Cal is jokingly proposed because he receives Ricky’s wife, house, sponsors, and a race win without consequences.
The panel agrees Ferrell wins because the movie confirms his status as the defining comedy star; a combined McKay–Ferrell answer is considered but rejected.
Bill Cobbs (transcribed Cops/Cubs) is debated as too established to be a That Guy despite popping up in Demolition Man and New Jack City; he seemed the same age for 25 years like Wilford Brimley. — Van Lathan
Later, the actor who played Fletcher is identified as Norm Nixon's son, with Debbie Allen as his stepmom; shout-out to Devon Nixon. — Van Lathan
The first picks split between Farrell (as transcribed) and Riley (as transcribed), the latter because Reilly got Walk Hard out of this movie; the case for Ferrell is that his influence on everybody in the movie is palpable, inviting them along on the journey.
A request to name Han and Scott together is refused as a procedural move; the counter is that Ferrell was going to be funny no matter what, so winning would require an extraordinary Ferrell performance, while Reilly matched him coming in from drama in a way Ferrell could not reverse opposite Daniel Day Lewis, so the degree of difficulty favors Reilly.
Since the two performances are dead even, McKay is raised and the oral history would argue it is him; the hosts settle on McKay as the non-controversial consensus pick, with a shout-out to John C. Reilly for stepping into comedies when he is not a comedian, or perhaps a comedian miscast his whole career, and a joke that he should not have been the catcher in For Love of the Game.
Catherine Han is a yes, a hundred percent: this put her on the map in the greatest way possible in a movie people rewatch all the time.
Will Ferrell is a no: after a clarification that Apex Mountain means the greatest moment of a career rather than just comedic performances, a host still thinks Anchorman is it, he was in the middle of a great run, and he was still at the tail end of SNL, having played Bush for a couple of years.
Adam McKay gets a yes at first, the peak of his powers, making an iconic comedy out of nothing, with no plot, that let him do whatever he wants; then The Big Short, $140 million and a Best Director nomination, is raised and the same host changes his mind and goes Big Short, while another thinks McKay has not hit his apex yet and it is in front of him, citing the jittery Big Short camera work in Succession even though the show is mostly creator Jesse Armstrong's handiwork.
Adam Scott gets a hundred percent from one host; another would instead name Eastbound and Down, where his agent Pat Anderson is mind-blowing in two and a half scenes, with the black-credit-card exchange with John Hawkes recited up to its crude punchline; Will Ferrell's Ashley Schaefer BMW plums speech from the same show gets a shout-out, and without Step BrothersScott would not have been unleashed as a comedy dick in that role.
For Reilly, Boogie Nights and Magnolia are offered, with Days of Thunder and Talladega Nights in the conversation; one host calls him his least favorite part of Magnolia and would cut the whole character, Walk Hard is mentioned, and Boogie Nights is given as the answer for his exercise dance behind the glass during the Mark Wahlberg song before Feel the Heat.
John C. Reilly cried real tears in the divorce scene; Boats and Hoes was written by Dr. Luke, who had been the SNL guitarist; Ferrell did his own singing and Reilly his own drumming at the Catalina Wine Mixer; Adam Scott lip-synced Sweet Child O' Mine in the van; the dinosaur monologue was ad-libbed by Jenkins and McKay in two takes; the prosthetic testicles reportedly cost up to $20,000
John C. Reilly really cried during the divorce scene, real tears in a real acting performance; asked as a child of divorce whether the scene landed, a host answers a hundred percent; Han starts crying too and calls him honey, prompting Adam Scott (as transcribed, 'Dan Scott') to ask why she is calling him honey.
Boats and Hoes was made by the controversial Dr. Luke, which the hosts suspect traces to his years as the Saturday Night Live guitarist when McKay and Ferrell were on the show; Ferrell did his own singing and Reilly all the drumming at the Catalina Wine Mixer, and Ferrell's operatic performance (transcribed as 'Porti Volare') is weirdly good, opera rather than a pop song, from a crazy talented man.
Adam Scott lip-synced Sweet Child O' Mine, the one guy in the van doing so, which a host never noticed until armed with the tidbit; the a cappella Guns N' Roses rendition is also called one of the most rewatchable scenes.
The dinosaur monologue was ad-libbed by Jenkins and McKay during a throw-anything session and shot in only two takes; McKay promised Jenkins he would not use it, and before the screening Jenkins asked whether he had used it and learned it was in. It is called an awesome scene that arguably belonged among the most rewatchable, a favorite three-character exchange in which Jenkins's character planned to be a doctor for a while and then go back to being a dinosaur, Brennan asking how that is even a skill, and Dale telling him a human could never be a dinosaur.
Stepped on early during the scene discussion: the half-assed internet research found claims that the prosthetic testicles cost $20,000, against the few thousand dollars in the oral history.
A host has never been happier to do the award until the show gets to Boogie Nights; the film is full of heat checks, a second unit whose box score would be crazy, lots of Rondo lines of nine assists, seven boards and four steals.
Nominees: Rob Riggle, in what felt like the first time seeing him, also the cop in The Hangover; Andrea Savage; the little kid bully; Derek's son singing; and Horatio Sands (as transcribed) as the eighties Billy Joel cover-band singer.
Catherine Han not only wins but is argued to be one of the great heat checks the show has ever discussed: five scenes and about seven minutes, one of the funniest movie performances ever; McKay said her first scene, where she gets turned on after John C. Reilly punched Derek and basically mounts him, was the greatest acting performance he has witnessed, and the key is that she commits, delivering an explicit come-on like a lunatic.
The hosts do not understand why she is not a bigger star, allowing that she had kids and that actresses often get fewer roles; she is never bad, phenomenal in Bad Moms, a huge hit, and in Afternoon Delight, joined the Jill Soloway universe with Transparent and I Love Dick, but never led a successful show or movie, which is called a failure not on her.
An aside asks whether the scene where Randy has a heart attack is in the final movie; it is not, and the cut scene is played, in which Randy's heart stops for a moment, he says he saw his grandmother and asks Derek whether he saw his Nana on the way in, with Derek checking that he is okay.
There are not ten seconds in the movie where Catherine Han is not funny; she gets it.
