Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy w. Chris Kluwe and Sooz Kempner

Hello, you and welcome to You Are Good, a feelings podcast about movies today. Here's a curveball for you. We're talking about Anchorman. We're talking about it with Chris Cluey. I am one of your hosts, Alex Steed. I will soon be joined by the great Suze Kempner, today's special guest host. You are good if you're new to what we do here. It's a feelings podcast about movies. Here's what that means. We talk about movies and we talk about them as a means of understanding who and how we are in the world. We are not film critics that we do speak about some movies critically. We're really here to say, how does this make us feel? And what has it meant to us in the past? What does it mean to us right now? So it's funny that we're doing Anchorman. Anchorman comes up here and there in that. Okay. Our show normally, we don't talk to men very much. That's not what we're doing. And I think like this era of comedy around Will Ferrell, where Will Ferrell and company are being loud is often polarizing to some folks. And so, so, yeah, I think like Anchorman has come up in that, the articulation or definition of that kind of comedy. I really wanted Chris on. I'll explain why momentarily. And I reached out to him and said, Hey, what would you like to cover? And he said, Anchorman, I was like, that's perfect. This is kind of a perfect opportunity to talk about this movie that otherwise probably wouldn't have come up with our other guests. And so who is Chris Clue? Chris Clue is a former professional football player. I used to write a column as well. He played for the Seattle Seahawks, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Oakland Raiders. I wanted Chris on the show specifically because if you live in California, if you live in Southern California in particular, you know that Huntington Beach. The Huntington Beach is a pretty right wing spot, culturally. And you know that, you know, some of the sort of more extreme forms of protest you end up seeing that is in favor of right wing politics. It comes out of Huntington Beach. You'll see those images. If you're not from California, you'll see those from Southern California. You're like, what is going on there? That's probably Huntington Beach. And so Chris is fascinating to me because he in the context, especially of what I say, sort of every opening of the show these days, which is it's a scary time, but we stave off the dread by getting out there and doing stuff. Chris is like, I don't know. I don't know if I drive with this politics overall. And I don't fully know or understand them, but like, I have really enjoyed seeing this man who is extremely well liked, put some of his privilege on the line in order to get out there and to push back against what's happening in the country and in Huntington Beach in particular. June, I have to finish this intro. You don't know what an intro is, but I have to finish it. We will go outside. I promise you. I will. I promise we're going to go. And so early in 2025, just to paint a picture, I'm going to read from this news article, former NFL player Chris Cluey loses job after protesting Huntington Beach Library's MAGA plaque. This is from ABC News Channel 7, written by Rachel Brown, I should say. Former NFL player Chris Cluey was fired from his job as a high school football coach following his arrest at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting this month. Cluey, a former punter for the Minnesota Vikings in a Huntington Beach resident, was arrested after protesting a plaque the city council had approved to be placed at the public library. The plaque, which commemorates the public library's 50th anniversary, includes the phrase, I cannot. This is wild. Includes the phrase magical alluring, gallivanting, adventurous and apparent nod to Donald Trump's Make America Great Again slogan. We want to honor the library. We want there to be a plaque, but we don't want MAGA on it because the library isn't supposed to be political. Cluey told Eyewitness News. Cluey delivered an impassioned speech at the meeting during public comments likening the MAGA movement to Nazism. At the end of his speech, Cluey said that he would engage in what he described as the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience. Cluey then walked up towards council members, placed his hands behind his back and falling to the floor as multiple police officers arrested him. Police carried him out of the meeting. And now Cluey says Edison High School has fired him from his job as a freshman football coach. So that's again, I was like, I think increasingly I'm trying to think of folks who represent doing stuff in a big way. And obviously all of our guests in one way or another are engaging this moment in a big way. But I wanted to have Chris on because I was like, I would really I appreciate what you did in that moment. And that was that was meaningful. And it was especially meaningful to display that to, you know, folks who are enthusiastic about the NFL. So Suze Kempner is our guest host. You know, Suze. Suze has been on the show a number of times before. An English standup comedian, an actress and singer. Love, love, love Suze Kempner. Huge, huge fan wants Suze back immediately after every time she's been on. I'm like, when are we going to get you back? Love, Suze. Hey, how are you doing? What's going on in your world? How are you feeling? I am stoked about all of the episodes that we have coming up with you. We have great episodes with great guests. And I can't wait to share all of those with you. I'm very, very excited. I've been, you know, I've been cleaning up my space a bit, trying to get everything out of one space into another, try to set up a new studio space for for shooting photos, been hanging out with friends, been doing the whole thing. And also, you know, I've been getting out. Get out, raising the stink, as it were. I know the moment is a scary one. But again, we get out there, we participate. I love hearing from you all about knowing how you are doing it, you know, in ways that are safe to set up. And some of you are just like, look, I'm making some cookies for the people next door, letting them know who I am. And that's awesome. I it's a moment and we are showing up for it. However you're doing it, whatever you're baking, however you're hanging, however you're engaging, please just know that you, my friend, are good. You are good at feelings, podcasts about movies is made possible with and by your support. Thanks to everyone who supports us on Patreon and Apple podcast subscriptions. You get bonus episodes, you get extended cuts. We just put out an extended cut over Josie in the pussycats episode. It was a fun one. Junie really wants to go outside. Can you hear her barking? Junie wants to go outside. We'll do that soon, Junie. Don't you were please join me in supporting Palestine Children's Relief Fund. Link in the show notes if you want to find a material way to support our friends in Gaza and Palestine at large. And oh, if you're listening to this right now, you're listening to this today. When the episode comes out tonight, the 21st from eight to 10 PM at the Kibbutz room in Los Angeles, I will be running a movie trivia night as I do monthly ish. So please come on by. It's fun. There are prizes. They'll be co-hosted by friends. You'll see fun and interesting people. You will probably laugh. You might win a thing. Please come on by. Anyway, I think that's it for this week's introduction of your Good Feelings podcast about movies featuring Chris Cluey and Sue's Kempner. Let's get into it, shall we? Hello, Sue's Kempner. Hi. Hi, Alex. How are you? I'm doing quite well. Thanks. How are you doing today? Excellent. Thank you. It's a blowing a gale outside in Merry England. Are you back in England? I thought we were going to have the treat for the first time being on the same continent when we did this. I know. No, I flew back in yesterday morning. So I got to watch Ancomand on the flight. Fantastic. I hope you weren't too uproarious in your viewing. Seat back the lot. What is your relationship with this movie, Sue's? Oh, I saw Ancomand when I was at university. I'd have been 19, maybe 20, but it was on in a British cinema. And I went along thinking it would be trash and it wasn't at all. Yeah, this is a real before. I hadn't it'd been a minute since I like really thought about this movie's place. And this is a real like before anchorman and after anchorman situation, isn't it? Yes. Yeah, I agree. At least American comedy and cinema, for sure. Yeah. And I found it just hasn't gone away. I did a I did a workshop of a black sabbath the musical about six months ago. And I'm the age now where I call the