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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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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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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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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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1:09:47

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.
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Jason Segel
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Jason Segel
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