The Rewatchables - ‘Dirty Work’ With Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey celebrate the late Norm Macdonald by rewatching a comedy favorite, ‘Dirty Work,’ starring Norm Macdonald, Artie Lange, and Jack Warden. Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Dirty work is next. Mitch Wheeler. All right. Now put the kicking. For anyone who wants to fight back. For anyone who's down on their life We should open a revenge for higher business Your time has come

Blah Blah! Blah! Yeah! People are going to pay us a lot of money to do their dirty work. Norm MacDonald Chevy Chase Playing hardball, are you? Dirty work.

Hey, Fatley, are you okay? Rated PG-13. Starts Friday, June 5th. All right, Fantasy is here. We are doing this, obviously, because Norm MacDonald passed away a couple days ago at the age of 61. This movie became his legacy

in mostly great ways. It came out in 1998. It bombed. It was weirdly ahead of its time, but it's just norm for 81 minutes. And I think, ironically, I showed this to my son four weeks ago. And he was furious that I had never,

my son's 13, but it's so inappropriate and he was furious that I had never shown it to him before. He felt personally betrayed. And he watched it again with me last night. It's just ahead of its time. It's an art-rated comedy that they edited into a PG-13 because nobody knew our rated comedies could work in 1998. And then there's something about Mary comes out and completely changes the landscape.

Was this movie ahead of its time, Sean? Well, it's funny that you say that because my thought while watching it was, man, they don't make them like they used to. And we usually say that about rom-coms or, you know, erotic thrillers or the kinds of genres that we never see, but we never see movies that are just totally built around one dude's comic persona and pretty jankly built around that persona. This is like hardly even a movie. It's just a showcase for Norm to do Norm and a little bit of Artie Lang to do Artie Lang, but I actually couldn't think of a movie in the last 10 years that was basically just a series

of sketches that was like a gross out movie, that was a stunt movie that was built around a comic persona. We don't really get these kinds of movies. anymore. And this movie comes kind of at the apex of that kind of movie, at the apex of Farley and Sandler and all those S&L guys. Rob Schneider was getting movies like this. And so Norm had to get one

for himself after he got canned by SNL. And so on the one hand, yeah, it is like, it predicts kind of what's going to come in terms of comedy, but it also kind of signals the end of something that's going to happen in movies. The PG-13 built around one dude, edited down

comedy until like you said, there's something about Mary comes along and I think paves the way for Apatow and all the stuff that comes in comedy in the 2000s. Yeah, I think that's fair. Because you even go back to So I Married an Axe Murder with Mike Myers, which is a little bit similar to this movie, right? It's kind of like Mike Myers just do some stuff, play a couple different characters, have fun. It's a pretty flimsy movie. I actually really like that movie, but that was what the 90s were like. It was like grab somebody who's funny, throw them in a movie. And then when it worked with Jim Carrey with Ace Ventura, which was the same model.

And that movie became a phenomenon. And then we saw the run of like Tommy Boy. It's like, let's get Chris Farley in a movie. I mean, even like met at the Roxbury, that became, they were just like, those guys are funny in that sketch. Let's just make a whole movie out of it. So it's like, I don't know, six, seven years where enough to get a comedy done was just like we have this one funny person for the poster.

People like him. It was certainly Sandler's blueprint. That was Happy Gilmore. Absolutely. Sandler play somebody who has to go back to elementary school. And then it was the same thing. Wait, although that was like five Sandler movies. So it made sense that they made this movie with Norm.

It caught him at a really weird point of his career, though, because I think they had made it and then he got fired. Farley died before this came out. So it had these two kind of, I don't want to say strikes against it, but it really wasn't catching them at their peaks. And then on top of it, the studio knows there's, something about Mary is coming and moves it up so that it doesn't conflict with that. So if they had just kind of held it and waited until after and put back the R-rated stuff

and blown it out, I think it works better. Am I wrong? Yes and no. I mean, it's a movie that was always made to be a cult movie, though. Like for people like me and you, and I feel like you and I have been talking about Norm for 10 years, when he was on SNL, that was a religion. That was, you were fired up for up because he was he was flying in the face of what everyone thought was kind of like the safe way to do not just update but anything on SNL because he was so deadpan so mean so honest and was such a genius joke writer so if you loved norm and you followed norm getting fired by SNL you followed all of the drama around that and then you saw that he was releasing a movie and a movie that like kind of looked bad but that was kind of the point you know there's something like sort of self-aware and ironic about the movie but sort of they don't know know how to structure a movie going on here. And so it was like, I, you know when you know something is going to be so deeply for you, even if it's not great.

And you're just excited about that fact. This movie was like that. I saw this movie in theaters twice. Because even though the first time I saw it, I was like, that could have been a lot better, but also there's 30 incredible jokes in this movie and I need to hear them again. And so, you know, it's like, it's representative of a different time when they were cranking out 40 comedies instead of just six. And sometimes the 38th is dirty work.

And for people like us who really worshipped Norm, it was great to have it. Half baked was like that too, right? I forget what year that came out, but that was basically like, all right, we have these two guys. We'll kind of figure out the script as we go along. There's a lot of, we'll figure this out as it goes along with this. It feels like in dirty work, maybe they spent, what, a week on the script, and they just kind of shoehorned in jokes they liked and bits they liked. And in a lot of ways, this became the greatest hits of Norm's Weekend Update stuff.

the stuff like he loved the word whore he would work that into SNL as much as he could and like I forget how many times he made the finishing last the episode or the crack horror magazine and like it would always like he loved

crack horror horror he just would always forget out of shoehorn that end the note to self stuff that started on weekend update what else did he pull from that I mean just like high end absurdity just total deadpan

comic delivery in a movie shouldn't work because movies are meant to push story forward and create character. So you feel like you're watching people interact in a real way. I mean, everything that Norm does in this movie is so weird. Like the moment, I always think of the moment

when he's walking with the female lead of the movie to her grandmother's apartment. And she's like, do you want to come in and have a coffee? And he's like, no, I'm going to go lift weights. What? He's so awkward and weird, and you could almost feel him revving up for the joke. You know, you can always feel Norm kind of like taking that pregnant pause, getting ready to nail the punchline. And that's not what happens in movies.

Like, even in Ace Ventura, Jim Carrey, like, becomes Ace Ventura. You know, he's not doing Jim Carrey. He's becoming a character. Norm can only be Norm. And so he was never made for movies, and yet he was made for this movie. Yeah, the famous Courtney Thorne Smith, Conan Crip, clip. He's basically the exact same guy as he is in this movie in that clip. And when you talk about his excitement when a joke is sitting there, you can see it.

He's crawling out of his skin because he sees the comedy as that is progressing. But yeah, that's why we love them. Yeah, when he's like, was it spelled B-O-R-E-D? Chairman of the Port. It's the best. I had the same experience as you did with this movie because, as I've mentioned many times, we had the illegal cable box in the late 90s. And this came on the pay-per-view.

