John Hodgman

John Hodgman Judge John Hodgman podcast joins Griffin and David to discuss 1994's celebration of Hollywood's greatest outcast, Ed Wood. Was this Burton's finest film? What is the history of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff careers portraying monsters? Is 'octopus motor' the greatest two words put together? Together they examine the legacy of director Ed Wood, attending one of the Property Brother's weddings, crumb bums, and Space: 1999. Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches is now available in paperback.

David, Griffin, and self-made man of letters John Hodgman have to deal with Ragnar in this weird weird weird adaptation of a Henrik Ibsen play - and by adaptation, we mean they just took the play and filmed it in a house in Nyack. But instead of talking about the not so great film, get ready for more rants about Cars 2 (WHAT IS MONEY HOW DOES THIS WORK?) and the explanation of how Playmobil the Movie happened without anyone noticing. Also, in no way was this episode accidentally deleted and hastily re-recorded at the last minute. SFX: " Sizzling " by JasonElrod. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License .

It’s the definitive Sam Raimi film - a “symphony of silly” with a bravura performance from Bruce Campbell, and a prevailing sense of, “the more gore the merrier!” John Hodgman - who, believe it or not, was Bruce Campbell’s literary agent! - joins us to chat about the magic of “Evil Dead II” and what puts it in the pantheon of “sequels that improve upon the original installment.” Also in this episode - we imagine the time when Sam Raimi, the Coens, Frances McDormand, and Holly Hunter were all roommates in Silverlake; a behind the scenes look at the publication of Bruce Campbell’s best-selling memoir “If Chins Could Kill”; and an unrelated but very involved tangent about the Peanuts comic strip.  Join our Patr...

After his “blank check” for THE GENERAL bounced, Buster Keaton found himself creatively and financially shackled. Thus, 1927’s COLLEGE lands on the lesser end of the quality spectrum (not to mention a very difficult watch with Buster putting on blackface for a scene - yikes). But, his follow-up STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. features some of the most memorable and dangerous stunts of Keaton’s career, and acts as a beautiful send-off to his period as a self-sufficient filmmaker. The wonderful John Hodgman joins us to chat about both films and his life-long love of Buster. Plus - as always with a Hodgman episode - we go down several delightful rabbit holes: Doctor Who, beans, Goofy’s “George Geef” period, large pants, and more! Guest Links:  Get Vacationla...

The sleeper must awaken. The filmography must contain a flop. We’ve arrived at the Planet Arrakis aka the Desert Planet aka DUNE (1984) - David Lynch’s attempt at wrangling Frank Herbert’s space epic into a single studio blockbuster. Did it work? Not really. Do we have fun talking about it? Hell yeah, we do! John Hodgman joins us to talk about all things “spice” - including the infamous glossary of Dune terms handed out in theaters, and a wild anecdote about Peter Berg reading Dune on an airplane. We talk about Lynch’s decision to turn down directing Return of the Jedi, the differences between Lynch’s take on Dune and Denis Villeneuve’s more critically successful version, and David finally gets the chance to let his Fremen freak flag fly by going FULL NERD. Buy John’s Books Watch Dicktown ...

Jesus Cock, that’s a hot new episode! John Hodgman returns to Blank Check to chat about Raising Arizona, the Coen’s swerve of a follow-up to Blood Simple that trades in the hallmarks of noir for the hallmarks of Looney Tunes. We’re talking about Nic Cage’s sad eyes, Holly Hunter’s year of iconic crying performances, rest stop public pomade, and people we are glad are dead. It’s a fun time. And yes, there’s yodelling. Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook! Buy some r...