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.
The award is explained as the person you like from a movie without knowing their name; Andrea Savage is the one who ends up with Will Ferrell here, and she is really good in The House, an underrated film that prompted a host to look her up and learn she had kids and checked out for years; she now has the TruTV show I'm Sorry, is a friend of The Watch and came on the Thrones show.
Per the oral history she was originally in Party Down with Adam Scott but got pregnant and had to leave the show, which went to Lizzie Kaplan (as transcribed); she is really funny in this movie and a good Joey Pants.
The movie started with John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell and then went and found actors, so the only real what-if is Derek, for which Jon Hamm and Thomas Lennon auditioned during Mad Men (as transcribed, 'Badman'); something in Adam Scott's audition won them over.
Hamm as Derek is called one of the better what-ifs the show has had, more intimidating and still funny, but Adam Scott has something evil and punchable about him, and it would be scary to punch Hamm.
Scott told the oral history he modeled Derek on moneyed, douchey people he found online and in the Rob Report (as transcribed), a guy who reads a magazine with a speedboat on the cover; the name-drops at the first dinner are all people who seem douchey, Mark Cuban as 'the cubes', Chad Michael Murray, Bobby Flay and Seal, plus the Dane Cook pay-per-view, and being name-dropped by Derek is a tough beat.
Four nominees are thrown out first: the first dinner scene with the whole family together, start to finish great, where John C. Reilly makes Will Ferrell cry and which ends with Ferrell going to shake Richard Jenkins's hand (as transcribed, 'Richard Jacobs') and slowly pulling it away; the drum scene, a masterpiece that keeps going until the fight in the yard and Mary Steenberg's (as transcribed) profane line; the bunk beds breaking, still funny the hundredth time; and the boat video.
Also floated: the Catalina mixer song and that whole moment; the grounding after the drum set, where the couch exchange between Jenkins and Steenburgen and Reilly and Ferrell is mind-blowing because the two are visibly throwing lines out; Adam Scott's Derek popping his head up into the treehouse, with 'I haven't had a carb since 2004' called one of the best lines in the movie and an obvious body double for the abs; and the porno-magazine time-machine bit leading up to it.
The film is thought of as micro moments rather than scenes, a movie of lines and dialogue; the job interview is added, and a 2 Chainz song called Trap Back stops in the middle to play the audio of the pan scene for a minute and a half, ending on 'get out of my office', taken as proof that movie dialogue can be dropped into a song and loved.
Will Ferrell is called weirdly influential on that period of rap, basically inventing Watch the Throne; Kanye loves him and famously quoted 'don't lose your dinosaur' in an interview with Zach Barron (as transcribed).
One pick is the drum scene, played as a clip from the accusation about the touched drum set through the threat to put his testicles on it, and taken as the winner all the way through the fight.
The fake testicles got significant space in Alan Siegel's oral history: they cost a few thousand dollars by one account and twenty thousand by the half-assed internet research, the designer warned McKay a really nice set would be expensive and McKay told him to do what he needed, and Ferrell asked to keep them and brings them out for dinner parties.
A second pick is the treehouse, with Derek's 'I don't have a problem, Dale. Actually, I have the opposite of a problem. I made over 550K last year' read out as proof that Adam Scott is an amazing dickhead; a third pick is the scene when they get grounded.