band. The guys playing the band were all under 25, so I referred to them as the boys. And they were all quoting anchorman one lunchtime. And I went, why are you guys quoting anchorman? But they loved it and they weren't quoting films from that year, like dodgeball or Euro trip. They were quite an inch. I think it's endured in a way. A lot of the films it was paired with at that time haven't. If you run into a group of guys that's quoting Euro trip, it's time to go to find safety. Especially the 24. Well, we are talking about this movie because we talk about movies that are beloved, but we're also talking about this movies because today's guest recommended we talk about it. Chris, reveal yourself. Hello, I am Chris Cluey, former punter for the Minnesota Vikings and currently running for state assembly in California. So my life has taken a turn. Chris, I am. Like I love what you're doing generally, but you have your politics in Huntington Beach and I find that, you know, admirable. For those not familiar with Huntington Beach, we are generally referred to as the Florida of Southern California. It is a very, very heavy maga presence. They're very loud. They're not a majority. They like to think they are, but they are definitely a lot louder than their numbers would indicate. And yeah, so we get to deal with that on a weekly basis. And you might have seen us on John Oliver's last week tonight, multiple times and not in a good light. So yeah, that's my city. Did you get arrested? I did get arrested. I was arrested for protesting, peacefully protesting a maga plaque that they were going to put on our public library. And as of today, the plaque still is not up. So I don't know if they're ever going to put it up. Yeah. So that was back in February, kind of when Trump's goons were just starting to get rolling. And I was like, where are my elected officials? Like why is no one doing anything about this? And so I was like, all right, well, can't ask someone to do something I'm not willing to do myself. So guess I'm going to protest this maga plaque. Amazing. Very much appreciate. And it's like not, I don't know, I feel the NFL in particular with regard to people who have had a career after the NFL. I feel like it's like the it's one of the places where it's like very hard to pin down where people are going to land in their politics. I think like professional sports generally. And it feels rare that you have someone who is on the side of progressive politics, at least at least as far as being outspoken. So I really appreciate what you're doing. And I'm always watching what you're doing from LA and being like, thank God we got one of them down there and thank God he played football. Well, thanks. Yeah, no, it's well. And I like to show people, you know, like not all football players are regressive meatheads. Like there actually are a lot of progressive guys in the league. You just generally don't hear from them because they want to keep their jobs. And the problem is the people that signed the checks, the owners, tend to be a lot of regressive meatheads. Rich old white men that, you know, they have very, very particular views on how things should be. Yeah, like our friend, Ron Burgundy, who we're about to talk about, at least and company when I reached out about movies. This was one of the several movies that you recommended. Tell us about your relationship with Anchorman and why this is this immediately came to mind. Yeah, so I first saw Anchorman. I want to say I think I was in college and my wife and I once saw it at the theater and it was just hilarious. Just absolutely dying. And the thing is, is like, you know, it's just kind of the sequence, almost of comedy skits. But when you see it for the first time, you don't really know what you're getting into. It just gets progressively like stranger and stranger. But at the same time, it makes a lot of sense. And being from Southern California, I was just like, oh, yeah, no, no, that's that's Southern California news. Like it's not true, true life, but it's pretty close. So, yeah, there's also that aspect to it of, you know, just being from that area. I'm like, oh, yeah, no, this seems very familiar. So, yeah, just absolutely loved it. And then when I was playing in the league, it was actually one of my go to travel movies. So whenever we would travel to away games, you know, we're on a plane flight for anywhere from like an hour to three hours depending where we're going. And yeah, I'd have I'd have Anchorman, Princess Mandonoke and Big Lebowski. So this would be my three travel. What a trio. And inside us, there are three wolves and those are the. One is an actual. Yeah, this is so fascinating. I very rarely listen to another podcast's take on a movie before we cover this, but unspooled covered Anchorman yesterday. So it was just very present. And it was really helpful listening to Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson talk about this movie and to put it into the context, because again, like the past, I don't know, I'm older now in the past 20 years have just blurred into a past each of the past 20 years. It's been an entire century. It has really been, hasn't it? And, you know, they were talking a lot about, you know, this essentially being the transitional sort of beginning of what we now know as modern comedy. This led in a lot of ways to the 40 year old virgin getting made and like that, essentially being like really archetypical to like what we now know is like the Adam and a way of doing stuff. And, you know, that this was like really the beginning of two thousands comedy and being defined by, you know, essentially being able to shoot digitally. And so capturing as much improv as possible and getting 10 different takes of jokes and sort of editing that together and having having all this come together. And one thing I didn't know about this movie is the person who was supposed to produce this movie initially was Paul Thomas Anderson. What? Oh, that's amazing. Because he was in and around SNL by way of Maya Rudolph at this time. He guest wrote on a week of SNL and he knew these guys. And he was like huge believers in the idea that they could like make a great movie. And they showed him the original script and he saw it. And it was a scenario like the movie alive where Ron Burgundy goes down on a plane and then has to survive with all of this team. And they have to fight panda bears with throwing stars, which is kind of interesting. And so you see these bits that show up in the movie. But Paul Thomas Anderson saw it and was like, not only do I think I can't pull that off, I'm never going to produce anything moving forward. Who knows? The movie that could have been. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Why I'd love to hear this from you both. Like, why do you think that this is a movie that enters? Well, I mean, for me personally, it's the quotes, right? Like, there are so many quotable moments in Anchorman. And like, you can tell that like they knew they were making quotable moments, but it still flows naturally is this just weird sort of conversation. You know, like women's periods attract bears. That thinks of that. The sex panther line, right, where it's like guaranteed to work 60 percent of the time. You see those, you see that. Was it 65 percent of time? It works every time, whatever the quote is that you'll see that come up. Someone will use it sort of organically and maybe not even realize it's an anchorman quote, right? Yeah, it's just funny. I think the reason it's endured so much ahead of something else, like 2004 also brought us like meet the fuckers. Yes. I think it's endured more than that because part of the reason it kind of looks a billion dollars. It's like beautifully shot and it's very imaginatively shot. And so I think Adam McKay, we can owe a lot to why it's like remain part of popular culture in a way that a lot of films that are 21 years old wouldn't have done. Yeah, this movie has a 20 was a 25 million dollar production, which I think in retrospect, it's easy to go. Well, obviously, it's Adam McKay and it's Will Ferrell, who as far as the screen went, like I guess the reason why this movie was given that much money in confidence was because Will Ferrell had just done exceptionally well in Elf and like had Elf not succeeded. It could be argued that this movie did not get the budget in order to do what it needed to do. I see. The other kind of brilliant thing that they do and I agree. I mean, I think it looks it's gorgeously shot like it looks durable, you know. And then like also, you know, it starts with this funny title card where it says that essentially that the movie is based on true events, which, you know, it's not based on actual lives, but it is based. And I