I didn't see it in the theater. Oh, no, I did see it in the theater, but I only saw it once. But when it came in the pay-per-view loop, and it was just, there was a channel devoted to it for an entire week, and I was just putting it on. And you really had to watch it a few times. There's just a lot of throwaway jokes and bits,

and it's just an assault the first time you watch it. but by the fifth time, it's like, now you're waiting for it, you see it, you kind of, it's just, that's why, that's why I love this movie. It's also 78 minutes long, which is fantastic. Right. So, like, I watched yesterday, and then I just started watching it again because I was like, this is kind of like watching one movie. I mean, it's so barely a movie.

It is literally just 10 sketches strung together. But you're right, there's like all kinds of little nuggets. And because of Norm's delivery is so low key, sometimes like Jack Warden is so big in this movie, he can kind of overwhelm. it. Christopher McDonald is so big in this movie. He can overwhelm it. It's like they surrounded Norm with like the noisiest people, Chris Farley, Artie Lang, and Norm is just this like weather vein right in the middle as a tornado is blowing around the movie. Yeah, it's funny. I didn't expect this to become like his kind of legacy because the SNL stuff, the weekend up there. I mean,

it's basically this and the YouTube clips. Yeah. Like he has, there's two different YouTube clips of his OJ jokes, where it's like, Norm goes after OJ part one and then part two. The first one's like 14 minutes and the second is 23 minutes. But that was kind of like what made Norm great. If he became fixated on something, he would just go to the well with it again and again. And on weekend update, at some point, you almost started getting burned out on it by year four. Like he just had these bits. He was just committed to forever. And one of them was like, I am squeezing it an OJ bit. Anytime I could do it, I'm going to do it. it. But I was excited for him in a movie because I felt like he was going to be able to do stuff

he couldn't do on the NBC show and then it was basically the same thing. I think some of this movie is really raunchy and ridiculous and, you know, there's like dead prostitutes in a trunk joke going on in this movie. Yeah. But I'm not sure if there's anything in the movie that was as like, like, I thought like really as transgressive and like hold your breath as when he would do the like, well, it's finally official. Murder is legal in California joke. You know, you're just like, Holy shit. He just said that on TV. He just said OJ is guilty of murder on TV. No one was really doing that. So the movie actually, I think, at times never totally gets to that peak of norms like blow your mind kind of comedy because it has to be so structured. But it doesn't take away that there are so many

incredible one-liners and little setups for him. Yeah, when he'd hosted the SPs in 1998, which is now a legendary YouTube clip, that caused so much collateral damage that, it even affected me. I didn't get to ESP until 2001. They were still kind of recovering from how much damage he did that night. He made fun of John O.S. Teeth. He made a horse joke about John O.S. Teeth. And there were so many people who were so discombobulated and upset that this guy just basically did a roast at the SPs, that they were kind of like never again. And that's when the SPs kind of flipped. But more importantly, that's when even content on the website. So when I was like trying to get in jokes in my column that first year. It was a lot of the same stuff. You can't do

that. People get mad. It all stems from this Espy speech. But the reason I bring that up is you talked about the OJ thing. You knew he was going to make the OJ joke at the ESPs, right? It's 1998 at this point. The murders had happened four years before. He seeks out Charles Woodson, who just won the Heisman. And he does the thing like, there's no, nobody can ever take that trophy away from you, unless you kill your wife and a waiter. And the audience was just like, what just happened? They cut to Ken Griffin. He's like, just like, it's like a UFO land.

But that's the thing. He like gave zero fucks. And that's why he was the comedian's comedian. Everybody loved him because he cared the least about what the ramifications were of what he was saying. He also just clearly scared the shit out of everybody who didn't really get it. You know, anybody who didn't care about his humor and who was in charge was terrified of him.

Yeah. Because I don't know, I'm reluctant to be like he was a, you know, spoke truth to power or some bullshit thing like that. But he really would say what people were thinking and make it funny. And that is a very difficult thing to do. When you look at the history of stand-up comics over the years, you know, there's a handful of people that are able to do that. You know, the priors and the George Carlins and a handful of people who sometimes they would say two or three things and you would feel like your brain was melting because someone was so clearly expressing what no one could put into. words. And Norm did that and he kind of challenged people, but also he was making crack horror jokes and better than Ezra jokes. You know what I mean? He was able to balance it with the goofy shit

that you loved. Yeah, and he knew how to be inappropriate in a way that you didn't hold it against him. And I think in general, like comedy is in such a dangerous spot because part of what Norm was doing and other people like Sarah Silverman, they took the things that made people most uncomfortable and that was like their favorite thing to dive into from a humor standpoint. loved making audiences uncomfortable. They loved that was why Norm loved the OJ stuff so much. Because at that point, there was a real thing about, like, you don't make joke, this woman got murdered.

She had two kids. This was a brutal double murder that has divided our nation. There wasn't a lot of comedy going on other than like, you know, the Jay Leno show. And he was doing like the dancing Edoes and stuff like that. So it was more silly. Norm was the only one who was like, no, no, no, let's really go into this. And I don't know. I wonder like in 2021, young Norm, I don't even know how he could have existed.

So I've thought about this a little bit since he passed away. Norm really never ultimately came under fire as being kind of inappropriate or not right for our times or our society in the way that some other comics have over the last 10 or 15 years. And I think, and if you look at his history of jokes, I mean, he really pushed the envelope at times. I watched him on a clip from like HuffPost Live doing like an LGBTQ joke where he was kind of talking through like etymology and the word choices and how people talk to each other about sexual identity. And this is before Dave Chappelle was doing this in those specials a couple of years ago. And if you watch that clip and don't have any context for Norm, you would be like, yo, man, this is way out of bounds and weird. And I don't even know why you're trying to like do this bit. but I think people so clearly understood Norm's mission

as a joke teller that he never really fell into that trap. He never really got ensnared in one of those things. I mean, his biggest thing was he was like his own worst enemy. You know, he was like a person who, you know, I watched Kevin Neal and tell a story about him recently where they talked about like just going to Palm Springs for the weekend and go play golf. And so he called him the night before and he's like, hey, Norm, you know, I'm going to pick up tomorrow 9 a.m.

So just be ready. We're going to go play 72 this weekend. Okay. Norm's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, sounds great. See you then. And then Nealyn shows up to his house the next morning, calls him, doesn't pick up the phone, knocks down his door for an hour. Norm keeps saying, I'll be right there.

I'll be right there for like an hour. And Norm never answers the door. And finally, Nealon just leaves. And he bails because Norm could be unreliable. He could kind of vanish from the world a little bit. And so the only thing that really, I think, held him back at times was he was a mercurial guy. You know, he was an unusual dude who was trying to get into the mainstream without necessarily sacrificing what he thought was the right way to live. So he's just such a interesting person

I mean if he were to come out now Is there even like a Is there like a white stand-up comic A dude who's doing this kind of joke telling in the space right now? I feel like if you are norm You get started on YouTube or doing a podcast Or you wouldn't even start in the kind of conventional way That he did coming out of Canada

Doing stand-up getting into sketch Like it's not just that he wouldn't fit into these times It's that the kind of comic that he is Hardly exists in the same way as they did back then. Yeah, that's fair. And when he came into Weekend Update, it felt like that entire segment

had run its course, right? Because Dennis Miller did it. Probably stayed a year too long. He was great at it. But then probably a year too long, he leaves. Kevin Neeland takes his place. Kind of tried to do it more as a bit.

