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The Rewatchables ·

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

year 2008decade 00sdirector Nicholas Stollergenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennessey
All 15 categories

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:04:50

"Mutombo, out of the shot"

Bill Simmons: Asked how many times he has screenshotted this movie on his computer, like a Dr. Skin for Jason Segel, the reply is that it is Mr. Skin.

The film

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Directed by Nicholas Stoller · Drama

111 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Jason Segel Peter Bretter, a composer for TV shows
Kristen Bell Sarah Marshall, a famous TV actress
Mila Kunis Rachel Jansen, a desk clerk for a Hawaiian resort
Russell Brand Aldous Snow, a British rock star and Sarah's new boyfriend
Bill Hader Brian Bretter, Peter's stepbrother and best friend
Jack McBrayer Darald Braden, a guest at the resort and newlywed
Maria Thayer Wyoma Braden, Darald's wife
Jonah Hill Matthew Van Der Wyk, a waiter at Turtle Bay and obsessive fan of Aldous
Liz Cackowski Liz Bretter, Brian's wife
Da'Vone McDonald Dwayne, a bartender at the resort
Paul Rudd Chuck / Kunu, an air-headed surfing instructor
Jason Bateman Animal Instincts Detective, a character on Sarah Marshall's latest show
William Baldwin Himself / Det. Hunter Rush, a co-star on Sarah's show
Teila Tuli Kimo, a cook at the resort
Branscombe Richmond Keoki, a resort bartender

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

32:40

Most Rewatchable Scene

Peter and Aldous meeting on surfboards in the ocean together with the getting back on the beach scene with the reef a...

Peter and Aldous meeting on surfboards in the ocean together with the getting back on the beach scene with the reef and the leg; Peter's first Skype call with Hader and his wife

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:40Read transcript
  • The list opens with six nominations and probably more; the breakup scene is first, nominated as rewatchable for being so weird.
  • Asked what he found rewatchable about the breakup scene, the answer is that it is rewatchable on TBS, where you don't have to see Jason Segel naked, and that it's just good. — Bill Simmons
  • He is naked the whole time, so the hosts wonder what sound effect or blur TV would put over it; she dumps him and it is a classic breakup scene, and the club scene with Bill Hader right after is nominated too.
  • The club scene is amazing: the lines about not hanging out in places like this, the place smelling like stripper's perfume and getting herpes from the couch; Bill Hader is incredible, this may be a favorite of all his performances, and every moment he is on screen lands.
  • Further nominations: Peter Skyping Hader and his wife from Hawaii while insisting she is not there, the 'I'm on the moon' bit, and the first time he plays the Dracula musical song in Hawaii, when Mila Kunis tells him to play it without realizing what it is; that scene is called tremendous.
  • Also nominated are the double date that goes off the rails near the end, Jonah Hill going off on Russell Brand when he flips out, and every single thing Paul Rudd does, starting with the first Rudd scene when Russell Brand's Aldous is brought back in with the coral in his leg, losing blood and asking Kunu to call the front desk, which the hosts quote at length.
  • So much random material suggests Stoller, Apatow and Rudd were freelancing in real time; every Kunu line gets a huge kick, and the cutaways to Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime with Billy Baldwin are held for what's aged the best because they are so short, along with the Bateman one and the post-credits bit.
  • Kunu versus Brian Fontana (as transcribed) in Anchorman for best Rudd: the cologne scene is the funniest thing one host has ever seen, with Sex Panther and hosing it down like Silkwood; Anchorman is being saved for the end of the world, is called the godfather of comedies and possibly the most rewatchable movie of all time, with another movie's worth of material on YouTube.
  • Brian Fantana is the fifth most important character in Anchorman and Kunu the ninth most important person here, yet every appearance delights; a late addition is the short scene where Peter and Aldous meet on surfboards in the ocean.
  • Two different picks emerge: one host takes the surfboard meeting together with the getting back on the beach scene, with the reef and the leg, calling the whole segment really good and quoting 'How are you so cool?'; another goes with the first Skype call with Hater and the wife, the first one rather than the one where he makes her head go up and down, out of love for Hater.
  • Added later during what's aged the best: the hike, hilarious for anyone who has unwillingly gone on a hike with someone, and his leap off the cliff backwards.
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37:38

What’s Aged the Best?

