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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
