National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Matt (00:00:58):

Hello and ho, ho, ho and jingle all the way to all of you on Load Bearing Beams. I’m Matt Stokes

Laci (00:01:05):

And Christmas vacation all the way since you snuck in the name of the movie we did last.

Matt (00:01:10):

Didn’t even think of that.

Laci (00:01:11):

Yeah, I was not. She did My

Matt (00:01:13):

Brain. I’m like, what’s a Christmas song?

Laci (00:01:14):

I’ll not allow it. I’m Laci Roth.

Matt (00:01:16):

Yes. And what else?

Laci (00:01:19):

This is Load Bearing Beams. I’ll bet you

Matt (00:01:21):

That’s right.

Laci (00:01:22):

Who’s with me?

Matt (00:01:23):

We’re a married couple. This is our show. We talk about movies we liked and we make the other person watch ’em and then the other person gets mad.

Laci (00:01:30):

We liked as a youth.

Matt (00:01:32):

Yes. So what movie are we talking about today?

Laci (00:01:35):

Oh, Christmas vacation.

Matt (00:01:37):

National Lampoon’s. Christmas Vacation Lamp. Don’t you forget it. Branding is

Laci (00:01:41):

Everything there Another Christmas vacation? That’s a different kind of

Matt (00:01:45):

Just say the title of the movie is all I’m saying.

Laci (00:01:47):

Oh, okay. I was always confused by the National Lampoon part of the thing.

Matt (00:01:52):

Well, I have a lot of explanation for you. Don’t worry.

Laci (00:01:55):

Well, thank you. I do feel like I was out of the loop.

Matt (00:01:57):

Don’t worry. The longest history segment I’ve ever written because there’s so much.

Laci (00:02:00):

Oh Christ.

Matt (00:02:02):

So that’s the movie. That’s this Laci’s movie, his Christmas vacation and that’s what we’re doing this week. Next week though, doing something a little different,

Laci (00:02:10):

Little wonky you might say.

Matt (00:02:12):

It is. We’re going to get wonky with Willy

Laci (00:02:14):

With our little willies. That’s right. So that’ll be fun.

Matt (00:02:16):

1970 ones Willy Wonka and the Chaco Factory.

Laci (00:02:18):

Very normal

Matt (00:02:19):

Episode. A movie I would have said is a load-bearing beam until I was an adult and I’ve watched this movie a lot of times as an adult and every time I think I don’t like this movie.

Laci (00:02:27):

Oh man, you’re really trying to make it stick though, and that’s nice of you.

Matt (00:02:30):

So yes, we’re stretching it, but hey, there’s a new movie coming out and we’re trying to coincide. Timing is everything.

Laci (00:02:38):

I don’t think we’re stretching it. I think this is absolutely a beam and it is the reason why you keep rewatching it to try and recapture whatever magic it held for you as a kid. I think you’re proving our point. You just put the cart before the horse is all

Matt (00:02:51):

The load is, but the load is, I want to be right that this movie isn’t good. I think that because I read, what do you mean the load? Whatever.

Laci (00:02:59):

That’s not

Matt (00:02:59):

How we the bear, bear and beam.

Laci (00:03:02):

That’s not how we use that.

Matt (00:03:04):

I think there’s just something inherently uninteresting about this story when it gets to the chocolate factory. We’ll get into that next

Laci (00:03:10):

Week again, this going to be like a gutti into the chocolate lake. Spoiler

Matt (00:03:14):

Alert, we’ll shoot right in there. This is going to be a very normal episode.

Laci (00:03:18):

Right up the chocolate. Shoot.

Matt (00:03:21):

Normal. Keep remembering normal.

Laci (00:03:22):

So typical.

Matt (00:03:24):

Also, please, we implore you listeners, viewers, ladies, gentlemen, non-binary folks, everyone, we need content for the mail. We need questions for our mailbag episode that we’re doing December 29th.

Laci (00:03:36):

Let me just say we have received some really good ones so we are not mad with what we have so far. We are like Scrooge and we just want

Matt (00:03:44):

More. We want to hoard them. We’re very miserly when it comes to listener questions. Submit them on YouTube or TikTok or Twitter. Any of those places will do

Laci (00:03:56):

Mailbag.

Matt (00:03:57):

So tell us about,

Laci (00:03:58):

Look at this epic poster I’ve never seen. Why is the uncle in it, the old ass uncle

Matt (00:04:05):

And the boss.

Laci (00:04:09):

I’ll allow it. Yes. Our history is with this movie. Why? Thank you for asking. I don’t know what age I saw this. It has always been. It is my north star. It lets me know Christmas is here from the very first song in the very first moments.

Matt (00:04:29):

Did someone in your family,

Laci (00:04:30):

It’s that

Matt (00:04:32):

Christmas

Laci (00:04:33):

Slams here.

Matt (00:04:36):

Did someone introduce this movie to you? Did you watch this with anybody? Did?

Laci (00:04:40):

No. I liked all the national Lampoon vacation movies and nope, in my mind, I don’t tie them to anyone else but myself. My own brilliant taste for comedy, so I would’ve probably started with family. Was it family vacation or just vacation?

Matt (00:04:58):

Vacation

Laci (00:05:00):

And then Europe vacation and then this one would’ve come along and then Vegas vacation. This one I definitely seen the most because I watch it every year. I get it in there. It’s one of those movies that feels like it’s always playing in my head. It’s highly quotable. That’s not the only commonality with a lot of my beams, but it’s a really big one. It’s an important one. I just feel like there’s something the movie’s doing right when there are so many characters to quote. I can think of no other example of a movie that is so quotable that the neighbors have shirts that have been made of them, MeMed of them. I

Matt (00:05:42):

Mean this is a comedy and it’s from a comedy star and it’s from the National Lampoon label, which is zany comedy and zany and irreverent. Irreverent, but you usually like a little heart. Tell me about the heart in this movie. Did you love it because it also had heart?

Laci (00:05:57):

This is a weird thing. I didn’t notice the heart until you pointed it out, but because you’re such a good little prepper, you watched all the movies close together in preparation for this and you were like, this one is different in that. Yeah, Clark gets to be a nice guy. He gets to be more of what he thinks he is. I think

Matt (00:06:23):

That, and also because I watched basically one day vacation, second day European vacation, third day Christmas vacation. Stylistically, this is a jarring departure if you’ve never watched them all in a row. Never. And I had never seen, I’ve seen Christmas vacation one time. It was Christmas Eve 2004. I watched it with my friend Caleb who said, this is the best Christmas movie ever.

Laci (00:06:45):

Right?

Matt (00:06:45):

It ended and I said that was pretty okay and I’ve never wanted to watch it since, but I’d never seen the first two vacation movies, so I’m really trying to inform myself. Yeah, I was so surprised at how big of a change this is stylistically, I think that there are reasons for it. I think that directing is the number one thing.

Laci (00:07:08):

This is John Hughes, right?

Matt (00:07:09):

This is John Hughes is the writer, but each of the movies has a different director and I think the first two movies have Harold Ramis is the first one. Amy Heckerling is the second director. Those are both great directors. This guy Jeremiah Cheche, kind of a nobody. But we can talk about all of that in great detail.

Laci (00:07:29):

Well, I am on the edge of my seat because I usually am able to see the flaws very clearly in the movies that I pick, even if I love them. And this one it just gets me and not like, oh, that got me. I mean that movie literally understands me. I think I wrote down, okay, what do you mean when you say that? Don’t know what I mean except for I wrote, did this movie so inform my sensibility or my taste and comedy that it’s responsible for my taste.

Matt (00:08:06):

Is it chicken or egg,

Laci (00:08:07):

Right? Or is this movie just my exact taste for Cup? I don’t know which one it is. I truly don’t remember. It’s always

Matt (00:08:13):

Both.

Laci (00:08:14):

I don’t remember a time before it is my point. I don’t think it’s always both. I think this movie is so ingrained that I don’t remember what I was like before I saw it.

Matt (00:08:23):

Laci, let’s hear your prediction before you watch this movie.

Laci (00:08:29):

The music, this movie is going to slap, crackle and pop. I already know it’s the best. I know my memory’s don’t fault to you on this one. This fucking movie Rocks. It is the best Christmas movie with the best Christmas soundtrack, or at least that one fucking song. This old house sounds familiar. You know what I’m saying? I know that. You know that what I’m saying is correct. You’re a smart person. You will understand that this is the best movie and you will bow down to me. Okay, Merry Christmas.

Matt (00:09:01):

You meaning me? Yeah. I

Laci (00:09:03):

Dunno. Me, I took a turn there. I was like, am I talking to the audience? And I was like, no, I want Matt to bow.

Matt (00:09:08):

Laci recorded that prediction in hospice.

Laci (00:09:12):

What?

Matt (00:09:12):

You sound very sickly.

Laci (00:09:14):

I do. What’s up you? Because I’m always kind of whispering. You’re always one goddamn room away. I can’t even hear. Maybe this garage whispers.

Matt (00:09:23):

If you know what to listen for, you can hear the ghosts of all the cars that have been working on Why isn’t there a car in me? Now here’s what I think. Thought,

Laci (00:09:33):

Think, thought.

Matt (00:09:34):

Hello, my little chickies. I’m just up here on my roof with my stapler gun. Oh, here you go. Just putting in some lights, getting festive for the season. Can you imagine? And I thought I’d share my thoughts on National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation, my premo prediction. So I did not grow up with Chevy Chase and I really haven’t had much Chevy Chase in my life other than community, one of my favorite shows. But in community, I’d say he’s my seventh favorite character of the seven main characters, but he, he’s very key to the show working anyway to investigate the Chevy Chase phenomenon. I went and watched a bunch of movies I had never seen before. Caddy Shack I had never seen before, and my verdict on that movie, it’s not good. He’s fine in it, but it’s not a very good movie. Then I watched National Lampoon’s vacation, which I had never seen and I loved it. Hey, I was so surprised and he is a piece of shit in that movie, but he’s so good, so good. And I really liked that movie. And so then I watched European vacation, nowhere near as good as

(00:10:36):

Vacation one, but I still liked it and I really liked him and I really liked Beverly DeAngelo and I like their chemistry and their sort of attraction to each other. So I’m excited to watch Christmas vacation. I have seen it one time and that was 20 years ago and I remember thinking it was perfectly fine, but it didn’t live up to the hype. I didn’t get it. I remember laughing exactly one time and that’s when Randy Quaid says, the shooter’s not working. I’m sure I’ll way dare you misquote more this time. That is my prediction. Okay, now back to these lights.

Laci (00:11:13):

Okay, that is nodding along to his sound effects. I remember that very well. I knew Russ looked so familiar and I almost asked you, who is this actor? It’s two movies in a row with a Roseanne appearance. I know he is now known more for the Big Bang Theory, right? It’s Johnny.

Matt (00:11:31):

Yeah.

Laci (00:11:32):

Anyway, yeah, look at him not needing glasses.

Matt (00:11:34):

Who could forget him in Christmas? Vacation. He’s

Laci (00:11:37):

Good. He’s fine. Jumps off

Matt (00:11:38):

The screen sizzles.

Laci (00:11:39):

Okay. But Juliet Lewis is a delight. She’s the best daughter. Well, I haven’t seen all of them recently, so maybe I’m wrong, but

Matt (00:11:48):

Juliette Lewis is a great actress who has made lots of movies that I like.

Laci (00:11:52):

No, God, here comes, but she can get fucked.

Matt (00:11:54):

No, she doesn’t have anything to do in this movie,

Laci (00:11:57):

But when she does it, when she’s doing things, I

Matt (00:11:59):

Enjoy it.

Laci (00:12:00):

I enjoy her on the screen. I like her relationship with her mom and with her dad. I like that she defends him to the very needlessly mean father-in-law that he has and he’s got very mean, and that makes me think they know something. I don’t, but there’s always a part of him that I feel is he’s abusive in, I mean

Matt (00:12:23):

Clark is.

Laci (00:12:23):

Yeah. Well,

Speaker 3 (00:12:27):

Yeah,

Matt (00:12:27):

Abusing his marriage.

Laci (00:12:28):

He’s a lot of work. I mean, sure. Yeah. He does come off as, he’s painted as a womanizer several different times, so we already know that. We don’t know that he’s ever cheated. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about how much Evelyn, no, Ellen needs to kind of pep talk him, prepare him, talk him down. It just seems like most things are about him and then how she’ll go on and on and saying birthdays, parties,

Matt (00:12:58):

Graduation. She’s so good at communicating without spelling out. This is all in her performance is I’ve lived with this man for so long, I know him so well. He is a lot of work, but I’ve sort of mastered working. I love him for the way he is, right. She truly loves him. I’m able to massage his quirks and his manias and the way he gets super invested and builds everything up

Laci (00:13:21):

And

Matt (00:13:21):

She also knows how to let him down.

Laci (00:13:23):

At the end of the day. She’d rather an over invested person than an underinvested. And maybe that kind of comes out in the relationship that you see between her and mom and dad, where her dad seems to give zero fucks about anything. It has no time for anything and is just a grumpy ass. I could see Clark’s Clark’s excitement, even though it might be she’s used to being exhausted by a father, her father, so exhausted plus feeling love. Maybe that’s okay for her. It’s comfortable and she’s made for

Matt (00:13:55):

It. I think we do these recordings in two sessions. I’m going to watch the movie again before we record our main movie discussion. And what I’m going to try to pay attention to is the grandparents. I feel like I just saw through all of them. None. They’re of them registered for me.

Laci (00:14:12):

I mean, I think they’re very much there to help you understand those two characters. The dad sometimes blend into one ball of angry gross man. They just make them kind of gross. But the relationship with Clark and his dad, and Clark and his mom are both very sweet and you’ll see that the relationship he has, I like that he doesn’t overly care about kids, not care, but just he’s not come see Daddy Daddy’s little girl come here. I mean, he’ll say very traditional things, but I like how chill he is with his kids. I don’t know. So anyway, I just think they handle it just right for the kind of movie. It’s in this one

Matt (00:14:59):

Third vacation movie I’d watched in three days. It’s my third favorite. I like this movie. I think it’s good. Okay. I think that the first two are better and much better directed. I can feel Chevy trying to take over the movie in terms push around the director, which he is notorious for doing, and I think stronger directors can push back against him. And maybe

Laci (00:15:25):

Can I ask though, you’re saying in this third one that’s where you feel the pushing?

Matt (00:15:28):

Oh yeah,

Laci (00:15:29):

The push and the pull. So you’re saying that the first two directors just had a better grasp on what makes Chevy funny or what makes them work so there’s not pushing, there’s just

Matt (00:15:39):

Go, I don’t know anything about the making or the behind the

Laci (00:15:43):

Scenes, but the feel.

Matt (00:15:44):

I know that those are both great directors who’ve made tons of great movies and probably are just better at pushing through their vision. When you’re combating a very powerful star, sometimes you can lose and what he wants to end up on screen is what ends up on screen.

Laci (00:16:02):

So you’re saying, so maybe the first two movies are more, they make sense as a whole and they make sense together. You can see more flow in those two, like the alignment of director and actor, where here you feel Chevy kind of pushing through to make a second movie on top of the first

Matt (00:16:22):

One to make what he more or something he wants to do, which is a little more, I want to show my range. I want to show you how a

Laci (00:16:26):

Serious guy, oh, you think the serious stuff is his idea.

Matt (00:16:28):

And I think that, here’s the thing about movies, write this down folks. Directors are important, but I think they’re especially important in comedies because comedy, I really think more than you think about is about energy and tone.

Laci (00:16:43):

Tone and you need to know what kind of comedy you are. When you start mixing genres, it is jarring.

Matt (00:16:48):

Those first two movies have such propulsive energy and part of it is because they’re both road trips and because you get to keep resetting, now we’re onto the next thing and that has a built-in like, okay, next level sort of thing. This movie’s all in one location and I just kept feeling it, just stalling, just the energy draining out of the room.

Laci (00:17:09):

I sometimes feel like that’s because the activities that he needs to do and the activities that we all need to do. What I think this movie does really well is takes you through the 14 days that are before Christmas or 12 or 10. It’s a good chunk that they give you and the ebbs and flows of it and just of you’re all in on the festivities and planning and doing stuff and doing the traditional things, but you’re not off work yet and you’re wondering when your Christmas bonus is coming, so you’re really stressed out and you’re still doing last minute things and I don’t know, I guess it gets, you’re doing last minute shopping, you’re sleeping in the wrong bed because people are sleeping over. It just does, there are draining low energy parts of the season, and I guess I’ve always felt it was intentional in a way.

Matt (00:18:02):

I think that of those as two different things is showing people showing low energy situations versus the filmmaking itself running out of energy to tell the story.

Laci (00:18:11):

Where

Matt (00:18:11):

Specific,

Laci (00:18:14):

The attic scene?

Matt (00:18:16):

No, it’s really in the second half of the movie as they’re doing the dinner and the tree sets on fire and all the cutaways to Julia, Louie Dreyfus.

Laci (00:18:25):

Okay.

Matt (00:18:26):

I’ll be able to build my case when we go through.

Laci (00:18:29):

Fine, fair. Sorry, I always try to jump into second half. I’m a second half Sally. I’m not going to lie. No, I’m not going to start lying now.

Matt (00:18:37):

But then my other big complaint, and again, I like this movie and I don’t want to be a fucking Grinch. I don’t want to shit on this movie everybody loves because I do like it too. But I really love Beverly DeAngelo, especially in European vacation. I think she’s just, that is her movie. She’s the star and I feel like she’s really sidelined in this one.

Laci (00:18:54):

Okay.

Matt (00:18:56):

And then the kids, it’s interesting that in each movie the kids get recast, but I really feel a continuity between the first and second movies and then this movie where they seem like very different people, but I also feel like the kids are sidelined and this is just the CH movie.