The title; Turtle Bay; Bill Hader; the celebrity-appendage boyfriend concept; the Do Something song and the Access Ho...

The title; Turtle Bay; Bill Hader; the celebrity-appendage boyfriend concept; the Do Something song and the Access Hollywood music video; Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime; Animal Instincts; the salary cap cast

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:37:38Read transcript
  • Forgetting Sarah Marshall is an awesome title that explains the movie and is memorable; the film gets a lot under the wire that would ordinarily be noted to death, such as male nudity, how much he cries, whether he is likable and whether his music is good enough for a tortured genius, since nobody would ever see this musical outside a weird Los Feliz playhouse; it could easily have been called The Breakup or Inside of You.
  • Turtle Bay has aged well and drew a lot of questions; it is one of those movies that makes you want to go, another travel saver; Bill Hader has aged fantastically as an early Hader whose career has obviously changed.
  • The celebrity appendage boyfriend concept holds up; a favorite real example was Ellen Pompeo's husband, who the hosts mix up with the Jets and Jaguars running back Chris Ivory, the man always standing next to the celebrity in the Us Weekly photo, a cottage industry.
  • How good and terrible the Do Something song is has aged well, realistic enough to be a real song, with 'sodomy' among the words he has to change; the genius touch is Access Hollywood closing its show with a music video, exactly as it would.
  • Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime and Animal Instincts have aged the best for one host, who calls the Crime Scene material a favorite part of the movie and wishes there were a hundred rejected Billy Baldwin takes on YouTube to loop, with the Seinfeld bass line under the clear Caruso CSI Miami riff; the favorite line is the one about entering the pageant without a face.
  • They should have kept filming those bits; Billy Baldwin gets a shout-out for being so game; a low-key funniest moment is the engineer telling Peter he has Allman Brothers tickets and hopes he isn't getting paid for the session; Animal Instincts is just stupid and just realistic enough, since the CBS drama Zoo arrived about eight years later.
  • The salary cap cast is unreal: Jonah Hill in about four scenes, Jack McBrayer, and Kristen Wiig in a deleted scene as the yoga instructor, to be discussed later.
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41:31

What’s Aged the Worst?

The drag in the middle, about 15 minutes; the Jack McBrayer plotline

The drag in the middle, about 15 minutes; the Jack McBrayer plotline

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:31Read transcript
  • The movie drags in the middle and is about 15 minutes fat, most obviously the McBrayer plotline: funny, but by the end you wonder why it was in the movie, a roughly 20-minute detour; the hosts would rather have had more Hader, more hotel staff or ten more minutes of Jonah Hill than graphic sex five times and instructional material that has no bearing on Peter.
  • From around 2003 to 2004 through the rest of the decade R rated comedies felt obliged to get their bang for the buck, which this film handled in the first ten minutes; the better decision would have been to cut that material and use the five-minute Kristen Wiig yoga instructor deleted scene instead.
  • In the context of Apatow comedies it feels pretty lean, since the standing criticism is that they run 20 to 40 minutes too long; this one is under two hours even in the extended unrated version, about 118 minutes plus credits, so it is a little fat but not that bad.
  • Siding with the drag complaint, one host would break up the middle with one more FaceTime scene with Hater, since there are about 15 minutes of waiting for her to break up with Russell Brand and have the come-to-Jesus moment with Segel; otherwise nothing has aged badly and the film could be released now largely unchanged.
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43:40

Casting What-Ifs

Mila Kunis auditioned for Katherine Heigl's role in Knocked Up before Apatow filed her away for this film; Aldous Sno...