think that this is something that really works well as it is based on this transitional phase in extraordinarily chauvinistic workplaces, at least on television, where suddenly men have to learn the definition of diversity. Right. And so funny, is it? Fred Willard goes, we just need more diversity and that equals one white woman. Don't isn't that an old wooden ship? I think I can answer this. It is worth noting that the character that Applegate plays is based on a newscaster named Jessica Savage, who sort of dealt with a lot of these similar things. And fascinatingly was someone that Joan Didion was so obsessed with. She tried to write a film about it, and then it got so butchered in the process of making the film that it became a romantic comedy. And Jessica Savage famously sort of died tragically in a car accident. So the fact that it got turned into a Michelle Pfeiffer romantic comedy was kind of a slap. And then finally, John Dunn, Joan Didion's husband, wrote a book called Monster About the Process of Trying to Get Movies Made in Hollywood based on that process. So we have a lot of history here, which is which is great. And I think it's like part of why this works. And it also just feels like something that continues with Tim Robinson today is like the comedy of like the frustrated and extraordinarily out of touch man having to survive in the modern world and like adjust accordingly. Really endures, doesn't it? I think a lot of people identify with it, unfortunately, where they're just like, why can't we just live in Ron Burgundy's times? Well, there were some problems. Yeah, I think the film makes a really good paints a really good picture of these these men are idiots. And if they would just stop getting in their own way constantly, they'd have a much better time. They seem to have to force themselves to really hate Veronica being around. Right. Absolutely. To take themselves on in that. That's the tension. The tension is like stop putting so much work into hating her. Yeah, yeah. Did you finally my last question before we dive into the plot. This the other thing that works in Chris, you said you recognize a lot of Southern California in here. And I think the other thing that I recognize is just the weird surreality of network news people. Like it's such a strange kind of famous and it's such a strange kind of being known. But like every area that has a television channel has like people that, you know, a lot of people know, but it's not actually a lot of people. Do you remember which anchor people you both gravitated towards? So I actually didn't watch a lot of TV growing up because my time was spent like video games when I had screen time. But I do remember like, like I would see, you know, commercials and stuff like KTLA Action News 5. Yes, which I mean, KTLA is still a thing. Like they still kind of do that. So like I think to me, that was also part of the draw of the movie is that like, it reminded me of my childhood of like actually seeing these just wild commercials for like, you know, find out what happens, you know, with the six o'clock news on channel 11, Fox 11 news at nine, you know, it's like, it feels very human in a way, if you know what I mean, that like, like it's not like, obviously they're making up a lot of these scenarios, but they do feel like you could turn on your TV and your local news and be like, oh, yeah, no, they're they're on Panda Watch again. Like we're going to wait and see what happens with this panda. Totally. Yeah. In the in the unspilled episode, we hear reference of a, I think of like a water skiing squirrel in here in the movie. And Amy Nicholson found the actual recording of a real news story about a water skiing squirrel and like it sounds crazier than the movie itself, like the reality itself. If you put it in the movie would be too over the top. So I feel like you were grandly influenced by local news people. I don't know why I say that, but you know, overall. You know what? This is what so weird. So as a late teens watching Ancomand, to me, it just looked like this is a made up universe because British news is completely different. We don't have local news. Might have regional news, but that'd be like the whole of the south of England would have its own news. And it's all it's a very stage affair. And there's the news reader voice, which has now you might get the odd regional accent on British news. But when I was growing up, there were these grey studios. However, weirdly, the two most famous news readers from my childhood would be Trevor MacDonald and Moira Stewart, who were both black news readers who both had the exact same voice. And they were on two different channels. And so Ancomand, to me, watching that, I went, well, this is a fantasy world. But no, it turns out. It was very real. If they made a British Ancomand, it would have been an extremely bleak affair. There was a guy who I grew up on who's I don't know. I think he died pretty, pretty moderately young, but like his name was Doug Rafferty. And he had like a mid-Atlantic accent, like in a way that didn't or not immediately like a waspy, Connecticut intellectual accent, which was so strange for Maine. It was like, how did this man end up like William F. Buckley? He had like that kind of thing going on. And then there was we had a guy named Bob Elliott, who also died kind of young, who made like short documentaries somehow. They like allowed him to make short documentaries about him like going to the dump and like meeting sort of characters at the dump and that sort of thing. And that was so grandly influential. And then finally, there was Cindy Williams and Lee Nelson at New Center Six in Maine. And I remember through work, I ended up at a party at their house once. And I was so like, I was head over heels for Cindy Williams, my entire young life, and then to like a be in her house, like with her, her and her husband invited by local news people. I felt like I was like, I really made it. I made the big time. Yeah, I made the big time. And then it's just so funny the spell that these people have over you because it's like they are famous in Southern Maine. Like. And I think that's actually a really interesting point when it comes to Incremando is because like when we're talking about San Diego, like that's that's a really big city. Like and they're also kind of basing it on like L.A. to like in terms of the action news there, which is like L.A. is like nine million people. Totally. That's more than a lot of states. It's totally. It's it's this really weird overlap between like, yeah, no, this is small town local news, but like it's also being presented and, you know, through this lens of like, but yeah, this is also a really big area. Yeah, it's a it's especially strange if you're doing this in an urban area like this, where you have, you know, add up the viewers and it's like more than 10 million viewers. Like if you have like, I think Joe Rogan show has 11 million listeners, which is like the biggest podcast. Like it's like one of the biggest podcasts. It has he has all that power. And if you are a network news person in L.A., you have as many as much of an audience potentially. Was this the heyday of this sort of local American news? Would it be the 70s? The action news element is really where this transition happens, because you have up until this point, basically someone who is reading the news on television for a half a half of an hour. And then there is this shift towards having segments that are 60 to 90 seconds long and having sort of like you hit this, you hit this, you hit this, you hit this. And then there are segments that are sort of recorded outside of the news studio that is sort of represented by what Paul Rudd is doing in this movie. And this is like the beginning of the news trying to catch up with the way the medium is changing. Yeah. Right. But which is fine. And Chris, to your points, I'm researching for a podcast right now about L.A. history stuff, and I've been watching a lot of like archived KTLA stuff. And it looks exactly like what we're dealing with. It's the same thing. Like that was one of the things that so caught me about this movie was I was just like, I've seen this. Yeah. This is real. Absolutely. And just like these personalities. And you can think like I've known many sort of people in these like news positions and like there's so much drama like they like like each other. They don't like each other like they get along. They don't. There's problems with the network. There's like, you know, it's not easy. Like it's like there's a lot of drama going on, which I really appreciate. Oh, and then the final thing I do want to say sort of about the background just to put this in some context. This is also interesting because