Clifford

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Cumbin Boy for One Podcast Hello everyone, welcome to Blank Check with Griffin and David

[00:00:41] I'm producer Ben Now normally, normally is a podcast where we talk about directors fromographies right? Yes, correct You look at these creators right? Hollywood issues them a blank check they're like you did a good job Now keep doing that make us money right? Yes

[00:00:58] They get money for their passion project 100% true Now sometimes these projects they slay right? They do well They slay okay And then other times these projects are just a big poopy diaper And can I ask what happens to them?

[00:01:15] Can I ask what happens to the check in those instances? In those instances whereas normally you cash a check Sure The check bounces baby Oh Now I should introduce our our our hosts here with me today on the podcast Well today I think we're guests You're the host

[00:01:33] That's true, that's true I'm a guest host you're my guest Because this is a Ben's Choice Aka a pre-doer Ben's Choice Aka a Ben Doosers Choice No, no, enough That's good, thank you Tyler's Choice And that of course is Griffin Newman Hi everybody how's it going?

[00:02:00] And also with us today David Sims That's me Guys Yes We're going to be talking about one of my favorite movies for growing up Yeah It's A Little Gem Maybe y'all have heard of it I don't know It's called Cliford

[00:02:17] Clifford it's a comedy cult classic at this point right Flaherty picture. Yeah. Oh yeah. So we like to in between our miniseries because we usually do full miniseries focused on director going through their career. I'm just talking about

[00:02:31] Steven Spielberg. Yes. Director of equal quality to Paul Flaherty. Yeah, yeah I think so. He's shooting there at least. And equal box office courses. We like to hand you the reins Ben. Give you the check. You give us a little palette cleanser, a little sherbet. Yeah. In between

[00:02:49] dishes. This time, like the last three Ben's choices we did I think all three of those movies came from the first text conversation. That's true. Where we said Ben if we let you pick a movie what

[00:03:02] would you pick? And I just threw at you guys basically movies that I had watched over and over again on VHS. Right. And I think the three off the top of the dome were Fletch,

[00:03:12] The Man Who Knew Too Little and Under Siege, Two Dark Territories. Which we've covered in glorious detail. Right. And then this time you were pitching stuff to us but you were kind of going

[00:03:21] more highbrow. Yeah, you were trying to be a smarty pants. Well no because I've thought like pick films that you guys basically had expressed to me like pick movies that we really would never

[00:03:32] watch or it's been a long time or just very kind of eclectic and weird right? Sure. So I thought like Gummo is a film I'm obsessed with I love but I think at some point we're

[00:03:43] going to cover that director. It's not impossible he's an artur. And it lines up with your Dirt Boy aesthetic. It's definitely it fits into the brand. Absolutely. You pitched Bob Dylan No Direction Home

[00:03:54] which I or no don't look back. Right, sorry yes. Which I'm obsessed with it was that Penny Baker documentary. They shot right around the time that Dylan went electric in London on tour. Super cool. These are movies that people think are works of art. That's the

[00:04:10] thing. I mean you're picking movies as our finest film critic and we said no pick what's a movie give us another movie you use to watch on VHS all the time growing up. I was like fine alright. Well I

[00:04:21] like that Clifford movie. Yes don't pick a poet laureate movie pick a dirt bike Benny movie and then Clifford immediately I said yes and David you went what is this? Now I had heard of

[00:04:32] Clifford obviously right one of my former roommate Andy his family's dog was called Clifford named after the Clifford the movie Clifford not after Clifford but Big Red Dog. That's a little muddled. Little strange. Yeah and I knew that it was like some Martin Short vehicle and like

[00:04:51] that was kind of what I knew I'd never seen it. Yeah I knew it was a cult movie like I knew it would have been a bomb and then like people liked it. I'll give my quick background and then

[00:04:59] Ben you can take the reins again. I had never seen this movie in full I would watch pieces of it on TV a lot it would just be a movie that was on and every time I was on I would

[00:05:09] say to my dad like what's this movie about and he was like Martin Short plays a boy. Martin Short plays a 10 year old. And I was like why and he was like I don't know that's the joke

[00:05:19] of the movie. You're right. And I could never as a very I was a very literal child I could never get over that. It was also like this movie came out within like a couple years of Jack

[00:05:29] a couple years earlier. Well it came out a couple years earlier yeah it was made many years earlier but yes. But like that movie Jack is 96 I think right two years later that

[00:05:40] movie goes so far out of its way to be like here's why well yeah a boy looks like Robin Williams and Jack Clifford is just like you just have to accept that this is a grown man playing

[00:05:48] a 10 year old. Yeah Jack's also super modeling it's like about you know mortality or whatever this is a horror film. Yes I don't know that there's any other way that right any other genre it belongs to more than horror. Sure but I would say it's horror first comedy

[00:06:06] second. I'll say this yeah I've been on the record saying this I've said it before I'll say it again. Jack is my number one least favorite movie of all time. I saw Jack whenever it came

[00:06:17] out. Yeah I didn't like it and I was only like 10 years old so that really must have must have sucked. I don't remember much about it. Is Bill Cosby in it? Correct. He like farts

[00:06:26] a lot. I didn't like it. Here's the thing that movie was already bad and it's only gotten worse with times and reveals about its cast members it's like impossible to watch now. I did an

[00:06:37] episode on Jack for the Masterpiece Theater podcast shout out. Oh sure yeah which I'm going to be on probably around when this posts actually. One movie are you talking about. Ponyo my favorite movie.

[00:06:47] I'm doing an episode on Cars 3 I'm trying to get to the Five-Timer's Club on Masterpiece shout out to Josh Speel. Ben take them reins. All right well so I definitely watch this movie a

[00:07:02] ton as a kid. This was like a film where if like I went to the shore annually with my family I was always renting this fucker. If it was on TV like I feel like this is like a thing I very

[00:07:15] much watched in the summer yeah I was like sitting around in the living room it was like in the air conditioning and this was on TV I definitely watch it with the commercials and everything.

[00:07:25] I also should give a little context because I know we love context in this podcast. I was a little bit of a like a bad kid I guess like a little bit of a little shit so I really loved

[00:07:41] Clifford's character because I related to it. I would talk to adults and I would say their first name because I thought that was hilarious. It was so weird. I would be like Mary Ann to

[00:07:52] like my friend's mother and she would be like Ben don't call me by my first name. Well I mean that's you know your nicknames represent the different sides of your personality much like Split and dirt bike Benny is sort of the nickname we've used to represent your

[00:08:08] childhood years which you've alluded to being a stinker doing prank phone calls having a slingshot riding a dirt bike so the second you said you love this movie not just because it

[00:08:19] is a film that very much like died in theaters and has acquired a strange life on cable and VHS but also because Clifford immediately makes sense as an analog for Ben. I guess so. Yeah a little

[00:08:32] bit. For little Ben what I imagine Ben's childhood being like right little stinker. I definitely was a little stinker but like Clifford I guess it's like Clifford is presenting himself as a little stinker but he's worse. Clifford is a disturbing individual. He's an associate path that's the

[00:08:50] best way to put it and here's the interesting counterpoint movie for me. Okay so this movie as you've been alluding to was shot much earlier by Orion which then crumbled and set in a

[00:09:00] shelf for a while. It was produced by Orion Pictures which was a sort of successful United Artists that made lots of good movies like The Suns, the Lambs and fucking Dances with Wolves all

[00:09:12] kinds of cool. Pan her sisters made a lot of very successful bad movies too they were mostly known for trash but they made some interesting stuff as well. But they went under it was supposed to

[00:09:21] come out in 91 came out in 94 after like complicated bankruptcy you know because then MGM eventually gets the Orion library. Right. So and then it came out it was a colossal bomb it was a huge financial disaster. Critically reviled? It was greeted with disgusted reviews. And honestly

[00:09:45] it was kind of the end of Martin Short's career as a movie star I would say like not so much of Martin Short above the title anymore more like sprinkling him in. Yeah I was looking

[00:09:53] at him to be there's one after this where he's kind of the guy and I forget which one it is maybe 97. Oh I think a simple wish is his last like oh boy yes. That's honestly that is Amara

[00:10:04] Wilson picture he is he's the second lead but it is her I mean she was she was the poster star. Plenty to do a Glick film? He did but that was a small film that was like an independent

[00:10:16] release. But when was it what's it called? I don't know yeah I mean this really is. Jimny Glick and Lala Wood well I mean let's talk about Martin Short. Oh that's way later. But yes after this he sort of becomes a supporting player. Sure he's not even above

[00:10:32] the title anymore and he's like a scene stealer and Martin Short is this example. Which he had already been doing you know he's been the father the brides and all that. Right someone tweeted

[00:10:41] the other day something and when I say the other day we're recording this 17 years in advance so you know take that with a grand assault but they were like parroting our show and they were

[00:10:50] like tweeting a fake dialogue between us. Do you remember this? No the line they attributed to me was like yeah Hollywood never really figured out how to use that guy because apparently I'm

[00:11:01] really into that narrative. Sure sure sure which I accept fully right that's one of your tropes right when what was mine. I'm trying to remember now but Martin Short is like a very key example

[00:11:13] of that of someone where like no one ever questioned his talent yes he was always like beloved culturally but he never like there was that Vandy Fair profile of him like five years ago

[00:11:22] where they said like there are few guys who have reached the same level of comedy legend who like never were the star of their own TV show and never were the star of a successful movie.