Laci (00:19:10):

Okay,

Matt (00:19:11):

So that’s

Laci (00:19:14):

At a handicap. I wonder if I shouldn’t try and watch at least one vacation movie before tomorrow too, so that maybe I’m more well-informed.

Matt (00:19:22):

Perhaps you should

Laci (00:19:24):

Crazier things have happened.

Matt (00:19:36):

Okay, so National Lampoon, what the hell is that?

Laci (00:19:40):

Please tell me. I assumed it was some sort of improv group.

Matt (00:19:44):

No, not quite.

Laci (00:19:45):

What’s a Lampoon?

Matt (00:19:46):

Lampoon means a joke or a spoof.

Laci (00:19:49):

Oh,

Matt (00:19:50):

So the Harvard Lampoon is a magazine, a humorous magazine. How Droll, it starts on Harvard campus in 1876 still publishes five issues a year.

Laci (00:20:03):

Wow. I’ll bet that’s rich.

Matt (00:20:05):

It is

Laci (00:20:06):

In two ways

Matt (00:20:06):

Now until about the 1960s, and this is an abbreviated history, and I’m no expert and I’m going to get things wrong. In the 1960s, up until the 1960s, the magazine was more specifically about life on Harvard, and I’ve noticed that in this dormitory, this thing happens and people in this dormitory are like that. But in the 1960s it becomes a more different thing. Looks outside the boundaries of Harvard campus, becomes more political, takes on current events, takes on the Vietnam born stuff, and it also becomes sort of a pipeline into mainstream American comedy, specifically SNL and then later the Simpsons. So many of the important Simpsons people come from the Harvard Lampoon

Laci (00:20:48):

Come from it, meaning they go into Harvard while

Matt (00:20:51):

They were attending university at Harvard

Laci (00:20:53):

And wrote

Matt (00:20:54):

On staff at the Harvard Lampoon. Okay. Colonel O’Brien is a giant alumni of theirs and he was obviously on The Simpsons, but also Algin and Mike Greece Biblically and Josh Weinstein, Greg Daniels, so many important comedy people both on The Simpsons and on other things.

Laci (00:21:09):

Writers specifically, some of them having crossed over into other things where they’re in front of the camera.

Matt (00:21:14):

Right?

Laci (00:21:15):

Yes. I feel like you named a lot of writers except for Conan O’Brien, who is a writer

Matt (00:21:18):

Who’s a writer too, and was a Simpsons writer.

Laci (00:21:20):

Right, right. But he’s so tall, you got to pull ’em in front of the camera.

Matt (00:21:24):

That’s true. Well, you tall, he had to fight to get in front of the camera. He used

Laci (00:21:28):

His height.

Matt (00:21:28):

Yeah, yeah. Same thing with Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase was hired on SNL as a writer and not as a performer, and he had to lobby to get in front of the camera and then he was the breakout star.

Laci (00:21:39):

He was a pill during that time. Worst.

Matt (00:21:42):

Oh yeah,

Laci (00:21:42):

Just fucking do one. Go ahead Chevy.

Matt (00:21:46):

So the Harvard Lampoon a storied institution, but in the late sixties, three graduates, three Harvard graduates who rode on the Harvard Lampoon want to keep the party going after graduation and they licensed the Lampoon name from the Harvard Lampoon and they start the National Lampoon Magazine. Doug Kenny, Robert Hoffman and Henry Beard are the founders of National Lampoon. Doug Kenny went on to write Caddy Shack. So the first issue of National Lampoon was published in 1970.

Laci (00:22:16):

Funny Farm is on this one. Is it the Chevy Jay’s movie?

Matt (00:22:19):

I don’t think it has anything to do with it.

Laci (00:22:21):

Okay. Alright.

Matt (00:22:22):

This is a magazine. It’s brassy, it’s in your face. It publishes satire, fiction, editorials, parodies, and then goes on to produce radio and stage shows. Wear future stars like Chevy Chase, John Belushi, bill Murray, Gilda Ratner. They get their start there or at least make a name for themselves doing the radio and state shows for National Lampoon. This is basically a feeder system into the original Saturday Night Live. One of the writers for National Lampo was John Hughes, future movie guy, and he writes some fiction, some stories based on his own life. One is called Vacation 58, which a family goes to Disneyland and the dad punches Walt Disney in the face.

Laci (00:23:06):

Oh, there you go.

Matt (00:23:06):

And this gets adapted into the movie vacation. There’s also a story called Christmas 59 that gets adapted into National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation.

Laci (00:23:13):

Why is John Kennedy in the middle of that picture?

Matt (00:23:15):

Is he? Well, he looks like

Laci (00:23:18):

In the blue jacket.

Matt (00:23:19):

These stories are both set in the fifties. They’re told in first person from the point of view of the son. I read Christmas 59, I can’t remember if the son’s name is Rusty. The dad’s name is Clark. They’re pretty faithfully adapted and because it’s John Hughes, it has his favorite trope, which is making fun of Asian Americans. As you can see, the buck toothed caricature of a Thai man right there. Lovely. I don’t even know if I should read the dialogue that John Des has.

Laci (00:23:45):

No, wait, but does he put that in his movies? I can’t think

Matt (00:23:48):

Of. Yeah. Long Duck Dong.

(00:23:53):

And the actor who played that character is talked about the complicated legacy he feels he carries with him every day. Okay. So that’s where these vacation movies started is on the page of National Lampoon. But going back to the magazine or the organization that makes the magazine, they decide they want to make movies, they start a production company. Maddie Simmons, who runs the business operations of the magazine, he is the producer of the National Lampoon Movies Animal House in 1978 is a generation defying hit the highest grossing comedy film of all time. Have you seen The Animal House? No. No. At the time.

Laci (00:24:29):

Okay. I’ve only seen it once. It didn’t stick. It’s something I’ve meant to revisit. It feels like a big comedy blind spot that I’m ashamed of.

Matt (00:24:38):

Yeah. I had seen it in high school a few times. I thought it was fine. I didn’t totally understand. Why are people calling this one of the 10 funniest movies ever made? I watched it in the last week.

Laci (00:24:47):

Well, isn’t it kind of like Halloween, where if you watch Halloween now for the first time, you don’t get why it’s important, but you need to understand that there was nothing like it before it

Matt (00:24:56):

Maybe. I mean, comedy is similar to horror in that it’s a lot based on context. What scares people maybe changes as time goes on and what people find funny changes.

Laci (00:25:08):

Well, and it’s kind of like Elvis, right? You need something edgy enough that it pushes the needle forward in some kind of way. So I assume if this is genre defining, I’ll bet it’s not as serious as a sexual revolution that Elvis might’ve helped, but maybe in the same way that God, what was the first one? Old school of that guild of the Seth Rogans and the Vince Vaughns, and I feel like that started a whole genre of a certain kind of

Matt (00:25:39):

The Frat pack.

Laci (00:25:40):

The frat pack. Yeah,

Matt (00:25:41):

But I would keep that separate from the Seth Rogan, which is the sort of Canadian Judd Apatow verse.

Laci (00:25:47):

True. Okay. Anyway, it just seems like it’s like that it’s a genre starting or comedy type pioneer.

Matt (00:25:58):

Yeah, it was sort of

Laci (00:26:00):

Like porkies came after

Matt (00:26:01):

The genre that they call boob comedies.

Laci (00:26:03):

Oh, good. Those are funny. Boobies. Go Hong honk

Matt (00:26:07):

Now. I mean, what is interesting is the movie set in 1962 and the movie ends with all these wacky characters you’ve been watching and it says, this guy went on to do this. And the joke is that these people went on to be senators and secretaries of defense and

Speaker 3 (00:26:20):

Stuff.

Matt (00:26:21):

Oh, good. All the people who are ruining the world right now. In 1978, they started as these assholes.

Laci (00:26:26):

It just makes me think of Blasey Ford. Why can’t I think of

Matt (00:26:31):

Christine Blasey Ford?

Laci (00:26:32):

Right, but the guy

Matt (00:26:33):

Brett Kavanaugh. Yeah. Oh yeah. This is a bunch of Brett Kavanaugh. Exactly.

Laci (00:26:36):

Yes. Sorry, I had to work backwards. I have to go with the most complicated name.

Matt (00:26:40):

Where is she going with? Okay. Yeah. Animal House. You should watch it because it’s important and it’s well made and well directed. Directed by John Landis. You’re not going to laugh a lot, but it looks great and it has that seventies shaggy kind of slow moving charm to it. Don’t watch it thinking you’re going to see the funniest movie you’ve ever seen, but

Laci (00:27:03):

That’s a good

Matt (00:27:03):

Tip. It is worth seeing. They follow this up with the National Lampoon’s movie Madness, the National Lampoon’s class reunion.

Laci (00:27:09):

I’ve never heard of either of these.

Matt (00:27:10):

I’ve never seen them. They’re both big disappointments

Laci (00:27:13):

Whale. There you go.

Matt (00:27:16):

But then the vacation

Laci (00:27:17):

Series

Matt (00:27:17):

Starts in 1983. John Hughes, look at these movie

Laci (00:27:20):

Posters. Let’s go.

Matt (00:27:22):

Let’s go. She says,

Laci (00:27:24):

Let’s go to the Snow or to Paris or to Wally World. These are amazing.

Matt (00:27:30):

1983.

Laci (00:27:31):

I want all these please.

Matt (00:27:33):

1983 Chevy Chase is Cast is the lead of National Lampoon’s vacation. These movies are spearheaded by John Hughes as producer and writer. Yes. 1983, John Hughes produces and writes National Lampoon’s Vacation. The director is Harold Ramis, he of Caddyshack and Stripes and later Groundhog Day fame and obviously a writer and star of Ghostbusters. This is a big hit Chevy Chase, giant star movie star at the time. This movie’s a big hit has since become a classic. It’s followed two years later by European vacation, which was directed by Amy Heckerling, the director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and director of two of our past episodes, clueless and Loser.

Laci (00:28:12):

Did John Hughes have Chevy Chase in mind or an actor at all to play his dad in a sense kind of in this very personal,

Matt (00:28:19):

I’ll have an answer for that later.

Laci (00:28:21):

Okay. I would just like to know how on the mark are the personality traits of, did Chevy Chase make Clark Griswold into something completely not seen on the page is just a Chevy? Well,

Matt (00:28:33):

Having read the story, I would say absolutely. The details of what happened are very similar, but these movies are all about the energy of the actors and performers and the way that they’re directed. They’re set in the eighties. They’re very different in terms of values. Four years passed before the next sequel is produced, but they adapt John Hughes’s Christmas 59 story. Every time they make a movie, they recast the kids. And the same is true.

Laci (00:29:03):

Is it a gag

Matt (00:29:04):

With Christmas vacation

Laci (00:29:05):

Or is it just needed?

Matt (00:29:06):

No, in the, I believe with European vacation. I think it was Anthony Michael Hall who was not going to return as rusty in the sequel and Amy Heckerling apparently when she knew she was going to recast the sun, she wanted to go ahead and recast the daughter too.

Laci (00:29:24):

Then they could at least make jokes about it. Or it’s not distracting because two distractions make a non distraction.

Matt (00:29:30):

Yeah, that’s true. It is smart. It’s better to have two different actors,

Laci (00:29:34):

Right? I think so.

Matt (00:29:38):

What happens to National Lampo movies after that? Well,

Laci (00:29:40):

I forgot Van Wilder with my man here or Ryan Reynolds.

Matt (00:29:44):

He’s your man.

Laci (00:29:46):

Oh, I love him. You do. Him and Jason Bateman. Those are my two men’s.

Matt (00:29:49):

They are,

Laci (00:29:50):

How do you not know this about?

Matt (00:29:51):

Oh, I like Ryan Reynolds, but I also just, I’m fucking over him and his thing and he only does one thing

Laci (00:29:57):

So good though.

Matt (00:29:58):

It’s no longer good. I hate it. And I think it’s sort of ruined movies too, in a way of the We don’t have to take it seriously. We know what you’re watching is a piece of shit.

Laci (00:30:08):

Wait, he’s a superhero of some kind.

Matt (00:30:09):

He’s Deadpool and he just plays Deadpool every time. Patrick Williams, the movie YouTuber that we’ve mentioned before, made a video recently about the star personas of Ryan Reynolds and of Dwayne Johnson, and at a certain point he compared Ryan Reynolds to Chevy Chase and I kept thinking about that. Chevy Chase is kind of the antecedent of Ryan Reynolds because they’re both very attractive men who are always high status. Some people say like prom king comedy.

Laci (00:30:37):

Yeah. Okay.

Matt (00:30:39):

And that will wear off after a while because there’s nowhere to go and it’s hard to keep rooting for somebody who has everything and wins everything.

Laci (00:30:46):

Yeah. I’ve seen all these movies.

Matt (00:30:49):

You’ve seen Senior Trip. Okay. Loaded Weapon one. Yeah. So Christmas vacation is the last movie actually produced by National Lampoon in the organization. The magazine ceases publication in 1998 continues to exist to this day as just a company that will license the name, will license the brand. This podcast could be presented by National Lampoon.

Laci (00:31:09):

I mean, did it actually have legs? It mattered. It still mattered once. It was National Lampoon’s Van Wilder. I remember thinking, oh, that’s a throwback. Is that needed?

Matt (00:31:17):

Well, just look at the Wikipedia page of movies with the National Lampoon label, and it is very, very long. Obviously this has got to have diminishing returns because look at how many of these movies.

Laci (00:31:29):

It’s Trump Van Wilder

Matt (00:31:31):

I’ve never heard

Laci (00:31:31):

Of at this point. Trump’s senior trip.

Matt (00:31:33):

Exactly. Yes. Trump Stakes. Trump Tower. Trump Airlines. Back to Christmas vacation. The director attached to the film.

Laci (00:31:41):

Oh, I thought you were about to tell me. McCulley Hulk and Chevy Chase we’re going to be in a movie together that would not work. McCulley Culkin is the Chevy Chase of children. It’s a McCulley Holcomb vehicle. Thank you.

Matt (00:31:52):

And I was about to say they were, but I’m thinking of Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Man of the House.

Laci (00:31:57):

No, Jonathan Taylor Thomas can take a backseat. He’s a second banana to Tim Allen. Tim Allen’s also someone who kind of takes over. If you ask me,

Matt (00:32:04):

Does Tim Allen take

Laci (00:32:05):

Over dad? I think he does. I think anything he’s in becomes a general generality

Matt (00:32:09):

Asked, been answered. So the original director of the movie is Chris Columbus. He of the writing gremlin’s fame. And as happens with many people who crossed Chevy Chase’s patch, Chevy Chase ruins his life and is making his life a living hell. Basically.

Laci (00:32:28):

Lisa discovered America.

Matt (00:32:30):

Chris Columbus says, to be completely honest, Chevy treated me like dirt, but I stuck it out. And we even went as far as to shoot second unit. Some of my shots of downtown Chicago are still in the movie. Then I had another meeting with Chevy and it was worse. I called John John Hughes and said, there’s no way I can do this movie. I know I need to work, but I can’t do it with this guy. John was very understanding. About two weeks later, I got two scripts at my in-law’s house in River Forest. One was home alone with a note from John asking if I wanted to direct it, and then his career took off after that. So yes, Chevy Chase, infamous for being difficult. I think maybe the number one example of a difficult man, a star who’s very talented and obviously brings something to the table, but is basically impossible to work with, clashes with all kinds of directors and co-stars.

Laci (00:33:23):

Can I ask a question that you’ll definitely know the answer to? Is he married?

Matt (00:33:27):

Yeah.

Laci (00:33:27):

Great. For a long time. The same person.

Matt (00:33:31):

Let me find out the answer to that.

Laci (00:33:33):

Just did he find his own Beverly DeAngelo?

Matt (00:33:36):

Looks like he’s been married to the same person since 1982. Wow. Yeah.

Laci (00:33:42):

Who is,

Matt (00:33:43):

Who’s, what’s

Laci (00:33:44):

Her name? Is it a chase,

Matt (00:33:46):

Janie, Luke

Laci (00:33:48):

Chase.

Matt (00:33:49):

Is it a chase?

Laci (00:33:50):

Chevy Chase?

Matt (00:33:52):

Yeah. There’s all sorts of stories about how much he hated being on community. He was on Mark Marin’s podcast a few weeks ago, and apparently he said, I got this quote. He said, quote. I honestly felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me. Ultimately, I felt a little bit constrained. Everybody had their bits and I thought they were all good. It just wasn’t hard hitting enough for me. I didn’t mind the character. I just felt that it was, I was happier being alone. I just didn’t want to be surrounded by that table every day with those people. It was too much. And

Laci (00:34:22):

That’s interesting.

Matt (00:34:23):

That’s from a Mark Marin’s podcast, September 26th, I believe.

Laci (00:34:26):

It makes me think a little bit differently about the needing to be alone part. I mean, he seems like an extrovert, but it sounds like he’s definitely not. It sounds like maybe being in an ensemble cast or even having to share a little bit takes it out of him.

Matt (00:34:43):

If you know about that, when you go back to community, you see how many reaction shots of him or him by himself, how many insert shots are of him by himself, how much he’s not in the shot with the rest of the cast in a show that is based on the

Laci (00:34:56):

Chemistry

Matt (00:34:56):

Among these people.

(00:34:59):

And then Donald Glover in the New Yorker in 2018, this New Yorker profile of Donald Glover by Tad friend, he was, I think it was Dan Harmon, creator of community, said about Donald Glover. He said Chevy was the first to realize how immensely gifted Donald was. And the way he expressed his jealousy was to try to throw Donald off. I remember apologizing to Donald after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non PC verbiage, and Donald said, I don’t even worry about it. And Donald Glover said, I just saw Chevy as fighting time. A true artist has to be okay with his rain being over. I can’t help him if he’s thrashing in the water, but I know a human is in there. He’s almost too human end.