this is essentially an SNL movie that's not an SNL movie. Right. Like the issue apparently, and again, this is a thing I learned from unspooled is if you create a character on SNL, Lauren Michaels ultimately owns the character. And that is why if you get a character of sort of a movie based on one of the characters, it's ultimately produced by Lauren Michaels in SNL. And Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, who'd worked together a bunch to this point, had kind of known if they were going to launch something to launch it sort of outside of the SNL brand so that just wasn't sort of trapped within that arena. And seemingly a very, very, I don't know if it's like ultimately a smart decision, but like as we know, like SNL movies are pretty hit or miss. Like you have a Wayne's World or you have a night at the Roxbury and like that's like the dichotomy of this. Shout out to the eights Pat. Yes, exactly. You have like argue, I guess the blues. I don't know if the blues brother counts, but you have the blues brothers and then you have it's Pat. It's a very funny. It's a very funny dichotomy. So OK, we're in the mid 70s. We're in 1975. Ron Burgundy, the most famous anchor man in San Diego, which is from the get go. So funny. He works for KVWN Channel four and his friends ultimately are Brian Fontana, who is the Leadfield reporter played by Paul Rudd, the sportscaster, champ kid and meteorologist, Brick Tamlund. The way that they color these characters is so perfect for their like respective discipline. And there's also there's like just in those brief intros they do with them, like there's about like 10 years of character development happening to about 10 seconds of actual film time. It's like the instant you see their intros, they're like, oh, yeah, I know who that guy is. Absolutely. Did either of you see the see friendship when it came out like last I think it was Robinson's friendship. God, I really enjoyed friendship, which is a, you know, it feels a lot like an extended Tim Robinson sketch, but a lot darker. Yeah. And essentially, like Paul Rudd shows back up as Brian Fontana in that movie. Yes. But it's like also like grim. And it's funny to see him sort of in that different, the different context. Did you enjoy friendships? He's I loved it so much. It would they call it like a feel bad comedy. And they nailed it. Have enough to check that out then. It's fantastic. I feel like it's what Ancomand would have been if not one character, learn a lesson. You've piqued my interest. And I think that that is like the Tim Robinson twist is that it's like, whereas all of these other movies are about growth, he's like, what would happen if the growth actually happened in reverse, which I really wish it was just regression, which I really enjoy. Yeah. The station director played by Fred Willard, my biggest regret spending all of the time in Los Angeles that I've spent in my life was I had so many opportunities to go see Fred's improv troupe at his improv theater. And I never went and he died before that was an opportunity to do so. But Fred Willard, I think is maybe my favorite comedic actor of all time. He's so good. Oh, my God. I think my really like my true introduction to him was when he was Martin Moll's husband on Roseanne. But I love I got I love him so much. Mine was a mighty wind. Oh, my God. It's a great one. Just being like, who is this guy saying what happened? And then I found him in various different things. He I didn't realize that already seen him his final tap at that point. Of course. I was best in show. Right. Right. I've never seen that. Oh, my God. This is so funny. Absolutely perfect. And he was sort of introduced to everyone via Fernwood Tonight, which is all worth while we're checking out another partnership with Martin Moll. OK. Yeah. So the team ultimately is celebrating sort of being number one in viewership. I think two years in a row, they have a party where we see I think that this party is so important because it's like this is the reality that Veronica Corningstone is about to uproot like her mere existence in their minds is going to unravel all of the amazing things that they have, which is, you know, as they say, going to the same party, 12 to 14 years in a row in a way that's not sad, picking up, I think, like cheerleaders that ultimately have head injuries. I think that that was the implied suggestion or models. Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? Well, like, well, none of them seem to have a clue how to talk to women. What I noticed in this film is like these men who have like with the sex, drugs and rock and roll guys of local news, they don't seem to have any sex or drugs or rock and roll in the same way as Spinal Tap. No one's no one's fucking. They're all just like, hey, look who's here. And she pointed at her boobs. Yeah. They're kind of clueless boys. These are guys who like very much believe their own hype, right? Like, and I played with guys like that. You're just like, well, I don't know that you're really all that. I guess it's working for you. Yeah, it's like their whole thing is the power structure. Like their entire thing is the fact that they are recognized. And the fact that they are recognized is just because the process is extraordinarily sexist. And so I just think like mechanically from a writing standpoint, it's so great to introduce Veronica, who ultimately turns Ron Burgundy down in a way that begins for him in existential crisis and unraveling, showing this moment in the 70s where like a bunch of men, you know, like the whole idea that like a quality is perceived as an attack because it takes away like a privilege that people have. We really like see that kind of beautifully illustrated at this party where it's like they shouldn't have any of the things they have in the first place and they're going to go and attack personally. They are not very good at their jobs. But because this is the world they live in and they were born on third base, you know, they hit a home run. Yeah, they're just constantly drunk. They don't know how to speak to women. These men are idiots and they're drunk and they've got themselves into a job that they somehow never have to leave because incompetence doesn't really matter as long as they present on screen, which they can. As long as your hair is good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the ultimate insult is you have bad hair. I'm sure we'll get to that in the part later on in the movie where the whole fight scene. But yeah, the team learns that the station is hiring Veronica because there has been a call for diversity again, as we talked about earlier, is a word that none of these men know the definition of, though that won't stop Ron from very confidently asserting that he knows the definition that is extraordinarily wrong. Again, like all of these jokes, like I think that this is a movie that I found confusing at the time because I worked in. I think I worked at like back of the house in restaurants at this time. When just people come in and only speak in movie quotes. Sometimes people will speak in movie quotes where you're like, I think perhaps you're taking the wrong take away from this movie. And this was one of them, I think. Like this was one of those ones where it's like Walter White's the hero. And he's like, no, no, he's not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Might want to look a little deeper. Yeah, right. And so I don't think I fully realized again at the time because of the fandom or not the fandom, but the fandom I was talking with on a regular basis. I don't think I fully realized that this movie, that these guys are the butt of the joke. Like these guys are not perpetuating the joke. Like on the text, like these guys are the butt of the joke. And the system that upholds them is the butt of the joke, which I thought was actually kind of surprising. So Ron makes a suggestion to Veronica that he can show her the town in a way that he assures is not going to be sort of surreptitiously presented as a date. She says, as long as it's not a date, that's fine. He immediately tries to bed her. San Diego. It always goes down so smooth. And I think that again, like this is probably where some of the endurance of the movie comes, is that like it's not like this behavior has gone away. Like it's it's seemingly at the national level. It's like increasingly being propped up and brought back and sort of as as as aggressively as possible. But after the date that is not a date, is this where he goes and plays jazz flute at the Southern California State House? Yass flute. I believe it's a soft J. Like yogging. This kind of restaurant is one of my favorite things about Southern California is there's a lot of these for some reason. I