, holy cow.
Guest:I just rewatched it.
Guest:And I'm just like, yeah, he's fucking money.
Guest:And it actually made me watch the movie I most love him for, which is Goonies.
Guest:Like, for me, he is Data from Goonies.
Guest:That's funny.
Marc:Dawn is the same way.
Marc:Like when I mentioned he was going to be on, I was like, you know, it's going to be on the show short round.
Marc:And she's like, Oh, you mean data?
Marc:Like she remembers him as data.
Marc:I remember him as short wrath.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No data was my guy.
Guest:Like, yeah, he was like a James Bond.
Guest:He was like Q from James Bond.
Guest:It was great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He was perfect.
Marc:Well, you know, that I think is a big reason why that Everything Everywhere All At Once role was so successful for him was, you know, he mentioned that people say like, man, you even sound the same.
Marc:And he's like, I don't know if that's a compliment that I sound like it.
Marc:12 year old boy.
Marc:But like, I do think that's part of the connection people have with him is that they remember very specifically because he had a lot of dialogue in those movies and, and he's funny.
Marc:He's got good timing.
Marc:So that then when you're hearing him as an adult, you're like, I hear you in there.
Marc:You're that guy who made me laugh when I was a kid.
Marc:And then also it's, I found this, this true about both of the people we had on this week is that.
Marc:Both him, who won an Oscar for this, and Demi Moore, who very likely will win an Oscar, is they played roles and they're being awarded for roles where I feel like the audience has...
Marc:The back knowledge of who they are.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Which then subconsciously plays into the performance like that guy in everything, everywhere, all at once.
Marc:It's like the sadness of of of promise unfulfilled.
Marc:That's what the whole movie is.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And, and the idea that like, he feels like within him, there's a stronger person, like yearning to get out and whatever.
Marc:And like that's, people are watching this and they're like, yeah, man, what happened to this guy all these years?
Marc:I missed him.
Marc:And the performance is delivering on that.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And it's the same thing with Demi Moore, right?
Marc:Like, it's like this idea of like, oh, we took this lady for granted.
Marc:And now it's like, oh, this is what you wind up doing to people.
Marc:And when you've like objectified them to this point, you know?
Guest:Here's a new and improved version.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:And I don't think Demi Moore is that, right?
Marc:But I think she can fully understand it and play it, you know?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so is her name's Demi?
Guest:Demi?
Guest:Because I've always called her Demi.
Marc:Oh, this is like an old Seinfeld joke.
Marc:Like you're, you're, you're way, you're way late on this.
Marc:I didn't even recognize it from Seinfeld.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:He's like, they're talking about her.
Marc:And, and George is like, is it Demi or Demi?
Marc:And Jerry's like, I think it's Demi.
Marc:And George is like, really?
Marc:You don't say a Semi tractor trailer.
Yeah.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:I've been calling her name wrong this whole time.
Guest:Holy shit.
Marc:I did want to say, though, about you watching Temple of Doom.
Marc:I didn't go back and watch the whole movie because I just watched it.
Marc:Like last year or sometime, I was on a plane.
Marc:I watched the whole thing.
Marc:But in doing research on him, I was going back and watching scenes that he's in.
Marc:And it reminded me of something I thought the last time I watched it was that...
Marc:It has this reputation.
Marc:First of all, it has a reputation of being, like, the worst of the Indiana Jones movies.
Marc:That's crazy.
Marc:Like, it's so great.
Marc:Now, are there, like, tons of problematic things in it?
Marc:Sure.
Marc:But, like, you know, the...
Marc:Anything having to do with like people who are not an ethnicity, like browning themselves up to be like, you know, like the guy, the big guy, he fights on the, on the rock crusher who looks like, you know, an Indian.
Marc:That's the same mechanic from Raiders.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Oh, I didn't know that.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's interesting.
Marc:all over the movie and like all the Ooga Booga stuff with the meat and the monkey brains and stuff like, right.
Marc:You know, it is, it is definitely a thing of a different time and that is not to justify it or any, or, you know, it's just the same thing you have to say about movies made in the forties and you go like, well, that wasn't good how they talked about those Japanese people or whatever.
Marc:But like, it does require a little bit of an understanding of, of where it was coming from.
Yeah.
Marc:At the same time, it's a masterfully made movie.
Marc:And like just as a rollercoaster ride, it's so good.
Guest:Dude, speaking of rollercoaster ride, why wasn't it ever a rollercoaster ride?
Marc:Oh, I don't.
Marc:I mean, I think the, well, it kind of is.
Marc:You know, in Disneyland, they do have the Indiana Jones ride, although it is not the mine car and it is not a roller coaster.
Marc:Well, they failed.
Marc:It is a Jeep.
Marc:You're on a Jeep and you're going around the track and it's very rocky and bumpy and then the boulder chases you and all that stuff.
Marc:So it is a ride, but not the way you're thinking, which it should be like one of those like older Star Wars rides, like the Star Tours or whatever, where you like...
Marc:Right.
Marc:On the car.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, look, there are a few things.
Guest:You could do like a free fall where you're falling into the volcano like Kate Capshaw.
Guest:And then, of course, there's just the mining cart where why wasn't that a ride that I could do?
Guest:That's all I wanted to do as a kid.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I mean, well, do you remember the Indiana Jones stunt show?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, where the guy is on there and he's running away from the... Yeah, I mean, that was all Raiders stuff, too.
Marc:But, yeah, no, this totally should have been a ride.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, okay, so back to what I was saying about the perceptions of the movie.
Marc:So it has this perception of being, you know, let's say politically incorrect.
Marc:And I think that's fair.
Marc:But it also has this reputation of being, like, a divorced guy movie.
Guest:That, like...
Guest:That's a conversation that when I rewatched it, I'm like, I don't see it, honestly.
Marc:Well, I'll tell you what I saw.
Marc:And it was specifically because I was watching Key.
Marc:So, like, I think this has this idea because Lucas was just divorced, right?
Marc:And Spielberg had... It's weird.
Marc:Like, he had broken up with Amy Irving, like, maybe four years before this was made.
Marc:They had been in a long-term relationship.
Marc:They broke up, but then they get back together...
Marc:like right after this movie comes out, and get married.
Marc:And then they're married for like four or five years, and then they divorce, and then he marries Kate Capshaw, who he met on this film.
Marc:And I think people have that timeline confused in their heads.
Marc:I think they thought he left his wife for Kate Capshaw, and that's not true.
