National Lampoon's European Vacation with Jon Gabrus

Blank Jack with Griffin and David

Blank Jack with Griffin and David.

Don't know what to say or to expect.

All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Jack.

Hey, look, kids, there's Big Ben.

There's a podcast again.

He's going in circles.

He's in the roundabout.

Here's the thing.

This movie has

a great kind of golden age of poster taglines, tagline, but there was no way to do justice to it without using the exact words they use.

So I want to just read the tagline.

Go ahead.

We love a good multi-sentence tagline.

I mean, I saw it and I was just like, this tagline is appropriate.

It describes the film.

It's not that funny.

For over 2,000 years, Europe has survived many great disasters.

Now for the real test, Chevy Chase and his family are coming from America.

Oh,

you know, just

is of the times.

Do you think that's a little rude?

We noticed this as well on, spoiler alert,

next week's episode.

Look who's talking.

That poster similarly has a tagline that name checks Travolta and Kirstiali rather than putting them above the title as like star building,

not characters, but it's like this was an era of like.

This is weirder because don't you think

isn't Clark Grisp?

He's established as well.

He's totally.

But you know what?

The tagline for the first vacation is: every summer Chevy Chase takes his family on a little trip.

This year, he went too far.

So they're going with the same format.

And the poster is very similar, let's say.

It's a flipped mirror image of him in a sort of Conan the Barbarian.

Right, him and the Frisetta star.

Familiar.

Yes.

My friend Frisetta calendar that I have actually had.

Do you really?

Yes.

Of course.

They abandon it for Christmas vacation.

They abandon the.

It's still a poster, but it's him being electrocuted.

It's still a painting.

It's a famous.

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

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

A Christ post.

Yes.

In a way.

But on the roulette.

On a roulette.

And

to me, actually, the Vegas vacation poster is iconic because it looks so exciting.

It does.

It's thrilling.

You know, you're like, my God, what is this?

He's in Vegas.

He's doing this.

Ah, there's money everywhere.

And yet you're like, there's something missing.

There's some weird absence.

What's the void on this poster?

Oh, National Lampoon has removed their name from this movie

in like 1998.

Seven.

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

Hey, fuck.

This might damage.

No, I agree with you.

Like in a modern era, right?

If like the first vacation's a hit, which it was, and you're making vacation two,

the tagline would be, now for the real test, the Griswolds are coming from America.

And then right below that, Chevy Chase in the biggest fucking letters you've ever seen.

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

Right.

And the Griswolds is like, they say that

they say it so much they're not the johnsons right like they get to be like we are the definitive griswolds in cinema history right there's no mistaking them the name is said constantly it's a good name it is i'm throw it on the poster clark griswold is a

it's amazing name yeah it's i mean why is winning name chevy chase is an insane name that's another thing it's just like chevy chase for for a fake movie star name when was the first time you drove through maryland as a kid and saw that there was chevy chase maryland and I had a fucking

had that realization.

And I was like,

it's not Chevy Chase.

What the fuck is this?

It's not named for him.

No, right?

No, no, no, I know Griff.

I know it's not named for him.

I'm literally as a kid, I'm like, he's, I know he was famous, but he wasn't getting the big cities named after him.

And then I was like, oh, was he named after the city?

And I had no fucking.

And I was just like, I think the answer is yes and no.

Well, the infamously at the peak of his like immediate rocket ship fame, right?

Like five episodes into SCP.

His name is Cornelius Chase.

Cornelius Crane Chase.

He's the fourth, the third?

Doesn't have gotten a lot of money.

I'm not seeing

an addendum.

That's a muddied name.

That's a Plymouth Rock.

He's from a real fucking Plymouth Rock, like Ivory Tower.

Right.

His grandfather was Rear Admiral Miles Browning

of the United States Navy.

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

They call me the Rear Admiral, sweet.

He's nicknamed for his adoptive grandfather, Cornelius.

While the nickname Chevy was bestowed by his grandmother from the medieval English ballad, The Ballad of Chevy Chase, which is an English ballad from long ago.

So it's

a ballad?

It must be.

I was going to say.

That's fucking awesome.

Season one of SNL.

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

And that's for sure.

Seriously.

That's where

we are producing.

Yes,

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

Okay.

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

Understandable.

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

Right.

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

Right.

From the moment he got famous, he was playing this bit of like, I'm tired of answering this question.

I know it's unbelievable, but yes, it's my real name, which he maintained for like 15 years,

which maybe tells us a lot about Chevy Chase.

But here's my question.

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

Interesting.

It's a classic right to privacy about birth control.

You know, a liberal Supreme Court decision.

67, you said?

65.

65.

So are the Griswolds, is that a clever John Hughes judge?

100 right you know about that that is that is absolutely the kind of thing raines and hughes would do intentionally yes okay i didn't i couldn't i can't find but i bet you that's true i think it has to be yeah

wow we really covered a lot of ground about preppy

new englandy or northeastern shit yeah

imagine trying to talk about a one of these vacation movies without getting into chevy like it's oh if we don't we don't acknowledge him at all we're like yeah actress good i don't know he seems to have a handle on the role we've talked chevy a couple times on this So, we've talked about Chevy Chase.

So, who's our, who's our show, and who's our guest?

This is Blank Check with Griffin and David.

I'm Griffin.

I'm David.

It's a podcast about filmographies.

Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want.

Sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they bounce to Europe, baby.

This is a mini series on the films.

Travelers' checks.

Sometimes traveler's checks clear.

And sometimes they're actually part of some complicated heist

involving a guy in a trunk.

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

Well, Ben, if you want to just clip that, we can drop that in about 25 more times when we talk about this movie.

There's so many plot elements that are not the clearest.

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

That's yes.

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

Eric Idol will be our through line and apart from that and Rusty being so fucking horny who's our well hey it's a mini-series on the films of Amy Heckerling that's right called pod times at Ridgemount Cast I love this today we're talking about her third film Meant as sort of a rebound move after the failure of Johnny Dangerously.

Why don't I sign on to a big Hollywood sequel?

This is Camp Miss proposition.

But one could argue it actually kind of stinked her career further.

I think it stuck to her where they were like, She's the person who fucked up the vacation franchise.

That was always the legacy I had heard.

Okay.

Yeah.

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

Oops.

Something that always causes damage on people's psyches.

Today we're talking about national lampoon.

Jesus Christ.

National Lampoons European Vacation.

That's right.

With our dear friend returning to the show.

Sixth time?

Holy shit.

That's Son Gabris.

Let's count him off.

I believe so.

Sounds right.

Heat.

Heat.

Full metal jacket.

Ding.

Oh, yeah.

Mad Max.

I forget which one.

Road Warrior.

Road Warrior.

Too fast.

Too fast.

Predat.

And Predator.

Wow.

You've had a bit of a marine with us.

This is new for you.

It's vibes.

It's perfect.

It is vibes.

It's perfect.

Yeah.

But you've done that.

That's what I'd grab from the Criterion Closet.

Those are exact five.

Well, I wanted to give like a little front porch that so frequently, and you know, we've had a couple of very long episodes together.

And you guys are, yes.

You guys are, well, Griffin, most of all, is a length queen.

You know, he's constantly talking about how long his Doughboys episodes are.

And then we get

Adam Perry in here fucking letting it rip.

But heat, of course, you could talk about heat for four hours.

Of course, I could talk about heat.

Justifiably long.

Yes.

But this is the first time I've ever felt like when, you know, like

David's like, I have a hard out.

I'm like, I think we'll be fine.

I think we'll be fine.

This is the sort of things where I'm like, I think if we went, if we'll see what happened, but if we went long on this, it still wouldn't be that long.

Here's another thing that happened.

There's only so much here.

You asked to push back, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, like a little later in the day.

Right.

David was like,

I have a heart out.

We're fine starting at two as long as we're done by this time.

Right.

And then you responded, need time to talk about breasts.

And David responded, let's make it 1.30, actually.

The one push was, we might need the extra half an hour if we're committing to damn chats.

10 minutes per rack.

It's one sequence.

So wait, to follow Griff.

Yes.

We've discussed Fletch, obviously.

A choice by Ben.

Benjamin Hosley, our producer.

Every once in a while, the dude shows up with good taste.

100%.

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

Yes.

A low point for all.

Sure.

Not really, yeah.

No one's covering themselves in glory.

Are those the only two we've done?

I believe that's a third kit.

I feel like on that episode in particular, we talked a lot about, because Carpenter Carpenter cites that as like a moment that kind of like killed his spirits.

There is kind of a before and after in his career of like post-memoirs, he seems a little heartbroken in a way that happens to a lot of popular artists, right?

Like there's some failure or setback they experience that they never totally get over.

And some of our

very kind, very normal Redditors, I saw in the comments of that episode being like, what is their source for this?

What is all this weird negativity they're throwing at Chevy Chase?

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

Any written reporting.

He is basically

a famous before and after person in people's careers when they work with him.

And he breaks people.

He does.

And we were talking about this, David, as we were prepping to do this episode a couple days ago.

You were like, here's a question.

Has anyone ever stepped away and gone, you know what?

I actually had a really good experience.

Who's the guy who has the anecdote?

My point was like, of like, you know, when my daughter got married chevy called me and was like i'm so happy to hear about you know what i mean like the guy who's like you know chevy's always been a mensch to me and my counterpoint to you was in one of like a vodka fueled harmonown seven hour run-ons where dan harmony like played voicemails of chevy saying the n-word he also was like and by the way here are three very nice things that chevy's done right in the framework of it was genuinely nice and it's hard for me to like make sense of that it doesn't fit into the fucking but there's like no one in a way that's even like

well Bill Murray can be temperamental but like Wes Anderson and Sophia Coppola know how to work with him and they're like he's always great with me there's no one who's like Chevy and I'm gonna get away so okay so Landis well Landis John Landis

hate to bring him up early but he worked with him multiple times uh spies like us three amigos there might be more right right i'm trying to think like who's worked with chevy multiple times who's covered multiple movies with chevy we can do some besides an entity of national ambush one ramis did it twice ramis did it twice.

But, like, even shit like Vacation, four different directors.

Caddyshack, the sequel, had a different director.

You know what I mean?

Like, Fletch Lives, different director.

But even then, and we can do some digging here, and I invite our listeners to do some digging.

I don't remember ever seeing a quote from Ramos or Richie.

Fletch Lives had the same director.

Okay, Richie.

He did both.

Did both?

Yeah.

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

Right.

I think the best case scenario is people being like, I'm fairly good at handling him.

Well, also, he's like, I'm good at like, my house is storm-proofed.

He ends up not being worth it either.

You know what I mean?

Like, well, that's the other thing.

There are people who are equally pricky, but insane, you know, levels above talented.

And so you're like, fuck, all right, strap that, strap in.

We're doing this.

You know what, man?

Richie worked with him three times.

What's the thing?

Cops and Robertsons with Jack Palance.

Yeah.

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

Like, I get Chevy.

He could be also a guy that Chevy dominates and gets hired.

Possibly.

Also, never

dead in the ground.

Well, I tell you, I tell you how.

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

Oh, those two guys, those normal guys.

I believe.

Small personalities.

We call those small personalities.

Little.

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

Great.

Well, Sly is my ambassador to Hollywood, so

I'm able to deal with, like, I'm interacting with him a lot.

I'm really, I got to say, I'm now disappointed that Chevy never made it into an expendables.

That would have been fun.

That would have been fun.

He's tall.

He's very tall.

He's good at falling down.

Yeah.

Exactly.

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

This is what we're going to talk about.

All right.

So Fletch.

All right.

Okay.

Number one question.

I'm posing it to everybody.

What is the best Chevy Chase movie?

Is it Fletch?

Is it Caddyshack?

Is it vacation?

Christmas vacation?

To me, it's a toss-up.

It's difficult to choose between Fletch and Christmas Vacation.

Because those are the two sides of Chevy.

Smarm versus affable.

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

No, that's why I'm putting it out there.

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

Yeah.

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

low-status role.

It's his like hapless, this guy kind of gets made to look a fool over and over again.

I think he gets to play both sides as Clark Griswold,

which is the best part, is that he gets to be like a smarmy wise ass totally, who then is the butt of the joke and then is also randomly the heartfelt dad.

It is the balance.

Quincy,

who is like the biggest biggest fan of the cinema of Chevy Chase and has always talked about.

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

Insane.

Yeah.

Right.

But even he is.

That's the thing.

Tarantino.

He's psycho, and I don't want to work with him.

He's savvy.

Exactly.

He's savvy.

He's savvy.

But Tarantino loves Chevy and has talked about him at length and is like the thing I love about Chevy movies.

And he'll go to bat by like.

Funny Farm is a flat-out five-star masterpiece.

I like Funny Farm.

The whole canon of Chevy

through like 99, he's like all in the tank for, right?

His big defense is like in that era of the sort of like postmodern version of the Groucho Marx, cool, wise guy, like snob versus slob comedy that comes out National Lampood and SNL and whatever.

All the other guys needed to go soft at some point and learn a lesson or show they really cared or that they were tender.

And like Chevy movies, he never stops being an asshole.

Yeah.

He like Quentin Tarantino really stands for the commitment to the smarm from Chevy.

Whereas like, the vacation movies are the only ones where there's a bit of balance without it feeling like he's selling out, which is an interesting tension.

It is like just through quantity, you have to say his definitive movie character.

Right,

it is his one franchise, but like, outside of that, every other Chevy performance is

this is Griswold without any balance, right?

Kind of winning more often.

Um, but Ben, what's your is your answer Fletch?

It was your OG pick, yeah.

and I love, I adore Fletch.

I can, it's so re-watchable.

I feel like, though, I have such a soft spot for Christmas.

Yes.

Right.

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

Not for me either.

I had to say that.

Because you mentioned until this time.

You mentioned this off mic earlier.

What did I say?

You said you were Jewish.

I did say that, and Gabris threatened to leave immediately.

I said, let's get that on mic.

I asked Griffin before I came in here.

I'm like, you don't have any Jewish people recording.

You're like, we actually have several.

I have to make a confession, Gabriel.

No, no, no.

I, too, am Jewish.

Ow, come on.

I'm trying to do comedy in New York and I'm finding all these Jewish guys.

Button in the water.

Obviously, there are movie fans and movie critics for all these intellectual, funny Jewish guys.

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

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

We were a big Christmas movie family, despite being a Jewish New York family.

And yet, my parents had a real allergy to Chevy Chase.

We were a Bill Murray household.

That was the flavor of smarm that was accepted in our household.

Were you watching Scrooge?

Not as much.

Great movie.

Right.

Great fucking movie.

We were like, certainly, we were watching like a Christmas story every year on TNT.

I'd never seen Famous on YouTube.

Yeah, a very good film.

But yeah, I remember one year family friends gifting us a DVD of Christmas vacation and my parents being like, really?

And their friends who were adults, the woman was like, yeah, we watched it all the time when I was growing up.

And they were like, really?

You watched this?

We had it in the house.

And they were just kind of like, I kind of hate we have a Chevy movie on the shelf.

Christmas vacation is enormous in my family.

It looms insanely large.

I have an uncle, Uncle Mike.

He has no idea how podcasts work at all, but he'll appreciate the shout out.

He's one of the most.

generous laughers in my life.

And he always said, like, I, and he looked, he looks a little bit like Michael McDonald.

He was a postal worker.

He was a mailman.

He had like tinted glasses and gray long hair.

And he would always be like, I want to be your sidekick when you're a talk show host because I'll just cackle because he thought I was so funny.

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

Yeah, he would, no, he would say shit like, don't worry, he's just yakking on a bone or like, got a little bit of that Mississippi leg hound in him.

You got to let him finish.

Like, he knew the whole movie by heart.

Yeah.

He was obsessed with it.

He would laugh so hard just talking to us about it.

He would have tears pouring down his face just remembering scenes.

My aunt instilled a rule that he wasn't allowed to start watching Christmas Vacation until Thanksgiving.

Because otherwise, he'd be watching it every weekend.

He'd watch it every fucking weekend.

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

And when I said, Uncle Mike, why are you laughing so loud?

He's like, my buddy was telling me about Monty Python's The Holy Grail.

He was just laughing about the movie and cackling.

I'm like, oh, it's awesome.

I I just think there's basically a grouping of

a Christmas story, Christmas vacation,

elf.

We're talking about cable classics.

Right.

But especially the first, you know, like it's just like cable TV is invented.

And they're like, when, what shall we put on it?

And they're like, well, Christmas story and Christmas vacation.

Right.

Well, we know every month that this will play well.

Yeah.

But those are sort of vacation movies in general, I felt like were on cable all the time.

Yes.

They're just

what America wanted in the 80s, this kind of like just ribbled enough, right?

Like family friendly, but also like a little spicy.

Here's a confession that might surprise you, Gabris.

And David and I have been comparing notes on this.

I had seen Nashville Lampoons Vacation and Christmas Vacation.

I feel like Cloverfield style, as I like to call it.

Yeah, like you bits and pieces of these.

Like I, in the last 36 hours, watched both of them.

intentionally sitting down from beginning to end for the first time in my life.

Whoa.

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

Yes.

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

Poor guy probably kept up for the first few miles.

Yes.

Did you go to the P and I basically put on?

I don't think I've seen any of this.

Did you go to Vegas?

Have I?

In my life?

Oh, I haven't yet in my watch through.

You did all five.

I did all of them.

I even watched the right remake or

continuation.

A continuation.

The Legacy.

I've never seen that one.

How is that?

Have you seen it?

The John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein.

Is it at Homes?

At Holmes.

Yeah.

I haven't watched it.

For the first 20 minutes of it, you're like, this is cooking.

This is funny.

And then, I don't know.

Its biggest set pieces did nothing for me.

But also, it has a little bit of stuff.

Holdstein and Daly, right after that, go on to do Date Night and Dungeons and Dragons.

I'm sorry.

Game Night.

They didn't do Date Night, mercifully.

Yeah, no, they did the better night.

Right, right.

They did Game Night and Dungeons and Dragons.

So you want to go back and be like, was this a secret masterpiece?

Because these guys seem to be on the street.

But it's got a couple clever

things.

Sure.

It's better.

It's okay.

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

I would say.

and it's so of that peak, it's peak like the hangover era.

Where the post-app is happening.

It's so nasty and like

just kind of puerile and gross in a way where you're kind of like, it's kind of funny.

And then again, you just kind of get sick of it afterwards.

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

Sure.

And thinking, feeling a shiver in my body and going, oh, fucking theatrical comedies might be a little doomed.

Because I was like, well, it's going to do well.

Well, you're wrong.

Right.

Bigger and better than ever.

I remember logicking out that movie came out in August and like one or two other big comedies had flopped already that year.

And I was like, that's going to do well just because there has to be one comedy hit every summer.

Right.

Something, something's got to get.

And We're the Millers was kind of an example of like a couple other things that underperformed and then that weirdly overperformed in August because people are just like, I want to laugh one time.

Right.

Your horrible bosses are doing well for this reason.

Right.

And it was like vacation didn't do well.

And I was like, huh, there were no comedy hits this year?