Mila Kunis auditioned for Katherine Heigl's role in Knocked Up before Apatow filed her away for this film; Aldous Snow was written with Charlie Hunnam in mind and rewritten for Russell Brand

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:40Read transcript
  • Mila Kunis auditioned for Knocked Up and lost the role to Katherine Heigl, but Apatow filed her away and she got this one; whether Hathaway was also up for that part is not remembered, which raises the question of whether Knocked Up would have been better with Kunis.
  • One host is not a fan of Katherine Heigl on screen in movies or television, with no disrespect to the human being, while another is a big fan of her in Knocked Up; the case against her is that Heigl is not funny, Kunis is, and nobody bought that she would ever be interested in Seth Rogen.
  • The rebuttal is that re-engineering the casting is like saying the New Testament would be better with Bruce Willis, though it is a clear case of picking one actress over the other; Heigl works perfectly as a specific, annoying kind of person, and one host was ready for them to break up the whole time.
  • Aldous Snow (transcribed as Algiers Snow) was written with Charlie Hunnam in mind, who had Apatow history from Undeclared, and was entirely rewritten for Russell Brand; one host suspects it was not written at all and Brand simply did the role.
  • Earlier, during the intro, the note that Kunis had gone for the Katherine Heigl part in Knocked Up was explicitly parked for Casting What-Ifs.
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46:48

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Paul Rudd

Paul Rudd

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:48Read transcript
  • Eligibility is the problem: Hader is in it too much, Russell Brand is in it too much, and Jonah Hill getting his own movie afterwards either breaks the rules or proves he should win; Jack McBrayer and William Baldwin are the other names, and neither of the big guys qualifies.
  • One host's pick is Jonah: not in it too much and throwing heat every time, with the English accent, the getting mad, and taking Jason Segel's plate right after he started eating and then saying he will just go fuck himself.
  • Asked whether it should be Rudd instead, the hosts agree Rudd is in about two scenes and bats a thousand, while Jonah may be one scene too much to be eligible; the 'the weather outside is weather' line settles it and the award is given to Rudd (transcribed as Red).
  • Earlier, before the break, a joke asked whether Jason Segel's dick was up for the Dion Waiters Award, with the answer that we would find out.
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48:15

Half-Assed Internet Research

The script draws on Jason Segel's breakup with Linda Cardellini and three other breakups; one girlfriend dumped him w...

The script draws on Jason Segel's breakup with Linda Cardellini and three other breakups; one girlfriend dumped him while he was naked; Get Him to the Greek followed two years later with Jonah Hill as a different character; Inside of You was conceived as the worst song a girlfriend's new boyfriend could sing; the naked picture of Mila Kunis was computer-generated; the film is 60 to 70 percent scripted; Segel and Stoller reunited for The Muppets; the buffet waiter is surfer Kalani Robb

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:15Read transcript
  • The film is based on screenwriter Jason Segel's breakup with Linda Cardellini and three other breakups with unspecified women; the naked breakup did not involve Cardellini, but one girlfriend did dump him while he was completely naked, and rather than being devastated he found it hilarious and could not wait for her to leave so he could write it down.
  • Get Him to the Greek, the spinoff follow-up, came two years later from director Nicholas Stoller with Russell Brand and Jonah Hill; the hosts have seen it only once against 10 or 15 viewings of this film, listeners have requested it as a rewatchable, and the producer says it stuck with his generation, earning the title Lord of Gen Z.
  • Jonah Hill plays a different character in Greek, a newly hired A&R man for Diddy's label who must get Aldous to his tour dates over 24 hours, with Elizabeth Moss a big part of it; one host thinks it would have been funnier as the same character relocated to LA, and one host's kids loved The Babysitter with Jonah Hill.
  • The song Inside of You was thought up by Segel as the worst song your girlfriend's new boyfriend could sing in front of you; Russell Brand's on-stage performance of it in Hawaii, bending over into yoga poses, is called incredible.
  • The naked bathroom picture of Mila Kunis was created on a computer and was not real, something the publicity was very deliberate about getting out there: real dick, fake breasts; according to Stoller the film is 60 to 70 percent scripted and 30 to 40 percent improvised.
  • Segel and Stoller were reunited as screenwriters for The Muppets in 2011, Segel's dream project, and then did The Five-Year Engagement; the buffet waiter who later punches Segel is Kalani Robb, the surfer from Romentum Generation (as transcribed), which the hosts did not catch on first viewing; he seems taller than in life, is memorable bringing the second rum bottle, and was probably just hanging out surfing in Hawaii.
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53:47