Marc:He married his wife after this movie, and then when they divorced, he got married to Kate Capshaw.
Marc:So I do think there's something...
Marc:not accurate just with the perception of it being a divorced guy movie, because there's one divorced guy and it's the producer, not the director or the star Harrison Ford got married right around this time too.
Marc:Um, what it made me realize, and it's, it's actually probably the key to the enduring appeal of Indiana Jones movies is,
Marc:is that at the heart of all of them, it's just about being a 12-year-old.
Marc:And this is the one movie that has an actual 12-year-old in it.
Marc:But if you watch this movie, all I can think... My biggest takeaway on re-watching it now in my 40s is this...
Marc:Like India Jones, he's supposed to be like, you know, almost James Bondish with women.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And and here's this beautiful showgirl who's like, you know, clearly available because her, you know, the guy she was with just tried to have her killed.
Marc:So like, you know, here he is.
Guest:She's single.
Marc:Right.
Marc:He's on this trip.
Marc:He's in the jungle.
Marc:Beautiful woman.
Marc:All this dude cares about is getting this annoying woman out of the way so he can be super adventure guy having a fine time playing outdoors with his 12 year old best friend.
Marc:And they are like legit best friends, the two of them.
Marc:And like there is a scene.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:It's so great.
Marc:The scene when he is under hypnosis, voodoo hypnosis, right?
Guest:And short round... Oh, by the way, wait, wait, wait, come on.
Guest:The voodoo hypnosis is hilarious, first of all.
Guest:Because, okay...
Guest:You have to understand, first of all, this movie flies by.
Guest:It is like just a joy.
Guest:It is just over in a minute.
Guest:It's two hours long.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:But this person, and I guess it's the prince of this place.
Marc:The Maharaji.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:They have a voodoo doll.
Guest:Now, the voodoo doll looks exactly like Indiana Jones.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:They only met Indiana Jones like 12 hours earlier.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:He's real great at making voodoo dolls, that kid.
Guest:Like there's a hat.
Guest:Like there's a lot of material.
Guest:There's like a jacket and stuff.
Marc:Chris, did you see how many child slaves they had in that place?
Marc:They could make that in 20 minutes.
Guest:There's like a whole bunch of Nikes that are just also running through that place.
Guest:But like I was just like, wow, they made that really quickly.
Guest:Holy cow.
Guest:Yeah, please.
Guest:The voodoo doll.
Marc:All right, so he's under hypnosis.
Marc:He's, you know, one of the bad guys now.
Marc:Well, because he drank the blood, really.
Marc:Because he drank the blood of Kali.
Marc:And he is a bad guy.
Marc:And he smacks Short Round across the face.
Marc:And this is while, you know, Willie is getting lowered into the lava.
Marc:And Shorty knows that he has to snap him out of it.
Marc:And he somehow figures out, if I just burn the shit out of this guy, he'll snap out.
Marc:I know.
Marc:He grabs a lit torch and he goes, Indy, I love you.
Guest:And lights him on fire.
Guest:It's basically Darjeeling Unlimited.
Guest:Like, I love you.
Guest:I'm going to mace you in the face.
Yeah.
Marc:But it works.
Marc:It does work.
Marc:And he has a great moment where he pretends he's going to hang him over and drop him in the fire.
Marc:And he's like, I'm OK, kid.
Marc:And he gives him a wink.
Marc:And now all of a sudden they're teamed up doing karate.
Guest:Short Round takes out a full human guard.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:No, he knew full Taekwondo from work.
Marc:No, I'm like serious.
Marc:Ki Hui Kwan learned Taekwondo working on this movie and then became a second degree black belt in life just from from doing this.
Marc:But so they take the dudes all out.
Marc:They save Willie.
Marc:They pull her up.
Marc:I want you when you when you get done with this, go back and watch this.
Marc:Just this one part, the way it is shot.
Marc:The woman gets saved from near death where she was going to burst into flames alive, which we saw happen to a dude like 20 minutes earlier.
Marc:And she's saved by Indiana Jones and this kid.
Marc:And they take her out.
Marc:They unhook her from the cage and everything.
Marc:He gets a kiss and all that.
Marc:And then he walks over and short round hands him his hat, which is like the most important thing in the world that he keeps his hat.
Marc:It's like Superman's cape.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:You get the swell of the John Williams music.
Marc:Willie is in the background.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:in focus mind you so you're not like uh there's you know we're not supposed to see her back there no no she's in focus indiana jones comes down to short rounds level and they hug each other yeah and short round goes dr jones my friend
Marc:And I was like, that's all this movie's about.
Marc:About these two kids.
Marc:One kid happens to be a 40 year old archeologist adventurer, but they are two kids.
Marc:And, and then it just reminded me that is all, all of Indiana Jones, at least those first three movies were,
Marc:are just 12 year olds sitting around.
Marc:And if you've ever listened to that story conference that Lucas Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan did, where they sat around for hours and recorded, and you can go online, just Google, you know what?
Marc:I will put a link to it in the episode description because it's,
Marc:out there everywhere, the PDF of this story conference where they sat there for four hours and just talked about this new idea, Indiana Jones, and they come up with all these ideas and they all wind up making it into all the films at some point, you know?
Marc:It's just fascinating, but they are clearly...
Marc:three 12 year old boys.
Marc:Like these are, these are 12 year olds sitting around talking about their 12 year old desires and like the things that would be awesome to 12 year olds.
Marc:And like, I remember Paul Scheer when he was talking about Raiders on the unspooled podcast, he points out that like all of the dangers in that movie are things that like when you were 12 and younger, like you thought of these things as like things that could wind up killing you in life, like bottomless pit.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:right like giant tarantulas like it's like if you looked across your room right now and you saw two spiders and one was like the size of a grapefruit it was very fuzzy and one was really tiny and black and you had to pick up one of them which one would you pick up go with that tiny one for sure no that one will kill you yeah
Marc:That is the killer spider.
Marc:That is a black widow.
Marc:You're dead.
Marc:I don't care.
Marc:Tarantulas have no venom.
Marc:They don't bite.
Marc:They're just kind of fluffy and that, but, but what you're doing is the 12 year old version.
Marc:It's like, Oh, big, scary spider.
Marc:No, no,
Marc:Like even in, in the, uh, in the, the culmination of like the romance in, in Raiders, it's when, uh, you know, they're on that ship and, uh, him and Marion are like settling down and whatever.
