Napoleon Dynamite

The Year 2004 Why don't you have any good skills? What do you mean? You know, like numtruck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills. The movie Napoleon Dynamite Hello everyone and welcome to Unspooled Yes, welcome to Unspooled. This is a podcast about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites, must-sees, and in case you missed them. We have covered the AFI Top 100 and now we are checking off movies from three major lists. The Letterbox Top 250 films with the most fans. The IMDB Top 250 and the New York Times 1000 Essential Films. And we will be chasing our own curiosity as well. You and I talked about varieties, must-see comedies, their 100 best comedies. The movie we are talking about today is on that list. And I gotta say, I had not seen it until only recently. I am Paul Scheer, I am an actor, writer, and director. And I have to say, late in the game, Napoleon Dynamite supporter. Wow, really late in the game. Really late in the game. My goodness. I did a movie with John Heeter and I didn't even see this movie. Wow, he must have loved that, that you weren't quoting anything at him. I mean, I did a movie with John Heeter and Billy Bob and they would do Napoleon Dynamite and Sling Blade, like one-act plays, just in breaks and it was one of the best things ever. Well hello, I'm A.B. Nicholson, I'm the film critic for the Los Angeles Times. I flip and love Jamiroquai and I'm really glad that we're doing Napoleon Dynamite right now because I'm packing up my suitcases to head to Sundance, to head to the very last Sundance that will ever take place in Park City, home of so many memories including Napoleon Dynamite premiering there and suddenly comedy from Idaho blowing up and dot dot dot dot decades later we get Minecraft and Chicken Jockey. Hey everybody, one of my favorite podcasts, Talking Pictures, is back for another season. You know this, it's from TCM and HBO Max. It's a podcast all about movies and memories hosted by Ben Manquitz and he gets to sit down with some of Hollywood's most influential actors and filmmakers to discuss the movies that inspired him. I've been on the show, it was the most fun and this season he is talking to people like Edgar Wright about pacing and montages in film and Rosie Perez about her acting career and how it kind of just began on accident. He's also talking to Patton Oswald, Susan Sarandon, Hiro Morai who is a director who did a lot of Atlanta and the great new show Widows Bay, Sally Field, Tony Goldwyn and so much more. This season Ben and his guests are on camera so you can also watch Talking Pictures on HBO Max and Spotify or listen wherever you get your podcast. On Schooled. Well let's go back to where all of that started, which is the year 2004 and guess what Amy, in 2004, Nerds Rule. I mean at least on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah they have a famous alumni, Erin Eckhart, Ken Jennings from Jeopardy, Don Bluth of American Tale, and what we really want to do on this show someday. And of course literary legend Stephanie Meyer of Twilight. You should also do that too. I mean I'm down. We've done Twilight on How Did This Get Me? I just want to put it out there. I know, I know. There's very few films I feel like we could do on both. That's one, Face Off is another. Look I'll also argue for the room, but that's a larger conversation. Let's talk about Jared Hess. He's a film student. He meets his future wife, Druscha Demke there, and they come up with this idea of making a movie about nerds like themselves. Yep, first it is a short made in 2002 named Peluca that they shoot in 16mm black and white. Jared has the star of Peluca in mind already. It is this genuinely nerdy kid. So he auditions this other guy from his directing class to be LeBoli. That guy's name is John Heeter. But a few days later Jared goes to John and says, you know what, I think I've got to recast this. You've got to be the dork. So Druscha has the idea that they perm his hair, they go to this small Idaho town where Jared went to school and they make the short named Peluca, which means wig. It's about this nerdy guy who gives up buying himself a fanny pack so that his two best friends can afford a thristor wig. Wow, Gale, you look like a medieval warrior. Gracias. Well guys, I've got to go to an FFA meeting right now. We have a competition in Milad next week and we're taste testing whole milk. I had an excellent time with you guys today. See ya. Wow, I didn't even know about this Amy, I have to watch Peluca. Did you like Peluca? If you like Napoleon Dynamite, it has many of the exact same camera shots, scenes. It's pretty similar. Now, Peluca doesn't get into Sundance, it gets into Slamdance. So if you're not familiar, Slamdance is kind of like, I don't know, like the cool older brother who won't let you into his room of Sundance, right? It's like if Sundance is the alt version of Cannes, or that's how it started, then Slamdance is the alt version of Sundance. Okay, great. I love that. So this is where Peluca premieres and people really like it. So another bring-a-m-young classmate named Jeremy Kuhn is like, Jared, you got to drop out of school and make this for real. Now Jeremy gets $400,000 from his brother and Jared and Jerusha write a script inspired by their own lives and siblings, which kind of leans heavily on what people loved about Peluca. They combine the two friends into one friend, Pedro, and give this nerd a brother, Kip, and a love interest named Deb. As for a plot, there really isn't one. I mean, yes, Jared and Jerusha, they are film students. They know that script should have a 3x structure, but they kind of want to make this film feel more raw, more like a documentary. And like half of their $400,000 budget just goes to securing the Jamiroquai song from the dance number at the ending. That's wild to me because, I mean, it just goes to show you how hard it is to make independent movies that $200,000 just went to a song, but it was worth it. Yeah. As for the rest of the time and the money, they have 22 days to shoot the movie on location and press an Idao with a cast that includes Efren Ramirez as Pedro, Aaron Welle, that's another BYU classmate as Kip, Tina Majorino as Deb, and John Greese as Uncle Rico. And now John Heater's character, of course, has a name, Napoleon Dynamite. Now, Jared says the name comes from when he was doing missionary work in Chicago, and a 70-year-old Italian man introduced himself on the street and said, I am Napoleon Dynamite. And two days before filming wrapped, an extra told Jared that Napoleon Dynamite is not that guy. Napoleon Dynamite is actually one of Elvis Costello's pseudonyms, and maybe that's just a magical coincidence, but it's too late for anybody to change it. Now, by the way, Elvis Costello does not love this character. This film is called Napoleon Dynamite. He's like, maybe somebody told him the name and he truly feels that he came up with it by chance, but it's two words that you're never going to hear together. I want to defend Jared Hess here. It seems like Jared has just bumped into a crazy person in Chicago who knew Elvis Costello's pseudonym, and that's how it went. Don't take it out on the Hess. Take it out on that guy in Chicago, that 70-year-old Italian man. Who also apparently really loves Elvis Costello in a deep way, to be into the deep country. Okay, yes. To know, yes. But anyway, it's not like Elvis Costello's real name. I mean, he borrowed that from Elvis. His real name is Declan. I mean, Elvis Costello's name when he checks into hotels should be Declan. It should just be that. I mean, maybe it is. Maybe that's an easier way for him to hide. I don't know why he needs another name. Anyway, Jared wants a movie to play at Sundance where he's been going since he's a teenager and he gets in. But at the premiere, a few minutes into the movie, people start leaving and he's like, oh no. But then those people come back. They went outside to call their bosses and say, you have to come see this now. A bidding war starts. Fox Searchlight Pictures buys the movie for $4.75 million, which is over 10 times what they spent on it. And then Napoleon Dynamite gets theatrically released on six screens on June 11th, 2004. And Fox Searchlight really rolls this movie out slowly, smartly, makes it become a sensation. By August 27th, it is in 1,024 theaters and it winds up making 44.5 million in theaters, another 130 million at least in DVD sales, and it becomes a merchandising hit. I mean, by that Christmas, Hot Topic had more than 150 Napoleon Dynamite products. T-shirts, underwear, bed sheets, backpacks, Velcro wolds, calendars, lamps, lunchboxes, flip-flops, playing cards, fridge magnets, air fresheners, postcards, pins, trucker hats, wristbands, fleece-throws, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, shoelaces, wristbands, and lip gloss. And I think you could probably still buy most of those now, even. I mean, definitely on eBay. Now, that's a windfall. I mean, this is truly a gigantic hit. Now, Heeter only got paid $1,000 for starring in the film, and he