Didn't totally work. It was fine. I think he's a little underrated in the aftermath, but Miller was so, so clearly was the first guy since Chevy, who, knew exactly what he wanted to do.

Right. And Neil, he never, he never totally had it. It was fine. He was better than Colin Quinn was. But when Norm showed up, he took this thing that it was kind of like

we had 20 years of it. We knew what it was. And he just kind of made himself, it was like what Chevy did. He became the star of it in a totally different way. And if the audience didn't like one of his jokes, he would just stare in the camera for the extra four seconds. I'd never seen anything like it.

I was like, I just couldn't wait for him to come on on that thing. And in dirty work, they kind of grabbed some of that. You know, like the famous jail scene where he's like... When he's whispering in his ear. Well, after when he's yelling at the guys, that was disgraceful. And then he's just staring at them more. He just had that deadpan stare that I've never seen anyone else do. We talked about it when we did Fletch, like,

Chevy kind of own this weird corner of, I'm going to be the lovable asshole that nobody's kind of owns sense. And Norm owns whatever this corner is that I already even know how to describe. Yeah. There's been a lot of talk, I think, about the partnership that he had with the writer Jim Downey during the weekend update years. And Jim Downey, who is in dirty work and who, you know, is probably best known to movie fans as the principal from Billy Madison, the game show host in Billy Madison. he also has a very, you know, he's a very well-known SNL headwriter for many years, wrote a lot of the political sketches over the years. But he's one of the genius weekend update writers of all time because he synced in perfectly

with Norm's deadpan thing. And you can see even in the bits in this movie that he does, he's almost doing like a modified version of a norm joke throughout the movie as the homeless guy. And those guys, I think they created something where they were like, you know what? The rest of this movie is, you know, it's Hans and Franz and then it's going to become

like the Gap Girls and you know like all of the sketches at that time and the show is not very well thought of but they were like we're going to third rail every joke we're going to push the limit on every joke

and if we're not pushing the limit we're just going to do absurdity and they made something really special did you when you when Norm was in the throes of weekend update did you think he was going to go on

to movie stardom like was that the future that you saw for him no I thought he was going to eventually have his own TV show that would be like a Frazier type of show, but a little more absurd that was built around him. And I gave every TV show he ever did. I gave the first couple shows a chance. Then I never figured it out. He was ahead of his time in the respect that he just

was in network TV. We talked about this little by pod that I did with Daniel the other day, where it was like, what was his lane and nobody ever figured it out? I actually think the 2010s would have been so much better for him. It would have been some crazy Netflix show. Yes. That was six episodes. And every line would have been crossed during, you know, under the premise of like a typical, like, the first sitcom he did. I think he was like a social worker.

He had to go off. Like, they just would have done that, but it just would have gone totally off the rails and been way more inappropriate. And I think it would have worked. Yeah, you mentioned, I think when you talked to Kelsey and you mentioned curb. I think Norm's own version of Curb or Louie or Master of Nunn. one of these shows that was like slightly elevated, but just openly riffing on his persona, would have just made so much more sense for him. But also, it's weird. Like, he has hosted, he did host many shows. He hosted a sports show. He hosted a Netflix show. You know,

he hosted a YouTube show. He hosted a lot of shows over the years. He obviously loves late-night television. He worshipped Letterman. And yet, he never totally found the right avenue after update. Update was like, it was perfect for him. It was the perfect length of time for him to tell jokes. It was the perfect setup. The expectations for the audience were perfect. And so you find him like going through the years. That's why his legacy you're saying is this movie and YouTube clips. How strange for a person that frankly most living comedians over the age of 40 acknowledged as possibly the funniest person on earth. And well, there's a, but there's a parallel to this though. Because I'm obsessed with Rickles. And Pluto has that Carson channel. And anytime,

you know, I always flick over if I'm flicking around. And anytime, Rickles is on, he just destroys. And, you know, 90% of it now you could never say, but in the 70s, he just destroys. And I did a deep dive one night because I was just like, I just don't understand why Rickles never became a huge star. And it was kind of the same thing with Norm. He got these different chances to be on these sitcoms. He had a variety show. He had CPO Sharky. And they could never kind of figure out whatever made Rickles special on late night shows, how to move that or no TV show. And I kind of feel like Norm was the same way. He was really he was the best late-night guest.

He's at least in the, if you're doing Mount Rushmore, a best late-night guest of the last 25 years, he has to be on it. He would go, I mean, he was an all-time regular on Conan. He was regular on Letterman.

He would go on Stern all the time. And that was kind of where he found his footing, which was a little like Rickles. Yeah, it's a really good call. It's funny because, like, their styles of comedy are totally different, right?

Rickles is like pure kind of insult right at you, direct kind of comedy. And of course, Rickles is in dirty work. and frankly hilarious and dirty work. His little three-minute period is great. And Norm was much more like esoteric and kind of on the fringes. And, you know, it's so funny to watch the clips of him,

especially on Conan, where he basically sat on the couch of the second guest. You mentioned Courtney Thorne Smith, but he did this over and over again. Yeah. Where Conan would almost just throw to him to get his thoughts on something when he wasn't the lead guest. I mean, that's not something that was happening really in the late 90s or 2000s. Carson would do it. but the idea of incorporating Norm

as this kind of like court jester into the show was so cool and kind of mind-blowing. I didn't know you could really even do that and he seemed so fearless doing it. Yeah, it was a legacy of the Carson-McDouglas era. I remember when we were doing Kimmel show and Kimmel was really convicted about

a guest host every week because he wanted that dynamic of the other person on the other side of the couch who could be like kind of the loose can and come in. It's really hard to find those people. Like we had Jeff Ross was one of the, best ones we had. He was really funny. Snoop Dog was weirdly good the week he was on, but it's for the most part, it's a hard thing for that person on the other side to know when to kind of come in

and out, but also add. I wanted to actually ask you about this because why do you think in the last 10 or 15 years in late night talk shows, the thing that Norm would do that, you know, you saw on Mike Douglas or you'd see on Dick Cavett or you'd see on talk shows in the 70s and even the 80s where the guests would stretch out a little bit or you'd have long segments and it felt more loose. And then I feel like talk shows just got bitier and bitier and more fragmented and fragmented.

Everyone's too uptight. It's the YouTube era. I think the best thing about those shows from the 70s and 80s were the unpredictability because the people would just basically come out and you watch this Carson things. He would talk to people for, you know, like 25 minutes.

And it wasn't like it was sketched out. But I think... And, like, Carl Sagan, like, he would talk to, like, a public intellectual for 20 consecutive minutes on that show. Colbert's tried to do some of that. I think people may have less of an appetite for it. But I think it really comes down to the PR agencies and protecting clients and people just not wanting kind of unknown when they're on TV. And it's like you put your client out there with Norm next to them. And, you know, then it doesn't go well.