Marc:And he's been, you know, beat to shit is when he says that famous line, which was an ad lib about, uh, it's not the years, baby, it's the mileage.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then she's like, well, where does it hurt?
Yeah.
Marc:And he's pointing all over.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it's literally kiss the boo boo.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Like, Oh, kiss here.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Oh, how about here on my lips?
Guest:Like, right.
Marc:And like, I get it.
Marc:It's a PG movie.
Marc:They weren't going to go too far, but it's still ridiculously chased when you think about it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then even if you think about that third movie,
Marc:Like the dynamic of him with his dad.
Marc:Oh, and he's just a little boy.
Marc:It's no different than the dynamic at the beginning of the movie when he is literally a kid.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like, so like, that's the joke, really, is that like this guy we've come to like know and love is like the great hero, Indiana Jones.
Marc:He's just a kid when he's around his dad because it's got all the same issues.
Marc:Anyway.
Marc:All of this is to say that like it totally solidified for me that Ki Hui Kwan is like the best part of the Indiana Jones trilogy because he was the accurate representation of what everything was.
Marc:He was 12.
Marc:No one else was 12.
Marc:Everyone else was pretending to be 12.
Guest:He was 12.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:I love that.
Guest:Did you, did you know at the time is I saw this movie only on like VHS or channel 11, but like, did you know that this was a prequel?
Guest:Like, did you always know it was a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Marc:I remember, I remember it being talked about like walking out of the theater.
Marc:Like, Oh, did you notice it was, it was from before the other one.
Guest:And then, you know, I think nerds even back then, how they look at the secret timeline of the Indiana Jones movie.
Guest:It's like,
Marc:I think it was, I think it was one of those things that was well documented though, because Spielberg gave a reason why it was a prequel.
Marc:Why?
Marc:Because he felt that, and it's true if you think about the third movie, that any movie that comes afterwards, you can't deal with it without having Nazis in it.
Marc:Unless you go way forward in the future and there's no, you're after the war.
Marc:But so he didn't want to have Nazis again.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And so he was like, well, I got to go before the war.
Marc:But they were in this idea that it didn't matter.
Marc:It was like, this is just a serial action adventure thing.
Marc:He can be at any time, you know?
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, okay.
Guest:All right.
Guest:So there's a reason for it.
Guest:But I never knew until I was like probably 20 that this was a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I definitely never knew until I was, I mean, I wouldn't be when I was 20, but probably like when I was, you know, many, many years after first seeing star Wars, I did not realize that it said episode four at the beginning.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I was like, I remember like way into seeing it.
Marc:I was like asking my dad or my brother or somebody, I was like, wait a minute, why does it say four?
Marc:And then the other one says five.
Marc:And they were like, Oh yeah, there's, there were, he had this whole idea that he's going to go back and do other ones.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:See, that must have been fun for you to learn that, the explorer of the universe.
Guest:But can I ask George Lucas, 12-year-old boy, right?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Tell me how the trade – what is it?
Guest:The Trade Federation happens in Star Wars, like with Phantom Menace, where it's basically a whole movie about tariffs.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like what happened to the 12 year old boy?
Marc:I think it's blatantly obvious what happened.
Marc:He didn't sit around with two other 12 year olds.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know, he had too much of his adult nerd indulging himself in that.
Marc:And he needed, he needed more 12 year olds.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was able to watch this movie.
Guest:I looked up Disney+, and it wasn't on Disney+.
Guest:So I was like, yes, I get to actually crack open my DVD.
Guest:And I actually took out my DVD of Temple of Doom.
Guest:And that was great because, first of all, it has the teaser trailer on it, which is...
Guest:hilarious oh yeah it is like you know what year did this movie come out 1983 84 84 84 so it has like you know how in superman the movie where like superman in like christopher reeve comes shooting out at you it has their version of that but it's in like indiana jones font but it's like you know it's
Guest:Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones all shooting up at the screen.
Guest:And they're busy on location.
Guest:And they do the gag with the plane where it's like a cargo ship and they have the red line going.
Guest:And they're busy on location in San Francisco and Sri Lanka, which is in the Indian Ocean.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you idiots.
Guest:And London.
Guest:I'm like, damn, did no one know where Sri Lanka was?
Guest:No, the answer is they did not.
Guest:Like, it was great.
Guest:Like, I love that the announcer had to say, in the Indian Ocean.
Marc:That's like the beginning of the Michael Bay Transformers movie, where it says, Qatar, Middle East.
Guest:Yes, 100%.
Guest:Oh, but yeah, it was great.
Guest:It was great watching that on DVD.
Guest:I, uh, I really just love this movie.
Guest:Like I forgot about the plane sequence where like the two guys jump out of the airplane and Indy's about to crash and he has to take a life raft and, uh, jump out of the plane with a life raft.
Guest:Like I love that guy.
Guest:That too could also be a, um, a, an amusement park ride.
Guest:It's so great.
Marc:Um,
Marc:And speaking of not knowing till you're older, it was a lot of times rewatching that movie until I realized who the guy is who brings them on to the plane.
Marc:Was it Dan Aykroyd?
Guest:Yeah, it's Dan Aykroyd.
Guest:Because I was I was like, you know, I was watching, but I'm like, I know that voice.
Guest:Why is that Dan Aykroyd?
Guest:Yeah, that's crazy.
Guest:It's really weird.
Guest:I don't even know the explanation for it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I'm guessing because I know the Blank Check guys are doing Steven Spielberg and they just did 1941.
Guest:Did this movie come out right after 1941?
Guest:Not right after, but I guess there must be enough of a relationship there.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So we did 1941 and then I guess, you know, Raiders comes out.
Marc:Raiders comes out right after it was his reaction to, to 1941.
Marc:He was like, Oh, I got a rebound from that shit.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Guest:So again, just Dan Aykroyd, I guess.
Guest:Hey, will you, I worked with you before.
Guest:Like, here you go.
Marc:Or it could be one of those things where like, he's making something else.
Marc:Like if they're at like Heinwood studios in London.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Dan Aykroyd, crazy seeing him.
Marc:You know, with Dan Aykroyd there, we were talking last week about Saturday Night Live.
Marc:And, you know, the the in particular about like when we started to get into it, I got some responses from people about this as well.
Marc:And it's interesting to read these because I think it's very much in line with what we were saying.
Marc:This person who didn't give a name, but but said.
Marc:I've been thinking about my awareness of SNL and it was somewhere between the Coneheads craze, It's Pat, Wayne's World, and listening to They're All Gonna Laugh at You, the album by Adam Sandler.
