Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
2006 film
Craig Horlbeck · Danny Heifetz · Danny Kelly
Aired September 8, 2026
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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
Friday
Film credit
Michael Clarke Duncan
Also referred to as Michael Clark Duncan
Stats
- Episodes featuring their films
- 3
- Movies in this archive
- 3
Rewatchables episodes featuring Michael Clarke Duncan’s films
Displaying all 3 episodes
Mentioned in discussions
The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance
Molly Shannon
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:30:00Read transcript
- Molly Shannon, Amy Adams, Grandpa Chip, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Adam McKay are the principal candidates. — Craig Horlbeck
- Gary Cole is rejected as too important despite a concentrated run of jokes; Adam McKay is praised for one short driver scene. — Craig Horlbeck
- The panel agrees on Molly Shannon. — Craig Horlbeck
Apex Mountain
Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Forrest’s bedroom speed, and the 1994 Oscars: yes
In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:59Read transcript
- Back-to-back Oscars, this difficult performance, and $678 million make Hanks able to obtain virtually any next project. — Bill Simmons
- Robin Wright’s later House of Cards run is considered stronger; Zemeckis’s Oscar win competes with Back to the Future’s lasting achievement.
- Forrest’s bedroom speed gets a joke apex, while the film is weighed against The Big Chill as boomer-pop-culture peak.
- The long shrimp-recitation sequence makes a case for shrimp; Sinise is placed here over Apollo 13. — Bill Simmons
- The 1994 Oscars represent a peak culture-war and audience moment, with 49 million viewers versus 19 million in 2023. — Bill Simmons
- Michael Clarke Duncan’s apex is Heat, and Dumb and Dumber wins the dumb-character movie preference for immediate viewing. — Bill Simmons
Half-Assed Internet Research
Fictional Greenbow, the demolished Gump house, Jenny’s disease, Elvis, prosthetics, doubles, props, the rally speech, profit points, the novel, and death theories
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:15Read transcript
- Greenbow, Alabama is fictional, and the Gump house built for two months was demolished after a land dispute rather than preserved as an attraction. — Bill Simmons
- Novelist Winston Groom intended Jenny’s disease as hepatitis C, while the filmmakers’ presentation is interpreted as AIDS. — Bill Simmons
- Kurt Russell voiced Elvis, Michael Clarke Duncan wore a prosthetic lip as Bubba, and Hanks’s brother Jim doubled the cross-country run. — Bill Simmons
- Jenny’s birth date matches the Trinity nuclear test, and the Savannah bench is now in the Smithsonian. — Bill Simmons
- Hanks said Forrest’s cut-off rally speech described soldiers returning without legs or not returning at all. — Bill Simmons
- Hanks and Zemeckis exchanged fees for profit points when Paramount sought cuts and earned enormous returns.
- The novel also makes Forrest an astronaut, wrestler, chess player, and broader savant. — Chris Ryan
- An internet theory says bullies kill Forrest early and the braces breaking mark his spirit’s release, with the feather as eventual angel wings; Osment’s later Sixth Sense role is playful support. — Chris Ryan
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:10:50Read transcript
- Willis has a second-summit case because he converts extraordinary leverage into this film, The Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable, though Die Hard remains his stricter apex. — Bill Simmons
- Bay uses Armageddon’s success to obtain total freedom and Pearl Harbor-scale resources; all agree this accumulation of power is the Baypex.
- Michael Clarke Duncan’s peak arrives with The Green Mile, while Will Patton, Liv Tyler, Keith David, and Aerosmith have other stronger moments.
- Thornton’s authority may elevate this movie more than his work elevates any other, though Monster’s Ball and Friday Night Lights complicate his case.
- Titanic wins the 1990s-disaster-movie apex over Armageddon. — Bill Simmons
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:42Read transcript
- Michael Clarke Duncan is ruled too present; Carl and Eddie Griffin remain eligible minor candidates.
- Wilson’s western gallop under pursuing helicopters and his compression of a technical briefing into one comic phrase clinch the award.
Cameo Corner
F. Gary Gray mopping in the deli scene; Megan Good (as transcribed) in the opening and the ice cream truck scene with Big Worm; Michael Clark Duncan (as transcribed) shooting dice in the Red knockout scene; Dub C as the drive-by shooter
In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:21Read transcript
- A host coins a non-canonical category, Cameo Corner, for blink-and-miss appearances: director F. Gary Gray, who one host thinks bears an uncanny resemblance to Chance the Rapper and another does not, is mopping up in the deli scene.
- Cube, Tucker and F. Gary Gray were all in their early-to-mid twenties, Tucker about 23 and Cube and Gray 24 or 25, so the film is the output of young creative people.
- Megan Good (as transcribed) appears in two scenes, the opening and the ice cream truck scene with Big Worm; Michael Clark Duncan (as transcribed) is shooting dice on the sidewalk in the scene where Red gets knocked out, on screen for about a second, and reportedly wanted a speaking role; the others had never noticed him.
- The drive-by shooter is identified as Dub C even though the scene is dark, on the strength of a host knowing rappers and later verifying it, teased as the Donnie flexing section; the music cue there, Pay Your Dues by Low Profile, is praised.
Displaying all 6 discussions