don't know what happened culturally that made these restaurants happen everywhere, but I'm so glad they exist. Red Booth Places. So they go in, she succumbs to his advances. She's just so attracted to him. But she's even before that, she's like, you can see her like pep talking herself going, oh, God, he's so cute. I don't remember not to fall for him. But I'm like, oh, this is this movie silly. The bar was so low for women. Women to fall for men then. And there's this conflict between like her brain, which is like, no, do not get involved with the brownberg and teeth. The restaurant is like, oh, but his hair. I like that it's in no disrespect to any of the people that this is like ultimately based on because I know that these are these are people with rich lives in depth and et cetera. But like what I like about her, about this character, about the Veronica Corningstone character is like, she's clearly ambitious. She's clearly good at what she does absolutely in comparison to the other guys. But she's also vapid because she's an aspiring network news personality. So like some things a little wrong. Dream big, not too big. Like some things like a little off to be that, you know, to be that. And I like that that's part of the reason why part of her brain is so broken that she falls for. It's true. That's so true. Yeah, because initially she's really annoyed that she's covering a cat fashion show. But not because she's like, no, I want to do serious investigations into terrible government corruption. It's nothing like that. She just thinks it's demeaning to me. Cat fashion. I should be the anchor. I should be the one out here. Yeah, yeah. She'll be the one to cut back to talking about the show. Yeah, because like for a minute, I was like, oh, is this is this cheat? And that like it's like, you know, propping her up. And then she just like immediately falls for Romburg. And they were like, no, she like wants to be a network news. Like no, I get no. Yeah. So like there might be something going on. Also, he is very good at Yass Flute. Yes. He moved fire out of the end. He is very talented. Yeah. It kills me every time watching him walk on people's tables and break the glasses. And they go, yeah. Like shards of glass and people's meals and they just get enough. They're like, yes, we love you, Ron Burgundy. People will just let a local celebrity do anything. And that's what is this is what's illustrated here. So Ron, who the agreement is that they're not going to let anybody know because it is important to note that we learn that both of their ambitions is to be a national news anchor. And her appearance already is like threatening sort of the systemic power that Ron appreciates, but also her appearance means that because they're a number one news station and have a lot of attention on them, that maybe we're national news scouting is going to happen. And now she is getting in the way of possibly doing that. And because of the precarity of her position, she asks Ron to not let anyone know that they're dating. And of course, he is a broken man. Immediately. Players sit out in the entire newsroom. And then to San Diego by way of the news. Veronica Corningstone and I are in love. I've been there, you know, you just can't. It's hard. It's hard to keep things to yourself when you're excited. Just can't help yourself. Changing relationship status on Facebook. He was there instantly. Yes, exactly. Exists the year for it. OK, so Ron throws a burrito and it hits Jack Black as motorcyclist, I think. The funny thing about living in L.A., especially living in the neighborhood I live in, I can't tell you the amount of times I've seen Jack Black on a bird scooter, really, which is the funniest visual he's always listened. You can't even make this up. He's got such a big salt and pepper beard now. And he's always wearing like wireless headphones, which is so dangerous to do on a bird scooter. Yeah. Riding the scooter and wearing like a black and green, like silky big guy shirt. You know what I mean? Oh, like when home, I had that Moo Moo. Yes. He just played Bowser in Super Mario. He looks like Bowser. He's taken lessons from Daniel Day-Lewis. He's got his character method acting. I am become Bowser. Right. I know this isn't going to get me any closer to Jack Black ever being on the show, but that happens so regularly, I can see it in my brain. So he he plays a motorcyclist. He kicks Ron's dog, who knows Spanish, by the way, which is an interesting aside. Ron can understand him, but not when he speaks Spanish. Yes. Ron also thinks that anyone who is not white is speaking Spanish to him. Yeah. Which is kind of amazing. Yes. So runs runs late to work because this motorcyclist kicks his dog off the side of the bridge. Don't worry. The dog is OK. We will we will get there. So I just have to point out Jack Black's punning motion is awful. Clearly. Expert advisor. Fun stuff. He had to become a comic actor. It happened to all of us. It's so important that we bring our professional knowledge to these movies. You are. That's the whole reason I'm on. Oh, my gosh. I hadn't even thought to talk to the pro here. Yeah, I am so impressed by anyone who is any good at sports, let alone literally like top level elite sports person. So I'm holding back on going, what's it like being amazing at something? Because I just don't know. Well, it's it's very nerve wracking. And that's the most interesting thing I will take away from any podcast. It's like, I found out that Jack Black's shit at kicking. You got to keep your foot locked out. Otherwise, you lose all your power. That's why the dog survived. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, exactly. He didn't get his old body through the kick. It's a terrible punter. So I'm saying he's still alive for anyone who's listening because I know someone immediately will be bummed out. But like he we don't know he's still alive in this movie. No, it's also in the shot. It's also very clearly a stuffed animal. I love when we do that. Like it's it's not even close to being realistic. And so Ron is ultimately late for work because he's having a crisis because his dog is dead in his brain and Veronica fills in. Despite the fact that Fred Willard's character is hell bent, everyone is against it. No one wants to do this. Yeah. He shows up right after she's delivered the successful on air performance and Ron is immediately a bummer about it, even though he says he's going to be cool. It's OK, everyone. I'm here now. We can do the news. Oh, so doesn't she sign off with some like completely tedious like you have yourselves a great day? That's not the exact quote, but that's what she had. And then she like goes, did you hear when I said that? It just poured out of me. Like it was really profound. And this is what I mean. It's like it's like she's got ambition. She's got more ambition than these guys. But she's, you know, yeah, you know, she has a catchphrase. Yeah, there's nothing there. And that actually becomes like a major plot point, because like Ron's whole thing is like, stay classy, San Diego. Yes, put a fund to teleprompter. Go fuck yourself, San Diego. So she's promoted to co-anchor. They break up because of how he's being. She's promoted to co-anchor. And they again, like this is the real to life piece, because again, I've talked with many of these people who are in this position. They on air are doing great. And behind the scenes, hate each other. And I think that that is so funny. That montage of them trading in souls back and forth. Just one of the funniest parts of the whole movie. With the credits just going over in their silent on journey, we're watching back home. They can't see anything. You're a filthy pirate hooker. They're smiling at each other. And you can tell like there's certain parts where they're trying so hard not to crack up laughing. I can't get enough, even though like there's only a finite amount and at some point you've just seen all of them. I cannot get enough of like local news bloopers. They are funny. It's really sort of perfect. So earlier on in the movie, we meet their competitors, which is the number two news station, which is fronted by Vince Vaughn. This is where Vince Vaughn enters this universe of cinematic comedy. Although I can't remember if he'd been in something. A lot is happening at this time. He is in dodgeball. Yeah, he is in dodgeball. Same year. Totally. I think old school maybe had just happened too. So I think maybe that, I don't know. Right. There's a lot happening and Vince Vaughn is a part of it. And so earlier on, we see the tension between these respective news teams. Vince Vaughn is the will ferrule of that team. And again, like this is very local newsy because there is a hierarchy. There's the good