Marc:Oh, hell yeah.
Marc:To seeing Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Tommy Boy, and Black Sheep.
Marc:So it's so funny because like now I know exactly how old this person is.
Marc:I know.
Yeah.
Marc:I know like in general, like what they're like, what their entertainment consumption was, you know, like what they were watching.
Guest:It's like, uh, it's like when you cut a tree open and you can count the rings and see how old the tree is.
Guest:That's what, that's what you just did.
Marc:That thing in vertigo up on the Muir woods.
Marc:Just this person just left that there.
Marc:I've been there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Uh, I'm fairly close to an age to you guys.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:Couldn't have guessed that.
Marc:And even though many point to their favorite cast being the cast from when they were in high school, I think for me, it's somewhere between 92 and 96, but I wasn't exposed to those casts until VH1 made reruns available in the late nineties.
Marc:And that's another thing.
Marc:It was, we talked about being on E it was on comedy central.
Marc:Uh, it was on Nick at night and yes, it was on VH1 as well.
Marc:I do remember that.
Marc:And that this person says that was when I was still a preteen.
Marc:I can definitely say I should not have listened to Sandler's album at 10 years old.
Marc:That's all right.
Marc:I mean, like, maybe like some of this stuff, but like...
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:It was all probably stuff.
Marc:10 year olds were saying on the playground.
Marc:Anyway, I got a huge fucking boner right now.
Marc:Like why not?
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's like the target audience.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So this person said, I, I,
Marc:I can say I should not have listened to it, but I also can't argue against it.
Marc:It's like the same way I begged my mom to take me to see Cable Guy, not knowing how truly dark that movie was, just because of how absolutely obsessed I was with Jim Carrey after his 1994 run.
Marc:It sometimes reminds me of those kids that weren't allowed to watch The Simpsons, or in my case, in living color.
Marc:That's wild.
Marc:There was nothing I was ever not allowed to watch.
Marc:I know that my mother...
Marc:harshly objected to married with children to the point where we knew like, don't put that on.
Marc:It's just going to piss mom off.
Marc:Like we didn't, we didn't watch it for that reason.
Marc:Uh, and, and I wasn't that into it.
Marc:So it wasn't like a thing.
Marc:I was like, I got to sneak that married with children.
Marc:But, uh,
Marc:But like, yeah, there wasn't anything we weren't allowed to watch.
Marc:I mean, you have said many times you've been like, you had like censored versions of things.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch for a while.
Guest:Get out.
Guest:Yeah, no.
Guest:My dad especially would be like, you're ruining your life watching that shit.
Guest:Like, and you talk about the Simpsons of all things.
Marc:Well, I mean, I do think people who didn't watch it and just knew stuff about it from the news or whatever, they were like, this is that thing with that rude kid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes, I suppose so.
Marc:And that family that is dysfunctional.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, they're a perfectly normal nuclear family.
Guest:Oh, yeah, man.
Marc:It's also, it's like, I can't imagine where I would be in my life today without that show.
Marc:I can't imagine it.
Guest:Well, I mean, look, his objections to it only made me want to watch it more.
Guest:Of course.
Guest:To the point that, like, I would have a friend, like, tape episodes.
Guest:So I would have, like, a VHS tape set on, like...
Guest:Man, back in the day, you could like set your VHS to like, like, like a setting that's like really low.
Guest:So you can like have six hours on that tape.
Guest:Sometimes you go out and buy an eight hour tape.
Guest:Oh, I never had those.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And they were real shitty.
Marc:Like, you know, if you set it on that setting where you get eight hours, it was a really low quality.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:Well, I just had six hours of the Simpsons and I would just repeat that over and over and over when in my free time.
Guest:But yeah, yeah, that was, that was my childhood.
Yeah.
Marc:uh lorenzo wrote in to say i had to comment on your snl discussion because my introduction to snl was that same 15th anniversary special brendan spoke of and i was 12 years old when it aired before seeing that special though my favorite movie to watch as a kid in the 80s were comedies and i loved pretty much everything that eddie murphy not really age appropriate i know chevy chase bill murray dan akroyd and or steve martin was in i would say by the way lorenzo
Marc:uh the chevy chase and bill murray movies and dan ackroyd movies at that time were probably way more inappropriate than the eddie murphy ones um like stripes stripes is like you should not be watching that as a kid yeah 100 i was watching golden child i remember i used to watch golden child a lot for some reason that was a pg-13 yeah that one was okay
Guest:Not a very good movie, but like I still watch it all the time.
Guest:Eddie's great in it.
Marc:Eddie is so great in it.
Marc:So it's like, you're right, it is not a great movie, but he is amazing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And Lorenzo continues, I was fascinated when I watched that special and found out that they were all regular cast members on the same show.
Marc:I know exactly what you mean.
Marc:I mean like-
Marc:I definitely knew when I would see them in things like, oh, they are on Saturday Night Live.
Marc:Like I would know that, but I didn't know what they did on that show.
Marc:And that special was the first time I was like, oh my God, Dan Aykroyd did all this shit.
Marc:This is out there for me to watch.
Marc:This is amazing.
Marc:He continues here.
Marc:After learning all this, I became a regular viewer of the show and would watch those best of shows as much as I could as well.
Marc:Of course, like you guys said, though, my favorite cast became the one in and around the 1990-93 era when I was in high school and when I watched the show the most.
Marc:I sure feel old, though, now that it's the 50th anniversary.
Marc:And that 15th anniversary didn't seem like that long ago.
Guest:Yep.
Marc:I relate to all of that.
Guest:Totally.
Marc:Totally.
Marc:Um, Lorenzo also, uh, brought something up saying that we should rewatch the, um, Paul Thomas Anderson movies, the way we did the Tarantino ones.
Marc:I have, I have to think about that because I have a, I have a little bit of a tough time with that as much as I love the guy and they're, you know, all of them are among my favorite movies.
Marc:I feel like they're hard to talk about, like aside from like boogie nights and maybe punch drunk love, um,
Marc:maybe licorice pizza, like they are, they require a kind of discussion around them that I'm afraid would be too heady and boring.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I could talk probably for hours.
Guest:I have talked for hours about like Magnolia.
Guest:Probably my favorite.
Marc:Yeah, but I don't want, like it's also, it's one of those things like I love it so much.
Marc:Like I don't want to get up my own ass on it.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But I don't know.