[00:11:30] He's never been particularly successful no like I mean you know Maya and Marty last year or whatever anytime he's in it and he's like it's me Martin Short doing the thing you guys love

[00:11:42] and I'm always like we do love it I guess but like you don't have any like cultural touchstone to go to exactly. No I mean his most beloved movie is Three Amigos

[00:11:52] yes which at its time was a disappointment yeah wasn't a flop but was like really it was expensive it was hugely hyped it was Laura Michaels Post-SNL move and people were like oh it's a double

[00:12:03] right and now I think it's like grown in esteem to a tripler home run. I mean that's not even just his you know Steve Martin Chevy Chase and Martin Short yeah and then like most of his

[00:12:11] movies other than that are like two handers oh yeah totally you have like interspace we've Captain Ron you know he did like an Annette O'Toole movie right. An Annette O'Toole movie. I think he did an Annette O'Toole picture he did that Nick Nolte movie with Danny Glover called

[00:12:26] Pure Luck right I think Three Fugitives is that what's called Two Fugitives. Three Fugitives with Nick Nolte and James Reynolds yeah it was a lot of like pairing him with another

[00:12:36] actor to see if it worked and it never like totally but it never like didn't work I crossed my heart as the Annette O'Toole movie um he also and then yeah you know and then I think Father of the Bride

[00:12:49] for kids like me yeah who were too young for sc tv yeah and SNL like his his 80s tv you know legendary stuff yeah that was like oh right Martin Short brilliant I love him he's so funny

[00:13:02] as Frank it's like it's not even a like textured performance let's say but it's a very big supporting performance a very big supporting performance but it gets in this thing which is like

[00:13:13] Martin Short might actually be too big for most projects he's a big actor he's a big actor and he's Dana Carvey ask yes I would say Dana Carvey is a good successor to Martin Short in the SNL

[00:13:25] yeah spectrum and another guy who never really made sense in movies no and certainly not as leading men because they always were on it was always so hyped so on but there's something very

[00:13:37] endearing about Martin Short even when a lot of the time he was good in here advice really good and there's the story where he was like at the New York Film Critics screening and someone at the Q&A

[00:13:47] was like where have you been and then everyone applauded and they were like we love you Marty welcome back and it's like dude didn't stop acting he's been in for 10 years no he's around

[00:13:55] you know and he'll host SNL once in a while he'll drop in to like and you know he's so funny and arrested development that is gonna say one of the rashes ranges good performances on that show

[00:14:07] but but it's whoop me dragon he kind of works best as a disruptive force in a project if you give him too much the whole project becomes insane yeah you know I don't think he's

[00:14:18] ever been bad in anything but sometimes if a project has to bend to his level it like the whole reality gets warped you agree uh but but he's never really had a stink on him which is

[00:14:30] interesting it's true even though he like we say is not really what I would consider successful but it doesn't matter but I feel like everyone has this nostalgia for him yeah well you worked

[00:14:39] with him yeah can I talk about this a little bit so we've invoked this a lot but I was fired from the sick homilating on which he was I guess he kind of was occupying the Alec Baldwin

[00:14:49] role or whatever like you know the kind of like big star role right and he's very big on the show sure I liked Malaney I didn't think it ever totally knew what to do with him sometimes

[00:15:01] but he was pretty funny on it and there's a couple episodes that are really good you know where he does funny stuff like power moves is a good episode yeah I couldn't watch

[00:15:11] it because it was like uh my seeing my family hang out with someone else yeah um but uh you know quick quick breeze by sure the pilot script from Malaney is still the funniest script I've

[00:15:23] ever read um we shot that for NBC yeah with some interference but I think largely made it through well it was the exact cast that ended up on air except with uh me in it and NBC passed on it

[00:15:36] and Fox picked it up and demanded uh extensive rewrites that remodeled the whole show my character was written out of their insistence and all the other cast members stayed on but the characters were

[00:15:47] very warped from what the original conception was yeah um and it's clear that Fox were like Malaney your stand-ups funny the show should be like you or stand-up bits right why doesn't

[00:15:58] it we don't do that and also why is there a skinny guy you're a skinny guy get rid of the other skinny guy we only need one skinny guy like yeah so get rid of him what about a fat guy

[00:16:08] like he could be really fat well I'm not gonna say anything on Mike but what an interesting conversation you just hypothetically had and it's I mean it's when the pilot uh because Malaney

[00:16:20] did kind of settle down and figure itself out but the pilot the Fox pilot is truly like obviously written by a studio head essentially just say because it has all these scenes that are just

[00:16:33] adapted from Malaney stand-up bits yeah and it's clear that he was just like I love that bit that should be in the show like it's it's all wrong the right whereas uh his original

[00:16:42] conceptual the show was not that at all yeah um him being a stand-up was a side but worse and they didn't adapt his bits in the same sort of way so literally um the only two people I know who

[00:16:54] watched who I know personally who watched every episode of Malaney while it was airing were you and my father and you were writing pieces defending it my father would just call me every

[00:17:03] month and go grift that show is not working I were one piece defending it I just thought that I had this kind of sick heart to it that I was sort of sure it was just the two men I love in my life

[00:17:12] were watching the thing that destroyed me but um I got to uh work with him for like two weeks sure which was uh exciting I mean so far beyond uh saying it's a highlight of my career is an

[00:17:27] understatement uh my time working on it was like kind of a dream before it uh rose up right like the dark phoenix and killed me I will say uh bar none he is the most uh technically precise actor I

[00:17:41] have ever worked with interesting and the most fascinating process to observe the idea was they set him up to be more like how jack danagy was in the first season 30 rock where they

[00:17:51] weren't sure how on board alex balvin was when 30 rocks started he had in his contract that he only had to be in half the episodes of the season and they thought he'd be more of a floating

[00:17:59] sometimes character and so it was like once an episode you'll have a big scene where uh martin shorts character who was a game show host and a wash up comedian uh has melanie's personal assistant

[00:18:11] melanie goes over to his mansion to help him write jokes and it would be like here's your little marty shorter the middle of every episode right and so my character never interacted with

[00:18:20] him but it was a multi-camera show right and so you'd rehearse every day like it was a play so it felt like being in a high school play where you'd hang out with the whole cast all the time

[00:18:28] and he would come in he had it in his contract that his stuff was up first every morning and we'd all get there even though we didn't need to just watch it happen we wouldn't sit in our

[00:18:36] dressing room and seat and smith past guests of the show and I would sit there and just watch and be like this is fucking incredible and in sitcoms like that they rewrite extensively every day there's a new draft and he had the biggest binder I've ever seen

[00:18:49] binders full of women uh no no he had a huge huge binder and he had every single draft in there because his notes were so thorough on every page like the most notes I've ever seen

[00:19:00] because he just has a thousand comedic ideas for every line sure and he'd go like john what if I was eating pudding in this scene and you're like what okay martin it's okay right and then you go like I know a guy who

[00:19:13] was a businessman and I'd go meet up with him and he'd always just be eating pudding and it would play against all the points he was making and then you'd be like I don't know let's see what

[00:19:21] it looks like and take out a cup of pudding and it would be like that's the best pudding eating I've ever seen he knew how to put just enough in his mouth that it would make his voice funny

[00:19:28] but you could still hear it I love you but we have to stop we have to talk about the damn movie he was incredible and I've been sort of like I've had a renewed appreciation for

[00:19:39] his abilities since that show which is like four or five years ago now yeah wow yeah time has passed time has passed times is hard sweetie um but uh yeah we all would sit there and set and go

[00:19:50] like it's god he's gonna win so many emmies for this like we sat there and we're like this is the comeback look this is the one millennial NBC it's it's a it's an all-time what if I'm not trying to

[00:20:02] throw this under buzz I'm just saying there was this thing where we were all sitting there and we were like he's due for the thing where he just and he still is yeah um yeah I don't know

[00:20:13] I don't know what what you know what he wants to do with himself I don't know I don't know what this is I don't know what the fuck Clifford is well directed by Paul Flaherty who is an sc tv guy