What does that mean?

Yeah, wait, what was the biggest comedy hit of 2015?

I'm about to find out.

I'm going.

It's perfect two doesn't count.

Daddy's home comes out that Christmas.

Oof.

That's the one.

Wait, you're saying Daddy's Home?

That's 30th.

We can't do better than that.

Spy is above it.

Do we count Spy?

Yeah.

Okay.

Spy's a comedy.

Well, I like Spy.

Spy is good.

Yeah, Spy is quite good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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

And no one's talking about it, but I enjoyed it.

It was good, but no one's like, Oh, and you know what?

Let's rip the bond

spot.

Trainwreck is above

those movies.

Okay.

But Daddy's Home does come out in Christmas.

Yeah, sure.

You know what?

There had been comedy hits that year.

I don't know what the fuck I was talking about, but certainly just relaxed and comedy is doing fine.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I mean, the things that did badly, though, maybe are things that I'd like to do.

Comedy is legal again.

Comedy is legal again.

I have made comedy legal again.

When they say they made comedy legal again, they mean made it not funny at all.

That seems to be what they mean.

Yeah, they they mean slurs are legal.

Right.

Ted.

And slurs are comedy also.

And some people are laughing.

There are three things at once.

Some very specific people are laughing in specific rooms.

TED 2, Pixels.

Okay.

You know, like, there's movies on this.

Those are a couple big budgets.

Paul Bart Mall Cop 2.

All movies where...

I defend Pixels, but movies where it's like, what are we doing?

I defend as well.

I defend Pixels.

But those are good.

You said I defend in whatever move you chose after those three, I was going to give you this look of disgust.

But like, you know, there's nothing wrong with doing Paul Blart Mall Cop 2.

The first one did well.

We went sequels to successful movies.

But at the same time, I think America's like, guys, we gave you a pass on Paul Blart Martin.

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

Sure.

Fucking.

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

Yeah, they waited a little too long.

Like, he hit the iron a couple times, had a couple other hits, then bombs, then was like, I guess I got to go back to the safety net of Blurt.

And people people were like, okay.

We missed Blurt.

Stop doing MMA guys and guys who work in zoos.

Yeah, that was what it was.

It was Kevin James going like, final.

So the King of Queens bought a zoo.

Right.

Yes.

I had never seen any of these movies.

And when Heckerling got picked, I was like, all right, I'm going to fucking watch it.

Are you a fan of vacation as a concept?

You don't have like a lot of vacation vibes.

It's a rich conversational thread.

Thank you for opening this door.

i'll say this you are traveling as not right now because i have all these children yes and there are some people who with who i know with young children who are just like i don't give a shit i have to do i gotta go yeah you know for some people obviously they gotta go see their family right you know i get that very much so but like some people just like i gotta go on vacation i'll just bring the kids you tough out the hard parts you do the easy part you know whatever I'm just like, no, man, bringing kids on vacation is a huge hassle.

You don't have any fun so far is my experience.

And they not much out of it.

Right.

Yeah.

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

Sure.

Great.

I mean, famous.

That's a great way to phrase that.

An anecdote I love to repeat on.

I want to get too free.

Fuck.

That's what happened.

In early 2020, we were

able to go to Orlando.

to do an episode about Galaxy's Edge when that was about to open.

And there were two windows where it made sense to do it, February 2020 or June 2020.

I'm so worked up about that.

And we were close to pulling the the trigger on February.

And then I was like, fuck, the Ratatouille ride doesn't open until June.

Let's wait for June.

And then the world ends, right?

And David and his wife have their first child.

And then, like, when things reopened, we sort of like started the conversation again about like, is it worth trying to talk about doing this?

And David's response was, I can't go to Disney World now.

I have a child.

Which is a very funny phrase because that's when you're supposed to go.

Not when you have a zero-year-old, obviously.

I'm just, I'm not.

saying

i'm so sorry i'm just not one of these guys i fucking hate disney yes someone says it disney like almost everything else i like in life is ruined by the other people who like it when i go to disney everyone there drives me i don't disagree with this i don't disagree with this even this is what i hear from everyone where everyone who likes disney world and shit is like It's kind of getting ruined, both by the super fans and by the evil company that runs it, you know, squeezing every last drop of money out of it.

But I think a lot of your frustration with traveling as a concept, which has obviously gotten more complicated as you now have one million children,

is the like, hell is other people part of it.

Like, you don't like dealing with the systems and crowds.

I don't know if that's true.

That's part of my system.

You are in

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

Gabris is pointing out

how to explain it.

I am double-jointed.

Yes, you are.

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

He created his own, I could describe it.

He created his own gargoyle wings using using his arms

i do it sometimes and it alarms people i'm sorry um but it helps you get out of handcuffs frequently yeah when i was nine years old we moved yes we moved to england it's just a known fact on this podcast been listening to the pod for a long time i wish you guys did some bits my mom as well yeah my mom did not want to move to england okay like my dad got a job and it was you know we had to move but my mom was very but she was like look if we're gonna move to europe We are going like on vacation to Europe, right?

Like if I'm gonna take advantage of being a train rider, away from 11 countries.

And so, we went on vacation, like, and you're a train boy.

We know that.

And you love trains.

We have that in common.

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

Yes, she didn't want to go to Europe.

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

Oh, she's the daughter?

I'm sorry.

To me, they're just dad, mom, daughter, son.

To me, they're Chase, Beverly, daughter, son.

Blank, blank.

Philip or Philip.

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

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

They just morph.

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

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

I don't know.

You guys hear me out.

Griffin hasn't seen it, but Vegas Vacation.

Ethan Embry is funny in Vegas Vacation.

He's the best part, Nick Papa Georgia.

He's really funny.

That whole plot is.

Have you seen Vegas Vacation?

Oh, yeah.

I've been seen Vegas Vacation.

That was really funny.

I was laughing.

I got it.

It's all funny.

David?

I didn't hate Vegas Vacation.

I was sort of surprised, but I was like, this is competent.

It's okay.

Because it has a bad reputation.

It's the third best.

So you think it's better than European?

Yes.

Wow.

I think European is the worst, I think.

But I'll hear it out.

I'll hear it.

Yeah.

I feel like that's a consensus.

Vegas Vacation just has this vibe of like the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce paid for a movie, you know, a little bit.

Like, it's got the most, like, look at all this shit you could do in Las Vegas.

Yeah, there's also a desert.

Wait, Las Vegas.

Yeah.

Like, it's got a little bit more of that going on but wait when you lived in britain your family would do european i had like some of the happiest fucking shit i ever did was all those vacations like you were a rusty in that situation the pressure wasn't on you pressure wasn't on me but i i mean like i went backpacking in europe with my friends i was i was uh the the clerk there well that sounds like american werewolf in london

and that was great and i like vacation i like my i'm more of a let me go to a place and sit on a beach i like to relax yeah

yeah we know that Whereas, like, I feel like a lot of the vacations that went on when you're a kid, these are the kind of vacations you go on, where it's like, all right, kids, we're, you know, going to every fucking museum.

We're going to every church we can find.

This movie captures that pretty well.

So, yeah, that's what I like about that.

It is enriching.

Yeah.

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

I need to watch Vegas and the Gold Scene Daily.

Yeah.

But much to my surprise, knowing this movie's reputation, this is kind of my favorite of the first three.

I would never argue it's the best.

And I think a lot of people are- That seems like Ben looks concerned.

My weird sensibility, but like, I like how angry this movie is.

I like that this movie is like the most invested in the like the hell of the trip.

Yes.

Where it's like the multi-leg that it's like kind of almost every character in this movie seems a little bit like cosmically tortured and rotten.

And I like that they're ugly Americans, but also.

That's what I like about the movie is that it's anti-American and anti-European at at the scene.

I do think it finds that balance well, right?

Everyone is a fool.

Which I feel like to a lot of people, they're just like, this movie is just like kind of like toxic from the beginning.

Like it just seems sort of mean

in a way that's a little like extreme on the dial.

It's just a touch more boring than you want it to be.

Sure.

It's also, I mean, it's like highly episodic.

Yes, it's like it has like no drive.

No.

And you, and you do not give a fuck about anything.

No, no.

Like it's hard to care about anything in the movie.

It it is chaos and it's it's it feels orderly nihilistic on this viewing the only thing i cared about was rusty getting pussy for some reason like i got into it a little bit i mean he cares a lot about that he's such a strange looking actor i'm so sorry to the kid do you know who he is no he is blake lively's brother what wow they come from like an acting dynasty family where there are he's not bad at all no i think there are like eight kids and he's

the youngest like there's a big gap between them and age certainly he was born in 68 and Blake Clively was born in 87.

It's a huge 18-year age difference.

Like, it's fun, funny to think about this movie in 86.

What year did this movie come out?

This movie came out in 1985.

85, and then like 20 years later, his sister is playing a high schooler on TV.

Oh, that's crazy, right?

His sister.

Can I say this about Chevy Chase in this movie?

Yes, he can.

When the business is is good,

like the situational physical comedy stuff, when it's good, it's so good.

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

Yes.

This movie, it just falls so flat.

Yeah.

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

Totally.

And he's just not given the opportunity.

Also,

and I'll go as far to say, why peck?

uh tubes

what's in tubes that you need to bring with you on vacation i do not understand

I get it.

It's for the physical gag of hitting the guy in the dots.

But why is that in the car?

What?

They brought posters from America where they intend to bring home canvas art?

Like, what do they have all those little tubes for?

Is he doing architecture work, like drafting?

No, it's fucking crazy.

Well, here's like, David's getting ready to clap his hands.

I feel like he had a thing to say.

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

Let's circle back to your, like, what's the best Chevy, right?

For me, the revelation of Fletch and a movie that I've grown to appreciate more and more on repeat viewings, being educated properly to its importance by Ben Hosley.

Yeah.

Right.

I'd seen it once before.

Ben helped me place it in a context.

I revisited now.

I like it a lot.

I think that's the only movie that gets at, that starts to gnaw at the core of Chevy Chase is clearly really unhappy.

Right.

Yeah.

There's some element of like the whole weird like

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

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

Right.

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

I want to be this suave.

I want to live like this specifically because I love like the Beach Bum lifestyle and all that shit.

Speaking of which Beach Bum, another aspirational movie, shout out.

When you guys do Harmony Corinne, I call dibs on that.

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

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

When Harmony Corinne wins next year's March Man.

I want to say

definitely building up the case with his recent outbreak.

I want to say

you don't like how that looks, Steven?

We got David Lowry doing Aggro Drift.

I love to have a migraine.

Well, there's the new one, but it was Baby Fighters Baby Invasion.

Have you seen this one?

It's like in a first-person shooter game.

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

I can't wait.

It's his follow-up.

I haven't even seen Aggro Drift.

No, no, I don't want to.

He hasn't seen Aggro Drift.

It's only playing at the Company.

It's only playing at the Moddy Shop Strip strip club on Sunset.

I think like the Michael Ritchie, who was more of a like dramedy filmmaker, right?

And made these films that had like an interesting mash of tones

and could capture some like actual darkness and pathos in a broader comedy.

There's just like the subtle, like some of the scenes, the way he captures just like Chevy walking through spaces.

It's not like textually overstated, but you're like, there's some darkness going on in this guy.

Also, Chevy knows how to walk through a room and be funny, but not too much.

Like he could just, he just makes funny physical choices the way he moves or looks or like reacts.

Yes.

And that's like a superpower.

Right.

But there's like a little bit like there's something behind this guy's defensive armor of like the witty

because he's funny and good looking, tan and rich.

He should be like happy.

Right.

And he just can't be.

Right.

And I feel like Fletch interrogates that a little bit.

Right.

And then the first three vacation movies are kind of interesting prismatic views of like what is chevy's power as a movie star because i was sort of watching the first one and trying to contextualize like huh it feels like national lampoon's vacation is early for chevy to try to make the i'm a dad right switch right like it feels like he was doing

it's not a new dad comedy it's like i'm a full-blown family i'm a suburban holy god and i think there's now more of a pipeline of like that being a stage that like comedy starters need to have in their career, at least when comedy movies still existed, of like you make the family comedy switch really quickly.

Whereas back then, I think it was like family comedies are like fucking like million-dollar duck.

Yeah.

Or you make like cool, R-rated, transgressive comedies.

And Chevy's like straddling this line.

What's interesting about the vacation franchise is that it's like kind of for grown-ups and kids at the same time.

They're weirdly horny and angry.

Yeah, it's the, it's like the four con four quadrant movie of our child.

Now they are now the four quadrant movies are like American Bollywood films more or less where it's like it's got a dance number, it's got a fight, it's got romance, it's got a, you know, it's got a song, it's IP, it's like all this shit.

Right.

And back then a four quadrant movie was like, there's some stuff for kids.

And if I can quote the great Andy Daly, a little something for daddy.

He he was the oldest or he wasn't the oldest.

Caramoros was the oldest, but he was older going into SNL than a lot of the other guys who were in the early 20s.

He is like in his late 30s by the time of the third, of the first vacation, which like in the 1980s in America isn't.

You have a 12-year-old that

it's like totally possible.

Maybe not Hollywood stars do, but like it's not.

A majority of Americans, yes.

Yes.

But his persona had still so recently been, this guy is cool and gets chicks.

And I was astonished in watching the movie straight through for the first time, how much the first vacation plays like a proto-American beauty, where it's like this guy having some early crisis of like, I have an incredibly comfortable middle-class existence with a beautiful wife and children, and I seem so fucking angry and unhappy, and all I do is fantasize about fucking other women.

That's lost in this movie.

Totally.

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

So the first movie has like a lot of hapless dad stuff, and it obviously builds to the idea of like, he's going to hit a breaking point.

And what we really want to see is Chevy getting so angry that he's holding John Kennedy at gunpoint.

But you also have this running thread of just like, this guy seems frustrated with his like very idyllic little that's why so I yeah it's a it's a perfect like Reagan-era movie.

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

Famous is a good director.

I was like but like thematically there's something interesting going on here in terms of like what it's saying about the culture.

The goal of the movie is nothing.

Nothing.

His goal is to get his family to an amusement park.

You know what I mean?

Like that's it.

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

Yes.

And the more he insists upon it, the more everyone has done it.

The more difficult it is.

And he's like, I want you to think back to your childhood fondly.

I'm forcing good memories.

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

David,

this episode is brought to you, The Listener.

by Mubi, a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema from around the globe, from iconic directors to emerging auteurs.

There is always something new to discover.

With Mubi, each and every film is hand selected so you can explore the best of cinema streaming anytime anywhere and here's a hand selection here's a here's a spotlight nothing more to discuss here everything's wait what's david what turn the spotlight on i've put my glove on to select by hand

through the creak of the door we have three different visuals going on

the glove to hand pick oh of course david mussolini colon son of the century.

It is, it look,

it's an exciting project, but it's really funny to be like, guys, Mussolini!

Here's what's funny about it, just to peel back the curtain for a second.

We get like messages that are like, hey, you guys good with this ad?

Yeah, here's the copy for the ad.

And as shorthand, it was texted to us as, you guys good with the Mussolini ad?

And I was like, Mussolini sponsoring the podcast?

What do you mean?

To be clear, we decry Il Duce Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, the terrible dictator of Italy.

But we celebrate Joe Wright and his newest project.

The filmmaker Joe Wright

has created

an eight-episode series about Mussolini's rise to power.

And I will say, not to sound like a, you know, a little nerd over here, but it is actually very interesting to consider Mussolini's rise to power in these times.

You know, he was sort of the original fascist, and the way that he sees power in Italy is,

unfortunately something we should probably have on our minds right now.

I'm not trying to be a loser, right?

He's not like me right now.

This is the kind of thing I say.

It's a very interesting part of history, and I feel like because you know, other World War II things became

whatever the history channel's favorite thing, you don't hear quite as much about Mussolini's family.

Yes, no, you're right, unfortunately, sadly, tragically, frighteningly.

He's not a hugely this is a hyper-relevant time, and this is a theatrical, hyper-visual tour deforestarrule Luca Marionelli, Martin Eden himself.

Remember that?

Beloved member of the old guard.

That's right.

Movie I Love.

An episode that people considered normal.

All right, well, sequels checking notes here.

Great.

They start calling it a towering performance of puffed up vanity.

It features an era-bending score by Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers.

That's cool.

Imagine techno-beat

scoring fascist rallies.

It just sounds kind of Joe Wrighty.

It does.

Joe Wright.

You know, he won't just do a typical costume drama.

He likes to, you know, think about things in a different way.

Got futurism, surreal, surreal stagecraft, cutting-edge visuals.

Guardian calls it, quote, a brilliantly performed portrait of a pathetic monster.

It's part political burlesque, part urgent contemporary warning about how democracies fall.

This is heavy ad copy, guys.

Usually it's kind of like, eh, shorts, they, you know,

critics are saving words.

A gripping, timely series, The Guardian.

Remarkable, The Telegraph.

A complex portrait of evil.

Financial Times.

Yeah.

No, it's Joe Wright,

one of the scarier people I ever interviewed.

I've told you that story.

He knows he's kind of a cool guy.

We've batted him already.

He's certainly gotten interesting.

He's very interesting.

He's very interesting.

And he's made some great movies, and he's made some big swings that didn't totally connect.

Totally.

That's really interesting.

He actually is a blank check filmmaker, unlike a lot of some people.

I get suggested, you're like, sure.

It doesn't fit the model.

This one does.

This one does.

Look, to stream great films at home, you can try MubiFree for 30 days at movie.com slash blank check.

that's mu b i.com slash blank check for a month of great cinema for free you can watch mussolini or you can you can watch not mussolani things yeah they got lots of movies i got a lot of things bye

Okay, okay.

I'll be very quiet.

Oh, I'm used to it.

Producer Ben is sleeping.

Oh,

Hazzy boy is

getting some

seasons

with multiple dashes.

What's he sleeping on?

He's sleeping on one of the new beds we got from Wayfair for the studio for our podcast naps.

But this is a big opportunity for us.

We get to do the first ad read for Wayfair on this podcast.

No, no, Griffin, you're clearly not listening to past recordings.

Ben did a Wayfair ad for us recently.

You listen to past recordings?

Yeah, sometimes.

that's psycho behavior it is look he did that when we were sleeping look apparently we need to talk about how when you hear the word game day

you might not think wayfair but you should because wayfair is the best kept secret for incredible and affordable game day finds makes perfect sense to me

Absolutely.

And just try to, David, just if you could please maintain a slightly quiet, we don't have to go full whisper.

I just want to remind you that Haas is sleeping.

I mostly just think of Wayfair as a website where you can get basically anything.

Yeah, of course, but Wayfair is also the ideal place to get game day essentials, bigger selection, created collections, options for every budget/slash price point.

You want to make like a sort of man cake style, easy.

Okay, fine, okay, all right, sorry.

You know, Wayfair

stuff gets delivered really fast, hassle free, the delivery is free.

If you, for game day specifically, Griffin, you can think about things like recliners and TV stands, sure, or outdoor stuff like coolers and grills and patio heaters.

Like that's, you know,

all the winter months.