Marc:I'll think about it.
Marc:We'll give it some thought.
Marc:But all of this is to say that we both watched the more cowbell SNL documentary, which is on Peacock right now.
Marc:They've got a series of four short one hour documentaries, plus the longer music documentary.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:50 years of SNL music, which you watch.
Marc:I have not watched that.
Marc:You said it was great.
Marc:Fucking great.
Guest:I can't wait to rewatch it.
Guest:Honestly, it was it was fantastic.
Guest:Uh, but what'd you think of the cowbell one?
Guest:Okay.
Guest:At the time.
Guest:And like, they say it in the, in the doc, like they're like, Oh, you're making a documentary about this one sketch.
Guest:That's silly.
Guest:But also when you watch it as like, like when it's like almost over, you're like, Oh, I, I kind of want to talk about all of my favorite.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:This should be, this should be a pilot for a series.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like you can do like the top 50 sketches and I just want an actual documentary on all of them.
Marc:Like a 30 for 30, whatever it is.
Marc:40 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever.
Guest:I loved this documentary.
Guest:How do you feel about it?
Marc:Oh, yeah, it was great.
Marc:And it was, you know, so much of it was like even stuff I knew about the sketch already in that it was great.
Marc:Then there was stuff I didn't know.
Marc:I didn't I didn't know that this is a Will Ferrell solo sketch that he wrote it himself.
Marc:Like because you always hear about that.
Marc:It was him and McKay writing everything back in the SNL heyday.
Marc:I bet you that's another reason why they did it, you know, because like those two guys are not on speaking terms anymore.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:So it's probably hard to do a, yeah, you know, they fell out over that winning time show.
Marc:Oh, right, right, right.
Guest:Because he wanted to be the guy.
Marc:Will Ferrell wanted to be Jerry Buss and they cast John C. Reilly instead.
Marc:And it was something about like, he was like, you know, you didn't even tell me.
Marc:You didn't give me a call or you didn't, whatever.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:But, and I think probably there was stuff happening long before that, but whatever.
Marc:This made it much cleaner that they could just go to Will Ferrell and interview him about this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And first of all, I forgot how much I love this sketch.
Guest:Like, I know it sounds like, like, it's just a thing that is like, I know about, but I've rewatched it before I watched the documentary.
Guest:I'm like, God damn it.
Guest:Like, this is like, I think this was my, my entry point into a whole lot of comedy.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I forgot the cultural impact, like, just personally, this sketch had.
Guest:And it was – like, it really opened doors that I had closed for so long.
Guest:The fact that, first of all, they go into the history of the cowbell, which I thought was funny, but I –
Guest:I forgot that it was Blue Oyster Cult.
Guest:And I remember I'm like, oh, shit.
Guest:I remember I had the cassette of this album before I heard the sketch.
Guest:I was a fan of Blue Oyster Cult.
Guest:I rode to the record store to pick up a cassette of this album.
Guest:And did you know of Blue Oyster Cult?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:Just from listening to like classic rock radio, which I did listen to quite a bit, but like, I wasn't like a huge fan, but I remember, I remember this song being on the radio and then it was used in the opening scene of the TV series of the stand.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:you know just like it's it's what was on the radio i did not i was not in your boat i did not have a blue oyster cult cd but to me that's what made it funnier was that it's like it would be like super tramp or something it's like take a random band that's like the filler music on the radio and this was where we had landed at that time with the behind the musics right because like if you remember
Marc:And that's the framing device of the sketch is that it's a VH1 behind the music.
Guest:Can I tell you that piece of it is cut out of like the sketch when you look it up on Peacock.
Guest:They don't have the VH1 part.
Marc:I bet, you know, it's like probably some rights issue or something.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:But that was culturally relevant because like as a joke in and of itself was that by I remember the exact time that so this sketch was like from early 2000, I think.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:In 1999.
Marc:they released the weird owl behind the music and the big joke was almost like well they run out they have no more behind the musics if they have to do weird out because he's not a controversial dude like because every other behind the music was like this guy did a mountain of cocaine yeah
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:I always remember the TLC one where she like, like lit the, um, the house on fire and stuff.
Marc:Oh, but behind the music has the greatest tease in any television show I've ever seen.
Marc:And I've, I lived my whole life.
Guest:What's that?
Guest:Was it the house of horrors?
Guest:Nope.
Marc:It is the Motley Crue behind the music.
Marc:And as they're going to commercial, the bumper, you know, it'll just be the little bumper of the behind the music logo or whatever.
Marc:And the voice saying like, you know, when behind the music returns.
Marc:And so they're, you know, doing their whole Motley Crue horrible life story.
Marc:And then it's gone to commercial and it goes, coming up next, Nikki Sixx dies.
Marc:He'll tell us about it when Behind the Music continues.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:How are you not sitting through that commercial break?
Marc:I remember, like, at the end of the moment, you're like, that's the greatest tease in the world.
Marc:Like, that'll never be topped.
Marc:And in fact...
Marc:If you go to episode 947 of WTF, the guest was a guy named Dan Schlissel.
Marc:Dan Schlissel was the owner and founder of Stand Up Records,
Marc:which produced a lot of comedy records, including a lot of Mark's.
Marc:And the reason we had him on was not just because Mark knew him from producing comedy records, because he had a pretty good story to tell.
Marc:And it allowed me to pay my deepest, most heartfelt homage to Behind the Music in the episode description, which says, Dan Schlissel died recently.
Marc:He tells Mark all about it, along with the less harrowing tale...
Marc:holy shit what a nod that's great uh so yes so uh this was this cowbell sketch now getting back to that was right there in the public consciousness although i much like a lot of the people in the doc i did not see it or i don't remember seeing it like in the moment and i actually in a weird way i cannot tell you what the first time i've seen it is i can tell you what the first time i saw the
Marc:you know, Gumby sketches or Mr. Robinson's neighborhood.
Marc:Like, I can tell you exactly where I was when I saw those things.
Marc:I have no idea when the first time I saw this was.
Guest:Yeah, it just sort of arrived.
Guest:Like, I think it was the best of Will Ferrell for me.
Guest:That's when I saw it.
Marc:That seems like a long time, though, from when it happened.
Marc:It probably was just one of those things that was on reruns all the time.
Guest:Yeah, like VH1 or something.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:By the way, this doc opens up with Will Ferrell.
Guest:He's playing the sketch on an iPhone.
Guest:And I love the beginning.