Laci (00:35:43):

I like that, Glover. That’s very insightful. I think that’s a good way to put it. It kind of reminds me of the mannequin and now there was nothing

Matt (00:35:54):

From mannequin.

Laci (00:35:56):

Mannequin. Yes. How Hollywood Montrose was not put off at all by whatever kind of weird thing that he, I can’t remember his name.

Matt (00:36:05):

Andrew McCarthy.

Laci (00:36:06):

I know Jonathan, yeah. Would throw at him. It’s just like being surrounded by theater kids and artists and eccentric people, and people who are method acting and doing vocal exercises and all these weird superstitious routines and stuff. I mean, it’s got to just make you kind of numb to anybody’s process after that. And also being a comedian, he’s got to be very used to being surrounded by super competitive people. There could only be one comedy guy at a time. Only one comedy black guy. For sure. I’m sure. And I’ll bet he’s smart. I mean, just insightful enough and has had it happen to him enough to know that anyone fucking with me is threatened by me. It’s a compliment. It’s a compliment. Even if it’s not comradery.

Matt (00:36:57):

And like Chevy Chase, you’re a musician too, and you’re a writer and a performer like

Laci (00:37:01):

Me, right? He’s a musician. Always forget that. A really good one, I’m

Matt (00:37:03):

Sure. Yeah. In 1975. Yeah, man, I was you once too.

Laci (00:37:08):

Wait. Oh, Chevy Chase was Chevy Chase thing. I forgot Donald Glover was, I didn’t mean to, no disrespect. I do like his music. I just wasn’t thinking of him like that. And yeah, thought, wait, Chevy Chase was an actual musician. I thought he was just in that played

Matt (00:37:23):

Piano.

Laci (00:37:24):

Okay. I just thought he was in Call Me Out. Just because it’s funny that he’s in it.

Matt (00:37:27):

He plays piano in everything he’s in

Laci (00:37:29):

And it’s rail.

Matt (00:37:30):

Yeah. Yeah. No. Anyone who knows

Laci (00:37:33):

A piano person, if that’s their thing, they really do find a way to fold it into it. Any hotel you’re in with them and they see one wait tucked away in the lobby. Oh, let’s just, let’s stand over there.

Matt (00:37:46):

Even people who can’t play the piano like me are like, Ooh, a piano. Eh,

Laci (00:37:51):

You’re not a

Matt (00:37:52):

J Pals.

Laci (00:37:55):

I wasn’t thinking of you when I was making

Matt (00:37:57):

This. Oh, okay. I was flattered.

Laci (00:37:58):

That’s why I’m saying it’s like specifically a person maybe if, what do you think is the most likely instrument to play? If you are someone who’s very into playing the piano, that’s your main thing. What does that give itself to

Matt (00:38:11):

Guitar?

Laci (00:38:12):

Bass is guitars, guitar. Okay. I was just thinking, because if it’s flute, then there’s not usually a flute lying around a hotel lot, so you just kind of got to

Matt (00:38:22):

No guitars. You’ll find guitars everywhere. You’ll find pianos everywhere and guitar to piano. It’s very one-to-one

Laci (00:38:28):

Really

Matt (00:38:31):

On this fret is this note on the piano. But piano is that with all instruments, but they’re just pretty easy beginner instruments. What

Laci (00:38:40):

I feel slapped in the face since I can play nothing. None of them are easy,

Matt (00:38:45):

But you play your voice. Sing us a tune. Laci.

Laci (00:38:51):

I think Louis Armstrong is all can go for today. That wasn’t that bad.

Matt (00:38:58):

So they bring aboard Jeremiah Cheick, and he was a Be and June, and he was a music video and commercial director prior to Christmas vacation, but he was working on another movie here for Roan Brothers when Chris Columbus dropped out. So they gave it to him. He went on to do future episode of Lord Bearing Beam’s, Benny and June a movie Laci likes. He did the 1998, the Avengers, unrelated to the superheroes. That movie sucks.

Laci (00:39:23):

Yeah, I

Matt (00:39:24):

Saw the only other movie of his that I’ve seen. And then he basically works in TV the rest of the time.

Laci (00:39:30):

Okay.

Matt (00:39:31):

Chevy Chase is our star. He was 45 years old at the time. And Laci, he’s six foot four.

Laci (00:39:36):

Thank you for telling me. Is it weird that as a young guy, I think he looks just like your dad is a young guy, and right now he looks like my stepdad Rick. In this picture,

Matt (00:39:44):

He does just like Rick. Oh my God. He

Laci (00:39:45):

Looks just like him. Wow. That could be him. Rick holding out on them dollars. My

Matt (00:39:51):

Father.

Laci (00:39:52):

Yeah.

Matt (00:39:53):

My young father does look like a young Chevy Chase.

Laci (00:39:55):

Very much.

Matt (00:39:56):

There are photos and videos of my dad on Christmas wearing a tie. And I always think of them and think one day, my dad is not a tie wearing guy. My dad’s a blue collar salt of the earth type. He drives a big truck, boom broom. Very. But I always think I should wear a tie on Christmas and then I never do.

Laci (00:40:11):

Please don’t. Ew.

Matt (00:40:12):

Wouldn’t it be charming

Laci (00:40:13):

If we No, no. I hate when you wear a tie.

Matt (00:40:16):

What?

Laci (00:40:16):

Hate it. You look so uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable the whole time. I just want you to feel comfortable. I just want you to go do that thing. I like you in a loosened tie.

Matt (00:40:28):

Why can’t you tell me these things in the present? Wait.

Laci (00:40:30):

Because you don’t have really, I mean, if it’s a situation where you need to wear a tie, you need to wear one, what are you going to do?

Matt (00:40:36):

But then you tell me, I look handsome. It’s a lie.

Laci (00:40:38):

Well, I’m not saying you don’t look handsome. I’m just saying you also look uncomfortable.

Matt (00:40:41):

I don’t know what to believe with you.

Laci (00:40:42):

I guess my discomfort and worrying about how you’re feeling takes a precedent to, does my husband look handsome this way?

Matt (00:40:52):

A few days ago, I bought new shoes,

Laci (00:40:54):

Thank God.

Matt (00:40:54):

And I had to tell Laci, because I splurged and spent $70 on shoes after having worn out my previous pair that I’ve worn for 10 months, wore them so long that the tongue of the shoe came out. And so I had to get these new shoes and I’m like, Hey, just fy. I spent $70 on shoes, this my room. And she says, oh, thank God I fucking hated your old shoes. And I was like,

Laci (00:41:16):

I hated those shoes. But you had already, okay, the same concern you had when you bought the new pair, which was, Hey, I splurged. It’s not a splurge, but I knew you’d already also done that when you bought the last pair. Right? You always have some weird guilt around buying new tennis shoes. And so once they were on your feet, what are we going to do? I just hated them. But I love you.

Matt (00:41:47):

But my criteria for of buying shoes is I have to have a 12 wide, and you go on the website of the store.

Laci (00:41:54):

Yes. Saying, ladies

Matt (00:41:55):

Check for a 12 wide, and they only have one pair. And so I buy that pair.

Laci (00:41:59):

Yes. Love. What do you want from me? I can’t help it that I hate

Matt (00:42:02):

It. Tell me your honest opinion in the present tense is what I’m saying.

Laci (00:42:05):

What are you going to do with that brand new pair of 12 wides who are unique, beautiful unicorns that don’t exist in other kinds? You’re going to go make a shoe. Matt.

Matt (00:42:14):

No. You are my clothes consultant.

Laci (00:42:17):

How about this, Matt,

Matt (00:42:17):

You pick out shoes for me and I buy them.

Laci (00:42:19):

How about this? Why don’t we take a step back instead of you buying the shoe and then letting me see them on your feet. Look what I did. Ask me. Say your shoes are worn out, and then I’ll do that.

Matt (00:42:32):

Yeah, but I need new shoes right away because I can’t even wear my current shoes.

Laci (00:42:36):

So that sounds like a planning issue.

Matt (00:42:39):

Yeah.

Laci (00:42:40):

Maybe once you feel the bottom of your actual skinned foot touching concrete through your shoe, give me a little email.

Matt (00:42:47):

I will certainly do that in the future.

Laci (00:42:49):

So I think we successfully trace this issue back to something you did wrong. So I feel good about it.

Matt (00:42:55):

Good? Yes.

Laci (00:42:56):

Oh, he’s six four, ch, excuse me.

Matt (00:43:01):

Lazy has been just up horny gushing her fucking jeans lately over these men. Andrew McCarthy.

Laci (00:43:08):

I’m hamming

Matt (00:43:09):

Up. Andrew McCarthy. Oh, orgasming all over me.

Laci (00:43:15):

Hey, you made me mess up my festive Bo.

Matt (00:43:17):

I don’t like it.

Laci (00:43:19):

Matt, you need to tell me these things in the present. I’ve been orgasm all over this podcast thinking you really liked it.

Matt (00:43:25):

I know. Now you’re embarrassed. See?

Laci (00:43:27):

No, I’m not.

Matt (00:43:28):

No, I know,

Laci (00:43:30):

But I will stop

Matt (00:43:31):

Chevy Chase. No, don’t stop.

Laci (00:43:33):

That’s right. Don’t stop.

Matt (00:43:34):

Well stop that. Stop what you’re doing.

Laci (00:43:36):

Oh,

Matt (00:43:36):

Stop saying. Let’s go. Also,

Laci (00:43:39):

Once it gets in, Matt, it’s hard. I know it’s a dumb thing for me as a 40-year-old, almost youthful woman to say, let’s go. I can’t even say it without my prepubescent voice cracking.

Matt (00:43:56):

What do you think of Chevy Chase?

Laci (00:43:57):

I think you can eat it. I love him. I am always saddened to find out that someone I think is amazing on screen is a dick. I don’t like that. I don’t want to know that. But it does change how I feel about ’em generally when I see ’em.

Matt (00:44:15):

But among the Hollywood dicks,

Laci (00:44:18):

I guess I don’t know who they are. Can we line ’em up?

Matt (00:44:20):

I mean, who are some other of Hollywoods?

Laci (00:44:22):

Literally, you’re the one that tells me these things, my love. I don’t know my hot well shooed husband whose shoes could get it.

Matt (00:44:32):

I was sad to find out Timothy Oliphant from Justified. Oh, come on. He’s got a nice guy. Case. He and Walton Goggins. No, Boyd, we’re not talking. We’re not on speaking terms. No. Yes, no. I don’t want to know. I don’t like it when

Laci (00:44:46):

They don’t love each other.

Matt (00:44:48):

But among the Hollywood dicks, he is like king dick, king Dick. Just utterly uninterested in working with people and giving anything other than what he wants to do. Not interested in sharing the screen, not interested in collaboration, which is the name of the game. It’s what this is all about.

Laci (00:45:12):

You can’t have the energy you’ve got now forever. You’re going to need someone to carry you one day if you want to keep being on the big screen or small

Matt (00:45:21):

Screen. The only real comeback he’s had since the nineties is on community, which is a minor comeback because it wasn’t like, it’s like a tomic show now, but it’s not like it was ever a giant hit and he hated being on it. And it’s fun to watch it because of that sort of the idea of the Pierce character is he’s basically an old and sad version of all the Chevy Chase characters from Caddy Shack. He could be the character from Caddy Shack who thinks he’s the coolest and the hottest and the richest, but doesn’t understand that everyone hates him and that he’s coming across as an asshole to everybody. That’s interesting to watch. But he wasn’t interested in playing that. There’s this oral history of Christmas vacation that was published by Rolling Stone in, I believe, 2019 for the 30th anniversary. And this is not a great oral history. And Chevy Chase only has a few quotes, but they really play them up. He says about John Hughes. I never knew John that well. If you see his films, he had a great vision of teenagers growing up. In a way he was a teenager still battling those awkward growing years. Maybe he was a genius and God bless him if he was. There’s so few of us.

Speaker 3 (00:46:31):

And

Matt (00:46:33):

It’s like, yeah, it’s funny. I love him. But it’s also, they got so little from him. They’re like, Hey, what do you remember about John Hughes? He’s like, oh yeah, good at writing teenagers.

Laci (00:46:42):

He’s still a teenager, right? Yeah, that sounds right. Okay. I’m the only knowing one that grows up.

Matt (00:46:46):

Just summarize your thoughts, but we got so little out of him. But yeah, even in this interview, you can detect the bitterness. He’s talking about Johnny Lec and he’s like, oh, he was such a sweet kid. We had such a good time together. Now he’s making a hundred million dollars a year and I’m sitting here.

Laci (00:47:04):

Well, I guess it’s just that he’s not capable of complimenting or feeling really good for someone else without throwing himself in to anchor it. He sounds like a sociopath,

Matt (00:47:17):

But the person he seems to really respect, and the person who seems to enjoy working with him is Beverly DeAngelo.

Laci (00:47:25):

Yay. So that understanding of each other really there,

Matt (00:47:30):

The way that the quotes from him are about talking about her, the way that she talks about him and the amount of stuff that they’ve done together suggests that they have a good working relationship. So she was 35 at the time. She’s five foot two.

Laci (00:47:43):

Thank you, Matt. She’s a

Matt (00:47:44):

Lot shorter than him

Laci (00:47:46):

And one inch shorter than me.

Matt (00:47:48):

I mean, she, early career highlight was playing Patsy Klein and Coal Miner’s daughter supporting role in that movie. But she got a Golden Globe nomination. She’s a great singer. She played Lene Lumpkin in The Simpsons in Colonel Homer, the season three episode where she plays a country singer and does her own singing.

Laci (00:48:06):

I don’t remember her in hair.

Matt (00:48:07):

She’s in hair. Also. Your favorite movie, American History X.

Laci (00:48:10):

Stop calling it my favorite movie.

Matt (00:48:12):

And very successful on tv. They made all their quotes. They mentioned trying to find another project to work on together. They had a pilot called Chev and Bev in 2015 that they filmed, but that a DC didn’t move forward with, and they did appear as their characters in the 2015 Vacation reboot slash Legacy sequel. And just for the vacation series, there was another sequel in 1997 Vegas vacation that National Lampoon was not involved in.

Laci (00:48:49):

Okay. I like that one.

Matt (00:48:51):

It’s not in the title.

Laci (00:48:52):

I remember liking it. It’s been years.

Matt (00:48:56):

There’s a Made for TV sequel to Christmas vacation called Christmas Vacation two at Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure.

Laci (00:49:02):

Oh, good time

Matt (00:49:02):

You seen this. No, but Randy Quaid and Bim Flynn are back as Eddie and Catherine. The only other thing that was interesting about this movie is that Dana Baron, who played Audrey in the 1983 vacation returns as Audrey this time. So it’s like, I’ll make a sequel to the, because this is Christmas vacation two. I wasn’t in Christmas vacation one, but I’ll be in. This is now one of the only examples of my favorite thing to think of, which is an actor returning to a role after it had been recast. So Sean Connery and Diamonds are forever returned to play the character after George Lazenby had played him. I can’t think of many examples of this, so I’m glad to add another one to the

Laci (00:49:48):

List. Oh, darn. Thought I had one. A lot of doting, I want to say doting wives, but maybe that’s not it. I’m just noticing a lot of healthy in love and in lust adult couples in these movies. I mean, Catherine and Eddie are also totally horned up for each other,

Matt (00:50:12):

Although it is to watch the first vacation movie where Clark is such a piece of shit and is trying to cheat on his wife the whole time. But the movie doesn’t seem to acknowledge that this is a very mean and villainous thing to do to your family. It’s just like, oh, that’s just dad, me and dad. He’s trying to fuck the lady in the pool. And then his wife sees him and instead of being like, we’re going to get a divorce, you’re trying to end our marriage, he’s like, I’m sorry. I haven’t been nice enough to you. I haven’t been banging enough attention. I’ll get naked with you in the pool. They’re much nicer to each other and European vacation and much hornier for each other. Although he makes a sex tape of her without her consent, and then it gets out. And then she comes A successful s sex actress in Italy.

Laci (00:50:55):

She is hot.

Matt (00:50:56):

Oh, yes. Oh, I’m creaming my jeans

Laci (00:51:00):

Over. Ew. Cream jeans.

Matt (00:51:02):

She can get it.

Laci (00:51:03):

All right,

Matt (00:51:04):

So now

Laci (00:51:05):

Let’s not go.

Matt (00:51:06):

We’re going to talk about Christmas vacation. Are you ready? Laci

Laci (00:51:11):

Shitter’s full. I wanted to lead the episode by explaining that I just had a horrible, I had a bad episode before this episode started. A coughing, spasm fit that has been happening since I’ve had the flu, and I don’t know how to stop doing it. It’s the scariest thing. I lose complete control of my body and my fricking jaw explodes and well, I’m pretty sure that’s, that’s how I’m going to go back in time or die

Matt (00:52:00):

Either one. Then I just sheepishly stand there.

Laci (00:52:02):

Can I help you? Okay. I don’t know what else you could do. You need some water? No one can help me. Is my bow,

Matt (00:52:11):

Am I a good husband? Tell me. I’m good. So Christmas vacation is what we are going to talk about as usual. I watched it again and as usually happens, my opinion then improves because the things that jarred me or didn’t make sense, now I accept them. Yes. Laci.

Laci (00:52:28):

Is it also because of the things that I say on the first day that we record?

Matt (00:52:32):

Yes. All your great points? I don’t know. Probably. Yeah.

Laci (00:52:36):

Okay, good. No, it is.

Matt (00:52:36):

I love how much you love it. I want to be with you. I would love to watch this movie every year. It did occur to me, I think that movies like a Christmas story also have this where it’s vignette and there’s a sort of looseness to it that if you’re just watching it on t and t or whatever, you come in, you’re like, oh, it’s this sequel. Okay. Yes.