[00:20:21] I came up on sc tv which is his famous Canadian sketch show from the late 70s early 80s John Candy John Flaherty directed who is Harry Crumb with John Candy um yeah oh oh you're

[00:20:33] talking about this guy Paul Flaherty right uh yeah sorry sorry sorry who's Harry Crumb's a weird movie I don't like that movie I don't either it's I watched it when I was like a

[00:20:41] teenager and it grossed me out I didn't like it this is an sc tv guy this was trying to translate a dude who played best in sketch into being a movie star and this is very much a sketch comedy

[00:20:52] movie in its sort of tone in a sense I mean this now so we all know John Mulaney worships martin short and one of John Mulaney's greatest and most unheralded SNL sketches is that one

[00:21:02] where Fred Armisen plays like a really uh big kid like you know he's at like the dinner table he's like oh please you remember this rightly I've never gotten a sketch I know this sketch has a clippard like following exactly that sketch is obviously like a martin scorch

[00:21:21] a martin short sketch for sc tv like that's it's got that vibe to it right and that's what this is like yeah except it's 95 minute movie or whatever yeah can I quickly throw out a

[00:21:31] a what if alternate history what do you think would have happened if martin short like doubled down on ed grimley and made it his peewee herman yeah I don't know I mean you the

[00:21:41] thing about peewee herman is it's a really good movie right you know and it's like if you make a really good movie and or a really interesting tv show like great yeah it's not the character

[00:21:52] that is going to carry you through you do need like some artistry around it well and this movie to me is very much like of a piece with the 90s trend of hollywood trying to figure out

[00:22:03] how you make a tim Burton movie without Tim Burton yeah like after peewee and beetle juice those one two punches of like oh comedies that are like playful from a filmmaking standpoint yeah and are this kind

[00:22:14] of like impressionistic and have this many like weird visual influences sure and odd tone management that begin in 2050 right um they just keep on trying to make a tim Burton movie without him

[00:22:29] and tim Burton also then fails to ever make a movie like that ever again but there's that one pocket where like beetle juice and peewee's big adventure are these weird dead end movies that no one's been

[00:22:38] able to replicate where you just go like man why couldn't all comedies be as adventurous hard it's uh hard the people who wrote this movie never wrote a movie again crazy never before or

[00:22:49] again yeah I don't know who they are so is this a style of comedy that has really just fallen out of favor would you guys say yeah but I feel like people try to make it once in a while I mean

[00:23:00] the master of disguise is a different movie from this kind of movie but like movies where it's like yeah why don't I just do bits that can't be a movie like you know like bit like some bits for

[00:23:11] you but I think the added elements are uh like really dark dark worldview soul kind of thing well this movie's sick right that's not that is atypical I would say but I think that's

[00:23:23] peewee's yeah right I think that's uh people getting the the the recipe wrong from peewee like peewee's dark but not in a way that makes you uncomfortable no exactly although you know

[00:23:35] that's and that's part of paul rubens' skill with that character is that he walks the line better than he should yeah I think dvido was trying to make these kinds of movies for a while cabin boy is

[00:23:44] certainly a movie like this death of smoochy death of smoochy right there's a wave of movies like this that just have like the oddball visual elements a really dark heart you know

[00:23:53] a kind of gopher broke like comedic style sure no performance can be too big yes but I can't think of anything in the last 10 years that's that comes to mind no I think like you had too many high

[00:24:06] profile flops like the movies in this style that flopped didn't just flop but were like hated all right but let's talk about this move let's talk about this move Ben guide us through

[00:24:15] Ben I wanted to say something to you yes sir because you the minute I so the minute I started watching this movie probably 15 minutes and I texted both you just being like what the

[00:24:23] fuck is this movie you were flipping out um you replied with something that many people both online and that I know reply with when they are confronted with the name of this

[00:24:33] movie which is I want to say mason why is that line so crucial to all I don't know it makes me laugh so hard the setup is like well we'll get to that part I'm obsessed with that line

[00:24:50] you look at like the letterbox page it's like five reviews that are like I want to say mason and this is a great I think this is a great time to give a shout out to the best show okay

[00:24:59] to Tom Sharpe sure because I'm a big fan of that that radio show and then now that podcast grew up listening to that guy and there was a there was a period of time a few years back

[00:25:11] where him and worst or were like just doing bits where they constantly referenced this movie and specifically that line so I think there might be some maybe that's why okay there might be some

[00:25:22] that's why it's helped take sure of that kind of going on interesting sure but uh yeah I just also that was just a memorable line to me where like me and my friends you know like my buddy

[00:25:31] Garrett who also has a similar kind of taste in movies him and I would constantly just quote that at each other I don't get it I feel like have you seen this before not all the way through I just seen

[00:25:43] in pieces on cable I mean I probably had seen the whole movie out of order I'd seen it like you see the cloverfield monster in cloverfield no I could put it together my mind's eye

[00:25:51] um uh past guest Morgan Evans maybe he's the only one who did this but I feel like he always does this invokes the line that you did at the beginning Ben because I think that's kind of like

[00:26:03] for me the turnkey of the entire movie is Charles Groom just being like act like a normal human right because the whole point this movie is like wait it's not just that he's evil no it's not

[00:26:10] that he's a shithead it's like what the fuck is he and also why is he played by a grown man like the movie calls itself out and goes like this doesn't make any sense what is this

[00:26:21] creature the movie begins in the year 2050 well wait let Ben guide us sure Ben when does the movie begin it begins in the year 2050 oh wow and Martin sure it's an old man he's like

[00:26:32] in some future like Jesuit or whatever yeah like he's a future priest I think it's a school right it's like a Catholic boarding school or something but even that before that the movie opens with

[00:26:45] those weird paintings yeah this is the story of a boy's adventure spirit or whatever that's true and like then I was like okay all right like I was into this very much the never ending story

[00:26:56] or right which I think is one of the mistakes this movie makes but carry on cool and so you basically just like to kind of get us through it Martin sure is like mentoring this like sort of

[00:27:08] ridiculous bad boy bad boy kid who apparently blew up the gymnasium played by Ben Savage Cory Matthews oh that was Ben's little Cory Matthews and he's a little stinker he's a stinker

[00:27:20] and he's like I was once a stinker too right but there's also a couple weird bits like he pretends to have a heart attack and then it's a it's like a scheme to get Ben Savage to come near him or

[00:27:32] that yeah the suitcase and then the child fall on top of him that's funny that is funny the basketball hits him on the head then a suitcase and then the child that's funny but there

[00:27:42] there are a few actors who don't sound a mint yes there are few actors who love physical business more than Martin short and he's good at he's got a bag of like 10 moves he loves doing and you see

[00:27:52] him try to incorporate them into anything he does and it's like even though you've seen it before him choking is always funny him falling is always funny him dancing is always funny

[00:28:01] like he dances the same way in Clifford that Ed Grimley dances he kind of did the original dab do you realize that he does the move where he like puts his arm in front of his face

[00:28:11] okay he does that in all his movies all right you know I think you picked up on this very well because the dab and daddy wait what very woke very very intersectional oh boy am I using the language

[00:28:23] right no okay great okay so what is all established though in this like kind of flashback or rather right he's like let me tell you about when I was a bad kid oh no go ahead right it's a story and

[00:28:37] a story so then it's like and so you know that he's going to reform and become a Catholic missionary or right by priest whatever I love because I can imagine the screenwriter sitting

[00:28:50] there and they're like wait a second if we frame the movie as a reform right Clifford telling about his evil ways then the audience will be on board with him if they know he turns out good

[00:28:59] eventually I do think that is important to that sort of because yeah otherwise I think you just be watching the movie and be like is it just about like a demon seed like that's what the whole

[00:29:11] movie is and like these are just gonna die at the end like that's kind of what you want to happen right but you want to fall into the little brea tarpits or something right but here's the

[00:29:19] interesting like counterpoint movie this movie I guess was made at a very similar time to problem child yeah sure I can look that up for you problem child is like the version of this

[00:29:29] movie that doesn't make you uncomfortable right that is just like goofy like hijinks it was made pretty much yeah problem child is 1990 in this movie supposed to come out around them that becomes successfully make a bunch of sequels they do an animated series everyone hates this movie

[00:29:41] it's because in problem child it feels like the kid's just kind of guileless and doesn't know what he's doing but causes damage another another small point in problem child the kids played by a kid

[00:29:50] correct he's a little kid correct a little kid actor not martin short and everyone near him is standing on a box yes yes and I also think in problem child uh-huh you feel bad for John

[00:30:01] Redder sure and in this Charles Groton is playing as curmudgeonly as he ever has yeah it's a this is a performance that Groton I think then modulates for Beethoven yes you know in Beethoven he adds some