Guest:It's like after a series of staggering defeats and Will Ferrell just stops and he's like, what does that even mean?
Guest:I love that he's referencing a line from this sketch in the beginning of this sketch.
Guest:It's just so great.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I also love that he keeps identifying all these things that he just fucking made up.
Marc:Like the fact that the guy, the producer, he's like, I looked at the back of this thing.
Marc:I saw a guy's name.
Guest:That's the guy.
Guest:It's like, no, that guy didn't have anything to do with it.
Marc:Well, that's you haven't even mentioned this yet, but that's the whole like second half of this doc is the actual blue oyster cold people and their producers fighting over who deserves credit for the cowbell.
Guest:Also, and then them realizing it wasn't even a cowbell.
Guest:Like they were fighting over, no, no, no, it was me.
Guest:No, no, no, it was me.
Guest:And then they're like, you know what?
Guest:It wasn't even a cowbell, I don't think.
Guest:It was a block of wood.
Guest:Just like...
Guest:It's just like silly.
Guest:It's just silly.
Guest:It's just like, what are we doing?
Marc:It actually made it even more.
Marc:It makes the sketch even better because you're like, oh, yeah, these guys, even 25 years after the sketch still take themselves way too seriously.
Marc:And they deserve to be the butt of this joke.
Yeah.
Guest:I love that it was like Will Ferrell like first of all just wrote it on his own which is awesome but he presented it for a different show and it just didn't work didn't work in the room so he just put it put it in a desk and then brought it out for Christopher Walken and I gotta say if it was any other actor like it would not have worked but Christopher Walken did
Guest:like creates this magic in this, uh, in this doc.
Guest:And what I love about this doc is that you see the rehearsal footage.
Guest:Like I've never seen that before.
Guest:I've never seen that.
Guest:It was so cool to see that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I, well, I used to watch rehearsal at a 30 rock.
Marc:Because, you know, we were when you're sitting at my desk, which is has, you know, access to everything that's going on in the building.
Marc:So you could just literally turn on the REM that has the what's going on in age and see it just like you're supposed to be able to turn on.
Marc:Like if I'm sitting at the desk there and I want to see what's on the air that I just produced, like I'm not in the control room.
Marc:I have access to that.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:where the news is you know but you could do the same so if i was there during rehearsal i would absolutely watch it on the on the thing i never watched the night of dress rehearsal which is what they are showing there right but i've seen them doing rehearsals during the course of the week where they're in like street clothes and that and sometimes it's funnier because you're watching them like
Marc:discover things in the moment of like, oh, this could be funny if we did this, you know?
Marc:So I always enjoyed watching them do those early rehearsals, but I never saw what they show in the doc, which is the night of dress rehearsal.
Marc:And it's so fascinating watching a professional like Chris Walken do what you're supposed to do.
Marc:Which is hold back.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, he brought like 40%.
Guest:Like he was not like bringing his A game.
Guest:And thankfully.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:It's like it was, you know, who I have seen do that and not in, you know, that kind of setting.
Marc:But in a similar way, I remember seeing Chris Rock do a stand-up set right before he did one of his specials at one of the clubs here in Brooklyn.
Marc:And he gave it nothing.
Marc:Really?
Marc:I think all he was trying to do was practice the timing, you know?
Marc:So he was, he was trying, and he, and I think we probably needed to reserve himself so that he didn't spoil things for himself.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like so that way that when he gets on stage and he's going to bring it up, you know, 50% more, it's going to feel vibrant and fresh to him, which is what happens to walk in, in this sketch.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh man, that's interesting.
Marc:I love that Dana Carvey is, he's so spot on in this thing where he's like, cowbell was the right word to have Christopher Walken say.
Marc:There's just something about the owl and bell to happen next to each other.
Marc:Those sounds, he's like, that's a very Walken sound to make happen.
Guest:I loved that.
Guest:I loved hearing everyone do a Lauren impersonation, which I realize, I think I just get that from your show.
Marc:Well, Dr. Evil too.
Guest:Yeah, but that's Dr. Evil.
Guest:I'm talking like people, I know of people doing Lauren Michaels impressions from your show.
Guest:That's definitely true.
Guest:Mark would always talk to SNL people and they would always do an impersonation.
Guest:So it's just fun to hear out in the wild.
Guest:Oh, that was okay.
Guest:It was just so delightful.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, I totally get that from your show.
Guest:But I also love that we find out that like there's a there's a set on SNL that's called Shit Can Alley.
Guest:And I love like we see the diagram on paper, like a blueprint.
Guest:It's like, oh, it's right over here.
Guest:The audience can't really see it.
Guest:They're only seeing it on monitors.
Guest:And like, I love that.
Marc:Did you know that about the space?
Marc:No.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:So there... I mean, there's not just Shit Can Alley.
Marc:There are multiple spaces on there that are harder for the audience to see or that partial audience cannot see it, right?
Marc:Because you have to use this whole space and it's not that big.
Marc:So, like, if you're doing...
Marc:You have four things.
Marc:There's also one section of the set that has full gas and electric piped in so that if you're doing like a scene where it requires somebody to be on a stove that has fire coming up or whatever.
Marc:You have to be on that.
Marc:They have to be over there.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So there's all this logistic planning that has to happen.
Marc:Sometimes...
Marc:They put sketches on home base, which is, you know, where they do the monologue and everything.
Marc:And you just don't know it's that because they throw the they throw three walls up or whatever and sit couch down or table or whatever.
Marc:But that, yeah, it's like the whole thing is choreographed like a dance.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Of like moving things in and out and setting it up logistically.
Marc:So all things are going to work for 90 minutes.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That's the other thing.
Guest:Like the fact that like they do a table read, they decide like they decide on like, I don't know, 20 sketches, let's say.
Guest:And there's just a team of magicians who are working on sets and like building stuff like that.
Marc:three days four days before it's time to go live is they build it at a separate warehouse that i don't know if it's still there i know like as of when they wrote the books about snl i remember reading it that it's a place in new jersey so that there's some time on like friday night where they're shipping all this stuff over the george washington bridge and getting it up into 30 rock all these sets and everything
Guest:that's unbelievable.
Guest:Like I, I want to dock just on those guys.
Marc:Like that's awesome.
Marc:Well, I love that.
Marc:The one guy who's the fan, I'm forgetting his name right now, but he's been, he was there forever.
Marc:Uh, who is like the, the head guy who like is the, the stage manager, I guess you could call him or set manager, uh, in charge of all the sets.