did manage to negotiate a little bit more money once he became a talking doll. Good for him. Good for him. I mean, that's when I think about that, you know, there's always like back-end, but I wonder if they even worked in back-end. I wonder how much money Jared has even got for this, because when he sold it for $4.75, he probably thought that's the windfall, but little did he know. I mean, this is a cultural phenomenon. Like I said, I have not seen this movie, but I knew so much about it. I knew the way the character sounded. I knew about Vote for Pedro. I knew about the Tater tots. Like, it was just something you couldn't escape. Yeah, and they did wind up having a lawsuit or two, I think, filed later, because at Sundance, that pressure, the altitude, I think what happened is Fox Searchlight was like, you have an hour with us, we want this movie, we're going to give you this, but we're leaving in an hour, and we might not see it again if you stall. So you're definitely not thinking, when you spent 22 days staying in a motel, the only motel in town, shooting this movie, knowing that you had to finish in 22 days, because if you didn't, the rodeo was coming to Idaho, and like the one motel was going to be full. You're not thinking this will someday be a talking doll. You're definitely not thinking this will someday be chastic. Well, I think that's the thing that people want, right? We are in a culture where we always put the cart before the horse, merchandising, right? And we expect the audiences to be dumb and just be like, well, it's Tron, so I'm going to buy all this stuff. No, but you have to, you have to earn it. And we've talked about this in the past, like Star Wars started the idea of merchandising Superman, a movie that should have had toys, didn't have them because they didn't even realize that that could be a revenue stream. You know, oftentimes these movies get popular and the timeline to create the merch never falls in line, but because this had a slow rollout and it was a DVD hit, it really could enjoy like almost a two year, and I'm going to call it like a theatrical window, but a two year period where people are just finding it and showing it to other people, which is unheard of, you know, 2004 is not that long ago, but it really just had this other life. I was amazed at it. I could just watch it from the sidelines. Now wait, I got to yes and you and say way back in season one when we did an episode on Ben and her, that movie was awesome. It just all sorts of bent product, but where you're going with this, I find fascinating because you, I assume, must have made the point to not see this movie. I don't know how you would have avoided not see this movie. Yeah, Amy, this is my Achilles heel, which is when I understand something to be a cultural phenomenon, I avoid it. And it's random. It's why I didn't watch the Sopranos until many years later. Obviously this one, I don't know. I don't know. Why do we have this podcast? Because we are exactly the same way in this way. And it's like, we have to make ourselves watch the things that we are too cool, cool with like 9000 quotes, cool in the Napoleon dynamic, we have I Fight Wolverines, cool to go watch these things. I think what you want to do is find something. And here is a perfect example of a movie that was found, right? I don't know. I don't know what it was, but I hate when everyone is on board with it, especially with comedy. It really makes me like, nah, right, I'm not, I'm not here. I'm not here for it. But that's what I really want to talk to you about though, is like this moment in comedy. Like I really want to get your perspective on it because it feels like this is completely a time when comedy is just radically shifting towards this awkward, gawky, polyester fueled joke fest. I mean, Napoleon Dynamite comes out right around the time of Anchorman. It predates it by like a year, but they both feel like they're kind of trafficking that same thing of like, we bluster, we talk about Panthers, we wear a lot of polyester suits that Amy Nicholson would totally like if anybody can dig them out of storage. But yeah, you're right. Like I guess this is this middle ground in comedy because we're going from what we associate as being the typical comedy, things like dodgeball, right? That's also 2004, but then we're also seeing like Harold and Kumar and Team America World Police. And, you know, we are kind of exiting the old school comedy and entering into the Judd-Apital phase. And I say that as a larger idea, like the Judd-Apital phase, I think, brings in nerd culture before comedy lead actors were cool, right? They were, you know, whether it's Eddie Murphy or Vince Vaughn, these are like people like, oh, I wish I could be as cool or as sick as them. And now we're embracing nerds. I mean, even Anchorman that we talked about at length, it's like, those are buffoons. They're not like, they think of themselves as cool like Napoleon Dynamite does, but they are not cool, right? They are not cool. That exactly is the thing that you're drilling into that I'm interested by because we grew up with, you know, 80s, 90s comedy nerds. A lot of comedies take the point of view of the nerd, you know, Revenge of the Nerds, a movie that I deeply love despite, yes, yes, yes, the ending, very problematic. But that movie takes the perspective that the nerds know their nerds or at least realize their nerds. It's pretty hard for the nerds in Revenge of the Nerds when they realize that they are in fact nerds. A couple of them have been slow to catch on, but they will best the bullies improve themselves and they're the underdogs the whole time. And what I find fascinating about Napoleon Dynamite is I think if you asked him if he's a nerd, he'd be like, I'm not. I don't have anything to prove. I'm really cool. I mean, in fact, when this movie was blowing up, John Heder goes on David Letterman to read out the top 10 list. And that's basically the joke. I want to play a little bit of it from both ends of the list. The category top 10 signs you're not the most popular guy in your high school. Paul, were you the most popular guy in your high school? Oh, please, far from it. Good. The category top 10 signs you're not the most popular guy in your high school. Here we go. Number 10. Your yearbook photo caption reads, unidentified sophomore. Number nine. Your only friend is the one you built in shop class. Number eight. School song includes phrase about how much you suck. And then, yeah, this is how we close it out. And the number one sign you're not the most popular guy in your high school. How the heck would I know? I'm like the coolest kid in school. God. And that's what I find interesting, that this isn't a nerd who's going to be the underdog we root for in the traditional way. This is a guy who, I guess, triumphs. His friend becomes student body president. He gets a standing ovation, but it doesn't feel like he's even needing that validation. No, because I think that the way that we look at nerds and culture is that they want to fit in to being the popular kids. Whereas at least in my experience, everybody who is an outcast is like, I don't want to be a part of that group. We have like, they are Neanderthals or they are dumb. Like I want to be with my smart friends who get it, who watch the cool things, who do the interesting things. That I always felt was like a weird dividing line. Like nerdy kids don't want to become cool kids, but we've grown up in this war. That's a very generalized statement. I hope that I'm not offending anyone out there. But we've grown up in this culture of like, nerdy girl takes off her glasses, shakes her hair, and then she becomes hot girl. That transformation obviously is something we've seen a million times. Yeah, we did the breakfast club a couple of months ago. Yeah, but we don't embrace like just, well, couldn't just nerdy people be like, yeah, high school is not for me. I don't like these fucking losers. I'm ready to go and live my own life. And I think there is something so genuine and earnest about who Napoleon Dynamite is. Because I don't know, every super nerdy kid I grew up with had an energy and an attitude. I may have told this story on the show before, but there's a kid I went to school with who was very similar to Napoleon Dynamite. Permed hair, very, you know, same kind of manner of speaking. I don't think he carried tater tots, but I remember my mom came to pick me up from school and he ran up to her and was like, Mr. Sheer, Mr. Sheer. Do this maze, do this maze. And my mom is trying to do this maze and she's like, oh, well, I can't, you know, find a way out. He goes, that's the point. You die. You die. And he walked away and it was like, like, remember that so clearly because it was like, yeah, his joke was like, do this thing. I didn't kill you in this maze. Like, like there's something else going on there, right? I don't know. And I do think that, you know, when you hear Jared has talk about this, like he says it's autobiographical. It's like a hybrid of all these like nerdy and awkward parts of me and my brothers