David, you have like basically a football team worth of family at home.

You got a whole team to cheer up.

This is true.

You need cribs.

Your place must be lousy with cribs.

I do have fainting beds.

I have cribs.

Sconces?

Chaise lounges?

I'm low on sconces.

Maybe it's time to pick up a few.

This is the kind of thing that would make your home team cheer.

Look, I'm just going to say that Wayfair is your trusted destination for all things game day from coolers and grills to recliners and slow cookers shop save and score

today at wayfair.com that's w-a-y-f-a-i-r.com wayfair every style every home david there's only one shame to this ad read don't wake hossy there's only one shame to this ad read

That I didn't find out about this in time before I already purchased coolers, grills, folding chairs, patio heaters, recliners, barware, barware, slow cookers, sports-themed decor, merch for my favorite teams, and more.

If only I could

Cleveland Browns, of course.

Donte Mack, no matter what.

Okay, that's the end of the app, bro.

But, um, yeah, and so

I think what's good about these movies is that his relationship with Beverly DiAngelo has a spark of realism to it.

Yes.

Their chemistry is existent.

Forget that Richie guy.

I think Beverly DiAngelo is the Chevy whisper.

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

That's a good point.

Good for her.

10 years ago, ABC did a pilot for a new show with the two of them.

Like, she seems to have only ever had good experiences with Chevy.

So I thought vacation was funny.

The Randy Quaid stuff is

interesting.

It's interesting.

In Christmas?

In both.

In Christmas, I think he's singing.

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

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

Yeah, he's not just white trash.

Vacation, he's not just white trash in the vacation.

Right.

Vacation, it's not that over the top.

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

Right.

It's right.

It's too dark for me to find this point he's actually doing shit with his daughter right versus the second one he seems very well-intentioned and loves his kids and everything well that's just a great great writing great casting uh in that second one when you put when you put fucking a big bulging man in a leisure suit you know like all those specifics and that characterization of like and there's my brother emptying his shitter you know like yeah all that stuff just fucking hits it's good and they make him get all these amazing big choices and you're so happy to have that character because you're you're trying not to hate Chevy Chase watching Christmas Vacation.

Then Randy Quaid comes in and you love him, but then you can ride with Chevy in hating him.

Yes.

Oh, right.

It's the classic.

It's a great way to bond with people.

We all cheer this guy.

But it's so funny that one of those SNL 50 documentaries on Peacock, the one about the weird year, where it was so strange that Randy Quaid is part of that cast because he was already an Academy Award-nominated actor.

And for The Last of Tale, where you're like, this guy was framed as like a serious actor.

Like he was playing like funny-ish parts in like The Last of Tale and Last Picture Show and like legit movies.

And it was like, why was he part of this cast?

And one of the talking heads just says, Lauren just thought he was so good in vacation.

Which is, I mean, good call.

Flash of Lauren having good taste.

You see it every once in a while.

I mean, the thing that's interesting about season 11 of SNL that that thing points out is that Lauren's instincts on who he hired were broadly right.

It's a very, very

cast.

Yeah.

Right.

They all worked out.

But he learns the lesson of like, no, the way I do SNL kind of has to be:

I create chemistry with a bunch of unknowns.

Not ready for primetime players.

Yes, because then they're all better together.

Instead, I just had a bunch of guys who had no connection to each other.

So there's no chemistry, even if they're individually taxed.

Like he was like, who are people who are funny?

And it was like, that's different than doing sketch copy.

And it's also so funny, which I did not know until I watched that, that in the final sketch where they they kill everyone yes they pretend there's like a fire and everyone's and then love it and lorden comes and he's like takes lovits and he's like come with me

like they acknowledge like lovitz works everyone else and then they cut

my bag right they cut to uh smigel and he's like i guess i didn't realize in the moment that the cast would be offended by that sketch

that all of them like just went to the table read and saw this sketch where it's like and he saves lovitz and no one else from the fire you do have to rehearse these things in the final episode when they run the cast list at the end, they all have question marks their names.

It's a good thing.

Randy Quaid, who's already been in movies.

That's an asshole.

Fuck Randy Quaid.

Well, hey.

He's an asshole.

But he's not in this movie.

He's not an asshole.

He's just the world's most insane man.

I would say he's an asshole.

Maybe he's not.

He's a jazz.

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

wearing a Rupert Murdoch mask because he said he was being deprived of Independence Day residuals.

But he's also become a huge Trump supporter.

Oh, yeah.

I'm saying, like, it's not just that he called out the Hollywood

Bushwhackers, right?

It wasn't just that.

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

He was fucking part of it too.

And he was playing Falstaff.

I mean, I think this is like corrected, and Falstaff would do that.

The Starwackers had a Doth Protest Too Much thing, right?

Where he's like, they're after me.

And I'm like, after you for what?

What exactly?

Oh, it's just like pedo hunters.

Like, why are you thinking about pedophiles so much?

It is always you go around the camera waiting for an excuse to punch people in the face and claim that you're on the right side of the law.

No, but it is like watching his sequence of the first vacation.

I was like, this is one of those examples of like a performance that kind of breaks an actor.

He's missed in this movie.

He's missed in this movie.

And then you can tell when they bring him back for Christmas.

They know they need him.

But then you're also like, this becomes his persona for the rest of time.

Yeah.

Which basically becomes riffs on Cousin Eddie.

Yeah.

I wonder, how do you get him in this movie?

Obviously, you could just be like, they're on vacation.

There is a way.

But I guess I can see how they naturally were like, well, there's not room for Randy Quaid here.

But where, what?

Well, you know what?

I'm going to open the dossier.

Although the dossier begins with, well, this is going to be a short one, folks.

So I don't know how much there is on the

genesis of this film beyond, of course, that vacation had been a hit.

Right.

And so we must vacation.

Duvation 2 has to happen.

He's basically coming off of all hits at this point.

The Benji movie wasn't a hit, and Over the Rainbow or Under the Rainbow wasn't a hit, but like foul play seems like old times.

Caddyshack is obviously a smaller part.

He was like pretty consistently hitting at the box office.

Yeah.

John Hughes has credit for the story and screenplay.

Robert Klain, who wrote Weekend of Bernie's.

Ben, gets the other credit, but Hughes says he had very nothing, nothing to do with this movie.

He both wrote the original

story for National Lampoon and actually wrote the first script, but basically got a weirdly

steroided story by and script credit on this, even though it was just

because they pulled so much, but they pulled so much deleted shit from it.

Yeah, and that they were not used in the first movie kind of bits and stuff like that.

So I think that he they just had to give it a shot.

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

Yes.

Obviously.

Yes.

Yes.

It has a different tone.

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

He comes back to sort of write the ship.

Right.

A lot of people thus see his influence as being.

And Christmas is based on a different, unrelated national lampoon story.

Yeah.

They were like, we've got to get back to the Hughes well.

So like, oh, you wrote the story about a family Christmas.

Let's retro.

fit that into the vacation frame.

Now, you're at a point where you can just make one of these movies a year, you know what I mean?

And like, they, like, it's just like, pick a fucking location, bring them there.

It's like tin, tin, and blank.

You know what I mean?

Just fucking take the family wherever.

The idea of like vacation, European vacation, Christmas vacation, Vegas vacation, it's like unstoppable.

It's almost astounding they only made four.

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

Because of Chevy's problem.

But like, I think the first one,

Chevy's weirdly detailed Wikipedia about the ups and downs of his career that seems to have been written by maybe someone related to him.

But like they said that like the first vacation was his highest grossing solo star movie at the time.

Then like Europeans down a little bit, but not a flop, right?

No, I still made four.

Then Christmas Vacation is his biggest movie.

Yeah.

So then like the third one's the biggest.

I would just be like, well, let's keep fucking pumping these.

Where do you want him to go?

I'm just saying.

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

Yeah.

You want to, it's got to be like.

Obviously, they settled on Vegas, but that really does have the energy of Vegas was like, hey, we want to be like, right.

But where else could he go?

Yeah.

I don't know.

Because in Christmas Vacation, they don't even go anywhere.

It is, of course.

They stay home.

One's Christmas vacation.

There's no school.

They don't travel.

Yeah, I guess.

Chicken is fucking out.

Maybe they made a mistake.

Got your spring break where they go to like San Padre Island and don't realize that it's going to be like that horny and rusty.

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

Yeah, that's true.

Right.

And like Australian vacation.

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

I was going to say, I don't want the perfolts in Africa.

But Australian vacation with how much we were obsessed with Australia in the 80s and 90s, that would have done

this move.

Yeah.

As like Hogan is like the Australian grizzly.

Hey, mate.

Yeah, I've never met you before.

Now, of course, there is a strange little irony to the fact that Vacation was directed by Harold Ramos.

This is directed by Amy Herckerling.

Harold Ramos and Amy Heckerling had a child together at a secret affair.

We're going to talk about that much more on our Look Who's Talking episode.

A movie that's basically about that.

Yes.

And

she

was not that enthused about this project because of Ramis.

Like, you know, like, what am I following him up?

But she says she liked the concept of American idiots running around destroying Europe.

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

Yes.

And Johnny Dangerously is clearly in trouble.

It's testing poorly.

So she has that sense of like, oh boy, I need something that's, you know, reliable.

And she's made this very strong decision to not try to repeat fast times.

Like she's talked about that she immediately got 20 scripts like that.

She's at the tip of the spear of like the teen movie explosion of the 80s.

Do you remember when you first watched Fast Times?

I have a distinct memory of like hearing about this legendary teen comedy and then watching it and being like, was that funny?

We talk about it.

It's a bigger than I really

part of our discussion.

Yeah.

Great movie.

Great movie.

I'm watching it now.

It's a wonderful movie.

Don't know if it's a complete comedy.

But when I was like 12, that really confused me.

And when I watch it now, I'm like, this is a masterpiece.

I can't believe it can hold both tones.

Yes.

Well, it's like you forget, like, it's, I said this on the Full Metal Jacket episode.

You forget that Arlie Ermy's only in it for like 15 minutes.

And then the fast times about that is that Spokoli is a side character.

But like, it is funny that that movie has such a complicated balance of things that are able to coexist.

And then she follows it up with two movies that are just like, no, this is silly chaos, right?

Like, she's just making kind of like goofball madness movies.

Yeah.

Which I think part of that is her being like, I'm trying to avoid the like pigeonholing that happens to women in their careers and they're so few female directors and I don't want to get stuck in like one corridor.

And can I make boys movies?

Quote unquote.

Yeah.

But the other part is that like her influences are like, I love the Marx brothers and I love these things.

And can't I like

she comes back hard after this with Clueless, correct?

She does.

Lucas talking with her.

So fucking successful.

I love that movie as a kid.

I can't.

I'm curious.

I can't wait to listen to your episode.

Yeah.

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

Very fun

She does look, she does look.

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

Her hair.

We talk a lot about her hair.

She's so hot.

She does look, she does look two.

She doesn't direct look three.

She does clueless.

So she does three hits in a row that are like her totally birthing something.

And clueless.

Recently, Rogan said in an interview, it's the best high school movie ever made.

And it could easily be.

Like, that movie changed me.

But Johnny Dangerously and European Vacation are both her coming on to pre-existing developments yeah the difference is that johnny dangerously

is her being like i love fucking gangsters movies this is the kind of dream movie for me and european vacation is a little more like i guess that's a career move yeah that makes sense right let me rinse let me rinse this one out of my mouth yeah yeah this might shock you but chevy chase was not very kind about amy heckerling in the press after in his biography i'm chevy chase and you're not he said uh i had problems with the director amy heckerling a lovely person but i didn't think her direction smacked of energy and humor.

I don't, he doesn't think the movie is funny.

Beverly D'Angelo

also doesn't think the movie is funny.

She thinks it's not saucy enough.

Like she was sort of like, the script is a little too G-rated.

No one has to be able to do it.

She was angry that Fanny racked two times in this one.

God bless that rack.

Great rack.

I mean, as she said.

The voice,

the sexiest voice and an insane body.

Being a kid and just being like, I fuck Christy Brinkley.

Like, I love when you're a kid and you're like siding up.

Dude, your wife is so hot.

Don't blow it.

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

Far-rained but family-friendly.

And also because the mom is really hot and she's sexualized in it.

And where in these types of movies?

She's sexualized.

She's a sexy lady.

She likes it.

And their relationship is like sexually friendly.

Versus, right?

Like the sort of so much boring American humor about like frigid wives who make you dinner and like

are so the stores close or the rodney dangerfield god bless rodney i love him stereotype of like my wife is everyone else in town but me

is is is beverly is audrey griswald wait that's not her name uh she's uh

no audrey's the daughter she's mom

she's mom griswold ellen griswold

is ellen griswold the fucking tabula rasa from ilfporn i i kind you know what john I gotta go.

John?

Ben, you wanna leave?

John, I just wanna go.

I know, I'm gonna stick around.

I want to suspect.

Ben's Alienware laptop is open to the day.

Ben just swung his monitor away from us.

Beverly D'Angelo, just

this is her biography.

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

Oh, no, I'm sorry.

This is from the Chevy biography.

Okay.

This is just a quote from her.

I'm going to read the quote and then I'm going to talk about it.

Sure.

I was living in Europe with my husband, the Duke.

So I'm glad the second one was in Europe, but I know Chevy missed being home.

Janie was pregnant.

It was cold.

The script wasn't that funny.

At one point, my husband had a birthday party for me, and Keith Richards was there.

Everyone was singing all night, and Eric Idol was so hoarse that he had to ADR all his scenes in the movie.

Now,

I don't know about you guys.

That's a fucking movie I want to see made.

100%.

Bethany D'Angelo was married to an Athenian.

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

So I looked that up.

And that is, of course, Don,

sorry, sorry, Don Lorenzo Salviati,

one of the fucking, you know, dukes of Sicily or whatever the hell.

She also, her romantic history, she dated Milos Forman around when he was directing her in the movie Hair.

Correct.

Then she marries the Duke.

She's with him for a good time.

She leaves him for Anton first.

Leaves him for Anton first,

the brilliant designer.

Production designer of the first Batman.

Tragically died by suicide.

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

Yes.

And then she

hitched her star to Al Pacino and had a kid with him.

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

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

She had twins with Pacino in her late 40s.

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

How do I get you?

I get it.

I totally get it.

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

I saw, like, she has one of those weird, like, oh, I never considered acting.

And someone was like, you should try this.

And then she was naturally good at it.

Right.

She worked as an animator.

Yeah, she worked at Hanna-Barbera.

She's so everything about fucking painting sells.

She was also a backup singer for The Hawks,

which were a rockabilly band that turned into the band.

Oh, shit.

Isn't that crazy?

Oh, my God.

That's crazy.

And then, right, eventually she's like,

I'll do like some acting.

And she's like, she's like a fucking busty Zillig.

And she invented MILF porn unconsciously.

Forest lumps.

She's still five comedy points.

That was good.

She's still with us.

She is.

Thank God.

She mostly

it seems like, yeah, she, you know, some TV stuff.

She hasn't been doing much in the last 10 years.

I saw her.

She's still Ryan High off Duke money.

Isn't she one of the heralds in our movies?

Am I wrong in thinking that she plays like a southern brothel?

Yes, she's in Escape from Guantanamo Bay to me the uh not the best, that's my favorite Kumar.

Yeah, oh, although, but the Harolyn Kumar franchise is also one in general where I'm like, How is that gonna work for me on rewatch?

I really like the first one a lot, sure, and have seen it many times.

I'm I'm a big Guantanamo Bay defender, that movie's

sorry, we're talking about the movie Haroon Kumar, not the concept.

I've never seen the film, I like the

countries that it uses to torture people enhanced interrogation games.

Talking about vacation spots,

So

Chevy and Bev both down on this movie.

Anthony Michael Hall, of course, who plays the son in the first film, declines, doesn't want to come back.

Why?

Because Hughes is all about him.

Oh, that's also true.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's right.

He's doing Breakfast Club this year, probably.

And I think Weird Science both are in the same year, but that's what it is.

But Hughes is later than he decides to be able to do it.

It's not to be kids.

Correct.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right.

Because there's some other movie he was going to be in.

Full metal jacket, right?

Yes.

That's that's he was supposed to be the modeen role in full metal jacket.

That's right.

But he was kind of like he turned Kubrick off with like I don't want to play like a pencil neck again.

Yeah, or he didn't read the script too for the name we became.

We talked about this on the full metal jacket.

Yes, we definitely do.

Dana, and so Dana Baron,

who is the daughter in the first one, I think, was down to come back, but Hecarline was like, if we have to lose one of the kids, let's hard reach.

Right, let's just end up with Blake Lively's brother, and then Dana Hill is her name.

Yes.

Who was an actress who had like a series of health conditions?

She died weirdly young.

She died young, although I'm not sure.

She had like diabetes and that was what she died.

But she also had conditions that made her small.

Correct.

So she's like 22 in this movie.

Right.

And then years after that.

She also

is the voice of Max Goof in Goof Troop.

Oh, shit.

By the way, Goof Troop and slash a goofy movie.

When I first saw PJ on screen, I was like, oh, my God,

that looks like me.

Representation, Max.

I was like, that cartoon character, the most recent one for me was Spike in the new Mario Brothers movie.

I was like, oh, yeah, that's my new version with the fucking ABA.

Can we talk about Bulk and Skull?

Of course.

David, we've been waiting years to talk about Bulk.

Yeah, I recently, you know, I'm sitting at work.

I need to be writing for The Atlantic, which is my job.

And I'm like, shout out to like a half-hour supercut of every single Mighty Morph and Power Rangers opening theme credits.

I'm like, gotta get cracking on that list.

Nothing big happening at the Atlantic.

Yeah, just delete Pete Hagseph text.

It is hilarious to me that Jeff, like, as this was all, like, came by, like, he's always one,

and I was like, Jeff, what do you think about burata on pizza?

And he stopped, he's like, what?

And I was like, I just think it's bullshit.

Like, don't put burata on pizza.

Like, it doesn't belong.

Like, it's just, you know, you're just eating like it's separate.

Does it make it too wet?

Yeah,

all these fucking new pizza places where they're like, and we put a big glob of burata on top.

And I'm like, that's just like putting a cookie on.

This is the conversation you're having with him while he's checking his phone and just get like nuclear.

But to his credit, he's like, Yeah, I mean, I can see where, you know, like, and then he's like, Do you think Prince Street Pizza is good?

I'm like, No, like, you know, start going off about that.

He throws that question out to the signal group.

Guys, what do you think of Barada on pizza?

Heg Seth's a Stracciatelli fan.

Anyway,

Bulk and Skull, a similar, you know.

Yeah.

What's the vibe?

What, what's why are please remind the listeners?

Okay, so Power Rangers,

the cast of Power Rangers are, of course, the five Power Rangers, six, once Tommy gets added, right?

They're teens with attitude who can morph into martial artists who command dinosaur robots.

Recut from a Japanese.

We don't need to get into it.

No, no, we're just talking about the text.

But what I'm saying is that you're building a show off of this martial arts

and caching American kids.