Laci (00:52:56):

And that’s exactly what I think of this movie as one I can catch at any point. And I jump right in. There’s lots of times for commercial break,

Matt (00:53:05):

And you can fall asleep from champagne for a little while and wake back up and you’re like, oh yeah. Uncle Louis. Yeah,

Laci (00:53:12):

Louis

Matt (00:53:13):

Uncle Louis.

Laci (00:53:14):

Oh, okay. Wow. You picked the only name I didn’t immediately recognize.

Matt (00:53:18):

Really? My reservations about it still hold. And I think that watching it in sequence with the other vacation kind of, there’s too much cognitive dissonance. You’re like, this is not the same character. This is not the same family. The movie opens with opening credits that are animated. Laci loves this in a movie.

Laci (00:53:37):

No, I don’t.

Matt (00:53:37):

No, you don’t like it.

Laci (00:53:38):

No.

Matt (00:53:39):

You don’t like you do. Do you like these? Yeah. But you’ve seem like you pick a lot of movies that have this.

Laci (00:53:43):

That is an

Matt (00:53:44):

Accident. So you don’t like the animated opening.

Laci (00:53:46):

It’s neither here nor there. And I also think it looks like a PowerPoint. It looks like shit animation from here.

Matt (00:53:51):

It looks like shit. Well, this is a grid of a bunch of screenshots.

Laci (00:53:55):

I know. But when you have it gridded like this, it looks like a fricking PowerPoint.

Matt (00:54:00):

The animation is by Bell Croyer. He is. Well, he was the person who directed a Fern Gly. I think that’s his only feature credit.

Laci (00:54:08):

I do like Fern.

Matt (00:54:08):

There’s this invaluable resource. I’ve found Art of the title.com that is all about opening credits, title sequences in movies. And they talked to Bill Kreer in 2013 about the opening to National Lampo Christmas vacation. And we’ll put a link in the description and everything. Go read that interview. But this guy, this was his third movie in 1989 that also had animated titles. Honey, I Shrunk The Kids is another one. And then

Laci (00:54:35):

It’s one of my movies, a

Matt (00:54:35):

Movie called Troop Beverly Hills that I’ve never heard of.

Laci (00:54:38):

That’s a good one.

Matt (00:54:40):

Yeah. I think it’s very charming. It’s very distinctively a mixture of 2D and computer animation, very early computer animation. The reindeer and the snowman that falls are very obviously computer animated. Bill Croyer talks in the interview about how they debated for a long time, whether they could show Santa Claus’s butt crack or not. They were worried that the studio would make them delete it. And finally they’re like, I don’t know, just put it in there and see if they say anything. And nobody ever mentioned it. So it’s in the final product.

Laci (00:55:09):

It seems canonical that Santa should have a plumber’s butt.

Matt (00:55:12):

Yeah.

Laci (00:55:13):

He bending over under a tree all the time.

Matt (00:55:16):

Yeah. They basically said as much in the interview, it’s like you’re going to show his butt crack.

Laci (00:55:21):

Right? I mean, he’s not going to have perfectly elastic pants that just don’t show that ample crack.

Matt (00:55:27):

And then the song is called Christmas Vacation. It’s by Barry Man and Symphonia Weill performed by Mavis Staples.

Laci (00:55:33):

Was it made for the movie?

Matt (00:55:34):

Yeah. Really? Yeah. I love

Laci (00:55:37):

My favorite Christmas song was

Matt (00:55:38):

Thinking is because Lindsay Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac did the vacation song

Laci (00:55:43):

From

Matt (00:55:43):

The other two movies or no holiday, what is it?

Laci (00:55:49):

Family Vacation

Matt (00:55:52):

She or Going On? I can’t remember.

Laci (00:55:57):

Oh,

Matt (00:55:57):

Holiday. Yeah. So I was thinking, is this another song? Nope. Different.

Laci (00:56:03):

You can tell that. Oh, come on, Matt.

Matt (00:56:07):

So we meet the Griswolds, they’re in a car. I think it’s the opening or the introduction to them driving in their car is very much like a movie saying, don’t worry folks. These folks, they still go in a car.

Laci (00:56:20):

They still have a car, and they’re still manic and feisty

Matt (00:56:24):

And they’re singing songs and stuff. This specific tone is very much like the earlier vacation movies. And I wrote in my notes, oh, I’m glad I watched the first two movies, but this is pretty much the only time in the movie where it feels like the earlier movies.

Laci (00:56:36):

I think any of the time they put Clark in danger, it starts to feel like the old movies. So the sledding part.

Matt (00:56:41):

Yeah, that’s true.

Laci (00:56:42):

Yeah. I mean, and anytime him and Eddie are together, except for the store part when they’re walking through the store.

Matt (00:56:50):

That’s the other thing that I really appreciated more this time around is the chemistry between Eddie and Clark, between Randy Quaid and Chevy Chase. Do

Laci (00:56:59):

You think it’s because they’re the same height? I’ve got something about that. They do seem to genuinely respect each other. If not, like I can’t. I’m always trying to pick up the vibes. Now, Beverly DeAngelo, I could tell for sure they got along, but anyone else, I would guess he respects Murray. I can’t think of his first two names. He’s guys,

Matt (00:57:20):

Chevy Chase.

Laci (00:57:21):

He’s a man with two first names.

Matt (00:57:23):

Brian Doyle Murray.

Laci (00:57:24):

Brian Doyle.

Matt (00:57:24):

Murray, yes.

Laci (00:57:25):

Just because he is an established

Matt (00:57:27):

And was a writer, he wrote Caddy Shack or co-wrote

Laci (00:57:30):

Caddy

Matt (00:57:30):

Shack. Yeah.

Laci (00:57:31):

Okay.

Matt (00:57:32):

Co wrote on Saturday Night Live.

Laci (00:57:35):

And there’s a certain kind of established comedian that I could see him liking, respecting, and then being willing to be a little bit more pliable in a scene,

Matt (00:57:47):

Right? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. But watching it again, the thing that didn’t improve for me is the parents, the grandparents. I don’t think I feel like all of them are so I don’t remember anything that any of them do.

Laci (00:58:01):

Oh yeah. I mean, yeah, I would agree in a sense, but they’re meant to be chaos. It’s the same as all the family and home alone. Of course you remember the mean uncle, what you did, you little jerk. But the rest of the people that are there, the aunts, the cousins, they all have one-liners, but you’re not supposed to care about any of them. Remember, it’s just supposed to fill the house.

Matt (00:58:26):

Yes. But I think you said that you can tell that the way that they interact with their kids shows you why Clark and Eleanor the way they are.

Laci (00:58:35):

I didn’t mean that it was a complete Rosetta stone for it. I do think it is supposed to give you clues. They selected a very specific dynamic for the way the kids interact with their parents. Not little kids, the adult kids interact with their parents and the way the two sets of parents interact with each other and the way they interact with their daughter-in-law and son-in-law. I think all of that is to help you understand that Clark’s fuck ups are understood and are assumed. And if you’ve known him since he was a child, it’s part of what makes you love him. And if you’ve married into it,

Matt (00:59:21):

It’s why you hate

Laci (00:59:23):

Him because you can’t brag about this guy. You can’t just bring over some random friend and be like, look, my daughter married up. Look at this prize pony. He’ll probably burn a cat alive or something will happen. Even if he doesn’t create the chaos, it follows him.

Matt (00:59:39):

He’s always falling down off ladders and stuff.

Laci (00:59:42):

There’s something about Ellen’s parents that let me know they are about status, they are about appearances,

Matt (00:59:52):

But they should love this guy. Then he makes a lot of money at the additives

Laci (00:59:56):

Company. If you can’t show it off, it’s like a grandchild that lives in a different state. What the fuck good is it if I can’t cart it around, show it off, invite people to things he’s hosting, it’s going to be a shit show.

Matt (01:00:08):

No, he’s big and tall and handsome and he makes a lot of money

Laci (01:00:11):

And he constantly has chaos. He constantly screws up. That’s what I’m

Matt (01:00:17):

Saying. People will forgive that for handsome.

Laci (01:00:19):

No, not this mom. This mom cannot risk it. Her status is hanging on by a thread. Hence, she wick waxes her lip. She still colors her hair. She wears a full face of makeup even at night. These are all supposed to let you know why Clark’s not good enough for her

Matt (01:00:36):

Daughter. Okay, I’ll watch it a third time. So the kids are in the car now. They’re recast. Johnny Galecki is now little Russ. He’s four years younger than the actor who played him in the last movie. And that’s fine. There doesn’t have to be perfect continuity between the movies. Plus you can always say, well, this one takes place before European vacation.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):

Sure.

Matt (01:00:58):

It’s like the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom of the Vacation series. Except that in the last movie. Well, but if this is supposed to take place afterward, I mean Johnny Gil’s playing him. He’s a little kid or a nine to 12-year-old and in the last movie he’s like having sex with Bavarian beer wenches and stuff.

Laci (01:01:17):

Sure. I will try to think of it between now and the end of this podcast. But there’s another example of a show or a movie that replaces the two of the people or one of the people every time four continuity because it happened maybe unintentionally the first time. And so then you just go with it. And that is in a weird way, making it more like the one that came before it than keeping one or two of the actors. Do you see what I’m saying?

Matt (01:01:51):

I see what you’re saying. Yeah. I’m trying to think of what you might be talking about. So Russ, he basically says a line from a sitcom. He is like, so what are we doing again? And Clark’s like, well, I told you son. We’re driving to the tree lot. And

Laci (01:02:03):

He does not say that.

Matt (01:02:04):

Okay, but I’m summarizing. But

Laci (01:02:05):

It’s very importantly, not a tree lot. He’s driving the new mill

Matt (01:02:09):

And fucking know the tree forest, the forest of trees,

Laci (01:02:11):

The forest,

Matt (01:02:13):

They get into some road antics. They get caught underneath an 18 wheeler and I like that Audrey, the daughter as their, they should be freaking out about nearly being about to die, but she’s like, guys, stop fighting. That’s how I would be in a crisis too. Don’t yell at me.

Laci (01:02:28):

Did you look into how they got that? I mean, that’s clearly really a car doing that, going under the log truck.

Matt (01:02:33):

I didn’t look into how they did the stunt.

Laci (01:02:35):

Okay. I’m sure it’s just on one of these,

Matt (01:02:39):

One of those,

Laci (01:02:39):

Some sort of tea, some sort of

Matt (01:02:40):

Track. You don’t even need to say the words. I know what you’re saying.

Laci (01:02:42):

You got it. Car track, a car, parallelly track.

Matt (01:02:45):

So they go into the forest because Clark, his thing, I guess his deal in this movie is he has an idea of what Christmas should be, probably in foreign by TV and kind of false memories of his own life. And he’s like, this is what we do. We get together, we sing Christmas carols and we drink hot chocolate and we get back to our yule tide roots in ancient Germany and we cut down trees in the woods. But he’s like butting up against the reality that other people exist and they have their own wants and needs. I guess that’s his story. It’s not that. Where does he start and where does he end?

Laci (01:03:22):

Are you asking me? Yes, because I

Matt (01:03:23):

Disagree. Okay.

Laci (01:03:24):

You’re absolutely right that he’s definitely pulling this out of Norman Rockwell postcards or whatever, magazine covers and tv and he’s got a script and some idea of something he’s never had, not something he’s ever had. He even says it, he’s never had a family Christmas. That is a little strange to me because his parents seem easy to get along with. So I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have had that. He doesn’t seem to have any siblings. He’s an only child, so maybe that’s it. He just didn’t have a big family to have the big Christmas. So I don’t think he’s doing something. He thinks he’s already done. He,

Matt (01:04:01):

Sorry. I meant to say he’s remembering idealized versions of his own Christmases as a youth. That didn’t actually happen the way they did, but it could be a very easy thing. His dad has a heart to heart with him later and he’s like, dad, all our Christmases were so chaotic when I was young, but it’s so clear. It’s like, okay, I’m trying to create the Christmas that I was never able to get and his dad should be like, no, you just need to be exactly who you are. But he’s like, son, you keep fucking up.

Laci (01:04:31):

No, I think that is a perfect conversation he has with his dad. He says, the kids are not ever going to remember all these things you think are important. They’re going to remember that you were mean. So just try not to be mean. I think he gives really good, I love that

Matt (01:04:48):

Talk. I like it too. I just think that this sort of emotional through line could be

Laci (01:04:53):

Simpler

Matt (01:04:54):

And more clear.

Laci (01:04:54):

I think Clark is making the mistake lots of, he seems a little too old to be making it for the first time, but this idea of my parents made this look really hard. It’s not. You just get the family over. You have a wonderful, amazing time with memories. He also seems to be a person still climbing the corporate ladder. He probably isn’t his home as much as he wants. He probably isn’t making these little things with his family you’d like to. So he’s just trying to make an impact with everything he does get to do outside of work. Let me at least scar them.

Matt (01:05:25):

What you just said is the motivation of the first vacation movie is I don’t get to see the kids enough. I want to make lasting memories with them on this vacation and that manic drive is what ruins everything.

Laci (01:05:39):

And same here. I think that is his through line. He’s a quality time guy, not a quantity time, although, but his insane need to make it count, ruins it.

Matt (01:05:51):

But everything seems fine. I’m so sorry. You’re all doing great. Your kids like you enough and your wife likes you when not your house is nice. And don’t buy a pool man.

Laci (01:06:02):

Don’t buy a pool, man. Enjoy that yard.

Matt (01:06:06):

This movie. I think another thing that don’t want to nitpick so much,

Laci (01:06:14):

We’re only on the opening scene. I know

Matt (01:06:16):

The first two movies had such great location photography. They were travel movies, so you really get to film in Paris and Rome and stuff.

Laci (01:06:25):

I love the big bin roundabout one. Yeah, that’s a classic big bin.

Matt (01:06:29):

This movie’s largely just in a house, which is just a set, but they do film some outdoor stuff in Colorado, including right here. And it looks pretty great.

Laci (01:06:38):

I love the whole time they’re in the house. It looks like the Coziest house. I never feel claustrophobic,

Matt (01:06:45):

But

Laci (01:06:45):

You’re comparing them apples to apples. All of my notes are just, I love this movie in all caps.

Matt (01:06:51):

And who else you love is the Chesters? Can you tell me about the Chesters?

Laci (01:06:55):

This is who I was yearning for whenever we were watching Jingle All the Way is Neighbor relationships that seem so much more believable. And then while I’m watching it, I’m like, okay, I guess it’s not perfect realism. It’s a little too involved, but I’ve never had an ongoing, a pissing match with a neighbor. I know that happens. I see it in shows and movies all the time. And I guess a certain kind of personality, when you’re stuck next to a person, you’re going to piss ’em off and then it’s just forever. But these neighbors seem to love to hate each other. They equal, Clark and them both seem to talk and shit,

Matt (01:07:36):

Which I think is kind of out of character for Clark, I would think he’d be like, we’re great neighbors. They love me, but the only interaction he has with them is to tell ’em to go fuck themselves.

Laci (01:07:46):

I think he’s already decided they’re not his kind of people. They look inside their house. They are metropolitan people. The biggest thing that takes me away from them, although I think they’re flawless and amazing characters, is they don’t seem like they’d live here. They seem like they’d live in the city.

Matt (01:08:00):

Well, but this is your classic yuppie thing. They had to move out to the suburbs or they moved out to the suburbs. Now they make too much money, but they’re like, we’re above this whole suburbs thing, which is why they later in the movie, they say, of course we

Laci (01:08:12):

Didn’t aren’t just the teensiest bit sad that we didn’t get a tree. I know. It’s corny.

Matt (01:08:16):

It’s cliche.

Laci (01:08:17):

Cliche. And they’re drinking umbrella drinks. They’re eating like tropical foods. Yeah, they’re too cool for their own good.

Matt (01:08:30):

Margo and Todd are their names. Julia Louisie Dreyfus.

Laci (01:08:34):

I had the

Matt (01:08:34):

Great Julia Louisie. Dreyfus,

Laci (01:08:35):

Fuck, she’s good and everything.

Matt (01:08:36):

And Nicholas Gas and

Laci (01:08:39):

Where do I know him from? He’s great in this.

Matt (01:08:41):

I looked it up and I did not write. I could not find fine the smoking gun answer to, how does Laci know this guy?

Laci (01:08:48):

It’s just eighties guy in my head. Eighties. Nineties.

Matt (01:08:50):

But Julia, Lou Dreyfus, you will remember her from Seinfeld.

Laci (01:08:54):

Oh, thank you. And one of my favorite shows, Veep, I do kind of remember her,

Matt (01:08:57):

Which started this very year of 1989.

Laci (01:09:00):

Annie. Well, can we just say that Julie ou Dreyfus is my, if there was a female that could play me in something, it would be her. But

Matt (01:09:09):

Because usually

Laci (01:09:10):

It’s a gay man that we

Matt (01:09:11):

Think who would play

Laci (01:09:12):

Laci that we think are the best,

Matt (01:09:15):

The

Laci (01:09:15):

Most analogous to my sensibilities

Matt (01:09:17):

That yeah, Julia Louis Dreyfuss, JLD. But from Veep, not necessarily as Elaine.

Laci (01:09:22):

I don’t know. Oh yeah, not Elaine. No, that’s weird though. Her most famous role is the one I don’t relate to it all. She drives me crazy as Elaine in the best way.

Matt (01:09:30):

You are a Selena Meyers. You’re

Laci (01:09:32):

Pissed

Matt (01:09:33):

Off and angry and yelling at everybodys and cursing constantly.

Laci (01:09:36):

And I also relate to this. I mean, I know she’s a tool, but I just love her responses and reactions to everything except for when she gets all like, I’m going to fight people. I don’t need the punch at the end, but it’s fine.