growing up. And I think he had six brothers. So that's a lot of inspiration. Yeah. And I think that that is like, I don't know, when I play characters, it's they're all a version of me. It's just like a version of me where one part of me is turned up in a very intense way. Or, you know, like you modulate these parts, these things that you're pulling from, you know, and so that's what I really like about this movie is it's not, it's not a movie about redemption or change. It's or revenge, even like Heather's, right? Yeah, because Heather's is like, I don't like the popular kids, but I'm going to blow up the school. Yeah. It's a movie about being comfortable in your own skin, even though to the outward world, you're not. But all these characters are like that. I mean, when you even look at, um, what's his face? Diedrich Baker, Diedrich Bader in this, the karate instructor, right? Like, I mean, he is quote unquote cool, but he's not cool. I mean, watching that scene, you have to wonder if a little bit of that steeped into Will Ferrell, right? Just a little bit when he's coming up with something like the lines in Anchorman, like, not that he's thinking, I'm going to rip off this movie, but that he's thinking, I like this comedy vibe. I'm going to talk like this, right? It feels there. By the way, also shout out to Diedrich. We talked about him a, I think a year ago when we did office space, he was the neighbor. Love that movie. Love him. Great. Fantastic on the Drew Carey show as well. I think that I don't think it seeped into Anchorman. I think that they have their own thing. But where I would say that there's a stronger line is to Danny McBride because Foot Fist Way comes out in 2006. I think Napoleon Dynamite allows for Foot Fist Way to get the attention of Gary Sanchez. And then that's, you know, Gary Sanchez is Adam and Will's production company was their production company. And they're the ones who kind of really get behind Danny and support and produce Eastbound and Down and stuff like that. It's an authentic voice. It's a different type of idiot. And it's authentically theirs as much as this is authentically Jared Hesse's. That's true. And I should say I'm not trying to accuse people of stealing. I'm just really interested in how people who like comedy and watch comedy and make comedy influence each other. You know, I think in here when John Heer like gets mad and runs away from things and flops, I see that and I think, oh, I wonder if he's low key summer in the back of his brain thinking of Paul Rudd and what in what hot summer, you know, which came out what in 2001. And I love the way that Paul Rudd just like throws a fit and is like, no, and flops off. I mean, I love that too. I think that there might be a simpler through line here, which is, you know, this is a movie. And if you think about it from Jared Hesse's point of view, Jared Hesse is a nerd. We've already established that. And he makes this short film and that short film gets to slam dance. He gets the money to make it as a feature film. What's happening in that trajectory is exactly what happens with Napoleon Dynamite. He succeeds by remaining exactly who he is. Like he doesn't, you know, make Paluka and then go, I want to make dodgeball too and no offense to dodgeball too, which is not even out. But that's the kind of earnestness that kind of like, no, I'm just going to stick with what I do and what I like and what I'm finding interesting. I think that that's why his career is ultimately unassailable because it does not feel like he is trying to change. It's the same way like Michelle Gondry is not like trying to make something like it's like I'm making what I like and what's interesting. So he's still making to her tater tot jokes in Minecraft. He's still making a humor in Minecraft, even though he's shooting it in New Zealand by that point. I mean, I love it because it's in this movie culminates in this dance scene, right, which is like with the Jamir Kwai song. It's like, here's a guy who's been bullied, isolated. He's a punchline, right, but he gets up on stage at the end and does something that is authentically him. It's not like trained choreography. It's not something that's even polished, right? It's just like weird improvised, like utterly committed. But I don't even know like performance art and everyone goes wild for it. And I think it's like that authenticity is what makes this movie so interesting. I'm so happy I haven't seen this movie until 2025 because I could look at it without any of the pomp and circumstance. And I was like, this movie works. This movie works because it's it is its own thing. Yes, it caught a wave and became this other thing, but it's not. It's it's earnest in doing that. Resolutions calm and go, but real lasting growth takes time and discipline. That's why I appreciate that Nutrifull isn't selling some 30 day miracle. They are here to help men unlock more good hair days from the inside out one day at a time. Nutrifull is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand trusted by over one and a half million people. Plus, it's also the number one selling hair growth supplement brand. That's because Nutrifull targets the key root causes of thinning in men. Stress, hormonal changes. It is not just about genetics. And if you're trying to build consistency this year, their subscription makes it easy with automated deliveries, free shipping, up to 20% savings, free one on one, naturopathic doctor consoles and a complimentary headspace membership included. So skip the shortcuts. See thicker and stronger hair in three to six months with Nutrifull. For a limited time, Nutrifull is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to nutrifull.com and enter the promo code unspooled. Find out why Nutrifull is the best selling hair growth supplement brand at nutrifull.com. That's spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com promo code unspooled. Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand. Marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time. From startups to scale-ups, online, in-person and on the go. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. First biomes and Japanese culture. Get early access and play Forza Horizon 6 Now on Xbox and PC with the premium edition. You know this character is a tricky character. He's not super likable, even though he's quotable. Yeah, I mean he like does the whole movie with his eyes kind of closed, his mouth open. He's a hostile. I mean even when I think he's sort of kind of likes the deb character, he's meaner about her milk. I guess he's like proto-negging. I see you're drinking 1%. Is that because you think you're fat? Because you're not. You could be drinking whole if you wanted to. I love that. I mean yes, he's a, like, let me just say he's a dick. Right, I'll just embrace that for this moment to say, and I think what makes that character more interesting is that what Napoleon does in this movie is for Pedro. It's not about his own glory. So it's another kind of subversion of the typical nerd trope, right? He's helping his friend. Like he's using his weird skills to help his friend achieve his dream. Right, and their relationship is pure and there's like no irony there. And I don't know, I feel like they both value and kind of care for each other. And look, I'll draw the line here and go, this, you know, this movie, more than even what we do in box office, I think this movie opens up the door for things like Big Bang Theory. And even honestly, the comic book movie, right, we could go into nerdy culture, right? We are okay, like geek is cool, right? Comic Con is blowing up after that. Like everything is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I don't know. I just think it's really, we allowed the nerds to win and Revenge of the Nerds is kind of not, I mean, we're, you talked about it, right? But like, is like kind of like a jock making a movie about nerds, I think. Don't you think? No. You think of the, alright, alright, alright, alright. I love Revenge of the Nerds. I think the Omega Moos are wonderful. If you love Deb and so much of Jerseh's Deb with like the big sleeves, she actually had a big dress homemade with the big sleeves. That character to me comes right out of the beautiful Omega Moos, who I love so much. I adore Revenge of the Nerds. They just didn't have that stupid date rapey element, but it's an 80s movie. We had my favorite joke, my favorite joke from Black Monday. I think I've already said this in there. One of the characters comes in like, whoa, cool Darth Vader mask. He's like, what do you mean? It's like, this is a mask from the end of Revenge of the Nerds. And it's a, and I'm not saying it the right way because I don't want to be too offensive. But that's the only reason why this character has it. I also will say, you know, I love seeing these similarities with Jared Hess and Napoleon Dynamite. I don't think I ever knew that until I started digging in a little bit more. And like, you know, apparently Jared Hess did like a sketch when he was running for student body