You'll have the villains are set already, and the American producer, Saban and co- are like, we need to add more proprietary elements.

What if we have like two dumb bullies who have nothing to do with the main plotline?

And are kind of their friends?

yeah they're like in their mid-30s also maybe exactly and they it's one of those things where they're like they cycle through power rangers every couple seasons right we're gonna let's get these kids out of here they're asking for us to like pay them and like they gotta go let's get a bunch of new teens bulk and skull always involved like all these new troans always know bulk and skull i'm just saying they're never like as a kid i'm like sorry

my nostalgia i'm like right dude bulk and skull they're kind of like are they they're like bebop and rock study they're bad guys so i'm like wait no they're not.

They're not

the bad guys.

They just live in the town.

They're just there.

They happen to live in the same town as the Power Rangers and dress crazy.

They dress just crazy enough that they should be on a TV show.

Well, this is why I'm bringing up the heritage because I'm like, they can never overlap with the villains because they're inheriting villain footage that was shot in Japan 15 years earlier.

They'll sometimes shoot secondary stuff with the different actors playing Rita Rapulsa.

I know.

Well, no, week has Rita Repulsa and she becomes American.

But like, also, they would have the kids fight the putty patrol in non-you know, it's a weird, it's weird what they would do.

They would do both.

It's just weird.

What do you think of Bulk and Skull?

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

Exactly.

You know,

they are leather vests as people.

Like Tommy Oliver ever go, like, hey, we're going to stop hanging out with you.

We're like...

Superheroes.

But I'm going to cut your fucking head off with a magical space sword.

I can command a robot and a musical instrument that leaves the sea.

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

That's what I don't understand.

But, David, in the later seasons, because it sounds like what you're saying is they start to occupy a Jim's dad role, which is like what kind of connection do they have to the current cast?

Why is Jason Biggs' dad still hanging out with different high schoolers?

They don't like start to like, they don't buy the restaurant or anything, right?

They just continue to hang around.

Speak to that, and obviously, fans weigh in.

What do Balkanskull do later?

Of course, I do love that Wikipedia specifies that they came with their own theme, a quote, fat guy tuba sound.

Like that is the classic bug ribbon.

We've been calling your twin boys Bebop and Roxday, but start calling them bulk and skull.

It kind of works for them a little bit, I will say.

One's a little bulkier.

I mean, all babies kind of are most skully.

Yeah, a lot of skull.

Skull forward.

Anyway.

But they're just, it's just, it's just crazy.

Anyway, that's not important.

What is important, of course, is that this film was shot in England at Twickenham Film Studios.

I like that they actually shot it.

And they started off with Stonehenge.

That was their first sequence.

But I like it, it's a major feather in the cap for this movie, in my opinion.

You look at the uncredits, location, different units.

Paris.

They actually went to the places.

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

I've been thinking about stuff like this so much when I watch movies now.

Randomly, we watched an episode of 21 Jump Street for Action Boys, and that's all shot in like Canada and shit.

Obviously, there's a one scene where they go to an ice skating rink in this episode we watch.

And I'm like, no show would say, like, we're not shooting one scene at an ice rink.

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

put in post cold breath or something like that.

But they would, and I was just like, you used to just go to places.

You used to make a case to want to go to places.

Like, here's just some microcosm, right?

This movie has an establishing shot that they probably bought from some bulk like footage lots of the Eiffel Tower.

Then you have a sequence atop the Eiffel Tower where they're clearly on a soundstaged Eiffel Tower balcony, right?

And then I feel like the following scene after that, the Griswolds are eating outdoors at a cafe, and the Eiffel Tower is in the background of the shot.

And you can tell it is not rear projection.

Right.

Or they stopped and shot a scene in past.

Right.

And I'm just like, it's not even the central focus of this.

They are just sort of knowing it is actually worth the production value of having a a shot where the Eiffel Tower looks real and Chevy Chase is also in the frame.

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

Yeah, right.

We'll shoot both.

Fucking shoot the entire thing in Bulgaria.

And like,

it'll just be Paris.

It'll be Rome.

It'll be.

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

So you can just like slap up houses and castles or enemy bases, like whatever you need.

You can just put shit up.

That's probably high risk.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, same with Hungary.

They'll let Laszlo Toth build anything there.

They won't let him talk in his real accent, though.

They'll have to bring the fucking computer in.

Everything's computed.

Perfect.

It was way more Austrian.

They had to Hungary it up.

Just the little sliders.

Can we up the Hungarian?

Lower the Luffs.

I played an engineer for a podcast for 30 episodes, and I still don't know

about any luck.

You don't know any of the lingo?

I only know luffs, and I'm not even positive what it means.

I just, I'm obsessed with that phrase.

It's a luff, one of the all-time great characters.

Heckerling.

Heckerling.

She hated making this movie.

Great.

I wonder why.

I was extremely miserable working on it.

I figured they'd market it and put money into it and try and make it do well.

Here's another quote from her.

Oh my God, I despise that movie.

I felt like I never wanted to do it ever again.

Heckerling.

Here's another quote from her.

These are all different interviews.

I feel like you're not supposed to bad mouth your own stuff because you're the director.

You should take the blame for everything.

So I take the blame for Chevy Chase and everything else.

Feels like she's a take the blame for Chevy Chase.

That is one of the best Hollywood answers I've ever heard.

Look, I'm a director.

I'm supposed to take all the credit.

I'm supposed to, you know, take the blame.

So I take the blame for Chevy Chase, my lead, who's a piece of shit.

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

Final quote.

It was a train wreck.

It was impossible.

Some of the people I had to work with were impossible.

I wonder who.

Interesting.

I'd call the studio ahead and say, I want to come home.

You should find someone else to do this.

A monkey could direct this better than I could.

Before we dig into the meat of it, I just want to bring it as an anecdote.

Christopher Columbus was hired to direct Christmas Vacation, right?

He talked about this recently when he was doing interviews.

I feel like for no screws.

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

I feel like is basically commonly accepted as there was no one more

genuine

than Chris Columbus, right?

Like that is just a genuine, mensch, sweet, smart smart guy.

And

John Hughes was like one of his mentors along with Spielberg and was like.

Actually, he made Home Alone.

I'm coming back.

I'm writing the next vacation movie.

I think you should direct it.

Gets him hired for the job.

He meets with Chevy Chase.

He talks to him for like, this is his recounting recently for like 30 minutes through like his vision for the film and what he wants to do.

Chevy just sits there silently and at the end of it goes, I don't get it.

So you're like the director.

What a great guy.

And he calls up John Hughes and he's like, I know I'm torpedoing my career, but I need to quit this.

I cannot explain the way he like looked through me with disdain.

This guy's going to torture me.

Who directed Christmas?

Jeremiah?

Like, they got some guy.

Like, Columbus had been prepping it and everything.

And he basically was like, I'm sorry.

I know you put your neck out for me, but I just can't do this.

And John Hughes went, not only do I totally understand, but I'm going to write another movie for you to help you get over this.

And he gifts him Home Alone.

Jesus Christ.

Which, to be clear, Columbus knocks out of the park.

It's not just right.

Because Home Alone is a script.

I can see someone like really fucking mad.

That is

a tight-tonal thing of like, this movie is about this six-year-old fucking laying waste to Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, but it has to like evoke the lovely spirit of Christmas, right?

Like it's got to make you feel warm and happy.

We were just like spitballing Christmas movies.

Like at the beginning of the episode, we didn't even bring up Home Alone.

But that's like a perfect example of him being like okay i just uncle bought

this eight-year-old's on fire i owe columbus a movie he's got a good take on christmas give me six hours i'll out some screenplay yeah

uh what a bullet dodge for i miss columbus that's so fucking awesome

although of course maybe christmas vacation would have been a hit with him too it was a hit for jeremiah chechy who goes on the mcbinny in june just sort of an interesting movie and uh the the avengers with right and then his

The Avengers.

Oh, with Iron Man.

Oh, I don't see Iron Man's name on this one.

Interesting.

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

Pig and a Poke.

Pig and a Poke.

Hosted by John Aston, playing like Richard Dawson from Family Feud Times A Trillion.

John Aston, really funny.

Really funny.

A little upsetting when he kisses.

It's immediately upset.

I bet you feel better now that I know he's a fan.

He's an asshole.

I mean, the character.

You feel better once you know that the actress playing the daughter is in her 20s.

Yes.

But you're like, right, this is a weird thing that was like culturally going on where everyone was like, yeah, the host of Family Feuds a little handsy and loves tips and

everyone watches this show.

And then this movie heightens in a way that feels menacing and it's the opening scene.

Yeah.

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

Well, and I just want to say, Gabrius, thank you for being down with wearing the pig costume.

I'm a little disappointed that Sim's father is.

I'm still going to have them on.

It's fine.

I get it.

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

But that was just because I, it's laundry day.

So was Richard Dawson

the handsy host?

Richard Dawson would always kiss on the lipmin on Family Feud.

Okay.

Come on, no kiss for me here.

For me, it was, it was, I grew up watching, sorry, you're going to have to say it, right?

Coming Fortunes,

which is the British version of Family Feud, which was hosted by the- Hosted by Jeffrey Epstein.

And he was kissing these kids.

Hosted by the great Les Dennis,

who's one of those guys where I'm like, any British person's like, yeah, I know Les Dennis.

No American has ever heard of him.

But also, you had Jimmy Saville.

Why are you saying you had Jimmy?

I'm not blaming you.

I'm just saying there was like the ultimate creep on British television hosting channels.

You're saying there weren't creeps on British television.

What are you talking about?

I'm just talking about creepy guys.

What the fuck?

Yes, we all know about creepy television.

Let's break down and talk about creeps in Hollywood.

There's only a couple.

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

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

Yeah, it's fine.

It's fine.

We're doing great.

Steve Harvey just kind of took that show

and turned it into something else.

And now no one remembers Louie Anderson or whatever.

Everyone else is very good.

We had Louis, you had Ray Combs, you had

Richard Karn.

Yeah.

Didn't you have

also, what's his name?

From Seinfeld?

John O'Hurley.

Oh, yeah.

You know, Jay Peterman.

Oh, right.

And that's the thing.

And now everyone's just like, no, Family Feud has been hosted by Steve Harvey since 1900.

What are you talking about?

Could he buy a baby with a mustache in 1900?

And the answer is always like badonka donk.

Like they've always engineered it.

They came over with a pepper grinder full of horniness and we're just like crank, crank, crank, crank, crank.

And Steve Harvey's like, what thing do you want to put on your face at night?

And it's like, my wife's pussy.

And it's like, he's like, oh man, that's crazy.

Like, they're always so cute.

He sells it so well every time that he sees it.

What's something men have in the morning?

And it's like, morning, what?

Pussy.

Wow, you are disgusting.

It's the number one answer.

It takes about 30 seconds for him to say anything.

Yes.

He just he does a little walk.

He'll do like a circle.

He'll be like, I don't know what the world is coming to.

He does it so well every time.

He's a fucking machine.

He's so awesome to watch.

As long as you, no pop-ins.

But

it also feels like that show used to be like

top five answers, thing you put in your coffee.

And they'd be like, Richard, I'm going to say sugar.

And he'd be like, okay, now how about you give me a tongue kiss?

And now the show is like top five ways you love to eat.

And Steve Harvey's like, here we love family.

Like, this is this, in this, on this, that way.

Wow.

It used to be like innocuous questions, horny host, right?

Right.

Now it's horniest questions, hornier answers, and the host is like, oh my goodness.

Like, he just looks at the audience, like, I can't believe it.

Questions are horny in a way that are pretending like you're a little kid and you're like, this is how you get away with breaking it.

And then the music has shifted to Harvey being like, I can't believe this.

What's saying that?

It's not like Harvey's, I wouldn't call him horny, but he respects a beautiful woman.

You know, like he's got kind of that vibe to him.

Exactly.

He's like, your beautiful woman comes home from work.

You know, like, he's that kind of guy.

Right.

I just, you know, when America finds people like this, he calls women a queen.

Yeah, exactly.

I know he wrote all the Think Like a Man, whatever books or whatever.

That's how a queen serves a king.

Exactly.

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

That's always the interesting thing for those guys who refer to women as queens.

It's like, but I am the king.

You know, I'm the king.

Right.

Like, I'm not your subject.

It's the, it's the Prince Cali.

It is also so

whenever a stand-up comedian is like, I want to write like kind of a romance book.

And I'm like, aren't you a club comedian?

The fuck do you know about like regular romance?

Here's how you fuck women out of town.

Right.

His book wasn't even like, here's how you find a wife.

It's like, here's how you keep a marriage fresh 40 years in.

Right, because women do what men like.

That's his big take.

Anyway, game show.

Game show.

Funny.

Aston, I think, right, has good, menacing, kind of sneery energy.

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

Paul Bartel was like one of the best

army.

I love him.

Beating Roll, one of my favorites.

The game of the game show makes no sense.

No sense.

You want to go not understand it.

I didn't understand.

Like, they don't even know that the prize is European vacation, but they're willing to give up the motorcycle and something.

And then they do that.

And then it's like, and great.

We'll be bringing in the previous champions who haven't been on the show yet.

It's like, you know, now you want to see it.

Now they've been waiting

for you to defeat them.

Yeah.

It's very bizarre.

I do.

I love that they all have glasses.

What a shorthand for like, these are four smart people.

Yeah.

It is my favorite running bit in the movie is Clark constantly saying to people, we are.

We were the big champions on pick and a poke that he starts using it when they're checking into hotels, but he starts doing it everywhere.

Like he assumes in every country they'll know them by reputation.

And then only Moon Zappa does that.

That's such a funny moment.

Yeah, I saw you.

But you're like, it's such a good, like, ugly American show.

Yeah.

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

I mean, and the game is literally like, do you want more money, you greedy pigs?

And they're like, oink, oink, oink.

We need more money.

We need more money.

Dress up like a cartoon and then make sounds.

Yeah.

Ben, any thoughts on the game show?

I just feel like these movies are so important to you.

You don't want to breeze by anything.

I mean, I don't think I have much more to add other than it's just, it's

so unclear of how it works.

Well,

I'll throw something your way that you might.

I like, and movies used to have full-blown animated opening credits.

I'm happy that the in-movie game show has an animated opening credit.

Snuck it in there.

They leave Holiday Road for later in the movie because of this, right?

Holiday Road comes over some car driving accidents.

Yes, I think so.

Holiday Road.

We like Holiday Road.

An absolute fucking banger.

The vacation song.

Yeah.

Holiday Road.

I love fucking fucking.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's good.

This movie has a couple of bangers because I love that song.

And then like the weird America song at the end is like really

rules and the

elite network.

It's the French song when they're doing the Louvre really fast.

Yes, that's a good one.

That's a four moi, I believe.

That's

a great movie.

It feels like heckerling influence, too.

Because she's

cool.

Yeah, she's got the jam on there and stuff.

And like Fast Times has one of the power stations.

But I just would like to say, I'm not tuning in for the songs.

But I'm just saying, like, I watch, I throw on fucking National Lampoons Vacation, and that song starts playing over the credits.

And I'm like, oh, I know this song.

Like, I've heard this song before.

I didn't realize this is from this movie.

Sure.

Which it is.

Right.

It was made for this movie.

No, it's that Lindsey Buckingham just had it, and he was like, I got this song.

And they were like, well, that's, can we have that song?

That's perfect.

It was just like

rattling around.

Kyle.

I feel like Killgore, the crazy bloody musical we used to do at UCB ended with that song where we got our curtain call.

The whole thing is so morbid and like gross and violent.

And then at the end, it's like, we take the curtain to a holiday, bro.

And like it's Halloween weekend and shit.

When Daly and Goldstein do the sequel thing,

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

Yep.

Like Chevy Chase is like, we've still got it.

And the fucking song.

That's all they've got.

Well, that's what's also interesting is like.

The vacation franchise has spawned a bunch of like unofficial remakes and sequels.

Like it's such a basic template that you're like,

Little Miss Sunshine is like Fox Searchlight.

Yeah, it's kind of ADA shit.

Right.

Then there's like the Cedric the Entertainer Johnson family vacation

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

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

Without a paddle.

Without a paddle is like vacation meets Keddyshack.

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

Yeah.

We're the Millers.

What kind of a summer

is had in RV?

I have like a five-inch summer.

Okay.

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

Yes, it's very sad that all the other kids make fun of him for being so short.

And Robin Williams tells me an endearing story about how he used to be short.

And then one year, he had a five-inch summer.

And when he came back to school, they couldn't pick him on him anymore.

And I'm like, Robin Williams is 5'6 on a good day.

That's all.

Yeah, he was.

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

It's a five-inch summer.

I had like a three and a half, four-inch summer, and it was the summer before freshman year of college.

I got it in between high school and college.

You just grew up really?

Yeah, I remember.

My dad was 6'5.

He said his six summer.

My dad was 6'5, and his spurt, he said, was when he was 19.

And I was like, you know, I was like 5'9 or 5'10 in junior year of high school.

I'm like, I would love if I got it.

And then all of a sudden, I went away to fucking college and I was 6'2.

And I was like, yes.

I remember.

And then I, so I went from like short and fat to tall and not fat.

And then now I have the frame to just keep adding fat to it.

I put on the freshman face

every 15 years, every year for fucking 20 years.

I'm like,

sorry.

I just Googled it.

And in RV, he claims that he had a nine-inch salt.

That's why I thought it was even bigger than five.

So I had Robert Williams.

That's what I had on Confess Fletch with John Hamm.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

He got it out.

You were like, come on, John.

Come on.

Confess Fletch.

I hit a water buffalo in the ride over.

Great movie.

David, what?

This episode of Blank Check with Griffin, David, a podcast about philamographies, is brought to you by Booking.com.

Booking.

Yeah.

I mean, that's what I was about to say.

Booking.

Yeah.

From vacation rentals to hotels across the U.S., Booking.com

has the ideal stay for anyone, even those who might seem impossible to please.

God, I'm trying to think of anyone in my life, perhaps even in this room.

Ben, who's like, what's an example of someone I know who maybe has a very particular set of demands?

Bringing me in and there's only one other person in the room.

There's one other person in the room right now.

This is so rude.

I sleep easy.

I'm definitely not someone who insists on 800 thread count sheets.

No,

that's an example of a fussy person.

But people have different demands.

And you know what?

If you're traveling, that's your time to start making demands.

You know, you've got

a partner who's sleep light, rise early, or maybe, you know, like you just want someone who wants a pool or wants a view or I don't know.

Any kind of demand.

You're traveling and I need a room with some good soundproofing because I'm going to be doing some remote pod record.

Sure.

Maybe you're in Europe and you want to make sure that's very demanding to be in Europe.

You got air conditioning.

Well, Well, think of one person in particular, although it's really both of you.

You got to have air conditioning.

I need air conditioning if I'm in the North Pole.

Look, if I can find my perfect stay on Booking.com, anyone can.

Booking.com is definitely the easiest way to find exactly what you're looking for.

Like for me, a non-negotiable is I need a gorgeous bathroom for selfies.

You do.

You love selfies.