channel. There's the almost good channel. And there's the channel where you're always surprised to find out someone watches it. Like that's the that's kind of the breakdown. And we have a fight eventually between all of these teams, including also, which I thought was brilliant. The public television station. Front PR. With Ben Stiller. Oh, my God, it's so perfect, like that they have all of these sort of archetypes. Tim Robbins is the public news anchor, which is really, really fantastic. He looks really unhinged. That whole fight sequence, they sort of score it. I think the score is amazing, by the way. They score it like a West Side Story. Yes. It reminded me of I never picked up on this at the time. It was only on the rewatch. I was like, oh, they're doing Gangs of New York. Yes. Yes. It would have been like sort of out about 18 months at this point. And that's what that is. That's what the parody is there. It's less West Side Story and more Gangs of New York. Because the violence is insane. Yeah, the violence is so insane. It really escalated in a hurry. What does Brick do? Brick killed a man with a Trident. I saw that. He should probably lay low for a while, maybe find a safe house. Yeah, this is like another thing that I do appreciate about what we're doing with this kind of comedy at this time, because like a movie that this reminds me of in a lot of ways, but it is also very distant from his airplane, where like airplane like lives in a certain sort of absurdity, but it is like based on a kind of thing that existed, which was a disaster movie. Yeah. But like all of the throwaways feel a little too ungrounded. Like it's just like bit punch line, bit punch line, bit punch line. But in this one, even after this extremely absurd thing happens, like the stakes are referenced where it's like, you know, I think that there might be a warrant for murder. Right. I do appreciate the return to that kind of reality. Right. Right. Yeah. The thing I loved about that fight is like me, when I was with the Vikings, me and Longwell, he was our kicker, like we would constantly quote anchorman to each other and like our go to when someone did something absolutely stupid out on the field, right? Like late hit or just clean someone out for no reason. We'd just be like, oh, Britt just killed a man. Like, yeah, he's probably lay low for a little bit. It just fits so perfectly where it's just like, why would you do that? Try and throw it at someone. It's like truly beautiful. I mean, this is one of my favorite. Again, for a movie like I hadn't seen in a very long time, like this is like one of my favorite bits of sort of absurdity in the middle of like an otherwise like moderately grounded film with, I guess, the exception of the jazz flute. Excuse me. And bears and a dog talking to the bears. I did just read a thing about some guy in Brazil who climbed into a lion enclosure at a zoo. And guess what? The lions killed him. I was like, I'm reading this news story going, oh, it's awful. I feel like he could have avoided that by just not getting in there. So that makes sense. Ancomand called it. Yeah, that is a fair approach. Like if there is a lion cage or a tiger get don't get in it. Yeah, just don't go in there. It's the best way to avoid. Lion or tiger massacre. So this results in well, this doesn't result in but like we kind of we get to run in Veronica having yet another argument, having an actual physical fight after he insulted on there. And then she takes advantage of a weakness that we learn earlier in the film. We learn it when he says stay classy, San Diego, because someone put a question mark at the end of the script. Oh, yeah. I won back in deep. Yes, that's it. Because he he reads this. He reads the teleprompter literally, which like I think that there was like a super kind of Biden doing this recently where like he would just straight up read like pause here, which I really appreciate. I don't even know if the president president has ever looked at a teleprompter, so it's hard to tell who does what. Yeah, he's free, but he's free. Yeah, he his trouble comes from not looking at a teleprompter, but she basically works it out so that the teleprompter script reads, go fuck yourself, San Diego, instead of, you know, stay classy. Oh, it's Catherine Hahn, who tells her. It is. It's a baby Catherine Hahn. Yeah, who is so wonderful. Every second she's on screen in this film and I went, oh, yeah. No wonder she became a huge respected star. Oh, absolutely. Rightfully. So yeah. So that happens in this group of people who we see at the beginning of the movie, who are all of the different sorts of folks from San Diego who love him, have suddenly turned on him. How dare you? Well, then the best part, too, is like what he delivers the line. And he's like, great show, everyone. And you see everyone else staring at him like, Ron. It just doesn't even register. Yeah, he goes into a fugue state in order to read the news, and then he comes out of it as himself, which I appreciate. So they go into the streets, see the mobs, see sort of what has ultimately come from all of this. Ron spirals. He loses loses touch with everything. This whole time also, it's worth noting that in, you know, sort of like outside of this spiral is the fact that like this is the first woman that Ron or the group of people involved, despite everything, despite everything that we said, he has seen as a human being and feels love for to the point where like they like seven year old children are like, tell us what love is like. And he has to explain what it's like to have human emotions that are not like they're suppressed and repressed. And they really like it as well. They think they're like, oh, that sounds amazing. Sky rockets in flight. Afternoon delight. Beautiful harmony. It really is like and there are moments. And then we get this in the four year old version, too, which is obviously a John Appetown movie, but they do that like fully devoted version of Age of Aquarius from hair at the end. I like these movies where we have like otherwise kind of ridiculous people singing a song extremely faithfully. That's a bit that gets me. Yeah, it's in stepbrothers. Will Ferrell sings Time to Say Good. And it's just such a beautiful job. Yeah, there's something. Ernestness of song is so great when you're dealing with these people who are like absolutely. Yeah, these kids. Yeah. So he spirals because he no longer has all the things that he used to have because the power structure has just like come apart at the seams and also he is not able to lean exclusively on objectification. And he doesn't know who he is anymore. His hair is bad. He's got a beard. It's not looking good. Milk was a terrible choice. Yeah, this rating alcoholic is just like mainlining milk. Oh, God. Yeah, like wandering down the street. Just trying to get worse somehow worse. You know, you're in trouble when you're mainlining milk. It's so bad. So all the while they are in this is this is like a real classic local news thing. The story of the summer is that a panda is pregnant. And they are focusing on, you know, there's like a panda pregnancy watch. They're hoping to get the story of her delivering the new panda. I don't know what panda babies are called. Cub. Cub, that's it. I'm assuming it's not special for pandas. It's just bears. I'm not a scientist, but I am assuming it's just bears. I believe the the technical term is small bear. They go. They've been following it. And then the bear is finally about to deliver. And why can't she show up? I can't remember what stops her from delivering the news. The guys lock her in the van. Yes. Oh, literally, they stay sabotaging her. Yeah, they literally lock her in. Yeah, because they want to try to get Ron back. Right. Yes. And it ultimately brings Ron back because for some reason, Ron's the only person who can read the news outside of her. He does like a five second shift from disheveled, you know, homeless person. And now I'm back. Yes, back with the suit. Perfect. Yes, he's like Superman. Yeah. Yeah. He he shows up. She is pushed again. These like, I don't know why the end of this is so blurry. She's pushed into a bear cage. Right. Yeah. Yeah. By Vince Vaughn's character. No, no, no, not by Vince Vaughn, by Tim Robbins's character. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because he's angling to get like the shot because she finds the shot. She's like, I can see because they have this, um, they have this like medical screen up. So like all the network people are like, they're scrambling to try to get the shot of the bear, but they can't see it. And then Veronica arrives and she finds the spot where like, oh, I can see behind and like she's trying to call the guys over. Then Tim Robbins comes up next to his arms and his like his left arm is missing because he got cut off in place. They got it. He has this MPR pipe. And he's like, oh, that's great work. That's. Shubs her. He's like, get over here. Get over here. We got the shot. Having the MPR guy be the person who tries to kill a woman in a bear cage feels so perfect. It's like the funniest joke in the whole movie. Ron goes in to save her. The bears about to attack Baxter, who we thought was dead. Shows up. There he is. Shows up to save the day and everyone. Everyone is fine at the end of the day. Everyone makes it run and Veronica ultimately get to be the national anchors that they want to be their co-anchors and their co-anchors to this day. It's like Earth news, isn't it? They go, you stay classy planet Earth. Yeah. Just the whole of those. They're doing news for the whole world now. It was like very. Yeah. The one thing that I did not say, and I can't even remember the point that it comes up in the movie, but it's a scene that I really appreciated, is Danny Trejo, who I think has played a bartender in at least half of the movies that he's been in, including every movie that Robert Rodriguez made. He's cleaning the bar at some point at the place that Ron likes to go drinking when he's like in at his sort of absolute worst. And Danny Trejo is the person who ultimately reveals to Ron that women can do stuff now. Yeah. Times are changing. Women can do stuff now. And that's so fucking funny. Ron's responses. I don't speak Spanish. Oh, my God, it's so funny. Well, and again, like, I think that just speaks to the movie that like there's so many of those little tiny bits that like you can forget, like even having watched it like a hundred times and then you go back and it's just as funny because it's such a good bit. Yeah. It truly it really truly is. Suze, what stood out to you this viewing that maybe you haven't or hadn't caught in a while? I just overall, it's got a progressive bent, which I would not have picked up on as I keep calling killing, calling myself a kid. I was an adult when I saw this film the first time, but barely the way it's quoted. You would be fear, as Chris said, like some people go quote it, not getting what this film is at all. And there's a lot of people. There's people who watch Goodfellas and go like, yeah, they make the whole life look really cool. So I think it's understandable. Some people aren't going to get what a film's bent is. But I was watching it going like, oh, shit, this holds up really well because it's definitely laughing at the system that is holding every character in the film back, all the men are being held back, despite the fact that they're the considered the cream that rises to the top. And that's funny. They get in their own way constantly because of the system. There's no villain in this film apart from the patriarchy. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it really, it really demonstrates the humanity, right? Of the characters, even, even though they're very comedic characters, like you can see the humanness in them and relate to it. Because even in champ, right? Even in champ. Who's not very bright. Yeah. I mean, to the points that were made earlier, it's like, they are the reason they can't have the things that they want, but they can't possibly know that because they think that they're inherently great. Yeah. And I think that that's like extremely relatable because we all know at least a hundred of those people in our lives. Well, see, what champ, champ reveals at one point in tears that his dream is for him and Ron to get a place together. And it's not done as like, you know, a ha ha, gay joke. It's not done at all. No, that's his dream. He wants to move in with his best friend. Yeah. But he's just never moved on for being ten years old. He's just a large ten year old. That's it. Yeah. Which to be fair, our most sportscasters. Yeah. The sports media guy is like a real kind of perfect character. Yeah. Whammy. Such a non catchphrase. I say whammy. Just going to throw it in wherever. Well, when in Rome, I don't think you're using that properly. Great to disagree. I think in Rome. Chris, you said you might have seen some similarities with people that you know or sort of engage with professionally and sort of this this this man that operate outside of, you know, in an untouchable arena, let's say. Yeah. Yeah. Also, it's really funny because, you know, like football is a very serious business, right? Like this is a multi billion dollar industry. But like when you actually take a step back and look at it, football is just large men giving each other violent hugs. Like that I can say fundamentally absurd game. And so like having that knowledge in my head where I'm just like, OK, like this is my job, right? Like I need to and I was very good at it because I spent a lot of time practicing and like working at being good at it. But I could also reflect on the absurdity of the like I'm getting paid millions of dollars to dress up in tights and go kick a football. And then just from my my interactions with various organizations is like for a billion dollar industry, there are some people employed where you're just like, how did you get this job? Like what are we doing here? Like there was when I was with the Vikings, we had a guy who'd organize our community events only he would never really organize it. He would just kind of like ask random players to show up to places. Inevitably, if he was having trouble finding someone, he'd come to me and and long well, because we're like, oh, yeah, no, sure, we can show up. We're the specialists. Right. We don't have anything going on. You know, we'd show up somewhere like thinking it was just me and autographs signing or, you know, photo shoot or something like that. And it's like, so yeah, so you're at this assisted living facility and the Rockettes are going to be there too. Can you do the kick line with them? Oh, my God. We're like, OK. So yeah, did did the kick line with the Rockettes at an assisted living facility? Beautiful. So yeah, that part of Anchorman really spoke to me of like, you know, you think this is supposed to be a very professional like, oh, you know, it's the news. This is serious business. Like, yeah, it's it's just human beings at the end of the day. Yeah, like upholding an order that they just generally don't question, which I like really appreciate is like watching people try at all costs to protect a specific order and then have no idea that that order is like crushing them. Is if you know, just highly, highly relatable. What are some other movies around this time, Chris, that you gravitated toward like of this sort of brand of comedy? Yes. So I mentioned one earlier on my three that I took with me traveling. The Big Lebowski, I think, is the other one that really, for me, kind of just stands out where you're either a Big Lebowski fan or you hate the Big Lebowski. So true. And it's funny because like I tried to get my wife interested in it. And she was like, yeah, no, I just it's not for me. I don't get it. I showed it to my kids. My kids are like, this is fucking hilarious. Right. And so, yeah, it's very much that kind of like deadpan, like just absurdist humor where you're just like, how is this possible? Yet at the same time, you know, people who are like that. You're like, yeah, no, this this is possible. There are people like this out there like Ancomand, a Big Lebowski's almost got its own. It's not its own language, but there's a way that people speak in both those films, which is if they spoke like that in real life, we would consider them insane. And right. Yeah. Within the context of these films, it's like, yeah, that's the vernacular and the patterns that they use when they speak. That's fine. So it's an unusual thing. Well, and they're both like you said, absurdist, but they're both also like the absurdity of Southern California movies, which I feel like is like a pretty specific. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Which I think is probably what drew me to that because I'm from Southern California. I'm just like, yeah, no, I recognize these places. Yeah. It's like, I'll describe deadpan just like a thing that happens in my day to like people at home from New England. And they're like, how is that a real place? Right. Yeah. It's every day. Yes. Well, and like, honestly, I think that's one of the things about Southern California that's tough for people to wrap their heads around, where like normally you would think a one in a million chance event is like, oh, that like barely ever happens, right? But in a city of 10 million people, that's happening 10 times a day. So it's like you get these absurd things happening just because there's so many of us like in this semi concentrated, semi spread out area. So like the your odds go way up seeing something just absolutely ridiculous. For sure. And you will. Absolutely. And I think like I you have mentioned it a couple of times, but like I kind of feel like it's not surprising to me that these two like absurdist movies stick out to you. And then like to have any level of like fame or notoriety, if like you have a decent head on your shoulders, must itself feel absurd. Oh, yeah. No, it totally is. Because it's just like I'm just a human being like everyone else. Like in one of my favorite authors actually is Terry Pratchett. He wrote, hopefully, Suze knows who Sir Terry was. But yeah, like so his Discworld series, like one of the lessons I really took away from that is that like at the end of the day, everyone's just a human being. Right. Like we're all no matter what you do, no matter what you've accomplished, like you put your pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else. Like you have to go to the bathroom. You're not some magical creature. And I feel like there's so many powerful people that lose sight of that. Right. They start believing their own height. They start thinking they're Ron Burgundy. And then, you know, of course, the system like is set up for their advantage because that's how it's supposed to be. It's like, well, no, not really. It doesn't have to be the case. Yeah, definitely. Suze, what as a comedian, what is Will Ferrell to you? I mean, he just strikes me as so monumental and has just always been funny. My at least whole adult life. Like, yes, what role does he play in your your consciousness? I mean, I think he's a brilliant comic performer. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea. There is his brand of yelling stuff. But I think I think he could do no wrong. I think I think that it is two fold why it works and why ultimately Jim Carrey performances from the 90s now kind of annoy me. I think the reason it works with Will Ferrell is he's a brilliant actor. Not that Jim Carrey isn't a brilliant actor, but I think Will Ferrell is a brilliant dramatic actor. And actually, it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone when he finally did a dramatic role because he's brilliant in everything. He's brilliant as wrong bird indeed. That's an amazing performance. Like a serious actor can't necessarily do comedy, but a comic actor should always be able to play like a straight dramatic role. And I think Will Ferrell can do that. And also, I think it just shines through that he's really lovely. I think that you could sort of get away with playing any character if ultimately you're a good person. I think he really is. Yeah, that's the sense that I guess. It's a good lesson. Any comedian, if any comedian is really nice and they're funny, then you're just going to be a fan on you. Yeah. It's well, it also feels like his brand of comedy has always been punching up and not punching down. And I think that's super important. Yeah, because it's very easy to find yourself punching down at people who are being maligned or oppressed. And it's like at that point, you're no longer a comedian, you're a villain. Like you should always be punching up. Yeah. And that's the Adam McKay touch as well, I guess. Yeah, I think that that itself is so important is that like Adam McKay also made Talida Good Nights, which I love so much like that movie kills me. But like I think this other through line that you have in Adam McKay movies and movies that have some partnership with Will Ferrell either on screen or sort of in production is that you have them along with that punching up thing like in the other guys and in the big short and then eventually in Don't Look Up. Like you have these people who are kind of they're punching up on screen, but they're also like punching up with like social issues. Like these are movies that are like informing people about like real actual bad shit that goes down. Right. Yeah. You know, how there are some people on social media who all that they do is talk about some bad thing that happens and it's hard to take anything that they're saying because it's just all the bad thing because there's no other personality. Doom, doom, doom. Yeah. Yeah. Right. They figured out that the spoon full of sugar is the comedy and then sort of like conveying this other thing is is is totally possible. That's it. I rewatched Vice, which I'm a K directed, obviously. Just a trainee died and I went, oh, rewatched Vice. I'm in the root of mood. Celebrate good times. Come on. Yeah, I was literally like, I'm just going to check that he's definitely gone. And the film's very funny. But yeah, like taking such a huge swing upwards with that. And with the character, Jesse Plemons is playing no spoilers throughout. You've got like this audience surrogate. And then when you see what happens to him, he goes, oh, shit, this is a bold movie. I think I think it's really underrated. I think people weren't loving enough about Vice. It's a good departing message here is give Vice another chance. Well, we ask this question, Chris, at the end of every episode, it's a bit of a Rorschach test. You're meant to answer it however you want and not to read too much into it. And that's the that's the point. And I'll deliver it to you, Sue's first, because you have been on the show before and you understand. We know actually, is there a father in this movie? This is a tricky. This is a tricky one. I don't think that there's a father. Yeah, I can't think of anyone who's got kids. I think Fred Willard is maybe the closest surrogate. Oh, yeah, Fred Willard's kind of the father figure to all of them. Yeah. And he has a son who is originally played by Justin Long in the movie who just along got cut out of the movie. The constant phone messages. Yes, sister. Yes. No. No, I don't think that's grand theft. When he says to his sister on the phone before we know that it's a none that we both have looked at pornography. Fred Willard. OK, so we know Fred Willard is a father. Who in your view, Sue's, is the daddy of anchormen? Is Catherine Hahn. OK. She's there for this first women anchor in news. She's there both looking up to her and looking after her. Thank you, Catherine Hahn. For. Yeah, it's so good. The surreptitious teleprompter sabotage. There's a bit where she goes, I heard what Ron did and the line is her what Ron did, it was so awful. When she delivers it, it was so awful. But wonderful delivery. I'm going to pick Fred Willard just because I don't think Fred Willard can get enough love in any situation. Every time he's on screen and literally everything, like I am the most compelled by whatever it is he's doing. I don't know what it is about his energy, but it's like both hilarious and high, strong and easy, but also like vaguely terrifying in a way. And I really, really, I really loved that about him. Chris, who is the daddy of anchormen? For me, it would probably be Fred Willard just because, like, A, he's dealing with his own kids issues, you know, which we kind of see tangentially, which are hilarious. But also, like he really does kind of feel like that, you know, that that dad from the 60s, who has this group of kids who are just total dumbasses and he's kind of like bewildered, but also like somehow they're succeeding. I guess I'm doing a good job. Really, not a lot of great parenting happening. Someone's there, I guess. He's the Mr. Cotter of this newsroom. We appreciate that. And that's the funny thing, too, is that, like, you know, theoretically, he's supposed to be the architect of this success. But you can tell he has no idea what he's doing. He's just one generation above. That's it. Yeah, exactly. He's just older. Yeah. That's all he's got. Well, this has been truly a delight, you two. Thank you so much for bringing Anchorman to us. Oh, thank you. No, thank you for having me. It was a lot of fun. I'm always happy to come up from Anchorman. Really appreciate it. All right, everybody, that's it for this week's episode. You are good at feelings podcast about movies. Thank you so much, Shamarinda Zickler, for producing and editing this episode. Thanks to Chris Cluey for being here and for reminding us that there are things that we can do, of course. Thanks to Suze Kemener for joining us. Thank you to Fresh Lesh for providing the beats that make our episode sound so sweet. Thanks to you for being here. Thanks for supporting us on Patreon and Apple Blog subscriptions. Join us next week. We're going to talk about Turning Red with Olivia Seng. That's a super fun one. Have you seen that movie? That's a good one. I loved it. I think that's all we need to do. I think we've done our job for today. Thanks for being here, y'all. And don't forget that you, my friend, are good.