president, right? Like that was, I think a part of this story, if I'm right about this, you know, again, he got up on stage and we should say Jared has part of his backstory is Preston Idaho isn't where he was born, but it's where he moved when he was in 10th grade. So he was like a newcomer to Preston Idaho. And in that first year that he was there, he was a bit of a loner. He said by the time he showed up at school, all of the clubs were full and he did have to join like the sign language club, which is where that little dance number comes from. But he figured out how to make it work for himself. I guess he, Napoleon Dynamite, it is way through. And yeah, he did run for student body president. He did as a fundraiser for his campaign, let the other students pluck his unibrow. And he did get up on stage and do a choreographed dance to the theme song of Street Fighter II with a friend off stage who was like doing all of the sound effects. And he basically did a bunch of kung fu to it. Apparently when his mom saw the movie for the first time, she just said, well, that was a lot of embarrassing family material. He won by the way, I should say he won by a landslide. And so that's the movie, right? This is a movie about the nerd is triumphant here. And and I think that breaking the structure of typical comedy is also really important when we look at this movie because we just want to spend time with these characters. I mean, I think that that's the truth with podcasts. I think that's the truth with all comedy. It's it's not like we don't care about the journey ultimately. You know, Anchorman, they made a whole other movie. We talked about this of just the outtakes, right? We just want to spend more time with characters that we like. And oftentimes where comedies get messy is when the plot overtakes just hanging with them. You know, as an actor, it's been one of the most frustrating things. When I did the league, my character never grew or changed. And while I was fighting against that, because I'm like, oh, I want to do different things with this character. And that is the tenant rule of like all good sitcom, but I think all good comedy is like that's the character. We want you to come in, say the thing that you do, and we'll see it again. Like it's it's the way that we were brought up. It's like we want to just see the we don't want the journey. And this movie just allows us to be a fly on the wall for weird character after weird character after weird character. And there is a plot, but it's not really important. But the movie doesn't feel slow. It's moving. It's something is happening, but it's so minuscule what's happening that you can actually just enjoy watching. I mean, I'll be honest. I think the first time I watched this movie, I was a little confounded by the lack of plotlessness. I mean, I think specifically I was confounded by like, why does this school suddenly say, yeah, screw summer. We don't want summer to win anymore. I guess we think summer is maybe a little bit bigoted in her speech. Anyway, I think I'd be a great class president. So who wants to eat chimini changas next year? Not me. See, with me, it will be summer all year long. Vote for summer. A bittersweet affectionate shout out to her boyfriend who's still like, I love her gives her a standing ovation. I think that's sweet, even though they are supposedly like the dorky bad guys. Yeah. But but yeah, like why does this school suddenly say yes, yes, we love that. I mean, there's that dramatic pause before all the applause breaks out. You know, the movie doesn't have like a neat explanation, I guess, which fine. It doesn't need. And I think the reason I'm accepting that it doesn't need it is really just only because of Jerusalem liking it to a documentary. I like that it feels real. I mean, specifically one of the inspirations for this movie is a movie I deeply love. Have you ever watched any Errol Morris films? Oh, love Errol Morris films. Yes. Oh, great. It's his very first one, Gates of Heaven, the one that made Warner Herzog eat his shoe, the one that's about like pet cemeteries. That's on YouTube, I think, even just streaming for free if you're curious. But everybody in that movie looks like they could just walk into Napoleon Dynamite. They're just actual people who own pet cemeteries. And when you hear them talk, you just, you think to yourself, real life is always going to be way weirder than any movie. We had snakes, we had rats, we had monkeys, we had chickens, we had hamsters, we had mice, same field, rodents of all types. And we had, of course, dogs, cats, we're our main pets. But it doesn't make any difference what type of animal. If that animal, you love it and you want to give it a proper burial, that's your business. You bury that pet because you love it. I mean, there was this movie that came out last month, Song Song Blue, the Hugh Jackman. I wanted to pardon that so bad. I worked so hard on that. Really? What part did you want? The dentist. Oh, the dentist. You would have been a good dentist. I would have liked it. I would have been a good dentist. Yeah, but you know, that was based on a documentary. The dentist was a real guy. Which is great, yeah. Yeah, and that documentary is just as weird as the Hugh Jackman one. I would say weirder as well. Like, it's hard to capture humanity. Humanity itself is so weird that when you put it in a movie, you're like, no, even Marty Supreme. Marty Supreme is semi-inspired on a real, by a real guy. And when I read that guy's memoir, I was like, this is so much weirder than the movie. The movie could have never done any of this either. Oh my God. You know, here's the thing that I'll say too. It goes back to the King of Kong doc and movie. Oh yeah. Which is a serat two, right? Yes, yes, an American movie even. You know, we're talking about all these kind of movies that are, we try to then make it. I just think it's an interesting choice. It's like, well, we already have this doc. You're not going to beat the doc because anything that the written thing does is just going to be an impersonation of it. They even made a movie with like, Treat Williams doing the staircase, which is not a funny documentary, but it's an interesting character. It's like, why? It's a weird cultural thing that we have. It's like, well, people won't be able to watch a doc. So we'll just have them do an impression of the person at the doc. It's like, well, it's not going to be as good as that unless it's the disaster artist. And then, Amy, then it works. I was just thinking, but I have a counter argument for you, what it would be called the disaster. And I think the reason why I think the disaster artist works is because the room is not a doc. Right? When you're trying to copy a doc into a movie, that's tricky. The room is a movie, and now we get to go see what is actually going on behind this guy making a movie. I think that I've come around to my own argument, but no, I think that that's the thing. You can't remake a doc. Yeah. I mean, I don't mind if you try. I don't mind both things existing. I just like pointing out that real people are fascinating. Yes. And we sometimes try to, I don't know. And look, I also get it from the point of view of being like, oh, I'm an actor. I want to play that guy. I want to do that thing. But I think it's, it's, it's something's better than the real thing. It's like, do you want to watch an impression or do you want to watch, you know, I don't know. I think that's my impression is always have a short shelf life to me. Yeah. But that's sort of why I'm fully a dynamite is a tiniest bit. Maybe it is a documentary or like a reenactment of a documentary. If they're saying that all of these things really happened, which they are, I mean, Jared Hess is like, yeah, when I was a kid, a guy named Lyle the farmer actually shot a cow in front of a bunch of kids on a school bus. And that is Lyle the farmer. I put him in the movie reenacting the thing that he actually did. Well, there you go. Right. Or, or some of my favorite stories come from like Aaron Well, you know, who plays Kip. Oh, I think Kip, I just love Kip. I think it's so funny. I think his line deliveries are so funny. The way he's just like talking. Yeah. See how many at all the freaking chips, Kip. I'm a point. Don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know I'm trained to become a cage fighter. And I have to do like a little bit of like mental gymnastics to get back to an era in which talking to people online was dorky. I think it's supposed to be more dorky. Is it dorky at that point? Yeah, probably. Yeah, sure. But like his brother was that guy. His brother was always chatting online with Russian women. He said his brother is a guy who tried to buy a time machine on eBay for $800. And he said when that time machine did show up in real life, it was covered in rhinestones. Oh, I love that. I mean, I hope it worked. I guess it didn't. I think that one of the things that we always respond to in comedy is something that feels like it actually has a very, actually has a voice, right? A clear point of view, not