And then the client comes to you and is like, what the fuck? Like, you're fired. So I just think everything's a lot safer. And there's so much more of a gotcha society now and everybody's so much more self-aware that it's just way more careful. I think honestly, that's why podcasts have kind of grabbed some of that turf because in podcasts, you can actually deep dive and have these long conversations. And it's more authentic.

It just is. Yeah, it's really fascinating. I mean, I think there's something lost on those shows because of that. and also it underlines like what a perfect chaos agent Norm was. You know, he was built for, he was kind of the end of an era in that respect to, not just in those late 90s kind of comedy movies, but also in what you could do as a guest on a show like that and what it would be like to have the restrictor played off when you got somebody sitting next to you.

I mean, Courtney Thorne Smith, I know you're a big Melrose guy. Like for me, literally her legacy is being on the couch next to Norm during the chairman of the board bit. That's what I know her for. Well, you know the other thing with her, I think she's been on five different hit television. shows. Like, if you go look at her IMDB, she literally goes from Melrose Place to Alley McBeal to according to Jim to one other show. And then, like, it's five in a row where she just works for 20 straight years as like one of the three leads of a show. For me, she'll always be Caratops' love interest in the board. Charred at the board. She seemed a little like she had had a couple when she

went on the show too. Everybody seems kind of sauced on that episode. And Conan's, it's really a weirdly revealing Conan segment too. He's kind of uncomfortable. He like touches her hand at one point. It's weird. Like it's kind of the full gamut of how awkward Conan was in the 90s on that stuff. But you mentioned Norm as a chaos agent.

That's a really good way to put it. There's just some people that are the chaos agents. And I think when he was out there, there was always a possibility that something was going to either unravel or he was going to go to a place. Nobody else was going. That's why he's so happy in that Espy's clip. You can see him.

He's looking out there, and it's like 99% white people and then athletes. And he's got this big theater, and he's looking around. And there's such a gleam in his eye. He's like, I can't wait to drop this nuclear bomb of inappropriateness on everybody. You can see the devil horns growing on him in real time. It's great. The one shot to Griffey just absolutely slays me. They have a couple other ones.

You could do a web piece of the 20 best reactions when every time they cut to the ground, because there's like some wives and girlfriends on the side of the celebrities who are kind of like they're watching like a murder. You know, he reminds me a little bit of, honestly, some of the scariest conversations that you and I have ever had since we started working together,

which are always about you wanting to hire somebody who you know is going to make a lot of trouble, but you're like, we got to keep things interesting. We've got to mix it up. It's too boring. And I'm like, dude, we're trying so hard to just get through the day. And it's like, you wanted to hire a norm.

You know, you want somebody who's going to scare us. Yeah, chaos agents made a lot more sense at Grantland 10 years ago. I think that in the world we live in now. Speaking of chaos agents, great premise for this movie, a revenge for hire business. Yeah. Just a good idea. I mean, you know, there's some revenge rules now that we have with revenge porn, things like that. But in general, like, the just like this person is a bad person who has wronged other people. And now they, you know, want to put gophers in his wall and stuff like that. It's actually like a pretty good premise.

It's really clever. I mean, I read this when I was looking into the movie to prep for the conversation, but I guess it's based on a rolled doll short story. I had no idea, like the author of Matildon, the BFG. But this certainly doesn't feel like a role doll story. It feels like 13 SNL sketches strung together. Yeah. Directed by Bob Saggett. Yes, indeed. Say no more. Maybe not his key forte. Yeah. $13 million budget made 10. Yeah, I think five was me. I think it probably eventually made the money back because you would think with Blu-ray DVD, pay-per-view, the movie was on cable for 20-plus years. It's always sucked me, and it's on HBO Max right now.

I assume they've finally made that $13 million budget back, but it probably took a few years. Yeah, I mean, remember, no matter how bad life gets, there's always beer. That's what they were saying when the box office receipts came in. Tough times. Well, to put this movie in perspective, our guy, Raj, he was like, I'm sitting this one out. Didn't even review it.

I tried so hard to find it. No review. This is really rare. I think this is prime Raj, like 1990s Raj. He's like, I'm out. So no Roger Ebert review. In the history of the rewatchables, how many times have you guys looked for a Rod review and not found it? Or have not even found him talking about it on the show with Gene.

Less than five. I mean, he died in 2013. He, to the very end, was writing reviews. I mean, when he was like, couldn't even speak anymore. So, yeah, he sat this one out. But, you know, 98, which we discussed lots of times. It was just a really action-packed year. I mean, this was the year Titanic and Armageddon and Private Ryan and something about Mary.

Waterboy. You had Deep Impact, Godzilla, Goodwill Hunting. There's a lethal weapon movie. Truman Show, and as good as it gets. Enemy of the State. Wedding singer, six day, seven nights, which was a PR, like, Waterloo for a week and a half. You've got mail, the parent trap. U.S. Marshals, which I think we're all disappointed by us.

Same thing for Snake Eyes. Halloween H-2-O. No, no shade on Snake Eyes, please. At the time. I'm begging. I'm pro-Snake-Eyes now. Love Snake Eyes. What Dreams May Come, maybe the worst movie of the 1990s. And Patch Adams, this was when it kind of turned for Robin Williams.

Yeah. Meet Joe Black, another disaster, Ronan. Wag the Dog, primary colors. I still know what you did last summer. Like, go on box office bojo. There's like 120 movies you've probably heard of and watched in the last 10 years. No doubt. That came out of 98.

Did you mention Lobowski or if you're moving in Las Vegas? There's so many. Could just keep going. So there's lots of reasons why this movie went away. But I do think if they had waited a year and the Mary had happened, they would have, I think, made this raunchier and it would have been even better. This should not have been a PG-13 movie. I think we can all agree.

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Pick up fees may apply. Okay, most rewatchable scene. I enjoy the opening credits. I like when they cast kids that are supposed to look like Norm McDonald and Ardy Lang and they just look nothing like them, but they're trying to act like them. The kid puts the super glue in his ass to try to catch the traffic cop. some good stuff there

we always did stuff like that to get back to people who mess with us like there was this crossing guard he used to grab all the kids' asses back then people weren't on the lookout for that kind of thing the only way to nail a guy like that was to catch him red-handed

that's where the super glue came in shades of Happy Gilmore very similar to Happy Gilmore opening credits this movie is shades of a lot of movies yeah they definitely were like we'll grab this we'll grab that the Frat House prank when they get in the fight in the bar

and then nor pretends to be a cop. There's all these guys going around of the different frat houses pretending to be cops. But they're not real cops. They're fake cops. They just robbed a bunch of stuff

from the Delta Si House. So don't be fooled, okay? Sure thing, dude. Thanks for calling. Okay, no problem there, dude. Now, you go back to doing something latently homo erotic, all right? Now you go back to doing something

lately homerotic. One of the best lines in the movie. Like, high-fiving. And then they have the whole fight. That's great. The first Chevy Chase scene? Mm-hmm. Tell me, was your father

a famous athlete or a rock star? No. He was a boxer, but he wasn't famous. Sorry, no heart there. But, for $600,

I could sell you a fully adjustable hospital bed. Are you crazy? I don't need a bed. this was a big deal in 1998 to have Chevy Chase in the movie because he had at that point kind of faded out the Fox show had failed he had hit a little bit of hard times but we still loved him

and then he basically comes back playing Dr. Farford Farthing. Yeah, it feels like a little bit of Dr. Rosen penis, Dr. Rosen Rosen, like a little bit of shades of that performance from Fletch. But you know, Chevy Chevy loved Norm. Chevy said Norm was the only other person besides him who got weekend update right.

it's fitting that he's in this movie. Yeah, and it was one of those things where he loved Norm, but he'd also was clear that he didn't like Dennis Miller. So he did the thing where he's, it was like when Larry Bird used to always say how Dennis Johnson was the best team he'd ever had because it was really a dig at McHale. Macale. It was clearly better than Dennis Johnson, but it was just his way of kind of fucking with McCale.