[00:30:14] dad into it so you're a little more on his side yeah uh in this he's kind of an asshole oh he's definitely an asshole and like even though the beginning of the movie is like getting you on his

[00:30:24] side because I mean when he's telling the story very beginning he can't even lie convincing well right yeah but the beginning of the story is like you know blah what's Charles Gordon's character's name uh Jesus uh martin yes martin like he wanted to do two things he

[00:30:37] wanted to build a public transit system for Los Angeles right that sounds like a nice idea it'd be great we've been waiting for one sure like a really functional one great and he wanted to

[00:30:47] marry mary steenberg and you're like okay this is going to be a guy oh he's a nice guy and we'll see him deteriorate right and then from the very first scene when he shows her

[00:30:55] the house mary steenberg and is like fuck you you're an asshole I've known it all along right he buys like kind of a crappy minimalist one bedroom yeah they didn't even talk to her yeah

[00:31:05] it's a weird move actually that's a really weird move and she's like you clearly don't want to have children you're a self-involved guy I don't want to marry you know I don't want to be with you

[00:31:14] kids what about my nephew uh I want to say mason well hold on give it's you know it's due okay all right like the setup is more she's like come on no I love kids I got a nephew my nephew uh

[00:31:28] what's his name he's like I want to say mason it is funny it's funny it's just it's just weird that it became so weird aside a little like not even a bit but it just damn it really resonates

[00:31:43] but but groden who was known as like Hollywood's greatest crank right yeah was like a dude who came out of like a Meisner you know was contemporaries with gene wilder everyone thought he was going to

[00:31:54] be like the leading man and he did a lot of cult comedies that like never really crossed over like heartbreak kid and stuff well he did midnight run well that was I think later that's the moment

[00:32:03] but he already had been around for a long time at that point because he's in like he's been around forever at that point he's much older than he looks because he's like 60 in this movie yeah

[00:32:12] he's almost he's close he's in his 50s he always looked younger yeah folks out there should watch his appearances on the johnny karson show right he's so fucking that's the big thing he would

[00:32:21] go and talk shows and act like he hated it and that really elevated him in midnight run which we will inarguably cover at some point in the class and he's an ishtar your favorite which I love him man

[00:32:31] um and then he's in the Beethoven movies and suddenly the kids are like love this grumpy guy give me him and he does a couple of those and then he retires for like 20 years pretty much

[00:32:41] he starts fighting Clifford is his last screen appearance and that's only because it got released late like Dave is really his last screen appearance she's so good and great and Dave uh and then he becomes really into like civil rights and like uh trials like mist trials correcting

[00:32:57] mist trials do you know about this I don't but we can't get in he hosted like a CNN show for a while and he started acting again in the last couple of years like louis and uh while we're

[00:33:06] young and stuff hey the comedian the comedian he's he's not great but midnight run deniro signs on and they wanted a huge star next to him and they wanted like robin williams they wanted

[00:33:19] to gender flip it and make it share like there were all these weird ideas and deniro held his ground and he was like this movie works if it's charles groten and that's the movie where he

[00:33:27] finds the right balance of being an asshole and being kind of lovable and it's like this movie empowered by midnight run and getting this like second lease on his career he's like oh people love it when i'm an asshole and just plays so unlikable the entire film right

[00:33:40] which is amazing to watch comedically but it also means you're watching a movie with like it is like alien versus predator it's like whoever wins we lose i'm rooting for groten i'm sorry

[00:33:50] i'm rooting for groten i want him to kill this kid in the same way that i'm rooting for the predator i want him to kill this kid and and and get away with it that's what i want to happen

[00:34:01] and i want him to i think it's because i want him to build that transit system yeah and it's weird that the movie kind of like sort of skims past that at the end the movie skims past everything

[00:34:10] at the end though we'll get to know it's never gonna happen true it's not gonna happen well i mean hey it's set in 2050 like it could predict any future true you know no one's going like man took the

[00:34:19] bus here i don't know i don't know they could be in the future they could be on some train and he could be like well you know and then one day he built this train that we now use or whatever

[00:34:27] sure fair deuce fair deuce but yeah so you have the introduction of cliford is him on the plane with his parents um richard kind yeah and uh jennifer savage uh are his parents they're on the

[00:34:41] plane and they are just worn down richard kind so they hate this child richard kind who is the best at playing like a weary like i how do you put it just broken yeah just a broken man i remember

[00:34:54] like when he showed up in kimmy schmidt recently is like the teacher who like runs the rubber room or whatever he's like a human puddle he perfectly put right uh he was the guest on the first

[00:35:05] oh hello i went to and he was a fabulous guest i can't even imagine he's exactly who you want to see yeah exactly it was what i was it was when it was off broadway he was sitting in front of me

[00:35:16] which i did not realize right it was but every time someone he laughed he he went like ah ah he has like a very pronounced laugh yeah and i was like who is this guy and then when they

[00:35:25] did the thing is like a now our guest richard kind and he just stood up and got on stage with him he was very funny very into it and then melanie was like also your best friends at george cloney right

[00:35:35] which he is yeah and he was like yeah that's the one thing i can't talk about and it was really it was an interesting he was nice about it but it was like no go like i'll talk about anything else yeah

[00:35:45] it was weird it is it's so weird that he's best friends they're like best buds but from back when cloney was like a weirdo who lived by the pool and had a pet pig they were both just like

[00:35:53] eighties like workaday sitcom actors uh i saw him in an audition waiting room once and so he ran into some other like you know like a new york character actor and i was he was dropping on their

[00:36:05] conversation and richard kind talking about his career sounded like a richard kind character talking about i don't know i mean they just won't pick up my calls i mean he's got two scenes

[00:36:17] ben like how much of the movie he's not in much of the movie it's just the scene on the plane and the scene off the plane yeah and he fades like bing bong he's good as bing bong so they're on

[00:36:26] the plane cliford's being a fucking pain in the ass he's got a toy dinosaur he's like he's like launching it using the fucking uh the table on the back of the the white with the foldout table

[00:36:37] what am i saying um and then he like realizes they're flying over dinosaur land he's obsessed with dinosaur land right and he will pretty much is not a real at nothing to get there

[00:36:49] that's just holy girls he just wants to go to this theme park and so he decides he's gonna go see the pilot really to just sabotage the flight to force them to land in los angeles which is where

[00:36:59] dino land is because they're trying to get to why where the dad has to speak at a conference yeah some business yeah i mean something more or less though it's just like he in the um

[00:37:09] i wanted to say pilot area cockpit yeah got it uh he pushes some button they're forced to land basically richard kind calls his like sort of his brother isn't talked to very often who lives in

[00:37:23] los angeles and gets him to take care of cliford while they're in hawaii on the business trip and oh what good timing because uh groden has just gotten in the fight with mary steenburgen

[00:37:35] and this is a great time to prove to her that he does love kids yeah it's one of those annoying movie contrivances yep it's stupid this guy who hasn't seen his nephew for 10 years but

[00:37:46] invokes him an hour before he gets the phone call so cliford almost crashes a plane because he wants to go to the dinosaur land sure cliford is played by martin short

[00:37:56] he's a 10 year old boy played by like a 38 year old man yeah it's a good actually that's a good call how old was martin sure uh in 19 born 1950 so he would have been close to 40 years old

[00:38:07] yeah when he shot this movie probably 40 but he reads 10 no no i'm sorry i'm doing my math wrong no 30 years okay that's a little more i mean it's what am i talking about it's still 30 year

[00:38:16] old playing a 10 year old right but um so they do it just basically just by having to be short he is very tiny uh he's a small man anyway he's elfin i mean he's not just short but he's like

[00:38:27] yeah he's in he's he's building me um i think a lot of the scenes they just had actors stand on boxes i think they cast a lot of tall actors too sure uh i'm assuming in some scenes martin

[00:38:38] shorts basically just on his knees just to you know reinforce it it weirdly the the perspective thing weirdly works yeah it does the only time it seems weird is there's some closeups of his face

[00:38:49] and he has a man's face yes like you it's not like you can see stubble exactly but you can see he has a shaved face he works better in wide shots yeah um but they even like they have a lot of

[00:38:59] full body shots i mean they i think to the movies advantage they don't uh beat themselves up about keeping him at the same height so if they want to a shot of him walking yeah and you can see

[00:39:10] everyone's feet right they try to cast tall actors around him and they just let him be that size if they're sitting he does a lot of stuff too where he holds his hands closer to his chest

[00:39:20] yeah he's wearing um short pants uniform with short pants right he's wearing like a little suit and tie yes oh fucking god i let me see if i can recall he kind of dresses like a little

[00:39:31] businessman like he had a really good story he told on set about he had to get his legs waxed every day for that movie cliford i might recall it by the end of the episode but it was a story about every