Matt (01:09:49):

You punch me all the time,

Laci (01:09:51):

But not when I’m mad at you. Only when I’m happy at you.

Matt (01:09:54):

Clark wants to fill this house with people.

Laci (01:09:57):

They’re in bed. This is one of my favorite more, I guess it’s slap sticky. They’re talking, but the conversation, I kind of always forget what it’s about. It’s just him convincing his wife that we’re going to do the thing I want to do because it’s really important to me. Look at my little boy pajamas. Let me have my thingies. But all I care about the whole time is that his full tree, little sap SAP thing,

Matt (01:10:24):

Still a sap on his fingers.

Laci (01:10:26):

And then he sticks to everything and then he even is so sticky. He pulls a lamp and then he fucks her hair up. And I just

Matt (01:10:31):

Thought they’re both so great in this scene. They’re not acknowledging any of it, that he’s sticking to everything. They’re totally underplaying it. They’re so good

Laci (01:10:39):

Together. The bed looks

Matt (01:10:41):

Good because the giant tree that they brought home from the woods wrecked. Wrecked their, well wait, it didn’t go into their living room yet, did it?

Laci (01:10:51):

Yeah. And it went through the windows when he opened

Matt (01:10:53):

And into the neighbor’s house. So that’s the first wave that they fuck up their

Laci (01:10:57):

Neighbors house. It does not go into the neighbor’s house. It never goes into the neighbor’s house.

Matt (01:11:00):

H

Laci (01:11:00):

It does. He goes into the neighbor’s house that he cuts down. After that tree catches on fire and he needs a new one, he then goes and cuts a tree down from his yard. And when it falls, it falls into their house. This tree never goes into that

Matt (01:11:11):

House. Okay, alright. I will track the tree

Laci (01:11:15):

When I watch the third time, it goes through their own window. When it expands, it doesn’t expand so much that it’s in the neighbor’s window.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):

Okay.

Laci (01:11:23):

The first way he fucks up their house is when he is putting up his decorations and he falls and to catch himself. He grabs his own shutter and there’s just a solid piece of water that’s frozen. If it’s settled there and it shoots and it creates the classic scene, well then why is the carpet over it?

Matt (01:11:42):

Todd? What I like

Laci (01:11:43):

About, I dunno, mark, I had to say it. All right,

Matt (01:11:46):

Go. What I like about Todd and Margot is that they’re living their own Christmas movie where they’re being tormented by Clark Rewal. And I like that Clark is totally oblivious to it, and he never finds out that he’s been tormenting them the whole time.

Laci (01:12:00):

That’s true.

Matt (01:12:01):

She goes over there to sock him in the face and a squirrel attacks her. So he never finds out that he’s been ruining other people’s lives.

Laci (01:12:09):

And I think in the case of them, he doesn’t care at all. I mean, he had to know the tree went through their fucking window. He just pretends they’re not there.

Matt (01:12:18):

Yeah. Well, so this is where Ellen says, by the way, my mom called today and they’re going to be staying for Christmas too. And I wrote down, Ellen, you need to say that news right away. That is not something you save.

Laci (01:12:31):

Also, the big Christmas was just going to be his parents and no Eddie. And it only becomes big because of unexpected guests.

Matt (01:12:40):

But again, you cannot just casually drop later. By the way, both of our parents will be staying in this house at the same time.

Laci (01:12:46):

The most important thing to note, and maybe I’ve noticed this before, but it really stood out, is it is December 14th and people are coming. They have people over for 10 days and nights.

Matt (01:13:00):

When do they arrive? They arrive on December 14th.

Laci (01:13:02):

December 14th. Yeah. Or that the next time you see the advent calendar is the 14th and they’ve already gotten there.

Matt (01:13:07):

Yeah, because doing an advent calendar is interstitials to show you where you are on the timeline. But yeah, she’s worried. She’s worried everybody’s going to fight. And Clark is like, but Christmas is a time where everyone comes together and puts aside there petty differences

Laci (01:13:22):

At the end of the movie, just in time for the credit.

Matt (01:13:24):

And Ellen’s like he’s being an idiot again. But that’s my Sparky Spanky spany. My life lesson for all of you is life is about calibrating your expectations. It’s about accepting people for where they are rather than where you wish they were. They were.

Laci (01:13:40):

Is that Beverly doing that? You’re saying Beverly’s doing that?

Matt (01:13:43):

I think she’s probably tried to do this for 15 years and has given up on it. Has tried to be

Laci (01:13:49):

To try to meet him where he is.

Matt (01:13:50):

No, no, no. That Clark, you need to understand that other people have their own things are going to be a certain way and instead of wishing they were different and acting as if they were different, you need to act as how they actually are, which is they’re going to fight. There’s going to be drama, there’s going to be chaos.

Laci (01:14:08):

It just doesn’t bother him. It bothers her and avoids it. He finds a lot of different reasons to not even have to deal with it. He just wants the thing. He doesn’t want the responsibility.

Matt (01:14:18):

That’s a good point. Because every time he’s constantly going outside to work and then he is like, oh, I’m standing out here until that blow is over. And I kept thinking, but you wanted this.

Laci (01:14:27):

Well, he wants the memory. He wants to say he had it. And he is a bit of a sociopath. I know he cares about his wife, but he doesn’t care about anyone as much as he cares about himself. I don’t know if it’s unintentional, but he does not engage with anyone’s fighting if it has nothing to do with him. He just doesn’t. It doesn’t register as something he has to handle at all.

Matt (01:14:50):

You’re right. Yeah. He has

Laci (01:14:53):

His own. He’s in his own movie. If I ever wanted to see the other version of this movie, I’d want to see it from Ellen’s perspective.

Matt (01:14:59):

Yeah, of course. It’s not miserable for you because you go outside the whole

Laci (01:15:03):

Time and it doesn’t bother you. The chemistry and the politics of this family, I mean, Russ and Audrey are not going to go to their dad and say, can I please sleep in my bed? Can I please do this? Can I do this for school later? Or none of that troubleshooting stuff goes to dad. He

Matt (01:15:22):

Would just say a cliche to them.

Laci (01:15:23):

Sure. The complaints get filed with Ellen. That is where they go. And anyone in the house who’s having a hard time is going to go to her.

Matt (01:15:35):

She says, you set standards that no, you set standards that no family event can live up to. And he’s like, well, when have I ever done that? And she starts naming things and in the middle of holidays, vacations. I really like that this movie is not beholden to the previous movies. It’s not like she’s like, hello. Our trip to Wally World and also our European vacation. I like that. It’s not so reverent about what’s come before. Yeah. We go over to him, follow him at work.

Laci (01:16:06):

Now we see, I think this is a very realistic portrayal of corporate guy, and it’s the most perfect thing to kind of fulfill your ongoing joke of saying that people need to go make their widgets. I mean, he is a food additive enhancer. He has the most made up job. It might be a real one, but it’s not supposed to sound serious,

Matt (01:16:30):

But is what I’m basically talking about.

Laci (01:16:32):

I know that when I say that. Yeah. And that is why I wrote it down. I was like, this movie just did it. But they use the office just enough to show the, and it’s completely relatable, the stress of overextending yourself during the holidays to make this grand gesture, to make this one moment, this reveal of we’re getting a pool or look, I got you a car, or these slightly impulsive things we do and we write the check before we know it’s going to cash figuratively and literally sometimes. And he’s banking on a $7,500 bonus, which I hope you did the math for because I want to know how much that actually is.

Matt (01:17:07):

It’s $18,000.

Laci (01:17:08):

That’s nice. Little bonus. And I think Mr. Murray, who I can remember his first two fucking something, Doyle Brian Doyle. Brian Doyle Murray. I think he’s very funny. He’s a little over the top. Not believable asshole boss. But it works great. I dunno. And I know this is random, but I always like Sam McMurray too. This actor. That’s his friend. I don’t know why. I just like, Hey, he’s nice.

Matt (01:17:40):

Yeah. He’s a welcome addition. We’ve last met him in Adam’s family values every time he pops up. He’s the evil girl at camp. He’s her

Laci (01:17:50):

Father. Yep. Yep. He’s always Swarmy New York guy. I love it.

Matt (01:17:55):

Okay.

Laci (01:17:55):

Swarmy is a word we say a lot in last, it’s

Matt (01:17:57):

Last three episodes. Say it’s made up. Word.

Laci (01:18:01):

Are you sure?

Matt (01:18:03):

Schwar

Laci (01:18:05):

And Swarmy.

Matt (01:18:06):

Smarmy.

Laci (01:18:07):

Smarmy. Like Hermione

Matt (01:18:12):

Smarmy.

Laci (01:18:12):

Just

Matt (01:18:13):

Ask yourself, who’s the character from Harry Potter who has big teeth? Hermione.

Laci (01:18:18):

That’s a mean thing to

Matt (01:18:19):

Say. JK Rowling made that up, didn’t. It’s a big detail every time she’s

Laci (01:18:23):

Mentioned. We don’t talk about JKR in this fucking house.

Matt (01:18:29):

I have this other issue with this movie is the financial precarity is just so unbelievable. The first episode of The Simpsons, which also came out in 1989, had Homer not getting his Christmas bonus and it ruins Christmas because they rely on it. This is, I’m getting a luxury. I’m getting us a

Laci (01:18:52):

Pool. He already wrote the check though,

Matt (01:18:56):

So cancel the check. Who cares? But it’s not like we’re not going to be able to pay our bills. We’re not going to be able to buy presents.

Laci (01:19:02):

Yeah, but he’s only going to be stressed over his rich people problems.

Matt (01:19:06):

Yes, I know.

Laci (01:19:07):

So he’s having a rich people problem.

Matt (01:19:08):

Right. So it’s hard to, okay. But it’s hard to really sympathize with the plight of Clark Griswold. It’s just like you weren’t going to be able to afford this luxury that you didn’t even need.

Laci (01:19:19):

I don’t think you’re supposed to totally care.

Matt (01:19:20):

Make it more about, I know everybody was rich in the eighties, and if it was today, it’s like, oh, we’re not getting our Christmas bonus. Our electricity’s going to get cut off. Our kids aren’t going to get their toys. That’s all I’m saying. The Christmas bonus thing comes directly from John Hughes’s story.

Laci (01:19:37):

Fine. But he is supposed to be well off. I mean, they are supposed to be home alone level, I assume. Yeah. He’s still not great with his money, but that’s because he allows these grand ideas of what his house could become, what his family could become, what a trip could become. And he’s already, he already has a pool in his brain, which they illustrate well with that scene. So it is a problem to him. And he did make a financial bad decision and he probably would’ve put them in some stress if the Christmas bonus never came.

Matt (01:20:11):

So it’s Christmas time in Chicago. Chris Columbus in the Chicago magazine, home alone oral history, said that he shot some second unit stuff. The downtown Chicago scenes. And they’re at this point in the movie, and that’s why this, I mean, this looks like home alone two, like Christmas gam. I just want to go

Laci (01:20:31):

There. Oh my God. I even wrote, I was like, do a side by side of the quick montage of exchanging cash and running the manual credit card machine. It’s in home alone two, and it’s in this movie. It could have been the same one. Yeah, he might have. I was worried I wouldn’t find it. No. There is a difference though. In the one in home alone, it’s big giant cash registers at the toy store. But that same hand exchange commercialism, but it looks so fucking good. That makes sense. It felt very home alone. I wrote it down.

Matt (01:21:07):

So Clark is in this department story and he starts flirting with the hot sales clerk. And again, hot, she’s hot or okay, but she’s coded as hot. And also she actually is hot. I think of her as the female Andrew McCarthy is what I’m saying.

Laci (01:21:23):

Fun

Matt (01:21:25):

Alone. But this is this horn dog philander aspect of his character. Just get it out of here. I’m supposed to like him and this makes me think he’s evil.

Laci (01:21:35):

You’re absolutely correct. This just was much more like a gag and funny. And then I assume you’re still supposed to think he’s a sleazeball. He’s still ashamed of it, but yeah, I don’t need it.

Matt (01:21:47):

So one easy fix, have a scene with Beverly DeAngelo, flirting with a hot guy. And there you go. Oh, they both do it. Okay. It’s a thing they understand. We get horny for other people, but ultimately we come back to each other. But he’s stammering and he’s like, oh, I want to eat your pussy. I mean, eat your purses. I mean, what did I say?

Laci (01:22:05):

That is log. You’ll log. I mean, I don’t have a

Matt (01:22:07):

Log. And he even says I’m not married. So he’s actively trying to have sex with her.

Laci (01:22:13):

Yes. Seems he’s seeing what might happen.

Matt (01:22:17):

But she flirts back and she pulls her ass out and she’s like, look at this. And then Russ shows up and he’s like, what you doing, dad? He’s like, oh, nothing, Russ. I’m just looking at this ass. Look at this ass. And that’s this scene. It’s

Laci (01:22:28):

More of a vagina than it’s an ass. But all right.

Matt (01:22:30):

This right here that we’re looking at,

Laci (01:22:32):

I could see a lot more front than I can,

Matt (01:22:33):

But her hand is on her is more toward her butt.

Laci (01:22:36):

Fine. But she’s showing off her hip.

Matt (01:22:39):

Would this be something that a woman would actually show in a store? Laci? No. Okay.

Laci (01:22:42):

No fucking never.

Matt (01:22:44):

I have no expert.

Laci (01:22:47):

You need to go to Mervin’s with me. So if you want to see the real wild side

Matt (01:22:51):

To Mervin’s

Laci (01:22:51):

Tos, Mervin’s has

Matt (01:22:54):

Presentist

Laci (01:22:55):

In a couple decades,

Matt (01:22:58):

But it’s all saved because she ends it with my, he says, tis the season to be married. And she’s like, that’s my name, Mary,

Laci (01:23:05):

My

Matt (01:23:05):

Name. And he just goes, no shit. It’s the greatest delivery. I’m just like, oh, okay. I like you again. I know Mary is played by Nicolette Scorsese,

Laci (01:23:15):

Which

Matt (01:23:16):

Made me do a double tick.

Laci (01:23:18):

I looked it up as well. Like this is a random person in this role. This has to be a favor. Is it?

Matt (01:23:24):

She’s no relation.

Laci (01:23:26):

It’s still a favor.

Matt (01:23:29):

Those are the two sets of parents arrive. But it’s weird the way it’s set up. Each of the four main griswolds are doing their own thing. One kid’s watching tv, one’s doing her hair and the doorbell rings and each one is like the doorbell is ringing. How very queer. Yeah. But then the parents are all sitting there and then they happily greet them. I don’t know. It’s a little weird. And then also the filmmaking, suddenly it becomes like handheld, wobbly, shaky cam. And it’s like a horror movie, which it is. It’s

Laci (01:23:57):

Supposed to be. That’s why it was set up this way. They’re all living their lives. Perfectly pleasant. This could be the Christmas we could have, this could just be it. Russ is doing what he wants to do. Audrey’s perfectly. Content Mom is cooking, dad’s doing fucking whatever it is he wants to do. And all of a sudden them being there is like, oh, it begins

Matt (01:24:17):

In reality. Fuck. If people are coming over to our house for an hour, we’re panicking and cleaning and screaming at each other. We’re until the second there. Yeah. Nobody’s just casually just writing out my letters. They can’t know. We live like this. Fuck.

(01:24:34):

It’s unrealistic. Let a candle, all of them. John Randolph is Clark Senior. Diane. Lad is Nora. We also have Doris Roberts from Everybody loves Raymond as Francis and EG Marshall as art. I mean, they’ll fall fine. But I can’t think of a single interesting or funny thing that any of them does except for I like the nice, sweet heart to heart with Clark’s dad at the end. And then the parents come in. It’s a horror movie. They’re all talking about their boils and their abscesses and stuff and how much they have to shit, and how much they can’t shit. And then the two fathers are fighting about a parking spot, which comes directly from the John Hughes story.

Laci (01:25:12):

Alright. Also just was very confusing because it’s a driveway just fucking park.

Matt (01:25:18):

Yeah. That’s one of those things. I guess you had to take it from your story,

Laci (01:25:21):

I guess you had to, but they had to be fighting over something and it had to have happened in the time it takes to get out of your car and get to the door. It’s not like they came together.

Matt (01:25:28):

Also, they’re already parked.

Laci (01:25:29):

They just have, right. And so clearly one of the dads took the more convenient spot. The primo spot. Yeah. I mean old people, how much more convenient can any of them be? When you get to a certain age, everyone leaves their driveway open for your car.

Speaker 3 (01:25:44):

Like,

Laci (01:25:44):

Oh no, that’s Memaw pee spot. Don’t park there. And so you start to, once you start parking in the handicap spot, you get mad when someone takes the only one.

Matt (01:25:53):

I got you. You’re more in touch with the old people and their preferences.

Laci (01:25:56):

Well, all you have to do is think about how bodies age, man, they both have bad butts and backs and hips and

Matt (01:26:02):

Nuts. It’s going to get worse than this. So that’s the parents. And then we start decorating,

Laci (01:26:09):

Which stresses me the fuck out as a person who buys new Christmas lights every single year just so I don’t have to unravel ’em.

(01:26:16):

Plus they’re so cheaply made now that they almost never, they don’t light up the second year. And that is something I noticed over and over in this movie, the heavy duty nature of both the kinds of lights he has and the very unsafe, but very of that time extension cords, the ones that have the end piece, that’s a perfect circle. And it seems too big to be supported by the wiry body of it. It all just all feels like a fire hazard. I mean, it’s a good gag that, oh, little knot. And it’s just the biggest fricking ball of lights. And he hands it to his son, but then he goes up the ladder with what? Clark, you have no lights, sir.

Matt (01:27:08):

I think you made everything subtly make sense to me. No plan. I’m just doing, I’m out here.