As long as I got a good bathroom mirror for selfies, I'm happy with everything else.

Look, they're again, they're specifying, like, oh, maybe you want a sauna or a hot tub.

And I'm like, sounds good to me.

Yeah.

Please.

Can I check that book?

You want one of those in the recording, Stupid?

That'd be great.

You want to start.

You want to be.

I'll be in the sauna when we record.

I was going to say, you want to be the Dalton Trumbull podcast.

You want to be Splish Splash.

You look good if I had a sauna and a cold plunge and while recording, I'm on mic, but you just

like, ah,

as I move to the board.

These are the kinds of demands that booking.com booking.yeah.

Yes.

You can find exactly what you're booking for.

Booking.com.

Booking.

Yeah.

Booking.com.

Book today on the site or in the ad.

Booking.com.

Booking.

Yeah.

Ben.

What's up, Griff?

This is an ad break.

Yeah.

And I'm just, this isn't a humble brag.

It's just a fact of the matter.

Despite you being on mic, oftentimes when sponsors buy ad space on this podcast, the big thing they want is personal host endorsement.

Right.

They love that they get a little bonus ben on the ad read, but technically, that's not what they're looking for.

But something very different is happening right now.

That's true.

We had a sponsor come in and say, we are looking for the coveted Ben Hosley endorsement.

This is laser targeted.

The product.

We have copy that asks, is the product a porch movie?

it certainly is and what is today's episode sponsored by the toxic adventure the new toxic adventure movie is coming to theaters august 29th macon blair's remake of reimagining reimagining whatever a reboot of the toxic Avenger now david and i have not gotten to see it yet but they sent you a screener link yeah i'm gonna see it we're

excited to see it but ben you texted us last night this fucking rules it fucks it honks yeah it's so great let me read you the cast list here in in billing order as they asked which i really appreciate peter dinkledge jacob tremblay trembling taylor page with elijah wood okay and kevin bacon tremblay is toxie's son his stepson his stepson okay uh wade goose yes great name give us the takes we haven't heard of them yet okay you got Fucking Dinklage is fantastic.

He's talking.

He plays it with so much heart.

It's such a lovely performance.

Bacon is in the pocket too, man.

He's the bad guy.

He's the bad guy.

There's a lot of him shirtless.

Okay.

Looking like

David sizzling.

Yep.

And then Elijah Wood plays like a dang-ass freak.

He certainly does.

He's having a lot of fun.

Tell us some things you liked about the movie.

Okay, well, I'm a Jersey guy.

I just got to say the original movie was shot in the town where I went to high school.

Yes, yes, that's right.

The original film.

Yep.

I grew up watching toxic and trauma movies on porches

with my sleazy and sticky friends it informs so much of my sensibility your friends like junkyard dog and headbanger yeah exactly making toxic crusader drills so when i heard that they were doing this new installment i was really emotionally invested

It was in limbo for a while before our friends at Ciniverse rescued it and are now releasing it uncut.

But I feel like there have been years of you being very excited at the prospect, but also a little weary.

They're playing with fire here.

Yeah, it's just something that means a lot to me.

And they knocked it out of the fucking park.

Okay.

It somehow really captured that sensibility, that sense of humor, even just that like lo-fi, scrappy kind of nature that's inherent in all of the trauma movies and the original Toxie movies.

And they have like updated in this way that it was just, I was so pleased with it.

It's gooey.

It's gooey.

It's sufficiently gooey.

Tons of blood, tons of goo,

great action.

It's really fucking funny.

It just, it hits all of the sensibilities that you would want in an updated version.

Cineverse last year released Terrifier 3 unrated.

Yeah.

Big risk for them there.

I feel like it's a very, very intense movie.

And a huge hit.

More interesting, yeah, theatrical box office phenomenons the last five years.

Want to make that happen again here?

Tickets are on sale right now.

Advanced sales really matter for movies like this.

So if y'all were planning on seeing Toxic Avenger, go ahead and buy those tickets.

Please go to toxicaver.com/slash blank check to get your tickets.

Blank check one word.

In theaters, August 29th.

Yup.

And Ben, it just says here in the copy,

wants to call out that Elijah Wood plays a weird little guy who says Summon the Nuts.

Can you tell us anything about that moment without spoiling it?

Summon the Nuts

is in reference to a

psychotic new metal band

who are also mercenaries cool and drive a van

with a skeleton giving two fingies up on the grill and that's all i'll say okay and they are the most dang ass freaks of dang ass freaks i'm excited to see it and your endorsement i think carries more weight than anyone else's in the world on this seriously get your tickets now go to toxicadvengure.com/slash blank check.

Do it, do it.

The first chunk of it is set in Jolly London.

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

And he kind of wants to be a pop star, but he doesn't want to sing.

He just wants to walk through on music videos like

on

TV.

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

It's pretty thin.

And her boyfriend is the bully from Karate Kid.

Yeah.

Sure.

Or the bully from just one of the guys.

Or the bully from Cobra Kai.

Yes.

Or the redemptive bully from Cobra Kai.

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

Great fucking guy.

He's like a minch, right?

Yeah, he was a great person by all accounts.

Yeah.

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

Like he's going to be owned by that.

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

But I feel like a lot of guys like this would play this part one time and being like, I refuse to play it again.

And this guy was like, Look, I'm in movies.

Right.

You want to keep paying me to do this?

I'll do this.

I look a specific way.

You know what I mean?

I look like a bad guy.

Yeah.

And has had his

full arc now coming back with Cobra Kai.

But yes, all she wants to do is kiss.

She hates the idea of going to Europe and being away from the kissing, and everyone makes fun of her for eating too much.

A very sensitive plot line.

Yeah, exactly.

Very.

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

She's jolling cake down her mouth.

I know.

It's fucking weird.

I do like this lighter fluid gag.

I think that's like, this is like kind of, it's not very funny, but it is exactly like Vegas vacation.

Sorry, vacation movie specific.

Oh, you're saying about the grill.

Yeah, they don't realize that both of them have been putting it on the whole time.

Like while he's looking at the instructions, she's putting it on when she's not paying attention, he's spraying it on.

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

Yeah, that's look, I just like, so this movie has four sections, London, Paris, Germany, Rome, right?

Like those are the four.

And it feels like they spent a good half hour on each figuring out what stereotypes they should

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

Yes.

Versus like, it's not what you think maybe of like the most obvious stereotype of like oh like posh people drinking tea and shit

they do a queen bit they do a queen bit they do a people in England are weirdly nice people

exact yeah like you every

big timing the Griswolds and looking their nose down at them right and instead they're excessively polite like none of them are not you know like they are existent stereotypes they're just not quite the ones you would have figured especially of the time but it might be my favorite bit in the movie is him continually damaging people's cars and then being like oh don't worry about fish.

Take this back to New York.

He gives him the bumper, put it in the car, add it to the collection.

Mel Smith, who is a legendary sketcher.

Brilliant British comedian.

He died a while ago, but you know, great looking.

Right.

Very funny as the hotel manager.

But right, they're not doing the, oh, like, you know,

do behave like far too fancy thing.

No, instead, he's this like cockney sort of thing.

But they're not doing the well I never, which is the most obvious thing to go to, which I give them credit for doing.

I'm like, they're doing Twitter.

This is not

sensitive aura right now.

They're screaming the most overplayed version of the bitch, which is they walk in and they don't know how to hold the teacup and everyone's like,

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

Okay, actually, I forgot about the drawings.

What are the dreams?

Okay, okay.

They are very, like, it's a very...

It's a very funny, simple, ham-fisted way to just establish

superiority.

Just notice, like, this is a runner in Heckerland.

She's really good at these dream sequences.

You have Spokoli on the beach.

Sure.

Right.

You have Lucas Talking has incredible dream sequences.

Right.

Her, like, projecting images.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then, so in this one, it's

Beverly D'Angelo dreams of meeting the queen, but in her dream, Princess Dai wants to fuck Jeffy James.

And that's such a funny specific, and she's into it.

In Rusty's dream, he's a pop star on the Rusty World tour and kind of just walking around like sexy dancers.

And it's very, very, this also feels like heckerling because it's a very specific, it's almost like

ballroom.

You know, it's very progressively seemingly.

And then Audrey wants to be in the fucking Homer Simpson hell feeding machine kind of thing.

And then what was Chevy's dream?

Chevy's dream.

Oh, Chevy's dream is sound of music.

Right.

He wants to go back to his German family.

Right.

And he's in full later hose.

Which is maybe a joke they need to hit more.

Yes.

It's a little bit more.

I also think chevy's dream should have a european woman in it yes right but he's not as horny no he's only horny and not to move backwards again but for his wife he he fucking makes his wife do

do a sex tape uh but what he she does let's misbehave yes yeah he does a whole and then he fucks her on camera yeah

and then it gets distributed in theater this is a plot of the film this is on tonight what i like about vacation so horny for her what i like about vacation is their relationship is genuinely sexual, and she's hot, and he's trying to chase his

both with each other, right?

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

He takes her to the Moulin Rouge, right?

Well, no, no, that's in this one.

I'm just saying in the first movie, yes, but then, like, his wife takes him back without too much fuss.

There's just the stability to it that actually kind of feels realistic to me, right?

She's like, you fucking asshole.

Like, it's sort of like, right.

This one,

it's a little off.

I think it's truly, it's what Heckerling and Beverly D'Angelo, you know, in between like having dinner with the Duke or whatever, are saying of like, no one figured out what the formula was.

They just had to do another one.

Yeah.

And so obviously you have the general formula of like, look, funny things will happen to them on vacation, but it's been downgraded from R to PG-13.

And everyone's lost a little bit of like what their bit is.

But the first one is such a straight line of they're just trying to get to Wally World.

It's a road trip to a theme park, and the worse things get, the more insistent he is that they need to get there and have fun.

Right.

Whereas this, it's just like they try that with we want a trip, which I like that it's like they're being given something.

So you're not like, how the fuck can they afford it?

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

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

Right.

And that's kind of a fun kind of inside baseball thing of it's like a good setup of dynamics, in my opinion, but it is a nasty one.

Yeah.

Right.

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

Yes.

She just left us last

at the age of 96.

And I want to list some of her credits.

Right.

She played the queen a lot, right?

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

A big role.

In Austin Powers and Gold Member, she plays Queen Elizabeth II.

In Nancy Meyer's The Parant Trap, she played Queen Elizabeth II, deleted scene.

She was often referred to as, quote, the queen's most famous lookalike.

What a life.

We have talked about in the past, I think, especially during the Indiana Jones episodes recently, certain character actors who have the misfortune of looking like Adolf Hitler and talk about a Williams Abkha analog.

They're like, look, you can work forever.

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

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

We, on Action Boys, we all stumble across a character actor that we're like, this guy is in everything.

Let's look at his resume.

And then when you read his IMDb, it's like he plays like Big Dale, Beef, Chunk,

Bartough, Bouncer, you know, and it's just like this big, heavy-set guy who's in like got to be in 50 movies as assorted bikers, you know, and you're like, I'm in a hell of a career.

What a fucking life Jeanette Troll's got to have of just like jumping into comedies

and being like, oh, hello, and just like hitting them with the sword on the shoulder.

These are my favorite careers to like wrap my head around.

Like when you find someone's like, yeah, I stand in for so-and-so in all their commercials and I make the residuals.

And you're like, what?

You're like, you make six figures a year without ever being seen on camera and you just have to have the same haircut as the

lady whose commercial it is.

Nice work if you can get it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Your fake flow.

Yes, dude.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Your overflow.

Faux flow.

Faux flow.

We're both good.

We're both good.

We both got there.

It's good alts.

We have options.

Ben, you can use these and to edit however you need.

We'll do a little line of rama in honor of Avatar.

Okay, so first proper stop.

Yes, is Jolly always.

Is England?

So, right.

So, the gags are, as we say, there's the queen gag, which they get in via fantasy.

The hotel is shitty, which I'm sure in England in the 80s, by the way.

Yes.

Like, I'm sure any regular ass hotel.

Part of that fun gag is that the name is like the Westminster Arms Luxury Suite Resort or whatever, and it's just like a hostel where they have to share a fucking hallway, bathroom.

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

screen, right?

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

Yeah, it's very funny moment.

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

Robbie Coltrane is great.

I mean, again, playing a big old galute, you know, who's causing trouble.

Walking in on Bev in the barrack.

But the other gags are hard to get out of a roundabout.

These feel like American impressions of English.

Yeah,

driving on the wrong side.

Driving on the wrong side and then getting out of the room.

It's a crazy, like, it must have been to try to map the first movie on it so much.

The fact that it's driving through Europe is like less of a vacation than you think to win a prize.

Right.

And you get to rent a car and drive through Europe.

You're right.

That's frustrating.

They must have locked in.

Like, this is one of the four cornerstones of the franchise.

They have to be in a car.

Yeah.

Right.

They're not a lot of shots of them in the car, though.

It's weird.

You would think you would have like some of those like.

Like, I love that like in the Wally World one where it's like the direct on and Chevy's driving.

And it's like, clearly he's just trying to hold it all together.

Yes.

We don't get any of that.

We establish Eric Idol in this as the guy who's

a good runner.

I love him in this.

Yeah.

It's funny.

Right.

He's like a biker they keep knocking over.

He says flesh wound.

You know, he quotes his own

gag, which is always fun.

Eric Idol, I think, has always been the memory of Monty Python the most.

Just kind of like, you want me to do something?

I'll fucking do it.

Like, you know, he's pretty ego.

Name drop time.

I went to a party at Drew Carey's house once as a friend of a friend, and Eric Idol is there.

And I was like, man, I thought Drew Carey was going to be the most interesting, famous person here at Drew Carey's house.

And it's not.

Eric Idol hanging by the bonfire, cracking like eight people up.

Like just truly, just fucking bidding

it is it is one of those things that's so fascinating within the structure of Monty Python when those guys talk about how they came together and they were like oh there were like a couple overlapping circles of like two different university sketch groups and then this and that and then like the time we went in to pitch the show to the BBC was the first time we had ever presented ourselves as like that specific group yeah it's like we Jones and Terry Jones and Michael Palin are one thing and Graham Chapman John Cleese and Eric Idle are

fascinating.

But the fascinating thing, yes, correct.

But also, when they talk about it, they're like,

well, like Palin and Jones would write together, and Chapman and Clees would write together.

Palin and Jones are Oxford.

Chapman and Cleese are Cambridge, not to be.

And Idol would just write by himself.

Yes, that was all he was doing.

I just did stuff solo.

I based on it.

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

I mean, honestly.

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

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

That shit's funny, though.

I'll say it's funny.

I love Multipython.

Still pretty good.

Holy Grail is like one of the funniest movies of all time.

Even the later ones are bangers, but Holy Grail is.

I love it.

And I love Arthurian Legend, so it's like one of the things.

Oh, sure.

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

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

Yeah, Meaning of Life is weird.

I don't love that movie, but I love things.

I think I like the weirdness.

It's also, I think, I love it now.

It's going to be different, which is a true sketch movie.

Well, that's right.

That's a good question.

That's fun Monty Python sketches, right?

What could be wrong with that, really?

But I don't gotta, because you've already set up the bit of, oh, the British men are being weirdly polite and nice about their cars.

Yeah, he's the third beat of that.

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

Yeah.

Like he's bleeding out of his knees.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

And when he picks his arm up and the blood comes gushing out, it's very funny.

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

Yes.

Yes.

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

Obvious, but like...

It's right there.

It's satisfying.

Have any of you been to Stonehenge?

I just went last year.

Did you?

Whoa.

It was a little underwhelming.

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

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

barricaded.

It was Ted Lasho's wedding, right?

You, when I, so I still, I went when you still could go near it, but as soon as I was

like, the episode was dropped late because they had to comp Ben in at the last second.

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

That's what we did.

I mean, like, and like hang out and smoke cigarettes

underneath the fucking Stonehenge.

Griswold fucking back his car and knock him down like fucking dominoes.

I would love to fucking candy flip at Stonehenge.

Hell yeah.

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

God.

As you know, the fucking sun lines up.

It's true.

Dude, we got to time that with the peak.

Let's go.

Let's go back.

All right.

Fuck yeah.

The thing with Stonehenge that you, I'm sure, realize is like, it's like an hour and a half from London.

It feels like it should be like, you know, you have to go through an ancient portal to get there.

And it's like in the suburbs.

It's just off the fucking highway.

Yeah.

And so you go there.

In England, they get Stonehedge.

Here we have the world's largest cow or whatever.

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

Like

you go there and you're like, look, I get it.

These are very old and it's crazy that they're here and Lord knows what they were for.

That's cool.

But then you're kind of like, okay, so I looked at them.

It's also like you're communing with me.

Let's call out.

They're very old, but I think they've had some work done.

It's good work.

It's classy work.

Yeah, it's with Govi.

It's all good work, but it's a little touch-up here and there.

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

is so much more underground.

Whoa.

Yeah.

Like an iceberg.

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

Exactly.

Because they dragged it from fucking whales.

And so what you're seeing is actually almost twice as big.

That's fucking crazy.

Well, now there's like the new meme that the pyramids go down like a thousand

meters below the surface now, too.

People believe like, oh, this is just something people are saying.

Yeah,

and people are like, must be true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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

I have kids in here.

Yes.

God, basement of the pyramid shit.

It's going to be so exhausting.

Cold.

People are going to find out there is no basement in the pyramid.

That's

that actually.

I think we should encourage this.

I think we should get the pedo hunters to go to the pyramids because they'll just get like lost in there and cheat, right?

Like, this is good.

Yeah.

No one's in there.

Just

funnel him in there.

This guy was buried with his child bride.

Yeah.

It's time for you.

Tootin common, you are canceled.

Right.

You had like 18 wives.

Right.

Was he himself a child?

Yeah.

We're going to have to unpack all of it.

So

are there other London things we need to address?

No, I think we basically.

It's not allowed to meet on these bones, okay?

Paris

begins with them losing.

I like the small bit of them being like, no one helps us carry our bags, and Mel Stewart just going like, mom.

I also think all of there's, there's, I'm sorry, there's the polite people and the scumbags, as you said, right?

Every British scumbag in this section, their accent is like when I do a British accent and you go, what is that?

No one sounds like that.

When I do my like,

It's just

my BFG voice.

Is it fuzzy wimpers?

Now, my favorite gag in Paris.

Well,

it's a good question.

I like the rude waiter.

Again, root one, very obvious.

Look, it's root one because everyone wants to stop there.

Yeah, like subtitled insults to a like Chevy going like, uh-huh, smiling.

That's funny.

Is it England or here that has the horny couple that is kissing?

That's Paris

where

Rusty is like, Sandra boobs, right?

Like, you're like, that he's

another kind of Parisian stereotype that it's right.

And Chevy's like, yeah, Sanders are different here.

He's going to porker.

Yeah, he's not going to porker, Russ.

I like that bit of him being like, they're going to go all the way here at the table.

Chevy is always good when he's trying to even things out.

Right.

When he's trying to be like, well, that's just how they do it here.

Like, that's usually funny.