[00:39:42] day he had to go in the hair and makeup chop and this woman had to wax his legs interesting yeah so ben it had to do with his channels by forget what it was yeah great he's united with

[00:39:51] charles groden with martin his uncle i think he's sort of like you see right away that he's already sort of starting to manipulate right and like i think ask him to go to dinosaur land

[00:40:02] right they can't because he has to basically go charles has to go bring him over to the girlfriend's house there's always like something that needs to happen right yeah it's never really

[00:40:11] that important or clear it's just sort of like it everything keeps getting in the way of going into dinosaur lands but but have we established that groden was sort of like worked on dinosaur

[00:40:22] land he's like the architect of dinosaur right oh true right he bill larry the scary rex right at the start it seems like this is going to be fine because he like picks him up and he's like hey

[00:40:31] you know this you know and he's like do you what i want to go dinosaur and he's like i know dinosaur land i worked on dinosaur land i can definitely take you no argument there it's fourth in the

[00:40:39] queue so here's the question yeah if the movie if he just took him to dinosaur land right like immediately right would cliford then behave normally or would there be some new thing i mean

[00:40:51] this is the great question because the whole point of the movie is he just says and he is consistent basically yeah he just wants to go to dinosaur land and he becomes enraged because

[00:41:02] he believes that uh charles groden is like you know ignoring this to like spend time with his girlfriend's family and do also he's in love with the girlfriend then he's also in love

[00:41:13] with the girlfriend which is very distressing and i don't like it but he's not trying to prevent he's not fully trying to prevent groden and the girlfriend from getting married the girlfriend played by academy award winner mary steenburgen in a 100 thankless role not a great role kind of

[00:41:31] a role that too often you see in these kinds of movies which essentially just like the object of the movie for the guy is that he wants to marry the girl and so he is humiliated

[00:41:41] embarrassed in various ways and she's like oh i can't believe it and then at the end she's like i forgive you like for no reason or whatever and the conflict is that two other people also want to

[00:41:50] marry her sure a very virile dabney colman is trying to fuck her and cliford has this weird obsession with her the great dabney colman the great a tv actor largely but uh a good

[00:42:01] character actor in movies um famously bald right wearing a wig yes and an sport of beard and a beard and the early plot point in the movie is that they don't know if he's wearing a

[00:42:11] wig or not i say he's got one of the best rugs in town which i'm a little annoyed about because it's like it's dabney colman the first thing you know about dabney colman is that he's bald

[00:42:19] that is the most famous thing about dabney colman yes another thing is that groden famously a rug wear uh yeah well he's got he's got that that always got that sort of fine doll hair

[00:42:31] right yeah he loses his hair early but still keeps a useful face and has this weird doll rug that he wears for like 20 years of his career before he retires and when he comes out of

[00:42:40] retirement everyone's like whoa charles groden aged a lot and it was like no he was just hiding his age for a long time right yeah yeah he's he's weirdly old but he's always got

[00:42:51] weird kendall hair his hair doesn't move properly no it doesn't and in midnight run where he has to get dirty there's just like a second wig that's tussled right it's like designs

[00:43:00] look messy but it doesn't look human either um i think the question of would cliford be a good boy if he just got to go to dinosaur land how one answers that says a lot about your world view i mean

[00:43:13] it's a very existential question is it just the thing where it's like he just all he seems to care about he does you're right he does of course get sexually obsessed with marie steinberg

[00:43:22] but he also wants to be the ring boy like he's yeah not trying to stand in the way of the marriage because if they got married he would also gain by getting to be the ring bear right

[00:43:30] but he's got this pet dinosaur called stefan that he constantly addresses loves it constantly holding it and then he blames all the bad things on right um he wants to go to dinosaur world correct he just just fucking take him to dinosaur world right away and then maybe

[00:43:45] you're everyone's happy but is the film saying like do not get in the way of nature like things let's play out as as they must what is it saying is he an agent of chaos no i see it

[00:43:55] differently i see it as what what's happening is cliford's just using his uncle and his uncle is just using cliford so they're both competing right to take advantage of each right right right and that's a bad situation totally it's terrible but the thing is cliford's martin cliford's uncle

[00:44:12] yes is is a recognizable person where it's like he's a flawed guy he kind of you know can be a bit of an asshole he's unlikable he's not very likable but he's all right like you know as a

[00:44:23] like he's a functional human being who can like hold a conversation with someone or whatever like it's a very broad performance of a recognizable human um where cliford is a broad performance of

[00:44:36] a robot like a weird whatever he's like yeah he's like a guy is it a loony tune a loony tune or like it's like he's like a rumple still skin or something like he's like something that's

[00:44:46] entered your life and it's like uh uh bad no no no now you must do whatever the cliford he's like the physicalization of a curse yes he's like a curse that is a good way to put it

[00:44:56] and so is the answer like it's kind of like if a mugger points a gun at you do you argue with the mugger or do you just say look here's my wallet like please go away you know do you just

[00:45:04] resolve the bad thing and with cliford it's like yeah do you just deal with the curse first or do you try and like avoid the curse and like just fighting make it worse i think it is a very

[00:45:13] existential movie really truly okay bent what happens next all right so he embarrasses the uh the boss uh dabbney right um by saying that's a great that's the bestest rug i've ever seen

[00:45:28] or bestest toupee i've ever seen yeah uh and so that's sort of starting this like recurring kind of beats let's say of like cliford being brought out with uh martin and him just ruining what

[00:45:43] is happening in his life right and dabbney uh uh groden is trying to impress dabbney to impress steenburgen and cliford's pretty superfluous we don't really need dabbney right no not at all

[00:45:57] he's an odd yeah so we go back to uh there's a lot of obstacles yeah but they end up kind of not mattering at all not at all like because like part of the plot is like groden's trying to get

[00:46:08] like this big deal done and then at the end of the movie it's like it doesn't get done and then it's just like not mentioned again right clipper just fucks it up and it's like well all right

[00:46:16] i guess i'm not gonna do that like he doesn't like then save the deal no uh and so in this in this moment where he's like sort of yelling at um yelling at cliford cliford then sets up what's

[00:46:32] leading to the party right because i think we should just jump to that but cliford also he does this thing where he goes like you can't just say to someone that they have a good rug

[00:46:40] and he's like i didn't say it martin i said he had the bestest rug in the whole wide world it's a compliment like you're establishing this thing that cliford never thinks he does

[00:46:48] anything wrong right and always has an explanation that either he didn't do it the way you're perceiving the incident is incorrect his intentions were pure like cliford never owns anything

[00:47:00] and you also get no kind of look at all gets blamed on uh what's the stefan right and you don't get a look into cliford's thought process like sometimes it's hard to tell if cliford knows what

[00:47:10] he's doing or not as the movie goes on there are later points where it's like okay cliford's mackey of valiant yes but there are early points where you're just like is cliford just oblivious right

[00:47:18] is he just an agent of chaos like yeah but no then there's that point where he kind of has the internal monologue where it's because because martin has to go to a family dinner

[00:47:29] yeah uh and he's like he'd rather i'd go to dinner than like take me to dinosaur land one time cliford like externalizes his thought process right says it out loud and then makes

[00:47:40] the tape with the bomb threat and then right and then you're like right this is a psychotic kid that's what it is right he's that's what you do when you don't get your way yeah

[00:47:50] he's woken the devil yes uh and so at the party it's you know sort of like the stakes are high somewhat for charl groden character because he really is already not on good terms with his girlfriend

[00:48:03] now he's going to the 35th anniversary of her parents who don't seem to like him very much from the get go not at all true they're not big characters but they're not that fun to him no and so we just

[00:48:14] get a great fucking like stuck up party scene with a ton of hijinks true uh you basco in the bloody marriage basco in the bloody merry which also let's be clear who drinks bloody marys at that time

[00:48:27] yeah odd time to drink a bloody merry number one two to basco a great ingredient in bloody merry yeah just in moderation i guess right too much and then it swaps out the lipstick for the

[00:48:36] chapstick or rather the opposite of what i just said also they didn't need to keep showing him putting on chapstick that much yeah we get it it's like five shots of him doing it to set up that one it takes

[00:48:49] him a while to figure it out yeah you could say they were gilding the lily on that one or or chap sticking the groden on that one also uh why is everyone laughing at him like

[00:49:00] it's like such a weird reaction yeah this movie uh is sort of crazy has some has some weird moments of transphobia out of nowhere yeah that's a good point i actually i mean like they're

[00:49:10] reacting to him in this moment very odd isn't there the thing where the other guy starts looking at him amorously and then they keep on calling him a lady yeah i mean i think this is uh you see that