So Chevy's like, yeah, Norm, it's the first one that's gotten it since me. And it's like, that's such shade at Dennis. But almost everything Chevy says in this movie is funny. You know, when he turns to the wall and he's like, Like for $600, I can sell you a perfectly good hospital bed. Like, what the fuck? So we have that. We have the wrickles seed.

So there you are, tubby. Ah, you look like a bucket of lard on a bad day. You baby gorilla. Why don't you work a zoo and stop bothering people? Got a call yesterday from Baskin-Robbins. They said that they're down to only five flavors. You're swelling up as I talked to you. Look at you.

How's this? How's it doing? Hello, ice cream, having a good time, running around. Crushes it. So funny. I love the men in black porn. It's just like, they just go completely over the top with what a porn would be like, there's a man, we should have sex with them.

It's just like so absurd. The dead hookers thing with David Kekter. Oh my goodness. What are you doing? I've never seen so many dead hookers in all my life. Lord knows I have. I can remember it. time.

Hey, look, there's Mitch on TV. Oh, yeah, there's Mitch. And there's the Saigon whore that bit my nose off. Damn! He starts the truck start popping and they cut to Farley in the bar. Farley, we'll get to. But it's dialed up for Farley and maybe not even naturally. His last performance.

There's the Saigon whore that bit my nose off. and he just runs out of the bar. The dead fish scene is transcendent. Where it's basically like a Scarface homage, but they never cut to, and it's just you hear chainsaws and gunshots and they're just

sitting there holding the fish for two minutes. I think the movie is really very traditional in that it seems actually kind of like an Abedon Costello movie or like a Laurel and Hardy movie, especially in that scene. Like when they're in the other room and they're holding the fish up,

and they never stop, like they never break that pose of holding the fish up. It's so good. It's like a 1940 serial. It's such a broad, ridiculous, hilarious sequence. The jail scene.

You fellas have a lot of growing up to do. I'll tell you that much. And it is like, you know what hurts the most? You know what hurts the most is the lack of respect. You know? That's what hurts the most.

Except for the other thing. That hurts the most. But the lack of respect hurts the sense. second most. Just that whole thing fucking kills me. I love the beginning of that scene when he's talking to Artie and, you know, everything, the whole jail.

You know what prisoners do? In prison? With prison is here. And Arty's like, he'd never had any idea. I just wrote down, even though it's a short part, Farley releasing the skunks. Oh, gosh.

It's one of the craziest 40 minutes of any 1990s movie. It's crazier than any scene in Pulp Fiction. I don't know what state of mind they got him to. to be that much of a lunatic. He's like, what is he saying to the skunks? It's just, it's before they open the gates. It's like, dance children, dance. Craig, just play that clip.

Sing the sauce boys. Sing the sauce boys. Bow and kneel before me. It's just nuts. And then a bit in the ending when Farley ends up with the hooker. And then they just do the classic terrible 90s comedy wrap up. And then, Dr. He got killed. Oh, and Dr. Farthing?

Well, he got over his gambling problem. But the bookies beat him to death anyway. So he's dead. That's it. Bye. That's it. Bye. They didn't know how to end it.

Honestly. So he's dead. That's it. Buy is possibly the funniest final line of a movie in movie history. It's basically like the Fletch ending, but way crazier and more absurd, right? It's like, let's take how they ended Fletch and make it much stupider. You should end, you should end like a million dollar picks with Schrager with. So he's dead.

That's it. Bye. Really, really, really good stuff. I have, I love the entire jail scene. I love that the first time I saw it. I loved it the 10th time I saw it. I loved it the 100th time. It always makes me laugh.

I think the dead prostitutes in the trunk scene is not a scene you would see in a movie in 2021. Definitely not. But there's something kind of genius about, like, the look on Artie's face when he's holding all of the clickers to open the trunks and he's kind of like maniacally musically opening them that gets me every time. But generally, I just, I love, I love Chevy in this movie. I think he's so funny and has so many great lines about not understanding why he's going to be killed by his bookie. That's like that's the best.

Yeah, that was great. What's age the best? The note to self-gimic is still funny. Hilarious. He did that on update, right? That was part of his repertoire. This movie feels very rooted in the late 90s. And there's this run, I think, in the first half hour where they play semi-charmed kind of life.

Yep. They play tub-thumping. Yep. And they play that better than Ezra song, whatever that song's name is. And it's all within like 20 minutes. Yeah. And it's just like, oh, this is so authentically late 90s. The same way, like, and I listen to So I Married an Ex-Ber, I watch it.

It's just very authentically early 90s. Dumb and Dumber. Very authentically mid-90s with some of the music in that movie. But I always enjoy when the comedies have the music and it just, you feel like you're rooted in that year. Yeah. And so I married an Ax murderer. I feel like it's There She Goes is the song, the Loss song. Like in this movie, I mean, good also, the better than Ezra song is one of the, that's one of Norm's all-time jokes, you know, and he's like, coming in at number one in the college charts this week, better than Ezra. Coming in at number two, Ezra.

And then the seven-second stare. So good. I mean, you know, that felt like an explicit callback to that joke when you hear that song in the movie. Morwood's age the best. I don't know if you know this about me. I don't know if Craig does either. I don't know if it's come up in 206 rewatchable movies. I love a good closing credits with some bloopers from the movie. Oh. I'm in every time.

Every time. But I'm like a kid of the Burt Reynolds generation where Cannonball Run would end with like seven minutes of bloopers and Dom Deloese just laughing his ass off. And so I think I'm used to it. But you could always go longer with those, in my opinion. Is that the first one you can remember Cannonball Run, too? Yeah, I feel like they invented it. Okay.

That's my guess. When I saw this, I was like, what was the first time I really saw this? And I really couldn't pinpoint when it started. Yeah, Cannonball Run 2. They basically made the movie just to get to the closing credits with the 12 minutes of bloopers. Cannonball Run 2 is not great.

What's age the best? Jack Warden holding Impetenton Old Men and Horrors magazine. That was the actual magazine. They made up for this. And also, Jack Warden has to wait. I mean, we've talked about him many times. And I have Jack Gordon coming up later. Okay.