Laci (01:27:15):

I’m doing outside stuff.

Matt (01:27:16):

Parents are inside, doesn’t matter.

Laci (01:27:18):

Nope. I just got to be on this

Matt (01:27:18):

Roof. I’m going up and down this ladder for the next 14 hours.

Laci (01:27:21):

It is exactly what I did at Sears. I just found an empty box and I walked around with it. You

Matt (01:27:26):

Worked at Sears?

Laci (01:27:27):

I did for a month. And it was such a bad fit, but we had this kind of vibe where you don’t just stand around, which I never had a job where I stood around anyway, but literally, there’s so much inventory because it’s the hardware section that I worked in. And a hardware store is full of tiny things that are always out and you have to replace them. And they’re all tiny and all heavy, and so you’re constantly stocking the shelves. It’s all you do. But at a certain point I’m just like, I just need a box with stuff in it and walk and that’s all I got to do.

Matt (01:28:04):

But then once you get a grownup job, we’re just doing that too. I mean, not you and me. We work for ourselves. But what I would do at the office is open a Word document and just type into it.

Laci (01:28:13):

I know you did.

Matt (01:28:14):

So you worked at Sears. That’s crazy. So you’re like 70 years old

Laci (01:28:18):

At least.

Matt (01:28:19):

Which Sears was it?

Laci (01:28:20):

Clearview.

Matt (01:28:22):

Oh yeah.

Laci (01:28:23):

I don’t know why. I don’t know why. Of all the places I could have, I have no memory of why I worked there. And then I went and worked at Cafe Deman or I did that. Not Cafe Mon

Matt (01:28:32):

Morning Call.

Laci (01:28:33):

Morning Call. But such an interesting story. Everyone local restaurants.

Matt (01:28:37):

Okay, but you did shoot powdered sugar, right? You would just dump the powdered sugar into

Laci (01:28:43):

Your, oh, that’s the first thing you do. You know how sometimes the beignet is just perfectly hollowed? Well, so in the back, so beignets are fried dough, and you put powdered sugar on top.

Speaker 3 (01:28:55):

You put the powder sugar in the benet.

Laci (01:28:58):

If your go to morning call, the powder sugar is already on top. If you go to cafe, these are the two places to get benets in New Orleans, you go to Cafe Dimond, you get a shaker. The shaker is clearly superior. I don’t want someone telling me how much powdered sugar I need. So when you work there, you realize that sugar comes from an industrial trash can that’s open and it’s always just kind of cloudy. Sugar poofing up. So I open my beignet. It’s basically a bread bowl at this point, and I fill it completely, pack it in with the sugar, take a bite. And it’s like the cinnamon challenge, just, it’s not what you want. You think you want it, and then you put it in your mouth and it’s like Santa’s ball sack I assume is full of powdered sugar.

Matt (01:29:46):

But you still did this every morning

Laci (01:29:47):

In first? No, just the one. Just the one

Matt (01:29:49):

I thought you, this is how you start every shift.

Laci (01:29:50):

No, it was the first day I worked there and I went, I’ve always wanted to

Matt (01:29:53):

Gets you right. This is where the icicle shoots into the Julia Lou, Dr. It’s

Laci (01:29:59):

Not an icicle

Matt (01:30:01):

House. Whatever.

Laci (01:30:02):

There’s a difference.

Matt (01:30:03):

So what is this

Laci (01:30:05):

In the gutters? If there’s water in the gutter still, when it gets to freezing temperature, then the water inside that gutter is going to freeze into the shape of a gut. It’s a log of ice. It’s huge. And usually your shutters aren’t being swung on by an idiot and therefore come detached from just one end. Thereby creating a perfect projectile system. It could have killed them so many different times. And ladder deaths or just household accident deaths are so numerous. And as soon as you get on a ladder at your own home, you’re like, this is why. This is why. No, I know this is unnatural. This is so stupid. I should have a license to get on this thing.

Matt (01:30:49):

Every ladder I’ve ever climbed, I’m up on it. I’m like, oh my God. And then you see somebody on that same ladder and you’re like, that’s nothing. That’s like four feet off the ground. But then you get up there and you’re like, oh my God, I’m going to

Laci (01:31:01):

Die. I’m going to die. I’m not made to be this high. I’m no duff. But I love the first ball that he has on the

Matt (01:31:09):

Ladder. It’s great. He’s so good at this.

Laci (01:31:10):

It’s a perfect, because I’ve never had that kind of ladder. But that is a very typical contractor’s ladder, the kind that is one size. And then in the very rare cases where you need to be bigger, it just unhooks and becomes twice its length, and then you rehook it, you safety latch, and it’s all the way to the top and has not latched it. And then he does the perfect thing. When he very violently fall, it un doubles and he goes slamming to the ground and he’s fine. But what he thinks to do is, did anybody see that? Did anyone know that? I just, he realizes if anyone had seen that they would take that ladder away from him. They all expected it and he just proved them and they would take it.

Matt (01:31:55):

Well, he’s got the Buster Keaton that he’s not actually affected by all the horrible stuff that happens to him,

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):

Right?

Matt (01:32:02):

Combined with, yeah. I don’t want them to take away my toys. So they’re going to know. My wife comes outside and I’m laying strewn in the bushes. I’m just be like, okay, honey, I’ll be right there.

Laci (01:32:12):

Well, it’s just like it hurt a little, but I still want to do the thing I’m doing. He will fall down, get bloody knees, and then pop back up and be like, don’t anyone talk about the knees. We need to keep doing the thing I’m doing. Don’t tick it. Okay. So the classic struggle here, his outside struggle literally outside, is that they can’t figure out why the lights won’t work. Now, if you’ve ever worked with lights, you plug them in and you put them up as they’re plugged in. So to prove to your brain, these are lit before you go attaching them anything. But I assume this is something people used to do, use a staple gun to attach lights to a house. How do you take them off with a staple remover?

Matt (01:33:01):

You worry about that in January,

Laci (01:33:03):

My friend. That’s insane. The way he meticulously every one inch puts in another staple and another staple. It drives me nuts. I also don’t understand how he walks in this roof once it’s covered this way. But anyway, he makes the most crazy spectacle of every single inch of the house being covered in lights and then it won’t

Matt (01:33:21):

Work. Well, he gets everyone to come out.

Laci (01:33:23):

It’s a ceremony, gets there and it’s a whole fucking thing

Matt (01:33:25):

Wrote, buddy, you got to test this out by yourself way ahead of time. So all the family gathers in Juliette Lewis. Lewis has one of her four lines of dialogue in the movie. She’s like, I hope nobody drives by and sees me in my

Laci (01:33:37):

Jammas, bystanding in the lung, staring at the h.

Matt (01:33:42):

I love Chevy Chase asking for a drum roll. Nobody responds. And then he just looks at his wife like drum roll.

Laci (01:33:46):

And she has a perfect drum roll noise. I can’t do it.

Matt (01:33:51):

I love, this is the stuff that makes me think I love these guys. I would watch a sitcom of Javin bev, but the lights don’t go on. And mother-in-law is like, well, he’s a dumb idiot.

Laci (01:34:04):

No. Well kids, I hope you see what a terrible use of resources this is what fucking Disney villain would turn to children and say that. But she’s drunk and she’s a jerk.

Matt (01:34:16):

And then Clark’s dad’s like, well, it’s okay if you need any help, son, I’ll give me a holler. I’ll be upstairs asleep.

Laci (01:34:21):

Asleep. Yeah. Typical dad vibes. He’s like, second. He’s like, I already spent a whole childhood pertaining to do stuff outside. You pretend to do stuff outside now. Yes,

Matt (01:34:30):

Exactly.

Laci (01:34:31):

I passed the Jim Bean on to you. Jim Beam.

Matt (01:34:36):

My second bit of wisdom I will let everybody in on for the episode. This is just the thing I’ve learned in life is I think that this is kind of unrelated. I think that it’s not good to say to somebody, let me know if you need help or can I help you? I think you either just start helping or if you have to offer help, you need to specifically say what you’re going to do. But you shouldn’t make it somebody’s problem that if they need help, they need to then go ask you for it.

Laci (01:35:05):

Exactly. Yeah. Because they need to see that you mean it. It’s empty words.

Matt (01:35:10):

It’s empty words, but it makes you feel like you’ve done something

Laci (01:35:12):

Right.

Matt (01:35:13):

But you’re also giving them more work. You’re like, okay, I need you to stop what you’re doing right now. You’re overwhelmed and figure out how I can help you and then tell me what to do and I’ll do it. No guys, just start helping people if you want to help them or keep your trap shut.

Laci (01:35:26):

Right. Don’t steal the valor. Insensitive prick. Alright, so now the addict scene, he does, the thing that I thought all dads were born knowing to tell people is if you’re walking in the attic, you have to walk on the beams, not the stuff in between. The beams.

Matt (01:35:45):

What kind of beams?

Laci (01:35:47):

Oh, load bearing. When those are not all load bearing. Matt Idiot.

Matt (01:35:50):

Hate when

Laci (01:35:51):

Hate.

Matt (01:35:52):

They’re not.

Laci (01:35:53):

You’re not supposed to walk on the sheet. Rock the roof. So he’s clearly not a very handy man. No. Anyway, he goes up into the attic to hide his Christmas presents. This bothers the shit out of me. What’s the tree for? It’s a shirt box. Clark, what could you be hiding? I mean, anything could be in there. A good, why are you hiding a normal shape if he takes out a present that’s in his secret hiding spot and it’s like, haha. This is from years ago. Crazy. Well, it’s a jewelry box and it’s for Valentine’s Day.

Matt (01:36:24):

It’s for Mother’s Day. I love, I love that detail.

Laci (01:36:26):

That makes sense. Why you would’ve hidden a jewelry box. This is a shirt box. Just put it under the fucking tree. I

Matt (01:36:34):

Guess these are Santa presents.

Laci (01:36:35):

No, no, it’s not. It’s the underwear for Beverly. Everything is pomp. Bev, Evelyn. Fuck

Matt (01:36:42):

Ellen.

Laci (01:36:42):

Ellen. Everything is pomp and circumstance with this guy, and it’s just very, it’s his extraness is frustrating and selfish. I love it. It’s funny. But there’s no reason for you to be in the attic. Everyone’s running around getting dressed. You should be well aware that the plan for today was to do some shopping with everyone, then go to lunch. Everyone’s getting dressed, using the blow dry at the same time, trying to take the, trying to get in the shower. You know this Clark. And then you go upstairs. Don’t tell anyone you’re going into the attic. A full attic.

Matt (01:37:13):

He’s living his own movie.

Laci (01:37:15):

I know he’s blissfully unaware of anyone else’s needs. He’s still in pajamas. He’s just, it’s okay if they knew I were in the attic because I’m hiding my secret presence, my sweet, sweet secret presence. They’d think I was a sweet little boy and they’d say, oh, Clark, you’re so sentimental. You try to make things so special. You be in the attic in a very inconvenient time and maybe look for you.

Matt (01:37:36):

This is like with Arnold Schwartzenegger jingle all the way. What we need, Clark, is we need you be here, be present with

Laci (01:37:42):

Us. Be cooking breakfast.

Matt (01:37:44):

Yes. Go sit on the party couch. Yeah, she’s having a fucking panic attack.

Laci (01:37:47):

Go sit between the two dads, scratch their balls, scratch your balls, whatever. And watch some sports.

Matt (01:37:52):

Watch the big game,

Laci (01:37:53):

Please. God, please. Anyway. And he gets trapped up there, which he has an attic that locks. It doesn’t make sense.

Matt (01:38:01):

So I feel really bad for Clark when he can’t get his lights to work. He doesn’t know why. And he actually didn’t do anything wrong for once. I mean, other than overloading the circuits, but he doesn’t know about the lights switch that’s turning on and off the circuit.

Laci (01:38:14):

He’s lived in this house for years, Matt. I’m very mad at him the whole time. Everyone knows if you have a light switch in a certain room, that if you plug something in a specific socket, that light switch will work it in the garage. That is a particularly specific socket. It’s right by the fucking door. This man is so unaware of his surroundings that he hasn’t noticed that for years. He’s got a light switch that does a thing, whatever.

Matt (01:38:42):

Yeah, that’s true. But I do feel bad for him in the moment. I

Laci (01:38:44):

Think

Matt (01:38:44):

His desperation is kicking all the individual reindeer. I have freakouts like this every single day. Just nothing fucking works

Laci (01:38:51):

Ever. I’ve done what he did to those reindeer and Santa to my desk many a time.

Matt (01:38:57):

We get some exhausting back and forth. Like, oh, the lights are working. No, they’re not. Oh, they’re working, but you didn’t see it. Oh, but now they’re not. But I figure it out.

Laci (01:39:04):

I do like it that it’s Ellen that figures it out. Anyway, why? That’s very well observed. Maybe Ellen’s going in there to do the women’s work, like the laundry. So she maybe knows something about switches. He doesn’t.

Matt (01:39:17):

So finally the lights are finally on. The family all comes out to admire it. He says, dad, you taught me everything about exterior illumination. I hope this adds to your enjoyment of the holidays. And then his father-in-law’s like, well, the little lights aren’t twinkling. He’s like, I know art. Thanks for noticing.

Laci (01:39:33):

Thanks for pointing that out.

Matt (01:39:34):

And we get a really great reveal of now Eddie, Randy Quaid arriving because you just see it from behind. He just steps into the frame and puts his hand on Clark shoulder.

Laci (01:39:44):

Great. Eddie, I love that Clark is saying over and over in between things, Eddie’s saying, Eddie. Eddie.

Matt (01:39:51):

Yeah. He’s buffering. He’s just making noises while he processes

Laci (01:39:57):

This. He just had the best moment of this holiday season followed by, he’s still got tears in his eyes. He’s so moved by his lights coming on. And then those tears dry up cold on his face as he realizes Eddie’s

Matt (01:40:12):

Here. So Eddie, Randy Quaid. Catherine is Miriam Flynn. They were in National Lampoon’s vacation. We met them before where they had different kids. They had older kids. The older daughter was played by Jane Kowski in the earlier movie.

Laci (01:40:24):

And in this reality they still do.

Matt (01:40:26):

I know, but he’s like,

Laci (01:40:27):

I wish the older kids could have came.

Matt (01:40:28):

He says, I got the older daughter in the clinic getting off the Wild Turkey. And I was like, I wrote down, could they not find out what their names were? So just

Laci (01:40:38):

The

Matt (01:40:39):

Dog, the older one. And then the older boy.

Laci (01:40:41):

It’s intentional. It’s the same way they deal with the kids that the Griswolds have,

Matt (01:40:45):

But they didn’t have Wikipedia back then. So it wasn’t

Laci (01:40:47):

You think they literally did not know the names? No. Okay.

Matt (01:40:52):

They didn’t. Eddie didn’t call to say, we’re showing up. We’re staying with you. Because he wanted it to be a surprise.

Laci (01:40:58):

Eddie is Clark, but without money.

Matt (01:41:00):

That’s true. Yeah, you’re right.

Laci (01:41:01):

The good grand gesture. The complete unawareness of how his actions affect the rest of his family

Matt (01:41:08):

Life. Lesson number three, write this one down. It’s important. Don’t surprise people. No one wants to be surprised. No one likes surprises. Nothing is better because you were surprised.

Laci (01:41:17):

You want to know what surprise you’re going to get. You’re going to see how I really live, and it’s not pretty,

Matt (01:41:22):

But Ellen’s dad is like, he’s nice to Eddie, but not nice to Clark. I noticed they only interact like once, but he’s much warmer toward

Laci (01:41:30):

Him. I know what you’re saying. But wait, but that’s because he’s related to Eddie. He’s not related to Clark,

Matt (01:41:36):

But he’s not, I mean, this

Laci (01:41:37):

Eddie is his blood

Matt (01:41:40):

Relation, his nieces? No, his niece’s husband.

Laci (01:41:43):

Right. Oh, right. Well, again, because it’s, he’s not ashamed of Eddie because he doesn’t have to have any claim Eddie at all. He’s ashamed of Clark. Yeah, I always noticed that too. And have you got a kiss for grandpa? Where did this niceness come from?

Matt (01:42:01):

Chevy Chase said in the Rolling Stone oral history of this movie. I said earlier, it was from 2019. It was actually 2014. It was the 25th anniversary of the movie. And that oral history was by Rob Ladon. So here’s what Chevy Chase said about Randy Quaid. I loved working with Randy on all of the vacation movies. I never even got a hint that there was something going on emotionally or physiologically with him. He just gets right into it when we’re in the grocery store and he gets that huge 100 pound bag of dog food and slams it down. I don’t think anybody wrote that. That was just Randy reaching out and grabbing it.

Laci (01:42:37):

I love that.

Matt (01:42:38):

Well, because like Randy Quaid is huge conspiracy theorist.

Laci (01:42:41):

Does he think he really went up inside that spaceship and independence

Matt (01:42:44):

Thing?

Laci (01:42:45):

Yes, he does. He never came back out.

Matt (01:42:47):

Okay, so the bonus, we go back to the office, the boss, Brian Doyle Murray, who’s very funny, is like j Chase is checking in with him, just checking, oh, hey boss, here’s a present. Do

Laci (01:42:57):

You like the present gag? It’s a brilliant, do you like the present gag?

Matt (01:43:01):

Tell me what the gag is. I mean, so he brings a present. The boss is like, yeah, just set it down over there. And there’s a million other presents. Is that the gag?

Laci (01:43:10):

They made it in the shape of an L so that you could tell that every other present was the exact same shape. Everyone thought to get this same item for this boss because he’s that hard to buy for, or he’s that obvious to kiss his ass with a thing. The boss doesn’t give a shit and really doesn’t give a shit because he’s got 20 more of the exact same gift.

