Fake in-movie advertisements are independently chosen by more than one participant.
Race-car sound, climbing through car windows, victory champagne, Rob Riggle and David Keckner, shifting gears, and real sports announcers are additional pleasures.
Justin Bartha and Ed Helms doing The Office at the same time are offered first and answered 'two for two'; Cooper is a no; Galifianakis is weighed against Due Date.
One host votes Galifianakis and is once again confused by the category; Todd Phillips is a hundred percent yes, six years removed from Old School with School for Scoundrels a miss in between and everything after this a big deal, especially when you make 70 million on one movie; Galifianakis probably too, at the peak of success and creative cachet.
Rob Riggle is a yes, having had a CBS sitcom; the Dan Band is not, since Wedding Crashers is preferred and this repeats it; Ken Jeong is a yes, or Community, and one host does not care about him.
Whether Vegas itself hit Apex Mountain in 2009, more than Sinatra at the Sands, splits the room one to one: one host says no but wants the conversation and would take Casino over this, noting Vegas makes more money than ever; this was right after the housing crisis started but before it demolished casino projects, and another says yes because Vegas is like pop music, ever replenishing for young people, though it was in trouble five years ago; Vegas is therefore not listed as a yes.
Black Doug is floated but he is Mike Epps, too famous to win; Rob Riggle's sidekick is funny and a worthy winner precisely because nobody knows her name.
Mike Tyson's bodyguard is mentioned; Doug's fiancee is Sasha Barice (as transcribed), who no longer acts and is a professional poker player, and the award goes to her.
Seven names are on the list; Jeffrey Tambor as the father-in-law is not a heater, a subdued performance but always knowing Vegas will go badly, which sets off a bit about a host insisting he would be at his daughter's fiance's bachelor party; Rachel Harris; the doctor who has only one C, with 'get lost and buy a fucking map'; Brian Cowan (as transcribed), Heather Graham, Rob Riggle and Mike Tyson.
One personal vote goes to Rob Riggle; the award is defined as the biggest heat check, doing the most with the least playing time, like hitting five threes in ten minutes, and whether to take Riggle here or in Step Brothers is floated.
Ken Jeong should win even though the speaker does not like the performance, because he is doing a lot and really going over the top. — Sean Fennessey
The pushback that the award acknowledges something they like and that the integrity of the Dion Waiters Award is being undermined on the 103rd pod, answered with 'it's just good to examine what we're really doing here', gives way to agreement: Ken Jeong goes out like a Tasmanian devil taking shots and grabbing rebounds, almost Brandon Jennings-esque, and Dion Waiters would agree; Riggle is more Montrezl Harrell, the energy off the bench you really need, not Austin Rivers, and the movie vaulted him to another level.
First nominee is the drive to Vegas, a fantastic five and a half minutes from the gas station stop through Galifianakis in the car to checking in at the hotel; Phil starts drinking as soon as he gets in the car, like the two guys at every bachelor party who get wrecked on the way there, and the others realize in the car that Galifianakis has 17 screws loose.
Waking up in the hotel room not knowing what happened is phenomenal: a nice camera move that follows a disoriented Ed Helms looking around, Galifianakis naked pissing next to a tiger he does not register for ten seconds, a chicken from nowhere, everybody sleeping on the floor and the woman sneaking out; a smart scene that sets up everything.
Brunch with Carlos the baby: Cooper's 'not at the table, Carlos' and the bit where he pretends to jerk off the baby hits one host's funny bone every time, so inappropriate it would never happen now; the hosts like that the baby is named Carlos and seeing him in the Bjorn.
From the Hollywood Reporter oral history: Galifianakis did the bit first with a doll while the shot was set up, Todd Phillips waited for the baby's mom to go upstairs and asked the dad, who answered that his wife would be gone for half an hour and asked them to do it in that window; it belongs in the conversation of all-time inappropriate throwaway laughs alongside Stripes and Caddyshack.
Further nominees: the stun gun scene, Tyson reviewing the security footage, getting the tiger out of the car with Bradley Cooper pretending to hump it from behind while calling it a beautiful majestic animal, the blackjack scene with the calculus floating in front of Galifianakis's face, and the wedding reception with the Dan Band and Ed Helms breaking up with his girlfriend, about ten minutes one host had forgotten the movie still had.
One host goes for the entire police precinct sequence, not just the stun gun but the payphone call, the kid taking a cell phone picture and the phone kicked out of his hands; it is called the funniest thing Rob Riggle has ever done, with 'in the face' recited.
Brian Callen's wedding chapel scene is added as an amendment to how he was treated on the Old School episode: the same character and Greek accent, greeting them as the craziest bastard he ever met, the first clue in putting the puzzle back together, plus the baby goat while he is on the phone pretending to be in Napa; the hosts think he never found the right role and that the Greek grifter should have his own series.
One vote goes to brunch with Carlos the baby together with the Bjorn elevator ride to the brunch, the speaker's favorite part of the movie.
About four weeks ago the speaker and his son were flipping channels when the movie came on during the drive, not as a planned viewing; the son did not see the closing credits, was dying laughing at everything Zach Galifianakis did, and also liked Ken Jeong's character. — Bill Simmons
Richard Jenkins is proposed and contested: one host insists he is not overacting in this movie, another counters that he does a couple of times, that they knew, and that he gets really mad in the kitchen.
Riggle overacts, but that is Riggle's whole thing, and this was the first time he did the bit now familiar from his real-estate commercials; the Kobayashi line is still funny, and the pals are funny too.
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.