Apex Mountain

Jason Segel

Jason Segel

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:47Read transcript
  • The opening joke is Jason Segel's dick as Apex Mountain, met with doubt that it is the apex and the suggestion it has more to grow since it was cold in the studio; the hosts suspect the 'six to midnight' line from Jonah Hill's character, possibly only in the unrated version, is Segel's own note to anyone asking about his dick.
  • Segel himself is Apex Mountain, no question: he is on How I Met Your Mother and is the writer and star of a movie, and it is not getting any better for him than right here.
  • His career did not go where one host expected: he seemed headed for an Albert Brooks type lane, and the film recalls Modern Romance, Brooks' second movie, a persona loosely based on himself about the relationship between men and women, goofy yet sincere; Segel never kept making those crypto-autobiographical broad comedies.
  • After The Muppets he co-wrote The Five-Year Engagement and Sex Tape with Cameron Diaz, played David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour in 2015, and appeared in This Is 40, This Is the End and Bad Teacher; one host thinks he had some issues, and ten years on a CBS show for seven months a year will slow a film career.
  • It is strange when somebody writes a really good movie and does not keep doing it, as with Affleck and Damon never writing another film together after Good Wanting (as transcribed); maybe you make too much money, and in interviews Segel comes across as thoughtful and reflective about his place in Hollywood.
  • Segel was a successful high school basketball player at Harvard Westlake and a teammate of Jason Collins; his How I Met Your Mother character's nickname White Chocolate comes from that, his real nickname was Dr. Dunk, and the hosts hope he writes something and gets a second act.
  • Nobody else qualifies: Mila Kunis did even bigger and better things after this, Kristen Bell obviously did, and so did all the bit players; Billy Baldwin's peak was Sliver, not this.
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57:33

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Steve Landisberg (as transcribed)

Steve Landisberg (as transcribed)

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:33Read transcript
  • Steve Landisberg (as transcribed), the former Barney Miller cast member who plays the doctor and looks at Jason Segel's dick, is a great that guy; the host knows who he is but considers him that guy all the same and gives him the award.
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57:33

Is This Movie Better With…?

Danny Trejo

Danny Trejo

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:33Read transcript
  • Trejo could be seen in one of the bars there or working for the hotel.
  • The category is getting stale and should be remixed; one host declares it done, this being the last time it runs, and listeners are invited to suggest replacements for the three actors or a new category entirely.
  • Joke replacement categories: which guy should have shown their dick in this movie, why we did not see McBrayer, and the Jason Segel semi-fluff award for cowards who will not share their semi-chub.
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58:19

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Jason Segel; Jack McBrayer and Maria Thayer

Jason Segel; Jack McBrayer and Maria Thayer

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:19Read transcript
  • One host picks Segel, asking whether the star of the movie has ever also been the overactor: he plays it the most emotionally, crying, naked, going for it and doing the most.
  • Another was going to go with Jack McBrayer, with McBrayer and Maria Thayer as the couple really going for it, which draws an 'I'd vote for that'; Segel is good too, and his scenes of crying while watching TV are very broad sitcom.
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59:05

Picking Nits

Peter should have known the crime show was canceled since he wrote its music; Rachel lacked the authority to hand him...

Peter should have known the crime show was canceled since he wrote its music; Rachel lacked the authority to hand him the $6,000-a-night suite; Aldous Snow is far too famous to travel without an entourage yet gets a normal room; Sarah Marshall going to Hawaii so soon is a snake move; how Hader could know she was going to Hawaii; Peter fully naked in his unlocked dressing room