[00:49:19] a lot in those 80s and early 90s comedies where it's like a man dressed as a woman can you imagine ace venture pet detective has that like fucking horrendous well that's that's crazy yeah that's that

[00:49:31] that's on a whole other level because not only is it quite offensive but also for a movie made in 94 it's also weirdly sexually graphic yeah like outside it's just sort of a crazy way to end the

[00:49:42] movie you like kind of see shan yang's testicles right and then everyone vomits and when not vomits but everyone who has made out with shan yang at some point goes like and like everybody hurts they play some song i can't they definitely don't play everybody hurts i can't

[00:49:59] remember what they play it's it's it's insane about it sure and we're probably never i mean tom shadiak's had a very strange career actually i'll make a promise right here if this show runs

[00:50:10] for 10 years we'll do a tumblehead sure but um that movie is jim carrey's very funny in it but like it's a very dark movie like and like i just mean like it's like a weird hardboiled crime movie

[00:50:23] and it's about a crazy person and there's that scene where he goes to the guy's house and it's filled with like he's got his old like weird like hillbilly parents and the house is

[00:50:32] filled with like defaced images of dammarino it's really odd uh tone look though tone looks great uh i think when nature calls is better even though it is uh hashtag problematic in its own

[00:50:44] ways no when nature calls is way worse when nature calls is terrible but it has one incredible incredible scene when he walks out of the elephant's butt which is is is good it's just funny

[00:50:59] it's also got the monopoly man the monopoly guy thing yeah that's that's kind of funny no i think when carmen's rule of like this is the worst screenwriting thing you can ever do is the monopoly

[00:51:07] guy thing right uh do you know about this van no so when nature calls there's a scene where he goes to the party and everyone's looking at him weird because he's been sure and he's like

[00:51:16] disrupting stuff right and someone's like well i never and he's like a bald man wearing like a tuxedo with a monocle and uh isfandshura goes like oh and who are you the monopoly guy

[00:51:29] and dan harman uses that like he calls it a monopoly guy which is like when a movie sets up its own joke like to make a character look funny yeah it's like that's not impressive that he's

[00:51:39] zing the monopoly guy because you had a central casting call for a guy who looks like the monopoly guy right and then you went to wardrobe and you said can you make this guy look more like

[00:51:47] the monopoly guy like it's like not funny if you set up circumstances that make someone look funny when they were contract anyway monopoly guy uh the move is clifford all right so moving

[00:52:00] right along uh last beat in the uh party scene right because we have the sabotage speech we have the lipstick at the at the table and then we have the police storming and arrest charles

[00:52:14] groden's character because he made a bomb threat he apparently yes called in a bomb threat at the home that they're in oh and did we zoom past when the the gas station scene where there's the family

[00:52:25] who are going to dinosaur land and he switches costume oh yeah that was a little that was the in between of those yeah he pays a kid money to wear his dinosaur costume so he can sneak away

[00:52:34] with his family oh that's right and then charles groden goes in the bathroom sees a kid dress like clifford with a lot of money clifford does a lot of stuff that doesn't make any sense no he fills

[00:52:42] his house with teenagers at one point and you have no idea how he could have possibly met or engaged with these teenagers and then ties himself up it's really weird yeah i mean they

[00:52:55] also we're talking about the seabird he pays the kid for the dinosaur costume yeah there's like a weird pedophile joke that i did not remember tell me watching it as a kid well yeah

[00:53:06] charles groden is like yeah he's i just saw him in the bathroom with a bunch of money or something that's right you're like oh my god what yeah because the mother's like what are you doing with

[00:53:15] my son he's like i ran to him in the bathroom he had all this money where does clifford get all that money from i don't know the other bad the other really bad trans joke in this movie

[00:53:24] is when mary steenbergian is like you're a phony and i can spot a phony from a mile away and then these two trans men with the voices yes that's another weird bit they're like uh which way

[00:53:35] to eighth street hey honey where are we and she's like all right over there ma'am or whatever and you're like uh-huh we we we get it but it's set up like an airplane gag where it goes like nice

[00:53:45] beaver and then you see a beaver sure it's um like the movie implies that trans people are phonies uh well they're fuck that they're they're like they're drag queens right yeah okay but i mean

[00:53:57] yeah but nonetheless it is i don't know if they are i mean i feel like this is from a time where they were like oh all trans people are drag exactly where they were considered one in the same right

[00:54:07] but um beyond that it's also just tonally it's like right are we in an airplane movie or are we in like a Beethoven movie right is this sort of a thing about a grounded guys life

[00:54:17] getting fucked up by a problematic kid right or is this like just a wacky throw jokes every one minute you know like right like just like zap zap zap uh like screwball come well it there's a third

[00:54:29] option are we in hell are we all sharing in a common mass delusion this movie is definitely set in hell it is it's a very hellish and then it descends into hell at the end right like the dinosaur

[00:54:40] stuff is okay so martin gets arrested uh yes and uh you know really it looks like almost cliford sort of winning now right because it is there and competing gets each other cliford gets to go home

[00:54:54] with the girl and he's eating a bunch of sugary cereal and and garbage i don't like any of that cliford's game it's really gross yeah uh do you want to fuck that now i don't know i think he

[00:55:05] does yes oh boy but groden comes home he covers for cliford they go back to his apartment he's he's just he can't he can't deal anymore he's like really now starting to lose it that's when you get

[00:55:22] the uh speech i uh i quoted at the top of the episode he's like just act like a human what is wrong with you why would you do this which is a great moment for groden so good it's so good

[00:55:33] watching groden disintegrate i honestly almost wish it went a little further in that direction too i really wish that at the end of this movie groden strangled him to death or something this movie

[00:55:42] almost has a weird slow burn like it takes 45 minutes before stuff right because it's kind of light and cute for a while right and then of course and there's also that beginning bit you

[00:55:53] know the 2050 stuff that's also pretty light and cute yeah and you're like yeah okay this is a kids movie i get it right and then suddenly he i mean he has ruined charles groden's life

[00:56:03] yes he loses his job he loses his girlfriend yeah he blows up his house practically you're carrying on well all right so we'll just we'll get through it because again it's just like

[00:56:14] we're gonna we gotta get to that last scene right that's the big that's the big point so where it becomes a german expression oh my god it's so great but anyway so groden um basically he yells

[00:56:25] at cliford sends him to his room cliford runs away right he sees the note he chases him to the train station gets on the train cliford's pulled a fast one on him he puts his polaroid over the

[00:56:37] melkerton to set himself up as a lost child oh yeah god it's uh also weird yeah uh groden ends up in san francisco but cliford cliford stays behind yep and then throws a party right it's how and

[00:56:50] where you think like you do for a second think like oh now here we come to the kid movie reversal where cliford realizes he's gone too far and he works to fix everything no no groden gets on

[00:57:02] the train to san francisco and then where it's revealed like cliford's not on that train he was just getting rid of him right and he's having a fun dance sequence invites a bunch of teenagers

[00:57:12] to their house and then when groden gets home cliford's tied like like a fucking like uh like dudley do right harrowin would be tied to the train tracks like his arms and legs behind him and he's

[00:57:24] like oh these kids i was gonna run away but then i thought better of it and these kids came and they tied me up sure groden's like no no no no yeah none of this uh also we skipped over

[00:57:36] real quick i just uh let's not forget the problematic scene of the boss and mary steenberg like basically a weird just rape scene in the middle of this movie yeah i mean he's trying to

[00:57:49] date raper or what i mean he's trying to he won't take no for an answer he likes slut shames her too yeah he gives her a necklace and she's like oh thanks and then he's like trying to fuck her

[00:58:00] and she's like i was never gonna like i don't even like your necklace she tries to take it off that's one bit i like when she's talking to her face with a neck around her face and it lasts for

[00:58:08] like two minutes the neck around her face the necklace around her face the neck around the face but then um i just actually want to say yeah because we're talking about this like kind of humor

[00:58:18] with like gay jokes right and just like weird rapey kind of stuff like you mean like bad humor yeah bad humor this was the stuff that unfortunately our generation sort of grew up on a little bit

[00:58:30] yeah i mean yes there were especially like the late 80s early 90s a lot of comedies were just about like this guy's normal isn't everyone else in the world weird and the other people who were weird

[00:58:41] were like uh coded as uh you know just any other type of person yep yep i i just i'll say on the record that i'm glad that that is not a acceptable sort of thing anymore sure and i hope that it

[00:58:58] affects younger generations so that we get to a better place oh you're hoping cliford has a huge impact on younger generations no no just that new comedies new movies don't have jokes and garbage

[00:59:11] like this movie has but ben i love it you do like this move i love it so so why do you like the movie because i will say i didn't really like the movie but i certainly was fascinated by it