One of my favorite Chevy line deliveries in the vacation movies that I think is kind of like a archetype of his delivery is in Christmas Vacation when the woman's like, and you see the line goes all the way up the stocking.

And he's like salivating.

He's like, you see the line goes all the way up the stocking.

Russ.

Hi, Russ.

Like he has like those two levels of awareness that he can play with.

He's got an interesting relationship with Rusty in terms of being like, is it time for me to like teach my son how to be a man?

Yeah.

Where you have the like sharing a beer moment in the first one where Rusty like downs downs the beer too fast in this one rusty's like i get it i'm a grown-up i have a job let me yeah and he's like cool it and then galecki in christmas seems like seven years younger yeah he's like a child he is definitely younger than hall and uh lively but also looks even younger than he is and is played like a little boy yeah where he's just like dad don't be horny around me again in Vegas, the joke by Ethan Embry becomes mistaken for a Greek millionaire and basically like has his own side movie where he

uses he uses a fake ID to gamble and then wins a jackpot and becomes like a whale, but his name is Nick Papagiorgio.

So like it's the Papagiorgio, the usual, and he's like, you got it.

He's got like a yellow suit.

By far the best shit in the game.

Like hanging with all old guys the whole time.

They're getting back.

It's all like he gets to have old-timey Vegas.

It is a bit I basically always find funny, which is like Guy gets too deep into a character into a created circumstantial state.

Yes, yes, right.

Exactly.

That's always funny.

But then Vegas Vacation also has Beverly D'Angelo is romanced by Wayne Newton, which is deadly.

So bad.

It's so bad.

I will give the Clint Howard

dealer that absolutely ruins Wallace Sean.

It's Wallace Sean.

It is so funny.

I flip those two guys so frequently.

I'm so sorry about that.

It's the difference between this.

Bing, bingo.

He's like,

there's a line in Vegas Vacation where Wallace Sean says, why don't you just give me half your money?

I'll take you out back, kick you in the nuts, and we'll call it a day.

Because Chevy just keeps losing money to him.

And they keep playing dumber and dumber games.

That's kind of a good line.

I got to watch this.

France, what else happens?

The dog going off the Eiffel Tower is pretty funny.

Another, like, you know, it's going to happen, but it's still his.

Ben seems a little dispirited, though.

You're kind of like, yeah.

The camcorders getting stolen.

Got to get that ball rolling.

I do like the, right, how slow the build is on, like, the French guy saying like take off your shoes get in the fountain

and then running off

one in friends right waiting like 40 minutes until you pay it off with the poster of like this thing is in theaters already the wet woman or whatever

you have like rusty getting like embarrassed by the the embroidered beret Oh, yes, yes.

I mean, anytime you would go on vacation with your parents, it was always that thing of when you hit that certain age where you're like, Can I hook up with the girl on this show?

Guys talk about this all the time, and I relate to it so hard is like being awkward guys, right?

And then going on a vacation with your family and being like, No one knows me here.

What if I catched the glance of the most beautiful woman in the world, and I'm starting from nothing?

Yeah, there's no baggage.

You know, nothing about it.

And we just have some like doomed romance over two days.

Like, I do think it's like a good setup to have Rusty on the movie where they're going to be making making the most stops.

Yes.

To just be losing his fucking mind with horniness.

It's hyper-realistic.

Totally.

Like, it's just like, you know, I mean, like,

that vibe is so real.

And

it doesn't happen as well.

It happens better for Rusty than it ever did for me.

Absolutely.

But I've definitely been on like a family vacation where another family that my mom's friends with, they come and one of the daughters who's kind of like a cousin to me, so we can never hook up, but she brings a friend from school.

And all all of a sudden, I'm like, I'm like, okay, okay, anything can fucking happen.

And then I just spend six days standing near her in the pool, like not saying anything.

And then going home and being like, furiously masturbating while my parents are asleep in like the bathroom or something.

Your mind is suddenly reeling with the possibilities of how you can fuck this up by doing nothing.

Right.

The frequency in which I would be like, I think, I think I'm attracted to this girl.

I think she might even be into me.

What I should do is absolutely nothing for the entire week.

Say two words to her over the next five days.

And I'm like,

famously again.

I'm famously talkative, very funny.

Even as a kid, and I just, a woman will come over and I'm like

just stand there, just pissing in the pool looking at her.

But like, I like, first of all, like Beverly D'Angelo making the big plea to like, wouldn't it be nice if we just like stayed in and had like a private night?

And Chevy's like, no, I got to show you a night out in the town.

Hard cut to like Mulan Rouge show.

This like bad flash dance riff, and he's trying to frame it as like, this is this country's legacy.

Yeah, it's art.

The worst modern striptease and being like, here, this is culturally important.

And then Rusty in the corner, like being like, I have money.

I can pretend to be an American Playboy.

Yeah.

There's that vacation vibe of like when you go someplace where the like when you're in your 20s, you get wasted on every vacation.

Sure.

But then for me, like I went to Munich, and we'll get to this when we talk about Germany.

I went to Munich Oktoberfest for my bachelor party.

and now getting wasted is you're participating in culture.

It's like going to Amsterdam, like, yeah, I love smoking weed.

It's like, well, I went in Amsterdam, you know, you got to smoke weed,

you got to go to the red lights.

It's as wasted as the Romans, right?

Exactly.

You've literally also made a career out of this.

Like,

you did a show that is that premise.

It's true.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

Good show.

Thank you.

Where is it now?

Streaming on Max?

Still on Max.

Yeah.

We don't, we are not

making a we don't cross it off to get canceled.

We haven't been Zazzed yet.

Yeah, we We can't get Zazzed.

Let's get them successful enough that Zazz Live's like, get this off my fucking platform.

Sell it to Ketchup.

Dream, I'm sure.

I got Ketchup Entertainment come through.

Streaming on Ketchup Minus.

Sim CinemaCon News.

Yeah.

Number one, this will depress you a little bit.

John McVeigh.

I've gotten seven techs about this.

I could tell that's what people were doing.

Number two, Donnie Yen will be directing a spin-off about his character.

Okay, that was previously announced, but he's now directing it.

I like that.

I mean, any excuse for Donnie Yen to get to make a big American movie.

Yeah, like a Hong Kong-style American action movie.

Number three, Now You See Me Three has been officially titled Now You See Me, Now You Don't.

Okay, Now You Three Me?

Not Now You Three Me.

They fucked this up.

Exactly.

Obviously, two should have been Now You Don't.

They're scrambling to fix their mistake.

But it's the same.

What other movie Bad Boys fucked up with Lady Edges?

But in fucking up last time, they're now correcting and missing a new opportunity that won't exist for the fourth time.

You can't be Now You Three Me, yeah.

They can't be Now You Four Me.

Anything is possible.

Anything you know what you're about, anything is possible.

I went to Italy to shoot the movie Little Hours that my friend R.I.P.

Jeff Baina directed.

And while there, me, Pally, and Nick Offerman had a day off.

Baina knew the area so well because they were shooting there for so long.

He's like, you got to go to this little restaurant.

It's like more or less a deli.

And it was like one of the...

Best meals I've ever had.

We were there for like three hours.

We're eating.

Guy comes up on an 80-year-old guy comes up on a Vespa with a prosciutto leg, takes it.

The guy cuts it off and hands it to us.

We're just eating out of his dirty hands.

We're eating this prosciutto.

It's so good.

But this guy, his favorite movie was Now You See Me Too.

Hell yeah.

And Dave Franco is in the little hours.

Oh, so this guy had been, and I was like, it's so funny.

And he's like, my favorite American movie.

And he's telling, and he's in broken English talking about Now You See Me.

He's like, they are magicians and thieves.

And I'm like, I do actually like these movies.

And I go like,

you know, Dave, this guy is in he's because he's showing me clips from the movie on his iPad like a child like isn't this cool I'm like okay I go you know this guy's in this movie he's like I know he came into the restaurant and I brought it up to Dave Dave's like yeah no he's a big fan I was like that's such a funny thing to travel overseas is now you see me now you oversees me we should do that

we had a little uh we we did a blank check anniversary uh art show recently

anniversary and we a bunch of uh the people work on the show with us we went out and got dinner and then we were like let's come back here to the office and like get some beer and like project shit on the wall and watch music videos and do karaoke and whatever so we went to the bodega around the corner to get beer and the one on um yes yeah and like a bunch of us walk in and the guy behind the counter is like are you guys like a family or something

Because there was like our editor's kids were with us, but it was like a weird combination of people, right?

All in sick.

And Marie was like, this is in a busy area at night, too, where we are.

And Marie was like,

we work together.

And he was like, oh, all in the same office.

And she was like, we do a podcast.

And he goes, oh, what's the podcast?

He goes, it's about movies.

And he goes, oh, you know what movie you should do an episode on?

Do you remember what the first two were, Ben?

No.

I can't remember what they were, but it was like a thing.

This is the worst tangent of all time.

I'm telling you, it's going to pay off.

Okay.

It's like this, okay?

He goes, like, you should do an episode on like Shawshank Redemption or something.

Sure.

And which she was like, oh, yeah, we might do that someday.

You know, and then he was like, you should do an episode on like Unforgiven.

And she was like, or he was like, have you done that?

We were like, no.

And he's like, come on, you haven't done Unforgiven.

You haven't done Shawshank Redemption.

You haven't done any movies.

Usual suspects.

Usual suspects was one.

And then one of them was something like Shawshank or whatever.

And he was so frustrating.

He was like, What movies have you done?

And they turned around.

He went, Oh, I know which one you should do.

Tokyo Godfathers.

Hey,

Satoshi Kohn.

And we were like, We have done these.

Wow, he takes a fucking, he goes, All right,

I missed these two over-the-plate pitches Let me fucking swing way the fuck out of here and eat it.

That's all run.

He did like three IMDB top tens, and he was like, I don't understand what a show could exist for this long and not cover those two movies.

And then his third was Tokyo Godfrey.

That's like being in a small Italian and the guy who carries the leg.

Now you see me.

Right.

That's my number one favorite movie.

Speaking of, no, let's do Germany first.

Yeah.

Oh, well, of course, when they go to the Moulin Rouge, and there's lots of boobs.

I do, right?

Boob chat is the table's open for boobs.

I will say,

the

aerobics aesthetic, I am of the age that

works for you.

It still works.

Whereas it feels dated to me.

It feels like some of the vintage, yeah, Ben's making the same face.

But I like that throw.

I love that.

And whatchamacallit?

The substance.

I was like,

I'm back.

Yeah, I'm so back.

Yes.

In fact, very substantial.

The buns of steel imagery.

Yes, right.

I was so into it when it came when that, I was like,

the movie is absolutely disgusting.

And I was like, kind of hot, though, right?

And everyone's like, really?

I was like,

Timmy Moore and Qually are beautiful women in this very fun aesthetic that I like.

So it's fun to see that at Moulin Rouge.

Also, it is funny because that feels so American, like that exercise tape thing.

And that's like what they're doing at Moulin Rouge.

And Rusty's in the back with fucking

it was a prostitute.

That's what happens here.

That it starts with like a seedier riff on like French can-can girls, and then it goes to something that is so clearly like tacky 80s modern American, and he's still trying to claim it's like culturally important.

This is French theater.

That's okay.

It allows like seven or eight pairs of breasts to appear on screen for a while.

In a PG-13 movie.

In a PG-13 movie.

Yeah, I thought it was whatever.

But in Germany, West Germany, the Berlin Wall has yet to fall.

Oh, my God.

Just a fly.

I just got from Marie.

The two other movies were Goodfellas and Eternal Sunshine.

Okay.

So at least Eternal Sunshine is drifting towards NP.

That's a good pick.

And Tokyo Godfathers 3 was interesting.

And you know what?

We're never going to fucking do Eternal Sunshine, probably.

Well, yeah.

I don't think so.

Country's made too much

irrelevant shit.

Unreleasable doesn't help matters.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just like the rare film to get Zazlabbed by someone other than Zazlav

is Pharrell musical.

It's like they just all made it and watch it and were like, never mind.

Forget it.

It

Whoops.

And they were like, are you writing out for tax purposes?

Nah, we're just taking a loss.

Now,

I love when Chevy shows up in the leaderhosen.

There's such an attention to detail that he has his clothes folded up and he gives them to Beverly Dandrel and she puts him in a bag.

I'm like, that is so unnecessary in this movie, which has zero continuity, zero thought.

And it's like, they have to do this elaborate moment where he presses.

It's like, what?

The kids aren't even the same from the first movie.

We don't give a fuck about what happened to his outfit, you know?

But yes, it's also a funny bit that he's so excited about like connecting with his heritage and his family and everything.

And they misread the door.

This German family is just really fucking nice.

We're looking for sex.

Yes.

Yeah.

And then you just, he never connects with the real relatives that they clearly have been quite a bit of a kid.

That is great.

Because what's what does the lady say on the way out?

What the hell are these?

And she's like, fucked if I know, but it's not fucked, but it's something like that.

But they just continue to have this conversation in languages that they don't understand.

And they just

visit the States.

You have to stay with us.

And then, like, Audrey's even like, it's just so nice to have someone who can listen, like a family member who will listen to me.

And it's like, she's just nodding, handing off fucking phallic ass sausage.

Well, I was going to say a really funny gag is when she sees the sausage, she's like, I miss my boyfriend.

Yeah, it's just huge albino curved sausage.

It's like, it's so couldn't look more like Zopka's petal sausage.

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I have a quick Oktoberfest story that involves breasts as well.

So I think it fits perfectly.

Young Rusty hooks up with a lady at Oktoberfest.

Who opens her shirt.

Yes.

Then he hears the German police raid sound.

And they go, someone's going to get hung.

And he goes, oh, no, dad.

Right.

Which he's correct about.

Yeah, he's not right.

Chevy has done.

He's caused a trouble at Oktoberfest.

A traditional German dance so poorly.

Yes, he's knocking everything over.

It got into like slapstick, fist fight.

And then it turns into like, I love them when a movie fight just escalates and it's like we just got to punch someone else has got to an arbitrary someone stands up and decks someone in a crowd like i'm always here for that i don't say this as a criticism it is the number one element in this movie that feels like a chevy pitch yeah where he's like here's my idea i wear leader hose and do like five minutes of comically bad dancing and then start fist fighting people yeah and it's

His pitch was probably for 11 minutes and they had to cut it down.

It's so long.

It's very long.

And

it doesn't heighten in any interesting way.

The game makes no sense, too.

why would they invite a bystander to participate in an accorocated

without teaching it to him or anything and then kind of being mad that he's not good at it it's like crazy because it's also like and then they're speaking english too they're like we needed a volunteer from the crowd it's like this is getting crazy it's not like the bit is like oh he dances poorly and knocks over a fire pit and he sets their church on fire and that's why they're angry they're like you have done such disrespect to our culture by dancing poorly and i'm like maybe on you to invite a fucking noob on stage.

Yeah, right.

You brought this upon yourself.

I went to Munich Oktoberfest for my bachelor party.

Congratulations.

This was the first time me and my brothers ever went to Europe because my dad had died with only ever having gone to Germany where his stepfather was from and did a trip with him.

So we were like, when our dad died, we were like.

All of us have to leave the country for a bachelor party.

Let's shake on this right now.

That'll be a thing that will at least have three brothers' trips out of the country.

And my younger brother, we did Amsterdam for his bachelor party.

But we go to Munich Octoberfest, Fest, day one, six guys by Lederhosen.

Buy leather.

I still have it, like leather straight up, real Liederhosen.

You wear it every single day.

You're there.

It's awesome.

My youngest brother was like 26.

He's like, I can't pay 200 euros for this.

And me and my buddy, one of my other buddies were like, fuck it.

You're not going to be one.

You're not going to be not in Liederhosen.

So we just laid out like another 200 euros for him.

It's comfy.

It is a little comfy.

Interesting.

It is a little comfy.

It's airy to have like just the straps and shorts.

And

we go

to, so you go to these tents and you party in these tents.

You drink beer all day long.

And not just like a little muck.

No, you get a liter of beer, a full 40 ounces.

Yeah, exactly.

You get a 40 ounce.

That's a liter is about 36 ounces.

You get a giant fucking stein.

Now, fest beer is a little lower alcohol content because they know people are fucking jamming them down.

So like what in America we have Oktoberfest, it's like Marzani.

Their fest beer is more like light, smashable, crushable beer.

Got it.

And the big thing you do in these tents is you stand up on a table with a full beer and hold it up.

And the entire crowd shuts down and looks at you while you go to chin a beer.

And if you chin it, everyone is happy.

If you fail, they freak out.

They throw pretzels, shoes, like they boo you, they scream at you.

So on the on day one, and each tent is because it's like you're wasting their time if you don't do it.

Like

you still demanded our attention.

Yes.

And

based on your guys' knowledge of me as a person, do you you think I might

be a consummate performer and insane consumer?

I think this is a space in which you would really excel.

And I go, and so each tent is like a brewery's tent.

So we're in like the Augustiner tent.

I stand up and do this.

I fucking chin a full beer.

It's 36 ounces.

It's the crowd is going, ape shit.

I'm able to do it.

I get off the table and my knees buckle.

Like I'm like, so, because it was so much fucking like adrenaline and alcohol at the same time.

I was like, oh no.

And my bro.

And I'm like, this is better than improv.

I can't believe I found something better than improv.

So that's day one.

And we're like, the rest of the time, we're just fully participating in this thing.

We go to the Hofbrow tent, which is the crazy tent.

That one has the most security.

It's the one where people get the most fucked up.

It's sort of for the younger, less cultural, more bachelor party.

Lots of Australians who manage to travel wherever there's alcohol.

And

first up, a fucking J, like a guy who looks like Jason Statham, but with more blood vessels pop,

stands up with two leaders on the table, and everyone's like, oh my fucking God, oh my fucking God.

And he chins them back to back.

That's like drinking a six pack of beer in like 11 seconds.

The crowd goes, fucking ape shit.

I could not believe it.

It was insane.

So I'm like, there's no way, no one to top that.

Next thing you know, you start hearing quiet and people start clapping and you look over and two fat, bespectacled twins are standing up on a table with leaders, and they are identical, chunky twins with little glasses, and they look like fucking cennobites.

They like

butterballs.

They cheer each other and then fucking chin it.

And the crowd erupts.

And then we're sitting at the table.

And every, you know, Justin Tyler is a good friend of mine, also a comedy nerd.

We're like,

what's the third beat?

Right, right.

How do you heighten this?

How do you heighten this?

Cause it's heightened perfectly.

So

and then all of a sudden the crowd starts getting quiet and starts chanting.

And we look over and it's like like a five foot 10, beautiful blonde woman in a dindo, like that things that hoist your titties up like to a shelf.

They're ladyleader hosen.

Yeah, the ladyleader hosen is called the dindo.

It's the St.

Paulie girls, that famous.

And she stands up there with a liter of beer and everyone is like, it's just heteronormativity is everyone's like, oh,

like Tex Avery cartoons.

Like, this is going to be amazing.

This wolf whistle.

Right.

She starts chugging it.