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:59:05Read transcript
  • Wouldn't Peter have known the crime show got canceled, since he wrote music for it? The hosts wonder what year it came out and note he uses a cell phone a fair amount, though it could plausibly slip past him.
  • Does Rachel have the authority to give him the Kapua suite? No way; she is fired within ten minutes, there does not seem to be a lot going on at Turtle Bay, she fraternizes with guests and cuts out for a hike, and she hands over the $6,000-a-night Oprah suite on the condition that he clean up after himself.
  • One host wonders about trying this at hotels, asking for the suite saved for someone like Megan Allison (as transcribed) and promising to clean up, which would require being embarrassed by your ex in front of the receptionist; staging that with a fake divorce announcement earns the reply that it sounds like a sociopath, and the joke shifts the analogy onto a host considered a more realistic divorce candidate walking up to reception.
  • The defense is that Sarah Marshall is famous and he was dumped and humiliated in favor of Aldous Snow; the counter is that real hotels make you fill out a form to get toothpaste, and she is not the manager; the hosts concede it is a leap of faith they never questioned, since she could simply have said they had a room and he just gets a dope suite.
  • How famous is Russell Brand's musician supposed to be? He closes Access Hollywood and writes the anthem of his generation, a male Winehouse and an A list celebrity, yet he is the first musician ever with no entourage, which is completely unrealistic; he would have had three people and a bodyguard and is far too normal for a famous person.
  • He reminds one host of Richard Ashcroft of The Verve walking into a Hawaii bar grill ten years after his hit, but Access Hollywood presents him as a major star, more like Adam Levine meets Liam Gallagher; Adam Levine at Turtle Bay would not be alone and would probably rent the whole resort.
  • The couple has a normal room with another room on the other side of the wall while Segel gets the suite; he is about to go on an 18-month world tour, so he is obviously successful but not enough for the $6,000 suite; that may have been improvised rather than accurate tour logistics, and the hosts joke about deleting the movie from Sling.
  • The hosts want a consulting firm for questions like this: any basketball scene, the 100-yard football field with no end zones, the boxing ring that is too small, and the last-minute drive that somehow goes backwards from the 40 to the 30.
  • It feels like a real snake move by Sarah Marshall to go to Hawaii so quickly after the breakup, though she had dated the guy for a year; when Hader tells Peter to go on vacation alone but not to Hawaii, the implication is that he knows she is going there, and nobody can explain how, unless he simply thought it was weird.
  • At the very end the callback has him completely naked in his own unlocked dressing room when Mila Kunis walks back in; nobody likes being naked, and one host marvels at how many human-anatomy conversations they have had with Bill in two weeks; the explanation offered is that he is taking off a unitard with no underwear underneath and is comfortable in his own body, and the Stoller interview had nothing on his prep for that shot.
  • Earlier, before the Joey Pants Award, one host asked to pick nits because of a Turtle Bay complaint and was told to hold on.
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1:04:50

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"Mutombo, out of the shot"

"Mutombo, out of the shot"

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:50Read transcript
  • Asked how many times he has screenshotted this movie on his computer, like a Dr. Skin for Jason Segel, the reply is that it is Mr. Skin. — Bill Simmons
  • A tangent asks what the startup site in Knocked Up was called, remembered as a Mr. Skin-style site; the first nomination is the pageant line, 'I think it's gonna be hard for her to enter the pageant without a face', and the club exchange spoken in initials, about not needing to put your P in a B right now, made one host laugh very hard.
  • More nominations: 'God put our mouths on our heads for a reason', the breakup consolation 'It's like the Sopranos. It's over. Find a new show', and the line when he refuses to have sex because she broke his heart into a million pieces and his cock doesn't want to be around her anymore, because she is the goddamn devil, which one host calls the winner.
  • Another host's favorite line, and the eventual answer, is 'Mutombo, out of the shot', from the sex scene with its 'Give me dirty crime scene, girl' and 'Andre the Giant, out of the shot, please'; the Christ-between-your-thighs-with-a-shorter-beard line is also loved and judged a definite ad lib.
  • Other favorites: 'are those sad tissues or happy tissues', the blue-balls speech about a mid-blowjob interruption, and the 'he's like Gandhi but better, he likes puppets' line from the big guy; asked for the final answer, the hosts settle on the Mutombo line, with the Kunu exchange about Peter being the guy who works at Kaiser Permanente added afterwards.
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1:06:46

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

No

No

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:46Read transcript
  • Could this be remade as a ten-episode Netflix series? No; it is good as a movie.
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1:07:22

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Was Dracula the musical a good idea? Did Rachel and Peter stay together? How many seasons did Animal Instincts run?

Was Dracula the musical a good idea? Did Rachel and Peter stay together? How many seasons did Animal Instincts run?