Matt (01:43:31):

Why is this shaped like an L?

Laci (01:43:33):

To let you know, it’s the same in every single, if it were just a box.

Matt (01:43:37):

But why the, did people pick that for him?

Laci (01:43:40):

Think this. Think of this. If it were just a shirt box and everyone came in with a shirt box that could look like 20 different things inside the box. You wrap a present that looks like this. That’s a very specific item.

Matt (01:43:53):

I get that.

Laci (01:43:53):

I’m saying no one knows what it is. It’s just supposed to tell, oh my God, Matt, the L, the shape’s got nothing to do with it. All that matters is that.

Matt (01:43:59):

That’s what I was asking. Does the shape significant God, a specific reason that it’s an L, my,

Laci (01:44:04):

Just to make it unique, Matt, you’re fucking simple, man.

Matt (01:44:09):

You’re being really mean on this episode. Wait, okay. Name one other

Laci (01:44:11):

Time also, I almost died before we started Fucking rolling.

Matt (01:44:15):

So, oh, I love that. The boss is trying to get him out of there. So he just picks up his phone and he is like, I’m on a call. Get me somebody. Get me anybody and get me somebody while I’m waiting. He’s in the situation. None of us want to be in, which is, I usually have my bonus by now. I haven’t heard anything about my bonus. He asks his coworker, Sam McMurray. He’s like, have you gotten your bonus yet? He’s like, no, but I think it might’ve come in the mail today. My son said, somebody showed up with something. Employers. Employers. I know you’re listening.

Laci (01:44:44):

We implore you

Matt (01:44:44):

If you don’t give your workers a Christmas bonus, especially if they’ve worked there before in the past, and they know a bonus is usually customary and they don’t give you that bonus, you are giving them a pay cut. And that’s shitty in itself. You should not do that. You should pay your workers more every year. But if you’re going to give them a fucking pay cut, you need to tell them and tell them well in advance. Because they’re planning their fucking budgets around this. This drives me insane.

Laci (01:45:11):

But that shit trickles down too, Matt, because I feel the same way about the people we give a little bonus to.

Matt (01:45:16):

But we do. We reliably give them bonuses.

Laci (01:45:18):

I know, but I think we could do a better job at saying, Hey, this is going to be right before Christmas because we’re waiting on our bonus to give you your bonus. I think we could do a better job of, because they remember, oh, we get extra money around Christmas. But they probably don’t always remember it’s at the last minute. It’s always at the last minute. We always have to wait for someone to give us ours.

Matt (01:45:38):

So the people that we’re giving bonuses to, they’re not employees.

Laci (01:45:42):

Well, they help us every year.

Matt (01:45:43):

No, I know they help us, and I never want to stop doing that. And I do feel bad about that, but I’m saying, if you are literally an employee of somebody,

Laci (01:45:52):

Right? Right. If it’s going to show up on your W2 at the end of the year that you made this much money, part of that money is a bonus, you better be fucking giving them the bonus. At least match what they got the year before.

Matt (01:46:04):

On the other hand, Clark, just bounce this check. Don’t get a pool. You don’t want a fucking pool. We have a pool. It’s a burning money pit in the ground. Your life will be

Laci (01:46:13):

Worse. Oh my God. We love, our son loves our pool.

Matt (01:46:18):

Our autistic child loves swimming in the pool. That’s why the pool’s good.

Laci (01:46:21):

Well, that’s why when we moved to this house, we had one of the other house, and it was a must because of that, of the kids’ desire to swim. It’s basically a big

Matt (01:46:31):

Clark does not have this excuse.

Laci (01:46:33):

Okay, you’re right. You’re right. But people who don’t have a pool think that it’s this achievement in this thing that’s going to really improve your life. And it’s like, no. It’s just one more thing. You’re not taking care of that. You look out and you’re like, fuck when your pool’s having a good day. I can’t really tell you the, it’s pride, it’s relief. I look over at the pool and I go, that’s the right color. You’re doing it

Speaker 3 (01:46:54):

Pool.

Laci (01:46:55):

And then on all the other days when it doesn’t look like that, I’m like, I should be shocked.

Matt (01:46:59):

I’m a failure. Yeah.

Laci (01:47:00):

I should be shocked. I should be arrested and buried in that pool. And then they get fill up with dirt.

Matt (01:47:04):

I need to go to a debtor’s prison.

Laci (01:47:06):

I need that

Matt (01:47:09):

President pool.

Laci (01:47:10):

It doesn’t matter. Yeah.

Matt (01:47:12):

Clark is daydreaming about his pool, and he dreams about Mary Scorsese getting naked in the pool and being like, come fuck me, Clark. He’s like,

Laci (01:47:20):

Don’t use the girl voice.

Matt (01:47:21):

Like, Hey, I will. I’m coming to into the pool. And then

Laci (01:47:26):

Stop Matt. Ew.

Matt (01:47:27):

And then little Ruby Sue walks in on Clark and he’s doing a Roman Roy onto his window. And then,

Laci (01:47:32):

What’s a Roman Roy on his window?

Matt (01:47:34):

Remember Roman in succession, gets the job for the first time at the office and he lowers the blinds and then jacks off onto his window. Oh, that’s what Clark was doing.

Speaker 4 (01:47:44):

Okay.

Matt (01:47:44):

And then Ruby Sue comes in and she has a little heart to heart with him and suddenly this becomes like a schmaltzy, sentimental family movie. He was like, oh well Santa Claus, he’s coming. I just know he will come for you little girl who I just met

Laci (01:47:57):

Now I’ve always felt like these scenes didn’t need to be back to back. It does bother me that he’s clearly must have an erection because he’s thinking of this very horny thing that he’s thinking of and then record scratch. Here’s the little girl, but this movie’s ahead of you, they handle that. This is the only time in any of the movies where he flips a chair around and sits on it backwards. That means Ruby Sue’s got no way of coming wandering over there and sitting on his lap or anything. He has blocked it off. He makes it wholesome and I appreciate that because I’m the kind of person who’d be thinking of his boner the whole time.

Matt (01:48:31):

Thank you Clark. This is big. This is good. This is the way men, people with penises, this is the way to do it.

Laci (01:48:35):

Don’t have boners around children

Matt (01:48:37):

And if it happens,

Laci (01:48:38):

Hot tip,

Matt (01:48:38):

Hide them,

Laci (01:48:39):

Right? If they’re unrelated, it can’t be helped.

Matt (01:48:42):

Look, it was the middle of the night.

Laci (01:48:43):

What are you going to do?

Matt (01:48:44):

But she’s like, I Santa Cla I in. Yeah,

Laci (01:48:47):

Santa Cla,

Matt (01:48:49):

But I like this kid. She’s like, I like this place. Your house is always parked in the same place. She lives in an rv.

Laci (01:48:56):

Oh wait, let me help the people. This

Matt (01:49:00):

Becomes, I guess the other deli dilemma of the movie is I got to give a good Christmas to this little girl, but I don’t have my bonus. Well,

Laci (01:49:07):

And that goes to your point of like this is rich people problems. He’s not destitute. He’s still got money in the bank. Even though he’s going to be stretched thin because he already wrote that 7,500 check. He’s still got a few hundred to throw to these kids because they immediately go to the Walmart shot, which I love and buys $300 of just dog food and then gets the stuff for the kids. I also like that they don’t do the thing where they show you the stuff and people hot take. Did anyone else ever fucking notice this and can you name one other Christmas movie that does this Christmas movie doesn’t go to Christmas. It ends well. It ends Christmas Eve night. They don’t bother showing you Christmas morning. They don’t need it. There’s no Ruby Sue. Look what I’ve gotten you. They say they’re going to give the kids a good Christmas. They don’t bother showing you how they did that. I like it.

Matt (01:50:04):

I do. When you said this, when said this Christmas movie doesn’t go to Christmas, I stood up and applauded. I love Yes, yes. It’s great.

Laci (01:50:12):

It’s not the point. This Christmas movie couldn’t be more about Christmas, but Christmas Day isn’t the point, but

Matt (01:50:18):

Christmas is more of a

Laci (01:50:19):

Feeling. No, Christmas day is hardly ever. The point of any Christmas is why they call it Christmas season. It’s all distress. It’s all the preparation. It’s the plans. It’s the cooking you do before the shopping you do before the wrapping you do before the looking at the tree and wondering what’s under it and it’s all the aggravation and headache that really is Christmas. Christmas day is just,

Matt (01:50:45):

It’s the

Laci (01:50:48):

Remember and then there’s a tree in the house and then it’s that.

Matt (01:50:51):

We were kind of talking about this on our last episode is Christmas. It’s the beginning of the month and we feel like it’s already over Christmas kind of. Yeah. Christmas peaks around December. I don’t know.

Laci (01:51:01):

It peaks around Christmas party holiday. If you’ve got a holiday party at work, that’s the peak. It’s all downhill after that.

Matt (01:51:07):

And Laci on Christmas, December 25th at like 10 30 in the morning, Laci snaps the fuck out of Christmas and starts taking the decorations down. Get the shit out of here.

Laci (01:51:19):

It’s disgusting. People are like, no Mardi Gras, y’all. It’s coming. All you got to do is repurpose that tree purple and golden green y and that’s what they’re like, Matt and to me and sue them. I say, bullshit. You are just trying to not take down your dream. I see you. Shitter is full.

Matt (01:51:42):

Shitter is full. This was the line I remembered from the movie. Shitter is full. Tell us about what’s happening now.

Laci (01:51:50):

It’s this music, another gag that I don’t think needs to happen except for that this line absolutely must happen is just Clark looking outside. Clark always notices the things that Randy does first and that’s because game recognized game. I say Randy in the movie he’s Addie and Clark is oblivious to everybody else, but because Eddie is specifically fucking up his vibes, he is messing up the picture Perfectness, he’s outside in his way too short robe with his socks on for some reason, and his chest out and his disgusting rv and he’s emptying live human shit into the storm drain. Clark notices this before anyone else and he’s like, idiot outside in the Bath Road in truth. Anyway,

Matt (01:52:42):

He says like, oh, that’s toxic. I hope nobody lights a match within 10 yards of that.

Laci (01:52:45):

Yes. It’s like that’s a storm drain or sewer, whatever, something I would never know. Is

Matt (01:52:50):

This going to come back maybe later in the movie?

Laci (01:52:52):

I don’t know. And it glows green. It’s clearly toxic. And then of course the posh neighbors see it and ew, and that’s when he says, Merry Christmas, shitters full, which is wonderful. Now this is interesting. This movie manages to get away with the same gag twice and it’s funny both times. It is. When now is this like a silent movie actress Matt? This May Tel is Aunt Bethany. You can just look at her face.

Matt (01:53:18):

Yeah, look

Laci (01:53:19):

At this old picture of her.

Matt (01:53:20):

Yes. That

Laci (01:53:21):

Has to be a silent

Matt (01:53:21):

Movie. No, not a silent actress. She was, but she’s a fucking legend comedian. She was the voice of Betty Boop.

Laci (01:53:27):

Okay. She looks like Betty Boop,

Matt (01:53:29):

Legend also olive oil.

Laci (01:53:32):

Oh wow. So legend

Matt (01:53:33):

Comedian,

Laci (01:53:33):

Voice actress only or I mean, because that face looks like she’s been in

Matt (01:53:36):

Movies more for voice, but also, yeah, wasn’t live action stuff was variety show.

Laci (01:53:40):

She looks quintessential twenties.

Matt (01:53:42):

Yeah, she looks amazing.

Laci (01:53:43):

I love it.

Matt (01:53:44):

Yeah, and she’s hilarious. Also, William Hickey, his uncle Lewis. These two show up. These two are so much better than the other

Laci (01:53:50):

Old people. They’re fucking amazing and it’s like you just know you’re seeing legends on the screen. I feel like you got to know somebody to even get these people. They dusted off and it’s truly talented. People just can’t help but steal a scene and I think they just do in everyone that they’re in. She is fucking adorable.

Matt (01:54:09):

Yeah, I love, there are not that many ancient voice actors who are still around. Frank Welcher is still alive. Put fucking frank wel in live action movies. That’s what I say. This is

Laci (01:54:20):

What you want. They turn it on. I mean, she’s at 11 the whole time and it works anyway. They ask her to say the blast thing and so she goes into the Pledge of Allegiance and because Randy Quaids character is the same person he is an independence day, and I guess he might’ve even really gone to the military, honestly. He stands up and pledges allegiance to the flag and they all do it and it’s precious.

Matt (01:54:44):

Yeah, it happens a few times where the family will just go along with whatever crazy thing’s happening. Yeah,

Laci (01:54:49):

Well just twice and both times it’s sweet.

Matt (01:54:52):

Oh, but the drum rolls kind of that too.

Laci (01:54:54):

Oh, oh, right, fine. That’s like a slow clap. Someone starts drum rolling. Everyone’s going to start drum rolling. It’s contagious. I don’t understand the Turkey gag. I mean, it’s just supposed to look like a horror movie. It’s very effective. I guess this was a model. I mean I guess they made, it’s just like a horror puppet,

Matt (01:55:15):

But what is supposed to have happened is just they cooked it too long,

Laci (01:55:18):

Which doesn’t make any sense. The outside would not look that delicious,

Matt (01:55:21):

But that’s why it’s funny.

Laci (01:55:21):

But then they all eat it and it looks so good. My favorite parts, anytime you bring home a rotisserie chicken or if there’s a Turkey, are the overly cooked skin parts where it basically turns into jerky, but it’s still meaty and it’s like you pull it off in shreds and they all get to have Turkey jerky and I think that’s lovely.

Matt (01:55:41):

It is filmed.

Laci (01:55:42):

Why are there grapes?

Matt (01:55:43):

It’s filmed like Alien or the thing, the way it springs open,

Laci (01:55:49):

They even do a sound effect that it probably is literally from a movie that is doing the same thing,

Matt (01:55:57):

But they’re eating in silence.

Laci (01:56:01):

You mentioned this is kind of a silent movie at times or quiet.

Matt (01:56:05):

It’s quiet

Laci (01:56:07):

And this is a very intentional time when it is because you’re supposed to hear all the clinking and the people drinking their water and chewing and just trying to get through this meal in a polite way, even though to half the shit on the table’s gross.

Matt (01:56:19):

But this is where I’m noticing maybe if this guy had more experience directing comedy,

Speaker 4 (01:56:25):

That

Matt (01:56:25):

This would sing a little more because funny stuff is happening. Its just it’s not really popping. Then Clark finally speaks and he’s like, kids, I heard that Santa’s sled was spotted, near Bent Arc her or whatever, and I wrote down Serious Clark, it’s sleigh, not sled. Okay. But

Laci (01:56:40):

Of course you wrote

Matt (01:56:42):

That down and then like Clark and Yeah, I had to write that down.

Laci (01:56:45):

An English teacher, Matt over here. Actually the Brontosaurus was alive.

Matt (01:56:51):

No, the Brontosaurus

Laci (01:56:53):

Just is a callback. Callback just for you, Matt,

Matt (01:56:58):

The Clark and Ellen have to go clean up Uncle Lewis’s mess or no, the dog. The dog. The dog. Yeah, the dog. That’s

Laci (01:57:07):

Another thing. Another oblivious Eddie thing. Eddie never cleans up his messes. That’s why it’s so fucking touching at the end when Eddie comes in clutch and does a really selfless thing,

Speaker 3 (01:57:20):

But

Laci (01:57:20):

It would never occur to him to do woman’s work. He sees the dog messing up something or he sees mess. Mess doesn’t register to him. He’s not an inconvenience. Everywhere he goes, he’s welcome in his own mind. So when they’re on their hands and knees cleaning up after his disgusting dog, it would never occur to him to help with that.

Matt (01:57:37):

It’s like in the office when in the third season, ed Helms comes Andy Bernard and he’s more annoying than Michael Scott. And Michael doesn’t like him and isn’t responding to his antics when normally he seems like he should be responding. He’s like, finally, somebody’s behaving like me. You’re giving me back what I want. But he sees it in somebody else. He’s like, oh, fuck you.

Laci (01:57:57):

Exactly.

Matt (01:57:58):

And now he’s acting normal.

Laci (01:58:00):

So now Clark is actually helping with a mess actually staying inside. It’s like

Matt (01:58:05):

Actually supporting his wife

Laci (01:58:06):

Eddie is what makes all of the best gestures and sweet scenes happen after Eddie gets there. And that was a great comparison because Eddie is what makes Clark a good family man.

Matt (01:58:24):

He’s not the cousin you want, but he’s the cousin you need. That’s right.

Laci (01:58:28):

And I love the little detail of him immediately in his stupid white turtleneck that see-through and you could see his nipples. So he’s got the Dicky on the mock turtleneck, but it’s black, so it goes in between his nipples and just showcases his nipples. And the first thing he does is touch the very complicated, hard to put together Christmas decoration where a candle uses its heat to make it spin and he just touches it and it decimated. And the rest of the scene, it’s Clark trying to put it back together, which is the theme of the movie. It’s Clark trying to pick up after Eddie

Matt (01:59:06):

And it never acknowledges that he No, I just fucked that up. Whenever people stay with us, whenever people stay with us, I get very self-conscious because suddenly they’re around me a lot and what they’ve learned about me is like, I am quiet. I’m serious. I’m not fun, and I do a lot of chores.

Laci (01:59:27):

You’re very regimented.

Matt (01:59:28):

Yes, I’m very regimented

Laci (01:59:29):

And I don’t, you have lots of things to check off your list every single day and you need your downtime

Matt (01:59:34):

And I don’t like to be looked at while I’m doing it

Laci (01:59:39):

Or helped. Those are not moments for discussion. If I’ve got something I need to talk to you about, I don’t go do it while you’re washing the dishes. That’s podcast time for you. I know that the only thing that makes the dishes something you tolerate is that you get to listen to something while you’re doing it.