We'll wait. I mean, we're kind of amazing that he's in this movie. Yeah. The Jim Downey gimmick, the homeless guy gimmick of the sappy music, followed by him talking off and saying something profound of them, just cutting him off is great. Genius. When they come back to it, I'm like, thank you. Thanks for coming back to this bit. The other bit was when he's like, you always say no, and you're lying.

And he's like, and they go do the examples. Did you ever say you understood why women find show? O'Connor is sexy? No. Oh, I guess the Jack Warden part is here. This was his fourth to last movie. His last movie was the replacements, a movie that's aged kind of nicely.

Just tangent, what's your favorite Jack Warden movie? Well, there's many phases. I mean, he started acting in movies in 1950, and he finished in like 2002 or something like that. I mean, he was in 12 Angry, men. You know what I mean? He was in like, he was in, uh, the asphalt jungle. Like, he's in shampoo. He's great in shampoo. Shampoo is really funny. He plays like the, you know,

the rich guy who is, who's, who's, uh, Bady's fucking his wife. He's great in Shepoo. So funny in Shepoo. That's not one of my two favorites. I mean, that stand apart. All the president's men is pretty great. You know, he's kind of the perfect, like, angry guy in the newsroom. I'm also a big, um, Muppets Take Manhattan guy. Still haven't mentioned my two. What's, what's your two? Number one. The verdict. Oh, of course. worse. He's really good in that. Your Honor, is it possible? We could give them more money than they asked for and they cut to Jack Warden and he's just like

looking up with like, he's so good in that movie. And then heaven can wait with Beatty, Beatty, Beatty, Beatty, Beatty, Beatty, Beatty, do we ever figure it out? Beatty, yeah. With Warren Beatty. Oscar nominated for that performance. He's so good in that movie. And then it's like near the end where he's, should we do that movie in the movie?

the rewatchables. I fucking love that movie. Yeah, I mean, you were just talking about all the sports movies on the Warrior Pot. I feel like that one is in the conversation. We'll do that one at some point. Craig, do you know what Heaven Can Wait is? I haven't seen it now, but I heard of it. It's a classic. And Jack

Warden is unbelievable in that movie. It hasn't had the kind of cable and streaming life that you would want a movie like that to have. It did for years. I think it's too old now. I think it's because it's a 70s movie. A classic. But Warden and Beatty were perfect. together. They had, because they're opposite energies. Beatty is so cool and reserved and warden is so big and

loud. And so they were awesome against each other. Craig, heaven can wait ends with the Rams winning the Super Bowl, just so you know. Perfect. That's my kind of movie. That can be your directorial debut when you remake it with McVeigh. Love it. This guy. Yeah, he's going to go in the workshop with McVeigh after the season. Morewood's age the best. There's two kinds of people, those that get stopped and those who do the stopping who said, I don't know, some guy, Jesus? And then, like, you guys are brothers? Well, it's a long story. My dad boned his mom. Okay, it's a short story. So good. What else you have for? What stage is the best? Anything? I mean, Artie Lang, you know? Like, Artie was not famous. He was on mad TV. And I think in like comedy circles was widely considered very funny. But for me,

already is a voice I heard every day for years on Stern. And obviously emerged as like, you know, obviously has a very complicated life and struggled with addiction and all this stuff. But another guy like Norm who every 20 minutes on Stern would say something where you're just like, holy shit, he just said that. And really, really funny. And he's really not, he doesn't have the best lines. He's not like totally set up as an equal to Norm in the movie. But casting him looks smart. And also he's talked so, so hilariously about this movie. He talks about one of the critic, the critic from his hometown newspaper who said that he had all the

charm of a date rapist in his performance in this movie. And then he's always like, come on, man, my fucking mom reads this newspaper. What are you doing? Oh, my God. Yeah, I mean, this led to him getting stern, it feels like. Yes, for sure. He got Stern after. And I think Stern loved this movie, and they would talk about it on Stern a lot. The fact that Chris Farley is in this, is, I think, has to be put in what stage is the best, just because he only had this five-year run of movies, basically right and he had Tommy boy whatever the black sheep one that wasn't as good yeah um had a couple cameos

and this was probably the funniest of all the cameos and then it was over and this was the last movie ever made yeah he's really funny in like airheads and in Wayne's world and he he was good at Wayne's worlds yeah he was always really good in little five minute bursts he's pretty funny in cone heads actually but this one was when he he is so you can tell he's obviously pretty off the rails at this point because he's so intense in every scene.

His eyes are bursting out of his head. But also it's perfect for this character who's just such a ridiculous character. Jimmy No-Nose is the name of his character. He's great. I have all the note to self's written down that he said in the movie. Okay. What's your favorite? I'm just going to read all of them to you.

Note to self. Remember that Aunt Jenny is your aunt. I think that's my favorite. Learn to fight. Sam just looked at the screen. forget about fathering children. I don't want to live. Mitch was right.

Remember, no matter how bad life gets, there's always beer. Making love to blow up, doll. Not as good as advertised. Remember to get asswort cream for giant wart on my ass. Those last two were mistakenly read the tape recorder. I think the beer thing is probably my favorite. It's the most classic. It's the one, it's like the yearbook quote.

Totally. That's the most memorable one. But it's when they come up is really funny. It's like one of them is near the end when he's talking to Christopher McDonald's character. I think that's when he accidentally plays him saying making love to blow up doll is not as good as advertised. And you're waiting for him to nail McDonald. That part is great.

What's age the worst? I just have this from like a Craig generation standpoint. There's an entire Gary Coleman Ken Norton bit that I think if you're under 40 or like, what's happening? Who are these people? Very much. Yeah. It's very rare than that is so confusing.

Yeah. Gary Coleman in general, I think, is age the worst because that was like the perfect Gary Coleman comedy nostalgia point, right? Different strokes have been off the air for 15 years. But now in 2021, you would know that was. The last 20 minutes of this movie, it almost seems like they only had the crew

for the last week and they had to race through it. I wouldn't exactly say it's thought out. They kind of, you know, kind of get it over quick. It's like they realized it was a movie at the end of the movie. You know, it's all. They had that big set piece. Yeah, to that point, they're just like, let's just do another revenge scheme, another revenge scheme, another opportunity for Norm to Deadpan. And then trying to wrap up the story is so crazy. But it does lead to a couple things.

Like, the skunks and the opera critic who is loving the absurd performance of Don Giovanni is so good. That's a great bit. I had the opera critic for Deanne Waiters. I fucking love that guy. It's so funny. He loves, oh, Jack Wharton's walking around chasing the opera lady. It's like, oh, my God. So inventive. Morwood's age the worst.