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:22Read transcript
  • Was Dracula the musical a good idea? One host thinks it was and calls it a favorite part and a billion dollar idea; the origin story recited is that Segel wanted the Dracula puppet musical to be the movie and Apatow told him it was not a movie but a funny part in his movie, effectively Segel putting out that he wanted to be the Muppets guy, which worked out, even though he also wanted to show his dick.
  • The puppet musical could have had a chance; the low-key funny part is that Peter is not Mozart, it is a weird bad idea most significant others would not get, yet it is relatable for anyone of a certain age into Stephen Sondheim and the Muppets who wants to work in Hollywood; the dark gothic Neil Diamond line recalls the super in Big Lebowski inviting people to his interpretive dance, and everybody in LA has a weird idea that sometimes becomes really successful.
  • Did Rachel and Peter stay together? Probably not: she is back in Hawaii within three months, or her ex-boyfriend shows up in LA and murders both of them and Animal Instincts investigates; Animal Instincts ran about four and a half seasons, three years on NBC and one more on Fox after cancellation, not enough for residuals.
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1:09:47

Who Won the Movie?

Jason Segel

Jason Segel

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:47Read transcript
  • It has to be Jason Segel; Kunis has a nice shot, but Segel wins because he also wrote it, which pushes him over the top, even though one host really wants to give it to Kunis, who becomes a star from this moment on and is that host's favorite part of the movie.
  • Her character beats the dick, which is not in the top ten or maybe top fifty; hers was a nothing part that she made really fun, whereas Kristen Bell's part was developed; asked to name five things about Kunis' character, the hosts get a bad relationship, dropping out of college and working at a hotel, and still like her.
  • Segel won because of the writing: everything that makes the movie unique and weird and keeps you coming back is permeated by his personality, his interests and his vulnerability, and the film changed how he is viewed, since you usually cannot be an action star after a movie like this.
Podcast choices
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Jason Segel
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More from the conversation