Marc:He's the guy who draws the diagrams and everything.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he's talking about the, that spot.
Marc:And the person who's like shooting the doc is like, well, you know, they call that shit can alley.
Marc:And he's like, Oh no.
Yeah.
Guest:He's like, I didn't know they called it that.
Guest:And like other people call it coffin corner.
Guest:And I just love it.
Guest:I love it.
Guest:It's so great.
Guest:And, uh, but so the doc then goes to like the tick tock, uh,
Guest:of walk-ins monologue well first like they actually start with like the beginning where it's will ferrell as george bush and like he does an opening with dana carvey and they do live from new york and he has to run yeah but you see them like ripping apart the set the oval office set i
Guest:Love that.
Guest:That's stuff I never get to see.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Just the, they're taking a keg away.
Guest:Like they're, they're ripping everything apart.
Guest:They're running so that Will Ferrell can get changed for this, for this sketch.
Guest:And, and then you got Christopher Walken's monologue and he's like, yep, we have a great show.
Guest:And you can see someone doing,
Guest:Like Christopher Walken's, you know, taking Christopher Walken's hand and just walking him over to where he needs to be.
Guest:I love that.
Guest:Like I would watch a like a commercial free episode of SNL just to see them like make magic happen.
Guest:Like it's just so cool.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I also love that they show that while that sketch is happening, you can briefly spot walk him in the window and he's losing his shit.
Guest:That's just great.
Guest:And I love...
Guest:So, so the doc does like, it freeze frames the, uh, the, the sketch, the, uh, the, the more cowbell sketch.
Guest:And like, so they get to talk about all these like little things that you don't really notice.
Guest:And like Jimmy Fallon, who I personally loved on the show because he would break.
Guest:How do you feel?
Guest:Do you,
Guest:Do you hate when people break?
Guest:Oh, no, no, no.
Marc:I love it and I always liked Jimmy.
Marc:And Jimmy told basically all of this stuff on his episode of WTF.
Marc:Like, when I was watching this doc and I was like, oh, yeah, I've heard him say this on our show.
Marc:Like, all the stuff about how he was trying not to laugh, trying not to laugh.
Marc:And it was just that moment where Will, like, whipped his head around and he looked like Charles Manson, just, like, crazed looking his eyes.
Guest:No, I believe Jimmy said, I looked into the eyes of a lunatic.
Marc:But they show you the look, too.
Marc:Like, you're like, yep, I see what you laughed at.
Guest:Just destroyed for the rest of the schedule.
Marc:What was the thing they do they would call Chris Parnell like the Iceman or something?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:You could never break.
Marc:Yeah, and like you see Will Ferrell trying with all his might.
Marc:He's like banging the cowbell right on his face.
Yeah.
Guest:Just the best.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:And just the like everything Christopher Walken does, like he brings like like his a game when Will Ferrell realizes like, oh, my God, Christopher Walken, like what is this?
Guest:Like he is doing something that we haven't seen.
Guest:It's like Nolan Ryan, like pitching a no hitter.
Guest:And like, you know, like when the crowd is laughing at a kind of funny joke, but Will Ferrell was like, oh my God, they're laughing at that.
Guest:We got him.
Guest:Like, this is going to be awesome.
Guest:And so Will, who has changed into a tighter shirt, which is so key to making this sketch work, like his belly is just gyrating.
Guest:I think they call it front twerking.
Guest:And just like his belly is just exposed.
Guest:And it's just...
Guest:It's honestly one of the funniest things I've seen.
Guest:And I just love it.
Guest:And then Christopher Walken delivers, you know, well, guess what?
Guest:I got a fever.
Guest:And the only prescription is more cowbell.
Guest:And do you know what I realized, dude?
Guest:I forgot that when I worked at Ron and Fez on WNEW, I fucking forgot that I guess the cue card guy is a fan or was a fan of Ron and Fez, that the cue card guy gave Ron and Fez that cue card.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:For two years, I was staring at it.
Guest:In our office was that, guess what?
Guest:I got that whole thing by Christopher Walken.
Guest:I had it in the office.
Guest:Isn't that crazy?
Marc:That is cool.
Marc:Here's a little secret.
Marc:Every cue card has three backup versions.
Marc:So they are able...
Marc:I don't think they like to do it like as practice, just give them all away, but they are able in that kind of case.
Marc:Like if they have a friend or somebody like they can sneak one out and get one to you.
Marc:And I know this because I gave one to somebody once.
Marc:No kidding.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:We, we had office secret Santa.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Man, I don't get any good gifts.
Guest:Like, God damn it.
Marc:The thing was, it was like Secret Santa and it had like a $15 limit on it.
Marc:And I was like, what the fuck are you going to get somebody for $15?
Marc:And the person whose name I pulled, I didn't know her at all.
Marc:And she had just come from the NBC page program.
Marc:So, you know, she was brand new in the office, you know, basically like an office assistant.
Marc:And and she, you know, probably 21, 22 years old or so.
Marc:She was, you know, had just ended her page term.
Marc:So I wrote to one of the people who's like the head of the pages or like, you know, like a senior page or something like that.
Marc:And I was like, hey, you know, do you know anything about Naima who just came, you know, to hear from the page program?
Marc:It's like she have any special interests or whatever.
Marc:And she wrote back, said a few things.
Marc:She loves SNL like that.
Marc:She's obsessed with SNL.
Marc:And I was like, do you think I can get a cue card?
Marc:Because that would be a good secret Santa gift.
Marc:And she was like, oh, hell yeah.
Marc:And she put me in touch with somebody from SNL or whatever.
Marc:And they were like, yeah, we can give it to you.
Marc:Come on up.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And this was like one of those things where it's like, you know, I can't believe I work in this building.
Marc:Like I walked up when she invited me up to like, I would not have gone there like at this time if it was just me walking around the building because it was like Friday night at like eight o'clock or something.
Marc:Like it was busy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I walked up there and like...
Marc:I like there was a security out the ass and there was just like a lot of people milling about.
Marc:And I have my card on, you know, I clearly work in the building and I'm like, Hey, I'm here to see, you know, so-and-so this person who just told me to come up and they're like, Oh, okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I walk in and there's just full SNL going on, like rehearsing and like everybody moving around.
Marc:Like I wasn't watching anything happening.
Marc:And I also was in and out.
Marc:So I didn't like, I didn't want to be conspicuous or whatever.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But like it was happening.