something that was kind of made in a factory. And that's why when we have these things like Austin Powers, you know, like Anchorman, you know, Borat, movies that we've actually covered on the show, these are seismic shifts in comedy, Napoleon Dynamite included, because no one else could make those movies. And again, I'm going after dodgeball for no other reason than my kids love dodgeball. I've been watching dodgeball a lot. I think dodgeball is better than I remember it being. But there was a time where comedies were a lot more formulaic and we are moving into and we're not there yet in 2004, but like the super bads, the 40 year old virgins, you know, these movies that just allowed it to be something that no one else could pitch on. Right? Yeah, but then you can see them struggling to figure out where the right tone is because I'm thinking of something like Blades of Glory, which comes out not long after this. It tries to manufacture the tone in a more formulaic plot. I guess it is your dodgeball. It's just dodgeball. Right. I think it's just going to take the people that are instead of just going like unless those those guys who I like, I like those guys. I mean, Blades of Glory, it is literally starting the people we're talking about. It's literally starring John Heeter and Will Ferrell as, you know, male figure skaters. I even pulled a clip of it here. Known to be enemies of one another, combining to be the first male male pair team in the history of the sport. Either the locked in technical style of McElroy will not mesh with Michael's improvisations or they create great music together and reinvent the sport in their own image. They're laughing at us. Hey, they laughed at Louis Armstrong when he said he was going to go to the moon. Now he's up there laughing at them. And what sucks about John Heeter? I, you know, and I'm hesitant to say this because well, I will and say that I like John a lot. I think that John created an iconic character. But when you come into the world with an iconic character, it is very hard to lose that character. And, you know, again, to reference the same three movies that we just talked about, you know, Borat. Austin Powers, Anchorman. We all knew who those actors were before they don that costume. So now what you're doing is you're trying to put John Heeter in these movies like, let's put him with Will Ferrell. That would be great. He'll create another iconic character. Let's put him in a movie with Billy Bob Thornton, which I meant. He'll create another iconic character. And that's unfair because the truth is, is John is just a kid who is thrust into comedy super stardom. Like he is not somebody who is trained in this. He's not even somebody who is like, he's not even like a Tik Tok or is like a million different characters, right? Like he is just a guy who nailed one thing really, really well. And then he's behind the eight ball for the rest of his career because you only want him to be this guy that you want. And here's the thing. Heater is an attractive looking dude. He's not that guy. He is not. Yeah, that's a perm. Right. It's a very fragile perm that was overpermed and he wasn't even allowed to wash it during the movie. So it's got like flies in there and fly eggs and stuff. Oh, it's like, because it's 100 degrees, I should say. Yeah, it's very hot when they're shooting this. And that's all. I think it's like, it's an unfair thing because people were treating him like a comedy star. And I think he was playing catch up for a lot of these movies as well. So like, yeah, I also think he's got some natural gifts. Like I think his comedy is amazing. And he never breaks. He does so many things even live as Napoleon Dynamite and doesn't break. But I also think this is the problem where when you get a big hit, people want to pull you in immediate different directions. I did this movie Black Bald. Sorry, there's a lot about my career today. But when I did that movie Black Bald, it was an improvised movie. We won the audience award at South by Southwest, a comedy feature about paintball. Now the director, as soon as he wins that gets an offer to make Kingpin 2, which he says, hell yeah, I'll make that. And then I will not cast anyone that was in Black Bald. Now, Black Bald is like me and Rob Cordray and Rob Brigel and Ed Helms. Just a murderous row of people in comedy in that early 2000s. I like calling you a murderer. But I mean, he goes off and tries to develop Kingpin 2 forever. And it's like, oh, what a waste. You got successful on doing your own thing with people who knew how to protect you. Not to say that John couldn't do that, but I think John was kind of fed to the wolves very quickly. It's like without anyone protecting him, throwing him onto a set and being like, all right, be Napoleon Dynamite, but don't be Napoleon Dynamite. Go. Like you can't compete with Will Ferrell and Will Arnett and Amy Poehler. That movie is a murderous row of people. Yeah, those people have been trained in front of audiences for so long. Pass, fail, pass, fail in front of UCB crowds. It's really rough. From the parents behind law and order comes a mystery the whole family can enjoy. Patrick Picklebottom, everyday mysteries. Step into the whimsical world of Patrick Picklebottom, a precocious 11-year-old with a love for reading and an uncanny ability to solve mysteries. Inspired by the beloved children's book of the same name, this podcast vividly brings Patrick's tales of deduction and everyday adventures to life, as he unravels baffling indigmas and solves clever cases. Patrick Picklebottom, everyday mysteries is perfect for kids and is just as entertaining for grown-ups who love a good mystery. The whole family can listen now wherever you get your podcasts. The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying. The darkness chooses someone else tonight, but in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old-school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time and when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark every Thursday night at 8pm Eastern on youtube.com slash the glass cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. So I think that's the biggest, I think, side effect of this film. We launched this guy who is and forever will be a face that we recognize, a face of cinema. You know, and you're right, he's got this talent. Like that ending, that improvise, we're kind of going back to the ending, but that dance is improvised by him. Yes, he had some choreography help, but he was really there and they only had one role of film left, which is approximately like 10 minutes and they only did three takes and they edited together like with this 10 minutes of footage. He had to dance to three different songs because they weren't sure which one they were going to be able to afford. One of them was Michael Jackson song and that probably would have taken the entire budget and then some and it was just this thing where it's like, okay, you have to land this movie, the movie with no plot, you have to land it. And you know, and this is this thing where he steps up and does it with the moon boots falling off his feet because they don't have doubles of them. You know, you like you can see tape, I think on them. He's a 26 year old dude who just did it, right? And I and that to me is like, I'm going to talk about performance like yes, he can perform. He was in the pocket for that. Yeah, there's such a personal handicraft to all of the jokes in this movie. I think that makes it really, it feels intimate. Honestly, for a guy who's like going through the movie, acting distance, acting like cold and strange and weird. Like he's also the guy who did all of his own drawings. Yes, I think one, he didn't do the unicorns. I mean, honestly, like Aaron Royal too, he's the guy who did the opening credits. He wrote the stuff in Mustard. What? Like your actors are doing your credits for you writing things in Mustard, which is as a person who tries to write an icing and finds it incredibly difficult. A squeeze bottle. How? I mean, it's so crazy. But you know, I also want to talk about John Grease. John Grease, who is Uncle Rico, is basically going to retire when this role comes to him. And he's like, you know, I'm just going to write instead. And they like they brought him in. And I think the story is that he was auditioning for another movie, but then they were in the same room, Jared Hess and him at the same room at the same time. And he saw his performance for the other film was like, yeah, yeah, let's get it. Let's do that. Let's get that guy. And John Grease was like, who is this? What is this? This movie that has no money. I've never heard of this director, but he said that he read that script. And it was like, OK, yeah, I'm here. I want to do this. This is like one of the best scripts I've ever read. And that movie kind of revitalizes his career in many respects. Yeah, I really want to give kudos to any actor who was like, sure, why not? Why not? I don't know these people at all. I mean, including like Dietrich Bader, including like Hayley Duff. You