Matt (01:59:57):

Yeah. You want these dishes to get done. Yeah.

Laci (01:59:59):

You’re not allowed to talk to Matt when he’s doing this.

Matt (02:00:01):

Daddy needs his quiet time

Laci (02:00:02):

Chores.

Matt (02:00:02):

I always call myself daddy.

Laci (02:00:05):

Yeah, you do.

Matt (02:00:06):

The

Laci (02:00:07):

Fred pulls a cat.

Matt (02:00:08):

The Christmas tree lights, they’re unplugged and the Clark plugs them in and then they electrify the cat. They electrify ant Bethany’s cat. Were people named Bethany in the 19? Yeah, I

Laci (02:00:20):

Love that. Her name Aunt Beth. Oh, because she’s childlike, so they give her a child name,

Matt (02:00:24):

But there’s toxic gas coming from the sewer and is this what makes the, because uncle, uncle Louis, he goes and he lights his oggi and it makes the Christmas tree explode, but does it explode because of the gas? Why does the Christmas tree explode?

Laci (02:00:39):

The cat ate the lights and shorted the string of lights. That’s why it’s important that snot is drinking the water out of the tree. Famously, if you take water out of a alive tree, all it dries out within a day and just starts shedding. So when you’re looking under the tree and the cat is fucking with the lights, you see piles of needles everywhere. Christmas tree needles. So this is basically just a big green stick at this point, and the cat chewed through just enough of the string light wire for when the electric current goes back through it. It creates a spark which explodes the tree that was just kindling at that point.

Matt (02:01:18):

That was a great lesson.

Laci (02:01:19):

Okay. Okay.

Matt (02:01:21):

A delivery boy shows up. He’s like, oh, I’m here.

Laci (02:01:23):

No, you’re right. Nope. The fuck the cat just electro use itself under the chair. Separate event. The tree still matters, but it does not go up in flames until uncle lights a cigar and then himself on fires. Esto. Sorry about that. Nope. I mixed the two tree things together. How could I do that? It’s so obvious.

Matt (02:01:46):

Kind of dumb.

Laci (02:01:46):

And I keep waiting for the squirrel to come out of the tree and I forget it’s the second tree. Yeah.

Matt (02:01:51):

A lot of strands you have to keep track of in this movie.

Laci (02:01:53):

It’s too many gags. Honestly, I don’t need all of ’em. I don’t need the squirrel

Matt (02:01:56):

Delivery. Boy shows up. He’s got an envelope just for Mr. Griswold. Mr. Griswold opens it. He’s like family gather around to watch me. Everything has to be a ceremony.

Laci (02:02:05):

Everything’s a

Matt (02:02:05):

Fucking Eddie. I love you, uncle. Whatever, going to fly in after I open this bonus. Check

Laci (02:02:10):

All forgiven, everything’s great.

Matt (02:02:13):

Again, do this by yourself, Clark. Just

Laci (02:02:15):

Do it by yourself, man.

Matt (02:02:17):

But yeah, it’s not a bonus check. It’s a membership in the Jelly of the Month club,

Laci (02:02:21):

Which is the gift that gives all year long a jar jelly

Matt (02:02:25):

And yeah, I think this is where Clark says, well, I already wrote the check for the deposit of the pool, $7,500. Jesus Christ. So you don’t have the money in your account to cover that, so just let it bounce or Hey, bank, please do cancel that check,

Laci (02:02:38):

Matt. It’s in order for him to get the pool done in time for summer that he has to make sure they put the pool in the ground as soon as the snow thaws.

Matt (02:02:52):

I got it.

Laci (02:02:52):

So he had to put down the deposit.

Matt (02:02:55):

Well, he didn’t have to.

Laci (02:02:56):

You can’t let Matt, that’s not a solution. You don’t let the check bounce because Oh, I’ll just let the bank know. Hey, that’s going to bounce. It’s the relationship you’re fucking over with the vendor that matters. Matt, do you think there’s just a bunch of pull people in

Matt (02:03:08):

Chicago now let the pool never be built. You don’t want to pool.

Laci (02:03:11):

Oh my God. He doesn’t know that.

Matt (02:03:14):

So then Clark has one of his freakouts and Chevy Chase is good at these little mild mannered freakouts, but in the middle of the freakout, he is like, I wish my boss were here right in front of me so I could give him the business. And Eddie takes that literally.

Laci (02:03:32):

He’s got the gift to go,

Matt (02:03:33):

But it’s also like he has not been playing pen up like this. It’s not like, I don’t know. This doesn’t totally track with how the character has been the rest of the movie, but yeah, he goes nuts. He gets out of chainsaw, the Madcap score returns. It’s very weird. And then Russ goes up to his dad and he’s like, dad, I’ve been thinking and Chevy chests are on. The chainsaws

Laci (02:03:55):

Occur

Matt (02:03:56):

And then the kid runs away.

Laci (02:03:58):

We both do a great chainsaw Perion

Matt (02:04:01):

Also, he saws off the top of the staircase. What does he call a mule Post post?

Laci (02:04:09):

Who knew?

Matt (02:04:10):

I don’t know.

Laci (02:04:10):

You’ll log in a Newell post.

Matt (02:04:11):

It’s in. It’s a wonderful life reference. And I guess that they were watching. It’s a Wonderful Life earlier, and it’s like, so he’s supposed to be like George Bailey in this movie. He

Laci (02:04:20):

Needs to realize, can you move on?

Matt (02:04:23):

Squirrel pops out of the tree

Laci (02:04:24):

Does,

Matt (02:04:26):

And it’s running all over the house and then everybody’s reacting. Oh my God, there’s a squirrel. We got to get it. We got to get it. Julie Louie Dreyfus comes over to give Clark a piece of her mind, squirrel taste scare of her. Instead, she gets attacked by the squirrel. So she returns home, punches her husband in the face,

Laci (02:04:39):

She gets attacked by a dog. Let’s just make clear the dog is chasing the squirrel. The squirrel scares her. It’s the fucking Rottweiler that fucks her all up like that.

Matt (02:04:50):

Okay.

Laci (02:04:51):

Okay. Just so you know, she doesn’t go home completely to shreds because a squirrel got on her.

Matt (02:04:57):

I might be more disturbed by the squirrel.

Laci (02:04:59):

I mean, you’re disturbed by the squirrel, but then you’re injured by the dog.

Matt (02:05:02):

So because she had sent her husband over, you go punch him. He’s like, well, I can’t do that. It’s not in my nature, in her face, I do computer stuff, not hand stuff. So she goes home and she’s been attacked by dog and she socks her husband in the face,

Laci (02:05:14):

Shows him how to be a man.

Matt (02:05:16):

He wasn’t sponge worthy.

Laci (02:05:18):

I have too many head accessories. I’ve gone over the top and I just want to let the audience know, I apologize.

Matt (02:05:25):

Eddie Kidnaps the boss. He comes in with the boss and he’s like, you stole my boss. What’s Eddie? You took me. Literally you numb

Laci (02:05:31):

Skull and not figuratively,

Matt (02:05:33):

But then

Laci (02:05:34):

He saves the fucking dead

Matt (02:05:35):

Clark goes into a Jimmy Stewart monologue. He is like, oh, Mr. Boss, hardworking folk depend on their bonus and you stiff me or doggone it. Be ashamed of yourself.

Laci (02:05:46):

And this is the moment when all the dads in the room do relate to Clark Clark’s always acting above it all, living this picturesque thing. He doesn’t realize while he is doing that, he’s alienating all the other regular people around him. This is why people like this are exhausting. Not only are you having standards that you want us to all live up to, you’re not someone I can really relate to. You’re spending so much time pretending you have it all. We don’t know. We don’t have it all. We all know. We all know we didn’t give you this as a child. Why would we want to be watching you strive to this kind of level of deadness? But now he’s down his luck, he’s honest about what’s going on. He’s honest about his money troubles. He doesn’t have it all. This house, this beautiful wife. It’s just normal shit just like everybody else. And he gets everybody on his side for the first time in the whole movie.

Matt (02:06:33):

Yes. And then the boss, the nice rich boss, he’s like, you’ve melted my heart. I will give you, Hey, what did you have last year? You can have that bonus plus 20%,

Laci (02:06:43):

Which won’t even cover the damage the dog did to the fucking

Matt (02:06:45):

House or the insufficient funds fees. He’s already ruined his employees’ lives. Again, people, your company does not care about you.

Laci (02:06:53):

Excuse me. Also, there’s nothing to hold him to doing this for everyone.

Matt (02:06:56):

Oh, that’s,

Laci (02:06:57):

He just does it for Clark

Matt (02:06:58):

Or even, Hey, Hey, Mr. Murray. Still haven’t gotten that bonus check that you promised me under duress, right? Oh yeah, about that. I don’t remember that.

Laci (02:07:07):

I was in shock.

Matt (02:07:08):

But yeah, you’re fucking Clark. He’s like, I’ve worked for you for 17 years.

Laci (02:07:13):

That’s a long time.

Matt (02:07:13):

If you work for a company for 17 years, they don’t respect that. They think you’re an idiot. Because if you were a good employee, if you’re good at what you do,

Laci (02:07:19):

You’d

Matt (02:07:19):

Gone, you’d either have it advanced or you’d go work for another company. That’s the only way you get a raise is by quitting your job and going to get a different job. Your company doesn’t care about you. They’re working actively right at this moment to eliminate your job. They hate you.

Laci (02:07:31):

You might as well be the coffee machine.

Matt (02:07:32):

Yeah, yeah. Merry Christmas.

Laci (02:07:36):

All right. SWAT team arrives. I don’t need that. I don’t need all this extra bullshit.

Matt (02:07:40):

I love

Laci (02:07:41):

It. Fine,

Matt (02:07:42):

Because they destroy everything. They’re going to shoot everybody.

Laci (02:07:45):

I do love that they tell her to freeze. And so for whatever reason, Ellen’s hand was on Clark’s junk and she just keeps it there. He doesn’t get an erection too good for him. Control. I mean, that scene had to be shot.

Speaker 3 (02:07:59):

Did

Laci (02:07:59):

He wear a cup? How do you make sure not to get erect? Well, someone’s just holding his dick for an entire scene. Maybe he’s old

Matt (02:08:07):

Beverly DeAngelo in the oral history. Said she improv that.

Laci (02:08:10):

Oh, okay, I love it. And then shake your hand and then put it back. He doesn’t press charges. I never noticed this until this watching, but they all start to kind of have a little party and celebrate. I never noticed the little party. I also never noticed the entire swats team

Matt (02:08:28):

Stays

Laci (02:08:28):

And has a drink and socializes.

Matt (02:08:30):

Yeah, they don’t have anywhere else to go.

Laci (02:08:32):

So they’re staying up really late. I don’t think Christmas morning even matters to these people. I think they’re just, this is it. This is what all of our presents have been on fire. This is Christmas. Let’s just enjoy this. Clark’s getting in a pool. And then this is the second gag where Bethany then starts singing something patriotic. Well,

Matt (02:08:51):

Because Uncle Louis drops another stogy, and this time it makes the sewage gas explode. And then the reindeer statues go up in the sky and look like their Santa flying through the air Santa. There’s explosions in the sky also Santa. Very important correction. And Aunt Bethany is like, well, it’s the 4th of July. So she starts singing in the rock. It’s red glare. Everybody joins in, puts their hands over their hearts.

Laci (02:09:12):

It’s moving.

Matt (02:09:13):

It is.

Laci (02:09:14):

There’s something very sweet

Matt (02:09:15):

About it. And Randy Quaid gives the exact same salute he does in Independence Day and

Laci (02:09:20):

It’s over.

Matt (02:09:21):

Then the animated, the end comes up and then one of the lights burst out and apparently, hey,

Laci (02:09:25):

It’s that town.

Matt (02:09:26):

But Clark reacts to the cartoon that he can see in the sky, and then that’s the end of the movie.

Laci (02:09:30):

I never noticed that.

Matt (02:09:44):

My final thought is I had a lot of fun talking about this movie. I liked it a lot more the second time I watched it. I would happily watch this every year after this.

Laci (02:09:53):

I

Matt (02:09:53):

Still think Vacation One is a better movie.

Laci (02:09:55):

I want to watch that soon.

Matt (02:09:57):

But I like this a lot. I love Chevy Chasing this movie and Randy Quaid. I wish Beverly Angelo had more to do, but she’s also a treasure. Good job to everyone involved. Three and a half Stars,

Laci (02:10:09):

4.5.

Matt (02:10:10):

Okay.

Laci (02:10:10):

My highest rating of any movie so far

Matt (02:10:13):

Except Lake Placid. Not really, but

Laci (02:10:17):

I love Lake Placid. Yeah.

(02:10:19):

Ah, yes. Okay, so I didn’t put them on my board and I meant to, but I did want to give a shout out to fellow husband and wife, podcaster and talkers in love with horror. They truly cover all things, horror, video games, books, movies. They review everything. The second it’s out, I tend to agree with their opinions. So the husband of the two definitely is less of a scaredy cat than me. So I tend to go with very reasonable life opinion of most movies they see anyway. In Love with Horror. Do check them out, won’t you?

Matt (02:11:00):

Podcast and video series?

Laci (02:11:01):

Yes. On YouTube or, I mean obviously get wherever you get your podcast, but they record them so you can see the video on YouTube. And then they are very active on TikTok.

Matt (02:11:12):

They are in love with horror and we are in love with each other. The audience each and very in

Laci (02:11:18):

Love with are great

Matt (02:11:19):

With’s. Just looking good today.

Laci (02:11:21):

Oh, okay. Finally.

Matt (02:11:24):

No, finally you. You’re always gorgeous.

Laci (02:11:27):

I’m a smoke show.

Matt (02:11:28):

You are a smokes show. While you’re subscribing to In Love with Horror, subscribe to our show Load-Bearing Beams on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever else you listen. We’re on YouTube load-bearing beams, pod Twitter, load-bearing pod, Instagram load-bearing beams and tick TikTok. Believe it Load do bearing.

Laci (02:11:47):

Eddie,

Matt (02:11:49):

I myself am on Letterboxed at Matt Stokes nine. Laci maybe will make a letterbox

Laci (02:11:53):

Comment. I actually was just thinking I needed to today. Whenever I unintentionally said Kill Bill, volume two is my all time favorite movie on a TikTok comment that I did. And then I had to comment under that and say, pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction is number one, kill bill volume two. Number two,

Matt (02:12:09):

You’ve also said catch me if you can.

Laci (02:12:11):

That’s number three, like placid. Number

Matt (02:12:14):

Four, kill bill. Volume one is so much better than volume two.

Laci (02:12:17):

I already explained this to my kid. The reason why I like second ones, unless it’s a prequel, is that it already has all of the lore and all the things that happened that I love in the first one. Plus I get all the second one. So my favorite’s always the second because I don’t want the second stuff to not have happened. And that’s what happens if you love the first one more.

Matt (02:12:37):

You know what the second one has though?

Laci (02:12:39):

It’s got a lot more dialogue, but I like it. I like the buildup it’s got.

Matt (02:12:42):

And I think Bill sucks.

Laci (02:12:43):

I like Bill.

Matt (02:12:44):

I think David Carradine as Bill sucks.

Laci (02:12:46):

I like Bill in the present. Only the past Bill stuff I find very boring.

Matt (02:12:52):

I think Bill, think Bill is what? Quentin Tarantino witches all women would be to hate. I tell me your stories about karate and stuff.

Laci (02:13:04):

Oh, okay. But also lose that.

Matt (02:13:05):

Here’s the thing about Superman,

Laci (02:13:06):

That Kao that you’ve got, here’s the thing

Matt (02:13:09):

About Super Load bearing Beams has music in it, theme song and interstitial music. And the music is by my band, rural

Laci (02:13:17):

Route

Matt (02:13:18):

Nine. I have this band with my friends Patrick Pro and Wade Heel, speaking of Wade Wade Heel, super talented musician who will be back on the show with us in February show. We’re going to re-litigate Goldeneye one of our very first episodes where we shot all over Golden Eye.

Laci (02:13:34):

It’s also where we improv and randomly started singing this song that’s at the very end of this podcast.

Matt (02:13:41):

Yes. But the other thing, I just,

Laci (02:13:43):

And Wade used his chest as the instrument. Those drums you hear that is his bears.

Matt (02:13:47):

That’s his belly.

Laci (02:13:48):

Ohs his belly.

Matt (02:13:49):

Yeah.

Laci (02:13:50):

Don’t say fucking belly.

Matt (02:13:51):

His belly

Laci (02:13:51):

Belly is his whole spo

Matt (02:13:53):

Wade, correct me if I’m wrong, I think it was your belly.

Laci (02:13:55):

I think it’s his chest. He does it like this.

Matt (02:13:56):

But that’s me. Well, I think of a chest as a belly.

Laci (02:13:58):

That’s not a you Tates don’t go in your belly. Ask

Matt (02:14:00):

Me. But the thing I did want you mention is Wade is involved with a music project. Lily Lewis Project is a band he plays with, they have a new album out. The artist Lily Lewis, very talented singer songwriter folk, rock roots, and country. It’s so unique, so interesting, and I just want to implore everybody to check that out. Support the people who support us.

Laci (02:14:21):

Yes,

Matt (02:14:21):

Support shop

Laci (02:14:22):

Local

Matt (02:14:22):

Wade who helps make the music on the show. Sounds so good. Louis Lewis, again is the artist. All Is Forgiven is the album. Get it wherever you get music, iTunes, Spotify, et cetera.

Laci (02:14:34):

Walmart

Matt (02:14:35):

Or Walmart. And that’s it. Thanks everybody.

Laci (02:14:38):

Okay, I love you. Bye.