The crowd.

starts going ape shit, but then she starts slowing down.

And we're like, will the crowd turn on a beautiful beautiful woman?

Short answer, yes.

Pretzels start fucking flying.

Everyone is like, Boo, you fucking, you know, like me, does she just like quit and put it down on the table?

No, she wins.

She is slowing down.

She pulls her tits out and drop pulls her top down, breasts out.

That's why this iconic scene with Moon opening her shirt is like, I remembered this.

She drops her wonderful big naturals out.

The crowd goes all the way back.

She chins the, finishes chinning the beer, does like the curtsy, and then puts her breasts away.

And we're like, ah, like the crowd, like the vibe shifted everywhere.

This crowd is so rabbit.

Germany's no good guy.

They start pretzeling her when she's slowing down.

Not when she was like, I quit, I'm sorry, I give up.

Yeah, no, when she's when she's like, she might not need it.

When she was on track to not finish, they started throwing food at her.

And the craziest thing I remember about

this Tentu is that the tables were for seven people.

Yeah.

And to get a table is like ideal because then you can like have a server.

So you got to get there super early.

We were six people.

One random Brazilian guy lands up at our table with us and he shows up and he has like a tucked-in shirt.

And we have a picture of the beginning and the end.

He has like a hat that's a huge fake keg with like a tap on it.

His eyes are crossed.

His shirt is ripped and he has like blood and food all over himself.

And it's like, this is what happens if you hang out with the Gabris family for like

seven hours.

You're a different than anyone else you've ever met in your life.

It's just so obvious that the good European countries, like where Italy, France, but you know, where they like, they just know how to drink.

Yes.

And then like all the bad ones, like England and Germany, people are just like, ah, like they're just maniacs.

In England, they're like, only go too far.

Right.

I only had 100 beers last night.

Is there a way we can make them colder and flat, warmer and flatter so they go down smoother?

The first time I to cascale, I'm like, why the fuck does this exist?

Then you drink it and you're like, oh, I could have a hundred of these.

And then it's like, of course, Mike.

We're here from 4 to 1 a.m.

The London thing of like almost all bars close at 10 p.m.

But also, okay, I'm sorry, but also like, please drink outside.

Yeah.

Like a recipe for people to be like, I got to keep like loading now because the cutoff's coming earlier than I wanted.

And also I'm already in the streets stumbling around.

Well, the thing about the economy of drinking in England is it's like you like, so right, you get off work, you go to the pub, you start chugging beers, right?

And like might be outside if you want to smoke, especially, right?

You do that until closing time.

Then you are, as the Brits would say, pissed.

Yes.

On the piss, man.

You are fucking on the lash, and then you're like, let's get a fucking kebab.

You know, like,

you just stumble into

the only, no, Nando's is closed.

You stumble into the only businesses that are open, which are kebab shops.

So you're like, pile meats into a bowl of stuff.

But like 11:45 p.m.

in London is like night of the living dead.

Like it's like the streets are overrun with people who've been kicked out of balls.

You go to a club because clubs are allowed to be open.

And those, believe me, are not very cool.

But last night in Soho made them seem really nice and trendy.

I went out drinking

in Scotland by myself on a Saturday night.

Sounds fun.

I was in Glassdoor.

Did you call GoPuff?

No.

I'm sorry.

What?

Carry on.

I was in a bar and I've experienced like...

being in a bar with like a lot, a lot of drunk people, but it's like, you know, like a trashy bar in Midtown with like a lot of underage people.

I have never been in a crowded bar where every single person has been drinking since like fucking eight in the morning weird

from from like six foot five fucking oak men to like five foot one women like in mega mini skirts yeah or a fucking like cross-eyed mega minis there had been you know that sport i think it's called hurling sure they just basically whip a wood like lacrosse ball at each other yeah and they use like a cane like it's not like they use like a it's like drunk high ally for like you know Highlanders, you know.

Scotland's a crazy fucking place for that shit.

Like when I was in Glasgow, I went to go get drinks and I was like, This is fucking terrifying.

I truly was a little scared by the end of the night and had to get out of there.

I'm referencing that I famously in Newcastle where I went to college, which is not Scotland, but it's the English city closest to the Scottish border, got called a poof for which is a slur for gay people,

for wearing a coat.

It was like 22 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

It was not warm.

Let's make it clear.

Let's make it clear.

The guy I did not know was like, you know, hitting me on the shoulder.

I'm like, what?

And he was like, you poof, you're wearing a coat.

And I was like, should I not?

What is the planning?

I just want to clarify, it is both a slur for gay people and the last name of a very respected long-necked Jedi.

Oh, of course, Regario Black.

The Phantom Yes.

I'm glad Ricardo.

But

I maybe should not show this.

It just has two meanings.

My father was a working-class Englishman.

It was raised in South London.

And his brother, his older brother,

my father was the fourth, so the third son, was such an inveterate alcoholic that his mail was delivered to the pub, which is the thing

that was one of those things that I was told as a kid.

And I was like, that can't be like as a grown-up, I checked in.

I was like, you know, I feel like I remember that Uncle

Badry, the specialist.

He had his mail delivered to the pub.

That's like not true.

That's a family debate, right?

100%.

He's a carved on mailbox.

No, it's true.

I think it was true.

Like, the postman was like, well, I know where I'll find him.

Like, you know, here's your fucking mail.

The one thing I like i mean i like a lot of stuff about drinking culture and because because i've played rugby my whole life and in in america i hang out with a lot of brits and aussies and stuff but i like the public rugby i love rugby and i love the pub culture of loyalty to a pub yes that's what i like a lot too is that it's like a home team you just make a fucking spot your public house and that's where you go and that's like you're like oh I can go there alone and I'll probably run it.

You know, it's like McManus was for like a decade where I'd be like, okay,

I'm getting out of something else.

I bet you there's someone at McManus.

And you know, there's a community there.

Yeah.

Listeners might be noticing that we're avoiding talking about the Italy section of the movie, which becomes weirdly plotty.

Yeah, the Italy section of the movie stinks.

I really, I was losing interest in the movie.

I just don't care about the movie.

Well, this is where

actual stakes on it.

This is where the sex tape thing

gets resolved too.

And there's a lot of the

business.

We're seeing the poster storming off, Clark getting stuck in the business end of this weird, complicated traveler's check scam that also involves a hostage in the trunk, and then D'Angelo has to come back and save him.

The guy who plays the thief who like tries to flirt with Beverly, this guy is doing work.

Victor Lanoux, he's very enjoyable.

Yes.

But I just, I could not give a fuck.

I didn't, it's, and again, I don't, I'm not this guy always, but like, just like pig in a poke, what the fuck is, this is what I say on Action Boys all the time.

If the, if the robbery went well, what was the plan?

plan?

Why do they need that guy to understand their scam?

You don't understand.

If you have the money and the guy and they know who he is, they could just leave with the money.

Give the Griswolds five T's on the walk out and everything is freaking out.

But they're basically like robbing this traveler's check's place while he walks in, but have already said it's the perfect crime if we can figure out someone else to pin it on.

You're like, pin what?

Leave.

The guy's tied up.

And instead, they're like, we're going to give him too much money so it looks like he stole everything.

And then put the guy who works here tied up in his trunk and give him the car so that people blame him for the crime.

I hate the returning.

But then they get back, they go back to try and get the car.

Yeah, the Beetle or whatever it is.

Because why do the bad guys follow?

Because they're like, go to the hotel and we'll get the car back from you because I guess they want the car back, but they're just using it to help so he can transport the body, but then they fuck up by going shopping.

Oh,

shopping.

That's the best part of Italy.

Yes.

I'm glad you're in the middle of the day.

The outfits are great.

They are all funny.

Fucking incredible.

I love when Chevy has it on the plane ride home, too.

He has that weird thing.

Oh, you know what?

I like that bit, too.

I guess it's at the very end.

Well, that.

We'll talk about that.

Yikes.

But the sped up Chevy trying to have multiple meals on the plane, and they keep on taking it away before he gets to the other side.

That's solid travel humor.

Nothing wrong with that.

Oh, we skipped over it in France, but the sped-up Louvre thing is a lot of fun.

And that's a semi-relatable human element that they're putting in, which is this notion of the dad

viewing tourism as a competitive sport when he's shitting on the young honeymooning couple.

Yeah.

And he's like, we saw like 40 things today.

They haven't seen anything.

And everyone else is like, I would love to just stay in this hotel.

We're happy and we're exhausted.

Even, even though there's that moment too when they're like, wow, dad, look, ancient ruins.

He's like, keep moving.

And it's like, the kids are even enjoying sightseeing.

He's like won't let him.

They're halfway

What was I going to say?

Vacation, and these movies do not naturally have a way to end, right?

No.

Vacation kind of cleverly builds up to Wally Worldless Clear.

There's a destination.

Chevy has the nervous breakdown.

It goes on a little long, in my opinion, but

it's a clever sequence.

That movie, it's helpful to me.

It's involved in the fact that they're going to one place and they come up with a kind of funny twist on what happens if they get to that place.

Christmas

has the big explosion and shit.

Again, like, they, they do a good job figuring out a punchy ending.

Right.

This movie doesn't know how to do that apart from a Statue of Liberty.

Yeah.

Getting knocked over.

Yeah, I think that's what they thought their big moment was.

Right.

Which you're like, okay.

But it is such a wild moment.

To clarify, at the very end of this film.

Clark is looking for the bathroom on the plane.

He accidentally opens the door to the cockpit, gets tangled in the steering gear.

Yes.

And then...

Causes the plane to nosedive right as it's flying over Ellis Island into the Statue of Liberty, which then like its arm gets turned upside down and the movie basically ends with Clark's going, oopsie.

Yeah, it's so, and then I do think the montage of photos over the credits is very funny.

This is the thing.

Like that ending is so insane because you're just like, well, wait a second.

If that happens, he's...

getting dragged to Guantanamo Bay.

Right, right.

Right?

Like he's not getting out of this.

You could just have the ending of like Clark out the window going like, look, Statue of Liberty.

Aren't you folks happy to be back in America again?

And then cutting to images of like gross American shit.

Yeah, which I thought was the American shit, which is really funny.

The Statue of Liberty thing happens so fast and is so extreme and is like feels frightening.

It's out of right.

It's out of reality with yeah, and it doesn't, and even like the gag itself doesn't look great.

It doesn't also look that good.

I just want to shout out that the my local, my pub, was the Lonsdale in, in, in Newcastle.

Hell yeah.

And I just looked it up and this is the fate of so many English pubs.

It's something that the movie

World's End is about.

It's been bought by Green King, which is one of the many pub chains.

And I assume is still basically fine inside, but they ruin these places by kind of

set menu

to the UK.

Like, it's not really a thing here.

Of course not.

But like in England, it's like there are pubs everywhere, right?

You know, as there have been since like the 10th century or whatever.

And like, right, you know, like everything else, it's just getting we have all these like tacky corporate pubs in New York yeah that are just called like

the the point on the right or whatever

O'Shaughnessy and you're like this isn't owned by like real Irish people but you're also like it's not part of a like McPub chain that is literally like a corporate logo stomped onto 40 locations I want to look up my London logo the pineapple Seems to be still

doing fine.

Oh, I might see you down at the pineapple.

The thing with the pineapple.

And the Dartmouth Arms, Arms, which is my other favorite pub where I live near, is like they got a little gastro pubby because, like, that's what happened in North London.

It's like pubs started to have good food.

But there wasn't really anything wrong with that because you were like, well, the food's good.

Yeah, right.

You know, and like they're still serving beer and it's still a good vibe in here.

It's just like they fucking hired a shit.

Yeah.

I'm not going to bitch that the food got better here.

Well, some people do, but yes.

Well, in England, that would like, you know, someone might have like a flavor that would fucking shut their bodies down.

What is this?

Garlic?

I once introduced Ben to Peter K's legendary garlic bread bit, which is one of the most famous comedy routines in England, which is him making fun of his family, his parents, his northern Balton parents, eating garlic bread for the first time.

You're like, garlic bread, garlic bread.

If I do it, it's not funny at all.

But everyone in Britain knows it.

Britain only discovered garlic in like 1997 or something.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, it's crazy.

They were like going all over the world, killing people for spice and never got garlic.

Right.

They just sold it to other people, I guess.

Should we do the box house game?

We should.

should, yeah.

I mean, we should say this movie did okay, it was definitely seen as like a disappointment, especially since it's going PG-13.

You'd think they might be like growing their audience instead of losing it significantly.

Now, sequels used to be more

expected to do worse, right?

But like, Christmas grows is the biggest

of them.

I do think it was seen as like this succeeded based on love of the first one rather than anything Heckerling did.

It's also, it's July, it's July 26, 1985.

There's a comedy in theaters with with Chevy Chase.

Right.

You're going to get people.

Chase comes out of this with another win under his belt.

It's almost kind of held against Heckerling that, like, she misunderstood the assignment and the movie worked in spite of her, which I just think all of it's interesting in building up like the psychology of her going into Look Who's Talking, which is like, do I want to make a talking baby movie?

Eh, I do want to make something that's a hit that I own that's undeniable.

I'm going to dispute you on that.

Now, Fletch is the same year, right?

And so Fletch is kind of, it's a solid hit, but also well received.

So a month ago, Fletch has come out.

Fletch is, in fact, where is it in the box stuff?

It's 14, but you know, it's been around for a couple of months.

Post this, Spies Like Us, which does pretty good, but like is not as well remembered as some.

Three Amigos, which is now liked, but was a bomb.

Yes.

Funny Farm, you guys are sticking up for a piece of movie.

I love three of the four movies.

Right.

And then post that, Chevy starts to scramble.

Caddyshack 2, which is a disaster.

Although tiny part, but yes, disaster.

Fletch Lives, which is also a disaster.

And then Christmas Vacation is the sequel he makes where it's like, well, that worked.

That worked.

Right.

He's back.

But that's also his last hit, probably like ever.

Right.

And it is one of the things that he's like, his 90s output is obviously really terrible.

I feel like for a guy who had such a bad reputation, but a good number of hits, and had flops as well, like was up and down.

Even when I earlier said, like...

all of his movies are basically hits until vacation.

I look at it

upside down.

Under the rainbow and shit.

Right, exactly.

His like, his average was strong enough that in this era of like he is a six million dollar movie star right he doesn't command 20 million dollars he costs six to make a movie that costs 20 that makes 60 or right that's worth it right that's like on base and maybe he's tough to deal with but who gives a

um i do feel like when the talk show happens right and like people are watching the bubble is burst with the talk show everyone's like this guy sucks wild and well there's something there's something about a guy who's an asshole that's the big who's always playing an asshole yes you can do as a little suspension of disbelief that, wow, Chevy's really good at playing an asshole.

You watch that.

Then, when he plays himself in the Chevy Chase show and you're like, oh, no, he's not acting at all.

He's an asshole.

Yeah, this guy can't hide it.

Yeah, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I like fucking whatever is Ty Webb less.

I like Clark Griswold tracks now.

It's like the two-pronged thing of you're watching him without the distance of a character and being like, this isn't so charming if it's real.

Right.

If a guy's an actual actual prick, it's not fun.

The second part of it is part of the fun of Chevy Chase is so confidently going through these things and watching the talk show.

He's so quickly dying inside and unhappy that you're like, this isn't fun if he's not even having fun doing it.

Right.

And it's starting to make him look pathetic.

But also the first episode is Goldie Hond, who he had done two movies with.

And it's like, great, pair him up.

His first guest, a big comedy movie star who's one of his like scene partners.

And they just have no chemistry together.

And you're like, oh, none of these people like him none of the other people in hollywood like him it's a forgotten thing that about conan when everyone zooms in on how bad you know conan did in the first year not the show but the ratings or whatever where one reason he survived was the chevy chase had bombed so hard that it was like eh maybe we need to give the youngsters a shot yeah you know here's another thing that was quietly working for conan

guests he had on who had hosted s nl were like you're so funny you were great sure right i liked you when you you were the right person.

The other thing Conan had going for him is he's like one of the great comic presences and is so funny.

One of the funniest human beings.

He's genuine.

He's a little like imbalance of the best.

He's the best.

He's the fucking best.

He's the best.

I hate that he's doing a travel show that's on max.

How dare you?

That's really good.

But him just like windmill dunking at the Oscars after like 30 years of like being available for that job is just like great.

Yeah, and he wrote the Kennedy Center.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he did that so perfectly.

Genius.

The way he like threaded the needle of like, how do I do this in what is probably your last Mark Twain award.

Right.

Right.

But I'm like, I was, you know, my awards.

Before it goes to Matt Wright or whatever.

John Voigt.

So funny.

He's so funny.

On Twitter.

Like he's getting it for his tweets.

My like teen years, I was like, why won't they let Clonin host the Oscars?

Why won't they let the weird guy host?

It's so much better to have him host at the point in his life where he has nothing to prove and now also seemingly might just be the de facto host for the next five years.

Yeah, he might have accidentally did it.

Like, he might have nailed it.

Yeah, it was fantastic.

Yeah, he kind of, but I just think there's in an Oscar uh presentation that the movies didn't fucking get me going.

Yeah, having Conan there was a fucking victory.

I just think it's an interesting flip that, like, you have Chevy and Conan at the same time, and you're like, oh my god, like, ABC has hired a movie star for 20 years to host a talk show.

This is humongous, and NBC responded with a fucking comedy writer.

Yeah, the discrepancy is so great.

And then, like, any celebrity who has dealt with Conan prior to him getting the show through SNL is like, I always liked you.

Yeah.

And you're like, huh, America doesn't know this guy, but people with stature are approving him.

Meanwhile, Chevy is interviewing people he starred in movies with and has zero chemistry.

And you're just like, huh, he's kind of just tolerated.

So

this film opens number one, $12 million.

It got very bad reviews, to be clear.

It makes $40.

It ends up at a domestic total of $49 million.

Not bad.

Number two at the box office is one of the big hits of the summer.

We've covered it on this podcast.

It's 1985.

It's been out for a month.

Is it Back to the Future?

There you go.

There we go.

It's the biggest hit of the year.

Good movie.

Yeah, excellent film.

Do you like it?

I haven't seen it.

About this kid.

I've only seen three.

Yeah.

I've only seen the Broadway show and three.

Number three at the box office is a legendary flop, an animated film.

Is it the Black Cauldron?

Disney's The Black Cauldron.

Wow.

Have you ever seen it?

I never have.

I'm almost, I can safely say I don't think I've ever even heard of it.

It is probably the nadir of Disney, sort of like in terms of culture.

I think it's like inarguably, what's wild about it, Gabriel, is it is like an adaptation of a fairly recent, expansive fantasy novel series that Disney bought.