[00:59:21] it's a curio yeah it's an interesting curio i couldn't kind of couldn't believe what i was watching i will tell you and this is actually really uh fuck all right fine are you about to

[00:59:33] my dad is a lot like charles groden and i'm a lot like cliford art that relationship makes a ton of sense everything you've said about your dad yeah my dad is sort of a grouchy guy who's like quick

[00:59:45] to sort of lose his cool uh and i was such a monster as a kid that it were i was always fucking with him because i thought it was so funny to get him mad wow so that is part of why

[00:59:57] i think i love this movie so much i mean just to give you an example i used to torture my dad where he would like try to get me to do chores and i was watching a lot of snl reruns at the time

[01:00:09] so i was always do danakarvi's uh bush like not gonna do it and i would like pretty young just tell my dad no to his face when he asked me to take the garbage out by like quoting this bush

[01:00:22] impression not gonna do it not gonna do it and you'd be like ben i gotta then you you you really have to take the not gonna do it if you gotta just so you know you gotta have to be responsible

[01:00:34] help out not gonna do it and he would just like lose his fucking mind and then i would laugh can we um i know we pitch blank check babies in the past as an animated series yeah about us

[01:00:44] in the playpen right um i think we gotta do like the adventures of young ben as an animated series i'd love to watch a cartoon show where ben with his current grown-up voice like life with louis style

[01:00:56] plays a little cartoon ben on a dirt bike like bobby's world yeah that sure sounds amazing it would be it would be interesting i could pitch a couple episodes one is finding porn in the woods

[01:01:09] what are the other episodes one would be um by accidentally starting a trash fire sure i could see that um uh what would be uh stealing a robot and drinking a bunch of it behind a cost cutters

[01:01:31] um you know just growing up stuff like that yeah i also understand why you like gummo so yeah that's the thing though but you're not as crazy as that like your childhood was actually

[01:01:44] fairly normal yes somewhat but you were just kind of acting out but when you saw like gummo you're like yeah that's my people oh yeah um okay so so i think we've we pretty much yeah i mean

[01:01:57] davney colman she throws his rug out a window he flips out he gets a new rug with a ponytail right he uh grode in super late to this presentation he hasn't shaved he's starting to look mangy

[01:02:10] and uh david you notice uh what he's carrying around to to you know present like the the files the presentation are on it's on a side quest on a side quest which is a like archaic form of

[01:02:26] having it basically like an external hard drive how's he at it yeah it was it was kind of like a floppy disk but it was bigger right big floppy disk yeah and then somehow cliford sabotage that

[01:02:39] he fucking sabotage blows up he robs los angeles of a functional public transportation system then he's grode in snaps and decides to take him to dinosaur world in the middle of the night

[01:02:52] but but when davney colman's like what happened here he's like i'm fired right and he's like no grode it actually is just like it was me because he's lost it he's just like right he's

[01:03:02] broken so thoroughly that he's gone all the way back to calm right and he's just like becomes a nihilist he's like i'm gonna kill that boy right and this really reminds me of my dad

[01:03:12] because he would just be like yeah yeah it's funny joke ben good stuff he never gave you comedy points that's what this is about it was all about the comedy your dad never gave you

[01:03:22] comedy yeah you just wanted those sweet sweet comedy points yeah he takes it come on let's just do the final thing that i this alright so grode in kid naps cliford and he takes him to finally

[01:03:33] dino world right in the middle of the movie's budget spent on these eight holy shit it's great go big on dino dino world basically like a giant animatronic ride i guess that you can take

[01:03:43] it's supposed to be the libre atarpits right it's like yeah the world's longest roller coaster that's also kind of a dark story ride it's kind of it's certainly a dark ride it's also not repeatable

[01:03:54] no it's also like like what it's also crappy but also like when they get to dino world it's like these huge map paintings like the park itself is fucking humongous it's massive yeah and it really

[01:04:06] well designed yeah i like all this stuff visually but like the movie now becomes like i don't disagree with you actually you know these like very bizarre expressionistic images uh like a lot of black shadows and smoke and these odd robot creatures and the music starts

[01:04:22] getting like insane he puts them through the ride and cliford's just like finally great then he's like you have fun and then he like accelerates him why don't we do it again cliford

[01:04:33] and then he puts him into like hyperdrive or whatever he says starts hurting uh and the robot the t-rex disintegrates and turns into like an angry skeleton all right that's the other part

[01:04:43] it's one of those rides where there's like a game where you have the laser and you have to kill the yeah but and then if you don't do that then you might die right like you might fall into

[01:04:52] on fire i don't know very clear it's a strange nightmare sequence that goes on for a while weirdly i don't what i don't like is that when it this ride goes wrong groten seems to try

[01:05:05] to fix it i don't know why he's trying to fix it he wants to kid dead he wants the kid dead nothing losing well no there is actually it's a great reference to like a really early comedy bit

[01:05:14] that's a steve allen bit which is uh like cliford's hanging off the ride like about to fall into the t-rex's mouth yeah and he's like help me help me he's like i'm thinking it over which is like

[01:05:27] the reference to like your money or your life he's like i'm thinking i'm thinking yeah it's good groten's delivery on that line is really so good yeah uh but anyway he does save fucking cliford

[01:05:40] which honestly wouldn't if you like the movie better if he died a hundred percent i would have liked it and then you cut to the future and he's like but wait you died and he's like yep and it's like

[01:05:50] well how are you here and he's like i don't know don't worry about it i'm not exaggerating if that's how the movie ended i would give it an a yeah instead it was like a like a evil ghost

[01:06:00] floated up into the sky you know like he was released finally right i think it was the most formally inventive comedy of all time instead the movie in my opinion kind of tanks itself by then

[01:06:10] ending cutting back to old cliford with gory math with gory and and he's like so jevered like figure out and he's like well i sent him a million letters of apology now all them returned all

[01:06:21] returned and then one day he asked me to be the ring bearer at his wedding how do you do that i don't know in his lack of communication and then then really you know now i'm here and then right

[01:06:34] the boy is like you know uh you certainly i could never be as bad as you i'm not gonna try what are you gonna do son well i'm gonna write a 180 apology notes oh good and then cliford walks away and it

[01:06:47] turns out he's had the dinosaur in his pocket the whole time and he goes like mission accomplished who cares i don't fucking care about that and then the insane twisted carnival music plays again

[01:06:57] in the movie ends in the year 2050 box office game yeah yeah well thank you guys though so what a weird movie and thank you i mean this is this is uh i i think for you know there are a lot of

[01:07:13] haws hogs in our fan base right people love that the hogs the hogs i think they're gonna eat this episode up because this is kind of an origin story it's true yeah i think this episode functions

[01:07:23] as like the beginning of last crusade yeah we're seeing how he got the scar we're seeing why he doesn't like snakes what's next ben i don't oh man well king ralph does it fill my love yeah fuck

[01:07:35] that's it we're doing king ralph you never mentioned like immediately locked down of course we're doing king ralph next we should get chase mitchell back for that i think he's moving

[01:07:44] he loves king ralph it's so good yeah oh my god i love it it's an american trying to be fancy yeah i uh i was on a road trip recently from the director of major league another favorite of yours

[01:07:56] yeah oh my god it makes you cry so hard uh i was on a road trip back from uh uh toronto and we were driving through like up upstate new york yeah and we stopped at a piece of parlor dupi

[01:08:07] and uh they had a king ralph poster inexplicably right like it wasn't like oh king ralph was filmed here yeah he had a lot of artwork of just like here's jackie robinson here are things in american

[01:08:18] history and then just king ralph like someone who worked there was just like a big king ralph stan anyway box office game this movie costs about 20 million to make yeah it made seven domestic zero elsewhere i'll say uh much higher than i thought it was gonna i wouldn't

[01:08:34] have been surprised if this is one of those movies that made like one million dollars it made seven okay uh on the weekend of april first 1994 it opened number seven at the box office they released

[01:08:44] this movie on april fool's day they did they did okay it opened number seven two point five two one five million uh it lingered for a few weeks and then disappeared it was an orion release

[01:08:56] but as we discussed it was like on the shelf for years number one is a sequel to a movie i literally just mentioned a sequel to a movie you literally just yes that opened number one this

[01:09:08] week seven million dollars major league two correct okay right major league two which is the one that still has sheen and bernjer bernjer and corbin bernson right like that's still got all the guys

[01:09:20] back yeah um uh that there it is yeah odd to open cliford against it weirdly actually i always think better than the first but maybe that's it was on comedy central more i saw that one a lot

[01:09:32] i don't know if i've ever seen major league two i've seen major league and weirdly i've seen major league back to the miners the third one the back one back in bacula uh ben what's your opinion on

[01:09:40] major league two i don't think i've seen it wow i've only seen the first one there's a whole plot line which i mean i think now might be pretty loaded where charlie sheen tries to like