They do the trope of the hot girlfriend being fed up with the loser comedy hero in the top 15, which is just like, I don't know if that was an homage or if they just didn't have ideas for the beginning of it. But, I mean, that was ripped off from nine movies. Yeah, I mean, Trailer Howard is basically playing Julie Bowen in Happy Gilmore. You know what I mean? Right. It's such a... Or Bridget Wilson.

or yeah exactly i mean there's so many the female characters are not really the point of this movie I would say they're not really highlighting the female characters I was going for the first one

the one that broke up oh the first girl the girl throwing the clothes out of the window that's the old comedy trope of like I've had it you had 14 jobs in three months right right right I'm out of here

I'm throwing your stuff out it's basically stripes right that is also in Happy Gilmore when he's like yelling at her through the kind of the microphone the buzzer in his apartment you know when she's breaking up with him and she's like you're a loser happy

it's basically the exact same scene. Big Daddy. Big Daddy, same thing. Yeah. Seen it a lot. The girlfriend played by Trailer Howard who became the girl from two guys, a girl in a pizza place,

whatever that one. Or is she the girl from Monk? I was wondering how people would feel about this. Is she from Monk or is she from two guys a girl in a pizza place? Probably Monk. I think more people saw Monk. She went on to have pretty good career.

She's not the right pick for this movie. I think there's lots of ways we could have gone. I have some choices for you and recasting couch. It's like Julie Bowen called in sick an hour before the movie, and they kind of had to have somebody who looked like her.

I mean, in fairness to her, it's not that she's bad. It's just like, does she have one interesting line of dialogue in the whole movie? They don't give her anything to do. I will say my wife, who never makes comments like this.

She had one scene, and my wife was like, wow, where did they find this actress? So if my wife is commenting on your acting, it's not good. Do you think Bob Saggett took her side and talked about her motivation and gave her character a backstory?

not. He's like, you know, and I was working with Lori Laughlin. Casting what if's only a couple. Howard Stern was originally offered to be Satan. Turned it down, so Sander ended up with it. And then Dangerfield was our

original choice for the Don Rickles part. And Sagat Audubled and decided to get Rickles instead because he wanted it to be more like fast insults. So they almost had like old Dangerfield in this movie. I think they should have brought them in any way. Anyway, like he could have been like Jack Warden's buddy in the hospital.

Dangerfield would have been funny, but there are a couple of Rickles lines that are kind of just lines that you've been doing for years. Yeah. But it's like, got to call yesterday from Baskin-Robbins. They said they're only down five flavors. And it's like, you're swelling up as I talk to you. Talks to his stomach. It's great.

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be a 2%er. Learn more at Wells Fargo.com forward slash active cash terms of play. All right, more categories. Best that guy, a.k. the Joey Pants Award. This has to go to Chris Farley's brother.

Oh, Kevin Farley. Is that who it is, Kevin? I just, there's a clear, this is Chris Farley's brother. We're shoehorning him into a scene. Yes, yes. Moment with him. The guy in the theater?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's his brother. I mean, there's some that guys and also tons of crazy cameos in this movie, too? Like, they almost need like a... Rebecca Romaine. A new category.

Rebecca Romaine. John Goodman shows up. Obviously, Sandler shows up. Coleman. Ken Norton. You know? Yeah. None of those guys are that guys.

They're all famous than their own right. Is Keckner not of that guy anymore? No, he's Keckner. Okay. Just because of Anchorman. I had him for DM waiters. Vincent Hanna, give me all you got a word. It's between Farley and

Jack Wharton, both of whom dialed up. But I don't see how this does he go to Farley. He goes... He goes to a place in that skunk scene that we could almost rename the award for him. It is transcendent. He is truly hilarious and sort of unnerving in this movie. This is the most committed I've ever seen him to a character in anything, except for maybe the van down by the river sketch.

He's so into this. But like what even, who even is this character? Like I literally don't know anything about him other than he slept with a prostitute who bit his nose off. That's all we know about him. There's a, in the final sequences at the end, when they're doing the outtakes, and Farley starts doing the thing where he's like, you and I go camping together?

Right. He's making Norm so uncomfortable. Jed Nelson Award, everybody's in the same movie, but I do feel like Chevy Chase is in his own movie. He's basically doing the Fletch 3. Yes. Which I love. I support it. Dionne Waiters, just is an incredible list.

I don't think Jack Warden's eligible. I think he's in too many scenes. Okay. Jim Downey is homeless guy. Chris Farley is definitely eligible. Rickles, who's in for three minutes. Chevy Chase only has four scenes. And then the critic in the opera,

I think would be the candidates. And I think it has to be Farley. This is one of the best he checks we've had in a comedy. Why, you go in Jim Downey? No, I'm obsessed with Chase in this movie. Oh, wow. When Chase is like, what I don't understand is when you owe a bookie a lot of money and he says, and he says blows off one of your toes, you still owe him the money.

It doesn't seem fair to me, especially when he's going to kill me in four days anyway. Right. He's like, he's operating at a totally different frequency of the rest of the movie. He's so sly and low-key and Farley is so big. They're kind of perfect. I mean, obviously. Let's make him co-winners. Farley's last role, too.

You got to give him the respect he deserves. He's a genius, obviously. I'm happy going co-winners. Recasting couch. How about Tiffany Embertheson as a girlfriend? Could you just slot Tiffany Ambrtheson as the female lead into any comedy in the 90s and make you happy? That's why we have the recasting coach. I just wish I had been her agent back then.

Her agent or something else? Agent boyfriend. Yeah, I think somebody like that in that role I think really, really works. I also think, I don't know if Amy Smart would have been too young at this point, but this would have been a really good Amy Smart role. Yeah, I think she's probably a teenager She might have been like two years too young. TAT would have been fantastic. Half-Fast internet research, not a lot.

Did find that when this was out in theaters, NBC banned all advertising from it. So, like, how did we learn that? Where did that come from? I know it's half-assed. But, like, was there a memo that was passed around that was like, we will not be advertising dirty work?

That just feels like urban myth to me. I don't know. Don O'Meyer was still there at that point. in the Norm thing was really embarrassing for him. I do think, to me, that one sounds realistic.

We don't have to go too far down this rabbit hole, but I listened to Norm, they republished the WTF interview with Norm from 2011. And in that interview, he said that he did not think it was Olmeyer. He was saying that he thought

it was ultimately, they used Olmeyer as the flack jacket for people at SNL not wanting to have that job anymore, which I never really heard him say that before. I hadn't really thought about it in that way. So that was interesting. Like it undermines

this big story that we tell about Norm being crushed by the corporate executive. But it's interesting. Well, it's certainly not one of Lauren Michaels's greatest moments. Because he had a cast member that was, you know, if you believe the public story was being oppressed. Yes. And I don't think Lauren had a ton of leverage there in the mid-90s. The show was almost canceled at least once. Yeah, it was under fire.

Kind of sacrificed Norm. Two years later, Norm's back hosting the show. So, you know, how hated could he be? and gave a great monologue, which is a fun one to watch on YouTube. So I didn't have a lot of info that I couldn't find about what got cut. That was the drop off from R to PG-13. But apparently there was one about Norman Artie delivered donuts that had been photographed around their genitals.

And that was all seen that got cut. But I think it was stuff like that. And then you could see at one point in the jail scene, when he, when Norm says the other thing, you can see his lips, he says anal rape, but they dub over, they dub that over to get that out.

It's just one of the weirdest movies ever to decide to make a PG-13 movie. The whole premise is supposed to do outlandish stuff. Also, the idea that you could do the dead prostitutes and the trunk joke in a PG-13 movie underlines the absurdity of the difference between R&PG. Yeah, that's true.