know, I think it's really cool that they came out there. Tina Majorino. Tina Majorino. It's really neat. Like Efren Ramirez, he's already on TV. He doesn't need to be doing this. By the way, 31 playing a high school senior, right? It's like crazy. I mean, I want to shut up by the way, the thing I like about Pedro, which is Pedro is really the confident one. Yes. Pedro is like, I'm going to ask Summer Wheatley to the dance. I'm going to make her a cake. I'm going to run for student body president. Like I am new to this school and I'm going to make it work. You know, I'm also thinking about this movie being a cautionary tale, right? Because, you know, the themes, I guess, are coming out. Like this movie has more themes than it does have plot, right? And you're talking about the time. Does it have theme or does it have vibe? What is the difference? Well, I think that Uncle Rico is living in the past. Napoleon's living in the now, right? They think there is something about that. Like I think Uncle Rico is a cautionary tale. Like Uncle Rico is the popular kid in high school who now has not ever moved forward, right? Right. He's so stuck in it. Like in that scene where he's basically doing the rent that we just talked about in brick. The coach didn't put me in. Right. The coach would have put me in fourth quarter. We'd have been state champions, no doubt. No doubt in my mind. You better believe things that have been different. I'd have gone pro. Heartbeat. I'd be making millions of dollars and living in a big old mansion somewhere, you know, soaking it up in a hot tub with my soulmate. You know, and then I think so. I think that there is something about that, right? It's like, you don't want to be that. I remember somebody said to me when I was in high school and I was fairly popular in high school, you know, because it's a humble brag. But I just put it in perspective of why it was said to me. Wait, what were you voted? Were you voted anything? I think I was voted, you know, nice category. I had a couple of superlatives. A couple? You were voted in a couple categories. A couple categories, but it's not. Don't even pretend like you don't know what they are. Honestly, I imagine that Funny was one of them. And like, you know, they were like dumb ones, like most likely to be an actor, you know, whatever it is, you know. You remember these. I don't know why you're pretending that you don't. I wish I, you know what? You remember everything about your life. I remember. I remember someone who ever walked through a TV camera on a sitcom and you, when you met them, when you were seven. But I guess I didn't think that these were that important. Oh, I really pride myself on winning. Most likely to become a fashion designer. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Even though anybody who saw what I dressed like today would be like, what are you talking about? You've worn the same pair of sneakers for like two years. No, you look great always. Yeah. No, you always. But, you know, I think, I think to me, like somebody said to me, God help you if you're most like the best time of your life is when you're in high school. And I think that I always think about that. It's like, it should be a fun time, but you should not be peeking in high school. No one should. You have so much life in front of you, you know, But you don't know that you're peeking. Isn't that the tragedy? Yeah. This could be Napoleon's peak for all we know. Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean, it could be, but I also feel like he'll just keep on being himself, you know, and. And I do think that there's something, you know, you talk about the confidence of Napoleon Dynamite. And we're talking about that, like that he will probably be okay because he'll always be true to himself. And I think Pedro is kind of on the other. Like if you go Rico's on one side, Pedro's on the other and Napoleon Dynamite's in the center, probably more leaning towards Pedro. But Pedro to me is the person who is. Like speak softly, carry a big stick kind of energy, right? Like, you know, he, he is. He can nail the bike jumps. Yeah. When he, what do you say? Like, you know, if you vote for me, all your wildest dreams will come true. You know, it's like, I don't know. And there's a, there's like a. There's this thing about him. He just seems like he's got it together. Although he doesn't, but it's a different confidence than Napoleon. The Napoleon Dynamite, I think has a chip on his shoulder. Like no one sees how great I am, but feels that he is great. Whereas Pedro, I think feels like, oh yeah, people get that I'm great. Yeah. Yeah. He, he feels like he's putting in more work to it. I guess. Yeah. Pedro is like not embarrassed about his bike. Yeah. I mean, I really like Pedro and like, I like that this character is here. And I think part of why this character is here is that, you know, Jared Hess, he had to go on a mission when he went on his mission, part of where he served his mission was not just Chicago where he met the real life Napoleon Dynamite, but he also went to Venezuela and he's, he spoke Spanish. And I love that he just had a Spanish speaking character in here. Right. Yeah. And it's me. And I think I get really nervous when I watch like a movie from the 80s, 90s, 2000s with like a character of a color like, oh God, where's the joke going to land? Oh. Is it going to be like on them or at them? But I think this movie takes care of Pedro. I mean, we're talking about a movie where like, or movies that we've grown up with where like Asian people were the, like the, like that was the punchline, right? It was like long duck dung and stuff like that. Here's the guy. I get anxious. I get kind of like hi, I was like, oh, don't screw this up. You know, I think for some reason I always forget whether or not Napoleon Dynamite will screw this up. No, well, I think what's kind of beautiful about this story is like it's, it's progressive in that way. Like he's an immigrant, right? Or like, you know, or he doesn't look the same. He looks drastically like we're just going to judge book by the cover kind of a thing. Like, but that doesn't talk about diversity. He's not being like, it's not like, oh, we have to support him because of diversity. I think the reason why vote Pedro becomes this cultural touchstone is because it's supporting everyone who doesn't fit the mold. He doesn't, he is aggressively not fitting the mold, not because of his personality, just because of the way he looks. Like you can always fit in. Like you can always hide your personality if you, if you look the same, right? But he can't look the same. Yeah, you're right. The movie really firmly draws its line on the tiny group of people who would consider themselves insiders, which is just like Summer and her boyfriend and maybe Trisha and then everybody else, right? So he's just lumped into the everybody else category. Like, yeah. And I think there's something really beautiful about this movie. Yes, I know John Grease is like a known actor, but I'm glad that this movie doesn't have faces in it because I think it actually going back to what we were saying before, it has a documentary feel to it. When you don't know who you're watching, you can actually, I think feel for these characters and you don't see the scenes because you don't know the tricks. It's like watching a magician for the first time. You know, because I heard these stories like Jack Black, they wanted him for Uncle Rico and then like the casting director wanted Jake Gyllenhaal to be Napoleon Dynamite. Yeah. You know, the cast director was like, Jake's looking for something weird. I guess this is around his, uh, Donnie Dock. Yeah. And then like it was even like Brad Garrett, I think was supposed to play, uh, gosh, was it like, uh, another character? Like, but basically everyone, I think at the end of the day, if you're talking about, uh, if you're talking about a hater, a heater getting a thousand dollars, I'm sure that at the end of the day, people are like, I don't know, I don't need to do this. Um, but I do think that the movie works better because it's not like a movie where we're watching one person do, uh, a big character. It's like everybody feels real here. I love the fact that people go to Preston to visit, right? You know, I guess, I guess it's more of a side trip when you go on the Yellowstone. Oh, fun fact about Preston, by the way, population, 5,591, uh, right on the Southern board of Idaho and Utah, it was founded by Mormons who initially named it Worm Creek. And then the leaders of the Latter-day Sense Church said, we're like, you can't name anything that has to do with us, Worm Creek. It's not cool. It sounds too lame. You've got to change it to something cool like Preston. I just think that's really funny for the setting of a town that is all about what's cool and what's lame. You know, there's a great quote. I think this kind of pulls it all together to a certain extent that, uh, Jared has said, like, whenever you're doing anything authentic, inevitably there's going to be some truth to it. And I think