And we're sort of like, we're going to do our like middle earth.

earth and

we're gonna try to appeal to boys which is always the Disney thing of like can we get boys you know

it's called the book of three

the whole group of it's called the chronicles of pride

I remember

it's like it's like young adult high fantasies I remember seeing the movie when it uh not when it came out but watching a VHS when I was young being like this doesn't work and then years later in my like school library finding the book of three going this looks fun and 60 pages in being like this is the black cauldron that's so weird that it's based off of this i'm so embarrassed to say that i am such a

any port in the storm for high fantasy sure that i'm going to

watch this i'm going to see i'd be very curious i am

wanting to watch it i've always heard that it's kind of also like weirdly scary right like it's got kind of a little too intense for

one of the famous anecdotes about it is it's the movie that they're working on at disney when tim burton gets hired out of cal arts and they're like perfect we got this weird creepy guy he can do some of the monsters and he submits the stuff and they were like tim all right now fucking cool do Do you like, what's it called?

I just read it last year because Sean Clements told me to read it.

The Blade Itself, the first law books.

Yes.

Clements got me into those years ago, too.

That trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and then the three that take place in the same world.

So awesome.

Standalone or whatever.

And if you're an audiobook guy, the guy who

reads those books, Stephen Pacey, is fantastic.

The way he does Glatka, who has a speech impediment because he has his teeth pulled, but then he also has internal thought that's better.

He does like two different versions of her.

So fucking cool.

Yeah.

I'm going to try to keep this quick.

I went down a weird rabbit hole.

The man who directed the Black Cauldron, one of the two directors, I believe his name is literally Richie Rich.

He is Richard Rich.

And he brags about the first animation director to have no experience in animation.

He was like a music guy who then became like a development executive at Disney, who then they let direct and had never animated once in his life.

And I think he co-directed that and Fox and the Hound, which are sort of the nadir nadir for Disney

commercially.

And then, much like Don Bluth, he like spun off and was like, I don't need Disney.

I can make my own thing.

And he made like the Swan Princess for New Line, which was kind of a mess.

He has largely backed into doing like extensive biblical animated adaptations.

But I was going through his INDB and I found that he had made a movie about the Prophet Muhammad.

And I'm like, how the fuck did he do this without being

arrested?

And I found a review that our friend, past and future guest Dana Stevens, did of this movie, which I think came out in like 2003.

He did an animated Prophet Muhammad movie that is animated from the perspective of the Prophet Muhammad, who has no dialogue.

It's an animated like fucking Nickel Boys, where it's you seeing other characters talk about Muhammad so that he can tell the story without showing him on screen.

Right, because Prophet Zion using his image is prohibited.

Just one of the weirdest movies I've ever discovered existing.

Put on your 3D Muhammad glasses right now.

And it's like animated like a shitty Disney movie.

Number four at the Box Office.

We also did the King and I animated film.

Yes, which is also a cursed film.

Number four at the Box Office is a sequel

to a film that John covered on our show.

This is where LA is probably getting hot, huh?

Is it Predator 2?

Nope.

But that is a fun, of course, movie in which, yes, the Predator comes to LA and gets in the middle of a gang war and Danny Glover's stressed out.

Is it Beyond Thunder though?

It's Mad Max Beyond Thunder.

That's, I love that one.

A very fun movie.

We got

the show, of course.

I've ever had the courage to go beyond Thunderbird.

No one's done it since.

Number five at the box office is a western that a lot of people really like.

I saw it and was underwhelmed.

Silverado.

I just remember you being Casden's Silverado.

I fired that up being like, I'm going to have the best time.

And I was like,

do you like Silverado?

You ever seen it?

I saw it when I was a kid, and I think I liked it, but I think I would want to.

I'm on a Costner kick right now.

We just did No Way Out on action.

I just watched that after Hackman Pass.

I'd never ever seen it.

It's a not horror movie about very straightforward people.

And I'm listening to The Big Clock now, the book that No Way Out's based on.

It's fucking very interesting.

And it's been.

Because the twist.

There was a previous movie adaptation as well, right?

There's two.

The twist.

There's an American one and a French one that's unique just to that version of the story.

Is that correct?

The twist that he's investigating himself?

Yes.

That's like the whole conceit of the movie is that he a guy who's.

Oh, no, I'm saying the very end twist of the twist.

Oh, the very end of the twist,

but yes, which we won't say.

Yeah, it's crazy.

It's unearned, it's bananas, there's no teasing up.

Same things I've seen a movie do in the last 20 years.

And again, I keep coming back to improv, but it really is reminds me of like the last beat of a Harold, where you're like, oh, we were in space.

Begging for a blackout.

It's like, if I do something loud enough, will they have to blackout?

They just have to get out.

The red light has been on for like eight minutes.

The booth is not

behind the wheel.

Yeah, let's get the fuck out of here.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I'm on a crazy Costner kick.

I loved Horizon, Horizon and, of course, and so I want to re-watch Silverado.

You know what movie is good, Gabris?

Horizon chapter two.

I haven't seen it.

I saw it at Santa Barbara.

I played it at a fucking film festival.

Oh, I made a trip out there.

I'm so jealous.

It's really good.

I'm so fucking jealous.

I enjoyed the first one so much.

I think this one's a lot better.

Oh, that is.

It has to be.

Yeah.

Because I will say this: a movie that is as slow and as long as Horizon that ends with To Be Continued is banana.

It's like fucking, what's the Miles Morales Spider-Man movie?

Where I was like, when that ended with To Be Continued, I heard kids in the crowd boo at the AMC.

Sean, don't worry.

They announced today that the next movie is coming out in only two years.

Long strike delay.

It's interesting.

It was just so funny when they were like, ah, the strike means we're delaying that one.

It would be out in six months.

Our original release date is not a good one.

You're like, you have a title page and nothing else.

Exactly.

Spider-Man's going to be in it.

We know that.

We know that.

Also at the box office, Cocoon.

Sure.

Old guys.

Rambo First Blood Part 2.

I'm sure you've never covered that one.

That's not a movie you like, right?

Can we win this time?

One question.

Can we win this time?

I love, I could, I could talk for hours about

First Blood and First Blood Part 2 being like the dichotomy of like American art, where it's like the first movie is like PTSD,

soldier coming home, anti-cop, high drama.

Sound good.

Dealing with like soldiers coming home and bringing the war home with them, all this intense heavy shit.

And the second one's like, they still still got soldiers in Vietnam.

Go there with a bow and arrow and kill everybody, sly.

Wouldn't it be great if one of us was so yoked and could take care of all of their problems?

God, he is so fucking diced in, too.

It's insane.

The vein poppage.

Oh, he's vascular AS.

He looks like grilled chicken.

He's so fucked.

His hair is bananas.

Like, it's so crazy.

Fires an M60

at Sensei Crease.

I guess he looks more like rotisserie chicken because he's bronze.

He's pretty glazed up.

He's balsamic.

Have you covered?

I have to go in a second.

Yeah.

This film, a film I really like, Clint Eastwood's Western, Pale Rider, which is sort of Unforgiven before Unforgiven.

Like, it's another clever anti-Western.

It's just a little less seen.

Is that the one where he is maybe the devil, or that's something else?

That's like the man in black or something.

What's that one?

No, I know what you're going for.

Yeah, he basically is sort of death.

He's deaf in that movie.

Am I wrong in thinking?

No.

No, this does make sense because is it out at the box office at this point in time?

What?

Why are you bringing up Pale Rider?

It's number eight.

Okay, that was my question.

What are you excited?

In the end montage.

In the end credits montage, they play, they show an image of some Clint Eastwood western game.

I believe it is Pale Rider.

It is.

It looked like it to me.

I mean, although it could, there's a lot of Clint Eastwood Westerns out there.

No, because Josie Wales has got the two guys.

I don't know.

Number nine at the box office, St.

Almost Fire.

That's a movie that's bad, in my opinion.

Joel Schumacher, St.

Almost Fire.

Yeah.

That's a movie that's a bit of a ghastly movie.

It has its fans.

Yeah, I've never

re-watched it.

It's fucking stupid.

I've never been inspired to.

Number 10 is a movie I don't know.

It's a romantic comedy called The Heavenly Kid.

Oh.

Starring Lewis Smith, best known for his role in The Heavenly Kid, Wikipedia tells me.

About

like a greaser who dies playing chicken and comes back as an angel.

Is Teen Angel the ABC Sakam

loosely adapted from the heavenly kid?

Why do I know the heavenly kid?

Oh,

I feel like the heavenly kid was,

it sounds so fucking the premise sounds so.

I mean, I think it's

what's the

fuck, why can't I think of it?

The angel movie with

yes, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's kind of Jason, uh, like, yeah, you're not gonna get to go to heaven until you help this other kid by being his guardian angel, young Jane Kezmeric.

Yeah, there was an ABC TGIF sitcom with a very similar premise that maybe was just unofficially riffing on this called Teen Angel that I was a fan of.

That was an Al Gene Mike Rice show, I believe.

Yeah.

I don't think it was very good, though.

No offense.

Well, I disagree with you.

I'm sure my opinion as a seven-year-old would hold up perfectly.

Looks like that one had the great Ron Glass, though.

I love him.

He was the big floating head in the sky, I believe.

Oh, sort of the Zordon.

Yeah, kind of.

Imagine, but in the sky.

Sure.

Instead of a tube.

Yeah.

Have you ever seen

the semi-recent big-budget American Power Rangers movie, Gabris?

Of course.

David and I will talk about this a lot.

Cranston is so fucking good at Zordon.

It's so it's that movie's such a better movie than I expected.

I like that movie a lot, but like Cranston.

I put it on as a bit.

Totally.

And, you know, I ate an edible and I'm like, this would be funny.

And then at the end of it, I was like, I care a lot.

It's like, this rocks and rolls.

Yeah.

But like, Cranston, you're just like, oh, my God.

He is playing Zordon with like gravity and grace.

He's good, man.

He's good.

What did I just see him in?

He said he really, oh, the studio.

The studio.

Yeah.

Oh, he's having fun in the studio.

I've only seen the first episode of the studio, but I enjoy it.

Me too.

I also love Han.

She's so fucking funny, so hot.

And then she's doing this bit where she's a fully different style every time.

Every time walking in.

She seems a little Pascal inspired, perhaps.

Some of us Pascal.

I mean, Cranston is like so, there's so many guys that Cranston's kind of doing.

But I also just love, like Rogan knows, like Marty's a good actor.

Like, you don't have to just have Marty do one scene where he's just like,

Marty.

You know, like, you can give him three moods like over the course of an episode.

When they reveal like marty he's like marty's crying in the background is so really funny i have said this many times he is you know perhaps our finest kind of like major film artist within the like the studio system right still getting to operate at that level right and he's getting up there in age and i want as many marty movies as we can get while he's still around and in good form i also don't want him slept on as an actor i'm like every time he's ever acted in something he's so fucking good.

And I'd love it if he could throw in like two more supporting performances.

He's great in his fucking like daughter's TikTok.

He's always

gets the joke.

Yeah, he's always like.

What's the one?

Guilty by Association, which is like a totally mediocre De Niro blacklist movie.

Okay.

In which he plays like a blacklisted filmmaker.

Guilty by Suspicion.

Thank you.

Yeah, I've never seen that.

So fucking.

He's amazing in Quiz Show.

I watched a couple of Quizho.

I watched a couple of amazing taxi driver.

Yeah, I know.

I watched a couple of of marvelous docs early his early docs and he's in them so much good so like italian american is really good

and i forget the other one that's

to no the guy his friend who's crazy oh yes

they're just interviewing him in his house that one is fucking i wish i could pull the name of it it's fucking awesome yeah marty marty hang out with marty let's have marty on the show yeah yeah by the way

next week on blank check look who's talking with martin scorseski

baby talks

you know he's there's a there's something about him look who's talking to has a joke that's burned into my head.

I can't hear it.

It's Damon Waynes Jr.

going, oh, that's Mr.

Toilet Man.

Eat your doodles in your pee-pees.

I've been saying that.

I've been saying that for 35 years.

John, I am so excited for David to meet Mr.

Toilet.

Mr.

Toilet Man.

You doodles in your pee-pees.

And someone here is...

Well, I've successfully potty trained a child.

Hell yeah.

This movie might hit close to home.

But I witnessed the stages of potty training, if that makes sense.

In my memory, nobody told me that that's how it works.

That's sort of like, oh, they get good at one thing and then they get good at the other.

A film I have not seen in

probably 30 years, if not more.

In my memory, Look Who's Talking To is almost a potty training thriller, first and foremost.

Yes.

Well, then I'm, I'm, then it won't be triggering for me because I'll kind of be like, okay, I did it.

You made it to the other side.

I mean, I'm going to have to do it two more times.

Whatever.

I re-watched recently Martin Scorsese's American Express commercial where he's getting his photos developed.

And he's going through them.

I just want to go back to that era of life.

I'm sorry.

I walked back there.

We had it figured out we did there's a moment in it where he's it's photos from his grandchild's birthday party i think is the bit or his son's birthday his nephew whatever and he holds it up to the guy behind the counter at like a 7-eleven and he goes see here he's the antagonist but where's the or he goes see here he's the protagonist where's the antagonist he's missing from the frame all the whole commercial is so funny his commercial wes anderson's commercial obviously is amazing too all those anime songs but i just want to go back to an era of you had to walk around town to get all your shit done.

Yes.

I'm going to, you know, to the photo place to get my photos that I from vacation.

And then I'm going over to the dry cleaner.

And then I'm going over to the baker because I got to get a loaf of bread.

And then the butcher, you know, let's just do that again.

And then, oh, shit, I have to get a candle made.

Right.

And then,

where's my fucking candlestick baker?

I watched a woman walk with a disposable camera in her hand.

to a Dwayne Reed, Walgreens, at the desk that says photo center above this and say, do you guys develop this?

And the guy behind the counter goes, no.

Right.

He's like, you don't have like a USB drive for me or whatever.

That's so fucking depressing.

That's so depressing.

And she was just like, that's what I assumed thought it was worth a shot.

She didn't even make a fuss.

She's like, yeah.

She's like, I just, I had to take the shot.

Young people don't know about getting doubles.

Oh, dude.

Hey, in my opinion, triples is best.

Got three?

It was such a routine in my life that my mom was like, oh, we got to go to, it was in britain the change called snappy snaps we gotta go snappy snaps and you can go there and they'll be like yeah here are your photos see you later what do we gotta go twice you gotta go twice you gotta drop off and pick up yes look what they're held now we just look at these all day but holding up my telephone he's holding he just pulled his tits out look at it these beautiful tits of mine all day we're all just holding these

yes keep your eyes on the sims beecuck with his double jointed he's able to go around the back of his head and grab his tits in like a janet jackson level kind of poster it's like the stranger except his hands i will never forget when i was about 11 years old doing this as i've been doing all my life and the kid sitting next to me nikki i believe his name was going the are you doing and i was like what and he was like people can't do what you're doing

when i just saw it it was like unsettling it was like it was like watching when when action everyone can do this yeah and no one can do this

This is what's crazy, though.

I've been sitting across from you for 10 years.

Until this moment, I never considered, oh, you're doing it a weird way.

I watch you do that.

I can move over and over.

For the listener, I'm realizing we should describe this.

I put my arms behind my back with my arms behind my head and I can move them to essentially below my shoulders.

Yeah, and your elbows drop down like behind you.

Right, but I can basically.

And both of these are positions people can do, but they can't move between them.

They would need to unclasp the reset.

Like we do their, you know what I mean?

It's just one smooth movement.

Hey, Gabris, anything you want to plug?

Yeah, actually, several things, if that's cool.

Of course,

for movie fans, I got the Action Boys podcast, Action Boys.biz.

Free.actionboys.biz, so you don't have to pay for Patreons.

You just get a sniff and see if you get hooked.

I'd love some of that.

The aforementioned

aforementioned ode to engineers of Gino Lombardo, I did a 30-episode series of the Gino, a three 10-episode series, and I put it all on physical media that you could buy as a USB that looks like a cassette.

Oh, so you ended up with that.

I found it out.

Yeah.

Hosley helped me send me down a direction, but I got to shout out Brent Morris and Josh Richmond, the two guys who helped me produce it.

Josh kind of

was the impetus.

He goes, hey, if this tariff shit hits, getting these things from China is going to cost you a fortune.

Order them now.

So I was not prepared, but now

I got the product.

Come get them.

Come get them at chino.gabris.com.

Chino, my all-time favorite CVB character.

Thank you.

He's

one of my favorite things to do ever, and he's 5% different than the real me.

And finally, this episode is coming out late enough that I can announce announce Adam Pally and I are swinging the camera in the other direction or flipping the coin.

And we are hosting a wellness podcast called Staying Alive.

And it's about us interviewing wellness experts and other comedians and what they do to stay alive.

And it's directed by Sylvester Stallone.

Yes, yes.

That's what I realized.

He's got a hold on to the other.

Hey, can we win this time, Pally?

My daughter, Sistine, has got a podcast.

You got to listen.

I'm glad this timed out well.

We've been looking for a while to find a good episode.

Yeah.

Yeah, we didn't.

When we didn't this time, but

schedule-wise, this worked out great for everybody.

Movie-wise, I was kind of a hey, you want to do European vacation?

You were like, sure, I've seen European vacation.

I'm a big fan of the vacation.

I'm a Christmas vacation freak.

And then, weirdly enough, like the first time I really hooked up with my now wife was during the movie Loser.

Okay, go off.

Well, wait a second.

Yeah, we were in college.

We were friends for a long time.

You were a loser?

Yeah, I was a a bit of a loser.

Okay.

We were friends for a really long time.

Then we both were single.

One night we have this night where we watch Almost Famous, and it's a beautiful fucking evening.

We are next to each other on her bed, and we're like just trying not to touch each other.

It's like Seymour Hoffman on the phone.

You're getting emotional.

Yeah, it's so, and we're loving this movie, and the movie's so rich.

We do not hook up.

We just kind of,

it's, but it's this powerful moment.

And the next night we

unspoken happens.

Yes.

And the next night we put on loser and hook up like fucking crazy.

You see Biggs and you're like, let's go.

And in hindsight, we were like, should we retcon this?

That we just tell the story is only almost famous?

Because that's a beautiful, touching thing.

But no, of course, we fucking fuck to loser.

Wow.

Wow.

God bless.

So Heckerling's been a big part of my life.

And also, Alicia Silverstone saying Calvin Klein and Clueless gave me like a teenage erection that has yet to go away.

Hey, we'll get to both of those things.

Calvin Klein.

I mean,

yes, formative crush.

We'll get to both of those and we'll get to Mr.

Potty, but next week first, we must interrogate who is talking.

We must look upon

who speaks.

Yes.

This is back when Bruce was doing consensual movie roles.

It's going to be fun.

Poor Bruce.

Thank you all for listening.

Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe.

Tune in next week for Look Who's Talking.

And as always, I'm so sorry we have had Lindsey Buckingham here in the studio waiting to do a segment you go talking about the creation of holiday road and we just don't have time sims at a heart out our apologies to lindsey buckingham what's up with that i don't know

blank check with griffin and david is hosted by griffin newman and david sims Our executive producer is me, Ben Hosley.

Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas, and our associate producer is A.J.

McKeon.

This show is mixed and edited by A.J.

McKeon and Alan Smithy.

Research by J.J.

Birch.

Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American Novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell.

Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds.

Our production assistant is Minic.

Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help.

Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit.

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This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.