National Lampoon’s Vacation The Rewatchables
National Lampoon’s Vacation poster
National Lampoon’s Vacation

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award

Hall as greatest teen actor, disputed; salesman was right; Clark’s infidelity defended, disputed

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:02Read transcript
  • Anthony Michael Hall is proposed as the greatest teenage actor based on Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science within three years.
  • River Phoenix and Leonardo DiCaprio are preferred by an opposing view; Robert Downey Jr., Jon Cryer, and Molly Ringwald are also raised, with Ringwald criticized as less varied.
  • DiCaprio’s This Boy’s Life, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Romeo + Juliet, Growing Pains, and The Basketball Diaries are compared, with uncertainty about whether some fall within his teenage years.
  • Phoenix’s case includes Stand by Me, The Mosquito Coast, Running on Empty, The Last Crusade, My Own Private Idaho, and Little Nikita.
  • The Hall claim is softened toward most successful or beloved rather than best; his consistently welcome presence remains the defense.
  • Hall’s teenage SNL membership underscores his stature, while later Vacation-series child casting is criticized as inferior.
  • The salesman was right about the family truckster because it completes the trip and survives an enormous crash.
  • Clark’s attempted infidelity is provocatively defended as a response to repeated rejection; the claim of a sexless marriage is disputed and the pool-waitress excuse remains indefensible.
  • Hall’s characters in Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science are defended as distinct, and he can serve as Chase’s straight man.