what, maybe now I'm going to go further and say what I think he's saying is there's a universal truth to it. You can be so specific. I found this too. You think like, oh, how no one will get this. No one grew up in this exact thing or no one has this exact thing, but there is a universality to it. There's a connection that we all make to, we can find thematically, we can find our truth to it. And I think that a lot of the times what we are being forced to watch is things that don't allow for that uniqueness of setting. Or, you know, and again, I'm going to now pull back in dodgeball and say, to make a movie called dodgeball about people playing dodgeball, like that's weird, right? That is weird. That is actually a weird thing. Um, and I don't think we would get to have that movie today. And I'm not saying that we couldn't have that movie, but like think that there's a difference like people like we couldn't be racially or, you know, we can't make stereotypes. We, that it's not about that. It's more about what would people let us make that make the decisions. Right. It has to be more universal. It has to be bigger. It has to be this. It has to be more accessible. But I think it's accessibility doesn't actually mean that it's successful. Yeah. I don't always love the huggable ending. I mean, it's startling that Napoleon ends the film. Still being a total jerk on the tetherball cart, even to the girl that he like is supposedly liking and dating now, maybe still being like, I'm going to slam it, screw you. But whatever, if it was like, and now we've all learned something, that's not the movie. That's not the movie I want to watch. And the truth is, is like, we have all, we all have weird small towns. You know, they're like, I did this thing at video for the anniversary. And one of the things that we did was he did a giveaway where Tim Simons is going to tell you a piece of gossip from his family. And people were, I mean, obviously we were having fun with it, but it was a real piece of gossip and people were bidding on it like they just wanted it. Like, and I think that that's really fun. There's even a podcast where they just read like gossip, like they don't attribute names to it. Like we want to like know what's what people are dealing with. And the less connected we are, the better we are. Cause we just want to hear it. Ooh, that's weird. It's like, it's the dear Abby thing. All right. We just want to be able to like, not judge or put ourselves in that own position. So this town, like where people are cheating on each other and, you know, and, you know, like bad ideas are happening. I think we get, we get to kind of just peer in like, like Errol Morris and just watch a community. It's just like, watch a community interact. And then I wonder what the gossip really is like in Preston. I mean, this is a town that is so small that on the day that they had to film the scene where the farmer shoots the cow, the cow that they're supposed to use couldn't come. And so one of the producers, I think, just picked up the phone and dialed a random number, just a random number, because the town is so small that everybody has the first same three numbers. So they just had to invent four numbers at the end. Reach somebody in town and said, hi, I'm from the movie, which is all they had to say because this was the only thing on the paper at the time. Do you have a cow that's good with people? And they had a cow there in five minutes. I love this. By the way, I want to give a special shout out to just the good nature of Idaho, because in 2005, after Napoleon Dynamite was a hit, the Idaho House of Representatives made a special honorary resolution commending Jared and Jerisha Hess and the city of Preston for the production of the movie Napoleon Dynamite. The text of this resolution that the Idaho House of Representatives did is fantastic. It's also kind of long. Forgive me. I don't want to read the entire thing right now, but maybe I will just read it and we can play it at the very end of the show, like after the credits, because it's amazing and it just makes me think that maybe Idaho is a hilarious state. Yeah. I mean, now we are talking about Napoleon Dynamite as being analogous to Jared Hess's success, but I think you can now make a story that after this movie, the nerd triumphing had a little bit of a harder run, right? Obviously this movie hits it out of the park. I'm sick of nerds winning, man. And then the follow up to this is Nacho Libre, where he is now going to work with Jack Black and that's a movie where Jack Black is a huge star and it makes like a little less than a hundred million dollars. It's a solid hit, but I think people are like, eh, I don't know if people understood what the tone was. Is it a kid's movie? Is it an adult movie? It didn't. It felt weird. You know, Jack Black obviously playing a really big character. I think Jack Black is kind of amazing in whatever he does based on this true story of a Mexican priest who becomes a luchador, but maybe that movie is better without Jack Black in the sense of we are expecting something that Jack Black is going to bring. Maybe we do it with a real Mexican guy. I mean, that's the other part of this too, which is kind of a crazy, you know, and then he goes on to make gentlemen Broncos, which I have not seen, but has this amazing cast. But it feels like it's getting into that kind of gondry, quirky for quirky sake. Like, I don't know. It's like it. I think it feels like there's only a handful of people can be like Wes Anderson, who keep on making like very, you know, a Russian doll kind of movies that, oh, I love them. Want to be inside of it and be in that room and look at that. You know, and I feel like people are like, no, we're done with this now. By 2009, people did not want that at all. And yeah, but like by 2009, it felt like nerds owned the culture too. Right, right. And I think it's like, I think I don't know what it was. I think it's him trying to figure out where does he fit into this thing. And I think, you know, he's I think he's trying. I think he goes back to Napoleon Dynamite. He makes an animated show. They just start making, you know, directing TV shows like Last Man on Earth and making music videos and directing commercials. He makes a short film with like Sam Rockwell. But he's just like, he's not. He like both of our leads here, you know, our director and our actor are both kind of struggling and, you know, and now he makes, he goes again and makes like another studio movie this time with a cast that is insane. Right. Zach Alvinakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, Sedeikis. You make, oh, well, wait, what was that movie? Well, Masterminds about like. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. The Loomis Fargo robbery in North Carolina, which makes like 30 million dollars. It barely breaks even critics are still like, yeah, I don't know. And, and I feel like when he gets like studio money and, and, and big stars, like something gets a little bit lost in translation. And then. Except for Minecraft. Right. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying. But then it's, I feel like he kind of goes and finds himself in 2000 and 2021. He makes that like true kind of docu series from Netflix about the Salt Lake City bombings, right? Just weird. It's different. And, um, you know, and I feel like, okay, this is interesting. And it feels like he's going back to a smaller thing. And this is where I feel like we talked about this in our Minecraft episode. I don't necessarily trust the Jared has who made Masterminds making Minecraft. This feels Minecraft felt like the Jared has who made Napoleon Dynamite. I feel like he had to get his, his groove back to them, bring his authentic self into it. You know what I just remembered thinking about the documentaries and the rebooting and all of that is actually, uh, spent a fair amount of time with Jeremy Kuhn, the guy who produced this. Yeah. Because once I went on location to Mississippi to write an article about these guys who were shooting a shot for shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jeremy Kuhn was there making a documentary about them, which he eventually did, um, make a documentary about these guys who are making a movie. And I love that there's still that interest in real people doing really weird things. Yes, I agree. And I think it's sort of like, I think it's really hard when your first thing is such a huge success. You get caught up in it. You get pressures in it. Um, you wind up doing Tater Tot commercials 20 years later. 