How did that happen? That joke is crazy. All the Saigon and horror stuff? Like, how is that PG-13? It's just, it's ridiculous. Apex Mountain. I'm going to say yes for Norm. I feel like 1998 he was the biggest it ever been.

We needed to get him off S&L. And I would have bought a bunch of stock that his next thing was going to be a huge thing. Even though this movie didn't work, it still felt like he was going to have like a real run. I'm going to go with the moment we pushed publish on his first column on Granland.com. I think that was his apex.

Oh, that would be great. I'll take that one. That's a good one. That was certainly an apex for me as a Grantland editor because that was his editor for those. I remember. I think that was my favorite person I edited. So, you know, I ran the daily schedule at Grantland back then. So I would like send out an email that was like, here's some, here are all the blog posts we're publishing the following day.

And you'd put together like a little Google document to kind of keep track of all the stuff. And we were always a little bit gun shy about putting Norm on the sked. You know, we were never totally sure if he was going to hit his headline. He would just pop up right when he was ready. So we had to be on our toes for that one. I remember one time he handed in two pieces at the same time.

And it was like, hey, I wrote two. Here they are. He was a good writer. You really didn't have to do a lot. We'd take out two or three completely inappropriate jokes, which probably bummed him out after a while. We were a PG-13 website, you know?

We were trying to. Yeah. His book is really good too. His memoir is really interesting and entertaining. There's really, I mean, we could go through all the Apex Mountain guys, but this was really nobody's Apex Mountain. I can't think of a single person who was like, that was the highlight of my career. No.

No. Even like down to Bob Saggett and Fred Wolf the writer and, like, really not anybody, right? No. I don't think so. Interesting. Pick of Nits. I mean, it's. How do you pick this with this movie?

We're going to try. We'll do a couple. Would Pops really wear a locket with a picture of Mitch's mom and him having sex? That's kind of deranged? Yes. What's in that locket? I can't tell you. It's just for 50 years.

That was the locket he were? There's also an implication that Pops has a photo in a photo album of him getting a blowjob from one of the mothers, but we're not sure which one. I mean, Pops is kind of pushing credulity in the movie. Norm and Artie is half-brothers? Uh, yeah. I don't know. I see it. I could see it.

Okay. How did they get the dirty work sign up before they rented the office? Hadn't paid the rent for the office yet, had this fully functional, expensive signup. I have some questions about their credit report and being able to get that office space, honestly. That was the biggest one to me. It's like, so the tradeoff here was, if you don't pay the rent, I get to punch you in the stomach. That was, that's not totally how things worked in the 90s. How many of the dirtyware crimes would have just sent them to jail?

I think virtually all of them. Yeah, it feels like a 100% sweep. And then they have a storefront. It's not like it would have been hard to put two and two together. It's a storefront for revenge. It's pretty crazy. And then they're doing actual revenge. the opera

the I like what's the legality of skunks in public with humans like could somebody get really hurt there you want to send Farley away for like making mayhem is that what you're saying? What would happen if you had four skunks just spraying people like at close range would there be actual

I mean come to my backyard every night man that's what it's like out here there's a lot of skunks out here in my neighborhood don't like skunks any other nitpicks for you I guess the like was this an LLC Like, how did this, was this like a really, like a formed business?

Like, can you, is there like a better business bureau for revenge? Like, I, also, I wanted to ask you. This is Jeff Chow's first job. He doesn't talk about it a lot, but he formed the LLC for these guys. Maybe I'll save mine for unanswerable questions. Okay. Could this be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show? Absolutely.

Yes. I really do think this could be remade. Different bit of revenge every episode. Different, different job. Yeah. And I guess like there's some Nathan Fielder DNA with dirtywork. Not that he was doing revenge, but like the Starbucks episode is kind of a cousin of this movie. Right?

And some of the ways he would fuck with things is kind of the advanced way smarter, more elaborate version of some of the stuff in this movie. And also that sensibility in his comedy. It's a great call, Bill, where Nathan's persona is, I'm going to present you with an idea that everyone, including myself knows is bad, but I will pretend like his genius. And Norm is very much the same tempo in this movie. And I will commit to it to the bitter end. Probably an answerable questions. How did Artie outlive Norm and Farley?

What were the odds in 98? Farley was clearly the favorite to go first, but Artie ahead of Norm had to be, what, 10 to 1? They are going to have to study Artie in museums, like how Artie is. still alive. Based on some of the things he's talked about and what he's gone through on Stern over the years and he was a madman. Madman. I mean, he lost part of his nose. Yes. Yeah. He's just, he's lived a hard life and he is still living. This might be answerable. Did this movie create Little Nicky? Because of Sandler or Satan? Yeah. Yeah. Might have sprung the idea for them,

for sure. Where were you out on Little Nicky these days? I was never in. Yeah. It was kind of weak. I support Sandler, but he's had, you know, he's had a couple of bad ones. Yeah. That's not, this isn't my favorite time. I don't love late 90s Sandler. That's the only time when I kind of lost him a little bit. You know, I was not really in on, I wasn't even really that big on Big Daddy.

I thought Big Daddy was okay, but it's like right when we get into, I wasn't, and I'm not a fan of the Waterboy. That's probably the number one that never worked for me personally. But then everything after that, I kind of like. You just really hurt Craig's feelings on the big. Big Daddy thing. That was like a direct assault on Craig. There's some quality moments in the movie.

You're right? I'm going to talk about it. Sandler's my guy, but it's right. I mean, Sam was my guy too. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, we all have cold streaks. We did Big Daddy for the rewatchable's 99 feet on Luminary. Yeah, me, you and house. Yeah, it's still there.

What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? I mean the dirty work sign you know put that right out right on top of my garage I was thinking that too or the Farley fake bit the nose off I love the stick that you can see on the when he gets it done at the end and he's like best 200 bucks I ever spent

that'd be one of those two for me and then obviously Norm wins the movie no question yeah and there you go what a legend what an absolute legend well he lives on on YouTube I think out of all the comedians we've had, he might have

the most extensive YouTube just rabbit hole history of anyone. There's so much stuff that I've discovered in the last couple of days too, from his podcast and stuff that I'd interviews I'd never seen before. I mean, it is so deep. It's like the algorithm has come alive since he passed away, and now everyone is kind of sharing and trading and I don't know. It feels like people sharing mixtapes or like

live recordings of the Grateful Dead or something. It has entered this new phase of kind of pop cultural trading that is really cool to see because he was just so great. All right. This podcast was produced by Craig Horleback. Sean, great to see you. What do you got on PigP? Oh, I guess we should announce this now because you weren't on the original Departed pod. Yeah. What's it going down? We're doing the redaparted for as the first Monday in October. Can't wait. So everybody has two weeks to watch it. We did the departed really early on this feed. I think it was one of like the first 12 to 13 that we've done, but now the 15th anniversary is coming up and, uh, and we're gonna,

we're gonna dive into it. So be ready, America. Can't wait. All right. We'll see you next week on we'll watch.