The episode was recommended by Craig the Producer, which also means a Fletch episode is coming: a host pretended Fletch was the plan, made Craig watch it, and he liked it.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:10Read transcript
The opening question is whether this has aged best of all the Apatow comedies: The Five-Year Engagement and this film keep surprising on TV, whereas Knocked Up and Superbad are ingrained like 80s classics; this one is coherent, has heart and something to say without the heavy themes of Apatow's own films, and Apatow's script advice to Segel was to write the first draft as a drama and let the funny people add jokes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:10Read transcript
It is a salary cap era comedy: early Hader a year into SNL, Jonah Hill, Jack McBrayer and Russell Brand on their first deals, players who come off the bench and drop twelve points, which energizes the movie whenever Segel is crying for ten minutes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:48Read transcript
Movies that open with weddings and movies set in Hawaii are always a go, partly because everyone wants to go make a movie there; Segel spent a month in Hawaii before filming to work on the script, Lost could have run fifteen years for that reason, and the film's core idea is feeling terrible in a place where everything should be perfect.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:31Read transcript
Sandler has built whole stretches of his career on locations, including Blended, as did Couples Retreat; nobody makes the dark side of Hawaii movie apart from a little of The Descendants, though the hosts recall a thriller, A Perfect Getaway by David Tui (as transcribed), with Oliphant as the kidnapper, spoiled on air, plus Broke Down Palace and the Naomi Watts tsunami film as the vacation worst cases.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:44Read transcript
Hawaii is one of the few things in one host's life that lived up to the billing; another's first trip to Maui, during the Spurs-Heat Ray Allen finals, started overcast and cold with persistent birds and weird Mai Tais before turning into paradise, which matches Peter's discomfort with the paradise part.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:54Read transcript
Childhood Hawaii touchstones were the three-part Brady Bunch with Vincent Price and the Charlie's Angels nude beach episode; South Beach and Hawaii make anything 28 percent better, with Pain and Gain, the Florida Keys, the bayou, Wild Things and a mis-recalled Alec Baldwin title as examples of locations enhancing mediocrity.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:57Read transcript
Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis both score; Sarah Marshall in the wrong hands is a villain, but here she is a narcissist you still like and root for, a test run for The Good Place; Bell was a tough sleuth outsider on Veronica Mars, and Kunis was known only from That 70s Show and as Macaulay Culkin's girlfriend before this launched an eleven-year run.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:20Read transcript
The love triangle is genuinely open, since Peter could plausibly end up with either woman, and the film flips the usual formula by making the man the emotional puddle who only reacts; it is also a prime example of the beautiful-women-with-schmoes charge against Apatow comedies, though Segel is more handsome than Rogen or Carell, every CBS sitcom did the same, and Los Angeles is full of such couples.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:17Read transcript
Other breakup movies: Singles and Say Anything have breakup sections, The Breakup starts with one but is the lesser film and will never make the show, High Fidelity is the closest tonally, Kramer vs. Kramer is really a fatherhood movie, Kicking and Screaming partly qualifies, Eternal Sunshine counts, and Eyes Wide Shut is teased.
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:04Read transcript
Is Mila Kunis an A-lister? She was positioned as the star of the Bad Moms films, and Kristen Bell is among the most recognizable actresses between Jim Beam commercials and her shows; both belong to the small group of actresses men like and women are fine with, unlike Jennifer Love Hewitt, along with Christina Applegate and Katherine Hahn (as transcribed), which is why Bad Moms works.
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:26Read transcript
Kunis' career: Ted, Friends with Benefits, Date Night and Black Swan were all successful, Max Payne was her darker swing, and the hosts wish she had an A Simple Favor type black comedy; she is never mentioned alongside Hathaway or Jennifer Lawrence, perhaps needs a prestige TV show, and might have used a spy franchise, though The Spy Who Dumped Me was not that great.
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:00Read transcript
Release context recited: 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, $105 million worldwide and $63 million in North America; Apatow was officially a thing with a Vanity Fair cover, Segel was the draw from How I Met Your Mother, the I Hate Sarah Marshall billboards and website were a shrewd campaign, and the full-frontal scene drove awareness.
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:25Read transcript
The premise is strong: the celebrity-appendage boyfriend from Us Weekly, the Wedding Crashers lesson about front-loading exposition, Peter eating Froot Loops from a pasta bowl while Billy Bush on Access Hollywood explains Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime, far cleverer than a Die Hard style news dump.
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:59Read transcript
Asked whether a breakup ever made them want to go to Hawaii alone for five days, the answer is no: never dumped in adult life, only in sixth and eighth grade, with some rejections, hence a certain emotional distance from the material.
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:05Read transcript
The hosts tease a 'dark gothic Neil Diamond' persona and recall the last episode's quagmire over a 2003 movie date that may have been deleted from a spouse's phone.
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:37Read transcript
Did Russell Brand age well? This is the peak of Brand, who became a crossover phenomenon with Get Him to the Greek and Arthur; he is likened to the Joe Rogan of England for his YouTube podcast, had a famous UK MTV gaffe after 9/11, and here lampoons a Brit-pop rock star, down to the line about Liam and Noel Gallagher.
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:38Read transcript
Nicholas Stoller's interview about Jason Segel preparing for the nude breakup scene is read aloud: the semi-chub quotes, the prop master's materials and 'I'm ready', to the visible discomfort of the other hosts, one of whom thinks of parents paying for college so a boss could say semi-chub on a movie podcast.
Approx. transcript time · 00:52:08Read transcript
Ten years on, Apatow has repeated this with Rogen, Segel, Jonah Hill, Lena Dunham, Pete Holmes and Pete Davidson, making unconventional people into leads; Hollywood has since taken the high-concept part into Bad Moms and Game Night, and the loose two-hour hangout era seems over.
Approx. transcript time · 01:11:08Read transcript
It is not one host's favorite of the era but is in the running for best rom-com of the last twelve years, a very male rom-com without Nora Ephron's tonality; producer Craig explains it is his favorite movie of that span as ten great scenes, especially the sweatpants montage and the psychiatrist song.
Approx. transcript time · 01:13:20Read transcript
Sign-off: Broadcast News is next week, one of the best movies of the last 35 years and possibly the best of the 80s, influential on this film, Apatow and Cameron Crowe.
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:30Read transcript