Marc:And and I go up and she's like, oh, they got you a good one.
Marc:And it was from a recent episode with Steve Buscemi as the host.
Marc:And he was talking about.
Marc:Christmas ornaments or something.
Marc:I don't remember the sketch, but I do remember that the cue card was him going, this one's been up my butt a lot.
Marc:I mean, all the way.
Marc:That's amazing.
Marc:And I wrapped it in everything.
Marc:I put like, it was like a piece of Oak tag and I wrapped it and I was like, here's your secret Santa present.
Marc:Sorry.
Marc:I said, sorry, I didn't hit the $15 limit.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:And how'd you like it?
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:I think I was the hero of the year.
Guest:Yeah, of course.
Guest:That's amazing story.
Guest:Oh, God damn.
Guest:That's a great story, dude.
Guest:But yeah, this documentary.
Guest:First of all, I didn't know that there was there's an SNL France or Spain.
Guest:That is weird.
Guest:I did.
Guest:Like, did you know that?
Guest:No.
Guest:That's wild to me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, like, of course it makes sense, but no, I did not know about that.
Guest:Crazy.
Guest:And, and the fact that Christopher Walken refuses to talk about it was, is just delightful.
Guest:Like I love, and the fact that Dave Grohl, who was just, you know, talking as talking head in this documentary, he's like, Oh, he won't talk about it.
Guest:I guess that's his teen spirit.
Guest:Huh?
Guest:Like the
Guest:referencing the fact that he will not talk about Nirvana's teen spirit.
Guest:It's just like, this is amazing.
Guest:This is what a documentary.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:When they tell a story that he's like, he saw Will Ferrell and he was like, you've ruined my life.
Guest:I'm on stage in Broadway and everyone has cowbell.
Guest:Just a delight.
Guest:Oh, shit.
Guest:What a great documentary.
Guest:I highly recommend everyone watching this because it was a treat.
Guest:And it will just get you kind of in the mood to watch more SNL, honestly, and just like have some comedy in this dark times.
Marc:Yeah, well, hey, you know, it was one of the things that I've done that really, you know, kind of enhanced my appreciation of SNL was read a lot of stuff about SNL.
Marc:And if you like this kind of thing and about knowing about the history of it, there's a lot of books that I could recommend.
Marc:Obviously, the one that's kind of like the Bible is the Live from New York, The Oral History of SNL by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller.
Marc:You've read that, right, Chris?
Guest:Yes, yeah.
Marc:Love that.
Marc:An amazing book.
Marc:And like I said, it's kind of like the definitive telling of the first 25 years of the show.
Guest:But.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:I've just realized that you could write a second book about the next 25.
Guest:Oh, absolutely.
Guest:Holy shit.
Marc:But also, I will say this.
Marc:There is a book that is like an unofficial sequel or almost, I would say, like, kind of like reads like an appendix to the first book.
Marc:And it is an oral history biography of Chris Farley.
Marc:It's called The Chris Farley Show.
Guest:Oh, cool.
Marc:And it's by Tim Farley, his...
Marc:brother and tanner colby who also did the belushi biography which is not the one to be confused with wired uh by bob woodward this is like the one that was like officially ordained by the belushi family um but anyway the farley show one is written just like the live from new york one it's and it's all the same players you know people from that era of the show so if you like that live from new york i recommend reading the chris farley one but
Marc:This is my ultimate recommendation, like the closest depiction of what it's really like backstage there.
Marc:Things that I have learned and, you know, known about that show comes from the book that came out in 1986.
Marc:called Saturday Night, a backstage history of Saturday Night Live by Doug Hall and Jeff Weingrad.
Marc:And I know for a long time that was out of print.
Marc:I remember getting it from the library because you couldn't get it at stores anymore.
Marc:But it is now in print.
Marc:Once again, they just did a new printing for the 50th anniversary.
Marc:I
Marc:Highly recommend that book.
Marc:It's not written like an oral history.
Marc:It's written like a reported piece about the first 10 years of the show.
Marc:Really, really great.
Marc:I also know there's a new book that just came out called Lorne, The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison.
Marc:I have not read that yet.
Marc:But what I have read that is a great look at Lorne, even though he's not the subject of the book, is Bill Carter's The War for Late Night.
Marc:And that is the book about the Conan Leno kerfluffle.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Did they make an HBO movie about that?
Marc:No, Bill Carter also wrote The Late Shift, which is about the David Letterman Leno.
Guest:Tonight Show fight.
Guest:So this is like the Conan Jalen Owen.
Marc:Yes, and the same guy wrote the book and did a great job.
Marc:This is a great book.
Marc:But Lorne is fascinating in this book.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Like his vantage point of the whole thing and basically him telling people all along like,
Marc:you probably shouldn't do this or don't do that or whatever.
Marc:And you know, he winds up being this almost Oracle and it really gets across that like, this is just a dude who knows his job.
Marc:He knows how to work in TV and it's a very illuminating look at him and also a very entertaining and illuminating look at that whole time of late night, basically before late night died.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And I do want to mention, I don't know this book.
Marc:I have not read it yet, but our listener Seth has recommended The Blues Brothers by Daniel DeVizay.
Marc:Daniel, Dan is a friend of Seth's, but I have seen this book recommended on plenty of lists about like the best books on SNL.
Marc:And so I do intend to check this out.
Marc:And so thank you, Seth, for the recommendation.
Marc:But I will put links to all those books in the episode description here.
Marc:And as well as the link to the comments page where you can send us anything you want, just like those listeners did send us stuff about SNL.
Marc:And as you can tell by this, I could probably talk about this for days.
Marc:So if you have any other thoughts or topics to come up, maybe we'll watch some of those other documentaries, too, because they really are fun.
Guest:Yeah, I think they're doing the 50th anniversary in like two weeks, right?
Guest:They're doing like a Sunday night special.
Marc:Now, yeah, that I imagine will be lots of clips and stuff.
Marc:But I really like these things where, like you're saying, you see the side where you don't typically see it.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:Oh, man, this is great.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Next week, we will be back to talk about more stuff on the show.
Marc:I know we got the Ariana Grande episode coming up.
Marc:So excited for that.
Marc:Yes, that should be good.
Marc:It should be fun to talk about.
Marc:We also have some other Oscar nominees that should be recording by the time you hear this, hopefully.
Marc:And then we will bring that to you in the next couple of shows as well.
Marc:But until then, I am Brendan and that is Chris.
Marc:Peace.