[01:09:50] reform and become like uh you know respectable man and sure big moment at the end where he puts the wild thing glasses back on and like unleashes the beast i remember being very emotionally

[01:10:01] affected by that as a child anyway that's number one at the box office number two is another kids comedy it's interesting april was just the and it's uh another sequel live action live action

[01:10:15] it's not problem told to no that'd be too perfect it would be yeah but i think we might have even talked about it on the we certainly talked about the original i definitely saw this in theaters

[01:10:26] it's not home alone to loss no no think of just you know but it's a live action kids comedy sequel sports two sports oh my god to d2 the mighty dox d2 the mighty dox the best of the franchise

[01:10:37] uh yes i would say so no question uh the only really good one in my opinion yeah it's the only one that really works isn't it um it has made 16 million dollars in two weeks it's having

[01:10:47] a nice time over at the box office yeah number three is a pretty underrated ron howard comedy a nice little movie paper yeah that was shot in my mom's office yeah and featured a lot of her

[01:11:00] co-workers and your favorite actor mikey heaton yeah not a bad movie no keaton and howard should do a movie together again i think it would help both of gung ho is not good but the paper is

[01:11:10] good they did four together three they did gung ho they did night shift they did night shift and the paper yeah i thought they were a good team the paper is good um mikey i love mikey

[01:11:21] it has made 12 million in three weeks on its way to 38 nice little sort of just you know stuck along there number four another comedy sequel cool why did they open cliford this week it's like

[01:11:32] the box office is crammed with comedy yeah the third in a comedy franchise and final film a third and final film the naked gun 33 and a third the final insult which is the bad one it's the worst

[01:11:45] one yeah it's it's still got some good shit it has more successful jokes than most movies ever made yeah i mean look they're great that franchise is incredible also a franchise where i would say

[01:11:54] the second one's the best might agree yeah i i sort of i do mix them all up in my head i do too a lot of a lot of time but god number five is just a hilarious comedy about the holocaust

[01:12:04] it's not a comedy oh god uh it's not a comedy no you're not okay it hit just one best picture we discussed it it's shenla it's shenla some other movies you guys there's the list um you got above

[01:12:19] the rim two pack basketball movie maro wins uh you got thumb belina the don bluth is that the final don bluth studios no because i see as it comes after this well right but that's when he's

[01:12:32] moved to fox oh oh yes right but the pebble in the penguin might be these were mgm this is one bluth was at mgm is that right i don't know i think he was floating around he might have been a warner

[01:12:42] brothers i can't remember you know a bluth's final film i saw thumb belina in theaters titan ae right yeah and do you know who wrote titan ae we talked about this the fucking tic guy in joss

[01:12:52] wedan yeah it's great and uh four weddings my papa ben edwin four weddings is in there okay uh end of funeral or did the funeral not make the top ten uh guarding tess when they were like

[01:13:06] jessica tandy like no i mean no churli mclean churli mclean and that movie is i've never seen who's the uh who's the co-star nicolas cage baby oh right right yeah it sounds good it was when

[01:13:19] nicolas cage was capable of giving good comedic performances uh i think that movie's charming awesome pennilton i forget who else was in the cap i like that movie anyway uh yeah mrs dow fire is

[01:13:30] still hanging out monkey trouble philadelphia monkey chur is still in there monkey trouble the piano the pelican brief we discovered it we we discussed a recent movie that was like close to this time

[01:13:41] i can't have which one it was yeah because because the list came up recently yeah um was it blink check it must have been right it's another 94 movie right this is a big year for

[01:13:50] shitty kids uh yeah seriously kind of a classic year for the sociopathic children yeah and like that's kind of what our society was in there in the mid 90s like that that's what when advertisers start

[01:14:01] pitching directly to us yeah and like movie studios start talking directly to us and it's like haha buck parents am i right well like the whole nicolidian magazine campaign that was like you have to trick your parents into getting your prescription and prescription a subscription

[01:14:15] but sometimes nicolidian magazine was a prescription because it was the cure for all humiliating adults was like kind of just crucial and also gross shit it was like stuff for kids looks like boogers are turds so like your parents will vomit when they see you

[01:14:28] playing with it and you don't tell them it's actually chocolate you know like shit like that uh yeah totally um it's the post-garbage pale kids world we're living in yeah uh that's it

[01:14:41] that's it that's all i got end of cliford right yeah uh ben any final remarks yeah ben i have one story i want to tell i can do it before after your final remarks you go please uh

[01:14:54] just because we talked about him i think i probably told you this david martin short did tell the best joke i've ever witnessed in my entire life which was we were we were rehearsing the show

[01:15:06] and they were having a camera problem so we hit some downtime yeah and he walked over to our set because all the sets on sitcoms are like built next to each other right yeah and just started

[01:15:14] entertaining uh myself and uh john olaney and the same padrat he's so uh like filled with hollywood stories that we try to prompt him be like what about richard priority no richard priority

[01:15:25] go whoa richard's interesting and like he'd either do that or he'd do bits right he was like always doing bits always trying to keep everyone entertained so he sat down on the couch

[01:15:34] next to us on this set and he was like i'm just gonna take a nap and then he started doing impressions and he was like here's my impression of mama cas and then he'd like pretend to eat

[01:15:43] a sandwich and then started choking and then spit it out and then started eating the sandwich again like he just started doing all these like tasteless you know like old hollywood legend jokes uh and um then someone somehow karin carpenter got invoked talking laterally off of mama cas

[01:16:01] and he's got serious and he went do you know uh that the uh house the karat carpenter died in uh it's still on the market they tried to sell it was this beautiful mansion the hills

[01:16:13] they tried to sell it afterwards and no one wanted to buy it and it was you know it's originally like three million dollars and it's gone down over the years but it's they've still never sold it's

[01:16:22] still in the market it's down to like 300 000 now it's just there and malaney went wow so it's just no one to sell just because it was like creepy and he went no kitchen it's pretty funny it's really good and malaney sat there awestruck and he went

[01:16:42] wait a second that joke is reliant on someone asking the question he went but they always do and he went how long have you been telling the joke and he goes i don't know when to care in

[01:16:51] carpentry this all sounds like a great conversation and then he was like you know i've he went did you have to adjust the price of the house he goes i adjust for inflation a little bit but it's

[01:17:01] important that the price of the house at the end is low enough that people ask because they're thinking maybe i could buy it right right so that's the best joke i've ever heard my life

[01:17:11] no kitchen oh boy uh bed what do you want to say all right final thoughts love martin short um yeah this is a revealing episode for me uh we love you ben i love you ben i love you too guys

[01:17:23] you're the martin short of my heart oh thanks yeah i would just say um i hope that we uh uh have movies that are just as fun as this movie but don't have problematic jokes in it yeah don't

[01:17:38] don't shit on other people entire groups these 90s movies that you're gonna pick are probably always going to have a couple stinkers in there they're always going to have some like yeah i can't wait

[01:17:47] to watch king ralph and realize that it's the genesis of the all right movement or something oh god it's a it's about king gamergate right jeez but i will say too i just i guess what

[01:17:58] it was is i as a kid i'm realizing this now aside from steven segal i was obsessed with 90s sketch comedic actors of course and i just loved all of those movies and the weird thing is that they're

[01:18:12] not successful movies really for the most part no but anyway fuck it i it's it reminds me of being a kid the 90s you know out of date technology all the things i like and i couldn't have said

[01:18:26] it better myself fuck it uh what are we doing next griffin i don't know okay yeah this is so we're by the time we get there we'll have we'll have a we'll have a well nowhere we're going when it's

[01:18:37] okay so let's do that thing where we drop in now hey tune in next week for wow can't wait oh my god director oh what a choice my my lord how will we ever

[01:18:50] thread that needle what bits will be revived their first movie by the way is interesting because uh we should say the name of the first movie yes their first movie of course was

[01:19:00] crazy when you think about it it's interesting i mean the contest and also it came out at that in this year yes and the year of course was which i mean what what's even say about that year a lot

[01:19:11] but later a lot later but the president of that year was and of course who can forget that that year people magazine sexiest man alive was and of course we should have a moment of silence for the tragedy that happens

[01:19:28] and also the Nobel prize in chemistry went to you're good right are we done yes keep doing that yes thank you for listening please remember to rate review subscribe margo kidders age at the time was uh thanks it's all the blankies out

[01:19:47] there check our reddit yeah check our peep our twitter you know thanks to and for doing the social media thanks to uh uh what is this thing i don't fucking know all right great uh

[01:20:01] pat randles it was a great time to love pat randles we don't thank everyone enough love them all uh and as always this has been a ucb comedy production check out our other shows on the ucb comedy podcast network