20 years later, still haunted by Crush Tots. Can we show your thoughts? Dang. Now, from a ride, it comes top protecting pants, but he keeps on doubling down, believing in himself, trying to figure it out. I think that like just almost shaking off the shaking off the big budget movies by making a docu series is I think maybe gave him, I don't know, even more freedom. I think that everything in every one of these movies is something very interesting and cool, but it's not connecting the same way until Minecraft. So it's sort of like you just had to get the alchemy right. And I think that that's important. It's like, you know, it's like, and for a filmmaker like him, when you are so specific, you also risk people just missing it too. Right. Like, but I think that there's always something like Ernest and you get another chance, like I think that he's gotten this many chances and he will make other movies and he'll do other things, but he's gotten this chance because at least in his failures, they are unique. And that's Napoleon Dynamite. Yeah. And you know, I really like seeing at least how it rippled with the kids who are the genuine Napoleon Dynamite's out there, which fine is probably all of us. But the kid that I'm really thinking of in particular is a seventh grader who right after Napoleon Dynamite came out was in the national spelling bee, the televised one, the cool one, and tried to make a Napoleon joke in competition. And it went about as well as it would if you were a real life Napoleon Dynamite. Chinook Chinook. May I please have the definition Chinook means a warm, moist, southwest wind of the Pacific coastal region of North America from Oregon, Northward. The chickens have large talons. We'll check that. This was a really good rewatch and I'm glad that we did it. I'm glad it's on the variety top 100 list. I will say that people have been writing in on our Instagram and on the Discord, adding all the other movies that they would like us to do in the comedy space. So many people were so excited, like, oh, wait, the show is now just going to do comedies. And I said, no, but I think that people are excited to see us explore some comedies. I heard Death to Smoochie is an underrated hit that we should definitely watch. But then there were just other simple ones, like someone pointed out that Peewee's big adventure not on that list of 100 best comedies. Well, it's an adventure. I mean, there you go. And by death, you're right. In the title, it is telling us what is happening. You know, so I like exploring these comedies. But you know what? It's 2026. It's a new year, a new chance to be a new you so we can maybe take the kindness, the simplicity of Napoleon Dynamite and maybe contrast that with a movie that is much more corrupt morally. I would say if there is a opposite figure to Napoleon Dynamite, it might be this character that we're going to be talking about in next week's film. Yes, to celebrate the release of Marty Supreme, we're going to look at a safty brothers classic on Cut Gems. I love this. We were just complaining on that comedy episode, how you didn't think they had the correct Adam Sandler movies. Now we're just going to pivot and do a completely different Adam Sandler movie that's not even. Yes. But I will say this is a very funny movie that we're going to be talking about on Cut Gems, but it is not. I would not say it's a variety top 100 comedy, although based on how they judge comedies, it might actually be on their list. It's on Cut Gems adventure. Big adventure. I would like to see Pee Wee Herman and Uncut Gems AI make it so. And with the power of Disney Plus, the power of of generative AI will finally make that a reality. This is the darkest comedic timeline that you've ever gone down. Amy, I'm excited to dig back into this film. I know it's a recent release, but I do think it's a appropriate release, especially as people are talking about Marty Supreme. So you can get Uncut Gems wherever you stream your digital films. I, of course, own the criterion, so I was able to pop in a 4K and it was a fun watch. It was a really fun watch. I actually realized I never. Yeah, so. So just adjusted your monocle, as you said. That's right. I got it. My 4K came in a fish. I took it out and put it right in the player. Anyway, next week's movie. Wait, you know what comedy is coming out on on criteria that I'm actually generally excited about? What? One of our favorites, House Party. Oh, I saw that. That's awesome. We did an episode on YouTube about that. Reggie Hudlin popped in. We might have even done it here on the show. I've forgotten what we've done, but yes, I love that. It was a pandemic thing. None of you had no idea what we're doing, but yes, we were celebrating being trapped inside our house with one of my favorite movies, House Party. I love that House Party is getting the criterion, a release. Let's have a House Party in that closet. All right. So next week, Uncut Gems. Watch it wherever you get it. You can also use your public libraries while they're still around. You know, Canopy and Hoopla let you rent stuff for free right on your phone, right on your iPad. You can check out more about Napoleon Dynamite on our sub stack. Time in, share, let the world know that we are on sub stack and we are free. Amy, a pleasure. Unspooled is produced by Amy Nicholson, Paul Shear, Molly Reynolds and Harry Nelson. Sound engineered by Corey Barton. Music by Devon Bryant. Episode art by Kim Troxell. Show art by Lee Jamison and social media production by Zoe Applebaum. This is a Rome production. See you next week. Bye for now. As promised from the Idaho House of Representatives, a concurrent resolution stating legislative findings in commending Jared and Jerusha Hess and the city of Preston for the production of the movie, Napoleon Dynamite, be it resolved by the legislature of the state of Idaho. Whereas the state of Idaho recognizes the vision, talent and creativity of Jared and Jerusha Hess in the writing and producing of Napoleon Dynamite. And whereas the scenic and beautiful city of Preston County of Franklin and state of Idaho are experiencing increased tourism and economic growth. And whereas filmmaker Jared Hess is a native Idahoan who is educated in the Idaho public school system and whereas the Napoleon where the Preston High School administration staff, particularly the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention. And whereas Tater Totts figure prominently in this film, thus promoting Idaho's most famous export. And whereas the friendship between Napoleon and Pedro has furthered multi ethnic relationships and whereas Uncle Rico's football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics. And whereas Napoleon's bicycle and KIPP skateboard promote better air quality and carpooling as alternatives to fuel dependent methods of transportation. And whereas grandma's trip to the St. Anthony sand dunes highlights a long, honored Idaho vacation destination. I'm about halfway through now. I love it. And whereas KIPP and Rico's Tupperware sales and Deb's key chains and glamour shots promote entrepreneurism and self-sufficiency in Idaho's small towns. And whereas Napoleon's artistic rendition of Tricia is an example of the importance of the visual arts in a K through 12 education. And whereas the schoolwide Preston High School student body elections foster an awareness in Idaho's youth of public service and civic duty. And whereas the happy hands club and the requirement that the candidates for school president present a skit is an example of the importance of theater arts in K through 12 education. And whereas Pedro's efforts to make a cake for summer illustrate the positive connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships. And whereas KIPP's relationship with La Fonda is a tribute to e-commerce and Idaho's technology driven industry. And whereas KIPP and La Fonda's wedding shows Idaho's commitment to healthy marriages. And whereas the prevalence of cook steak as a primary food group group plays tribute to Idaho's beef industry. And whereas Napoleon's tetherball dexterity emphasizes the importance of physical education in Idaho public schools. And whereas Tina the llama the chickens with large talons the four H milk cows and the honeymoon stallion showcase Idaho's animal husbandry. And finally, whereas any members of the Idaho House of Representatives or the Senate or of the legislature of the state of Idaho who choose to vote nay on this concurrent resolution are quote freaking idiots and run the risk of having quote the worst day of their lives. Wow. Wow. Wow. That's amazing. It passed. A great story like Monsters Inc. stays with you forever. And Disney Class is where you'll find your next great story from the return of the award winning hit series Rivals. Welcome to the naughtiest show on television to the unmissable crime drama. High potential. Got a dead body. Got to go. A lifetime of great stories awaits this spring on Disney Plus. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not so dark not so stormy hard boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the Intrepid Chaotix Detective Agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high flying action packed adventure will take them across the world fighting for every clue they can find. It's one heck of a tale, which is good because this story might be the only thing that can save their lives. Well, if that's all I can just dispose of you. Wait, what? Ha ha ha ha. All will be revealed in Sonic the Hedgehog presents the Chaotix case files. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.